53 Comments - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:04 am: I wonder what ole George thinks about Judy splashing his ghost like picture in the background of her anti-Rod ad camapign. It must make for some interesting conversation in Kankakee and the rest of Will County and probably does not help with the appeal. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy (lunacy)in using Ryan? Does Judy want people to think she is the Green party candidate instead of the Republican candidate. I guess it is time to bring out the waltz tape. - Shallow Pharnyx - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:09 am: I like it. Too bad she couldn’t get it out sooner. - Shallow Pharnyx - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:10 am: Bill, I don’t see the irony since Blago said he would change (Ryan’s) “business as usual”. - Me - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:10 am: It seems only fair that JBT would use G. Ryan’s mug in her ads, as Blagojevich has been doing the same. In fact, didn’t he do it first? - Illinifan86 - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:13 am: I was hoping the lead would be from ARods last press conference, “You’re asking me what????” maybe we’ll still see that footage somewhere. Overall, not a bad ad. - Little Egypt - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:17 am: Great ad. Hope we see lots more of this. Good morning Bill. - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:18 am: Good Morning. - Martha Mitchell - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:18 am: I don’t know which scared me most, Rod’s picture or the “ghost” report. Rich, you about gave me a heart attack. - Gregor - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:32 am: Rod should not act hurt or surprised, he opened the door with millions of dollars worth of negative ads. I don’t see though how the attempt to blame Topinka makes much sense. She was not in the legislature, she had zero input in that process, as she does now under THIS governor’s budget shennanigans. Show me one budget bill in the past eight years Topinka voted for. Rod’s argument doesn’t bear up under scrutiny. She’s going to take Rod apart, Black Monday, at Millikin. - B Hicks - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:33 am: The ad will help Whitney more than anyone. By the way, Rod has a plethora of ads waiting to go out. Bill’s right, it’s time to break out the tango tape. Stay tuned! - Roy Slade - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:42 am: I think its a great ad, as well. She is raising additional monies- which means we can see these types of ads consistantly. Think about it- there is soooo much ammo out there- she could “tweak” these ads quite often. By the way, Bill, Kankakee is NOT in Will county! These ads will make for GREAT conversation. - Roomie - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:43 am: I find is very hypocritical that Topinka is trying to compare blago to Ryan when Topinka and Ryan bosum buddies. She tries to deny it now, but her fingerprints were all over the Ryan administration and (as the blago camp is fond of pointing out) she did NOTHING while George Ryan ran up a 5 billion dollar deficit and grossly underfunded the pension system. Whats she thinking! I dont care about these political allegations by Topinka. I look what the gov has done for healthcare, the economy, and education. That is enough for me. - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:43 am: Roy, I stand corrected on Kankakee County but George was popular in Will as well. - B Hicks - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:47 am: In my opinion, the voters that are disappointed in Rod don’t see Judy as the answer. She is not viewed as a positive change. They’re either going to stay at home, skip the Governor’s race, or go with Whitney. Say what you will, a lot of people don’t like Judy, plain and simple. Some aren’t super thrilled with our guy, but a least they know what to expect with him. Trust me, I’ve talked to a lot of people in the past 4 weeks. 4 more years, get ready! - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:48 am: Grefor, Judy was in the legislature and voted on about twelve budgets that raided the pension plans, under funded education, and made republican cronies rich while doing nothing to alleviate the lack of health care for seniors, children,and veterans. - DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:50 am: Looks and sounds like another hit for JBT.Remember Blagoettes he’s been going negitive for months.What goes around comes around.Oh also remember Ryan and him both carry the title of Public Official A. - Absolutely Bananas - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:59 am: This is why I don’t vote…voting only seem to encourage this sort of behavior. My TV will be turned off until Nov 8. - anon - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:13 am: Bill, please provide proof that JBT voted to raid the pension fund while in the legislature. Those voting records should be public information, so please show us the proof. Besides, wasn’t the pension fund in very good shape when Blago came into office? Wasn’t that why he said it was okay to take “loans” from it to pay for his buddies’ contracts? The only thing that hurt the pension fund that I can remember was the early retirement packages offered. Like I said Bill, please provide proof, instead of constantly rehashing Blago’s tired, worn out script. face it, you really are nothing but a Blago hack unable to think for yourself - Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:13 am: He is coming across as a whining bully in that ad. After punching Judy out for six months with negative ads he suddenly is crying “she hit me back”! Good grief! Soon this election will be over! - Juice - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:27 am: I love how everybody topinka for being a budget hawk and as a person with such experience, yet now you claim that she had nothing to do with the Ryan deficit. Brilliant! - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:34 am: anon, Do your own research. The pension funds were funded at 43% of liabilities when Rod took office. Now they are funded at over 65%. The pension funds have never been funded fully and got much worse during Topinka’s reign of terror in the legislature. Thompson, Edgar, and Ryan used that money as their own personal piggy bank while Judy cheered them on in the legislature. If they hadn’t systemically raided the funds year after year they would all be funded at over 100% today and the surplus could have been used to pay down the Topinka-Ryan $5 billion deficeit. Look in the mirror before you call someone a hack. Pick a name so we can all revel in all of the original thought you have to offer. - zatoichi - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:35 am: I thought the state constitution says the Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the state and responsible for the administration of all areas of the Executive Branch including the budget. The Treasurer is the banker in charge of investments not spending. If the Gov is CEO and has final admin authority on how money is to be spent, how does the budget performance become the Treasurer’s responsibility? Guess the Truman “Buck Stops Here” philosophy only applies when things are going well. - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:42 am: No one mentioned the new Blagojevich ad. That means that either no one sees them anymore, or the focus on Judy is long overdue. Whatever. I saw the governor’s ad last night, I don’t know why since I hate watching television. I think his ad is pretty good, but has two big flaws. One, he doesn’t look at us. He looks off screen like he is answering a reporter. His unwillingness to look at us while making these charges, make his message less credible, in my opinion. Secondly, his message is bunk. The idea that the state treasurer works “for” a governor is bunk. Topinka has been treasurer WITH three governors, one of them Blagojevich himself. Blagojevich’s criticism is ridiculous. It makes you wonder if he really thinks voters are THAT stupid. BUT on the plus side, he makes a simple point - a stupid one - but one that is simple to remember. “Topinka didn’t do her job”. That message coming from Blagojevich did make blood come out of my TV a few seconds though. - Little Egypt - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:43 am: I know very little about the legislative process and I really have no excuse for not educating myself. However, what little I know is that a governor proposes a budget, the state senate and legislature argue over it for months adding in their pork here and there. I do know there are such things as “shell” bills that are simply an empty paper with a HB or SB number on it. These are for the sole purpose of procedurally introducing a bill into the system and then later filling it up with whatever the house majority leader or the senate president wants. And I do know that usually occurs at the 11:59th hour of the legislative session. I do know that the comproller write the checks after state agencies have submitted the necessary legal forms to him/her which then enables the comptroller to put that particular voucher into the system for payment. What I am totally unclear about is what does the treasurer do? I know he/she invests the state’s money and makes sure there is money in the bank when the comptroller cranks up the check writing machine. But what duty, ability or input does the treasurer have in the budget process? I am seriously wanting to know what part the state treasurer plays in this process. I have not capitalized names of positions nor named people in this to keep it as generic as possible for this state. Now Bill don’t come back with your one-sided political essay of what JBT has NOT done. Perhaps someone can give me some clarification on those duties please? - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:43 am: If you check your constitution again I think you will find that the legislature, not the governor, has responsibility for passing the state budget. - Tired of all the b.s. - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:48 am: Juice & Bill, If you were so informed, as you claim to be, then you would know that the State Treasurer is constitutionally bound to sign off on the budget whether she agrees or not, and has stated in the past, both under Ryan & Blago that she has disagreed with the budget. She even went to court because she didn’t want to sign it, but was forced to…. Also, fyi to Bill, the pensions are now funded at 65% because state employees must now contribute to them on top of their own retirement plans. You cannot give Blago credit for this, he isn’t the one funding it. State employees are not contributing to 2 retirement plans, defered comp & their pensions (which fyi, a pension is normally supposed to be a non-contributable retirement plan — this is why companies have 401ks, so that you can have a contributable plan with some control on top of your pension which is normally only going to add up to about 20-30% of what your average salary was over the top 5 highest paid years worked) Now that state employees are now contributing to their own pensions, of course the funding is going to go up…. And isn’t Rod taking loans from this pension fund left & right????? - Centrist - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:48 am: Bill, You forgot to mention that the pension ratios went up because Rod doubled the state’s debt by borrowing something like $10 billion. If you ever have kids make sure you leave them enough to pay that off. - Little Egypt - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:51 am: Bill, I know it’s early in the day, but please go back and re-read my post. I did not say the governor passes the budget. I said he INTRODUCES it. I’d rather you read our posts completely and let it soak in before writing a knee-jerk reaction. I’m asking a very legitimate question. I don’t know what the duties are of the state treasurer. Perhaps I will go to that website and see if it tells me anything since you have been absolutely NO HELP WHATSOEVER. - Tired of all the b.s. - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:53 am: Also, don’t forget the Treasurer was not allowed any input, nor invited to, the budget meetings since the current Governor was elected…. Also, I thought the Comptroller was given more input into the Budget than the Treasurer (which is why there has been talk in the past of combining the two offices). Comtroller - state’s accountant Treasurer - state’s banker/investor So my question to Rod is this: How exactly did she not do her job, because last time I checked, growth of funds and investments by the Treasurer’s office have been up every year she has been in office, and not once has her office every gone over their own budget given to them by the legislature…. - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:55 am: Centrist, After 4 more years of the Blagojevich administration, the booming economy in Illinois will provide enough revenue growth to more than offset the bonds. The revenue from that bond issue is now invested making much more than they cost. That issue was a great investment for Illinois. If it weren’t for repub obstructionists we could have sold more. - Tired of all the b.s. - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:55 am: Bill, If the legislature has the responsibility of passing the budget, then how could Topinka have not done her job as Treasurer? Also, since you have all the “numbers” What was the deficit under Edgar and Thompson? How behind were we in paying bills? How many no-bid contracts were given out in contrast to the last 4 years? - Centrist - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 8:57 am: Bill, Booming economy? Are you in Illinois? - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:00 am: Little e, I was responding to zatiochi’s comment, not yours, since you specificly asked me not to. As for the treasurer’s job, it seems for the last 8 years it has been to award state business to banks that contributed to the ryan and Topinka camapign funds. - Me - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:02 am: “The revenue from that bond issue is now invested making much more than they cost. That issue was a great investment for Illinois.” So the treasurer does the investing? Perhaps Bill should be thanking JBT? - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:06 am: “Me,” and the rest of you, go look up the answers to your questions someplace else, please. Let’s get back to the ads. - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:06 am: Me, The pension systems invested the money, not Judy. - leigh - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:12 am: I like the ad. I think it will be very effective. Doing one with a birthday party in the background could be effective as well……… - Little Egypt - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:17 am: I guess I can assume one duty of the treasurer is to “award” state business to banks. Would that be state income that needs to be invested somewhere for the time being rather than sitting in a checking account drawing 0 interest? What legal criteria is there for investing this money and does the treasurer determine himself/herself in which financial institution the money will be placed or is there a board or group of treasurer employees who make that determination? Are such things considered such as overall capital assets of the financial institution, interest rates, longevity of the business? Or does a financial institution call the state and get on a list? Is there an investigation of that company before investing funds? I’ve got lots more questions but will stop for now and wait for some answers. - Little Egypt - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:19 am: Rich, sorry I was composing and did not read your request until after I hit “Say It”. I’m just trying get an understanding of what the treasurer duties are for this state (any person holding that position - not just the immediate one). - NumbersGuy - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:22 am: Bill, whoa on the pension stuff and let me give you a hand. -The numbers your friends at the campaign are fond of citing are “48% funded before Rod, 60% funded after Rod.” Well, that was true last year, but thanks to the pension funding cuts, they will fall to around 57% funded according to the bipartisan COGFA. More importantly, in dollars, Rod started out with an unfunded pension liability of $43 billion. COGFA projects at the end of his term the liability will have grown back to $45 billion PLUS the $10 billion owed on those bonds. -I would second the call of asking for documentation of a “raid” in the 90’s, that being an actual cash withdrawal or transfer of funds from a pension fund to somewhere else. -There was absolutely no “systematic raiding of the funds year after year.” Each Gov and GA complied with the law in place during their tenure, which for many years institutionalized underfunding. -You are spot on with one point, for which there is 30 or more years of bipartisan blame to go around; if the pensions had been funded on an actuarial cost basis, including benefit changes, they would in fact be fully funded today. -In the unlikely event a State pension fund ever ran a surplus, that money could not be used to solve a State deficit. The funds belong to the members of the retirement system, not the State. (Don’t feel bad about this one, Bill. Filan has never understood that pension fund money isn’t his money.) - Me - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:25 am: Sorry, Rich. I think the ad will serve to inform, but whether it’s a kidney punch is moot. At some point, people will grow so tired of negative ads from both sides that such ads will be relegated to the same mental sorting pile as those for fat-burning pills and hemorrhoidal ointments. Ads should tell voters why we SHOULD vote for a candidate, not vice versa. Since I don’t trust politicians in general, I tend to cast my vote for the one whose campaign was less accusatory. - Bill - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:38 am: Numbers Guy, Thanks for your help. I use the word “raid” because that seems to be the popular term today. When the GA changed the RAMP (which was a republican time bomb from 1995 designed to go off after most of them were out of office) with SB 27 didn’t that then institutionalize some more under funding. If so then why all of the rhetoric now about a pension “raid” by Rod? Secondly, if there ever was a surplus,wouldn’t the state the be able to then re-allocate, for lack of a better term, money by merely changing the RAMP again? Finally, won’t the reforms instituted by SB 27 reduce liabilities 30 years from now thereby reducing the need for higher state contributions. - slobo - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:38 am: I’m going back to serbia! - Tired of all the b.s. - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 9:50 am: Sorry Rich, back to the topic. I think Rod’s latest ad is pretty shoddy. With headlines coming out daily across the state of the various improprieties (sp?) of the Blago administration, and the announcements of various people leaving his campaign or staff, as well as the reports from auditors and investigators, how can he possibly accuse his challenger of not doing her job? It is pretty obvious that he hasn’t done his. At least not in the best interest of the state, but in actuality he performed his job in the best interest of his presidential aspirations (or pipe dreams as most would call them). The Treasurer has already put out a positive ad on why she should be governor, this was her first one. I think a few more of these, coupled with the continued rotation of the 3 current negative ads would be a good strategy. Staying negative only would be a good way to stall any momentum she has built up over the last month or so. Also, when they do debate, she needs to make sure to stay positive on the issues, and not get caught up in the Blago blame-game script that he is sure to fire out on every question, much like he did when he debated Jim Ryan (whom I think beat Rod in those debates, but unfortunately was the guy to run right after Georgie and had the same last name) - anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 10:19 am: I love it that Topinka and the Republicans have totally cut tail and run from Ryan. George Ryan and Topinka come from the same arm of the Republican Party. They both have the same people behind the scenes telling them what to do. Voting for Topinka would be like putting the “Ryan Good Ol Boys” back in office. - Sound Reasoning - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 11:17 am: I believe that Blagojevich’s new commercial misses the mark on several fronts. First off, he isn’t looking into the camera so some may feel that he may have something to hide as he doesn’t make ‘eye contact’ with his intended audience. Secondly, here is the guy that started all the negative ads way back earlier this year and now that Topinka is attacking back he’s crying ‘not fair’. Many people with view his latest commercial and perceive him to be a hypocrite on this matter. Topinka’s new ads must be hitting a raw nerve based on the comments from some of the governor’s supporters here. The thing about her attack ads is that Topinka doesn’t have to distort the truth to make Blagojevich look bad. Topinka’s hardest task is to sort through all of the many possible subjects that she can select for her attack ads which are being served up to her by Blagojevich’s own inept performance. Topinka needs to keep up the attack on the $1,500 dollar check, the governor making us the largest debtor state in the nation, and his administration being the most investigated governor’s office in the history of the state. - Jaded - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 11:39 am: First of all, the ad is fine, but where have they been. You say they have no money? Too freakin bad. Do something even if it is wrong. The only thing that is being run more poorly than state government right now is the Topinka campaign. Hey Anon 10:19. Most of those “good ol boys” are in jail or have taken their plea bargain and ran with their tails between their legs. Not that it matters since our current Governor has more crooked people around him than most chiropractors! Finally, Bill, the Republicans have only had complete control of the executive and legislative branches of Government for 2 of the past 30 years. The Dems had to sign off on every Thompson budget, every Ryan Budget, and 6 of 8 Edgar budgets. So go ahead and blame the Republicans for all that budetary mis-management, but they had plenty of accomplices in the Democratic party. - BBishere2 - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 2:56 pm: Edgar left office with a surplus in the treasury - handing it over to Ryan who blew it and then some. Hot Rod took over with the state about $5 billion in the hole and has continued to dig it deeper to where it’s at now - about $17 billion in the hole - and people want to support him for 4 more years? Maybe if I was living in one of the border states - but I live in Illinois and the day is coming that the bills are going to have to be paid for all of the Gov’s pork barrel spending - that money is going to come out of my pocket - in the form of a major tax hike. Sad thing is, Hot Rod probably won’t be the one to have to stand there and pay those bills, that will fall on the back of his replacement and they’ll get the blame for raising taxes. Illinois simply can’t afford 4 more years of this bottomless pit spending. - Angie - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 2:59 pm: Re: “After running upward of $10 million in TV ads blasting his opponent, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now looking into the camera and complaining that Republican Judy Baar Topinka is firing back.” You see? Look at how much money Rod has wasted running stupid attack ads. What a waste. Meanwhile, Topinka is doing more with less, working smarter instead of harder. She’s let him shoot off all of his campaign cash fireworks, seen his strategy plays, and now, closer to when it counts, she and Birkett are going to take the guy who has been swinging away like an idiot and just knock him out in the ring in the very end. This is a good example of how Rod will continue to handle Illinois fiscal issues as well, I’m quite sure of that. $10 million wasted on ad nauseam ads that have driven everyone nuts with that silly “what’s she thinking?” tag line, and he can’t even explain a $1500 check? Haven’t we all had “enough” of this guy? lol - Buck Flagojevich - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 3:45 pm: OK. Let’s see. Ryan (Gov) + Topinka (Treas) = $5 billion budget deficit. Blago (Gov) + Topinka (Treas) = $5 billion budget deficit. So after four years of Rod we still have a $5 billion deficit and about $15 billion in new bond debt. What is he trying to say in his commercial? Too bad the voters of Illinois can’t put 2+2 together to understand what a load of crap Blago is spewing. The point is, and the only thing that matters is, WE STILL HAVE A $5 BILLION DEFICIT!!! - SIUalum - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 7:03 pm: Sure, all the ads are basically mellow and lame, honestly, I know very little about Illinois politics, i work, i save, i spend, I have a good life so i could care less who is in the gov. mansion. I’m just wondering why Blago has ads at all because everytime i see this Judy Topinka woman, she looks as if she was forced to run because nobody else wanted to. It looks as if he’ll win without any ads, i don’t know. I’m one of those voters that looks at the issues 5 days before voting day and I usually just pick one issue that means something to me and vote for the champion of that issue. Are people dumping on Judy because she lacks answers? - Enough is Enough - Wednesday, Sep 27, 06 @ 11:28 pm: To Governor Rod Blagojevich - Or whoever monitors this site for him: Your latest ad alleges that “As state treasurer, she [Topinka] didn’t do her job” and tries desperately to create the impression that she could have controlled Ryan’s spending and thus averted the deficit he created. I’m calling your bluff. I - and many of my fellow taxpayers - would like to hear your explanation of exactly how that was supposed to occur; please cite the specific statute which gives her that legal authority. And - since the responsibilities of the Governor and Treasurer are the same today as they were during the Ryan administration - please acknowledge that the State Treasurer has the veto power over your budget that you imply she had over Ryan’s, and publicly declare that YOU will follow Judy Baar Topinka’s instructions relative to spending. Alternatively, of course, you can always admit that the allegations in your commercial are just you playing loose and easy with the truth again in yet another attempt to mislead the public. I’ll watch and listen for a reply, but I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting; blue just isn’t my color! - Angie - Thursday, Sep 28, 06 @ 12:21 am: Re: ” Too bad the voters of Illinois can’t put 2+2 together to understand what a load of crap Blago is spewing. The point is, and the only thing that matters is, WE STILL HAVE A $5 BILLION DEFICIT!!!” That’s why the Dems prop up the lousy public school system. They like the voters just bright enough to figure out how to show up to cast a vote for them, but not bright enough to see through their BS. If you have kids, folks, send them to private schools. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.