Report: Illinois State Workers Forced to Attend Partisan Pelosi & Jesse Jackson Jr. Event

Seventy-six Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) Corps employees were allegedly forced to engage in taxpayer-funded "political activity" at a partisan forum featuring House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., according to a whistle-blower affidavit obtained by The Daily Caller.

Marcy Bailey, the 22-year-old whistle-blower who worked for ISACorps on March 3, claims she and her coworkers had no choice but to participate in a partisan Rainbow PUSH forum featuring the Jacksons and Pelosi, pose for photo ops, and learn all about loading up first-generation and low-income students with debt.

Rev. Jackson, according to the affidavit, argued that loading up students with massive amounts of debt is a winning strategy because he believes Democrats in Congress will pass laws to forgive that debt.

“[T]hose people will continue to vote Democratic,” Jackson Sr. assured forum attendees.

But here's the kicker: Bailey claims she and her coworkers were reimbursed for their travel and hotel expenses with federal funds.

Here's a video of Pelosi endorsing Rep. Jackson at the Rainbow PUSH forum. She was supposed to save her official endorsement until later at a press conference, but it seems she jumped the gun:

When The Daily Caller reached out to the state agency for a comment, ISACorps spokesman John Samuels replied: “You’re full of sh*t.”

Samuels also took umbrage with The Daily Caller referring to the House Minority leader as … the House Minority Leader.

"It really pains you to call her 'Speaker Pelosi' doesn’t it?" Samuels asked, despite her not having been Speaker since 2010.

In the signed and notarized affidavit presented by The Daily Caller, Bailey claims she “did not want to attend this event,” adding that the Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH forum they were forced to attend “was soon overflowing with negative political energy directed towards the Republican Party. The two [Pelosi and Jackson Sr.] discussed many adverse things about the Republican Party, using harsh, derogatory remarks, while they reminded their audience about what they called the wonderful things that the Democratic Party was doing for the people.”

“Although e-mails from an ISAC supervisor would lead one to believe that my attendance was optional, during phone calls from Sara Henschen, my regional coordinator, and from Kim Galvan, ISACorps manager, I was told that I ‘must attend,’” Bailey’s affidavit reads.

Maybe Bailey simply misunderstood those emails --

“Repeatedly, my supervisors told me that ‘without a prior conflicting commitment, your attendance is mandatory.’ I stated that I did not feel comfortable going, but my supervisors told me that I did have to go,” the affidavit adds.

Well, okay then. That seems pretty unambiguous.

"The actions asserted in the signed affidavit  … if true, reveal an abuse of power and breach of ethics akin to those unearthed in the ACORN investigations -- and once again shine the light on 'Chicago Values,'" writes Legal Insurrection’s Anne Sorock.

View the affidavit for yourself [via The Daily Caller]:

Affidavit of Marcy Bailey

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Click here to read the full Daily Caller report.

Front page photos: The Associated Press. This story has been updated.