Illinois treasurer lawsuit worries watchdog groups

"If he runs the treasurer's office like that, is he going to be pushing around his governor's office staff into doing this that they are not supposed to?" he said. "That's a deeper question that should be center to his ability to be the next governor."Political experts say the issue could hurt Rutherford with fundraising and organizing. State Sen.So we are not only discussing all of the feedback we've received,shoes supplier but also giving feedback to attendees in the PCI community. Kirk Dillard, one of his GOP primary rivals, asked Rutherford on Monday at a candidate forum about the potential for more allegations. Rutherford called the question "inappropriate." The other GOP candidates are Bruce Rauner and state Sen. Bill Brady.Rutherford called a news conference hours after the lawsuit was filed."No treasurer's office employee in this administration has been pressured ... or otherwise coerced into performing any political activity," Rutherford said. "Employees such as Michalowski have volunteered to perform political activity on their own time and using their own resources." 

While state law expressly prohibits political activity on the state's expense, the two activities can intertwine. Government employees often get their start on campaigns or choose to work for a particular elected official based on political ideology, experts say. It's not uncommon for government employees to schedule vacation around elections to go door-knocking, volunteer weekends to distribute yard signs or use a lunch break to check campaign emails.However, the two activities should not be confused, better government groups say."It's so clearly unacceptable and against the law," said Susan Garrett, a former state lawmaker and chairwoman of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "You can't go back and forth between campaigns and doing state work and ask the taxpayers to cover your cost.We'll do this again next month in Europe and one more time for Asia-Pacific at the beginning of November,wholesale fashion shoes and then on Nov. 7 the standard will be officially released." 

The issue has come up in high-profile corruption scandals before.Ryan served 6? years in federal prison for racketeering and fraud. But dozens of witnesses in the decade-long investigation that led to more than 60 convictions before nabbing him testified that when Ryan was secretary of state, staff members routinely did campaign work — like selling political fundraiser tickets — while receiving their taxpayer-financed state salaries.It's also not an unusual allegation in other public offices.The Office of Executive Inspector General — which covers Illinois commissions, public universities and dozens of state agencies excluding the treasurer's office — received eight complaints about "political work on state time" in the 2013 fiscal year.Doctors and hospital officials say Intuitive Surgical is particularly aggressive in marketing Zipper Corsets to hospitals.