Norine Hammond and Joshua Griffith are in a campaign to be the Republican who runs for Illinois’ 93rd District seat in November.
The campaign has turned contentious as a Super PAC backing Griffith has launched attack ads that accuse Hammond of trying to “silence” Denise Rotheimer, a woman who accused State Sen. Ira Silverstein of sexually inappropriate behavior. Rotheimer even appears in one ad.
Griffith’s campaign officially has only spent about $4,000 on the race but the Liberty Principles PAC has spent over $173,000 in media buys on behalf of Griffith’s candidacy.
Hammond sits on the Legislative Ethics Commission which Rotheimer thinks should’ve let her testify in front of.
The rules of the commission allow her to say little about these cases according to Hammond and thus she thinks it’s unfair to attack on her on the issue.
Griffith’s campaign itself has only spent about $4,000 in the race but Liberty Principles PAC has spent over $173,000 on Griffith’s behalf in 2018 alone.
Several messages to Griffith and his campaign were left by WGIL with no response.
The PAC’s Chairperson is Dan Proft a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, radio host and advocate for conservative free-market stances.
Proft was up until 2017 a senior fellow with the conservative Illinois Policy Institute.
Hammond told the McDonough County Voice upon Griffith’s announced candidacy in October that “this is coming from Dan Proft out of Chicago.”
“The very same individuals that are running his campaign through these super pacs are under investigation for money laundering and tax fraud,” Hammond tells WGIL.
Liberty Principles PAC has past supported State Rep. Jeanne Ives, Comptroller Leslie Munger and Mike DeSutter in his bid for 74th District GOP nomination in 2015 has in the past has aided and been aided by now Gov. Bruce Rauner.
