The 77 Committee is allowed to accept unlimited funds, including from city contractors.
the narrowly written executive orders he’d signed that banned lobbyists, city contractors and individuals seeking to do business with the city or its sister agencies from giving more than $1,500 to Chicago’s mayor, aldermen or other citywide elected officials.
Lightfoot has kept the ethics rules in place, which are on top of statewide caps that prevent her campaign fund and affiliated PAC from receiving more than $6,000 from individuals, $12,000 from corporations or labor groups and $59,900 from other PACs — unless a candidate gives more than $100,000 to his or her own campaign, at which point all the caps are lifted. While the 77 Committee is not restricted in how much money it can receive or from whom, as an independent expenditure committee it can’t coordinate with Lightfoot or any political campaigns. It has already received $100,000 from politically connected firms — $80,000 from a table tennis company whose chairman also chairs an information technology company that does business with the city and $20,000 from a South Side construction company that is on a list of city contractors and also is working on the Obama Presidential Center. In addition, the committee’s chair is Sean Harden, who also chairs the nonprofit Friend Health, which recently opened a health center in Woodlawn that’sDave Mellet, executive director of the 77 Committee and a longtime top adviser to Lightfoot, said Friend Health is a nonprofit and that Harden doesn’t have an ownership interest in the health center. Harden referred questions to Mellet, who instead released a statement that the committee will “work independently to make sure Mayor Lightfoot is elected to a second term.” Still, Harden’s presence as chair of the independent expenditure committee highlights the intersection of money, government and politics at City Hall.But a recent flyer by the committee obtained by the Chicago Tribune stated that the 77 fund was “created by allies of Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot with a primary mission of supporting her re-election on February 28, 2023. The majority of our committee’s funds raised will be dedicated to that mission.” The flyer also said the committee “has the support of the Lightfoot for Chicago campaign” but noted, “we are not permitted to coordinate with the campaign.”Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a petition launch party for her reelection at Plumbers Local 130 in Chicago’s West Loop on Aug. 30, 2022. Lightfoot campaign spokeswoman Christina Freundlich did not answer questions about the committee and said the mayor “has no control or say over any outside groups or organizations.”While Lightfoot might not directly benefit from the 77 Committee, it comes at a critical time in her political career. Monday is the first day when candidates can officially file to run for mayor, and Lightfoot faces strong headwinds to win a second term. As many asChicago mayor’s race 2023 lineup: Who is in, who is out, who is undecidedMost recent campaign fundraising reports, released one month ago, showed Lightfoot had more money on hand in her campaign fund than all of her opponents except wealthy business owner Willie Wilson, who is mostly self-funding his campaign. But while her challengers haven’t been able to bring in big cash from political supporters, LightfootLightfoot’s main political campaign committee, Lightfoot for Chicago,between July and September but spent more than $607,000 during the same period, campaign disclosure filings show. It had about $2.9 million on hand, according to filings. Her other campaign committee, Light PAC, which was created to help support her allies on City Council, raised less than $11,000 and had $3,000 in the bank, as of the last quarter, campaign filings show.When it launched in 2019, Light PAC was modeled after Chicago Forward, the campaign fund created by Emanuel allies that was aimed at helping the mayor and his political supporters. But as a political action committee created by Lightfoot supporters, Light PAC faces the same rules on donations as Lightfoot for Chicago. Light PAC meets the Chicago Board of Ethics’ criteria for being an authorized political fundraising committee of the mayor because it has interacted or coordinated sufficiently with her official campaign apparatus. So far, the 77 Committee has disclosed it has raised $20,000 from UJAMAA, a South Side construction company that is onA day after the contribution, Lightfoot’s office announced in a news release that the company will serve as the general contractor on a mixed-income, mixed-use, affordable living community in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood built on what is now vacant city-owned land. It is also part of the joint venture building the Obama Presidential Center. UJAMAA has not given Lightfoot for Chicago any money. UJAMAA’s president, Jimmy Akintonde, did not return messages seeking comment. Besides the $20,000 from UJAMAA, the 77 Committee also disclosed a contribution from Killerspin, a table tennis company whose chairman, Robert Blackwell Jr., does business with the city through Electronic Knowledge Interchange, an IT company he alsoKillerspin has not contributed to Lightfoot’s campaign committees, nor has Blackwell individually, according to state records. EKI has been paid
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