Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has climbed down from his initial refusal to allow the seating of Roland Burris to succeed President-elect Barack Obama as the junior senator from Illionis.
Burris was appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich despite warnings and pleas from Democrats in that state and in Washington, D.C. that he not name anybody, pending resolution of charges by U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he sought to sell the appointment for personal gain.
Burris was the first African-American to win statewide office in Illinois, gaining the Comptroller office in 1978. He also served as Illinois Attorney General from 1991 to 1995. But his career has also seen a string of defeats, including an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate and multiple attempts to gain the governor’s mansion during the 1980s and 1990s.
In recent years, he has run a lobbying and consulting firm, Burris and Lebed, in Illinois. Since being named by Blagojevich to succeed Obama, Burris has been portrayed in the mainstream media mostly as something of a venerated political figure from a past generation.
But Illinois campaign finance records reveal another side of Burris that may give pause to those worried by the growing congressional culture of lobbyists wielding special interest influence to gain questionable earmarks, pork barrel spending contracts and insider favors with federal regulatory officials.
In his 2002 attempt to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Burris depended heavily upon Joseph Stroud, an Illinois political heavyweight contributor, thanks to his ownership of Jovon Broadcasting and Telephone U.S.A. In the 2002 race, Stroud provided Burris with the following loans and contributions:
* Jovon Broadcasting individual contribution to Burris: $200,000
* Jovon Broadcasting in-kind contributions to Burris: $179,895
* Telephone U.S.A. (and USA) loans to Burris: $1,200,000
Burris repaid $6,000 of the Telephone U.S.A. loans in November 2003, but no other payments appear in the records. This puts the total support from Stroud to Burris at $1,573,895.
Presumably, these contributions were all legal, but the outstanding loans could create a potential conflict of interest should Stroud have issues with federal regulators once Burris is sworn-in as Illinois senator.
More recently, Stroud was a donor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, giving the maximum of $2,300, according to OpenSecrets.org. (A second $2,300 contribution to Clinton was returned to Stroud). Stroud’s wife, Yvonne, contributed $2,800 to Obama and $2,300 to Clinton.
The Strouds also made maximum allowable contributions to Democratic congressional candidates Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Dan Maffei, as well as $10,000 to the National Leadership PAC.
Interestingly, Yvonne Stroud is listed as an unemployed homemaker for June 29, 2007 and Feb. 23, 2008, contributions, but as a Jovon Broadcasting “executive” for contributions on June 30 and Nov. 15, 2007, and as “Jovon Broadcasting/PROD” for contributions on June 20, 2007, and May 13, 2008.
The only other Illinois office seeker to enjoy comparatively generous support from Stroud is Blagojevich. Stroud made two separate contributions totalling $125,000 to Blagojevich’s 2006 re-election campaign. Burris and Blagojevich appear to share something else – large unpaid campaign debts.
Blagojevich’s most recent campaign finance disclosure filing shows a total of $956.352.04 owed to the Winston & Strawn law firm. The most recent payment by the Friends of Blagojevich campaign committee to the law firm was for $163,770.57 in 2007.
When Burris is sworn-in later this week, he will be the 58th Democratic member of the Senate. The only remaining Senate seat in question is that of Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, who has gone to state court challenging the apparent recount victory of comedian Al Franken.
