Prosecutors want Ryan's campaign money

From The State Journal-Register, 4/14/02:

Prosecutors want Ryan's campaign money
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CHICAGO (AP) -- Over the years, Gov. George Ryan's campaign fund has provided him with money for everything from Christmas gifts to country club dues to a fleet of cars and vans. But the days of luxury spending may be over.
It is not clear just how much is left in what once was a multi-million-dollar campaign war chest. Recently, much of the money has been going to lawyers, federal prosecutors said last week.
Prosecutors want to stop the governor from spending at least $1 million -- the amount the campaign, Citizens for Ryan, could owe in restitution if convicted of federal racketeering charges announced April 2.
The indictment charges that state employees did campaign work while they should have been on the job, that state equipment was used for political campaigns and that bribe money was deposited in the campaign fund.
The campaign pleaded innocent last Tuesday.
Ryan has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the probe.
There was $2.3 million left in the Citizens for Ryan fund as of mid-February, when the committee last filed a report with the state. Since then, prosecutors said, "large sums" have been paid from the campaign fund to lawyers.
Neither Ryan nor his aides would say what the governor had intended to do with the money, if the lawyers' bills hadn't started to pile up. Under Illinois law, he could have turned the money, vehicles and other assets into his personal retirement nest egg when he leaves office next January, as others have done before him.
Income tax summaries released by the governor show that he reported converting at least $30,000 of campaign money for personal use over the last three years. He has declined to say precisely what he used the money for.
Campaign disclosure records filed with the state show that in 2001, Ryan used campaign funds to pay more than $1 million to lawyers handling his response to the four-year federal probe of alleged bribe-taking and other wrongdoing by his employees when he was secretary of state from 1990 to 1998.
For years, the fund has paid Ryan's membership dues at the Kankakee Country Club, a bill that ranges between $300 and $450 per month.
The campaign bought $16,000 worth of tickets to Chicago Bulls games and other sports and entertainment events last year, the records show.
Ryan charged at least $44,000 worth of jewelry and other gifts to the campaign account over the last three years. In 1998 Ryan reported a "gift" of $6,000 to a Kankakee woman who had taken care of his elderly mother-in-law. Later, after news reports about the money, he said the filings were wrong and that the money had been a payment for campaign work.
Last Aug. 8, the day Ryan announced he would not run for a second term, the campaign paid $35,000 to a Chicago car dealership for a vehicle. Two cars and two vans are registered to the campaign, but the documents filed with the state give no information about who uses the vehicles.
Ryan's spokesman, Dennis Culloton, declined to say. But Culloton noted that some are used to transport the governor and his aides around the state on official business, saving the taxpayers money.
Ryan's use of his campaign fund follows a long tradition in Illinois. Greg Zito, a former state senator from Melrose Park, used more than $200,000 in campaign money to build his family a new house after he left office in 1991. Dozens of state and local politicians have bought cars and computers while in office, or after they retired. One former state legislator paid his parking tickets with campaign money, according to records filed with the state.
It is not possible to determine which of the items, if any, listed on campaign disclosure forms are personal. For instance, a candidate could argue that tickets to sporting events spread good will for the campaign. In Illinois, personal expenditures of campaign money are neither unusual nor illegal, as long as they are reported as income on federal tax returns.
In the end, determining whether an expenditure is political or personal is a matter between the candidate and the Internal Revenue Service.
"You could write yourself a check and use the money as your retirement fund as long as you report it and you're willing to take the political heat," said political scientist Kent Redfield of the University of Illinois in Springfield.
By contrast, candidates for federal offices are barred by law from using campaign money for personal expenses, as are candidates in 30 other states. Most of the remaining states impose at least some restrictions.
Gov. Ryan stopped actively soliciting campaign contributions in August, when he decided not to run again. Culloton said no new fund-raisers have been scheduled.
If there is anything left when the governor steps down, Culloton said, the governor will make "appropriate" decisions based on legal and accounting advice.
"He's got plenty more important things that he's focused on right now than retirement," said Culloton.