Clout St. and a multi-million $ international investor...

What does an investor have to do with the upcoming Aldermanic runoffs this month. Well long story short Tribune's Clout St blog explores that. And look at who he is donating money to...

David Herro lives on the Gold Coast and has made relatively small donations to federal candidates, but the investment guru now is giving big money to City Council candidates across Chicago.

Herro may be the largest individual donor to council candidates this election year, putting $102,000 of his own money into aldermanic campaigns in the past two months, according to state records.

His sudden interest in Chicago ward politics was inspired by the City Hall fight over Wal-Mart’s arrival in Chicago. Herro said he is opposed to the failed, union-backed proposal to require higher wages and benefits at big-box stores, including Wal-Mart.

“I believe that the best way to help the working poor and people who are poorly trained is to offer them a job, to lower the first rung of the economic ladder so they could reach it,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “When you artificially set wage rates, people do not have access to the jobs.”

Herro said the fact that his firm, Chicago-based Harris Associates, is heavily invested in Wal-Mart was “purely coincidental” to his local political activism.

As of the end of 2006, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. represented almost 2 percent of the total net assets of the Oakmark Fund, managed by Harris Associates.

The firm held 9.9 million Wal-Mart shares, according to an October article in the Wall Street Journal.

Herro, 46, said his job at Harris is focused primarily on managing investments in foreign companies, and he said the international fund does not invest in Wal-Mart. “Whether [Wal-Mart] does well or not really does not impact my bottom line.”

Well he has been involved in the 49th Ward race hoping to knock off big-box ordinance sponsor Ald. Joe Moore. He supported Chris Adams who was knocked out of the race in February so no Herro supports Don Gordon to win. But this is not the only race he's donated money for...

Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), who fought unsuccessfully for a Wal-Mart store in his South Side ward, has received $10,000 from Herro, state records show.

Other recipients of Herro’s largesse include Ald. George Cardenas (12th) and Shirley Coleman (16th). Cardenas and Coleman changed sides on the big-box ordinance, eventually helping uphold Mayor Richard Daley's veto of the proposal.

And while this is a start this is only the beginning, although he did donate money to Mayor Daley in his re-election bid he has plans for any future donations in city politics...

The recent contributions could be just the beginning of his involvement in Chicago politics, Herro said. He wants to form a group that would aid what he described as “independent-thinking candidates who understand market-based solutions.”