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After notching a decisive win last month in the Democratic primary election, Fritz Kaegi filed suit against a web designer with ties to outgoing Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios for registering a fake campaign website in his name. […]

Galvin’s sham site published photographs of Kaegi and his family, solicited contact information from visitors and reported on news from his campaign, according to the suit. The site also listed a 2017 copyright and attribution to “Friends of Fritz Kaegi” at the bottom of the page.

In addition, Galvin registered Facebook and Twitter pages with Kaegi’s name at some point last year, the suit claims.

CrowdPac, a fundraising website, is also named as a defendant in the suit. The website allegedly solicited contributions to support Kaegi’s campaign without the candidate’s consent or knowledge.

The suit alleges that Galvin and CrowdPac violated the Illinois Right to Publicity Act, which holds that a person or entity “may not use an individual’s identity for commercial purposes during the individual’s lifetime without having obtained previous written consent.”

* I’m not sure if this is a shenanigan yet, but here’s Natasha Korecki…

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign paid $100,000 to two companies tied to former Cambridge Analytica executive Matt Oczkowski for data-related work, campaign filings show.

Last week, we wrote about how Rauner’s campaign used one of Oczkowski’s firms, HuMn Behavior, for data-related work, paying the firm $5,000.

Expense filings made public Monday show Rauner’s campaign paid $95,000 to a different firm Oczkowski heads called Data Propria. The firm was just formed in February. Citizens for Rauner made the payment a month later, listing the services as “data modeling.”

While Oczkowski’s information shows him based in Chicago, the address included in state records for Data Propria links to San Antonio, Texas where CloudCommerce Inc. is located.

Connecting the dots: CloudCommerce Inc. bought Brad Parscale’s firm. Parscale was digital media director for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. (The Associated Press recently wrote a revealing piece about Cloud Commerce.)

Oczkowski is the former “head of product” at Cambridge Analytica. Parscale is President Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.

The Rauner campaign has also paid $95K to i360, which has been called “the Koch data mine.”

…Adding… DGA…

“Bruce Rauner must have seen something he liked in Donald Trump’s shady campaign,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Voters deserve to know why Rauner’s paying someone whose former firm is under investigation by Robert Mueller, and why he wants to bring Donald Trump’s campaign tactics to Illinois.”

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 11:21 am

Comments

I don’t know about Kaegi’s claim about Illinois’ Right to Publicity Act — it sounds dubious to me considering this was not for commercial purposes and Kaegi is a public official. That said, the contentions that the site listed a campaign committee and solicited contributions is pretty alarming and I would have to guess there are some laws broke there.

Comment by Just Observing Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 11:59 am
I would say soliciting money using a person’s name and image qualifies as “commercial purposes.”

Comment by Ron Burgundy Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:18 pm
Kaegi is being a sore winner. Did the fake CrowdPac page raise a single dime? Not to mention he won, so it’s hard to see the damage caused by it. He got some great press out of the whole situation during the campaign, it would probably have been better to chalk up the win and move on. This makes him look petty.

Comment by TopHatMonocle Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:29 pm
I’m no expert, but a campaign ad tying Rauner to Cambridge Analytica might be effective.

Comment by Sox Fan Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:38 pm
I don’t find it petty to not want someone else to pretend to be someone they’re not. Especially if they’re asking for money.

Comment by Cheryl44 Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:39 pm
“I don’t find it petty to not want someone else to pretend to be someone they’re not. Especially if they’re asking for money.”

And I sure wouldn’t want them to pretend to be ME while doing it.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:48 pm
If you have set-up a website asking for money and claiming you are someone who you are not, it is stealing someone’s identity. I hope the individulals are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Kaegi is doing the right thing.

Comment by Barrington Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 12:53 pm
“and kaegi is a public official”
I don’t think he is a public official yet. He doesn’t take office until next January.

Comment by w8forgodot Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 1:04 pm
Going after Rauner with a link to Trump and Trump campaigning is a nice lil avenue for the Pritzker Crew and the DGA.

It leaves that ambiguity of Rauner/Trump intact, not allowing Rauner to disavow or embrace Trump, and Trump voters still not with Rauner. Threading that needle.

Plus, once Rauner disavows Trump, the pool of “GOP” voters (Ives supporters, Trump supporters, conservatives) much smaller for Rauner to count as his own.

Tweak Rauner, on the Trump “thingy”, but leave it “there”, as the ambiguity continues to beg the question…

“Who is Rauner’s constituency?”

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 1:20 pm
=== “and kaegi is a public official”
I don’t think he is a public official yet. He doesn’t take office until next January. ===

Sorry, should have said “public figure” not “public official.” Merely running for office and putting his name out there to the degree he did makes him a public figure.

Comment by Just Observing Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 1:35 pm
==While Oczkowski’s information shows him based in Chicago, the address included in state records for Data Propria links to San Antonio, Texas where CloudCommerce Inc. is located.==

The conspiracy jumps the rail here. San Antonio is a big city with hundreds of high tech firms. They aren’t all tied together or owned by The Illuminati, or something like that.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 1:35 pm
“The conspiracy jumps the rail here.”

I’m not sure it does. Lets compare the management of the two companies:

Data Propria Officers
(https://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=mUa%252bog%252bOc36eLeIbZe4twA%253d%253d&nt7=0)
ZACK BARLETT - Treasurer
GREG BODEN - Secretary
ANDREW VAN NOY - President
ANDREW VAN NOY - Director

Cloud Commerce Management Team
(http://cloudcommerce.com/about/)
Andrew Van Noy – CEO – CloudCommerce
Brad Parscale - CloudCommerce Board of Directors
Jill Giles -Advisor to CloudCommerce and Creative Director of Parscale Creative
Gregory Boden – CFO – CloudCommerce
Zachary Bartlett – VP of Corporate Development – CloudCommerce

Notice anything?

Comment by Cog Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 2:05 pm
Wow. Oczkowski starts a business in February and in March he already had a client paying $95,000. He is so lucky.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Wednesday, Apr 18, 18 @ 3:05 pm