As high-profile prosecutions cast harsh light on the role of money in local politics, data from the city of Chicago reveals torrents of cash fueling the influence-peddling industry.
Chicago lobbyists have raked in $171 million from clients in the past eight years, with the highly connected reaping the biggest rewards, according to Chicago Board of Ethics data dating back to 2012.
Among top-paid lobbyists over that stretch: All-Circo's John Kelly Jr. ($12.3 million), Michael Kasper ($10.3 million) and Cozen O'Connor's John Dunn ($7.5 million). Companies shelling out millions to sway Chicago officials include outdoor advertiser JCDecaux and affiliates, the American Beverage Association and ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft.
But the numbers are somewhat murky: Data reflects self-reported compensation and client information from lobbyists to the Chicago Board of Ethics, which has never taken any lobbyists to task over the accuracy of their reports.
Annual lobbyist compensation rose 43 percent between Mayor Rahm Emanuel's first and last full years in office, peaking at $24.5 million in 2018. In the first four full reporting periods since Lori Lightfoot took office, outlays have dropped to the $22 million range, likely due to turnover in administrations and a slowdown in government business during COVID-19. Still, recent spending is well above the $17 million recorded in 2012.
"It is a lot of money, and most Chicagoans would probably be surprised to see who is spending millions to influence their city government," says Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois, a nonpartisan research organization advocating more disclosure of money in politics. She says the electorate would benefit from having the same kind of data about how lobbying works at the state level.
The numbers reveal a thriving market in lobbying services as companies seek to shape government policies affecting not only their own interests but the public at large. Lobbying clients are paying for insight, access to officials and a chance to influence legislation.
Demand appears unaffected by a broad crackdown on political corruption in Illinois by federal prosecutors. Utility giant Commonwealth Edison recently agreed to pay a $200 million fine and effectively admitted to bribery in connection with its efforts to win favorable state energy legislation. The feds also have leveled charges against Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, former state Sens. Terry Link and Martin Sandoval, and former state Rep. Luis Arroyo. Link and Sandoval pleaded guilty; Burke and Arroyo pleaded not guilty.
Two lobbyists caught up in the federal probe have taken a hit. Victor Reyes and Jay Doherty were both identified as lobbyists ComEd tapped to curry favor with Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. Reyes saw his quarterly compensation drop by $100,000 between June 2019 and 2020. Doherty has not reported any compensation this year.
BIGGEST PLAYERS
At the top of the lobbying pyramid, according to city data, is John Kelly Jr., who started his political career working for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan and managed Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan's campaign in 1998. He then joined Houlihan's lobbying firm, All-Circo, and acquired the company in 2007. He's Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's lobbyist in Springfield.
"Clients appreciate my background in local politics," Kelly says. "I started out in this business as a volunteer and have cultivated a lot of good relationships on both sides of the aisle at all levels of government over the past 25 years. Success in politics depends on three things: personal relationships, good follow-up and quickly returning every phone call you receive."
His client list in the city includes heavy hitters like Bank of America, the Chicago White Sox, energy services company Noresco, CVS, Merchandise Mart Properties, Midwest Gaming & Entertainment and Archer Daniels Midland.
Lobbyists offer some insight into their regular work via activity reports filed with the Board of Ethics. Kelly filed fewer than his fellow top earners, but 11 of his 92 reports included meetings, calls and emails to Burke. He introduced the alderman to former ADM CEO Patricia Woertz and her successor, Juan Luciano, in 2015. Kelly also updated Burke on CVS issues in 2013 and on voting machine company Election Systems in 2015, and discussed the city's Infrastructure Trust with the alderman on Noresco's behalf.
Kelly says the $12.3 million he reported for the last eight years includes all his pay for city, county and state lobbying. The city filings contain other ambiguities. For example, partners Mike Kasper, Courtney Nottage and David Dring of government relations firm Kasper & Nottage reported several quarters with equal compensation, indicating they might have each reported their firm's total earnings.
"It is possible that some lobbyists may report what their company or firm was paid for lobbying by particular clients rather than what they were paid personally, but we would not know that," says Steve Berlin, executive director of the Board of Ethics. Overreporting would also inflate client spending numbers.
Even if Kasper split his firm's cumulative earnings three ways, he'd still be a top earner. Kasper is widely acknowledged as a major player: As an attorney, he has represented the speaker's office and Madigan on political matters. He also successfully defended Emanuel against a ballot challenge in 2011.
Nottage worked as staff counsel to Madigan and was chief of staff to former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr. Dring previously was a press spokesman for former Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross and the House Republican Organization.
"The appearance of names like Mike Kasper—a top Madigan ally—on the top-paid list is yet another example of the cross-influence between the state, the Madigan machine and Chicago government," says Reform for Illinois' Kaplan. "One has to imagine that a name with that much clout in Springfield would have quite an advantage as a lobbyist in a city government that can be helped or hurt by state policies."
Kasper & Nottage's recent client list includes Airbnb and Uber—companies in new industries that have both been subject to new regulations and taxation under Emanuel's and Lightfoot's administrations—as well as Citibank, Tesla, UPS, Presence Health, Pfizer, McDonald's, Hilton, Dell and Dominion Voting Systems, which provides touch screens for Chicago and Cook County election authorities.
Kasper helped negotiate Dominion's contract with the City Council and the mayor's office, and he represented McDonald's and UPS as aldermen debated the Fair Workweek ordinance. He also helped secure a $5.5 million TIF subsidy for Presence Health in 2017 (later scrapped) and spent roughly the last six years ushering Uber through various regulatory hoops, including a losing fight to stave off Lightfoot's downtown congestion tax in her last budget.
'EXPERIENCE COUNTS'
Next on the list are John Dunn and Patrick Carey, who each report the full amount their firm, Cozen O'Connor, received for all clients they are individually registered to lobby for. Their city reporting, like Kelly's, also includes work at the county and state.
Their recent clients include Amazon, Apple, Delta Air Lines, Diageo, Hertz, Lyft, Salesforce and Zillow. Dunn, who served as former Mayor Richard M. Daley's director of intergovernmental affairs and point man in Washington and Springfield, also worked as AT&T's Midwest legislative attorney. Carey is Preckwinkle's former special assistant for governmental and legislative affairs and a onetime Daley aide. He began lobbying in 2016.
On Delta's behalf, the two lobbied the City Council, the mayor's office and the Aviation Department on the company's lease agreement at O'Hare International Airport and the Fair Workweek ordinance that died out at the end of Emanuel's administration before passing under Lightfoot. They buttonholed the same group on Hertz and Hudson Group's behalf to discuss COVID concessions relief at the city's airports. They helped Lyft clear the same regulatory hurdles as rival Uber and ran interference for the expansion of Lyft's Divvy bike sharing program locally.
"It's like any other job where experience counts," Dunn says. "I think it's helpful (to clients) that you've got experience, but I don't think that's unique to lobbying."
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