from Chicago News Cooperative
As the debate intensifies over what to do about Springfield’s $13 billion budget deficit, a powerful labor union has given Gov. Patrick J. Quinn another big number to take into account: $1.7 million.
That is the amount the Service Employees International Union contributed to the governor’s primary campaign, state records show. The union’s largesse represented more than 25 percent of all contributions to Mr. Quinn, who edged Dan Hynes, the state comptroller, in the Democratic primary on Feb. 2.
The union’s 170,000 members in Illinois include about 7,500 state workers and tens of thousands of home health care and child care workers who are paid with state money.
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