III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 131Another Chicago analyst reminds us that it was Rezko who made Allison Davis a big man
through his patronage:
Rezko got Allison S. Davis appointed to the Illinois State Board of Investment, in control of
billions in state retirement funds. Although Davis has not been charged with wrongdoing, the
feds are reportedly pressing a probe of that agency. Davis is currently the president of that State
Board. Barack Obama was a Harvard Law student in 1990 when he interviewed for a job with
Tony Rezko’s slum-redevelopment firm. He didn’t go directly into the Rezko company. But in
1993 Obama was hired by Allison S. Davis, whose law firm (Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland)
represented Rezko’s operations over the years, while Rezko raised cash for Obama’s electoral
campaigns. Davis became Rezko’s personal financial partner in slum-redevelopment deals,
which were then backed by State Senator Obama. (John Desiderio, Working Life, January 27,
2008)
“Operation Board Games” is the code name for the prosecution of Rezko, joined potentially by
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and other Democratic and
Republican pols, ward-heelers, and fixers. One of the central points of this probe is the Davis,
Miner, and Barnhill law firm, where Obama was employed. Pringle outlines the case as follows:
The investigation dubbed “Operation Board Games,” into the influence peddling within the
cesspool of corruption that encompasses Illinois politicians from both major parties, has
developed into multiple subplots, many of which feature Barack Obama. They also give the
details of Obama’s involvement in a slumlord business largely operating out of the Chicago-
based Davis, Miner & Barnhill law firm, which hired Obama in 1993, with his boss, Allison
Davis, reaping in the profits with Rezko’s development company, Rezmar. [Pringle’s] “Board
Games for Slumlord” article gives in-depth details of the federal investigation along with the
names of people who are listed as “Co-Schemers” and “Individuals” in the indictments issued
thus far. Therefore for the most part, this article will refer to all the scams collectively as what
prosecutors refer to as “pay-to-play” schemes. The Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland law firm,
where Obama worked for nearly a decade, served as a hub for a slew of slumlord deals, many
that benefited the firm’s founder, Allison Davis, and Obama’s claims that he knew nothing
about the inner workings of this small firm, represent an insult to the intelligence of the
American public.... Allison Davis, Obama’s boss at the law firm, is also listed in legal
documents as playing a part in setting up a major extortion attempt in the Board Games case.
(Pringle, oped news)
A recent expose published in the Boston Globe also points directly to Obama’s choice of law
firms to work for not as a selfless gesture of idealistic commitment, but rather as an entrée into the
sleazy world of Chicago graft:
Allison Davis, Obama’s former law firm boss, dabbled in development for years while he
worked primarily as a lawyer. He participated in the development of Grove Parc Plaza. And in
1996, Davis left his law firm to pursue a full-time career as an affordable housing developer,
fueled by the subsidies from the Daley administration and aided, on occasion, by Obama
himself. Over roughly the past decade, Davis’s companies have received more than $100
million in subsidies to renovate and build more than 1,500 apartments in Chicago, according to
a Chicago Sun-Times tally. In several cases, Davis partnered with Tony Rezko. In 1998 the two
men created a limited partnership to build an apartment building for seniors on Chicago’s South
Side. Obama wrote letters on state Senate stationery supporting city and state loans for the
project. In 2000 Davis asked the nonprofit Woods Fund of Chicago for a $1 million investment