Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2008

Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* We do this question every now and then, and since I’m busy with a story, I’ll just toss this breaking news out there…

Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign says it raised $52 million last month. […]

Last week the campaign of Republican John McCain reported raising more than 22 million in June, which was his best month of the year.

* Question: More broadly than just money, how do your think our US Senator’s presidential campaign is going?

63 Comments

Reality check

Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This buried nugget is something that has been overlooked this week during the House veto override session…

With 27 members of the House absent, lawmakers had a hard time overriding the governor’s vetoes, many of which needed a three-fifths majority, or 71 votes, to pass.

* The result?

Only six of those 33 [override] motions to restore the funding passed, worth about $480 million.

Lots of legislators voted with their feet this week. They knew this game was essentially a farce. As long as the Senate refuses to return, their votes were meaningless, except as political cover and a vehicle to put the onus on the other chamber.

* This point was also buried or (mostly) not even mentioned in most stories…

House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) refused to call legislation this week that would raise more money to avoid the cuts, including a measure that would allow the administration to dip into other state funds to cover expenses.

Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer also cited Madigan’s decision for why the Senate also wasn’t in town. “They didn’t pass the revenue, so there is no reason to come back,” Davidsmeyer said. […]

Blagojevich called the House overrides “totally irresponsible” and said he won’t call the Senate back to Springfield unless the House passes a meaningful revenue bill.

Restoring vetoed money without adding at least some revenue streams is not the most responsible thing the House has ever done.

* But this gives the wrong impression…

Republicans, who opposed many of the motions to restore the cuts, complained the House votes were about political posturing that toys with groups in need of help. […]

House Republicans and allies of Blagojevich joined together to blast House Democrats for trying to promise money out of a budget that had none to offer.

They’ve joined the Senate in arguing the House wants more spending but doesn’t want to make the tough votes for money-generating measures needed to pay for it.

Because the House Democrats had far fewer than 60 members in town yesterday, every one of those successful veto override motions passed with GOP votes.

9 Comments

Fire, aim, ready

Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The AP finally updated their over-the-top story from yesterday which completely bought the claim by some Downstate Republicans that Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) had injected racial hatred into a committee debate. But maybe they should’ve just retracted the whole thing. The lede is the same from yesterday morning…

Three Republican state representatives accused a Democratic colleague of spreading “racial hatred” during a committee meeting Wednesday and demanded that the speaker of the House investigate the incident.

“That type of racial hatred that was displayed in committee went out with the ’70s, and I respectfully request that you review the transcript,” Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, said on the House floor.

* And this paragraph was added later…

A recording of the hearing shows that while Davis alleged some lawmakers want to keep crime rates up so that prisons stay full, the racial content was minimal: She argued that her fellow African-American legislators must fight hard for legislation to help former criminals go straight.

* The only people who really injected race into the debate yesterday were the Republicans making the accusations…

Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, alleged that Davis specifically said some lawmakers want to keep prisons filled with “black people from Chicago.”

He called it “Alice in Wonderland kind of stuff” to suggest any lawmaker would want to keep crime rates up. Suggesting a racial motivation is even worse, he said.

“That is a criminal insult and she should be sanctioned,” Stephens said. Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, agreed. He accused Davis of “race-baiting.”

* Sorry, guys, but you’re the ones doing the race-baiting. From the Tribune…

But a tape of the hearing shows that Davis never accused the Republicans of protecting prisons on the basis of race. In fact, she said it was a matter of economics.

“Illinois must recognize there’s some people in the Illinois General Assembly who have prisons in their district and their whole objective is to keep them filled,” Davis said at the hearing. “Anything — anything — that would create an atmosphere to get those prisons with fewer people, were threatened to close, it’s a war. ‘We’ve got to have those prisoners. They got to come down here from Chicago and we got to keep em filled because that’s how we get work. That’s our economy. We no longer plant corn. We no longer have farms. We don’t raise cows and pigs. We keep prisoners.’ So if you don’t have prisoners you will not have the economy to keep their livelihood going.”

* What Rep. Davis did was impugn the motives of Downstaters with prisons in their districts. That was over the line. But if anybody ought to be “sanctioned” (and I’m not arguing for sanctions, just throwing their words back at them) it should be the legislators who shouted the bogus claims about “racial hatred.”

“Her comments were definitely racial,” [Rep. Jim Sacia] said after the hearing. “They were directed at white Republicans. It was totally unacceptable.”

What does their reaction say about those legislators? Davis talked economics and they heard race. Not a banner day.

28 Comments

The stunt was goofy, but the problem is real

Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From what I gather, yesterday’s announcement by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that he wanted to “help” Chicago fight crime by sending in more police and possibly the National Guard was an “off script” moment.

Blagojevich had apparently mused about the idea in private, and then kinda blurted it out at a bill signing ceremony. Oops. Here’s how it started..

“Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop. And we have to do something constructively to try and make that violence stop,” he said. “Maybe, we can play a role and provide more manpower so that the mayor doesn’t have to make that choice between taking a police officer from, let’s say, the North Side and putting that police officer on the street in the South Side.”

* And then after the governor mentioned the state cops and the National Guard, he decided to take it one step further…

“The mayor can be a great help in this in getting the House Democratic leadership to pass that big capital program,” he said.

* To which the House Speaker’s office replied…

“My guess is the governor may be smarting because the mayor was quoted publicly as saying he tried to convince [Blagojevich] to have a more common-sense approach to the capital plan, and that advice was ignored,” Brown said. […]

“Making sure that kids aren’t shot and guns aren’t in the hands of bad guys is far from political,” [Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero] said.

* And the mayor’s office was not amused…

“It is, at the very least, a little disconcerting that we’re only hearing about this as the media does,” she said.

* But the governor does have a good point about the violence…

The governor noted 16 children — “almost one child a day” — have been gunned down in Chicago since June 26. The shooting death toll for Chicago Public School students stands at 29 since last fall.

“Twenty-eight of those kids are African-American and Latino. Hard to imagine that that would be acceptable if that were, in fact, the case in other parts of the city or in a middle-class suburb somewhere. . . . Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop,” he said.

* And this response from the city’s police department seems a bit odd, considering…

But [police department spokeswoman Monique Bond] took issue with the governor’s contention that crime is “out of control” in Chicago.

In fact, she said if the current murder rate holds in the city, 2008 may end with fewer than 500 homicides and that it is expected to be one of the least deadly years in the city in the last 40 years.

It’s kinda weird that the cops think that 500 murders is something to be proud of.

In the end, this was a goofy stunt. But Chicago is overrun by gangs. Nobody knows how many gang members there are, but one report has the Gangster Disciples alone with 70,000 Chicago-area members.

Was the governor’s splash a goofy stunt? Yes. Is there an urgent problem in Chicago? Heck yes. Will the leaders be able to put aside their egos and work on that problem? Ha.

* Related…

* Daley’s $1 mil. push to buy back guns misfires

* Daley: Media has made cops timid

* Daley Goes After Media Coverage of Police

* Daley dodges questions about backing cops

* Blagojevich: State Troopers Could Help Stem Chicago Violence

* Blagojevich Answers Questions

* Crime’s up. Why?

57 Comments

Morning Shorts

Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* CTA to experiment with seatless rail cars

The standing room-only cars will begin operating within a few months, probably starting on the Brown Line and later expanded to the Red and Blue Lines, CTA President Ron Huberman told the transit agency’s board.

* Parking tickets to be picture perfect

* Daley ties in Special Olympics’ Chicago roots to 2016 bid

* LaSalle County OKs killing stray animals on the spot

* Fannie and Freddie mess

* FBI looking into IndyMac Bancorp

* Illinois to crack down on reckless motorcyclists

* 10th casino license for sale

* State’s 10th casino could be up and running in one year, chairman says

* House lawmakers verbally spar over loans-for-ex-convicts legislation

* State Reps Accuse Colleague Of ‘Racial Hatred’

* Bill sparks Illinois House debate on race, regionalism

* Law could make Cook Co. split easier