A story about George Ryan...

I was looking through blogs from the Chicago area and I found this from the blog of an Illinois State Rep. John Fritchey. He and the current Lt. Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn were attempting to get a bill passed known as Inspector Solicitation Misconduct Act. This bill is described by Rep. Fritchey in this way...

Without going into all of the details, suffice it to say that the bill prevented state inspectors from seeking campaign contributions from individuals or entities whom they oversee. The bill was borne of a series of news stories about car dealers being shaken down by inspectors on behalf of the Secretary of State. But when you realize that state inspectors oversee everything from driving schools to day care centers to nursing homes to nuclear facilities, the public safety and public health implications of cutting the ties between fundraising and inspection approval become clear.

Evvery attempt to get this bill passed in Springfield was fraught with frustration as it seemed people were out to give George Ryan a break...

Even though Democrats controlled the House, the bill was killed in committee after all of the Republicans voted against it, as did a couple Democrats wanting to 'help out George'

The frustration continues when Ryan ran for Governor and he still was a little flakey in support. In additon his Democratic challenger Glenn Poshard would have supported this bill unfortunately this was not to be since Mr. Poshard would lose his campaign for governor. Gov. Ryan never let this bill see the light of day even challenged the purpose of this bill. Ultimately it passed and is now law as Public Act 92-853. It was passed during the last regular session of the George Ryan administration.

Rep. Fritchey's posted his story George and Me on September 30, 2005. This is no doubt around the time of Ryan's corruption trial. To close my post, he had this to say of Gov. George Ryan on the issue of this bill...

When a couple of my colleagues went to see him the next day on an unrelated matter, Ryan held up the letter and stated, "Look what this c**ksu*ker sent me."
I don't know about you, but those words just didn't really strike me as the words of a guy wanting to 'get to the bottom of corruption', as he was fond of telling the press those days.