Gov. Pat Quinn is facing more scrutiny for his anti-violence program after a legislative panel approved subpoena powers for itself Tuesday to dig into how the program's money was spent before and after Quinn's election campaign in 2010.
Opponents maintain the $55 million for the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative was a way to attract his supporters to the pols, but Quinn told NBC 5 that the money wasn't distributed until after the election.
State lawmakers will now have the right to probe records and subpoena witnesses related to the program.
"The Auditor General's report shows promises were made, contracts, obligation to pay on October 2010 payments three days after the election. It's a complete contrast to what the governor alleged over the weekend," State Sen. Jason Barickman said.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown helped her husband manage one of the programs that received state money.
"It's obviously a conflict that needs to be reviewed and looked into," Quinn said Tuesday. "I think it's important we have a total review of whatever went on there."
Quinn's gubernatorial opponent Bruce Rauner has been sending his Quinnochio character and a Blagojevich-like character to Quinn's events and has also posted a web ad drawing comparisons to the now-jailed former governor.
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Two separate criminal investigations are also under way looking into Quinn's program.
Quinn calls the lawmakers' move to subpoena his records "just politics," but the vote was 10-1, with two Democrats also agreeing they wanted more information as well.
