SPRINGFIELD – Legislators who changed the state’s judicial map last year to preserve a Democratic majority on the Supreme Court passed a campaign finance law last week that could achieve the same purpose.
For “self-funding” campaigns that previously operated without limits on individual contributions, a law sponsored by State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) limits individuals to $500,000.
That means Republican megadonor Kenneth Griffin of Chicago can’t spend $4.5 million as he did when he successfully opposed retention of Third District Justice James Kilbride in 2020.
Old (left) judicial map and new map
It means fellow Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest can’t spend $750,000 against a candidate as he did against Kilbride.
In any statewide self-funding campaign, candidates who contribute at least $250,000 to their own campaigns thereby remove contribution limits for themselves and opponents.
Hoffman’s new law prohibits contributions from private groups that don’t identify their donors.
That means the conservative Illinois Opportunity Project can’t spend $350,000 in the Third District as it did in 2020, unless it submits a donor list.
Hoffman sponsored the original bill HB716 and Senate president Don Harmon amended it.
Hoffman led debate in the House around 9 p.m. on April 8, where 71 members voted yes and 43 voted no.
Map magic
Illinois voters had never denied retention to a Supreme Court Justice until Kilbride failed to achieve 60 percent approval.
The Supreme Court preserved a slim 4-3 Democrat majority by appointing Robert Carter to replace Kilbride, but Carter said he wouldn’t run for a full term.
Prospects for any Democrat looked bleak until legislators last year changed boundaries that had been in place since 1964.
They transferred 15 counties from the Third District to the Fourth District.
To replenish the Third District population and give it a more suburban character, they transferred DuPage County from the Second District to the Third.
The Second District could afford to lose DuPage because growth in Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties had built a population base big enough for a district.
Both the Second and the Third needed to conduct elections this year.
Second District Justice Robert Thomas had retired in 2020, and Michael Burke of DuPage County succeeded him by appointment.
Burke might have run for a full term in the Second District but suddenly found himself in the Third, so he started campaigning there.
He has no opponent in the June 28 primary and neither does Democrat candidate Mary O’Brien.
Burke’s transfer sparked competition in the Second District, where the primary will feature four Republicans and three Democrats.
Drastic boundary changes didn’t cure the anxiety of Democrats, who decided in the late stage of their session to hit their opponents in the pocketbook.
Hoffman’s law
With passage of HB716, self-funding committee supporting or opposing a judicial candidate may not accept more than $500,000 from anyone in an election cycle.
The same limit applies to independent expenditure committees supporting or opposing a candidate.
Any committee that receives such a contribution shall forward the excess to the state treasurer.
Committees that receive money from sources that don’t identify donors would declare such contributions anonymous and forward them to the state treasurer.
A committee can keep the money if it reports to the election board “all persons who have contributed in excess of $500 during the same election cycle to the committee, association, or organization, or group making the contribution.”
This might clash with Internal Revenue Service code section 501(c)(4), which allows political activity in groups like Illinois Opportunity Project.
Such groups have successfully defended their right to take political action relating to broader activities and to do it without naming donors.
Illinois legislators not only changed this year’s judicial elections but also set up greater changes in the future, including the creation of a task force to study the feasibility of subsidizing judicial campaigns in exchange for voluntary adherence to expenditure limits.
The Senate president, the House speaker, and the minority leaders of those chambers will each appoint two members.
The governor and the attorney general will each appoint one.
The state elections board will provide staff and administrative support.
The task force may propose funding sources including but not limited to fines, voluntary contributions, and surcharges on lobbying.
It can consider the amount of funds raised and expended by past candidates.
It can consider “the disparity in the amount of funds raised by candidates for judicial office of different parties,” as well as “the amount of funds expended with respect to campaigns for judicial office by entities not affiliated with a candidate.”
It shall consider “the amount of money contributed to or expended by a committee of a political party to promote a candidate for judicial office.”
Deliberations will extend to public financing of all elections.
It shall consider “jurisprudence concerning campaign finance and public financing of political campaigns, both for judicial office and generally.”
The law provides that the task force will report its findings to the governor and the General Assembly no later than June 30, 2023.