Gov. Pat Quinn has named Chicago Sun-Times political reporter Abdon M. Pallasch as the state’s assistant budget director.
Pallasch has worked for the Sun-Times since 1999. Before that, he spent a year at the Chicago Tribune. During some of the most eventful years in Illinois political history, he has reported on everything from Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate race to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s recent disappearance due to “exhaustion.”
Pallasch’s budget stories caught the governor’s eye. According to a post on Pallasch’s Facebook page:
Apparently he’s actually read some of the 700 or so stories I’ve written over the last 25 years taking apart federal, state, county and city budgets. “Abdon, you do a very good job taking these complex budget issues and explaining them so people can understand them – and a large part of this job is communication.” I’ve been picking through state budgets since Gov. Thompson’s days looking for fat and I ain’t afraid to cut.
Pallasch, who lives on the northwest side of Chicago, is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
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