It isn’t uncommon for political candidate to decry “dark money” in elections, but the situation has reopened old wounds for State Rep. La Shawn Ford.
Recent advertisements have turned back the clock to a situation more than a dozen years ago in which he was facing 17 felony counts of federal bank fraud.
Two years later, all were dropped by federal prosecutors in exchange for his pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor income tax charge.
Now, Ford is speaking out about ads attacking him for the situation, which he says paint him as a criminal in the lead-up to the election, in which he is running for Congress in Illinois’ 7th district.
“I am not a felon,” Ford told reporters Monday. “When I look at the ads on TV that darkens me up and try to make me fearful and scary looking to voters and people. It’s heartbreaking.”
Ford and other candidates are speaking out against what they claim are so-called “dark money”-funded super PACs meddling in the Illinois Democratic primary, which is only a month away.
“It’s especially dangerous and I would say, in all fairness, this is right wing billionaire driven.” said Robert Peters, who is running for the 2nd district seat being vacated by Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running for U.S. Senate. “We are talking about millions of dollars.”
Two groups, Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now, have been created in recent days. They quickly have backed three candidates in races around Chicago over their Democratic primary opponents. There is nothing illegal about their activities, but that doesn’t change the criticism that such groups face.
So-called “dark money” in politics has generally been a concern, but things ratcheted up in 2010 after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Citizens United case.
That ruling prevents the government from regulating how much labor unions and corporations can contribute to political causes. At the time, the high court ruled that limits on contributions were limits on free speech.
Political scientist and former alderman Dick Simpson said the ruling has given rise to money that voters can’t easily trace.
“What it means is they can give a million dollars to your campaign, and you would never know who has actually given the money,” he said.
The often-negative ads are nothing new, but their use at the primary stage is worrying to some candidates.
“We are going to wind up spending millions of dollars to combat this,” said Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, who is running for Jan Schakowsky’s 9th district congressional seat. “It’s a terrible commentary on the way things work that local candidates with a tremendous amount of local support in the district are up against millions of dollars in MAGA-aligned money.”
Ford, who was accompanied by outgoing Rep. Danny Davis at his news conference, called the rise of dark money something that is harmful and dangerous to our democracy.
“Every Sunday i ask somebody to please vote,” he said. “I am not telling you to vote for, just know and it does matter.”
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