Former State Rep. Denyse Stoneback Leads Charge to Inject Truth into Political Campaigns
Denyse Wang Stoneback, a former Democrat state representative, is spearheading a movement to achieve a goal that cynics might say is more difficult than mixing oil and water. She wants to inject truth into political campaigning.
Denyse Wang Stoneback, a former Democrat state representative, is spearheading a movement to achieve a goal that cynics might say is more difficult than mixing oil and water. She wants to inject truth into political campaigning.
“We see with the low voter turnout, the disengagement, the cynicism and the mistrust that is generated by the negative campaigning, by the outright lies…this is something that is really harming our democracy,” said Stoneback. “It makes ethical people less likely to become involved in politics and run for office. And when you think about it, lying is a breach of trust. And when a candidate lies to voters to manipulate them, this harms the relationship between the candidate and the public. And then voters become distrustful of everyone in politics and government.”
Stoneback founded a non-profit organization, Citizens for Ethical Campaigns. It is encouraging political candidates to engage in truthfulness in their campaigns by adhering to the Illinois Code of Fair Campaign Practices.
“This is a voluntary code that was passed in the Illinois legislature in 1989,” said Stoneback. “And it is encouraging all candidates to follow the basic principles of decency, honesty and fair play.”
Sounds much like the Boy Scout code in a state where the phrase “politics ain’t beanbag” was created to describe the cutthroat nature of political warfare. If few Illinois citizens know that such a code even exists, it may be because few candidates seem to abide by its guidelines.
Nonetheless, Citizens for Ethical Campaigns reports that in Illinois’ 2024 primary, 94 candidates running for county and state level offices signed the pledge to campaign truthfully. Candidates taking the pledge were distributed nearly equally between Democrats and Republicans.
“I think that there are honest and ethical people on both sides of the aisle and a lot of unethical and uncivil behavior happens not just in the general election but in the primary elections as well,” said Stoneback. “This will be a very healthy way of improving our democracy and not resulting in the frustrated voters and all the mud slinging we see unfortunately, in so many political campaigns today.”
Stoneback’s fervor for honest campaigning stems directly from her 2022 primary loss to Kevin Olickal for her former north suburban seat in the state legislature. In that election, Olickal and the Gun Violence Prevention PAC (G-PAC), cast Stoneback as a gun control opponent when in fact she was a gun control advocate before and during her term in the state legislature. In a low-turnout primary with just over 10,000 votes cast, she lost by 622 votes.
“I have worked on gun violence prevention for years and years, for over a decade now,” said Stoneback. “After the Sandy Hook school shooting happened, I started a non-profit organization, People for a Safer Society. We grew it into a statewide organization,” said Stoneback.
Stephen Young, a gun control advocate whose son, Andrew, was shot to death in 1996 in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, was an ally of Stoneback’s almost from the start. Both were parishioners at Evanston’s St. Nicholas Catholic Church.
“I’d stepped back from my gun control advocacy because I lost my wife in 2012. She passed away from cancer and I submerged for a while. I just needed time to grieve and adjust,” said Young. “But Denyse urged me to get involved again. People for a Safer Society was just getting started. And it grew so fast. We got so many people on board with that thing. Denyse had such great organizing power.”
“They had tried to get gun dealer licensing through the legislature for something like 13 years and every year it failed. But finally, it passed,” said Young. “I went down to lobby for it a few times and a couple of other activists said, it was your group that pushed it over the top. Because Denyse had so many people calling legislators, Republican legislators, and representatives from swing suburban districts, finally they gave in and voted for it.”
Stoneback ran for the General Assembly in 2020 and won. She continued advocating for gun restrictions and helped passed Illinois’ red flag law (which allows police or family members to petition a court to remove firearms from someone that might be a danger to themselves or others) and the 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases.
“But then it all came down to one bill where she insisted on mandatory fingerprinting for all gun purchasers. And G-PAC wanted to compromise and say, let’s make it voluntary, which is worthless. Absolutely worthless,” said Young. “Because she refused to go along with them, G-PAC and Olickal and some other entities that were against her, they put together a campaign to run her out of office.”
As a result, Stoneback filed a lawsuit against Olickal and G-PAC, charging that the defendants, “engaged in a concerted effort to destroy Ms. Stoneback’s reputation among citizens of…the 16th District by knowingly publishing false statements that portrayed Ms. Stoneback as an enemy to gun violence prevention, despite Ms. Stoneback having been well-known advocate and voice for gun violence prevention…for over a decade.” Link to lawsuit here.
Because of the pending litigation, Stoneback is not able to comment on the actions against her outlined in the lawsuit. But her allies like Young are still furious over the misrepresentation of her record.
“G-PAC produced some of these flyers that went around that said she voted against gun control measures, and he’d turned her back on parents who’d lost children to gun violence. Completely the opposite of who she is and the work she’s done,” said Young. “They even called her an ally of the NRA. They were lying. It was repulsive. They even photo-shopped her to look like she was some sort of demon. It was sleazy and dishonest.”
The lawsuit catalogs each of the direct mail pieces produced by Olickal and G-PAC and outlines the alleged mistruths within them. One mailer produced by Friends of Kevin Olickal (described in the lawsuit as FOKO Second Mailer Flyer Side 1) says “Denyse Wang Stoneback Chose to Stand with the NRA.” Another mailer produced by G-PAC (labeled G-PAC First Mailer Flyer Side 1) said “Denise Wang Stoneback told grieving mothers who’ve lost children to gun violence she won’t support their legislation.” One other G-PAC mailer (described as Second G-PAC Mailer Flyer Side 2) asks “Did You Know? Rep. Denyse Wang Stoneback refused to support universal background checks on gun purchases.”
“You can’t call somebody a friend of the NRA when they’ve been working against them their entire career,” said Young. “Deal with facts, deal with your position versus theirs instead of making up lies out of thin air.”
State Rep. Kevin Olickal and G-PAC declined to comment on the allegations in Stoneback’s lawsuit.
Stoneback is hopeful that Citizens for Ethical Campaigns can help make the kind of attacks she suffered a thing of the past.
“I think when politicians lie, they make it impossible to know who to trust and there’s really no indication that if they’re elected, these people will serve the public interest and their constituents,” said Stoneback. “There is a lot of corruption in government. One way we can reduce it is by trying to elect people who value ethical behavior, value honesty, and who pledge to run campaigns along those lines.”
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