Roland’s Troubling Record

January 6, 2009 by CookReformer
Filed under: Blagojevich, Reform

Capitol Fax Blog today has a post with a listing of various questionable activities undertaken by Roland Burris.

As we have posted previously, Burris is a long-time Cook County political insider with close ties to the machine. His business partner is a former member of Blago’s transition team, and Burris is a recent donor to the governor’s campaign fund.

Please read the CapFax Blog post - it’s very revealing.

Here’s one of our favorite (yet most troubling) snippets:

During Roland Burris’ first full fiscal year as Illinois attorney general, more than half of the money his office awarded for outside legal work went to campaign contributors, according to a book published by Illinois Issues magazine and the Springfield State Journal-Register.

In FY 1992, Burris’ office issued roughly $4 million in outside legal contracts to individuals and law firms, according to the book, Illinois For Sale, which was published in 1997. More than $2.25 million of that amount went to contributors to Burris’ campaign or to the main Democratic fundraising committee.

Whether or not Burris has to legally be “seated’ as our junior senator - he is far from an “independent” candidate.