From Crains Chicago Business

It's time to change laws that govern campaign cash
October 25, 2004
By Cynthia Canary
Governors, the Donald Trumps of the political food chain, often equate their jobs with those of Fortune 500 company CEOs.
They want the taxpayers, their "company's shareholders," to think they are delivering the best services, demanding accountability and squeezing out every efficiency. Cynthia CANARY is executive director of the Chicago-based Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a non-partisan public interest group. Yet, Illinois governors have long played by a different set of rules. They don't have to worry about the strict rules that have brought so many real CEOs before congressional investigating committees and federal grand juries.
Consider the ramifications if a real CEO owned a side business that accepted large gifts from contractors working for the CEO's main corporation. There would be federal investigations and possible jail time. Shareholders would be in revolt.
But when Rod Blagojevich, Illinois' CEO, oversees the solicitation of campaign contributions from state contractors and other special interests, there is little fallout.
In Illinois, it is perfectly legal for a governor to use his political committee to solicit and accept unlimited campaign contributions from state contractors and other special interests. Not only have governors gotten away with these practices throughout Illinois history, but they have also improved their chances of re-election by scaring off would-be opponents with their outsized war chests.
This weird scenario — accepting money with one hand, signing a contract with the other and arguing, without even a wink, that one has nothing to do with the other — has become business as usual for Illinois governors.
Citizens may debate Gov. Blagojevich's effectiveness as CEO of the state of Illinois, but there is no question that his side business, his campaign fund-raising operation, is the most successful in Illinois political history.
He has a record campaign bank account of more than $10 million, all collected years before Gov. Blagojevich's not-even-announced 2006 re-election campaign. Much of the big money came from individuals, corporations and unions that have state contracts, want state contracts or want something else from Illinois government.
Most disappointing is that as a candidate in 2002, Gov. Blagojevich promised to support legislation to establish limits on campaign contributions, something that is on the statute books of 48 other states. After winning office, he spent a lot of time collecting contributions but no time trying to change the rules about campaign financing.
It is time he took a break from soliciting money from special interests and devoted some energy to passing campaign finance reform.