I didn’t post anything about President Bush’s visit to Peoria this week because, well, I didn’t see much of an angle for the blog.
But something did catch my eye today. The president stopped in at Sterling Family Restaurant to have breakfast with some business people. Here’s how the Peoria Journal-Star originally covered it:
The president stopped at Sterling Family Restaurant, on Sterling Avenue across from Northwoods Mall, where Bush greeted people for breakfast.
The crowd was near silenced as the president spoke, saying things such as, “How you doing?” “Nice to meet you.” “How’s the service?” and “Sorry to disturb you,” as he made his way through the crowd.
The Tribune’s blog also noted the crowd’s reaction:
The president’s appearance at the restaurant prompted a reaction of calm curiousity. No one got up from the tables or the counter to greet him.
…the president walked into the diner, where he was greeted with what can only be described as a sedate reception. No one rushed to shake his hand. There were no audible gasps or yelps of excitement that usually accompany visits like this.
Last summer, a woman nearly fainted when Bush made an unscheduled visit for some donut holes at the legendary Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant in Chicago.
In Peoria this week, many patrons found their pancakes more interesting. Except for the click of news cameras and the clang of a dish from the kitchen, the quiet was deafening.
At the very bottom of Lynn Sweet’s column today is this: [emphasis added]
Obama opens his presidential fund-raising drive with a laudable self-imposed ban on accepting money from federal lobbyists, political action committees, registered foreign agents and youths under the age of 16.
A common scam for rich donors is to get around federal giving limits by writing checks in the names of their kids — students or tots who are being used by their parents. […]
But he’s been willing to take PAC money in the past — more than $1 million.
While his new standard is welcome, it opens the doors for this question: Should he try to refund PAC and lobby money he has taken in the past?
Remember Glenn Poshard? He banned most of those very same contributions when he ran for governor against George Ryan in 1998. As a result, he had constant money troubles.
There was no such thing as an Internet-based fundraising drive back then, and Obama will undoubtedly depend heavily on the mysterious intertubes to raise money. He’s also brought in Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker to head up his fundraising eforts.
But there was another problem as well. By positioning himself as holier than thou and imposing such strict and broad limits, Poshard opened himself up to a million little pimpy charges by Ryan and reporters that he was “violating” his own ethics rules. Ryan, who is now a convicted felon, managed to paint Poshard - one of the more ethical people I’ve ever known - as “tainted.”
Sweet points out the first big hole in Obama’s ethical conversion. If the PAC money is now “bad” and won’t be accepted, shouldn’t he therefore return all of that nasty ol’ cash? Guaranteed, there will be lots more stuff just like this.
A lot of people told Poshard back then: “First, you get elected, then you change the rules.”
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** As noted by “vole” in comments, another problem with Obama’s decision is that people can say, “Well, you banned those contributions, why not these?†Vole was referring to bundled comments, which Obama will still accept, even though the commenter believes bundled contributions are also tainted goods. I’m sure you can think of any number of pet reforms that people could demand he force on himself.
The governors of Illinois and Indiana and the mayors of Chicago and Indianapolis have placed their Super Bowl bets. It’s mostly just local food products. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has a more interesting bet with his Hoosier counterpart. [Emphasis added.]
In hopes of providing some rest and recreation for Illinois servicemembers, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is betting Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman four Chicago Cubs baseball tickets against four seats at the Indianapolis 500 that the Chicago Bears will overwhelm the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI on Sunday.
If – or rather, when – the Bears win, Lt. Gov. Skillman will give Lt. Gov. Quinn four seats at the 2007 Indianapolis 500, to be held on Sunday, May 27. Quinn will donate those tickets to four Illinois military members who have served overseas in the Global War on Terrorism.
I like that a whole lot better, but the Cubs? Quinn’s office says the White Sox weren’t in town that day, so he had little choice. Whatever.
Anyway, to the question: If you were the governor, mayor or light guv, what would be your Super Bowl bet? Snark strongly encouraged.
* Here are a couple of interesting highlights from today’s Tribune story on union involvement in Chicago city council races. You should read the whole thing, but these are the juiciest parts.
Service Employees International Union officials said they hope to count on more than 1,500 “block captains.”
That’s quite a field operation.
Alderman Howard Brookins, Jr. is a top target, and his opponent has some high hopes for big union dollars.
Leroy J. Jones Jr., who has the backing of the unions in his race against Brookins–and expects $300,000 in union support–counters that “labor is trying to raise the standards.”
That would be absolutely huge if Jones is correct. Jones, by the way, works for SEIU.
* And to those who still consider Dorothy Brown and Dock Walls serious candidates in the mayoral race, take a gander at this:
Brown reported raising $338,252 during the last six months of last year and had $118,674 left on Dec. 31. Walls raised just $11,069 and had only $4,103 left.
Daley took in $3,110,354 during the period, leaving him with $4,245,288 on Dec. 31. Since then, he raised another $1,725,589 and spent at least $266,107, leaving him about $5.7 million, said Patt Kilroe, his campaign treasurer.
At a similar point in his last re-election bid, Daley had $4.2 million in mid-February.
* In case you’re still interested, Brown has a new 60 second radio ad that you can listen to below…
[audio:D_Brown_Spot_1_ver_3.mp3]
* Back to aldermanic races for a bit, columnist Russ Stewart has changed his mind about Alderman Bernie Stone’s re-election chances. Last year, he predicted that Ald. Stone would win “easily.” His latest column, however, concludes thusly:
My prediction: Stone admits that if he wins outright on Feb. 27, he won’t get much over 50 percent of the vote. Brewer predicts he’ll win a majority, which is absurd. But all this activity in the ward will spur turnout to about 10,000. Stone will come in with about 4,200 votes, Brewer with 3,500, Dolar with 1,800, and Aftab with 500. That means an April runoff, a low turnout, and a flood of outsiders descending on the ward. Stone could lose.
* The Chicago News-Star (a Pioneer paper) ran a story this week on the impact of blogs on city council races, focusing on wards 49 and 50.
So far, Rogers Park, on both sides of the 49th and 50th Ward border, seems to have the largest number of citizen political blogs, about a dozen in total. While some have drawn criticism for their negativity, Rogers Park blogger Toni Duncan, whose “24/7 North of Howard Watchers” covers housing and community issues in the North of Howard neighborhood, views her blog as a historical document of a place.
“It’s an ongoing chronology, past and present. I’m waiting to see what the camera sees in the future,” Duncan said.
Always interesting, always opinionated, and at times, more rancorous than a middle-school lunchroom, neighborhood blogs are beginning to draw the attention of local candidates interested in knowing what residents have to say.
“It’s not to your advantage to ignore them. I have folks who keep an eye on what people are saying and stay on it in a respectful way,” Adams said.
* And the Tribune had a very good roundup of the “free for all” in the 2nd Ward race.
The building boom that has transformed Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood could translate into political change for the storied 2nd Ward.
Hoping to take advantage of an influx of newcomers, several viable challengers are running against 14-year incumbent Ald. Madeline Haithcock, a loyal ally of Mayor Richard Daley, in the Feb. 27 election.
* Back to the 50th Ward, which is perhaps the most Internet-savvy battle in the city, Naisy Dolar has been taking heat for allegedly lying about whether she has lived in the ward all of her life. She hasn’t, but she has claimed she has. Here’s a funny little video clip that her opponents are hoping you’ll watch.
* And finally, the Daily Herald looks at today’s vote for Cook County Democratic Party Chairman.
A longtime Latino tax appeals commissioner and lobbyist appears to be the front-runner as Cook County Democrats gather today to pick a new party chairman.
If that edge holds, Joseph Berrios, 54, would replace longtime chairman Thomas G. Lyons, who died last month at 75 after serving in the unpaid post since 1990.
Berrios, who would be the first Latino to serve in the post, is running against state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie and West Side Chicago alderman Isaac Carothers in a contest that will be decided by city ward and suburban township committeemen at an 11 a.m. meeting in a downtown hotel.
Berrios picked up key support from Michael J. Madigan, the House speaker and Illinois Democratic Party Chairman.
The Cook County Democratic Central Committee unanimously voted today to elect Joseph Berrios as its new chairman, replacing Tom Lyons, who died last month.
Berrios is a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review and the Democratic committeeman of the 31st Ward.
Berrios was elected unanimously after Isaac Carothers and Lou Lang withdrew their names from nomination.
Illinois is the 16th most Democratic state in the nation, according to Gallup.
A review of Gallup polling data from 2006 underscores the relative strength the Democratic Party currently enjoys versus the Republican Party in American politics. For the year, Democrats averaged a nearly four point advantage over the Republicans on national party identification and an even larger 10-point advantage when independents’ partisan “leanings” are taken into account.
In an analysis of 2006 partisanship at the state level, 33 states show a statistically significant advantage in favor of the Democratic Party, six states show a statistically significant Republican advantage, and the remainder can be considered competitive.
Democratic strength in the United States has grown in each of the last three years. The trends are fueled more by movement away from the Republican Party and into independent status than by movement toward the Democratic Party.
According to Gallup, Democrats have a 13-point advantage over Republicans here in Illinois. That ties us with Kentucky and New Mexico. The polling showed 52 percent of voters identified themselves as Democrat or leaning Democrat, 9 percent said they were independents and 39 percent said they were Republicans or leaned Republican.
Gallup’s numbers are somewhat different than exit polling conducted during the November election here. That poll, which was pretty much dead-on at predicting the outcome of the governor’s race, had 46 percent identifying themselves as Democrats, 23 percent saying they were independents and 31 percent claiming they were Republicans.
Either way, we’re still a Democratic state. The exit polling, by the way, also showed that 52 percent of Illinois voters identified themselves as “moderates,” while 25 percent said they were “conservatives” and 23 percent said they were “liberals.”
Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich spent more than $750,000 in legal fees from July to December last year as he battles a wide-ranging federal probe into his administration’s dealings.
Nearly all of the money went to Winston & Strawn, the firm that represented Blagojevich’s predecessor, George Ryan, who was convicted last year of political corruption. And all but $200,000 of the money to that firm was paid after the Nov. 7 election, which saw Blagojevich win a second term with slightly less than 50 percent of the vote.
The flurry of spending on lawyers means Blagojevich now has paid nearly $1 million in legal fees from his campaign fund since January 2005.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office is looking into what he’s said are credible allegations of “endemic hiring fraud†in the Blagojevich administration. Federal authorities also are investigating whether state appointments and contracts were traded for campaign contributions to Friends of Blagojevich.
Doug Scofield, spokesman for the Friends of Blagojevich campaign, declined to say if any of the law firm’s work was connected to the probes.
“We’re not going to give more detail regarding that,” Scofield said. “We disclose everything that we have to on the report. It’s fair to say it was for a range of legal services related to running a campaign.”
A review of state campaign finance records shows that between 2002 and 2005, Blagojevich’s campaign spent $127,809 on legal fees to various legal firms. In 2006, the records show, the campaign spent $912,199 on legal fees to Winston & Strawn and other firms.
Most of the money was spent on legal work done in the first half of 2006 that was paid in the second half of the year, Scofield said
The governor’s total spending in the last six months of 2006 was $16.4 million. Judy Baar Topinka spent $6.3 million during the same time period.
Speaking of reform and renewal, the governor’s office will be auditing a firm that’s under federal and county investigation.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office has ordered an audit of no-bid state contracts dating to 1990 with a Chicago drug-testing firm under criminal investigation for alleged billing fraud.
The administration outlined its actions involving K.K. Bio-Science Inc. on Wednesday, a day after Cook County investigators and the FBI searched the company’s offices for evidence of fraud, money laundering and a continuing criminal enterprise, according to the search warrant. […]
A three-page search warrant served at the company’s headquarters in downtown Chicago on Tuesday sought “any items or documents which have been used in the commission of, or which constitute evidence of the offenses,” including forgery, theft, money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud and a continuing financial crimes enterprise, according to the warrant.
The company, founded in 1985 by Mahajan’s father, abruptly closed down Jan. 19 with no warning to employees. It officially terminated its $739,000 state contract on Jan. 9 amid an inquiry by the child welfare agency’s office of inspector general.
* Whistleblower cites OT scam, patronage hires at Cook County Detention Center:
One supervisor who was a friend of former County Board President John Stroger got kickbacks from staffers for whom the supervisor arranged unearned overtime and from outside contractors he took to the center, the suit alleges. The supervisor had staffers set up nonprofit companies to give him kickbacks, the suit said.
Illinois public hospitals could lose $623 million annually, including as much as $235 million for the Cook County hospital system, under a change to Medicaid rules being pushed by the Bush administration, state officials said Wednesday.
* Chopping into Forest Preserve: “[Stroger] wants to take 25 percent of the Forest Preserve’s operating budget to fix 2 percent of the county budget deficit,” said Benjamin Cox of Friends of the Forest Preserves. “Is it worth it?”
* Blagojevich, Schwarzenegger to announce energy pact
* McQueary: Tantrum over spanking, right or ruthless?
