Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton has repeatedly vowed she won’t accept “a single dime” of corporate PAC money for her U.S. Senate campaign.
But Stratton has a history of taking in corporate PAC and direct corporate contributions into her state campaign funds since 2016 — and this year returned a $5,000 check from The Marquis Energy Corporate PAC for her Senate campaign while taking in $21,000 from the same family controlling the company.
This year, she also received $5,000 in corporate PAC money and $46,000 from corporations in her super PAC, the Level Up PAC, a hybrid PAC she created in January in anticipation of a Senate run.
None of the corporate PAC money raised in her state fund can be used in her Senate coffers. And funds raised in the Level Up PAC were intended to “support candidates, campaigns and causes that are delivering results for working people,” according to Stratton.
She has also taken in thousands of dollars from corporate executives and company leaders in her Senate bid. While the money is not coming from corporate PACs — as she vowed in her pledge — it is still coming in steadily from people who run corporations and companies.
Since launching her campaign in April just a day after Sen. Dick Durbin announced he was stepping down, Stratton has made the “no corporate PAC money” pledge repeatedly at campaign events. It’s a declaration she is using to differentiate herself from her competitors — Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly — who both are taking in corporate PAC money, and who both claim they are not beholden to those interests.
“I am proud to be the only candidate sitting on this stage that has refused to accept one single dime of corporate PAC money,” Stratton said at a Nov. 13 forum alongside Krishnamoorthi and Kelly. “In this race, my opponents have both accepted a total of $7 million or more of corporate PAC money… I don’t believe special corporate interests should take precedence over working people, and as your next United States Senator, I will always center the needs of working families. And I’m not accepting corporate PAC money because it’s not special interest that I will cater to. It’s the people of Illinois.”
Asked about the contributions from corporate owners and her history of having accepted corporate PAC money, Stratton’s campaign said she is holding true to her vow.
“Juliana made a pledge not to accept any corporate PAC money in her Senate campaign and she has upheld that pledge,” Stratton campaign spokeswoman Allison Janowski said. “Meanwhile, Congressman Krishnamoorthi and Congresswoman Kelly have collected millions of dollars from corporate PACs across their careers. It’s a system that rewards special interests over the needs of everyday Illinoisans, and that is the system that Juliana is committed to fighting against as a Senator.”
Lessons from the Poshard campaign
In the 1998 Democratic primary for governor, then-U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, a conservative Democrat from Marion, vowed to continue his streak of not accepting contributions from PACs.
His strategy was to take the moral high ground — win the lion’s share of the downstate vote and about a fourth of the vote in the Chicago area, and have his rivals split the rest. And it worked, at least in the primary.
In the general election, he opted to double his self-imposed limits on campaign donations, allowing individual contributions of up to $4,000 and political candidate contributions of up to $50,000 — but still no PACs.
His loss to then-Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan was partly influenced by hamstringing himself with the no-PAC-money pledge, with Ryan outspending him fourfold. It kept him from being able to afford an aggressive advertising effort to highlight Ryan’s ties to the 1994 vehicle crash that killed six of Scott and Janet Willis’ children and the ensuing corruption probe that ultimately landed Ryan in federal prison. The state Democratic Party helped fund one ad on the Willis tragedy — but the lack of money and his inability to, as an anti-abortion and pro-gun candidate, rally Democrats ultimately alienated him from his base.
Stratton, however, in September launched the Illinois Future PAC, which will be used to spend on her behalf — but operates without coordination from her Senate campaign. The PAC will be used to fund TV ads, which are essential in the heated race. It’s unclear whether the PAC has received corporate PAC money, but the next Federal Election Commission filing date on Jan. 15 will offer answers.
Corporate PACs: ‘corporate leverage and an expected return’
Corporate PACs that have previously contributed to Stratton’s state campaign fund include the Illinois Restaurateurs PAC, the Illinois Bankers PAC, Manufacturers PAC, Illinois Hotel-Motel PAC, AT&T Illinois Employee PAC, the Illinois Merchants PAC Team and United Airlines PAC.
Among the contributions Stratton has received from corporate executives and directors in her Senate campaign fund are $21,000 total from Jason and D.L. Marquis, the COO and CEO of Marquis Management, Inc., an ethanol BioFuels producer; $7,000 each from White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and his son Michael Reinsdorf, Chicago Bulls owner; $7,000 from Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and $3,500 from Daniel Pettigrew, CEO of Viola, a cannabis company.
Stratton is endorsed by End Citizens United, who defended the contributions she has received from CEOs and other executives. Executive Director Abe Rakov told the Sun-Times in a statement that Stratton “is fully abiding by the letter and spirit of her no corporate PAC commitment.”
“Any suggestion otherwise is flat-out false and meant to mislead voters because her stance is wildly popular with Illinoisans. Individual donations from business and community leaders are personal choices driven by a range of factors, including a candidate’s record, their policy priorities, or their shared values,” Rakov said. “That is fundamentally different from a corporate PAC check, which comes with corporate leverage and an expected return.”
The contributions are still raising the eyebrows of Stratton’s Senate competitors.
“The no corporate PAC money pledge appears to have drawn a lot of corporate money,” Kelly said in a statement to the Sun-Times. “I think Illinois voters would rather have leaders focused on fighting and winning to make life more affordable than making pledges that don’t hold up.”
Krishnamoorthi also painted Stratton’s pledge as misleading.
“This is what people hate about politics — people who say one thing and do another,” the congressman told the Sun-Times in a statement. “It’s rich that someone who condemns others for taking corporate PAC money has accepted nearly a quarter of a million dollars in direct corporate contributions, including multiple checks just weeks before launching her Senate bid.”
Speaking at the Illinois State Fair in August, Krishnamoorthi also made reference to money Stratton may receive from Gov. JB Pritzker. The Democratic governor has already contributed $3,500 to her primary campaign, and earmarked another $3,500 for the general election, the maximum allowed as an individual. Any other contributions would likely come from Think Big, a dark money political action committee he created in 2023.
“Remember, she’s also hoping for a super PAC to come to her rescue,” Krishnamoorthi said. “So it’s very rich for her to accuse others of somehow being beholden to other interests.”