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Fahner falls on the McKenna grenade

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Illinois

* Former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner has claimed full responsibility for inserting Andy McKenna’s name in a state Republican Party poll. “This was no his idea,” Fahner is quoted as saying about McKenna.

The former state party chairman McKenna, you will recall, is under fire for allegedly using the poll to gauge his own support while he was supposed to be helping put the candidate field together. The state GOP has now launched an internal probe of the matter. From the Trib…

Tyrone Fahner, a McKenna friend who chaired the state GOP’s finance committee at the time, said the party’s major campaign contributors decided to authorize the poll and it was Fahner’s idea to include McKenna’s name.

“I thought it would make sense to run a poll and include anybody that might be in the mix, and since (McKenna) had run before, I thought it was a good idea,” said Fahner, a former state attorney general who said he was authorized to speak for McKenna’s campaign. He added that officials from both the Republican Governors’ Association and the GOP’s national senatorial committee had discussed possible McKenna candidacies. “This was not his idea,” Fahner said. […]

The review of McKenna’s use of party funds to conduct the poll was approved by the state Republican Party’s top leaders at a meeting on Saturday, said sources who asked not to be identified because party rules prohibited them from discussing the move. The review was authorized without dissent by the members of the Republican State Central Committee who attended, the sources said.

McKenna will reportedly meet with party leaders today to explain himself. I’ll update as news comes in.

UPDATE: McKenna’s people say the Tribune’s claim is inaccurate. McKenna is not meeting with party leaders today.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:47 am

Comments

GOP: The dems are having a worse electionyear then when Ryan went donw and we lost elections thorughout the State. Let’s intiate a self destruct sequence internally. Better to keep the Dems who are no where near any of our desired positions in office then allow our own canidate to win.

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:53 am
McKenna’s entrace into the race and his unethical behavior spawned this. The blame falls on him. You don’t chair a party, ask the candidates to come kiss your ring and then declare an 11th hour candidacy using party resources.

The state party chair should be unifying the party, not dividing it.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:56 am
Harry Truman: “The buck stops here.”

Andy McKenna: “The buck stops over there.”

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:02 am
Andy McKenna’s buck is worth about 50 cent.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:03 am
McKenna was the chairman. That means the decisions were his. He was the boss. Also, isn’t his campaign staff the same staff that would have presumably worked on this poll? I have a hard time believing that Ty Fahner was doing the work by himself.

Comment by Bills Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:06 am
Fahner is an attorney?
Uh - is he any good at detecting any possible conflicts of interest? Most attorneys I know go about their business cautiously. Unless they are utter dopes. Or told to ignor their concerns by their bosses. Or told to come up with a legal argument to cover their bosses.

So, who is going to believe this? Not me.

The only person who considers McKenna a credible candidate is McKenna, and this guy. That’s two!

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:21 am
The poll isn’t the big issue here. I think it is unethical, but that is not the big issue. The big issues have not even been brought up yet.

SCC needs to do it’s job - ask some of these questions, and then I will take this seriously:

-$$$ payments McKenna tried to hide to certain GOP officials from state party coffers.
-Mysterious people and entities receiving $$$ from the state party. Nobody knows who/what they are nor what service they provided for the party.
-The donor lists, mailing lists, and email lists that McKenna/Murphy took from the state party and are using for their campaign. This is massively unethical.
-The meetings that McKenna AND Murphy AND their staffers had with multiple donors, candidates, staff, and consultants re: campaign plans, fundraising, individual decisions to run, etc.

If the SCC truly wants to get to the bottom of this, God Bless them. If they do the usual and let all this slide then it really shows you who and what controls the state party.

Comment by TrueTransparency Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:21 am
I agree with all of you. The GOP needs to highlight its on going ethics problems which have continued since Ryan.

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:24 am
The staffers who went from IL GOP to McKenna’s campaign: how much did they make per month working for the IL GOP? How much do they make campaigning for McKenna?

If they made more working for the IL GOP, it seems likely that McKenna inflated their pay to a level that wouldn’t be supported by his successor.

Did McKenna do this to compensate McKenna campaign staffers with OPM?

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:28 am
TrueTransparency:

You are very astute. This is no powder puff–its a powder keg.

Comment by Middle of the Road Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:35 am
McKenna’s GOP Poll issue was just bad now it’s worse, sorry no one is going to beleive this.

Comment by Dnstateanon Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 12:00 pm
Anyone want to bet that the state GOP buries this and let’s the holidays wash it away? I see no evidence of a backbone in their recent history.

Comment by Jobe Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 12:18 pm
Fahner is protecting his hair brained financial investment in a horrrible candidate. One question for Ty… Was it you or Andy who left the Illinois Republican Party with tens of thousands of dollars of debt??

Comment by Inquisitive Elephant Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 12:37 pm
And pigs fly too…damage already done.

Comment by Please Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 12:39 pm
Uptown girl raises great points about McKenna. When are folks going to start getting it about corruption catching up to them?

“If they bury the poll thing then the payroll issues will come up. Then the mysterious outside firms will come up. Then the mysterious people. Then the lack of fiscal transparency. Then the staff landing gigs at firms that received deals from the party. Then that same staff and those firms get McKenna’s campaign work. Then the mailing list stuff. And the email list stuff. And the donor list stuff. We need to then go back to the confidential information gathering. Then the payments to party officials. And then the….get the point?…

This thing could roll on for weeks. Let’s see if the SCC really wants to get to the bottom of anything. Andy McKenna can let whoever take the blame, but there is a clear history of unethical behavior and where does the buck stop? I figure the chairman would be a good place - leadership, anyone?”

Posted by: Uptown Girl | Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 12:30 PM

Comment by simple conviction Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 3:10 pm
I get the sense there is more to the story. If it was simple political shenanigan by another campaign, then the campaign would have issued a simple release. In this case, they are bringing out their biggest gun (former AG) to fall on his sword and to try and the bury the story.

Comment by 4 percent Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:48 pm