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“Secret” evidence revealed, and so is another clout list

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As you know, last month Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley ruled that there was no evidence to support Gov. Blagojevich’s assertion that releasing federal subpoenas via the Freedom of Information Act to the Better Government Association would endanger ongoing federal investigations. Judge Kelley did give the governor time to rebut, and the governor’s office claimed earlier this month that they had new, “secret” evidence that backed up their claim that they couldn’t release the subpoenas….

Lawyers for the Democrat filed court papers Feb. 8 asking a judge to reverse his ruling of a month ago to release subpoenas from the U.S. attorney. “Newly discovered evidence” makes it important to keep the documents secret, they said.

But they also requested to file the documents in secrecy and no information about them was included in the filing.

* Well, yesterday, Judge Kelley again ruled against the governor when he refused to allow the “secret evidence” to be filed under seal, although Kelley did consent to two important redactions.

You can read that “secret evidence” at this link, which is a February 5th letter from US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to the governor’s office…

In response to your inquiry, the US Attorney’s Office has served various grand jury subpoenas on the Office of the Governor of the State of Illinois, seeking records pursuant to an official criminal investigation of a suspected felony being conducted by a federal grand jury. With two exceptions, noted below, the US Attorney’s Office continues to request that you not disclose the fact that the subpoenas have been served. Any such disclosure could impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of the law. If you do not believe that you can comply with this request, I request that you contact me before making any decisions.

So, the US Attorney did, in fact, ask the guv’s office not to disclose the existence of the subpoenas.

Notice, however, that there was no absolute demand or order. Also, the disclosure of the letter by Judge Kelley now essentially moots Fitzgerald’s request.

Judge Kelley redacted the description of the two subpoenas that Fitzgerald claimed were OK to acknowledge to the public, which seems a bit ironic.

* Meanwhile…

Lawyers for Antoin “Tony” Rezko on Thursday made public nearly 40 names of people he allegedly recommended for state jobs, arguing that prosecutors should be barred from presenting the evidence at Rezko’s coming trial.

Rezko’s lawyers contended the government plans to offer the list at trial as evidence of Rezko’s involvement in state hiring, but the defense sought to block its introduction because the indictment doesn’t allege he influenced state hiring. […]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Thursday that he didn’t know anything about the “clout list” and hadn’t seen it.

* The alleged clout list is here. The Rezko defense motion is here.

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Personal asides

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I’d just like to express my most sincere condolences to Steve Brown and his family. Steve’s father-in-law passed away last weekend. His mother-in-law died less than two months ago. Steve’s wife Marilyn is pretty well known and beloved in Springfield, so I’m sure I speak for many when I say how terrible I feel for her and her loved ones right now.

* Also, I inadvertently ommitted a condolence note earlier this month to Rep. Bob Molaro, whose mother recently passed away. Bob, you’ve been in my thoughts. Hang in there.

* On a far happier note, Jake Miller (no relation) has finally made the move to the private sector. Jake’s going away party last night was a major event and we all had a blast toasting his future, which we all hope will be more fruitful than his past.

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Question of the day

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias let loose on Gov. Blagojevich yesterday…

“Last year, there was a compete lack of leadership,” Giannoulias said outside the House chamber after the speech. “We see (U.S. Sen.) BARACK OBAMA, who’s traveling the country and he’s uniting people regardless of background and party. And here, we have a guy who is dividing his own party. … He’s the anti-Obama.” […]

“He caused conflicts, even within his own party. He didn’t get along with people. Nothing got done. There’s a poisonous atmosphere here in Illinois, and I’m hoping that that changes this year, but I haven’t seen anything yet to show that that’s going to happen.” […]

“You’re the leader, the buck stops here,” the treasurer said. “He’s not fully to blame for all this, but at the end of the day, you have to be an example-setter. Being governor is not easy.”

* Asked if he was running for something, Giannoulias replied…

“Nah … It’s just frustrating to see our own Illinois senator out there making people feel so good about themselves, and here in Illinois, we have someone who has shown no leadership.

* Question: What do you think are the odds that Giannoulias might run for governor in 2010? Could he win? Explain.

92 Comments

Budget roundup

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This piece accurately sums up the general consensus at the Statehouse…

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in his sixth combination State of the State and budget address, used a rehash of old ideas — leasing the lottery, imposing a payroll tax on some businesses, selling future revenues for a lump-sum payment — to make it all work.

But by doing that, he may already have doomed many of his proposals.

“I think it could be a tough year,” Rep. Gary Hannig of Litchfield, the House Democrats’ top budget negotiator, said afterward. “Many of the proposals the governor talked about are things we rejected in the past. I think those are things that are going to be difficult to resurrect.”

* But the best line goes to Tom Cross…

“If today was a conciliatory speech, then I applaud that,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Tom Cross, R-Oswego. But “it’s going to take a while to rebuild that trust. And it’s going to take some action, not just words.”

* There was no widespread agreement on anything, including from Senate President Emil Jones…

Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) said he would support the governor’s lottery [lease] proposal. But he seemed frustrated by the administration’s resistance to raising income taxes.

“We could put more money into education, we could do property-tax relief, we could do a [construction] bill with that income-tax increase,” Jones said.

Keep your eye on that issue.

* One of Jones’ top lieutenants wasn’t thrilled with the Lottery lease, either…

Leasing the state’s lottery didn’t bode well with some lawmakers including state Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat.

“I think that what this will do is cause us to look more closely to what we were doing on the riverboats last year — the expansion,” said Link, who’s backing a new casino for Waukegan.

* Sen. James Meeks, who has a new income tax hike plan, also dumped on the Lottery idea…

“We’re always willing to work with the governor, but I don’t know if any of those plans that he outlined today will go anywhere,” said Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago.

He mentioned the governor’s idea of privatizing the state lottery as an example of a doomed proposal.

* The governor defended the Lottery lease…

He said privatizing the state lottery to pay for the construction program is a “fiscally sound idea.”

* Business groups weren’t overly impressed with the governor’s proposed, one-time 20 percent tax break…

Chamber president and chief executive officer Doug Whitley summed it up this way: “I’m glad that he’s finally recognizing that he needs to pay a little bit of attention to business, but as far as I’m concerned, he can keep that business tax credit, which is a one-time proposal. While on the other hand, he’s trying to raise over $1 billion annually from employers. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

The tax increase Whitley referenced is the 3 percent payroll tax for employers that don’t offer health insurance to their workers.

* Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, a top tier congressional candidate, was even skeptical about the governor’s plan to rebate taxes to some families, which is based on the bipartisan “stimulus” plan just adopted in Washington, DC…

Unlike Washington, however, the state’s chief executive doesn’t appear to have many members of the legislature on board.

“We’re not like the federal government. We cannot print more money,” said Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete.

* The governor’s emphasis on rebating taxes to some families also drew fire from people who are upset at his refusal to increase funding for higher education, which will likely drive up tuition costs next fall…

State Rep. David Miller, D-Lynwood, who leads a House higher education committee, said Blagojevich’s support for working families should extend to keeping tuition costs reasonable. “When you look at an overall package for the middle class that he talked about, they weren’t included in this budget,” Miller said.

* More links…

* Operating budget

* Dot points

* Watch the budget address here

* Read it here

* Illinois GOP leader reacts to State of State

* Gov’s plan funds road upgrades, tax breaks

* Cuts may signal closing time for Stateville

* AP: Blagojevich wants across-the-board cuts of 3% at many state agencies, although some would take even bigger hits. The Department of Natural Resources, for instance, would see a 40% cut in state funds and lose about 200 employees.

* Tribune: The governor nobody trusts

* Bond Buyer: Illinois Gov. Blagojevich Proposes Borrowing Spree in ‘09 Budget

* Growing deficit concerns Lake County lawmakers

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14th District roundup

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It’s looking more and more like Democrat John Laesch can’t catch up to Bill Foster…

Complete final counts were not available Tuesday — the last day for absentee and provisional votes to be counted — to officially decide the primary election in the 14th Congressional District.

It appears the small number of both kinds of votes is unlikely to change the outcome of the election, but Democrat John Laesch is waiting until every vote is counted.

Laesch trailed Democratic rival Bill Foster by 355 votes after the ballots were counted in the Feb. 5 primary. […]

If Kane County is any indication, the numbers might not change enough to offset the 355-vote margin between Laesch and Foster.

Final tallies in Kane County showed 13,491 votes for Laesch — 11 more than on Feb. 5 — and 15,971 for Foster — 18 more than on election day.

* Meanwhile, Foster continued his attempt to make Iraq the focus of next month’s special election against Jim Oberweis…

As Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain arrived in the area for a Jim Oberweis fundraiser, Foster and about a dozen of his supporters braved subzero wind chills outside an Oberweis-McCain press briefing to denounce their view on Iraq.

Foster is already running ads blasting Oberweis’ support of the president’s Iraq policy, and Oberweis has fought back, claiming that Foster is essentially advocating surrender.

* As noted above, John McCain was in town yesterday and raised some big bucks for Oberweis…

Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain stopped in Sugar Grove tonight to raise more than $250,000 for congressional candidate Jim Oberweis—but it was Oberweis who used the occasion to reassure conservative voters that the Arizona senator was on their side.

* More…

Oberweis’ fundraiser, held at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, commanded $1,000 a plate to $2,300, the maximum allowable donation to a candidate for federal office, for a picture with McCain. Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said that by early this morning, the fundraising effort had exceeded the goal set for it.

The final tally, Pascoe said, was 151 paying customers, bringing in a grand total of $257,000.

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Morning shorts

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* AG’s investigating Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing marketing practices

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. was subpoenaed by attorneys general from several states for information about the sales and marketing of its caffeinated alcoholic drinks Tilt and Bud Extra, the company confirmed Wednesday.

* Smoking exemptions for veterans voted down; more here

Two pieces of legislation aimed at allowing veterans to be able to light up in private clubs such as VFW posts and American Legion halls went up in smoke Wednesday.

The House Environmental Health Committee struck down House bills 4333 and 4104 that would have created exemptions to Illinois’ new law banning indoor smoking.

* Durbin urges law giving FDA power over tobacco industry

* The straight dope on CTA pension and retiree health care reform

* 36 Illinois groups on ‘pet’ list for after-school grants

* Cook County Board chief takes aim at critics; more here

The first-term leader accused three Democrats critical of his administration of playing games with the vital public health-care services as the board met nine days before a deadline to pass this year’s budget.

* Bolingbrook to get new library and Romeoville to get renovated one with $48.6 million approved by voters

* Budget director getting shower installed in City Hall office

“I think allocating public resources to install a shower in a city office would be totally inappropriate, especially given the budget challenges that this City Council has had to struggle with,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who was among those who voted against the spending plan. “However, if Mr. Johnson is willing to pay that tab out of his own pocket … I don’t have a problem with that.”