ROCK ISLAND – Tom Keefe’s firm in Swansea and John Simmons’s firm in Alton each contributed $100,000 to retention of Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride after he removed the limit on his contributors.
The Gori firm of Edwardsville added $82,500 to a stream of contributions that topped $1 million in a week.
Less than one percent of it came from the Third District where Kilbride and his voters live.
He needs 60 percent approval there to keep a seat he has held 20 years.
The district runs from Joliet to Kankakee to Peoria and his home, Rock Island.
State law generally limits individual contributions to $11,600, whether personal or corporate, but Kilbride lifted the lid on Sept. 11.
He loaned his campaign $110,000 and notified the state election board that he would fund himself.
Self-funding that exceeds $100,000 removes the limit.
Kilbride raised $738,850 on the following Tuesday, and 99 percent came from lawyers.
Nearly all of them work in Cook, Madison, or St. Clair counties.
Chicago firms Clifford Law, Cooney and Conway, and Power Rogers matched Keefe and Simmons at $100,000.
Timothy Cavanagh’s firm and Antonio Romanucci, both in Chicago, each gave Kilbride $37,500.
Tomasik Kotin firm of Chicago gave him $30,000, the Phillips firm of Chicago gave him $21,000, and Cogan and Power of Chicago gave him $20,000.
Dudley and Lake of Libertyville and the Prince firm of Marion each gave him $18,000, and Jack Beam of Chicago gave him $13,500.
The Horwitz firm and Motherway and Napleton, both of Chicago, gave him $7,500.
Howard Ankin and the Keating firm, both of Chicago, each gave him $6,000.
The Dinizulu firm of Chicago gave him $4,000.
Strong Law of Peoria gave Kilbride $3,000, the largest amount from his district.
He received $441,500 on Sept. 21, mostly from Chicago area lawyers again.
Corboy and Demetrio of Chicago gave him $100,000, as did Salvi, Schostok and Pritchard of Waukegan.
Hurley McKenna and Mertz of Chicago and Meyers and Flowers of St. Charles gave him $48,000.
John Perconti of Burr Ridge and Steven Levin of Chicago gave him $18,750.
Colin Dunn of Chicago gave him $6,000.
So did Gregory Shevlin of Swansea, who practices at Bruce Cook’s firm in Belleville.
John Hopkins of Alton gave Kilbride $1,500.
Some of Kilbride’s supporters also support Fifth District appellate judge Judy Cates as Democratic candidate for Supreme Court.
She and Republican candidate David Overstreet, also a Fifth district judge, seek to replace retiring Justice Lloyd Karmeier.
Cavanagh’s firm gave Cates $11,600 on Sept. 9.
On Sept. 23, Beam gave her $9,000, the Horwitz firm gave her $5,000, and Ankin gave her $4,000.
On Sept. 28, the Keating firm gave her $4,000.
Pratt and Tobin of East Alton gave her $1,500.