Democratic attorney general candidate Kwame Raoul paid more than $13,000 to a former Blagojevich administration official who pleaded guilty
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to steering state business to companies in which he had a stake and then pocketing much of the money.Raoul said he was “unapologetic” about hiring former Department of Children and Family Services deputy director Bamani Obadele to help with his campaign, saying ex-offenders deserve second chances.
“I don’t think it’s something we should just say as policymakers, we should put our money where our mouths are,” said Raoul, a state senator from Hyde Park who has worked on criminal justice issues. “I can’t ask people in the private sector to do it if I won’t as well.”
In 2011, Obadele was sentenced to six months in federal prison on a mail fraud count. He admitted directing DCFS contractors to buy promotional items, such as magnets, yo-yos and tote bags, from a company he secretly owned. Gov. Rod Blagojevich had met Obadele years earlier, striking up a conversation at a South Side police station where the teen was shining shoes. The then-governor appointed Obadele to be deputy director of external affairs for DCFS in 2003, but he resigned in 2005 amid an investigation.
As part of the case, Obadele also admitted misappropriating almost $85,000 by paying for a trip to Jamaica for him and his friends, making a down payment on a new car and paying other personal bills, according to court documents.
“I look at it as a mistake certainly that I made, I paid my debt to society and I should be allowed to participate in elections,” Obadele told the Tribune on Wednesday.
Obadele said he is actively involved with ex-offender re-entry organizations and anti-violence programs. That work involves finding jobs and education opportunities for ex-offenders and working with drug and alcohol prevention programs for youth, he said.
“It is what it is, and as long as there’s going to be politics and the black vote matters, I am going to be involved in politics one way or the other. Period,” he said.
Obadele is a longtime South Side preacher and activist who got involved in high-profile stories in the early 2000s. For a time, he was a family spokesman following the disappearance of sisters Tionda and Diamond Bradley. He also led protests against R. Kelly’s music. And he once called for a boycott of the Taste of Chicago, saying then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had fostered an atmosphere of police brutality.
In campaign finance paperwork filed Monday night, Obadele turned up on Raoul’s primary campaign payroll. Spokesman Ron Holmes said Obadele worked on community engagement efforts like placing yard signs and knocking on doors. Holmes described Obadele as a “staple” in the 3rd Ward, which overlaps with Raoul’s Senate district.
Holmes noted that Raoul’s campaign relied heavily on winning support of African-American voters and it was important to have workers “who not only look like, but can empathize with the people you are trying to reach.” Raoul won last month’s crowded Democratic attorney general primary, collecting 30 percent of the vote.
In Springfield, Raoul has pushed proposals designed to keep juvenile and first-time offenders out of jail, and he has backed efforts aimed at cracking down on crime, including harsher penalties for repeat gun offenders. Raoul noted that his Republican opponent, attorney Erika Harold, is backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who also has pushed for programs to help those who served time re-enter the workforce.
While Obadele worked on behalf of Democrats this year, he supported Republican Rauner during the 2014 governor’s race. At the time, Obadele told the Tribune he hung up posters and handed out leaflets on Rauner’s behalf. But Obadele said he was not paid by the Rauner campaign, and state campaign finance records show no payments to him.
“He’s got conservative values that a lot of us can agree with,” Obadele said in 2014. “Quinn takes us for granted.”
State Board of Elections records show Obadele also was paid $45,000 to work on the primary campaign of Democratic state Rep. Justin Slaughter, who represents portions of the Far South Side including Roseland and Morgan Park. Slaughter said the payments included compensation for consulting services and reimbursement for money Obadele paid to workers who ran phone banks during the election.
Slaughter described Obadele as an “upstanding citizen,” a leading voice against violence in Chicago’s black community and a “highly sought-after” field organizer, saying “folks that know him probably have a similar view.”
“He is the first ex-offender that I’ve hired, but I can guarantee you he won’t be the last,” said Slaughter, a freshman lawmaker who defeated a Democratic challenger last month with 54.6 percent of the vote. “One of the things I will always fight for is creating second-chance opportunities for those who’ve paid their debt to society.”
Obadele also was paid $2,100 to work on the 2016 House campaign of state Rep. Juliana Stratton, who is now Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker’s running mate. In that contest, Stratton defeated then-Rep. Ken Dunkin, a Democrat who had allied himself with the Republican governor and drawn the ire of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Asked on Tuesday about the payment to Obadele, Stratton referred questions to her campaign office, which did not respond to requests for comment.
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