Sunday, March 3, 1998 FRONT PAGE, NEWS Burns takes aim at front-runner:Burris part of the problem, not the solutionNote: This article is from the print edition of the local newspaper; links on this page have been added for reference only... We do not necessarily endorse the content of external web pages. By BERNARD
SCHOENBURG "Illinois needs a governor who will crack down on the corruption and waste rampant in state government," said Burns, a former U.S. attorney from Evanston. "My opponent (Burris) is an entrenched insider who is part of the problem, not the solution." Burns referred to 1993 articles in The State Journal-Register that compared lists of campaign contributors to recipients of state contracts. The newspaper found that in fiscal 1992, more than $ 2.5 million of about $ 4 million paid out in state legal contracts went to firms or lawyers that had made campaign donations to Burris or a state Democratic Party committee. Burris said at the time that many of the firms were already doing such business before he was elected attorney general in 1990. He said he did not know whether contributors were seeking contracts from his office. But Burris also said, "It's legal, so what's the problem?" And Burns used that quote in his own statement Monday. The quote "smacks of an insider arrangement," Burns said. Burns also said his statement was in response to Burris' comment on the campaign trail, revealed last week, in which he called his three main contenders "nonqualified white boys." "I told him at the time that I would gladly put my record as U.S. attorney up against his record as attorney general and let the voters decide on that issue alone," Burns said. "He always talks about how I'm not qualified and we're not qualified, and he was there for 16 years. Well, what did he do during those 16 years in terms of business as usual?" Burns said he's put forth an ethics plan that would require bidders for state work to disclose their campaign contributions, require more audits within government and ban the governor's appointees from being involved in contract decisions involving past business associates. Burris has said he could support ethics reform, including a gift limit and limits on campaign spending and contributions. He said a $ 50 gift limit would be "reasonable." Burns was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 1990 and got his job as U.S. attorney on recommendation from the state's two Democratic U.S. senators. But he says the independent way he conducted his time in the U.S. attorney's office, including sending "corrupt politicians" to jail, shows he's not an insider. Burris spokeswoman Delmarie Cobb said Burris favors campaign finance reform, but "as long as the Illinois law is what it is, he is abiding by the law," which doesn't bar contributors from getting contracts. She noted that Burris trails the other candidates in fund raising. A Chicago Sun-Times/WBBM-TV poll released over the weekend, based on 400 likely Democratic voters in the March 17 gubernatorial primary interviewed Feb. 22-25, found Burris leading with 30 percent to 14 percent for U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard of Marion, 12 percent for Burns and 11 percent for John Schmidt of Chicago.
Bernard Schoenburg is the political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.
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