Harris Spends $1 Million For Appellate Judge Post — Five Times The Salary
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Landing a position on the Illinois appeals court now comes with a bigger price tag, newly released campaign finance reports show.
Sheldon “Shelly” Harris, whose ads blanketed TV for two weeks during the March primary, spent nearly $1 million — 14 times more than his closest competitor — in his successful bid for the state’s appellate court in the first district.
Another first district appellate candidate, John Simon, spent $660,000 for a different vacancy and went on to win his bid.
Both Simon and Harris spent more than two of the four GOP gubernatorial candidates combined, according to campaign filing reports made available on Tuesday.
Reports on Tuesday also showed that GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, who prevailed in a four-way race, raised more than $9 million in the first three months of the year — spending the bulk of it — including at least $5.8 million on ads. For his part, Gov. Pat Quinn, facing no formidable Democratic primary challenge, raised just shy of $5 million in the first three months of the year, enabling him to bulk up before his battle against Rauner with more than $8.8 million in the bank.
While the robust dollar figures are typical in a governor’s race, they’re unusual in appellate court contests.
“It was the first time in our knowledge that anyone had spent that kind of money for an appellate court spot,” Harris opponent former Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) told the Sun-Times Tuesday.
“I don’t know how you come back from that. If this becomes the bar now that you have to go on TV to run for appellate court, it’s really going to narrow the stream of the type of people who seek the position. It will become an elite body and an elite body that would be determined by the size of your war chest.”
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Landing a position on the Illinois appeals court now comes with a bigger price tag, newly released campaign finance reports show.
Sheldon “Shelly” Harris, whose ads blanketed TV for two weeks during the March primary, spent nearly $1 million — 14 times more than his closest competitor — in his successful bid for the state’s appellate court in the first district.
Another first district appellate candidate, John Simon, spent $660,000 for a different vacancy and went on to win his bid.
Both Simon and Harris spent more than two of the four GOP gubernatorial candidates combined, according to campaign filing reports made available on Tuesday.
Reports on Tuesday also showed that GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, who prevailed in a four-way race, raised more than $9 million in the first three months of the year — spending the bulk of it — including at least $5.8 million on ads. For his part, Gov. Pat Quinn, facing no formidable Democratic primary challenge, raised just shy of $5 million in the first three months of the year, enabling him to bulk up before his battle against Rauner with more than $8.8 million in the bank.
While the robust dollar figures are typical in a governor’s race, they’re unusual in appellate court contests.
“It was the first time in our knowledge that anyone had spent that kind of money for an appellate court spot,” Harris opponent former Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) told the Sun-Times Tuesday.
“I don’t know how you come back from that. If this becomes the bar now that you have to go on TV to run for appellate court, it’s really going to narrow the stream of the type of people who seek the position. It will become an elite body and an elite body that would be determined by the size of your war chest.”
Read more in our daily News Update...