* This has to be one of the most interesting photos of Gov. Pat Quinn that I’ve ever seen…
Keeping in mind my “you’ll be banned for life and possibly reported to the coppers” rules about violent imagery, what caption would you give this photo?
Best comment wins a ticket to the August 17th Chicago White Sox game vs. the Kansas City Royals.
* Yesterday’s winner was actually the very first comment. I decided right away to give it to hmmm…
12:00 PM - Governor Quinn, at a press conference in Chicago, announces he will hold his breath until the legislature passes a final budget that does not hurt families.
12:03 PM - Governor Quinn flip flops and takes a breath.
* Put this into the “I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’” file. The Illinois Republican Party whacks Democratic US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias for talking out of both sides of his mouth…
Alexi: So I’m also proud to be the first candidate running for the U.S. Senate in the history of the state of Illinois not to take money from lobbyists or from corporate PACs…
Roma: In that spirit of swearing off corporate PACs and lobbyist contributions, what about all special interest money, from unions, from trial lawyers, from, zero PAC money, is that something that you think politicians should all do?
Alexi: I personally do.
But according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Giannoulias already accepted union and special interest PAC contributions to his Senate exploratory committee.
Apparently, when Giannouolias said “I personally do,” he was referring to the question of “should politicians reject” all special interest money - and wasn’t trying to say that he actually does it.
Hokay.
The Giannoulias campaign attempts to explain…
“Mark Kirk has taken millions of dollars of special interest money and voted their way in Washington for almost a decade. Alexi Giannoulias is the first US Senate candidate in Illinois history to refuse money from federal lobbyists and corporate PACs because he believes that we will never change the way we do business in Washington until we change the way we elect people to represent us in Washington.”
* Comptroller Dan Hynes’ campaign has been whacking Gov. Pat Quinn for the past few days, but Hynes’ campaign Twitter page has lately focused on sports…
Upset that Charles Tillman is out for a while. Hope he gets better soon - Bears need his secondary help.
about 1 hour ago
Looking forward to seeing Mark Buehrle read David Letterman’s Top Ten List tonight.
about 22 hours ago
Lotsa red meat there, Dan. Way to get all controversial on us.
* Republican William Kelly has a bit of fun with his state comptroller campaign kickoff video…
Kelly’s background from a press release…
A Second City-trained humorist, Kelly is he host and executive producer of the TV series, “Sportsaholic” and the Emmy award-winning “Upscale TV,” which just completed a successful three-year run on FOX.
No stranger to Illinois politics, Kelly was previously the Executive Director of the National Taxpayers Union of Illinois. He is a former GOP candidate for Congress and currently oversees a non-profit reform organization, RebuildIllinois.com. He has a long-standing history of anti-tax and government waste activism, which was the subject of the National Review article, “Rebel with a Cause.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Monday he was in the dark about any potential statewide bid of Merchandise Mart boss Chris Kennedy, the nephew of his Senate colleague Ted Kennedy. […]
Lately, media reports have said he is eying a run for governor after backing off a senate bid. That would put him in competition with Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes.
Asked about Chris Kennedy Monday, Durbin said flatly, “I have heard so many rumors.”
“I don’t know where he is whether it is governor or senator or something else,” Durbin said.
“We’ve already received pledges of over $200,000 in just the one week that I’ve been making phone calls. I think that’s a great start and I think it shows again the strength of my support.”
.She’s bright, charasmatic w/ a great story, but how will her transit tax & Quinn tax vote play?
* State Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) talks to Fox Chicago News about running for Congress…
* Memo to newspapers: Get your own houses in order before complaining about blogs. Case in point, the Naperville Sun gave GOP Congresscritter Judy Biggert sponsorship credit for a major local project…
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would allocate $1 million for improvement of the EJ&E railroad crossing at Ogden Avenue in Aurora.
The bill, H.R. 3288, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-13th), provides fiscal year 2010 appropriations for the Department of Transportation, included a total of $1.5 million requested by Biggert for a Metra Station in Tinley Park and freight-related traffic relief along Ogden Avenue. The bill passed the House on Thursday evening and now heads to the Senate.
But the paper forgot one tiny detail — along with the rest of Illinois’ Republican delegation, Biggert voted against the bill. The Sun staff report also falsely asserted that she “sponsored” the measure (in fact, she did no such thing).
The newspaper story appears to be a clumsy rewrite of an official press release. Oops.
* Al Hofeld, Jr., may seek state Senate seat: A Chicago lawyer whose father changed the face of Illinois politics says he’s getting ready for a possible race for the state Senate.
* GOP Businessman Dick Green Close to Announcing Bid for IL-10
* Gov. Pat Quinn appears to be already promising money from that $1.2 billion in magical cash reserves…
…Quinn said Monday he’s now hoping to reverse a recommendation by the State Board of Education to cut pre-school for 30,000 youngsters.
“Well the State Board of Education made that recommendation, but I have the final say. So we’re going to be reviewing everything,” Quinn said.
He didn’t exactly say he would “reverse” the decision, but whatever.
While good news for early education advocates and participants, that’s less money which can be spent elsewhere or used to keep next year’s horrific $10B+ deficit in check.
The percentage of children in Illinois living in poverty increased 13 percent between 2000 and 2007, from 15 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2007. During the same time period, Data Book indicators show that the percentage of children living in families without secure parental employment rose from 29 percent to 31 percent. While both measures are lower than 2007 national averages, the Illinois indicators increased at a faster rate than in the United States.
* Meanwhile, there’s been a minor uproar lately from the religious and non-religious about the projects in the state’s new capital bill which benefit religious institutions. Eric Zorn reveals today that not all those projects may make the final cut, however…
A spokesman for Gov. Quinn said Monday that individual state agencies will rule “on a case-by-case basis” which projects are constitutional as these agencies negotiate the specifics of each grant.
Great. The lawmakers pander to their constituents, state agencies get the blame and the rest of us get to pay for more litigation
That’s usually how it goes.
* Speaking of the capital bill, the Daily Herald demands that local governments in its territory opt out of the new video gaming law…
So far, there has been precious little discussion of the issue at area municipal board meetings and almost no hearings to understand what constituents think or to delve into the deeper implications. A DuPage County Board member did speak out last week when he said he would ask the board to ban the machines in unincorporated areas. We need more of that kind of discussion. As Anita Bedell, director of the Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction Problems, said, “Once this is in your community, you can’t stop it.”
To our mayors and village presidents, to our city councils and village boards, we have four words: End the silence now.
The locals certainly have that right. They’ll miss out on the gaming revenues, of course. But I also wonder whether you think capital projects should be moved down the priority list if the local governments refuse to help pay for it via this new gaming tax of legalized video poker.
You might want to click here and head over to Amazon to help the site’s customers by “tagging” Rod Blagojevich’s new book.
When you click the link, just scroll down a bit until you see: “Tags Customers Associate with This Product.” Then click the tags that you agree with, and/or create your own.
For instance, I created a tag called “Moron.” Clicking the Moron tag shows that Rod Blagojevich’s new book is already the second most prevalent product with that tag at Amazon’s entire site. It does have a way to go to overtake the first place contestant, however, but Blagojevich is, in my opinion, far more deserving.
This is not a call to dishonestly tag the new Blagojevich book. As Illinois political observers, we’re simply the most qualified of anyone to create tags for this particular author. So, please be as honest as you possibly can. I don’t think we should hurt anyone. The idea is to illuminate the process.
Also, after you’ve tagged the item, you might also want to create a search tag, which is just below. If you’re not an Amazon customer, you can easily create an account.
Please, report back to us what you’ve done. Thanks.
Creates the Elected Officials Misconduct Forfeiture Act. Provides that the Attorney General may file an action in circuit court on behalf of the people of Illinois against an elected official who has, by his or her violation of the Official Misconduct Article of the Criminal Code of 1961 or violation of a similar federal offense, injured the people of Illinois. Provides that the purpose of such suit is to recover all proceeds traceable to the elected official’s offense and by so doing, prevent, restrain or remedy violations of the Official Misconduct Article of the Criminal Code of 1961 or similar federal offenses. Effective immediately.
* The hearings aren’t over yet, but Ab Mikva appears to have made up his mind…
The chairman of the state panel investigating admissions abuses at the University of Illinois stepped up his war of words on the school’s trustees this morning, saying they all should submit their resignations. […]
Mikva also linked the trustees to the “pay-for-play” mentality in Springfield, saying some trustees had contributed as much as $100,000 to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He wondered aloud what they thought they were buying.
It probably hasn’t occurred to Mikva that his own defense of Rod Blagojevich against corruption allegations in the 2006 campaign was worth far more than any cash contribution could’ve bought. Mikva allowed Blagojevich to use his good name to be reelected. That was priceless.
Still, after watching this thing unfold, Mikva is probably right about the trustees. They seemed to be of a class that bowed to gubernatorial and legislative authority far too easily.
* Meanwhile, White appears to have learned a lesson as a whole…
University of Illinois President B. Joseph White on Monday told a commission investigating the effect of politics on school admissions that he found an environment in which who you know and what you can offer matter to a shocking degree when he took over at the university in 2005.
And he said the university’s reputation has suffered such a blow because of the role of political clout on campus that he and other university leaders have little choice but to insulate decisions about who gets into school from anyone but admissions officials — barring graduates, donors and anyone else from the process. [emphasis added]
It wasn’t just Rod Blagojevich and legislators representing antsy constituents who twisted arms. The pervasive influence of big donors and prominent alumni probably had more weight for a longer period of time anyway.
[Former U of I president James Stukel] said he would support a board that includes only three governor-appointed trustees plus additional trustees selected by the university’s alumni association. Currently, the UI board is made up of nine governor-appointed trustees, plus three students elected from each of the campuses.
The alumni association? You mean the group that White wants to rein in? The group which thought the biggest issue for years was saving that dancing white kid at sports games? Please.
U.S. Census Bureau figures released Monday ranked Illinois 21st in the country in per-pupil spending. On average, each state spent $9,666 per pupil in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available.
Hoping to pool their clout to land billions of federal tax dollars, eight Midwestern governors and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley agreed Monday to work together to build a vast network of high-speed rail lines.
The agreement envisions a web of high-speed lines radiating out from Chicago to the Twin Cities, Green Bay, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Iowa City, among other Midwestern cities. The signers, including Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn, hope the agreement will bring the region a large chunk of at least $8 billion set aside for high-speed rail in President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
It concluded the village needed to adopt a merit-based pay raise system for nonunion employees and tweak pay grades for both lower level and mid-level jobs, among other recommendations. The village is considering privatization of several village departments, refinancing bond payments, cutting travel expenses, laying off 11 firefighters and, possibly, requiring retired employees to pay a portion of their health care premiums, which the village now covers at 100 percent-a rare perk indeed.
One-time Berwyn alderman Michael Phelan filed a battery and malicious prosecution suit Monday against Wal-Mart and its security staff at the Forest Park store in connection with a year-old incident.
It was a not-so-sweet Tweet about a Chicago apartment.
So Horizon Group Management LLC filed a libel lawsuit Monday against former tenant Amanda Bonnen, claiming one of her alleged Twitter posts “maliciously and wrongfully” slammed her apartment at 4242 N. Sheridan and the company managing it.
* Mayor Richard Daley appoints Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado to replace Ald. Billy Ocasio
Daley took issue with reporters who asked him if he had snubbed Ocasio by not picking his wife.
“Why did I pick Roberto Maldonado? That is the question,” Daley said. “And I picked him because of experience, his commitment, his working with people, his private-sector as well public-sector [experience].”
Pointing to Maldonado’s role in founding the first Hispanic-owned mortgage brokerage firm in the Midwest, Daley said, “In the Puerto Rican community, we forget there’s many, many entrepreneurs, professional people. There are all types of small businesses. … There’s a large entrepreneurship in that community that people don’t realize.”
Although Todd Stroger and Bill Beavers moved from the City Council to the County Board in recent years, Maldonado said he relishes the move in the other direction, which comes with a $25,556 pay raise.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley appointed Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, a Democrat from Chicago, alderman of the 26th Ward, and the city council is expected to approve the appointment Wednesday. That means Maldonado won’t be around for the county board’s next meeting, Sept. 1, when it must consider overriding Stroger’s veto of a half-percentage-point sales tax cut.
* This has to be one of most hilarious things I’ve read in a very long time.
From the publisher’s description of Rod Blagojevich’s new book over at Amazon…
Product Description
THE GOVERNOR provides the most comprehensive look to date at the life of a twice-elected public official in the notoriously complicated world of Illinois politics. We take a tour through the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago, a city of great ethnic diversity, and see firsthand how those divides can evolve into cabals that rival anything found on the national political scene.
We follow the governor as he is awakened early one morning – his young daughter sleeping peacefully beside him – and unceremoniously arrested by FBI agents without knowing the charges being brought against him. We see the harsh glare of the spotlight, the media whirlwind already staking out his home and family, rushing to judgment before even the governor himself knew what crimes he’d been accused of committing. We follow him through the maze of political conspiracies that threaten to unseat and impeach the governor of the fifth largest state in the U.S. – forces brought to light by the ambition of an attorney general and the greed of her Democratic State Party Chairman father – as well as the zeal of a federal prosecutor and the manipulations of a disloyal lieutenant governor.
The behind-the-scenes workings to fill the Senate seat vacated by the most popular President-elect in decades becomes something much more incendiary when wiretapped conversations are used by authorities to commit the arrest. But, as the governor soon learns, those tapes are not allowed to be played at his impeachment hearings in the House or Senate. What is on those tapes? And why will the prosecution not let them be heard if they were the primary factor in initiating the arrest that started this political scandal in the first place?
Quoting from sources as diverse as Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics to Aeschylus , Shakespeare to The Purpose Driven Life, THE GOVERNOR provides not just an inside look at politics on a state and national level but a treatise on the proper place of government in the everyday lives of its people.
It is a mandate for healthcare reform, which the governor feels is the civil rights issue of our lifetime. It is a clarion cry, remarkably, against cynicism in modern governing and a return to a more thoughtful and informed sense of government that views its state budgets as “moral documents.” It is a lament against the current state of the political landscape, one that too often is wracked by scandal and interwoven with a media-driven culture obsessed with scandal and snap judgments.
And it is a proclamation that one man will not be silenced, that his side of the story must be heard and that the fight for American liberties and freedom must sometimes occur within its own borders.
The book, according to an advertisement in The New York Times Book Review on Sunday, “pulls the curtain back on the shadowed world of politics and exposes the conspiracies and transgressions that so often compromise the basic tenet of American life: with liberty and justice for all. It is a proclamation that the governor’s side of the story must be heard. And that the fight for American liberties and freedom must sometimes occur within its own borders.”
An image of the book’s jacket in that ad states: “At last, the truth behind the political scandal that continues to rock the nation.”
The truth from Rod Blagojevich? Really? This I gotta see.
* From an e-mail sent today by the “Hynes campaign team” to supporters…
Dear Friends,
That didn’t take long. With little more than six months until the primary election and the field for the gubernatorial race yet to be settled, Pat Quinn has launched a negative, misleading attack against Dan.
While Governor Quinn is entitled to his own opinion, he’s not entitled to his own facts. In the past six months, Comptroller Hynes sent Governor Quinn two letters outlining alternative sources of revenue and $1.2 billion in spending reductions. Instead of reading Dan’s letters Governor Quinn pushed for a 50% tax hike on the backs of working families. In a TV appearance yesterday, he falsely claimed Dan was a “no show” in the budget process.
Pat Quinn doesn’t get it. We deserve better from our Governor than the same old Blagojevich brand of politics. It’s time for leadership. That’s why we are writing to you today.
Sign up to volunteer now and help Dan send a message to the Governor that the time for politics as usual has ended. All across our state, Illinoisans are ready for new leadership that puts aside petty politics and is capable of moving our state forward. With your help we can build a better Illinois. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Most of this is rehashed from Friday’s back and forth, but there’s an added emphasis on Rod Blagojevich today, so it’s news I suppose.
Notice, though, that Hynes himself has not launched any of these attacks so far. Last Friday’s statement was made by Hynes’ campaign spokesman. Today’s is from the “campaign team,” whatever that is. We’re still waiting to hear from Hynes himself.
Quinn, at an event earlier today, said he was more “in to governing” than in considering the challenge posed by Hynes, the state’s three-term comptroller.
“In the last six months, that’s everything I’ve done is repairing the damage caused by my predecessor and by (Blagojevich’s predecessor, imprisoned former Republican Gov.) George Ryan,” Quinn said. “There’s a lot of damage that needs to be repaired.”
The Trib also quotes Sen. Dick Durbin as saying he’ll probably stay neutral in the primary.
* Commissioner Maldonado moves to the city council…
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has appointed Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado to replace outgoing Alderman Billy Ocasio in the 26th Ward.
Ocasio now works for Gov. Pat Quinn. He had asked Mayor Daley to appoint Rev. Wilfredo De Jesús to his seat, but that ran into loads of trouble, so he then asked Hizzoner to put his wife into the slot.
And now Maldonado will have to be replaced on the county board, hence our headline.
What does this mean for the override of Stroger’s sales tax rollback veto?
Maldonado voted for the rollback, and Daley’s brother was a prime mover behind the vote, so I’m guessing the commission gets another vote to override. But will an appointment happen within the required veto override time frame?
* By the way, I forgot all about posting this, so here’s Greg Hinz’s piece about Todd Stroger’s new campaign team…
Mr. Stroger retained Ray Harris and DeLane Adams, who recently went into the political consulting business after years working in organizing and intergovernmental relations (lobbying) for AFSCME. the big public employee union.
Mr. Harris conceded that Mr. Stroger, who has received about as bad of press as a public official can get, faces a challenge. “It’s not for the weak-hearted,” he joked.
But the incumbent also has a story to tell, Mr. Harris added. “There are a lot of positive things he’s done for the county.”
Julie Hamos To Announce Candidacy For Illinois’ 10th Congressional District
WHERE: Heller Nature Center, 2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park
WHEN: Tuesday, July 28, 12:30 PM
WHO: State Representative Julie Hamos and supporters: State Representative Elaine Nekritz; State Senator Susan Garrett; State Senator Jeff Schoenberg; State Representative Karen May; Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin; Lake County Commissioner Anne Bassi; Buffalo Grove Mayor Elliot Hartstein; Northfield Township Democratic Committeeman Mike Kreloff; and others.
Rep. Julie Hamos will launch her campaign for Congress in the 10th Congressional District and will also be available for individual press interviews immediately following the announcement event.
* 2:25 pm - Sen. Garrett just said she won’t be at the event tomorrow. She tried to be as diplomatic as possible during our conversation. Here’s what she said for the record…
“I did encourage Julie to run, and at some point in time I will be coming out with an official endorsement.”
The exchange represents an unusual early intensity in an evolving 2010 campaign — a season shortened by a February primary. The rhetoric also provides an indication where each campaign is headed: Quinn is questioning Hynes’ leadership from a lower-level statewide office, and Hynes is tying Quinn to the scandal-tainted Blagojevich.
Gov. Pat Quinn is reviewing several major ethics proposals that lawmakers passed earlier this year and says he will decide whether to sign them into law or use his amendatory veto power to make changes “over the next few weeks.” […]
“Sometimes perfection, you may not be able to obtain it at this moment,” Quinn said [yesterday] at a news conference where he signed several veterans’ rights bills. “But if there is a very good piece of legislation I think it is better to move forward with that than not at all.”
Three years ago, when she conceived the idea of holding the Urban League’s national conference in Chicago this year, it’s unlikely Cheryle Jackson realized she’d be poised to run for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Barack Obama. […]
Her supporters for the 2010 race would prefer to keep the focus on those years and her time as an Amtrak vice president — rather than on the three years she served as communications director for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has since been indicted for alleged corruption in office.
If she runs, she is expected to argue that she joined Blagojevich’s administration when it looked promising and able to deliver on progressive issues — but that she left before his first term ended as controversies began to bubble to the surface.
In fact, under Jackson, the Urban League went so far as to file a lawsuit against the state — while Blagojevich was still governor — that argued that Illinois’ school funding system violates the civil rights of minority students by giving them an inferior education to those of children in wealthier areas. The suit is pending in Cook County Circuit Court.
A direct connection to Blagojevich (via contributions, contracts, etc.) was the only fatal connection during the 2008 legislative races. She has a direct connection. It may not kill off her primary chances, but it’ll be devastating in a general.
By the way, a lot of Statehouse reporters had trouble getting Jackson to respond to questions. I almost never did. Not sure why. We had a fairly decent relationship, as far as those sorts of relationships go.
Fundamental to restoring Illinois’ fiscal health is the ability to attract new businesses and keep existing businesses, Dillard said. Illinois is near the bottom of the barrel in job creation. Jobs are leaving Illinois for more favorable business conditions in surrounding states. “I’m going to chase down and court business everyday. We’re not going to demonize business like Rod Blagojevich.”
Dillard says Illinois over-regulates business and has an overly expensive workers’ compensation program. He would use tax incentives to lure firms here, but not cash.
A tax incentive is essentially cash, but whatever. More…
Dillard would also save money by changing Medicaid to a managed care system.
“Medicaid is the largest expenditure in the state. We spend more on Medicaid than education. We’re one of the few states without a managed care program. Folks can go to an emergency room for $3,000 in costs to the taxpayers,” he said. Managed care would concentrate more on preventive care and treatment by doctors in clinics.
Yes, we need to look at managed care, but what gets lost in all these stories is that Illinois currently has one of the lowest cost per patient ratios in the nation.
* Political quote of the day goes to Ethan Hastert, the son of former US House Speaker Denny Hastert who is now running for his dad’s old seat…
“I didn’t get into this race because my dad held the seat,” Ethan Hastert assured.
* And rank this as the oddest political story of the day. It’s from Broomfield, Colorado, which is apparently some sort of weird parallel universe to Illinois…
Two-time mayoral candidate Paul Madigan hopes the third time is the charm. […]
He will face incumbent Pat Quinn…
Madigan vs. Pat Quinn. But only in Colorado.
* Related…
* Redistricting Panel to Meet Wednesday: Illinois lawmakers are set to meet this week about how the state should draw boundaries for legislative districts.
* Money keeps flowing from Cook Co. contractors to board prez Stroger: Politically connected Cook County contractors chosen over lower bidders continue to cash in as their projects expand - and continue to contribute to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s campaign.
* Press release: The Young Democrats of America (YDA) will be holding their Biennial National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, August 5-9. The Convention will take place at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, and will host over 1000 young Democrats from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and US Territories.
* Rep. Mike Boland talks about running for lieutenant governor and the U of I scandal
* Go testify: Eight other lawmakers were invited to testify because of their leadership positions or their ties to clouted students, or both. Rep. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) is expected to appear next week. The others have declined, ducked or disappeared on vacation.
* Giannoulias’ announcement was pretty much what you would expect. Lots of Obama references and plenty of talk about his Greek-American immigrant parents…
With plentiful references to his “friend, mentor and inspiration,” President Obama, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
“A few years ago, Barack Obama inspired me to run for public office,” Giannoulias told a crowd of 200 at the Hilton Chicago on Sunday.
200? That appears to be smaller than Mark Kirk’s kick-off turnout.
After Giannoulias’ announcement to a couple of hundred supporters at a downtown hotel, state Republicans sought to tie him to fellow Democrat Blagojevich. They noted that his late father donated $10,000 to the disgraced former governor, that his brother was appointed to a state board by Blagojevich and that the family’s Broadway Bank was involved in loans with convicted Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser Antoin “Tony” Rezko. Politically, however, the state treasurer and Blagojevich were never close.
I doubt if anyone cares about that “Dad gave to Blagojevich” stuff. The bank is probably a much more potent issue. Still…
That bank, Broadway Bank, has brought Giannoulias some controversy over the years because of loans it made to organized crime-linked figures and convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. But Giannoulias himself did not make the loans and ended his ties to the family bank before becoming treasurer.
There are other bank problems directly involving Giannoulias, though.
The lost money in the college scholarship program will only be problematic if Giannoulias can’t recoup most of the cash. The SUV purchase with administrative funds will likely be a TV ad, but it’s pretty weak, considering the actual facts.
Giannoulias’ bid to tie himself to Obama may encapsulate a large share of the debate in the 2010 general election if he wins the Democratic nomination. Off-presidential-year federal elections are traditionally a measure of voter satisfaction with the White House, and just how the public perceives the state of the nation’s economy and recovery efforts is expected to be a predominant theme.
Giannoulias formed an exploratory committee in March that allowed him to already raise more than $1.8 million for the Senate campaign. He touted rules that prohibited employees, banks and contractors of the treasurer’s office to donate to his campaign and his refusal to accept corporate and federal lobbyist donations.
Giannoulias took a jab at Kirk Sunday, saying he was offering to “pledge reform with one hand while the other hand takes millions from corporate special interests and votes for the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place.”
“That’s not ‘independence,’” Giannoulias said. “That’s the same old Washington way. That’s the same tired politics that voters rejected in 2008 and that’s the same tired politics that we will defeat in 2010.”
Giannoulias will do all he can to paint Kirk as an Obama obstructionist and a DC “PAC-Man.”
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Kirk’s “F-” gun right voting record: Kirk is best known among gun owners and activists for his proposal last year to revive the federal “Assault Weapons Ban” after its sunset provision ended it in 2004. He’s rated “D” by the NRA (of whom he is said to have said “the NRA is more powerful than Al-Qaeda”) and endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership. His Gun Owners of America rating is a dismal “F-” grade.
* Former Harvey Alderman joins race for U.S. Senate in Republican Primary
* My syndicated newspaper column takes a depressing look at a depressing situation…
Moments after members of the Illinois State Board of Education voted to cut the board’s budget by a net $180 million last week, an activist group, Voices for Illinois Children, sent out an urgent e-mail to supporters.
The group sketched out the pain the cuts would cause (the net cut actually disguises a $389 million reduction to individual program lines). A 33 percent cut to early childhood programs, for example, could mean the loss of preschool for 30,000 children.
“This budget immediately erases five years of progress in early learning,” the group’s interim president was quoted as saying in the e-mail. Voices has an interim president because its founding president now is Gov. Pat Quinn’s chief of staff. The group was ecstatic when Jerry Stermer took Quinn’s top job, but the champagne bottles are long empty.
The Voices e-mail also pointed out that Quinn was given $1.2 billion in discretionary spending authority by the General Assembly, which, the group noted, Quinn could use to close that education funding gap.
A different organization, Illinois Action for Children, sent out a blast e-mail shortly after Voices did.
“Governor Quinn has the power and the moral authority to reinstate this funding, and we are calling on him to do that before it is too late for children and families in Illinois,” the group’s president demanded.
They’ll all have to get in line. Social service providers already have been eyeing Quinn’s $1.2 billion cash stash to patch their own budget holes created by the Legislature.
And they’re not alone, either. The General Assembly allowed Quinn to use the money for pretty much anything, including operations, so the employee unions may demand a piece of that $1.2 billion to reduce the number of threatened layoffs.
Actually, once word gets around about this discretionary authority, Quinn might wake up one morning very soon and wish he didn’t have it. That line of demanders will be long, angry and probably not very sympathetic about the governor’s Solomonic dilemma.
But that little pot of gold pales in comparison to the cuts which still have to be made.
Gov. Quinn also was given the authority (which he’ll need) to set aside up to $1.1 billion in state spending to fund a “contingency reserve.” Almost every aspect of state spending was included in the provision - except for the General Assembly and every constitutional officer besides the governor, of course. That means cuts.
The new budget law also requires the governor to make at least another $1 billion in unspecified cuts. More pain. The actual deficit is somewhere around $5 billion, so those two reduction items will only make up one part of the governor’s budget management headache.
And then there’s the alarming problem of a rapidly emptied state unemployment insurance trust fund that nobody has really dealt with as of yet. Right now, the state is borrowing from the federal government to replenish the fund - and piling up more crushing debt in the process. That’s not gonna look good to the credit rating agencies, which are fixing to whack Illinois with yet another downgrade.
And then there’s next year’s budget deficit that the governor has to take into consideration when spending money this year.
A couple of days after it demanded Quinn spend part of that $1.2 billion stash on education, Voices for Illinois Children released a report showing next year’s budget deficit will be at least $10.3 billion. That’s about what I’ve been saying for weeks. One-time revenue gimmicks and the federal stimulus package this year added up to more than $5 billion. And new spending next year - pensions and debt payments on the borrowing this year -adds almost $2 billion more. Plus, the state is carrying over a deficit from last year that won’t be paid this year, so that $3.2 billion gets added to the total.
Is your head spinning yet from all this red ink? Mine certainly is.
Maybe Quinn ought to just take that $1.2 billion and put it in the bank and save it for next year.
* Related…
* New Yorker: Fifty Ways to Kill the Recovery: If you came up with a list of obstacles to economic recovery in this country, it would include all the usual suspects—our still weak banking system, falling house prices, overindebted consumers, cautious companies. But here are fifty culprits you might not have thought of: the states.
* Without agencies’ help, many face a harder future: During the last year, the program served more than 500 severely mentally ill clients just when they need it most: as they are re-entering the real world. The risk of returning to prisons and psychiatric hospitals is highest within the first 60 days of discharge, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The non-profit Thresholds does not have the $1.2 million necessary for the program to stay afloat, said Tony Zipple, CEO of the agency, which serves Cook, McHenry and Kankakee Counties.
* Facing tide of red ink, state cuts services to the most vulnerable: Illinois might have a working budget in place, but there is a broader story behind the numbers: Real people are hurting. If they have not lost care, they worry the thin reed of stability provided by non-profit, community-based organizations will disappear without state support. Cuts at social service agencies are tearing holes into safety nets for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
* DeKalb Social Service Provider: I Have To “Pull The Plug”
* Charter school funding wiped out - Education budget cuts eliminate financial incentive for District 150
* Education advocates begrudge budget cuts - Early childhood program loses $400 million in funding
But Visa doesn’t allow for customers to be charged extra fees for using their cards in face-to-face purchases.
“Visa does not allow merchants to charge consumers a fee for using a Visa card because we do not believe that cardholders should be penalized for using their cards,” a company statement read. “Checkout fees on purchases are harmful to consumers and unfairly shift the cost of electronic payments onto consumers.”
Illinois’ economic downturn is easing as home sales stabilize and factory orders start to recover, but lingering unemployment points to a weaker-than-expected recovery next year, according to a new forecast.
Moody’s Economy.com now foresees a 1.4% decline in gross state product for 2009, better than the 2.1% decline the Pennsylvania-based firm predicted earlier in the year. It’s also better than the 2.7% drop Economy.com forecasts for the national economy.
“Things are not going to be getting significantly better, but they are not going to be getting worse,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist at Economy.com.
The latest figures from the Illinois Employment Security Department showed the unemployment rate rose to 11.3 percent in the Chicago metropolitan area in June from 10.7 percent in May.
Meanwhile, the median length of time workers were unemployed was more than four months, and nearly 4.4 million of the unemployed had been out of work for more than six months.
Against that backdrop, a recent survey from Country Financial found that 44 percent of Chicago residents and 49 percent of U.S. residents said they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills on time if they went more than one month between jobs.
Belvidere’s 3.7-million-square-foot Chrysler auto assembly plant resumes production Monday after a nearly two-month break.
About 1,700 workers who underwent three days of training earlier this month are expected to return — welcome news for a Boone County economy hit by the troubles of the auto industry.
The Ford factory is one of two remaining auto-assembly plants in the area, alongside Chrysler’s Belvidere plant, and it’s an important part of an ever-shrinking Chicago manufacturing economy. Despite a series of slow-selling vehicles produced there in recent years, Ford has continued to invest in the plant at 12600 S. Torrence Ave., which analysts say is one of the company’s more efficient production facilities, despite opening 85 years ago. Five years ago, the city and state offered $100 million in incentives that paved the way for construction of a nearby supplier park on 126th Street.
Ms. Allman declined to speculate on future employment. But as recently as November, the plant employed more than 2,000 workers in two shifts. Employment fell after an earlier Taurus model was discontinued and the deepening recession killed off demand for new cars.
The $1 billion clunker program — also known as the Car Allowance Rebate System — offers $3,500 to people who trade in cars that get less than 18 mpg and buy a new vehicle getting at least 22 mpg. Folks who buy a new car that gets at least 10 mpg more than their trade-in receive a $4,500 rebate. The clunkers are crushed for scrap metal.
Interest rates will remain fixed unless a consumer is 60 days delinquent on a payment. If a payee is delinquent and the rate jumps, it will be reinstated to the fixed amount if the payee sustains at least a six-month period of meeting the new payment obligations, Rose said.
Credit card companies cannot send bills later than 21 days before the due date. Service fees will be eliminated for online or phone payments. And credit cards must provide at least 45 days of notice prior to raising the interest rate.
And adults 21 and younger who apply for a card will have to show proof of income or have someone co-sign for them, Rose said.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has signed off on cleanups of about 500 sites since the late 1990s. More than 400 polluted locations remain, though few neighbors may know it. Most are in Chicago and its suburbs.
At more than two dozen of these sites, state records show, the dry cleaning solvent threatens nearby water wells and residential areas. The most infamous example is in south suburban Crestwood, where village officials secretly drew water from a contaminated well for more than two decades.[…]
To help clean up the contamination, the dry cleaning industry persuaded state lawmakers a decade ago to create an insurance fund financed by annual licenses and fees on the amount of perc used. The fund is expected to spend $2.75 million this year to help scour pollution from about 100 sites.
More money could have been earmarked, but last fall former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and legislative leaders took $2 million out of the fund to help balance the state budget.
Funds set aside to clean up seven Exelon Corp. nuclear plant sites face a shortfall of more than $1 billion after last year’s market meltdown.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has challenged Chicago-based Exelon to respond to shortfalls in clean-up funds for the seven sites, which are grouped in four Illinois locations. The NRC could order Exelon to pump cash into the funds if it decides that is required to keep funding on track.
The four nuclear stations are Braidwood in Will County; Byron, 90 miles west of Chicago; LaSalle, about 75 miles southwest of Chicago, and Clinton, in central Illinois.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is seeking legal action against the owner of two properties on Springfield’s far north end for alleged open dumping and illegal management of used tires.
A human bone was found on the ground at a far south suburban cemetery, but officials can’t say whether the situation mirrors the alleged grave-reselling scheme at Burr Oak Cemetery.
People rushed to Mt. Glenwood Memorial Gardens South Cemetery in the south suburbs today to check on grave sites after hearing that a human bone was found on the ground there.
Officer Abraham Yasin sued the Cook County sheriff’s office in 2007, saying he was constantly targeted by fellow officers with slurs such as “camel jockey,” “bin Laden,” and “shoe bomber” — over the the radio and via graffiti scrawled on his locker.[…]
The sheriff’s office said it resolved four of seven issues Yasin brought to his bosses. “Each was addressed quickly, and he thanked us each time,” the office said in a statement.
Three other incidents, including the graffiti on the locker, were investigated without discovering who was responsible, the statement said.
* Where’s Aaron? Not behind the barn smokin’ a Jay, that’s for sure
While the rest of America (particularly law enforcement) is backing away from anti-marijuana laws, there’s some who refuse to give up the fight: The Congressional Anti-Cannabis Caucus.
According to the Desert News, the group pushes four core initiatives:
1. Stopping drug use before it starts through education and community action;
2. Healing drug users;
3. Disrupting the narcotics market; and
4. Stringent narcotics enforcement.
So far, the Congressional Anti-Cannabis Caucus has only eight members: Dan Burton & Mark Souder of Indiana, Jim Jordan & Michael Turner of Ohio, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Darrell Issa of California, Aaron Schock of Illinois, and, the aforementioned, John Mica of Florida.
“We’ve been trying all day to line up the 14 votes for a special meeting, but everybody’s traveling,” Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica said. “We may have to wait until Sept. 1. I think we’re going to get 14 votes. I think he is engaging in a futile act.'’
Fourteen co-sponsors. That’s how many Cook County Board members are so disturbed by dying jobs and businesses that they decided to cut in half a sales tax hike that smacks poor citizens hardest. Signing on as co-sponsors of this tax rollback was a courageous act for some of the Cook County 14. So all of us ought to offer our thanks and congrats to Forrest Claypool, Earlean Collins, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Elizabeth Doody Gorman, Gregg Goslin, Roberto Maldonado, Joan Patricia Murphy, Tony Peraica, Tim Schneider, Pete Silvestri, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin.
The Council doesn’t care that the proposed Chatham store would employ up to 500 workers. Wal-Mart says its Chicago area stores pay an average hourly wage of $12.05 for associates (excluding managers).
Aldermen could give a whit that the multimillion-dollar West Side Wal-Mart store was built by an African-American female general contractor, with 57 percent of all the subcontracts going to women and minority-owned firms.
They sneeze at the other rich bennies Wal-Mart claims it has brought to Chicago: Its West Side store generated $10 million in new tax revenues in its first two years, and 14 new minority-owned Chicago vendors have gotten their products into Chicago area stores.
Turning Bloomingdale Trail into a 2.7 mile-linear park for walkers and bicyclists got a little closer to reality this month, when the city selected ARUP North America to begin preliminary design and engineering work.[…]
The second design portion will handle architectural and engineering details and take another year. The city still needs at least $41 million in construction funding, and is negotiating for purchase of the land from Canadian Pacific Railway. With all these pieces left to finish, it could be “several years” before the trail is done, Steele said.
If the southwest suburban teacher could afford to buy two condos in one year, how did City Hall find that he qualified to buy any condo subsidized by Chicago taxpayers? […]
City housing officials approved Twardy’s application, saying he was making less than 90 percent of the area’s median income. […]
City officials say there was nothing to keep Twardy — or anyone else — from buying more than one affordable housing unit, as long as they met the city’s income limits.
“No rules or laws were broken when the contracts for these purchases were signed,” says Molly Sullivan, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Community Development. “At the time … we did not have in place the same sorts of policies we have in place today.
Since then, some of the original 16,800 families have returned or settled elsewhere. But thousands have not because new or rehabbed units are not ready yet.
The CHA was obliged to keep up with these families, but now it can’t find 3,200 of them. […]
The CHA can’t offer apartments to anyone on its wait list — an out-dated list of 14,000 names — until all interested relocated residents are housed.
No one wants the CHA to deny other deserving families homes because former residents haven’t responded to the CHA’s letters and calls. And the CHA shouldn’t continue spending excessively to find these families — the CHA paid a company $745,000 in the last year to hunt for them.
Legislation is likely to be introduced again by state Rep. William Black, a Danville Republican, that would create a misdemeanor category for negligent vehicular homicide. It could result in a prison term of one year and a maximum fine of $2,500. Pyke reported that Black pushed for the bill after a 25-year-old bicyclist was killed in Urbana by a driver who went off the road while downloading ring tones on her cell phone. She was only charged with improper lane usage.
We would support such a bill and we also support Secretary of State Jesse White’s call for a two-year study into distracted driving.
The city claims that since red-light cameras were installed at the intersection of North Aurora Road and Route 59, there has been a 33 percent reduction in crashes with injuries.
The suburb also found an 8 percent reduction in rear-end crashes. That counters the complaints of red-light camera opponents who say the cameras increase rear-end crashes because people brake suddenly to avoid a $100 ticket.
Only 10 percent of the approximately 2.8 million parking tickets issued each year in Chicago are contested. But of those contested, over half are dismissed, says Sheldon Zeiger, a lawyer and former parking enforcement hearing officer and former administrative law officer in the Department of Administrative Hearings.
The head of the CTA bus drivers union said drivers can’t be expected to defend passengers from sexual harassment without proper backup from transit managers and Chicago Police.
Information about state bridge inspections is expected to be posted on the Internet next month. While complete inspection reports showing the condition of state bridges won’t be available, officials say the information being compiled will offer motorists a snapshot of the status of a bridge.
* This should go live at about 10:30 Sunday morning. The announcement is scheduled for 11 o’clock. If it doesn’t work for whatever reason, click here….
We follow the governor as he is awakened early one morning – his young daughter sleeping peacefully beside him – and unceremoniously arrested by FBI agents without knowing the charges being brought against him. We see the harsh glare of the spotlight, the media whirlwind already staking out his home and family, rushing to judgment before even the governor himself knew what crimes he’d been accused of committing. We follow him through the maze of political conspiracies that threaten to unseat and impeach the governor of the fifth largest state in the U.S. – forces brought to light by the ambition of an attorney general and the greed of her Democratic State Party Chairman father – as well as the zeal of a federal prosecutor and the manipulations of a disloyal lieutenant governor.
