Paul Vallas gets money in mayor’s race from ex-CPS board member who left after scandal

Four years after giving back a $500 campaign contribution from Deborah Quazzo, a former Chicago Board of Education member, Paul Vallas’s mayoral bid has accepted a much bigger sum — $7,500 — from Quazzo ahead of the February election, records show.

Then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed Quazzo to the school board in 2013, but the wealthy investment banker left after the Chicago Sun-Times reported she had ownership stakes in companies doing business with Chicago Public Schools. The CPS inspector general later found that Quazzo had engaged in “horrible” ethical violations.

During the 2019 mayoral campaign, Vallas returned $500 that Quazzo gave him after WBEZ asked him about that support. At the time, Vallas said Quazzo gave the money through his campaign website and that he would return it “to avoid any appearance of conflict.”

Still, in the campaign-finance report the Vallas For Mayor committee filed Friday, the candidate reported getting $5,000 from Quazzo on Tuesday.

That followed a $2,500 contribution from Quazzo to Vallas on Jan. 17, according to state election board records.

That same day, Quazzo’s husband gave another $10,000 to Vallas.

Rich Hein / Sun-Times

The Vallas campaign didn’t reply to messages Friday about the contributions. Quazzo did not respond to emails sent to her at GSV Ventures, the venture capital firm where she is managing partner.

Vallas is one of eight candidates challenging Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the Feb. 28 election. Four years ago, he finished ninth of 14 candidates, with about 5% of the vote, in the first-round voting.

Vallas was the CPS chief executive officer under former Mayor Richard M. Daley and unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002.

Also Friday, in addition to the latest contribution from Quazzo, Vallas reported getting $150,000 from former Wheels Inc. CEO James Frank — who recently gave the same amount to Lightfoot’s reelection campaign.

Also in the past week, Vallas accepted $50,000 from Shawn Fagan, the top lawyer for Citadel — the hedge fund that moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami last year — and $25,000 from Ron Gidwitz, who was Illinois finance chair for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and was U.S. ambassador to Belgium under Trump.