March 01--Cook County state's attorney challenger Kim Foxx was hit with nearly $20,000 in fines from the State Board of Elections on Monday for failing to report a campaign poll paid for by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and for not meeting various other deadlines to file campaign disclosure forms.
The fines were levied for filing a quarterly campaign report 73 days late last year, and for reporting 10 individual contributions of $1,000 or more one day late, in addition to failing to report the $25,000 Preckwinkle spent on a poll for Foxx as a campaign contribution. Foxx's campaign will be required to pay a total of $19,450, state elections officials said.
State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's campaign filed the complaint against Foxx for not reporting the poll. "How can we trust Kim Foxx to enforce the law as state's attorney when she's repeatedly proved herself unwilling or unable to follow the law as a candidate?" Alvarez spokesman Mike Carson said in a statement.
Foxx spokesman Robert Foley said the campaign intends to appeal the fines.
The election board decision came as Foxx and fellow challenger Donna More questioned Alvarez's use of an image of the mother of teenage murder victim Derrion Albert in a campaign ad.
Anjanette Albert said Monday that the Alvarez campaign did not get her OK to use the photo, which shows her standing next to Alvarez at a news conference where the state's attorney discussed a murder trial against one of the people charged in Derrion Albert's notorious 2009 beating death. Cellphone footage showed the teen getting struck with a board and beaten during a melee near Fenger High School.
"I didn't know anything about it," Anjanette Albert said of the ad. "I would never have given permission for that."
Alvarez campaign spokesman Ken Snyder said the campaign has removed the picture of Albert from the ad, which will continue to run in its revised format. Snyder said the campaign was not aware it was Albert in the photo when they decided to use it.
"We apologize to Mrs. Albert," Snyder said. "We certainly didn't mean to upset her. The state's attorney's office worked very hard for Mrs. Albert in convicting the murderers of her son."
Anjanette Albert on Monday declined to say who she's supporting in the campaign, but said "I'm not supporting (Alvarez)."
Andrew Stroth, an attorney who represents Albert, later said the teen's mother is supporting Foxx, saying the challenger was supportive of Albert when she was going through the travails of the criminal trials against those charged in her son's murder.
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