* We have a special election Saturday, so I will probably put a post up sometime. You can head to Illinoize for other updates…
* Now, turn the volume ALL THE WAY UP…
Help me baby, ain’t no stranger
* And while the volume is loud…
Destroyed your notion of circular time
I think I blew out three pair of headphones listening to Sticky Fingers. Man, what an album. That big tempo/time break by Charlie in the middle of “Sister Morphine” is worth the price by itself.
Well it just goes to show,
Things are not what they seem
Deputy Governor Louanner Peters, U.S. Representative Danny K. Davis and other elected officials will today respond to allegations that clemency petitions for the African-American community are political.
WHO: Deputy Governor Louanner Peters
U.S. Representative Danny K. Davis
Other elected officials
Oy.
* 3:37 pm - I forgot to post this earlier today, but SurveyUSA has conducted polling in all 50 states matching Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton against John McCain. Illinois’ results can be found at this link. It’s 60-31 in the Obama-McCain matchup and 48-37 in the Clinton-McCain pairing.
All states are here (Obama vs. McCain) and here (Clinton vs. McCain).
*** 4:21 pm *** John Laesch narrowly lost the Democratic primary in the 14th Congressional District to Bill Foster. Now, literally on the eve of Foster’s special election against Republican Jim Oberweis, Laesch has petitioned for a discovery recount. Read it here.
As if the $125 ticket wasn’t bad enough, Lauren Kamm’s illegal left turn onto Ashland Avenue in Chicago earned her an extra surprise: Her driver’s license was confiscated.
Kamm was told it would be returned after her case was completed, a process potentially lasting weeks. While she could still drive legally with a copy of the ticket, the thought of having no photo identification sent her into a panic, especially since she planned to attend a college reunion at a North Side bar the next night. […]
Illinois is one of the few states where officers can — and often do — take a driver’s license during routine traffic stops. But a group of state officials is trying to change that. In an era when a government-issued photo ID is often needed to board an airplane or make a credit-card purchase, the practice is antiquated, they said. […]
Now, state law requires that drivers ticketed for a moving violation post bail. They do that by paying $75 at the police station, surrendering a bond card (usually available from insurance companies) or giving up their driver’s license. Police officers also can just ask for a signature, but such leniency is rare.
* Question: Should Illinois do away with or modify this law? Explain.
* It’s not a good idea to mess with the newspapers, even when they’re greedy…
State lawmakers gave early approval to a law that would allow newspapers to continue selling pictures from high school state championship tournaments without restriction.
The proposal, approved by a Senate committee Thursday, stems from incidents in which the Illinois High School Association barred newspaper photographers from football and basketball sidelines during championship games unless they agreed the images won’t be sold.
Those that refuse to sign such agreements have been relegated to the stands or press box. The IHSA, which is not a state agency, recently relaxed its policy and granted access during the girls’ basketball championships. The boys’ basketball championships start this weekend in Peoria.
DeJuan Kea of the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance said schools oppose the legislation in part because they fear they will have to start paying dues to cover the cost of student athletics.
“At the end of the day, I think this all comes down to a profit, regardless of whether they want to admit it or not,” Kea said.
The IHSA this week proposed a deal that would let news organizations take and sell any photos they wanted at nearly all high school sporting events, except for the state tournament finals. Photos from those final playoff games could be given away or sold “at cost,” IHSA executive director Marty Hickman told the committee. […]
“The real issue here for us, for the newspaper industry, is that we have a product that’s our product, and what we do with it is our business,” [IPA executive director David Bennett] said. “For them to say that we can’t do that is unconstitutional.”
* They do have the 1st Amendment on their side, and barring shooters from the games is not a good idea. But this isn’t about the photos that appear in newspapers, it’s about the cash newspapers are making from reselling those photos to the public. Check out the SJ-R’s reprint prices…
Size………. Unframed…… Framed
14″ Full Page $29.95 each $129.99 each
21″ Full Page $45.95 each $169.99 each
And if you try to reprint or even post anything without their permission, they get all lawyerly on you.
Most legislators receive pretty favorable coverage in their hometown papers, so they’re naturally reluctant to tell them to stick it.
[Note from Rich: This was obviously written by my intern, a notorious Cub fan. lol]
* Former Governor Jim Thompson has been doing a lot of damage control lately to calm down fans over Sam Zell’s brash comments regarding the possible sale of Wrigley Field. He’s assuaged concerns over a sacrilegious name change, revocation of cherished landmark status, and moans over another TIF on sales taxes.
As a Cubs fan, I think the proposal sounds moderate enough. I think most of my latte sipping, Birkenstock wearing, yuppie counterparts will tell you that they really don’t care if you relax the landmark status, so long as they don’t change the name.
Many have even expressed positive sentiments over a compromise by selling the naming rights of the plaza, and not the Wrigley Field name. I can live with something like “Wrigley Field at the Bank of America Plaza.”
The upgrades to the Friendly Confines could include repairs to deteriorated concrete, enhancement of kitchen and food service facilities, additional luxury seats, widened concourses, parking, and neighborhood improvements, he said.
Real fans will tell you that, honestly, they just want to see their team win a Championship before they die.
* But the proposal is alienating Cubs fans less and less, and is instead angering many taxpayers, especially downstate ones:
Don’t let ’em fool you. Tax dollars spent to refurbish Wrigley are dollars that can’t be spent anywhere else. The needs of institutions like the schools and parks will have to be offset by service cuts or other tax hikes. As Zell likes to tell his employees, there’s no such thing as free lunch.
* The argument is a valid one, and deserves debate. But many will tell you that the state did the something similar for the Soldier Field renovations. Lawmakers approved a $587 million package for Soldier Field. That plan included about $400 million worth of taxpayer-supported bonds issued by the Sports Facilities Authority, which was created in the 1980s to build U.S. Cellular Field, home to baseball’s White Sox.
The bubble that is more likely to burst is the faction of downstate voters and legislators who are still angry over the CTA bailout fight, and the lack of a capital bill to finance necessary infrastructure improvements:
“I think it’s a bad idea,” said Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria. “It’s nice we can all be nostalgic about the Cubs, but I’m not sure how any of us downstate (benefit) unless they put together a package that does benefit us.”
* What do you think should be done about Wrigley Field? Try, as hard as it may be, to keep your team biases aside.
***UPDATE*** This is the link to the audio of Former Governor Jim Thompson on the Spike O’Dell Show earlier this week that Reddbyrd talked about in their post. It’s pretty funny.
* This may be a better press pop than a legal precedent…
Oberweis Dairy went to state court Thursday to try to stop the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from continuing to air ads that claimed illegal immigrants worked at its stores.
Oberweis Dairy President Joe Oberweis said claims in the political commercials directed at his father — Republican congressional candidate Jim Oberweis — are false and damaging to the business.
“Politics are politics, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to stand up and defend our business,” Joe Oberweis said.
* Here’s the ad in question…
* Illegal immigrants did work in one of his stores, but they weren’t Oberweis employees. They worked for a contractor who was fired. The ad never explicitly says Oberweis Dairy hired them. But it is an unfair hit.
* Even so, Oberweis has his own trouble with staying within the bounds of reality…
Rob Wadsworth is a firefighter. His wife, Amanda, works as an office assistant. They live in Yorkville and get by OK on $73,000 a year. They have a mop-headed little boy and a cute little girl. Take a look at their photo here. Aren’t they just adorable?
Well, life’s not all rosy for the Wadsworths. Rob likes to hit the tavern with his buddies after work, so Amanda basically has two jobs because someone has to ride herd on the kids — one’s a chronic shoplifter, the other likes to play with matches and neither of them can recite the alphabet without prompting — and Rob says he’d come home if Amanda’s hag of a mother wasn’t there all the time …
Actually, we made up that last part … but who cares? Jim Oberweis made up the Wadsworths!
He also made up Juan and Maria Garcia, a construction worker and a bank teller from Aurora who have three kids and haul in $54,778 a year. And DeKalb office manager Sheila Johnson, a divorced mother of two who makes $47,333. And Juan and Elena Marcos, who have a precious little baby boy and live on his $68,044 salary.
They’re all pictured in a mailer for Oberweis’ campaign for Congress in the 14th District.
Talking to Kane County GOP leaders Wednesday, Oberweis begged for help: “This is a challenging race with significant national attention. We need your help. This race is very close. It’s within 1 or 2 percentage points either way. If the Democrats win this seat we will hear nothing but, ‘Boy, the tide has turned. Democrats are taking over all across the country, they’ve just won Speaker Hastert’s seat.’ If we can hold this seat on the Republican side, the story will be . . . a tide turning in favor of Republicans.”
* Since it’s so close, the Oberweis campaign is trying to get the dirt out on Foster. This is from ABC 7, the most widely watched news in the region…
Oberweis has earned a reputation for tough tactics in his repeated runs for public office in Illinois, and this race is no exception. But now the man Oberweis and Foster are competing to replace, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, is getting his hands dirty, slamming Foster in a radio interview Thursday morning.
“He’s had some personal problems in his life. He’s not as squeaky clean as everyone thought he was,” Hastert told WLS-AM.
Insiders say the “personal problems” Hastert referred to are veiled reference to Foster’s messy divorce a dozen years ago.
The problem with that line of attack is that Foster’s ex will defend him. This will only work as a last-minute ploy when Foster can’t rebut.
But after meeting at length with both candidates, this endorsement was not such a difficult call. Oberweis was forceful and informed, while Foster was a disappointment. Though a respected physicist, he failed to do his homework, unable to discuss important issues in anything but superficial terms.
Wilmette businessman Tony Rezko raised money for candidates in both political parties — including Democratic Gov. Blagojevich, former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar and Illinois senator turned Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama — but he never asked for anything in return, Rezko’s lead defense counsel said this afternoon.
“The government has embraced what will probably be the most corrupt individual you will ever see in your life –a very, very sophisticated con man in the fullest sense of the word,” Duffy said in an opening statement.
He said claims about Rezko’s role in the corruption by Levine are false and began as name dropping to impress people. He said Levine is now lying about Rezko in hopes of getting a lenient 67-month prison sentence.
* A surprisingly large number of the charges against Rezko are based on what Stu Levine told others. And Levine has a whole lot of problems…
“Mr. Levine’s days at times would include the substance Special K — and it wasn’t the cereal,” he said.
Instead, it was ketamine, an animal tranquilizer that Levine took in liberal amounts, as well as cocaine, ecstasy, pot and crystal meth, he said.
“Defendant Rezko was the man behind the curtain pulling the strings,” Hamilton told jurors as the trial expected to last three to four months and hand Blagojevich a nasty black eye got under way.
One of the first witnesses, FBI agent Charles A. Willenborg, said that federal investigators have identified $1,437,350 raised by Rezko for Blagojevich from 2000 to December 2004.
* Barack Obama wasn’t mentioned by prosecutors yesterday, but the defense dropped his name, which got some people all atwitter…
Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s attorney on Thursday invoked presidential front-runner Barack Obama’s name in telling jurors what good judgment Rezko has in picking friends — an unwelcome compliment for Obama — as yet another federal corruption trial involving Illinois politics gets under way.
As if to make sure jurors were getting the point, the defense also noted that the star witness against Rezko was a disciple of disgraced former Gov. George Ryan.
He needs to do it soon, because half-baked stories like this are beginning to spread…
Accused Illinois fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko is in debt by $50 million and relies on “family” handouts of $7,500 a month to pay monthly costs, according to a previously sealed court transcript reviewed by ABC News.
Rezko’s bleak financial picture raises the question of how the Rezkos were able to buy a vacant lot adjoining the home of Sen. Barack Obama in 2005, at a time Rezko says he was already in deep debt.
Super-active, bigtime developers like Rezko rarely have a lot of cash on hand. They live on borrowed money. They were able to “afford” the lot because Rezko, like most other developers, had a giant line of credit, which dried up after he was indicted.
* And, finally, I will say this again: if Jimmy DeLeo was the “real” governor, we wouldn’t have been in session for eleven months last year. That notion simply defies all reality. Influence? Sure. Friendship? Certainly. Does he call the shots? Preposterous.
This is sent on behalf of Director Roger E. Walker Jr.
As many of you already know, the CMS Garage has implemented an interim policy that requires IDOC Central Office approval on ALL vehicle repairs and maintenance issues. This new policy is due to IDOC’s overall lack of payment to CMS Garage for services rendered over the past few years. Given this, we need to curtail the amount of vehicles we are sending through the CMS garages for repairs. Please only have vehicles repaired if it is an emergency situation. This may mean “sidelining” a few vehicles from your fleet for the remainder of the fiscal year if necessary.
The e-mail was sent under the heading “CMS State Garages will not work on IDOC vehicles.”
Despite the memo’s title, Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said later, “CMS is not turning away work.”
“We are taking a tighter look at what we are spending. We want to prioritize spending. We’re going to keep repairing and maintaining our vehicles.” […]
Corrections this year budgeted $6.8 million for automotive fuel and maintenance. Schnapp said Corrections owes about $2 million to CMS for work done on Corrections vehicles, some of it held over from previous budgets.
“It’s all money coming out of the same pocket,” said Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. “It makes no sense at all. This is similar to what we are seeing out at the fairgrounds. It’s the governor’s office cutting everyone back so much they can’t run their offices.”
Bomke is right on target. These are chargebacks that mean little except to provide a way to squeeze money out of agencies.
* Apparently, a failure to budget for high gas prices is partly to blame…
Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp blamed high gas prices and higher maintenance costs for creating the debt. In addition, Schnapp said the agency hasn’t purchased any new vehicles in recent years.
‘’We are working with CMS to resolve this issue,'’ said Schnapp.
Prison officials contend the situation will not affect the operation of the department.
If it won’t effect operations, why bother with the memo?
The state is paying more than $1 million over two years for 235 parking spaces in private garages around the Thompson Center.
It’s a questionable expense, especially when the state is so strapped for cash, says Ed Bedore, a member of the state’s Procurement Policy Board, a little-known watchdog agency. He points to the wealth of public transportation options that are available. […]
The $1.1 million parking tab includes $47,400 that the state prisons are paying InterPark, Inc. for 10 spots near the Thompson Center. All of those are for top prison officials, according to an Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman and a spokeswoman for Gov. Blagojevich — though a Blagojevich administration memo, written in June and obtained by the Sun-Times, says some “parking spaces serve the governor’s office staff.”
$47,400 is a drop in the bucket, but when your prison department can’t fix its fleet, every little bit helps.
* Once again, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is his own worst enemy. Right on the point, but severely bumbled execution…
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger on Thursday disputed the findings of a report suggesting patronage was alive and well in county government, then admitted he had not read the 54-page document.
“I haven’t read her report yet,” Stroger said, referring to the review filed in court last week by retired Cook County Circuit Judge Julia Nowicki, a federally appointed hiring monitor.
Stroger said he knew about the report’s details from newspaper accounts. “I can read the newspaper,” said Stroger, a freshman board president and former Chicago alderman. “I’ve got a good education.”
“We have cooperated with her office, but the way the report was written, it makes it appear there have been things that have been going on that are illegal in hiring since I’ve been the president, but it’s not the case.”
* I had the exact same reaction to the report, which relies on a whole lot of hearsay from disgruntled employees and never really pins down when any of the alleged violations happened. And if you read it closely, you’ll see that some of those violations obviously happened under Stroger’s father. Others aren’t clear when they occurred, and that obfuscation looks deliberate to me. Go read it yourself and see.
* But, that reality is barely mentioned in the press. Instead, stuff like this is buried or ignored…
County taxpayers have now paid almost $1 million to Nowicki, with another nearly $1 million due in expenses, as she and a staff of investigators and attorneys comb through hundreds of patronage claims from 2004-2006.
Doesn’t that timeline prove Stroger’s argument? He was elected in 2006, the end point of the probe. Yet the coverage so far has made it appear as if Stroger himself is responsible.
* But, for crying out loud, it only took me a few minutes to read the report. Stroger should have taken time out from his schedule to at least glance through it. This shows supreme goofiness on Stroger’s part. Read it, pick it apart, praise some areas, criticize others, and then move on. Is that so difficult?
* ComEd, shocked by high interest rates, may pass costs to customers
ComEd, a division of Exelon Corp., is obligated to service a whopping $343 million in auction-rate, tax-exempt debt—pollution-control bonds with interest rates that in some cases have jumped from about 3.5 percent to as high as 12 percent.
Beaubien is sponsoring House Bill 4905, which would require analyses of how pension bills for police and firefighters will affect finances for specific cities around the state.
Spurning another effort to modify the new statewide smoking ban, an Illinois House committee on Tuesday voted against a proposal that would allow businesses to buy special licenses if they want to permit indoor smoking.
“We’ve had eight shootings over the weekend, [four] homicides, and we’re here dilly-dallying, talking about 50 [veteran officers] still behind the desk, turning classes away and all of our wards are in need of police protection,” said Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th).
* 5:49 pm - From the Tribune, which is really doing an excellent job of live-blogging the Rezko trial. I just wish they’d put an RSS feed on it…
The second government witness was an FBI analyst who said his computer review of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign records tied Rezko to more than $1.4 million in fundraising activity. That figure is nearly three times what Rezko had publicly acknowledged raising on behalf of the governor.
Yikes.
Also, no bombshells in former chief legal counsel Susan Lichtenstein’s testimony. Too bad. I’m still curious why she and most of her top staff resigned en masse. Rezko was there for her job interview, however, and present at “periodic strategy sessions” held by the governor.
* Meanwhile, Andy Shaw talked to Barack Obama for a couple of minutes today. Obama claimed he had answered lots of Rezko questions (even though he hasn’t fully come across with crucial information), and Shaw ended his piece with this…
The Obama campaign is still considering a lengthy Q&A session with local reporters to answer any lingering questions, and they’re considering a lot of requests for documents that haven’t been released yet because they know that some members of the media aren’t satisfied with the information so far, but the Obama campaign is hoping reporters put the same amount of pressure on Clinton, and eventually McCain, when it comes to finances, disclosures and ethics.
That press conference would be a good idea. Get it over with now.
There’s a live news feed on the right side of the page just under the AP feed.
* Congratulations to Matt O’Shea on his new job as House GOP Leader Tom Cross’ chief of staff. Scott Reimers has been appointed Deputy Chief. The official announcement can be read by clicking here.
* State Sen. Susan Garrett is now blogging. Check it out.
* Margaret Houlihan’s baby, Jack, was born two months early last Sunday. He weighed in at just 2.2 pounds, but he’s a little fighter. And a White Sox fan! Check out Jack’s progress at his family’s new blog.
* Memo of the day, from the Department of Corrections…
This is sent on behalf of Director Roger E. Walker Jr.
As many of you already know, the CMS Garage has implemented an interim policy that requires IDOC Central Office approval on ALL vehicle repairs and maintenance issues. This new policy is due to IDOC’s overall lack of payment to CMS Garage for services rendered over the past few years. Given this, we need to curtail the amount of vehicles we are sending through the CMS garages for repairs. Please only have vehicles repaired if it is an emergency situation. This may mean “sidelining” a few vehicles from your fleet for the remainder of the fiscal year if necessary.
* Most of us know the lyrics to that Sound of Music tune Edelweiss…
Edelweiss, edelweiss, every morning you greet me
small and white,
clean and bright,
you look happy to meet me
blossom of snow
may you bloom and grow,
bloom and grow forever
edelweiss, edelweiss, bless my home-land forever
* Question: Let’s try coming up with lyrics to the same music, but entitled: Oberweis.
* Dawn Clark Netsch was one of the members of the state’s last Constitutional Convention, and she’s always been proud of her achievements there. I’m less impressed.
Yesterday, Netsch said there was no need for another Con-Con…
“We don’t have a constitutional crisis in the state of Illinois. We have a leadership crisis,” [Netsch] said, adding: “There are no constitutional barriers to resolving the issues that have been plaguing us for the last couple of years. The only thing that is missing is the kind of leadership that brings those issues finally to bear.”
In a perfect world, she’s right. But only she lives in that perfect world.
Because the leaders and the legislators are so entrenched, I’m convinved that the only way to change things is to change the Constitution itself. The type of players we have won’t change unless the foundation document changes. Leaders have too much institutional power, unchecked by the Constitution. Legislative districts are drawn to favor incumbents to the point where very few seats ever change hands. The governor has too much leeway in rewriting legislation and his rule-making powers are not fully enumerated. I could go on, but I’ll save it for another time.
* Netsch even countered her own logic when she agreed with Pat Quinn…
[Quinn] said one of the provisions that would do just that would be to allow voters to recall elected public officials. Netsch agreed that the only way a recall provision would be added to the state Constitution is through a convention, considering lawmakers are unlikely to approve a measure by themselves
So, it’s not just the players, it’s the document.
* And this is bogus…
[Netsch claimed] The state has done nothing other than approve a non-binding resolution to prepare and educate voters for the decision… She described a two-year effort by a 50-member committee in preparation for the ballot question in 1988. Nine public hearings across the state and a series of research papers all contributed to discussion beforehand. There’s nothing like that this year so far.
So what? There’s still plenty of time to hold hearings and distribute information to the electorate. The media can also help spark the public debate. Her condescending attitude towards the voters of Illinois is somewhat appalling.
The current Constitution has not served us well at all, the opinion of a “Founding Mother” notwithstanding. Fear tactics and talking down to voters may work to derail the effort to call another convention, but those are not valid reasons.
The question is, does the current system work? I would say “No.”
*** UPDATE *** The Union League Club of Chicago is hosting a series of forums on this very topic…
Tuesday, March 18th – “State Government: Structural and Reform Issues”
Presenters: James D. Nowlan, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs;
Steven F. Pflaum, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery; General Counsel, Chicago Bar Association.
Topics: The size and structure of the Illinois General Assembly and Executive Branch; proposals for term limits and/or recall of elected officials; judicial selection
Thursday, April 10th – “State and Local Government Finances”
Topics: State and local government budgeting and taxation, including proposals for a progressive vs. flat income tax; home rule powers; overall state budget process
Thursday, May 15th – “Education Funding and Reform Issues”
Topics: How the state raises funds to support public education; reform proposals including the “tax swap” concept that would place greater reliance on income taxes to fund public education and reduce reliance on property taxes
A continental breakfast will be provided at each forum. These programs are being offered on a complimentary basis but advance registration is required.
Those interested may register by calling the ULC’s Public Affairs Office at (312) 435-5946 or by sending an e-mail to: publicaffairs@ulcc.org.
Please note: the Union League Club of Chicago’s dress code requires business casual attire.
[Note from Rich: This is another piece from my intern Kevin. Constructive criticism would be helpful.]
* The special election to replace Dennis Hastert is set for Saturday, and both candidates vying for his spot are turning up the heat.
As of Feb. 25th campaign disclosure statements show that Bill Foster has loaned his campaign $1.3 million, and Oberweis an astounding $2.3 million. In a district where as of the 2000 Census the median per-capita income was $23,406, an infusion of a million or two can give a candidate a considerable size blow horn.
Foster and Oberweis are trading barbs over whose literature is more misleading:
Democrat Bill Foster said Republican rival Jim Oberweis is misleading the public with a recent campaign mailing, but Oberweis responded with an accusation that Foster’s “pro-illegal immigration allies” are breaking election law with a recent hit piece.
The mailings at the center of the dispute between the candidates seeking to replace retired House Speaker Dennis Hastert are among the torrent of ads flooding mailboxes ahead of Saturday’s special election in the 14th Congressional District.
The Foster campaign on Wednesday objected to an Oberweis mailing that purports to show how Foster’s tax policies would affect typical district residents.
The issue is none of the four families pictured in the ad are actual district residents, as a disclaimer in fine print at the bottom of the ad makes clear.
* The Foster campaign used this as an example to illustrate a history of shady campaign tactics employed by Oberweis. In his 2006 Gubernatorial bid he was criticized for sending out mail pieces with fake newspaper headlines. Then there was this little blemish last year over his 2004 Senate run:
The Federal Election Commission fined Oberweis $21,000 in 2007 for an incident during his 2004 campaign for the Senate, in which he appeared in an ad for the Oberweis Dairy business.
* Oberweis responded with his own criticism of Foster’s mailers. A recent mailing that appears to be targeted to Hispanic residents of the district hits Oberweis for his strong opposition to illegal immigration. The ad claims:
“Oberweis wants to scare people, and then turn them against Latino families” and “Since Oberweis started his anti-immigrant and anti-Latino speeches – hate crimes in the United States against Latinos have gone up 35%.”
Oberweis campaign spokesman Bill Pascoe said the ad violates election law because it does not clearly state who it is from. It says “Sponsored by Latino Neighbors Against Hate Crimes.” No record of such an organization can be found, and the Foster campaign denies any knowledge of the ad.
* Your thoughts on the mailing mess, and it’s impact on the special election?
*** UPDATE *** [From Rich] Via Kos, a Roll Call story on a new Survey USA poll…
The House seat recently vacated by former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is in danger of flipping to the Democrats in Saturday’s special election, according to a poll conducted this week for Roll Call.
In the poll of 517 likely special election voters, conducted by Survey USA exclusively for Roll Call on March 3 and 4, physicist Bill Foster (D) led dairy company executive Jim Oberweis (R) 52 percent to 45 percent. The poll had a 4.4-point margin of error.
Foster appeared to test particularly well with women and independent voters, who preferred him by a 3-2 margin. The survey also suggested Foster had locked down his party’s base, taking 97 percent of likely Democratic votes and perhaps stealing 10 percent of likely GOP votes.
I’m skeptical of any special election polls because I doubt anyone knows who will really bother to show up, but SUSA is a pretty decent outfit, so there you have it.
*** UPDATE 2 *** [From Rich] Yesterday, Charlie Cook declared the special election to be a toss-up. Today, the Rothenberg Political Report did the same…
The race to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R) is too close to call, and we’ve changed our rating of the race from Lean Republican to Toss-Up, in advance of Saturday’s special election.
Jim Oberweis (R) and Bill Foster (D) have both spent heavily from their own pockets, and both the NRCC and DCCC are involved as well. A March 3-4 SurveyUSA poll for Roll Call showed Foster leading the race 52%-45%, but some private polling contradicts the Roll Call numbers.
Republicans are at serious risk of losing the seat, but they could benefit from turnout in the Republican-leaning district. It would be a symbolic victory for the Democrats, and NRCC Chairman Tom Cole predicted that if his party were to lose the seat there would be a flood of stories spelling out the end of the GOP. At least he knows what he’s in for.
*** UPDATE 3 *** [From Rich] The SurveyUSA poll is now online…
If the special election for the US House were today, would you vote for…(names rotated) Democrat Bill Foster? Or, Republican Jim Oberweis?
52% Foster (D)
45% Oberweis (R)
3% Undecided
Is your opinion of Bill Foster … favorable? Unfavorable? Neutral? Or, are you unfamiliar with Bill Foster?
* The initial round of legislative committee hearings is like Opening Day at Wrigley Field. Everyone has high hopes, but they are usually disappointed by the end of the season.
Those early committee hearings mean little because there are so many hurdles left to clear. A bill that passes a committee has to then make it to a floor vote, survive that vote, make it out of the Rules Committee in the other chamber, survive a comittee vote (and perhaps other amendments) there, then find its way to the floor and win that vote, then be signed into law by the governor.
So, a lot of “sexy” bills that receive a bunch of press now will be long forgotten by the time the end of session (whenever that is) rolls around.
* But, hey, they make great press fodder, so we get stories like this…
A state Senate committee took a step toward legalizing the use of medical marijuana Wednesday, voting to let people with debilitating illnesses like AIDS or cancer use marijuana to ease their symptoms.
llinoisans would get a chance at a “do-over” when it comes to the people in office, under a constitutional amendment which has passed a House committee. Representative Jack Franks says Governor Blagojevich has performed poorly enough to inspire him to draw it up.
…Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, is pushing a plan to get rid of all State Board of Education members and allow the governor to name nine new replacements. The replacement members would be chosen from a pool of 27 candidates that a panel of education experts would nominate.
Barring a miracle, not a single one of these bills will ever become the law of the land. But, it’s March. Hope springs eternal. And space must be filled.
* Lots of time for lawsuits against the House Speaker, but no time to read a pardon? That’s the story from the Blagojevich administration on why he pardoned Chandra Gill so she could become the director of a school that got a million dollar state grant to rebuild fire-ravaged Pilgrim Baptist Church….
[William Quinlan, general counsel to the governor] said he forwarded the recommendation of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to the governor to pardon [Chandra Gill] without reading Gill’s full petition, in which she stated her connection to the school and made reference to the then-pending $1 million grant.
“I didn’t mean to mislead anyone,” Quinlan said.
The governor’s office later issued a statement saying Blagojevich did not know about Gill’s connection to the school when he approved her pardon and the expungement of her aggravated battery conviction for a 2002 fight with an Urbana police officer.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
The article in today’s Tribune regarding the Gill pardon misstates the comments Mr. Quinlan made about the pardon process. The full petition was absolutely reviewed by legal counsel when it was submitted to our office and decided upon in January 2007. Mr. Quinlan advised the Tribune reporter that because Ms. Gill’s petition had been returned to the Prisoner Review Board in early 2007 after a decision on the petition had been made, he had reviewed internal memos on the case that are stored in our office — not the full petition — before he was asked about it following yesterday’s press conference on the Illinois Works coalition. The statement in today’s article is patently false and does not in any way reflect the process in which Ms. Gill’s petition was reviewed.
* OK, so let’s back up a minute here.
Gill gets a pardon that wasn’t read. Rev. Jesse Jackson and other African-American leaders were apparently pushing for Gill’s pardon. Her school is apparently helped by the administration with a 501C-3 application so that it can receive the million dollar grant. Details are ignored or overlooked that would preclude the grant from being awarded in the first place…
A provision in Loop Lab School’s state grant contract required the school to affirm it was not “subject to any cease and desist order” before getting the money in March 2007, money it used to acquire and renovate space at 318 W. Adams.
Two months before the school signed off on its $1 million deal with the state, the Illinois Human Rights Commission ordered the school to pay damages to a former kindergarten teacher who complained she was sexually harassed by a school official and then threatened with firing by another — a judgment that Blagojevich’s administration said the school did not disclose.
Besides awarding more than $40,000 to the teacher, the commission ordered that the school “cease and desist from further acts of sexual harassment” and “from further acts of unlawful retaliation.”
Oops.
The million dollars is then used to buy a floor in a Loop building far away from Pilgrim Baptist Church which happened to be developed by a federal mole who was helping the feds investigate Tony Rezko (the grant awarding state agency is run by a former Rezko employee, by the way). The school, whose former students now live quite a distance from its new location, isn’t open for business yet. School officials aren’t talking to the press.
This is the most high profile million dollar grant of Blagojevich’s entire administration and he either royally screwed it up or did something hinky. Either way, it represents a microcosm of the administration. Splashy and controversial announcement, everybody who is anybody is involved, no follow-through or corrupt maneuvering, governor throws his aides under the bus and won’t accept any blame, and it all ends up as a freaking mess which attracts yet another investigation.
By the way, to give you an idea how utterly bizarre this situation is, my intern Kevin knows Chandra Gill. She was a TA of his at the University of Illinois.
* After signing a bill into law that raises the Chicago region’s taxes by about a half billion dollars, Gov. Blagojevich has the gall to criticize others…
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is calling on Chicago and Cook County officials to rethink recent tax increases. He says hikes in city property and county sales taxes are slamming area residents.
BLAGOJEVICH: Enough is enough on taxes. In fact, those who’ve raised taxes ought to reconsider and roll back some of the tax increases that they’ve already raised.
* Don’t expect the governor to roll back the taxes he just raised. And there was nothing in the state budget that would have replaced some of revenues that Cook County’s hospital is set to lose from Illinois or the feds (intergovernmental transfer and new Medicaid rules). The goose, gander argument just doesn’t apply when it comes to tax hikes…
A spokeswoman says legislators shot down [Blagojevich’s] other ideas and he was forced into it.
Actually, he could’ve shut down the mass transit system and forced an alternative to the sales and real estate transfer tax hikes. But he didn’t have the stones for that. Understandable, of course, but this man has no shame at all. Not surprising, just exhausting.
* Meanwhile, the governor has hired former US House Speaker Denny Hastert and SIU President Glenn Poshard to drum up support for the capital construction plan. But there’s a catch…
Hastert made it clear he is not endorsing Blagojevich’s plan to pay for construction or any other financial plan. The governor has proposed a $25 billion construction-spending spree with the state’s share to come from selling off rights to the state lottery. […]
“I’m not carrying water for the governor or anybody else,” he said.
I’m not sure if Hastert was asked about how he felt the capital money ought to be distributed. Besides the funding source questions, very few legislators trust the governor to distribute those projects in an equitable way - for good reason - and an alternative is being sought.
But, other than that, everything is hunky dory.
I have a lot of admiration and respect for both Hastert and Poshard, but I have no illusions that they’ll move the ball forward whatsoever.
Exelon has hired a private company to move up the timetable for decommissioning the plant, which closed 10 years ago. If the Nuclear Regulatory Agency approves the plan, it will take another decade to return the land to its natural state, opening up 250 acres of prime lakefront property, officials said.
St. Eve said she hoped to get the government’s first witness to the stand before lunch. That is expected to be Kelly Glynn, director of Blagojevich’s campaign fund during his first successful run for governor in 2002.
* Rezko trial pits government against ‘hard but fair’ defense lawyer
Over the weekend, Chicago lifted itself to the top of a tax dishonor roll: The city’s cumulative sales-tax rate is now the steepest of any major metropolitan area in America, at 10.25%. That blows past the former valedictorian, Memphis (9.25%), as well as New Orleans (9%), Denver (8.6%), and even New York and Los Angeles. Congratulations.
* Durbin: Meeting with Canadian National head ‘unproductive’
Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, and U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, a Barrington Democrat, assailed Canadian National’s plan to spend $300 million to buy the 198-mile EJ&E rail system that runs through the suburbs from Gary, Ind., to Waukegan.
