Overview: The Sackses are two of Chicago’s biggest players and enjoyed the most influence during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s two terms. Backed by the wealth from Michael Sacks’s asset management firm, the Sacks give to a variety of Chicago-based institutions. Focusing most of their political giving within their city, the Sacks do give consistently to national liberal PACs and Democratic Party campaign funds.
Location: Highland Park, IL
Giving Focus: Reproductive Rights, Democratic Party power
Top Recipients: Rahm Emanuel, Personal PAC
Profile: Michael Sacks has converted his business success into a mysterious level of influence in the Windy City. He’s the CEO of GCM Grosvenor, an asset management company based in Chicago—the company announced plans to go public recently. A graduate of Northwestern, where he received a JD and MBA, Sacks has planted his flag in Chicago through philanthropy and powerful relationships. The Sacks Family Foundation, which he established with his wife Cari, channels much of their charitable giving, and Cari is involved in cultural institutions around Chicago and Los Angeles. The Sackses’ larger gifts include at least $1 million to the Obama Foundation, along with funding for his new library, and both of them consistently give to Personal PAC, a pro-choice group working to maintain abortion access in Illinois.
Michael Sacks was at the peak of his influence when Chicago’s own Barack Obama won the White House, bringing the Second City’s biggest players to a national stage. A board member of World Business Chicago, Sacks was tapped by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff for Obama, to join his economic council. Sacks quickly developed a reputation in local media for his close relationship with the mayor, and he was famously tight-lipped about how close they were. He and Cari together gave around $1 million to Emanuel’s two mayoral campaigns, and contributions from GCM employees made the firm the top contributor to the mayor during his 2015 race. Sacks regularly funds city council and Illinois state legislature candidates. Nationally, he and Cari give routinely to Democratic Party campaign funds, and in 2020, they gave more than $1 million to Biden-supporting PACs.
Takeaways: Maintaining political influence through donations is an expensive game. The Sacks enjoyed widely-reported trust of Chicagoland Democrats in the early 2010s, but have seemingly taken a step back in the last five years or so. BT readers should keep in mind the expensive price of maintaining outsized influence in a political administration, and notice the difference of scale in maintaining local versus national cachet.