EDWARDSVILLE – Asbestos firms that contributed $2,088,746 to campaigns of Illinois Democrats in 2016 contributed $1,067,729 this year, barely half as much.
Contributions from John Simmons’s firm in Alton fell from $896,609 to $586,170, a drop of 35 percent.
Contributions from the Gori firm in Edwardsville fell from $776,201 to $412,570, a drop of 47 percent.
Contributions from the Maune Raichle firm in St. Louis fell from $415,930 to $68,990, a drop of 83 percent.
Simmons suffered three expensive losses at home and one in Springfield.
His firm gave the maximum of $11,600 to the judicial campaign of state’s attorney Tom Gibbons, who lost.
The firm gave $11,600 to assistant state’s attorney Crystal Uhe, who ran for state’s attorney and lost.
The firm gave $11,600 to Bob Daiber, who ran for county board chairman and lost.
The Simmons and Gori firms backed the biggest loser in the state, Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride of Rock Island.
Kilbride, needing 60 percent approval for retention in the Third District, lifted the $11,600 limit by filing notice of self funding.
The Gori firm gave him $112,500 and the Simmons firm gave him $100,000.
Illinois voters had never denied retention to a Supreme Court judge, but Third District voters denied it to Kilbride.