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December 21, 2005
In This Issue:
Happy Holidays
It has
been a very busy year here at ICPR, as readers of Spotcheck know.
We were closely involved in the development of ethics and campaign
finance legislation in the Spring and Veto sessions of the legislature;
we secured enactment of a voters guide and other election reforms and
we have high hopes for campaign finance improvements next year.
We fought against efforts to hide the sources of three-quarters of a
million dollars in the 2004 Supreme Court race, securing a settlement
with one group that funneled over $400,000 in previously anonymous
money to one candidate. We put together original, path-breaking
research on how broadcasters cover elections, and hosted a forum with
keynote speakers, Carol Marin and Newton Minow. We went on
newspaper tours of the state, meeting with reporters and editors
throughout Illinois, encouraging better coverage of campaigns and
elections. Our issue briefings covered topics from telecom to
torts to electric utilities, and our data provided a necessary angle to
literally hundreds of news stories about events at the state, local,
and national levels. We surveyed voters in every corner of
Illinois to gauge their concerns about judicial elections and how they
are funded. We outlined the growing dependence of statewide
candidates on a tiny minority of their contributors who make very large
donations. We updated the Sunshine Database, the first in the
nation to put state-level campaign reports on-line, in record time, and
expanded and updated our profiles of large donors, our listing of
career patrons, and financial summaries of executive and legislative
officials.
And through it all, we worked to keep you up to date on what was
happening and how you could get involved. We hope you have found
these messages helpful and informative. And we hope you will
consider making a tax-deductible donation to ICPR so that we can
continue this effort into 2006, when the statewide elections will keep
us even busier. Pushing reform in Illinois is not easy. The
only way to make reform a reality is to convince sitting officials to
change the rules that have gotten them where they are. But it can
be done. We're doing it. And we need your help.
Please consider a tax-deductible contribution before the end of the
year.
 Please
consider making a donation to ICPR. We need your contributions and your
help to clean up Illinois politics. Visit our online donations page.
ICPR Spotcheck is a publication of The Illinois Campaign for
Political Reform, a non-partisan public interest group that educates,
conducts research, and advocates reforms to promote public
participation in government, address the role of money in politics, and
encourage integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.
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