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player ready...Rep. Ralph Capparelli is one generous guy, so big-hearted that over the last two years he shelled out $3,269 cash in wedding and anniversary gifts to 15 happy couples he barely knew.
“Dominic Letiza?” mused Capparelli, a veteran Chicago Democrat, when asked his relationship to one lucky lovebird. “I think that’s a fellow I met at the health club. Don’t know him at all.”
The money came from Capparelli’s campaign fund, which took in $419,000 in receipts in 1995 and 1996, though he faced only token opposition to his re-election.
Illinois’ anything-goes campaign finance atmosphere extends to how politicians spend their money as well as raise it.
To be sure, candidates for the Illinois legislature spend millions of dollars on campaign staples such as pollsters, consultants, bumper stickers and advertising.
But a Tribune computer analysis of campaign finance data for 1995 and 1996 shows that they also spend it on lavish meals, travel, recreation and a host of other luxuries that average folk have to pay for out of pocket.
More than $1 million from the political accounts of incumbent legislators and challengers was tapped to pay for country club memberships, greens fees and golf outing fundraisers.
More than $117,000 went to buy flowers and candy, and nearly $208,000 was used to purchase Bulls, Bears, Cubs and White Sox tickets.
Not a dime was spent on the Blackhawks. They didn’t need to. Some lawmakers say team owner “Dollar Bill” Wirtz provides them for free.
Superfan Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale) dropped $69,000 in campaign money on pro sports tickets, including some for the 1995 Super Bowl in Miami despite the lack of a local representative to cheer for.
The campaign of Sen. Arthur Berman (D-Chicago) spent $254 on a rental car in Florida for a “visit with supporter,” according to a notation in his campaign spending report filed with the State Board of Elections. Sen. Howard Carroll (D-Chicago) used $4,000 in campaign funds to pay for a trip to London to attend a conference on Tamil youth.
Sen. James DeLeo was the hands-down chowhound among legislative colleagues. The Chicago Democrat faced no opposition on the November ballot, but his campaign fund picked up $22,000 in tabs for 43 meals.
State election officials are virtually powerless. State law once empowered the Board of Elections to monitor campaign spending to ensure that it was all truly “election-related.” No more.
In 1980, an Illinois Appellate Court judge barred the board from questioning the propriety of campaign expenses after it looked into a $16,000 legal tab then-Atty. Gen. William Scott covered with political money while under a federal tax probe.
Using campaign funds as a personal piggy bank is a time-honored legislative tradition. When campaign money is used for personal things, the law requires legislators to pay taxes on it. The sticky part always has been defining what is purely personal versus what is patently political.
Former state Rep. Larry Hicks (D-Mt. Vernon) leased a Porsche 911 Targa with his campaign money and took trips to the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Mexico and other vacation spots. Former Senate President Philip Rock, an Oak Park Democrat, made loans to himself to pay for his children’s college tuition. Former state Sen. Greg Zito (D-Melrose Park), who left the legislature in 1991, spent thousands on home renovations and closed his campaign committee without ever paying back $210,000 in “loans.”
Attempts to limit expenditures probably would encourage politicians to hide them, said Charles N. Wheeler III, head of the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
“If some legislator wants to spend his campaign fund on Bulls tickets or wants to buy himself a Porsche from his campaign fund, why not let him do it?” Wheeler said. “But make sure his folks back home know he’s done this, and then, let them decide whether it’s proper or not.”