Party Loyalty Trumps Accountability in Harmon Campaign Finance Case

Last week, four Democratic members of the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) voted to rescue Democratic State Senate President Don Harmon from having to pay a nearly $10 million penalty for alleged campaign finance violations. 

The Board deadlocked along partisan lines on whether to grant Harmon’s appeal, with four Republican members voting no and four Democratic members voting yes. The fine had been recommended by ISBE staff and upheld by an independent hearing officer, who found that the “plain language of the statute” and Harmon’s actions indicated that he violated the law. 

Harmon had ignored warnings from elections board staff alerting him to potential violations and continued to take in donations above what they said was the legal limit. He then made a failed attempt to change the language of the elections code in his favor in this spring’s state legislative session.  

Democratic members’ failure to hold Harmon accountable in this case is a shameful abdication of their responsibility to enforce state campaign finance rules and keep our elections fair and honest. It shows Illinoisans – once again – that party insiders will close ranks to shield each other from accountability, and that power and partisanship are more important to our leaders than the public interest and the rule of law. 

This is the opposite of what we should expect from our representatives, especially as Illinois Democrats justifiably lambast the Trump administration for undemocratic abuses of power and former state House Speaker Mike Madigan spends his first weeks in federal prison. 

Board members will take up the case again in November to determine the legal effect of the 4-4 tie on Harmon’s potential fine. We hope their decision will be guided by the law and their obligation to the people of Illinois – not by partisanship and cronyism. 

Board’s confusion benefits Harmon

The final consequences of the tied vote remain unclear, though the confusion works in Harmon’s favor and his spokesman announced they were “pleased with [the] results.” 

Harmon’s attorney Mike Kasper, a longtime Democratic Party operative and Madigan’s longtime lawyer, argued that five votes were needed to impose the fine, with some Democratic Board members agreeing that the deadlock meant the case should be closed. Republican members, however, argued that the 4–4 vote meant the Board had rejected the appeal and the hearing officer’s decision – and the fine – should stand.

Because there is no clear precedent for these circumstances, the Board agreed to revisit the issue after further legal review. It will discuss the case again on November 18.  

The case represents the latest attempt by Harmon to expand the “millionaire’s loophole,” a provision in Illinois campaign finance law that was intended to even the playing field against wealthy self-funding candidates but has been exploited by legislative leaders of both parties to rake in donations from big donors and special interests and cement their power in Springfield.

Defining “election cycle”

The technical question in dispute is how “election cycle” is defined for purposes of lifting contribution limits when self-funding candidates give or lend their political funds more than $100,000. Harmon gave $168,000 to Friends of Don Harmon in January 2023 and claimed the move eliminated contribution limits through the 2024 general election cycle. But the state elections board informed him that under the law, the limits would only be lifted through the primary cycle that year. Harmon accepted over $4 million in donations over the legal limit despite the notice. Notably, Harmon is not up for reelection until 2026 and has never faced a serious challenge.

In her ruling, the Board’s hearing officer cited “the plain language of the statute” and noted that Harmon had previously recognized the statutory election cycle, making new loans or gifts following primaries in order to continue raking in unlimited contributions.  

Harmon’s expansion and exploitation of the “Millionaire’s Loophole”

Harmon now maintains that all fundraising limits should be removed for him (and his hypothetical opponent) through the 2026 general election. This would be a dramatic expansion of the millionaire’s loophole, giving Harmon nearly four years to collect unlimited contributions from special interests and big-money donors without having to re-trigger the loophole by giving or lending his campaign another $100,000. 

Harmon has repeatedly pressed to expand this loophole. In 2019 he successfully argued that unlimited donations should be available to self-funding incumbents even during election cycles in which they weren’t on the ballot. And in May of this year he proposed an amendment to an election reform law expanding the period for unlimited contributions to the entire four-year term of a state senator. That amendment, which failed, included a clause making the revision a “declaration of existing law,” which would have undercut the violation currently under consideration.

The legislature should reject any effort by Harmon in the veto session to rewrite the law to clear his name. We should be closing this loophole, not blowing it wide open for even more opportunities for pay-to-play politics and corruption.

The Millionaire’s Loophole can be fixed if our leaders take action

Reform for Illinois has been pressing this issue for years. In 2020 we outlined a menu of possible fixes for the millionaire’s loophole, including raising but not eliminating limits for participating candidates, raising the amount required to trigger the loophole, and requiring that it be an outright donation and not a loan so candidates could not simply pay themselves back after triggering it. 

Illinois could also institute limits on donations from party committees to candidates, as the federal government and many states do. Currently Illinois has no limits for party funding of candidates. This is the mechanism exploited by legislative leaders like Madigan, Harmon, and Welch – who have been the largest users of the millionaire’s loophole – to cement their power in Springfield. Republican leaders also take advantage of the provision, though they have received much less in contributions than their Democratic counterparts in recent years. 

Another approach to making the system more fair for candidates who aren’t wealthy or well-connected would be a Fair Elections program providing public funding to match small donations to candidates who agree to abide by limits on corporate donations and other restrictions – a system that’s been shown to work in cities and states across the country. Reform for Illinois has introduced legislation to establish a Fair Elections program in Illinois and is currently building support for a small-donor matching program for Chicago proposed by Ald. Matt Martin.

Illinois leaders have an opportunity to address the deficit of trust in government that is fueling so much discord in our nation’s political life. The longer they refuse to act, the longer they are part of the problem.