Sadly for Illinois voters, Bob Romanik, the white supremacist radio personality from Belleville, is running for a state Senate seat in the March 20 Republican primary. As is typical of everything Romanik does, he has made his campaign about promoting racism even though his only primary challenger is a white woman.
District 57 candidate Tanya Hildenbrand, 48, is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force reserve who works as a senior intelligence analyst. She has served in Kuwait and Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay interrogating prisoners. Romanik, an ex-convict, talks a lot about patriotism while denigrating the American flag by wearing it as an item of clothing. Hildenbrand has spent her military career demonstrating real patriotism through actions, not antics. That's probably what irks Romanik the most.
Romanik is fighting back in his trademark juvenile fashion with racist barbs and vulgar, sexist taunts on his morning KQQZ-AM radio program. He has spent hours of programming time relentlessly attacking Hildenbrand in obscenely vulgar terms. She has accused him of hacking her Facebook page and digitally altering photos to embarrass her.
He denied it. Soon after, a website that carries KQQZ's call letters, phone number and email address began featuring three digitally altered photos, superimposing Hildenbrand's head atop other women's bodies. One depicts a partially nude woman with Hildenbrand's head being caressed by two shirtless black men while she holds a sign reading, "#BlackLivesMatter." Another altered photo depicts a Hildenbrand figure surrounded by eight shirtless men and the Black Lives Matter logo. The caption reads, "Don't vote 4 me I won't share. Candidate 'White Guilt' Hildenbrand."
This week, the site added altered photos of another longtime Romanik target, St. Clair County Executive Mark Kern. One photo is altered to depict Kern handing out erect penises from a bucket.
The top and bottom of the page lists information about Romanik's radio show along with a map, email address and phone information for KQQZ. The site's registrant is Jill Robinson of Insane Broadcasting, KQQZ's parent company. Robinson's name also appears on an official campaign-finance filing on Romanik's behalf.
There's no question that Romanik has intertwined his candidacy with the radio station, which automatically triggers state and federal reporting and fairness requirements.
In a Dec. 15 campaign filing with the Illinois State Board of Elections, Romanik listed himself as both chairman and treasurer of his campaign committee, meaning he bears full responsibility for any disclosure violations. The committee's email address is that of KQQZ. The fax number that appears on documents filed with the elections board is the KQQZ fax number.
Romanik spends hours each week using his radio program and commercial spots advertising his own candidacy and attacking Hildenbrand. Yet his campaign finance filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections fail to list the air time his campaign is receiving as an in-kind donation. Nor is the station's licensee, Dennis J. Watkins, reported as having made these in-kind donations. Watkins, an attorney, served as Romanik's campaign treasurer when he unsuccessfully sought a state House seat in 2016.
The Illinois Campaign Disclosure Act requires all candidates who "have received or made expenditures in excess of $5,000 within a 12-month period for electioneering communication" via radio, television, internet or any other broadcast medium to report details of that activity. The law specifies that the reporting must occur within 30 days of a primary election. At standard broadcast rates, the value of free air time he has received far exceeds $5,000.
Federal law requires the station to provide equal time to Romanik's primary competitor. If Hildenbrand wanted, she could effectively take over Romanik's broadcast for 12 or more unimpeded and uninterrupted hours per week for as long as he persists with this nonsense.
The time is long overdue for the Federal Communications Commission, the Illinois elections board and Attorney General Lisa Madigan to take away the broadcasting platform of this racist menace.
