Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Firms linked to 2 men convicted of public corruption have gotten campaign business from JB Pritzker and the CTU

chalkbeat.org · 3hShare

This story was originally published by the Illinois Answers Project. Two political campaign firms with close ties to men with public corruption convictions have gotten business in recent years in Chicago and statewide political races, including the current, hotly contested race for Chicago School Board president and more than $1.5 million from Gov. JB Pritzker in his gubernatorial campaigns, records show. In the governor’s campaigns, about $1.2 million went to a firm formed by a former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services deputy director, Bamani Obadele, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to a state contracting scheme under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Obadele was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to repay more than $80,000. Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaigns also spent more than $420,000 with the firm tied to Isaac “Ike” Carothers, a former Chicago City Council member who pleaded guilty in 2010 to taking $40,000 in home improvements from a developer who wanted to buil

First report: Firms linked to 2 men convicted of corruption have gotten campaign business from JB Pritzker and the CTU — suntimes.com, 1d