An Evanston lawyer is filing a suit against the New Evanston Alliance for political advertisements the group sponsored three weeks before last April’s City Council elections.
Richard Stillerman contends the NEA, a local political organization, violated state law by spending more than the $3,000 legal limit on endorsement ads without registering with the board of elections as a political action committee. A preliminary hearing before the Illinois State Board of Elections is scheduled for Friday morning.
The ads, which were published in the Evanston Review, the Evanston Roundtable, The Daily and on the NEA’s Web site, called the city “corridors of condos and crack” and asked Northwestern students, “think Evanston sucks?”
State law forces any group that spends more than $3,000 on an election to disclose its members and major donors with the state. Stillerman said the NEA spent $2,981 on the ads, but these expenses are debatable. Two of the papers charged the NEA a discounted rate, and maintenance of the Web site was counted as a voluntary contribution. Also, Stillerman plans to address the timing of the ads, which were published within two weeks of the April 2 election.
“My hope is that the state board will order the (NEA) to make a full disclosure under law,” Stillerman said.
Many of Stillerman’s complaints were raised during the election by Ald. Arthur Newman (1st). Though a representative for the NEA later said their campaign was aimed at reform in the Fifth Ward, the loudest bickering came from the First Ward, where Newman objected to the subversive ads, which endorsed his opponent, Kellogg Prof. Allan Drebin.
“This is lowest barnyard form of politics.,” Newman said in April. Also endorsed in the ad were Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd), Rochelle Whyte-Washington in the Fifth Ward, Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) and Ald. Stephen Engelman (7th).
Stillerman worked on Sixth Ward candidate Martin Norkett’s campaign, but said he is filing the suit as a concerned resident. His interest in the ad was sparked on first sight.
“A person could not find out from the ad who is supporting this group,” Stillerman said. “Elections are supposed to be open and it got me angry because it seemed counter to what elections are supposed to be about.”
Evanston residents Paul Wallace and Lonnie Wilson have spoken for the NEA since the ads were published in April and claims it is a grass roots group of 60 to 80 residents sharing the same concerns about crime and development in the city. None of the other members have identified themselves, but Wallace and Wilson have said members pooled money to pay for the ads.
But Stillerman has doubts, echoing suspicions that the NEA is a front for other parties, though he declined to comment on those suspicions until evidence is introduced at the upcoming trial. He cites the ads targeting specific audiences, such as NU students, as being beyond the political savvy of Wallace and Wilson.
Stillerman has long been active in Evanston politics. He worked to develop the Research Park and lost a race for Sixth Ward alderman 12 years ago.
