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“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois, who has advocated for laws to mirror state’s such as California, where officials “go deep into all manner of contributions, loans and how those dollars are coming in and going out the door.

As a board member of Common Cause Illinois, I am excited that we have an opportunity to give power back to the people through innovative and effective campaign finance reform. Common Cause Illinois is part of a coalition that is working right now to pass a small-donor match program in Evanston.

"The concern is that just the amount of resources they have at their disposal tend to drown out all those other voices," Young said in an interview at his Chicago office. "This money, it’s a plague, unfortunately, on our electoral system."

"It's just distressing where you see these figures and I just feel like it makes people think that their democracy really isn't for them anymore," says Jay Young, who leads Common Cause Illinois — a nonpartisan government watchdog group — has been tracking the Pritzker-Rauner money fight.

“This feels very much like the way the old Chicago machine used to work,” stated Jay Young of Common Cause Illinois.