A six-year legal battle recently came to an end with longtime GOP powerbroker Don Tracy claiming victory.
In 2019, the Illinois executive inspector general found the Springfield lawyer engaged in a prohibited political activity by making a $1,000 campaign contribution to a legislative candidate while serving as chair of the Illinois Gaming Board.
But Tracy said that was nonsense because the contribution made to Republican Seth McMillan, who was challenging then-Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat, was made not by him but by his wife, Wanda, from their joint checking account.
The inspector general contended this was only a ruse employed by Tracy to funnel money to a candidate despite members of the gaming board being banned from doing so.
“Basically, they were alleging a conspiracy without any proof of a conspiracy, just the assumption that a woman can’t make contributions on her own,” Tracy said.
He said despite having told the inspector general’s office that the check was written by his wife without any direction from him, no one from that office bothered to interview his wife.
Wanda Tracy declined to discuss the matter with Illinois Times. However, she did write a letter to the IG’s office saying that the donation was “of my own free will.” She also detailed political activities she had been involved with over the years.
Tracy was appointed chair of the gaming board by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in February 2015. He resigned from the post in 2019, several months after Gov. JB Pritzker took office. The post paid less than $5,000 per year.
After Tracy left office, the inspector general published a finding saying that he violated the law. No fine was levied or any disciplinary action taken. Regardless, Tracy said he sought a hearing before the Executive Ethics Commission because he had been publicly admonished and wanted an opportunity to clear his name.
But the request for a hearing was initially denied, and Tracy went to court seeking such a hearing.
“After two years of hard-fought litigation, the circuit judge ruled that we were entitled to a hearing and ordered the Executive Ethics Commission to give me a hearing,” he told Illinois Times.
In December, Tracy finally had his hearing before the Ethics Commission. Both he and his wife testified.
“There were five government lawyers, all working at government expense, on this case,” he said. Tracy employed one attorney.
“We spent thousands and thousands of dollars. Most people couldn’t have afforded to challenge this,” he said.
But Tracy is a scion of the founders of Mt. Sterling-based Dot Foods which, according to Forbes, is one of the 50-largest privately held companies in the U.S.
He also has served as chair of the Illinois Republican Party and made unsuccessful runs for state senate and lieutenant governor.
Tracy, who was a political ally of Rauner, worked with him to develop the Y block just north of the Governor’s Mansion. Tracy and Rauner sought to curtail the influence of construction unions on the project.
In apparent retaliation, Brad Schaive, then-business manager for Laborers Local 477, filed the complaint with the inspector general about the political donation, the State Journal-Register reported in 2019.
When reached Feb. 17 by IT, Schaive declined comment.
In its January ruling, the Ethics Commission said the inspector general failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Tracy had violated the law.
Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois, said she is concerned about the legal precedent that the case may set. She noted spouses are sometimes used to circumvent prohibitions on political activity.
“It’s a difficult issue. Perhaps not being politically active is the price a spouse pays for being married to someone holding such a position.”
This article appears in Combating human trafficking.
