Illinois Gov Closer to Jail

Political observers in Chicago say Illinois Governor George Ryan moved closer to jail recently with a federal indictment of his former aide, and state inspector-general, Dean Bauer in the driver-licenses-for-campaign-$s scandal. The new indictment of Bauer says that Gov Ryan arranged for Bauer to meet with a whistleblower from Ryan’s department of state who had gone public about the sale of truck driver licenses to raise funds for Ryan’s election campaigns. Bauer is charged with concealing evidence of corrupt practices, not intimidation.

The whistleblower, a woman employee of the DeKalb driver licensing center had been shown with her face obscured on local TV speaking about the racket, but the governor’s henchmen (henchpeople?) apparently quickly identified her. The governor maintains he knew absolutely nothing about the corrupt fund raising from which he benefited! Prosecutors say they have identified $170k in bribe money paid into Citizens for Ryan, the governor’s campaign account. The ‘citizens’ were mostly disqualified people, many from out of state who got the word at truckstops, that for a Ryan campaign contribution of up to $1,000 you could get a commercial drivers licenses, no questions asked.

100 truck drivers from as far away as New York and Florida have been tracked down and their ‘bought’ licenses confiscated. The case surfaced after a smash in neighboring Wisconsin in which a truck driver killed six children, and said that he had not been required to pass any test, just pay $1,000, to get the truckers license in Illinois.

A total of 37 people have been charged in the case and 27 convicted, several to jail terms. They are mostly former employees of the Illinois dept of state from the time when the present governor was secretary.

Ryan is a populist, who likes to seize on an issue and do what gets applause from the crowd. He recently moved to suspend the gas tax in Illinois because of high prices at the pump. And of course we’ve reported his anti-toll moves.