The race to replace Jesse White for Illinois secretary of state is heating up

For 23 years, Illinois driver's licenses have had the name "Jesse White" written on them.

However, that's going to change next year when a new secretary of state is sworn in.

White announced his retirement in 2019. Now, with primaries just weeks away, the race to replace White is heating up, with candidates of both major parties competing to win votes in the June 28 primary contests ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

Past officeholders have gone on to higher office, with White's two predecessors, George Ryan and Jim Edgar later becoming governor. Alan Dixon, who served before Edgar, went on to become a two-term U.S. senator.

Ryan went to prison after being convicted of corruption-related crimes in 2006.

In the Democratic primary, there are four candidates: Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia, former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Ald. David Moore and Sidney Moore.

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Valencia has earned endorsements from some of the most powerful and influential Democratic politicians in state politics, including Gov. JB Pritzker, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, both of Illinois' U.S. senators, eight state lawmakers and current Secretary of State Jesse White.

If Valencia is elected, she would be the first woman to serve as Illinois secretary of state.

"I have known Anna for many years," said White in a February statement. "I am impressed by her energy, commitment to public service and her dedication to getting the job done."

But Valencia's campaign has been marred by questions about her ethics, with a formal complaint against her filed with the city of Chicago in March based on inconsistencies in some of her ethics disclosure paperwork. The issue centered on her failure to disclose payments that her husband earned from lobbying the city.

Ethics is one of the central aspects of Valencia's platform, both on a personal and policy level, alongside road safety, making small business registration easier, expanding voting access programs and modernizing the office.

Valencia has promised to release her tax returns and advocate for changing policies around who is eligible to be a lobbyist in Illinois.

While Valencia may be ahead in the race for high-profile endorsements, Giannoulias is the clear frontrunner in the race for campaign cash.

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Giannoulias had $4.4 million in cash at the end of March, when the most recent campaign disclosures were released. Since then, he's raised another $104,500 in donations over $1,000, according to records from the state board of elections.

The amount is more than four times Valencia's $1.1 million at the end of March, though she has raised $108,400 since then.

Similar to Valencia, Giannoulias has made ethics a major theme of his campaign, putting out ads both attacking Valencia over ethics allegations and highlighting his plan to advocate for more stringent ethics requirements for lobbyists.

"Illinois still allows politicians and their spouses to profit from lobbying while they're in office," said Giannoulias in an ad released last week. "As secretary of state, we'll clean up this corruption."

Giannoulias has a broad platform including modernizing the office, advocating for ethics reforms, fighting climate change, making small businesses registration easier, and road safety among other points.

David Moore has less cash than his competitors, with $38,700 in the bank at the end of March and $19,300 in donations above $1,000 in April and May.

Still, Moore is optimistic that people will choose him at the ballot box in the coming weeks.

"We're in the final stretch of the campaign and my team is doing everything within our means to touch voters and make sure they have a third choice in this race for Secretary of State," said Moore in a statement. "Voters don't want to go back to the scandal and corruption that marred this office before Jesse White."

Moore was reprimanded by the Chicago Board of Ethics in May of last year about using his official aldermanic Facebook account to campaign for secretary of state. He wasn't fined or formally punished after correcting the issue.

Sidney Moore has raised less than $5,000, the minimum threshold for campaign finance disclosures.

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On the Republican side, the contest is between former U.S. Attorney and Sangamon County State's Attorney John Milhiser and longtime state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington.

Milhiser is running as part of a broader "slate" of Republicans. He is coordinating his campaign with others running for governor, treasurer, comptroller and attorney general. The slate, led by Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, is being funded in large part by Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of Citadel, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund based in Chicago.

Milhiser has made ethics and restoring trust in government top issues for his campaign. When asked what kinds of policies he will advocate for, Justin Giorgio, a spokesman for the campaign, said that Milhiser's history as a prosecutor means he's well suited for the position.

"John prosecuted a case in the secretary of state's office in which one employee was stealing taxpayer dollars," said Giorgio in a statement. "He knows what to look for, and it starts with an audit from the top down, making sure that every penny in that office is accounted for, rooting out any fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars, and then establishing zero tolerance for any kind of corruption in the office."

Milhiser and Brady had similar funding in March, with Milhiser at $273,600 and Brady at $242,600. But in the weeks since then, Milhiser has moved ahead thanks to a $550,800 influx of cash from Irvin's campaign.

Griffin has donated $45 million to Irvin's campaign for governor. Irvin's campaign has gone on to give some of that to Milhiser, $350,800 to attorney general candidate Steve Kim and $50,000 to comptroller candidate Shannon Teresi.

In April and May, Brady raised $80,600 in donations over $1,000.

While he doesn't have the campaign war chest of Milhiser, Brady does have the support of a broad range of Republican lawmakers and influencers, including three U.S. representatives and 46 state lawmakers, including the top Republican in the Illinois House of Representatives, Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs.

In addition to politicians' support of Brady, several organizations have endorsed him as well, including the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police. The secretary of state oversees a police force at the Illinois Capitol Complex.

Brady's campaign has focused less on ethics-related issues than his competitors, instead focusing on services and improving the secretary of state office.

"What I hear the most of is: how are you going to cut wait times at driver services facilities?" said Brady.

Brady said he hopes to cut wait times and improve services by fully staffing secretary of state facilities and improving the digital infrastructure of the office and cross training employees to be able to meet constituent needs.

"I talk about this office as an office about service to the public," said Brady.

This story has been updated to reflect Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Robin Kelly's endorsements in this race. She has not endorsed anyone. 

Contact Andrew Adams: aadams1@gannett.com; (312)-291-1417; twitter.com/drewjayadams.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Ethics top issue among secretary of state candidates