Illinois Coalition For Public Awareness

Reprinted with permission:

By John Biver

If you're an elected Republican in Illinois and you're not challenging the corrupt old guard in your own party or your own state, then you're not doing your job. The press has been loaded with information in recent weeks about how Alaska Governor Sarah Palin did just that and is setting the standard:

After being appointed to Alaska's Oil and Gas Commission, she led an ethics probe of the state GOP chairman involving conflicts of interest. The investigation led to his resignation and his paying a $12,000 fine.
She joined a bipartisan effort to file an ethics complaint against a Republican state Attorney General, who was then forced to resign.
She defeated an incumbent Republican Governor (who had been U.S. Senator) in the primary, and then defeated a former Democratic governor in the general election.
In Alaska it is oil and gas interests and a pipeline full of moolah. In Illinois the ways to cash in if you're connected are as numerous as varieties of Alaskan wildlife. One big avenue is to do business with the school construction racket.

The profiteers are plentiful. Bankers, bond houses, architects, engineers, contractors and others feed off of the billions of dollars in tax payer money allocated to building public schools. It's a recession-proof business, and best of all, the schools get built with or without voter approval.

Thanks to organizations like the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, and the Illinois Association of School Administrators, scheming school boards across the state are able to receive all the help they need to bypass the will of taxpayers who would vote down a bond referendum.

These "Associations," by the way, are non governmental entities that are supported entirely from tax dollars. They are funded through association fees that typically come out of school district budgets, and through contributions from places such as law firms and construction companies seeking ever more government contracts.

It's very convenient that this alphabet soup (IASB, IASBO, IASA) of "independent" organizations aren't subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other political oversight. Not that there's all that much oversight coming from our political leadership anyway.

Which gets us back to our opening comments about Sarah Palin type leadership: where the heck are the Illinois Republicans elected leaders in all of this?

It's laughable that some Illinois Republican legislators would attempt to associate themselves with John McCain's running mate "Sarah Barracuda." When have we seen any reforms here in Illinois that are similar to what Palin has accomplished in just a few short years in Alaska?

Much of what takes place in this mega-billion dollar bond and school construction business here in Illinois is a scandal and nary a peep is heard from our so-called "leaders." If any elected Republicans are looking for a place they can be "Palin-like," they should consider calling Jeff Ferguson at the Illinois Coalition for Public Awareness and put themselves in some sort of worthwhile motion.

A couple of months ago Jeff posted a piece on Champion News outlining what he has uncovered so far - you can read it here. Late last year I summarized Jeff's experience in downstate Jersey County here.

The Coalition's website is found here, where Palin want-to-bees can find Jeff Ferguson's contact information.

John Biver is the Editor of Champion News.