CIP$$$$$

Missed this in the QHW Sunday........

Electricity providers are power players in legislative races
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
11/04/2006
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As Illinois' two major electric utilities in recent weeks have been loudly threatening bankruptcy if they don't get a major rate hike, they've been giving almost a quarter-million dollars in campaign donations to the state legislators who will make that decision, records show.A Post-Dispatch review of new campaign finance reports found that the state's two biggest electricity providers have donated more than $248,000 to state politicians in the six weeks since the controversial announcement of a major rate hike proposal. That's almost as much as the companies gave this year up until the Sept. 15 rate-hike announcement, which sparked a storm of political debate and legislative threats to impose new rate caps. The spike in donations began virtually on the day the planned rate hike was announced — including five-figure contributions made to leaders in both parties almost immediately afterward. Donations to leaders, key committee members and rank-and-file legislators in both parties have continued as those lawmakers have debated whether to allow the rate hikes to go into effect.
"They're pulling out all the stops,'' said David Kolata, director of the Citizens' Utility Board, which is spearheading the effort to freeze electric rates.Because of the lack of competition in the market, Illinois froze electric rates by law in 1997, with the idea of unfreezing them next year, by which time, state leaders thought, more market competition would have developed, thus keeping rates low.