Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is not known for selflessness but there does seem to be one occasion on which he appears to have reached out to help a fellow incumbent Democrat state executive.
Illinois campaign finance records show a $20,000 donation on Nov. 9, 2006, by Friends of Blagojevich to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Why would the Illinois governor’s campaign committee make such a sizeable contribution to the New Mexico governor’s re-election campaign two days after the 2006 election?
Richardson is a focus of a federal probe of a California consulting firm that received more than $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state agency. The firm and its CEO contributed more than $110,000 to Richardson’s campaign committees. Blagojevich is also being investigated by federal authorities concerning “pay-to-play” allegations in Illinois. Are the two federal probes related?
