Valencia, Giannoulias repeat accusations of ethical lapses during forum for Democratic secretary of state candidates

When the three Democratic candidates for Illinois secretary of state gathered Thursday for a forum in Chicago’s Loop, the moderator made it clear the event was not intended to be a debate.

The candidates — former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia and Chicago Ald. David Moore, 17th — were invited to the Union League Club to answer questions about their vision for the office. All three put forth modernization ideas ranging from creating digital driver’s licenses to creating digital license plates.

But when the question shifted to ethics, Giannoulias and Valencia went back to trading barbs as they have throughout the campaign.

Valencia brought up questions about Giannoulias’ time as a loan officer for his family’s bank, which was found to have lent money to alleged organized crime figures. Giannoulias accused Valencia of allowing her husband’s lobbying practice to meddle in her role as city clerk.

Those issues have dominated the race and once again overshadowed explanations about how the candidates plan to run the office if they are chosen to replace Secretary of State Jesse White, who is retiring.

“I think this is why people are sick and tired of politics,” Giannoulias said at one point. “You ask them a question about ethics and what they’re going to do in the office and they feel the need to shift the conversation. I think that’s horrible.”

The moderator, WBBM-AM 780 political editor Craig Dellimore, asked the candidates about the ethical issues as well as how they plan to bring more transparency to the office and ensure it remains free of corruption.

“I support making sure we have integrity and accessibility and transparency over government,” Valencia said in part of her answer before adding that Giannoulias was smearing her with “false” statements.

She criticized his tenure as state treasurer from 2007 to 2011, when a college savings program overseen by his office lost millions of dollars and “hurt working families like the one I grew up in.”

Giannoulias replied by bringing up allegations of collusion between Valencia and the lobbying practice of her husband, Reyahd Kazmi.

Kazmi was copied on city clerk’s office emails that have been obtained by the Tribune and other news outlets, raising questions about possible conflicts.

The secretary of state’s office is tasked with regulating lobbyists for state government like Kazmi, who also is registered as a lobbyist for Chicago government. If elected, Valencia has said her husband would no longer be allowed to lobby the secretary of state’s office.

“She has used her office as a culture of corruption to enrich her husband and his lobbying career,” Giannoulias said. “She currently is married to someone who lobbies the city of Chicago, which she serves on, but yet she says, if she gets elected, don’t worry he won’t do it then.”

Part of Valencia’s ethics plan includes a vow to make public the tax returns she and her husband file each year.

Giannoulias said “spouses should be barred from lobbying someone in their household.”

After the forum, Valencia was grilled by reporters about possible conflicts with her husband’s business.

“My husband and I have separate careers,” she said. “And I’m not the first woman whose running for office who has to say my husband does not speak for me.”

Valencia was asked about allegations that New Orleans officials last year rigged a telecommunications contract to favor a group of businesses that included one connected to Kazmi.

An email obtained by the Tribune suggests that Kazmi’s business partner introduced Valencia to the New Orleans officials around the time they were considering bidders for the telecommunications contract.

While she acknowledged being in touch with officials in the city, she said they reached out to her to inquire about her CityKey program, which is designed to help immigrants or undocumented Chicagoans use a single ID as a library card and a transit card, among other things.

“I have nothing to do with my husband’s business. Period. I am my own independent person,” Valencia said in response to that issue.

Moore stayed mostly out of the squabbling during the forum, at one point saying he was “only one that has not had any ethics issues.”

But last year, just days after Moore announced his candidacy for secretary of state, the Chicago Board of Ethics admonished him for using his ward’s Facebook page to campaign for the office. Facing a fine, Moore said at the time he took corrective action.

But on Thursday, Moore said that he was only using his personal Facebook page, which included with a visible city of Chicago emblem, and that he doesn’t have “an official page that’s government-related that the government paid for with any taxpayer money.”

jgorner@chicagotribune.com