Uline CEO tarnishes family name with ugly Chicago political race

Richard Uihlein and Uline, Inc has been a Mount Pleasant area fixture for a number of years now. I see the office supply boxes with ULINE on them often.  What I didn’t know is how deeply involved Mr. Uihlein is with some pretty nasty Chicago politicians. I have some cousins in Illinois and believe you me there is a dirty race taking place there that Mr. Uihlein is involved with.

The election is between a Republican candidate named Ron Sandack who changed his position on gay marriage and his opponent, Keith Matune.

Mr. Matune has some real problems. He has been arrested about four times on things like felony larceny, resisting arrest, crawling into a ladies dorm and trespass. He was convicted on a charge of public nudity and there was a warrant for his arrest when he fled Virginia for Illinois.

The real problem is that Mr. Matune has lied over and over again about his criminal record. He is a teacher also and lied on his application to be a teacher and that is also a crime.

Mr. Uihlein has put more than a million dollars into a group so that people who support Matune can attack his Republican opponent.

My cousin showed me some of the mail she has received and I don’t think I have seen anything so ugly or foul in my life. One of the groups Mr. Uihlein has put money into is a group called Liberty Principles PAC, which is run by Dan Proft in Chicago.  Mr. Proft also has a history that few would want to be associated with.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Proft helped Larry Dominick of Cicero win election and re-election as town president. Dominick reminds me Rob Ford but worse. He has been in the news for hiring 20 of his relatives on the town payroll and paying out millions in tax dollars to settle several sexual harassment claims against him for pawing and groping female employees in Cicero. Mr. Proft received hundreds of thousands of dollars from him and money deals from other Cicero officials who have ties to the mob.

 Mr. Uihlein has given money to other groups who have been sending out political mail and all of the mail is mean and ugly. It is not intended to inform voters.  Some feature men kissing or gay rights parades and the words, strange bedfellows. The newspapers have called it gay bashing and it is that and more.

That is what makes this even harder to understand. Why would Mr. Uihlein participate in this ugly campaign, support someone with a record of lying about his criminal history, and then give money to someone who also has a past like this?

I consider myself a family values voter but how can anyone feel good about this kind of ugly campaign? The community has been torn apart by the negative campaigning and Mr. Uihlein has made it possible for these Chicago politicians to do that by giving them so many millions of dollars. Mr. Uihlein was born to privilege. I wonder if his family would have liked the way he is using his funds?

I plan on emailing Mr. Uihlein at his company to let him know that I am disgusted by all of this. His family has built some good companies and he should be told that to engage in this behavior does not bring honor to his family’s name.

If you feel the same way, send him an email at customer.service@uline.com.

That is what I plan to do.