Quinn slush fund scandal: Felon husband of Dem pol oversaw $2.1 million in state grants

Shortly before the 2010 election, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Chicago Democrat, with great fanfare announced a $54.5 state project to fight violence in Chicago. The program is being exposed as a massive Dem slush fund to gin up the black vote and keep Rod Blagojevich's two-time running mate in office.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The husband of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown was given oversight over millions of dollars in programs in Gov. Pat Quinn's scandal-plagued anti-violence initiative despite having a felony conviction for a financial crime, according to court records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Benton Cook III pleaded guilty to a Class E felony in Tennessee in 1999 after writing more than $3,700 in worthless checks to a man who imported and sold artifacts from Africa, the records show.

Cook has said he was hired by a not-for-profit group — called Chicago Area Project — to work on Quinn's Neighborhood Recovery Initiative through his affiliation with a West Garfield Park church that lists him as a member of its "pastoral team" responsible for "community development programs."

New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church got $192,000 in state funding during 2009 and 2010, the first two years of the Quinn anti-violence program, records show. That was among $2.1 million in state anti-violence money Cook and two other Chicago Area Project officials were supposed to make sure was spent properly on the West Side.

Chicago Area Project paid Cook nearly $150,000 over two years in salary and benefits, the Sun-Times reports to Cook to oversee how Neighborhood Recovery Initiative was spent.

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