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* From a press release…
The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) announced today that it has filed complaints against two Illinois SuperPACs for failing to comply with state election statutes. The committees, African American Clergy Coalition and Moving Aurora Forward #461, each received the majority of their funding from a single source, but failed to identify that source as their sponsoring entity in filings with the State Board of Elections as required by law.
“ICPR believes strongly that the public has a right to know who is speaking about issues and candidates that will be on the ballot. Political donors should not be able to disguise their identities by running money through a SuperPAC,” said David Morrison, Deputy Director of ICPR.
Most political committees are barred from taking outsized contributions from a single source due to contribution limits, which have been in effect in Illinois since 2011. But SuperPACs are exempt from contribution limits and so may take vast sums from a single donor.
State law requires that all political committees list on their Statement of Organization (“D-1 form”) the name of any donor whose contributions account for more than one-third of their total receipts. Such donors are labeled “sponsoring entities.”
“SuperPACs should not be allowed to be political sock puppets. Political groups have a duty to the public to be honest about who they are,” said Morrison.
The complaints filed by ICPR allege the following violations of state law:
· African American Clergy Coalition formed in March of this year and since then has reported raising $82,000. All of that money came from the Washington DC- based National Organization for Marriage, but African American Clergy Coalition did not list that organization as its sponsoring entity.
· Moving Aurora Forward #461 formed in February of this year and since then has reported raising $23,800. More than three-fourths of that money, $18,000, came from Friends of Tom Weisner, but Moving Aurora Forward #461 did not list the committee, formed to support the mayor of Aurora, as a sponsoring entity.
ICPR routinely examines filings by SuperPACS precisely because they are not covered by contribution limits. Of the 17 SuperPACs now operating in Illinois, these two were the only ones that appear to have violated the sponsoring entity rule.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 10:20 am
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Fairly sure the Moving Aurora Forward one was the one that sent mailing for the Alderman At Large race. Tom was not a fan of one of the candidates running for alderman at large.
Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 10:25 am
Headline could read “Aurora mayor implicated in funding irregularities”, but not as much panache as the slam against a group of black clergy probably ignorant of the law (not politicians)trying to defeat a proposal near and dear to the heart of this blog.
Comment by captaingeorge Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 11:29 am
@captaingeorge, there’s statewide interest in the gay marriage issue and there’ s over three times the money involved in the PAC.
Comment by Realist Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 12:11 pm
===Headline could read “Aurora mayor implicated in funding irregularities”===
Yeah, if this was an Aurora blog.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 12:13 pm
== Yeah, if this was an Aurora blog. ==
There is one, not mine… I bet they are having a field day with this…
As an Auroran, I do have to say the whole thing with the PAC is interesting in one way, it really is the final demonstration on how the current mayor has taken politics in Aurora to a whole new level….
Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 12:40 pm