Today begins a competition for votes among Evanston’s four mayoral candidates, but it also ends a long battle over campaign dollars.
From accepting donations from unions with whom the future mayor will have to negotiate, to gaining contributions from out of town, the candidates have come under fire, mainly from one another, for their respective fund raising strategies.
Campaign reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show all contributions and are available to the public.
Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) has amassed $71,115, more than half of which she loaned herself. Her campaign has drawn the most criticism from her competitors.
Opponent Jeanne Lindwall said she thought Tisdahl had gone overboard with her funding.
“In these economic times, the notion of raising tens of thousands of dollars for a mayoral campaign is ridiculous,” said Lindwall, an urban planner who raised a total of $10,340, about half of which was from a loan she made to her campaign.
Other than loaning her campaign a substantial portion of its finances, Tisdahl said she did not use any unusual fundraising techniques.
“I sent out one (form) letter to Evanston residents,” she said. “The rest was from friends and family.”
Small-business owner Barnaby Dinges, who raised $27,325, has been criticized for receiving most of his contributions from outside the city.
Borrowing techniques from the Obama campaign, both he and Lindwall used political buzz words that have proved successful in the past. Both said they ran “grassroots campaigns,” gaining many small donations from individuals. But their funding differs in that almost all of Dinges’s campaign money has come from outside Evanston.
“Most of my support has come in small donations and I’m really pleased with that,” Lindwall said. “I know we have other candidates saying they are running grassroots campaigns, but mine truly is.”
Lindwall said the rest of her funding came from a loan she made to her campaign.
Dinges said the criticism for his fundraising style was unjustified, since he could not rely on the kinds of family contributions the other candidates used to come up with his campaign.
“I’m a guy who grew up in foster care,” Dinges said. “I don’t have a family fortune and I’m not writing a blank check to my own campaign.”
Dinges did loan his campaign $5,000, about a fifth of his total fund pool.
Despite his funding coming from friends and acquaintances in neighboring towns, such as Wilmette, and distant states, such as New Mexico, Dinges said he had connected with Evanston residents by going door-to-door and by opening a campaign headquarters. He said it was this personal connection that made his a true “grassroots campaign.”
“We connected with between 20,000 and 30,000 residents,” Dinges said.
Retired lawyer Stuart Opdycke, who collected $12,795, said the bulk of his funding came from friends from Evanston, where he has lived his whole life, and its surrounding towns.
Contributions from city organizations have also been discussed in the campaign.
Opdycke said he thought Tisdahl’s accepting a donation from the Fireman’s union could be a potential cause of a conflict of interest should she be mayor. When the candidates debated last month, Opdycke pushed the issue with Tisdahl, asking why it was not simply the local version of “pay to play.”
Tisdahl said she “had no qualms” about accepting the $500 donation.
“She accepted a donation from a union she’ll be negotiating contracts with,” Opdycke said. “Maybe it’s because of my history as a lawyer, but I don’t think that’s right.”
