#ThrowBackThursday: Durbin accused Quinn of being a ghost payroller

I'm a bit late the game tonight, but in the central time zone it's still Thursday, and on Twitter that means it's Throwback Thursday.

Let's look back into time--to 1996, when then-US Rep. Dick Durbin made an interesting accusation against his fellow Democrat, current Governor Pat Quinn. Both Dems were running for an open US Senate seat. Durbin won the primary and then the general election and he's been nominally representing me ever since.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Durbin, trailing Quinn by 10 percentage points in a recent Tribune poll, resurrected charges that Quinn was a ghost payroller, performing patronage tasks in the 1970s for Democratic Gov. Dan Walker while on a state commission's payroll.

"Outsider Pat Quinn has been involved in government for over 22 years," Durbin said, citing Quinn's previous positions on the Cook County Board of (tax) Appeals, a brief stint as Chicago revenue director under Mayor Harold Washington and one term as state treasurer.

"This is an outsider?" Durbin asked. "I think people know when they hear someone who's been around so long and run so many times . . . using the term 'outsider' that he's really trying to pull the wool over their eyes."

After his single and miserable term in office, Walker went to prison for fraud in regards to loans involving a savings and loan he was running. As for Quinn, he was twice the running mate of current jailbird Rod Blagojevich.

Illinoisans have a much better choice for governor this autumn, Republican businessman Bruce Rauner.

To follow Rauner on Facebook, click here. To follow him on Twitter, click here.

To contribute to the Rauner campaign, click here.