* I told you a little about this story yesterday, but Phil Kadner goes at it hard today…
Tony Rezko tried to negotiate a third airport deal in the south suburbs in 2006 on behalf of the governor, according to U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Chicago).
“There was no doubt he was a state actor at that meeting,” Jackson said. “I didn’t call Tony Rezko. […]
“Rezko said that in order to get the governor’s support for the things I wanted, the governor had to be given key appointments on the ALNAC board,” Jackson said.
“That is the same kind of thing they did with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and the teachers pension system. That’s how Rezko used his influence, by appointing people to these boards.”
* Kadner doesn’t believe Blagojevich administration claims that Rezko was never involved, and I don’t blame him one bit. I’m with Phil on that one.
Kadner, however, only briefly mentions that Jackson aide Rick Bryan brought Democratic congressional candidate Sen. Debbie Halvorson into the mix. That’s more significant, at least politically for Halvorson, than Kadner claims.
Here’s a quick refresher about what Bryant wrote…
Pay-to-play was the pathway laid out in Senate Bill 2063, sponsored by state Sen. Debbie Halvorson. That bill would have codified what Rezko essentially proposed to Jackson, ALNAC and its developers (SNC-Lavalin and LCOR), which was to create an airport board comprised of appointed – not elected – commissioners.
* I think that any direct Halvorson connection is a big stretch, but the most significant aspect of this statement was that an incumbent Congressional Democrat would seek to undermine a Democratic congressional hopeful by connecting her to Tony Rezko, no matter how tenuous those ties might me.
Jackson and Halvorson have fought bitterly on this issue over the years. Halvorson complains that Jackson wants to put an airport in her Senate district (and in an area which is not in Jackson’s district) without first getting permission from those residents. That’s a good point, but there’s no denying that Jackson has given Halvorson’s GOP opponent, Martin Ozinga, lots of ammo.
From an Ozinga press release…
* Did Halvorson ever meet with Rezko or Rezko’s associates about the Third Airport?
* If so, did Halvorson sponsor Senate Bill 2063 at Tony Rezko’s request? Was anything offered by Rezko in exchange?
* If not, still: why did Halvorson sponsor a bill that would have created ample opportunity for the same kind of cash-for-appointments schemes for which Tony Rezko was just convicted?
* Meanwhile, three Green Party congressional candidates were kicked off the ballot yesterday…
The board ruled in favor of petitioners who filed objections against 8th Congressional District candidate Iain Abernathy of Round Lake Beach, 10th District candidate David Kalbfleish of Arlington Heights, and 14th District candidate Robert Hill of DeKalb — all of whom the party had slated after the state’s Feb. 5 primary. […]
More specifically, attorneys for the objectors argued that the Green Party failed to elect any precinct committeemen from key counties during the February primary, a requisite first step in the process of slating candidates. In Abernathy’s case, objectors also argued for disqualification because he tried to run as a Moderate Party candidate in the primary before being removed from that ballot.
The Greens aren’t sure yet whether they’ll appeal.
* And Dem congressional candidate Dan Seals has harsh words for Springfield…
A Democratic candidate for Congress is offering a blunt assessment of Illinois’ state government leaders. Dan Seals is running in the 10th congressional district in Chicago’s northern suburbs.
Seals says Illinois needs “adults [in Springfield] who work for the people they’re supposed to represent.”
“Look, I’m not going to go pick a fight with anybody, but the fact is, we need more results out of Springfield and less posturing.”
Charlie Cook now rates Seals’ campaign against incumbent Republican Mark Kirk a toss-up, partly because of Barack Obama’s presence on the ticket.
* Somewhat related…
* Rezko: One trial down. Next up in 2009.
* Tribune’s Blagojevich-Rezko Cartoon
* Zorn: Let’s clarify the Obama deal with Rezko
* Our Opinion: Sign ethics bill, governor
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 9:49 am:
It’s also a pretty good smack at Blagojevich and, by association, Jones. The Jacksons have been working hard to consolidate power on the South Side and in the South Suburbs. This seems to be a part of that effort. Think he’ll get that Senate appointment now?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 9:52 am:
===Think he’ll get that Senate appointment now?===
I never thought he would. I know what the governor thinks of Congressman Jackson, and “US Senate material” isn’t one of those thoughts.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 9:54 am:
Rich, I didn’t mean you specifically, as I had not seen you speculate on Jackson’s interest. Didn’t know that about Blago and Junior. Interesting.
- ChiTownGuy - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 9:56 am:
Policy disputes are one thing, but to undercut another member of your own party in a general election that’s labeled one of the top in the country for a pickup is simply unexcusable.
Very poor form and low class move by Jackson to just make this up. Of course, he has never been much of a team player.
Ridiculous.
- Ghost - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 9:57 am:
I usually don’t defedn the green party, BUT the infrastructure to get on the battle seems way to technical with too many traps. Kikcing off canidates because they did not elect committeement? Our balloting process is broke if its geared so heavily at denyong voters the opportunity to even vote for a canidate.
I like the Jacksons, I Sandi in particular is very sharp and on the ball.
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:05 am:
The Bryant accusations are almost certainly part of a turf war. Bryant tries to reframe the issue by complaining that “Pay-to-play was the pathway laid out in Senate Bill 2063….That bill would have codified what Rezko essentially proposed…which was to create an airport board comprised of appointed – not elected – commissioners.” Bryant goes on to put forth the ALNAC as a model for how the process should work “By comparison, ALNAC is made up entirely of elected officials from home-rule municipalities, all bound by state ethics laws.” This is a misrepresentation, since the ALNAC Board is appointed just as would the Board in SB2063. While the ALNAC is comprised of elected officials, they APPOINT a board to carry out the work.
http://www.abelincolnairport.com/members.html
In SB2063, local elected officials also appoint a board. The difference is which local officials appoint the board. The ALNAC Board is appointed by officials from five suburbs (University Park, Park Forest, Elk Grove Village, Calumet Park, and South Holland), four of which are in Cook Co. and four of which are in Jackson’s 2nd CD. SB2063 spreads out the appointments {Will County Board (4), the municipalities of Beecher, Crete, Monee, Peotone and University Park (1), the Governor upon the recommendation of the Cook County Township Supervisors whose townships border Will County (1), Kankakee County Board (1)]. SB 2063 puts most of the appointments in the hands of Will Co., location of the most likely site, and then to the surrounding communities. ALNAC is controlled by communities that are nowhere near as close to the proposed site as SB 2063.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/default.asp
This is clearly about turf, and probably about Bryant possibly losing his appointed job. Contrary to Bryant’s missive, no elected Board has been proposed.
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:21 am:
BTW, Why is Elk Grove Village one of the five players in the ALNAC? How representative is that?
- gg - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:25 am:
The election system is broken when only the two major parties are allowed on the ballot.
We are drifting towards totalitarianism.
Power rules. No accountabilty.
No real information presented to the public.
I have got mine. You protest … go to jail.
What happened?
- Captain America - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:26 am:
Charlie Cook is corect in designating Mark Kirk’s seat as a toss-up. I think the Obama factor and voters’ desire to punuish the Republican Party for the colossal failures of the Bush administration will lead to a Seals upset. But it’s not a slam-dunk!
- Lake Co. conservative - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:33 am:
Ghost, I agree. I’ve read many candidates’ petitions and petition instructions, and I didn’t see a section which states that a party must have precinct committeemen. After the primary, the Republicans slated a congressional candidate in the 11th Dist., and Democrats slated a candidate in the 18th Dist. If those candidates can run, all of the Green Party candidates should be able to run.
The 10th Cong. Dist. has a conservative independent candidate, Allan Stevo. He’s the only candidate, in that race, who is pro-life, pro-gun rights, anti-illegal alien, and anti-spending increases. Please read his site, www.stevoforcongress.com.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:35 am:
The airport would be in Halvorson’s district. She would not be doing her job if she didn’t get involved. Jackson’s district has been moving south after each census and is effected by an airport in Peotone. Chicagoland would be effected. So Jackson is doing his job as well with his involvement.
But the issue is about money. A bottomless trough of cash for Illinois’ largest infastructuture project. Everyone wants their snout in that trough.
Halvorson is obligated to be there, as is Jackson. Jones is Halvorson’s partner and Senate President, so his involvement is understandable. And naturally it is impossible not to include Blagojevich. And with Blagojevich comes Kelly and Rezko.
The fight has been over who gets the most from the trough. At this stage of the Project, Jackson has done the footwork necessary at the federal level. ALNAC was necessary and with it’s creation, Jackson appointed whom he believed would be acceptable.
Senate Bill 2063, sponsored understandably by Halvorson as Senate Majority Leader and the Airport’s State Senator, believed it would be necessary to replace ALNAC members with other appointees favorable to her constituencies, instead of Jackson’s.
Now we know that Rezko represented Blagojevich. Between Halvorson’s bill and Rezko, the squeeze was on. Halvorson hid behind the cloak of “local governments” to justify her bill, while Rezko abused the political situation to get cash and influence, (according to Jackson and Bryant). ALNAC members countered SB 2063 by advocating directly electing future board members, and hid behind this point in order to survive, (which they did).
Bryant and Jackson’s move was better than Halvorson and Jones’. An elected ALNAC board would help keep Blagojevich’s people out of the unethical business of selling nominations. It would have also satisfied Halvorson and Jones’ need to have a new ALNAC board. Bryant is also correct in pointing out that Halvorson’s bill was unwise, in that it would have given Rezko seats to sell at a time when Blagojevich’s administration was being linked to this kind of behavior.
What voters need to know about Halvorson is that she works with Jones thisclosely. Giving Jones a Congresswoman would be another feather in his cap. With his Obama riding towards the Oval Office, Jones has had a great two years of Kingmaking. Halvorson would be a new asset for Jones and help Emil with his dealings regarding the Third Airport.
Jackson using Rezko against Halvorson shows how high the stakes are and the prospective pay-out for whomever gets their snout in the Third Airport trough.
- Kenneth Lowe - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:35 am:
Actually, four Greens were kicked off the ballot - the Daily Herald just only cares about three of them. Their 17th District candidate, Troy Dennis, also got booted.
- K
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 10:51 am:
==it would have given Rezko seats to sell==
Which seats? I see one seat for the Gov. to appoint. I agree that elected boards can be better, when feasible. But, as I wrote above, I have seen no proposal to do that. And Bryant’s article simply puts ALNAC forth as the model.
With respect to an elected Board, in this case it sounds good, but how practical is it? And, what is to stop the next Rezko from financing the campaigns of a few candidates? We know about Rezko now, but that is in retrospect. It’s not to great of a stretch to see how developers would try to stack an elected Board as they would an appointed one. It’s not a panacea. And it would be more difficult to remove elected members than appointed ones.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:00 am:
The part of Will county effected by the airport is lightly populated. That is why it has been selected. South Cook county which is also effected by the airport is heavily populated. To demand as Halvorson has, that Will county be represented at an equal, does not take into account the actual impact an airport has on South Cook county. Joliet should not call the shots in Eastern Will county over the shots called by South Cook.
For Halvorson to claim that SB 2063 would allow more appropriate representation because it would empower more of Will county is misleading.
The purpose of SB 2063 is to remove the ALNAC board members recognizing South Cook county with nominees from Will county that met with Tony Rezko for campaign contributions. That, in effect, is what had happened to some board nominations during this administration, and what current ALNAC board members and Congressman Jackson found so repugnant.
Jackson and Bryant through their work with ALNAC have stood the political attack from Halvorson, Jones and Rezko. This is what Jackson is pointing out and Bryant wrote the other day.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:04 am:
Bryant is still correct. Halvorson’s bill would have allowed seats to be sold via Rezko. ALNAC survived by raising the bar of public accountability by advocating elected officials to ALNAC instead of appointed ones.
Halvorson get painted with the Rezko brush by Congressman Jackson.
- fed up - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:07 am:
Halvorson is Emil Jones pet she is part of the problemin Springfield not part of the solution in Washington. She represents what is Illinois pols. pay to play how typical of her being the senate leader in the Ill legislature that gets nothing done and has left this state billions and billions in debt with no plans moving forward.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:11 am:
I can agree that it seems undemocratic to remove the Green party members from the ballot, but on the other hand, these laws are not secret. Every political party should have at least one lawyer to navigate issues such as ballot access and the various requirements for political parties in different states and municipalities. This just seems careless of the Greens to neglect such a simple step.
- DumberThanYou Think - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:22 am:
Wonder if Ozinga will call on StateWide Tom and Vandalia Frank to oppose the capital plan until this new scandal is sorted out….could be fun
- Patrick F. Kelly - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 11:36 am:
> Every political party should have at least one
> lawyer to navigate issues such as ballot access
> …This just seems careless of the Greens to
> neglect such a simple step.
Actually, we did have two lawyers working on the case: Scott Summers and Andrew Finko, both of whom did an excellent job. Unfortunately, as is often the case in these election hearings, it doesn’t really matter what the laws are and who your lawyers are.
The fact is, the Democrats didn’t have any evidence on which to base their challenge. Somehow, though, these hearings get twisted around so that the burden of proof falls on the challenged, not the challenger. Instead of the Dems presenting evidence that we did something wrong, we have to prove that we did everything right — and that is definitely open to broad interpretation. This is the kind of democracy to be practiced at some third world puppet regime, but there it is, happening at 100 W. Randolph.
- GofGlenview - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 12:48 pm:
On the next Rezko trial, where we have one down and two more seperate indictment and trials to go (one here and one in Nevada), all the more reason to make a deal…
- GofGlenview - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 12:53 pm:
The thing about the Zorn article that doesn’t quite sit right is that Rezko and Obama must have had a pretty cozy relationship to put together a deal like that. Something like that just doesn’t “happen”. I’m not saying anything illegal was done but it seems, well, sketchy. Also, Obama forgot he toured the house with Rezko? Kind of strange thing to “forget”.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 12:56 pm:
GofGlenview, did you read the piece? He didn’t put the deal together with Rezko, the owners did.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 1:08 pm:
BTW, Why is Elk Grove Village one of the five players in the ALNAC? How representative is that?
They represent the fight against the O’Hare Expansion, hoping that an ALNAC-led airport with one runway, 6 terminals and a windsock will miraculously eliminate the need for additional capacity at ORD.
- penguin - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 1:22 pm:
Is Rick Bryant on Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional payroll?
If so, is he permitted to hold another job on ALNAC?
- archpundit - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 1:45 pm:
Small problem–in 2006, ALNAC’s plan was to give the Governor appointments to control ALNAC. It was only in trying to stop Will County from directly controlling the board that the idea of direct election came about. ALNAC didn’t mind the Governor controlling the board, they minded the Will County President controlling the board–for a Will County airport.
- TaxMeMore - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 1:46 pm:
cermak_rd - So what are your thoughts about the Illinois deadline (not a secret law either) to place Presidential candidates on the ballot that the Republicans ignored in 2004 and again in 2008. They won’t even nominate their Presidential candidates until AFTER Illinois LAW says the elections boards need the paperwork.
In 2004, The Democrats bent over backwards to pass a special law that only applied to two people that aren’t even Illinois residents, so that Bush could be on the ballot and take advantage of the 9-11 Anniversary at the later dated convention. But then Democrats used every trick they could to kick Nader off the ballot. Have they already changed the law for 2008 to let McCain be on the ballot even though he ignored the rule of law?
So the Greens have to follow incomplete election laws written specifically for Republicans and Democrats, but the Republicans and Democrats can control the ballots at will and ignore their own laws? Yup, this is Illinois and cermak_rd is part of the problem.
- Squideshi - Tuesday, Jun 10, 08 @ 8:02 pm:
TaxMeMore, I couldn’t agree more. The leadership of the Democratic Party is anything but democratic. Considering that democracy itself should be a campaign issue, I don’t see how anyone can reasonably vote for these folks (That’s not saying that the Republican Party is any better.)
- Zeleni - Thursday, Jun 12, 08 @ 8:07 am:
The Democrats have absolutely no right to interfere in the candidate selection process of another party. The Greens followed the correct procedures and the Democrats’ arguments were baseless. Luckily, there are 10 more Green candidates for Congress on the ballot, along with dozens for state and local offices.
Also of note, both Kalbfleisch and Hill are recently returned Iraq War veterans. This is seriously how the Democrats want to support the troops? They go and fight their wars, come home, and get barred from attempting to serve their country further? The Democrats keep funding the war to bring “democracy to the Middle East” but they will strip away the democratic rights of the soldiers they sent into battle? Is there any better way to honor our veterans?