ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst’s Pete DiCianni, who lost in March’s Democratic primary for DuPage County recorder, recently closed out his campaign account.
The campaign’s final report shows his firm, DiCianni Graphics, donated $35,000 in in-kind printing and mailing to the campaign.
Of his remaining cash, DiCianni, a former Elmhurst mayor, donated $2,000 to the Chicagoland Italian American Charitable Organization. That money will be used to sponsor the Ella French and Frank Perry memorial scholarship accounts, DiCianni said.
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French and Perry were both graduates of Elmhurst’s IC Catholic Prep, DiCianni said. French was a Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty, while Perry was Westchester’s mayor, who died of cancer in 2021.
DiCianni also contributed $1,000 to the fund for Kristi Blasky, the wife of the late Christopher Blasky, a former Elmhurst police officer.
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Additionally, DiCianni gave $594 to Kickoff for Kids, which describes itself on its long-dormant Facebook page as a nonprofit working to “enrich the lives of all children in Elmhurst and surrounding communities.”
Patch could find no information online about Kickoff’s current status. It hasn’t posted to Facebook in nine years and X in 13 years. Its website has gone defunct.
Kickoff’s last federal tax form on the GuideStar nonprofit database was a decade ago. It has not filed as a charity with the attorney general, according to a state database.
In response to an inquiry, DiCianni said he was told the head of Kickoff died, but the group still holds an annual golf outing, with money given to local causes such as Elmhurst School District 205 and the Ray Graham Association. Kickoff has given up its federal nonprofit status, DiCianni said.
On Tuesday, DiCianni alerted Patch to his closed campaign account and his donations, saying, “It’s important to be balanced.”
He was unhappy with Patch’s reporting after the end of the last quarter. Based on the April campaign report, 96 percent of DiCianni’s expenditures went toward his own Addison-based firm, WIN Marketing. The payments were made in the exact amounts of $30,000 and $40,000, the report said.
At the time, DiCianni, a Republican-turned-Democrat, told Patch that its reporting left out the in-kind contributions that his firm has made to his campaigns over the years.
In Tuesday’s email, DiCianni said, “I didn’t come up to political ranks as most. Never appointed to anything, always elected. Typically, didn’t have the anointment of the party. With that said, I was typically outspent two to one or, for Congress, 12 to 1 by my opponents. Being able to do printing at cost or below cost gave me a competitive edge as an underdog.”
In late February, Jesse White, the popular former Democratic Illinois secretary of state, revoked his endorsement of DiCianni in the Democratic primary. He said he had seen two videos of DiCianni that he found “inappropriate and divisive.”
In the election, DiCianni got 19 percent of the vote.
The winner was County Board member Liz Chaplin with 51 percent, defeating incumbent Kathleen Carrier, who received 30 percent. Chaplin is set to face Republican Nicole Prater in the November general election.
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