Blago hit up Burris for Cash - A Partial New Side to the Story

[Lunar]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1431222,CST-NWS-blago15.article#


Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post -- something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Burris (D-Ill.) acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.

The affidavit is dated Feb. 5 -- three weeks after Burris was sworn in to replace President Obama in the Senate.

Burris -- who did not give money to the Blagojevich campaign fund in response to the previously undisclosed solicitation -- provided a copy of the sworn statement to the Chicago Sun-Times Friday in response to questions about his contacts with the Blagojevich camp about fund-raising.

Burris acknowledged having three conversations with Robert Blagojevich, who headed the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund -- and one of those was likely recorded by the FBI.

Burris' statement offers the third version of events he has given about his discussions concerning the Senate seat, to which Blagojevich appointed him in late December, after Blagojevich was hit with federal corruption charges that included an allegation he tried to sell the Senate appointment.

Burris said he sent the new statement to House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) after he read the transcript of his testimony before the impeachment committee she headed and realized it was incomplete. "There were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony," Burris said. "I voluntarily submitted an affidavit so everything was transparent."

In October and again in November, Burris spoke with Robert Blagojevich, who initially asked him to host a fund-raiser. Burris said he'd get back to him after the election, sources with knowledge of the conversations said. The two later talked again, and Burris again was asked for campaign cash.

Burris said he refused to contribute and "made it unequivocally clear ... that it would be inappropriate and pose a major conflict because I was interested in the Senate vacancy."

A source with knowledge of the exchange said there was some discussion about Burris possibly getting others to give or raise money on his behalf. Not so, according to Burris: "I did not donate or help raise a single dollar for the governor from those conversations and would never consider making a donation through a third party."

In all, Burris expressed interest in the Senate seat to five people in Blagojevich's camp, documents obtained by the Sun-Times show. He disclosed just one of those contacts when asked Jan. 8 by state Rep. James Durkin (R-Western Springs) during the impeachment hearings to name any contact he had with Blagojevich's people about the seat.

"I'm very surprised he didn't make these disclosures," Durkin said. "I don't know if Mr. Burris was purposely being evasive during the committee or had selected memory issues."

In a sworn statement filed with the House panel Jan. 5, before he testified, Burris said he had no contact with Blagojevich's camp about the Senate seat aside from his appointment in late December. In testimony before the committee, he added that he spoke with Lon Monk, Blagojevich's former chief of staff. In his new affidavit, Burris confirms he also spoke of his interest in the Senate appointment with Blagojevich insiders John Harris, Doug Scofield and John Wyma.

The discussions with Robert Blagojevich about money came after Burris spoke with those people. Burris had told the House committee he was unaware of any quid pro quo dangled by Blagojevich's camp.

Robert Blagojevich's lawyer said today that his client spoke with Burris about a fund-raiser but that the governor's brother didn't know of Burris' political aspirations.

"He didn't know he was in the running for the U.S. Senate seat," Michael Ettinger said.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said Burris' new statement regarding his contact with Blagojevich's emissaries represents a "fatal wound" to a potential 2010 Burris re-election bid. His new account contains "extraordinary detail" Burris should have disclosed to the impeachment panel when he testified and to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) before being seated, Radogno said.

"If it turns out this was some sort of attempt to avoid this coming out as part of the appointment process, then he doesn't deserve to be senator," Radogno said. "I think the whole thing stinks to high heaven."

Currie acknowledged receiving Burris' letter but said she was unfamiliar with its contents.

After being read Burris' account of his dealings with Robert Blagojevich, Currie said: "Very odd. I don't know there is anything actionable here, but I would like to check the record."

[Coburn In 2012]

A corrupt democrat?  Stop the presses.

Oh wait.  That's par for the course.  I forgot.

[The Ex-Factor]

^ If you add the word "Illinois" to the previous post, I'd be more inclined to agree with it.

Kind of upsetting because one of his supposed strongest merits was that he was untainted by any ethical strains, but we shouldn't have expected him to have an untarnished record.

This is probably a buzzkill for his 2010 general election chances, but he might still survive the Democratic primary.

[Lincoln Republican]

Dumb Dem Senators.

Letting this cheat, liar, and fraud into the United States Senate.

I trust they are pleased with this political joke they have perpetrated upon the public.

Burris had two, and only two, qualifications to become the new Senator from Illinois.

He's black and he's a crooked Dem.

[Lunar]

Dumb Dem Senators.

Letting this cheat, liar, and fraud into the United States Senate.

Cornyn wasn't helping, implying Reid was a racist for trying to block Burris.  The only option Reid had was to expel Burris with the help of the GOP and the coalition of the Black Congressional Caucus and media & GOP bomb throwers made it impossible.

Burris didn't actually give cash to Blago recently (Burris did way back when).  But the issue here is that he lied to the impeachment committee.

[Lief 🗽]

A corrupt democrat?  Stop the presses.

Oh wait.  That's par for the course.  I forgot.

[Meeker]

I was going to do something similar. Thank you for saving me the time, Lief.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Dumb Dem Senators.

Letting this cheat, liar, and fraud into the United States Senate.

I trust they are pleased with this political joke they have perpetrated upon the public.

Burris had two, and only two, qualifications to become the new Senator from Illinois.

He's black and he's a crooked Dem.

Give me a break.  The only reason the Democrats accepted him was because it would have been illegal not to.  It's not their fault the people of Illinois elected a crook like Blago as governor and gave him the power to appoint him as senator.  Also, before you mention that Blago is also a Democrat I would like to say that it was the Democrats who did everything possible to get him out of office.

I guess this means Lisa Madigan will be a U.S. Senator in 2011.

[Holmes]

I guess this means Lisa Madigan will be a U.S. Senator in 2011.

No, governor!

Alexi Giannoulias for senate. Come on, Illinois!

[Lunar]

Madigan's not going to run against Burris, she's a Springfield creature just like her Dad.  Dan Hynes, Alexi G., and Jan Schako are the white people looking at the seat. 

[justfollowingtheelections]

Apparently there are some rumors that she's considering running.  If Pat Quinn does a solid job as Governor and runs for re-election in 2010 (extremely likely) would Madigan primary him or go after Burris instead?

[Daniel Plainview]

It figures. Blago wouldn't appoint a man who wasn't somehow in the same circles as him. And this being Illinois and all.

[justfollowingtheelections]

My favorite film character ever has joined the forum!

[Lunar]

Apparently there are some rumors that she's considering running.  If Pat Quinn does a solid job as Governor and runs for re-election in 2010 (extremely likely) would Madigan primary him or go after Burris instead?

She'd still primary Quinn.  I mean, the rumors are there because she won't outright rule anything out (what aspiring politicians do?  Hell, I bet Burris won't rule out running for governor in 2010!) and she's fairly powerful.  Her interest has always been in being an executive in Illinois.

Quinn is basically disliked by basically every political faction in Illinois and Madigan would probably outraise him something along the lines of 10-1 or 15-1 in campaign contributions, if not more. She's been preparing for this run for some time -- there aren't any campaign contribution limits in Illinois -- and I don't know how much of her money she'd have to give back to run for federal office instead of Springfield (where her Dad is a leader in the legislature, making life easier for her).

Primarying Quinn for her is almost guaranteed to be easier and it's what she wants.  I mean, in this economy, Quinn isn't about to cut taxes and increase spending, yaddamean?

[justfollowingtheelections]

I have no doubt that Madigan would beat Quinn or that she would prefer to be governor, but aren't they allies of sorts?  I think it's more likely she will go after a guy whose appointment she criticized and being fairly popular among AAs, she's probably one of the few who can afford to primary the only black member of the Senate.  We'll see though.

Also, I don't think Quinn has to cut taxes in order to remain popular.  All he has to do is not be Blago (or the guy before Blago who is in jail now).

[Lunar]

I haven't heard of any word of Madigan and Quinn being allies. They both disliked Blago, I suspect that’s about as far as it went. I mean, Quinn has always known Madigan would be gunning for him and her intentions, as far as I have heard, have remained unchanged for some time after it was clear Blago would be impeached.

And "not being Blago" isn't sufficient to win Democratic primary. You have to have the cash and the backing of Chicago, which I doubt Quinn does.  Hell, I suspect Burris could raise more money than Burris.  And Madigan is not the only one who has the money to defeat Burris: the person most looking at challenging Burris is the IL State Treasurer Alexi G., a very wealthy person who has an extensive fundraising network in addition to being able to self-finance.  He is a longterm Obama ally and old basketball buddy whom Obama endorsed in 2006, bucking the state party’s endorsement of another candidate. 

Well, I strongly, strongly disagree with you that Madigan is most likely to run for Senate if Quinn is doing a moderate job, and I disagree that running for the Senate would be easier for her if she were ambivalent about her ambitions (which she is not). I haven't been following day-to-day IL politics the last two weeks, but maybe I’ll check back up on it.


There's a good chance of Dan Hynes running for AG, Madigan for Gov, and Alexi for Sen, with maybe Schako jumping in the Senate race too

[muon2]

I have no doubt that Madigan would beat Quinn or that she would prefer to be governor, but aren't they allies of sorts?  I think it's more likely she will go after a guy whose appointment she criticized and being fairly popular among AAs, she's probably one of the few who can afford to primary the only black member of the Senate.  We'll see though.

Also, I don't think Quinn has to cut taxes in order to remain popular.  All he has to do is not be Blago (or the guy before Blago who is in jail now).

There were lots of alliances to deal with Blago. But he's gone now, and there will be new alliances as the 2010 races shape up. Watch for proxy fights on the discussion of whether or not to shift the primary off of early February where it was moved two years ago for Obama. Taxes will be another area for proxy fights this spring since the state is projecting a 9 B$ hole by July 2010, and the need to fund long-term capital infrastructure is still out there. Quinn is scheduled to give a delayed budget address in just over 4 weeks and that may set the tone for the spring and summer.

[Lunar]

Blago attempted to screw Quinn over too by constantly talking about how Rod's the guy to protect you from tax raises and how Quinn is guaranteed to raise state taxes "fifty percent" or basically from 3% to 5%.  I watched him in his exit moments and he constantly warned that his successor would raise taxes and how Blago is the guy who fought the Democratic legislature to keep the taxes from being raised.

Without even knowing the budget situation in IL, I already know that Blago was holding off the probable inevitable in order to boost his own image and damage his successor.  I mean, I think 75% of the reason why he appointed Burris was to deny Quinn the political capital.

Muon, how much money does Quinn have in his account anyway?

[muon2]

Blago attempted to screw Quinn over too by constantly talking about how Rod's the guy to protect you from tax raises and how Quinn is guaranteed to raise state taxes "fifty percent" or basically from 3% to 5%.  I watched him in his exit moments and he constantly warned that his successor would raise taxes and how Blago is the guy who fought the Democratic legislature to keep the taxes from being raised.

Without even knowing the budget situation in IL, I already know that Blago was holding off the probable inevitable in order to boost his own image and damage his successor.  I mean, I think 75% of the reason why he appointed Burris was to deny Quinn the political capital.

Muon, how much money does Quinn have in his account anyway?

His filing before becoming Gov had about 83K. However, at his Dec fundraiser he had about 10 times the normal number of attendees. He turned away donors then since he felt it was premature. It's unlikely they'll be turned away at his next event.

[Lunar]

I mean, even if said donors would have contributed a hundred thousand dollars (unlikely) he'd still be what, one-two million dollars behind Madigan?

I mean, I'm honestly disgusted with any political system which does not impose limits on individual donors, but Illinois fascinates me.  Virginia also does not impose limits and is in the same boat.

I'm just trying to figure out if Quinn has even a remote possibility of raising enough money to retain his spot.  As of now, this governorship I presume is going to Lisa in 2010, we'll see if I'm wrong.

[Ogre Mage]

I was extremely skeptical of the Burris appointment to begin with and this story has only confirmed my fears.  Burris is either a liar or too out of it and perhaps senile to remember important details.  And he is a third-rate candidate who could never have gotten the Senate seat via a normal election.  If Burris insists on running for reelection in 2010, the DSCC needs to take action.  Depending on what comes out, perhaps they should take action even earlier.

I agree with Leif and VP Meeker in regards to the laughable comments about corrupt Democrats.   At least a token effort was made to keep Burris out.  Some other folks here are displaying breathtaking amnesia with regards to recent ethical free-falls of Republican politicians and in some cases, how their GOP colleagues assisted in the coverup.  *cough* Mark Foley *cough*