A year after the Chicago Sun-Times reported state Sen. Napoleon Harris appeared to be using his main campaign fund as a personal piggy bank — spending thousands of dollars on high-end department stores, swanky hotels and luxury car dealers — he’s preparing to pay back at least $20,000 to cover expenses that shouldn’t have been made from the fund.
“The senator has agreed to write a check for over $20,000 for expenses that were mistakenly made,” Harris’ campaign attorney, Burt Odelson, recently said. “There’s some big-ticket items he’s giving back.”
The reimbursements are likely to include money Friends of Napoleon Harris paid over the last few years to a private school in northwest Indiana that at least one of Harris’ children apparently attended, and likely some vehicle and clothing expenses.
Odelson said Harris — a Flossmoor Democrat, former NFL player and part of Illinois Senate President Don Harmon’s leadership team — had been handling the campaign’s finances and did not understand all of the restrictions. He has since brought on Odelson’s Evergreen Park law firm to ensure better compliance, he said.
Illinois campaign funds must disclose to the Illinois State Board of Elections in regular public filings not only who they raise money from but what they spend money on.
Generally, campaign money for state or federal political figures isn’t supposed to be used on personal expenses — something former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. learned the hard way when he was prosecuted and sent to prison for choosing “to treat his campaign account as a personal slush fund,” as federal authorities said in 2013 when he was sentenced.
The Sun-Times reported last year that Harris’ campaign fund spent $2,257.50 four days before Christmas in 2020 at the Neiman Marcus store in Oak Brook on “clothing and supplies.”
That was according to state elections board records that also showed Harris’ campaign spent $1,177.13 at the same store three days before Christmas in 2021 for “clothes.”
Another $1,452.08 was spent at the Chicago Nordstrom at 55 E. Grand Ave. in November 2022, though the expenditure didn’t list a “purpose” as required by election rules.
In October 2021, Friends of Napoleon Harris spent $866.70 at a Saks Fifth Avenue in Miami for what was described as “clothes for political event.”
The following month, Harris’ campaign reported paying more than $1,700 for “lodging” at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami that’s roughly a mile from the Saks, records show.
In 2020, Harris’ campaign reported paying Mercedes-Benz of Orland Park $14,000 for a lease payment, though the vehicle model wasn’t listed.
Between 2021 and late 2023, his campaign spent more than $5,000 at Rizza Cadillac in Tinley Park. Two of the payments were reported as being for “maintenance,” one was for a lease and a fourth gave no details.
In 2023, Harris’ campaign fund spent nearly $2,000 at Discount Tire in Crestwood, a southwest suburb, on “car maintenance.”
Harris, a legislator since 2013 who also is now the elected Thornton Township supervisor and Democratic committeeman, has long derived income from a company that runs a Beggars Pizza franchise in Harvey. His campaign has reported paying the restaurant more than $50,000 over the years for what’s been described as rent, “reading program vouchers” and meals for constituents.
According to state election law, “A political committee shall not make expenditures” for “clothing or personal laundry expenses, except clothing items rented by the public official or candidate for his or her own use exclusively for a specific campaign-related event, provided that committees may purchase costumes, novelty items or other accessories worn primarily to advertise the candidacy.”
But the same law also grants wide leeway to political figures on spending, saying, “Nothing in this section prohibits the expenditure of funds of a political committee controlled by an officeholder or by a candidate to defray the customary and reasonable expenses of an officeholder in connection with the performance of governmental and public service functions.”
Federal law could apply, though, if a political figure were to use campaign money on personal expenses and not pay income tax on that money.
State law also allows campaign funds to pay for vehicle leases if vehicles are “primarily” used for political or governmental purposes and not as a family car. There are no restrictions on how much can be spent for those leases or the type of vehicle.