Campaign roundup
Monday, Jun 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Let’s start off with a debate challenge:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has challenged his Republican opponent, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, to a televised debate focused on health care. Soon after the governor’s challenge Sunday, Topinka’s campaign responded that she’ll debate him, but on ethics and integrity.
And move to more allegations about corruption.
Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka said Saturday a “pattern of intimidation” exists in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration and said the governor has to take responsibility for it.
Topinka, Republican candidate for governor, cited lawsuits filed recently by two former state workers, both of whom said they suffered retaliation after refusing to carry out orders they thought were illegal.
“I think you see a pattern of intimidation, a pattern of `you will even break the law if we tell you to and you will do it or you will be fired or you will be hurt,”‘ Topinka said.
And the AP did a piece about how both Blagojevich and Topinka are about the same when it comes to gay rights except for maybe this one item.
When it comes to gay rights, where Blagojevich and Topinka diverge is in offering health benefits to partners of the nonunion gay employees under their control. Thousands of unionized state employees already were entitled to them.
Blagojevich issued an administrative order in May extending the benefits as of July 1 to the employees he oversees and encouraged the state’s other constitutional officers to do the same. They all have except for Topinka, said Department of Central Management Services spokesman Justin DeJong.
Topinka said the state can’t afford the benefits or “anything else right now.” The Blagojevich campaign hopes that shows how the two are different.
It does, says Kara Borden, a gay 29-year-old graduate student from Chicago.
“That’s actually something, an action that has been taken,” said Borden, who doesn’t identify with either party and votes solely based on a candidate’s platform.
And Erickson/Adrian had a piece on dueling fax campaigns:
With a mere five months to go before Election Day, the candidates for governor are slugging it out via fax machine.
The Blagojevich campaign has created a near-daily fax alert called “Topinka Watch,†which is aimed at feeding questions to reporters about Topinka’s latest actions — or inactions.
Similarly, Topinka backers have unveiled something called “Rod Squad.†It includes a logo of the governor out for a jog and is designed as a sort of “truth squad†for all things Blagojevich.
· Topinka’s inspector general defends himself.
- wndycty - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 6:37 am:
This is getting old. I’m begining to sound like a broken record when commenting on Judy because SHE IS A BROKEN RECORD! Let’s not ignore the allegations against Rod, but note to Judy: THEY ARE ONLY ALLEGATIONS! And to have a debate on ALLEGATIONS when there are real issues (like healthcare) is just silly, but then again Judy is silly. Think about it, if its so important to debate these allegations, why the heck didn’t she propose a debate on the allegations on her own, as opposed to bringing it up only after Rod challenged her to a debate on healthcare, a subject she has no record on other than withholding payments to providers for crass political purposes. Will the press call her on this? Or will they just parrot her silly call for a debate on ethics? These allegations are serious, however they are only allegations until something changes let’s focus on the real issues such as education, healthcare and public safety, which is really what the people, not the folks playing inside baseball, care about.
- DOWNSTATE - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 6:39 am:
JBT wants to debate facts and Blago wants to debate about a program that no one even knows if it will work or not.State employees are working in an envoirment of intimidation and no workplace should be like that.
- fight corruption - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 7:08 am:
FYI – There was an article in the Saturday paper (St. Louis Post Dispatch) titled “FBI site focuses on corruptionâ€. The article goes on to state that “the FBI has launched a new Web-site aimed at gathering complaints about public corruption, the FBI in Southern Illinois announced Friday.†The new Web site is http://reportcorruption.fbi.gov.
Here is a link to the newspaper article: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/6DC96F6D35173F7E8625718900167D10?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2C%22fbi%22
- DOWNSTATE - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 7:42 am:
JBT withheld those payments because they were taken from special projects earmarked for other things and no knew or is still sure if they were legal.Therew is several lawsuits now over it.The only record Rod has is theft,lies and smoke and mirrors.As far as his healthcare go back and look at his record and you will see that everything has gone south that they have implemented.
- Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard... - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 8:01 am:
She can debate both: people in Blago’s administraton were caught messing with the boards that authorize hospital building projects, trying to shake them down for cash in exchange for a construction approval, or for tangling the process for hospital rivals.
Or, we can talk about how the insurance lobby has Blago in it’s pocket over malpractice insurance, using him to lead “reform” on lawsuit damages. Now that they got their “reform”, did those insurance rates drop as promised? Heck no. They just began to repeat the same drumbeat on another geographic region of the state.
Or perhaps she can ask how he justifies taking money from health-oriented special funds to pay for his pork.
Ethics, health care, same thing.
- Cassandra - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 8:40 am:
I don’t think that continuing to recite that there is no money is going to produce many votes.
Voters don’t want to hear that. They don’t believe that there will be any cataclysmic results from Blago’s pension grab or any of his other financial maneuvers. Nobody believes that the state will go bankrupt. And certainly few care if they have to get rid of a few thousand state employees. Many, like me, probably would view that as a positive step. State employment is not welfare. These folks can get other jobs, albeit not as secure, low-low-stress and high-paid.
People want to hear what government can do for them out of the monies they give the govt. Topinka should come out with a plan to provide health care for all uninsured Illinoisians using a public-private model, not just children, the vast majority of whom were insured before Allkids (except illegals). If state resources are distributed properly, if there were fewer state employees, if we weren’t paying such a high corruption tax in Illinois, universal health care could easily be afforded. The Repubs should take point on this, as Mitt Romney has already shown that it’s doable. And it’s what the people want, far more important than a huge, unproductive state work force which has health benefits all Illinoisians (who are paying for it) should have.
Topinka should also come out with a plan to significantly reduce property taxes permanently
while raising adequate monies for education. Her suburban base would pay attention, given the increasing property tax burden. Again, the money is there. It’s just a matter of distributing it
for the people, not for government bureaucracies or corrupt contractors and politicians.
And she needs to learn to speak in paragraphs by the next debate. Blago has, so we know she can.
And where’s that education plan. Whatever it is, it should provide significant, permanent property tax relief for the suburbs. Easy.
The governorship is similar to being a CEO.
You hire the ones who you think can do the job, however difficult. She needs to show she can
create credible plans for getting people’s money back to them.
- DOWNSTATE - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 9:15 am:
Maybe someone can ask the Governor how he intends to pay-off the BILLIONS in past, and some of it overdue, debt that the state of Illinois has and still give away all of this free stuff.The state of Illinois is deeper in debt than some small nations if that doesn’t scare you nothing will.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 9:18 am:
The corruption charges are already working. With every corruption story, Blagojevich looks worst. She is the challenger. So as the challenger, she shouldn’t be proposing, she should be attacking. That is what she is doing.
That is how challenger win elections, silly people!
- Cassandra - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 9:32 am:
Downstate–I don’t disagree that the state’s financial picture is disturbing.
But it’s also clear that the great majority of voters don’t believe that this is a problem.
And it’s their perception, not reality, which
wins or loses elections.
There was no great outcry when Ryan put through those exorbitant early retirement benefits, no
great outcry at the pension grab, and it looks like Blago will probably be able to sell the lotto if he gets re-elected. The great majority of citizens believe that the state is a money machine which will never run dry. And they may be right.
- Tessa - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 9:59 am:
Cassandra - I gladly invite you to take a week and walk in my shoes or that of any of my co- workers. You say state employees have low-low stress, high paid jobs. You should do what we do before you say things. Suffer a broken nose or fractured rib, work with those who can’t speak to you or care for themselves, and do it because it’s what you love, and then tell us after we’ve worked 4 out of 5 days mandatory overtime that we’ve got it easy.
Anyone who lives in Illinois who thinks the state is a cash cow that will never run dry is living in a dream world. The legislature and governor can’t keep spending money for programs without having a realistic way to pay for it. Raiding pensions, creating new programs without having ways to pay for them, this isn’t the way to do it. The system is going to break and we and our children are going to have to pay for it.
Maybe Judy can’t fix it, but Rod sure isn’t doing anything to try.
- Wumpus - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 10:45 am:
How about they debate on a wide range of issues?
- Lovie's Leather - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 12:00 pm:
I love how Judy is campaigning… she is making it about Rod… the way a good challenger would. It is quite simple, she doesn’t really have a ideological plan. She sees Blago doing something stupid and says, “Look at what he’s doing. I won’t do that.” Then he says, “She doesn’t have a plan.” Then she shrugs and says, “But I’m not corrupt, God bless you.”
- Jim - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 12:08 pm:
Shallow Judy is in for a battle she can’t handle at her age.
- dumb ol' country boy - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 3:39 pm:
Judy is doing a wonderful job campaigning, keeping that jab in Rod’s face. It’s amazing to me how people are hollering about a plan, as if you can have one overnight, well it works for the current Gov. huh ? Approx. 5 months until the election correct? Plenty of time to have a well thought out plan, that is fiscally responsible and more importantly, makes sense. Judy is not responding to Rod’s nonsense, and people are getting sick and tired of Rod’s excuses, it’s all someone else’s fault, G.Ryan, bad employees, JBT, before to long they will blame the third shooter on the grassy nall. Judy just allows Rod to open mouth and insert leg, and then attacks. Granted this is not going to carry her through the election, but is working for now.
Rich was there more names on the “clout list” then what was released? If so does anyone have the complete list? Thanks and keep up the good work!!!
- Lt. Guv - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 3:42 pm:
A pox on them both.
- taxs man - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 4:20 pm:
lets dont forget about judy and her motel deal in springfield , but thanks to jim RYAN, he stoped it cold and poor judy lost out on big money kick back thanks jim for being on you feet on this one. I think it was about 2 million was it, judy oh we werent suppose to say that. KNOW GO HIDE JUDY.
- zatoichi - Monday, Jun 12, 06 @ 5:57 pm:
Neither one of these two is a “star” that just demands your support. They seem to be the result of the “no one else looks good to me so why not them” mentality. The party loyalists will look at anything that makes the other group look bad because they are sure they have the correct answer to all problems. Do Rod and JBT both come with buckets of history that others can gleefully dig through to support their case or find mud to sling? Well…yeah, that’s part of the turf. Are they willing to take the crap that comes with campaigning? Apparently the answer is yes. Haven’t seen too many bloggers jump forward to say they want to run for Gov. So at least give them some credit. On the Rod side, increased debt, MOUs, pay to play, claiming savings from a yet to start program, no new taxes but pound on the fees, and funding plans developed over the weekend do not build confidence. JBT does need some meat on those ideas she puts out. What specific ideas does she have that make her look better than Rod? Haven’t heard much yet except an edited repeat of the stuff I read here everyday. The jab with a stick routine only goes so far. Please get some serious debates going on any topic and just go for it. Stop posturing and preening.