From the Chicago Tribune

Candidate without faults is a rarity
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By John Chase and David Mendell
Tribune staff reporters
March 10, 2004
State Sen. Barack Obama claims the mantle of a reformer, but early last month the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate spent $17,191 in state taxpayer money on a mailer that had the look and feel of a campaign flier.
The mailing went out just days before a new ban on the pre-election dissemination of such state-paid constituent newsletters went into effect, part of a package of ethics reforms that Obama takes credit for getting passed.
Obama is hardly alone among U.S. Senate contenders of both parties in the March 16 primary when it comes to apparent campaign inconsistencies and embellishments.
Republican candidate Jim Oberweis has blanketed the state with TV and radio commercials warning that 10,000 illegal immigrants flood into the U.S. every day and steal jobs from citizens while getting health care underwritten by taxpayers.
The math on Oberweis' claim works out to 3.65 million illegal immigrants entering the country every year, more than three times the estimates of federal immigration officials. Even Oberweis backtracked this week, conceding that 10,000 immigrants may cross illegally into the country each day, but most don't stay. The number who stay, he acknowledged Tuesday, was only in the "hundreds of thousands or, perhaps, millions."
Though aides insisted it was a coincidence, Oberweis' campaign pulled the ads on Tuesday, the same day a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll showed 40 percent of Republican voters thought the candidate was exaggerating the illegal immigration threat.
Just as Oberweis has focused on immigration, rival Republican Jack Ryan dwells frequently in his campaign on a plan to improve the nation's health-care system by allowing insurance coverage to remain tied to individuals rather than their employers.
What Ryan doesn't volunteer is that the position meshes perfectly with that taken by a coalition of health-care companies, including one on whose board he sits.
Back in the Democratic race, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes boasts frequently about how he tried to be a bulwark against soaring state spending when former Republican Gov. George Ryan was in office.
While Hynes was certainly critical of George Ryan's spending habits, he had little authority as comptroller to block spending. Once he briefly blocked the release of money to pay for pet projects of lawmakers, but when they questioned Hynes' power to hold up the funds, he backed down.
"I think we were successful in shining a light on the problem of abusive spending," Hynes insisted Tuesday.
Another U.S. Senate candidate, Republican Steve Rauschenberger, has also made much of his credentials as budget hawk while serving as chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee. But Rauschenberger's service in that post coincided with George Ryan's tenure as governor, and the Republican-controlled state Senate typically acquiesced to Ryan's spending priorities.
In his recent "Legislative Update" to constituents, Obama touted his work in the Illinois Senate, proclaiming in a headline: "Seniors and families on the South Side won because Barack Obama and the Democratic majority put their needs first."
The mailing went out to more than 70,000 households in Obama's South Side legislative district and cost $17,191 to print and mail, according to state records.
Pam Smith, an Obama spokeswoman, said he simply wanted to use the mailing to introduce himself to new constituents, since his state Senate district was redrawn a few years ago.
The new ethics law that bans such mailings was passed by the legislature in the fall. However, the effective date of the ban was delayed until mid-February, a few days after the letters went out.
Obama's commitment to abortion rights has also been questioned in campaign mailings from rival Blair Hull, who has criticized the state senator for several "present" votes he cast on bills relating to abortion.
"It's inexcusable," Hull said while campaigning Downstate Tuesday. "If you are absolutely pro-choice, you don't vote present."
But abortion-rights advocates have been quick to defend Obama, arguing that his "present" votes were strategic legislative maneuvers that many other lawmakers who support their cause also participated in.
Republican Jack Ryan's insurance plank calls for extending to individuals the tax deduction now offered to corporations for providing health insurance for their employees.
But rival Andy McKenna Jr. has said the sincerity of Ryan's position is undermined by his membership on the board of First Health Group Corp., which is part of a lobbying effort in favor of the tax-deduction extension.
Ryan denies the conflict, but says that if elected, he will divest himself of any financial holdings that could create an appearance of impropriety.
"There's no way I would hold any assets that would make people wonder why I was voting one way or another," Ryan said while taking a break from shaking commuters' hands in downtown Chicago Tuesday evening. "We'd just make sure that there's no issue there whatsoever."
Tribune staff reporters Liam Ford, John McCormick, Ofelia Casillas, James Janega, H. Gregory Meyer and Rick Jervis contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune