Every quarter, people paid to lobby Chicago’s government must report what their clients paid them, and the city publishes the ledger: 40,968 filings with periods from 2014 into mid-2026, five of them early rows for the quarter now under way. Read as filed, this year opens faster than any before it: filings for January–June 2026 periods total $15.0 million, the largest first half in the file — ahead of the same window in 2024 ($13.6 million), the biggest full year yet at $27.4 million. The top client is the same in both years: Bally’s Corporation, with $1,125,113 in reported 2025 payments and $579,000 so far in 2026. Every dollar figure on this page is our sum of the filed rows, with nothing adjusted, estimated, or excluded.
Lobbyist Data — Compensation, Chicago data portal · file refreshed August 8, 2026; retrieved August 12 · quarterly filings with periods from 2014 into mid-2026, as filedReading a compensation filing
The compensation file holds one row per lobbyist, client, and quarterly period, with the amount the lobbyist reported receiving. This page sums those rows as filed and calls the result what it is: reported compensation. One ambiguity is quantified rather than guessed at. When two lobbyists each file the identical amount for the same client and quarter, the file cannot say whether that is two payments or one engagement reported twice; in 2025, such identical-amount co-filings account for at most $2.5 million of the $25.6 million total — about 10 percent — and they are left in the totals, as the disclosure system leaves them. Every row in the file carries an amount; none is blank or zero. Late or amended filings can change any period’s total, so every figure here is the file’s state on August 12, 2026.
The ledger, in five benchmark years
- 2014the file opens$17.8M
- 2015the low year$16.8M
- 2024the biggest year yet$27.4M
- 2025$25.6M
- 2026 through Junethe largest first half in the file$15.0M
Reported pay ran between $16.8 million and $24.6 million a year for a decade, jumped to $27.4 million in 2024, and is pacing higher now: the $15.0 million filed for first-half 2026 periods beats every other first half in the file — 2024’s $13.6 million was the previous best. Five rows totaling $37,199 already carry the in-progress quarter that ends September 30; they sit in the 2026 total and in no first-half figure. In 2025 the ledger recorded 380 lobbyists reporting pay from 1,122 distinct client accounts; 2026 stands at 317 and 810 so far. The file records compensation, not results: nothing here says what any client sought or received.
Who pays the most
- BALLY’S CORPORATION$1.1 million
- SSP AMERICA, INC.$800,000
- CHICAGO PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND$384,000
- FULTON MARKET SUITES, LLC$370,000
- SPOTHERO, INC.$300,000
Bally’s Corporation led 2025 with $1,125,113 in reported payments across its lobbyists’ filings. SSP America followed at $800,000, then the Chicago Public Education Fund at $384,000, Fulton Market Suites at $370,000, and SpotHero at $300,000. The 2026 filings so far repeat the top of the order: Bally’s at $579,000, SSP America at $387,000. A client’s figure is the sum of what its lobbyists reported for the year’s periods — subject to the co-filing ambiguity quantified above — and says nothing about what the lobbying concerned.
Who gets paid the most
- PATRICK CAREY$1.8 million
- JOHN DUNN$1.8 million
- JOHN DALEY$1.5 million
- JOHN KELLY, JR.$1.1 million
- ALEXANDRA SIMS$1.0 million
Registered lobbyists are public filers by law, and the largest 2025 receipts as filed belong to Patrick Carey ($1.84 million), John Dunn ($1.79 million), John Daley ($1.47 million), John Kelly, Jr. ($1.05 million), and Alexandra Sims ($1.03 million). These are the individuals’ own reported receipts across all their clients’ 2025 periods, printed as recorded in the register; the file does not say how receipts divide within any firm, and this page does not estimate firm revenue.
Known limits
Reported compensation is the disclosure regime’s own measure — self-reported, quarterly, and open to amendment — and this page never adjusts it. The co-filing ambiguity is bounded and disclosed, not resolved. Client names are as filed, and the same organization can appear under variant spellings; no variants were folded here. 2026 is a year in progress on every line that mentions it. Nothing in the file records what was lobbied for, which officials were contacted, or any outcome, and this page draws no such connection.
- Sources Lobbyist Data — Compensation (dw2f-w78u, 40,968 rows, file refreshed August 8, 2026), retrieved August 12, 2026. Filing periods begin January 1, 2014; the latest-filed rows carry the quarter ending September 30, 2026, a period still under way at retrieval (five rows, $37,199, included in 2026 totals and no first-half figure).
- Counting Rows are summed as filed, grouped by the year of the period-start date. First-half comparisons use periods starting January through June of each year. Client totals sum all lobbyists’ filings naming that client; lobbyist totals sum that lobbyist’s filings across clients. The co-filing upper bound counts, for each identical (period, client, amount) filed by more than one lobbyist, the amount times the number of extra filers.
- Names Table entries appear exactly as filed, in the register’s own capitalization; prose uses conventional capitalization of the same names. Registry contact fields are never used.
Computed by KCM Desk from records retrieved August 12, 2026. If you spot an error, corrections come first.
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