Posted by Rick Pearson at 5:27 p.m.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin says it’s not fair to hold Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias responsible for every decision at his family’s troubled bank and contends voters are more concerned about jobs and the economy than the fate of the Broadway Bank.
Still, Durbin, the state’s senior senator and the chairman of Giannoulias’ campaign, said it is fair to ask the Democratic nominee what responsibility he bears for the problems facing the bank. Giannoulias worked at his family bank prior to being elected state treasurer in November 2006. Federal regulators have asked family members who own the bank to recapitalize it or risk closure later this month.
“If it’s in trouble today, how much can you blame him?” Durbin told the Tribune’s editorial board this afternoon. “What responsibility does he bear for it? I think that is a fair question and he’s the only one who could answer that. I can’t.”
Giannoulias’ main opponent in the Senate race, five-term Republican North Shore Rep. Mark Kirk, has used the bank’s problems to criticize Giannoulias’ qualifications.
Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in Senate leadership, said Giannoulias told him that he had nothing to do with “over 90 percent” of the loans made at Broadway Bank, where Giannoulias previously served as a loan officer. And Durbin said Giannoulias told him “he did not play a personal or major role” in $20 million in loans given to two reputed organized crime figures during Giannoulias’ tenure at the bank.
Meeting with the Tribune editorial board last month, Giannoulias said he
accepted "my share of the responsibility" for the bank’s problems but
did not discuss specific lending decisions, citing the privacy of bank
customers.
Durbin said today that campaign focus groups show that instead of expressing concern about Broadway Bank, voters are asking, “What about my job? What is going on in terms of the economy and moving forward?” in the contest against Kirk.
“I think at the end of the day, the overriding issue is going to be the state of the economy and whether it’s turned around — whether Mr. Kirk’s position on economic issues is better for the state or Mr. Giannoulias’,” Durbin said.
Asked whether Giannoulias inflated his role at the bank in selling his banking experience to voters during the 2006 state treasurer campaign, Durbin said he didn’t “know enough about banking” to say where the Senate candidate fit on the pecking order at Broadway Bank.
Durbin also said Giannoulias has done a good job as treasurer. Giannoulias came under fire after significant losses in the state’s Bright Start college savings fund used by parents. Durbin said that the fund that lost money was “one of 20 funds there” but “by and large, I think he ran that program well.”
Durbin also credited Giannoulias for getting two longstanding controversial hotel loan properties off the state’s books and for refusing banking related contributions for his campaign.
“He brings more than that personal resume to the campaign. He brings a dramatically different position on major issues than Cong. Kirk,” Durbin said. “I would say to the voters of this state: You can have a lot more experience (with Kirk) and come up with an approach to things that doesn’t work very well for us—and I think that’s the economic philosophy that brought us this recession.”