New treasurer of the Republican National Committee gets millions touting Carlyle Group for state teachers fund, [Bush I -- ex-director]

GOP bigwig gets millions touting investment firm - Yahoo! News: "By Ray Long and Christi Parsons Tribune staff reporters Sun Aug 7, 9:40 AM ET

A top national Republican official criticized for collecting hefty payments as a consultant in Illinois has received $3.1 million in fees from an investment firm that does business with the state teacher pension board.

Robert Kjellander, who on Friday was named treasurer of the Republican National Committee, is a longtime friend of President Bush's political strategist Karl Rove. He is also one of the state's premier lobbyists and collected the fees as part of his representation of The Carlyle Group, whose board of directors once included the first President Bush.

The use of consultants by firms seeking investments from public pension funds is entirely legal, and there is no accusation of wrongdoing involving Kjellander or Carlyle.

But interviews and documents obtained by the Tribune provide a new glimpse into the obscure, complicated world of state pension investments, where political insiders can operate with little public notice.
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Kjellander, 57, of Springfield is the state's longtime Republican national committeeman. His lobbying clients range from Fortune 500 firms to health-care companies.

Two years ago, Kjellander was criticized by some Democrats and fellow Republicans after he landed an $809,000 consulting fee from the lead firm handling a $10 billion pension bond sale for the state. Republicans objected to a GOP leader cashing in on the Democratic administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, while others said the sheer size of the fee called into question the role of consultants.

Now Kjellander is on the verge of receiving $1.4 million more in fees because of Carlyle's business with the state Teachers' Retirement System.

That would push the total take for Kjellander's Springfield Consulting Group to $4.5 million from Carlyle since 2002, the company said. During that time, officials said, Carlyle won commitments for $500 million from the teacher pension fund over six deals.