From ABC7Chicago: 
 
Ryan spent thousands in campaign funds on Bulls tickets 
 By Paul Meincke 
 
January 25, 2006 - It now appears the prosecution in former governor George Ryan's corruption trial will not rest their case until next week. Over the past few days prosecutors have attempted to show how Ryan failed to pay taxes on thousand of dollars Ryan used from his campaign fund for personal use. The personal use of campaign money has long been an issue for Illinois politicians. 
 
 Among the mountains of documents that have been introduced at trial are campaign disclosure forms from years past, and they show, among other things, that George Ryan, for the years 1994 to 1996, spent over $36,000 from his campaign fund on Chicago Bulls tickets. He also spent thousands to pay for his personal memberships in different clubs. That was legal back then so long as the candidate paid taxes on campaign money converted to personal use, and Ryan did in those examples. But not, the government says, in some others. 
 
 It is clear from his disclosure forms of years gone by that George Ryan did a lot of traveling and paid for a lot of things with money from his campaign fund. He went to a lot of Bulls games, and other sports events, and when out of town, he stayed in nice hotels, bought shoes and clothes. He also paid thousands of dollars from his campaign fund for memberships in the Kankakee Country Club, and other clubs. 
 
 "The information that's contained in these documents would be fairly noxious to the donors who gave money to former Governor Ryan," said Cindi Canary, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. 
 = 
 
 Canary says that while many contributors are looking for access when they give to candidates, many are also giving because they believe in the person or what the candidate stands for. They don't necessarily want to see their money spent on huge dining tabs, trips to Cancun or Bulls tickets, which Ryan did several years running. 
 
 "It's not a proper use of your political funds, and I think it tells the voters, too, Look at me, I've got access to resources that none of you do. I can jump ahead in line," Canary said. 
 
 The rules were different when Ryan was spending all this campaign money. He just had to pay taxes on what he spent for personal use. But you can't do this anymore. You can't use campaign money for personal memberships in clubs, or golf lessons, or taking Uncle Bob to see the Bulls -- unless there's a documented political purpose. 
 
 The rules have been changed for eight years, but there are still gray areas. 
 
 "It's gray, but it's a lot cleaner than it used to be when anything went. A vacation, a car, movie tickets, clothes, shoes. That kind of stuff you can't do anymore," said Canary. 
 
 Candidates and elected officials can still use campaign money to buy tickets to sporting events for their supporters, but they now must carefully document the political purpose -- who, why, when. 
 
 What's at issue in Ryan's trial are some specific uses of his campaign money in the mid-1990's that the government says he did not pay taxes on. The defense says they were mistakes that Ryan has since corrected. 
 
+++++++++++