Dems defend candidate for Ill. senator - Alexi Giannoulias Not Dropping out of IL Senate race

Republicans launched this ad that appeared in the Chicagoist.com article back in February and by the first part of April, the Chicago Tribune after researching confirmed what the ad said. Simple amazing that Democrats are continuing to stand by Giannoulias even though behind the scenes they admit that the bank is going to go bankrupt under the weight of bad loans. We are wondering if the Obama administration is going to do a bailout since they are long time friends.

Tribune: Broadway Bank Lent $20M To Felons While Giannoulias Worked ThereThat sound you heard this morning was tens of thousands of the state's Democratic voters performing a *facepalm* upon reading a Tribune report that while Dem. U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias was a senior loan officer at his family's Broadway Bank, the bank lent $20 million to convicted felons. Giannoulias himself didn't talk to the Tribune for the report but said in a statement that he was one of many senior loan officers at the time and didn't have anything to do with these particular loans. Meanwhile, Republicans around the state are saying, "We told ya so," as the story confirmed claims made in an ad launched the morning after this February's primary.


Excerpt: Read more at Chicagoist.com

The Giannoulias family was involved with Obama as far back as his first state senate campaign in 1996. It has been long rumored here in Chicago that Obama obtained a sweetheart deal on his first town home here in Chicago - which he could not have afforded otherwise - and guess who the financing came from for that house? We've been told it was Broadway Bank, the Giannoulias bank. Obama received his first loan courtesy of Rezko to buy a condo under suspicious circumstances since he didn't qualify at a regular bank. Source: American Thinker

With all this background between Obama and Alexi Giannoulias, why would anyone expect a Democrat in IL to drop out of the race for the US Senate no matter what was in their background. Another famous person from Chicago, Hillary, couldn't find the Rose billing records for a long time and they magically appeared one day on a table.

Now we have the senior loan officer for the Browdway bank, Alexi Giannoulias, at the time two loans were made to felons as outlined in the Chicago Tribune headlines, "$20 MILLION IN BANK LOANS TO FELONS" saying he doesn't know anything about the loans.

When are the voters of Illinois going to wake up and realize when you elect a Democrat from Chicago chances of them being on the corrupt side are very high these days. They all seem to be out of the same group of people who will lie, cheat, and steal to gain power.

Are the Democrats going to ask him to step aside? Highly doubtful as he fits their mold they want in the Senate of someone with baggage who can be controlled.

Dems defend candidate for Ill. senator
By Mike Robinson and Philip Elliott
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 3, 2010

CHICAGO (AP) -- Democrats are quietly worrying about whether Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias can win President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. His family's bank is believed to be on the verge of collapse and reportedly made $20 million in loans to two convicted felons.

Republican Rep. Mark Kirk is already accusing Giannoulias of lying to the voters about the loans, and his campaign is guaranteed to be pounding away at the bank's problems in millions of dollars worth of television ads.

But the 34-year-old Giannoulias is still electable if he meets the bank embarrassment head on and strikes back at the Republican congressman as more conservative than this Democratic-trending state, Democratic insiders say.
Democrats brush aside any talk of getting Giannoulias to bow out of the race.

"Alexi Giannoulias is running a strong campaign on the issues that matter to the people of Illinois -- like job creation and the economy," says Deirdre Murphy, national press secretary of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Giannoulias was not granting interviews Friday as the Chicago Tribune ran a front page story with the headline: "$20 MILLION IN BANK LOANS TO FELONS." The story detailed how Broadway Bank, a Giannoulias family-owned institution in Chicago, had lent large sums to convicted felons Michael "Jaws" Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos.

The fact that Broadway had loaned the men millions -- Stavropoulos was convicted of running a multistate bookmaking ring and Giorango of promoting a nationwide prostitution ring -- was a campaign issue when Giannoulias ran for state treasurer in 2006. But the Tribune reported it reviewed court files and other documents that showed millions more -- a total of more than $27 million worth of mortgages to Giorango, his land trusts and companies since 1999, $20 million of which was loaned when Giannoulias was a senior loan officer.

Excerpt: Read More at Washington Times