Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

Jim Madigan, who is running to become the first openly gay senator in the Illinois Senate, accused Senator Heather Steans of embellishing her employment history on two campaign mailers and in written responses to a candidate’s questionnaire for the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.

In the North Side’s only contested State Senate race, Madigan is challenging Steans for the 7^th Senate District seat in the upcoming Feb. 2 Democratic primary.

Both mailers tout Steans as a budget expert and her successful record of balancing budgets in her previous role as the “Wisconsin state budget director.”

Steans’ claim is featured even more prominently in a second mailer that went out this week, which states: “As the former Wisconsin state budget director, she helped balance the budget but cutting waste while protecting vital services.”

A quick check of the senator’s biography on the Illinois Senate website names her role as a budget director for the now defunct Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, a title she also gave in responses to other local media during the Democratic primary for the 7th Senate District in 2008.

“I’m not disputing that she did the budget for that one department, but the mailer says she was the budget director for the whole state and helped balance the whole budget,” Madigan said. “Anyone who reads the mailer thinks she oversaw the whole Wisconsin state budget. Her senate bio confirms she only worked for that one department.”

Madigan further accused the Steans campaign of engaging “in a pattern of deception” in responses to a questionnaire for the Sun-Times endorsement, in which Steans claimed that “for 4 years I served as Budget Director the Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations.”

According to a Madigan press release, a verification call made to the State of Wisconsin indicated that from 1990 to 1992, Steans served as a “Budget and Management Analyst.” The release continues:

“The payroll department at the [current] Department of Workforce Development did confirm that Heather Steans was elevated to a level 4 Officer on May 30, 1993, upon the departure of Eric Baker. For eight months she did serve as a director until her department on Feb. 12, 1994, but the title of Budget Director did not exist in that department.”

The Madigan campaign takes issue in that Steans’ responses elude that she spent the entire four years as a budget director for the Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, instead of just the nine months she spent a budget office of ten the department’s budget staff of ten.

A similar call placed by Lake Effect News to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s payroll department, which absorbed a piece of the Industry, Labor and Human Relations Department after it disbanded, confirmed that Steans only served in the “level 4 Officer” equivalent to the title of Budget Director, for just nine months.

Steans’ campaign manager, Kelley Quinn, did not return calls seeking comment about Madigan’s latest allegations that Steans had embellished her employment history as the Wisconsin state budget director and in her responses on the Sun-Times endorsement questionnaire.

Madigan has repeatedly attacked Steans for her and Smith’s contributions of more than 205,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign fund between 2002 and 2007, including five contributions of $25,000 each, the last of which was made in April 2007 to purchase advertising for Blagojevich’s Citizens for Tax Fairness, Healthcare and Education PAC to promote his failed gross receipts tax. In October 2007, Steans became former Sen. Carol Ronen’s handpicked successor after Ronen, Blagojevich’s floor leader in the State Senate, resigned mid-term. Steans went on to win the 2008 Democratic primary for the 7th Senate District.

On Friday, Madigan’s campaign sent out an e-mail blast encouraging supporters to call the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, who have largely ignored the 7^th Senate District Democratic primary race, and ask both newspapers “why they aren’t reporting on Sen. Steans’ misrepresentations.” The -email blast also gave the telephone numbers for news desks.

Meanwhile, the war of the campaign mailers continues.

“The mailer is gilding the lily,” Madigan said. “The reason why it’s a relevant piece is that this while mailer is touting why [Steans is] good at balancing budgets. This is the central claim of the thing. She can’t say she’s good at balancing budgets in Illinois because the budget still isn’t balanced.”

More local coverage:

Chicago News Bench “Steans Lied On Her Resume”

Central Square Ledger “Madigan Says Steans Mailer Misleads: Steans Never In WI Budget Office”

Related stories:

“Heather In A Corner”

“Madigan Puts Steans On Defensive In Candidate’s Forum”