CHICAGO — Between 1999 and 2007, outgoing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley raised over $13 million for his political war chest. His soon-to-be successor, Rahm Emanuel, raised nearly the same amount – in just five months.

Emanuel amassed record-breaking fundraising totals leading up to the city’s Feb. 22 mayoral election, drawing criticism along the way for accepting sizable out-of-state contributions during a municipal campaign. Among his more notable donors: real estate mogul Donald Trump, Academy Award-winner Steven Spielberg, and Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs.

“This can only mean that Rahm Emanuel is being greatly influenced by interests outside the city of Chicago, that his loyalties might lie elsewhere,” said William J. Kelly, executive director of RahmStoppers, an opposition group to Emanuel’s candidacy that helped produce attack ads throughout the campaign.

Supporters, like Emanuel’s former White House colleague David Axelrod, dismissed the accusations, contending that the campaign’s financial backing was primarily local: “Seventy-five percent of the money he raised was from the Chicago area, so I really think that’s a red herring,” Axelrod said in an interview, responding to the criticism.

But a close analysis of Emanuel’s campaign finance disclosure records shows that less than half of his total contributions came from Chicago donors, while an unprecedented $3.9 million – or roughly 30 percent – came from donors outside Illinois. In contrast, throughout the course of nearly his entire political career, Daley raised only 8 percent of his contributions from out-of-state donors, according to documents from the Illinois State Board of Elections. Now, following Emanuel’s commanding electoral victory, this unparalleled increase in out-of-state fundraising has helped shed light on the longstanding debate surrounding outside influence in local elections and what it means for the nation’s third-largest city.

Campaign Finance in the Land of Lincoln

Until recently, Illinois had some of the worst campaign finance laws in the country, experts said. Most notably, the state placed no restrictions on campaign contributions, opening the door for unlimited donations from any source. But on Jan. 1 new campaign finance laws went into effect that, among other things, capped individual contributions at $5,000, corporations and unions at $10,000, and political action committees at $50,000 per election.

Many across the state lauded the implementation of campaign finance reform, especially in the wake of disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s removal from office after he tried to essentially sell President Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat in 2009. But mayoral candidates this year still had almost four months to raise funds under the old system following Daley’s surprising retirement announcement in September. Emanuel in particular benefitted from this window of time as he raised more than 85 percent of his total contributions – or nearly $11 million – before the New Year.

Out-of-State Donors Lend a Helping Hand…Full of Cash

“What makes this victory most gratifying is that it was built on votes from every corner of the city,” Emanuel told supporters after capturing more than 55 percent of the vote in February’s election.

But it seems the victory was also built on contributions from across the country.

New Yorkers gave Emanuel more than $1.2 million in contributions, including a $50,000 check from Trump and another $10,000 from New York Daily News publisher Mortimer Zuckerman.

Trump could not be reached for comment, but upon request Zuckerman issued a statement on his motivation for supporting Emanuel’s candidacy in another city’s election: “I think Rahm Emanuel is one of the most talented people in public life I’ve ever met,” the statement said.

While New York’s strong backing undoubtedly boosted Emanuel’s fundraising totals, his campaign received the most out-of-state financial support from Californians, who contributed more than $1.5 million.

This, of course, came partly thanks to the candidate’s younger brother Ari Emanuel, a prominent Hollywood talent agent who reportedly served as the inspiration for the sharp-tongued character Ari Gold on HBO’s series “Entourage.” In November, Ari Emanuel co-hosted a fundraiser that raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars for his brother’s campaign, receiving generous contributions from Hollywood elites like Spielberg and writer Aaron Sorkin. Neither could be reached for comment.

“Look, you need to raise money in any campaign,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), who replaced Emanuel in Illinois’s 5th Congressional District in 2009. “There’s not a candidate out there who wants to return any checks, no matter where they come from.”

Some of Emanuel’s opponents highlighted these out-of-state contributions from prominent donors to attack the candidate, painting him as a carpetbagger as they raised questions about whether his true interests lie outside Chicago.

Still, others argued that perhaps out-of-state campaign contributions might be harmless in the grand scheme of things.

“This is money coming from people who don’t have an ax to grind or favors to ask once the mayor is in office,” said Donald Gordon, an adjunct lecturer in Northwestern University’s political science department. “Maybe that’s a better way to do it, because no money from constituents comes unattached.”

But as far as Hollywood is concerned, their contributions to Emanuel’s campaign might not be entirely devoid of strings attached, according to Tamara Holder, a Chicago-based attorney and Fox News legal analyst.

To think otherwise is naive, she said.

Holder cited the Illinois General Assembly’s passage of 2008 legislation that effectively provides the movie industry with tax credits on production spending and salaries for films made within the state. The act was passed “for the purpose of preserving and expanding the existing human infrastructure for the motion picture industry in Illinois,” according to its language.

“It was a perfect opportunity for Hollywood to say, we have a connection here with Rahm Emanuel and we can pump money into his campaign so we can get something in return,” Holder said.

She added: “I don’t have any problem with it, but we have to now look and see what Emanuel will do with the city.”

Emanuel’s campaign would not comment directly on his out-of-state donor base, instead issuing the following statement: “If elected, he will ask these donors and other leaders around the country to commit to investing in Chicago’s future.”

Political Realities

Pamela Wright, 51, a resident of the city’s South Side, did not vote for Emanuel. Her candidate of choice, Miguel del Valle, finished third in the election with just above 9 percent of the vote. His total campaign contributions received: $210,000.

In contrast, Emanuel received the same amount from contributions made by Trump, Sorkin, and Jobs alone.

“It really just sickens me,” Wright said. “This is essentially a position that was purchased.”

She added: “If you’re running for local office, a person outside of Chicago shouldn’t be giving donations. Otherwise it’s just the good ol’ boy network hard at work.”

But the pay-to-play culture of politics has been an age-old reality throughout the country’s electoral history, and the influence of out-of-state money in local races only seems to be on the rise.

For Gordon, who lost a close 2007 aldermanic election in Chicago’s 49^th Ward after his opponent raised nearly five times as much as him in campaign contributions, the issue hits home, he said.

Still, he understands that it’s a political reality.

“I had a tendency to feel somewhat angry about it, but I realized this is politics,” he said. “It’s the nature of the game right now.”

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