Political committees must abide by Illinois State Board of Elections transparency rules.
Earlier this week, we posted some helpful reminders to area political candidates of their campaign reporting responsibilities with the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE). This will be our second (in what may become a series) posting of helpful hints on campaign transparency due to one (apparent) repeat offender.
The ISBE rules clearly state:
“Any committee that makes an expenditure for any kind of communication directed at voters and mentioning the name of a candidate in the next upcoming election must ensure that the communication clearly identifies the committee as having paid for it. This applies to any committee that pays for any part of the advertisement, including its production and distribution.”
Well, residents are now receiving a mailing from a candidate committee (a portion pictured below) that does not appear to adhere to these rules. We previously noted that this candidate’s campaign committee signs display no state mandated committee identification either.
A campaign mailers sent to residents recently does not disclose the campaign committee that paid for it.
Common sense dictates that if one is running for elected office that every opportunity for campaign advertising with the candidate’s name on it would be maximized, especially when it comes to taking credit for who paid for it (at least one would think that).
This particular candidate, however, either fancies himself as a rebel, or perhaps isn’t taking this election as seriously as he should considering the high office he’s seeking. Another possibility is much more troubling, however, and that is he may not wish to disclose who is actually paying for his advertisements.