Supreme Court Lifts Party Spending Caps: What It Means for 2026

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling that removes long-standing limits on how much national political parties can spend in coordination with their candidates. The decision in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission (No. 24-621) strikes down provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act that had capped “coordinated party expenditures.”

How this classic cartoon fits the story (credit: J. Keppler, Puck Magazine — historical/public domain political illustration): The image above is a Gilded Age political cartoon showing wealthy monopolies and big business interests literally overwhelming the U.S. Senate. It perfectly captures the long-running fear that unlimited money from powerful donors can distort democracy and turn elected officials into conduits for special interests. The current U.S. Supreme Court ruling loosens coordinated spending rules between parties and candidates—critics argue this could amplify similar dynamics in 2026 by making it easier for large donors to route influence through party committees, while supporters see it as restoring parties' free speech rights against overly restrictive rules.

Capitol Fax: Shooting for viral

[VIDEO] So it's campaign season here in Illinois. So Rich Miller is taking a look at campaign videos that could go viral. He starts with videos produced by the gubernatorial campaigns of Gov. Quinn & Bruce Rauner and shows that Rauner has more views on his videos although not to viral levels. The video above is what Miller hopes to go viral.

And that begs the question for anyone involved with political videos. What does it take to make a video go viral?

Oberweis for US Senate

[VIDEO] There was once an ice cream man known as Jim Oberweis. He's an infamous figure in Illinois politics having run for US Senate, Governor, and a US House seat only to lose all of those races. In the first two he proved to be controversial his Senate race involved lots of talk of illegal immigration and his race for Governor well didn't help the GOP side at all.

He actually won a race recently, he's now a sitting state senator in Illinois and now he wants to be a US Senator. While I'm not sure he's a shoo-in he may well be a better candidate than many other's who have ran against long-time US Senator Dick Durbin in recent years.

BTW, I forgot to note earlier this year he was in charge of a push to oust a state party chairman for the GOP. While ultimately he appeared to back off the state GOP has a new chairman anyway and this was to enforce adhearance to the state GOP platform. All the same this state now has gay marriage anyway and it took a few Republican votes to get there as well.

Via CapFax!

Gag campaign slogans

[VIDEO] The above video was posted on the YouTube account for TBS' Conan on August 29th. Basically poking fun at campaign taglines presented in various political speeches by both President Obama and Vice President Biden and by Mitt Romney. Bascially they also use random phrases by both campaign standard bearers basically for silliness.

I just thought about this at random and hope that Conan will do more of these leading up to the election. These gag slogans edited from larger speeches by both campaigns will certainly take a load off.

Too lazy to find it, but if it can be found my personal favorite "campaign slogan" was mouthed by VP Biden who let us know that he's "so ashamed". LOL

BTW, you can use my YouTube search to find more of these "slogans".

Interesting to see a Rahm ad at Reason.tv

Like I may have noted before the 2010 midterm with Bill Brady having ads on Instapundit, which certainly was geared towards a target audience, that I have little idea how the who internet ad thing operates. At that same time Reason.tv was a very unusual place for the Rahm for Mayor campaign to place an ad. Never thought that Reason was the target audience Rahm wanted to pursue.

Brady radio ad for Black audiences

As you know Bill Brady - Republican state senator from Bloomington, IL - is running for Governor of Illinois. I may well like him for governor, but I have to say this ad is odd. It's catchy but it's supposed to be geared for a particular audience, being Black Illinoisians. Of course, for the most part Blacks aren't likely to vote Republican because a particular candidate put out some soulful beats in a campaign ad.

At the same time, it's been said during the course of this campaign that Gov. Pat Quinn isn't doing that great amongst Blacks anyway. Some of the financial issues affecting state government is affecting a lot of the social service agencies that hasn't gotten their money from Springfield.

This is a tough election anyway. Brady hasn't really been able to run away with this race. Quinn has allowed this race to go down to the wire. They're both so bad that even CapFax's Rich Miller (who gets a hat-tip for this ad) wrote a column saying that he doesn't even know who he'll vote for. And at that he has all the info I could ever wish I had without subscribing to his newsletters.

All the same, I know that Quinn won't be getting my vote. He's an honest man who followed a very dishonest man and unfortunately I have little faith that Quinn can make the necessary adjustments in Illinois. Besides he's had close to two years to right the ship that his predecessor turned upside down and well we're not in good shape right now.

Whoever wins this election let's hope that happy days are here in Illinois again!

Georgia Tech Obama rally images

I forget her name but she was especially cheerful as our wait for the Senator continued to get longer and longer. We had to wait awhile the people I was standing with was starting to get tired. She would come out every now and again to ask us if we signed up at MyObama.com, if we've told a friend about Sen. Obama, and if we're going to help him in this campaign. In addition to getting people to scream at the naming of their respective college or home state neighboring Georgia. She did say she was from South Carolina, a very important state in the primaries.
Rev. Joseph Lowery. You may not have heard of him, but he was a player in the Civil Rights movement. A confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, he was here to deliver a prayer to start off this rally. It was a great prayer to be sure even if I may not agree with him on a lot of issues. BTW, he is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Oh yeah this was the daughter of the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. Her namse was Alexandria and she was on stage to sing the Star-Spangled Banner. People were so into it that what you see is in the next picture.
People here were expressing their patriotism. They were handing out flags at this rally and on this day certainly were were all patriots and Americans. So during the rendition of our national anthem here comes the flags.
Finally the man himself. I do have a shot of him head-on, but it was a much better shot to get him in action. Speaking to the citizens who thirsted to hear him speak. His speech energized the crowd and hopefully people who weren't there might want to see him in person themselves.

Obama rally today!!!

My day for the most part started at about 7:30 when my alarm woke me up this morning. A friend of mine and myself planned going to an Obama rally this morning at Georgia Tech. I got ready brushed my teeth and found that I had some time to hop on my computer. I even filled out a form that was on my ticket with contact information.

I had gotten a ticket to attend this rally yesterday in class where a guy I know, who I believe was an Obama volunteer, handed out tickets to the class. My professor got gold VIP tickets. What us students got were blue tickets. Getting a gold ticket got you closer to the action, but a blue ticket pushes you further away from the action. Luckily for me, my friend had a pair of gold tickets to get me much closer to the action than I thought I had been able to.

We were there pretty early but so was everyone else. As it turns out everyone else had about the same idea. Though it was particularly crowded when we finally got there. It was probably close to about 9:30 when we made it to Georgia Tech. As the rally got closer to starting the crowd started to thicken until there wasn't much room to move.

BTW, Georgia Tech is a lovely campus. A far cry from Morehouse College the only difference is the physical plant but not the reputation. This campus almost reminds me someone of the University of Chicago in the architecture, perhaps not quite gothic but almost similar.

And at least I have some memorabilia from this event, an Obama poster and an American flag. I got pictures that I will post here today. As something of a teaser I even poster a picture of the rally over at The Eye, a mobile picture but an idea on what's to come.

Oh yeah near the end Sen. Obama became the fourth politican to have shaken my hand. Unlike the other three though I was amongst a much larger crowd than usual, but worth it. Especially if I was at a rally for a Presidential contender.

How was the speech you may ask?

Well it was what I'd expect. The feel good type stuff that I'm sure many Americans have come to know and expect from him. Hit on issues Americans care about, but not much on specifics on how to fix these problems. Some people at the rally would say Obama is a smart guy and why come on out and talk about your plans. He has to really prove himself in the future debates that he will have.

Basically he took digs at President Bush as to the constitution and the war in Iraq. He commented on the expansion of poverty in this country. He talked a little about his background perticularly coming to Chicago as a community organizer being paid on 12,000 with traveling expenses. In fact he talked about consulting with two higher powers before he ran for the Illinois State Senate, God and his wife.

Yeah this is something to remember for those of you wanting to go into politics in the future. Of all people who you might need to consult with running are the people closest to you. Especially your wife, she should be the biggest supporter you have. You have to consult with people to see if they're OK.

Being amongst an energized crowd was, well, energizing. I can't say I enjoyed being in the crowd but to see this was worth it. My first presidential campaign rally. It was a great one. Especially the Motown music and other more mainstream and contemporary songs as well as the Clark-Atlanta University Marching Band who was there for entertainment.

Finally, if you go back on this it can't be said that I'm a big fan of Obama. I'd like to think that I've come around somewhat. Obama may not have a lot in experience, but surely he has one thing going for him, a fresh face. I think I could honestly go for that.

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.”

The latest N'Digo column

Take aim at the union muscle being used in black wards in the upcoming run-off this month. And Hermene Hartman, N'Digo publisher is taking some issue with it. And let's us know who she wants to stay after the April 17th runoffs. Its starts with...

On April 17, voters will go back to the polls to vote for aldermanic run-offs. Run-off elections haven’t been so plentiful in Chicago history for nearly 60 years, and unions are the reason.

The unions are exercising muscle in the races, with lots of money, troops, and a united front. They are targeting aldermen they consider to be anti-union, and putting millions behind their chosen candidates.

Some of the unions have practiced racism, and as the politicians stand up for the unions, it should be noted how many Blacks are in particular unions. Not all unions have open arms for Black union members. Ask the carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and other tradesmen for starters.

Unions are using the Black community, and I resent that. They are not qualified to run our communities. It puts the Black community in an interesting position. I hope the people stand up and strike, and that the Black community sends the unions a strong message, which is: go back to the suburbs.

You know this has been brought up. Ald. Howard Brookins (21st Ward) came out swinging on this himself knowing the unions were going after him because of his vote against the living-wage. And he brought up that black have been discrimination against when they attempted to get a job or join a union. As a result Hartman comes out swinging herself.

She talks about the third ward race. And mentions how Tillman has developed the 3rd Ward. For Tillman this is one positive I can note for her, but she has taken hits on the Harold Washington Cultural Center to name one issue. Still she has her opinion on this race and the fact that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has endorsed Tillman's challenger Pat Dowell...

Congressman Jesse Jackson is supporting Tillman’s opposition Pat Dowell. But the face of this race is not about Dorothy and Pat, it is really about union versus the people. Dorothy is a traditional civil rights politician. She supports Black causes without doubt, and does not waiver. Sometimes you agree with her, sometimes you don’t. Her history is steeped in the civil rights movement, dating back to being a schoolgirl marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and following the movement from the south to Chicago. She and the late Marion Stamps fought for better schools for children, and thus a political career was born. Tillman was among the leadership for school reform and voter registration drives that led to the election of Mayor Harold Washington.
...
Congressman Jackson could have stayed out of this race. But he has united the traditional Black movement types behind Dorothy — Congressman Bobby Rush, Bishop Arthur Brazier, Dr. Leon Finney, Congressman Danny Davis, Senator Barack Obama, Bishop Horace Smith, Reverend Charles Jenkins, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan. A ministerial coalition has been organized, and they’ve thrown their hats in the ring behind her. Hopefully this election will broaden Tillman’s scope and encourage advice for the third to move forward progressively. Unions should not rule the third, and if the choice is Tillman versus union, vote Tillman.

And then she mentions some other races. She is talking up incumbents Ald. Haithcock of the 2nd ward, Ald. Brookins, and Ald. Shirley Coleman. They all have seen some improvements in their wards and they should see another term because of it. Out of this group I'd really like to see Howard Brookins re-elected because I have been able to see some of his handiwork. This is what she says about Brookins...

The unions are also punishing Howard Brookins of the 21st ward for his big box support. He is a lawyer, and as he develops his vacant land community, he should not be penalized for wanting big box properties in his ward to spur economic development.

Brookins’ ward has more development going on outside of downtown. He is an alderman with an eye for economic development, and has brought Best Buy, Starbucks, and Staples to the 21st ward, and most recently, Lowe’s Home Improvement broke ground. Old Navy, The Gap, Office Depot, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Bank of America are also online for the ward. These stores have had Black professional services and labor, from construction to legal work to workers in the stores. Brookins has a promising career, and deserves community support rather than the union threat.

What about Shirley Coleman?

And lastly, there’s Shirley Coleman’s 16th ward in the Englewood community, where development is underway. Real estate is becoming valuable, Kennedy King College will open by year’s end, and franchises, retail outlets, and restaurants are on the way. Coleman is deserving of another term to complete the build of Englewood.

Honestly I don't know about Ald. Coleman. I tend to think that she was only along for the ride. Probably as much as Dorothy Tillman. I can't wait to see what comes out of this runoff.

Let me just bring this column by Russ Stewart. He has this great column about the "high attrition rate of black aldermen". Having it saved in my del.icio.us links, it makes prediction about those Aldermen who are going to lose their re-election bids.

Tillman, Coleman, Haithcock, and 24th Ward Ald. Michael Chandler are likely to lose. With Ald. Brookins being the only winner among this group. All I can say on that is we shall see.

Jesse Jackson backs Sen. Obama for president

Now I was lukewarm or cool to Obama as a politician even when he ran for the Senate or even as the talk started about him running for President. Still I think this is a great move by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He's using the kind of language I would use now. From today's Crain's...

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Thursday he's backing Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential bid, giving his support to a new generation of black politicians.

"He has my vote," the Rev. Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Jackson sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses in 1988. His son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, already has endorsed Obama.

Jackson represents a different era of black politician, battle-tested by the civil rights struggles of the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr.

Obama, 45, is biracial - his white mother was from Kansas, his father Kenyan - and educated at Ivy League universities.

In his best-selling memoir, "Dreams From My Father," Obama said he couldn't even get in the door at national civil rights groups when he was younger. He wrote letters to them after graduating from Columbia University but said none responded.
...
Jackson could help Obama to secure the support of black voters, a critical bloc in the Democratic primaries.

Jackson has a long history with one of Obama's chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband former President Clinton. He counseled the two when the president's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.

But Jackson said his history with the Clintons doesn't complicate his decision to back his home state senator, calling Obama Illinois' "favorite son."

"It's not awkward at all," he said, adding, "I don't owe a debt to any of them."

Jackson said he will support the winner of the Democratic nomination, whether it's Obama or not, and he is talking to other candidates because of his agenda that includes the war on poverty and voter protection.

A new generation of black politicians. That how I see Obama. We need new ideas and fresh faces. That's Obama right now. And it's great the Rev. Jackson doesn't feel like he owes a debt to the Clintons. Honestly we already had a Clinton in the White House why elect another one. Just like we got another Bush in the White House over a decade later.

Good move though Rev. Jackson!!!

What's going on Harvey???

The Mayor out there in the struggling suburb Mayor Eric Kellog is starting to sound like a rough character. He's serving his first term as mayor after defeating his predecessor Nicholas Graves in 2005. This time though there some allegations are coming out about this campaign coming from Mayoral hopeful Brenda Thompson...

But in Harvey, the death threat Thompson says she received last Monday evening has also become a standard, far more ominous feature of election season.

Thompson, 58, became the third mayoral candidate in the past three elections to complain of a warning against her life last Tuesday, when she said that an unidentified man called and told her to drop out of the race.

"He called the campaign office and said, 'You'd better get out of the race, or something is gonna happen,' " she said.

"My daughters tell me I should be worried, but I'm not going to be intimidated."

The threat has been reported to state's attorneys and the FBI, said Thompson, adding that she did not trust Harvey's police department to investigate.

Before it went to the death threat story this Daily Southtown article talked about how elections go. You would hear about the theft of campaign signs. If only that was all it was. Then a death threat has become a much more,"a standard, far more ominous feature of election season."

There seems to be a history of this in Harvey. If there isn't any truth to what is mentioned here, it doesn't help that the allegations are going around...

In 1999, a Harvey police report surfaced alleging that a $2,000 bounty had been placed on then-Mayor Nick Graves by his rival Eric Kellogg.

Kellogg, who beat Graves to become mayor in the 2003 election, scoffed at the allegation.

And the police union, which backed Kellogg in the 2003 election, made its own counter-allegation of a death threat in 2002, claiming in a lawsuit that Graves had threatened to kill union officials during heated contract talks.

After his election, Kellogg then claimed at a council meeting in early 2004 that his and his family's lives had been threatened.

Three months earlier he, Police Chief Andrew Joshua and two controversial officers, Darnell Keel and Merritt Gentry, hauled in three women employed by the city and aggressively questioned them about a plot against Kellogg's life, according to a lawsuit the three women filed in 2004 and the city later settled for $60,000.

Mayoral hopeful Thompson has said that Harvey is a city, "gone wild". Still I don't know it takes a very courageous and a stand-up person to run for mayor of Harvey especially if there are those who are willing to use thuggish tactics to keep someone or themselves in office. It could also reek of desperation.

What's going on in City Politics as we get closer to the runoffs...

Let's start with Chicago's 2nd ward. Bob Fioretti may be successful in taking a black ward. Perhaps that's not accurate anymore as the ward is changing thanks to development and racial turnover. Still he has his work cut out for him since the incumbent Alderman, Madeline Haithcock is taking advantage of some past allegation of stalking.

Well before the election on February 27th, the National Organization for Women had endorsed Fiorettie in his race but took down their endorsement from their website. Apparently her attempt to use an order of protection against him proved to be a final draw. Indeed Haithcock may have just turn NOW against her because of it. The Sun-Times said it best in their article when they said, "She's desperate".

Here's a little bit more about the story...

The National Organization for Women on Monday reinstated its endorsement of 2nd Ward aldermanic challenger Bob Fioretti after determining that five-year-old sexual harassment and stalking allegations against Fioretti have "no basis in fact."

That didn't stop incumbent Ald. Madeline Haithcock (2nd) from using the allegations. Over the weekend, she put out a campaign mailer with a copy of a 2002 emergency order of protection against Fioretti under the headline, "Bob Fioretti is a big talker. Turns out he's also a stalker of women."
....
It turns out Haithcock had only told one side of a complicated story.
A judge vacated the order of protection one week after it was issued after learning that Fioretti and his girlfriend had filed criminal complaints against the same woman the year before for making unsolicited advances toward Fioretti and harassing phone calls. The woman was a court reporter who saw Fioretti in courtrooms where he had appeared as an attorney. They had no relationship -- sexual or otherwise -- Fioretti said.

NOW President Kim Mongoven was so incensed by Haithcock's continued smear campaign against Fioretti, she held a news conference Monday to denounce the tactics -- and re-endorse Fioretti.

"Haithcock has again launched a vicious attack based on the same misstatements of fact. NOW . . . condemns these attacks. They are a desperate political ploy meant to distract voters from a long record of misplaced priorities. I urge citizens of the 2nd Ward to reject these dirty campaign tactics," Mongoven said.
...
On Monday, Fioretti asked a Circuit Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order against the Haithcock campaign. He didn't get it. But the company that designed and wrote the mailer agreed to pull a second campaign piece with a similar theme.
Fioretti got 29 percent of the vote to Haithcock's 20 percent in Round One. Monday's mudslinging developments virtually guarantee an ugly finish.

"Desperate people do desperate things and she's desperate," Fioretti said.

"I'm proud to have NOW's endorsement. They have done so much for women's rights. And I'm disappointed with an opponent who resorts to slander and lies. She is trying to distract from the real issues in this race: that she's taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers and missed over 80 percent of committee meetings."

In the 25th Ward the challenger Cuahutemoc Morfin is seeking a runoff against the incumbent Alderman Daniel Solis. This has been covered since the election on February 27th. Solis right now is the official winner but Morfin is seeking to have the votes of another challenger and former Alderman Ambrosio Medrano counted even though he was dropped off the ballot because of his felony conviction. Here's a little more about this story...

A 25th Ward candidate is trying to force a run-off in the April election, arguing in a federal lawsuit that incumbent Ald. Daniel Solis really didn't secure 50 percent of the primary votes as needed.

Cuahutemoc Morfin said Monday that 283 votes cast for another candidate, Ambrosio Medrano, should be counted because voters were told too late that Medrano was kicked off the ballot.

"We're asking that the votes are respected and counted into the calculation that determines a winner in the 25th Ward," Morfin said.

The Friday before the Tuesday Feb. 27 elections, the Illinois Supreme Court deemed that Medrano could not run because he has a felony conviction. Votes for him would be considered invalid.

But 178 early votes had been cast for Medrano and another 105 came in on Election Day, they contend. If considered valid, Solis would have just 48 percent of the total, said Nicholas Kefalos, an attorney who filed the lawsuit.
...
Fifty percent of the vote is needed in the primary to stave off an April election. Kefalos said voters' constitutional rights were violated because they weren't properly told their votes wouldn't count.
Those who voted early cast ballots for Medrano before his candidacy was invalid. Illinois does not provide a way to remedy that, Kefalos said.

This is going to be interesting. Both of these cases. Hopefully Haithcock's stunt will cost her at the polls and I don't know what to say about the 25th ward.

I should just note in the 25th ward. Morfin was endorsed by Medrano when he got knocked off the ballot.

Morehouse College SGA campaign season has started

These scenes were posted outside of the Morehouse cafeteria today and the campaign for SGA President, Vice President, Treasurer, Recording Secretary and other offices have started. The new leaders of the student body are coming out to make their mark. Things are going to get interesting.

So what is this you see? Well apparently some SGA candidates have decided to form something of a ticket. Perhaps an alliance of sorts. They get together on a ticket known as Luminous.

Good move. If I had the interest in running for an SGA position this is exactly what I would have done. Indeed this has been done in real live politics for years, people coming together with common ideas or what ever is common to them. Either these guys got together before they made the decision to run for an SGA office or they reached out to each other and say let's get together and form a ticket

As to whether Luminous is successful is to be seen. To be sure though this is honestly the first time in my time at Morehouse College that I have actually seen this type of campaign.

Woah now

The Capitol Fax Blog in their morning shorts this morning linked to an article on where celebrities have donated money to specific candidates. This article was in the Sun-Times.

Let me preferace this by saying that in general Hollywood donates money to Democratic candidates. Think for a second here, you hear that Hollywood is considered liberal right? Well the money trail proves will prove it. It's just that I found some things that are interesting looking at this article.

I wonder what is the advantage of donating to your favored party or candidates but then donating to the other party or candidate you're not that likely to support. Is there some strategy or sucking up going on. Or are they just trying to side with the winner.

I was shocked to find that Jada Pinkett Smith (Will Smith's wife) and Berry Gordy (of Motown Records) have donated money to President Bush. Smith however has donated money to Barack Obama, while Berry Gordy (hmm I always thought it was Barry) has donated money to Bush's challenger Sen. John Kerry as well as Sen. Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Wow I wonder what's up with that.

I see that according to this article Prince back in 1990 donated money to a Republican candidate and I see that Spike Lee is donating money to Sen. Clinton. Well this will just cause me to ask questions about why the donate money the way they do. Perhaps a lot of us who aren't celebrites may ask questions about that of ourselves.

In some black zipcodes of Chicago.

There are those who are giving campaign donations to political parties, political action committes, and individual candidates. Perhaps in America today this is the ultimate way to exhibit political power. If one wants their candidate to win sometimes one must bankroll the candidate. In some races this could take millions.

So in two of the blackest zipcodes in the city of Chicago, 60628 and 60619 I was surprised to see a few donation to Republican organizations. Whether it is the Illinois GOP or the Republican National Committee. They pale in comparison to those who donated to Democratic candidates, PACs, and the Democratic party itself, however, I'm surprised that somebody is.

How did I find this out? Well I was doing a google search on an officer at my neighborhood bank. He's the only white officer there and somehow I got on this site which allowed an individual to look up who donated to who. This officer donated to the campaign of Rep. Harold Ford for his re-election. Then I decided to take the search further. Ultimately the parameters were according to zipcode.

I chose both area codes because one of them I reside in and the other because it contains some of the most stable and affluent black middle class in the city. Some of these individuals own businesses or they are leaders in the community. Alas none of the officers at my bank seems to support Republicans, but that's not a big deal to me. I'm just glad that they are using their money to help out the candidates of their choice.

Perhaps if the GOP really could gain some traction among minorities they could target those with some money.