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Eleven years ago, Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s press spokesman, Jim Howard, claimed that Deputy Treasurer Marty Kovarik ordered him to shred an important document. This is from a Jun 27, 1995 Post-Dispatch story that’s behind the archives firewall:
When Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka unveiled a plan to forgive $30 million in bad loans to two state-financed hotels, she promised to make public a list of all the investors if she could find their names.But when a list of those names surfaced, Topinka’s second-in-command had different plans for it, according to Jim Howard, a former spokesman for the treasurer’s office.
Howard claims that Deputy Treasurer Martin Kovarik and another of Topinka’s top aides ordered him to destroy the document relating to the controversial loan-forgiveness deal that funded construction of hotels in Collinsville and Springfield.
“He said . . . `I’ve never seen it; shred it,’ ” Howard said in an interview Monday with the Post-Dispatch.
Later Monday, Kovarik denied giving the shredding order, and he suggested that Howard was merely trying to drum up publicity for his possible run for a congressional seat. […]
[Howard continued] “I went down to Marty’s office . . . closed the door, and I said, `There’s something we need to talk about; the list was found.’ . . . He looked at me at that point and said, `I’ve never seen it; shred it.’
“I walked straight out of the building, realizing at the instant he told me to shred it that I probably would have to leave,” Howard said.
Last week, Kovarik went to the Oberweis campaign (Kovarik has had a long personal relationship with Jack Roeser) with a new version of the story.
Kovarik also alleged publicly for the first time that in April 1995 Topinka instructed him during a phone call to order her then-spokesman Jim Howard to “get rid of†a list of politically connected investors in a controversial hotel loan.
“I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,†Kovarik quoted Topinka as saying. “I told everybody that it wasn’t around. Get rid of it.â€
“What do you want him to do with it,†Kovarik said he asked Topinka.
“I don’t care. Shred the damn thing,†Kovarik said Topinka responded.
Topinka said the idea to shred the list was Kovarik’s, not hers and denied she ever ordered Kovarik to tell Howard to shred the list.
This thing with Kovarik isn’t pretty. He claims the two were lovers, which greatly complicates matters. He eventually resigned after it became known that he owed lots of back taxes and Topinka took out a mortgage on her home to pay it off. Basically, she wanted him out of the office and out of her life.
Topinka claims that Kovarik later sent her an e-mail threatening to destroy her political career, a charge he denied to one news outlet. Stay tuned on that one.
Kovarik has also leveled some other claims about political work on state time, discussed in today’s Capitol Fax, that his targets will flatly deny today.
I went through all that stuff back in ‘95 (Topinka wouldn’t talk to me for years after what I wrote), and my advice to all is take a deep breath and remove the tinfoil hats. There’s plenty more to come, including Jim Howard’s comments.
UPDATE: One of the women whom Kovarik accused of doing campaign work on state time was apparently an employee of the Topinka campaign, and not the state. All have sent a letter from their attorney to Kovarik. More in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 12:21 am
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Oh, there’s more, all right.
1. The infamous “disgruntled employee” of 2003 was not the only one that was talking to the press. The following is a quote from Bernie Schoenburg’s column from the SJR in June 2003 when the FBI subpoena was issued to Topinka’s office. The last sentence is the most interesting:
“Another former employee, Alice Sochacki, 54, now of Kenosha, Wis., also said Thursday that she had felt pressure to do such political work as making campaign phone calls one or two nights a week on her own time. She also said she had addressed fund-raiser envelopes at the treasurer’s office in the James R. Thompson Center.
“It was supposedly, do it during lunch,” Sochacki said, describing such activity by others as “commonplace.” She worked at the treasurer’s Chicago office from 1995 to 2000, and last month married Marty Kovarik, who used to be deputy treasurer under Topinka.”
So, Ms. Sochaki does all these terrible things, then leaves the Treasurer’s Office, then doesn’t say anything for years, until one month after . . . she marries Marty Kovarik. Suddenly she wants to come forward, but as the article says, even she admits that she was told to do it during lunch or at night.
It can only beconcluded that Marty obviously knew nothing, since he was silent! If he knew what he now says, where’s Marty been for the last 3 years?
Plus, if Marty Kovarik was Deputy Treasurer and all this crime was really going on, who puts their new wife up to squealing, without becoming an immunized witness themselves?
It does not add up, time after time.
2. Marty Kovarik is now, in 2006, giving us all these direct quotes from Topinka from 1995. He’s 72. I’m a lot younger, and I sure as hell can’t requote entire conversations from 1995. I can’t even remember a conversation from 1995. Plus, isn’t it oh-so-convenient that Marty’s supposed conversations with JBT were all one-one one, with no other witnesses?
3. Jim Howard has quoted Kovarik as telling him to shred in 1995, but the article you refer to is from 1995, when the statements were made. Isn’t it curious that Marty Kovarik’s recent quotes from memory of JBT conversations closely track, if not exactly track, Howard’s quotes of Marty, stated in the press ten years ago in 1995?
4. I will leave the $53,000 in unpaid taxes alone, as I don’t know much of it, but it sure doesn’t make him look credible at first blush.
5. Marty’s charges are going to be denied by the employees he mentions.
5. Rich says Marty has a long relationship with Jack Roeser. Doesn’t that just say it all.
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 1:14 am
OBIE OBIE OBIE will you stop this ignorant political half truth mudslinging.A lot of us Republicans are starting to campaign even harder to keep you out.If you get it Eisendrath gets our vote.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 6:31 am
Come on Bubs, are you sure that you don’t work for her?
It looks like I was on the right trail, cowboy.
Comment by B Hicks Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 6:41 am
So another disgruntled employee keeps changing his story in a half-baked attempt to stick it to the boss who threw him out.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 7:26 am
Great photo, I was wondering what’s become of Robert Deniro lately.
Comment by Zach Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 8:00 am
So the lady pols are as clueless as the guys in managing their romantic lives.
How about a romantic soap opera called The Treasurer’s Office. Middle-aged pols dueling romantically, political skulduggery, shredding things, ends with one of them running for governor. There’s at least a mini-series here.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 8:27 am
So, we have the Topinka camp’s reply thanks to Bub. I don’t know, I don’t have a horse in this race and this looks pretty ugly for Sweet Judy Red Hair.
Topinka took a mortgage on her own home to pay off this guy’s back taxes? Say what?
Comment by FlakCat Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 8:28 am
Desperation in the final weeks…gotta love it. The fact Roeser’s name is being mentioned sums it up…
Comment by SalukiDog Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 8:47 am
If Judy was taking out mortgages on her house to help out paramours and friends, as a taxpayer I wish she had taken a loan out to help Cellini and the other deadbeats that own the Abraham Lincoln Hotel. We taxpayers would certainly appreciate it.
As far as Kovarik remembering something that happened in 1995, I would not discredit him on that. I may not remember what I said or did two weeks ago, but if it was an incident that I knew was going to rear it’s ugly head at a later date, then, I “burn it” into my mind just so I do not forget it. Inconsequential events are quickly forgotten but events that are distasteful or go against that which I feel very strongly about are often ingrained in my head for decades.
I will agree with Bubs on one point, however,and that is that I would consider the character of Marty Kovarik to be questionable.
Judy carries a lot of baggage with her and, although I do not know if she is really guilty of any wrong doing, do the members of the GOP Party really want to run this perceived flawed and dented candidate against Blagojevich? Isn’t this same issue of the “public’s perception” why Judy eagerly wanted to get rid of Jack Ryan as a candidate for office? Why is okay for Judy to “Throw In the Garbage” GOP candidate Jack Ryan for “questionable allegations” by his ex-wife but now it is okay for Judy to run as the GOP candidate with serious allegations made against her by an old lover? This just exemplifies what the other GOP candidates have been saying. Judy represents the very worst of what the Illinois GOP has become and still needs to cleanse itself of, “hypocrisy” and “self-serving acts” at the expense of the Illinois citizens. Blagojevich is going to easily “tar & feather” her if she is the GOP candidate for governor. She should have stayed on as Treasurer.
Comment by Beowulf Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:04 am
Rich, why does it appear you bury JBT’s bad press? I am amazed that you would not make this a stand alone post rather than just another thread buried under a bunch of other threads.
You are going to lose many Fax readers if you don’t start putting a disclaimer on your favorable JBT coverage, especially when JBT loses this race.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:24 am
Well, the Judy apologists are working hard already this morning.
So let me get this straight - whether you question JBT about her office conduct, her budget and staffing, or her ties to Bill Cellini - it’s all just mudslinging from disgruntled ex-employees?
And why is it her answer always seem to be the same? “I don’t have anything to do with that. They’ve got an ax to grind. I have no relationship with that person.”
Wake up Republicans! Don’t nominate a weak candidate who’ll be ripped to shreds by GRod for six months. Because I can assure you, Andy McKenna and Jim Edgar/Ryan won’t be able to save her then.
And no, I don’t support Oberweis - can’t stand him either.
Comment by The Ghost of Marty's Beard Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:28 am
Hicks, I really don’t. I just can’t stand the BS that goes on in the GOP.
Why is it that tails of manure always trace back to Carpentersville?
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:30 am
First, 9:24: what?!
Second, to Beowulf:
“Judy represents the very worst of what the Illinois GOP has become and still needs to cleanse itself of, “hypocrisy†and “self-serving acts†at the expense of the Illinois citizens. Blagojevich is going to easily “tar & feather†her if she is the GOP candidate for governor”
Hmmmmm. Hypocrisy and self-serving acts. Like Oberweis making up headlines to ding an opponent on ethics? Or maybe like Oberweis supporting lude videos on websites to make himself look like the “family” candidate? Or maybe getting township endorsements for a big contribution to their central committee?
Ethics. Laughable. Please go away, Mr. Oberweis. The GOP will never fix its horrible image as long as you’re in the mix.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:35 am
Ghost, there is a long running personal vendetta against Topinka by a small, but well financed cadre of people. Take a look at all the connections, up to and including who is working for Oberweis this year, and the pattern is clear. As the Kovarik thing demonstrates, these supposedly moral people play rough, indeed.
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:44 am
Bubs, I don’t care about vendettas. This is just the latest in a line of serious ethical questions being raised about JBT.
My point is that JBT won’t be able to get away with this defense in the general election. The Dems have the money and power to wipe her out.
The pathetic State Republican Party won’t be able to save her. If Republicans want to beat GRod (which is what this is about, not who has the highest name id after 12 years in office), they better think again before nominating JBT.
And no, Jim Oberweis isn’t the answer. I think the Tribune endorsement said it well.
Comment by The Ghost of Marty's Beard Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 10:02 am
Why is this being talked about in the final two weeks of the primary. Why didn’t this guy talk about in the 02 elections? This is a last minute smear campaign that will not work in their favor. He threatened to end her political career…come on. The far right is going overboard.
Comment by scoot Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 10:11 am
Once again, the wheels begin to fall off the GOP bandwagon.
Every GOP sure thing of the last 8 years has ended up a disaster.
The only thing I’ll miss about a Topinka candidacy is the chance to talk about Karl Rove and Dick Cheney for 8 months.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:07 am
Downstate, I’ve been involved in state government for several years. Trust me, there are several RUMORS out there about JBT, ask around. The problem is: they are just rumors and they are not even worth repeating. In addition, except to people like you, they don’t matter.
Your last comment makes your candidates campaign look desperate. You’re the first one to point that out when Oberwies and Gidwitz start making ridiculous comments about JBT. Practice what you preach!
Happy Birthday David Gilmour
“All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be.”
Comment by B Hicks Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:24 am
Once again Illinois politics has hit another new low. This time we have a desperate politician who hasn’t seen his numbers increase as he would have liked at this point in the game and has pulled out all stops trying to make some headway. Why is it that an individual can no longer run on their own accomplishments and abilities but has to attempt to tear down others to make them look better? This always makes one wonder what someone is trying to hide if they go to such lengths to try and discredit others.
This is the same politician who had just made up some fake headlines and put them out in a series of political ads hoping to dupe a portion of the electorate into believing they were for real. Unfortunately for him his ruse was made public revealing his true character. Is this latest revelation from a former high level official in the Treasurer’s Office and attempt to take attention away from Oberweis’ newspaper headline fraud?
Martin Kovarik had already been previously revealed to be the person who had ordered a purported document to be shredded. Now all of a sudden 10 years later he remembers it in a different manner than what existed at the time of the alleged incident 10 years earlier. How convenient for the Oberweis campaign that Mr. Kovarik’s memory has improved and clarified with age. We are now being asked to believe this former tax cheat from a campaign that just recently ran an ad fraudulently showing newspaper headlines that never existed.
Personally I find the fact that Treasurer Topinka asked Mr. Kovarik to resign when she discovered the magnitude of his tax cheating reveals how she conducts her professional life. Even though this man was her highest ranking employee, personal friend, and alleged paramour she still asked for his resignation. This reveals a person who puts the office and the state’s interests over her own personal interests. Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace in the Governor’s office instead of the person who currently inhabits that position?
Comment by Sound Reasoning Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:27 am
Ghost, you are missing the point, or ignoring it.
Outside of the hotel deal, which itself is a bit trumpted up as an “ethics” issue (as I have said before, Treasurer Quinn tired to sell the same distressed hotel loans on the open market a year before Topinka took office, and could only get an offer of $8 million - she at least got an offer of $10 million), the “ethics” allegations keep originating from the same small group.
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:30 am
Downstate: I’m certainly no apoligist for the Governor, but raising that unverified rumor publically is despicable. If we know people by the quality of their enemies, you make the Governor look very good.
Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:36 am
Karl Rove and Dick Cheney YDD? The only people talking about it would be you, no one else would care…nice try though!
Comment by Zeek Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:37 am
Bubs, wrong again.
I believe the Tribune and Sun-Times have reported on Topinka’s ethical issues. Such as the more than $500,000 she’s taken from banks doing business with her office.
Then there’s the fact JBT’s taken more than $65,000 in campaign contributions from investors in that hotel, including $11,000 last fall from one prominent investor.
And the fact that she’s taken more than $116,000 from the Illinois National Bank PAC and it’s board of directors. Here’s another fact - Bill Cellini sits on that board of directors.
Last, but not least, JBT’s taken more than $131,000 in campaign contributions from her own employees, as late as December 2005.
How can she run against GRod with these ethical problems of her own. The whole “Pay-To-Play” issue will be a wash if JBT is the nominee. It’s about beating GRod, not about who’s turn it is to run for governor.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of Judy’s coronation. Nothing to see here, move along.
Comment by The Ghost of Marty's Beard Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 11:45 am
And what a piker she is! Blago’s gotten $7 million from contrators, and Gidwitz spent more that that out of his pocket in a week. Plus she bids all her contracts, so it’s not pay to play.
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 12:03 pm
Topinka has always run an exceptionally clean office. You can drink the KoolAid of Gidwitz and Oberweis, but that doesn’t change the facts.
As always, these are baseless allegations by a small few people - always the same few warts of the Republican party. They will always be a pain in the rear like an infected pimple on your butt, but they only come out once every 4 years.
This Kovarik thing borders on ludiculous!! But it is funny. The QOTD should be - would you do Topinka?
Comment by Grand Old Partisan Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 1:22 pm
Anon 9:24, this is a stand-alone post. I wrote it first, shortly after midnight. That’s why it’s at the bottom. I asked you to take off your tinfoil hats. Apparently, you didn’t listen to my advice. And if you don’t want to subscribe, don’t. Thanks.
Also, I’ve been threatened much better than that. George Ryan’s press secretary during the 1998 campaign threatened to put me out of business after George won. I’m still here.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 1:47 pm
Why do the critics of Treasurer Topinka always point to the failed hotel deal as a lapse of ethics? This couldn’t be further from the truth. What the Treasurer was attempting to do at that period in time was to collect on a bad debt that was the result of bad decisions on the part of former elected officials. Topinka had absolutely nothing to do with the original deal that set this up for failure from the beginning.
The elected officials were former Republican Governor James Thompson and former Democrat Treasurer Jerome Cosentino. This deal was so poorly written by a joint committee of Thompson’s representatives and Cosentino’s representatives that the chance of ever collecting monies owed was slim and time has proven this to be a fact. Anyone who doubts this fact should retrieve a copy of the original agreement to see how it protects the owners of the hotels. Remember this was a joint effort of both the Democrats and the Republicans so neither party can wash their hands of it.
What Treasurer Topinka was attempting to do was at least collect some money owed to the state even if it was for only 25 cents on the dollar when it appeared the state would never collect anything from this sour deal. This is sound business practice and many private enterprises enter into the same type of deal every day when writing off bad debt. If Topinka’s proposal would have went through the state would have had millions of dollars to invest and draw interest. Instead since that time nothing has still been collected from these hotels. In my book 25 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing.
Comment by Sound Reasoning Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 2:21 pm
I agree that Gidwitz is looking better but I doubt this has affected his polls. I would guess I represent a lot of people who agree that people do crazy things in their romantic lives, but there should not be any nexus at all between their romantic and political/professional lives.
And if the sequence of events is that JBT hired her boyfriend for a top state job (I don’t know what happened first, the job or the romance)that is a problem. Remember Jimmy McGreevy out there in NJ. He’s gone now.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 5:39 pm
Gidwitz has a real problem in that he is 14 days out from Election Day, but he can’t get much attention with this fracus going on, and the Tribune endorsement has been pushed off the radar screen.
So prepare for the Monster Media Buy. I bet Ron outspends even Oberweis, who says he is going to spend $2 million down the stretch.
It’s insane.
Comment by Bubs Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 6:26 pm
Sound Reasoning, the reason the hotel deal matters has little to do with the deal itself. It has to do with the culture of corruption and the pay-to-play system.
As I stated earlier, Topinka has taken more than $65,000 in campaign contributions from the hotel investors and their companies. Most of this came after the list of investors was made public.
One would think a reasonable and ethical politician would stop taking contributions from these investors after the list was made public.
Not JBT. She even took $11,000 from Health Professionals Ltd in the last reporting period. HPL is owned by Dr. Stephen A. Cullinan, one of the investors.
Of course, JBT’s spokesman said the money came from his company, not from Cullinan himself, and that if it had, they wouldn’t have accepted it.
But JBT received a $400 contribution from Stephen A. Cullinan back in 1998, three years after the list of investors was made public.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of Cellini/Kjellander’s Chosen One.
Comment by The Ghost of Marty's Beard Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 9:41 pm
Who is this Gidwitz to whom you refer? I’m not familiar with him. Is he in politics?
Comment by Schiznitz Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 10:01 pm
The more Gidwitz and Oberwies talk about Judy the better Brady looks. Right now he has my vote, though if Judy wins the primary I’ll support her all the way.
Sound Reasoning is right on the hotel deal. As to the campaign contributions Ghost, it’s only pay to play when there’s a timely relationship. $400 donations three years after the fact are a joke, not an ethics issue. Likewise the $11,000 donation made 10 years later.
I’ve been reading the missives from the Family Taxpayer’s Network. They are full of hate. I’m a social and fiscal conservative, but they cross the line.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 12:45 am