By David W.
From, IL State Director, Americans for Prosperity -
Governor
Quinn apparently believes that some special interests are more special than
others. This Tuesday when he vetoed legislation to expand gaming, Governor
Quinn specifically cited the absence of a ban on campaign contributions. The Chicago
Sun-Times wrote in a column yesterday: “Quinn ‘was more convinced than
ever the absence of a ban on campaign contributions from gaming licenses and
casino managers was a deal breaker.”
Governor Quinn apparently believes that some people whose livelihood depends on
state lawmakers’ decisions should be restricted from making campaign donations
to those lawmakers and elected officials. However, he shows selective
concern for conflicts of interest in campaign finance by refusing to take
action to address the most glaring conflict of interest in state government:
contributions from government unions.
In his last campaign, Governor Quinn’s largest campaign contributors were
government unions like SEIU, AFSCME and the IEA, giving him over $5
million. More recently, we saw this summer that while the
Democrat-controlled General Assembly negotiated and then failed to act on
pension reform, leadership committees for the Democrat House and Senate
majorities raked in nearly $450,000 in contributions from SEIU, alone.
Make no mistake; the biggest and most powerful special interest in Springfield
is the government unions. These powerhouse unions are the largest
contributors to the legislative leaders in the General Assembly and the
Governor, the very same leaders who are supposedly representing the taxpayers
in direct negotiations and in determining how to reform pensions and curb
spending. Doesn’t this seem like a conflict of interest?