BREAKING: New Report Shows Ron Johnson Is Attending Fundraiser Co-Hosted By Infamous Chicagoland Area Slumlord
MADISON, Wis. — New reporting shows Ron Johnson is heading to Illinois to raise money from infamous Chicagoland slumlord Ronald Gidwitz. Gidwitz, who had to be forced to let go of the low-income housing complex he owned due to “inhumane conditions,” has donated almost $17,000 to Johnson’s campaigns.
UpNorthNews: Ron Johnson’s Chicago Fundraiser Co-Host Is a Slumlord Turned Trump Ambassador
Key Points:
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Monday evening’s scheduled fundraiser for Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson—being held somewhere across the border in Chicagoland—has some notable co-hosts on the invitation, including an infamous slumlord-turned-ambassador and the owners of a Wisconsin business who got millions cut off their tax bill thanks to Johnson’s actions.
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According to the invitation, Ronald Gidwitz is one of the co-hosts of the event.
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Gidwitz has given Johnson nearly $17,000 over the years.
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The owner of a private equity firm, Gidwitz is better known and likely lesser-regarded in Joliet, Illinois for his other job title: landlord.
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“Like Trump, Gidwitz inherited a business from his father, a beauty supply company called Helene Curtis Industries that was acquired by Unilever, the multinational conglomerate, in 1996.”
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That complex, Evergreen Terrace, was described in 2017 by the Chicago Tribune as a “356-unit housing project where staff dealt drugs, a little girl fell from a window and died during a hot summer when the building’s air conditioning was malfunctioning and broken window screens were not replaced, and a man who was shot lay dying in the building’s courtyard for an hour before police were called.”
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Gidwitz eventually had to surrender the complex to the city of Joliet after a years-long court battle that included his own lawyers taking him to court and winning nearly $6 million because he’d refused to pay his full bill.
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Two of the other co-hosts for Johnson’s fundraiser are billionaires Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein, owners of the packing supply company Uline. They have poured millions of dollars into a new superPAC to run political ads supporting Johnson—an expense made less onerous by a massive corporate tax loophole Johnson inserted into Trump’s 2017 tax package.
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