* 3:42 pm - Subscribers have known about this since September 15th. From a press release…
On the eve of the first public gubernatorial campaign debate, former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar today endorsed Bill Brady for Governor, saying Brady will restore fiscal discipline to manage the state budget, reverse out-of-control spending that threatens the state’s financial solvency, and will support economic policies designed to bring greater promise and prosperity back to Illinois.
“Bill Brady is the candidate most qualified to change the reckless fiscal attitudes we’ve seen for too long in Springfield,” said Edgar, the state’s 38th Governor. “From discussing this with him, I know he will stop spending more money than the state takes in and bring fiscal responsibility back to state government. As a businessman, he understands the impact of state budget policy on job creation and will put in place policies that once again encourage business investment in our state.”
“We need a change in Illinois government, and Bill Brady will bring that change. I strongly endorse Bill Brady for Governor,” he said.
Brady said he’s honored to have Edgar’s endorsement, and pledged the same fortitude as the former Governor in addressing severe budget challenges. Edgar served two terms as Governor from 1991-1999 before retiring from elected office. He inherited a $1 billion state budget deficit and when he left office, the state had a checkbook balance of $1.5 billion.
“If I am fortunate enough to be elected Governor, I will follow the example set by Governor Edgar,” Brady said. “He prioritized and cut state spending, curbed programs that were not producing the needed results, and returned fiscal discipline to Illinois government.”
Edgar is the latest in a series of recent Brady endorsements. Others include the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, ABATE, and former Governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.
Neither man is running for mayor, so we’ll see if the Chicago media covers it. Maybe they’ll ask Edgar if he’s endorsing Rahm, too.
Interesting that there was no big public event, however.
She’s done lots of good stuff. It’s just that nobody’s gonna get through that gigantic list.
…Adding more… My favorite part is the end…
So! I hope you can appreciate the work that one can do as your attorney general, and believe that I have done a good job serving as your attorney general.
She sounded just like her father there.
…Adding still more… I think this is one of those five-minute “candidate talking to the people” videos for ABC7. They’re popping up all over the place lately. This one was the most “fun,” however.
…Adding still more… Well, they took the darned video down. Too bad. It was a classic. Wish I had saved it.
* Pulse Opinion Research just did a statewide survey of 1,000 likely voters on September 25th for Fox News. Governor…
Bill Brady 46%
Pat Quinn 36%
Rich Whitney 8%
Some other candidate 1%
Not sure 9%
US Senate…
Mark Kirk 42%
Alexi Giannoulias 40%
LeAlan Jones 7%
Some other candidate 2%
Not sure 9%
Just like Rasmussen, they didn’t include the Libertarian Party candidates and millionaire Scott Lee Cohen. These people are goofballs. There’s just no other way to say it.
Those xtabs show Alexi Giannoulias beating Mark Kirk with women 42-38, while Bill Brady is leading Pat Quinn with women 44-36. There’s just no excuse for that poor showing by Quinn. He simply doesn’t know what he’s doing. And this is from TPM…
The internals of the poll show both Obama and McCain voters from 2008 supporting [Green Party US Senate nominee LeAlan Jones] in the same proportions, suggesting that support for him could be more a matter of pure protest vote as opposed to support being siphoned from Democrats.
The same is not true with the governor’s race. Green Party nominee Rich Whitney is getting 9 percent of Obama’s voters, but just 5 percent of McCain’s voters. He is, however, taking 6 percent from both Republicans and Democrats. He’s also getting 10 percent from those making more than $60K and 11 percent of people who say they are moderates.
* More toplines…
* Regardless of how you plan to vote, is Alexi Giannoulias honest and
trustworthy?
25% Yes
34% No
41% Not sure
* Regardless of how you plan to vote, is Mark Kirk honest and trustworthy?
18% Yes
41% No
42% Not sure
That’s a big reason why Kirk hasn’t yet put this away.
* As you already know, Rasmussen released its US Senate poll last week. In the past, they have always polled the governor’s race whenever they’ve polled the Senate race. This time, though, they say they didn’t do it. Odd. Anyway, we won’t have new gubernatorial numbers from them until next week.
Also, we successfully Freeped PPP’s site last week and their new Illinois poll numbers will start rolling out tomorrow I’m told.
* Meanwhile, the gubernatorial candidates will debate tomorrow at the Union League Club. We probably won’t have live video unless I can rig up a quickie mirror site, but we will have raw video right after the debate ends.
* Meanwhile, Illinois continues to drown in red ink. From the Tribune…
All the providers want is what the state owes them, but as Illinois faces a $4.6 billion backlog in bills and no money to pay them, most often what they get is just enough to survive. Enough to meet the next payroll, keep the doors open for one more month and make payments on loans keeping them afloat as they wait for the state to make good.
“Every day is a triage situation,” said comptroller spokeswoman Carol Knowles. “There is a limited pot of money.”
And the situation isn’t getting any better. Knowles said the state has bills dating as far back as seven months and the backlog is likely to “worsen during the next several months.” Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director, David Vaught, has acknowledged the state will end the year where it started — owing nearly $6 billion in unpaid bills.
And it’s having a ripple effect on employment…
The Chicago-based nonprofit [A Safe Haven] has had to cut services and lay off workers
* Rep. David Miller, the Democrats’ comptroller nominee, outlined his proposal to deal with the problem if he’s elected…
Miller, a dentist from Lynwood, told the Tribune editorial board he would examine the backlog and move those owed money up in the line if they were about to go out of business and provide a unique service in the region, such as the only health clinic in a Chicago neighborhood or downstate Illinois county.
But Judy Baar Topinka didn’t approve of the plan…
“You can’t just group them into little sections of the state. That is social engineering, and that is unfair,” said Topinka, who lost a bid for governor against Democrat Rod Blagojevich in 2006.
Her idea…
Topinka said she would aim to provide more consistency in how the bills are paid so providers could count on them, even if they are months late. She said she would target human service providers to be up first after the state’s payroll and loan repayments are made under state law.
“You start with getting at those who are dealing with our most vulnerable citizens and try and give them something — if nothing else — predictability,” Topinka said.
Frankly, I think Miller’s idea is superior. And not just because he’s my cousin.
Newly released U.S. Census Bureau figures show the percentage of Illinois children with health insurance grew between 2008 and 2009. But about 5 percent of Illinois children were still uninsured last year.
The national average is 9 percent. But if the Republicans win control and make good on their promise to severely roll back Medicaid coverage, we could see that number creep up.
* Bill Brady made a promise to Rockton voters this week that he can’t possibly keep…
“At one point in time this was the tool and dye capital of the world practically and we have an opportunity to move back to that,” says Brady
Yes, all will be flowers and butterflies if Bill Brady is elected. China, Mexico and India will no longer exist and we’ll be just peachy. Keep in mind, however, that the plant he was speaking at moved into Illinois last year.
* Brady also made the same argument that many make about Indiana…
But other states are snatching our companies; Brady said Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s governor, comes to Chicago four times a year to recruit businesses to the Hoosier state.
Indiana’s pool of workers shrank at a faster rate than did those of other states during the national recession, an expert told a committee of legislators and economic development officials Monday.
Graham Toft, of Growth Economics Inc., said this statistic is hurting Indiana’s recovery efforts. […]
Tuft said Indiana’s workforce peaked in January 2009 and since has dropped 140,000 workers – even briefly falling below levels from the 1990s.
“For some reason or another, experienced Hoosier workers are choosing not to stay in the workforce,” Tuft said, noting similar reductions haven’t been seen in other states.
As surrounding states are seeing their unemployment rates drop, Indiana’s remains unchanged at 10.2% — the same as it was a year ago.
Plus, we just beat them out on the Navistar deal.
* Illinois Statehouse News has a piece today about Pat Quinn’s Downstate troubles and his recent state excursions throughout the region cutting ribbons on new construction programs. David Yepsen of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale comments…
Yepsen said it is going to be “a tough year for Democrats,” especially downstate. He says Quinn’s visits indicate the Democrat’s commitment to that region.
“He could either write off the area or redouble his efforts here,” Yepsen said. “And it looks like he is doubling down.”
If Quinn’s “campaign through governance” is effective, it could spell trouble for Brady.
“Brady needs a good margin,” Yepsen said. “In traditional Illinois elections, the Republican needs to do well downstate and in the suburbs.”
Brady is so far ahead in the region and has so outworked Quinn Downstate that it’ll take a miracle to run the governor’s fortunes around in that region. And I do mean a miracle. A few ribbon cutting ceremonies won’t, um, cut it. And if the governor truly was “doubling down,” he’d be spending campaign money in the region and developing a Downstate message. Right now, his Downstate message is the same as his Chicago message, and that isn’t going to work.
* For some reason or another, the Peoria Journal-Star thinks this election could be more like 1990 than 1994. To prove their point, they re-ran one of their 1990 editorials today, which predicted, among other things, that Democratic US Sen. Paul Simon could be unseated by anti-incumbent fever.
Perhaps they should be clued in a bit…
* President George HW Bush’s average approval rating in October of 1990: 57%
* President Barack Obama’s current average approval rating: 45%
* Number of US House seats lost by the president’s party in 1990: 8
* Number of US Senate seats lost by the president’s party in 1990: 1
Unless literally everybody in the world is wrong, then, no, this isn’t another 1990. Far from it.
* Related…
* Bill Brady Could Lift Death Penalty Moratorium If Elected
* Cohen Asks Voters for Chance to Prove He Can Improve State
* Candidates for Illinois Governor and Lieutenant Governor stop in Rockford
* We have a new TV ad in the US Senate race. Rate it…
Script…
Two candidates.
Mark Kirk: born in Champaign, attended college in Carlinville with mainstream Illinois values.
Kirk is a “deficit hawk” who’s voted to cut taxes 40 times.
Chicago politician Alexi Giannoulias pushes for more spending…bigger government…promises to raise taxes to pay for it.
I’m Mark Kirk and I approved this message because I will spend less, tax less, and borrow less to put Illinois back to work.
Sweet is right that Kirk is attempting to build his lead among Downstate voters with this ad, among other things.
* Alexi Giannoulias’ ad spending has caught some folks by surprise. He ended the last quarter with about a million dollars on hand, but he’s spending money like he has a lot of it. And the national Dems have jumped in big…
POLITICO has learned that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has placed a $400,000 ad buy for the second week in a row in Illinois to boost Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias’s bid against Republican Mark Kirk.
The two consecutive media buys, coupled with President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he will make a second fundraising stop for Giannoulias in October, indicate the party’s continuing faith that it can keep hold of the seat that Obama vacated in his move to the White House. With almost a dozen Democrat-held seats in play this November, the party has to choose which races will get its financial assistance for the remainder of the campaign.
Nonetheless, national Democrats’ latest investment on Giannoulias’s behalf is less than some of the other ad buys for the Illinois Senate race so far – especially in the pricey Windy City media market. The DSCC has bought $250,000 worth of ad time in Chicago this week, compared to the Kirk campaign’s $470,000 ad buy in the same market last week. Giannoulias’ campaign put up about $450,000 worth of ads in the Chicago market last week.
A spokesman for American Crossroads, the cash-flush independent expenditure supportive of GOP candidates, confirmed it purchased a weeklong ad buy totaling $482,000 statewide last week.
You’d never know it from the avalanche of TV ads, direct-mail pieces and phone calls that voters will receive in October, but most campaigns have only another week or two to change the likely outcome of their contests.
Sure, the midterm elections are still five weeks away, but the combination of early voting in many states and the difficulty of cutting through the coming clutter means that the best opportunity for campaigns to change voter attitudes is quickly coming to an end. […]
Moreover, after weeks of advertising, voters already know the fundamental messages of the campaigns. A campaign trailing on Oct. 1 better have some killer new information in its October advertising if it is going to get attention from increasingly cynical voters. […]
A few elections will likely turn on late campaign developments, possibly an ad, a weak debate performance or an issue introduced at the last minute. And a big national news story can obviously have a significant effect on November’s results.
But for most races, the die will be cast around the beginning of October. Either the early ads changed opinion or they didn’t. And that is why the last month of most campaigns is actually less decisive than you may think it is.
My consulting firm participated in a study several years ago that showed that one door to door contact within 72 hours of Election Day increased the propensity to vote by 12.5%. A second one in the same period increased turnout almost as much.
* The Tribune has posted its US Senate candidate questionnaires online…
Is this sort of blast e-mail to reporters really all that helpful?
Good morning –
In reporting on failed mob banker Alexi Giannoulias’ fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden in New York City today, please consider the following response from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC):
“Help from Washington won’t save Alexi Giannoulias from his own record as a failed mob banker, and it won’t change the fact that his risky behavior led to the loss of millions of dollars in the state’s college savings program and the downfall of his own family’s business. Illinois voters deserve a U.S. Senator who will restore accountability, transparency, and respect to this office – not another Blagojevich crony who wants to raise taxes for families and small businesses, increase spending, and loaned millions of dollars to known criminals.” – Amber Marchand, NRSC Press Secretary
Sheesh.
* Related…
* Kirk and Giannoulias’ Moms Involved in Their Campaigns
* The Chicago media is bound and determined to cover every rumor, every possible angle, every twist and microscopic turn of the Great Rahm Emanuel’s triumphant return to Chicago…
* Sweet: Rahm might quit on Friday to launch mayoral bid
Meanwhile, there are no articles on the governor’s campaign in the city’s news media today. No articles on the US Senate campaign. Nocolumns. Noeditorials. The general election is five weeks from today.
They are amusing themselves to death with this media frenzy of theirs. It really is unseemly.
* The frenzy is so bad they’re even recycling month-old stories about Emil Jones, for crying out loud…
Emil Jones Jr., the Chicago Democrat who retired more than a year ago as Illinois Senate president, said today that supporters and friends have begun collecting signatures on his behalf for a possible mayoral run.
In an interview with the Tribune, Jones said he is still “just looking” at getting into the contest to succeed Mayor Richard Daley, who is not running for re-election.
“A lot of my supporters want me to run,” Jones said. “I enjoy my retirement, but I will only run if conditions are right.”
When asked what those conditions are, Jones said, “I’m not going to tell you right now.”
Everybody who believes that Emil Jones will actually run for mayor, please, raise your hands. Anybody? Hello? Bueller?
* And while few think that state Sen. Rickey Hendon is a “serious” mayoral candidate, he said yesterday that he’s in the race to stay.
Hendon won every black Chicago ward in the lt. governor’s primary, despite running against Art Turner, who was endorsed by both Chicago newspapers, some bigtime labor unions and Personal PAC. Now, I might agree that Hendon ain’t exactly mayoral material, but he has long championed issues that truly resonate out there. Parking meters, red light cameras, free rides for seniors, the foreclosure crisis, etc. Remember his radio ad? Again, not exactly mayoral material, but he hit the, um, right notes for his community…
Love them or not, Hendon and Sen. James Meeks are the only two candidates out there with definable public policy stands. If anyone thinks that Rahm Emanuel’s campaign will be anything more than safe, poll-tested bromides they’re fooling themselves. But he’s the superstar, so his every tiny move is somehow news. Kinda like when the Beatles used to get the girls screaming at their concerts when they’d just shake their legs a little bit…
For those not old enough to appreciate that clip, watch how these two little girls react to getting Justin Bieber concert tix from their parents for a more up to date example.
The overall vacancy rate fell to 17.0% from 17.3% in the second quarter, which was the highest in more than four years, according to data from CB Richard Ellis Inc.
The rate could edge higher again, but is expected to slowly start moving landlords’ way after a staggering upward run when rates climbed more than 5 percentage points in a two-year window after hitting 11.9% in the third quarter of 2008. New construction has since halted, easing supply concerns, and many companies have already made their big recession headcount cuts and are no longer shedding office space.
* ‘Burnham Plan II’ up for final vote — and may be just as big as original
At its core, the plan represents one gigantic bet that a region often fractured with rivalries has grown up, that it is willing to put aside internal wars and unite behind some sensible goals to help metropolitan Chicago compete against other global centers that lately have been literally eating our lunch.
In that vein, it calls for keeping zoning power local but consolidating local governments and government functions to keep costs down. It urges fewer big-lot homes but more public park space — “People are willing to give up part of their backyard, but only in exchange for parks,” CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn says — and less raiding of jobs and tax revenue by town against town.
“I think they are very interested — China, Korea, Japan, the Middle East — yes,” Daley said today when asked if business people he met in China and South Korea might fund the effort. “There are many, many interests. You have to have a high-speed train from the international airport downtown. What that would do is that would rebuild our commercial market and our hospitality industry.”
With the release of a new film called “Waiting for Superman,” an extended school year with more core instruction for students has jumped to the forefront for many educators, reformers and policymakers. The documentary on the state of America’s public schools was done by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed “An Inconvenient Truth.”
America’s top policymaker, President Barack Obama, addressed the issue in an interview broadcast nationally Monday, during discussion of America’s decreasing educational competitiveness around the world.
In Illinois, and even locally, there are those who would agree with Obama’s assessment that the idea of a longer school year “makes sense.”
State Rep. Rich Myers, R-Colchester, announced Monday he is beginning the next phase of his treatment for prostate cancer.
He said he will continue to provide constituent services, as well as attend meetings and events within the district. His treatment schedule may interfere with these activities from time to time, but he is “confident his constituents will understand.”
As news broke of Quaal’s death, it also was learned that 1970s and ’80s overnight WGN-AM host Jay Andres had died Monday morning of heart failure, surrounded by his wife, Virginia, and other family at his home in Sebastopol, Calif. Andres (born Joseph Hilbert Andres) was 86, just weeks shy of his next birthday.
For example, Schillerstrom said the board has approved a $70 million long-term infrastructure program that will create thousands of jobs, ease traffic congestion, reduce flooding and improve services to county residents.
Meanwhile, the county has unveiled a proposed spending plan for next year “that continues our commitment to sound long-term financial planning,” Schillerstrom said. The nearly $460 million budget is $5.4 million below last year’s spending plan.
“Unlike the state, our fiscal year 2011 budget reflects the belt-tightening but maintains established programs and services,” Schillerstrom said. “It is balanced and it does not ask the taxpayers for more money.”
Cook County Circuit Judge Mark Ballard on Monday issued an order stating that each time Price accepted a new position he “ipso facto” resigned from the previously held post.
That means Price, who was sworn in as a member of the Harvey School District 152 Board on May 9, 2007, vacated that position when he assumed the post of Harvey alderman on May 14, 2007.
The Village Board will consider Tuesday a 4.4 percent reduction to the 2010 property tax levy. In a double dip of potentially good news, residents could also see their garbage fees and vehicle stickers eliminated if the proposal is approved.
Village officials are following through on promises made to residents when they established a property tax last year for the first time in the village’s history. Because sales and hotel taxes are higher than expected, officials said Monday that they believe they can make ends meet with less revenue.
Information in the ITEF press release included a “Top 50” list of public school salaries and pensions. The top salary listed is Dr. Peter Flynn, the Freeport School District 145 superintendent, who is paid an annual salary of $187,973. The top annual pension was another District 145 administrator, totaling $115,508.76.
Powell, 25, a 2003 graduate of Pleasant Plains High School, was among nine service members who died Sept. 21 in a helicopter crash during combat operations in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.
