The Illinois State Board of Elections is scheduled to hear a complaint filed by a public advocacy group regarding the campaign finance structure of Lake County Board member Mike Rummel.
Reform for Illinois, a government watchdog group, filed a complaint against Mike Rummel Sept. 29, claiming he was attempting to bypass existing campaign finance contribution limits by using a political action committee instead of a candidate committee. Political action committees, or PACs, allow for higher contributions.
NPR Illinois first reported the complaint.
Reform for Illinois’ complaint says Rummel, who joined the Lake County Board in 2012, changed his individual candidate committee known as Citizens for Rummel to a PAC that would support both Mike Rummel and his wife, Melanie Rummel, who was elected as Lake Forest’s Second Ward alderman in 2017.
“We’re concerned if this goes unanswered, candidates will just decide to have a PAC instead of a candidate committee,” said Alisa Kaplan, Reform for Illinois’ executive director. “Candidate committees have lower contribution limits than PACs for good reason as the idea is to reduce the influence of any one donor. This would really undermine that principle.”
Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said candidates for office are not allowed to have more than one candidate committee per office, and those committees cannot be in support of more than one candidate. PACs, however, can be used to support more than one candidate.
Kaplan said the structure has transparency implications and could encourage other candidates to bypass the candidate committee system and its related reporting requirements and donation amount limitations. .
“If it is allowed to continue it may become a broader problem because why should a candidate abide by the stricter contribution limits of the candidate committee if they can just have a PAC?,” Kaplan said. “We want them to send a message that this is not OK and nobody should be allowed to do this.”
Reform for Illinois describes itself as a nonpartisan “research and advocacy organization that empowers the public to participate in government, addresses the role of money in politics, and promotes integrity, accountability, and transparency in our political system.”
Brad Goodman, a spokesman for Mike Rummel, said he strenuously objects to the claims made by Reform for Illinois, especially as Rummel is running for reelection to the county board next month.
“It’s completely inaccurate and it is a politically motivated move to create a fictional narrative during the campaign season,” Goodman said. “When Melanie began running for alderman we contacted the Illinois State Board of Elections to determine if Mike and Melanie could share Mike’s campaign committee as many other candidates share committees. We were told it was allowed and so we filed a candidate committee amendment in January 2017.”
Goodman said they were later advised by the state they would have to file as a political action committee because there were two candidates.
“Throughout this entire process the Rummels have followed the Illinois State Board of Elections guidance to the ‘T’. If the state board directs us to either amend the committee structure, they’ll happily do so,” Goodman said. “But this is all a huge political game and an attempt to put a mark on two public servants that have served Lake County and Lake Forest well for years.”
The Rummel PACs major donors have been Lake Forest residents Dick and Liz Uihlein, prominent conservative activists who have given large sums to President Donald Trump and other statewide candidates and causes. The Uihleins have donated more than $47,000 to the Rummels since August of 2018, according to campaign finance records. The amounts are above what would be allowed through an individual candidate committee, according to Reform for Illinois.
Dietrich said the complaint process starts with a hearing in front of an officer who will make a recommendation to the Illinois State Board of Election’s general counsel. That person will then make a recommendation on the justification of the complaint to the full board, which is composed of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
That board will then make a decision on whether the complaint was filed on justifiable grounds, Dietrich said.
He anticipated the process would start later this week and go before the full board at their Nov. 16 meeting.
The Rummels have long been active in local government. Mike Rummel was Lake Forest’s mayor from 2006 to 2009 and Melanie Rummel served on the Lake Forest School District 67 board before being elected to the city council in 2017.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter.
