“The votes are there”
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller The spin and the stories are flying fast and furious. Mr. Munoz added that he believes Todd Stroger already may have lined up 80% of the vote.
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Staff survey on legislative influence
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller State Legislatures Magazine recently completed a survey of legislative staffs across the nation. Karl Kurtz at NCSL’s blog The Thicket gives us a preview. One of the questions we asked was, on a scale of 1-no influence to 7-dictates policy, “What do you think is the relative influence of the following participants in the legislative process in determining legislative outcomes in your state?” Of the 11 choices that we gave our 1,522 respondents to the survey, majority party leadership ranked far and away the highest with a score of 5.9. I wonder what the Illinois crosstabs were? For you staffers and former staffers out there, is this about right? UPDATE: Karl gives us a peek at the Illinois crosstabs, which are not statistically significant since there were so few of them (just 19 out of a nationwide total of more than 1500 - which doesn’t surprise me in the least). But, for what it’s worth, Illinois respondents did score the majority party leadership somewhat higher at 6.3 on a scale of 1-7. There were only two other major differences in the responses from Illinois compared to the rest of the country: the House was regarded as more influential than the Senate, and the influence of partisan staff was ranked considerably higher. Staff has enormous influence in Illinois, so that’s definitely on the money.
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Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller First, read Carol Marin’s column. …I would rather see the jury in the Sorich corruption case acquit the four defendants on trial than convict them. Or that there be probation rather than prison time. […] QUESTION: Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? UPDATE: I just called Carol and told her that she had helped break a new record - 15 comments by 3:30 has gotta be an alltime low. We talked about why the comments are so sparse and I jokingly wondered whether some might be afraid that the FBI would subpoena IP records of those who agreed with Marin. Do people just not care about this topic? By design, I didn’t expect to get a whole lot of comments on this today, but I am kinda surprised by the lack of debate.
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Statewide stuff
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller UPDATE: This story has been getting a lot of play in comments, so I thought I’d post it. Honda has scheduled a press conference Wednesday to announce that Indiana has been chosen as the site for its new North American assembly plant, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Lynn Sweet claims that the guv’s DC visit didn’t go all that well. Gov. Blagojevich was in Washington on Tuesday. Let me first summarize the developments or rather, the debacle. And Topinka held a press conference to announce that she would announce her economic development proposals next month. She also took another swipe at the guv. For example, Topinka said Tuesday that federal labor statistics showed that Illinois lost 3,800 jobs in May. Earlier this month, Blagojevich touted state and federal figures that showed that Illinois in April led the nation in monthly job growth.
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The other white meat
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller The Tribune has a long story today on a different sort of political pork. In a new kind of political pork, state officials awarded $12 million to more than 100 non-profit groups, businesses, schools and churches for after-school programs that, in some cases, served few students or failed to deliver on their promises, the Tribune has found. Read the whole thing. Fascinating.
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Is Stroger off the ticket?
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller I heard this late last night. Amazing. More than three months after suffering a serious stroke — and winning renomination in spite of it — Cook County Board President John Stroger is expected to withdraw this week and ask Democratic ward bosses to replace him on the November ticket with his son. So, a son would replace a father and a daughter w9ould replace a father. Chicago is without a doubt the world capital of nepotism.
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller · “Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn broke ranks Tuesday and urged Gov. Rod Blagojevich to put some heat on a state contractor that allegedly refuses to negotiate with striking employees at Sheridan Correctional Center.” · Editorial: Remember when Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office and promised to keep politics out of state hiring? The hiring of Brian Keen, U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello’s son-in-law, is compelling evidence that Blagojevich never meant it. · For the presecution’s sake, I hope there are no Sox fans on that jury. “Training Mayor Daley’s patronage chief in how to avoid political considerations in city hiring is about as useful as giving sensitivity training to Ozzie Guillen, a federal prosecutor argued Tuesday during closing arguments.” · Governor backs bid for Olympics · Praise plentiful, critics silent on Niles mayor · New Medicaid law is called a threat · I love the Bottle Rockets, and so, apparently does the Austin Mayor
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Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Assuming that the statewide advisory referendum against gay marriage makes it onto the ballot (perhaps a big assumption, but stay with me anyway), how will you vote? Explain.
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Antics
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller The Tribune finally gets around to reporting a story that it held last week. Some supporters of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week embarked on a last-ditch effort to try to help Stufflebeam by soliciting people to pass petitions for his Constitution Party. The move was viewed as an effort to try to take away votes from Blagojevich’s main challenger, Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka. Those “supporters” were reportedly state employees who were ordered to the Springfield headquarters to pick up petitions. Meanwhile, Stufflebeam, as expected, came up way short. Among the third-party candidates to file with the State Board of Elections was Randy Stufflebeam of Belleville and his Constitution Party. Stufflebeam, a conservative candidate for governor, filed only 4,300 signatures, far below the 25,000 needed to appear on the ballot. I wouldn’t bet on that.
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Politics and the state
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Governor Blagojevich claims he has walled off politics from the state. He wouldn’t even take a political question at the Statehouse during the final week of spring session. He also says fundraising has nothing to do with government operations. So, I can’t help but wonder why the governor’s chief of staff accompanied Blagojevich to a Washington, DC fundraiser this week. On the governor’s other arm was John Wyma, who has parlayed his 2002 campaign work into a big bucks lobbying career, despite the fact that he is rarely in Springfield. Meanwhile, the AP has discovered that a qualified pilot who is also a veteran wasn’t even called for a job interview for an opening to fly state planes. Instead, the job went to a congressman’s son-in-law after the governor’s office contacted CMS. CMS spokesman Justin DeJong said there are sometimes gaps between the time a job applicant’s test is graded and the time it is officially entered into the pool of candidates. He said information must be manually entered into what he called an “antiquated system.” The pilot who did get the job, Brian Keen, screwed up his paperwork and wasn’t initially rated as qualified until, apparently, after the guv’s office intervened. Keen got the job because he was the most qualified military veteran living in the state who was on the list of applicants, DeJong said. Um, right. Famed test pilot Chuck Yeager was also on the list, but he was not rated as qualified, DeJong said. OK, I made up that last part. The pilot who wasn’t hired is a relative of a Topinka ally, so this isn’t as cut and dried as it looks, but these administration explanations are getting weaker by the day.
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Morning shorts
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller · My most sincere condolences: “Alexis Giannoulias, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Broadway Bank, died suddenly while traveling in his native Greece over the weekend. Mr. Giannoulias, 69, suffered an apparent heart attack, according to a spokesman for his son, Alexi Giannoulias, who is the Democratic nominee for state treasurer.” · Krol thinks Bill Scheurer would’ve received 1 or 2 percent, citing his anti-war beliefs. I think his union backing could have bumped him up substantially higher and cost Bean the election. But it appears to be a moot point now. · Editorial: Way above average in clout stats · “Chief Illiniwek likely has not danced his last dance at University of Illinois home football games and could perform at basketball games this winter because the school’s board of trustees has not settled on a solution to the long-simmering debate.” · More Illinois children are living in poverty, but fewer newborns and young children are dying, according to a national study that rates how well states are caring for their youngest residents. · James “Pate†Philip State Park is no longer on the endangered species list — at least for this year.
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