SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — The Illinois State Board of Elections took the recommendation of a hearing officer and officially dismissed a complaint alleging collusion between former Republican Candidate for governor Darren Bailey and conservative political operative Dan Proft.

The complaint was filed by a top Illinois Democratic Party official. It pointed to two separate instances. The first was an appearance by Bailey on Proft’s radio show, which resulted in a number of ads being run by Proft’s People Who Play By the Rules PAC. The second pointed to an alleged private meeting between the two where they discussed the campaign.

The State Board of Elections echoed the hearing officer who originally advised the board to dismiss the complaint, saying state law is far too vague about what constitutes a contribution.

“What our board ruled, essentially, is that in the Illinois election code, there is no concrete definition for what coordination means,” Matt Dietrich, the Public information Officer for the State Board of Elections said. “The statute does say that a and independent expenditure committee can’t make contributions or do any kind of spending in consultation or in concert with a candidate or candidate political committee. The problem is, there isn’t a definition of what those are.”

The hearing officer also said the state should codify a much more thorough definition for these terms, but that action would need to be taken by the legislature.

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