Monday, July 10, 2006
“Big Brother Is Watching,” Mike Tristano Ally Told Six Years Before Feds Get Him
This article was written on 6June 30, 2003 for Illinois Leader. In its slightly altered state it explains more about Mike Tristano's role in the getting Stanley Stewart to start a fake taxpayers' group to endorse candidates favored by Lee Daniels:
“Big Brother is watching,” is what Illinois State Board of Elections member Langdon Neal told Stanley Stewart at its June, 1996, board meeting.
What Stewart didn’t know then, but what we know now, is that it was the U.S. Attorney’s Office that would play the role of “Big Brother,” using the information gathered in the State Board’s investigation of The Taxpayers’ League as one of its starting points.
Stanley Stewart was an admitted secret conduit for the ill-gotten gains of high-ranking Illinois State Medical Society employee and METRA Board member Donald Udstuen (R-Crystal Lake). Udstuen admitted taking bribes from UNISTAT mail house owner Roger Stanley for help in obtaining METRA contracts.
The Board had just voted to let The Taxpayers’ League, a House Republican Campaign Committee’s front organization off the hook by a a 6-3 vote.
The Taxpayers’ League had been set up as a not-for-profit organization to counter endorsements of candidates by Jim Tobin’s group, the National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
At issue was whether the front group had received $1,000 worth of benefit for itself from widespread mailings on its letterhead financed by the HRCC in endorsement letters mailed on behalf of three-term incumbents Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock) and Verna Clayton (Buffalo Grove).
For the rest of the story, click here.
“Big Brother is watching,” is what Illinois State Board of Elections member Langdon Neal told Stanley Stewart at its June, 1996, board meeting.
What Stewart didn’t know then, but what we know now, is that it was the U.S. Attorney’s Office that would play the role of “Big Brother,” using the information gathered in the State Board’s investigation of The Taxpayers’ League as one of its starting points.
Stanley Stewart was an admitted secret conduit for the ill-gotten gains of high-ranking Illinois State Medical Society employee and METRA Board member Donald Udstuen (R-Crystal Lake). Udstuen admitted taking bribes from UNISTAT mail house owner Roger Stanley for help in obtaining METRA contracts.
The Board had just voted to let The Taxpayers’ League, a House Republican Campaign Committee’s front organization off the hook by a a 6-3 vote.
The Taxpayers’ League had been set up as a not-for-profit organization to counter endorsements of candidates by Jim Tobin’s group, the National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
At issue was whether the front group had received $1,000 worth of benefit for itself from widespread mailings on its letterhead financed by the HRCC in endorsement letters mailed on behalf of three-term incumbents Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock) and Verna Clayton (Buffalo Grove).
For the rest of the story, click here.
