What can be done about super PACs

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Chicago Tribune Opinion

Thursday, April 2, 2026

Good morning.

More than two weeks after a primary election season in which big-money donations figured more prominently than any election I can remember, we have two opinion pieces looking at what most people can agree is a problem.

Alisa Kaplan, who's been on the front lines of this issue for a long time, has some ideas for reform measures Springfield can take right away even as Citizens United remains the law of the land.

And Jesse Jackson Jr., who lost his bid to return to Congress, has a piece, co-authored with two rabbis, on the long alliance between Jewish and Black Americans in pursuit of civil rights. The role of AIPAC in our just-concluded primaries has the potential to fray that bond.

The editorial board urges Springfield to finish the job of getting cellphones out of our classrooms. And in a second editorial, the board muses on the, shall we say, differences between Barack Obama's presidential center, which is set soon to open on the South Side, and Donald Trump's in Miami, which now is on the drawing boards.

Finally, two Illinois business leaders, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce's Jack Lavin and the Illinois Manufacturers' Association's Mark Denzler, urge lawmakers to go slow on a major change to how the state funds public universities that could harm the flagship University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As always, there are musings from our readers as well. Have a great day, and we'll be back here tomorrow.

— Steve Daniels, editorial board member

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Alisa Kaplan: Here's what can be done about super PACs in Illinois

Proposed legislation in Illinois would make campaigns more transparent about who their big donors are.

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Jesse Jackson Jr., et al.: Black and Jewish liberation in the aftermath of an election defined by AIPAC

The Easter and Passover season comes with renewed concern over the impact of AIPAC's spending in the Democratic primaries in Illinois.

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Editorial: Springfield has a second chance to get phones out of classrooms.

Illinois should adopt the proposal to get cellphones out of classrooms, and then consider the role of screens in classrooms more broadly.

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Editorial: In a pair of edifices, a tale of two presidents

Obama and Trump both are defining their legacies by buildings. What do we learn?

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Mark Denzler and Jack Lavin: Let's get the funding right for public higher education in Illinois

We have serious concerns about proposed legislation in the Illinois General Assembly that would change the way public universities are funded.

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Letters: Medicaid cuts will devastate access to behavioral health care

These reductions will likely lead to increased barriers to care, fewer available services and longer wait times.

Read more →

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