U.S. Rep Jan Schakowsky has ten times as much money in her campaign war chest as her Republican challenger Joel Pollak.

That’s what recently filed federal campaign finance reports show.

A summary of the campaign reports published on the OpenSecrets.org website of the Center for Responsive Politics shows Schakowsky has $535,000 on hand compared to $50,000 for Pollak.

In total fundraising for this election cycle, Schakowky has pulled in $1.2 million, a little more than average for an incumbent House member, while Pollak has drawn less than one-fifth as much, $221,000.

And Schakowsky, aided by leftover funds from her last race, has spent $1.05 million so far, while Pollak has spent just under $171,000.

Schakowsky has received nearly $300,000 in contributions from political action committees while Pollak has raised only $4,000 from such groups.

Schakowsky’s top five contributors include lawyers at two major law firms, Sidley and Austin and Jenner and Block. Lawyers from each firm collectively have chipped in about $11,000 for Schakowsky. Overall, lawyers and law firms have contributed nearly $150,000 to her campaign.

Health professionals have given nearly $72,000 to Schakowsky and labor unions have kicked in $36,000.

Despite the huge gap in fundraising, Pollak appears to have raised substantially more money than any challenger to Schakowsky in the past decade, according to the Center for Responsive Politics analysis.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.

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4 Comments

  1. Trial lawyers and labor unions for Schakowsky=anti-business

    Businesses and jobs in Illinois have been on the decline for 20 years. This state is rated as one of the most unfriendly to businesses in the nation.

    So is it any wonder that long-time and mostly unchallenged Democrat Jan Schakowsky is getting campaign donations from trial lawyers and labor unions?
     
    The labor unions that have donated to Schakowsky’s campaign include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, United Auto Workers, Teamsters, United Here TIP, the Carpenters and Joiners Union, Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Operating Engineers Union.
     
    Schakowsky used her political office to help the unions try and take away the non-profit status of St. Francis Hospital in Evanston a few years back by creating a voter referendum. It was an effort by unions and Schakowsky  to use strong-arm tactics to force St. Francis to unionize. Schakowsky abused her office to favor the unions over a local hospital that provides a lot of charity to Evanstonians. Voters, however, rejected Schakowsky and the unions’ effort and voted that St. Francis keep its non-profit status.

    Schakowsky has been on a crusade to end the private healthcare insurance industry in support of a government-run single payer plan. Schakowsky, who is on record saying she wants to drive private healthcare insurance companies out of business, is totally reckless and irresponsible. Five of the ten top employers in Illinois are private insurance companies. Forcing these companies out of business can’t be good for Illinois economy.

    Schakowsky and other liberal Democrats have teamed up with the union-driven and well-funded liberal Health Care for America Now (HCAN) on the quest to end the private healthcare insurance industry. HCAN is a political campaign organization that was created by the Tides Foundation, a left-wing organization that has ties to ACORN, SEIU, Apollo Alliance and Obama’s czars. HCAN donated $25 million to get ObamaDemcare passed.

    What has Schakowsky done for jobs in Illinois – unemployment is almost 11 percent.
     
    This boy is voting for Joel Pollack – out with the old and in with the new
    Reply

    1. Tides Foundation?

      Anonymous Al says:

      Schakowsky and other liberal Democrats have teamed up with the union-driven and well-funded liberal Health Care for America Now (HCAN) on the quest to end the private healthcare insurance industry. HCAN is a political campaign organization that was created by the Tides Foundation, a left-wing organization that has ties to ACORN, SEIU, Apollo Alliance and Obama’s czars. HCAN donated $25 million to get ObamaDemcare passed.

       

      Who?  The Tides Foundation?  I’ve never heard of them…..then I saw this article today on Salon.com:

       

      The ACLU has been a whipping boy of the Right for years. But the Tides Foundation? If you haven’t heard of Tides, a standard-issue lefty foundation that’s been around since the 1970s, it probably means you don’t watch the Glenn Beck program. It turns out that Beck rails against Tides constantly on his program — roughly weekly, according to our search of his show transcripts. That includes two shows less than a week before the July 18 shooting. Tides frequently appears on Beck’s famous blackboard renderings of who is pulling the strings of the Obama Adminstration and the liberal media.

       

      Oh..now I get it.  You get your news from Glenn Beck.  Are you ‘investing’ with Goldline too?  Are you afraid of the Trilateral Commission, the Rockefellers, and Woodrow Wilson?

      The Republicans really have become the crazy party.

      Reply

  2. Vote Joel Pollak!

    She’ll need every penny to defeat the tempest that’s coming after her. Joel Pollak for Congress! It’s time for a fresh start.

    Reply
  3. Reply
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