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Lawsuit filed by Topinka’s son dismissed

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Illinois

Late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s son Joseph Baar Topinka alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Nancy Kimme, the comptroller’s chief of staff, wrongly converted nearly $89,000 from the Topinka campaign fund to personal use.

Kimme called the allegations “reckless,” “dishonest,” “sad and pathetic.”

Topinka died Dec. 10, 2014, after winning another four-year term as comptroller that would have started in January. Her campaign fund had $993,834 on hand as of Jan. 1, and had $841,204 on hand as of Sept. 30.

Kimme told The State Journal-Register Tuesday evening that while the lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges she took $63,807 from the fund in August and the fund’s next quarterly report didn’t list the expenditure, that amount was merely moved from a bank that handled a now-canceled Topinka credit card to the Topinka fund’s main account at another bank.

The lawsuit was filed by Tony Peraica.

* Well, a Cook County judge dismissed the suit today. From Scott Burnham, spokesperson for Citizens for Judy Baar Topinka…

We’re very pleased with Judge Demacopoulos’ ruling today and we were confident all along that the facts of this case were never in dispute. There is no evidence whatsoever that Comptroller Topinka’s son is entitled to money from his mother’s political committee.

Comptroller Topinka never attempted to use any of the committee’s funds for her or her family’s use even though she had the option to do so for more than 15 years prior to her death. In fact, she gave specific instructions to the contrary upon the committee’s dissolution.

The ruling is here. Take a look and you’ll see he was asking for a big pile of cash.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 3:59 pm

Comments

Tony Peraica is a nudnik.

Comment by Colin O'Scopey Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:06 pm
What a collection of creeps. Nancy was always there. No one knew better what JBT thought about nearly any issue or item. The opportunists were rebuffed. Good. Now, go away, all of you creeps.

Comment by A guy Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:17 pm
Does the campaign money go to the State when a candidate dies?

Comment by Mama Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:18 pm
The above should have included elected officials plus candidates.

Comment by Mama Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:19 pm
Mama - when you open a committee, you must designate where the funds will go when it is dissolved. The options are: return to contributors, give to another political committee, or donate to specified charity.

Comment by chicagogetter Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:21 pm
Good for Her. Nancy is good people, always has been.

Comment by the cardinal Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:22 pm
Mama, it can go to NFPs, be transferred to other candidates or causes with an active account with the Illinois Board of Elections. It can be used for a lot of things if documented, accounted for and disclosed appropriately. It does not go to the state. The account has trustees who would have comprised her campaign committee (officers i.e. Treasurer, President, etc.) Their discretion is the key to where the money can/would go. So long as it is within the guidelines of the Ill Board of Election rules. That fund could exist for a long time.

Comment by A guy Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:26 pm
===chicagogetter - Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:21 pm:

Mama - when you open a committee,…===

I suspect this committee fund was in existence before the predetermination language was added. I don’t know for sure though.

Comment by A guy Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:27 pm
“Comptroller Topinka never attempted to use any of the committee’s funds for her or her family’s use even though she had the option to do so for more than 15 years”

Rich, I did not think campaign money could be used by the candidate or the candidate’s family for personal reasons.

Comment by Mama Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:29 pm
Tony Peraica? Are you kidding me? All of a sudden no longer blaming the son for the wacky suit.

Comment by walker Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:34 pm
Peraica will now talk the kid into appealing so he can run up the fee.
Just for hiring Peraica he deserved to lose, besides the point he was wrong.
The other sad side note, I believe JBT was one of the few people who helped that guy when he switched to the GOP. The guy has a short memory and thank goodness he had a short career. Another lay down race ( Todd Stroger ) that Proft blew!!!

Comment by Snoopy Do Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:40 pm
Peraica and Proft now that’s a duo a shrink could have some fun with

Comment by Crimson Tide Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:44 pm
Still miss her. I hope this goes away and is forgotten.

Comment by present Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:45 pm
===Rich, I did not think campaign money could be used by the candidate or the candidate’s family for personal reasons.===

From state to state and in federal law there are actually a lot of variations on what campaign funds can be used for. In most cases, campaign funds can be used to provide a salary/stipend to the candidate and so forth. The logic behind this would be that you wouldn’t want to necessarily make it so that running for office is out of reach for folks that don’t have leisure time or the money to burn.

In general it’s something that campaign donors are usually okay with as long as it’s reasonable. Issues usually arise when someone tries to do it without transparency or without paying income tax, etc, on benefits received from the campaign.

But again, election laws are different in just about every jurisdiction in the country.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 4:57 pm
Justice prevails. That lawsuit was a disgrace.

Comment by Warriors Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 7:20 pm
In IL you could take the campaign money as long as you pay the taxes on it. Campaign finance laws changed so that this can no longer happen, but established campaigns before the change in law could still take any monies acquired before the law change. Emil Jones made out with serious money when he retired.

Comment by Paul Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 7:32 pm
I’m more than pleased Nancy Kimme prevailed. There was never a doubt that Nancy Kimme was doing what was right. Justice was served.

Tony Peraica is the worst kind of friend anyone could have in politics. He’s an opportunist with no regard for honesty or truth.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 11:07 pm
A little history. Personal use of campaign funds is prohibited under Illinois law. However when the law was enacted in 1998 it included a provision that grandfathered existing campaign funds only in the amount of their existing balances as of June 30, 1998. In Judy’s case she was the Comptroller in 1998 with a fund balance north of $300K. Under the law she was entitled to use it for personal use. Judy being the solid public servant she was never did.

Comment by Westsider Thursday, Mar 24, 16 @ 11:59 pm