Prairie State Wire

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs recently sent a letter to major money managers across the country asking them to discontinue funding Republican lawmakers who opposed the certification of the 2020 election results.

Frerichs immediately came under fire from fellow Republicans who called his letter a disgrace and a purely partisan move to coax the asset managers into funding only Frerichs and his allies.

Former state senator, and current gubernatorial candidate Paul Schimpf called the letter an “embarrassment” and said that Frerichs had no business doing what he did when there are more important things he should attend to.

 Schimpf said, "In these trying financial times, he should be worrying about maximizing the rate of return for Illinois investors, not bullying asset managers about their political donations.”

Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon also publicly criticized Frerichs and accused the treasurer of hogging the money managers’ funding for himself. Glennon said, “It’s nakedly partisan and it’s an attempt to force corporations to not make political contributions to [Republicans], and to [Republicans] alone.”

Frerichs defended his stance to The Center Square. “There are a variety of people pushing lies about government, lies about our elections, destroying trust in our government, destroying trust in that process, which is destabilizing to our country,” Frerichs said Monday.

 Objecting to election results by members of the Congress is perfectly legal, which is why many Republicans are incensed by Frerichs’ call to defund some of them.