Most people with a clue would have sold the damn investment or brought in at least a new management team, but no, Ron Gidwitz running on cash infused stupidity thought he could run for Governor and not get called on a scandal involving a low income housing project he is partial owner of and majority owner of the management company that ‘maintains’ the property.
The Joliet Herald News lays down a slapdown that anyone with shame would take as a signal to get out of the race. Fortunately for political humor, Gidwitz has oodles of cash and virtually no shame. So he’ll stick around for a bit until he gets beat up for too long and then disappears never to be seen again except in federal court being sued by Joliet area mayors and residents. Read the whole thing, but it’s harsh:
“We are the laughing stock of the nation. People think of Chicago and they think about two things: the Roaring ’20s and what’s going on now,” Gidwitz said. “We need to make state government, as a whole, open.”
These promises ring hollow around here. Evergreen Terrace has been fiscal drain on Joliet for years, eating up policing money and hampering development of the St. John’s Parish area.
As far as openness, both the owners and Illinois Housing Development Authority have rebuffed efforts by both The Herald News and the city to release the names of the facility’s investors.
Before he runs for governor on a platform of fiscal responsibility and transparency, Gidwitz needs to get his own house, er, tenement, in order.
More Gidwitz fun to come.