Lisa Madigan: No pension for Ryan
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller I thought we were going to see an opinion on a different topic today, which is what the earlier notification was about. But, hey, we take what we can get. Attorney General Lisa Madigan today issued an opinion in response to the September 6, 2006 request from the General Assembly Retirement System for guidance regarding whether former Governor George Ryan’s felony convictions result in a forfeiture of his pension benefits under the Illinois Pension Code. The entire opinion can be found on this page.
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Green Party candidate invited to participate in debate - Updated x1
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller [I accidentally deleted this post. All the comments are gone. I’m really sorry. But here it is again.] [UPDATE: I’ve rebuilt the comments for the post.] I just got off the phone with James Bennett, the editor of the Southern Illinoisan. The SI is sponsoring a gubernatorial debate on September 26th and Bennett and other sponsors have said before that if any candidate scored at least 5 percent in an independent poll that they would be invited. As you know, the Tribune poll has the Green Party’s Rich Whitney at 6 percent so Whitney was invited to participate this morning. No word yet on the Blagojevich campaign response. Mr. Bennett said he hadn’t heard back from them yet. I’ll fire off an e-mail in a few minutes. UPDATE: I just talked to Mike Lawrence, whose Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute is also a co-sponsor. Mike stressed that neither of the two major party candidates have formally agreed to the debate in writing, although there has been plenty of interest. I got the feeling that if Gov. Blagojevich nixes the Whitney idea, the invitation could be withdrawn. Stay tuned…
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It’s things like this that can tube a campaign
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence takes a whack at Topinka. Commenting on remarks made by gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka last week in Champaign, Ill., Englewood resident Deanna Woods issued the following statement: As I told you before, this is what Topinka said. “To our College Republicans, our county chairmen, to all of you in business and industry who have stuck it out through these miserable four years under Rod Blagojevich, let me tell you, not only is help coming, I’m the sword of justice and I’m going to cut him to pieces. We will take him out with my little rolling pin known as the assault weapon. I will prove to him, indeed, it is an assault weapon.â€
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Geo; Simpson; Undecideds; Granberg; Parnarauskis; Ads; Target feed (Use all caps in password)
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Not minding their P’s and Q’s
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller This isn’t exactly indictment-worthy, but third party candidates need to remember that the laws apply to them, too. Green Party governor hopeful Rich Whitney’s campaign manager at times uses a public university’s computer system to help run Whitney’s third-party bid, something a leading ethical watchdog said is a clear violation of state law.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Rate the state politics coverage by your local media outlets, print and electronic. Is it enough? Too much? Well-informed? Clueless? Explain.
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Fallout continues - Updated x1
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Eric Zorn thinks the check scandal could resonate with voters. I agree. Whatever legal judgments are ultimately made about this situation, right now this is looking a lot like Blagojevich’s “cash-from-janitors” moment. And the State Journal-Register’s editorial page makes an excellent point by noting that the governor may have violated his own ethics rules. Actually, what is outrageous is that Blagojevich would be willing to accept a $1,500 check within days of providing the check writer’s wife a $45,000-per-year job. Remember that ethics training that thousands of state employees recently rushed through? One section dealt with the state gift ban. “As a state employee, neither you, your spouse nor any member of your immediate family can ordinarily accept a gift of any value from someone who wants the state or a state employee to take or not take an official action.†See how important it is to slow down and read everything? UPDATE: From a Joe Birkett press release: …”Rod Blagojevich has an obligation to explain this troubling revelation by coming forward personally and explaining the details of the transaction. He needs to stop hiding behind spokespeople and lawyers.”
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Tribune: 45-33-6
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller [Bumped up for discussion purposes.] The new Tribune poll is out. Blagojevich leads Topinka 45-33, with the Green Party’s Rich Whitney scoring 6 percentage points. 600 likely voters were survyed between Thursday and Sunday. Topinka’s first TV ads of the season went up last Wednesday. Topinka leads slightly among independents, 36-34, Blagojevich leads among women 45-34. 40 percent of all voters view Topinka unfavorably, compared to 29 percent who view her favorably. Voters were split evenly among the two top contenders and “neither of them” when asked who would do a better job of cleaning up corruption. A total of 56 percent of the voters surveyed also said they thought Blagojevich had not kept his 2002 campaign promise to end government corruption, while only one in five thought he had lived up to his vow. Democrats were almost equally split on the question while nearly 70 percent of independent voters thought the incumbent had failed to keep his word. […] With Whitney at 6, the winner only needs 47 percent plus one vote to win. I’m still putting this together, but you can view other recent statewide polling here. The Rasmussen poll is still behind the firewall, but here’s an interesting story from the pollster that shows just how difficult it will be for Topinka. The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. Just 31.9% of American adults now say they’re affiliated with the GOP. That’s down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006. […] The results are from tracking surveys of 15,000 voters per month. The margin of error is said to be “smaller than a percentage point.” Also, here’s are some crucial excerpts from my syndicated newspaper column, which is about the Post-Dispatch poll: And considering that the poll found that 20 percent of blacks say they were undecided, there’s a very good chance that Blagojevich is probably at 50 precent right now anyway since almost all of those undecided black voters will end up on Blagojevich’s side (blacks are about 15 percent of the state’s population, so 20 percent undecided would be 3 percent of the total population, and 47 plus three equals 50). This tracks with a July SurveyUSA poll, which found that 25 percent of black voters were either undecided or wanting another unnamed candidate. […]
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The key to Weller’s fate
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Kristen McQueary takes on a subject that has perplexed many an outside observer over the years. How does Jerry Weller keep annhilating his opponents? First, she lays out some of the problems he faces this year. His father-in-law, Efrain Rios Montt, is a former Guatemalan dictator for whom an arrest warrant was issued in July on charges of genocide, torture, illegal arrest and terrorism for a 1980s insurgency he orchestrated (with the support of the Reagan administration). […] But then she runs through the counter-arguments and writes this key paragraph. He manages to balance just the right mix of political prowess to keep bombshell stories from soiling his lapel. He brushes off criticism as political pettiness. He meets the needs of his district just enough to sustain a presence. And he raises money like a skilled Vegas gambler, ready at any moment to unleash a torrent of negative publicity about an opponent in the weeks leading up to Election Day. She concludes that the trending Democratic Will County will be the key battleground if there is to be a race at all. Read the whole thing.
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Morning shorts
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller * Zinga goofs on airline profiling - Campaign manager blames his ‘poor briefing’ * SoS Ghost payroll scheme alleged. More here. * Quote of the week: “People have laughed at me for years.” - Ald. Burt Natarus. * I’m not sure if this is even on the air yet, or if it is whether there are any serious points behind it, but here is Christine Radogno’s TV ad, with a hat tip towards IlliniPundit. * Ex-gov Walker: Ryan got a ’soft sentence’ * “Based on a statewide estimate, approximately 570,000 or about 11 percent of Illinois voters, don’t have a photo ID. This is consistent with other states. where estimates range from 5 percent to as high as 14 percent.” * Coleman denies gifts got her to back consultant * Judicial hellhole’ freezes over - Class actions halt after federal law, Illinois courts curb forum shopping * Um, Denny? Either learn the words or turn off the mic?
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