SPRINGFIELD - After being hounded by ethics questions throughout his campaign for state treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias took office Monday promising to make clean government a keystone of his term.

Being sworn into office in Springfield with the other statewide executives, Giannoulias said his political campaign won't take money from banks, companies contracting with his office or his employees.

Giannoulias, 30, faced questions during his election effort about taking campaign cash from people who borrowed money from the Chicago bank his family owns. He said those issues didn't drive his ethics package.

"I don't think there was ever any concerns of pay-to-play politics," he said.

On Monday, he stood surrounded by the inaugural pomp as the only new statewide executive officer. By taking Judy Baar Topinka's spot after her failed bid to be governor, Giannoulias sealed Democratic control of Illinois government.

That means Republicans like state Rep. Bill Mitchell, of Forsyth, didn't have much to see at Monday's inaugural ceremony. He says losing the office of the state's banker to the Democrats may only be a symbolic loss, but it's a big one.

"They don't really set policy," Mitchell said. "That being said, it makes a huge difference because Republicans are shut out of everything."

After the inauguration, Giannoulias hosted a receiving line at the state Capitol. Among those waiting to see the new treasurer were Dean and Dena Theo, who had done business with the Giannoulias family and hosted Chicago fund-raisers for him during the campaign.

"With every newly elected official, you hope they live up to their promises," Dena Theo said.

The receiving line wound into the treasurer's office, the door of which bore Topinka's name earlier that day, but had been changed by the time Giannoulias arrived. Topinka, though, was nowhere to be found.

She has laid low since being defeated by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in November. She has declined interview requests for weeks.

Topinka worked for 12 years as state treasurer, served a stint as the state's Republican Party chairwoman and spent more than a decade in the General Assembly.

She helped Giannoulias with his transition into the new job, but he said he hadn't talked to his predecessor Monday.

"I didn't see her," he said.