NW Illinois News

Republican House candidate Andrew Chesney said he wouldn’t be surprised to see criminal charges filed against someone in Nick Hyde's campaign for misuse of government resources.

“People deserve good government and this certainly is not that,” Chesney told the NW Illinois News. “In the end, we could be talking about as many as 13 Class A misdemeanors having been committed.”

Chesney and Hyde are running to fill the 89th House District seat left open by the retirement of Rep. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), who is now running for state Senate.

Nick Hyde

Illinois Republican Party officials recently accused Mary Beth Hyde of violating state ethics laws by faxing campaign documents from a City of Galena fax number. Mary is Hyde’s mother, campaign treasurer and the Galena city clerk, according to the Telegraph Herald.

The Jo Daviess County state’s attorney office is aware of the allegations, Chesney said.

“It’s actions like these that make so many people distrustful about Springfield and government,” he said. “You wonder how someone who can’t even get basic things like these done correctly can possibly handle the complexity of working in Springfield.”

Neither Hyde nor his mother has publicly spoken about the matter.

“This won’t have any bearing on how we run our campaign,” Chesney said. “We still plan to stand on the issues we think are most important to the voters of this district and make our case to them. I know people of the district are frustrated and they want someone in Springfield who’s truly there to work on their behalf.”

The 89th House District includes parts or all of Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Carroll, Ogle and Whiteside counties.