* Sun-Times…

For the first time, proof emerged that Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2010 Neighborhood Recovery Initiative factored into his election strategy that year in personal emails from the governor’s former top aide that were released Wednesday by a legislative panel investigating the program.

The emails from ex-Quinn chief of staff Jack Lavin represented a key highlight from the opening of two more days of hearings on the $54.5 million anti-violence grant program that is now under federal investigation. […]

“I don’t think there’s been any question in anyone’s mind that the Quinn administration, his governmental staff and his political staff, used government resources to please certain constituencies that they hoped would increase the voter turnout and suppress the voter turnout for us prior to the election,” Brady told Early & Often, the Chicago Sun-Times political portal.

“There’s been various sightings, so to speak. This clearly is smoke. I don’t know if it’s a smoking gun or not. But clearly, they were using government programs to try to increase their support in certain communities in the state. This is clear evidence of it,” said Brady, who narrowly lost the 2010 election to Quinn and is a member of the Legislative Audit Commission.

* OK, let’s look at the e-mails.

…Adding… The governor’s campaign and a spokesperson for the Senate Republicans clarified that these e-mails were from Jack Lavin’s personal, not his government account.

[If the links don’t work for you, click here, go to NRI Audit Review Documents and then find the Lavin e-mails.] Here’s the relevant part of the Lavin e-mail dump mentioned above. Lavin was Quinn’s chief operating officer at the time and also did work on the campaign during his off-hours…

* This does indeed show cooperation between the governing side and the campaign side. But if you know anything about campaigns and governing, you know that there is no absolute wall separating the two. As long as it’s done outside the confines and locale of government offices, hours, etc., it’s all accepted practice.

Look, incumbents campaign on (or run away from) their records, and so it’s no real surprise that the campaign would discuss the value of using a state program for their guy’s political benefit (or to keep something from becoming a problem). And, again, keep in mind that these aren’t state workers on state time. These are people with the campaign and administration officials on their own time. There’s a huge difference there.

The e-mails certainly show that the NRI was viewed by the campaign as a popular program that would help Quinn’s reelection. I don’t think anyone has ever denied that. Governors do this sort of thing all the time with ribbon cuttings, etc. If you want politics completely out of government, you have to cancel all elections.

* To be illegal, though, you’d probably need some internal state correspondence or a witness who could place overtly campaign decisions within the governing process, instead of the other way around (which is what those e-mails appear to show). Barbara Shaw denied any such connection during her testimony this morning…

“Elected officials, presidents, governors often introduce initiatives and programs to respond to the needs of constituencies that they serve. So, it wasn’t a shock to me, that this was happening during that time. But I do want to say here, the governor’s office never told us who to give the money to, what communities to go in, what agencies should get that money. The elections did not play a role in where that money went to,” Shaw answered.

* So, on to some other e-mails, which are agendas for early morning campaign meetings…

* Again, what this shows is that on at least three days during the the campaign, the political operatives discussed the political value of the NRI program.

Were decisions being made about the actual NRI program during those three meetings, or was NRI discussed in the context of maximizing political benefit from a state program? Standard campaign procedure would suggest it’s most likely the latter, but, of course, we don’t know for sure.

However, “incoming FOIAs” right below “NRI” is quite interesting. We don’t know whether or not the two topics are related. But that’s really interesting. Again, though, the campaign needs to know what to expect from the media and the opposition, and so discussing incoming government FOIA requests would definitely be part of that process.

*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Rauner campaign…

“Governor Quinn’s chief of staff tried to conceal these emails but got caught red-handed,” Rauner campaign spokesperson Mike Schrimpf said. “These emails are the tip of the iceberg but one thing is now clear – the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative had nothing to do with policy and everything to do with politics. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that two federal grand juries are investigating the blatant diversion of millions of taxpayer dollars to support the governor’s election. It’s time for Pat Quinn to turn over all of his electronic communications from 2010 so we can finally find out what he knew and when he knew it.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Quinn campaign…

Those were clearly not government conversations.

Chicago was in a state of emergency in the spring and summer of 2010. The issue of gun violence was a critical concern for many constituencies, particularly in the African American community. Six police officers were slain. Dozens of innocent people were being gunned down every day. A young boy was shot 22 times. There were calls for Governor Quinn to activate the Illinois National Guard.

The Governor acted forcefully in response to the bloodshed on the streets. The NRI program was one of many actions he’s taken that the campaign promotes - he signed bills to crack down on gun violence, prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands and to tackle some of the root causes of violence. He implemented programs to address high unemployment in the most at-risk areas. He came into the inner city often to meet with community activists, clergy, parents, students and law enforcement personnel. He did his job.

In any incumbent’s campaign, you run on your record.

Obviously the campaign would want to promote what we are doing to fight violence in the community during an election, just like any other policy issue in a campaign.

We are constantly taking inventory of all the various policies, programs and achievements of the Governor’s administration so we can properly and fully communicate them to constituencies who care about where he stands, what he’s done and what he will continue to do in office.