Obama campaign reaching out to New York pol with shady reputation

As I wrote earlier this week, Barack Obama proved he wasn't immune from the sewage that is known as Illinois politics when the details of his bizarre real estate deal with indicted Democratic political insider Tony Rezko were revealed.

My friend Dan Curry uncovered another shady character on the Obama screen, New York politico Carl McCall. However, McCall plans to back Hillary Clinton in her likely bid for the presidency.

From his blog, Reverse Spin:

AP is running a story saying the Obama campaign is poised to reach out to former New York politician Carl McCall, whose name is closely connected to (Ill. Governor) Rod Blagojevich’s corruption scandal.

Although McCall has not been indicted, it would be a surprise if he hasn’t been questioned by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office in connection to the pension probe that already has produced indictments of Rezko, top Democratic fundraiser Joe Cari, and Blagojevich fundraiser/appointee Stuart Levine. McCall’s name shows up on a fundraising schedule the day Blagojevich, Cari, Levine and Chris Kelly took the infamous Shakedown Shuttle corporate jet trip to New York in 2003.

McCall and Cari were raising money for Blagojevich and soon thereafter received state pension work. Both have left the company they worked for, HealthPoint, after the scandal became public. McCall and Cari also were the subject of similar bad publicity in California when HealthPoint got state pension work soon after Cari and McCall inspired campaign contributions showed up in the coffers of a gubernatorial candidate who controlled pension funds. The Cari-McCall connection is more fully explained here.

McCall also had a bumpy road, ethically, when he ran for governor in New York in 2002 and was defeated by George Pataki.

McCall’s connection to Obama might be through Barack’s confidant John Rogers Jr., who runs Ariel Capital Management, a company that recently kept its Blagojevich pension work despite poor performance after unprecedented lobbying. McCall serves on Ariel’s board of directors.

If Obama says it was a mistake in retrospect to have associated so closely with Rezko when it was known that he was under suspicion, is calling on McCall a walk down that same road?

In addition to McCall, Christopher Kennedy, nephew of Teddy, is also on Ariel's board of directors.

Related posts: Obama campaign's first mistake: Headquarters in Chicago

Obama watch: More Tony Rezko

Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith

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