* Dear Gov. Quinn,
You’ve long been in favor of campaign contribution caps, so your testimony today before your own reform commission on behalf of caps was of little surprise, except for this…
Quinn also raised the issue of what to do about circumstances in which incumbents have raised huge amounts of money under the previous rules. In such circumstances, he said, someone who starts raising money under new restrictions would be at “a competitive disadvantage” against someone who raised money previously, under the current unlimited system. He suggested there should be some kind of adjustment to create a fair “starting line” for everyone.
That “fair” starting line concept was a bit suspect, so, thankfully, reporters were able to follow up…
I asked [Quinn] how he would address the scenario of candidates like his potential rival, Lisa Madigan, having raised gobs of money before his new proposed limits go into effect, and his call for a fair “starting line.”
He suggested, in apparent seriousness, that she and other officials with huge existing campaign coffers could donate them to charity, and then proceed to raise new money under new limits like everyone else.
Considering that as of December 31st you had about $83,000 in your campaign account and Lisa Madigan had $3.5 million, don’t you think you look just a little self-serving and perhaps even outright desperate?
First it was moving the primary back to give you time to catch up, now this. How about you just get in the game, man?
It’s almost as if you’re attempting to specifically devise a campaign system to compensate for your personal and structural shortcomings. Maybe not even “almost.”
…PS… He, guv, I thought you said you would respect the General Assembly and the constitutional separation of powers. Wouldn’t imposing the press release proposals of a “citizens committee” created by gubernatorial fiat on the GA as a whole violate both of those pledges?
Quinn also said that lawmakers should be required to vote individually on each of the commission’s recommendations to clean up state government, which range from how state contracts are awarded to the tools law enforcement officials have to investigate corruption.
Just sayin.
* Dear Associated Press (again),
You have apparently gone completely around the bend and are now bordering on the self-parody. Please, stop.
You long ago started a YouTube channel which specifically allows everyone in the world to embed AP videos on any and all websites. But your higher-ups are completely unclear about this concept and recently went after one of their own AP members…
Here is another great moment in A.P. history. In its quest to become the RIAA of the newspaper industry, the A.P.’s executives and lawyers are beginning to match their counterparts in the music industry for cluelessness. A country radio station in Tennessee, WTNQ-FM, received a cease-and-desist letter from an A.P. vice president of affiliate relations for posting videos from the A.P.’s official Youtube channel on its Website.
You cannot make this stuff up. Forget for a moment that WTNQ is itself an A.P. affiliate and that the A.P. shouldn’t be harassing its own members. Apparently, nobody told the A.P. executive that the august news organization even has a YouTube channel which the A.P. itself controls, and that someone at the A.P. decided that it is probably a good idea to turn on the video embedding function on so that its videos can spread virally across the Web, along with the ads in the videos.
How daft can you get?
Seriously.
What is wrong with you people?
What IlliniPundit said…
The people who run the AP are so stupid it hurts.
- Anonymous Coward - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 11:53 am:
Rich, your site just took a squat… All of the links/feeds on the right disappeared.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 11:55 am:
Regarding Quinn, the inevitable rationalization when principle collides with principal.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 11:56 am:
Refresh. Everything is OK now. I accidentally deleted one character in the code and screwed everything up.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 11:57 am:
Dear Dewayne Wise –
Learn your strike zone. Keep the barrel of the bat horizontal to the ground when bunting. And rent, don’t buy.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 11:58 am:
What wordslinger said.
- Anonymous Coward - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 12:14 pm:
Thx. It snapped right back after I finished reading and clicked back to your home page..
Darn computers, they do just what you tell them to.
- Sewanee - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 12:42 pm:
Campaign donation limits have gotten some serious attention and discussion lately. I’d like to see the same wide-open exchange about publicly financed campaigns. I know the tired argument about “just another bureaucracy to manage it”, but I still am pretty favorable toward the idea. Tell me what I’m missing.
- Bill - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 12:52 pm:
Wise will be ok but he can’t leadoff. Who else can? Getz? Certainly not Anderson. Fields? Nah.
- Amy - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 12:59 pm:
Getz is at leadoff today and AJ in the second spot. also CQ needs to get it in gear, but LOVE that new commercial re him practicing his swing. classic funny. great new ad campaign.
- dan l - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:04 pm:
I am totally astonished at how stupid ap is.
- Segatari - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:16 pm:
The AP can join all the other news outlets that have gone bankrupt…trust me we’d be better off with one less liberal news outlet.
- Macbeth - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:27 pm:
I know exactly what’s wrong with the AP. It’s the same thing that’s wrong with the RIAA and the MPAA: instead of embracing technology, they fear it– and they’re lawyers to spread the fear. It also doesn’t help that most of these executives are old guys who fear a change in the status quo so long as they’re still employed and not yet retired.
It’s counterproductive and is akin to wadding up a bag of Wonder Bread and stuffing it tight into a hole in a sandbag levee that’s helping to hold back rising highwater.
It’ll work so long as the governor is in town and filling the symbolic sandbags, but once he departs, all bets are off.
- Ghost - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:30 pm:
I think all of the sites that use embedded AP video should dmenad a share of the ad revenues for the embedded ad’s they are forced to re-distribute.
Nice counter suit.
- Diamond Dog - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:32 pm:
Dr Rich,
Your unsolicited advice format is a tired format and feels like a mid-90’s David Spade SNL skit. Hang up the towel on this one.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:47 pm:
DD, some unsolicited advice for you: When you live and work in Illinois, I’ll listen. ;)
- El Conquistador - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 1:49 pm:
Translation - Unsolicited advice….DD Bite Me!
- Bruno Behrend - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 2:30 pm:
I’m probably the only conservative who is for publicly financed campaigns, but I have a few twists.
1. Everyone who gets the same number of signatures as any R or D gets on the ballot, and gets the same amount of money. (every state office)
2. In the transition over to a publicly financed campaign system, every challenger gets the same amount of money of the richest war chest.
This way, Every body gets $3.5 million.
Crazy? Sure, but no more absurd than the system we have now.
Seriously though, Quinn is correct that a limitation at this juncture violates any rational sense of fair play.
- Cosmic Charlie - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 3:06 pm:
Am I wrong or has Quinn been in office now for 6 years. He didnt have to spend any money on his reelection because he just quietly coasted on Blago’s corrupt spending. Now he has no money and a strong opponent surging up on him and he wants to level the playing field? Absurd.
Its like not studying for a test, showing up to take the test and then complaining to the teacher that the other students have an advantage because they studied for the test.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 3:14 pm:
Quinn’s in a trickbag as far as fundraising goes. As the Post-Blago, where does he go for money?
The best thing he has going for him is his self-proclaimed “maverick” status. How do you keep that and raise millions at the same time — and in a hurry?
- Vote Quimby! - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 3:31 pm:
I smell a Pat Quinn publicity stunt next spring, ala Dan Walker walking the entire state. Of course, Walker wasn’t the sitting governor, but…
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 3:35 pm:
“Regarding Quinn, the inevitable rationalization when principle collides with principal.”
Whoa! Some deep thinkers around here!
- Wacky Skeptic - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 5:19 pm:
“Quinn’s in a trickbag as far as fundraising goes. As the Post-Blago, where does he go for money?”
Umm, I can think of about a thousand places, but he has to try. Pat has always hated raising money. Now he doubled his fundraiser asking price from 100 to 200 and he thinks that’s going to get the job done? Give me a break. If he wants to run for reelection, the time to get serious about FR is now. Until we see some host committees and big ticket efforts which are antithetical to Pat’s nature, his totals will be dwarfed by Lisa and everybody else.
I respect the integrity, but you can have integrity and still be realistic about what it takes to run. Pat’s not.
- Bobs yer - Thursday, Apr 9, 09 @ 9:31 pm:
AP needs to start charging for their product. So do the major newspapers. Two guys and a blog will not protect a free society.
- 2ConfusedCrew - Friday, Apr 10, 09 @ 7:50 am:
Capt. Fax
We like the Dear Abby approach to blogging. It reminds us the 60’s
Next time you toss one to Quinnly add that he lay off the silly sauce before day time speechs