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More trouble for McCann

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Illinois

* Even if Sen. McCann wins his primary today, he could ultimately lose…

Elections authorities voted Monday to hold a public hearing on the thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements that state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, has billed to his campaign fund.

The State Board of Elections voted unanimously to conduct the hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

McCann may avoid a public hearing on thousands of additional dollars he billed to his campaign fund for unspecified “grouped expenses.” The board gave McCann until the end of business Monday to file amended reports that detail those expenses.

Records showed McCann’s campaign did file a series of amendments late Monday that contained “corrections and clarifications of expenditures.” Steve Sandvoss, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said staff will have to review the filings to make sure they comply with the additional information being sought.

Background on this story is here. His amended filings are here.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 8:45 am

Comments

I am hoping McCann Wins, simply as a repudiation of Rauner.

Comment by Saluki Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 8:53 am
Don’t have time to research how Election Board is appointed. Seems suspicious that this comes out the day before the Primary; not faulting the process, just the timing…

Comment by downstate commissioner Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 8:53 am
Should have included that I still hope McCann wins (Thanks, Saluki)

Comment by downsta te commissioner Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 8:55 am
ISBE is currently 4 dem appointments, 4 gop, with 3 of those appointed by Rauner and 1 by Edgar.

Comment by Shark Sandwich Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:01 am
If McCann is in trouble here I can only imagine how hot the water is for Frank Mautino. His “math” is even more challenging than McCann’d to explain.

Comment by Big Muddy Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:05 am
One difference is that Mautino is not holding an elected position, and although sloppy and illogical, nothing illegal has been proven…yet. He might be able to play dodgeball for 10 years until his appointed term is up.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:11 am
The fact that the board of elections gave McCann until the end of the day Monday, the day before the election, is suspicious to say the least. I’m not buying that it was just a coincidence.

Comment by The Dude Abides Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:11 am
but it is no problem to spend millions of dollars to campaign for that position….not like there is anything wrong with that. In ncomparison let’s go after the pennies.

Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:17 am
Six,
Ya, I want an Auditor General to play dodgeball for 10 years about his accounting and reporting skills when, ya know, that’s his job for the entire state now. The man better explain himself in great detail or the whole office he runs has zero credibility. Sadly, this type of behavior is acceptable in Illinois. Ugh.

Comment by Big Muddy Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:23 am
What is the maximum penalty McCann is facing? The articles I have read talk about fines, but not much else.

What was the outcome of the hearing involving Liberty Principles PAC?

Comment by Blue Dog Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:28 am
I’m still hoping that Sam wins (and then successfully defends himself against this suspicious charge).

Comment by Omega Man Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:30 am
Voting for McCann, regardless.

I feel much more called to action by Rauner’s subversion (maybe perversion?) of the Body Politic, than by McCann’s sloppy record keeping.

(Good thing most regulators give you more than a few hours to resubmit, in greater detail, something they already received and accepted. This is nothing short of “interpretive jiggery-pokery.”)

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:31 am
I’m guessing the mileage reports of every incumbent GA member and Illinois Congresscritter is bigger than Oprah’s Book Club among the political hit squads these days.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:33 am
I hear there are multiple complaints and a hearing scheduled against liberty principles pac the group that is attacking mccann.

Comment by said so Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:33 am
I too am still hoping McCann will win today, I am pulling a Republican ballot so I can vote for him.

Comment by StateWorker Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:36 am
I’m reminded of all the “drip…drip…” posts from the Schock scandal…

Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 9:56 am
For those wondering, Liberty Principles PAC conceded to the allegation of attribution in one case. In the other, the board found that the complaint was filed on justified grounds, but there will not be a public hearing. They didn’t specify why no public hearing, as most of the meeting was spent in executive session.

The minutes from the meeting don’t seem to be available on their site yet.

Comment by Patrick Yeagle Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 10:15 am
Sorry, forgot to mention the nature of the second complaint. It was on alleged coordination between the PAC and a candidate.

Comment by Patrick Yeagle Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 10:16 am
Liberty Principles PAC cleared by ISBE:

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2016/03/state-board-of-elections-rules-in-favor-of-liberty-principles-pac.html

Comment by Under Influenced Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 10:17 am
That’s an insane amount of mileage reimbursements for McCann in a non-election year. 66,000 miles in an 8 month period? This is like Aaron Schock 2.0. Was he forced to produce any mileage logs?

Comment by downstater Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 10:34 am
Patrick says, “forgot to mention the nature of the second complaint. It was on alleged coordination between the PAC and a candidate.”

I surfed around, including the ISBElection website and couldn’t find anything on their actions yesterday. Where are you seeing this?

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 10:38 am
McCann should have just used campaign funds to buy Visa gift cards and all would have been A-Okay.

https://capitolfax.com/2015/07/23/rauners-gotv-gift-cards/

Comment by morgan Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 11:02 am
And the Mautino hearing will be held… when?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 11:34 am
@cdog - I was at the hearing yesterday for the McCann thing and they just happened to address two complaints against Liberty Principles PAC.

Comment by Patrick Yeagle Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 12:05 pm
So, looks like he’s showing multiple “mileage” reimbursements over $1,000 (all even numbers) to himself on the same reports that show fuel expenses to specific gas stations. Not sure this is helping…

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 1:05 pm
If McCann survives, he needs to put trusted campaign volunteers to work sorting out his expense paperwork and family members to digging out whatever military paperwork hemay still have … so he can be in better shape for the general election.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 1:17 pm
@RNUG - There aren’t any Dems on the ballot running for this seat, so he should be fine in the general. That said, it does raise an interesting hypothetical about whether labor would have supported McCann to the extent they did if there was a labor-friendly Dem ready for the general.

Comment by Patrick Yeagle Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 3:06 pm
== RNUG @ 1:17 pm:==
I agree with you.

Comment by Mama Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 3:16 pm
== There aren’t any Dems on the ballot running for this seat, so he should be fine in the general. ==

Doesn’t mean Rauner can’t drum up a write-up campaign against McCann.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 7:03 pm
@RNUG I definitely agree, and with his money, he could actually make a go of it.

Comment by Patrick Yeagle Tuesday, Mar 15, 16 @ 7:18 pm