From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Birkett won't return Daniels' donations

September 6, 2002

BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND LYNN SWEET STAFF REPORTERS

Republican attorney general nominee Joe Birkett vowed Thursday not to accept campaign contributions from anyone "under major investigation," but he intends to keep $32,000 from a top GOP leader whose office is the subject of a federal probe.

Democratic rival Lisa Madigan, facing her own problems with tainted cash, called Birkett a "hypocrite" for not returning donations from House Minority Leader Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst) while admitting she needs to do a better job screening out suspect donors.

The issue of tainted campaign funds dominated the attorney general's race Thursday, fueled largely by Madigan's decision this week to rid her campaign fund of $30,000 donated by a singer-songwriter who allegedly espouses hatred and a lawyer accused of trying to buy a Cook County judgeship.

"I think we need to do a better job of vetting," said Madigan, who spoke publicly about her fund-raising missteps for the first time in Washington, D.C.

Madigan called her current vetting process "a strict one at this point," noting that contributions above $5,000 are screened by her campaign.

Birkett attempted to seize on Madigan's decision to rid her political fund of the suspect contributions this week, but he was forced to backpedal on his newly unveiled promise when asked what he intended to do with donations from Daniels.

Since 1999, Birkett's political fund has gotten $32,000 from Daniels, whose office has been under federal investigation since July amid questions over whether Daniels' tax-funded staff worked on political campaigns in 2000 on state time. Of that amount, $25,000 came from Daniels in April.

"There's no allegation that somehow the money that in the past leader Daniels contributed to my campaign was, in any way, tainted, that it was laundered. There is no such allegation," Birkett said.

The DuPage County state's attorney also noted that Daniels' donations from his Friends of Lee Daniels campaign fund originated from a variety of donors who had given money to Daniels. By contrast, Madigan's returned donations came from individual donors, who themselves faced troubling questions.

In his ethics pledge, Birkett promised to avoid contributions from "anyone publicly known to be under major investigation, or from organizations they lead."

Birkett's aides said the arrival of Daniels' money predated Attorney General Jim Ryan's July announcement that Daniels' office was being investigated by the feds.

Madigan's camp refused to say what Birkett ought to do with Daniels' money, but late Thursday she belittled Birkett's high-wire act on the propriety of holding onto the House leader's donations.

"I guess that makes him a hypocrite,'' Madigan told the Sun-Times.

Earlier this week, Madigan was stung herself by the disclosure that her campaign had accepted $25,000 from Andrew Harris, the singer-songwriter son of a Cook County judge, after anti-bigotry groups linked the young man's obscenity-laced music with hatred against non-whites and organized religion. On Sunday, she opted to divest her campaign of that money.

Then on Wednesday, her campaign returned $5,000 in contributions it had received from personal injury lawyer Thomas Fazioli, who is accused of trying to buy a Cook County judgeship. That lawyer is now facing possible disbarment and was the subject of a federal grand jury probe.

Madigan said Thursday she is not sure whether she ever met Fazioli. "I'd have to see him. I'm at a point in my life where I don't know people unless I see them," she said.