Just days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich accepted his party's nod for re- election in 2006, a letter arrived at state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka's office seeking thousands of pages of documents Blagojevich could use as ammunition against her in their upcoming campaign.
The letter was signed by Roland Burris. It was one of several requests Burris made to the treasurer's office in 2006, a campaign practice known as opposition research in which candidates use public documents to question their opponents' records. Burris' assistance for his fellow Democrat would typically draw little notice. But it comes to light as he is seeking to project his political independence from the scandal-plagued governor who appointed him to the U.S. Senate on Dec. 31. Burris has consistently said Blagojevich's problems are his alone and sought to minimize his connections to the governor as he fights to take his place in the Senate. But the revelation about the 2006 campaign is the third disclosure in recent days highlighting Burris' political ties with Blagojevich. On Friday, Burris' lobbying partner, Fred Lebed, acknowledged they helped the Blagojevich campaign by writing the letters to the treasurer's office under the Freedom of Information Act. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-burris-blagojevich-bd11jan11,0,145206.story --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
