Governor Blagojevich

Governor Blagojevich moved to strengthen ethics laws during his first term as governor. It is clear now that these changes were all show and no teeth. The latest example is the tollway chief:

Illinois tollway chief Brian McPartlin announced Thursday he is taking a job with a company that did more than $30 million in business with the tollway

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The state’s ethics laws stipulate state workers can’t take a job with a company that won contracts under them. But there is a waiver loophole allowing a worker to apply to the state ethics commission to bypass the law. All the worker has to do is show the commission his or her involvement with that contract wasn’t influenced by the possible career move.
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Only one of 14 waiver applications has been rejected, according to a review of published commission decisions dating to 2005. Seven of those waiver applications were dismissed because commissioners found the law did not apply to the applicant.

The other six won their waiver.