On Wednesday afternoon, word got out that Gov. Pat Quinn planned to hire his longtime aide and friend Claude Walker to be the state's new "kayaking czar," paying Walker $85,000 per year to promote kayaking and canoeing in the state. The media started tearing down the poorly-timed hire immediately, and the idea has been scrapped.
"Because of the importance and very severe situation with the state budget, at the request of the governor's office, we rescinded the position," Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Marc Miller told members of House panel, according to the Pantagraph.
"At a time when the governor is cutting the State Police, human services and schools, this has to rank as one of the goofier hires of all time," the Capitol Fax blog's Rich Miller wrote Wednesday. "Claude is a great guy. But Quinn cannot claim on one hand that the state is broke and then pay somebody $85K to be a 'canoe czar.'"
Many commenters on CapFax, the Pantagraph and HuffPost Chicago agreed.
Marc Miller's comments to the members of the House panel came less than two hours after he had defended Walker's hiring as the coordinator of the state's new "Water Trails" program, according to the Pantagraph.
Walker, 57, has served as an advisor and spokesman to Quinn dating back two decades. He served as a spokesman for Quinn during his tenure as lieutenant governor. He also worked for Quinn when the governor was state treasurer in the early 1990s. And, he has worked on Quinn's campaigns for various offices, including his latest bid for governor.
Ultimately though, Quinn wised up quickly. A DNR spokesman contacted the Capitol Fax blog Wednesday evening:
"I wanted to reach out to you and let you know that the watertrails coordinator position has been rescinded at the request of the Governor's office today. The IDNR realizes that while watertrails are an important and growing aspect of outdoor recreation in Illinois, the timing was just not right in these tough fiscal times."
Watch Quinn discuss the kayak czar mishap here: