This just in… Obama returning to Springfield
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* 12:12 pm - Word’s been going around since at least yesterday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is planning a pre-convention visit to Springfield, and it looks like it’ll be this Saturday at the Old State Capitol at one o’clock. A big speech is reportedly in the works. The Old State Capitol is where Obama officially kicked off his presidential campaign in 2007.
There’s no official confirmation yet from the Obama campaign, and things like this have a way of changing at the last minute, so keep all that in mind.
Still, at least one of Obama’s top guys is in Springfield and a big planning meeting with the locals just concluded. As one local source just told me, “The only way this changes is if Barack’s pilot makes a wrong turn.”
* 12:34 pm - It appears that Lynn Sweet posted this a few moments before I did, because I was allowing the Obama campaign time to respond to a story I had already pretty much nailed down…
The Obama team, in the run-up to the Democratic convention, will showcase the new Obama ticket Saturday in Springfield at the Old State Capitol, where presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) officially kicked off his campaign in February, 2007.
State of Illinois authorities have beens asked permission by Obama folks to reserve the historic spot at noon. This does not mean that this is the time and place where Obama announces his running mate; that could happen any time from Wednesday morning on. Obama’s time frame is shrinking, so the announcement is coming soon. The new vice presidential contender will jump on the road with Obama to showcase the new partnership. Springfield is a leg on the Obama roots tour.
* 12:39 pm - From the SJ-R, which appears to be down at the moment…
“There will be an event in Springfield on Saturday,” said Justin DeJong, spokesman for the Obama campaign in Illinois.
* 12:43 pm - We’re expecting an official announcement at about 1:30 pm today.
* 12:46 pm - Could Obama announce his veep pick in Springfield? Maybe, says Greg Hinz…
Barack Obama may be returning home to Illinois on Saturday to announce his choice of a vice-presidential running mate.
That, at least was the hot rumor among political insiders Tuesday, as talk spread of an apparent Obama rally set for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield — the same place where he announced his candidacy for president a year-and-a-half ago.
There was no immediate response from the Obama campaign. But one source close to Mr. Obama confirmed that such a possibility is under review, with a second Springfield source saying top Obama backers are being notified of a Springfield event.
Meanwhile, political Web site Capitol Fax reported that a planning meeting for an Obama Springfield event was held Tuesday morning. […]
Another source close to Mr. Obama said the Springfield rally could be one of a series of stops with the new running mate, though not necessarily the stop at which the announcement is first made.
* 12:50 pm - Mark Ambinder thinks that a Friday night announcement with a big Saturday splash in Springfield is possible…
So — the e-mail goes out Friday night, and the nominee and the candidate appear together for the first time in Springfield.
Then they’ll go on a biographical tour.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
College presidents from about 100 of the nation’s best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus. […]
“This is a law that is routinely evaded,” said John McCardell, ex-president of Middlebury College in Vermont, who started the organization. “It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory.” […]
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and, in the words of MADD CEO Chuck Hurley, “waving the white flag.”
Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem. Research has found that more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. One study estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, a
* The question: Should Illinois lower the drinking age to 18? Explain.
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A look ahead
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The election of Senate President Emil Jones’ replacement will mean more than just a new Democratic leader, it will mean a change to the entire Statehouse atmosphere…
The future of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s relationship with the General Assembly, and with the Senate in particular, will hinge on who replaces Jones as leader of the Senate Democrats, lawmakers said. […]
Jones’ retirement “might be a greater detriment to the governor than anyone else,” said Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. But he warned that if Jones’ successor is a Blagojevich loyalist, “we’re looking at continued gridlock, I believe.”
* The AP further explains Bomke’s point…
Blagojevich has depended on Jones to block legislation he opposed and pass bills intended to embarrass or pressure his nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). At times, Jones had to press Senate Democrats to go along with the governor.
Most recently, Jones pushed through the Senate several Blagojevich budget measures, including a multibillion-dollar capital construction plan that the House refused to approve.
Blagojevich won’t be able to count on that kind of coziness with the new president.
* A different angle from Bethany…
Senate Republicans are hoping the new leader, whoever it is, opens the door to improved communication. “We’ve always been willing to walk through the door, but the Senate president and the governor have walked in lockstep together,” says Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson. “And that has, unfortunately, not meant good things for Illinois.” […]
Even the House could feel a fresh, new-start feeling when the new legislative session starts in January, says Rep. Gary Hannig, a Litchfield Democrat and deputy majority leader. “There will be, sort of a, ‘It’s a new day. Let’s start over. Let’s be positive about it.”
* Cindy Canary’s quote may be going a bit far…
“It represents a revolution at our capital.”
That depends on who wins.
* And the SJ-R editorializes…
The next person to hold that job need not test the limits of that power by waging a pointless war with Madigan that would probably extend the Democrats’ record of failure.
The next Senate president, if he or she and Madigan work together, also could render the unpopular Gov. Rod Blagojevich mostly irrelevant. In his nearly six years in office, the governor has shown little inclination to work with legislators or govern responsibly. Jones has enabled such bad behavior.
With their complete control of state government, Democrats should have made progress on a whole host of issues from education funding to much-needed state construction money. Jones’ retirement is their second chance.
How do you think things will change, if at all?
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The legacy
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Getting his son appointed to the November ballot will, at least in the short term, do even further damage to Senate President Emil Jones’ public perception and to his legacy…
Following the lead of political families like the Strogers and Lipinskis, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones is anointing one of his children to take over for him when he retires in January.
Jones, 72, began the process of handing off his Senate seat to Emil Jones III by filing paperwork Monday with the State Board of Elections to drop himself from the Nov. 4 ballot. Next, Democratic Party leaders in Jones’ South Side and south suburban Senate district will choose a replacement. […]
Despite not having a college degree, [Emil Jones III] was hired in April 2007 as an administrator for Gov. Blagojevich’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity — a job that pays $59,436 annually.
* As I told you yesterday, Jones can legally withdraw about $577K from his campaign fund, and then there’s the pension bump…
As one of the longest-serving members of the General Assembly, Jones also is positioned for a healthy pension. If he does not take any other state positions and retires at the end of his term in January, he would begin drawing a state pension of $81,016 annually. A year later, he would see that total increase by 48 percent because he would be grandfathered in under an otherwise defunct retirement formula that rewarded service beyond 20 years.
The boost for Jones, who has served in the General Assembly 35 years, would take his pension all the way up to $119,903 a year. That’s nearly 26 percent more than the $95,313 he is now being paid to wield the Senate gavel. It’s also more than double the median amount that two households in his Senate district earn combined, according to 2000 Census data.
* Phil Kadner takes a look at Jones’ long-term legacy and doesn’t like what he sees…
In describing Jones’ tenure as Senate president, one Springfield reporter wrote that he “long championed more money for school and education funding reform and made them his top priorities.”
I can’t agree with that.
I would have to say that Jones talked about those things and how important they were for most of his 25 years in the Senate. […]
Jones has made his preference clear. He wants his son to take his Senate seat.
That’s the Chicago way.
So at least one Chicago child can thank Jones for helping him.
As for the rest of the kids in Illinois, they simply chose the wrong parents.
Thanks for the public education, Senator Jones.
* Yesterday’s press release announcing Jones’ retirement highlighted what he considered to be his biggest accomplishments…
Under President Jones’ leadership in Fiscal Year 2008 education received the largest one-year increase in per student funding in the history of the state — $400 per student — $600 million overall in education funding. From 2003 to present, a $196 million increase was provided to early childhood education funding.
President Jones also shepherded the passage of one of the most comprehensive reform measures of the criminal justice system in the history of the State through the Illinois Senate. Among the many substantive changes to the criminal justice system spearheaded by Senator Jones was legislation to videotape interrogations in capital cases. This single piece of legislation put Illinois at the forefront of the nation as the first state to require that interrogations in capital cases be videotaped.
All good, but Jones never accomplished his oft stated goal of a serious restructuring of education funding. If that doesn’t happen by January, he may be soon forgotten.
Discuss.
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The horse race
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Stories like these might be fun, but they are far from complete…
At least five senators said Monday they were already lobbying their fellow Democrats for the job and outlined their credentials. All said they would work to repair the feud between House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has drawn strength from Jones’ unwavering support.
Sen. James Clayborne (D-Belleville) said he wants to build a working relationship with the governor and Madigan. […]
Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said he has picked up support from some of his colleagues throughout the state as he began reaching out. “It looks very good,” Cullerton said. But he added it is going to take a while for any of the candidates to get to the 30 votes needed to become president. […]
Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan) called Jones a “unifier” in the Senate Democratic caucus but said he is seeking support from his fellow Democrats, saying he has backing from lawmakers in the suburbs, Chicago and Downstate. […]
Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) said he is reaching out to colleagues seeking support for the presidency. […]
“I can work with Speaker Madigan,” said [Sen. Rickey Hendon], a Jones loyalist. He added the Senate needs to “find a way to work with the speaker without throwing the governor under the bus.”
It’s way early, and all of these candidates have their own drawbacks. Plus, there are plenty of others out there working the phones and attempting to position themselves.
* Redfield is right…
“I suspect that’s going to be a free-for-all,” said University of Illinois at Springfield political science professor Kent Redfield.
* So is Congresscritter Jackson…
“I’m sure Speaker Madigan has an interest in who the next senate president is going to be as well, which can only make for big fireworks coming out of Springfield,” said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL).
* As is Silverstein…
State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said he’s already received calls from several contenders seeking his support. Two potential candidates already plan to go to a fundraiser for Jacobs this week.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” Jacobs said.
[Sen. Ira Silverstein] agreed that various lawmakers’ were already jockeying behind the scenes for support, but that no clear consensus had yet formed.
“I think things are going to get kind of intense,” Silverstein said.
* Like Silverstein, there will be plenty of dark horse candidates…
Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park isn’t in Jones’ leadership team, but he has led some high-profile pieces of legislation, including ethics reforms and pension obligation bonds.
There will also be a bunch of stalking horses. This thing is gonna get complicated, campers.
* Related…
* Illinois Senate President Jones retiring
* Emil Jones Says He’ll Retire as Senate President
* Hendon: Jones is Healthy, Sharp
* Senate president, Blago ally Jones retiring this fall
* Illinois Senate president steps down
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A hyper local failure
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The fallout from the Rockford Register-Star’s closure of its Statehouse bureau and the firing of Statehouse bureau chief Aaron Chambers continues, particularly in the wake of this supremely ignorant remark from the paper’s executive editor yesterday…
“We kept the [Statehouse] bureau open through some previous tough times,” said Linda Grist Cunningham, executive editor. “Frankly, I made a choice between the bureau in Springfield and local news in the Rock River Valley. It’s a loss, but losing another local reporter would have been worse.”
* Not only was Cunningham’s statement insensitive and ethically challenged (she is credited with writing the article and then quoted herself in the third person and failed to mention any names of the doomed), but also demonstrated a spectacular lack of insight into what a “hyper local” newspaper really means. Kiyoshi Martinez, who worked for and with Chambers at the paper, sets her straight…
Even before hyperlocal newspaper chain GateHouse bought the Register Star from Gannett, the articles coming out of the [Statehouse] bureau were hyperlocal. I know from experience that any story I did had to have a Rockford focus to make it relevant to the local readership, otherwise the editors wouldn’t consider it.
This was more than just quoting the local legislators. This meant cold-calling through a phone book to find some “real person” to quote in the story about how an issue affected them. When most bureau reporters could have tied off the story, extra time was spent localizing, even arranging for photographs to be taken so local art went with the piece and gave the story a better presentation.
At times, this was maddening to do, but if you’re looking for an example of how to make statewide, government and political issues local, I can’t think of a better example.
And this brings me to my disagreement with the executive editor’s statement. If you goal is to only cover Rockford in a geographic sense by having reporters only physically in your town, then you’re failing at hyperlocal. There are things happening across the state that will resonate in Rockford, especially when it comes to legislative action at the Capitol.
Simply dismissing the Springfield bureau’s work as not “local” either means you weren’t paying attention to the actual content of the articles and packages produced or you failed to communicate properly what you wanted from the bureau.
This isn’t the kind of coverage you can replace with one-size-fits-all articles from the Associated Press. I know for a fact during my internship of several stories, big and small, that would have gone unnoticed if the bureau didn’t constantly have a presence at the Capitol. State government is a complex and nuanced beast that’s difficult enough to sort out when you’re at the heart of it, let alone hours and miles away. […]
Hyperlocal doesn’t mean physically constraining yourself to the city limits. It means presenting information in a context that’s relevant to your audience. There is a vast array of issues facing Illinois that the government is directly involved in that residents in Rockford will probably want to know (or, at least, should know about). It’s simple to see that a news organization and its readership would benefit from is someone who has the experience and institutional knowledge of working a beat for several years on the scene.
I excerpted too much, but the post was so good that I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss any of his major points.
* And Rep. John Fritchey opines today at Illinoize…
In most every other state that I have occasion to visit, newspaper coverage of state government surpasses that in Illinois. Let me be clear, by ’surpasses’, I don’t mean in terms of quality. We have, and have had, very good reporters covering what goes on in state government. Rather, I mean that other states tend to have broader and deeper coverage of what transpires in their statehouses. The reason is straightforward enough - more reporters = more coverage.
What does this have to do with good government? It all has to do with the ’sunshine is the best disinfectant’ theory. The more information that the general public has access to about what transpires in government, the less likely it is that egregious actions will take place. (Not impossible mind you, but less likely)
One example that comes to mind is Cook County government. When I was growing up, (heck, until not that long ago), most people had no idea who their county commissioners were, let along what they did. But as the media started spending more time covering county government, and the impact that it had on peoples’ daily lives and pocketbooks, people started paying more attention to what was going on in county government - and who was responsible for it. The result is that elected officials, now cognizant that their votes would be subject to public scrutiny, have had to be more mindful of how they were voting. The change won’t come overnight, the recent Cook County sales tax hike makes that clear. But without a window for the public to look through, the change likely wouldn’t come at all.
I know we had a discussion of this just last night, but Kiyoshi’s piece opens up an entirely new avenue, as does Fritchey’s.
Last night’s back and forth centered quite a bit on Chambers and the others who have been “right sized” this year.
So, let’s look at the broader picture today.
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