As political corruption crime sprees go, this one would make Lincoln roll over in his grave. The transgression in question is the illegal use of public resources by elected officials for political gain. Props go to the amateur Inspector Clouseaus over at the McHenryCountyBlog, who are following this tale of a political crimewave breaking in your LakeCountyEye's own backyard:You may remember that the Special Prosecutors of McHenry County State's Attorney Lou Bianchi spent $225,000 we know of looking into the alleged use of official resources for Bianchi's political benefit. I believe Quest Consultants International examined over 5,000 emails and found less than ten that were of a political nature. One I remember was from a web hosting company that was told to use a non-government email address to communicate. Special Prosecutors Henry Tonigan and Thomas McQueen argued that Bianchi assistant Joyce Synek was running Bianchi's campaign out of the courthouse. In cross examination of former Criminal Division Chief Nichole Owens, testimony was elicited that Synek's campaign roll was baking cookies. In Grayslake, from the email published by McHenry County Blog so far (see "The Grayslake School Board Incumbents' Campaign (Email) Trail" – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), there is a much stronger case to be made.Recent, FOIAed documents suggest that elected officials on the Grayslake District 46 School Board may have used public school e-mail resources for re-election purposes this year. As the McHenryCountyBlog notes, the documents contain striking similarities with charges filed against nearby McHenry County State's Attorney, Louis Bianchi. Bianchi was charged with misusing official State's Attorney e-mail resources to help his re-election campaign. Another similarity is that Bianchi is a Republican. The elected officials in question on the Grayslake District 46 School Board (who were defeated in April) are also Republicans.
Lake County State’s Attorney Looking into Grayslake School Board Members Campaign Emails
Whether this will be investigated as a simple copycat case or reveal a broader Republican criminal conspiracy is unknown. Your LakeCountyEye does know that the Republican brand as the law-and-order Party may have been tarnished. This is underscored by the fact that the Rockefeller Republicans over at TeamAmerica10th reacted quickly to throw the fellow Republicans under the bus:
My pal and local blogger Paul Mitchell has done a yeoman's job of blowing the whistle on some very serious issues of apparent improper use of government resources for a local school board campaign, as well as outing what looks like at least discussions of the ramifications of skirting campaign finance laws.The seriousness mentioned above is underscored by the mistake in the title of the post, where TeamAmerica10th misidentifies the school board members as "Dems" -- an atypical gaffe for a blog that parses its words with a lawyer-like scrutiny.
Local Blogger Paul Mitchell Blows Whistle On Dem School Board Campaign Shenanigans in Grayslake D46
The FOIAed documents also include correspondence with high-ranking Republican elected officials, who your LakeCountyEye is quite sure, would just rather see this story disappear down the memory hole. Time will tell. Stay tuned to this blog for further developments.
18 comments:
BB- I don't claim to be the master of Grayslake politics; all I know is what I read in the e-mails, and what I read at your Pal Cal's blog seems to indicate that regardless of what the incumbents may have called themselves when it was convenient at other times, they were reaching out primarily to Dems (Link, Shepardson, and the "Votebuilder" database which is a proprietary Dem creation) and the unions for assistance.
http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2011/05/05/the-grayslake-school-board-incumbents-campaign-email-trail-part-3/
And, unlike the Dems, the GOP is usually pleased to blow the whistle on unlawful activity regardless of who the perpertrator is. Dems usually are pleased to look the other way when it's convenient, in my experience.
Toodles, TA
Again this was a non partisan race. There were no Dems are Repubs....
The D46 crew even reached out to Suzi Schmidt.
The IL State BOE will take action I am sure.
Hey, didn't these so called non-partisans hire a democratic operative to run their campaigns? All that 'reaching out" to counter the tea party campaign against them? And they were talking about paying him in cash so they could keep it all hidden by not reporting donations and expenses?
Republicans have "VoterVault." Democrats have "Votebuilder."
Ouch! Those painful facts!
Nice spin to the story by the so-called "non-partisan" Lake County Eye.
Louis G. Atsaves
Toodles?
Trite but not contrite.
It is telling that TA and the Lake County GOP now fully embrace the Tea Party. Even their stalking dog Louis G. Atsaves, jumped on the bus: "Somebody cheated! Great job Paul and Lenny!" And then further stated, "Reminds me. Grayslake is in Lake County Eye's back yard. You know, the "non-partisan" blog that ignores Democrat misdeeds and only Democrat misdeeds? :-)" (Cutsey little smiley picture was of Louis' creation, not mine. Then again, he's a regular on the unofficial Mark Kirk blog, so, you'd expect cutsey.)
And to think both TA and Louis are attorneys here in Lake County. I'd expect better fact checking from them, but, then again, they are attorneys in Lake County. But why would they. In their view, what the Tea Party wants, the Tea Party gets.
The shame, of course, is that between Paul Mitchell and Lennie Jarrat, that poor school district will be spending years and thousands of man-hours going through FOIA's for everything from exact teaching hours and vacations to when bathroom breaks were taken.
Yeesh! With friends like Suzi, TA, Mitchell and Louis, who needs enemies!
Anon, you seem quite upset? Democrats misbehaving and you are trying to redirect focus on the tea party that uncovered their acts?
Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!
The bottom line is that those BB are claiming were Republicans were busy trying to establish their Democratic credentials through all those e-mails sent over publicly owned computers and networks in an attempt to put down the tea party wave that was after them.
And yes, Grayslake PS will spend oodles of monies defending this case due to the actions of democrats who seemed to be busy breaking the law while campaigning and looking to circumvent campaign laws with talk of paying off people in cash and not reporting certain donations. That doesn't seem fair to the local taxpayers. The wrongdoers should be fronting the cash for those expensive legal fees.
I'll stick to the facts on this one. You can use whatever sticks that you throw up onto the ceiling.
Louis G. Atsaves
hi TA,
That's how it looks to me. Campaign mgr needs Votebuilder. Dems have Votebuilder -- but won't return their calls.
It looks like their got a warmer response from Suzi Schmidt. If it was Schmidt who blew the whistle, one would think she might have warned them first against using their govt mail server? You never know who your friends are.
-BB-
hi Louis,
Agreed, they hired a Dem consultant. And one who was lost-in-the-woods without Votebuilder. Mistake #1 imo. Especially with all the effort spent trying to cajole Votebuilder from people they obviously didn't know.
My sources tell me the principal player in this drama is a Republican. Do you have any facts to share that show otherwise?
-BB-
Gift certificates? Cash payments? School superintendents campaigning for their favorite school board members/candidates to be elected who will later decide the school superintendent's contract, pay, perks, length of employment, pension, etc.?
And the indignity of it all being uncovered by two tea party guys?
And all of this behavior was a panic response to a bunch of tea party candidates running for school board?
LOL!
So far BB all I see are a bunch of red faced Democrats caught red handed with their hands in the cookie jar. If you think a Republican is a puppeteer behind all of this, I'm impressed. I would like to know who this Republican is so I can shake his/her hand.
But blaming Republicans for Democratic misdeeds is a time honored very recent Democratic tradition, isn't it? Look at the boys and girls in Springfield. Democrats control all levers of government and blame Republicans for massive deficits, corruption and inability to pass a balanced budget and pay billions in incurred bills owed to poor providers. The Federal government before the 2010 elections was all controlled by Democrats, WHO COULDN'T EVEN PASS A BUDGET!
That Republican President Harry S. Truman said it best: "THE BUCK STOPS HERE!"
And yes, I KNOW Truman was a Democrat. My how the mighty Democrats have slipped in the taking of responsibility department since then!
Louis G. Atsaves
Atsaves...I don't see any red faced Dems. If anything they stood their ground. They said no to VoteBuilder. The party did not get involved in the race and even warned of using official email for campaigning. The CM was an outsider from an entirely different county and when he reached out to local Dems, was told the same thing....NO!
Unlike many of these non-partisan race in LC, state ELECTED Republicans showed and supported several campaigns.
hi Louis,
The Republican in question is the target of the FOIAs. I would suggest downloading the FOIA PDFs, look at the name on all of the email correspondence. That person is a Republican, according to my sources.
So far I have seen no new evidence to make me think otherwise. If you have evidence indicating this person is not a Republican, you are invited to post it here. Otherwise, this is an open blog, and you are invited to let off steam here instead, if that's your preference.
-BB-
Louis, you've gone off the deep end. Take a breath or a pill or something. Go foreclose on a widow, perhaps. I'm sure that would perk you right up! But let's not beat around the bush anymore. There is no difference between the Lake County Republican Party and the Tea Party. You and TA and your goofy friend Paul Mitchell (Love his film critiques, by the way!), and that whack-job Cal Skinner all drink from the same, nasty ideological cup. You guys have each become slightly ickier versions of each other. Can't wait for the unveiling of your matching brown shirts!
BB, I downloaded all the e-mails and will start plowing through them. If you have a name, why not just say so and save everyone a lot of time?
Anon: === There is no difference between the Lake County Republican Party and the Tea Party.=== LOL! LOL! LOL! (Whew! What a gut buster that one was!) You need to attend a tea party meeting or two or three to discover why that comment deserved a triple LOL!
And the Democrat operative "came from another county" is no shocker to us veteran Lake County Republicans. Let me take a quick guess: COOK? LOL!
Louis G. Atsaves
Louis, not only have I attended a meeting, but I have also run their voting records and, while I abhor your cutsey-speak, (do you say "smiley-face" or "IMHO" to a judge? How pathetic!), I think the LOL is on you. When they have voted in any primary at all, the principals of the Lake County Tea Party have, at a 98% rate, pulled a Republican ballot. Then again, many of the individuals attending a Tea Party event at Living Waters Church actually do not vote at all, and in fact did not vote in 2010 or in the 2011 election. So your LOL perhaps should stand for: Loving Our Lunatics.
hi Louis,
I believe there is only one individual who was the target of this FOIA kerfuffle. When you feel you are up-to-speed, feel free to post your thoughts.
-BB-
Anon, using your logic then:
If 98% of socialists vote Democratic on a regular basis, then all Democrats are socialists!
That tin foil stuff on your head isn't all that flattering.
My take on the tea party is that they are the old "silent majority" middle class of the Richard Nixon days, only this time with an angry attitude, having felt that government is ignoring them and their concerns. That conclusion has been reached through attendance at many of their meetings and personal conversations with countess attendees and tea party organizers.
Louis G. Atsaves
Specious logic, Louis, at best. But it's good that you finally re-affirm your close connections, indeed, your embrasure of the Tea Party. That you lapse into the 'socialist' gobble-de-gook so quickly is the best evidence thereof.
Keep diggin that hole, Louis!
Its a shame you're not old enough to recall Richard Nixon's wage and price controls imposed during a time of economic crisis. Then again, the GOP thrives on folks with situational recall like yourself. You denied any connection with the tea party a scant few months ago on this and TA's blog. Are you flip-flopping now, or less than truthful then?
Anon, I talk to all kinds of people in politics including lots of Democrats. I am a Republican, in spite of who I talk to. Perhaps you limit yourself to a tight little political circle of pals, but that has never been my style.
And thanks for the outstanding compliment! I'm not old enough to remember Richard Nixon's silent majority?
I wish!
Louis G. Atsaves
Then, Louis, as usual, you have no excuse. You embrace the Tea Party's whole 'socialist' mumbo-jumbo. You ARE truly off the deep end.
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