From The Peoria Journal-Star:

A chance to clean up Illinois politics

April 20, 2002

Richard Juliano was on his way. University of Chicago Law School graduate. Deputy chief of staff for the secretary of state. Influential friends. Chief campaign aide to soon-to-be Gov. George Ryan.

Juliano had it all. Except a moral compass.

When he pleaded guilty Thursday to mail fraud and agreed to tell federal prosecutors what he knows about high-level corruption inside Citizens for Ryan, Juliano began to reclaim the integrity he gave up in pursuit of political glory. The cost of that earlier surrender has been very high.

You have to wonder if Juliano, then only 30, had second thoughts when he agreed in 1997 to take $5,000 a month in public money, but "performed virtually no (state) work," laboring on Ryan’s campaign instead. You have to wonder if he thought it appropriate to transfer secretary of state employees to Ryan’s campaign office, and then give out state-paid raises to those who performed campaign tasks well. You have to wonder if he recognized he was stealing from taxpayers when he used their money to buy equipment and material for the campaign.

We can only conclude that Juliano didn’t do much soul searching, didn’t question whether he was breaking any laws or violating the public trust. He, along with others in the now-discredited Citizens for Ryan, were focused on one thing: getting George Ryan elected governor, at any cost. The irony is that a disgraced Ryan is now voluntarily giving up the seat, after just one term, that others broke the law to help him win.

Juliano and Scott Fawell, Ryan’s 1998 campaign manager and his former chief of staff in the secretary of state’s office, are now paying a high price. Fawell along with Ryan’s campaign committee are both under federal indictment for their roles in the political scandal that has brought down Ryan.

If there is anything positive to come out of this, it is an inside look into the sleazy world of Illinois politics. It is not a pretty picture, with the power of state government used to manipulate the outcome of elections.

But it is important for Juliano’s testimony to open the window to corruption so that the political culture in Illinois can begin to change. Voters have to get angry; they can’t tolerate dirty politics any more. Reputable officeholders, and most are, can no longer remain quiet out of misplaced political allegiance. Winking and nodding at graft can’t be accepted as the way business is routinely done here.

Federal prosecutors are rightly aiming at convictions. But a greater good could result if these prosecutions help end the kind of political malfeasance that has stained Illinois government and wasted hundreds of thousands of public dollars.