The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
It was the hottest ticket in town, with parents paying as much as $300 a seat or more to get their kids in to see teen queen Miley Cyrus at Allstate Arena.
But not Gov. Blagojevich. The governor scored free tickets for himself, his wife, Patti, and their two kids.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and daughter Annie, 3, had free tickets and backstage access for Miley Cyrus' show in Rosemont.
Most of the lucky few who got in had to brave long lines, or scour the Internet, or turn to scalpers to be able to see the star of the Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" in concert Dec. 8 in Rosemont.
No lines for the Blagojeviches, though, for what one Allstate Arena representative calls the venue's "hottest ticket in 20 years." The governor and his family even got to go backstage.
They went courtesy of state Sen. James DeLeo, a Chicago Democrat who's one of the governor's closest political allies.
DeLeo has long had ties with the Stephens family, whose patriarch, Don Stephens, founded Rosemont. The Stephens family still runs the suburb, which owns and operates Allstate Arena.
"I call and say, 'I need six or eight or 10; what do you have?' " DeLeo recalls of his conversation with the ticket offices.
He says he was told: "Come over and buy them."
He says he got there 10 minutes before tickets went on sale and found himself "seven-deep in line."
"The Allstate Arena is a nine-iron from my house," the senator says. "I see every employee -- from the Zamboni driver to the guy my wife hires to put the Christmas lights on the house. It's my neighborhood."
DeLeo says he got 12 Cyrus tickets for face value -- $65 apiece -- and paid for them out of his own pocket.
"I'm a rich legislator," he says. "I buy my Cub tickets. I buy my stuff out of my own money."
These weren't the much-coveted floor tickets, he says, but the "first set of tickets off the ice," to the side of the stage.
DeLeo took his 10-year-old daughter.
This is the same
James DeLeo of Operation Greylord fame.You'll notice the connection to the late Mayor
Donald Stephens.Here's what the FBI had to say about Stephens:
Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens met with five members and two associates of organized crime in May 1999 regarding the mob's control of construction and operations contracts at a proposed casino in the northwest suburb, an FBI agent testified Monday.
Special agent John Mallul's testimony came during a hearing in which the state is aiming to revoke the dormant gaming license held by Emerald Casino Inc. The Illinois Gaming Board cited wrongdoing by Emerald, including alleged mob links, in rejecting the company's Rosemont casino plan in 2001.
Stephens vehemently denied Mallul's testimony, saying he was at a vacation home in Delavan, Wis., on the day the meeting allegedly occurred. He also said he's never been to Armand's, the Elmwood Park restaurant where the gathering was to have happened.
"This is lunacy," Stephens said, adding he hopes to set the record straight when he testifies, possibly later this month.
'The Clown' allegedly sat in
Mallul, an FBI supervisory special agent of an organized crime squad in Chicago, testified that the May 29, 1999, meeting he said Stephens attended included the following people whom Mallul identified as members of organized crime: Peter DiFronzo, John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Rudy Fratto and Joe "The Builder" Andriacchi.
Governor Blagojevich and James DeLeo seem to like to associate with organized crime associates.Here's some interesting information on Blagojevich's life long friend
Dan Stefanski.
