From The Daily Southtown:

Attorney: GOP milked taxpayers cash

Alleges state workers aided campaigns

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

By Kristen McQueary
Staff writer
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An attorney compiling a lawsuit against top Republican officials says party leaders ran campaigns in 2000 using state workers on the public's time, some of whom bloated their mileage cards to milk the state.
Richard Means, a Chicago-based elections attorney who for two years pushed Democratic and Republican leaders to release timecards of their employees, said Monday he plans to file a taxpayer lawsuit.

Among the defendants will be Republican Party Chairman Lee Daniels, Daniels' former policy director Jerry Clarke, who managed Jim Ryan's primary campaign, and other Republicans, including state Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox).

Amid other setbacks, these accusations do not bode well for Republicans in an election year when their prospects for gaining ground in the General Assembly are dim.

Not only did Democrats win control of remapping district boundaries, Republicans are dogged by scandal swirling around Gov. George Ryan.

Federal officials recently broadened the licenses-for-bribes investigation, charging two former Ryan aides with using state workers for campaign purposes. They also requested staff timesheets from Daniels last fall. Daniels has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

But federal prosecutors' recent interest in the long-standing practice of balancing state work and campaign work has recharged Means' cause.

"The practice is one that has gone on for a long time," Means said. "It's nothing but theft of taxpayers' money and spending it in a way that skews elections."

Gregg Durham, spokesman for Daniels, said House Republicans have "upheld the letter of the law, but if someone was cheating on a travel voucher, then they're going to have some answering to do."

About two years ago, Means said he filed Freedom of Information Act requests for copies of staff timecards from the four party leaders in Springfield. They blocked his request through the courts, saying the records were personnel-related and thus exempt.

Last fall, Means received a box of paperwork documenting House Republican staff members' activities from spring and summer 2000. The box came from an anonymous whistleblower, he said.

Was work campaign-related?

Though the records are spotty, they include documentation showing where House Republican staff members in Chicago spent their time in the months before the November general election.

Daniels' office has said the work was not campaign-related, even though staff members seem to have flocked toward districts with hotly contested races.

Kosel's office was visited more than 200 times, according to the records. She faced a tight race with Frankfort Police Chief Darrell Sanders and beat him in November by only 124 votes.

Kosel said she did receive a lot of help from Republican staff in 2000, but the work was not campaign-related. She was away from the office most days to be with her toddler grandson who was hospitalized due to a heart defect all spring and summer. He died in August.

"Because of that, I wasn't in the office, so I can't say (exactly what the staff members did on a particular day)," she said. "But I do know they were attending events for me, helping with constituent service, working on letters we always write in the summer on various issues, all those state things. They were not doing campaign work. I don't allow it."

Kosel said she is conscientious about separating campaign and state work. She once refused to conduct an interview about her re-election bid in her state office, insisting the interview take place in rented campaign space next door.

Durham said Kosel's district also required extra help because it's one of the state's fastest-growing areas.

"It was an extraordinarily busy summer," he said.

'Everyone is a little dirty here'

Other members of Daniels' staff were dispatched throughout the region during campaign time and submitted travel vouchers that, in some cases, don't match up with where they were supposed to be stationed, Means said.

He said he has evidence they listed travel to places like Bloomington and Springfield when other records indicate they were in the Chicago area.

Because he received the information about House Republicans, Means said they are the target of his lawsuit so far. But they most likely aren't alone, he said.

"I'm still putting evidence together, and I'm doing my best to rope in more than just the state Republican Party because I have a feeling everyone is a little dirty here," he said.

Dan Curry, spokesman for Jim Ryan, said the attorney general's office has begun to look into the situation. The case is sure to test Jim Ryan's mettle. The Republican nominee for governor has been criticized for soft-pedaling corruption cases.

"I'm sure if we come up with something, we'll let you know," Curry said.

Southtown politics writer Kristen McQueary may be reached at kmcqueary@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5972.