Two Democratic members of the Illinois State Board of Elections who helped block nearly $10 million in campaign fines against Democratic Senate President Don Harmon have political ties to organizations that contributed disputed, above-limit donations to Harmon and continued giving to him even as the case was pending before the board.
Vice Chair Rick Terven Sr., appointed in 2021, and board member Tonya Genovese, appointed in 2022, joined their two Democratic colleagues in October and November in rejecting penalties recommended by the board’s staff and an independent hearing officer against Harmon’s Friends of Don Harmon for State Senate campaign committee.
The board staff concluded Harmon violated state campaign law by collecting $4 million in unlimited contributions after fundraising caps he took steps to lift were reinstated, and they recommended Harmon’s campaign committee be fined $9.8 million. The action followed a Tribune inquiry to board officials about Harmon’s fundraising practices.
Related Articles
Illinois elections board remains deadlocked on Senate President Don Harmon fundraising case, drops $9.8M fine
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon faces potential $9.8 million fine for improperly accepting campaign cash
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon improperly accepted $4 million in campaign cash, election authorities say
A hearing examiner later rejected Harmon’s appeal. Still, the financial penalty was not imposed because the eight-member state panel repeatedly deadlocked 4-4 along party lines, short of the five votes required for final action. On Nov. 18, the board voted 5-3 to strike the matter from its docket. A separate complaint filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian-leaning group that frequently advocates for Republican causes, remains pending and could bring the matter to court.
At the center of the dispute is a loophole in Illinois campaign finance law that Harmon helped author.
Although Illinois law generally limits how much money politicians can raise from campaign contributors, the loophole allows candidates to accept unlimited contributions when facing wealthy, self-funded opponents. But many politicians, including elected legislative leaders like Harmon, have long used it to contribute money to their own campaigns and artificially lift caps, thereby building large political war chests to help themselves and loyal members in individual campaigns.
Harmon triggered the provision to lift the campaign caps by contributing more than $100,001 to his campaign in January 2023. At the time, Harmon indicated that he thought it allowed him to accept unlimited contributions throughout the November 2024 general election cycle. But board officials told him the loophole would close after the March primary, meaning any campaign contributions he received after the primary that exceeded the donation limits were prohibited.
Harmon was not a 2024 candidate but is on the ballot next year and contended that an election cycle runs until his office is up for election. Unlike state House members, who are up for election every two years, state senators run in staggered two- and four-year terms.
The $9.8 million in penalties proposed by the board staff included a payment to the state’s general fund equal to the more than $4 million election officials said Harmon raised in excess of the contribution limits, plus a nearly $5.8 million fine calculated based on 150% of that amount.
Among the contributions that the board staff flagged were donations from a labor union with connections to Terven and a law firm where Genovese works.
Even if the two had recused themselves, the sanction would still not have met the five-vote threshold for approval. But Terven and Genovese’s votes underscore that there is no formal conflict-of-interest policy for board members, although some members have recused themselves from matters if they had a relationship to an individual or organization with ties to a case.
Terven has a long history in organized labor, including previously directing all organizing, marketing and political activities for the Illinois Pipe Trades. He later became the legislative and political affairs director of the United Association of Plumbers, Pipe Fitters and Sprinkler Fitters and went on to become the international union’s executive vice president until he retired in 2017.
Terven’s son, Rick Terven Jr., is the $186,596-a-year lobbyist and political director for the Illinois Pipe Trades Association, according to U.S. Department of Labor records. The association represents 21 local unions and over 30,000 union members across Illinois and parts of Iowa and Indiana. Terven Jr. is also a member of Pipe Fitters Association Local 597 of Chicago. That local’s political action committee was noted by the elections board staff for giving Harmon $100,000 on Nov. 1 of last year, $31,500 above contribution limits, and Harmon’s committee was assessed a $47,250 fine.
Additionally, while the elections board was still debating the matter, the United Association of Journeymen & IL Pipe Trades Association PAC on Nov. 13 contributed $250,000 to the Friends of Don Harmon campaign committee, election board records show.
Overall, state election board finance reports show various entities of the pipe trades have given the Friends of Don Harmon committee more than $3 million since 2004, including $821,700 directly from the Illinois Pipe Trades Association PAC, where Terven Jr. is political director and $550,000 from the Pipefitters Local 597, where Terven Jr. is a member.
During the board’s Nov. 18 meeting, where it once again deadlocked on the issue, Terven Sr. made a point of noting his labor background. But he didn’t mention the labor contributions, and in voting against the Harmon fines, he said, “We as a board represent both sides of the aisle, and we must act impartially.”
“I worked in the past for my international union as their national political director and their executive vice president … and our general counsel have always advised me, when I was working for them under this premise, that our union was approximately 47% Democrat, 47% Republican and 6% independent, and we were successful at the end of the day by serving everyone fairly as I feel I am doing here today,” he said.
“To be honest, in my decision, most of this is common sense in the best interest for all the citizens represented in Illinois, no matter what party we’re in,” he said.
Genovese, a former 15-year assistant state’s attorney in Madison County and now senior counsel at the Gori Law Firm, also voted against the fines. She joined the Gori Law Firm in 2019, three years before her board appointment, and is listed as a senior counsel at the firm.
The board staff cited a $25,000 Gori contribution in August 2024 that exceeded campaign limits by $11,300 and recommended a $16,950 penalty.
State Board of Elections reports show the Gori firm has given three campaign committees controlled by Harmon a total of $177,800 since October 2020, including $139,800 to his Friends for State Senate leadership committee.
In September of this year, while Harmon’s case was still pending before the elections board, records show the Gori firm gave another $25,000 to the Friends of Don Harmon committee.
Given the information in the board members’ meeting packets and agendas, Terven Sr. and Genovese would have known in advance about the Pipefitters’ and Gori’s contributions before the matter came before the board.
Neither Terven Sr. nor Genovese responded to requests for comment about their board votes on the Harmon matter.
Reform for Illinois, a nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog group, has been critical of the board’s action in stalemating fines against Harmon.
Alisa Kaplan, the group’s executive director, has called the Harmon case an “important” one for the board.
It was “a chance for the board to prove it could rise above politics and serve the people of Illinois instead of protecting party bigwigs. Instead, we saw circled wagons, a party-line vote, and glaring conflicts of interest,” Kaplan said.
“These members had clear conflicts and should never have been involved in this case,” Kaplan said of the Tribune’s findings.
“The board urgently needs a meaningful conflicts-of-interest policy and structural reforms to make it less susceptible to partisan bias and deadlock,” she said. “As it is now, the board looks — at best — unable to fully enforce our ethics rules, and at worst, more interested in shielding the powerful from them.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/14/illinois-elections-board-conflicts-harmon/
