April 18, 2006

In This Issue:

• Please Be Impatient: Ryan and Warner are Guilty, Guilty, Guilty
• Please Be Patient: We're Moving

Please Be Impatient: Ryan and Warner are Guilty, Guilty, Guilty
A federal jury returned guilty verdicts on all 22 counts charged against former Gov. George Ryan and his associate, Larry Warner.  The jury determined that Ryan and Warner conspired to steer state contracts and leases, to extort payments from state bidders, made false statements to federal investigators, hid financial transactions from federal regulators.  The convictions are the culmination of over 70 Operation Safe Road indictments, dating back over 8 years; not one of which has ended in a "not guilty" verdict.

The convictions show the extent to which criminal activity came to be tolerated at the highest levels of state government.  They should also force Illinoisans to wonder the extent to which we as a state will rely on federal prosecutions to ferret out felonious political activity.  While Illinois passed an ethics bill in 2003, further reforms await legislative consideration.  Measures to address lobbying, campaign finance, and pay-to-play activity by state contractors are now pending in Springfield.  With legislators now in their home districts until early next week (except for House members, who will be at the Capitol today and tomorrow), now is the time to speak your mind about what reform proposals should stop being proposals and instead become laws.  Legislators have moved significant new laws in a very short time before, and the nearness of adjournment should not mean that reform must wait.

Please Be Patient: We're Moving
On the day that the Ryan verdict was released, ICPR's internet connection was down due to our impending move to a new office.  We may not be as immediately accessible as we are usually, but we're here and will respond as soon as we can.  Our phone number is still (312) 335-1767, our fax line is still (312) 335-1067 (it was down along with the web); our website is still ilcampaign.org (when it's working) and our e-mail hasn't changed.  Our address will soon become 325 West Huron, Suite 500, Chicago, Illinois 60610.  For now, though, we may be hard to reach.  Please be patient!  We're still looking for a refrigerator, but we'd take a sofa, too (hint, hint).

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ICPR Spotcheck is a publication of The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a non-partisan public interest group that educates, conducts research, and advocates reforms to promote public participation in government, address the role of money in politics, and encourage integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.

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