Several states require politicians to shut down their campaign funds after they leave office. Susan Garrett, board chair of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, says “in a perfect world” Illinois should have a similar requirement. But even Garrett has kept her campaign fund open three years after leaving her state Senate seat. As this week’s cover story by Bruce Rushton details, retired Illinois politicians use leftover campaign cash for hotels, airfare, gifts, meals, sports tickets and direct payments to themselves. Readers may not be surprised to hear that Illinois is not a perfect world. They may be astonished to learn, however, that the system of perks for former pols is perfectly obscene. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.
