From the Hayes for Congress (2nd District) campaign…
CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, the GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2.
According to Rev. Hayes, “Jesse Jackson Jr. continues to hide behind an ‘oops, my bad’, by not disclosing the fact that he pays his wife $247,000 for her consultation. This insider spending is taking place at a time when America has its highest deficit ever.”
As Bloomberg News reported in May of last year, these payments to Sandi Jackson totaled $247,000 for consulting, and another $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions for her own campaign fund.
“My question to Mr. Jr. is what advice he is actually being given? This has the smell of Bernie Madoff like gimmicks by Washington politicians who think they deserve to be in office at the people’s expense.”
Hayes referred to the husband-wife consultations as “mere pillow talk” that amounts to nothing more than “a thousand for your thoughts”.
“If Mr. Jackson needs consultation there are plenty of people that are willing to advise him for a lot less than $247,000. He could start with the very people in Illinois 2nd District who are unemployed and have no grocery stores within reasonable distance, no jobs and no new businesses.”
Jackson’s campaign organization manipulated FEC reports in such a way as to disguise who was being paid. For instance, some reports list the recipient as J. Donatella & Associates – Sandi Jackson’s sole proprietor consulting company, apparently named for the couple’s oldest child, Jessica Donatella Jackson. Other reports, from 2003 through mid-2005, list the recipient as “Lee Stevens” or “Lee Steven” at J. Donatella. Sandi Jackson’s full name is Sandi Lee Stevens Jackson.