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Politics
Chicago

Lightfoot challenger Vallas rakes in funds from business leaders

Golf course developer and finance firm heads among top donors

Paul Vallas and Lori Lightfoot (Getty, iStock)
Paul Vallas and Lori Lightfoot (Getty, iStock)

Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas received more than $760,000 of contributions from donors with business and real estate ties, boosting his profile in a crowded field of challengers to incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools raked in $836,500 of total campaign donations in the second quarter, according to a report his campaign filed Wednesday. His largest came from golf course developer and Republican donor Michael Keiser, who kicked in $500,000.

Vallas also received $100,000 each from John Canning and James Perry of Chicago private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, as well as $50,000 from Noel Moore, managing partner at Endurance Asset Management.

Vallas got $10,000 from the O’Donnell Family LLC, which shares an address with Riverside Investment & Development, run by CEO John O’Donnell. The firm didn’t respond to a request from The Real Deal to confirm whether there was a connection.

Hedge fund Centaur Capital Partners President John Schreiber contributed $1,000, as did Navigant Development President Anthony Tomaska and RMK Management Senior Vice President Thomas Kearney.

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Vallas ran for mayor in 2019 and didn’t advance to the runoff. The other announced candidates in the 2023 race are Alderman Ray Lopez, Alderman Roderick Sawyer, Chicago businessman and philanthropist Willie Wilson, State Rep. Kam Buckner, and police officer Frederick Collins.

Neither Lightfoot nor 2019 runner-up Toni Preckwinkle were preferred candidates of the real estate lobby, which spread its support among a handful of candidates over the two self-styled progressive reformers, who promised to change the city’s relationship with developers.

Lightfoot had proposed restricting the use of tax increment financing for development and limiting aldermen’s unilateral powers over zoning approvals in their own wards.

Leading into the runoff, developers and brokers poured more than $800,000 into Lightfoot’s campaign. Her backers included Equity Group founder Sam Zell and his wife, Canning, and top leaders at Exelon.

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ChicagoLori LightfootPolitics