In addidtion to the list of troubling clients Mr. Fritchey has chosen to represent over the years is his sketchy voting record and political affiliations. Over the years, Fritchey has voted for school vouchers at least three times, voted against a bill to prohibit gaming interests from making political contributions (while taking more than $25,000 from those same interests), voted against a bill that closed loopholes in the payday loan bill (he was the deciding vote that killed the bill in committee after it passed the State Senate 44 to 7) and he voted against a prevailing wage bill.

If that were not enough, Fritchey is the creation of the Dick Mell political organization. How Progressive does this guy sound now?

JOhn Fritchey is a lobbyist first and a servant of the people last if at all.

Mell supports him? that means we can expect Blago #2.

Mansion is right. He's a Blagojevich clone. All of his carping about the disgraced governor conveniently masks his ties to the worst of Chicago machine politics. A lobbyist who represents clients before his Uncle Banks’ zoning committee and gets approvals for McMansions in nice northside neighorhoods is not the type of "people's representative" we need. Hopefully the voters in the 5th Congressional District are through with these guys.

I asked Fritchey about this at today's IVI-IPO endorsement session. The question elicited an emotional response: He forcefully denied the implications of this post, defended his record on banking regulation and payday loans, and denounced SEIU for its tactics in bringing up these allegations, noting his endorsements from every major union except SEIU.

Jim -

First of all, there are no "allegations" here. I'm not accusing Fritchey of being a lobbyist. He is one. The only one in the 5th District race, in fact. And I thought that this public information deserved to be reported on, particularly considering no one ever seems to talk about it. It's not mentioned on his bio page. And a search of the Lexis-Nexis database brings up no articles that refer to his work in this capacity.

I also don't think it's outside the bounds of fair commentary to assert that the three clients in question don't necessarily have "the interests of working families at heart."

I'm not saying that this discounts Fritchey's lifetime voting record, which has been on the side of working families more often than not. I just don't understand why his profession is completely absent from the discussion of this race.

Mr. Fritchey has a lot of support based on his judgment and handling of situations. I guess I don't understand all the trolls out there bashing people like this. They should run for office or at least support someone to oppose these people, if they feel so strong about this.

As far as payday loans, if you want to blame someone, just look at the people that are using them. Just because you think it's a bad product, does not mean it's bad for others.

I work for a payday loan software company and see this industry first hand.

Josh,

John Fritchey's profession hasn't been left out of the race any more than has Mike Quigley's - he is a legislator and an attorney. Yes, the City of Chgo requires an attorney coming before a committee requesting action, in this case zoning action on behalf of a client, to register as a "lobbyist." But you're ginning people up around what has become a dirty word as if he'd "lobbying" for legislation on their behalf, which he did not. What did Fritchey have to say when you called him for this article?

Anon 10:07-

I didn't call Fritchey before publishing the piece and, in retrospect, should have. I've since told his campaign that I'd be happy to post their response.

As for the term "lobbyist," you're correct that he wasn't lobbying for specific legislation, but rather for zoning changes and other land use modifications. Still, he was advancing the interests of these entities before a government body.

I'm aware that Quigley is an attorney in addition to being a Cook Co. commissioner, but have found no evidence that he's solicited any local governments in that capacity.

Josh,

Please note that I used "implications" at the beginning of my post. I chose "allegations" later b/c I hate repeating a word but I guess it was not the right choice.

And, FWIW, I did not come to the meeting with plans to sandbag Fritchey, who I like (although he is not my first choice in this race). This story was literally the last thing I read before heading to the session, and I thought it was worth asking about. I asked questions of almost all the candidates, doing my best to put most of them on the spot. Most of my questions were follow-ups from last Sunday's forum where I felt the candidate did not give a satisfactory answer the first time.

In any case, my question obviously did not affect the outcome of the meeting, which resulted in an overwhelming endorsement vote (almost 80%) for Fritchey. But it was interesting to see just how much he cared about what was being written about him....

Just so we have this straight. We are all in agreement that Sarah Feigenholtz is a full-time legislator with no other jobs. Mike Quigley is a County Commissioner, part-time professor and practices law on occassion. And John Fritchey, by his own admition, is a legislator and paid corporate lobbyist that has made hundreds of thousands of dollars representing interests like payday loan companies and real estate developers before his uncle, Billy Banks, zoning committee. As an interesting aside his uncle and several others are under federal investigation for favor selling at this very same committee. John did sign the paperwork which describes himself as a lobbyist correct? And, btw a lawyer that represents a client before an elected body such as the zoning committee is most definately lobbying. Why doesn't John release his taxes for the last ten years so the the voters can see exactly how much money he has made over the years representing these corporate interests before Billy Banks zoning committee. Or Uncle Billy as John calls him.

Josh,
This is probably the most significant blog post and overall piece of IL-5 news I've read to date. I had no idea Fritchey's "day job" was a corporate lobbyist. I find it hard that his campaign can make the case that he's the "good government" and "reform" candidate when he's getting paid by corporate entities to influence policy when he himself is a policymaker.

Plus, though you report Dennis Gannon commented on the Midway issue, when will he clarify AFL's support for Fritchey?

"[Fritchey] wasn't lobbying for specific legislation, but rather for zoning changes and other land use modifications."

Zoning changes are legislation and VERY specific legislation. The zoning map is part of our municipal code.

I have a pretty good idea about for example the ratio of Quigley's income from Loyola with respect to his Commissioner salary. But I'm very curious about Fritchey's "side job."

You can go through Fritchey's client list and take it by cases, but it is not necessary to find a smoking gun pay-to-play instance to demonstrate Frtichey's conflict of interest, the conflict of interest is inherent in working as a zoning lobbyist at a municipal level and as legislator at the state level. No amount of disclosure or hashing out of the details of particular client engagements can exonerate Fritchey. As a zoning lobbyist Fritchey is playing a game. for pay, for which he is one of the people that sets the rules. It is not a tenable defense of Fritchey to point out that Frithey's zoning activities are local to Chicago and his legislative activities are at the state level. The two levels are inseparable.

If you live in Chicago, zoning is a big deal, a major quality of life issue. To understate it, many Chicagoans have legitimate issues with the process of community planning in Chicago. For an example Matlak lost his alderman and committeeman seats in large part due to this discontent.

Now understand that Chicago's zoning laws represent very minimal compliance with state zoning law in the state municipal code. Notification radius of 250 ft? State law. Public hearings held during the day downtown on weekdays? State law sez the City has to have a hearing but not when or where. No enforcement of published or posted notice? None in state law. I could go on: most of the beefs Chicagoan's have with their zoning process have roots in state law.

To illustrate Fritchey's conflict of interest more clearly, as a thought experiment imagine you are a Fritchey constituent from Chicago and you and some neighbors drop by his in district office hours to talk about zoning processes in Chicago and outline possible reforms at the state level to open up processes and increase citizen participation in local government. How far do you think they will get?

Alternatively, you can highlight Fritchey's conflict of interest by asking him for his record of sponsoring state legislation in the area of reforming zoning processes in Illinois municipalities.

Zoning in Chicago is a dirty, rotten, filthy business, Fritchey is in the thick of it, and he is also partially responsible for the rules.