From the quiet life of rural Herscher came one of the nation’s most devoted proponents of open and honest government.

Adam Andrzejewski, a 1987 graduate of Herscher High School and later a 1992 graduate of Northern Illinois University, was the founder and driving force behind the government spending watchdog website, OpenTheBooks.com, and was the former owner of directory, HomePages Directories.

In addition to those business pursuits, Andrzejewski also had an interest in politics. It was such an interest that he placed his name on the 2010 Republican Party primary election.

He did not fare well. Then-Illinois State Sen. Bill Bradley won the seven-candidate GOP primary, gaining 155,327 votes. Bradley ultimately lost in the November 2010 election to Patrick Quinn.

Andrzejewski, however, finished in fifth place, but gained a respectable 14% of the vote, collecting 110,735 votes.

In addition of opening up government spending to the public, his gubernatorial priorities also focused on ending political corruption, capping property taxes, balancing the budget, making health care affordable and removing the cap on charter schools.

Andrzejewski, the founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, the nation’s largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending, died Aug. 18 following a sudden illness. He was 55.

He is survived by his wife, Kerry, and their daughters, Ellie, Molly and Emma, and by six younger siblings, his mother, and many good friends.

OpenTheBooks mission statement read: “Every Dime, Online, In Real Time.”

Through his notoriety as a government watchdog, he became a sought-after guest on cable news programs

Andrzejewski, who lived in Hinsdale, was the son of John and Janet Andrzejewski.

A HERSCHER BOY

He grew up in Herscher, and it was there he gained a strong sense of community and civic pride. He studied business at Northern Illinois University and after graduating with a business management degree and working briefly as a financial adviser, he became an entrepreneur, co-founding the community publishing firm HomePages® Directories which grew eventually to become the largest publisher of small-town telephone directories in the U.S.

Seeking a larger impact, Adam successfully exited that business after nine years of rapid growth and began a second career in public service and public policy.

Starting with a gathering of concerned parents and taxpayers in a neighbor’s kitchen in 2008, Adam began obtaining and publishing local school district expenditure records online.

His call to “publish the public checkbook” and create better governmental accountability grew quickly from suburban school districts to community colleges, and from there to eventually become OpenTheBooks.com.

Andrzejewski’s nonprofit became the nation’s largest government transparency portal, growing eventually to include billions of searchable government payroll, pension and line item expenditures from all units of local, state and federal government.

In the words of the Wall Street Journal, “OpenTheBooks.com has fomented a revolution in fiscal transparency.”

His fact-based, nonpartisan work broke national news independently and also consistently supported journalists across the political spectrum, from Fox News to the New York Times.

Research published by OpenTheBooks.com is repeatedly cited in Congressional oversight hearings and reflected in federal legislation.

In a statement from OpenTheBooks, the organization noted its founder’s devotion to bringing transparency to government.

“He walked away from business 15 years ago with a singular idea: Hold government accountable to the taxpayers it serves. … He was a happy warrior. … His death is a loss not only to his family and his organization, but the nation.”

From Open The Books Substack:

New Voices, Same Mission

We’re recommitting to our transparency mission with renewed purpose, honoring the legacy of our founder.

OpenTheBooks

Aug 31

If you were tuned in to your local news this morning, you may have seen the wonderful tribute to our founder, Adam Andrzejewski. It aired on Sinclair Broadcast’s The National Desk, part of newscasts on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX – roughly 200 stations around the country. If you missed it, take a look above!

Adam’s tenacity, optimism and commitment to the cause of transparency were evident to all who were in his orbit. It was a defining trait right up to the end of his time with us.

ADAM’S LEGACY CONTINUES

The last thing Adam published was a joint op-ed with Senator Joni Ernst, and the story exemplifies what we do every day at OpenTheBooks. Running in the New York Post, it detailed the Pentagon’s troubling inability to account for the money it’s spending on risky virological research overseas, in adversarial nations like China. Not even the Inspector General can get to the bottom of it and report it to the taxpayer. You can read about it here.

This should have been a basic lesson learned after Covid and it should leave every taxpayer incensed that our own Defense Department can’t follow the money. It’s just one more reason we do what we do each day.

We’re not going to let up on the DOD or any other government entity – federal, state, or local. Why?

Adam undertook all this because he knew the mission was not just about one man or the state of Illinois he hailed from. It’s about all of us – WE the Taxpayer. The best way to honor his legacy is to build on it.

A Transparency Revolution means every government entity must be accountable for what it spends, how and why. Government officials work for us, and we deserve full transparency whenever possible. That data allows us to measure success – and frequently, to demand better.

So, over the coming weeks, you will be hearing from some new voices on your televisions, local radio stations – and right here on Substack where we deliver our investigations straight to your Inbox. They have been here all along, ensuring that our well-oiled transparency machine was turning out new stories for journalists, bureaucrats and the public to grapple with.

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Those include federal oversight reports, investigations that shed light on state-level spending, and even Waste of the Day reports. Yes, there’s so much waste in America, we can supply a wacky, head-scratching — or even infuriating — example every single day!

Going forward, all of us are approaching this work with renewed commitment and vigor.

Read on to get to know the Transparency Team that’s working on your behalf. And for more great tributes to Adam, including from Sen. Ernst herself, head down to the Suggested Reading section!

“WE BELIEVE TRANSPARENCY CAN REVOLUTIONIZE HOW WE GOVERN OURSELVES.”

A TRANSPARENCY TASK FORCE

RACHEL O’BRIEN, Deputy Policy Editor

Rachel joined OpenTheBooks in 2021 after more than a decade in journalism, writing for New York newspapers. Among her duties are researching and writing weekly reports on spending in cities, pulling from 17,000 municipalities the database contains. She also oversees a weekly wasteful spending column and contributes to long-form reports on government spending around the country. Recently, Rachel led the effort to highlight the enormous taxpayer-funded grants and preferential tax treatment enjoyed by prestigious universities like Harvard. She was also key to making OpenTheBooks first to report on the White House payroll, and staff turnover rates for both President Biden and VP Harris.

Rachel is a graduate of the Stony Brook University School of Journalism.

Fun Fact: She’s been blackballed by Republican and Democrat politicians at the local and federal level for her reporting of their opaque governing and misdeeds.

AMBER TODOROFF, Deputy Policy Editor

Amber joined OpenTheBooks full time in 2022. She researches and writes federal investigations for the OpenTheBooks Substack, digging into the trove of numbers to turn data into stories that will resonate with the public. Amber was critical in pressing for answers about the NIH’s multibillion-dollar secret royalty scheme, and in uncovering the controversial ideology that has taken hold in the Pentagon’s K-12 school system.

Before joining OpenTheBooks Amber worked in policy in Washington, D.C. for five years. She completed her master’s degree at the University of Oxford and undergrad at the University of Florida.

FAVORITE WASTE EXAMPLE: “The $1 million the EPA spent to preserve a sewer as a historical monument always makes me chuckle. But taxpayer abuse is no laughing matter!”

JEREMY PORTNOY, Investigative Journalist

Jeremy joined OpenTheBooks in 2023 and took on a full-time role this January. He is the author of the daily “Waste of the Day” column at RealClearInvestigations, where he uses OpenTheBooks’ database to pin down cases of taxpayer abuse around the nation. Jeremy tracks spending in cities such as Austin and Baltimore and makes weekly TV appearances to share his findings. He also contributes to the OpenTheBooks Substack and led analysis of the 8,052 earmarks Congress passed in fiscal year 2024.

Jeremy is a graduate of Stony Brook University, where he was CEO of the campus newspaper The Statesman.

FUN FACT: Aside from government accountability, he’s also worked as a sports reporter covering the New York Giants for SB Nation.

A LOOK AHEAD

No matter who takes federal office next year, OpenTheBooks will be there parsing the data and delivering indisputable facts about the waste, fraud and abuse that plagues government – and occasionally, some good news, too!

For a look back at our major oversight reports from this past year, click here. [There’s still one more coming that Adam drove across the finish line.] And be sure to follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram so you never miss an update!