In one of the most bizarre occurrences in this election cycle, Lake County News Dispatch has learned that Wayne Taylor, husband of Waukegan mayoral candidate Ann Taylor, conspired with Waukegan resident Matt Muchowski to fund a direct mailer and urged him to conceal Taylor’s role in the plot. Wayne provided ways to Muchowski for him to make the $7321 check appear as if it came from someone other than himself when filing the expenditure with Illinois State Board of Elections.
The direct mailer that went out to voters associated mayoral candidate Keith Turner with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. This is accurate as Turner is actually a far right republican who is running as an independent in effort to fool voters. This is the same Keith Turner who compromised an image of a deceased woman’s arm which got a Waukegan police officer a 60 day suspension for having had supplied it to him. The mailer also included republican candidate Harold Beadling’s image on the front. Beadling is the only declared republican candidate in this race, and his being forthright is honorable.
Inexplicably, the mailer also displayed Ann Taylor on the front. Taylor is running as an independent, even though she is actually a republican who resides in a Libertyville mansion.
Why Wayne would supply a check for $7321 for this mailer is perplexing. A theory is that he was interested in attacking Keith Turner and at the same time, trying to take moderate support from Cunningham by making the mailer appear as if it was sent by the Cunningham campaign.
Whatever Taylor’s objective, he did not want his fingerprints on it.
A ring door bell video posted by Muchowski on his Facebook account captures Wayne Taylor coming to the door and handing over the check. During the ensuing discussion, Wayne can be heard telling Muchowski how to conceal the source of the funds saying, ”the name is Nancy Lance and list her occupation as retired.” While the wind noise does partially obscure the voices, it sounds like Taylor also said he doesn’t want anything to show where the check came from. Fortunately, Muchowski did not take Taylor’s directions when conducting the required filing as it would have been in violation of campaign finance regulations.
In chatter on Facebook, Ann Taylor’s supporters were lashing out at Cunningham over the mailer, but he had nothing to do with it. Instead it was Ann’s husband Wayne who was at the center of the effort.
Why on earth did the Taylor campaign engage in subterfuge to attack Keith Turner?
They have released streams of false attack mailers against Cunningham going all of the way back to the primary when Ann wasn’t even on the ballot. We wonder why the Taylor campaign did not have their usual communications consultant design and send an attack piece against Turner instead of this very odd and risky move involving potential election law violations.
Ann Taylor and her campaign are unethical
Ann Taylor likes to paint a picture of herself and her campaign as being highly ethical and better than everyone else. She and her campaign have once again shown us they are the polar opposite of ethical, have no regard for the law and no regard for the truth.
Sources inform us the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office has been made aware of the matter.