What happened to the reformer?

Looking out for Rod Blagojevich's political pay-rollers could come back to haunt Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

The longer Pat Quinn remains in office, the more it looks like his days as a self-described political reformer are over.

The latest example of Quinn's endorsement of the seamy status quo comes in his appointment of Carol Adams to head the state's African trade office. (If you didn't realize that Illinois has an African trade office, you're hardly alone.)

Adams led the Illinois Department of Human Services during the tenure of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Her tenure there was the subject of repeated critical reviews by Auditor General William Holland. But no matter, Adams was part of Blagojevich's band of marginally competent pols who viewed high office as a sinecure in which she was to live well. So she hired Eugene Davis as her full-time state paid chauffeur at an annual salary of nearly $85,000 a year. That's nice work if you can get it.

One of Adams' aides, Teyonda Wertz, also got her own chauffeur – Carlos Estes – at a salary of $70,000 a year.

Estes and Wertz later drew news media attention when Estes claimed Wertz insisted that he provide more intimate service than driving.

That's when the Associated Press started to inquire about why chauffeurs were paid such lavish sums. Adams' answer was that they did a lot more than drive, fulfilling all kinds of other major responsibilities. But she provided no proof and stonewalled media inquiries.

Now that Adams is gone, the human services department freely concedes the two men were just chauffeurs.

So now that Blagojevich is gone, why is Adams still on the state payroll? Democratic legislative leaders have pressured Quinn to "fumigate" (their word) state government of Blagojevich holdovers, but he has been reluctant to do so. He apparently figured moving Adams to the African mission job would suffice. But she's still earning $110,000 a year, just down from the $150,000 she received at human services.

It's hard to escape the suspicion that politics are at play here, that he's keeping Blagojevich people because he figures it's a political necessity as he approaches the Feb. 2 Democratic Party primary.

But Quinn had better be careful.

Illinois voters are showing signs of having had enough of the corrupt status quo. He may find that his reputation as an opponent of business as usual is endangered when he starts playing such obvious political games with state jobs, particularly in the current budget climate.

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