Nope. Not political.

Drivers are bombarded by about 25 signs related to toll collection as they get within a mile of each new streamlined plaza on the Illinois tollway system, but one type of sign stands out above the rest.

The big blue signs, stretching over as many as four I-PASS lanes, say: “Open Road Tolling. Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor.”

They are the most expensive signs on the tollway system, costing about $15,000 each, according to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

More than 90 percent of the signs on the toll roads are made in the toll authority’s sign shop and cost as little as about $200 apiece, officials said. It comes out to an economical $10 per square foot on average, they said.

But the $15,000 signs bearing the governor’s name are made by a tollway contractor, Western Remac Inc. of Woodridge. The signs, mounted on the steel monotubes above the open-road tolling lanes, require special materials and galvanized brackets that the tollway sign shop cannot install, said tollway spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon. […]

Whether representing public education or a not-so-subtle form of campaigning, 32 such signs will be posted–at a cost of $480,000–across the 274-mile tollway system when the conversion of 20 traditional mainline plazas to open-road tolling is completed later this year–just in time for the fall election.

And it turns out that the sign company is also a contributor.

A suburban sign company being paid to erect massive placards touting Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s open road tollway transformation has also been a donor to his political campaign.

Western Remac Inc., based in Woodridge, gave $1,200 to Blagojevich’s 2002 bid for governor. However, representatives of the governor’s office and tollway said the donations carried no influence.

“The answer is no. The company was chosen by the tollway, competitively,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch.

“We have dealt with this firm for more than 20 years,” said tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis.

Currently, the firm handles work the tollway’s sign shop can’t handle.

But Topinka has her own problems.

Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has pledged to end no-bid contracts as part of her campaign for governor, but a change in a long-term office lease is netting one of her donors hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An aide to Topinka, who is challenging Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said that the office space was inherited from past treasurers and that a move to a new location would not be cost-effective or in the best interests of taxpayers.

At issue is a state lease Topinka’s office has with longtime Springfield developer Charles Robbins for space in the Jefferson Terrace building only blocks from the state Capitol. Robbins has donated $41,000 to Topinka since she became treasurer in 1995.

Robbins, who has donated nearly $200,000 to political candidates from both parties over the last decade, also is an investor in a Springfield bank that has had contracts with Topinka’s office and has donated to her campaigns. He said his political donations represent his interest in good government and allowing candidates to get out their message.

Since 1989 state treasurers have been leasing space in the Jefferson Terrace building, but Topinka has extended the lease and expanded the amount of space her departments are using, resulting in larger payments to Robbins.

When you constantly blast your opponent for being corrupt and hold yourself up to a higher standard, every pimpy little issue can be used against you. Just ask Glenn Poshard… or Rod Blagojevich.