5:20 pm - Cindi Canary of the IL Campaign for Political Reform is now testifying against the governor’s ethics language, which was put on SB780 (FA 1). The language was initially the guv’s amendatory veto of the ethics bill that was overridden today
BTW, the GOP members of the committee aren’t here yet.
Canary: In ongoing negotiations with guv on this bill. “It’s not ready for prime time yet.”. Could invite lawsuits from contractors. Discriminates against some public employees and not others.
Sponsor DeLeo: let’s pass this and work on other problems later.
Sen Clayborne: This bill still needs work.
Sen Hendon grills Canary: “You don’t really believe that they’re [those arguing the bill needs work] going to come up with another bill, do you?”
Hendon also said he thought Canary’s opposition was about this: “You just want to slap the governor.”
VOTE: 10-0
4:30 pm - The Senate overrode the guv’s ethics AV 55-0.
UPDATE: Speaker Madigan shot back at Blagojevich over Ali Ata & Tony Rezko…
“I would think what motivates him not to give the money back is that he probably needs the money to pay his criminal defense costs. That’s what drives him,” Madigan said. “His method for quite a while has been to attempt to tie me into anything he can think of. And most of it is up in the outer reaches of his mind. I don’t think he’s going to change. What are you going to do?”
3:45 pm - The Governor said this morning that he had no idea his campaign fund has been holding onto $65,000 given by a former Ali Ata:
“I learned about that today,” Blagojevich said, referring to a Chicago Sun-Times story about the contributions from Ali D. Ata, former chief of the Illinois Finance Authority. “I was told about that. We’re going to look into that.”
Pressed by reporters during a Chicago news conference, Blagojevich replied, “I didn’t pay attention. . . . We’re going to work through the process and sort it out.”
3:14 pm - Blagojevich/Jones move afoot to strip CTA $ out of the supplemental approp in the wake of the guv/CTA/Daley “cuckoo” spat. Lobsters are scrambling.
UPDATE: Guv’s office denies involvement in any attempt to take $ away from CTA and it may be dropped. Stay tuned.
Also, the Senate Exec chairman is refusing to move the guv’s “ethics bill” until after the ethics AV is overridden.
* 1:40 pm - Speaker Madigan just proposed talks with the Senate over appropriations - including state parks and alcohol/drug abuse programs. MJM also told House members to prepare to be in session Tuesday.
Meanwhile in the Senate, the plan at this time is reportedly to override the thics veto then run the guv’s AV language to a stand-alone bill. The Senate will run the House-passed sweeps bill as-is and do another for Medicaid. The talks will be over how to spend the money from sweeps.
By the way, President Jones was at the Speaker’s podium while MJM made the announcement of a probable Tuesday session and the desire for negotiations.
* 11:40 am - The governor has called another special session for today. The subject is mandating autism coverage by insurance companies. More in a bit.
* 11:44 am - From the governor’s press release…
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich called a second
special session of the General Assembly for today to
discuss and act on a bill to expand health insurance
coverage for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Thousands of children in Illinois have been diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and families often
have to cover the cost of treatment for children with
autism using personal funds because their insurance
won’t cover it. […]
This special session marks the Governor’s third
attempt since the spring session to pass language to
ensure healthcare coverage for children with autism.
The language stalled multiple times in the Illinois
House when legislators put process before people. The
original bill, Senate Bill 1900, did not pass the
General Assembly despite broad bipartisan support.
When that bill failed, the Governor used his
amendatory veto power to add this language to two
pieces of legislation; both amendatory vetoes died in
the House. […]
In order to move legislation forward, the Governor
today urged the House and Senate to amend this
language into an existing bill and pass the bill to
the other chamber today. One bill that could be
amended is Senate Bill 871, which is currently
awaiting third reading in the Senate. The House also
has the option of passing House Bill 415, sponsored
by State Senator James DeLeo (D-Chicago), which was
amended in August to add the autism language and is
already sitting in the Illinois House
* 11:48 am - The autism special session is today at 2 o’clock. The other special session starts at 1 o’clock. There are no bills numbers specified in the official proclamation.
pp
* Matt Stoller has been posting his correspondence with an anonymous Congresscritter about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. One of those e-mails has some pretty harsh things to say about Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean…
Here’s the industry’s play: progressives will approach Nancy with ideas for reform, and she’ll agree to push for their proposals, and she’ll really mean it. Then industry lobbyists will go to Dennis Moore, Melissa Bean and a few other Democrats, and tell them how dire the consequences of the proposals would be, and that the members who understand how the economy works need to step up to stop Nancy and the crazy liberals from doing something rash.
Then those Democrats will go to Steny and tell him how terrible Nancy’s crazy ideas would be, and how we can’t rush into something like that without much, much more thought. Maybe Barney will try to talk to Dennis or Melissa, but it will become apparent quickly that they have no idea what they’re talking about; they’re just repeating by rote what the lobbyists told them to say.
Melissa may actually be dumber than Sarah Palin. Barney will realize he might as well talk to the lobbyists directly and save a step. The lobbyists will agree to something inconsequential, but certainly nothing that would really affect the industry’s conduct. Then the leadership will do the math and conclude that because the vast majority of Republicans will vote against any bill, we can’t get enough votes without the Dennis and Melissa crowd. The only way, our leadership will conclude, to get anything at all passed is to include nothing more than the inconsequential proposals that the lobbyists agreed to. Then we’ll all go along because it would be wildly irresponsible not to act when we’re staring over the brink of a complete collapse of world financial markets.
I’d diagram it for you if I had a chalkboard. I’ve seen the play again and again, and it always goes for long yardage.
The only defense for the play is for a significant group of Democrats to say they won’t vote for any proposal that isn’t unpalatable to industry, and mean it. It’s a pretty high stakes game of chicken, but otherwise we come out of this with nothing but a $700 billion giveaway to a crooked industry. [Emphasis added]
As you know, the Fed bailed out AIG to help them avoid bankruptcy.
A close inspection of AIG contributions shows the following contributions to Melissa Bean:
2008: $4,750 (through June 30)
Add to that the contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
Lifetime: $41,249
In the list of top recipients since 1989, that puts Bean at 27th already, despite the fact that many of the names ahead of her have been in office for much longer or hold leadership positions.
If investors are wondering which companies are next to go under, maybe they should just go down the line of Melissa Bean’s contributors…
[Bean] also is a subcommittee chairman on the House Small Business Committee.
“They had huge armies of lobbyists that were tripping over each other, so they developed friends on both sides of the aisle over the years,” said Peter Fitzgerald, a Virginia banker and former Republican senator from Illinois. “Republicans got very tight with them over the years and they got very powerful.”
The fact that the Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC) on Wednesday included six Democratic candidates among its nine latest U.S. House endorsements speaks to the risks of too tightly typecasting the partisan preferences of the nation’s major interest groups. While it is easy to pigeonhole labor unions as steadfast allies of the Democratic Party and business groups as closely wedded to the Republican Party, these organizations like to have good working relationships with sympathetic members of both major political parties — especially those that the groups think are going to be incumbents when the next Congress rolls around. […]
In fact, before Wednesday, BIPAC had endorsed only three Democrats running for seats in Congress this year
Melissa Bean has been in Congress just under four years, but the suburban Chicago Democrat has no shortage of cash for her re-election bid, thanks to special-interest groups lobbying on Capitol Hill.
Bean amassed $1.41 million for this election cycle from political action committees — more than half of the $2.6 million she had collected as of June 30, according to federal campaign finance reports compiled by the nonpartisan research group The Center for Responsive Politics.
She ranked sixth among all House candidates for money raised from PACs, the reports show. The only House members who raised more were some congressional leaders and powerful Reps. John Dingell, D-Mich., a 53-year House veteran and chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee.
Only one Illinois delegation member — Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin — raised more: $1.5 million,
* More congressional stuff…
* Cable company wants TV attack ad revised: “Upon seeing the correction, the DCCC IE tweaked the ad to reflect the corrected $51,000 figure that ‘Concrete Millionaire Marty’ failed to pay in taxes ‘while supporting tax cuts for millionaires like him,’ and it’s running throughout the district,” Rudominer said.
Besides the multiple federal investigations he’s facing, Gov. Blagojevich has 65,000 other reasons he might have trouble persuading state lawmakers this week to “follow my lead” on ethics reform.
The governor has kept $65,000 in campaign contributions from one of his administration’s former top employees, Ali D. Ata, even though Ata pleaded guilty to felony charges earlier this year.
After cutting a deal with federal prosecutors in April, Ata testified against former top Blagojevich adviser and fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals.
After a Sun-Times reporter asked about the Ata contributions, Blagojevich campaign spokesman Doug Scofield said Sunday he was not aware of Ata’s money being dumped.
* Despite his own, very real problems, Gov. Blagojevich had the temerity to call out Rep. John Fritchey by name during his press conference last week…
Blagojevich is proposing a more comprehensive ethics plan that would… require lawmakers who lobby on behalf of corporate clients to disclose the clients and the fees. That’s a direct slap at Speaker Michael Madigan and state Rep. John Fritchey. The speaker’s law firm handles corporate property tax appeals, and the governor says Fritchey did legal work for pay day loan clients.
“Across the board ethics reform so that the taxpayers can have a better bang for their buck,” the governor said.
However, Fritchey was infuriated by the allegations. He says he never lobbied for pay day loan companies and that Blagojevich knows it.
“The governor has resorted to an all-new low, even for him. His allegations are pathetic and border on pathological,” Fritchey said. [emphasis added]
Now the point of this post isn’t to retract my statements. I stand by everything that I said. But that being said, I sincerely think that it is unfortunate that the situation has devolved to the point where our state’s Governor is routinely vocally derided by people from across the political and geographical divides of our state. […]
I want to publicly say that if my comments somehow are taken to be disrespectful to our state, they are intended to be anything but. I believe in our state, and I believe that we deserve better. I want to believe that the public knows the passion that underlies my statements, but I feel better making sure that there is no doubt.
Approving a long-awaited Illinois ethics bill could give political ammunition to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, according statements Gov. Rod Blagojevich made on Friday.
With two proposals on the table in Springfield this week, Blagojevich said voting for the one the governor opposes could make Barack Obama look soft on ethics.
“What I’m afraid of is that this is a Republican trap and they’re setting Barack Obama up by using this ethics issue in Illinois,” Blagojevich said in Chicago on Friday.
“Sometime in October in those battleground states, you’ll be seeing TV ads that … will start accusing Sen. Obama of coming back to Illinois to help his old friends in the Illinois General Assembly.”
* Well, McCain does have a new TV ad, but it’s not quite what the governor predicted…
Text…
ANNCR: Barack Obama. Born of the corrupt Chicago political machine.
BARACK OBAMA: In terms of my toughness, look, first of all, I come from Chicago.
ANNCR: His economic adviser, William Daley. Lobbyist. Mayor’s brother.
His money man, Tony Rezko. Client. Patron. Convicted Felon.
His “political godfather.” Emil Jones. Under ethical cloud.
His governor, Rod Blagojevich. A legacy of federal and state investigations.
With friends like that, Obama is not ready to lead.
Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, called Blagojevich’s comments “delusional” and “loony.
Her group opposed the governor’s changes and asked Obama to speak with Jones.
“He doesn’t care about his political party or the course of this nation,” Canary said of the governor.Obama’s campaign declined to comment on Blagojevich’s remarks. But Sen. Terry Link of Waukegan, a close Obama friend and former state legislative colleague, said the governor was attempting to kill the original ethics measure.
* Related…
* State Capitol Notebook: “I think the governor will do whatever it takes,” spokesman Lucio Guerrero said Friday, when asked about the possibility of keeping lawmakers in town until they approve his “real” ethics reform ideas.
* Blagojevich says he’s ‘followed every rule that exists’: “You’re missing the heart of it and missing the truth of it. The reality is I’ve followed every rule that exists and no one has said otherwise,” Blagojevich said.
Excellent 3%
Good 9% Fair 28% Poor 60% Not sure 0%
Oof.
The crosstabs show that just 5 percent of African-American voters rate the guv’s performance as “Good” while 0 percent say he is doing an “Excellent” job. Double oof.
Excellent 5%
Good 31% Fair 36% Poor 20% Not sure 9%
* I’m not sure why but the Post-Dispatch’s Research 2000 polling firm always has Blagojevich’s job approval ratings far higher than everyone else…
If public opinion is the measure, Gov. Rod Blagojevich may be losing his continuing war of wills against the Legislature.
A new poll conducted for the Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV (Channel 4) finds Blagojevich facing a dismal 34 percent favorable rating among likely Illinois voters, halfway through his contentious second term. That’s a significant drop from the 42 percent rating he received in a similar poll in January. Almost two out of three poll respondents now rate him unfavorable.
At the same time, the Democratic-controlled Legislature has seen a slight improvement in its own still-low favorable rating. The body’s 37 percent rating from January now stands at 41 — this after a year of open rebellion against fellow Democrat Blagojevich on budgetary, ethics and constitutional issues.
“He’s losing that war,” said pollster Del Ali.
The poll was conducted from Sept. 15-18 by Research 2000, a Maryland-based polling firm. A total of 800 likely Illinois voters who vote regularly in state elections were interviewed statewide by telephone.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin enjoys a 24-percentage-point lead in his bid for re-election.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds the incumbent leading Republican opponent Steve Sauerberg 59% to 35%. That’s little changed from a month ago.
Durbin, the number two ranked Democrat in the United States Senate, is seeking his third term in the Senate. Sauerberg is a doctor from the Chicago suburbs.
Durbin is viewed favorably by 59% of Illinois voters and unfavorably by 35%. Sauerberg’s numbers are 39% favorable and 33% unfavorable, while 28% are not sure.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in [Illinois] shows Obama attracting 56% of the vote while McCain earns 40%. Those results are little changed from last month when Obama held a fifteen point advantage.
Fifty percent (50%) of Illinois voters say that local reporters will try to help Obama win the White House while 8% believe they will try to help McCain. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe the media will try to remain neutral and offer unbiased coverage. These figures are similar to perceptions on a national basis.
McCain has the support of 88% of Illinois Republicans, while 91% of the state’s Democrats are backing Obama. The Democrat has a twenty-one point advantage among unaffiliated voters.
Obama’s is viewed favorably by 66% of Illinois voters while McCain earns positive reviews from 53%.
As for the running mates, 63% have a favorable opinion of Delaware Senator Joe Biden while 50% say the same about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Even before this week’s Wall Street meltdown, local governments were suffering from a bad case of financial heartburn. Now, the diagnosis may be full-fledged angina.
Revenues from economically sensitive taxes are dropping at the same time that borrowing has become more problematic, forcing everyone from the state to City Hall and the Chicago Transit Authority to ready cuts.
“Unfortunately, people are going to see an increase in tax bills that is not related to a change in the assessment in the city of Chicago and not related to city spending,” Houlihan said. “It’s like the speaker of the House is reaching into your pocket and taking $700.”
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown dismissed Houlihan’s criticism, saying the assessor needs to get out of his office and make more accurate assessments of neighborhoods, going one home at a time.
“He’s just like Gov. Blagojevich, trying to find the bogeyman and blame him,” Brown said. “The real problem is a function of a poorly run assessor’s office. You can’t just sit in the Loop with a fancy computer program and base assessments on one sale for every 10
“The only honest way to provide property tax relief is to increase state funding so that school districts have less pressure to raise local property taxes,“ Duncan says.
“Self-initiated calls,” in which officers decide to stop or question someone, were down by 3,700 so far this year, compared with last year, according to an Associated Press analysis of department data. The department made 103,589 arrests (not including those for outstanding warrants) from January through August, compared with 117,971 for the same period last year, Bond said. The city logged 322 homicides through Aug. 21, 42 more than last year. That included a fatal gang-related shooting during the city’s annual Taste of Chicago festival and Fourth of July fireworks downtown.
