The inside story on Zopp, Kirk super PACs
WASHINGTON — A super PAC created to boost Democrat Senate hopeful Andrea Zopp, and another waiting in the wings to potentially benefit Sen. Mark Kirk, R- Ill., provide vivid examples of how easy it is to get around federal contribution caps.
Federal candidates — that is for the House, Senate and the White House — can accept individual donations of $ 2,700 per election to their campaign committees and nothing from labor unions or corporations.
So for a primary and general election, that’s $ 5,400 per person, tops.
All allies of a federal candidate have to do to ignore the caps is to create a so- called independent expenditure political committee — nicknamed a super PAC. A super PAC can take unlimited money from any entity and use it to help elect a candidate.
Zopp lost her Democratic primary battle to Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D- Ill., who will face Kirk in November. From the start, Zopp faced a challenge in raising money, while Duckworth has a considerable advantage.
To address that, her allies created the Illinois Voices Matter super PAC, the existence of which, until this column, was not widely known.
Mellody Hobson, the president of Ariel Invest- ments and a Zopp friend, donated $ 75,000; John Rogers, the Ariel founder, gave $ 15,000. Michael Sacks, the CEO of Chicago- based Grosvenor Capital Management, contributed $ 100,000. Sacks worked with Zopp when she ran the Chicago Urban League and he was on its board. Sacks is an investor in the company that owns the Sun- Times.
In all, the group raised $ 273,375 and spent $ 242,000, including $ 37,300 to the Paladin Political Group. Paladin’s David Seman said his firm helped the super PAC on phone banking, produced a TV spot for a Downstate market and other strategic advice. Illinois Voices Matter should not be confused with Independent Voice for Illinois, a group created last year that seems to be at the ready to assist Kirk.
The name is a takeoff on a central Kirk campaign theme.
The Independent Voice for Illinois has raised $ 868,100 since it was founded last year and has $ 663,204 cash on hand. Its main expense is payments to a firm run by Eric Elk, Kirk’s former chief of staff.
“The Independent Voice for Illinois PAC works to elect individuals who repre- sent the commonsense values of Prairie State citizens,” Elk told me in an email.
The biggest donation to the group, $ 100,000, came from Ohio- based Murray Energy Corp., whose chairman, Robert Murray, donated to Kirk’s 2010 Senate campaign.
Katie Hogan new OFA chief
Katie Hogan, a long- serving member of the Obama team, will become the new chief of Organizing for Action, the Chicago- based offshoot of the Obama presidential campaigns that will likely have a role in his post- presidency.
OFA, headquartered in the West Loop, through the years has worked on a variety of drives to support initiatives of President Barack Obama, including the push to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Hogan, at present the OFA communications director, is a native of Chicago’s Beverly community and 2002 graduate of Saint Ignatius College Prep.
During Obama’s 2008 campaign, Hogan was a traveling press assistant, then took on a similar role as a White House press wrangler between 2009 and 2011. Hogan returned to Chicago for Obama’s second presidential campaign, where she served as a deputy press secretary.
When the Obama for America political campaign transitioned to the nonprofit Organizing for Action after Obama’s re- election, Hogan was a founding senior staff member. The Ukrainian Village resident takes over as executive director on May 15.