Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is keeping nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions from a 2018 fundraiser hosted by now-indicted 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke — a departure from the approach taken by her political mentor, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
Foxx attended the fundraiser at Burke’s Southwest Side home in August 2018, but the two were tightlipped about the details of the event. Foxx’s campaign said it donated the money personally given by Burke and his family to two nonprofit groups.
Sylvia Ewing, a spokeswoman for Foxx’s campaign, said “all of these things are just distractions from the work that [Foxx] is doing: making change and reform to the criminal justice system in her office.”
“The money that came from the Burke family was given to two nonprofit organizations — money collected beyond that was part of her war chest and she doesn’t think that we’ve done anything wrong in keeping the money that was beyond their personal contribution,” Ewing said.
Ewing also said the campaign is “being straight up and candid about how the money was distributed” and there’s not “much more to say beyond that.”
Foxx received $29,500 from donors who also donated to Preckwinkle at a separate fundraiser, but the board president returned the money she received from those donors after her mayoral campaign was dogged by connections to Burke.
Records from the Illinois State Board of Elections do not show Foxx has returned the contributions she received.
Reliable Materials Lyons LLC is one of those donors. Michael Vondra, who owns the company, had another company, Bluff City Materials Inc., raided by federal agents in September.
During the mayoral race, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza also distanced herself from Burke, whom she considers a political mentor.
It happened after it became known that then-Ald. Danny Solis (25th) wore a wire and recorded more than a dozen conversations with Burke.
Mendoza then purged her campaign coffers of $141,550 in contributions received over the years from Solis and from a debt collection firm founded by Solis’ sister and an attorney with close ties to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Records show that after Burke was indicted on corruption charges in January, the state’s attorney donated his $10,000 contribution, splitting the money between the Equal Justice Initiative and the Brian Sleet Memorial Fellowship at Chicago Votes.
When state Sen. Martin Sandoval came under federal scrutiny in September, Foxx donated Sandoval’s $5,000 contribution to her campaign to the Equal Justice Initiative. Foxx has returned other contributions from people or companies who do business with the county or that were in excess of campaign donation amounts, Ewing said.
