Michele Hunter
An Arlington Heights trustee candidate faces a formal complaint alleging she accepted campaign contributions exceeding limits set by the village code.
The campaign committee for Michele Hunter received in-kind contributions of $6,353.86 and $1,406.22 on Jan. 17 from the Illinois Republican Party for mailing and printing, according to disclosures filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Arlington Heights bars candidates for village trustee or mayor from accepting more than $1,000 from any single organization.
Hunter also received $1,000 from a neighbor on Jan. 31. The code limits donations to $500 from individuals.
Keith Moens, a regular attendee of village meetings, filed the written complaint with Village Manager Randy Recklaus, who referred it to Village Attorney Hart Passman for investigation.
Hunter, who was the Republican candidate for state representative in the 54th District in 2022 and 2024, said Tuesday that the state party’s donations relate to mailers sent on her behalf last October, for Nov. 5 election.
The state GOP has not paid for any mailers for her village trustee campaign, she said.
Hunter changed her political committee on Jan. 6 to support her bid for trustee, according to an amendment filed with the state elections board.
“The Illinois party is just really behind in their paperwork,” she said. “Those in-kind donations have nothing to do with the trustee race whatsoever.”
The $1,000 individual campaign contribution came from the joint account of a married couple; the wife and husband each intended to give $500, Hunter said.
Hunter said she submitted correspondence from the couple and an attorney for the state Republican Party to the village attorney.
Passman is expected to prepare a report for the village board, including recommendations for administrative or legal action. The board by majority vote will determine what action, if any, is to be taken.
That’s the process outlined in the municipal code in Arlington Heights — one of the few towns with local campaign finance rules.
Recklaus confirmed Passman is working through the process to determine if a violation occurred.
“We’re following the code,” Recklaus said.
Citing inflation, the board agreed to up the contribution limits in 2018, from $250 to $500 for an individual, and from $500 to $1,000 for an organization.
The limits had gone unchanged in two dozen years, after first being put in place in 1991. At the time, then-Village Attorney Jack Siegel said he believed the local caps were arguably unenforceable, since Illinois election code governs all elections in the state. But the rules have not faced a legal challenge.
For a candidate for General Assembly in the fall 2024 election cycle, the state caps were $6,900 from individuals, $13,700 from organizations, and no limit from a political party.
