State Sen. Laura Fine said Wednesday she wasn’t aware of a dark money Super PAC spending hundreds of thousands on ads supporting her congressional campaign until those ads hit the airwaves Wednesday morning, but said she would “love to know who’s funding” the ads when pressed Wednesday night.

Speaking with Evanston Now after a high-stakes candidate forum in north Evanston, Fine, the target of criticism from multiple candidates Wednesday night, also seemed to acknowledge that a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group quietly backing her campaign may be behind the ads, but said she “didn’t even know about it until today.”

“I don’t know what the extent is,” Fine said, but when asked if she supports the group disclosing its donors, even before it’s required to by the FEC, she said, “Absolutely. I mean, transparency.”

The Super PACs aren’t legally required to disclose donors until Mar. 20, three days after Illinois’ primary elections.

The ads, which ran starting Wednesday in three Illinois congressional races, have no clear funders. Opposing campaigns have accused AIPAC of being behind them, as have multiple sources who spoke with Evanston Now this week, confirming that attack ads against candidates are on the way, too.

In the 9th District, the Super PAC is called “Elect Chicago Women,” with an address linked to a co-working space in South Loop.

The Super PAC became the second outside spending group to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars in the race this week, after a pro-Science hybrid PAC, 3.14 Action Fund, paid for over $300,000 in mailers supporting Daniel Biss. Biss’ campaign has described the difference in 3.14’s support of him being that he has publicly acknowledged the group behind it, which has publicly endorsed his campaign.

Former FBI agent Phil Andrew of Wilmette targeted both Biss and Fine Wednesday, criticizing the two for their histories as “career politicians” tied to Illinois’ Democratic political machine.

Speaking with Evanston Now after the forum, Andrew called Fine’s Super PAC support a “credibility issue.”

“She needs to be transparent about who’s doing that,” Andrew said, dismissing the idea that Fine didn’t know about the ads or Super PAC until Wednesday.

“Yeah, this is a credibility issue that is really important right now,” Andrew said. “You cannot take on corruption if you’re not clean yourself. If you’re not willing to be transparent.”

When asked by reporters, Fine said the independent expenditures are “completely outside the realm of my campaign,” though the ads running on broadcast TV use the same b-roll footage that appears in her own campaign ads, likely provided by a red-boxing on her campaign site.

“I mean, I’d like to know who’s working in my favor,” Fine said when asked if she’d support the Super PAC disclosing its funding source, adding, “I would assume one day we will.”