Contact:
Yael Sheinfeld
[email protected]
For months, the People Who Play By The Rules PAC, run by one-time failed candidate and Florida resident Dan Proft, has been running ads funded by Dick Uihlein to support Darren Bailey’s run for governor. By law, PACs cannot coordinate with individual campaigns, but new reporting sheds light on Proft and Bailey’s relationship that begs the question: What is Dan Proft doing for the Bailey campaign and why?
Read highlights from The Chicago Tribune’s bombshell story below.
• The political committee is an independent expenditure PAC and, by law, is not supposed to coordinate its spending activities with Bailey’s campaign. But the apparent efforts by Proft — who also co-hosts a conservative radio show for which Bailey has been a frequent guest — to try to intercede in a potential legal matter involving Bailey indicate he may be playing a larger role than previously acknowledged.
• Proft also is involved in political mailers disguised as newspapers that have been sent to thousands of homes across the state, disseminating disinformation to disparage Pritzker. In 2016, a similar mailing effort funded by a former Proft independent expenditure PAC was cited by the Illinois State Board of Elections for illegal coordination with candidates.
• An internal dispute between Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey’s campaign and a recently departed Bailey political worker has raised questions about the level of involvement the conservative leader of a Bailey-aligned political action committee has had with the Bailey campaign.
• During those negotiations, Proft weighed in, apparently in an effort to quash the filing of a possible lawsuit in the matter that could become public and hurt Bailey’s chances.
• Asked to clarify, the campaign did not respond.
With hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans already casting their ballots and thousands more headed to the polls this weekend, Darren Bailey’s campaign must answer about his relationship with Dan Proft. With just four days to go, voters deserve to know: Why did Bailey fire Brett Corrigan and why was Dan Proft involved in an internal HR dispute?
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