McHenry Times

A Chicago-based printer with ties to the Democratic Party printed campaign mailers that targeted county-level Republican primary candidates, according to a Northwest Herald story. But the group that funded the mailers, Illinois Integrity Fund, remains a mystery; even a Hoffman Estates address used as the return address on the mailers could be bogus.

One of the candidates targeted by the mailers, Joe Tirio, McHenry County recorder and Republican nominee for county clerk, told the McHenry Times that he looked for the office at the Hoffman Estates address listed and found nothing there.

“Just a nondescript office park with no listing for an Illinois Integrity Fund,” he said.

Joe Tirio, McHenry County recorder and Republican nominee for county clerk

With no supporting evidence, the mailers accused Tirio and other Republican candidates of being “crooked, sleazy and filled with racist hate-filled ideas.”

As a third-party spending money on a campaign, the group is required by law to register with the Illinois State Board of Elections. But board spokesman Matt Dietrich said the board has nothing about the group.

“If you spend $5,000 a year or more on a campaign, then you are required to register with us,” Dietrich said. “If you don’t spend $5,000, then you are required to write us a letter with details of your expenditures. We have no listing of anything.”

On March 16, the board sent a letter to the Hoffman Estates address, informing the group that under the Campaign Disclosure Act it may need to file reports. It has yet to receive a response.

Dietrich said the board would keep trying.

“Sometimes in these cases where there is publicity, someone with knowledge of the group will come forward, or a targeted candidate will file a complaint and present evidence,” he said.

Dietrich added that the penalty for late filing or failure to file a statement of organization is $50 per business day, up to a maximum of $5,000, or $10,000 for statewide office political committees.

“We could also seek a temporary restraining order or permanent injunction against a committee to cease expenditures and operations until the D-1 (Statement of Organization) is filed,” he said.

Tirio said that his campaign was hit three or four times with the mailers, and that the group financed Google and Facebook ads as well. He estimated the cost of the mailers and the ads that targeted him and the other candidates at more than $100,000, and he said they had an impact.

“I should have won by a landslide over my opponent,” he said. “She had virtually no campaign; no website; a few signs. But I won by only 3,000 votes.”

He also said that the Herald story at the very least showed that this wasn’t a case of “Republicans going after Republicans” as the mailers suggested.

“A lot of people assume that the Democrats always have the high moral ground, but this is as bad a case of dirty pool as it comes," Tirio said. "There is no basis in fact to these mailers. They flat out lied to voters.”

The printer, Breaker Press, has a client list loaded with Illinois Democrats. Campaign finance records show McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks’ campaign committee has paid Breaker Press more than $57,000 since 2008. And House Speaker Michael Madigan has spent more than $173,000 since 2010.