Chicago`s mayoral candidates spent at least $12.6 million and were left with more than $650,000 in debts in a record-setting campaign spending spree that left even Mayor Richard Daley`s coffers virtually empty, campaign reports filed Monday show.
While Daley is gearing up to raise cash for his 1991 race and others are trying to retire debts, the two front-runners for the 1990 race for governor- Republican Jim Edgar and Democrat Neil Hartigan-have $3.7 million in cash in their war chests. Aides say they will need millions more.
A spokesman for Daley, who has held the post for 100 days, said Monday that despite raising more than $7 million for last February`s primary and April general elections, the mayor has only $10,000 left in campaign funds.
”It is getting about time to start building the campaign fund up again,” said Daley spokesman David Wilhelm, who said the mayor is planning his first major fundraiser in October.
The cost of running for office in Chicago continues to escalate as politicians increasingly use advertising to reach voters formerly controlled by machine politics. In 1987, the four major mayoral candidates spent a then- record $12.5 million in contests that relied heavily on television and radio advertising.
Wilhelm said Daley`s campaign in 1989 spent $3.8 million for advertising and $523,000 for a direct-mail campaign. Other major Daley expenditures included $300,000 on election day costs, $500,000 for polling, $450,000 on fundraising and his election victory parties and $300,000 on printing, Wilhelm said.
Daley also erased $92,000 in loans from his unsuccessful 1983 mayoral campaign when several of the lenders this year forgave the debts.
Former Mayor Eugene Sawyer`s campaign finance report shows he spent $4 million in his unsuccessful Democratic primary fight against Daley and has $325,000 in debts.
Sawyer borrowed about $425,000 in February from nine supporters when his campaign ran short of funds. Only $125,000 of the debt has been repaid, all of it to former campaign adviser Al Johnson Sr., according to Sawyer`s campaign finance report.
Third-party candidate Ald. Timothy Evans (4th) has about $230,000 in debts, including $167,000 owed to four supporters. And one of the political committees of Republican candidate Edward Vrdolyak reported having $104,000 in debts. Reports from Vrdolyak`s other political committees were not available. In the races for governor, Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan`s two political committees reported raising slightly more than $1 million, though aide Jean Marie Schultz said the campaign has raised an additional $275,000 since June 30. The reports filed Monday cover the yearlong period ending June 30, 1989.
Hartigan hopes to raise an additional $1 million by the end of October and seeks to raise a total of $5 million to $6 million for the race, according to Schultz. Hartigan recently named an executive finance committee that includes many of the key fundraisers that Daley used in his successful mayoral bid, including developer Thomas Klutznick and Democratic committeewoman Ann Stepan.
Edgar, the Illinois Secretary of State, released his campaign financial report last month showing he had a $2.7 million war chest, the largest among any statewide candidates. His report Monday shows no change.
Gov. James Thompson reported that his campaign committee has $1.9 million. Prior to his announcement last month that he would not seek an unprecendented fifth term, Thompson had raised $1.6 million from various campaign donors, according to his report.
Among the donations was $18,000 from a political action committee for Robinson, a southern Illinois town that last week was named the site of a new prison. Thompson also received $12,000 from Edward Heil, the president of a construction firm that has received millions of dollars worth of contracts for work on the North-South Tollway.
According to Thompson`s campaign report, the governor used $42,000 of his campaign funds to make a loan to a private foundation that is helping to restore a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Springfield.
The governor previously has sought private donations from businesses to buy back some of the home`s historic furnishings when they were up for public auction.
Thompson spent another $48,497 in campaign funds to purchase gifts for contributors and politicians.
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