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Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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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.

“I heard that some people were doing that,” Blagojevich said of efforts to help Stufflebeam. He said that last week he `instructed my campaign that our people should play no role in that and that we should discourage our people from having anything to do with it.”

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.

“We sucked wind,” Stufflebeam said. “As long as we’re under the radar and somebody doesn’t challenge us, we’ll have ballot access.”

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.”

“Unfortunately there was a lag time between when this gentleman got a grade and when the information was entered into the system,” DeJong said.

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.

“He flies too fast,” DeJong explained.

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

Â· 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.”

Â· 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.

Â· Editorial: Way above average in clout stats

Â· “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 schoolâ€™s board of trustees has not settled on a solution to the long-simmering debate.”

Â· 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.

Â· James â€œPateâ€ Philip State Park is no longer on the endangered species list â€” at least for this year.

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Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

My syndicated newspaper column this week is about the Green Party’s success at gathering candidate petition signatures and the possibility they might be on the ballot this fall.

My own opinion is that if any party has enough organizational strength to survive a ballot challenge in a state with literally the toughest third-party ballot access laws in the world, then they ought to be considered legitimate.

That means they should be included in all the debates, no matter what their poll numbers might be. And it means that people like myself should include them in our regular campaign coverage.

QUESTION: I know we may be getting ahead of ourselves here, but if the Greens do make it onto the ballot, should they be included in the debates, regardless of what the polls may show?

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Hiring is news again

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

First up, the governor claims his office doesn’t involve itself in civil service hiring, but the AP found a memo that shows otherwise.

Gov. Rod Blagojevichâ€™s office took a personal interest in the hiring of a congressmanâ€™s son-in-law to fly state planes, even though the pilot wasnâ€™t properly licensed and the job was supposed to be free of political influence, internal e-mails show.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show an aide to Blagojevichâ€™s personnel director contacted the Department of Central Management Services in July 2003 to check on the status of Brian Keen, U.S. Rep. Jerry Costelloâ€™s son-in-law.

Blagojevich has repeatedly said that his office does not get involved in filling positions that are supposed to be free of politics. A Blagojevich spokeswoman said Keen was hired based on qualifications, not politics.

In the e-mails, CMS, the stateâ€™s hiring agency, said that Keen had two opportunities to submit applications to be a state pilot but couldnâ€™t show he was qualified for the job. The e-mails said the rejected paperwork was returned to the governorâ€™s office with a note about necessary qualifications.

And the governor has apparently made peace with a group of workers who he once accused of fraud.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich apparently has made peace with a group of state employees he tried to fire in 2003 after he accused them of engaging in hiring fraud.

The first-term Democratic governor last year won the right to terminate the nine individuals - holdovers from the administration of Republican Gov. George Ryan - after pursuing a lengthy legal battle that cost taxpayers an estimated $650,000.

But for the past several months, Blagojevich’s office has allowed the employees to continue working at senior posts where they earn monthly salaries ranging from $5,100 to $9,470, state comptroller records show.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said agency supervisors have evaluated the employees and believe they are worth keeping on, regardless of the earlier dispute. […]

“These are people who worked the system, essentially committed a fraud on the public,” Blagojevich said in fall 2003 as a court battle unfolded. “These people knew what they were doing. They were part and parcel of a conspiracy.”

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“Negative but rarely heavy-handed”

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This AP story has some fairly good insights into the governor’s advertising blitz.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is hitting his Republican opponent with a barrage of campaign ads, but the goal isn’t an early knockout. Instead, the ads amount to a series of jabs designed to leave Judy Baar Topinka bruised and bloodied in the minds of voters.

They’re short â€“ generally just 15 seconds. Most use Topinka’s own words against her, pointing out that she said raising the minimum wage would be a government “giveaway” or that she has praised unpopular politicians.

They are negative but rarely heavy-handed. The tone almost was one of regret that any politician could be so misguided, summed up by the frequent closing line: “Judy Baar Topinka â€“ what’s she thinking?” […]

Another political strategist, Don Rose, said Blagojevich’s unusually short ads might minimize the backlash that usually comes with negative ads. They don’t really give viewers a chance to identify them as Blagojevich ads and get angry, he said.

Their message can also come and go so quickly that viewers miss the details, but Rose said that’s OK as long as they get the message that Topinka is being accused of something bad.

“If you see them enough times, it becomes something close to subliminal: Topinka no good, Topinka no good,” he said.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A summary of the governor’s ads is here.

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More trouble for Alexi

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I must’ve been out of town when AG Madigan had this to say about Alexi Giannoulias’ treasurer’s campaign.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan told reporters in early June she wasn’t sure whether she would sign onto his campaign.

“There have certainly been concerns that were raised during his campaign,” Lisa Madigan said then.

The southern Illinois swing of his ethanol tour went well, but not so much in Peoria, evidently.

Last week, Giannoulias made his first trip back to Peoria since the primary in a statewide tour marking his first news conference since the primary. And just to be sure, top-dog local Democrats came out to support him. Sen. George Shadid was there, as were state candidates Dave Koehler and Bill Spears. Unfortunately for Giannoulias, the TV news crews did not show, and his supporters simply mingled in the distance while he talked to the newspaper and a radio station. Giannoulias said he doesn’t know how rumors got started that the Dems weren’t supporting him wholeheartedly.

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Morning shorts

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Rezko in the news again: “Restaurant companies linked to political insider Antoin “Tony” Rezko that shut down three eateries at O’Hare Airport after being accused of minority-business fraud now have another problem: A lawsuit alleges they didn’t pay their property taxes.”

Â· Goldman-Sach and the state-level push for privatization

Â· This would not be a good thing: “In what may be a bid for tax breaks, United Airlines is exploring relocation of its corporate headquarters from suburban Chicago to Denver or San Francisco.” However, the Loop is also a possibility.

Â· Watchdog barks at schools tax hike

Â· Illinois’ thirst for underground water is increasing, and some officials are beginning to worry that the supply won’t be able to meet the demand in years to come.

Â· Poshard putting his mark on SIUC as president, and learns from mistakes.

Â· Strangest headline of the day: Newspaper questions man executed in 1983 slaying

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Dirty tricks and scandal in the 8th?

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I just got off the phone with third party congressional candidate Bill Scheurer (running against Melissa Bean). He confirmed everything that was in this post by Jeff Berkowitz. This could turn out to be a huge story.

Scheurer said someone came to him, about a month ago, offering to help with the petition signature process. The person said his name was Anthony R. Constantine and he claimed to head A R Consulting, giving Bill a business card with that information on it. For a certain sum of money, he said he would obtain 8,000 to 10, 000 signatures to help get Scheurer on the ballot.

Scheurer was counting on the signatures from AR, but learned earlier this week he would get none, with vague, peculiar stories about health problems, etc. He also learned that one Anthony Constantine works in the legislative office of Cong. Dan Lipinski, and Constantine has a company named A R Consulting, but Constantine told Scheurer earlier this week that he did not meet with Scheurer previously and he is not the person who Scheurer met with and spoke with over the last month, and who committed to the 8,000 to 10,000 signatures to support placing Scheurer on the ballot in the 8th CD race.

Scheurer estimated he has about 9,000 signatures now and he would like to get 6,000 more in the next three days to get some buffer over and above the requisite 13, 950.

The guy appears to be screwed, and this is certainly a bizarre story. He says he will have at least 60 volunteers in the street this weekend, but that may not be enough to gather all those signatures. Stay tuned.

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Blog bans

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This Kentucky blog ban episode brings up an interesting point for Illinois.

I’ve been told by some state employees that they can’t access this or any blog during business hours (although a back door is still open that a few people know about and which I would never divulge). For others it’s not a problem. I’ve never bothered to check up on who, if anyone, is being blocked here because I figured it wasn’t really a big deal. Now that it’s become big news elsewhere, I’m not so sure.

I’ll keep comments open through Saturday afternoon so that people can fully respond to this question, but are you being blocked? If so, what agency are you with? Any corporations blocking blogs out there? Â·

UPDATE: And, please, let’s stick to the question. The State Journal-Register now has reader comments on its website, as do some other papers, so why should I be blocked and not them? And even if they didn’t have comments, what’s the difference? But, wait, don’t answer that. It was a rhetorical question. Let’s stick to the topic at hand.

UPDATE: And another thing… with all the news feeds I have and the hundreds of links, this site is designed to be more of an Illinois news portal than a blog. It’s a starting point. So, this site shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other news sites, particularly since the idea is you can get to all of those places from here.

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Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Today brings yet another poll showing overwhelming public support for an issue that the poll’s sponsors also happen to support.

Nearly 80 percent of Cook County residents want Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, according to a new poll released Thursday on the eve of a presentation before the U.S. Olympic Committee that will reveal Mayor Daley’s solution to the need for a new stadium.

“We have a very elegant solution — one that is economically doable to … win the 2016 Olympics that includes a very creative way as it relates to the stadium issue,” said Patrick Ryan, the executive chairman of Aon Corp. appointed to head Chicago’s Olympic exploratory committee.

Pressed to describe the stadium proposal that he and Daley will unveil at the U.S. Olympic Assembly exposition in La Jolla, Calif., Ryan said: “We cannot reveal our plans before we reveal them to the U.S. Olympic Committee. It would be bad form and, frankly, I think it would hurt us and would offend them. So, we’re not going to do it.”

Daley said he asked Stanley Tigerman and other Chicago architects to come up with a response to USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth’s demand that an 80,000- to 100,000-seat stadium be built or “totally committed” to by March 31, 2007.

QUESTION: Do you support Chicago’s bid for the Olympics? Why or why not and under what conditions?

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Here we go again

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The only way stories like this will ever stop is if Illinois finally bans campaign contributions by state contractors. Period.

The governor pats himself on the back for not taking state employee money, but contractors have a lot more cash on hand.

The Blagojevich administration is claiming that a study of the stateâ€™s fleet of cars ordered more than three years ago has generated millions of dollars in savings. But, officials wonâ€™t release the results of the study, which was conducted by a company that has contributed thousands of dollars to the governorâ€™s campaign fund.

As the state embarks on a plan to begin its first large-scale replacement of vehicles since the governor took office, the fact that the study isnâ€™t being made public is drawing fire from some lawmakers.

“I think if they donâ€™t respond to these inquiries on how they spend our state dollars, thereâ€™s something amiss,” said state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock. “They should have to respond. I donâ€™t think their objection is valid.”

In May, Lee News Service requested a copy of the study, which was called for by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in one of his first acts after taking office in 2003. The request, made using the stateâ€™s Freedom of Information Act, was denied in June. The administration says it cannot release the study because it is exempt from state open records laws.

The company that did this study just won a no-bid extension of its contract. That’s the way things are usually done in Springfield.

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Political protection rackets

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

My latest Sun-Times column came from this blog post a couple of weeks ago.

Back in the day, business owners in a neighborhood controlled by the Mafia would have to cough up weekly cash tributes. The money was for “protection,” except they weren’t really “protected” from anything except the mobsters themselves. If they didn’t pay up, very bad things would happen.

Politics has its own protection rackets. Sometimes people contribute campaign money to powerful politicians so that their interests are kept safe from harm. A state legislator, a city council member or a suburban mayor won’t usually torch a store that doesn’t pony up, but they can make life awfully difficult.

The most lucrative political protection racket is insurance sales, and for a lot longer than anyone can remember insurance has been the vocation of choice for Chicago and Cook County politicians.

I’d say “read the whole thing,” but that would be kinda presumptious of me. Ah, what the heck, do it anyway.

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Morning shorts

Friday, Jun 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· The governor seems to take a step further in saying he won’t lease or sell the tollway, but he hasn’t explicitly ruled it out yet, despite the Trib’s headline (”Sell or lease tollway? Blagojevich says no”). Here’s the latest statement: “I have no interest in giving up the tollway when we’re doing so many good things,” he said. “I have no interest in turning it over to private investors.”

Â· “An obscure but powerfully influential state panel that regulates hospitals in Illinois is coming under scrutiny just two years after Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he had fixed its problems.”

Â· Everybody calm down a little: “The men were all Muslims who thought they were plotting “in conjunction with Al Qaeda” but they really were dealing with law-enforcement undercover agents, one law-enforcement official told The Miami Herald.”

Â· “Sounding a lot like a mayoral challenger, state Sen. James Meeks (I-Chicago) demanded Thursday that Mayor Daley fix a problem with a “strong hint of racism”: poorly qualified teachers concentrated in black and Hispanic schools.”

Â· Supremes help lawyers, reporters.

Â· Editorial: Deals replace fiscal restraint

Â· State officials Thursday trumpeted significant improvement in Illinois’ unemployment picture.

Â· Illinois casinos to check IDs for addicts

Â· Study: Without a federal government willing to enforce federal No Child Left Behind laws, the Illinois State Board of Education sees no reason to follow them.

Â· Green Party expects to be on state ballot

Â· Fran makes a good funny

Â· A Rockford friend says he thinks the last paragraph of this story shows a Chicago-centric attitude at DHS.

Â· Editorial: THUMBS UP! To the Macon County Board’s Environmental, Education, Health and Welfare Committee for dismissing a proposal to make English the official language of Macon County. The committee correctly determined that the county has no power to create an official language and also pointed out that the state legislature has already declared English the official language of Illinois. The committee made a wise decision.

Â· Krol: A bad month in more ways than one for Hastert

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