Monday, January 25, 2010

Pollgate: McKenna "compounded one ethical misstep with another"

Andy McKenna, the self-proclaimed outsider who until recently was the chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, continues to catch heat regarding his unauthorized use of party funds to pay for a poll that included his name. Sheesh, why couldn't his family pay for the poll? After all, McKenna's family has loaned the campaign about $1 million.

The State Journal-Register's Bernard Schoenburg, a longtime chronicler of Illinois political sleaze, reports on McKenna's ethics mess:

An internal state GOP ethics inquiry found that Andy McKenna — former state Republican chairman and now a candidate for governor — "compounded one ethical misstep with another" by commissioning a poll including his own name using party money, and then not telling committee members that his name was in the poll or that information from the poll could benefit himself.

"The Chairman's office never informed the Illinois Republican State Central Committee of intent to commission this poll, nor did Andrew McKenna ever request approval to conduct this poll from the … Committee," the report by the ethics committee of the state party said of the poll, which was done by The Tarrance Group at a cost of $28,300. "at no point before, during or after this poll was taken did the ... Committee receive disclosure from Andrew McKenna pursuant to provisions of the … Committee's Code of Ethics concerning potential personal benefit, appearance of potential personal benefit or appearance of impropriety."

The analysis included in the four-page report obtained by The State Journal-Register also states that "Ultimately, Andrew McKenna is responsible for actions taken by the Chairman's office, including authorization and oversight of polls and the content of those polls."

But it went on to take issue with the inclusion in the April 14-16 poll of his name, and the fact that he didn't disclose that inclusion.

Haven't we had enough of this crap in Illinois?

Related posts:

Ill gov race: Joe Birkett on Andy McKenna's deception

Marathon Pundit endorses Jim Ryan for Illinois governor

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1 comment:

  1. Unknown3:13 AM

    How about that McKenna gave payraises to the Party staff who left to work on his governor campaign while he either laid off or cut the salaries of the other Party employees who weren't on his team under the ruse of hard economic times (but still he could afford to pay for a poll that cost more than one of the laid-off employees' salaries)??!!

    Is this how he'd run State Government, too?

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