Rod Blagojevich's Enablers

By Cal Skinner

No, this is not about Roland Burris, but it could be, as Tom Roeser points out.Former Lee Newspapers' Springfield Bureau Chief and Jim Edgar's Press Secretary and policy adviser Mike Lawrence has written a column for the Chicago Tribune.


Lawrence points out how Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was propped up by

“do-gooders”

The embattled governor

“was reinforced by well meaning individuals and groups seeking his support seeking his support for worthy causes or fearing retribution if they challenged him.”

Lawrence specifically mentions supporters of

“early childhood education and expanded health-care coverage.”

Plus

“presidents of our largest universities” who “acquiesced to budget cuts and the governor's ridicule of higher education.”

“Children's champions, education leaders, major health-care providers and grant recipients hailed him” and “flanked him” in press conferences.

Lawrence always did have a way with words and an intolerance for corruption.

For my part of this article, I'll show you some of the enablers who appeared in my mailbox to promote Blagojevich's re-election.

Three direct mail campaign pieces from the Blagojevich campaign were sent to
my mailbox.

And I've voted in every Republican primary election since I was old enough to register in 1964.

He had that much money to spend in 2006.

That's what pay-to-play money will buy an incumbent Illinois governor.

All images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

For all four panels of the third mailing seen above, which was the first one I received, click here.

The article on the second mailing is here.

The article on the third mailing that Blagojevich sent to Republicans is here.

Published first at McHenry County Blog.

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Turn of events

Democratic Rep. Art Turner of Chicago is one of three finalists to lead the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The center plans to replace Mike Lawrence, the executive director who retired, in January.

The other two finalists include veteran journalists, William Freivogel, director of SIUC’s School of Journalism and a longtime journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and David Yepsen, a political columnist with the Des Moines Register.

Matt Baughman, who has been with the institute for a decade in various capacities, is serving as interim director.

Turner, who is in Springfield this afternoon for an abbreviated fall session of the General Assembly, says if chosen, he would resign his legislative post and move with his family to Carbondale. We'll have more soon.

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A new direction

Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is retiring from the institute November 1. He started in 1994 as associate director and became director in 2004, shortly after the unexpected death of former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

"You can’t really replace in some senses either Paul Simon or Mike Lawrence, but we’ve got to find someone who will carry on. And we have some very capable, accomplished people in the pool," says John Jackson, political science professor at the university and head of the search committee to replace Lawrence.

An interim director will be announced shortly, and the search committee expects to publish the top three candidates some time in November. A new director may not start until January, according to Jackson.

The new director will take over as the economic downturn continues to manifest itself in new ways. Lawrence told us in the spring that one reason he felt comfortable retiring is because Simon's goal of building a $10 million endowment had been accomplished and then some. But Jackson says just as universities throughout the state are experiencing lower returns on their investments, so too is SIUC. “The endowment is fine," Jackson says. "It’s the income off the endowment that’s not quite what it had been. So right now, we have what we hope is a short-term cash flow problem. Not huge, but it’s a headache for us.”

While Lawrence is packing his books into boxes, the university will continue to benefit from the stamp that Lawrence put on the institute and its agenda, Jackson adds. "He’s focused us more on Illinois issues, Illinois concerns, and I think that has been his forte because that’s where his network and his contacts were."

Before spending a decade with the Edgar Administration, Lawrence spent 25 years as a journalist, including 20 years with Lee Enterprises and its Statehouse bureau that he helped start and another year as Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. He plans to return to writing political commentaries, which he has said he stopped after being pressured to do so in the interest of the institute and of the university. He remains vice chair of the Illinois Issues Advisory Board.

We wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing his byline again.

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