Governor's deputy chief of staff quits amid investigation

SPRINGFIELD – A rural Paris woman who has been an assistant to Gov. Pat Quinn for six years has suddenly resigned from her position as Quinn's deputy chief of staff.

Carolyn Brown Hodge, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, resigned from the governor's staff Friday night upon reports that the state's Office of the Executive Inspector General had confiscated her computer to determine whether she was doing political work on state time.

Quinn's office released a terse statement on Monday: "Carolyn Brown Hodge resigned late Friday. She is wrapping up a few pending matters today before leaving the position as deputy chief of staff."

Quinn administration officials offered no further comment.

Hodge began working with Quinn in 2003. She was his director of rural affairs when he was lieutenant governor.

When Quinn became governor earlier this year, Hodge became his deputy chief of staff, focusing on downstate issues, including energy, rural transportation and the digital divide.

In a February interview with The News-Gazette, she described her devotion to Quinn and her $119,158-a-year job.

"(Quinn) said I'd have to live in Springfield during the week and would that be OK?" she said. "My husband said I'd better do it because jobs like this don't come around all the time. And so I'm basically in a Motel 6, and I pay for it myself. And I pay for my own gas going back and forth. And I work 10 to 12 hours a day because I don't have anything else to do over here, and I go home on weekends."

Hodge had run for state representative in 1990 and in 1998, falling to Republican Dale Righter in the most recent election.

She collected 43 percent of the vote that year in a Republican-leaning district that included Vermilion, Douglas, Edgar, Coles and Clark counties. Righter is now a state senator.

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