I've been tweeting a lot of interesting updates from recent disclosures and I realize that the volume is so great that it's starting to turn into white noise for most followers so I thought I'd do a weekly roundup to try to summarize the week's interesting news and organize these developments into a format you can follow.

• A-1 reports are for contributions received by the committee of $1,000 or more.
• B-1 reports are for independent expenditures made independent of the candidate (cannot be coordinated).
• Regular expenditures (not independent expenditures) are not reported until the quarterly filings are due, next on 3/31.

• On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors filed a B-1 for Alex Acevedo for $29K for mail, phones and online ads.

• Last month IllinoisGO filed three B-1's for Ken Dunkin for $240K for field work, production and mailings. (more on this at the bottom)
• Last week Ken Dunkin filed an A-1 for $502K, including a $500K contribution from the Illinois Opportunity Project, it is believed to be the largest single donation ever for a General Assembly race. (more on this at the bottom)
• Last week IllinoisGO filed three B-1's for Ken Dunkin for $36K for mailings, another $36K for mailings (this time technically opposing Juliana Stratton) and $19K for printing.
• On Sunday Juliana Stratton filed an A-1 for $235K in labor money from AFSCME, SEIU and the carpenters.
• On Monday IllinoisGO filed a B-1 for Ken Dunkin for $10K for production.
• On Tuesday IllinoisGO filed a B-1 for Ken Dunkin for $30Kfor TV ads.
• On Wednesday IllinoisGO filed a B-1 for Ken Dunkin for $3Kfor field work.

• Late last month a new independent expenditure committee was created, Illinois United for Change that was later seeded with $100K including $50K from Hull Investments.
• Last Friday they started spending some of that money, filing a B-1 in support of Jason Gonzales for $28K for field work, palm cards and robo calls.
• On Tuesday Jason Gonzales filed an A-1 for $16,400.
• Worth noting: the four funds controlled by Speaker Madigan have an estimated funds available of almost $9 million.

• Last week Liberty Principles PAC filed two B-1's totaling $35K for Allen Skillicorn for TV and newspaper advertising.
• On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors filed a B-1 for Carolyn Schofield for $21K for mail, phones and online ads.

• Last Friday Democratic Majority, the leadership PAC for the House Democrats, filed its first B-1 of the season for $3,730.07 for postage opposing Katelyn Hotle.
• On Tuesday Democratic Majority once again filed a B-1 for $3,730.07 for postage opposing Katelyn Hotle.

• Last week Liberty Principles PAC filed 3 B-1's for Brandi McGuire for $101K for radio ads, TV ads and newspaper ads.
• On Thursday Jordan Thoms filed an A-1 disclosing a loan from himself to the committee for $55K.

• On Monday the Illinois Republican Party filed a B-1 for $238K for Avery Bourne for advertising and production.
• Also on Monday the Illinois Republican Party filed a B-1 for $7K for Avery Bourne for consulting and mail.

• Last month the Illinois Republican Party filed a B-1 for Sara Wojcicki Jimenez for $6K for mailings.
• On Monday the Illinois Republican Party filed a B-1 for Sara Wojcicki Jimenez for $2.5K for consultant pay.

• It's not uncommon for legislative leaders to come to the aid of their incumbents when facing tough primaries. On Tuesday Patricia Van Pelt filed an A-1 for $23K that included $10K from the Illinois Senate Democratic Victory Fund.
• On Thursday Bob Fioretti filed an A-1 for a personal loan of $50K.

• On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors filed a B-1 for Michael Hastings for $25K for mail and phones.

• Last week Liberty Principles PAC filed two B-1's for Dan McConchie for $14K for newspaper ads and $15K for graphic design.
• On Monday Liberty Principles PAC filed a B-1 for Dan McConchie for $37K for TV ads.
• On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors filed a B-1 for Martin McLaughlin for $29K for mail and phones.

• Late last month Liberty Principles PAC filed B-1's for Bryce Benton for $326K for TV and Mail and another $8,753.12 for additional mail.
• Last week Liberty Principles PAC filed another B-1 for $313K for Bryce Benton for radio ads.
• On Monday Liberty Principles PAC filed a B-1 for $8,742.02 for Bryce Benton for postage and graphic design.
• On Wednesday Sam McCann filed an A-1 for $91K with largely labor money, but also $1K from the Sangamon County Republican Central Committee. McCann previously made news when he broke with the Governor and voted for the AFSCME arbitration bill.

• Last week Liberty Principles PAC filed a B-1 for Paul Schimpf for $14K for newspaper ads.
• On Monday Liberty Principles PAC filed a B-1 for Paul Schimpf for $31K for TV ads.

• Last Thursday Kim Foxx filed an A-1 for over $120K, including $75K from SEIU Healthcare.
• Last Friday Anita Alvarez filed an A-1 for just less than $100K.
• On Monday Donna More filed an A-1 for $52K.
• A new independent expenditure committee, Illinois Safety and Justice, was formed last week by Whitney Tymas to support Kim Foxx and despite reporting no A-1's for contributions received they filed two B-1's this week.
• On Tuesday they filed a B-1 for $17,165.65 for direct mail supporting Kim Foxx.
• On Wednesday they filed a B-1 for $17,455.65 for direct mail supporting Kim Foxx.

• Continuing a trend that was very evident if you closely studied the fundraising totals of targeted House Dems from last quarter those targeted candidates have been raising very large sums into their candidate committees in what appears to be part of a team approach. Last quarter 11 House Dems raised over $247K (3 of them were over $500K). Last Tuesday four House Dems all filed similar A-1's:
  • Kathleen Willis filed an A-1 for $26K including $25K from AFSCME.
  • Anna Moeller filed an A-1 for $25K including $25K from AFSCME.
  • Michelle Mussman filed an A-1 for $25K including $25K from AFSCME.
  • John Bradley filed an A-1 for $15K including $15K from AFSCME.
• Last week AFSCME added $200K in member dues to their PAC. So far this year they've added $800K to their PAC.
• Last Friday Julie Morrison filed an A-1 for $50K.
• On Monday Support Independent Maps filed an A-1 for $35K. They now have an estimated funds available of $545K.
• On Tuesday Deb Conroy filed an A-1 for about $94K, including $53,900 from the Engineers and $25K from AFSCME.
• On Tuesday Water Rec candidate Marty Durkan filed an A-1 for about $88K.
• On Wednesday the National Association of REALTORS Fund replenished their PAC fund with $106K of member dues. They started the year with only $500 in the bank so this A-1 represents the bulk of their current spending power. Later that afternoon they spent almost all of that money on the various independent expenditures outlined above.
• On Wednesday the Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC bulked up their PAC fund with $364K of member money. They began the year with $912K on hand so now they have about $1.275 million available.
• On Wednesday judicial candidate Gregory Lapapa filed an A-1 for a loan of $50K of what appears to be his own money.

• Late last month Chicago for Rahm Emanuel reported receiving an in-kind donation of $37K for mailing/postage from Stand for Children, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else and I don't know what the mailer was for.
• Last week judicial candidate James DiChristofano filed an A-1 for $52K. If you're reading this you probably have a 12/31 quarterly filing obligation that is delinquent, you created your committee in December. Even if you had no economic activity you should still file a $0.00 12/31 quarterly D-2.
• On Monday judicial candidate Patricia Spratt filed a notice of self funding for $100K
• On Tuesday a new Republican PAC was formed, the Committee for Bold Leadership in Illinois.
• It's not every day that you see a $15K contribution (or in this case a loan) from an office manager.

The Democratic primary between Ken Dunkin and Juliana Stratton is not just heated and expensive, it is so unique that it is triggering some sections of the election code and State Board rules that are not often needed.

• Are B-1's subject to rule 100.70(c) of the State Board rules? After reading through the language once again I can't find anything to suggest that they aren't. Independent expenditures are a relatively new phenomenon that didn't exist until contribution limits became law in 2011 so it's entirely possible that this issue hasn't been addressed before, at least as it applies to B-1 filings. Rule 100.70(c) is the "conduits rule", the rule that prevents committees from hiding the true recipient of a disbursement by paying an intermediary who acts as a conduit and then pays out another. It's the rule that forces committees to itemize their credit card bills and payroll rather than just showing a lump sum to the credit card company or payroll processing company. IllinoisGO filed a B-1 that included a $140,705.82 lump sum payment for "field work" that seems very likely to be subject to the conduits rule and if B-1's are subject to this rule then their method of disclosure is probably not in compliance. If you're interested in reading some more about rule 100.70(c) I went into it in some depth when discussing the Governor's gift card controversy last summer.
• Committees that receive more that 33% of their funds from a single source have to list that source as a Sponsoring Entity. The $500,000 donation from the Illinois Opportunity Project to Ken Dunkin is large enough that it may trigger this provision, in which case Dunkin's committee would have to file an amended D-1 and list the IOP as its sponsoring entity.

You can find the complete list of all the funds available, every A-1 filed, every B-1 filed and a complete listing of all the candidates and districts in our Racing Forms. The Illinois Racing Form covers every General Assembly race while the Cook County Racing Form covers all the countywide, judicial, MWRD and Chicago committeemen races, full details below.

The Illinois Racing Form District profiles for every General Assembly race including district map, current candidate listing, candidate headshots and past electoral performance. Current financial status for each candidate's campaign committee as well as other relevant committees, such as the Governor, legislative leaders and IE's. Latest candidate filings. Candidates' social media presences, including websites, Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Cook County Racing Form District profiles for every countywide, judicial, MWRD and Chicago committeeman race including district map, current candidate listing, candidate headshots and past electoral performance. Current financial status for each candidate's campaign committee as well as other relevant or related committees. Latest candidate filings. Candidates' social media presences, including websites, Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter.

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