Munger Threatens Suit After New Comptroller Mendoza Says Office Felt 'Looted'

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- A battle of words has broken out between Illinois' former and current comptrollers after Democrat Susana Mendoza said her new offices felt "looted" and Republican predecessor Leslie Munger threatened a lawsuit.

Mendoza tells WLS-AM radio's "Connected to Chicago" show in an interview that airs Sunday that when she took over for Munger this month furniture had been removed, documents were missing and keys didn't match locks. Mendoza defeated Munger in the November general election.

"There's not a single piece of paper or paper clip left in any of the offices that have been vacated," Mendoza said. "It did kind of feel like the place was looted."

Mendoza said she couldn't make a "definitive statement" about if "pilfering" was involved. Mendoza said her employees would "do our best over the next few weeks to hopefully find all of these things."

In response, Munger called Mendoza's claim "outrageous."

"She's making claims that she has no support for, and she's doing it to damage my image, and if she continues it, I intend to sue her," Munger told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We did not go in and ransack everything."

Munger said there was a full inventory of the two comptroller offices in Springfield and one in Chicago with no missing items belonging to the state.

"Comptroller Mendoza has honestly responded to questions about the lack of documents she found and the items that appeared to be missing upon taking office after her requests for transition meetings were ignored," Mendoza spokesman Abdon Pallasch said in response to Munger's statements.

Munger said she didn't have anything to share with Mendoza.

"I have nothing to leave her a note about other than to say, `Good luck to you. You asked for this,' " Munger told the newspaper.

Rauner hand-picked Munger to be comptroller when former comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died in December 2014. Mendoza will finish out the last half of the four-year term.

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