State of Illinois donating to Citizens for Rauner?

Illinois (ECWd) –

The recent State Board of Elections D2 Quarterly Filings by the Bruce Rauner Campaign reflect some very odd information, as did previous quarterly filings.

Over the past several years, the Governor’s campaign has returned a total of $51,950.00 to the State of Illinois citing “Repayment of Prohibited Contribution Citizens for Rauner, Inc.”  Now, most would look at that and think how great it was they caught such a contribution and actually returned the money, which is a good thing.

However, the first thing that jumped out to us was the fact all the numbers are whole numbers, much like we saw with Auditor General Frank Mautino in his reporting that has lead to his invoking his 5th amendment rights in the Campaign complaint now before the Appellate court.

The next issue was who this money was returned to…

The State of Illinois!

Searching the State Board of Elections for contributions by “State of Illinois” did not turn up any payments from the State to the Governor’s Campaign.  We then searched for the actual reporting of the contribution in the campaign reporting and were unable to find corresponding contributions coming in from the State of Illinois.

• Who within the State of Illinois made these prohibited contributions?
• Why is there no corresponding reporting of the receipt of these contributions, assuming we did not miss them in our search?
• Are these actual repayments of prohibited contributions or are they actually reimbursement to the State of Illinois for the use of state property during the campaign?
  

If these payments are to reimburse the use of state property or expenses incurred during campaigning,  could that not be an issue as it relates to the Illinois State Constitution Article VIII Section 1, which states public funds, property, and credit shall only be used for public purpose?

We have reached out to the Illinois Comptroller, State Board of Elections, and the Governor’s campaign in an attempt to get more answers.  The only contact we were able to find for the Governor’s campaign was his Facebook page.  As of this reporting, we have not heard back from anyone other than the Comptroller who assured us they are looking into the matter and will get back with us.

One thing we do know, whatever is paid out (as repayment) from a campaign has to show a corresponding entry of it coming in, which we have been unable to find in this case.

.