From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Rival alleges fund abuse by Topinka

July 8, 2002

BY DAVE MCKINNEY SUN-TIMES SPRINGFIELD BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD--Since Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka took office almost eight years ago, the level of campaign contributions from her employees has nearly doubled, prompting allegations of fund-raising abuses from her Democratic rival.

But Topinka's campaign has denied any wrongdoing and attacked her opponent, Rep. Tom Dart (D-Chicago), for himself taking campaign cash from a key staff assistant.

The two-term Republican treasurer raised $16,400 last year from her office workers. That amount represents the largest yearly total since she took office in 1995, when employees donated $8,550 to her campaign fund.

Dart, the Democratic nominee for treasurer, said the trend under Topinka raises troubling questions at a time when Gov. Ryan is under federal scrutiny for the way employees in the secretary of state office he once led were allegedly forced to contribute to his campaign fund.

"It all flies in the face of everything that's going on around us," Dart said. "We have the largest scandal to hit the state in decades, and it's all centering around employees and the pressure put on them to contribute to campaigns. And yet, she's going right along and doing that."

Dart said if elected, he will not accept any donations from employees under his control. That position differs from Topinka, who has promised not to solicit her employees for contributions but nonetheless accepts cash when it is given to her.

Topinka is not prepared to say she would stop taking contributions from employees in a third term.

"Everyone has a constitutional right to express their views, and the office believes that should people wish to attend a [fund-raising] event on their own volition, they should be accommodated," Topinka spokesman John McGovern said.

That stance puts Topinka at odds with others in her party. Early in his term, in a bid to blunt political damage from the licenses-for-bribes scandal, Gov. Ryan pledged not to accept campaign contributions from employees. Soon after, the GOP's gubernatorial nominee, Attorney General Jim Ryan, adopted a similar stance.

The head of a nonpartisan government watchdog group called on Topinka and others in state government to follow the same standards against taking employee contributions.

"These are sort of serious times in Illinois. They require extraordinary measures," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "It would be wise for everybody who is a current officeholder with employees to do that. I think this year's elections, not just the one between Dart and Topinka, are about standing away from the mud."

Topinka's campaign, which reported a balance in its political fund of $1.02 million at the end of last year, denied that any fund-raising pressures have ever been placed on her workers. Her forces contended that the rise in employee donations is related to an influx of new employees in 1999 and that what she has done really is no different than what Dart himself has done.

Patricia Horne, an employee Dart pays through his tax-funded legislative district office allowance, has given him more than $4,000 in campaign contributions since 1994, state records show.

"It's just another example of the political hypocrisy that has turned off so many people. He ought to live by the same rules he tries to apply to others," McGovern said.

Horne, an attorney, helps draft legislation for Dart and occupies space in his district office. But she is not a state employee and does not enjoy traditional benefits of health insurance or sick time offered state workers, Dart campaign manager Mike Grady said.

"This is really a sad attempt to divert attention from the George Ryan-style campaigning that's taking place in the treasurer's office. This is a ludicrous comparison," Grady said.

What, if anything, her employees' contributions have bought is a muddled question. Ex-staffers said their contributions didn't buy any special treatment.

"There were people there she inherited or people she brought on that I never saw at fund-raising events, yet they continued to work there and do well. There was never anything like you won't get a raise," said Roger Germann, a spokesman for the Shedd Aquarium who worked as a press secretary for Topinka and gave her $225. "Judy was not like that."

Of her payroll and state campaign contributions, Dart's campaign calculated that donors in her office received average raises of 19.6 percent since 1999. Non-donors got raises averaging 15.6 percent during the same period.

In response, Topinka's side noted many instances where non-donors got raises over three years of as much as 61 percent, while a handful of donor employees got no raises at all during the same period.

"The impression is being given if you don't give money, you're not getting anywhere in this office," Dart said.