Governor Quinn Makes Executive Appointments

CHICAGO – August 30, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today announced appointments to the Campaign Finance Reform Task Force. The Governor signed Senate Bill 1466 into law late last year, creating the task force to examine campaign contribution limits.

“This task force is an important tool that will ensure that our election process reflects the will of the citizens of Illinois, not the influence of special interests,” said Governor Quinn.

The Campaign Finance Reform Task Force will study the impact of contribution limits and make recommendations following the 2012 and 2014 elections. The task force will also conduct an in-depth study on the feasibility of implementing public financing for statewide, legislative and judicial offices and will make those recommendations by Sept. 30, 2012.

The task force, consisting of 11 members appointed by the Governor and the Illinois General Assembly, will issue a final report by March 10, 2015. The new appointees include:

Lindsay Hansen Anderson will serve as the chair of the Campaign Finance Reform Task Force. Anderson lives in Chicago and is Governor Quinn’s legislative director/legislative counsel. Prior to joining the Quinn Administration in February 2009, Anderson was an attorney at the law firm McGuireWoods. She worked in the State Government Relations practice group, providing clients with the development and execution of strategic legislative plans. Also in that role, she advised clients on how to comply with complex campaign finance laws.

William McNary lives in Chicago and is currently the president of USAction, one of the largest national federations of independent state organizations. He is also the co-executive director of Citizen Action/Illinois, the Illinois affiliate of USAction. In addition, McNary serves as a board member of Public Campaign, a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that will lessen the role of special interest money in elections.

Joseph Seliga of Chicago is an attorney and partner with Mayer Brown LLP. In his current role, Seliga helps lead his law firm's campaign finance practice by advising candidates, public officials, individual contributors and corporations on the laws and regulations related to campaign disclosure requirements and political contribution limitations.

Today’s appointments reflect Governor Quinn’s longtime commitment to increasing ethics and accountability in state government. The Governor led the effort for the state’s first constitutional amendment that will enable Illinois residents to remove a governor from office. Governor Quinn also signed legislation to strengthen the state’s ethics laws, reform the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and to prohibit state funds from being used to finance gubernatorial portraits of individuals who have been impeached.