Marathon Pundit: Ill. guv race: Kass catches up with Dillard's Cellini ties

When an Illinois grand jury cast out its large net to indict Rod Blagojevich and other accused chiselers, Republican William Cellini, a longtime Springfield powerbroker, was hauled in. Cellini became rich, the Chicago Sun-Times informed us in 1996, by "turning state government into a cottage industry."

On Tuesday the Illinois Primary was held, and Republican Bill Brady leads Kirk Dillard by just 406 votes. The state media is focusing on the troubles of the Democrats' lieutenant governor candidate, Scott Lee Cohen--which they didn't do before the election. The Chicago Tribune's John Kass tells us that the media (this blogger excluded, by the way) overlooked Dillard's ties to Cellini. According to Kass,
Cellini was involved in a recent strategy session that led to the Sangamon County GOP's key endorsement for gubernatorial candidate Kirk Dillard."

Dillard says he is unaware of any Cellini involvement in that nod, which may prove crucial since Dillard easily won Sangamon, while Brady did well elsewhere downstate.

More from Kass:

Cellini's sister Janis was the patronage boss for former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, the fellow who rides his white reform horse for Dillard, his former chief of staff.

But Cellini was the real boss. All he had to do was whisper, and Govs. Jim Thompson, Edgar and Blagojevich would roll over. So would Democratic tough guys like state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo, D-How You Doin'?, who in a frenzy of bipartisanship lived at Janis Cellini's Springfield home for years.

Though Republicans use Blagojevich to bash the Democrats, they never mention Cellini. Oddly, neither do the Democrats, who tiptoe past the Cellini scandals like frightened church mice.

Cellini is accused of conspiring with convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine to extort an investment firm into making a $1.5 million contribution to the Blagojevich campaign.