State elections board asks AG’s office to look into publisher of fake newspapers for printing voter data

The State Board of Elections has asked Attorney General Kwame Raoul to consider legal action against the publisher of far-right faux newspapers and websites for publishing personal information about Illinois voters.

Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the elections board, said the board has received dozens of complaints from voters asking how personal information got into the hands of the publisher, Local Government Information Services. The publication of that information on LGIS websites is a possible violation of a statutory prohibition on the use of voter identification other than for “bona fide political purposes,” the elections board said.

Dietrich said political committees registered with the state elections board are allowed to purchase voter data, containing names, addresses and birthdates, with an explicit prohibition on the use of the data for other business purposes. The board stopped collecting voter birthdates in 2018 for additional privacy protection.

LGIS, a purveyor of what has become known as “pink slime” journalism, operates dozens of websites in Illinois and throughout the country that try to disguise its far-right Republican campaign advocacy through mailers and websites with names that could be construed as those of legitimate newspapers such as “Chicago City Wire,” the “DuPage Policy Journal” and the “Will County Gazette.”

LGIS is operated by Brian Timpone, an ally and business partner of onetime failed gubernatorial candidate, political operative and right-wing radio talk show host Dan Proft of Naples, Florida.

The publications gained attention during the 2022 governor election when they attacked Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker over the state’s cashless bail policy by featuring pictures of mug shots mostly of Black or Hispanic people with the implication that hardened criminals would be released into city and suburban streets. LGIS was backing Republican Darren Bailey.

Proft has said he was “part owner” of the papers, though his name is not listed as part of the ownership of LGIS. The State Board of Elections said it believes private voter information from 2016 came from a political action committee that Proft previously ran called Liberty Principles PAC, which was heavily backed by conservative national megadonor Richard Uihlein.

Proft closed that PAC in 2020, but opened a new Uihlein-funded PAC in 2022 called People Who Play By The Rules.

That PAC, still active, spent tens of millions of dollars in support of Bailey’s unsuccessful challenge to Pritzker’s reelection. It still owes $25,000 in fines assessed by the State Board of Elections for failing to timely report its spending in the race.

The state elections board also has allowed a complaint to continue through the hearing process alleging Proft illegally colluded with Bailey through The People Who Play By The Rules PAC. The PAC is an independent expenditure committee and cannot coordinate its activities with candidates it supports.

Proft regularly featured Bailey on his radio show, and their discussions were frequently echoed in the LGIS publications.

Dietrich said the information posted on the LGIS websites includes many inaccuracies purporting to show which voters in specific precincts had or had not voted in the 2020 presidential election.

Dietrich said the board has repeatedly asked representatives of LGIS to remove the personal data, but they have refused. That prompted the board’s request that the attorney general consider legal action.

It was not immediately clear if Proft’s People Who Play By The Rules PAC had purchased a copy of the 2020 voter database. The elections board said it does not know how LGIS obtained the 2020 voter list.

“It is disappointing when an organization shows such little regard for voters,” said Bernadette Matthews, the board’s executive director.

Efforts to reach Proft and Timpone were unsuccessful.

In 2012, the Chicago Tribune ended an agreement to invest in and use news stories produced by a previous Timpone company called Journatic after an investigation produced evidence of plagiarism by the firm, which relied on overseas freelance writers who often used fake bylines.

In January of last year, Timpone appeared at a workshop for conservative school board candidates that was sponsored in part by the far-right Naperville-based Awake Illinois. At the event, Timpone offered the use of his publications and said they “can punch back for you,” and added, “If somebody is giving you a hard time, we can fix that.”