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Roll Call looks at Illinois

Wednesday, Mar 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Stu Rothenberg opines in Roll Call about whether it’s time for a political comeback by the Illinois Republicans (subscription only). Rothenberg looked at the prospects for a comeback by the out of power parties in three big states, Ohio, New Jersey and Illinois.

Of the three big states, Illinois looks like the least likely to turn around anytime soon.

The state GOP is in shambles, though newly elected state party Chairman Andy McKenna brings some much-needed respectability. Still, he isn’t likely to save it any more than a Band-Aid is likely to cure pneumonia.

The state party is deeply divided along ideological grounds, with outspoken conservatives apparently preferring the election of Democrats to moderate Republicans. […]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has taken criticism recently for alleged ethical lapses, and Illinois’ financial position is not good. Further problems could weaken the governor, giving the Republicans a shot at the top office. But right now, the governor is favored for re-election.

That looks about right for now, but if Governor Blagojevich can’t get a handle on these ethical problems, then a strong Republican candidate would have a good shot.

  11 Comments      


Question of the day

Wednesday, Mar 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Yesterday, I asked about your favorite Illinois politician. Today’s is lots more fun.

Who is your least favorite Illinois politician, current or not, alive or dead? And, more importantly, why?

UPDATE: Sorry, but I just couldn’t take it any more. There was just WAY too much hate in the comments. My sincere apologies for enabling that bloody mess.

  Comments Off      


Session day member blogging

Wednesday, Mar 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) is today’s victim.

Schoenberg cut his teeth in the House and is chairman of the Senate Appropriations II Committee. He is also vice chairman of Approp III.

Favorite TV show? ESPN Sports Center

Least favorite household chore? All equal.

Favorite vacation spot? Jerusalem.

Favorite band? Neal Young with Crazy Horse - but not his solo acoustic stuff. Then the Ramones, then The Clash.

Favorite color? Cubby Blue

Do you speak a foreign language? Hebrew

White Sox or Cubs? “Cubs, but I’m sympathetic to the Sox because Jerry Reinsdorf is a constituent.”

Favorite historical figure? Harry S. Truman.

K-Mart or Costco? Costco.

Golf handicap? Miniature golf only.

Last book you’ve read? “An Unfinished Season,” by Ward Just.

Did you play HS/college sports? “End of the bench, freshman year basketball. Gave it up to write a weekly newspaper column… We had a senior class cheerleader named Sara Feigenholtz, which was the highlight of my senior year.”

I was able to convince Feigenholtz to do a little cheer for a few of us yesterday. Anyone out there have a photo of her from back in the day? Anyone?

  Comments Off      


Signs of the times

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Do yard signs matter? Chuck Sweeny takes a look.

I love campaign yard signs in early spring. They add some spectacular colors to the dirty, brown landscape. More importantly, they get people thinking about the election. […]

But in local campaigns, there are no opinion polls for people to examine. Yard signs are a key indicator of how a campaign is faring. Who’s supporting whom? Who has the momentum? Who is not a factor?

Sweeny has written a deceptively light piece that takes a hard look at whether signs are a factor. Worth a look.

  6 Comments      


Good point

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The State Journal-Register gets it.

Gov. Blagojevich now promises to “rock the system,” pushing legislation to reform political fund raising in Illinois. That’s great. More power to the governor. But our concern is that he not stymie important reform by demanding only his reforms.

This is a case where the perfect could be the enemy of the good. Blagojevich must not allow that to happen if he truly cares about ethics and political finance reform.

  19 Comments      


Missed this yesterday

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Cross Bloggers had an interesting little post about the number of people who are getting their political news from blogs.

The post was derived from this Sun-Times story that I also missed.

Eighteen percent of American adults cited the Internet as one of their two main sources of news about the presidential races, compared with 3 percent in 1996. The reliance on television grew slightly to 78 percent, up from 72 percent.

Meanwhile, the influence of newspapers dropped to 39 percent last year, from 60 percent in 1996, according to the joint, telephone-based survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Nonetheless, Americans who got campaign news over the Internet were more likely to visit sites of major news organizations like CNN and the New York Times (43 percent) rather than Internet-only resources such as candidate Web sites and Web journals, known as blogs (24 percent).

Rising fast, but a long way to go.

  Comments Off      


LOL

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

What can I say? Never post at 6am. Oops.

For those of you who missed the post that has since been taken down… Nevermind. MAJOR brain freeze. No excuse.

  Comments Off      


Quote of the week

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I know it’s only Tuesday, but this one is too good to pass up.

Referring to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s plan to unveil a strict, wide-reaching ethics proposal that is undoubtedly designed to fail so he doesn’t have to stop taking money from government contractors, Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks had this to say:

“He’s the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree so that he could stand on the stump to talk about conservation,” Franks said. “His rhetoric doesn’t match his reality when it comes to campaign finance.”

Man. That’s harsh. I mean, really. Harsh.

Is Jack Franks the new Denny Jacobs - the go-to Democrat when reporters need a frightfully candid quote about the governor from a member of his own party? It’s starting to look that way.

  12 Comments      


Question of the day

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Who’s your favorite Illinois politician, in or out of office, and why? (I’ll ask for your least favorite later.)

  50 Comments      


Session day member blogging

Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Today, we start a new feature on the Capitol Fax blog. Light, kinda silly interviews with individual state legislators during session days.

Our first victim… er… subject… is Rep. Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago). The questions will evolve as we go along.

Dunkin chairs the House Tourism & Conventions Committee, is the vice chair of Child Support Enforcement, and sits on Insurance, Approp-Public Safety, Mass Transit, Telecommunications and Financial Institutions committees.


White Sox or Cubs? White Sox.

Favorite TV show? “Friends.”

Least favorite household chore. Mopping.

Do you speak a foreign language? Spanish.

Favorite vacation spot? Jamaica.

Golf handicap? “I don’t even know what that means.”

Favorite band/performer? Donna Summer.

Last book you’ve read? “Winning the Future” by Newt Gingrich.

Favorite color? Burnt Cranberry.

K-Mart or Costco? Costco.

Did you play high school sports? Three years of football.

Favorite historical figure? Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

  Comments Off      


Rocking what?

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Oh, please.

Governor Rod Blagojevich says he will rock Illinois politics with a sweeping reform of campaign contribution laws.

The move comes after the governor and his staff have been accused of giving millions of dollars in state contracts to his campaign contributors. […]

The governor is promising a specific proposal within three weeks to clean up the financing of political campaigns in Illinois at all levels of state government. The proposal aims to eliminate the perception that campaign cash buys jobs, contracts and influence by limiting the amount of political contributions to every elected state official from contractors, lobbyists, and special interest groups, including unions, businesses that get tax breaks, regulated industries like utilities and casinos, even community organizations that get grants from the state.

“It will rock the system in Springfield, but if we get this done, it will fundamentally change the way business is done in Springfield,” Blagojevich said.

Right. The proposal, as I understand it now, is designed to give himself political cover so he can veto a real reform bill while posturing as a reformer. That way, nothing changes. He scares everyone off with a way-over-the-top reform bill that nobody can vote for and never has to alter his own behavior.

He basically gives the game away with this quote:

“You need to have the other branch of government to be interested in doing something on campaign finance reform. They’ve expressed no interest up until now,” said Blagojevich.

Same old, same old. Blame the bad, bad Legislature while painting himself as a reformer.

Give him credit for the political move, but, don’t forget, this IS a political move. Any reporter/columnist/pundit/etc. who falls for this ploy deserves to have his or her license revoked.

I wrote about this weeks ago.

The real question for the governor should be: “If your bill doesn’t pass, will you vow not to take any more money from people who do business with the state?”

  7 Comments      


Takedown

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Archpundit takes down the Chamber on Illinois coal and “Clear Skies.” Go.

  3 Comments      


More open seats

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

These guys really need to find someone to handle board and commission appointments (perhaps certain fundraising types are too busy these days):

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. An economic development program has been on hold for six months because of inaction by Governor Rod Blagojevich…

Blagojevich signed legislation last year to create the Southeastern Illinois Economic Development Authority, which can issue up to 250 (m) million dollars in bonds.

At the time, Blagojevich said creating jobs was — quote — “crucial.”

But he has not appointed anyone to the authority’s 10-member board. As a result, it can’t conduct business.

The administration says it is still looking for high-quality people to serve.

How difficult can this be?

  10 Comments      


Lock-out bill signed

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

New law today:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Monday extending unemployment insurance benefits to locked out workers, a move that businesses claim could cost them up to $14 million a year more in contributions to unemployment insurance. […]

The signing of the legislation is considered a victory for organized labor in the state. The legislation cleared the General Assembly during the final hours of 2004 session after the bill appeared to have stalled earlier in the session.

Business groups argued that the bill moves unemployment insurance away from its primary purpose of compensating workers who loose their jobs through no fault of their own, such as an plant closing or because of layoffs.

  5 Comments      


Cartoon moment

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Tort reform funnies.

  Comments Off      


Payday stuff

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A group of payday loan companies complains that it’s being ignored by the sponsor of a bill to regulate the industry.

“We would have liked for them to negotiate with us instead of just blowing us off,” said Bob Wolfberg, president of the Illinois Small Loan Association. Wolfberg said an amended version of the bill, released late Friday, took none of the group’s suggestions except for some minor, technical ones. […]

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. David Miller (D-Dolton), said he’s frustrated by trying to satisfy the small-lender group, which has held up reform legislation in the past.

“It’s been a moving target to make ISLA happy,” Miller said. “My impression is they just want to delay and don’t want the bill at all.”

Not mentioned in the story is how the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mike Boland, has been running interference for ISLA and the title loan companies, and completely ignored the wishes of the bill’s own sponsor, Rep. Miller (no relation), while trying to highjack the issue for himself.

Miller has worked on this bill for four years. Boland jumped into the fray two weeks ago and essentially threatened to kill Miller’s bill and sponsor his own legislation, which would have placated ISLA - the group that now complains about being “blown off” but adamantly refused to negotiate with the consumer groups during those four long years.

Meanwhile, the House Republicans are promulgating the interesting spin that the interest rates established by Miller’s bill are way too high - even though Miller’s measure would lower the statewide average rate by about 20 percent. Proponents believe that the objection is designed to kill the bill on ISLA’s behalf by making it completely unpalatable to the entire industry, not genuinely strengthen it.

  7 Comments      


Born Alive

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times picks up an issue from my Capitol Fax stories last week and my Sunday column.

The two sides of the abortion debate in Illinois are working together for the first time, and they’re realizing decades of mistrust don’t go away overnight.

Just weeks after U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and other prominent Democrats sounded a new call for cooperation in Washington to reduce abortions, an Illinois House committee is close to acting on a measure both sides support. But negotiations have stalled as a deadline looms this week.

There isn’t much new in the story. But check tomorrow’s Capitol Fax for more.

  Comments Off      


Question of the day

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Which Republican(s) will run for secretary of state?

  31 Comments      


Happy Pulaski Day

Monday, Mar 7, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

LAWS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS EIGHTIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1977
PUBLIC ACT 80-621. STATE GOVERNMENT.

BIRTHDAY OF CASIMIR PULASKI – FIRST MONDAY IN MARCH – HOLIDAY.
(Senate Bill No. 239. Approved September 13, 1977)

AN ACT to make Casimir Pulaski’s birthday a holiday.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. The first Monday in March of each year is a holiday to be observed throughout the State and to be known as the birthday of Casimir Pulaski.

Within 10 days prior to the first Monday in March of each year the Governor shall issue a proclamation announcing the holiday and designating the official events which shall be held in honor of the memory of Casimir Pulaski and his contribution to American independence.

Passed in the General Assemby June 20, 1977.
Approved September 13, 1977.

  3 Comments      


Sunday column

Sunday, Mar 6, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

My newspaper column this week deals with a possibly historic compromise on the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act.”

And then something truly unprecedented happened — lobbyists for both sides, pro-life and pro-choice, sat down and worked out a tentative compromise.

The lobbyists had never even spoken to each other before. “Compromise” was not a word in their vocabularies. If you’re not with them on everything, then you’re against them and are automatically branded an enemy.

There is still at least one major hitch remaining. Read the whole thing for more.

  4 Comments      


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