9 Comments - Puzzled - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 4:24 pm: Is this guy known outside of Rockford? What’s the inside story? - Democrat Bears Fan - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 4:26 pm: It’s a shame that Mr. Blagojevich has to send his nominations to the Senate for approval. The Senate should defer to his wisdom as he has a proven record of doing what is best for the working people of Illinois and standing up to all special interests. Additionally, the Illinois constitution should be amended to give Mr. Blagojevich power to appoint Illinois judges, and it should specifically allow him to retain this power in the likely case that he is elected President of the United States. - Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 4:31 pm: Puzzled, if you subscribed, you’d know. - Puzzled - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 4:38 pm: Rich, I do subscribe. There’s got to be more here than he was the compromise candidate. - Notpuzzled - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 6:08 pm: Charles was Doug Scott’s predecessor and mentor in Rockford. He ran the city well for three terms. He is a pragmatist and a realist and doesn’t put up with any BS (he resigned from a county citizens public safety committee when he realized that had denegrated into all talk and no action). He brings a level of competence and maturity to the administration that has been lacking. - Mr. Smith - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 8:18 pm: Please, Notpuzzled, you are truly puzzled and lost if you think Rockford in any way benefited from Box. Wasn’t he in office when Rockford was LAST on Money Magazine’s list of places to live? I believe Rockford won that honor two years in a row. Additionally, appointing him to the ICC after the city lost so many manufacturing jobs is really comical. The school system suffered greatly under his careful watch also. (How much did loosing that federal lawsuit cost Rockford?). - Notpuzzled - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 8:41 pm: Uh, I was here when unemployment was 25%. It took us a just little while to recover from that and another recession in 1992. Also the voters took away home rule power in 1983 (reobtaining it which is the subject of fierce debate right now). Unlike Chicago, the mayor has no control whatsoever on the school board which has been populated by a number of characters (including a couple that came to blows during a meeting). We didn’t lose the federal lawsuit - the school administration admitted discrimination against minorities. Again, the mayor had nothing to do with this. Yes, we have lost manufacturing jobs, just as much of the rust belt has. Most were lost under Doug Scott’s term and probably contributed to his loss in April. Under Box & Scott the east side of the city has grown tremendously and the retail sales taxes from all the big box stores have lead to relative fiscal health - even in the last recession (2001-3) when layoffs were minimal and new public safety equipment (ambulance, police vehicles). - Anonymous - Monday, Jan 9, 06 @ 10:28 pm: How about that $1mil for the church, talk about pandering. The church could have gotten more than enough money from private donations, but Gov Panderer had to give some money that the state doesn’t have to win a few votes. - Pat Hickey - Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 11:06 am: Gov. Rodney already has a contractor in mind, I’ll bet; I wonder if Rodney will hire the scab labor that worked on his house. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.