* I’m not sure what, exactly, an “ethics probe” is if it’s conducted by the Illinois Republican Party, but somebody over at HQ apparently doesn’t love Andy McKenna…

Sneed has learned GOP gubernatorial hopeful Andy McKenna is the target of an ethics probe by the Illinois Republican Party, which he once chaired.

• To wit: Sneed is told the Republican State Central Committee, the party’s managerial arm, has authorized an investigation of McKenna’s use of GOP money to commission a poll without consent of fellow party members. The committee claims the poll was used to determine McKenna’s chances of success as a statewide GOP candidate in this election cycle. (Other names of GOP candidates, besides McKenna’s, were used in the poll.)

• To wit II: The Illinois GOP party also cast a dim view of the “high” salaries awarded GOP party employees earlier in the year, but then darted over to McKenna’s campaign when he announced his bid for governor — but it’s unclear if the ethics panel, which has yet to be formed, will include it in the probe.

Do you think a public rebuke by the party will matter?

* Rival GOP candidate Dan Proft claims to have obtained a copy of the poll that McKenna ordered as party chairman. Proft released two pages yesterday with the results redacted. You can download those pages by clicking here.

McKenna polled several top contenders at the time, including Ron Gidwitz, Bill Brady, Matt Murphy, Joe Birkett, Tom Cross, “Bill” [sic] Schillerstrom, Mark Kirk, John Shimkus and himself.

Proft…

(I)t is clear that Andy McKenna has not been honest with the party when he explains that he hadn’t considered running for office until a groundswell of grassroots organizers and Chicago GOP financiers begged him to run. This is clearly untrue.

What McKenna did as ILGOP Chairman is nothing other than conversion of corporate funds for personal use. At least, that’s how it would be viewed had he done the same thing in the business world, a world he professes to know something about it. It is a typical insider play by a typical insider politician.

Andy McKenna is spending millions of dollars on television advertisements trying to convince himself and unsuspecting Illinois GOP primary voters that he is an “outsider”. It is a curious argument for someone who spent the past five years as the Illinois Republican State Party Chairman to make, but this is Illinois after all where even self-styled reformers go to jail.

I ask the other candidates in the race to join me in demanding that McKenna reimburse the party for the cost of that survey and apologize to competitors of mine with whom he was not forthright.

Illinois Review tried to get a response from McKenna’s campaign…

Lance Trover of the McKenna campaign called IR, and when we asked the campaign’s response to Proft releasing this survey and the allegations of the Proft campaign, Trover said, “We will not comment.”

*** UPDATE *** From a press release…

Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, released the following statement today:

It’s become abundantly clear in recent days that during his time as Illinois Republican Party Chairman, my opponent Andy McKenna, may have violated the conflict-of-interest ethics rules he himself put in place.

McKenna apparently authorized a $25,000 internal poll while he was the Illinois GOP Chairman, that he subsequently used to to determine his chances of success as a statewide republican candidate in this election.

News reports indicate McKenna sanctioned the poll and use of Illinois Republican Party money without the permission of fellow party leaders. His actions reek of impropriety, which is why I am calling on McKenna to come forward and set the record straight.

If Andy McKenna did indeed use $25,000 of his own party’s money for personal use, what’s to say he wouldn’t do it to the taxpayers of Illinois?

Sadly, McKenna is not the only candidate in this race involved in corrupt politics of the past.

Jim Ryan, another of my opponents, took $800,000 in campaign contributions from close friend Stuart Levine, all along claiming he didn’t know Levine was corrupt.

These are perfect examples of Chicago-style politics Illinois so desperately needs a clean break from. Next to jobs and taxes, ethics is of most importance to Illinois and its voters. We need a clean break from the corrupt, unethical politics of the past. Illinois needs a candidate who will fight corruption, not take part in it. I am that candidate.