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Campaign donations grab spotlight
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Mar 16, 2005 04:47am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Northwest Herald |
| News Date | Monday, March 7, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Illinois officials suddenly are taking a keen interest in the link between state contracts and campaign money, setting the stage for ethics to play a key role in next year's political races.
Lawmakers from both parties have proposals that would bar politicians from accepting campaign donations from people who have been awarded state contracts. Potential Republican candidates for governor are criticizing Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the issue, and Blagojevich is promising a major ethics package of his own.
Republicans sense a chink in the governor's armor: Blagojevich, who was elected on a promise to clean up state government, continues to take money from contractors and award contracts to donors as he raises astonishing amounts of campaign cash.
"I think it's going to be a huge issue," said Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.
"Everyone is very much aware that the governor has quite a campaign chest, but the question that's going to be asked is, 'What is the source of that money?'"
Blagojevich has two fellow Democrats to thank for putting donations in the spotlight.
His father-in-law, Chicago Alderman Dick Mell, in January accused the governor of appointing people to state commissions for big campaign donations – a charge Mell later retracted.
Then Chicago Mayor Richard Daley promised to stop taking donations from contractors at the city level.
Blagojevich denied any wrongdoing and declined to follow Daley's example, but that didn't stop scrutiny of his fund-raising practices. |
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