Frank Mautino - then state rep - now Illinois' Auditor General
SPRINGFIELD - Evidently beginning to feel the heat over questions being asked about campaign spending while he was a state representative, Illinois' new Auditor General Frank Mautino issued a statement Tuesday via his spokesman Ryan Keith.
"...His reports fully detail campaign expenditures that were made to help defray the standard, reasonable expenses incurred while Frank performed the governmental and public service duties of serving as state representative of his large, mostly rural district," Keith said.
The issued statement is vague and doesn't answer questions raised by the Edgar County Watchdogs, who have been scouring Mautino's campaign spending over the years, and found "eyebrow-raising" numbers such as $213,000 to a local garage for vehicle repairs and gas for campaign travels.
Open the Books' founder Adam Andrzejewski, who wrote about Mautino in a recent Forbes.com column said Mautino's statement was "completely unacceptable."
“This response is completely unacceptable," Andrzejewski told Illinois Review. "Mautino must answer in his own name and not hide behind paid PR officers. After weeks of silence, this statement is just further delay.”
Mautino, who served as one of House Speaker Mike Madigan's trusted lieutenants, was appointed after being recommended by the Audit Commission, a board reflecting the Democrat majority in the legislature after William Holland retired in 2015.
The Auditor General's job, according to the AG website, is an important one that calls for public trust and integrity. He or she is to be "responsible for acquiring basic skills pertinent to governmental auditing in Illinois and applying general audit skills, exercise major responsibility for gathering data pertinent to the audit, reviewing and comprehending data, documenting pertinent information, and working with the Audit Supervisor(s) or Manager on the printed report, the product of the Office of the Auditor General."
When Illinois Review asked if the Auditor would be providing more information on actual expenditures in question, Keith re-stated the official press statement, saying, "We're going through all of those records now and will be in touch when we can to provide more answers."
The statement released by Mautino Tuesday morning:
Frank Mautino served his north-central district with distinction in the Illinois House for 24 years, where he held a number of leadership positions, provided exemplary service to his communities and built a record of a number of legislative accomplishments.
During his legislative career, Frank ran for re-election every two years. His campaign committee, Committee for Frank J. Mautino, fully disclosed and reported all spending by the campaign in compliance with Illinois campaign finance and disclosure laws. His reports fully detail campaign expenditures that were made to help defray the standard, reasonable expenses incurred while Frank performed the governmental and public service duties of serving as state representative of his large, mostly rural district.
Upon his nomination as Auditor General, Frank's career in elected office ended and he closed out his campaign committee at the end of December 2015.
