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Morning shorts
Monday, Nov 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller * Tribune: Alarmed by signs that Mayor Richard Daley is losing his iron grip on the City Council, a major business group plans to launch a campaign to defeat aldermen who don’t support him… “Under Mayor Daley’s leadership, the business community had, effectively, `one-stop shopping’ in City Hall,” the chamber stated in a presentation made at the Oct. 26 meeting of its board of directors. “Members of Chicago’s City Council were relatively complacent until recently.” * Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn disagreed Friday with the way his boss, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, plans to distribute proceeds from a new lottery scratch-off ticket for veterans. * Vets’ new fight: Maintaining respect * Copley: If Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s vision comes true, millions of barrels of oil will one day be forced to the surface of southern Illinois oil fields by massive injections of carbon dioxide deep into the earth. * Tribune: Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt scored a huge victory over Alf Landon in the 1936 presidential election have Illinois Republicans been completely shut out of statewide elected office, as well as being in the minority in the General Assembly and on the state Supreme Court. * “The whole house has burned down. It’s not just that a gutter has fallen off or a brick is loose. What you’re facing here is a reconstruction project from the ground up,” said GOP political consultant Glenn Hodas. * AP: In fact, if the candidates spent all $23 million they reported raising for the race, Democrat Blagojevich’s total comes out to more than $10 a vote — dwarfing Republican Topinka’s $5 per vote and Green Party candidate Whitney’s mere 9 cents a vote. * Finke on the Green Party’s success: This raises the question of whether the Green Party will become a truly cohesive political force in Illinois or merely a vehicle for fringe candidates from all over the political spectrum to get their names on a ballot. We know plenty of people who are putting their money on the latter. * Marin: On Tuesday night as [Topinka] was conceding defeat, I’m ashamed to admit I was staring at the magnetic blue eye shadow she had chosen to wear that evening and blurting out that repulsive Blagojevich refrain, ‘’What was she thinking?'’ I’m not proud of that. * McQueary: The Democratic machine rocked and rolled Election Day for most of its slate — except for its Board of Review candidate, Republican Maureen Murphy. * Daily Herald: A local conservative organization is calling for the resignation of Lake County’s Republican Party chairman, saying he’s a “master of disaster†trying to put a positive spin on poor results in last week’s elections. * Blagojevich may see mandate, but others see hurdles for his second-term agenda * Did Nasty NRCC Robo Calls Win Elections? * AP: Democrats across the country owe a big chunk of their new electoral success to a nine-fingered, ballet-dancing inspiration for a “West Wing†character with a reputation as a jerk. * Columnist says he exposed deals - Libel case finds Kane County judges, senators denying political back scratching * Libel trial verdict no easy task for jury * Roskam balks at hiking minimum wage * CBS2: After losing a heated and close race this week, Tammy Duckworth says she is considering a second run at Congress in 2008. * Sneed: “Clinton told [Duckworth] about his first run for Congress, which he lost, and how it didn’t impede his future progress,” said a Dem source. “He offered his help for whatever she wants to do next.” * Group issues Carpentersville mayor a challenge - Carpentersville group wants discussion on illegal immigration * Sneed hears rumbles one of the first casualties of Gov. Blagojevich’s second term may be Illinois Department of Children and Family Services chief Bryan Samuels. * Robaugh: On Election Day, I wished my home was in Cook County so I could have cast a Peraica vote. Wednesday morning, I came to my senses.
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- Pat Hickey - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 8:15 am:
Sounds like Dennis Byrne had the story nailed down about the ILDEMNET Travelling Allstars and the Robocalls - the Tribune’s fine study of Rahm Emanual really coursed the bile flowing toward Dennis Byrne in another direction.
- Snidely Whiplash - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 8:33 am:
Buh-bye, Mo.
- fedup dem - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 9:44 am:
Apparently Gov. Sleazy wants to start his second term like he ran most of his first term. Sticking it to the veterans is just the start. You can expect Rod to alienate more and more people in the future (only God knows why).
- Cassandra - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 10:48 am:
Sneed’s item on Bryan Samuels comes as something of a surprise, one interpretation being that Samuels’ departure may not be totally voluntary.
Samuels has enjoyed more positive press coverage than his predecessor, reformer Jess McDonald, so perhaps we are not getting the whole story.
Maybe Samuels didn’t hire enough hacks, although DCFS has plenty of them, well-paid hacks too. Maybe he gave too many contracts to minority contractors and ruffled some powerful feathers.
And there are those pesky federal investigations, the first in the agency’s history, under Samuels.
Maybe the press is getting restive. This weekend, the Belleville News-Democrat reported on its not very successful efforts to get Samuels to respond to a list of questions regarding Illinois child deaths and child protection operations.
Child protection has been a weak point for Samuels, despite Blago’s claims of reform. This year alone several infants and toddlers died violently across the state during or shortly after an investigation by DCFS’ child protection agents. However, if Blago wants to fix this problem, he will have to go further down into the bureacracy than Samuels. And since patronage trumps everything, including child protection, in Illinois, that is unlikely to happen.
- Robo - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 12:40 pm:
The amount of robocalls going in to the 6th and 8th districts was insane. Likely Dem voters we’re getting several calls a day, and seniors were getting calls in the middle of the night. The NRCC also dropped an extra million the weekend before the election into the 6th.
- Squideshi - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 2:27 pm:
At only 9 cents a vote, the Whitney campaign was 99.982% more efficient than the Topinka campaign and 99.991% more efficient than the Blagojevich campaign. It has been prooven time and time again that Greens know how to get more bang for the buck and are much more efficent with money than either the Democrats or Republicans. Greens will make the same efficient use of taxpayer dollars, once they are have a majority in state government.
In regards to Finke’s comments, he’s missing one major component in his analysis. Unlike other temporary and personality driven new “political parties” the Green Party actually has a long-term organized membership behind it. It’s not going to disappear in a puff of smoke like some of the others, and that is evidenced by the fact that it didn’t disinigrate after Ralph Nader ran in 2000.
- RBD - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 2:44 pm:
Robo calls: I got none because I erased my phone number at the Board of Elections.
- RoseyB - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 2:58 pm:
Re Cook County: At some point the suburban taxpayers have to come to their senses and start the process to secede. (The local papers could help push that process along.)
Once Richard Daley realizes the suburbanites are serious about keeping their tax dollars in the suburbs, he will cause the County’s budget problems to be fixed. For as tolerant as he has been of patronage corruption, his tune will change when he understands an additional $1+ billion of tax burden will fall on the City residents…..at the very time Daley is promoting the Olympics.
- cermak_rd - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 3:44 pm:
RoseyB,
I don’t think so. The geographic divide in the Stroger vs. Peraica race was not that lopsided. Sure Stroger got more votes in the city and Peraica in the burbs, but Stroger got close to 40% of the suburban vote. That means that 2 out of 5 suburban voters selected Stroger as the individual better able to head the Cook County government.
- RoseyB - Monday, Nov 13, 06 @ 4:38 pm:
Cermak-Rd
Reform voters are not registered, or not properly registered. I didn’t appreciate that until I spent the day hanging out at northside polling places.
One of the main jobs of precinct captains is to make sure that their voters are properly registered. No one is telling the Reform voters that the DMV or post office does not change voter registration too (a standard response I heard).
Nonetheless, there’s no value to the suburban political VIPs to stay in Cook County. That’s a billion tax dollars going into the City when they could use them at home.