Indianapolis Mayor Ballard's Finance Report Shows Large Contributions From Big Law Firms

A review of the 2013 annual finance report filed by Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard shows that his campaign raised $903,394, almost every dollar from people or contractors doing business with the city or wanting to do business with the city.  The campaign spent $203,400 leaving it with nearly $700,000 in the bank at the end of 2013. 

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard

A total of $153,146 was raised from attorneys and firms doing business with the city.  These include:

Ice Miller $33,475
Faegre Baker Daniels $25,250
Bingham Greenebaum $25,000
Barnes & Thornburg $21,546
Bose McKinney $18,800
Krieg Devault $13,000
Wallack Somers & Haas $5,000
Frost Brown Todd $4,000

I remember a conversation I had with Candidate Ballard in 2007.  I expressed my concern that the big law firms had been soaking the taxpayer with unneeded and grossly inflated attorney's fees under Mayor Peterson.  Ballard promised to spread out the city legal work to smaller firms and stop the cycle of big law firms contributing large campaign donations and being rewarded with legal work from the city.  I guess that is a promise he has no intention of ever keeping.

I will be reporting on other things I found in the report in the next few days.  It was a monumental effort to put together the information as the Ballard campaign doesn't follow campaign finance rules which require that reports provide cumulative totals and are broken down by type of contributor (individual, corporation, PAC, etc.)