From the Daily Herald:

It’s he said, she said in ethics fight

By Eric Krol
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006
Editor’s note: This is the last of a series of issue stories on the governor’s race. Past installments are available at dailyherald.com.

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka are spending virtually every campaign dime they collect on TV ads telling voters why the other one is too corrupt to serve.

Blagojevich says Topinka solicits campaign donations from banks she’s supposed to regulate as state treasurer and issues no-bid contracts to campaign donors.

Topinka says the numerous corruption probes swirling around the Blagojevich administration make him “the most-investigated governor” in Illinois history and spotlights a $1,500 check the governor accepted from a lifelong friend whose wife he got a state job.

And both say the other is more like George Ryan, the convicted ex-governor whose corruption now has overshadowed three consecutive Illinois governor’s races.

All of which has led to a minor surge of support for Green Party candidate Rich Whitney. He’s now charting in the high single-digits in polls, seemingly proof the public will vote for a candidate they know next-to-nothing about as an alternative to the nastiness dominating the governor’s race.

With Topinka and Blagojevich making ethics the dominant issue, sorting through the charges and counter-charges looms as important as the candidates’ plans to clean up politics.

Blagojevich’s charges

• Blagojevich has run a TV ad taking Topinka to task for her ties to George Ryan, including a sound bite from the August 2002 Illinois State Fair in which Topinka says to Ryan: “You’re a (darned) decent guy, governor, and I love you dearly.”

Topinka does have a political past with Ryan, campaigning with him throughout the ’90s while she was treasurer and he was secretary of state and then governor. One of her primary foes ran an ad showing Topinka dancing the polka with Ryan. She tries to dismiss the footage by saying she dances the polka “with everybody.” Topinka also returned $41,150 of Ryan’s campaign contributions in April 2002.

• Topinka frequently has claimed that her office bids all of its state contracts. But Blagojevich pointed out during a debate in Decatur earlier this month that Topinka’s office has signed no-bid contracts. The governor, however, also has rewarded numerous campaign donors with special state contracts.

• Blagojevich criticizes Topinka for taking campaign money from banks, which she regulates as treasurer. News reports have put the total at $460,000 since 1994, when she became treasurer.

The Daily Herald reported in May 2005 that Blagojevich had raised $7.3 million from those he awarded appointments or state contracts. That’s 16 times what Topinka’s campaign fund received from banking interests.

Topinka’s charges

• One of Topinka’s most prominent TV ads involves the $1,500 check Blagojevich took as a gift from lifelong friend Michael Ascaridis. Blagojevich’s campaign called it a birthday gift for Blagojevich’s older daughter, but the governor since has said it might have been for his youngest daughter’s baptism.

The check was given around the same time Blagojevich got Ascaridis’ wife, Beverly, a $46,800-a-year job at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in Bartlett. Beverly Ascaridis told the Chicago Tribune that she talked to federal investigators about what she termed the “strange” $1,500 check and added that she “hated” Blagojevich “with every fiber” of her being. She later issued a statement recanting those comments.

In the Topinka ad, hand-held video is shown where Blagojevich pauses and stumbles for answers to reporters’ questions about the check.

• Topinka often refers to Blagojevich as “Public Official A,” comparing him to Ryan, whom federal prosecutors once called “Secretary of State Official A” as Ryan’s corruption investigation unfolded.

“Public Official A” is a reference to a federal plea agreement last summer involving corruption in the state’s teacher pension program. Prominent Democratic fund-raiser Joseph Cari informed prosecutors that Republican businessman Stuart Levine told him that “Public Official A” and his two associates engaged in a kickback scheme to raise campaign funds. Multiple sources told the Daily Herald and several other media outlets that Official A was Blagojevich and the two associates were his top fundraisers, Tony Rezko and Christopher Kelly.

Levine now is cooperating with prosecutors and set to admit his guilt in the scheme. Rezko was indicted earlier this month for his alleged role in the scheme and has pleaded not guilty. Kelly was listed as an unnamed individual taking part in the scheme with Rezko, but has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Blagojevich donated Rezko’s campaign donations to charity.

Blagojevich’s camp has fired back that Topinka got campaign contributions from Levine, both to her treasurer’s fund and the Illinois Republican Party fund when she was chairman. Topinka gave back the money Levine donated to her treasurer’s fund and her running mate, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett, did the same.

Although Blagojevich hasn’t brought it up much, Topinka also had to field a request from federal prosecutors looking at a complaint that political work was being done on state time in the treasurer’s office. Topinka dismissed the complaint as being from a disgruntled former worker and said prosecutors requested documents but she’s not heard from them since then.

• Topinka refers to Blagojevich as the “most-investigated governor” in the state’s history. As proof, she points to the more than a dozen federal subpoenas state agencies under Blagojevich's control received as part of a federal probe into what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has called “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” under Blagojevich. She also cites the pay-to-play charges against Rezko and the fact that the governor admitted to being interviewed by federal agents last year.

Ethics plans

In the wake of disclosures about the large number of campaign donors who’ve gotten state contracts or appointments from Blagojevich, the governor rolled out an ethics plan he weeks earlier promised would “rock the system in Springfield.”

But Blagojevich did so just two weeks before the General Assembly was scheduled to adjourn in May 2005. The governor proposed banning all political contributions by businesses and unions, limiting campaign donations to $2,000 per candidate and requiring more disclosures by lobbyists. Blagojevich now touts his reform plan on the campaign trail, but back in February, he told the Daily Herald editorial board that the appetite just isn’t there to pass such a plan.

The governor also points out the ethics legislation that he signed into law early in his term. The measure mandated ethics training for state employees, ended the “revolving door” practice of state employees going to work for companies they regulated, and limited lobbyist spending on meals. But the reforms also created an inspector general system for whistleblower complaints that critics say may allow politicians to hide scandals instead of making them public.

Topinka’s ethics plan would ban campaign contributions from anyone with $25,000 or more in state contracts and end no-bid contracts. She’d also prohibit political party officials from serving as lobbyists, a provision she included after her GOP primary opponents criticized her for ties to Springfield lobbyist Bob Kjellander, who made an $809,000 commission on a state bond deal under Blagojevich.

The Green Party’s Whitney opposes public funding of campaigns but advocates TV stations giving free air time to candidates. He also supports a ban on state contractors contributing to those who awarded them contracts and a $500 limit on contributions to individual candidates. Whitney is refusing all corporate campaign donations, although it’s arguable his third-party bid would not be garnering many of them.

Ultimately, government watchdog groups say Illinois government won’t reform unless the governor changes the culture.

“Sometimes it’s important to put things in law, to set the parameters of what the new culture is,” said Cynthia Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “But at the end of the day, whomever is at the top needs to lead by example and put forward zero tolerance on these kind of ethical violations.”