What Goes on in That Office?

By Kevin Robinson in News on Oct 8, 2007 9:15PM

Rep. Dan Lipinski, who is hoping for a third term in the 3rd Congressional District, is facing a tough challenge from Assistant State's Attorney Mark Pera. Lipinski's critics are unhappy with his opposition to abortion rights and stem cell research, and his siding with moderate Republicans on the war in Iraq and domestic spying. Besides his voting record, they also don't like how he came to congress: If you don't remember the 2004 general election, the elder Lipinski won renomination in the primary, withdrew during the campaign year, and then led the process to pick his replacement on the November ballot - his son Dan, a political science professor from Tennessee. Although Dan won handily in 2004, angry challenges in 2006 held him at only 54% in the primary, with the opposition split between two opponents.

Worse than being a Democrat in Name Only (DINO), Lipinski is a Machine DINO, sharing an office with his father's lobbying firm, Blue Chip Consulting. So it wasn't much of a surprise when we saw Mark Brown's column in the Sun-Times this morning. According to Brown, Bill Lipinski has been using Bill Lipinski's All-American Eagles, supposedly an organization that sponsors events for middle-schoolers, to fund political work, including paying consulting fees to two of Dan Lipinski's congressional staffers, Jerry Hurckes, chief of staff, and Christopher Ganschow, director of communications. Besides the ethically questionable fundraising methods employed by the elder Lipinski, congressional staffers are limited in how they earn outside income. Pat Corcoran, media director for Mark Pera, pointed out when Chicagoist asked about Brown's column, "it certainly raises some questions about what exactly is going on in Dan Lipinski's Congressional office."