SPRINGFIELD – With two Supreme Court seats at stake, far more Democrat dollars flow to retention of Justice Thomas Kilbride than to election of Judy Cates.
From Sept. 29 to Oct. 8, Kilbride received $1,308,706 in contributions of $1,000 or more and in transfers from other campaign committees.
Cates received $206,379 in those categories, 16 cents for every Kilbride dollar.
Kilbride seeks 60 percent approval to serve a third term of ten years for the Third District, which runs from Rock Island to Peoria, Kankakee, and Joliet.
Cates, a Fifth District appellate judge, opposes appellate judge David Overstreet for the seat of retiring Justice Lloyd Karmeier.
Kilbride holds an advantage in raising funds, because the $11,600 limit on individual contributions doesn’t apply to him.
He put enough of his own money into the campaign to qualify as self funding, a status that removes the limit.
Now lawyers active in the Fifth District place priority on the Third District.
From Sept. 29 to Oct. 8, Steven Tillery’s firm in St. Louis gave Kilbride $100,000, Tom Keefe’s firm in Swansea and John Simmons’s firm in Alton gave him $30,000 each, and Rich, Rich and Cooksey in Fairview Heights gave him $10,500.
Neil Maune, Barton French, and Nathaniel Mudd, all of Maune Raichle in St. Louis, each gave him $3,468.75.
Marcus Raichle gave him $2,500, bringing the firm’s total to $12,906.25.
Kilbride reached deeply into Cates’s territory to pluck $10,000 from the Prince law firm of Marion.
Chicago area firms wrote big checks for him too.
He received $50,000 from Steven Jambois and $37,500 each from the firms of Smith Lacien, Taxman Pollock, and Wise Morrissey.
Cooney and Conway, Power Rogers, and Salvi Schostok each gave him $30,000.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association transferred $50,000 to him.
Other transfers brought him $100,000 each from unions of teachers, operating engineers, carpenters, and service employees.
Laborers transferred $77,800, electrical workers transferred $74,000, and the AFL-CIO transferred $50,000.
When Kilbride lifted the limit on individual contributions, he lifted it for any committee opposing his retention.
Such a committee appeared on Sept. 17, when Jim Nowlan of Toulan filed articles of organization for Citizens for Judicial Fairness.
Treasurer Paul Kilgore runs Professional Data Services of Athens, Georgia, advising campaigns on reporting practices and requirements.
Nowlan stated their purpose was “to advocate for candidates who support the idea of a competent, independent judiciary, and against candidates who do not.”
On Sept. 21, Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest gave the committee $250,000.
On Oct. 9, Chicago hedge fund manager Ken Griffin provided $2 million.
Cates and Overstreet ran with fewer resources from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8.
Cates received 35 contributions of $1,000 or more at an average around $5,600.
Keefe gave her $11,6000, as did the Gori and Walton Telken firms of Edwardsville, Salvi Schostok, Power Rogers, Smith Lacien, Cooney and Conway, Dudley and Lake of Libertyville, and Meyers and Flowers of St. Charles.
The Malman law firm of Chicago and Laird Ozmon of Joliet each gave her $10,000.
John Perconti of Burr Ridge and Steven Levin of Chicago each gave her $5,800.
Edward and Elizabeth Smith of Alexandria, Virginia, gave her $5,000.
So did Coplan and Crane of Oak Park, Parente and Norem of Chicago, and Motherway and Napleton of Chicago.
Greg Shevlin of Swansea, with Bruce Cook’s firm in Belleville, gave her $4,000.
Mudd and French each gave her $1,609.50.
A single transfer, from the American Federation of Teachers in Fairview Heights, brought Cates $10,000.
Overstreet received eight contributions of $1,000 or more, for a total of $22,500 at an average around $2,800.
He received three transfers totaling $18,500.
His biggest contribution came from Illinois Chamber of Commerce and his biggest transfer came from the Chamber’s political action committee, both at $10,000.
State Rep. Patrick Windhorst transferred $7,500 to him.
The Patchett Hampson firm of Marion gave him $5,000.
Overstreet filed his report for the summer quarter ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline, showing $244,206.20 in receipts and $154,947.69 in expenditures.
He reported $127,576.92 in available funds as of Sept. 30.