Evanston ‘Dark Money PAC’ Launches Attack Ads In Aldermanic Races

EVANSTON, IL — A recently formed political committee has launched an ad campaign in support of five City Council candidates in the April 6 election, warning four challengers and an incumbent would "abolish" Evanston's form of government.

The corporate entity Evanston Together LLC was formed March 7, with a campaign committee by the same name registered on March 10, according to a document filed a week later with the Illinois State Board of Elections. State law requires such a filing for any group that raises or spends more than $5,000 in a single year.

The group's statement of organization lists its purpose as "Elections in Cook County" and does not list any candidates that it supports or opposes. A mailer received by Evanston residents last week calls for residents to "Vote for these Aldermanic candidates," and lists incumbents in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th wards, as well as the challenger in the 6th Ward. It makes no mention of the races in the 5th and 8th wards.

The "Evanston Together Voter Guide" divides candidates into columns titled, "Keep Professionally Run City" and "Abolish Current Form of Government."

"Beware of bait and switch. These candidates haven't been forthright about their plans," the ad says, in a label appearing above the names of challengers Clare Kelly, Darlene Cannon, Nicholas Korzeniowski and Mary Rosinski, and incumbent 6th Ward Ald. Tom Suffredin.

The citywide Evanston Together ad warns of "radical change" if the "slate of candidates" it opposes is elected. As its source, it cites responses by the candidates it opposes during a March 2 candidate forum hosted by the Evanston/North Shore Branch NAACP. Candidates were asked if they supported a managerial form of government or a strong-mayor form of government.

Two of the incumbent candidates backed by Evanston Together, 2nd Ward Ald. Peter Braithwaite and 7th Ward Ald. Eleanor Revelle, said they strongly supported the current form of government, which was adopted by the city by referendum in 1952. The other three candidates backed by the group — 1st Ward Ald. Judy Fiske, 3rd Ward Ald. Melissa Wynne and 6th Ward challenger Katie Trippi — did not attend the NAACP forum.

The four candidates opposed by Evanston Together gave varying answers about ideas to reform Evanston's city government and expressed an openness to explore a change in government form. None of the candidates have made a push for a strong-mayor referendum as a part of their platform. (Video starting at 1:09:20) Under the Illinois Constitution, changes to forms of local government require referendum approval, and such referendum questions can be placed on the ballot either by citizen signatures or via a City Council vote.

Evanston Together's mailer suggests such a change "could mean" eliminating Evanston's Home Rule authority, placing an "endless series of binding referendums on the ballot" and "injecting politics into every city function." It also warns of the departure of City Manager Erika Storlie, who was appointed last October by a divided City Council after more than a year as interim city manager and nearly a decade as an assistant and top deputy to former City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.

Mayor-Elect Daniel Biss said he found it strange that candidates were facing harsh attacks for expressing the same position he did during his campaign.

"As I understand it, being open to talking about whether we should make a change is responsible, unless you think that Evanston government is perfect today. I've not heard a single person say, 'We definitely should have a strong-mayor form of government.' I've heard a lot of people, including myself, say, 'Hey, there's some problems with the current system. We ought to keep all options on the table.' That strikes me as a responsible position," Biss said.

Biss was elected in last month's primary election with more than 73 percent of the vote, winning every precinct where more than one vote was recorded.

"That was exactly what I said during the campaign," he added. "So I presume this group Evanston Together LLC was really disappointed that I won, because apparently my position is dangerous too."

Biss and other observers instantly recognized the language on the Evanston Together mailer as mirroring that contained in an emailed invitation to a meeting sent out one week after the primary election — in which two incumbent aldermen lost their seats by coming in third — and one week before the formation of the new political action committee.

"Our community needs a counterpoint to the concerted effort to undermine our local government by a small and determined group of residents, organized under several banners," wrote Pat Efiom, Jane Grove, Delores Holmes, Kelly Marcelle and Dick Peach, who is listed as the treasurer of Evanston Together LLC. Warning of an "anti-incumbency effort," the March 2 email included the same list of policies criticized by the Evanston Together group under a list of "[s]ome of the ideas mentioned by these groups and/or their members."

Good government in Evanston would be undermined by such proposals, the invitation cautioned.

"We need to challenge this campaign so that Evanston voters are fully informed and don't cast votes in April based upon misinformation, 'alternative facts', distortions, and untrue allegations of corruption," it said.

Those targeted by the Evanston Together LLC mailers told the opposite tale.

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Among the more than 40 invitees to the planned March 3 pro-incumbent Zoom meeting was the current mayor. Hagerty endorsed the same candidates as the Evanston Together group in an email from stevehagerty.com — a defunct campaign site that now redirects to the city's official website.

Candidates opposed by Evanston Together, the outgoing mayor warned, have "expressed a willingness to consider" a change from the current managerial form of government.

Hagerty's endorsement email also links to a YouTube video posted to an account called "Evanston Together" featuring allegations against 1st Ward challenger Clare Kelly identical to those laid out in a mailer sponsored by Evanston Together LLC and sent out in the ward. It claims Kelly tried to cover up an arrest over a March 2019 traffic citation. Kelly said she emailed the chief asking him to correct what she believed to be an error after she had been told by other senior police officials she had not been arrested at the time of the traffic stop, which she said stemmed from an illegal left turn.

The mailer and video also contains an account from city staff describing a July 2018 "bullying" incident in which "staff had to call Evanston Police to get Kelly to leave" after she visited the civic center. A witness disputed the staff account of the incident, and staff declined to talk about it, according to the Evanston RoundTable, which first reported the 1st Ward attack ad Monday.

Kelly issued a statement Monday responding to the Evanston Together LLC mailer. She said many Evanston women had contacted her to express support after "desperate and transparent attacks" that she attributed to her opponent.

"Women always face criticism for being outspoken advocates," Kelly said. "Despite the sexist tropes that we've all encountered, we will stick together, make our voices heard, and keep fighting to make Evanston a stronger, fairer, and more compassionate community."

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Kelly also responded to the accusation contained in the citywide "Evanston Together Voter Guide" that she hopes to abolish Evanston's form of government.

"There are no plans to change the current form of government. This is not nor has ever been any part of my platform or my plans," Kelly told Patch. "I have never advocated abolishing home rule. I have pointed out that home rule is great when you have a responsible government. There are many benefits to home rule that we have taken advantage of in Evanston and many other possibilities given our Home Rule status that we should explore."

Darlene Cannon, challenger in the 2nd Ward, said the Evanston Together mailer was inaccurate.

"I saw the flyer and none of those allegations are true nor are they listed on my platform," Cannon told Patch. "It should also be said that the flyer itself is not the type of Evanston that we aspire."

Nick Korzeniowski, challenger in the 3rd Ward, said the attacks against his campaign were simply false.

“The few questions we’ve had from residents pertaining to this attack point out that nobody has ever heard me support altering the structure of Evanston’s government, and with good reason: I haven’t,” Korzeniowski said. “Moreover, several allied parties with these meritless attacks know me personally and in some cases that goes back years. So folks know it isn’t true, and some folks are choosing to say it anyway. It’s unfortunate that such institutions in our city would sink to such uncivil and intentionally misleading falsehoods. They know better, and we all deserve better.”

Ald. Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, was the only incumbent opposed by the Evanston Together group. He described its mailers as "an inherently hypocritical and cynical attempt at influencing an election on the basis of a fabricated issue, rather than real issues that we should be discussing as part of a robust campaign" to determine the future of the city.

Suffredin, the son of a sitting Cook County Board commissioner, is facing a challenge from, Trippi, the stepdaughter of a former alderman. While his opponent did not attend the NAACP forum cited in the mailers, her brother-in-law, a longtime Democratic Party political operative specializing in direct mail, was among those invited to the March 3 meeting to discuss the "anti-incumbency" threat.

"Clearly somebody within this group thinks that this bundle of unrelated issues is sufficient to scare Evanston voters into ignoring actual issues," Suffredin said.

Mary Rosinski, challenger in the 7th Ward, said the primary problem in town was not the form of government, but the fact that some elected officials have abdicated their responsibility to question the assessments and information provided by city staff.

"Residents need to be able to ask questions, and someone needs to be accountable for the decisions," Rosinski said. "And if Mayor Hagerty or Jane Grover or [Evanston Together Chair] Marya Frankel or Dick Peach, any of those guys who are on these letters, find it offensive and undemocratic to ask questions and criticize our government, then their ‘democracy’ and my ‘democracy’ are different, and we need a form of government that allows for questions and correct information to be dealt with — and it's not going on right now."

Representatives of the Evanston Together LLC group did not respond Tuesday to requests for copies of their published advertisements, donor information or a request for an interview.

No information about how much money the group has raised or spent — or where it came from — is yet available from the Illinois State Board of Elections. Campaign spending information for the first quarter is not due until nine days after the election.

But because Evanston Together is directly advocating a slate of candidates, it faces a two-day deadline to report contributions over $1,000.

In case of cash or checks, the clock starts ticking when the money is deposited. In case of an in-kind contribution, the vendor has five days to provide a statement of in-kind contribution — a kind of invoice for the donated good or services — and the committee has two days to send that to the state, according to Matt Dietrich, state elections board spokesperson.

As of late Tuesday, the group had not filed any forms indicating it had received a donation greater than $1,000 since its formation. If such donations were kept below $1,000, or if they were left undeposited by the committee, they may not be required to be reported ahead of the last day of voting April 6.

The invitation to the post-primary meeting to address an "anti-incumbency" effort, the apparent genesis of the Evanston Together group, suggests that the organizers may have sought donations from the dozens of wealthy and influential Evanstonians among the email’s recipients.

The scheduled meeting was set to talk strategy and "share our ask of each of you."

Biss, who sponsored campaign finance reforms as state senator aimed at increasing the impact of small-dollar donations, is not endorsing aldermanic candidates in the ward-level races. He said he had good relationships with candidates on both sides of Evanston Together’s list of endorsements, but he said the language in both the March 2 meeting invite and the mailer from the new political action committee, or PAC, is "misleading and counterproductive."

The mayor-elect also remarked on the lack of transparency surrounding the newly formed group.

"It's kind of funny," he said, "that a group that purports to be advocating for good governance is operating, essentially, as a dark money PAC."