December 18, 2002

BY MIKE ROBINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

A state senator and the state's insurance director were named by federal prosecutors Wednesday as among those who received state pay while actually working for Gov. George Ryan's political organization.

State Sen. Dave Sullivan, R-Park Ridge, and Nat Shapo, the director of the Illinois Department of Insurance, were among a number of current and former Ryan aides accused by prosecutors of campaigning on state time. Neither man has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

The allegations were contained in 76 pages of court papers outlining evidence prosecutors may present at the trial of Scott Fawell, Ryan's former campaign manager who also served as chief of staff when Ryan was the secretary of state. That trial is scheduled for Jan. 8.

Fawell, who has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, is accused of using state employees and state money for campaign work, starting in 1994 and going through Ryan's successful race for the governor's office in 1998.

Phone messages left at the government offices of Sullivan and Shapo after business hours were not immediately returned. Telephone calls made to their homes also were not immediately returned.

Prosecutors say in 1998 Fawell was concerned about the need to conserve Ryan's campaign fund to have enough money for television ads.

It said Sullivan, who was executive assistant for intergovernmental affairs in the secretary of state's office under Ryan, was concerned that doing campaign work while being paid by the state might be improper.

But the youthful aide, who was appointed to the state Senate the same year at Ryan's urging, was spending 80 percent of his time on campaign work while being paid 100 percent out of state funds, prosecutors said.

"Sullivan grew increasingly concerned about this arrangement and complained to (Richard) Juliano," a Fawell aide, prosecutors said.

"On more than one occasion, Juliano told Sullivan that, based on Fawell's directive, CFR couldn't afford to put Sullivan on the (campaign) payroll full time but that it would happen eventually," prosecutors said.

But they said Sullivan ended the campaign still drawing state pay.

The document said Shapo entered into a contract with the secretary of state's office in June 1997 to work on drunken driving policy.

By the end of the year, though, Shapo, who was also a full-time law student, stopped receiving secretary of state assignments, prosecutors said. Instead, he was acting as opposition research director of Ryan's campaign, gathering negative information to use in the campaign against Democrat Glenn Poshard, according to the document.

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