Derrick Smith, a State Rep candidate backed by Michael and Lisa Madigan (the Madigoons), co-chairs of the Illinois Political Mafia, was arrested on Tuesday on a federal bribery charge after allegedly accepting a $7,000 cash bribe in exchange for an official letter of support for a daycare center he believed was seeking a state grant.
The Madigoons are also trying to rig local elections in Aurora and Naperville by backing the wild spending, taxpayer exploiting and veteran of political shakedowns, Stephanie Kifowit, the failed alderman of Aurora's 3rd Ward.
Sources at Aurora's City Hall confirm not only Kifowit has been alleged to have sought campaign contributions from developers in exchange for votes, but she has been trying to steer certain business to those associated with her.
Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan, would not comment on either Smith or Kifowit or the role the Madigoons have in the epidemic of corruption in Illinois.
"Like Daley did for the City of Chicago, everyone knows Madigan has powerful control over what happens in the rest of Illinois, so either he's just an ignorant, innocent bystander while all these things happen around him or he's a puppet master pulling many strings and aware of what really goes on" said a political operative from Chicago.
Kifowit, with the same type of funding that was being given to Derrick Smith, has been waging a sleazy, trashy campaign against her opponents, Alex Arroyo, Carole Cheney and Ken Maurice, said she "doesn't care" what anyone thinks.
If, by some tragedy, Kifowit were to survive the primary and get past GOP candidate Pat Fee, should we expect to see any future corruption stories about Kifowit?
She already shakes down others for campaign contributions. She flip-flops and changes her position if there's any way to benefit her interests. She's already taking lobbyist cash. She's funded by the political mafia and running a sleazy campaign. Nobody should be surprised by anything in the future.
As former Governor Rod Blagojevich heads to federal prison in Colorado, we wish he would take the political mafia with him.
26 comments:
The sad thing is she might win, consider the following.
Aurorans reelected Weisner, Kifowit, Irvin, Peters, O'Connor, Saville and Burns. Think about that, 6 career politicians. At lest the other board members have lives outside city hall and politics.
Sorry 7 career politicans...
Illinois has some, special kinda stupid voters, that allow this type of politician to prosper. Look how the inner cities vote. The rest of the state gets dragged back by them.
Wake up Illinois before we become Greece!
Stephanie Kifowit, the failed alderman of Aurora's 3rd Ward.
I guess "failed" is defined as "repeatedly re-elected by the voters of her ward".
Sources at Aurora's City Hall
i.e. Rick Lawrence
her opponents, Alex Arroyo, Carole Cheney and Ken Maurice
Ken Maurice is NOT an opponent. He would have been a good one, but he or his workers SCREWED UP and OVER HALF of the signatures on his petition were invalid. Which brings into question how good a job he would have done in the house.
Just look at the 3rd Ward,how can anyone think she has been effective?
Kifowit has always been a political whore. She'll attach herself to anyone that will give her a donation or advance her political career.
How many signatures were required for the petition?
Just look at the 3rd Ward,how can anyone think she has been effective?
She has been extremely effective at doing what she is chartered to do by the Democrats, as is Weisner, Irvin, Saville, Garza and Burns.
And that is to keep building dependency class in Aurora and then keep petitioning the State,County and Fed for funds to serve the needy, which always gets filtered through appointees hands and built by campaign contributors.
The voters are not necesarily dumb. They know that the other candidates are just as bad. The positions don't pay much so why do so many people want them? I think we know. The Republicans are just as crooked as the Democrats and vice/versa.
So you don't think Dean Myles was better than Whitey Peters?
Keep voting in the same old demonrats!
Stephanie Kifowit told me personally that the state rep position paid 6 figures. That is why she wants it. She's been sending out resumes for years and can't find a full time job. This is her only hope. I hope she fails miserably. There's a reason she can't find full time employment---she is a failure at everything she tries to do.
11:49 I don't believe she told you any such thing, because it's not true and I'm sure she knows what the salary is. According to http://www.ilga.gov/house/FOIA.pdf, house salaries are $67,836. They can pick up stipends for extra duties, and get a per diem (<$7000) and expenses. Also in this same document: "Note: Public Act 97-71 provides that each member of the General Assembly must forfeit 12 days of compensation in Fiscal Year 2012. Consequently, the actual salary paid to members, including any stipend, will be approximately4.6% less than the authorized amounts."
The voters are not necesarily dumb. They know that the other candidates are just as bad. The positions don't pay much so why do so many people want them? I think we know. The Republicans are just as crooked as the Democrats and vice/versa.
I cannot speak for others motivations for holding public office, but when I ran for office, it was a race born out of frustrations. For over a decade, I wrote my Aldermen, called them, attended and spoke out at city council meetings, wrote Letters to the Editor, tried to organize a public Aurora issue chat forum, and tried everything I could do, within proper channels, to get City Hall to confine there activities to their proper role. The only one who listened was Rick Lawrence. My two Alderman-At-Large did not listen and they could have cared less.
The single reason I ran for office was I thought that the taxpayer’s in this community deserved a voice. It had nothing to do with Republican or Democrat but it had everything to do with stopping the wasteful spending, crony capitalism and directing the citizen’s tax money to its proper domain.
Sincerely,
Kevin Mathews
Kevin,
The republicians have a way to go in Illinois to reach this level of criminality. Madigan and the demonrats have perfected this. Break the pattern and vote them out. Also, we need term limits on all these elected officials. There is no way someone should be there 42 years and have your adopted daughter as the Attorney General. There in no way she can be impartial, unless she would go for an indictment.
7:08 Yeah, you're right, no Republican would EVER do anything criminal and end up in prison. George Ryan is just taking an extended vacation in a "resort". Actually, I looked on Wikipedia, and 6 Illinois Governors have been charged w/ crimes associated w/ their governorship. 3 Repubs, 3 Demos. The Repubs have been better at getting away w/ it; 2 acquitals. Of the 4 convictions, 3 Demos, 1 Repub. One quote from Wiki I loved involved one of the acquitted Repubs -- "Len Small (R), governor from 1921 to 1929, was indicted in office for corruption. He was acquitted; thereafter, eight of the jurors received state jobs. Among his defense lawyers was former governor Joseph W. Fifer, who asserted, in pre-trial hearings, that the governorship has the divine right of kings."
As far as Lisa Madigan, she's Attorney General because THE VOTERS OF ILLINOIS elected her. I guess you're saying that you should be able to tell the voters who they can or can't vote for. Do YOU have the "divine right of kings"?
Oh, another thing I loved from the Wiki article. Jim Thompson was involved w/ 2 of the corruption trials that resulted in convictions. When Kerner, a Dem was charged, Thompson was the prosecutor. When Ryan, a Rep was charged, Thompson was the defender. So basically the Republican was against corruption when it was committed by a Dem, but okay w/ it when it was committed by a Repub. I'm not trying to defend the corruption of the Dems, I'm saying we need to recognize that corruption is on BOTH sides of the aisle and seek it out wherever it exists.
This shouldn't be a democrat/republican debate. There are people on both sides with good intentions and people on both sides with bad intentions. Our job as voters is to get to know the people for whom we are voting as individuals and hope they are going to represent us instead of representing their own interests. That is why my vote will NOT go to Stephanie Kifowit. I know her personally and it doesn't matter to me if she is democrat or republican, she is a self-absorbed person who is a professional and financial failure. If you can't even be successful in your own life, why should I expect you to be successful in trying to govern MINE?
This shouldn't be a democrat/republican debate. There are people on both sides with good intentions and people on both sides with bad intentions. Our job as voters is to get to know the people for whom we are voting as individuals and hope they are going to represent us instead of representing their own interests.
This is probably the most accurate description of a voter I have seen in some time. I would only add that they need to govern in accordance with the general precepts of our Constitutional Republic.
Kevin Mathews
12 REASONS TO VOTE DEMOCRAT :(
When your family or friends cannot explain why they voted Democrat, give
them this list. Then they can then pick a reason from this "TOP 12"..
1. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't.
2. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
3. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
4. I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
5. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
6. I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about millions of babies
being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away the social security from those who paid into it.8. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the
Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
10.. I voted Democrat because I think that it's better to pay billions to people who hate us for their oil, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.
11. I voted Democrat because while we live in the greatest, most wonderful country in the world, I was promised "HOPE AND CHANGE".
12. I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my ass, it's unlikely that I'll ever have another point of view
8:01 I am NOT a Democrat, but am an independent, objective, THINKING voter. Sometimes I vote for a Democrat, and sometimes I vote for a Republican. And I could very easily take every one of your statements that deliberately distort Democrat positions, and turn them around into statements that deliberately distort Republican positions. But it's not worth the time, because of the one statement you included that was absolutely true when applied to you -- "because my head is so firmly planted up my ass, it's unlikely that I'll ever have another point of view".
Get your fact straight about Ken Maurice, the same corruption you talk about, also exist at the state board of elections level. This political machine controls the state and confirmation of election commissioners.
Let stop talking and work together to have the election commissioners elected and not appointed then maybe we will get qualified candidates.
Are you REALLY saying that making it an elected position is going to remove the chances of politics entering their decisions? If that was the case, the state legislature would be working great.
Being an independent just means you haven't got kicked in the balls hard enough yet to take a stand!
LOL 8:34. No, it means that I take a stand on each issue after thinking about it and researching it, and don't just follow some party doctrine. EVERY politician who has joined a specific party has at one point or another voted the way the party wanted them to, regardless of how they really felt about the issue. They're all about party first, and the voters and country second. As far as balls, at least I've got some and don't have to rely on some party.
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