CHICAGO 鈥� State elections officials on Tuesday indicated they were unlikely to step in to clarify what constitutes illegal campaign coordination after voting to dismiss a complaint alleging such coordination in the 2022 campaign for governor.
At their monthly meeting in Chicago, Illinois State Board of Elections members voted 7-1 to adopt a hearing officer鈥檚 recommendation to dismiss a complaint filed by a Democratic party official in the waning days of the 2022 election cycle. The complaint alleged conservative radio host and political operative Dan Proft illegally coordinated with former Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey during his 2022 campaign for governor.
The hearing officer鈥檚 recommendation, which was made public last week ahead of Tuesday鈥檚 meeting, agreed with Proft and Bailey鈥檚 contention that state law was not specific enough to find a violation had occurred. He found there wasn鈥檛 enough evidence to prove that ads Proft produced during Bailey鈥檚 general election challenge to Gov. JB Pritzker amounted to illegal coordination.
However, the hearing officer recommended the General Assembly update existing law or the Board of Elections adopt rules to clarify what is and isn鈥檛 allowed by independent expenditure committees like the one Proft was operating, dubbed the People Who Play by the Rules PAC.
Other than allowing attorneys for Proft, Bailey and the Democratic Party of Illinois鈥� executive director to recap the case, board members didn鈥檛 ask any questions about the dispute. That disappointed Ed Mullen, a Democratic election law attorney who often advises candidates and represents them in front of the board.
During the board鈥檚 public comment period at Tuesday鈥檚 meeting, Mullen said that just the day before, a client asked him what is and isn鈥檛 allowed when it comes to interacting with independent expenditure committees.
鈥淚 just couldn't answer that question,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I just encourage you to look further into that and give us some more guidance.鈥�
But board co-chair Laura Kent Donahue, a former GOP state senator who spent 22 years in the legislature, told Mullen the board would likely not intervene, and would leave it to the General Assembly.
鈥淪ometimes it's a little dicey when you get to spelling it out,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause then you might leave something out and...it gets 鈥� it's tricky. So I understand. We hear you, but it's gotta come from another source and not necessarily from us.鈥�
'Slated鈥� candidates still in limbo
Republican candidates for the General Assembly who didn鈥檛 run in the March primary election are still a few weeks away from finding out whether they鈥檒l be allowed on the November ballot.
Democrats who control the legislature a measure last month banning post-primary 鈥渟lating,鈥� a practice long used by both parties in which local party officials appoint a candidate to run in a general election after sitting out the primary. Party leaders will often slate candidates to run in elections they deem winnable after seeing how the primary shakes out.
But earlier this month, a Springfield-based judge blocked the Board of Elections from enforcing the law during this election cycle against 14 candidates who signed onto a suit challenging the law, ruling it鈥檚 unfair to change the rules midstream. House Speaker Emanuel 鈥淐hris鈥� Welch, D-Hillside, appealed that ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court last week.
Meanwhile, the Board of Elections continued accepting nominating petitions from slated candidates, with 15 Republicans filing to run for legislative races by the June 3 deadline. Nearly all of those candidates are facing challenges to their candidate paperwork 鈥� a common step in running for office in Illinois in which opponents and their party allies aim to disqualify nominating petitions by searching for possible forged signatures or other technical errors.
Decisions in those cases will likely come at the board鈥檚 July 9 meeting; a handful of slated Republican candidates showed up to meet with hearing officers 22 floors below the conference room where Board of Elections members in Chicago participated in Tuesday鈥檚 hearing.
That included Jay Keeven of Edwardsville, the slated challenger to Democratic state Rep. Katie Stuart, also of Edwardsville. Keeven was the only candidate to turn his nominating petitions before Pritzker signed the slating bill into law.
But Keeven was not a party to the lawsuit, and Judge Gail Noll鈥檚 ruling earlier this month specifically limited her injunction to the 14 candidates who sued over the law. The decision on Keeven鈥檚 petition challenges is expected to address that issue.
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