WROK interviewed State Sen. Matt Murphy about Governor Quinn's troubled anti-violence program, called the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. Ostensibly the effort was designed to help combat the violence problem in Chicago and Cook County, but it more and more appears that it was $55 million in slush fund dollars to help the Governor win re-election against conservative State Sen. Bill Brady in 2010.
Recently, Governor Quinn has said he won’t testify about his role in the program. He previously blamed the recipients of the grants for the problems with the NRI.
State Senator Murphy has been following the investigation closely and was among the first to point out problems with the NRI. He told WROK:
We learn something new just about every week on this [NRI]. This issue isn’t going away. This program was set up with, I believe, dishonest intentions. At a minimum it is gross incompetence on a scale that should not be tolerated by people who live here. I suspect it might be even worse than that. That it was an intentional use of taxpayer money really to affect a political election.
The full interview with State Senator Matt Murphy:
