Illinois Democratic PAC loses appeal of massive fines for not timely reporting campaign spending

The Illinois State Board of Elections rejected Wednesday a request to reconsider or lower more than $100,000 in fines levied against a political action committee that helped expand the Democratic Party’s majority on the Illinois Supreme Court.

The board’s unanimous bipartisan vote followed a request by All for Justice, an independent expenditure PAC backed by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, after it was fined $108,500 by the board last year for failing to timely file detailed expenditure reports in spending $7.3 million to help elect Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien to the state’s highest court in 2022.

The fines were among the largest ever levied by the election board.

Shortly after the fines were first assessed in August, the PAC emptied its bank account by transferring its remaining $149,516 into a long-dormant political committee, Chicago Independent Alliance PAC. Both PACs shared the same address of a law firm headed by attorney Luke Casson, who used to work for Harmon and is also listed as the chair and treasurer of the All for Justice PAC.

As a result of its improper filings in the Supreme Court races, contests that flipped one Republican seat and ultimately gave Democrats a 5-2 court majority, the bulk of the All for Justice PAC spending went undisclosed until the end of January 2023 — months after the November general election.

All for Justice’s spending accounted for a quarter of the more than $23 million spent overall on the two state Supreme Court races and nearly 40% of the money spent on the two successful Democratic contenders. The board initially took action following a Chicago Tribune story last year that detailed the PAC’s reporting deficiencies.

Though Casson is an attorney and was present at the board meeting, lawyer Adam Vaught told the board he had been retained to represent the PAC less than a week ago. Vaught contended several of the fines were duplicative and also involved some coding errors.

But the board’s director of campaign disclosure, Tom Newman, told board members, “There was no double reporting or double assessing” of fines and that the fines were levied “appropriately based on the actual independent expenditures” the PAC made.

Vaught proposed settling the outstanding fines for $30,000 and a promise to shut down the All for Justice PAC. But the board’s chair, Casandra Watson, asked Vaught if “a substantial amount of funds were taken out and sent to another committee.”

Vaught initially told the board, “I’m a little bit light on how much funds are available” before acknowledging all of the PAC’s money had been transferred out. Asked if the two PACs “have the same players,” Vaught replied, with Casson in the room, “That, I do not know.”

“My problem is you don’t have any money to make a settlement,” Watson said. “So how are you going to make a settlement when you don’t have any money?”

Casson then spoke up, saying, “We’ll be making a credible settlement offer.” That prompted Watson to tell Casson, “I don’t even know who you are. The court reporter doesn’t know who you are. And I’m not recognizing you at this moment.”

The eight-member board, made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, ultimately voted 8-0 to reject the PAC’s requests and let the fines stand.

Though All for Justice’s funds were transferred to another PAC, the board, in initially levying the fines in August, cited a provision in its administrative rules that makes the officers of a PAC “personally liable” for civil penalties if the PAC “lends or donates funds to a second political committee” while it owes fines to the State Board of Elections.

Casson is the only officer of the All for Justice PAC, according to state election records. Casson also has served as an outside counsel to Senate President Harmon’s office and was political director of the Democratic Party of Oak Park, which is Harmon’s political base. Harmon contributed a total of $700,000 to the PAC from two political funds he controls.

The elections board, on a separate roll call, voted 8-0 to keep in place $25,500 in civil fines levied against another independent expenditure political committee, the People Who Play By the Rules PAC, which is headed by right-wing radio talk show host and political operative Dan Proft of Florida.

Proft’s PAC was cited for multiple violations of failing to file timely reports of expenditures in excess of $1,000 in the fall of 2022, when it ran ads in support of losing Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey and against Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In an emailed response to the board in December, Proft said he was never notified of the assessment of fines in August. But the board said certified mail tracking showed the assessment had been delivered Aug. 9 and “left with an individual.”

Neither Proft nor any legal counsel for his campaign committee, which was heavily funded by conservative national mega-donor Richard Uihlein, owner of Uline office products company, appeared before the board to back up his request for reconsideration.

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