Nancy Kimme

Nancy Kimme is a former state official and lobbyist in Illinois. She served as the chief of staff to the late former Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. Kimme also served as a member of Gov. Bruce Rauner's transition team in 2014.

She served as Topinka's Chief of Staff in the Comptroller's office from January 2011 to December 9, 2014, when Topinka died. She also worked on Topinka’s 2014 campaign team. After Topinka died, the campaign account gave Kimme a stipend for work on the 2014 re-election campaign. At that time she said that she would personally match the stipend, which was $25,000, to start a new political action committee that would help moderate female candidates running for office. She never matched the stipend.

For the 2016 presidential election, Kimme joined the campaign of Ohio Governor John Kasich. Her job was to run the operation in Illinois to look for delegates for him. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Kimme served as a delegate from Illinois. She was one of six delegates from Illinois bound to support John Kasich for the presidential nomination.

Kimme began working as a lobbyist in February 2015. Some of her first clients included the Illinois Hospital Association, the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, Ameren, and a cable TV group. She lobbies both the Illinois General Assembly (state legislature) and the governor’s office.

A Springfield, Illinois political gossip website called Capitol Fax wrote that "she’s one of those people who knows everybody and everything and has been indispensable to Team Rauner. They’ll be lining up around the block to give her contracts."

In 2015, Ballotpedia selected Nancy Kimme as one of the top influencers in Illinois.

Lobbyist-sponsored birthday party

In December 1999, a lobbyist for Solomon Smith Barney named Courtney Shea threw a 38th birthday celebration for Nancy Kimme with around 30 of Kimme’s colleagues at a Riverfront restaurant in Chicago at a cost of $1,400. Kimme and Shea had been friends since the early 1990s. The birthday party occurred months after Kimme, the Comptroller’s chief of staff, helped steer a contract for managing Illinois state college savings program (Bright Start) to Courtney Shea’s firm, Salomon Smith Barney (SSB).

During the bidding process, SSB Citi Asset Management was chosen over two other bidders. After the contract was awarded, the campaign account for Judy Topinka reimbursed Shea. Then-state senator Barack Obama commented about it: "If nothing else, a transaction like this gives an appearance of impropriety that every state agency should avoid." Obama had helped write a state law that banned elected officials and certain state employees from accepting most gifts from lobbyists. The executive director of Illinois Common Cause, a watchdog group, praised the reimbursement but said, "The timing of it -- as the party pertains to when this (firm) gets its contract -- can reasonably raise eyebrows. But then, you have to look at the performance of this (firm)."

Death of Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka

Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died on December 10, 2014, right after winning another four-year term that would have started in January of the following year. A few hours after Topinka died, Governor-elect Bruce Brauner said that he wanted Governor Pat Quinn to immediately appoint Kimme as the new Comptroller and step in to serve "right now." At the time, there was legal confusion as to who should or could serve as Comptroller upon Topinka’s death.

On December 19, 2014, in spite of Rauner’s advice, Quinn announced that he selected one of his aides, budget chief Jerry Stermer, to fill out the final three weeks of Topinka’s term as Illinois Comptroller. Kimme was present for the governor’s announcement. According to the Pantagraph, "Quinn (called on) lawmakers to return to the statehouse Jan. 8 to schedule a special election in 2016 to give voters a say in who runs the office for the final two years of what would have been Topinka's second term. Rauner, however, says he has the power under the Illinois Constitution to appoint a replacement for the full four-year term. Quinn said the public disagrees with Rauner."

Kimme’s lobbying firm

In early 2015, Kimme became a lobbyist. Her first clients were the Illinois Hospital Association, Illinois Casino Gaming Association, Ameren and a cable TV group.

As of March 16, 2017, Kimme’s firm, Advantage Government Strategies located in Chicago, had the following clients according to government records:

• American Beverage Association
• Associated Beer Distributors Of Illinois 
• AT&T Illinois and its Affiliates
• Camelot Global Services, North America Cullinan Joliet, LLC
• Examination Resources, LLC
• Exelon Corporation
• EXP US Services Inc.
• Family Health Network, Inc.
• Ganschow, Christopher A.
• Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault 
• Illinois Harness Horsemen's Association 
• Kemper Corporation
• Rend Lake Conservancy District
• Tides Center
• Wexford Health Sources, Inc. 

Lobbying for competing interests

According to the Prairie State Wire in August 2017, "An analysis of her work over the past two years shows that, among her new lobbyist peers, Kimme has been unrivaled — both in her profligacy and success rate." According to the Prairie State Wire, she had 74 clients in August 2017. Between 2015 and 2017, 29 of her clients received 2,878 state contracts worth almost $17 billion. Her clients come from various sectors including software vendors, construction companies, local governments, and social service providers. Kimme represents hospitals and "Medicaid backed health insurance providers, wrestling over scarce healthcare dollars." She also lobbies on behalf of businesses trying to get regulatory relief as well as unions seeking more regulations. Among her clients are casinos that are pushing for more gambling; also monitor clients or social service providers that help people cope with gambling addictions.

She had her own three different lobbying firms. One of those firms was Advantage Government Strategies. She didn’t have offices in Springfield; instead, Rauner’s chief of staff and another Rauner ex-chief of staff let her use their offices when she was in town for clients.

She also represents medical marijuana makers and has successfully gotten makers state licenses. "Medical marijuana makers vying to receive licenses in early 2015, just as Rauner took office, hired Kimme. Chicago-based Kimme clients Cresco Labs and Illinois Grown Medicine, part-owned by former Blagojevich confidant and lobbyist Paul Rosenfeld, won a state license."

Kimme client Custom Strains, "backed by Chicago trucking entrepreneur and strip club owner Perry Mandera", wants to build a medical marijuana dispensary in the Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago.

Lawsuit against Kimme over use of Topinka’s campaign account

District court

Judy Baar Topinka’s son, Joseph, filed a lawsuit against Kimme and two others in December 2015 that alleged Kimme converted $89,000 from Topinka’s campaign fund for her own personal use. The lawsuit alleged that Kimme took $63,807 from the campaign fund in August 2015 and that she did not list that expenditure from the fund’s following quarterly report. Kimme responded that she merely moved the $63,807 from a bank that handled a then-canceled campaign credit card to the main campaign account at another bank. She said that the other $25,000 she took was for a payment for her work that she performed on Topinka’s 2014 reelection campaign. Kimme responded to the lawsuit: "These are reckless allegations and dishonest filings. It’s sad, and it’s so sad I can’t even really be angry because it’s just so sad and pathetic."

The lawsuit even alleged that the $68,807 check was made out to "Cash" and endorsed by Kimme on August 7, 2015. According to The State Journal-Register, "A hard-to-read copy of a handwritten check was filed with the lawsuit." The lawsuit claimed that "upon information and belief, Kimme used some or all" of the $88,807 "for personal purposes including, but not limited to, loans, debt, clothing, club memberships, travel expenses or other prohibited actions as defined by the State Gift Ban Act and has not repaid the funds and refuses to do so."

According to The State Journal-Register, "Since the Gift Ban Act took effect in 1998, leftover campaign funds can’t be converted to personal use. But Topinka’s fund had $341,618 on hand when that law took effect – so that amount could have been given to Topinka, or, the lawsuit said, to her son as executor of her estate."

On January 22, 2016, Cook County Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos slapped a temporary restraining order on Kimme preventing her from spending any more money from Topinka’s political committee bank account. Without receiving approval from the Topinka family, Kimme "assumed control of her mentors political committee and its nearly $900,000 in assets days after Comptroller Topinka’s December 10, 2014 death." The judge’s order read "no funds in the accounts of Citizens for Judy Baar Topinka shall be expended except for defense of the case by the fund, and with/or by agreement of counsel, court order or both."

In a four-count lawsuit filed in December 2015 against Kimme, the plaintiff, Joseph Baar Topinka—Topinka’s only child and the executor of her estate— said that he brought the lawsuit on because he had attempted, along with his attorney and other people, for a year to reach Kimme and get her to agree that the money in the political account be used to establish the Judy Baar Topinka Charitable Foundation. The foundation was established in 2015. The lawsuit alleged that Kimme "converted funds in the political committee account for personal use." Joseph Baar Topinka alleged that Kimme "wrongly converted nearly $89,000 from the Topinka campaign fund to personal use." The lawsuit demanded that those funds be returned and at the balance of the account, $341,618 be transferred either to Joseph Baar Topinka individually or to Judy Baar Topinka’s estate. In the final quarter of 2015, $435.72 had been spent from the fund.

According to The State Journal-Register, "Kimme called the allegations "reckless," "dishonest," "sad and pathetic."" The lawsuit was also filed against the chairman of the political committee and the committee’s treasurer. The case, Joseph Baar Topinka, et al v. Nancy Kimme, et al, 15–CH–18684, was filed in Cook County District Court on December 29, 2015.

In March 2016, Judge Anna Demacopoulos dismissed the lawsuit. In the judge’s order, she wrote that when Topinka it was still the chairwoman of her own committee, she filed documentation stating that the fund were to be dissolved, any remaining money was to go to the Riverside Township Regular Republican Organization. The judge also wrote that her son didn’t contribute to the fund, and he himself had no standing to seek the money. "The committee itself is not an asset of the estate of the comptroller," the judge wrote.

Appeals court

Topinka’s son appealed the judge’s decision to the Illinois Appellate Court. According to the official court documents, "On appeal, plaintiff contends that the court erred in granting defendants' motion to dismiss because it had subject-matter jurisdiction, he has standing to proceed with the litigation, and his claims have merit." The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s decision, meaning that the case in the appeals court was dismissed.

Private email for state job requests

While she worked as a government official, Kimme also worked as a member of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s transition team. In that capacity, she used her private email account to take requests for state jobs for the new governor, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Kimme said that she and the governor were not trying to shield the emails from public scrutiny or trying to get around any public record laws. "She says people routinely contacted her for work reasons through her Yahoo.com email account because that’s what she most often uses." According to the Associated Press, she "was one of three state government administrators who were filling political jobs for Rauner while on the comptroller’s payroll." After his inauguration, the Better Government Association (BGA) try to get copies of emails among the transition team including Kimme as well as state lawmakers and Rauner. The Comptroller’s office refused to release the emails, saying that the Illinois Freedom of Information Act provided an exemption from disclosure for such communications. In response, the BGA sued to have the records released.

Kimme was subpoenaed as part of the lawsuit and she turned over emails from private accounts. The records show that she used her private email account to email key government and Political figures about jobs for Rauner’s new administration. one of the emails was sent on January 6 from the Chief of Staff, Dave Gross, to Illinois Senate President John Cullerton to Kimme. Gross asked her to help save the jobs of two state bureaucrats who are going to be fired and replaced with new political hires.

Kimme responded, "It wasn’t an effort to get around anything." She said that people often contacted her via her private email address because that’s the email address that she used the most. She said, "My private emails go to my phone that I have with me all the time."

External links

• Illinois Gift Ban Act
• Nancy Kimme - LinkedIn

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