The Illinois Racing Board now has just five sitting commissioners, following the recent resignations of three board members plus three existing vacancies.
Board Chairman Jeffrey Brincat and commissioners Edgar Ramirez and Greg Sronce resigned at the request of Governor J.B. Pritzker, due to making campaign contributions banned under the state’s new gambling expansion law. That leaves the board unable to hold its March 17 scheduled meeting unless Pritzker fills one or more vacancies.
The new law’s ban on political activity by racing board members took effect June 28. But Brincat, who was appointed to the board in 2015 by then-Governor Bruce Rauner, made two $1,000 campaign contributions in December, according to state campaign finance records. One contribution went to state Senator Antonio Munoz, a longtime Southwest Side Democrat seeking reelection this year, and the other went to Lauren Fleming, a Republican candidate for Lake County Board. Fleming’s campaign reported the contribution came from Brincat’s wife, Kelly, not the racing board chairman, but the contribution to Munoz lists Brincat’s occupation as racing board chairman.
In his resignation letter, Brincat wrote, “Every captain of a ship deserves to choose his own crew.” Brincat and his wife had contributed $13,000 to Rauner’s first gubernatorial campaign.
Rauner appointed Ramirez, a Berwyn Democrat, to the board in 2017. Last September he contributed $200 to Chicago Alderman Michael Rodriguez.
Sronce, a Springfield Republican appointed by Democratic Governor Pat Quinn in 2012, gave $1,000 to the Sangamon County Republican Foundation on July 23 and to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on June 28, according to state and federal campaign finance records. Sronce said he stopped all political activity after the racing board’s legal staff notified him about the new law’s ban on political activity by racing board members. He said he was thankful for his time on the board under three governors and was disappointed he wouldn’t see “Illinois horseracing come back and be competitive” under the gambling expansion.
Don Tracy, a Springfield Republican and prominent Rauner supporter, was appointed the racing board’s chairman in February 2015. According to a report released last September by the Office of Executive Inspector General, he resigned for making “loans and contributions either directly, or through his wife, to political committees.”
A former Republican primary candidate for lieutenant governor, Tracy said the IG’s investigation was politically motivated and “a bit sexist” because of the focus on contributions made by his wife.
