Will County Gazette

Voters in DuPage Township recently received flyers attacking Alyssia Benford, a candidate for DuPage Township supervisor. The flyers came from a group called "Citizens Against Benford" and featured images of Benford, a black woman who is the Republican candidate for the position, as well as racist imagery. 

The most recent flyer, sent out on March 5, feature images of Benford, as well as images of a Confederate flag, and a noose.

Last month, the group sent a mailer with a Confederate flag near the candidate’s picture, as well as language that could be considered provocative.

Alyssia Benfield, candidate for DuPage County Supervisor | AlyssiaBenford.com

The flyer sent in February calls Alyssia Benford (and those whom she supposedly supports) “too extreme for our township.” It includes photos of suspected killer Kyle Rittenhouse; of Benford supposedly yelling at another woman; and of the Confederate flag. Interspersed with the images are screenshots of Facebook comments that could be read as linking Benford to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. The other side of the flyer features images of Deborah Williams, candidate for trustee, and Antonio Timothee, candidate for trustee, along with screenshots purportedly from their Facebook pages, that contain inflammatory language.

It is worth noting that the images supposedly from Deborah Williams’ Facebook comments have her name spelled “Debra Williams.” 

Edgar County Watchdogs notes that the second flier was attached to a Facebook post in “Bolingbrook Reporter” by Bonnie Kurowksi, a former resident of Bolingbrook who now lives in Florida. She is apparently an administrator of the private Facebook group and has posted images of the flyers attacking Benford, alongside candidate Gary Marschke, along with words of support for Marschke.

Marschke did not respond when asked for comment on the Facebook post that offers support for his candidacy and attacks his opponent.

According to Edgar County Watchdogs, the group known as Citizens Against Benford has not registered with the state Board of Elections, but there are other organizations involved that used the same business account to send these mailers.

A Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Postal Service revealed that both mailers (sent by a Florida-based company) targeting Benford as well as a mailer sent by Felix George, another candidate, were sent from “Spell it With Color,” which is registered to conduct business in the state of Illinois. “Spell It With Color” is located in Naperville, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

“Spell it With Color” was at one point also known as Allegra Printing and Imaging, but Allegra is inactive in the state’s registry.

The inactive company has been paid by several organizations for services in the current or past election cycles, including Friends of Bart Minor and Citizens for Claar, but those groups are not connected to the mailers that target Benford. Bolingbrook United is another that has paid Allegra for work in the past but has nothing to do with these flyers.