This just in…
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* 1:35 pm - I’m told that Sen. John McCain is making his first trip to Illinois as the presumptive nominee February 20th to attend an event for Jim Oberweis in Aurora. If Democrat Bill Foster’s latest poll is even close to right, then Oberweis may have trouble in the March 8 special general election and will need all the help from McCain that he can get…
The telephone survey of 525 “likely voters,” conducted in the five days after the Feb. 5 dual congressional primaries, showed Republican Oberweis leading 45 percent to Foster’s 43 percent. […]
Of the respondents, 41 percent said [they were] Democrat and 40 percent Republican. Given that result, and the narrow difference between responses for the actual candidates, Bowen described the abbreviated race as a “dead heat” in a district that gave retired Republican Rep. Dennis Hastert 60 percent of the vote in 2006.
You can read the full memorandum at this link.
* 1:45 pm - Midway privatization plan nears fruition…
The city on Wednesday took what it called a “milestone” step toward cashing out on its investment in Midway Airport, announcing that most of Midway’s airlines back a privatization plan and issuing what’s known as a request for qualifications.
The RFQ asks that firms and investment groups interested in leasing Midway for at least 50 years respond by March 31.
* 1:58 pm - A good friend just pointed out to me that SJ-R readers voted this blog their favorite. Read the full list here. Thanks to all who voted. I didn’t even know the contest was going on.
* 2:18 pm - Tempers appear to be boiling over at the Statehouse among some Latino legislators. Sen. Willie Delgado just angrily confronted Rep. Susana Mendoza on the 1st floor about her support for his primary opponent. Earlier, in a super-classy move, Delgado and Sen. Iris Martinez both yelled at my intern about their coverage.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The death penalty moratorium is back in the news…
DuPage County State’s Atty. Joseph Birkett joined a Republican lawmaker Tuesday in urging Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resume executions, saying Illinois’ death-penalty system has been reformed.
“We encourage the governor to follow the law,” said Birkett, president of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association. “It has been eight years since the moratorium was imposed.” […]
But Blagojevich, who first ran for governor in 2002 as a death penalty proponent, plans to stand pat. He’ll “keep the moratorium on death penalties in place until it’s clear beyond a doubt that the reforms put in place … are adequate and working and there’s no chance that an innocent person will wrongfully be put to death,” spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Tuesday.
* Meanwhile…
The Abolition in Illinois Movement released a study that suggests Illinois spent $148 million on death penalty cases since a special fund was set up eight years ago. Members say that figure does not include the cost of incarceration, appeals, some salaries and execution expenses.
“We agree the moratorium is not good for prosecutors,” said Elliot Slosar of the abolition group. “We sympathize with the legal limbo it has placed them in, and, while we concur that the moratorium needs to end, bringing executions back is not the solution. Abolition is.”
* Question: Should the moratorium be lifted? And, if you want it lifted, should the death penalty then be resumed or abolished? Explain, and try to be civil to each other. Thanks.
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The Laski affair
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Former City Clerk Jim Laski wrote a book while he was in prison. It’s self-published, but Laski has a website where you can buy it. Here’s the teaser…
Absentee ballots changed. Petitions were round-tabled. Who was involved in the “Hired Truck” scandal? How much did Daley know? But most importantly, did someone in City Hall help the Feds get Laski?
I’m not sure why that last point is the most important one, but whatever. I’ll be ordering my copy soon.
* Laski has been making the rounds on a promotional blitz. This is from ABC-7’s story…
In My Fall from Grace: City Hall to Prison Walls, Laski listed other Daley administration officials with whom he brokered Hired Truck deals. They include the mayor’s then-council floor leader Alderman Patrick Huels, former intergovernmental affairs director Victor Reyes, convicted patronage chief Robert Sorich, and convicted deputy water commissioner Donald Tomczak.
Laski insists there is no way the detail-oriented Daley could not have known about so many Hired Truck deals.
“This is a guy who…prides himself on detail. And he doesn’t know certain things? Selective amnesia,” said Laski.
* CBS-2…
Laski says Daley seemed, in his word, “paranoid” about federal investigations at city hall.
“On more than one occasion he’s asked me, ‘have you heard anything? Did you hear anything… from who?’ And he said, ‘the guys down the street. I mean the guys on Dearborn… or the FBI,” Laski said.
* Apparently, the guy points the finger of shame at a whole lot of people, including his old boss, Bill Lipinski…
The former clerk also implicated former Congressman Bill Lipinski, Laski’s mentor-turned-nemesis, even more deeply in the ghost payrolling that went on during Laski’s days as 23rd Ward alderman.
Laski said he hired a handful of employees at the congressmen’s direction who did remodeling work at Lipinski’s home and congressional office.
* The mayor’s office claims that Laski is just ginning up hype to sell books. No argument there, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The question is how does one believe Laski now? He was a crook, of that there is no doubt. We’ll have to wade through that book to see for ourselves if his allegations hold up, I suppose, or whether he’s just trying to pass blame.
The first question that comes to my mind is if he told the G about these allegations, and what, if anything, the feds did about it.
Discuss.
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Strange, that
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Sun-Times takes a quick look at a strange phenomenon that I briefly mentioned in my column last Friday…
Cook County’s Democratic ward bosses said they were backing Barack Obama for president and Northwest Side Ald. Tom Allen (38th) for state’s attorney.
And yet many of them failed to deliver their wards for either candidate.
Did they cut secret deals to back Hillary Clinton for president and Anita Alvarez for state’s attorney?
Or was it just another “Year of the Woman,” in which women and Hispanics voted their preferences instead of those of their ward bosses?
Cook County’s Democratic ward bosses said they were backing Barack Obama for president and Northwest Side Ald. Tom Allen (38th) for state’s attorney.
“A lot of women wanted to vote for Hillary Clinton,” said mayoral brother John Daley, whose 11th Ward — the ancestral home of the publicly pro-Obama Daley clan — went for Clinton and Alvarez.
Daley, Mike Madigan, Dick Mell and Ed Burke all backed Obama and Allen, but voters in their wards went with Clinton and Alvarez.
Thoughts?
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Big tobacco gears up
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I told subscribers about this development before the primary. The Trib has its own piece today, but I think they missed some important perspectives…
In the four weeks before the Feb. 5 primary election, two tobacco giants contributed $83,000 to 30 lawmakers. That amount sets a monthly pace that eclipses the industry’s largesse in this state for at least a decade, according to a Tribune review of campaign finance records. About threequarters of that money went to House Democrats. […]
Legislation that could get a hearing as early as Wednesday would carve out exemptions to allow indoor smoking at many bars, riverboat casinos, strip clubs and American Legion halls. Though some House members have been pushing for exemptions to the smoking ban since May, those bills were bottled up until Feb. 6-the day after the primary election-when the powerful-but-obscure House Rules Committee freed up the proposals for consideration.
Rep. Randy Ramey Jr. (RCarol Stream) said he didn’t think his bill, which would lift the smoking ban for thousands of private clubs and businesses, “would see the light of day” considering the anti-smoking fervor that has gripped the Statehouse.
Ramey said it is possible the bill’s fate was helped by campaign contributions Reynolds American made to three committee members just a week before the vote.
The Trib then goes on to list some Rules Committee members who voted to move the bill to a standing committee and who also received campaign contributions from Big Tobacco. The committee moved over a hundred bills out on a single vote, so there’s a suspicion in the article that the tobacco bill was hidden away.
* But here’s what the Tribune doesn’t fully explain. The exemption bill was sent to the House Environmental Health Committee, which is not exactly a pro-smoking bastion. The Trib does note that the committee rejected a casino exemption proposal last year. But it doesn’t explain that only one member on that committee, Rep. Al Riley, received any tobacco cash this cycle. You can bet that this casino exemption proposal is dead on arrival in that committee. The Rules Committee vote, in other words, is most likely no big deal.
* At the end of the story, the Trib talks about the cigarette tax hike that seems much more likely to be brought up this spring. That, I think, is the more important story here, plus the fact that so many House members with serious primary opponents were given contributions by Reynolds American. The tax hike passed the Senate, and Speaker Madigan has said he favors a cigarette tax increase to expand health care. Those contributions were more likely about that vote than the smoking ban exemption.
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Don’t look now…
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The news is bleak…
A week before Gov. Rod Blagojevich is scheduled to lay out his budget plans for the new year, the official who controls the state checkbook is warning of big financial problems.
State Comptroller Dan Hynes released a report Monday saying the state is carrying a large deficit and could face more trouble with an economic recession perhaps on its way.
* More…
State Comptroller Dan Hynes says a $750 million hole in this year’s budget needs to be filled even as Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration prepares a budget for next year that could have a significant deficit. Hynes said the state is entering an “extraordinarily challenging period” because it failed to prepare for an economic downturn as it struggles to pay a backlog of bills.
“We still have a serious budget deficit,” Hynes told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board on Monday.
* More…
“I don’t think there’s any more latitude in terms of pushing [Medicaid] bills off,” Hynes told the Sun-Times’ editorial board. “Providers are starting to say ‘We’ve had enough.’ They’re starting to walk away.”
* The governor claims there’s a $750 million revenue shortfall. That would mean almost half of the projected $1.6 billion in “growth” has vanished since the state budget was written. And that doesn’t include the $200 million or so in lost revenue for next fiscal year from under-performing state investments, or the rapidly shrinking cash from casinos.
* The governor has a plan, sort of…
To fill the current hole, the governor’s aides said they hoped lawmakers would consider eliminating a series of tax breaks for corporations and sweep money from a variety of special funds with balances that have been tapped in prior years under Blagojevich.
* But, he provided no specifics and those ideas have been rejected in the past. Which bring us to the usual buck-passing…
[Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff] said lawmakers approved a budget last year based on “inflated” predictions of how much money the state would take in. If the state’s coming up short, Ottenhoff says, lawmakers this year will have to act to find that money.
* Here are some additional budget stories to ponder…
* Fiscal policies need to change to make Illinois more attractive to businesses
* How Springfield can rebuild trust
* Hynes: Illinois budget hole needs filling
* Bad news for state government finances
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Geo and Andy
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Two former legislators died this week, Sen. Adeline Geo-Karis and Sen. Andy McGann.
* You can find the complete wake and funeral arrangements for Geo here. I’ve already posted several stories about her here. McGann’s obit and arrangements are here.
* By popular demand, I’m opening up comments to those who would like to reminisce about these two legislators, both of them unique in their own special way.
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Flood victims say lack of assistance ‘not fair’…
“The City of Pontiac, the City of Watseka and the County of Iroquois are in a world of hurt,” Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy said. “We are not asking for the assistance to pay for this on a municipal level, we are looking for individual assistance to help us get back on our feet.”
McCoy said that the numbers of affected homes in reports done by FEMA and IEMA were inaccurate and the denial was “due to grossly underreported numbers.”
“We are all very angry,” McCoy told The Associated Press Monday evening. “They simply didn’t see all the damage.”
McCoy also claimed FEMA overlooked a state that tends to be politically Democratic. President Bush, who oversees FEMA, is a Republican.
* Williamson County requests emergency help from state
* Stroger Talks Compromise
Sources tell Chicago Public Radio Stroger’s new proposal includes a smaller sales tax hike, coupled with some spending cuts. He says he’ll meet all 17 commissioners this week - in a bid to get a majority on board.
* Doctors: Budget cuts would be deadly
* Stroger Hospital receives full accreditation
* Exelon CEO calls for consensus on climate change…
He expressed support for legislation pending on Capitol Hill that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to about 30% below 2005 levels. But, at minimum, using market-based approaches and more nuclear power, electricity prices would rise three cents to five cents per kilowatt hour to meet that goal, predicts the CEO of Chicago-based Exelon, one of the nation’s largest electric utility holding companies.
* ‘This program saves lives’ Senate reviews $12.5 million for CeaseFire
* Madigan, CUB fight ComEd rate hike; more here
* CUB, attorney general oppose ComEd rate hike request
* Ameren rate hike opposed
* U.S. Energy defends its business practices
* Oberweis, Foster duel over Iraq in race to succeed Hastert…
In the 30-second spot scheduled to begin airing today on broadcast channels in the Chicago market, Oberweis is seen clicking off a television carrying the ad of foe Bill Foster, 52 of Geneva.
Oberweis, 61, of Sugar Grove, then turns to the camera and declares, “Bill Foster wants to cut off funding for our troops and raise the white flag. That’s extreme! No matter what you think of the war, we all agree we need to support our troops. General Patreaus’ strategy is working and we’ve already begun a gradual withdrawal.”
* Tom Roeser: Republicans Who Favored Lauzen Now Reconsidering How Lucky They were That Oberweis Won…
…the word seems to be getting around that Lauzen never called Oberweis to congratulate him and that he may continue to be a pouter and sore loser. If so, it would be a tragedy because while the district is heavily Republican all the GOP needs is fratricidal bickering to continue in the race which could open it up for a Democratic upset. What Lauzen out to do is grow up and congratulate the winner. He has his state senate seat and if he wants to pursue a future in the GOP he ought to be a good loser.
* Illinoisans’ views may play role up north
* Sweet: Mike Henry, Clinton Deputy Campaign Manager quits. Read his memo here.
* Obama anti-lobbyist stand isn’t without blurry edges
* Is the Future for the Illinois GOP as Bleak as Pundits say?
For Illinois Republicans this is the midst of a great depression. The news that suburban voters, even in the GOP heartland of DuPage County, pulled more Democrat than Republican ballots in the primary is an ominous foreshadowing of a very bleak November.
* Conflicting Democratic Delegate Counts
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* As you may know, a water pipe burst at the Statehouse Sunday night and it will slightly disrupt things this week…
The [repair] work will not be finished in time for today’s return of the General Assembly. Some Democratic senators with offices on the first floor and mezzanine will be moved to staff offices and conference rooms for the two days they are scheduled to be in Springfield this week, said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate Democrats.
“I think the disruption will be minimal,” she said.
The north entrance to the Capitol will remain closed at least part of today. Officials want to ensure plaster ceilings at the north entrance were not damaged by the water.
*** UPDATE *** After noting that the burst pipe was caused by an open door in the governor’s suite leading to a balcony, Aaron Chambers notes…
The governor’s staffers use the balcony to smoke. I once saw the governor’s buddies out there drinking beer at the end of session. Must be nice to have a balcony. Maybe in the future, they’ll securely close the door after they use it.
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FYI
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
I finally made a decision on replacing my Treo. Your suggestions way back when gave me plenty to consider and were extremely helpful. I ended up going with the I-Phone.
It has its downsides (no copy and paste?), but overall, I’m pleased, and am keeping my fingers crossed that new functions will be added soon.
Anyway, thanks for your help.
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