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Limited role of state political parties By KENT D. REDFIELD This is the second Illinois Issues article by Kent D. Redfield based on the study he is directing at Sangamon State University on political contributions and campaign spending in Illinois. The first article, published in December 1991, examined the impact of legislative leaders and legislative chamber political committees on Illinois' 1990 election cycle. Planned for spring publication is the third article, focusing on contributions and spending in key 1992 legislative races. A fourth article, planned for fall, will compare interest group and corporate contributions in Illinois' 1990 and 1992 election cycles. Is the party over in Illinois? Nationally, political parties seem to be in a state of disarray. Republican and Democratic presidential choices were met with widespread dissatisfaction, and H. Ross Perot presented one of the strongest third party challenges in history. At the local level, campaign literature, yard signs and bumper stickers show few if any candidates willing to admit publicly to any party affiliation. As another campaign season ends, the state of the two state political parties in Illinois needs review. Two recent articles in Illinois Issues profiled the chairmen of the state Democratic and state Republican parties (see "Gary LaPaille: Madigan's 'no' man and state Democratic party chair," February 1992, pages 12-14, and "Al Jourdan and the Illinois Republican party," August/September 1992, pages 14-17). The authors found evidence of growing strength in a state Democratic party that has long been regarded as weak, and they found stability, but an uncertain future, for a state Republican party that has long been regarded as strong by observers outside of Illinois. The best places to look for signs of strength or weakness in Illinois' state political parties are the traditional functions of political parties: recruitment and nomination of candidates, running political campaigns, raising campaign money, providing cues to voters and delivering voters to the polls. The data necessary to evaluate some aspects of state party activity, such as recruitment and nominations of candidates, are generally available. They have shown, for example, a clear sign of a decline of the strength of the Cook County and Illinois Democratic parties during the 1970s and 1980s when candidates they jointly slated for statewide office failed with ever increasing rates to win nomination in primary elections.
To evaluate state party strength through their fundraising and campaign expenditures, the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at Sangamon State University conducted a detailed examination of the reports of receipts and expenditures filed by the state Democratic and Republican parties with the State Board of Elections during the 1990 election cycle (January 1, 1989, to December 31, 1990). As part of an ongoing research project on campaign finance in Illinois, the research findings support the picture of a stable state Republican party and a state Democratic party growing in strength. The findings also indicate the overall limited role of state political parties in financing campaigns for statewide office and the state legislature. The state Republican party has long been the dominant party organization for Republicans in Illinois, while the Cook County Democratic party organization dwarfed the state Democratic party during the 1960s and 1970s. The decline of the Cook County Democratic party as a force at the state level after the death of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley in December 1976 created a void that the state Democratic party was slow to fill. The 1984 and 1986 election cycles in Illinois illustrate the historical disparity in fundraising between the state Democratic and Republican parties. In 1984, a presidential election cycle, the state Democratic party raised and spent slightly more than $700,000, while the state Republican party raised and spent $3.7 million. During the 1986 cycle the state Democratic party raised and spent slightly less than $900,000, and the state Republican party raised and spent $2.3 million. 16/ November 1992/ Illinois Issues The 1988 election cycle marked a striking deviation from the pattern of Republican domination. During that cycle the state Democratic party raised and spent $4.4 million, while the state Republican party raised and spent $4.7 million. The increase in fundraising by the state Democratic party came as a direct response to the LaRouche fiasco of 1986. In the 1986 Democratic primary two of the candidates endorsed by the state Democratic party for statewide office were defeated by candidates sponsored by Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., the leader of a national extremist political movement. State Sen. Vince Demuzio (D-49, Carlinville) became state Democratic party chairman in 1986 with a mandate to revitalize the state party. The dramatic increase in fundraising under Demuzio's leadership was consolidated by Gary LaPaille, who defeated Demuzio for the state party chairmanship in March 1990. In the nonpresidential election cycle of 1990 the state Democratic party outraised and outspent the state Republican party, $3.6 million to $2.8 million. Sources of receipts differ significantly for the two state political parties during the 1990 election cycle (see table 1). Interest groups and corporations contributed the greatest amount to the state Democratic party, $1.56 million. The next most important source of funds for the party (excluding contributions from candidate committees which will be discussed later) is the $421,000 combination of individual contributions and unitemized contributions (under $150). The next three most important sources were legislative leader/chamber political committees at $376,000, the national Democratic party at $385,000 and local parties at $236,000. In contrast, the state Republican party's sources for its largest contributions (other than candidate committees) were legislative leader/chamber political committees at $655,000 and the $637,000 combination of individual contributions and unitemized contributions. At a much lower level were $192,000 in contributions from the national Republican party, $161,000 from local political parties and a total of $187,000 in contributions from interest groups and corporations. The state Democratic party's large total in interest group and corporate contributions breaks down into roughly even amounts ($384,000 to 337,000) from four categories — lawyers, labor unions, finance/insurance/real estate, and sales and service businesses — but contributions from manufacturing firms were much less ($143,000). Note that the total contributed by all interest groups and corporations directly to the state Republican party barely exceeds the total contribution from manufacturing firms to the state Democratic party. Contributions from candidate committees are major sources of receipts for the two state political parties. They are the largest single source of receipts for the state Republican party ($807,000) and the second largest source for the state Democratic party ($632,000). The vast majority of these contributions are not, however, gifts of money from candidates to the state parties to be used as the parties wish; instead, they are reimbursements for goods and services provided by the parties to the candidates. By acting as middleman in the purchase of services such as direct mail and by providing access to targeting and polling information, the state parties help candidates get maximum return for their campaign dollars. This pattern of "pass through" is the clearest in the receipts and expenditures of the state parties for candidates to statewide office. While the state Republican party received over $352,000 from the campaigns of Gov. Jim Edgar and other Republican statewide candidates in the 1990 cycle, the party also reported over $358,000 in expenditures and contributions on behalf of those candidates. The state Democratic party reported receiving $248,000 in contributions from the campaigns of gubernatorial candidate Neil F. Hartigan and other Democratic statewide candidates in the 1990 cycle, and it reported over $490,000 in expenditures and contributions on behalf of those candidates.
candidate committees are major sources of receipts for the two political parties In their reports to the State Board of Elections the state Republican party breaks out expenditures on behalf of Republican candidates for the state legislature. The Republicans report receipts of $274,000 from candidates for state legislative seats and expenditures of $814,000 on behalf of state legislative candidates. A similar pass-through pattern for Democratic candidates for the state legislature cannot be inferred directly from the reports filed by the state Democratic party. While the state Democratic party reports receiving $212,000 from state legislative candidates, it does not break out specific expenditures on behalf of state legislative candidates from general expenditures on behalf of all Democratic party candidates. Under state party chairman Gary LaPaille, the Democratic party has conducted a "coordinated campaign" involving Democratic candidates at all levels. A large percentage of the state party's election expenditures are reported as benefitting the Democratic ticket rather than specific candidates. (See "Gary LaPaille," Illinois Issues, February 1992, pages 12-14). Overall, the state Republican party appears to rely on a longstanding strategy for raising funds: special fund-raising events; a large, stable group of individual contributors; and the transfer of funds from legislative leaders through their campaign committees. The state Democratic party also uses these traditional fundraising approaches, but in the past six years it has sought and obtained large November 1992/ Illinois Issues/17 contributions from interest groups and corporations in a strategy similar to both the Democratic and Republican legislative leaders and their House and Senate political committees. The state Democratic party adopted the strategy in 1986, probably because it lacked a statewide fundraising organization and the party needed to raise a large amount of money in a short time. In addition, both Demuzio and LaPaille as Democratic party state chairmen had experience with the legislative campaign fundraising strategy. The expenditure patterns in the 1990 election cycle show that of the $2.87 million spent by the state Republican party $2.19 million was spent directly on electoral activities and $670,000 on overhead, salaries and nonelectoral expenses. In the same cycle, the state Democratic party spent a total of $3.60 million with $2.65 million going directly for electoral activities and $950,000 for overhead, salaries and nonelectoral expenses. (An overall breakdown of party expenditures is presented in table 2.) Part of the higher overhead and salary expenditures for the state Democratic party reflects the cost of closing out the operations of former party chairman Demuzio and starting operations under new party chairman LaPaille in March and April of 1990. Among direct electoral expenditures, the greatest amount spent by both parties, a combined total of over $3.73 million, went for targeting, polling and direct mail. Combined total expenditures for both parties on other categories of electoral activities ranged from $305,000 on media to $79,000 on phone banks. Neither political party reported large transfers of money to candidates, and what cash was given to candidates went largely to the campaigns of the gubernatorial candidates. These findings are consistent with the expenditure patterns of the legislative leader/chamber political committees on legislative races in the 1990 election cycle. (See "Financing legislative elections in Illinois: the role of legislative leaders," Illinois Issues, December 1991, pages 10-16.) The one difference is the expenditure by the state parties on voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. None of the legislative leader/chamber political committees spent any significant amounts on these activities. There was a significant difference between the two parties in the timing of their direct expenditures on elections in the 1990 election cycle. The state Republican party made 19 percent of its electoral expenditures prior to or during the March primary and 81 percent on the November general election, while the Democratic party made 43 percent of its electoral expenditures prior to or during the primary and 57 percent on the general election.
The most significant differences between the two parties in the focus of their electoral expenditures were in the areas of media, fundraising, voter registration/get-out-the-vote efforts and targeting/polling/direct mail. The state Democratic party spent a good deal more than the state Republican party in three categories — media, fundraising and voter registration/get-out-the vote efforts — while the state Republican party spent a much greater amount on targeting/polling/direct mail than did the Democratic party. Expenditures by the two parties in the category of targeting/polling/direct mail illustrate the differences in the two parties' use of these funds and their reports on these activities. Both reported similar amounts of spending in this category on behalf of their statewide candidates and for local candidates and parties. But while the Republican party reported $814,000 in expenditures on targeting/polling/ direct mail for candidates for the state legislature and $636,000 for Republican candidates in general, the state Democratic party reported zero expenditures from this category for Democratic candidates for the state legislature and $1.11 million in expenditures on behalf of Democratic candidates in general. The difference in the timing of their expenditures on targeting/polling/direct mail is also significant. The state Republican party made only 19 percent of its expenditures in this category prior to or during the primary. In contrast, the state Democratic party spent 52 percent of its total in this area prior to or during the primary. (The detailed breakdown of the expenditures of the two parties on targeting/polling/direct mail is in table 3.) 18/ November 1992/ Illinois Issues The role of the state Republican party in state legislative races can also be seen in the campaign disclosure reports filed by Republican candidates in races that were targeted by both parties in 1990. For example, in the contest for the state Senate seat in the 38th District, the incumbent, Democrat Patrick Welch of Peru, reported expenditures of $356,000. The Senate Democratic chamber committee accounted for $186,000 of that total through in-kind contributions. No in-kind contributions from the state Democratic party were reported. The Republican challenger, Nancy Beasley of Sycamore, reported expenditures of $451,000. The Senate Republican chamber committee accounted for $213,000 of that total in direct and in-kind contributions, while the state Republican party made $177,000 in-kind contributions to her campaign. In the race for the 47th District House seat, the House Republican legislative chamber committee contributed $19,000 and the state Republican party contributed $39,000 to the campaign of Republican incumbent Ann Zuckus of Palos Hills, who lost to Democratic challenger David McAfee of Summit. The House Democratic legislative chamber committee contributed $38,000 to McAfee. Zuckus spent a total of $107,000, while McAfee spent $111,000. Part of the differences between the two state parties in expenditure patterns for targeting/polling/direct mail and for legislative elections is a reflection of the effort of the state Democratic party to conduct a coordinated campaign on behalf of all endorsed Democratic candidates in both the primary and general elections. But unless the state Democratic party spent zero dollars during the 1990 general election on targeting, polling and direct mail aimed primarily at benefiting Democratic candidates for the state legislature, the difference in expenditures on state legislative races is also a function of how the Democrats reported their expenditures to the State Board of Elections. It is reasonable to assume that some expenditures made by the state Democratic party were targeted to benefit Democratic candidates for the state legislature, but it cannot be verified from the reports filed with the State Board of Elections. While the state political parties do play an important role in financing political campaigns in Illinois, it is a limited role. In its report, Illinois, Money and Elections, the State Board of Elections found that $46.7 million was spent by candidates for public office in the 1990 election cycle. Candidates for the state legislature reported spending $12.6 million; candidates for governor and other statewide offices reported spending $22.3 million; and candidates for local and judicial offices reported expenditures of $11.8 million. In the 1990 election cycle, the state Democratic party made $2.65 million in direct expenditures (excluding overhead, salaries, etc.) on elections. The state Republican party's direct election expenditures totaled $2.19 million. The combined total of $4.84 million is not a minor amount by any measure, but it accounts for only slightly more than 10 percent of the total campaign expenditures reported by candidates to the State Board of Elections for the 1990 election. The two state parties reported less than $1 million expenditures on behalf of statewide candidates, which is less than 5 percent of the total reported for those races. By comparison, the $4.9 million that legislative leaders and their chamber political committees spent on state legislative elections accounted for nearly 39 percent of the total spent (for details, see "Financing legislative elections in Illinois," Illinois Issues, December 1991, pages 10-16). The difficulties faced by the two state political parties as they try to play a significant role in state politics are many. Participation in party activities is declining at all levels. The public is dissatisfied with party politics. The state parties have almost no role in the recruitment of candidates for statewide office and little impact on those statewide campaigns. The electoral power of Illinois legislative leaders is growing. Both office seekers and officeholders generally act independently of their party organizations at all levels. As the cost and the complexity of political campaigns continue to increase, the state political parties are competing for money and struggling to find and maintain a viable role in state politics. Their struggle for a substantial role in the future will become even more difficult. It will not be sufficient for the state Democratic party to have achieved fiscal parity with the state Republican party and for the state Republican party to maintain its current level of expenditures. Maintaining the status quo will only contribute to the continued decline in the role of the state political parties in Illinois politics.
Kent D. Redfield, associate professor of political studies at Sangamon State University, is associate director of the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the university in Springfield where he is directing a study of political contributions and campaign spending in Illinois. He gratefully acknowledges the assistance of David Hobby and Deryl Sequeira, a former and a current graduate assistant with the center. Redfield is also coauthor of Lawmaking in Illinois, published by Illinois Issues. A book on political contributions and campaign spending in Illinois is planned for publication in early 1994.
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