Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.Hilario Dominguez, a candidate for Chicago school board president, is facing a formal state complaint from a challenger who claims Dominguez ignored campaign finance rules.State election authorities received a complaint last Friday from Hugo Jacobo against Dominguez’s campaign committee, Friends of Hilario, arguing his latest campaign filings reporting nothing raised or spent “cannot be accurate.” Jacobo is working for Dominguez’s opponent Sendhil Revuluri, whose team shared the complaint with Chalkbeat. Dominguez, who is also the political director of the Chicago Teachers Union, did not directly address the complaint or the allegations but said he’s spending time with “parents, students, and communities.” “Unlike the billionaires who fought against giving Chicagoans a vote like this, they don’t have a lot of money,” he said in a statement. His campaign treasurer Kat Zamorran said in a statement that the “campaign is in compliance and more activity will be in the next report.”Candidates running in the Nov. 3 election were required to file campaign finance reports for the year’s second quarter with the state on July 15. Candidates for school board have raised $1.8 million, $1.2 million of that in the board president’s race alone. Dominguez is one of five candidates for board president and has the CTU’s endorsement.According to state election law, candidates are required to register a political committee with the Board of Elections when it raises or spends $5,000 in a 12-month period, but candidates can create the committee before reaching that threshold. While Dominguez’s committee was registered with the state on June 4, it does not have to report campaign contributions or expenses until either hits $5,000, so it’s possible the campaign hasn’t reached that number yet. Neither Zamorran or Dominguez answered questions about whether they’ve hit the threshold.Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, noted that contributions aren’t considered “received” by a committee until they’re deposited to the bank. For example, if a fundraiser happened in June, but donations weren’t deposited until after July 1, that money wouldn’t show up on campaign finance filings until the next round of reports are due in the fall. There’s one exception: Contributions of $1,000 or more must be reported within five days of being deposited, Dietrich said. The complaint likely won’t be addressed until the Illinois Board of Elections’ Oct. 20 meeting, according to Dietrich. The board can “prescribe corrective action immediately” or hold a public hearing over the case if it agrees with the complainant. Dominguez could face a financial penalty, but first-time penalties are waived unless a committee commits another violation within two years, Dietrich said. Revuluri said he doesn’t think it’s “reasonable” that Dominguez could have run his campaign so far, including with printed materials and a fundraising event, and not have exceeded $5,000 in expenses. “My concern is less with some kind of punishment, but more restorative action, where the campaign starts telling the truth, where the campaign is being honest about how it’s being financed (and) what they’re doing with that money because voters deserve to have that information,” Revuluri said. The complaint laid out several spending claims, including that Dominguez’s campaign has created campaign materials, such as fliers and banners, and has a campaign website containing a note saying it was “paid for by Friends of Hilario,” which was visible on the website Thursday. The complaint also names people who helped Dominguez collect signatures to get on the ballot, noting that those people are known paid circulators whom other campaigns have also hired and are paid per signature. WBEZ reported that Dominguez had collected about 9,000 signatures.The complaint noted that Dominguez held a fundraiser last month but didn’t report receiving any funds in the latest required campaign finance disclosures. Both CTU’s and Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ PACs are expected to spend big in the campaign but haven’t yet poured money into races. The union’s PAC did report spending money on fending off petition challenges for some candidates. The state will assign Jacobo’s complaint to a hearing officer, who will hold a hearing with both parties, Dietrich said in an email. After that, the hearing officer will make a recommendation, which the board’s general counsel reviews and adds her own recommendation. The board makes the final decision in a closed session. “The burden of proof in these proceedings is on the complainant,” Dietrich wrote. Dietrich noted that the complaints don’t become public unless the board decides they’re justifiable. Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
