Sep 28, 2006 6:05 pm US/Central
Alleged Mob Ties In Spotlight Of Treasurer's Race
Republican Christine Radogno Demanding Answers From Rival
by Joanie Lum
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
There was a new call Thursday for questions to be answered about the candidates in the race for Illinois state treasurer.
Alleged mob ties were taking the spotlight as the Republican hopeful pushed for the Democratic candidate to set the record straight.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, when
Alexi Giannoulias entered the Democratic primary, no one knew him.
But, thanks to support from U.S. Sen.
Barack Obama, D-Ill., he won the Democratic party.
His opponent, Republican
Christine Radogno, certainly knows who he is. And she's blasting her opponent for alleged ties to organized crime.
"Clearly, he is the banker for people with mob associations," Radogno said Thursday.
Last spring, published reports revealed that Giannoulias' family-owned
Broadway Bank made multi-million dollar loans to a man convicted of running gambling and prostitution rings. Giannoulias was the senior loan officer.
Giannoulias has stood by his record. "I've always been available. I'm proud of the bank's history. No one's accused the bank of any wrongdoing," Giannoulias said. "In a perfect world, we'd loan money only to the most morally upstanding citizens."
But Radogno wants more answers than that. "When you are loaning someone that amount of money, you would know if someone has three felony convictions in their record," she said. "If this is the kind of judgment someone makes in business, what can we expect to be made as a public official?"
We caught up with Giannoulias when he was shooting new political commercials Thursday. He wouldn't say if Obama will appear in one. But a spokesman for Obama said Giannoulias has the senator's full support.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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