The Clout Fairy Blog is owned and maintained by the Better Government Association ("BGA”), an 85 year old Chicago based civic watchdog group whose mission is to combat waste, corruption and inefficiency in state and local government. The BGA has historically used investigative journalism techniques to expose the multitude of problems prevalent in Chicagoland area governments.
The Clout Fairy Blog will post various “odds and ends” that may not merit a full fledged BGA investigation or press conference, but are interesting or humorous enough to share with others. In addition, the Clout Fairy Blog will contain some analysis and opinion postings from a BGA point of view.
Although the Clout Fairy will allow for comments - profanity, racist remarks and other objectionable language will not be permitted and may result in the user being banned from the site. Banning is not subject to appeal. We own the site so our rules govern, period.
The name of the blog was mainly inspired by the curious Chicago phenomena of nobody ever being responsible for any of the lousy deals constantly being exposed in the media. All the connected contracts, the fortuitous hirings, innocent board appointments, wired lobbying gigs, etc. are all just a coincidence, i.e. the clout fairy must have done it.
Clearly Angelo Torres was hired by the Clout Fairy. Windy City Maintenance and Faustech were selected by the Clout Fairy. The Clout Fairy put Stuart Levine on the TRS board. We think the Clout Fairy was the guy that told Abner Mikva “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”
It was also partially inspired by the Tooth Fairy. To a child the money magically appears, but every adult knows it is a fiction to cover up the reality that a parent put the money under the pillow. The Clout Fairy concept skewers the political P.R. that treats citizens as children who will believe a magical creature made something happen rather than the obvious suspect. The only difference between the Tooth Fairy and the Clout Fairy is with the Clout Fairy the fairy gets the money and the child/citizen gets a tax bill under their pillow.