Division Street

The governor can’t even play the name game right.

“A highly touted initiative Gov. Blagojevich’s office once said could rake in $300 million for the state through corporate sponsorships and naming-rights deals met a quiet death in February after netting the state a paltry $315,000,” the Sun-Times reports.

The contract for the deal went to a Maryland-based company - Team Services - co-founded by a college friend of the governor’s former chief of staff, Lon Monk. In four years, Team Services produced $1.13 million in naming rights deals and sponsorships. It charged the state $820,000; thus the $315,000 showing.

Q. How in the world could anyone believe that state naming rights deals and sponsorships could generate $300 million in the first place? Naming rights to the Capitol? Advertising on driver’s licenses?

“After religious divisions paralyzed a state commission on hate crimes, Illinois lawmakers wanted a fresh start,” the AP reported this week. “They created a new version of the Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, designed to promote tolerance within the state’s diverse population.

“But seven months later, Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn’t appointed a single person to the overhauled commission, which will fail to accomplish its first major goal, presenting a report by March 30.

“Meanwhile, the old version of the commission hasn’t met in two years, but its executive director, Kimberly M. White, continues to draw her $96,000 annual salary.”

Hey, give the governor a break: He’s got his hands full right now.