ILL-inois: Ex-Black Panther congressman could be violating federal law

US Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), a former Black Panther who gained national attention last year when he donned a hoodie on the floor of Congress as a show of support for Trayvon Martin, could be in trouble, the Chicago Sun-Times tells us.

For the past dozen years, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., hasn't reported paying any rent for his campaign office, records show, in what experts say could be a violation of federal election law or House ethics rules.

It's one of a series of questionable practices an investigation by the Better Government Association and Chicago Sun-Times found involving Citizens for Rush, the South Side congressman’s campaign committee. Rush’s campaign also has:

◆ Subsidized the South Side church founded by Rush, who is the congregation's pastor, giving Beloved Community Christian Church more than $196,000 since June 2004.

◆ Paid Rush's wife Carolyn Rush a year-round salary since 2007 totaling $404,000 as a consultant. That's nearly a quarter of the $1.6 million the congressman’s campaign fund has raised in that time.

Questions have been raised about a $1 million tech center in Rush's South Side Chicago district that never opened. Where did that money go?

Rush will forever be a footnote to history as the only person to defeat Barack Obama in an election--Obama challenged Rush in 2000. But like the Iran-Iraq War, it should have been a contest that both men lost.

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