For the first three months of 2017, aldermen received nearly $1 million dollars in contributions according to the first quarter reports for 2017 filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. However, after counting donations made to Democratic ward organizations or independent expenditure accounts controlled by aldermen, the number jumps to about $2 million. Most of funds were collected by a select few aldermen–the average quarterly take was $32k, the maximum, $380k.