Joliet Fire Union Pumps Money Into Key City Council Races

JOLIET, IL — In six weeks, voters in Joliet will determine the makeup of the Joliet City Council. All five District seats are contested and four incumbents are running for re-election. A number of Joliet special interest groups are working hard to make sure their preferred candidates win office April 2. In particular, Joliet Fire Department's Local 44 has been especially active, pumping several thousand dollars into the Joliet City Council races.

Joliet's Fire Union is even making sizeable donations to some city council members who aren't up for re-election until 2021, a Joliet Patch analysis of campaign contributions shows. According to their Facebook page, Local 44 represents 153 firefighters at the Joliet Fire Department.

Here's a rundown of Joliet Fire Local 44's noteworthy campaign donations in the Joliet City Council races of late:

Dec. 18, 2018: Local 44 gave $1,000 to Citizens to Elect Terry Morris and another $1,000 to the Committee to Elect Don "Duck" Dickinson.

Morris is running for re-election in the District 5 race against challenger Suzanna Ibarra. Morris owns the Minor-Morris Funeral Home on Joliet's Richards Street. As for Dickinson, he is trying to build up his political campaign war chest for his re-election bid in 2021. Dickinson, who is employed at the Joliet Park District, captured an at-large seat in 2017. Local 44 also gave Dickinson a $500 donation last April.

In District 3, two-term incumbent John Gerl chose not to seek re-election. On Oct. 18, 2018, Local 44 transferred $1,500 to the Committee to Elect Joe Mutz. Mutz has been serving on the Joliet Park District Board. He is on the city council ballot against Sherri Reardon, and last week, Joliet Central High School history teacher Ernest Crim announced he is running as a write-in candidate.

In District 1, two-term incumbent Larry Hug faces challenger Marc Ragusa. On Oct. 1, Local 44 made a $500 transfer to the Friends of Larry Hug. The previous year, Local 44 also donated $500 to Hug's campaign on Oct. 26, 2017.

As of Feb. 17, Local 44 had not documented any political campaign contributions in the council races for District 2 and District 4.

District 2 incumbent Patrick Mudron is going against Roger Powell and Vincent Alessio.

In Distict 4, incumbent Bettye Gavin is running against James Foster, who narrowly lost in 2015. There is also a third candidate on the ballot, Damon Zdunich.

So far, none of the candidates for those two seats list any cash contributions from Local 44. However, four years ago, in February 2015, Local 44 made several donations during the final weeks of the campaign, donating $500 to Gavin, $500 to Mudron and $1,000 to Gerl, the District 3 candidate at the time.

Last year, Local 44 made significant donations in several Will County government races including the re-election bid of Sheriff Mike Kelley, the Will County Clerk's victory of Lauren Staley-Ferry and the re-election of State Rep. Larry Walsh Jr.

Staley-Ferry, for instance, received $1,500 from Joliet Fire Local 44.

But Local 44's campaign donations do not always pan out.

Among the notable losers, Committee to Elect Tom Giarrante received $7,920 in donations from Local 44, however, the former Joliet firefighter was defeated in convincing fashion when he ran for a second term of office against Bob O'Dekirk in April 2015.

But now that O'Dekirk has taken office as mayor, Local 44 has made a number of large donations to his campaign coffers, Joliet Patch found.

Citizens for O'Dekirk received $1,100 on July 30, 2018 and $550 on Aug. 10, 2017 and $700 on Aug. 1, 2016, $250 on Nov. 6, 2015 and $800 on July 11, 2015.

For the first time in many decades, there will not be a contested race for mayor of Joliet. Nobody is running against O'Dekirk as he seeks another four-term of office on April 2.

The political campaign contributions cited in this article are from Illinois Sunshine.

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Image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor