A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, focusing on how political decisions, taxes and public spending land on residents and businesses. Her coverage at the Chicago Tribune centers on city and county politics, with a particular emphasis on municipal finance, tax policy and the structures that shape mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line, and she continues to work at the intersection of insider government reporting and public-facing accountability journalism.
Chicago and Cook County power structures
Quig’s work regularly tracks the push and pull between Chicago’s mayor, City Council and county leaders, showing how procedural changes translate into real shifts in power. She has covered moves by aldermen to require a larger council majority for borrowing, limiting the mayor’s unilateral ability to use debt and giving members more leverage over city finances.
She reports on ethics and campaign rules, including council-approved tweaks that force candidates for city office to personally affirm their ads with “I approve this message,” tightening public accountability as election season intensifies. At the county level, she has detailed how Board President Toni Preckwinkle and most commissioners joined Chicago aldermen in opposing a major Amtrak-linked development proposal, underscoring how local leaders weigh economic ambitions against community and fiscal concerns.
Her coverage of Chicago Police Department leadership changes places superintendent turnover within broader debates over violent crime, morale and demands for accountability, tying personnel decisions back to the political climate at City Hall.
Municipal finance, budgets and tax policy
Quig distinguishes herself with clear, granular reporting on budgets, tax incentives and the distribution of public money. Her coverage of a treasurer’s study into Illinois “megaprojects” for the Bears focuses on sprawling and murky tax impacts, examining which governments gain, which lose and how complex financing tools obscure real costs to taxpayers. She has helped document how data centers near O’Hare won nearly $100 million in local tax breaks after billions were knocked off their taxable values, showing how those incentives shift the burden onto suburban homeowners.
Her work on pandemic aid tracks $11 billion funneled to Illinois, Chicago and Cook County through the American Rescue Plan, and explains how gaps in oversight and transparency made it hard to spot potential waste or abuse.
In budget coverage, she breaks down how Chicago ended a recent year with a surplus driven by strong tax collections and underspending on mayoral priorities, while still warning of long-term fiscal problems that remain unsolved. She also follows property tax referendums, such as the measure that delivered a $40 million yearly windfall to the Forest Preserves, detailing how new revenues are split among land acquisition, pensions, maintenance and programming.
Accountability reporting on public agencies
Quig’s reporting often moves beyond daily politics into deep accountability work on public agencies and the systems that govern them.
In collaboration with an investigative partner, she has examined how the Cook County assessor’s office missed critical data from at least 620 properties, outlining the implications for tax bills and the fairness of the property tax system. Her data center tax-break investigation uses public records and valuation data to show how opaque decisions about incentives ripple through local budgets and homeowner tax obligations. Her pandemic-aid coverage follows money trails across state, city and county governments, showing how maze-like reporting structures hinder public understanding of where billions of federal dollars went and what oversight existed.
She also scrutinizes agency spending choices, such as the Forest Preserves’ use of new tax revenue for ecological restoration, greener fleets, trail and facility upgrades and pension support, tying programmatic wins back to voter-approved tax policy and long-term conservation goals. Across these stories, the through-line is a focus on systems, not personalities - how rules, incentives and data gaps shape outcomes for taxpayers and communities.
Roots in insider political coverage
Before joining the Tribune, Quig built her beat around the minutiae of municipal government, covering Chicago politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and subscription-based insider outlets that monitored council agendas, minutes and staff movements. That background informs her current work: she treats City Hall and county boards as ecosystems, paying attention to committees, staff-level negotiations and the fine print of ordinances and fiscal plans.
She is active on social platforms, using long threads and real-time updates to walk through budget documents and tax distribution reports, and then translating that detail into accessible stories for a broader audience.
Her reporting spans written investigations, explanatory features and quick-turn stories on votes and hearings, but the tone remains consistent - plain language, precise numbers and a direct line from government decisions to everyday consequences. The result is coverage that serves both insiders tracking Chicago and Cook County government and readers who need a clear guide to complex political and financial terrain.
4 more politics journalists.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.
Adam Taylor
Adam Taylor treats national security and foreign policy as political processes, not standalone policy stories. He covers the State Department and U.S. diplomacy for The Washington Post, focusing on how officials use sanctions, alliances, security guarantees and military strategy abroad. His reporting examines national security staffing, diplomatic negotiations, Russian military tactics, economic pressure, the Israel-Gaza conflict and the effects of policy on partners, adversaries, troops and civilians. He joined the Post in 2014 to run the WorldViews blog and later co-authored its newsletter. After years on the International desk, he became the State Department reporter on the National Security team. He has reported from East Asia, the Middle East and Ukraine, and covered protests in Portland and hurricanes in Florida for the National desk. His work connects events on the ground with decisions in Washington.