McHenry County Blog

Roger Stanley.

Mike Tristano.

Two down.

How many to go?

And, I'm just talking about interference in McHenry County legislative races.

As a result of a phone call with a postal inspector after I read mail house owner (and former GOP State Representative) Roger Stanley’s 2003 plea agreement, I learned that a 2000 hit piece, based on my ex-wife's divorce claims, contributed to his becoming a felon.

The previous summer, while on his vacation, the inspector had called me from St. Louis. That’s the dedication these federal investigators have to root out Illinois corruption.

He asked me if I remember some gobble-de-gook named political action committee’s mailing in my last campaign. I didn’t.

Then he gave me the clue that it was the one that attacked me personally, which, of course, rang a bell.

He wanted a copy, which I managed to find.

I sense that Roger Stanley’s deception in financing or being a launderer for the House Republican Campaign Committee, which really paid for the hit piece, is one of the mail fraud charges that sent him to jail.

When I read Stanley’s plea agreement, I recognized the reference. Here’s what I read:

“...at the direction of, and in conjunction with a high ranking official (‘Official One’) of a particular campaign committee (‘Committee One’), and in conjunction with the 1996 and 2000 election cycles, Stanley arranged for negative direct mail pieces to be directed against certain political candidates who were opposed by Committee One. In order to conceal that the true source and sponsor of the mailings was Committee One, Stanley assisted in recruiting ‘straw’ and nominee officers to serve as the sponsors of the mailings. Further, in order to further conceal that Stanley was participating in the mailing process, Stanley caused postal forms relating to the mailings to be falsified and presented to postal officials. Further, in one or more subsequent state proceedings relating to an attempt to determine the true source and sponsor of one of the mailings, Stanley and others participated in an effort to misrepresent the truth to state authorities regarding the true source and sponsor of the mailings, and thus further concealed Stanley and Committee One’s personal involvement in the mailings.” (The 1996 McHenry County mailing was one from a fake taxpayers' group used to rebutt Jim Tobin's National Taxpayers United of Illinois endorsement of Steve Verr.)

I got some satisfaction from realizing the role it had had in bringing Stanley to a semblance of justice and starting working on another story.

In mid-afternoon, I got a call from a Chicago Tribune reporter telling me he had heard that my mailing was mentioned in Stanley’s plea agreement.

Well, I wasn’t going to let the Tribune scoop me on this story, so I got to work wrote my own story, which I finished about 5 PM.

I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water and got an inspiration to call the postal inspector who had called me the year before.

When I called, it was about 5 after 5. I got his answering machine. Since it was Friday, I expected a return call Monday.

But, at 5:25, he called me back. (Another indication of the dedication of these corruption fighters.) I told him I was doing a story for Illinois Leader and asked if I could ask him some questions.

He replied that he could not answer me as a reporter, but he could “as a victim.”

I think I said something like, “Whatever works.”

So, I asked him if it was my mailing and he said it was.

I asked him what “Committee One” was and he told me it was the House Republican Campaign Committee.

That must have really shocked me. It meant contributions from the HRCC had been used to defeat a sitting Republican state representative. Naïve me. I couldn’t imagine that.

It rattled me so much that I did not ask the next question:

Who is “Official One?”

I knew it was either Tristano or Daniels, but not which one until Tristano was indicted.

Now, CBS-TV Channel Two is reporting that Tristano recorded a telephone conversation(s) with his former boss Lee Daniels.
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If you want more, check out Capitol Fax, which has comments from some who apparently worked with Tristano.

Previously, I have written "Tristano's Promise," in which I speculate where his information might lead law enforcement officials. You can read the heated "you can't be right" rebuttals here.

For more McHenry County Blog, click here.