The Republican Jesse Sullivan paperwork the residence in Illinois – claims that the California headquarters of the corporate was “Advertising”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jesse Sullivan turned down Monday when he was labeled a West Coast venture capitalist – insisting that both he and the company he founded be based in the small town of Petersburg in central Illinois.

While voting records show that Sullivan has lived and voted in Downstate Menard County for at least the past five years, the main location of his business is darker.

Social media accounts and the company’s own website list Alter Global as its headquarters in San Francisco or Silicon Valley.

But Sullivan and a spokesman for his campaign said it was primarily for “marketing” purposes [and] Branding purposes. “

Documents released by Sullivan’s campaign on Monday included a birth certificate stating he was born in a Springfield hospital in 1984, as well as proof of his home and taxes paid on the Petersburg home from 2016 to 2020.

Jesse Sullivan’s birth certificate provided by Sullivan Campaign

An overview of Sullivan’s electoral history shows that he voted in the last three elections in November 2020, 2018 and 2016 in the city of central Illinois of about 2,200 residents.

Previously, he also voted in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 general election, as well as the 2003 consolidated election in the Downstate City.

Sullivan’s entry into the Republican race for governor last week, one day after reporting more than $ 10 million in campaign donations from seven California, Texas, and Colorado donors, was immediately criticized by his GOP rivals, who labeled him Rejected strangers from the “big checkbooks” of the “Silicon Valley elites”.

Copy of Jesse Sullivan’s Property Tax Document for 2016. Provided by Sullivan Campaign.

On Monday, Sullivan tried to clear up questions about his own roots and his company’s roots.

He founded two companies called Alter Global, a nonprofit and a limited liability company, according to his campaign.

A document filed with the California State Department shows that the nonprofit was founded in California in 2015. A campaign spokesperson said Sullivan founded Alter Global, the nonprofit, in 2015 after graduating from Stanford Business School. He registered this company in Illinois in 2017.

The Illinois document shows that the Downstate native has a headquarters in Petersburg, which is also listed as the nonprofit organization’s headquarters in the state. The nonprofit secretary and director both list California addresses on this document.

The campaign also provided documents for establishing Alter Global LLC – one in Delaware and one in Illinois. Both are from December 2020.

A spokesman for Sullivan’s campaign said he founded the facility to “invest seed capital in early-stage startups in developing countries” in order to “attract additional capital to support the poverty reduction mission.”

Many of the social media profiles for Sullivan’s company list San Francisco as the main location.

Old global Twitter account on Monday, September 13, 2021. From Twitter.

In the past few days, the company’s website has gone through several changes, from listing San Francisco as the main location to the recent update to make Petersburg the main location. On Monday afternoon it showed no city at all.

But parts of the company’s website still listed it as “based in Silicon Valley” on Monday afternoon.

Public records indicate that the company is associated with at least one California location in addition to an address in Petersburg, Illinois. Crunchbase, which has a searchable database of companies, lists the headquarters in San Francisco.

Alter Global website screen image on Monday, September 13, 2021.

In a quick call Monday to a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, Sullivan said the company’s headquarters are in Illinois.

He said the “confusion lies in the fact that we have a dispersed team,” that is, the company’s employees who are “dispersed everywhere,” including in India and on the east and west coasts.

Sullivan said one of the California addresses is where he lived after graduating from Stanford Business School. This address is also listed on the document that Alter Global registers with California.

When asked to explain the updates to the company’s website, Sullivan re-directed the company’s team, which includes a person who works in the Bay Area.

Republican candidate for governor Jesse Sullivan Sullivan Campaign

“I didn’t think that would ever be a question or a success because I have the documents to prove that we are only registered here in Illinois and not in California,” Sullivan said, adding that the city added the west coast of the US is included website was more “for marketing” [and] Branding Purposes for Our Entrepreneurs ”who might visit the website.

Sullivan’s spokesman said in a statement that the St. Petersburg native “has always maintained a deep connection with Illinois,” regardless of where he has traveled, and “Petersburg has always been his home. Jesse has filed his income taxes with the IRS and the Illinois Department of Revenue since 2016. “

The spokesperson didn’t go directly to the question of whether Sullivan and Alter Global are misleading the public by claiming to be based in Silicon Valley or San Francisco when they don’t, but he said Alter has built its dispersed workforce before the pandemic, including staff in San Francisco.

“As governor, Jesse Sullivan will work to make Illinois an equally sought-after center for business expertise,” the spokesman said.

Over the weekend, Sullivan’s campaign released a video to clarify where the Republican gubernatorial candidate came from.

Jesse Sullivan and his wife Monique and their five children in a video that posted his gubernatorial campaign over the weekend. Sullivan campaign

In the 45-second clip, Sullivan explains that six years ago he started an organization from Stanford Business School “to help the world’s best entrepreneurs create jobs,” and that he has been that organization for five years from Illinois directs.

With soybeans in mind, someone is raising two of Sullivan’s children who he says are “home grown in Illinois – just like me.” And the gubernatorial candidate points to his pregnant wife’s stomach and says another is “almost ready for the harvest”.