An attorney for one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s closest friends denied Friday that his client ever wore a wire or made recordings of the governor for the FBI and was unaware of any such recordings.
“Any allegation or insinuation to the contrary is simply untrue,” Zachary T. Fardon, attorney for lobbyist and Blagojevich friend John Wyma, said in a statement.
His statement followed a report in Friday’s Chicago Tribune that Wyma has cooperated with federal investigators in their probe of corruption in the Blagojevich administration and quoted unnamed sources as saying that the assistance provided by Wyma “helped lead to recordings of the governor and others.”
The Tribune never reported that Wyma had worn a wire or made recordings.
Fardon declined to answer questions as to whether his client, a former Blagojevich staff aide who is now a lobbyist, was cooperating with the government.
As part of this undercover effort, one of the governor’s closest confidants and former aides cooperated with investigators, and that assistance helped lead to recordings of the governor and others, sources said.
Some of us initially interpreted that wrong, including myself, unfortunately. Thanks to Fardon for clearing it up.
* It’s been another one of those weeks. Illinois politics is like a very good political novel. It’s hard to put it down. But we’ve arrived at the weekend, so all things must come to an end. I’ll see you Monday.
Keep heading to Illinoize for bloggy fun, and buy yourself a classified or calendar ad at InsiderzExchange, the place to be seen.
* Let’s announce some Golden Horseshoe winners, shall we?
* Best legislative staffer: Nick Bellini and Nick McNeely. This was how a commenter explained his/her vote….
Because in an election year based on the concept of change, they got [Rep. Ron Wait] a 20-year incumbent who bailed a sex-offender out of jail re-elected.
Can’t argue with that.
* Best legislative secretary/admin assistant: Marcia Simmons. She really does do a great job. Sen. Munoz’s Springfield secretary got a bunch of votes, and here’s one…
It makes your visit to Springfield easier when legislative assistants want to not only help you but do it in a pleasant manner.
* Best state legislator: Senate President-in-waiting John Cullerton…
I can’t believe this transition went as smooth as it did.
* Best political bar/restaurant. Saputo’s wins this hands down, according to readers…
We all know who sits in the corner and it’s a sure thing to see dozens of legislators. It looks like the location has treated Cullerton pretty well also.
* Best Agency Director: Doug Scott…
Hardly ever in the news. Just keeps the agency running with no major scandals or screwups, which is what a good director should be.
* Best statewide official: Lisa Madigan. Both Madigan and Alexi Giannoulias had lots of support in today’s runoff, and it was a very tough decision. Madigan won last year, and I was just about to give it to Alexi when I read this comment by Jake from Elwood…
Simply put, very few politicians in my lifetime have exceeded my expectations when they have first taken office. She is one of them.
Then way south of the border wrote this…
Her early work (which dates back at least two years) on mortgage fraud has paid off beautifully this year, with landmark lawsuits and settlements that are a model for the nation.
I appreciate Alexi as a young, energetic idea guy, but Lisa’s focus and foresight puts her in front of the whole pack of constitutional officers. She has really delivered, when we need it most.
* Best congresscritter: Dick Durbin. I went into today’s runoff figuring that the George Ryan commutation uproar would doom Durbin against Mark Kirk. Boy, was I wrong. Kirk had a lot of intense support, but Durbin gets the win because the odds were so heavily stacked against him today…
I cannot agree with his position on Ryan. I can understand it.
More next week.
* This song seems to be appropriate on a whole bunch of different levels…
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
“Which Side Are You On?”
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn demanded today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich immediately explain himself to the public following the Tribune’s disclosure that the governor has been covertly taped by federal authorities investigating corruption in state government.
“I think the governor has a short period of time to come forward and level with the people of Illinois,” Quinn said. […]
“The governor owes to the people of Illinois a full and complete explanation,” said Quinn, who defended Blagojevich while serving as his running mate in 2006, when the federal probe already was going on.
Quinn said Blagojevich should open himself up to questions raised by the Tribune story and his relationships to convicted political insiders like Stuart Levine, whom Blagojevich kept on state boards where corruption flourished, and Tony Rezko, whose federal conviction followed a trial where the governor was repeatedly linked to allegations of pay-to-play politics. Blagojevich and Wyma have not been charged with any crimes.
“He should immediately find a forum and stand there for however long it takes and fully and completely answer all questions raised,” Quinn said.
An apt forum might be a House impeachment hearing.
Just sayin’.
* Meanwhile, we now know about how many staffers that Gov. Blagojevich took with him to Philadelphia to meet with fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama…
According to the governor’s press office, Blagoejvich and 7 or 8 staffers took a state owned twin turbo jet to Philly.
That’s a heckuva lot of staff. Compare that number to other governors at this link.
Back to the story…
We checked into how much more expensive it was to fly the private plane compared to a commercial flight.
According to the state auditor’s office, it costs $9.81/mile to fly the private plane. A round trip from Chicago to Philadelphia is 581 miles. That means it would cost an estimated $7,880 to fly round trip betwen Chicago and Philly.
We then priced a commercial flight from Chicago to Philadelphia. According to Southwest.com, a round trip flight would cost $440.
Therefore, it would cost the governor and staffers $3,520 to make the round trip. That’s a difference of nearly $8,000.
A spokesman for the governor tells us flying the private plane allowed the group to meet while in air and it has phone access as well.
The math here is really screwed up.
The 581 miles used in the story is actually nautical miles. 581 nautical miles x2 for a round trip is 1,162 miles, x$9.81 = $11,399.22, not the number in the story.
The Auditor General has also decreed that the billing rate for the state plane should be $1.85 per seat-mile. If it was the guv plus eight staffers (we’ll take the high end) that’s $16.65 for each mile.
So, using nautical miles, that’s 1,162 round-trip miles, times $16.65 = a recommended $19,347.30 pricetag.
* I can’t make a decision on the following Golden Horshoe contests…
1) Best statewide official: Lisa Madigan or Alexi Giannoulias
2) Best congresscritter: Mark Kirk or Dick Durbin
Vote for only one in each contest. No further nominations will be accepted. Please explain your reasoning, but keep it positive. I’m not interested at all in why you’re for somebody because of how much you’re against the other. I’ll just delete that sort of comment if I’m around.
* Steve Huntley and I agree on Dick Durbin’s possible motive for asking President Bush to commute George Ryan’s sentence…
A few weeks ago, Durbin’s daughter, Christine Ann, died at age 40 after a lifelong struggle with a congenital heart condition. As we enter one of Christianity’s holiest seasons, Durbin understands how fleeting the joys of life are, how closely death shadows our lives, and how precious family life is.
Durbin, a fiercely partisan liberal, and I, a conservative, don’t agree on a lot of things. I can’t find myself agreeing with him on this one, but I also can’t find fault with him.
Mrs. Ryan is said to be more ill than has been reported, by the way. That certainly played into Durbin’s thinking.
Congresswoman-elect Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete) and U.S. Reps. Judy Biggert (R-13th) and Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2nd) said they oppose commuting former Gov. George Ryan’s prison sentence. […]
Two other Southland members of Congress - Bobby Rush (D-1st) and Dan Lipinski (D-3rd) - did not return calls for comment.
* Man, if Wyma has flipped, is there anyone at all whom the governor can trust?
Federal investigators recently made covert tape recordings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the most dramatic step yet in their corruption investigation of him and his administration, the Tribune has learned.
As part of this undercover effort, one of the governor’s closest confidants and former aides cooperated with investigators, and that assistance helped lead to recordings of the governor and others, sources said.
The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state’s most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich’s once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries.
We’re talking about one of the governor’s very closest political and personal friends here. This ain’t no low-level guy.
* Did they get this meeting on tape?
Wyma, Blagojevich’s chief of staff when he was in Congress, has long been one of the few advisers trusted by Blagojevich and kept in the loop on matters of policy and politics. As the federal probe intensified, Wyma met privately with the governor and his former chief of staff at the governor’s campaign headquarters on the North Side for 90 minutes on Oct. 22.
Confronted outside that meeting, Wyma declined to talk to Tribune reporters about what the meeting was about before jumping into his car. The next day, the Tribune was the first to report that Wyma’s name appeared in a federal subpoena delivered to Provena Health, a former client of his.
Blagojevich might’ve been comfortable enough in that meeting to say anything. Oof.
…Adding… Lon Monk was the “former chief of staff” listed as attending that campaign headquarters meeting in today’s Trib article. Some background on Provena and that meeting can be found at this link…
Pushing further into Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s inner circle, federal investigators have subpoenaed records involving a lobbyist friend who represented a hospital company that won a favorable state ruling.
The company’s for-profit affiliate donated $25,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign a month after the state’s action.
John Wyma, a top fundraiser and former Blagojevich aide, was named in a federal subpoena delivered two weeks ago to Provena Health, according to sources. It sought records about Provena’s lobbying relationship with Wyma, the donation and the company’s efforts to win approval for a new heart program. […]
On Wednesday, Wyma met for about 90 minutes with the governor and another fundraiser and state lobbyist, Lon Monk, at Blagojevich’s political offices on the North Side. When asked after the meeting about the subpoena, Wyma said, “I have no comment.”
Monk, who was Blagojevich’s chief of staff during his first term, also declined to comment.
Doug Scofield, a spokesman for the Friends of Blagojevich campaign committee, described the meeting as “routine.”
“I don’t think anything big happened,” he said.
Lisa Lagger, a spokesman for Provena Health, said, “We are not parties of interest here.”
If Provena isn’t a “party of interest,” then that might leave at least two others: The guy who solicited the standard $25,000 contribution and the guy who accepted it.
Wyma, 42, now a top lobbyist, has also been named in a federal subpoena delivered to Provena Health, a former client of his.
The subpoena sought records about Provena’s relationship with Wyma, the hospital’s efforts to win state approval of a new heart program and a $25,000 donation the company’s for-profit affiliate gave to Blagojevich’s campaign fund, the newspaper reported.
Wyma had no comment about the story.
Wyma doesn’t lobby the General Assembly much at all. He mainly uses his exclusive access to Gov. Blagojevich to make money.
* This story from a year ago might help explain some things as well…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s wife received the real estate commission in a $650,000 condominium sale from a businessman who since has won $10 million in no-bid state contracts.
The seller was Mark T. Wight, owner of Wight & Company, an architecture firm that won three new contracts with the state’s toll highway authority after the 2005 sale. The buyer was John R. Wyma, Wight’s tollway lobbyist and a longtime Blagojevich insider.
The governor might wanna make that US Senate appointment before it’s too late.
In another development, FBI agents searched two Joliet businesses owned by Harish Bhatt, a longtime Blagojevich supporter.
Agents descended upon Basinger and Essington pharmacies early in the morning and combed through paperwork. The FBI would only say it’s part of an ongoing federal investigation.
Bhatt told reporters agents weren’t looking into him, adding, “We have nothing to do with it.”
Last year, the Tribune named Bhatt as being part of an ongoing investigation into Blagojevich’s administration. The paper reported state police were looking into whether Bhatt solicited campaign donations in exchange for state favors.
Bhatt and Blagojevich go back years. Bhatt has raised thousands of dollars for the governor. And just this year, another Blagojevich fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, was convicted on pay-to-play corruption charges.
* More from the Joliet Herald News, which broke the story yesterday…
Rice said the warrant was connected to “an ongoing federal investigation,” but would not disclose details on what the agents were looking into.
Both the complaints and warrants were under seal, Rice said.
It appeared, however, that the feds’ visit to Bhatt’s pharmacies was not connected to the Blagojevich probe. “They are looking into somebody else,” Bhatt said Thursday. “We have nothing to do with it.”
Bhatt would not disclose whom the feds were interested in, saying agents asked him to be quiet.
We’ll all know soon enough.
* More bckground on Blagojevich and Bhatt is here.
A photo of Blagojevich and Bhatt…
And here’s one of Wyma [center] and Blagojevich in Texas from back in August. They apparently held a funder down there…
Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana has delayed beginning construction of its $236 million expansion project for at least six months.
Hunt says for all practical purposes, there is no bond market for hospitals. He says until the market opens up again, expansion won’t start because the institution wants to borrow money at a favorable rate
The federal government has approved sending more than $775 million a year over the next five years to Illinois hospitals and other medical providers to help care for Medicaid patients.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Thursday that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the five-year deal with the state.
As a result, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services will distribute more than $1.5 billion a year in Medicaid payments. Half of the money will come from the federal government and half from the state.
Six vacant city jobs will be eliminated as part of the effort to offset Gov. Blagojevich’s plan to pull back state-shared money.
Faced with possibly $2 million less in state income tax dollars, Aurora finance officials in the late stages of setting the 2009 budget scurried to absorb the reduction.
Mayor Daley’s $163,656-a-year budget director abruptly resigned Thursday, leaving a giant void as Chicago struggles to survive its worst financial crisis in recent history.
“Look at the history of budget directors. It’s two budget seasons and out. That’s just the way it goes. It’s a tough and demanding job. I’ve done a lot to try and help the city, but it’s time to move on. It is truly and absolutely for my own personal reasons,” said Bennett Johnson III.
City Hall could spend more than half of its $1.2 billion check within a few years, but a private company that agreed to pay that huge sum to lease Chicago’s parking meters now will get to collect the cash for the next 75 years.
Although the 36,000 meters generate almost $20 million a year in net income—and rates are set to rise sharply next month—Mayor Richard Daley contends the city is better served in these tough economic times by taking the money upfront.
Under a deal approved Thursday by a 40-5 City Council vote, the cost to park at two-thirds of the meters in Chicago will quadruple next month. Neighborhood spots that cost a quarter an hour will cost $1 an hour and will increase to $2 an hour by 2013. The top meter rates in the Loop will go from $3 an hour to $6.50 within five years.
The net decline of 3,689 students last year was less than 1 percent of Illinois’ nearly 2.1 million public school students, according to the state school report card released this fall. What’s more significant is that the decline was widespread. Enrollment dropped in 63 of the state’s 102 counties last year, according to a Tribune analysis. The state education agency is monitoring the shifting population, a spokesman said.
Cook County drove the decline, with a drop of more than 25,000 students from 2003 to 2008, Tribune research shows.
The Chicago Public Schools lost more than 45,000 students in the last five years, according to the state report card, and a city school spokeswoman said they’ve seen no “significant reversal of the downward trend.”
Bureaucratic wagons are circling against Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ clear-headed approach to the state’s public employee pension mess.
Illinois has five separate pension funds managed by three separate boards. Together, they have 300 employees.
Giannoulias proposes merging administration of these funds to cut overhead and reduce the impact of political influence and corruption.
Already, some of the employee groups are reacting predictably with complaints that can be summarized thusly: Leave us alone. We can get along fine by ourselves.
But they aren’t by themselves. Several analyses rank Illinois’ unfunded pension obligations as the worst in the nation. Unfunded pension debt — the amount expected to be owed to future retirees versus the money expected to be paid in — exceeds $43 billion. So, taxpayers have to kick in to help cover the $1,900 to $3,100 per month in retirement payments guaranteed to about 270,000 retired teachers, judges, legislators and other public employees.
