Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy Fourth Of July Chicago Style



We need more legislators in Indiana like State Rep. Paul Froehlich (D-IL). After switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party, Froehlich pulled out all of the stops to win re-election last year with some help from Chicago Democrats. It seems Froelich showed up at the door of hundreds of his constituents offering to help lower their property taxes. Of the cases he filed with the Cook County Board of Review, he had a 94% success rate. Constituents were happy and gladly rewarded him with contributions, put up campaign yard signs at their homes, etc. Everyone was happy--until Froehlich fired his district assistant, who just happened to keep a copy of the master list of property tax appeals, along with all of the political favors Froehlich received in consideration for his help, which she shared with a local FOX News affiliate in Chicago. She is planning to bring a whistleblower suit against Froehlich. He thinks she should be jailed for stealing the list. Others are wondering why all of the appeals Froelich filed were adjudicated by Board of Review Commissioner Joe Berrios (D), a former state representative and head of the Cook County Democratic Party. The Fourth of July heat is too much for Froehlich, who just announced he won't seek re-election. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office is continuing its investigation of the matter. Not that it matters to the Obama-friendly media, but then-State Senator Barack Obama used constituent service to enrich himself personally. He took more than a $100,000 in legal fees from a business for which his office lobbied a state agency successfully for hundreds of thousands in state business grants. Enjoy the video of this excellent investigative piece by FOX Chicago News.

4 comments:

Sir Hailstone said...

It will be interesting to see if upon further review the tax board will realize the properties in question are undervalued and because of this apparent inside job with the Dems they'll get a nasty surprise in a couple years when the reassessment is done.

Frankly do you even trust the Cook County SA to be objective in this or should Patrick Fitzgerald be brought in to look at it?

Gary R. Welsh said...

It is hard to imagine the Cook Co. State's Attorney taking on the party's county chairman

Indy4U2C said...

The Democrat Machine...

Melyssa said...

I continue to be a fan of this blog!