Posted by Bob Secter and Rick Pearson at 5:20 p.m.
Gov. Pat Quinn said today he would soon close a campaign account from his losing 1996 U.S. Senate race that has paid him $24,000 in interest.
Though he got back more cash from the campaign than he put in, Quinn said he “did not make a profit,” adding: “I did not see paying off a campaign debt as a mechanism for an investment. It’s ridiculous on its face.”
The governor’s comments came in response to a Tribune report detailing how Quinn has kept the fund alive by pumping in a series of personal loans and then soliciting political donations so he can pay himself back, at interest rates approaching 10 percent.The end result is that Quinn has made at least $24,000 in interest from the campaign fund he controls, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Quinn has poured a total of $53,650 in loans into the fund, the most recent installment coming just weeks before he was sworn in as governor last year. In return, his fund has paid him at least $77,976 in principal and interest payments, as he has continued to raise money from political donors.
Quinn said he declared interest payments from his campaign account to him as income on his tax returns over many years and paid taxes on the revenue. He said it has all been an effort to pay off loans he can’t afford to forgive.
“One more bill to pay and it’ll be done,” Quinn said. “Hallelujah.”
Quinn’s statement Wednesday was not the first time he has promised to close the account. In May 2007, the treasurer of Quinn’s fund declared in a letter to the Federal Election Commission that the campaign had set a goal of retiring most of its outstanding debt within weeks and quickly shutting down.
Since that letter, however, Quinn’s fund has tapped donors for an additional $38,000 in contributions, half coming since he became governor.
In Springfield, state Comptroller Dan Hynes, Quinn’s Democratic challenger for governor, called the Quinn Senate fund "very peculiar."
"I really can’t understand why it happened, how it happened and what the explanation is," Hynes said.