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Monday, December 20, 2021

New Law Amends Election Code to Restrict Contributions to Judicial Campaigns


The Illinois General Assembly recently passed Public Act 102-0668, which, among other things, amends the Election Code to regulate the influence of “dark money” and out-of-state contributions on Illinois judicial election campaigns.

Specifically, the new law prohibits a candidate political committee established to support a candidate seeking judicial nomination from accepting contributions (1) from any entity that does not disclose their identity and (2) from any out-of-state person.

Regarding contributions to a candidate political committee established to support a candidate seeking judicial nomination, the new law also prohibits:

  • any person from making a contribution in the name of another person or knowingly permitting their name to be used to effect a prohibited contribution or knowingly accepting a contribution made by one person in the name of another person; 
  • a person from knowingly accepting reimbursement from another person for a contribution made in that person’s name; 
  • any person from making or knowingly accepting anonymous contributions; and 
  • any person from predicating any benefit (e.g., employment decisions) or any other gift, transfer or emolument upon either (i) the decision by the benefit recipient to donate or not to donate to a candidate; or (ii) the amount of any such donation.

The new law also prohibits any judicial candidate or political committee established to support a judicial candidate from knowingly accepting any contribution or making any expenditure in violation of this new law.

Finally, the new law also prohibits any officer or employee of a political committee established to support a judicial candidate from knowingly accepting a contribution made for the benefit or use of a candidate or knowingly making any expenditure in support of or opposition to a candidate or for electioneering communications in relation to a candidate in violation of any limitation designated for contributions and expenditures under the new law.

Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink

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