Gnomes reports:
Leading up to the 2012 election, Chicagoan Fred Eychaner contributed $14 million to Democratic super PACs, including $4.5 million to the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action, making him the top individual Democratic campaign donor of that cycle.There's more:
The openly gay Eychaner went on to play a pivotal role in banding together three pro-gay marriage groups, helping pay lobbyists and a public relations firm to keep these activists on message as they fought for, and won, the right to marry in Illinois last year.
Although his company, Newsweb Corp., owns a printing press and radio stations, Eychaner shuns attention to the degree that a recent speech, posted on YouTube by Windy City Times, is noteworthy.
“It’s been a broad, grass-roots process, fighting in the trenches, one phone call at a time, one legislative letter, one contact,” Eychaner, 69, said, explaining for the first time in many years why he is so dedicated to Democratic causes and candidates. “The process of coming out was critical to getting where we are today. Coming out to our friends, our family, our co-workers, God forbid, to our clients.”
Eychaner praised political allies (Ald. Ed Burke) and called out enemies (the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and former President Ronald Reagan).It takes a certain sense of "style" to praise Alderman Ed Burke who's been accused -and doesn't seem to want to deny fixing murder trials- for the Chicago Mob and is known for referring black people as niggers.
