The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Before championing a big legislative pay increase, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones provided himself with tens of thousands of dollars in interest-free loans from his campaign fund.You can judge a politician by who he associates with.Emil Jones is the politician that "made" Barack Obama.Obama really is part of the sleazy Chicago Democratic Machine that never changes.
Under Illinois' relatively loose campaign-finance laws, there's nothing illegal about politicians dipping into their campaign funds that way. But it's highly unusual.
Since 1989, the South Side Democrat has taken out $120,528 in personal loans from his political fund and repaid $96,900 of that amount -- leaving nearly $25,000 unaccounted for.
Just last year, Jones withdrew $5,800 from his fund in 20 separate loans of $200 or $300 each between July and December.
In October alone, he had eight disbursements of $300 apiece over a 23-day period.
Last week, Jones sparked criticism when he proclaimed, "I need a pay raise." That was in support of a pending 12 percent legislative pay raise set to take effect unless legislators took steps to block it. Jones stands to see his salary rise from $91,824 to $102,547.
A government watchdog group questioned whether Jones is using his campaign for personal expenses rather than political ones, under a loophole in a 1998 law that was supposed to ban the personal use of campaign funds.
"It absolutely looks like a slush fund," says Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "He is living under a whole set of rules that no one else in the public is."
Jones' camp declined repeated requests from the Chicago Sun-Times for comment on how he has spent the money from his interest-free loans. A top aide would say only that some of the money was spent on gasoline. Campaign records don't appear to show what the loans were for. Nor is there anything in the public record stating the terms of the loans.
