Republican-tainted monies are headed towards Chicago aldermanic races, Progress Illinois suggests today. A $10,000 donation from mutual funds manager David Herros to the For a Better Chicago PAC is threaded back to Illinois Republican major funder Ron Gidwitz and Illinois Manufacturers' Gregory Baise, also active in IL GOP ranks. Progress Illinois tries to figure out this tangled web:
According to federal records, Herro gave $190,000 in the weeks leading up to the 2010 elections to the New Prosperity Foundation, which formed in late 2009 and showed serious political power, running ads against Democratic candidates in the Midwest, including Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. A report in the Huffington Post said the New Prosperity Foundation is "classified as a 527, meaning it can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including contributions from corporations." The group's chairmen are Ron Gidwitz, a former GOP candidate for governor in Illinois and a big-time donor to George W. Bush, and Gregory Baise, the head of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, a group that gave heavily to Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady. The New Prosperity Foundation received start-up funds from a trust controlled by a major contributor to the smear group Swift Boat Veterans and POW's for Truth.
More at Progress Illinois ... which is owned and paid for by SEIU Local 150.
