Burris’ Cook County Clout

January 11, 2009 by CookReformer · 1 Comment
Filed under: Blagojevich, Reform

We had posted previously about (Senator-to-be?) Roland Burris’ background as a Cook County political insider - but we missed this little gem of a story in last Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune.

Here’s the most interesting part:

Burris’ clout has also carried over to Cook County where his firm has been paid nearly $425,000 since 2006 to lobby Cook County officials, according to disclosure statements. Of that, $240,000 was paid by ACS Healthcare Solutions, which has been named in the corruption indictment of a former Las Vegas public hospital official.

ACS long pursued an $18 million bill-collection contract with Cook County’s public health system, but County Board President Todd Stroger’s administration pulled the contract from consideration in March, after the Tribune wrote about the indictment.

Please click here to read more about the ACS situation - and then ask yourself: is it really a surprise that a guy like Blagojevich picked a guy like Burris for the Senate?