In mid-September, Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s office said that sending a glossy, taxpayer-funded summary of “successes” to a select number of Illinois residents — who also were major campaign donors — was “merely a coincidence.”
But a Daily Herald investigation has connected 181 more brochure recipients to Rutherford donations, bringing the total to 723 donors among the 850 recipients of the mailing.
While 566 people who received the mailer individually contributed a total of $1.6 million to the Pontiac Republican’s war chest over the last two decades, another 181 people who got the brochure were high-ranking officers in companies that contributed $891,825 to his campaigns.
A Daily Herald check of campaign forms shows, in the weeks following the mailing, Rutherford collected $15,966 in donations from mailer recipients in both groups.
Read More: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111121/news/711219929/
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