Quinn defends bringing budget chief to union endorsement interview

Deal reached with AFSCME two days after group's backing

By Monique Garcia, Tribune Reporter

8:24 PM CDT, September 21, 2010

Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday defended bringing his state budget director to a political meeting in which he sought the endorsement of the state's largest employee union, saying the top aide needed to be in the room in case any technical questions came up.

Budget director David Vaught's appearance with Quinn before leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees came as Vaught was in the midst of negotiating budget cuts that included discussions about whether union workers could lose their jobs.

Quinn's mixing of politics and state business drew raised eyebrows from a reform group and scorching criticism from Republican governor challenger Bill Brady.

Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, said the situation is particularly troubling because the union endorsed Quinn just two days before his administration struck a tentative agreement that would prevent union layoffs until mid-2012 — a deal Vaught helped negotiate.

"This smacks so much of pay-to-play, and it's scandalous," said Brady, who called on Quinn not to go through with the deal. "Let's let this election play out and the next governor manage the state's resources with the flexibility he needs without some contract that was put together in the timing of an endorsement."

Quinn dismissed Brady's allegations as "a lot of baloney" and said the deal he cut is about saving money by having the union cut health care costs and deferring scheduled pay raises in exchange for freezing layoffs and facility closings until June 2012.

The governor added that Vaught was on "personal time" and did not speak when he appeared before union leaders on Aug. 31, when both Quinn and Brady were interviewed as part of the union's endorsement process.

"He's the budget director. I have him come with me to many meetings for technical advice on budget questions that come up," Quinn said. "He didn't answer any questions. He didn't speak at all. … He was there to give me budget figures that I might need. That's all he did."

But Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said Vaught's appearance "definitely blurs the line" between government and political work.

"In any governor's administration, one assumes that his Cabinet-level positions are people who are also strong personal political supporters," Canary said. "So it's not unusual to see these people also play a political role."

The controversy is the latest in which Quinn's campaign has seeped into his administration. His chief of staff resigned in August after a state inspector general found that he improperly sent three campaign e-mails while on state time.

Earlier this year, questions arose after Quinn rewrote legislation to help the Teamsters at the McCormick Place convention center after receiving a $75,000 political donation from the union.

Last year, Quinn blamed a "naive" aide for trying to sell interest groups "face time" with him in exchange for hosting $15,000 fundraising events during the spring legislative session.

Brady and Quinn made their comments after a closed-door forum before a Chicago business group.

mcgarcia@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/elections/ct-met-quinn-union-endorsement-20100921,0,2106504,print.story