According to Kent Redfield, professor of political studies at Sangamon State University, "Legislative elections in Illinois are very expensive and are becoming more expensive with each election cycle." Redfield's study of special interest contributions to legislative campaigns, detailed in the Almanac of Illinois Politics-1994, found that overall spending on legislative races rose from $10.1 million in 1990 to nearly $17 million in 1992, an increase of about 65 percent.

In bankrolling political campaigns for the Illinois legislature, Redfield says, the Illinois State Medical Society "stands head and shoulders above all other interest groups." In 1991- 1992, he reports, "the society contributed $1.48 million to the political committees of candidates for the legislature and those of legislative leaders and their chamber political committees. The next largest amount contributed by a single interest group was $639, 000 by the Illinois Education Association (Figure 2).

Redfield notes that campaign contributions may never be overtly pegged to a particular legislative outcome, a practice known as bribery, which is outlawed, even in Illinois. What contributions buy, he says, "is access, a foot in the door. Campaign contributions insure that phone calls are returned and meet- tings are held."

Writes Redfield: '"Follow the money' is one of the basic rules of detectives in mystery novels. It is also good advice for those who want to understand the nature and dynamics of the legislative process in Illinois."

Donald Sevener

26 / November 1994 / Illinois Issues