I’m pretty sure that the last time I took at least two weeks off work was in 2003 when I went to cover the war in Iraq. So, I’ve decided that since the General Assembly is taking a break for the next two weeks, I’ll do the same. The blog will be down for a week, and then my intern Kevin will cover things for the second week of vacation. The automated news feeds will still be up and running, of course, so the blog will be a must-read even without new posts. Take care.
Be nice to Kevin, please.
* Head to Illinoize while I’m gone. I’m not going to put an Illinoize feed in this post because the javascript feeds are having problems loading lately and I don’t want it to mess up the blog while I’m gone, so just go over the and check it out yourself.
* The Sun-Times ran an excellent editorial about Chess Records today. Howlin’ Wolf was one of the top artists at that studio, and here he is singing “Shake It For Me” with Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin and Clifton James…
* My dad asked that I post this one. Professor Longhair & The Meters do “Tipitina”…
* Members of the House Drivers Education and Safety Committee were split Wednesday over a proposal by Rep. Bob Pritchard to curb distracted driving. The problem? How does one define distracted driving?
“A lot of people can do multiple tasks at once and operate their vehicle safely,” Pritchard said. “Other people can be distracted by simply changing the station on a radio. What we tried to do is limit this to four of the most egregious as reported by the state police.”
The legislators really wrangled with the proposal. Rep. Pritchard’s s solution was to define distracted driving as text messaging, reading a newspaper, book, magazine, or map, applying make-up, or changing clothes or tying a tie.
* Question: How would you define distracted driving?
* Former Gov. Jim Edgar admits the obvious: The Republicans are in big trouble in Jerry Weller’s district…
…Edgar is less confident about the race to replace Weller. The Democratic Party’s chances in that district improved when the Republican nominee dropped out of the race and a new candidate has not yet been slated to take on well-known Democratic state Sen. Debbie Halvorson and Green Party newcomer Jason Wallace.
“You’ve got to be even more nervous about that,” Edgar said.
As I told subscribers this week, Halvorson continues to raise money at an impressive pace while the Republicans can’t find a candidate and probably won’t settle on one for several weeks.
* That story also has some interesting demographic numbers for Congressman Bill Foster’s district, which was previously held by Republican Denny Hastert…
In 1990, the district had about 571,000 people, compared to an estimated population of more than 770,000 in 2005, according to The “Almanac of American Politics.”
The district also became more Hispanic, according to the Almanac. For example, in Kane County, the district’s largest voting bloc, the Hispanic or Latino population grew from about 96,000 people in 2000 to more than 137,000 in 2006, according to Census data.
* Edgar said he didn’t think these Dem trends meant that another GOP congressman was endangered: “I don’t think anybody should say this means Mark Kirk is in big trouble.”
But the national Dems have now put Kirk’s opponent Dan Seals on their “Red to Blue” list. That means Seals is one of just 13 Dem candidates who will be targeted with cash and other resources…
In 2004, the Red to Blue program raised nearly $7.5 million for twenty seven campaigns across the country with an average of more than $250,000 per campaign. In 2006, the Red to Blue program raised nearly $22.6 million for 56 campaigns with an average of $404,000 per campaign.
This is a 2008 Illinois congressional campaign open thread.
*** UPDATE *** We missed this one earlier today. The NRCC spent well over a million dollars on Oberweis in the special election but is not expected to help Oberweis this fall…
The Republican Party’s congressional war chest, which flooded the suburbs with mailers and TV ads on behalf of Jim Oberweis this month, may back out of the coming rematch with Bill Foster.
Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said Thursday it seems “highly unlikely” the National Republican Congressional Committee will chip in for the general election.
An NRCC spokeswoman declined to say whether the woefully underfunded organization will help Oberweis financially. But she said they still hope he wins the seat once held by veteran House Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert.
* My Sun-Times column this week is about race. One always has to tread carefully on this topic, but whoever did the art for the Sun-Times did me no favors by using a photo of the late Rep. Lou Jones instead of Louanner Peters. Oy. My phone started ringing about the screwup at 7:30 this morning.
For the record, I have no control over the Sun-Times page layout.
* Anyway, on to the column, which compares Gov. Blagojevich’s reaction to the stories about how he gave two African-American women pardons/expungements to Barack Obama’s reaction to Geraldine Ferraro’s goofy comments.
First up, Blagojevich…
The Sun-Times story on [Sharon] Latiker never mentioned her race, and no photo was included. But that didn’t stop the governor from sending out one of his top aides to play the race card.
Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters was former Congressman Gus Savage’s chief of staff for 10 years. Savage was the guy who blamed his 1992 Democratic primary loss on the “white racist press and the racist, reactionary Jewish misleaders.”
Anyway, Peters held a news conference last Friday and invited several African-American leaders to attend. She told reporters that the Sun-Times story on Latiker was either ginned up by Madigan or represented a media “focus on African-American women. It has to be one or the other.” The Sun-Times developed the story without Madigan’s input, so that left just race.
* Now, Obama…
Instead of surrounding himself with African-American leaders, as Peters did, Obama scheduled a news conference to announce an endorsement by several retired military leaders. The backdrop to his event was a group of older, (mostly) white men. Obama refused to characterize Ferraro’s remarks as racist. Instead, he said they were “ridiculous.” Which they were.
* Conclusion…
Blagojevich is a fading politician facing the possibility of indictment and is therefore desperate to hold onto the one voting bloc that has yet to completely turn against him. Claiming reporters have racist motives is a tried-and-true and often supremely cynical formula for cranking up the base, but its success may be diminishing in the “Obama Age.” Still, it’s all Blagojevich has left, so he used it.
Obama has a different task. Check out this quote of a 63-yearold Ohio woman from a recent Bloomberg story: “If Obama gets in, it’s going to be a black thing, and it’s going to be all blacks for blacks.”
America obviously still has more than its share of racists. Obama has to show that he’s “post-racial” to allay the fears of people like that Ohio woman. He took another step in that direction this week.
Ferraro may have done “Sen. Lucky” a favor. Peters only reinforced the governor’s image of desperation.
* Meanwhile, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” is the assumption that most political reporters go on these days. That’s not always the case. For instance, check out this AP story posted yesterday afternoon about Barack Obama’s Illinois “pork” projects and whether he was hiding something…
Public records reveal some of the projects he sponsored as a state senator, from literacy programs and park improvements to drill team uniforms and jazz-appreciation events. They add up to more than $6 million.
But that covers just two of Obama’s nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate. State records don’t detail his projects from other years, and his presidential campaign has not responded to repeated requests from The Associated Press for information.
* The Obama campaign was stupid for not responding. When they did, it blew a huge hole in the AP’s conspiracy theory. Here’s the updated AP story…
After repeated requests from The Associated Press for that information, Obama’s presidential campaign said Thursday night that he made no other extra spending requests during the rest of his legislative career. What’s shown in the public record is the only spending he added to the budget, the campaign said.
Along the way, the Chicago Democrat stopped inserting pet projects into the Illinois budget because he felt the system was getting out of hand.
* Obama’s campaign seems to have a real problem communicating with the Illinois AP. Here’s a completely screwed up story posted by the IL AP earlier this week…
Sen. Barack Obama was among eight state officials and others consulted about who should be appointed to a state board that later became involved in what prosecutors describe as a fraud scheme, according to a memo discussed Monday at Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s trial.
Um, no. That’s not what the memo says at all. The memo just says that Obama was a co-sponsor of the bill which rewrote the law that was set to expire at the end of June, 2003. There is no way you can read that memo and conclude what the AP reported. Zero.
* Word from inside WLS Radio is that their advertising is tanking and that the people who run the station have no clue that Chicago is a news junkie town.
One of the most experienced city hall reporters is Bill Cameron. WLS let him go a couple of weeks ago and the Chicagoist has an interview…
“I miss the beat,” says Bill Cameron. “But hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it sooner rather than later.” Cameron is no longer on that beat because he was let go by his employers, WLS Radio, a couple Fridays back in what’s being called the Leap Day Massacre.
* Cameron makes a good point in this bit…
That Rezko trial is a good example of how there was such demand to stuff Blagojevich’s campaign coffers with so many millions to scare off any serious competition, that they did things like shaking down investment firms for campaign contributions in exchange for getting a crack at the investment business.
He’s absolutely right about that.
* Another top-notch city hall reporter is Fran Spielman with the Sun-Times. If you want to hear how she gets under Mayor Daley’s skin, just take a listen to this raw audio of hizzoner’s press conference yesterday.
Daley goes out of his way to try to ignore Fran’s questions, but she comes right back at him time and time again. Daley eventually leaves the podium under a hail of questions from Fran, but she continued to pepper staff. Classic. Here’s her story.
* Baseball blogs are all the rage these days, but the brainiacs who think they own the game are making life more difficult for bloggers. Stupid…
Not again. Now Major League Baseball is stepping into the sports versus Web swamp, attempting to limit the degree to which its games are covered online.
Examples, under MLB’s newly announced rules: You can post up to seven photos from a game, but you can’t make a “photo gallery.” You can’t leave them up for more than 72 hours.
“Enjoy the game,” the league might as well add. “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”
* Speaking of blogs, Harris Interactive has a new poll…
Just one in ten (19%) Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31) regularly read a political blog and only 17 percent of Gen Xers (those aged 32-43) say the same. Matures (those aged 63 and older) are actually the generation most likely to be political blog readers as just over one-quarter (26%) say they regularly do so followed by 23 percent of Baby Boomers (those aged 44-62). Also, one hears of the rabid blogs on both sides of the political aisle, but just 22 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats regularly read blogs. Independents are the ones slightly more likely to read these, as just over one-quarter (26%) say they regularly read political blogs.
Looking at those who regularly do read political blogs, over half (54%) read one or two at least once a week with an additional 22 percent reading 3-4 at least once a week. And, while they may read these, they do not comment on them. Over two-thirds (69%) of those who regularly read blogs did not comment on one in the previous week. Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to comment. One-third of Republicans (34%) commented in the previous week compared to 28 percent of Democrats. […]
When compared to the mainstream media, one-third of regular blog readers (33%) say the information they read on blogs is more valuable, half (49%) say just as valuable and just 18 percent say it is less valuable.
* Our post on Patrick Botterman’s untimely death has well over 100 comments, so I thought many of you would like to know this. From an e-mail…
Patrick’s family has set up a scholarship fund at Harper College in Pat’s memory. If you would like to make a contribution please visit here.[fixed link]
* Also, Mark Brown had a wonderful column about Botterman the other day. Go read the whole thing.
The Chicago Housing Authority is poised to adopt rules that would allow the agency to limit how long residents can stay in public housing. […]
If embraced by the CHA board, term limits — allowed under a set of rules recommended by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — would mark the most dramatic effort yet to reform Chicago’s public housing.
Along with rules that will require most adult tenants to work or go to school, term limits reflect a shift in vision: a belief among both local and federal officials that public housing should be a way station for people trying to regain their footing, rather than a permanent home for society’s poorest members. […]
Critics fear the federal rules give the housing authority too much discretion with this population and will destroy hard-won legal protections for public-housing residents.
* The question: While doing your best to avoid knee-jerk, reactionary, strictly ideological responses, please explain why you think this is a good or bad idea.
An Illinois Senate Committee moved Wednesday to ban the sale of flavored cigarettes, saying the addictive effects will make smoking more appealing to teens. Rep. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said flavored cigarettes were most attractive to young people because they could be flavored like candy, fruit or soda, unlike regular cigarettes.
llinois lawmakers cracked down on alcoholic energy drinks Wednesday even as some cracked open a few. An Illinois Senate committee voted 8-2 to require stricter labeling requirements on the increasingly popular bottles of “buzz,” which a couple of members sampled during the debate.
“Reagan County” has a bit of a ring to it for state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine. That could be the name created if Palatine and other towns fed up with having little influence in Cook County matters disconnect and former their own county.
* The “Isn’t this already covered under other laws?” bill…
State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D - Chicago) introduced a bill that would criminalize “cyberbullying,” the act of harassing others through the Internet, cell phones and email
* Doesn’t sound like a truly horrible idea, until you look at the pricetag…
An Illinois House committee has rejected a measure meant to help police track bullets found at crime scenes. The legislation would have required that bullets be imprinted with codes so police could figure out where the ammunition was sold. […]
Ammunition makers said the requirement would be too expensive. They estimate the startup costs could be $200 million.
* Are all of these bad ideas? Nope. All were likely introduced with excellent intentions. But are they necessary? You decide.
* Most of us have known this for a while, but the Sun-Times gives us an update on Lee Daniels’ situation…
Former Illinois House Speaker Lee Daniels says he no longer has to worry about a federal investigation.
“It’s dead. It’s behind me,'’ says Daniels. “The statute of limitations has expired. It’s yesterday’s news. The bottom line is: I have not done anything wrong. I didn’t do anything improper.'’
Daniels’ former chief of staff, Michael Tristano, spent nearly a year in prison after admitting that, between 1998 and 2001, he used state money to help get Republican legislators elected. Tristano said he did so at the direction of Daniels and others.
Daniels is now selling real estate and gets a pension of just over $100,000 a year.
* We went through most of this yesterday afternoon, so here is just a basic Rezko roundup…
* The Sun-Times’ lead editorial today hits the Wrigley Field issue out of the park…
There is, then, not a single good reason the State of Illinois should buy Wrigley Field, a scheme now roaring forward that would put our tax money at risk, to ensure the ballpark’s survival. Beautiful as it is, Wrigley Field is not some architectural damsel in need of being “saved.” Only Sam Zell and his Tribune Co., owners of the ballpark, stand to gain. And in an economic downturn, only the taxpayers stand to lose.
This deal isn’t about anything except padding Sam Zell’s bottom line. He didn’t approach Gov. Blagojevich about the state buying Wrigley Field in order to help him sell the team. He did it so he can make more money off the sale - the whole being worth less than the sum of its parts.
If we’re gonna help out a kabillionaire (and I’m not at all saying we should), shouldn’t that kabillionaire be the new owner instead of Sam Zell, who is dumping the team and doesn’t seem to care much about what happens to the park except that he finds a way to make the most possible money?
* Meanwhile, the Wrigley Company is keeping its cards close to its vest. Zell has floated the idea of selling naming rights to Wrigley Field, which some insiders claim is a hardball tactic to extract big bucks from Wrigley Co. But chairman of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. was cagey at a shareholders meeting yesterday…
“I think we’re just going to wait and see how all this plays out, and if there’s an opportunity, we’ll evaluate it just like we would all other opportunities,” Wrigley said.
Wrigley noted that the Cubs had been owned by the Wrigley family and not the company.
“Certainly I and my family have great passion for the Cubs and baseball and tradition and the heritage,” he said, adding that the company tends to put marketing dollars behind brands and not the corporation’s name.
*** UPDATE *** The federal government’s recordings of Stu Levine’s phone calls are proving to be quite damaging already…
In another recording played for the jury after lunch, Thomas Beck, then-chairman of the state Health Facilities Planning Board, and Stuart Levine, the board’s vice chairman, can be heard discussing the Mercy Health System’s plan before the controversial vote on April 21, 2004.
Levine told Beck he thought Mercy would be able to address the shortcomings in its plan at the meeting, but Beck still had some concerns about appearances.
Beck told Levine that their “good friend,” a reference to Rezko, advocated covering their tracks as a voting bloc.
“I’d like everybody to vote ‘no’ now and then, so it doesn’t look like there’s the five, the clique,” Beck quoted Rezko as telling him.
Rezko’s attorneys have argued in previous filings that there was no voting bloc.
Acting on “marching orders” from Tony Rezko, former state health planning board chairman Tom Beck testified today he called Rezko associate Stuart Levine and laid out the plan.
“I got the marching orders . . . there’s one . . . Mercy Hospital,” Beck can be heard telling Levine in a secretly made recording of an April 19, 2004, phone call that was played in federal court today at Rezko’s corruption trial. “Our boy wants to help them.”
“Our boy” meant Rezko, said Beck, who chaired the Illinois Hospital Facilities Planning Board, which Levine served as co-chair.
Beck testified today that he often called Levine just before a board meeting to relay Rezko’s wishes about how votes should go. Then, at board meetings, Beck told jurors he would hand out Rezko’s directions on votes to other Rezko “friends” on the board. In all, those five board members comprised a bloc with enough votes to approve projects.
In early 2006, Gov. Rod Blagojevich faced a firestorm of criticism from Jewish leaders for his appointment of Louis Farrakhan’s “minister of protocol” to the Illinois Hate Crimes Commission. Several Jewish members resigned from the commission in protest of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad’s appointment, but Blagojevich refused to back down and claimed he didn’t know who she was when he put her on the commission.
A small handful of Jewish leaders opposed the mass resignations from the Hate Crimes Commission. One of those was Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz, of the Agudas Achim-North Shore Congregation. Lefkowitz claims he was sharply and repeatedly criticized by other Jewish leaders for opposing the resignations.
The situation had indeed created a gigantic firestorm in Chicago at the time and tensions were high. Blagojevich, who had just kicked off his re-election campaign, began desperately seeking allies as he tried to walk a fine line between angering African-American allies (several black legislators wanted him to stand firm on the appointment) and the Jewish community. So, he asked some of the more sympathetic clergy to a meeting in his Chicago office.
Lefkowitz attended that meeting with the governor and other religious leaders to discuss how to deal with the Hate Crime Commission resignations. Before the meeting started, Lefkowitz claims he was told by Blagojevich’s Senate floor leader, Carol Ronen, that the governor was interested in helping with his work and offered to free up $400,000 in grant money to help him build a nonsectarian community center in Uptown. Lefkowitz asked for $500,000, and was allegedly told Ronen would see what she could do.
After the meeting, Blagojevich helped Rabbi Lefkowitz with his coat and allegedly said he wanted to assist with the center project. Later, Blagojevich attended a Passover Seder at the Rabbi’s synagogue and once again promised him and the synagogue president, Steve Tuck, that he was committed to the community center grant.
As you might have guessed by now, Lefkowitz never got the money. The furor over the Hate Crimes Commission eventually died down, the media moved on to other things, and Lefkowitz received a letter last May from the governor’s deputy chief of staff informing him the state simply didn’t have enough money to help build the facility.
Last week, Lefkowitz sent a snarky letter to various Chicago newspapers asking whether it’s possible “that as with Pilgrim Baptist Church, the check was sent to ‘the wrong place.’ “
* Meanwhile, the Tony Rezko trial basically went over a lot of old ground yesterday. Rep. Jack Franks’ name came up, but regardless of what you might have read this was not new news…
The Illinois public got its first look Tuesday at a series of letters state administrators wrote under pressure from state Rep. Jack Franks, who urged them to back the private interests of his client, Mercy Hospital, in its 2003 quest to build a Crystal Lake facility.
* The Blagojevich administration released some of those letters a couple of years ago in an attempt to deflect criticism onto Franks. At the time, they accused Franks of using his position as a state legislator to lobby the administration. Franks denied it, but he did send at least one letter on his official letterhead. Not a good move.
However, this is quite misleading…
But one of the letters admitted into evidence Tuesday, written by Illinois Department of Revenue Director Brian Hamer said, “I am writing at the request of Representative Jack Franks.” That use of Franks’ title as a legislator would reflect the feeling of several department heads, who said in previous published interviews they felt Franks was putting the strong-arm on them as a state representative, not a private lawyer.
The mention of his title means nothing. Period. It’s his title. And the agency heads were following the governor’s lead by dumping on Franks. Nothing can be determined by what they said. Plus…
In an interview later, Franks downplayed the work he did and noted that four months had passed between the time he quit representing the hospital and the state board approved the project.
* Sen. Obama will hold a press conference later this morning in Chicago with some admirals and generals. CBS 2 is covering it live.
The presser will start around 11 or 11:30. I’ll get back to you with a heads up. After it starts, you can click on the image below to watch the live coverage…
* Amidst the blitz of press regarding the Governor’s $1 million grant to a school of questionable existence and a vow to scrape up $40 million to demolish Cole Hall, something has been lost in the shuffle. The administration has dropped the ball on its promise to military veterans.
A new addition to the LaSalle Veterans Home is set to open over the summer, but the state is planning to employ only enough staff to make half of its beds available.
The state set aside $3.3 million to staff the 40-bed Alzheimer’s wing, and the Governor’s budget spokesman claims it would cost $3 million more to staff the other 40 beds. The administration then had the gall to make this claim:
“We currently have a $750 million budget gap for (fiscal year 2008) and are in a period of economic slowdown,” wrote budget spokesman Kelly Quinn in an e-mail. “We wanted to do what we could with the available resources.”
State Sen. Gary Dahl, whose district includes the LaSalle home, said legislators from both political parties will try to obtain the money to open all 80 beds at LaSalle.
“I think every legislator in Springfield, well, just about every one, understands that we need to do this for our veterans,” Dahl said.
* Adding flame to the fire, the administration’s budget proposal is passing the buck on veteran’s tuition grants to universities.
The Illinois Board of Higher Education reports that the program, the Illinois Veterans Tuition Grant, was budgeted at a little over $19 million this year. State schools have received $18 million so far.
The grant has been budgeted at $19 million since 2004, but the number of veterans returning from service has continually increased since then.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission reports that the deficit has been a problem since at least 2004, when the state was $5 million short on payments for the grant. This will be the sixth consecutive budget cycle without an increase in funding to the program. One school official had this to say to the Governor in her testimony to the House committee:
“It’s the law, but the Governor was supposed to provide funding,” said Cheryl Peck, spokeswoman for the University of Illinois at Springfield. Peck said the university took $490,000 from other areas of the budget this year to ensure that veterans’ tuitions are covered.”
* I understand that this is a tough year, and certain cuts need to be made to the budget, but sticking it to veterans is just wrong.
* I’m told that the Republicans are looking very closely at Harry Bond to replace Tim Baldermann on the 11th Congressional District ballot. Baldermann dropped out after winning the February primary, saying he didn’t have time to campaign.
Bond is the president of the Monical’s Pizza franchise. GOP Congressman Jerry Weller decided not to run again this year. The Democratic candidate is Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has filed a series of requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act seeking copies of any correspondence — including e-mails — from Republican Will County Board members.
They include Richard Kavanagh, a prominent local lawyer who also represents the Will County Forest Preserve District and is the new head of the county Republicans; Martin Ozinga III, president of Ozinga Bros. Inc., a Mokena-based concrete company; Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas; and House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego.
John Laesch has dropped his challenge of the Feb. 5 Democratic primary election results in the 14th Congressional District.
But that doesn’t mean he’s supporting winning nominee Bill Foster.
Calling Foster a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat, Laesch said he would not be lining up behind Foster for the November general election. […]
And if Foster prevails in November, he may already have his first primary challenge — Laesch said he very well may run against Foster in 2010.
Did Laesch help set the stage for Foster’s big win over Jim Oberweis by building a grassroots organization in 2006? Yes. But he was not a great candidate, no matter what his hardcore supporters have been saying for years. Right organization, wrong person for the district.
* Also, I totally agree with Billy Dennis. This is a horribly misleading headline: “Schock’s dad linked to alleged scheme.” Dennis writes…
The average media consumer reads that someone is linked to a criminal scheme, and they think they are being told that this person is being accused of a crime.
Anyone who reads the story should come away understanding that Dr. Richard Schock was a victim (if indeed the trusts he bought into were as illegal as the government contends; I don’t know enough about this area of the law to offer an opinion). Dr. Schock was required to pay back taxes and is now going to be a witness against those charged.
* More congressional stories, compiled by Kevin…
* Carol Marin: Illinois GOP headed down Oberweis’ path
* Michael Barone: Illinois Election: Very Bad News for GOP
* Lynn Sweet: I’ve been told the poor performance by Oberweis in Saturday’s special election to fill the remainder of the term vacated by former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) — especially in GOP turf — means he will have a tough time persuading the National Republican Congressional Committee — the political arm of House Republicans based here — to give him a second chance. They are wondering if Oberweis will stay on the ballot, and that kind of speculation is not good for Oberweis.
