Will County Gazette

Democrat Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Plainfield) has raised nearly $1.3 million in campaign funds over the past four years. But only 0.68 percent of that has come from individual local donors, according to a Will County Gazette analysis.

In a press release yesterday slamming her opponent, Republican Michelle Smith, Bertino-Tarrant said that she was “proud to have the support of small-dollar donors across the 49th District.”

A review of Illinois State Board of Elections filings by Bertino-Tarrant since her first run for state office in 2012 found 812 donations to her campaign for a total of $1,298,241.

91 percent of those donations came from unions ($731,985/56.4 percent) and fellow politicians ($447,523/34.5 percent). Just $8,830 came from individual donors in Will County. 

Bertino-Tarrant has raised more than twice as much over the same period-- $18,740-- from Springfield lobbyists.

From individual donors, Bertino-Tarrant has raised $4,255 from Joliet, $1,150 from Shorewood, $800 from Plainfield, $645 from Bolingbrook, $560 from New Lenox, $360 from Lockport, $200 from Channahon, $60 from Crest Hill, $60 from Elwood, $35 from Mokena and $10 from Frankfort.

The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association has given Bertino-Tarrant $11,250, more than all of her Will County individual donors combined.

Other major Bertino-Tarrant supporters include Fletcher, O’Brien, Kasper & Nottage, a lobbying firm closely allied with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), and The Roosevelt Group, owned by former Madigan aide Michael Noonan and Victor Reyes, a longtime political operative for former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Noonan and Reyes recently ran a campaign to ban Uber from operating in Illinois.