Super PACs funding many political ads ahead of Illinois primary election

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's just under two weeks until the Illinois primary election, and political ads have seemingly taken over the airwaves.

Many of them aren't being paid for by the campaigns.

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It was a vote La Shawn Ford doesn't regret, but the Illinois state representative had no idea his vote in Springfield to regulate cryptocurrency in Illinois would come back to haunt him during his run for Congress.

FairShake is a Super PAC, or political action committee, funded by the cryptocurrency industry.

Because of Ford's position to regulate the industry, FairShake has spent close to $2 million trying to defeat Ford's candidacy in the 7th Congressional District by airing misleading TV and digital ads about Ford's past.

"What these commercials have done is they resurfaced a very harmful time in my life," said Ford, a Democrat.

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The ads imply Ford was convicted of bank fraud. Several years ago, federal prosecutors charged him with 17 counts of bank fraud, but all were dropped. Ford says the ads are slanderous.

"I think voters have to be sure they are not duped by this," Ford said.

Illinois voters have been bombarded with ads paid for by Super PACs.

PACs are legally allowed to raise and spend as much money as they desire in an election, as long as they don't coordinate their efforts with an individual candidate.

"There is kind of, you know, indirect communications, kind of fiction that these are truly independent of the campaigns. Because these campaigns, they're willingly, kind of accepting, this type of spending," political strategist Frank Calabrese said.

Calabrese says Super PACs are spending well over $4 millions in all four contested congressional races. He says the vast majority of money spent in the races is coming from outside of Illinois.

"It's more than $20 million right now. So, it's a significant amount of money," Calabrese said. "The most money is being spent by the American Israeli Political Action Committee, which is known as AIPAC."

FairShake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With 12 days to go before the election, the money continues to flow.

Calabrese says when it is all said and done, Super PACs will spend between $25-30 million in Illinois.