ICPR Posts Most Recent Illinois Campaign Contributions

The most comprehensive and user-friendly database of contributors to Illinois campaigns has been updated with the sources of $22.4 million in recent contributions to Illinois political parties and candidates.

The Sunshine Database at the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform includes:

• Updated lists of Career Patrons to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other top state government officeholders. The information compiles more than 12 years of contributions by the individuals, political action committees, the corporations and the labor unions that have given the largest amounts of money to support the political careers of our state's top elected officials.
• The top 20 campaign contributors in the first half of 2005. Although few candidates have started their campaigns "officially," these are the early months of the 2006 campaign, and the Sunshine Database now has the most complete information on contributors to constitutional officers, incumbent legislators and non-incumbents who have announced their intentions to run in 2006.
• Totals and descriptions of the top contributors to all campaigns between 1993 and June 30, 2005.
• The top 50 contributors and expenditures for each constitutional officer and member of the General Assembly in the first half of 2005.
• Updated profiles of the most significant contributors to Illinois candidates.

The Sunshine Database was the first in the nation to put state-level campaign finance data into a searchable on-line format. It now includes hundreds of thousands of individual contributions and expenditures by hundreds of candidates for public office. Unlike the State Board of Elections database, the Sunshine Database standardizes the names of all donors and vendors, codes receipts and expenditures by industry, and includes profiles of the largest donors.

ICPR was founded in 1997 by the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon. ICPR is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest group that conducts research and advocates reforms to promote public participation in government, address the role of money in politics and encourage integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.

The Sunshine Project is based at the University of Illinois at Springfield and is funded by the Joyce Foundation. Its goal is to increase public awareness and understanding of the role of money in Illinois politics.