Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2006

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Five Jewish legislators and others are now holding a press conference about the appointment to the hate crimes commission of a Farrakhan adviser.

The drama may come soon because several African-American legislators have gathered to offer a rebuttal.

Check the Fax tomorrow.

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Meeks taking steps to run for guv

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I didn’t think he was serious, but Sen. James Meeks has a lawyer looking into a possible third party bid for governor. Phil Kadner writes after a chat with Meeks that he “got the impression that Meeks is very serious”.

One of the leading election law attorneys in the state is exploring the possibility of creating a third-party campaign for governor on behalf of state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago).

Burton Odelson said Meeks contacted him Friday night, three days before Meeks held a news conference to demand that Gov. Rod Blagojevich either retract his no-tax hike pledge or put together a comprehensive plan for funding public education in Illinois. […]

Would Meeks be willing to withdraw from the Senate race to run for governor?

“I am in the process of exploring every possibility at this time,” Meeks said. “But I am willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure that the Democratic Party makes a real commitment to funding public education.” […]

Meeks said some people have called him to suggest that a third-party campaign for governor would split the Democratic vote in November, paving the way for a Republican victory.

“You can look at it and say two Democrats would split the vote,” Meeks said, “or you could look at it and say two white candidates would split the vote allowing the black candidate to win.

Read the whole thing.

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Competition Will Keep Rates Low

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department

(The following is a paid advertisement)

Headlines about the proposed electric rate freeze extension legislation emphasize the prospect of rate increases. While rate increases are virtually inevitable after a nine-year freeze, equally newsworthy is that a rate freeze extension will actually inhibit electric competition from developing. And competition is what keeps prices down.

The Illinois Commerce Commission has endorsed relying on the competitive marketplace for determining what customers pay for electric power after December 31, 2006. That was the goal of the 1997 legislation passed by the General Assembly that sought to restructure the electric utility industry in Illinois.

The decision made by the legislature in 1997 was the right one. Over time, competition will keep rates down. And the more competition over time, the more stable and predictable rates will be.

Competition will benefit Illinois in the long run. But a rate freeze extension has other dangerous consequences. If ComEd cannot recover its costs to buy power, it could bankrupt the company, increase costs for consumers, and put the reliability of northern Illinoisâ€™ electric system at risk.

Thereâ€™s no need to enact rate freeze legislation. The wisest move would be to let the process move forward, and refrain from using the legislature to undo the progress weâ€™ve made.

Dr. Mort Kamien
Director, Heizer Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University

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Question of the day

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This has been making the rounds on the Internet lately. I’m a little late to the game.

Republicans, Democrats and Independents, including former Republican Representative and Independent presidential candidate John Anderson, joined together today to call for the national popular election of the President. They offered a novel approach which is politically practical because it relies on the Constitutional power given to states to allocate Presidential electors.

â€œThe occupant of the nationâ€™s highest office should be determined by winning the national popular vote,â€ said Anderson, who today is chair of FairVote. â€œThe current system of allocating electoral votes on a statewide winner-take-all basis dampens voter participation by concentrating campaign efforts on a shrinking number of battleground states and can have the disheartening effect of trumping the national popular vote.â€

There is already a bipartisan bill introduced in Illinois on behalf of the national organization, but it never got out of the Senate Rules Committee, so it’s likely dead for now.

The Sun-Times editorial board likes the idea (go read it). What do you think?

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Guv wants to end special accounts

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This will surely be controversial in Springfield, but it may take some explaining with the general populace.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is ready to end his controversial policy of paying for his own programs by skimming money out of hundreds of special accounts that were set up to collect fees for other purposes.

But critics of the practice aren’t going to like his alternative any better: He wants to close those special accounts, and let those fees go right into the state’s main pool of funds - where it could be even easier for the administration to divert part of that money for other uses.

In an interview with Post-Dispatch editors in St. Louis last week, Blagojevich said he wants to fundamentally change the way Illinois handles millions of dollars in special “usage fees” that are collected every year to fund everything from hazardous waste disposal to teacher certification to new snowmobile trails. […]

“My view is, we should try to get all of those funds collapsed into the ‘people’s budget’ . . . and let the people’s representatives . . . every year make decisions as to whether that money should go to this purpose or that purpose . . . That’s something I’d like to try to do in the second term, if I get one.” […]

“When hunters buy habitat stamps, they buy them with the knowledge that this money is going toward helping habitats,” said Patricia Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville. “If it goes instead toward welfare in Chicago, or a bureaucrat’s desk in Springfield, I don’t know that you’re keeping the trust with that hunter.”

31 Comments

Oberweis goes negative

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I had a little on this in today’s Capitol Fax, but Krol has more details about the new Oberweis ads.

Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis today will begin airing a pair of TV ads blasting opponent Judy Baar Topinka for a controversial Springfield hotel loan deal and a pending federal investigation in her treasurerâ€™s office. […]

â€œTopinka tried to give away millions of taxpayer dollars to insider friends. A deal so rotten the Republican attorney general ordered it blocked,â€ an announcer says. […]

The other ad refers to a list of hotel investors that top Topinka aides allegedly ordered a spokesman to shred. The aides denied it.

The second ad also refers to a 2003 subpoena for documents by the U.S. Attorneyâ€™s office following an ex-employeeâ€™s complaint that political work was being done on state time.

She’s definitely taking a beating. Can she survive?

UPDATE: Governor Blagojevich gets into the act.

Sketching a likely general election theme, Gov. Blagojevich came out swinging Tuesday against GOP gubernatorial front-runner Judy Baar Topinka, accusing the state treasurer of being a shill for the National Rifle Association and the right wing.

“The NRA just gave her an A rating — an A rating — and if you get an A rating from the NRA, you’re basically taking their talking points and doing their bidding,” Blagojevich said. “And I would urge her to forget about the NRA, stop pandering to the right wing and join us and help us pass a ban on assault weapons.”

UPDATE: The Trib has more on the Oberweis ads (thanks to some alert readers for the link).

Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis is launching two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines to attack front-runner Judy Baar Topinka’s integrity.

The words are displayed as if they appeared on the front pages of the Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the State Journal-Register of Springfield.

But Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said, “those aren’t headlines.” Instead, he said, the “text is excerpted” from stories that appeared in those publications. A review of the stories did not find the exact words as they were presented in the ads, which are to begin airing Wednesday.

“We are not printing a newspaper,” Wiegand said Tuesday. “We are doing a television advertisement.”

Charles Wheeler, a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, called the ads deceitful.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: I just saw one of the Oberweis ads and was able to get a couple of screen captures of the phony headlines:

46 Comments

Smoking bill passes

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This concept appears to be on the fast track in both chambers. A tougher bill to ban smoking throughout the state may be stalling out. More in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax. (Link may be broken by the time you read this.)

County governments could ban smoking in public places under a plan that cleared half of the Illinois legislature today.

Lawmakers gave cities the power to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places last year. The Springfield City Council recently used that right to impose a ban that goes into effect this fall.

Now supporters say counties should have the same right but only for unincorporated areas, so cities would still have the final say on bans within their borders.

The state Senate voted 45-10 for the proposal.

7 Comments

Morning shorts

Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· No more med-mal crisis?

Â· Daley backs Stroger, but says nice things about Claypool.

Â· …less than one percent of the respondents could identify the five protected rights [in the 1st Amendment]: freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and to petition the government.

Â· Republican Jewish Coalition wants Farrakhan aide removed from anti-hate panel.

Â· Gidwitz talks jobs.

Â· University presidents bought off? And so cheaply, too.

Â· East St. Louis’ recent history of public corruption.

Â· Security for federal judges questioned.

Â· Here’s that Mary Mitchell column I referenced in today’s Capitol Fax.

Â· Stroger endorsed by Latino leaders.

Â· Marin on Blagojevich.

Â· “The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation is taking issue with Republican congressional candidate Kathy Salviâ€™s use of the former presidentâ€™s image in a flier this week.”

Â· I received a Kathy Salvi press release yesterday that was pretty funny. In it, she noted that her opponent David McSweeney had triggered the “millionaire’s amendment” with his “spending spree,” then added that she had loaned her own campaign $450,000.

Â· More later.

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