“I have no intention of stepping down
or stepping aside. When the facts come to light, after my ex-wife and
ex-girlfriend speak, the people of Illinois can decide, and I will
listen to them directly. I am asking my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend to
come forward and to talk with the media. There are questions, and I
will provide all answers honestly and openly. I only ask for time to do
the interviews. 2005 was a difficult time in my life. I was going
through a divorce, and I started running with a fast group. I was in a
tumultuous relationship with the woman I was dating. We had a fight,
but I never touched her. She called the police, however, she never came
to court, and the charges were dismissed. I realized this relationship
was not healthy, I ended it, and we parted amicably.”
–Scott Lee Cohen
“I tried to tell everyone about this early on. I wanted to talk
about all of these issues, but everyone wrote me off, and said I didn’t
have a chance to win. Now that I’m the Democratic nominee for
Lieutenant Governor, the day after the election, there are questions. I
am happy to answer any and all questions; I just need time to do so.”
– Scott Lee Cohen
From March 17, 2009
Could answer to state's woes be a pawnbroker?
He's poured $100K of his own cash into lieutenant gov bid
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
original article
Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen has launched a campaign to become Illinois' next lieutenant governor.
His chances are so slim that I told him he'd be better off donating his money to charity.
Even his own campaign consultant says he tried to talk him out of
making the race, but the best he could do was persuade him not to run
for governor.
Undaunted by such negativity, Cohen has donated $100,000 of his own
money to a campaign fund and promises it will total closer to $240,000
by the time he formally announces his candidacy Wednesday for the
Democratic nomination.
All this proves to me is that pawnbrokers are as capable of throwing
away their money on quixotic political ambitions as those in other
lines of work, although to be fair, neither Cohen nor I can remember
any other pawnbroker actually seeking public office.
I first met Cohen in November at his pawnshop, State Jewelry &
Loans, 48th and Ashland, for a story Cohen was circulating about a man
who had pawned his diamond-and-ruby-encrusted false teeth, plucking
them right out of his mouth in exchange for a $1,500 loan.
It was a jaw dropper even by the we've-seen-it-all standards of the
pawn business. Cohen said the man told him he needed the money to send
his daughter to college. He has yet to return to reclaim the teeth.
Referring to our meeting that day, Cohen said he thought it would have
been obvious to me he was somebody motivated primarily by a desire to
help people.
Actually, I'd figured him for a shrewd but friendly businessman whose
main interest was in making money, which is totally understandable in a
pawnbroker though sometimes problematic for an elected official.
Ever since the false-teeth episode, though, the 43-year-old Cohen has been pursuing the limelight with gusto.
Over the holidays, he got media attention by giving away free turkeys
to poor people in the south suburbs and on the South Side. He explained
he did so partly in an effort to market his new business venture
distributing environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.
What really hooked Cohen, however, was launching his "Rod Must Resign"
campaign, which tried to build public pressure for former Gov.
Blajojevich to step down after his arrest. With the help of the
Grainger Terry public relations firm, Cohen launched a Web site, held a
small demonstration at the Thompson Center and passed out buttons.
Obviously, Blagojevich never resigned, but Cohen said he thought the effort was effective just the same.
While the campaign did not persuade Blagojevich to quit, the experience persuaded Cohen to make his first run for public office.
"It's a limited amount of people I can help being in the pawnshop
business," Cohen explained. "It's a limited amount of people I can help
giving away turkeys. I wanted to be able to help on a grander scale."
Cohen was thinking on such a grand scale he decided to run for
governor, but Grainger Terry President Philip Molfese convinced him
lieutenant governor was a more realistic goal for a political novice.
Part of the reason Cohen said he sought me out to write about his
candidacy is that he wanted to make a pre-emptive strike about some
potentially embarrassing matters before they came up in the campaign.
That got my attention, I must admit, although I advised Cohen it hardly
seemed necessary as his candidacy was so unlikely to take hold.
But he insisted on telling me about his 2005 arrest in a domestic
battery case involving a girlfriend with whom he was living while his
divorce was pending. The charges were dropped when the woman did not
appear in court, he said, and he denied he did anything wrong in the
first place.
I'm sure that's more than you want to know about any candidate for
lieutenant governor a year before the election, but as I say, it's not
often you find a pawnbroker with political aspirations.
What special skills would a pawnbroker bring to government?
"I know how to manage money. I know how to talk to people," Cohen said.
During our first meeting, Cohen explained a little of the pawnshop
business. He makes his money on borrowers continuing to renew their
loans, not by selling the baubles posted as collateral. Cohen charges
10 percent monthly interest, which comes to 120 percent a year.
If he could get that kind of a return investing public funds, he might want to consider running for treasurer.