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Timing of Blagojevich's greeting cards scrutinized

BY DEANNA BELLANDI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 4:32 PM CST

CHICAGO — Just weeks before Election Day, Jen and Andrew Fitzgibbon got a card from Gov. Rod Blagojevich congratulating them on the birth of their new baby.

The only problem was that the Fitzgibbons' youngest daughter, Lydia, wasn't so new anymore — she celebrated her first birthday the week the card arrived.

Batches of greeting cards bearing niceties from Blagojevich and his wife arrived in mailboxes right before the spring and fall elections, raising new ethical questions about the Illinois governor.

Blagojevich has been accused in recent months of awarding jobs and contracts to contributors and cronies. He has also been criticized for accepting a $1,500 check for his young daughter from a friend whose wife had just landed a state job.

A state official said there was nothing political about the timing of the new-baby cards, which are part of a nearly 20-year-old program to remind parents about immunizations for their children. The state was just trying to dig out from a backlog, said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, which oversees the program.

``It looks very coincidental, but it had nothing to do with the election,'' Arnold said.

The state sent a batch of 13,792 cards in February — ahead of the March primary — and three more batches totaling 89,185 cards in the two months before the November election. Blagojevich, a Democrat, easily won a second term.

``I thought it was laughable,'' said 29-year-old Andrew Fitzgibbon of Lincoln. ``Here my daughter is turning 1 and I get something congratulating me on her birth.''

The year before the election, the cards went out more regularly — eight batches in January, March, April, May and August of 2005.

Nothing in state ethics laws prevents the cards from going out close to an election. But Cindi Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a watchdog group, said the state should have thought more about sending out cards emblazoned with the governor's name while he was in a heated race for re-election.

``I don't think it would be wrong to expect a little more sensitivity,'' Canary said.

Some of his critics don't buy the health department's explanation of the timing.

``You would have to be a real idealist and have unheard-of faith in human character in general in order to not see this for what it is,'' said Republican state Sen. Dale Righter.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff brushed off the criticism. ``We have nothing to do with when cards are mailed,'' she said.

The cards are part of a state partnership with greeting card giant Hallmark that dates to 1988. Across the country, 34 states participate in the Hallmark program and reach about 3 million families each year, Hallmark spokeswoman Kristi Ernsting said.

The cards cost 31 cents each to mail. The state can average 12,000 to 15,000 cards a month, and it usually takes three to four months for a family to get a card, Arnold said.

The cards contain a list of recommended vaccinations as well as a record for parents to track when their children receive them. There is also a growth chart and a note from first lady Patti Blagojevich reminding mothers that state law allows them to breast-feed in public places.