Councilman Dixon! If you can’t get the paperwork right…

Paperwork wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for all the paper. And the work. – Author Darynda Jones

Before we get started, I’ll readily admit that Illinois makes it as difficult as possible for newcomers to stay on the ballot. It’s not nearly as bad as it was when minor technicalities abounded, but even today, if you fail to “bind” your signature sheets appropriately or correctly number the pages, the race is over before it begins.

My theory has always been that if you can’t be bothered with getting the first electoral step right, then how in the heck are you going to be able to effectively govern?

But while that documentation can be a bit daunting, the campaign finance reporting requirements are about as straightforward as it gets. The Illinois State Board of Elections Internet reporting portal may suck, but if you avail yourself of their help hotline, those fine folks will be more than happy to help you out. So, there’s absolutely no excuse to screw up in either regard.

If your campaign spends or takes in a total of five grand during any election cycle you must:

• File quarterly reports listing contributions and expenditures even if there are none
• File an A1 report whenever you receive $1,000 or more from a single source
• File an updated D1 report whenever your campaign “organization” changes

There’s a little more nuance involved, but we’re not talking about rocket science here.

Should you fail to file a report in a timely manner, not only will the ISBE swiftly inform you of your malfeasance, but they’ll levy a minor fine for their trouble. And while those fines start out small, should the candidate or elected official foolishly ignore them, they will rapidly escalate to epic proportions, culminating in the candidate being booted off the ballot for two years.

“Alright Jeff! So, someone of councilman Dixon’s stature made a minor faux pas and now you’re going to pick on him by exaggerating the situation as you’re so wont to do.”

You’re only half right, Dear Reader! My original effort to help get him get elected notwithstanding, it’s true that I’m no longer a fan of the perpetually pandering alderman who prefers grandstanding over governing. But “a minor faux pas?” Not exactly, as that old Hertz commercial went. We’re talking seven separate campaign financing violations in just three years:

June 2019 Quarterly    3 days late       $75.00 fine

Sept. 2020 Quarterly   21 days late     $2,050

June 2021 A1                25 days late     $600

March 2021 A1             19 days late     $500

March 2021 A1             17 days late     $500

Dec. 2020 Quarterly     1 day late         $75 – and my personal favorite:

Sept. 2021 Quarterly   77 days late     $3,000

(You can see the ISBE correspondence for yourself here.) Do the math and this habitual disregard for the process amounted to a whopping $6,800 in penalties, most of which started out as a mere $75. It takes real talent to let the fines get that out of hand. Let’s just say I’d rather avoid pulling Mr. Dixon’s credit report.

It’s not as if councilman Dixon was unaware of his perpetual tardiness, nor is he the newly elected kid on the block, either. Before the ISBE threatened to throw his sorry butt off the ballot, he’d already paid off $1,200 of those assessments.

So much for learning from your mistakes, right?

With the ISBE refusing to take “no” for an answer, and the April 4 consolidated election rapidly approaching, Dixon’s mayoral hopes were about to be washed away in a tide of red ink. Utterly undaunted, the smarmy councilman thought he could con them into accepting one-sixth of that total or $900. But the ISBE isn’t nearly as gullible as the average Elgin voter, so they wouldn’t settle for anything less than $3,438.16.

And that’s no small amount, even for an Elgin mayoral candidate. But that’s exactly what Dixon had to fork over to stay on the ballot because he chronically ignores the most basic Illinois campaign finance requirements.

That, in a nutshell, describes councilman Dixon. He enjoys the trappings of being an elected official, but he has no intention of actually governing. He loves playing to a crowd, getting his name in the papers, and issuing dire declarations from the council dais, but I dare you to name a single initiative on his part during his six years in office.

It would be one thing if we were talking about a couple of mistakes, but seven separate lapses amounting to $6,800 in fines? Like I said, that kind of “effort” takes real skill and it certainly doesn’t bode well for someone purporting to be able to successfully lead and manage Illinois’ sixth largest city.

As is always the case, I reached out to Mr. Dixon to get his side of the story, but after giving him more than a week to respond, I’m starting to think he’s ignoring me. The temerity of that scurrilous cad!

While that’s certainly his prerogative, I don’t think the Elgin taxpayer will similarly ignore his flagrant campaign finance reporting disregard. Wasn’t it Abraham Lincoln who said, “Actions speak louder than words?”

The good councilman isn’t nearly out of the campaign woods, either. How did Mr. Dixon pay that $3,438.16 fine on January 18 with only $2,900 in available campaign fund as reported on January 1st? Perhaps he received a few more contributions between then and the 18th, but that doesn’t explain how he’s managed to put hundreds of signs in the ground without reporting a single signage expense. So where did all that campaign cash come from? The only logical conclusion is he’s illegally holding back campaign expenses and more A1 reports are missing. Ya gotta love that kind of consistency.

That brings us to my first 2023 election forecast. I formerly believed that Dixon would get at least 35 percent of the vote which would be marginally better than previous mayoral challenger councilperson Carol Rauschenberger managed to do in 2019. But with this new revelation, I now predict the far-better-suited-to-the-job Mayor Dave Kaptain will dispense with Dixon by a record 70 to 30 percent margin.

I wonder if Dixon will ask the ISBE for all that money back after the election?