Chicago City Wire

The Envision Classic charity golf tournament, scheduled for Sept. 30 at Olympia Fields, was cancelled.

Its organizer, radio host and political commentator Dan Proft, was removed last month from the volunteer board of Envision Unlimited, the event’s beneficiary.

In its fifth year, Proft said the event was set to raise $600,000-$700,000 for Envision, a leading Chicago non-profit that runs employment programs for intellectually and developmentally-disabled (“IDD”) adults.

Envision runs day and employment programming for IDD adults who have aged out of the state system.

A longtime public advocate for such IDD programs, and a sharp-tongued critic of state leaders—mostly Democrat— for “funding IDD programs last, when they should be first,” the conservative Proft co-existed for six years on the Envision board amidst Chicago's left-wing political royalty he often has criticized.

Fellow board members included Dan Durbin, nephew of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and lobbyist Becky Carroll, formerly a top advisor to former President Barack Obama and current Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

They tolerated Proft as the board’s top fundraiser, responsible for more than $1 million in private donations and in-kind support to Envision since 2018. But that tolerance ran its course.

“Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing,” Proft said, quoting Robert Conquest, the British author and aide to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who coined the phrase as his “Second Law of Politics.”

Proft frequently references “Conquest’s Second Law” on his show, describing the city’s civic institutions. And now, Envision Unlimited.

“It was well-known that I enjoyed working with Envision,” Proft said. “Left-wing activists saw an opportunity— they could hurt Envision and hurt me. It’s unfortunate.”

“Because I do believe in being my brother's keeper and I do believe how we treat people with disabilities is a reflection of our humanity and the status of western civilization,” he said.

In a Chicago Tribune Op-Ed imploring then-Governor Bruce Rauner to do more for the developmentally-disabled, Proft argued that non-profits like Envision could do better than state bureaucrats.

"We should leave fewer spending decisions in the hands of self-regarding bureaucracies and place more of those decisions directly in the hands of affected families and locally-sourced social-service providers," he wrote. "How we take care of the developmentally-disabled is a test of our humanity. Illinois has been failing this test miserably for years."

“I said my lack of knowledge of Gus' diagnosis was no defense."

That opportunity to remove Proft from the Envision board came in mid-August, after he made on-air comments critical of Gus Walz, son of Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, after he publicly cheered on his father during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Proft learned soon after that Gus Walz had a neurodivergent diagnosis, and he made a public apology for his comments.

"When I learned I was mistaken, prompted by no one, I led the show the next day with an unqualified apology," Proft said. "In fact, I explicitly said...that the unusually emotional moment should have alerted me to investigate what was in the public domain, though not much publicized, about Gus. I said my lack of knowledge of Gus' diagnosis was no defense."

But Proft’s sincerity couldn’t douse the political firestorm.

Envision's CEO, Mark McHugh, called Proft after hearing his apology to discuss the matter.

"Mark seemed satisfied with it--he didn't suggest it was insufficient or that I needed to do anything else," Proft said. "He hoped the controversy would just blow over."

But it didn't. Three hours later, Envision's board met and voted to remove Proft. 

Two board members "closer to my politics" voted against his removal, Proft said.

"They were vastly outnumbered," he said.

Amy Jacobson, Proft’s co-host, was fired from her job as a part-time girls’ volleyball coach at Amundsen High School on Chicago’s North Side. 

And AM 560 advertisers, including Signature Bank, Proft said were "besieged by Leftist mobsters who ascend from Middle Earth like Orcs to flood social media with hysterics and laughable assertions about their newfound interests in the quality of conservative talk radio and nonprofits who serve the IDD community."

Those advertisers were not persuaded.

Our partners "are not going to let some mob that has nothing to do with their business dictate business decisions to them," Proft said. 

Allies of Proft, and Jacobson, came to their defense. 

That included a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) special needs teacher who knew of Proft’s activism for IDD students.

"I am so outraged by the disgraceful manner in which a group - which I suspect was political - had put down Amy and you that I must express my feelings through this letter," the teacher wrote. "I am certain that Amy and you did not know about the plight of that kid, that the kid was a special kid. I can see through certain people's dirty political ploy being played for media to feast on for political purposes, also out of hunger for censorship and bias to promote a mob rule, never mind if they are in the minority. “

“This is all about politics - the ploy to use money and power in order to silence people whom they dislike for their political views and beliefs. Never mind if these people made (an) honest mistake and had publicly apologized for the mistake," she wrote.  "I want to express my profound admiration for your concern, love and dedication for the welfare of (special needs) children of Chicago and our country all these years.”

Proft said conservatives in Chicago and elsewhere should heed his experience.

"I dodged the hangman's noose for as long as I could but the lesson for conservatives is quite clear: in America at present, particularly where the identitarian Left is dominant as it is in Chicago, it is not worth your time and energy to assist any organization, even a charitable one, dominated by the Left," Proft said. "Even the Leftists who otherwise want to get past political disagreements to focus on the mission at hand will more likely than not exhibit the cowardice Envision's board and management did at the first sign of controversy."

"I will not again volunteer for or support any nonprofit than is dominated by men and women of the Left no matter how worthy the cause because, frankly, when the choice is forced by their fellow travelers they will invariably put their politics ahead of the cause," he said.

Proft told Chicago City Wire he has been approached by other IDD-focused charities in Chicago about helping them with fundraising, and that he will soon join one of them, continuing his public advocacy.