Eisendrath: Come cean about the 'Official A' scandal
Posted in Peoria Pundit
From the Edwin Eisendrath campaign:
Edwin Eisendrath today called on Governor Blagojevich to come clean with the people of Illinois about quid-pro-quo contributions to his political funds in exchange for pension fund investments.
“The Governor’s fundraising scandals continue to undermine trust in the pension system, and erode confidence in government,” said Eisendrath. “It’s unfortunate that he continues the tired tactics of changing the subject and ignoring the problem.”
The Teachers Retirement System of Illinois, which represents 330,000 public school teachers outside of the City of Chicago, has now filed suit against three Blagojevich campaign insiders seeking millions in damages. Two of those appointees have pleaded guilty to the kickback scheme and the third is facing trial.
Eisendrath thinks the legislature should begin an official inquiry.
The tangled web of money and influence peddling allegedly begins in the Governor’s office with public documents linking “public official a” to the plan to kickback money to the Blagojevich campaign fund by lobbyists seeking pension fund investments for their clients. “Public Official A” has been identified as the Governor himself by people close to the investigation.
Illinois taxpayers are already spending millions in support of several ongoing investigations into the pay-to-play politics of the Blagojevich administration.
Eisendrath called on the governor to cut short those investigations by voluntarily detailing which contributions to his funds came from lobbyists working for any consultant to the state’s pension funds, or any recipient of pension fund investments.
“As governor I would act immediately to restore trust in the pensions and confidence in government. Tens of thousands of teachers are counting on these funds, and both teachers and taxpayer continue to pay to support those funds,” said Eisendrath, a Democratic candidate for Governor and former Clinton appointee. “Instead of waiting for the US Attorney to do it for us, the Governor should take four steps right away:
- Investigate and determine how the fund investments and contracts were related to contributions.
- Disclose the findings of that investigation
- Discipline those involved.
- Return any contributions related to this pay-to-play scandal.
Technorati Tags: edwin eisendrath, rod blagojevich, governor, illinois, public official a, 2006 elections
6 comments:
Is this site the Edwin Eisendrath Press Office?
A synopisis would have been fine.
Yawn City! If this is what Edwin is about, we can declare this campaign over now. Why not drag Fritchey or some other boob to the event and force them to be for a legislative investigation.
Hmm... perhaps we hide our i.d. just in case Edwin wins :)
Yawn City!
"Eisendrath thinks the legislature should begin an official inquiry. "
If this is the best Edwin can do, I think the race can be declared over. game set match grod!
How about demanding the G cut the crap and tell Illinois voters who PO A is.....Some of us remember the USA telling voters that George Ryan was not a target just before the 1998 electioncs.
Hmmmm..better be Mr. ANON in case Edwin wins
If Rod gets rid of Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly, than I will vote for him
Getting rid of those two will stop corruption
Rod can even keep an idiot like Lon Monk, that is just stupidity not corruption
Rod is goin to go down in the General. Eisendrath is not just some challenger, or even a really nice guy or a genuine reformer, he's the only shot the Democrats have for not having another Ryan situation on our hands. It's Eisendrath or hello GOP.
For disclosure's sake.. I'm losely connected with the Eisendrath campaign, but what I'm refering to is public knowledge. Check out the polls.
Why did TRS allow a policy of not allowing teachers to contribute to the System from employment as a certified teacher. Teachers that worked in the summer were forced to pay into FICA and not allowed to pay into TRS. Some school districts were under the impression that their summer employees were mandated to pay into FICA and other districts allowed their teachers to pay into TRS. How much in employee contributions did the System lose over the years because of failing to requrie school districts to withhold into TRS into FICA from certified teacher employment.
Should this be investigated? Was the policy to avoid paying higher benefits for retirees?
Call TRS and ask if they ever requried certified teachers to pay FICA...they will say no when the answer is yes.
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