by Fran Eaton
Doing a simple web search on people in Illinois politics often turns up the craziest things. . .
Why, just this week while searching for info on Judy Baar-Topinka's gubernatorial campaign chairman Terry Barnich we found a couple of stories in the Chicago Sun Times that piqued our interest and makes us wonder if Mr. Barnich may be asked once again to resign from his chairmanship of Topinka for Governor '06.
It won't be the first time. Barnich has had two other occasions when he was asked to resign that were important enough to be in the Chicago Sun Times over the past four years:
In a September 8, 2002 story on the 2002 governor's race titled "Ryan: Check out anti-Blagojevich ad on the Web," we read:
The Ryan campaign is calling reporters to alert them to the ad, which exists now only on an anti-Blagojevich Web site, www.about badrod.com, created by Republican Terry Barnich. Barnich resigned as chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission in 1993 after he was found making hundreds of calls to utility companies he was regulating.
We find in another S-T May 25, 2005 story on Barnich that he was asked to resign from the famed Chicago Athletic Association (story unlinkable for some reason):
Two former board members, Terry Barnich and Craig Clausen, have resigned from the [Chicago Athletic Association] club. The resignations were part of a settlement involving charges that the two men, partners in the telecommunications consulting firm New Paradigm Resources Group Inc, struck favorable business deals with former club managers.
The story goes on to say:
Several members voiced suspicions that Barnich, a former chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, was trying to arrange a development deal for the club's property that would have benefitted his business.
Barnich denied any wrongdoing.
Yet a third August 2004 Sun Times story lists Barnich as one of those considered by the State Central Committee to replace Jack Ryan as a U.S. Senate candidate.
Good thing Barnich's consideration didn't go any farther. In 2004 the hot scandal was sex clubs.
In 2006, it's "paying to play. . ." Evidently, Topinka believes Barnich has nothing to hide.
How does that saying go? "What goes around, comes around"?
