Let me get this straight. The personal campaign committee of my state senator, Don Harmon, contributed $500,000 to PAC #1. And the PAC’s chairman and treasurer, was attorney Luke Casson, who was Mr. Harmon’s “close associate,” and former political director of the Democratic Party of Oak Park. [Political fund controlled by Oak Park Democrat fined $99,500, News Nov. 29]
Did Mr. Harmon have a say about how Mr. Casson spent his campaign’s money?
On Aug. 3, the Board of Elections notified Mr. Casson that PAC #1 was going to be fined some $100,000 for late reporting, and he had 30 days to appeal. Instead of appealing, on Aug. 30, Mr. Casson’s law firm first made a $200 contribution to PAC #2, dormant since July 2019 when it paid a $950 fine, also for late reporting, and then left some $5,000 laying around. I wonder why Mr. Casson made that $200 contribution. (At my own bank, Fifth Third, an account inactive for 9 months goes dormant and has to be reactivated). And then, the next day, Mr. Casson transfers all the remaining $150,000 in PAC #1 to PAC #2. And he has something more to do with PAC #2, since it paid some $14,000 in 2017 to a corporation at his home address, and is registered at the same address as his law firm’s, and that of PAC #1.
Did Mr. Harmon have any say about transfer of any of his funds to another PAC, or how it was then spent?
One might think that $100,000 is too stiff a fine for 35 late reports. But Mr. Casson did not choose to appeal, and once the 30 days expired, his PAC #1 clearly owed the money. The law’s the law. And “Nobody is above the law.” Remember?
And so now the Board of Elections can’t collect the fine from PAC #1, which has been cleaned out. And all Mr. Harmon can say is that PACs have “a duty to comply” with the law? And Casson, a lawyer who was likely well aware of the late filing law, from the 2017 fine of PAC #2, all he can say is that this late reporting, 35 times, was “a scrivener’s error”?
There is a civil law concept of “fraudulent transfer,” applicable to recover assets when they are fraudulently transferred, that is without value in return, to hide them from, and avoid paying, creditors. And bankruptcy law provides that preferential or fraudulent transfers out of a bankrupt’s estate during the year prior to filing for bankruptcy can be clawed back. Both illustrate a legal principle.
While it is too early to conclude whether any of this amounted to a violation of any criminal law, were I in law enforcement, as I once was, I would be reviewing campaign laws to see if it did, and if so, evaluating whether to issue supboenas or apply for search warrants for Mr. Harmon’s and Mr. Casson’s phones, if not also their offices.
But I don’t have to wait to draw conclusions on the basis of moral law. In my opinion, this stinks to high heaven. I thought that Mr. Harmon was Mr. Squeaky Clean, who was supposed to be the one to keep the Senate side from descending into the Madiganland of the House.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool voter. The last non-Democrat I can recall voting for was Jon Anderson in 1980 (the best third party candidate for President the country ever produced, who went down in flames, thereby proving the utter futility of all such third party efforts). The last Republican may have been Sen. Charles Percy in 1978, or 1972.
But while it probably won’t make any difference, I hereby pledge not to vote for Mr. Harmon again until I learn that he has caused PAC #1, his pet, to pay the fine it owes. If even then.
Were Mr. Casson my attorney, he would not be, going forward. Who would trust a lawyer who made this kind of transfer to escape a lawful fine that the entity he controls clearly owes? And were I Mr. Casson, I would be concerned for my law license.
Frank Stachyra, a retired lawyer who spent five years as a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney, with some experience in attorney ethics law, as well as many years practicing criminal defense law, is a 49-year resident of Oak Park.