Pay-to-Play
12/10/08 Update: More on the alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a horseracing bill this morning — “I’m shocked, disappointed and befuddled,” said Lanny Brooks, executive director of the Illinois HBPA. “This is a bill that we had every expectation would be signed within a week or two.” Also being reported — “before signing the bill, the U.S. Attorney’s office charged Tuesday that the governor wanted $100,000 campaign contribution, reportedly from a racetrack owner.” No confirmation on that last detail.
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As if the story of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich being arrested on corruption charges wasn’t juicy enough, there’s a small horseracing angle. From the Justice Department news briefing on the case:
A second example [of pay-to-play] is legislation that is pending concerning horseracing. There is a bill that I believe sits on the governor’s desk that would take money from casino revenues and divert a percentage of it to horseracing tracks. While this was pending, the interceptions show that the governor was told that one person who he was seeking to have raise $100,000 also was working with a person who was seeking that money to have a bill pending.
And the governor was told that the person who wanted that bill — from whom they wanted money — was told the following: that he needed to get his contribution. And the quote was, “Look, there is a concern that there is going to be some skittishness if your bill gets signed because of the timeliness of the commitment,” closed quote. Then the person told the contributor, the money, quote, “got to be in now,” closed quote.
And when the governor was told this part of the conversation, his response was, “Good.”
Shortly thereafter, the person who was trying to get the contribution from the person who had the bill pending suggested that the governor call the person directly, that it would be better to get the call personally from the governor, quote, “from a pressure point of view,” closed quote, and the governor agreed.
As we sit here now, as far as we know, that bill sits on the governor’s desk.
The bill, which grew out of an earlier bill mandating casinos share revenues with the state racing industry and would release $80 million from an escrow fund to racetracks, passed the Illinois legislature last month. “[State Rep. Jay Hoffman] said Gov. Rod Blagojevich has always been supportive of the horseracing industry and he expects the governor will sign the bill” (Belleville News Democrat). Sounds like Blagojevich would have been happy to do that, at a time convenient for “Contributor 1.” (And who could that have been?)
Related: Ray Paulick catches readers up on the racing roots of Illinois corruption.
Posted by JC in State Issues on 12/09/2008 @ 4:50 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
