O'Dekirk's Biggest Campaign Donors: Mayor Raises Another $66,650

JOLIET, IL — Could Joliet's two-term Mayor Bob O'Dekirk be cruising toward serving another four years in political office? Since June 30, the Citizens For O'Dekirk has raised a whopping $66,650 for the Joliet mayor's political campaign coffers, according to the non-partisan organization, Illinois Sunshine.

At the moment, the Citizens for O'Dekirk has a total of $236,158 in political campaign donations. O'Dekirk was first elected mayor of Joliet in 2015 when he defeated incumbent Mayor Tom Giarrante. According to Illinois Sunshine, the Citizens for O'Dekirk treasurer is Jill Gruver and the chairwoman is Rebecca O'Dekirk, the mayor's wife.

When Bob O'Dekirk ran for re-election in 2019, nobody in Joliet ran against him, marking the first time in decades that Joliet's municipal mayoral race had an uncontested election.

Instead, O'Dekirk's political foes chose to focus their attention on the Joliet City Council races, and that's how the mayor's rivals gained the upper hand against him in 2019 and 2020. Even though O'Dekirk won his in April 2019 re-election, so did his main rival, City Councilman Pat Mudron.

Mudron subsequently gained a 5-4 advantage on the Joliet Council thanks to the 2019 victory of Councilwoman Sherri Reardon over former park board member Joe Mutz.

Even though O'Dekirk campaigned in 2019 for incumbent Bettye Gavin's hard fought reelection in her three-person race, Gavin quickly realigned herself with the Mudron and Reardon forces on the Council for almost two years. Besides Mudron, Reardon and Gavin, the other two political foes of the mayor who made up the Mudron 5 coalition were Mike Turk and Don "Duck" Dickinson.

Besides getting rid of Marty Shanahan as interim city manager, the Mudron 5 enacted several new taxes on Joliet citizens and non-residents, including a 3-cent per gallon tax that remains in effect at all Joliet gas stations to this day. Gavin said that higher gasoline prices on the east side would not impact her because she drives to the Murphy's Express in Lockport to buy her gasoline.

Then, last fall, the Mudron 5 suddenly began to lose power as Dickinson got caught up in a sex scandal involving nude photos he had taken of his himself, claiming that the photos ended up in the wrong hands.

Dickinson abruptly resigned from the Council in disgrace last November.

O'Dekirk replaced him with Herb Lande, a strong supporter of the mayor's political policies and the chairman of the city's police and fire board at the time.

Dickinson's ouster shifted power back to O'Dekirk, and since that happened, Councilwoman Gavin has shifted her allegiances away from the Mudron coalition and back toward O'Dekirk.

Turk decided not to run for re-election in April, which would have been his ninth term, if he won.

In January, O'Dekirk had enough votes to appoint Castle Law attorney, Jim Capparelli, as the new permanent city manager. Joliet had gone without a permanent city manager since the Joliet City Council gave David Hales a five-month paid severance in October 2018.

At the moment, the Council's balance of power is 6-3 in O'Dekirk's favor. The mayor's opposition is down to Mudron, Reardon and newly elected 25-year-old Cesar Guerrero.

With the next mayor's race less than two years away, nobody has announced their candidacy to challenge O'Dekirk in the April 2023 mayor's race.

Meanwhile, O'Dekirk has just added almost $67,000 to his campaign war chest.

Here's a rundown of who has made a major campaign contribution to the Citizens for O'Dekirk since June 30:

• Chicago Land Operators Joliet Labor Management PAC: $10,000
• East Gate Logistics (also known as NorthPoint): $10,000
• PT Ferro Construction Company: $5,000
• Imperial Construction Association: $3,500
• Bays Investment: $3,500
• Joliet City Employees Local 440: $3,300
• Rock Run Crossings: $3,100
• Austin Tyler Construction: $3,100
• Lenny's Gas and Wash Theodore and Drauden: $2,500
• Lenny's Route 66 Fuel Stop: $,2,500
• Lenny's Food N Fuel Vetter Road: $2,500
• Lenny's Food N Fuel: $2,500
• Car Care Towing: $2,500
• D Construction: $2,000
• Supreme Towing Inc. $1,800
• Liuna Chicago Laborers District Council: $1,500
• Jameson's Pub: $1,500
• Law Offices of Parente & Norem: $1,450
• Joliet Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council: $1,200
• Law Office of Jeff Tomczak: $1,100
• Administrative District Council 1 of Illinois (Bricklayer Union): $1,100
• Castle Law: $1,100