Chicago Trading Sector Rallies Funds For Emanuel Mayoral Bid

Former White House Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel has emerged as the consensus candidate for Chicago's trading and exchange community, with massive donations from the financial services sector swelling the candidate's war chest to $11.8 million.

Exchange operators CME Group Inc. (CME) and CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE) are major backers of Emanuel's mayoral bid, alongside executives of hedge fund operator Citadel LLC and local trading firms like Getco LLC and DRW Holdings, according to documents filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

"We think he's the right guy for this job," said Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of CME, which ranked among the biggest givers to the Emanuel campaign with $200,000. "He's fully aware of the various and sometimes very complex issues of the futures business."

Documents released late Thursday show Emanuel with a commanding fundraising lead over rivals. Counting a $1.1 million infusion from his existing federal campaign fund, the former Obama administration chief of staff has $11.8 million to spend on the closely watched race, far ahead of the $2.3 million raised by Gery Chico, former chief of staff of retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley, and the $110,000 raised by City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

Former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun's fundraising figures were not immediately available.

Emanuel also leads in polls, with 44% of voters surveyed supporting his bid, according to a recent poll from the Chicago Tribune. Moseley Braun was second with 21% and Chico had 16%.

Emanuel, who raised money in Chicago for the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and past mayoral bids of long-serving city mayor Daley, has longstanding ties with Chicago's derivatives exchanges.

CME appointed Emanuel to its board of directors in May 1998, following his stint as a senior advisor to President Clinton. He served on the board in the run-up to the exchange's shift to a shareholder-owned structure in 2000, paving the way for its initial public offering two years later.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange, or CBOE, was among Emanuel's first clients after he joined investment bank Wasserstein & Co. in 1999. There he helped the oldest U.S. stock-options exchange work through thorny ownership issues tied to its spin-off from the Chicago Board of Trade.

"He would come in as mayor already having a [financial] background that Daley never had before he became mayor," said William Brodsky, chief executive of CBOE Holdings, which gave $25,000 to Emanuel's campaign.

Brodsky said in an interview that Emanuel's experience navigating Washington as both a congressman and a White House adviser would make him an effective advocate for Chicago's financial services sector as regulators implement a wide-ranging overhaul of U.S. market structure.

"You want someone who understands the business's importance to the city," said Brodsky.

Ken Griffin, founder of hedge fund giant Citadel, also charted among the biggest donors to Emanuel's campaign with $100,000. Electronic market-maker Getco gave $10,000, with $50,000 coming from Don Wilson, partner at the trading firm DRW Holdings, and another $50,000 from Matthew Hulsizer, chief executive of Peak6 Investments.

Emanuel's campaign also drew support from executives of market operators IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), Eris Exchange, and the Chicago Climate Exchange, whose founder Richard Sandor gave $25,000.

Employees of brokerage firms like OptionsXpress Holdings (OXPS) and TD Ameritrade's (AMTD) Thinkorswim also contributed to the campaign.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

-Howard Packowitz contributed to this article.

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