NASHVILLE, IL - According to Ron Deedrick, the Campaign Manager for southern Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, the dark money group 'Campaign for 2016' has broken the Illinois Campaign Finance laws for the second time since they began their campaign of personal attacks against Karmeier.
"'Campaign for 2016' is breaking Illinois campaign finance laws. On a disclosure filed late on Oct. 27th the 'Campaign for 2016' shows two disbursements to the county Democratic organizations in Franklin and Williamson Counties in southern Illinois," Deedrick said. "These laws aren't set up to allow shadow organizations of out-of-state lawyers to steal Supreme Court seats.
Recent additions to the Illinois Campaign Finance laws prohibit independent groups like Campaign for 2016 from funneling money into local political party organizations. (Illinois Statute 10 ILCS 5/9-8.5c).
The Illinoisans for Karmeier Campaign filed a formal complaint ( HERE) with the Illinois State Board of Elections on Oct. 29 seeking immediate relief from the campaign violations by the group, which has collected nearly $2 million to financial the personal attack efforts against Justice Karmeier.
"This isn't the first time 'Campaign for 2016' has broken the law. Since they began their attacks 10 days ago, they've violated a number of provisions of the current finance laws," Deedrick said. "The opposition says it's their goal to educated the public about the Justice's record, but it is apparent that what they are really about is doing anything they can to intimidate the courts and buy this southern Illinois Supreme Court seat."
