During a break in last year’s legislative session, some state senators were milling about the ornate Springfield office of Senate President James “Pate” Philip when they spotted an unusual display of dinner china for sale at bargain prices.
On a conference table in Philip’s office, next to a convenient signup sheet, sat a display of ivory plates, cups and saucers embossed in gold with the seal of the state of Illinois.
One buyer, state Sen. Doris Karpiel (R-Carol Stream), recalled Philip’s low-key pitch to the politicians. “We’ve got them,” said Philip, a consummate salesman who made his living as a bakery sales manager until he retired in 1992. The place settings sold for $80 each. Karpiel bought four.
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It wasn’t the first time the display had been erected in Philip’s office. State Sen. Aldo DeAngelis (R-Olympia Fields) said he has bought 48 place settings and 32 platters over the last several years.
The dinnerware was just one of the many products sold through a business venture owned by Nancy Philip, the senator’s wife. The company, called P.S. Advertising Inc., is familiar to most state Republicans, many of whom have bought more than $355,000 in political items and gifts since 1988, campaign finance records show. Those purchases, critics charge, underscore how Pate Philip’s political clout has translated into sales for his wife’s company.
The company also has done state business. Both the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and the governor’s office have bought goods from P.S. Advertising despite state prohibitions barring state officials and their family members from winning state contracts. The law allows the governor to waive that prohibition, but state records show that no waiver was ever issued to Nancy Philip.
Nancy Philip is the company’s chief salesperson and sole stockholder. The senator serves as a director and the company’s secretary and treasurer, roles that he says are in name only. Both Philips said in an interview that the senator has no involvement whatsoever in the company despite the china displays in his Senate office. And, Pate Philip said, he has received no salary or fees from the company.
“I guess I’m guilty of trying to help people,” Pate Philip said regarding his office china sale. “That’s a terrible thing to be guilty of. . . . They got the best deal of their life.”
The senator’s spokesman, Mark Gordon, likened the china sale to parents selling their kids’ cookies at the office.
“I suppose people shouldn’t put Girl Scout cookies in the office and have people sign up,” he said.
Even before his election as Senate president in 1993, Pate Philip had emerged as one of the most powerful Republicans in Illinois. With the control of his fellow GOP senators’ votes and nearly three decades of legislative experience, he established a pattern of bottling up legislation until his pet projects won approval.
Critics contend that those same skills have been used to boost Nancy Philip’s private business. It is a charge that the Philips vehemently deny.
Shortly after Nancy Philip formed the company in 1988, her very first customers came through her husband’s political connections. The 92 Illinois delegates to the Republican National Convention bought orange polyester blazers to wear on the New Orleans convention floor.
The $154 blazers still rankle some Republicans.
“Polyester went out back in the 1960s. Every delegate complained about it,” said Jerry Marchese, the former York Township Republican chairman and political foe who challenged Pate Philip for the DuPage County chairmanship in 1992.
Although the senator’s affiliation with P.S. Advertising is well-known in Republican circles, it did not become a matter of public record until last week. That’s when Pate Philip, following inquiries from the Tribune, listed for the first time his connection to P.S. Advertising in an amendment to his annual economic disclosure statement.
In the statements, legislators and state officials disclose private business dealings and investments that could present potential conflicts of interest. Pate Philip said he previously never disclosed his connection to the company because he derives no income from it nor does he perform any duties.
State records show that in 1989, Nancy Philip’s company landed a contract with the State Toll Highway Authority to provide $9,738 worth of engraved glass Christmas ornaments. Another contract, also in 1989, called for her company to deliver $1,827 worth of office and library supplies to the governor’s office.
But no gubernatorial waiver to do that business was ever granted, state records show.
Gordon, Pate Philip’s aide, said tollway officials said that the senator’s wife did not need a waiver because the authority is exempted from state purchasing laws.
But Illinois Auditor General William Holland said: “I would read that statute to say it applies.”
In an interview, Nancy Philip said she has no recollection of the 1989 contract with the governor’s office. She has held no state contracts since 1989.
But her client list has flourished in DuPage County, where her husband reigns as the party’s chair and political kingpin.
In recent years, P.S. Advertising has provided goods to the Forest Preserve District, the Airport Authority and the county government. The forest preserve recently awarded the company a $1,375 contract to supply paper cups for the district’s Earth Day festivities. That contract and several others were competitively bid.
Nancy Philip said the bulk of her business has been with private companies. According to figures supplied by her, the company’s gross sales have ranged as high as $230,000 in some years.
Profits, however, have been slim, she said, because the business is “just a little company to keep me busy.”
Her accountant said that in some years she has drawn an annual salary of as little as $3,600, which the couple declared on their joint tax returns. Her salary is low, they say, because she routinely sells items for less than the standard industry markup of 30 percent.
“I would fire you if you worked for me,” Pate Philip remarked to his wife during an interview after she detailed one unprofitable deal.
Though Nancy Philip’s low profit margins may have contributed to her success, there is no question that she has tapped into DuPage County’s political market.
Records show that the company has won a successful niche in supplying election paraphernalia like campaign signs, emery boards and fly swatters to more than a dozen GOP political committees in DuPage County, including that of U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.).
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The company’s biggest booster is Pate Philip’s own political committee. The Senate president has bought nearly $175,000 in campaign trinkets and gifts since 1988 with campaign funds, according to campaign finance records. In the last two years, the profit on those transactions was $9,893, Nancy Philip said.
Most of the Republicans who bought campaign materials from the company praise its low prices, hail Nancy Philip’s sales abilities and say the company’s success is based on her hard work, not the senator’s power.
“She does good work, she’s on time, and she’s very reasonable,” said DuPage County Board member Floyd Sanford, who bought $1,636 worth of yard signs and lapel pins from P.S. Advertising.
But Pate Philip’s critics and political foes contend that the senator’s influence is the prime motivator behind deciding to buy from the company.
Marchese, the former York Township Republican chairman, contends that Pate Philip and his wife applied an “unwritten, unspoken” pressure to buy products for his township committee.
“That is an absolute lie,” the senator said. “It just does not happen.”
At meetings of the DuPage County Republican Central Committee that Pate Philip has chaired for 24 years, Marchese said the senator or someone else would suggest passing out novelties for events like Republican Day or Lincoln Day. Someone would suggest P.S. Advertising, and the vote was always unanimous.
“Who’s going to vote no?” Marchese said. “It was like it was orchestrated and Pate had the baton in his hand. The innuendo is enough to say, `OK, I’ll sign on the dotted line.’ It goes without saying.” Others confirmed the practice.
“You can’t intimidate township chairmen,” Pate Philip responded. “It doesn’t work that way.”
York Township Assessor Ward Fleming said he believes that both influence and Nancy Philip’s business acumen figure into Republican organization decisions to become her customers.
“It is probably both. She’s a real hustler,” Fleming said. “On the other hand, it doesn’t hurt to have Pate as your husband.”