Posted on 04/11/2014 10:00:10 PM PDT by PBRCat
On March 5 the City Council approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal to spend $55 million in property taxes on a new Marriott hotel—part of his ambitious development plan that also features a basketball arena for DePaul University.
The vote followed a decision by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to award Marriott the coveted contract to run the new hotel.
Following the vote, the mayor and his aides crowned themselves wizards of economic development. "The hotel will generate new taxes and jobs while supporting the area's planned revitalization," said the city's planning commissioner.
[W]hat the mayor and his aides didn't mention is that leading up to the lucrative deal for Marriott, the hedge fund of one of Emanuel's largest campaign contributors bought millions of shares of stock in the hotel chain.
Citadel LLC, is run by billionaire Kenneth Griffin, whom Forbes deemed the wealthiest man in Illinois. He is famous for making a killing in high-frequency trading.
Griffin, though, is not just a financial speculator. He's also a generous political contributor. At the national level he was a major fund-raiser.
In Illinois, Griffin has donated to former mayor Richard M. Daley (at least $162,000) and former governor Rod Blagojevich ($70,000). He's also a big backer of Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor: Since November, he's donated more than $500,000 to Rauner's campaign. That includes about $49,000 in in-kind contributions for allowing the Rauner campaign to use his private aircraft.
[O]f all the relationships Citadel has forged with politicians, few appear to be as close as the one the firm has developed with the Chicago mayor behind the Marriott deal.
Griffin describes Mayor Emanuel as his "good friend." Over the last three years Griffin and his wife, have donated more than $210,000 to Emanuel's campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagoreader.com ...
Not content with controlling the Democratic Party, Emanuel backers are busy infiltrating the Illinois Republican Party.
Hahahahahahaha. This is the way things are done here, it’s not even news, unfortunately.
If there was an honest deal with no pay to play, THAT would be news.
“Illinois Republican Party.”?
What the hell is that?
Dem lite party?
Worthless lackey party?
Will kiss the dems ass at all times party?
What a joke.
All governments at every level have the same problem: SPENDING.
They collect more than enough money to sustain those publicly owned assets that people really care about. The rest is spent on cronyism and winning elections.
Become a precinct captain and work to rebuild it.
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