Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2006

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

An interesting turn of events.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a $400,000 TV ad campaign to promote the re-election prospects of U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington. The normally pro-GOP chamber has not yet endorsed her, but the group is slated to make an announcement with her Tuesday and says she has a 74% pro-business record. GOP challenger ~~Brian~~ David McSweeney termed the spending “payback” for her vote for a Central America free-trade bill.

As you already know, organized labor is upset with Bean for the same CAFTA vote.

Use this as an 8th District open thread.

44 Comments

Question of the day

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m curious about some of your technological preferences.

1) Do you use an RSS reader? If so, which one?

2) Can you access the Internet and e-mail on your cellphone/PDA? How often do you do it, and for what purpose? What sort of mobile phone do you own?

3) What’s your favorite website for national news?

4) Do you still buy “dead trees” newspapers, or do you read your news online now?

5) How often do you visit my website?

50 Comments

Kaboom

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Stu Levine flip could turn out to be the biggest state politics story of the year.

A man at the center of two corruption probes involving Gov. Blagojevich’s administration has been cooperating with federal authorities for some time, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times. […]

Levine in May 2005 was indicted on fraud charges alleging kickbacks, influence-peddling and insider dealing in his role with the health board. But a more high-profile indictment against him came down several weeks later, when Levine was accused of steering pension-fund investments to firms that hired certain consultants whom Levine knew.

In September 2005, another man indicted in the TRS case, lawyer Joseph Cari, pleaded guilty and dropped a bombshell on Blagojevich: He alleged that Levine told him Blagojevich and his top fund-raisers, Christopher Kelly and Antoin “Tony” Rezko, schemed to steer state pension deals to investment firms and consultants who agreed to donate to Blagojevich’s campaign.

The plea identified Blagojevich as “Public Official A” and Kelly and Rezko as “associates,” but the Sun-Times confirmed their identities with sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

If Levine and the feds are able to confirm Cari’s story, then the governor is in a world of hurt. Forget politics, I’m talking about personally.

A few helpful links:

Â· Former Health Facilities Board Member Among 3 Indicted

Â· Corruption Allegations Shake Illinois Government, Health Care Market

Â· From a July, 2004 column: “The scandal of the year is not about Jack Ryanâ€™s sex life. Itâ€™s about an obscure little state board that appears to have gotten completely out of hand. ”

Â· “Federal investigators have asked the state teachers’ pension system for records involving a cadre of political insiders, ranging from prominent GOP fundraisers to a close adviser to Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The breadth of a federal grand jury subpoena delivered to the pension fund, and obtained by the Tribune, shows that authorities are curious whether any ties exist between the pension fund, Blagojevich supporters and the state’s old-line Republican guard. ”

Â· “It was probably a two-second decision,” the governor said [of Levine’s appointments]. “When it came to Republican positions, they were pretty quick in terms of yes or no. If they were in positions, for the most part, they stayed.”

Â· “A Glenview businessman who federal investigators believe received a $250,000 kickback in a state teacher pension scheme has had past business dealings with gubernatorial fund-raiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the Chicago Sun-Times has found… Aramanda… received $250,000 of a $375,000 finder’s fee that prosecutors say was illegally arranged by indicted former TRS board member Stuart Levine, who was reappointed to that board by Blagojevich months before his July 2004 resignation.”

UPDATE: I forgot to post my syndicated column. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Every day for four years, I got down on my knees and thanked God for sending me Gov. George Ryan. I knew that no matter how slow the news day was, I could always count on Ryan’s various scandals and antics to provide enough interesting fodder to fill up sufficient white space. […]

I’ve certainly felt blessed these past three and a half years as Gov. Rod Blagojevich has picked up where Ryan left off â€” even doing him better on occasion. For instance, there now are more individual state, federal and local investigations of Blagojevich’s administration than Ryan ever faced. That’s quite something.

43 Comments

Ouch

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Governor Blagojevich’s last-second decision to dole out an extra million bucks to a campaign contributor’s baseball project resulted in this quite brutal piece.

Having already committed $3 million in state tax dollars toward helping a political supporter build a minor league baseball stadium in southern Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich surprised even the projectâ€™s enthusiasts last week by showing up and announcing heâ€™d kick in an extra million.

Just last month, the Chicago Democrat also announced he would find $5 million in the state budget to finance stem cell research because it was too important an issue to wait for lawmakers to decide.

Meanwhile, two dozen school districts across the state continue to be told that partisan bickering in Springfield is why they donâ€™t have their school construction dollars nearly four years after state officials promised them.

Dozens more not-for-profit and community groups have been told thereâ€™s no money available to finance projects they were promised as far back as 1999. And the stateâ€™s medical community complains the state is chronically late in paying them to care for the stateâ€™s elderly, disabled and poor.

As someone noted somewhere else (I can’t remember where I saw it), $4 million to build a 4,000-seat baseball stadium works out to a taxpayer bill of $1,000 a seat.

16 Comments

Topinka slammed on money

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is pretty much the same thing that happened to Glenn Poshard in 1998. Reporters and editors feel the need to balance out negative coverage of one candidate with negative coverage of the other. And everyone enjoys knocking a self-proclaimed reform off his/her pedestal (just ask Gov. Blagojevich). So, Poshard was regularly portrayed as a hypocrite on campaign finance because he “violated” his own campaign contribution limits even though it was George Ryan who was the real crook.

The key message of Republican Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign for governor is that the Democratic incumbent has allowed political money to corrupt his administration and dictate who gets state jobs and contracts.

But while she spreads that message to voters, Topinka is accepting political money from banks and other financial institutions doing business with the state treasurer’s office that she has run for three terms.

Although Topinka insists donors get no special treatment, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign accuses her of hypocrisy.

A government watchdog group said Topinka, like Blagojevich, is fueling the public perception of Illinois as a state with no real separation between government and politics.

Meanwhle, Finke had some harsh words for the Topinka campaign.

Instead of just hammering away at why Blagojevich’s campaign needs to spend $700,000 on legal fees, Topinka asked why Blagojevich was spending the money on “George Ryan’s law firm.” That allowed the Blagojevich campaign to basically issue a “look who’s talking” response, since Topinka took money from Winston and Strawn attorneys. And why Topinka would even want to raise Ryan’s name - after all the shots she’s taken from Blagojevich about her and Ryan being practically joined at the hip - is anyone’s guess.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform looked at large campaign contributions ($10K and up).

Gov. Blagojevich reported $6.7 million in receipts in the first half of the year. Of that, at least $4.2 million came from large donors — 64% of his total take. About a fifth of his haul came from donors who gave more than $100,000. His Republican opponent, Judy Baar Topinka, reported $3.4 million in receipts, of which 42% came from large donors.

Chuck Sweeny asked Topinka about the fundraising gap.

â€œIâ€™d like more money, but never do I want so much money that Iâ€™m willing to compromise my principles. We do not seek money in exchange for favors given,â€ Topinka said from the deck at Cliffbreakers.

17 Comments

Morning shorts

Monday, Aug 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· “A case of a mother who once supervised her daughter’s time sheets has revealed a wider web of family ties within a state agency, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.”

Â· Tribune retracts harsh editorial about Gov. Blagojevich

Â· Editorial: A victory for clean air

Â· Daily Herald survey of suburbs hospital pandemic preparedness finds mixed results

Â· State Fair trumpets tradition, innovation

Â· PRC: Wedge Issues on the Ballot - Can State Initiatives on Gay Marriage, Minimum Wage Affect Candidate Races?

Â· Austin Mayor: Sometimes a political ad inadvertently reveals more than was intended.

Â· Editorial: Governor gets a grip, or else

Â· Editorial: Those promiscuous TIFs

Â· Sweet: Lapdog patrol… Helen Thomas quote: “My criticism of the press secretaries in the Bush-2 administration is that they are robots parroting the party line, on message word for word. They are afraid to deviate even when they are spouting nonsense. They stay on one page, no matter what the question.” Sounds vaguely familiar.

14 Comments

Weekend shorts

Saturday, Aug 5, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Apparently, the Illinois Republican Party has been in a running dispute with its webmaster Jake Parillo and hasn’t paid its bills. So, yesterday afternoon Jake pulled the party’s site offline. UPDATE: Not long after this post appeared, the IL GOP and Jake worked out their differences. The link now works.

Â· As the Tribune correctly notes, this Stu Levine flipping story has been one of the hottest political rumors of the summer.

Republican insider Stuart Levine, indicted for alleged corruption at two state boards, is cooperating with the federal investigation of state government, sources familiar with the case said Friday. […]

Despite Levine’s long-standing Republican ties, his decision to cooperate with federal prosecutors could have dramatic implications for the Democratic governor, whose administration faces multiple corruption investigations as he seeks re-election on Nov. 7.

Levine was accused a year ago of using his position as trustee on the teachers’ pension board to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from investment firms seeking business with the pension plan.

In September 2005 co-defendant Joseph Cari, a nationally prominent Democratic fundraiser, pleaded guilty to attempted extortion. In his plea agreement, Cari said that Levine told him a prominent government official, cited as “Public Official A,” and the official’s two associates had steered pension fund business to individuals and firms in exchange for campaign donations.

Â· Charlie Cook turns even more pessimistic about Republican chances nationwide.

Time is running out for Republicans. Unless something dramatic happens before Election Day, Democrats will take control of the House. And the chances that theyâ€™ll seize the Senate are rising toward 50-50.

The electoral hurricane bearing down on the GOP looks likely to be a Category 4 or 5, strong enough to destroy at least one of the partyâ€™s majorities. The political climate feels much as it did before previous elections that produced sizable upheavals, such as in 1994, when Democrats lost 52 House seats, eight Senate seats, and control of both chambers.

Â· AFSCME ups the ante in its dispute with Gateway.

About a dozen drug counselors at two Illinois prisons have voted to join a union that is locked in a nearly two-month-old strike at the state’s only prison for drug-addicted inmates, officials said Friday.
The newly organized counselors at Dwight and Vandalia correctional centers are employed by the Chicago-based Gateway Founda-tion, a nonprofit organization whose workers at Sheridan Correctional Center walked out June 6 amid a stalemate in talks for their first union contract.

Gateway workers in Vandalia voted 3-2 Friday to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, union officials said. Counselors at Dwight approved the union by an identical vote on Thursday.