I want to thank the voters who supported my re-election campaign for Cook County recorder of deeds.
I also want to set the record straight on a false charge against me in that race, which a MetroChicago story of March 20 repeated. My opponent claimed I borrowed money from the Jesse White Tumblers organization to finance my campaign. Not only is that charge absolutely false, I have spent more than $200,000 of my own money on the Tumblers over a period of 36 years.
Since 1959, when I founded the team, I have spent an average of $16,000 a year from personal funds to pay for uniforms, transportation, food and equipment. I received no reimbursements until 1985, when the Jesse White Tumblers acquired outside funding.
While I have continued to spend my own funds on the Tumblers, I do receive some reimbursement from that organization–not all of what I spend but enough to ease the financial burden. Inadvertently, some reimbursement checks went directly from the Tumblers to my political organization instead of directly to me–bookkeeping errors that were corrected.
To this day, I have never taken one penny from the Jesse White Tumblers.
