Robin Kelly, one of the leading Democrats running in the congressional special election primary to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., is under fire this week after it was revealed that an internal investigation by the State Treasurer’s Inspector General recommended she be disciplined.
In response to this news and the recent resignations of 2 Democrat candidates from the race, Republican candidate Paul McKinley released an ad saying that the Chicago Machine is panicking:
Robin Kelly is the chosen successor (perhaps in more ways than one, see above) for Jesse Jackson Jr by the Chicago Democratic Machine. She has been supported by Daily Kos, which has raised $110k for her, and Mayor Bloomberg’s PAC has spent $2.1 million in attack ads against her opponents.
News of Kelly’s recommended disciplining of Kelly comes just after Jesse Jackson, Jr., pled guilty in court yesterday.
The Chicago Tribune obtained the information through FOIA requests:
After Robin Kelly lost a 2010 bid for state treasurer, the office’s chief investigator alleged she violated ethics laws
by improperly reporting time off from her taxpayer-funded job as chief of staff to then-Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Tribune has learned. Kelly, now a top contender in Tuesday’s special Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District race to succeed Jesse Jackson Jr., was at the center of an investigation by the treasurer’s executive inspector general into whether timekeeping violations took place as she campaigned for treasurer, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show.Executive Inspector General David Wells recommended that Kelly be disciplined, according to a letter from Giannoulias. The punishment that Wells recommended was not made public, but Giannoulias said no action would be taken against Kelly because she had already resigned from state government.
Republican Paul McKinley sees a common underpinning to it all:
“I look at as one thing. I look at as it is the system. The machine produced him, it nurtured him, it manufactured him,” said Republican candidate Paul McKinley (in video at 1:40 mark):
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