Quinn’s Quandry: Serve Us Or Special Interests?

Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by Betty Loren-Maltese in Politics

It was recently exposed that Governor Quinn received a $75,000.00 political contribution from the Teamsters Union weeks before his signature went on the dotted line to help that same union. Chicago’s convention business is seriously flagging, largely because it is prohibitively expensive to conduct a convention in Chicago.

This recent bill attempted to streamline costs in order to draw back lost convention business by reforming the governance of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (known as “McPier”). The Teamsters and Carpenter’s Union heavily opposed the move, which would have cost them business. Quinn used his amendatory veto power to cut a sweeter deal for his Union cronies, but the state legislature struck down his changes and passed the bill as they originally wrote it.

The Unions say they have always supported Quinn, but the numbers do not show it. How shocking is it that, before Quinn took over the governor’s office, the Teamsters had given him about $15,000 in total! As it stands today, roughly one year and five months since he came to power, Quinn has received at least $175,000 ($75,000 from the latest contribution, plus two $50,000 checks from Teamsters Volunteers in Politics, a shill for Teamsters Joint Council 25). Most of this money has come rushing in since September and the kick-off of his re-election campaign.

This all comes on the heels of Quinn’s last fundraising scandal, where he blamed an aide for trying to sell private meetings with interest groups for $15,000 a pop.

Although Quinn denies there was any link between the sudden influx of Teamster cash and his amendatory veto of the McPier reform bill, it does look suspicious. Bill Brady, the GOP candidate for governor of Illinois, has demanded that there be an investigation in the matter. “The citizens of Illinois are suffering the effects of the pay-to-play politics that were the hallmark of the Blagojevich-Quinn administration. We cannot allow another incident to go unchecked.”

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Tags: chicago, pat quinn, quinn, teamster, union