Last week, Naperville City Council candidate Nag Jaiswal took to Facebook to proudly announce the endorsements he said he received from U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, of Schaumburg, and Danny Davis, of Chicago.
“The endorsement from respected Democratic leaders reflects my steadfast commitment to honest government,” the announcement read.
Except, neither Davis nor Krishnamoorthi has endorsed Jaiswal.
“The answer, of course, is no,” Davis said in a call when asked if he authorized an endorsement for Jaiswal. “I have great, great respect for the people of Naperville. … But I don’t know enough about the local politics of Naperville to be making any kind of endorsement for the city council. Further, no one has ever asked me for an endorsement.”
Krishnamoorthi has not issued a formal endorsement in the Naperville City Council race, a source confirmed to the Naperville Sun.
Jaiswal, who spoke briefly by phone Monday, did not answer direct questions about his claims of endorsements from Krishnamoorthi and Davis. After a four-minute conversation, he hung up.
In addition to the Facebook post, Jaiswal’s campaign appears to have sent out a text alert to voters last week likewise claiming he had been endorsed by Krishnamoorthi and Davis, according to a screenshot of the text acquired by the Sun.
“I mean, I was totally floored when I heard this,” Davis said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
First elected to Congress in 1996, Davis represents Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, which includes the Loop, suburban Hillside and parts of Chicago’s South Side. Krishnamoorthi took office in 2017 and represents the 8th Congressional District, which includes Schaumburg, Itasca, Roselle, Streamwood, Carpentersville, Elgin and parts of Geneva.
Early voting for Naperville’s April 1 election started on March 17 — the same day Jaiswal claimed to have been endorsed by Davis and Krishnamoorthi through his “Nag Jaiswal for Naperville” Facebook page.
This is 55-year-old Jaiswal’s second bid for a Naperville council seat; he’s among eight candidates vying for one of four, four-year terms. In 2023, he was the eighth-highest vote-getter in a pool of 11 candidates, receiving 5,717 of a total 73,718 votes cast.
His candidacy was challenged this year over a complaint that he did not have enough valid petition signatures to qualify. The challenge went before a local electoral board, which ultimately deemed that Jaiswal was eligible to run.
Jaiswal is a senior program architect with Salesforce, he said in a candidate questionnaire.
As part of his endorsement announcement last week, Jaiswal also touted having the backing of the Illinois Committee for Honest Government and attorney Frank Avila, who was identified in the advertisement as the chairman of the committee.
Reached by phone, Avila confirmed that he and the Illinois Committee for Honest Government did endorse Jaiswal for city council.
When speaking by phone Monday, the only comment Jaiswal offered was that he had been endorsed by the Illinois Committee for Honest Government. He added in a text afterwards, “I am running a positive nonpartisan campaign and have support from both Democrats and Republicans.”
Three days after Jaiswal’s initial Facebook post, an expanded — and altered — version was published to his campaign website under the headline, “Jaiswal Gets Bipartisan Endorsements in Naperville City Council Race.”
The revised version doesn’t outright say Krishnamoorthi and Davis endorsed Jaiswal directly but rather states that he received an endorsement from the Illinois Committee for Honest Government, which “includes prominent Democratic lawmakers such as U.S. Congressman Danny Davis and U.S. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi.”
Davis said he’s “never been associated” with the group.
“I’ve heard the name, but I’ve never known anything about it,” he said.
The Krishnamoorthi source said the same thing.
The Illinois Committee for Honest Government is a nonprofit corporation, a business entity search through the Illinois Secretary of State’s office website shows. Incorporated in 1986, it was active as of Monday, according to the state office.
Records through the Illinois State Board of Elections list the Illinois Committee for Honest Government as a political action committee with the purpose of working “for reform and improvements in (Illinois) election laws and procedures, and to push for increased responsiveness in all levels of government.”
However, the committee filed its last report with the State Board of Elections on April 14, 2023, online records show. No reports have been filed since. Multiple online searches did not yield a website for the Illinois Committee for Honest Government.
The “Nag Jaiswal for Naperville” post claiming endorsements from Krishnamoorthi and Davis was still up on Facebook as of Tuesday.
“I just hope it can be cleared up,” Davis said. “I don’t know much more I can say about it, other than it has happened and somebody has mistakenly thought that I would be involved in a city council election in Naperville. And I am not.”
