July 10 was another productive day for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s fund-raising machine. Chicago Forward, the political action committee put together by some of the mayor’s friends and run by his former aides, reported collecting $325,000 in contributions that day from just six people. The flurry followed the PAC’s $1 million haul in the last week of June from eight funders.
As Chicagoans are starting to realize, regulations governing campaign contributions are limited. And when it comes to running for the city’s highest office, the rules have largely been set and enforced by the mayor himself.
An executive order is not binding. It’s basically a pledge to do the right thing. There’s no punishment if it doesn’t happen.
A spokesman for Sacks wrote in an e-mail that because Grosvenor doesn’t get paid work from the city, his multiple roles create no conflict of interest: “Mr. Sacks is a longtime friend of the mayor and believes the mayor has the courage to make the hard choices that most politicians are unwilling to make.”
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs says its employees aren’t allowed to make political donations until they’re reviewed by the firm’s lawyers to ensure they’re legal.
A WBC board member, Mencoff also donated $150,000 to Chicago Forward. Two other Madison Dearborn partners—John Canning and Paul Finnegan—gave a total of $200,000 to the PAC.
