Former Party Chair “Explains” How Illinois “Works”

As candidate for Illinois Gov. Dan Proft puts it, “Illinois isn’t broken. It’s fixed.”  Proft means that while Illinois’ schools, its Medicaid system and the state budget process appear broken to the average Illinoisan, that’s not the case at all because Illinois works fine for the teachers unions, those in high office and the politically connected who have captured the lawmaking process.

Gary MacDougal explains how the system works in the op-ed pages of the Springfield State Journal-Register.

“Former Gov. Jim Edgar, who has considered running again at various times, is widely thought of as the rare “Mr. Clean” of Illinois state government, particularly in light of the fact that currently imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan and the indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich succeeded him.

Edgar stands out being unscathed by the state’s corruption scandals. One pay-to-play scheme, Management Services of Illinois, did hit the papers. MSI was Edgar’s largest campaign contributor at $270,000 and received a contract that an appellate court said bilked the state out of $12.3 million.

Given the amount of money needed to run for governor, how did a man of modest means like Jim Edgar get to be governor? A look at the close connections he had with major players in the recent corruption trials is illuminating.

The Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial, though focusing on the Blagojevich years, has made us smarter about how campaign coffers are filled. It has revealed the machinations of a cast of serpents who have been greedily slithering through Springfield and Chicago for the last 30 years, electing governor after governor and getting eye-popping returns on their campaign dollars invested.”

The Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial, though focusing on the Blagojevich years, has made us smarter about how campaign coffers are filled. It has revealed the machinations of a cast of serpents who have been greedily slithering through Springfield and Chicago for the last 30 years, electing governor after governor and getting eye-popping returns on their campaign dollars invested.

Two figures who made important appearances in the Rezko (and Ryan) trials are major GOP influence peddlers Bill Cellini (now indicted with Blagojevich) and Bob Kjellander (identified by published reports as Individual K).

All three were involved in the Edgar administration, getting special favors just as in the Ryan and Blagojevich years. Rezko gave $18,804 to Edgar’s campaign fund.

Edgar appointed Rezko to the hospital board in 1998, though Rezko never served. Rezko was later convicted of corrupting this same board. Rezko worked with Kjellander to get his first state contracts from the Edgar administration, including $9.7 million to rehab slum apartments.

Edgar has long counted both Kjellander and Cellini not just as supporters, but as good friends. Edgar’s millions in campaign contributions have Kjellander and Cellini’s fingerprints.

. . .

Unless the candidate has enormous personal wealth, it’s simply not possible to reach the current going rate of $20 million needed to run a gubernatorial campaign (not counting a contested primary — possibly another $8 million to $10 million), without turning to the Cellini/Kjellander/Rezkos of this world.

“Sure, some of Edgar’s campaign war chest millions came from ordinary citizens interested in “good government,” but ordinary citizens don’t donate hundreds of thousands, as MSI, Cellini and others did. Most, though not all, big donors want a financial return, and it’s those huge infusions of cash that ultimately make or break an Illinois election.

It’s easy to understand a young Jim Edgar, ambitious to be governor, watching where the money comes from and noting how his predecessors did it. Cellini and Kjellander are (surprise!) very close to Jim Thompson.”

MacDougal’s point isn’t that former Gov. Edgar is corrupt.  Instead, he is arguing that the system in Illinois forces otherwise clean but ambitious politicians to wade through the bipartisan muck.  It’s a good illustration on what goes on in the Prairie State.