Your LakeCountyEye broke the story here on Tuesday ... Telephone Swagwith a follow-up on Wednesday ...
Coverup UncoveredIt can be reported today that your LakeCountyEye's perseverance has not been wasted. The telephone game being played by Suzi Schmidt & JoAnn Osmond & Linda Peterson is a comedy gift that just keeps on giving.
For those just dialing in, Lake County Board Chair Suzi Schmidt held a fundraiser yesterday. The press release for the event listed 847-838-6200 as the RSVP number and County Board Member Linda Pedersen as the contact person. It turns out that 847-838-6200 is the official number to JoAnn Osmond's legislative office. And Pedersen is Osmond's legislative aide.
The Daily Herald has the latest 411 ...
Ethics complaint filed against Lake County's Linda PedersenHopefully the busdriver isn't texting or driving while distracted by a cellphone because there are some passengers to be found under the bus ...
Pedersen said she isn't the organizer of the event and said the phone number was published by mistake. "I am not running Suzi Schmidt's fundraiser," Pedersen said Thursday. "And the phone number was never intended to be used for people to RSVP."
Osmond said Lake County Republican Party Chairman Dan Venturi included the number in an e-mail blast about the event. "He should have used the campaign phone number but in any case, the state does not pay for my office phone. I do," she said Thursday.The next thing your LakeCountyEye expects to hear is that Active Killdisk was used by mistake to send out Schmidt's fundraiser press release.
20 comments:
Love the Kill-disk reference
Kill-disk is standard issue for members of the LC GOP.
BB:
Why didn’t you post any thoughts regarding Sen. Bond and his adventures in campaign ethics? I do remember seeing something about a fundraiser he cancelled because of the Sec. of Transportation. You were able to pull quite a bit of info on Schmidt, Osmond and Peterson very quickly but I still haven’t seen a post on Bond.
Maybe Goldfish should back up his comment...
Crazy, here's the background on Bond you were looking for.
Crazy:
Just got back on the net. Mr. America beat me to it. So what are your thoughts now that you know the story and have joined the conversation.
It has been five hours and still no reply from Crazy. This is just not like him. I hope his computer still works. He might actually go "Crazy" without it.
I will check back tomorrow. Hopefully he is out having a good time on this fine Saturday night.
Fish and TA seem to be drinking their own koolaid. Apparently being a GOP trustee in a landed gentry little burb makes TA habitually turn a blind eye on abuse of taxpayer resources.
The bottom line here is that political activity out of a legislative office has been verbotten for decades and JoAnn will likely and rightly be censured by the Inspector General. A fitting end to a mediocre career in the Illinois House.
If you believe Suzi's stupid story, Venturi offered Pedersen at her legislative job in Osmond's office to the various newspapers and state and local GOP web sites as the point contact for this fundraiser of his own accord because it seems Schmidt's campaign is in such disarray she has neither an office nor a phone. It's just pathetic.
Hi Goldfish,
If you have new dirt on Bond, or any public figure for that matter, send it to LakeCountyEye@gmail.com
It will be posted here.
-BB-
According to the article(s) referenced, the State Transportation Director was slammed more than anyone else. This is not to say whether or not the event in question was wrong or right.
However, it is unique that when there is an appearance of a potential conflict of interest or the confluence of government officials, private organizations, and a funder, this is like being tried, convicted and exiled for a Dem and the GOP official gets a pass (Give the person a chance, the comment or action was taken out of context, it was a typo, or the famous 'I didn't do it, he did').
That to me is a double standard.
The GOP would not invoke the ire of Dems' and Independents' as often if they took responsibility for their own (Pate Phillip, George Ryan, Lee Daniels, need I go on?) in addition to highlighting the errors of the Dem's.
The GOP also would be well served to put forth better candidates or at least being honest about them.
For example I don't think that Fred Thompson or Andy McKenna are going to win 'best outsider of the year' awards any time soon. Just because one is kicked out of the GOP chairmanship, does not make one an outsider. Also, if the GOP didn't like McKenna's service in an arena that does not involve public funds, why would they think that anyone would vote for him across the political spectrum?
Related to this, if GOP public officials would put forth substantive alternatives to what they don't want for their constituents but like for themselves (can you say healthcare?) and not just patch-work legislation that many a report reflects will do little if anything to solve the problem that is trying to be addressed, this might gain some points (No, public service is generally not about gaining political points, however it seems to be part and parcel of the Mark Kirk, Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell playbook.)
BB:
I have no other information. I was mearly trying to understand how your mission statement, “We are a non partisan blog covering politics in and around Lake County IL”, matches your reporting. You are correct in calling out suspected abuse of campaign ethics of politicians. I would have thought you would follow your mission statement and be “non-partisan”.
My guess is there is probably a hard copy of a Schmidt invite showing no wrong doing. If there was an honest mistake in sending out an email then the ethics complaint will get to the bottom of it. If there was a violation then those responsible will have to pay the price legally and politically. My hope is that if they are found innocent this “non-partisan” blog will do a follow-up post. If they are found guilty then you should rightfully report that as well.
Crazy:
We need to nick name you “tangent” for all the tangents you go off on in every post. You call so many people out from the republican side but you never say a peep about the Democrats. I am talking about you who you can control not other GOP types who you cannot.
Let's name Gold Fish "innuendo" as this poster obviously believes that a function cancelled because of the mere appearance of impropriety somehow compares to a direct violation of the long-standing rule against political activity on state time. Perhaps the name should be "myopia". Perhaps 'corruption enabler'? Nope, I've got it - Dan Venturi!
Anon 5:43:
My point all along has been the so-called "non-partisan" nature of this blog not even doing a drive-by comment on the issue. The reason Bond, or specifically the Sec. of Trans, did not get an ethics complaint charge is that the event was cancelled. The event was cancelled because they were called out by Crain’s. What would have happened if the event went though? Quite honestly I do not have any idea. I am sure an ethics complaint would have been filed and we would have found out.
We will all see in a short time if campaign work was done on state time or if it was an honest mistake. If they did something wrong I will be the first to criticize them. Like I said in an earlier post, there has to be a hard copy of the Schmidt fundraiser out there somewhere. If that has the same state number and Petersons name on it then you have something.
Hi Goldfish,
I'm sure we will be following the fall-out from the Schmidt funder. It will probably wind up having been a tempest in a teacup. But I believe there is more to the story than what's been reported so far.
Also, I'm not the only blogger here & not the blog owner. (I was invited onboard about a year ago.) So I can't speak personally one way or the other for the mission statement. Regarding my vetting process, I'm always eager to break news. There is that joke about how jounalists are all stupid and lazy. Well when it comes to internet bloggers, multiply that by two. IOW send your news to LakeCountyEye@gmail.com and it will be reported here.
-BB-
BB:
Did not know the relationship between blog owner, mission statement and you. Thanks for clarifying. BUT, if the ethics investigation does not find any wrong doings I would hope you would do a follow up. At least so we can see what the other side has to say when they are proven innocent. And if they are guilty, I for one will call them out.
Okay Gold Fish; time to make that call.
Blue Prairie:
Can you tell me where to find the ethics complaint report that was completed? Have you thrown out one of the tenants of our society, innocent until proven guilty? I am pretty sure there would have been a major news story if any of the players were found to violate the law.
I believe it has been reported than Osmond pays for all her district office out of her campaign. If that is in fact the case then there is no issue here. If that is not the case then there will be hell to pay on many levels both legally and politically.
hi Goldfish,
I'm a fan of the game & wouldn't plan on leaving before the last out of the 9th.
-BB-
BB:
I am with you but you may need to explain yourself to Blue Prairie as I am pretty sure it went over his head like a long fly ball.
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