A six-figure ethics tab just landed on former Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, after the city’s Board of Ethics ruled his campaign took in a pile of cash from people doing business with City Hall.
The Chicago Board of Ethics on Tuesday ordered Vallas to pay $214,000 after finding his campaign accepted multiple contributions from individuals it says were doing business with the city. Vallas confirmed he was the unnamed candidate described in the board’s public materials and said he would review the findings.
The board concluded the campaign accepted roughly $202,000 in donations from 12 such contributors and said those checks should not have cleared under city rules. It calculated a penalty that folded in $1,000 for each alleged violation plus the unreturned contribution amounts, for a total of $214,000, according to the Chicago Tribune. The board announced its determination in a written statement and attached a detailed breakdown of the donations and its math.
How the Board Calculated the Fine
Under Chicago’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance, people and companies doing business with the city are generally capped at $1,500 in contributions to a single candidate in a given candidacy. Go over that line and the extras do not just disappear into the paperwork…