Illinois Coalition For Public Awareness

Rumor is that Attorney General Lisa Madigan may be considering a run at the Governor's office in 2010. If my personal dealings with her office are any indication how the Governor's office would operate under her leadership, I pray the GOP, Constitution Party or another third party can offer a viable candidate by then. To truly appreciate the role of her office and how completely impotent her office was in our case, let me first share a few of her responsibilities, as enumerated in her oath of office.

Listed under the Attorney General Act, 15ILCS205, the Fifth duty states: To investigate alleged violations of the statutes which the Attorney General has a duty to enforce and to conduct other investigations in connection with assisting in the prosecution of a criminal offense at the request of a State's Attorney. More importantly, the Ninth duty states: To enforce the proper application of funds appropriated to the public institutions of the State, prosecute breaches of trust in the administration of such funds, and, when necessary, prosecute corporations for failure or refusal to make the reports required by law.

Unfortunately, her office chose to ignore our pleas for help. Her office chose to ignore what can only be described as a conspiracy to defraud Illinois and its taxpayers (keep in mind our district received $20.5 million in State funds because of the concerted efforts of a small group of people). Her office also chose to ignore a whole host of conflicts of interest that existed in various State agencies. In light of Governor Blagojevich's recent woes and some of his comments, should we be at all surprised by a State agency or office failing to uphold their oath of office and their duties to the Illinois taxpayers? To hear Blago explain it, what he did was nothing out of the ordinary in Illinois politics.

My first contact with the AG's office was with Investigator Jay Evans on 8/21/2003. Unfortunately, that first contact was to no avail. I subsequently sent a detailed letter along with several pages of "evidence" to Ann Keely at the AG's Belleville, IL office on December 29, 2003. After not hearing anything for a few months, I contacted Ms. Keely in March of 2004 only to learn she had forwarded my complaint to the AG's Springfield office and they had somehow managed to lose it. I sent another complete packet and finally got a response on May 4th of 2004.

Along with an apology for the delay, Executive Assistant Attorney General Martin Green concluded his letter with the following: Please do not conclude the content of this letter as any sort of findings as to the allegations included in your letter. However, it is most appropriate for the Illinois State Board of Education and/or the Capital Development Board to review these allegations and make the appropriate determinations as to their merit as they are the designated agencies with the expertise to respond to the issues you raise. I sent another letter to AG Madigan in September of 2004 along with additional "proof" of wrongdoing but her office didn't even have the courtesy to respond... maybe they lost that one too.

The best way I can explain what happened is to use the bank robber analogy. I witnessed a bank robbery and contacted the appropriate authorities only to be told I should take it up with the bank robber... As I continued to research the School Construction Program and why no one would help us, I began looking at campaign contributions to see who owned who in Illinois. As it turns out, some Illinois American Institute of Architects PACs and some individual AIA certified architects have been very generous to certain prominent politicians, including Michael Madigan and Governor Blagojevich.

Illinois politics is a cesspool of corruption and political favors and removing a corrupt Governor from office doesn't even send a warning. These people have so thoroughly entrenched themselves in every level of our political process, they have become completely untouchable because they know even the Illinois Judicial System won't encroach on them. It is not even conceivable that either party can produce an honest candidate with the morals, ethics, and integrity to deserve my vote so I remain very hopeful the Constitution Party or other third party can provide a viable candidate. If not, we might as well put Blago back in office because status quo is all we can expect from the loins of the current political machine.