From the Associated Press

Witness: Employee money fueled Ryan's campaigns

January 18, 2006 - A woman who served as finance director of George
Ryan's political organization told the former governor's racketeering
and fraud trial Wednesday that state employees were the biggest source
of the money that fueled his campaigns.
Deb Detmers of Springfield also testified that two big annual
fundraising events known as "salutes" to Ryan -- one downstate and one
in the Chicago area -- brought in a combined $500,000.
She testified that one of her duties was to allot political
fundraising tickets to such events to the various departments under
Ryan when he was secretary of state.
State employees were then asked to accept an allotment of tickets and
sell them as a way of gathering money to fuel Ryan's political
campaigns. She said the total raised that way topped any other source
of funds used to fuel Ryan's campaigns.
Ryan, 71, and longtime friend Larry Warner, 67, are charged in a
22-count federal indictment with racketeering, mail fraud and other
offenses.
Among other things, Ryan is accused of using state employees to
operate his political organization and fueling it with money raised
through fundraising tickets that the employees were under pressure to
sell.
In some cases, the fundraising tickets were purchased in exchange for
drivers licenses, a key factor in setting off the scandal that led to
Ryan's indictment.
Ryan and Warner deny that anything they did was illegal.
Detmers did testify that at least one state employee she knew refused
to sell tickets and wasn't fired for it. She admitted that when she
first went on the payroll at the secretary of state's office she spent
at least half her time doing political work for Ryan's campaign fund.
After four months of that, she got a full-time campaign job, she testified.
Under cross examination by Ryan defense attorney Dan K. Webb, however,
Detmers testified that she enjoyed politics and spent much more than
40 hours a week doing her job.
"Do you think the State of Illinois got a fair shake from you," Webb asked.
"I think it got a fair shake," she said. She also testified that she
voluntarily accepted fundraising tickets.
"Did you ever force employees to buy tickets?" Webb asked.
"I could not," Detmers testified.
Detmers testified that she took her orders from Ryan's chief of staff
and campaign manager, Scott Fawell and not from Ryan himself.
She said Fawell became angry with her in the weeks before the 1994
election when her count of the money in the campaign fund did not
match what the bank was saying they had.
Fawell and top aide Rich Juliano accused her of making a mistake and
when she rechecked her figures and came up with the same total sent
her off to do drudge work on Election Day as punishment, she
testified.
She said Fawell apologized on Election night and admitted that Ryan
had given him a total that was about $100,000 short of the actual
amount because he wanted at least that much in the bank when the
campaign was over.
Detmers took the stand as prosecutors pressed to rest their case on
Thursday or early next week after four months of trial.