Feds Turn Focus To Blago Donors

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 9, 2009 8:40PM

Rod Blagojevich may no longer be governor, but there's still that federal "pay-to-play" case against the ex-gov and federal investigators are still furiously working. The feds are now looking at the records and contracts of 18 engineering and construction firms who made big deals with the state and the City of Chicago and donated over $3.6 million to various campaign funds. According to the Sun-Times:

More than a third of that -- about $1.3 million -- went to Blagojevich, whose administration gave 11 of the companies $656 million in contracts since 2004.

Mayor Daley took $64,800 from the companies before he put a self-imposed ban on accepting campaign cash from city contractors in the wake of the Hired Truck scandal. Since 2004, 11 of the companies have gotten $183 million in city deals.

The companies were named in a subpoena issued to the Illinois Department of Transportation in December and made public thanks to a successful lawsuit brought by the Better Government Association. Among the companies named in the subpoena are: DLZ Illinois, Globetrotters Engineering Corp., Castle Construction, MBB Construction, Knight E/A Inc., Teng & Associates Inc., and McDonough Associates. It is important to note that none of the companies named in the subpoena have been accused of any wrong-doing.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig