Many politicians hope that when they appear in public, a TV camera will be on hand for the publicity. Gov. Rod Blagojevich often doesn't take that chance, instead using taxpayer money to hire companies to do the taping.

Since October 2004, the Department of Central Management Services reports, more than $130,000 in state money has been spent on "contractual videographers" to tape gubernatorial events. That amount doesn't include video work that state employees do through the Illinois Information Service, an arm of state government that provides radio and TV stations with usable tape.

On April 16, the governor, a runner and a fan of Elvis Presley, entered an eight-person team in the 80-mile River to River Relay run from the Mississippi River to the Ohio River in southern Illinois. He called the team he anchored "Blue Suede Running Shoes."

A St. Louis firm, Kaufman Broadcast Services Corp., was hired by the state to record the run and offered the tape to TV stations statewide. The rental of audio/visual equipment cost $2,166, and the satellite uplink services cost $3,000.

The governor's office also issued a news release that day, announcing that Blagojevich "became the first governor ever to run in the River to River Relay."

"Just as we provide written quotes (through news releases) to reporters, TV and radio have different needs. That's the rationale for doing this," [spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch] said.

A private company also taped a Sept. 11 appearance of the governor in a Mexican Independence Day parade in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. An advisory issued by the governor's office said Blagojevich would be joined by Maria Isabel Benitez, "a hard-working immigrant mom whose immigration case has grabbed newspaper headlines on both sides of the border." She had been deported on Mother's Day in 2004, while seven months' pregnant, separating her from her husband and three children.

To record the event, the state hired Del Hall Video of Chicago, costing taxpayers $1,244.

When Blagojevich traveled to Washington, D.C., on April 27 to push Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois as the site for a $1 billion rare isotope accelerator, a news release was issued quoting the governor and other Illinois officials. Mobile Video Services Ltd. of Washington also was paid $1,095 for "contractual service for crew, gear & technicians to tape governor's visit to DC," according to the warrant on file with the state comptroller.

A May 10 news release outlined the governor's appearance at a CTA station on Chicago's south side, where he was joined by other elected officials and 200 people to lobby commuters on behalf of legislation that would close a "canned software tax loophole" to raise $65 million for mass transit funding. The legislation failed, but the state paid Del Hall Video $1,385 to record the lobbying event for use by TV stations.

Johnson also said state officeholders and agencies other than the governor use the service. She outlined $46,875 paid to outside firms for non-gubernatorial events between July 2004 and September 2005. During the same period, outside taping of the governor's events cost a total of $130,807.

On July 18, Blagojevich appeared in Chicago with Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Chicago, to announce that Illinois and other states were adding Australia and New Zealand to a list of countries where people should buy prescription drugs, though the federal government had not approved such sales. Video Replay Inc. of Chicago was paid $1,370 to tape the event.

Rausch said the coverage helped make senior citizens aware of potentially significant savings on pharmaceuticals. [To date, Illinois senior citizens still don't seem to care. -ed.]

Video Replay also taped a July 12 news conference where Blagojevich disclosed he had set aside $10 million in the state budget for stem cell research without the knowledge of many legislators. Comptroller Dan Hynes also participated. The cost was $1,740.

On Sept. 22, Blagojevich was in Rockford to announce the awarding of more than $11 million in state support for home improvement retailer Lowe’s to build a regional distribution center. Video Replay Inc. documented it for TV use, costing $1,597.

On Aug. 10, Blagojevich amendatorily vetoed a bill keeping the age of consent for a tattoo at 21 instead of 18. Del Hall Video provided the camera work, costing the state $1,220.

The governor signed a bill at the public library in Aurora on July 25 to ban the sale or rental of violent or sexually explicit video games to children. The state paid Del Hall Video $2,266 for services associated with that event.

Video Replay also was paid $1,501 to videotape Patti Blagojevich at her Chicago home Aug. 1, but this was to get video of her for use on a promotional DVD for the State and University Employees Combined Charity Campaign. She is honorary chairperson of that campaign this year. The DVD included many others, such as recipients of the charitable organizations that are part of the campaign, CMS' Johnson said. A Springfield firm, Imaginatics Inc., was paid $6,440 for 5,000 blank DVDs for distribution of the message to employees, according to Johnson.