North Cook News

Northfield Republican Committeeman T.J. Brown said the organization he leads was unable to endorse a gubernatorial candidate due to concerns over ballot boxes being stuffed at the Northfield Township Republican Organization’s endorsement session held Wednesday, May 11.

The campaign of Jesse Sullivan is pointing the finger at the campaign of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and its highest-profile North Shore backer, Republican National Committeeman for Illinois Richard Porter, who it claims was seen “rapidly filling out ballots” for Irvin.

Porter is a Republican National Committeeman for Illinois. He also works as an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. 

Porter, a Winnetka resident and partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis, recently took Irvin to sit in his front row seats at the Cubs game. 

In the first vote, Irvin and Sullivan tied with 30 votes apiece. The second vote was counted but the endorsement was withheld on accusations of ballot stuffing. 

"There was a little bit of chaos being ginned up by two different campaigns in particular and that the top two vote-getters and looking at the results anyway, I didn't believe that we would have had enough to get up to 60% anyway," Brown told North Cook News. "We have a very strong contingent of supporters, and there's not enough to get a significant number of Irvin or Sullivan supporters in the township (to get to 60% at the ballot box) and I felt at that point that the result could have been tainted and at least there would have been an appearance of a tainted result. And I felt that it would have been improper to make an endorsement for governor with all those factors."

Brown challenged the Sullivan campaign’s claims and said it shouldn’t challenge Porter's Republican credentials or integrity.

"I think what did happen with Porter is that he wanted to drop off a deal for somebody who left early," he said.  

"I was explaining to him that they were told earlier I had made a few announcements and when they came in, we would check their name. We would have someone initial the ballot and they'd have the initial ballot and then they have the second ballot in case it was necessary. And I made the announcement several times that if people were leaving early, they could drop off their second ballot,” Brown said.

"We had someone who was serving as a credential — or two people serving to handle credentials — and they could drop off the ballot on their way out and they can marked as voted. And I think Porter was concerned that people who left early didn't get a chance to vote, and so he showed up,” he said.

Another North Cook News source who was there and requested anonymity said they saw a woman connected to Irvin's campaign try to put several ballots in the box before being called out. It was after that confrontation, the source said, that said Brown announced the endorsement could not be made.

"Things got hectic and nobody followed though on the original process and therefore they had no way of knowing what happened," the source said.

Brown confirmed the vote became hectic.

"There were other hands that were coming in with different ballots. And we were people got unruly because we had them in line and we were taking their name and taking their ballot. And there was some pushing and shoving and some other stuff going on,” Brown said.

He said there was no way any candidate was going to get 60 percent of the vote, the threshold to win the endorsement.

“There was (also) a big turnout of (GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren) Bailey's supporters to start with last night… and (GOP gubernatorial candidate Gary) Rabine had a decent number of people there as well,” Brown said. "Certainly Irvin and Sullivan were at 34.5%, and I didn't believe that they could get up to 60% in that second ballot anyway. Once we had questions about whether the ballot box was stuffed, I didn't even want to go down that road,” he said.

Last month, the Irvin campaign was accused of having "rigged" a Republican primary straw poll in Lake County by busing in unknowing Indian-American senior citizens connected to a political operative.

Correction: An error in Brown's first quote regarding a "significant number of Irvin or Sullivan supporters" was changed from an "infinite number."