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For secretary of state: Dan Rutherford
Champaign News Gazette Editorial October 25, 2006
Four years ago The News-Gazette, and just about every other newspaper in the state, endorsed Secretary of State Jesse White for a second term. And Illinois voters enthusiastically re-elected White, giving him more votes than any other candidate that year. He carried every one of the state's 102 counties. But we're concerned that White has gotten lazy about, or at least indifferent to, improprieties in his office. While the secretary of state's office appears to still be doing a competent job serving the people of Illinois, there are what appear to be troubling ethical lapses in White's office. We don't want a recurrence of what happened to White's predecessor, George Ryan. For that reason we think it's time for a change. We endorse Republican Dan Rutherford, a state senator from rural McLean County, for secretary of state. Rutherford is an energetic, service-oriented man who has an unusual background as a solid businessman and a savvy politician with a great knack for organization. Few Republican politicians in Illinois would devote the time and effort Rutherford has to taking on an officeholder as seemingly entrenched as White. But Rutherford has and we believe he is sincere when he pledges to make service a top priority in the secretary of state's office. He wants customers to be able to make appointments at drivers license stations. He wants more convenient hours at the stations. He says the office should accept a broader selection of credit and debit cards (only 15 percent of facilities accept cards and then only Discover cards). And he has promised to work a day at each of the office's 130 stations within his first year as secretary. In recent months there have been disclosures that White not only is paying his daughter $112,000 a year to serve on his staff, but also that his nephew, three nieces and a stepgrandson are on the secretary of state's payroll. In addition, White's chief of staff was allowed to give his wife a no-bid contract, apparently in violation of state law. And the author of a recent biography on White, supposedly written voluntarily, was found to have been given a $73,000-a-year no-bid contract. There's no justification for these ethical lapses, except that Jesse White apparently believes his popularity makes him bulletproof. It shouldn't. It's past time to thoroughly clean up Illinois government
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