Joe Moore's Math Mess

"Ald. Joe Moore (49th), the sponsor of the big-box wage ordinance, faced a difficult election. For the runoff alone, Moore received $199,324—nearly two-thirds of his contributions—from organized labor," according to the Chicago Tribune today. Joe Moore managed to whine on Tuesday night during his "victory speech" about his defeating a "well funded" Don Gordon campaign. This was not just a deliberate mispresentation, it was darkly amusing. But Moore himself accidentally admitted as much weeks earlier in one of his own campaign fliers. You know - those fliers that cost upwards of $10,000 each. Some of you may recall the one in which Moore's propagandists claimed, in a big banner headline, that a "big money Republican" (local philanthropist David Herro) gave Gordon $60,000. True enough, he did. But the accidental - and incredibly stupid - admission that Gordon's campaign was poorly funded came just after that, when the same flier said that the $60,000 accounted for "70 percent" of all of Don Gordon's campaign donations. You don't have to be a math professor to realize that Herro's $60,000 would be 70% of $85,714.00 (60,000 divided by 0.7). Keep in mind that the very Moore flier that proclaimed this cost over $10,000 to produce. "Well funded" campaign? Hardly. And Moore admitted it in that flier.