Good clean fund? Not if charities, politics mix

When investigators from the Better Government Association began tolook under the veneer of the 17th Ward Democratic Organization,probing questionable political contributions from Chicago HousingAuthority contractors, they uncovered something they hadn't expectedto find. What they learned, alarmingly, was that nonprofit groups,churches and other tax-exempt organizations in Illinois were breakingfederal law.

These religious and nonprofit groups were jeopardizing their tax-free status by making political contributions to aldermen, statepoliticians and political organizations. "We were perplexed by whatwe found," says the BGA executive director, Jay Stewart. But it wasall …