Candidate Five, Who Are Thou?
By Dylan Matthews - Dec 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pmRod Blagojevich’s indictment is one endlessly readable treasure trove. In addition to the obvious malfeasance by Blago and his chief of staff, John Harris, there’s the politician only identified as Senate “Candidate 5″, who pulled this little number:
In a recorded conversation on October 31, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH
described an earlier approach by an associate of Senate Candidate Five as follows: “We were
approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came.
Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.”
Offering a governor $500,000 in exchange for a Senate seat is commonly referred to as “bribery”, so I’d expect that Candidate Five is in for a world of hurt. Marc Ambinder thinks it’s Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Reihan Salam speculates it may be Emil Jones. Here’s a third option: Rep. Danny Davis.
I don’t think it’s Jackson. As Reihan says, the indictment makes clear that Candidate Five doesn’t have anything to hold over Blago, which just isn’t true about Jackson. Further, the indictment suggests that Obama would not like Candidate Five to get the seat, which wouldn’t fit with Jackson, who was Obama’s national co-chair and an early supporter of his 2004 Senate race.
Davis, however, seems to fit the bill. Like Candidate Five, he’s spoken to and met with Blago since the election, has made it clear publicly that he’s interested in the seat, and doesn’t have much to offer Blago other than cash. Further, Blago has hinted very strongly that he’d pick Davis, which fits with the indictment’s mention of a threat to appoint Candidate Five. Finally, this fits with Davis’ history of corruption. He participated in a mock coronation of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the Dirksen Office Building after receiving campaign funds from Moon’s associates, and took a trip to Sri Lanka paid for by the Tamil Tigers.
Obviously, Patrick Fitzgerald and his sources know who this is better than Ambinder, Reihan, or myself. Given what we already know, I’m guessing Candidate Five will have an indictment of his own for us to pore over in due time.
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