UPDATED: Obama mentor Emil Jones to announce retirement today

Although Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) is on the ballot this fall, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, the man who put Barack Obama's name on a lot of bills as the Cult of Change leader ramped up his 2004 US Senate Campaign, will announce his retirement today.

That's Jones on the left, with Barack Obama. In 2003, Jones told Chicago radio host Cliff Kelley, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'" He was of couse talking about Obama.

Is Emil Jones "tired," as one anonymous Jones ally told the Sun-Times?

Or are his crony-capitalism ties catching up to to him?

In its story about Jones' exit, the Sun-Times thought to mention a couple of warts on Jones' résumé.

Jones, a former city sewer inspector, endured criticism for taking tens of thousands of dollars in interest-free loans from his campaign fund and for multimillion-dollar, no-bid government contracts steered to a technology firm headed by his stepson, John Sterling.

That company in is Synch-Solutions.

Have some deep-dish pizza while you read this post...it is so Chicago.

NBC 5 Chicago weighs in:

Synch's relationship with City Colleges began in 1999, shortly after the company was incorporated by a self-described recruiting manager, Sterling.

Sterling's company was formed as a Minority Business Enterprise, which is supposed to help disadvantaged businesses gain access to government contracts.

Almost immediately, the company received a $375,000 contract from City Colleges.

There would be more to come, as Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association found out when Unit 5 showed him copies of contracts obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Synch received many no-bid contracts for their work. Interestingly, the headline of the NBC 5 story reads, "Does Family Matter In Getting No-Bid Contracts?" In Illinois it sure does. There's a long tradition of using government--and government contracts--to enrich friends and relatives.

That article is from 2007, at that time Synch-Solutions had received $55 million in City College contracts.

Also last year, the Sun-Times uncovered $700,000 in subcontractor work awarded to Synch-Solutions:

Still, Synch-Solutions' work for the governor's budget office has largely been a secret. The state doesn't track payments its vendors make to subcontractors. So it's almost impossible to know what firms are being hired as subcontractors -- let alone what they're being paid.

"Does it make you suspicious? Yes," said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. "There doesn't appear to be much of a requirement to ensure that the public knows who the subs are. . . . There's just no political will to do it."

The latest revelation about Synch-Solutions is rekindling questions about nepotism for Jones. Besides the firm's government business, Jones' wife, a psychologist, boosted her state human services salary by more than $70,000 through a 2005 promotion. A son, Emil Jones III, got a $57,360-a-year state commerce job in April, despite lacking a college degree.

Synch-Solutions has worked with other public entities in Illinois, including the Chicago Transit Authority, the Chicago Public Schools, Cook County Forest Preserve District, the Illinois Tollway, the state's Central Management Services.

Not bad for a guy who was a recruiting manager nine years ago.

Let's move on to the private sector. Commonwealth Edison is the electric utility for northeastern Illinois. From a 2007 AP article:

The company owned by Senate President Emil Jones' stepson was doing contract work for ComEd's corporate parent at the time Jones blocked a rate freeze for the utility, according to a published report.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported in its Thursday editions that Exelon hired Synch-Solutions -- the firm owned by Jones' stepson John Sterling -- in 2004 to provide "software integration services."

But the utility would not tell the newspaper how much it paid Sterling's management consulting and technology services company or whether it thought the relationship was a conflict of interest for Jones.

Jones' retirement is bad news for Illinois' embattled governor, Chicago Democrat Rod Blagojevich. He's a strong supporter of "Blago," who is almost certainly under federal investigation for his alleged roll in the "pay to play" scandals within state government that netted the corruption convictions of Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

On far less friendly terms with Blagojevich is yet another Chicago Democrat, House Speaker Michael Madigan. His office circulated a fourteen page memo on the possibility of impeaching Blago two months ago. Nothing has come of Madigan's efforts, but with Jones out of the way soon, Madigan's push may move forward.

Jones' retirement is not immediate. He will remain on the November ballot, so he can hand-pick his successor.

And if Jones follows tradition, he'll probably pick a relative. See Todd Stroger.

For more on Stoger the Younger, read the below post.

UPDATE 2:40 CDT: Surprise, surprise. Jones wants some guy named Emil Jones III to succeed him. You can't make this stuff up. Hat tip to Rob with Illinois Reason.

Impeachment talk about Gov. Blagojevich continues

Obama's state legislative record--he got a lot of help

Technorati tags: politics Illinois Election Democrats Chicago Tony Rezko corruption legal Blagojevich Obama Barack Obama Emil Jones Commonwealth Edison Exelon cronyism nepotism