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* The Illinois Republican Party has a new web ad blasting Democratic Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for US Senate…
* The controversy in question was in a Crains blog post this week…
Illinois families lost $85 million in hard-earned savings on his watch. Should he get the blame?
That surely is not the question that Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias wants before voters as he prepares to declare his candidacy for the U.S. Senate sometime after the weather gets warm. But the question is real and, depending on how it plays out, it could get a ton more publicity.
Mr. Giannoulias and his office are directly involved in a little-noticed aspect of the nation’s economic collapse, one involving good judgment, investment savvy and trust. While there’s plenty of blame to go around — most of it likely on others, not Mr. Giannoulias — there’s also plenty of gray area, plenty of reason to ask lots of questions.
At issue is what happened late last year to the state’s $2-billion Bright Start college savings program, administered by the treasurer’s office.
The IL GOP’s background post on Giannoulias is here.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:10 pm
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so, from the il gop’s perspective, mr giannoulias is not responsible and not ready…does the “not ready” part suggest that they think he will be ready in the future?
i think in trying to make the ad seem punchy and clever, they suggested that he could be a viable candidate in the future. also, the “not ready” tag was tested already on the current president of the united states. how did that work out for the gop?
Comment by anonymous Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:19 pm
I dont like the “not ready” part either but the rest of it is a huge problem for alexi. the mob stuff, rezko and that huge financial loss….that is a lot of explaining he will have to do.
Comment by party of one Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:22 pm
And before anybody says anything, since the Kirk fans have been out in force today, I would’ve posted this earlier when the press release was sent out, but AOL is apparently blocking the IL GOP email system. Never got ithe heads up.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:24 pm
Rich,
Some chick on the Snakepit over at the Chicago Republican Party site is blasting you and calling you a troll and Democrat suck up.
Just thought you might want to know. These Republicans can’t seem to get over Obama winning.
Comment by Left of Center Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:44 pm
Fabulous !
“Congressman Mark Kirk is standing by his earlier comments that Illinois residents “are ready to shoot anyone who is going to raise taxes” as much as Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing.” and apparently finds his comment ‘responsible’ and then…
and the Illinois Republican Party’s video header is “Giannoulias - Not Responsible” !
WOW !
Comment by sal-says Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:46 pm
That ad is pretty weak. They cannot seem to come up with a catchy or clever message even with all the Democratic scandals.
The ad illustrates how clueless Republicans are.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:50 pm
rather noninspiring young man without much depth… too much bravado and too much baggage, for a near future run. he needs to establish a strong record of success in the next 4-6 years and then run on a real record…not his families perhaps not so good name and his influenced by blago elevated office.
Comment by disgusted Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:52 pm
As a Dem who just lost half of her son’s college fund in Bright Start, yes, this resonates wildly with me. Alexi won’t face this first in a general election, he’ll see it in a primary where he won’t have my vote.
Comment by Ann O'Namus Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:53 pm
I guess the 529 criticism is fair game since the Treasurer certainly touted how well it was doing prior to this collapse. Having said that-nobody made any money in their investments, anywhere, so losses should be expected-maybe just not so bad.
The mob stuff is completley unfair and anybody calling Giannoulias a mob money backer ought to be shot.
Comment by PR Strategy Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:55 pm
“These Republicans can’t seem to get over Obama winning.”
I don’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with what the Dems have done to Illinois over the last 6 years.
Talking about Bright Start, what about the questionable stuff that them Dem appointees are doing with College Illinois Funds?
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:58 pm
Shameful. IL GOP, not Giannoulias. This kind of crap is so cheap and transparent.
Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 4:58 pm
PS- This problem was only with one fund under the Bright Start umbrella and Giannoulias immediately began working with the AG’s office to go after the fund manager as soon as the problem was apparent.
And I believe Consumer Reports ranked Bright Start as the #3 program not too long ago - up about 45 spots from where it was ranked when the IL GOP was running the show at the Treasurer’s office.
Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 5:05 pm
We don’t think Rich is bias, we just think he’s taking unnecessary shots at dear Congressman, particularly since you highlight none of the national plaudits he gets.
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/opinion/20brooks.html
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opinion/05brooks.html
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/opinion/11brooks.html
I can’t wait for the first ad of the campaign: clean Navy Vet with a lifetime of public service versus wealthy chicago insider with questionable past ties who used dads money to buy himself a political career.
In tough times the all american boy or the insider?
Comment by Shore Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 5:08 pm
Bill S….a personal question: are you on crack?? When was Bright Start ever ranked so low. It was always in the top 10. And even better under JBT it never lost a dime of principal, let alone 85 Million.
Comment by party of one Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 5:13 pm
The GOP is trying to learn from the best. This ad has shades of “What was she thinking.” Unfortunately, it has the wrong narrator (very flat) and the wrong music (gloom and doom). They would do better to make people laugh at Alexi’s mistakes and find a video of him sharing a joke with Rod.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 5:21 pm
Everyone has lost money in the market. You cannot hang all of that on Alexi.
That ad is weak.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 5:23 pm
Po1-
Didn’t even make the top 20 in this list from Money magazine in 2005:
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/college_guide/table_best.html
Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 6:45 pm
Looks just like an web ad that the Harper campaign did against Judy Biggert
Comment by Scott K Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 7:27 pm
Bill I think this tells the story: http://www.suntimes.com/business/savage/181439,CST-FIN-wwTerry21.article
Comment by party of one Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 8:30 pm
Anon 5:23 wrote: “Everyone has lost money in the market. You cannot hang all of that on Alexi.”
Not necessarily, Anon. If you read Greg’s blog post, you would note that the $85 million was lost in a “Core Bond Fund.” Even in last year’s market, this type of investment should not have dropped 40% in a year. It fell so far because the investment guidelines for the fund, approved by Treasurer Giannoulias’ office, allowed the fund manager to stray far from the risk-free path in order to seek extra return. I doubt that any investor in Bright Start beefed when this Fund made 10% in 2007, substantially more than a risk-free portfolio. However, one good year on the way to disaster does not excuse a poorly selected fund and a startling lack of oversight by the State’s self-anointed “chief investment officer.”
This fund started heading south in September 2008 and nary a word was heard from Alexi & Co. until December, after other states had sounded the alarm and taken action.
Of course, the exquisite irony here is that the man who apparently can’t oversee $2 billion in college savings assets wants to take over $50 billion in pension assets.
The GOP ad may be mediocre, but the message from the Bright Start fiasco is clear; the Peter Principle has already caught up with young Mr. Giannoulias, regardless of his ball-handling skills.
Back to Mommy’s bank, not the US Senate.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 8:45 pm
AA - Illinois was the first to sound the alarm. Action was taken by other states only after Giannoulias acted.
Comment by Independent Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 9:29 pm
Well, if there’s one guy who knows something about not being ready, it’s IL GOP Chair Andy McKenna.
A guy who only got the votes of 14% of Republicans the only time he ran for anything probably has little to teach a successful candidate like Alexi.
Comment by just sayin Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 10:22 pm
Independent, the printed record does not support your claim. The Alexi razzle-dazzle machine cranked out plenty o’pressers and puffers, but nada on Bright Start losses until your, er, their reliable source, Terry Savage of the Sun-Times, broke the story in January. And that’s the Savage Truth.
Since then, Oregon’s 529 plan has filed a lawsuit while Alexi has traveled around Illinois talking about pension investments, credit cards, “Cash Dash,” and almost everything but the $85 million lost on his watch by families saving for college.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 10:28 pm
When the history of our time is written, the venality and recklessness of the international Masters of the Universe, the bipartisan Establishment financiers of the Western democracies, will be at the center.
How could $700 billion in sub-prime mortgage debt take down the world economy? When the Masters of the Universe, with the connivance of the “independent” rating agencies, packaged it as Triple A securities, and used it to leverage more loans at a 30-50 to 1 ratios!
No worries — housing prices will never go down, right? Whoops.
Just consider — Bernie Madoff, the biggest financial swindler of all time, was chairman of NASDAQ! His family ran SIFMA, and he was wired to the SEC and both sides of the Senate banking committee.
In 1999, a great American hero, financial analyst Harry Markopolos, started running Madoff’s numbers. He said it took five minutes to determine that Madoff’s returns were not mathematically possible and a half hour to determine they were almost certainly illegal. He told the SEC. He told SIFMA. He told the Senate. Nothing happened.
And then the crash came.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 17, 09 @ 8:43 am