Serving the 71st District with Mike Boland

Why is Mike Boland hand in hand with Mrs. Suehl in line filing petitions in Springfield when he is acting as if he has no idea who she is as he hands her daughter a huge scholarship and she hands him a HUGE check!!! Seriously Huntoon...how do you defend that?
 

For starters, your characterization of Mike Boland and Barb Suehl as "hand in hand" is not only innacurate, it's more than a little over the top.

And, I honestly don't believe Mike Boland has ever tried to tell anyone "he has no idea who she is", and neither have I.

Here's the "rest of the story" - just the same as I have posted on several other blogs. I wrote this up without input or any prior approval by Mike or his campaign people, so this is the story unadulterated and straight from someone who was there and saw it all happen.

The simple answer to give is that Alleyene Suehl deserved the scholarship she got, she won it based on her own merits. Of course that answer won’t satisfy everyone, so I’ll try to explain all the details to the best of my ability.

For the record, the only legal requirements concerning General Assembly Scholarships are that the student receiving the scholarship reside within the boundaries of the Representative’s district, and the tuition wavers only apply to State of Illinois Universities. Any other standards are set by the Representatives and Senators themselves. Each Illinois Senator and Representative is allowed two full four-year scholarships per year. Representative Boland splits his up into 8 full year college scholarships. If a student doesn’t choose to use the summer semester of their scholarship, Boland gives the unused portion to a different deserving student.

Mike Boland’s scholarships are awarded based on a broad range of criteria. Because academic achievement is important, Boland looks at the student’s grade point average and the kind of classes they are taking. He also considers extracurricular activities, and he does look at financial need, but it’s not the primary criteria.

Willingness to give back to the community is really the most essential qualifying factor. Every year Representative Boland gives a speech to his scholarship recipients, stressing that their scholarship comes from the taxpayers, and that he expects his scholarship recipients to find a way to pay back the investment to the community.

The Scholarship application we’ve developed at Representative Boland’s office is several pages long, and it includes an essay question at the end. When it’s all said and done, after reviewing grades, and financial need, Mike actually tries to picture what each applicant might have to offer back to the community, and he makes his final determination from there.

It’s not like we keep these scholarships a tightly guarded secret. In past years we’ve sent out letters to guidance counselors announcing the scholarship’s availability, and I’ve written and submitted news releases to the media announcing them. I’m not sure how much attention the counselors paid to the notice, and I don’t remember ever getting any coverage in the Argus / Dispatch either.

I believe that most years we get about twenty or twenty-five applicants at Mike Boland’s office, and because of our ability to award unused summer semesters along with the normal full year scholarships, we are usually able to offer some kind of scholarship to about half of our applicants.

When Mike Boland awarded Alleyene Suehl a scholarship, he knew it would very likely be used against him by his political opponents. Boland and I discuss potential scholarship recipients several times during the review process, and I told him he’d get slammed hard for giving a scholarship to a large contributor. I even speculated it could cost him his House seat and thus it could cost me my job as well. As our discussion continued, Boland asked me if Alle (pronounced like the word - alley) deserved the scholarship based on her own merits.

Alleyene served in our office as an intern in the summer of 2004, and again in 2005, so I know her personally. She is a strong student, who was involved in organized athletics, as well as a great number of other community activities. Alle was also the recipient of a number of awards and honors. In addition to her school and extracurricular athletic commitments, I also noted Alle worked part time, and that she and her family had served as hosts for several foreign exchange students. Alle even brought one foreign exchange student along for her internship at Mike Boland’s office. That was a really great experience for us all, allowing a wonderful young exchange student to see (and participate) in Illinois State Government up close and personal.

Thinking honestly about Alle’s attributes in comparison to the other applicants, I had to admit, based on all the criteria we use to judge candidates, that Alle was one of the very best. In fact, I can only think of a relatively small handful of students, in all my years with Boland, who could match up across the board to all of the attributes Alle exhibited. There was no way I could deny that, based on merit, Alleyene Suehl was more than qualified.

Mike Boland and I both know it would be wrong to give someone a scholarship because of a campaign contribution. But, turning the question on it’s head, we had to ask ourselves if it would also be wrong to totally rule out a scholarship applicant because of a campaign contribution by her mother. Was I really willing to look Alle Suehl in they eye and tell her, “You were the best candidate that applied, but we can’t give you the scholarship because your mom is politically active.”

Mike Boland chose not to penalize Alle Suehl because of her mother. He decided that doing the right thing by one young girl was more important than what people might think about the action in political terms.

For the record, in 1995 Mike Boland set his top income threshold for scholarship recipients at $100,000 total household income. In 2003 we reviewed and revised that to an upper limit of $120,000 household income to allow for 8 years of inflation. Most of the scholarships go to students with families who make far less. We try to look at the entire picture, and envision what the student might bring back to the community.

For the record, Jerimiah Posedel, who was a staff person for Congressman Evans, once applied for and received a scholarship from Representative Boland’s office, based upon his own merit. I am sad to say that Jerimiah was let go by Lane Evans because he got the scholarship from our office, at least that’s what I read on The Inside Dope - http://theinsidedope.blogspot.com/2006/05/evans-officially-out-of-race-former.html As should be obvious from that article, Jerimiah Posedel was free to endorse someone other than Boland for Congress, we award scholarships based on merit, not political considerations, and we don’t ask anything in return for the scholarships we give out!

For the record, relatives of John Gianulis, Rock Island Democratic County Chairman and Chairman of the Statewide Democratic County Chairman’s Board, as well as (until recently) a top employee of Governor Blagojevich - http://theinsidedope.blogspot.com/2006/09/gianulis-to-retire-from-blago.html - also had relatives apply to Boland’s office for scholarships. Because we award scholarships based on merit, and not political considerations, we were NOT able to offer a scholarship to John’s relative!

Now, I hope the situation is a bit more clear to everyone, at Mike Boland’s office we give scholarships based on the merit, not for political favors or contributions, but despite whatever the political ramifications might be, based upon merit.
 

Was Barb Suehl in line with Mike Boland in Springfield when he filed his petitions? I think that this was the question that was asked. Were they realy holding hands?
 

I really thought I answered that question ANON 11:33 PM in my prior post. But here goes again.

I already said, "your characterization of Mike Boland and Barb Suehl as "hand in hand" is not only inaccurate, it's more than a little over the top."

Barb Suehl ran for Democratic State Central Committeewoman in the neighboring Congressional District, and she was at the State Board of Elections to file her own petitions for election.

Barb had her own legitimate reason to be in line that morning at the S.B.E., just like dozens of other people.


Here's my response to the individual who sent in comments as "Rich Miller".

Rich,

If you are Rich Miller the journalist, I need to make it clear that this blog was never intended to become the "official" spokesman for Mike Boland's campaign.

If you want to submit an entire list of questions like that, I really think you'd be better served by contacting Boland's campaign office or asking Mike Boland directly.

I'm an old Citizen Action guy from way back, so I believe in making government as transparent as possible. However, I'm not the one who sets Boland's policies, that's the Representative himself. He's the only one who can answer questions like "why this or that is policy is the way it is."

I'm not a mind reader, nor am I an official spokesperson, so I really think a bunch of your questions about "why's" can only be answered individuals other than myself.

I will try my best to answer what I can from the long list of questions you submitted.

Rich Miller asked, "Was an African American student denied a scholarship renewal so that the daughter of Rep Boland's contributor could receive a scholarship.

Nope!

All the way back in something like ‘95 or ‘96, there was an African American student who’s scholarship was not renewed. Unfortunately, she had flunked a number of classes, and Representative Boland didn’t see fit to renew the scholarship due to her failed course-work. I believe it was all covered at the time in the local newspapers, but was before my time with Mike, so it's outside of my direct knowledge. My statements are based on news-clips I've read and conversations with the Representative.

Alle Suehl’s first scholarship was in 2005, so there’s absolutely and positively no connection, and anyone who’s trying to tie those things together is feeding you disinformation!

Rich Miller also asked, “I thought there was an income limit?”

I know I got kind of long winded, but I really thought I covered that once before, when I said, “For the record, in 1995 Mike Boland set his top income threshold for scholarship recipients at $100,000 total household income. In 2003 we reviewed and revised that to an upper limit of $120,000 household income to allow for 8 years of inflation. Most of the scholarships go to students with families who make far less. We try to look at the entire picture, and envision what the student might bring back to the community.”


I’ll answer all the questions I can here, but for the rest of your questions, I can only suggest that you contact Mike Boland or his campaign office directly. Thank you for understanding.