Wilmette resident Mark Weyermuller and his lawyer, Daniel J. Kelley have continued their Illinois State Board of Elections complaint against the self-styled ‘Wilmette Friends’ political action committee, amending their initial claims with further evidence.

Weyermuller and Kelley have asked that the $15,000 spent by political film maker Paul Traynor be investigated for linkages to the ‘Wilmette Friends’, via the similar composition of their organizers and researchers.  The complainants also are asking for an evaluation of the claims by ‘Wilmette Friends’ that political consultant Dave Lundy was not acting as political consultant in his role with the campaign, despite Lundy’s leading role in the Democratic Governor primary campaign and long career in political consulting.  Lundy stated that he was not playing an active role in politics and downplaying his involvement in the ‘Wilmette Friends’.   The complaint also questions the claims that child volunteers distributed thousands of handbills door to door in New Trier Township.

The State Board of Elections is being asked to investigate the overlap of various political organizations in New Trier Township, where slating of municipal candidates has been controlled by the New Trier Caucus, a partisan political operative group established by the League of Women Voters in 1954.  The Caucus, which is not registered with the State of Illinois, claims to have chosen candidates for 2017 municipal elections belonging to the New Trier Economy Party, which came in to existence in February 2017, as a “non-partisan” political party.

The complaint claims that election material distributed by the ‘Wilmette Friends’, used similar wording and messaging as the political movie ‘Tip of the Spear’, while both organizations recommended the slated Economy Party candidates and opposing the independent candidates for New Trier Township government.  Both organizations had many supporters in common, including the self proclaimed organizer of both political groups.  The complaint asks the State Board of Elections to investigate these ties and the coordination between the multiple organizations opposing independent candidates for New Trier Township municipal elections.

Political organizations are limited to $5,000 in spending and in-kind donations before they are in violation of State Election Code requiring reporting of expenditures, loans, cash contributions, and in-kind contributions.  Many organizations practice transparency in politics, reporting their activities to the State regardless of the spending level.  While many groups supporting the New Trier Economy Party have not reported campaign spending, an estimated $30,000 in aggregate was spent to support the Economy Party Candidates in the 2017 elections, based on similar spending in comparable campaigns and self reporting by groups supporting the Economy Party.