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Former Gubernatorial Candidate Starts 'Travel Club' To Cuba

Rutherford Reborn As Cuba Liaison

(CBS) -- Now retired from Illinois politics, former state treasurer Dan Rutherford is indulging an old passion: travel.

If you're headed to Cuba, he's like a friend who knows the neighborhood.

"It's nice to be able to go to the Porto Habana Hotel, which is in the Vedado area," Rutherford tells WBBM's Dave Dahl. "If you can get a reservation for dinner, what you've got to go do is go in and see Lola, she's the Maitre D', she's the head of it, and this is in an elderly woman's condo ... the balcony overlooks the straits of Florida."

Rutherford, whose career in politics and government ended with one term as state treasurer and a losing 2014 bid for governor, is now running Global Relations -- described as a "travel club" -- as a hobby. His world travels have been a longtime love, both in his private life and in his private-sector career.

While Rutherford did not get to Cuba until then-Gov. George Ryan's 1999 trip, he's checked off all seven continents, including Antarctica, before age 40.

Rutherford says what he does not want to do is offer a service that somebody else is.

He has no political plans now but won't rule it out for the future. And still shadowing the Pontiac Republican are sexual harassment allegations in a lawsuit stemming from his time as treasurer.

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