Ruiz charged that at a forum with the Chicago Sun-Times this month, Raoul had defended taking the tobacco industry money by saying he’d had the contributions approved by the attorney general’s office. Raoul repeatedly disputed having said that.
“You cannot tell me what I said,” Raoul shouted at one point.
Jesse Ruiz: Did the attorney general’s office advise you that it was OK or not OK? You said at the Sun-Times, you told the Sun-Times editorial board to their faces that the office of attorney general told you it was OK.
Kwame Raoul: That was not what I said.
Jesse Ruiz: That is what you said.
Kwame Raoul: Jesse, you cannot tell me what I said!
Jesse Ruiz: I heard you, that’s why I can tell you…
Aaron Goldstein: “Senator, if you were the attorney general, would you continue with the lawsuit against the tobacco companies?”
Raoul: “I talked to the attorney general. The attorney general does not control that lawsuit.”
Goldstein: “But you have oversight. You have oversight as attorney general. Would you remove yourself from it?”
Raoul: “The attorney general does not control that lawsuit. I checked with the donor and I checked with the attorney general’s office. They are a signatory to the settlement. The settlement is done. What happened is that …[ interrupted by others] Let me finish.”
Ruiz: “That is not true.”
Raoul: “First of all let me start with the fact that I am not for sale.”
Sharon Fairley: “No, because you’ve already been bought.”
…Adding… From the Ruiz campaign…
As reported by Crain’s Chicago business,
Levin’s Top Tobacco is one of the parties to the national pact that Madigan enforces and oversees here in Illinois. Madigan’s office confirms that it has opposed Top Tobacco in a series of arbitrations—one pending—in which it is seeking tens of millions of dollars from that company and others in a dispute over payments to the state from the tobacco settlement.
Kwame Raoul’s assertion to the Sun-Times’ editorial board that his donor has no pending action in front of the AG’s office is simply incorrect.
In addition, the Sun-Times article quotes Kwame as saying, “I checked with the donor, and I checked with the attorney general’s office.” Yet in front of the Tribune editorial board, Kwame denied that he consulted the attorney general’s office. That flatly contradicts Kwame’s earlier statement.
In the tale of the tapes, this one goes to Team Ruiz.
* The AP story really doesn’t do justice to yesterday’s Tribune editorial board meeting with the Dem AG candidates…
Several candidates took jabs at Raoul, who leads in fundraising and high-profile endorsements.
They questioned his campaign contributions from big tobacco and the gaming industry, focusing on possible conflicts of interest. Ruiz, a former Chicago education official, said he’s abstained from votes to avoid complications and questioned Raoul’s impartiality. At one point, Raoul shot back, calling Ruiz “a serial liar.”
“It hasn’t compromised me in the past,” Raoul said. “I’m not for sale.” […]
“How can people expect that things are going to be different if we keep electing the same people?” [Renato Mariotti ] asked Quinn. “If you can’t defeat Bruce Rauner, why we would trust you take on Donald Trump?”
Two of the Democratic candidates — state Sen. Kwame Raoul and former Chicago Board of Education head Jesse Ruiz — clashed loudly over political contributions.
When asked if Raoul’s campaign funds from tobacco companies would compromise his ability to litigate against them as Illinois’s attorney general, Ruiz upped the ante by insisting Raoul was contradicting his comments to the Chicago Sun-Times from another forum earlier this month.
“Jesse, you cannot tell me what I said,” Raoul yelled across the table. “You are a serial liar.” The exchange was broken up by tabletop bell wielded by the Tribune.
* The entire Tribune story, however, is a must-read…
“You cannot tell me what I said,” Raoul shouted at one point.
“I heard you,” said Ruiz.
“You are a serial liar,” Raoul replied. […]
“I think one of the big problems that we have in this room is that we have people that are beholden to powers that be that don’t want to change anything,” Drury said. He called Quinn “the patronage pal of Mike Madigan.”
Rotering accused Drury of “the height of hypocrisy,” noting that he had “taken money from people who are funding Rauner.” Drury countered that one of Rotering’s biggest donors was also a contributor to Rauner. […]
“You know, we keep hearing about laws that you passed when you had all these different roles in state government, and we’re left with a corrupt government that is corrupt and a government that people don’t have trust in here in Illinois,” Mariotti said to Quinn. “And I guess the question is: How can the people of Illinois expect that things are going to be different when we keep electing the same people who’ve been in charge, when these laws are passed that are supposedly enough to deal with corruption in Illinois and it hasn’t been done?”
* Let’s try this again because people seem to be getting way too far into the weeds. Gov. Rauner was asked in October about a lawsuit filed against him by Kip Kirkpatrick. Media outlets had reported that Rauner had demanded the case be sealed. So, a reporter asked him “Why are you fighting to keep that sealed?”…
Gov. Rauner: I am not. So, to be clear, my assets, all my investments are in a trust that I don’t control. I did that when I became governor. I can’t comment on any business disputes. That gets settled in its own process.
Reporter: Is that the reason why it’s sealed because it’s through a blind trust?
Gov. Rauner: I can’t even tell you, I mean, I don’t really have much to do with that.
Today, the Democratic Governors Association filed a public records request with Governor Bruce Rauner’s office, seeking visitor logs for the Governor’s Mansion and his temporary residence at the State Fairgrounds.
The DGA submitted the request following the revelation in a lawsuit unsealed this week that Governor Rauner held a meeting related to his business interests on the back porch of the Governor’s Mansion. Rauner netted a $15 million profit from the settlement of the investment, which he discussed on the back porch.
“Bruce Rauner asked the public to trust him, and he broke that trust,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Rauner promised the public he would wall himself off from his business interests. Now, Rauner must come clean and turn over any information about other business meetings he had while in office.”
Rauner has fought attempts to bring transparency in the operation of his office. The Illinois Times tried to obtain Rauner’s office calendar which quickly lead to a long lawsuit. Rauner maintains he does not use an email address, but his office fought the release of his wife’s emails even though the Chicago Sun-Times showed they pertained to state business.
Specifically, the DGA is requesting:
copies of all visitor logs of the Governor’s mansion in Springfield from January 12, 2015 to January 23, 2018; and
copies of all visitor logs of the Governor’s temporary residence located on (or near) the Illinois State Fairgrounds from March 1, 2017 to January 23, 2018.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
On the heels of a now unsealed lawsuit against Bruce Rauner, a new report confirms that Rauner held a private business meeting at the People’s House, aiming to maximize his personal profit while driving state finances into the ground.
Despite pledging to remove himself from business dealings when he took office, Rauner reneged on that promise and had his state-paid secretary schedule a meeting with Kip Kirkpatrick at the Governor’s Mansion. The 300% profit on the business deal was “apparently not enough for Rauner.” The Associated Press filed Freedom of Information Act requests in 2015 to pry Rauner’s official calendar from the administration to confirm the meeting took place.
“It is now clear that Bruce Rauner conducted private business while in office, despite repeatedly vowing to remove himself from the potentially conflicting deals,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This failed governor spent years trying to cover up his unethical behavior and blatant lies to the public, undoubtedly breaking the trust of the people of this state.”
