37 Comments - wordslinger - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:20 pm: I think Quinn should be able to maneuver Lisa M. into taking a stand on the major issues of this session. If he doesn’t, he’ll deserve the pounding he’ll then get in the primary. Q: Are there corrigible Sox fans? - dan l - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:22 pm: Quinn is a sox fan? Finally. I can have something nice to say about him now. - Wumpus - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:27 pm: Pat “Finger in the win” Quinn does it again. I am glad Little Lisa is attempting to get that money back. I was wondering why no one had tried it yet - Niles Township - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:34 pm: The Tribune is running an on-line poll on whether Lisa should run for governor. So far, it is 2 to 1 against. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:36 pm: I’ll bet Dart is setting his sights a little higher than State Treasurer…like County Board president or AG. - Princess - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:38 pm: “I’m not in the middle of those negotiations”—yeah, but Lisa, surely you have an opinion. I’d think I’d have a bit more respect if you could give your opinion when it counts rather than later when you think it might be ’safe’ to take a stand. And as long as Lisa tossed it out there, just who is all the negotiating being done with? - How come - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:40 pm: Rich, Has anyone seen mum firing list? Because most of firing in gov office seem to target African American senior staff, when this fact gets out how does lisa think she wins black voters?? - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:42 pm: For those bringing race into the hiring/firing picture, take a breath, please. Seriously. Give him some time. And to Niles Township: Nobody cares about online polls. - Anon - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:45 pm: “incorrigible” incapable of being corrected or amended: as a (1): not reformable : depraved (2): delinquent b: not manageable : unruly c: unalterable, inveterate - Wumpus - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:47 pm: Rich to be fair, you cannot not bring race into it because someone with a microphone in their face will. This is Chicago, this is America. Race will always be a factor, whether it should be or not. Mayeb “How Come” is jumping the gun, but it will only be so soon before someone “important” brings it up. - Amy - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:48 pm: AG, Treasurer, County Board President, or whatever. the trib said Dart could run for Treasurer. did not sound like inside scoop. lots of ex Assistant State’s Attorneys in the Sheriff’s Office now, so what does that mean? if anything? - Chicago Guy - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:55 pm: Is almost-certain gubernatorial candidate Lisa Madigan going to be given a pass by the press through the legislative session on the issue of the income tax increase? Why the kid gloves? Laziness, intimidation? What’s the deal? - AM drivetime - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:55 pm: Lisa, you don’t know about a tax increase yet? The stage is lit, there’s a hot spotlight on a Rubenesque woman holding a spear and wearing a helmet with horns on it and singing loud enough I can here it from here…. at 11 or 12 billion over, exactly WHEN would you care to say a tax hike might be “necessary”? That’s not being strategic, that’s just hiding out and letting Quinn take the fall all alone because you’re scared of losing votes. This is something to get out ahead of, not hide out from. - Cosmic Charlie - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 12:59 pm: As I’ve said before, I think Dart stays where he is for one more term. If he had a clear shot at Stroger maybe but as of now he doesn’t. I think Lisa is way more popular than we even think. And we all agree that she is very popular. I have been at events where when she shows up and people start to chatter with excitement. She isn’t in the Obama stratosphere but she is pretty high up there. The reason I say this is that I think this gives her the luxury of not being specific on the budget and Quinn’s tax proposal. Especially for a Democratic primary. If Quinn and his team think that making the argument that she was silent and evasive on his proposal to pass the largest income tax increase in the history of Illinois then they are naive. That argument is a loser regardless of how much bloggers and posters here will like to make it. If she runs she will beat Quinn. Period. To me there is no doubt. I think her calculation is at what cost. Will she be vulnerable for the General Election? Right now the slate of Repubs running for Gov are lame. But will she be weakened after beating Quinn? Quinn is acting all folksy and charming right now. But he is a bomb-thrower of the first order. Always has been, always will be. How much damage will he inflict on her in defeat? How big a negative will the Speaker be? Will the papers and other media jump on the Madigans like they did in 2002 or will the current love affair with Lisa continue during the 2010 election? These are the questions I think they are contemplating before making a final decision. - Shore - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 1:21 pm: 1. Nice story on Andy Shaw on wttw on friday-Rich if its up, would be good to post. 2. I’m not a wingnut, hack, staffer or all of the above, but I fully hope and expect that reporters in the state will start to be as generous in reminding readers in their stories of the blago-democrat mess we are in as they were in accepting every bush/ryan charge attack over the last 6 years. There’s one Democratic party in the state, and I don’t care who you are or where you’ve been moving your chess pieces, you should be held accountable the way Republicans were held accountable. - Third Generation Chicago Native - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 1:24 pm: Tom Dart definately is eyeing another position in this state besides Sheriff, this can only help. Nice to have a White Sox fan in the Springfield Governor’s Mansion, verses the Cub fan. - fisher - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 1:51 pm: I really don’t know anything about Dart, but appreciate his efforts to expose and curtail human trafficking (aka prostitution). - DuPage Dave - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 1:52 pm: For what it’s worth– in my observation of public events at JRTC in the last 20 years, Lisa Madigan has created more of a buzz among the public than anyone else. You can see it in their faces that they hope to catch her eye, shake her hand, have a word with her. Whatever that quality is, she has it. - fedup dem - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 1:57 pm: Rich, it must be the effects of that oral surgery you had, since you failed to note the next person on TIME’s screwy finalist list… that good-for-mothing Sam Zell! - lincoln street - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:18 pm: It doesn’t exactly strengthen the argument that a Cook County Sheriff could be among the most influential people in the world when you hear he’s attempting to move UP to state treasurer. - Quinn T. Sential - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:27 pm: {It may not be “exactly huge,” but we learned during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential race that the Cook County Sheriff oversees more employees than the Arkansas governor.} Now you can understand how first Mike Sheehan, and now Tom Dart, simply by-passed Ed Burke and the Cook County judicial slatemaking enterprise and successfully elected their own judicial candidates, especially in the suburban sub-circuits. Power in numbers. - Black Ivy - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:31 pm: I would welcome Tom Dart to a statewide office. Even before the renters’ right phenomenon and Craig’s List investigation, I knew he was ready for “higher office.” I thought he was an excptional State Representative - he had the ire of Speaker Madigan, was a former prosecutor, but was beloved by a diversity of folks. Anything is better than politics as usual! - Black Ivy - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:35 pm: Oh…another reason to like Quinn - he knows how to show some WHITE SOX love! I’m looking forward to the rescheduled season opener tomorrow! - Princess - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:46 pm: C.Charlie “If Quinn and his team think that making the argument that she was silent and evasive on his proposal to pass the largest income tax increase in the history of Illinois then they are naive. That argument is a loser regardless of how much bloggers and posters here will like to make it”. I’m certainly not Quinn nor his team, I’m just Mrs. J Q Public that belongs to a state employee family. I’d like to hear Lisa’s opinion on current issues, I don’t like surprises. Bottom line, if anything (God forbid) happened to our current governor, I think it is Lisa who would replace him in this current term. With that in consideration and her plan of a possible run against Quinn in 2010 I don’t think it is too much to want to learn more about her feelings and opinions on current issues–what, with people always harping on how we should all be educated in on who we vote for…. At first glance I’m impressed so far with Ms. Madigan and I think she’ll be one of the few persons able to take her father on when and /or if they don’t agree on something. But as stated, I don’t like surprises and think she should be upfront now. - Ghost - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:47 pm: === Meanwhile, Madigan is suing a Chicago school which received a $1 million state grant from Blagojevich. === Nice to see someone is doing more with this then just talk about it. - Narcoleptic - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 2:50 pm: Dart will probably wait to see whether Jay Hoffman will run for Treasurer or AG before he throws his hat in the ring. - Irishpirate - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 3:56 pm: Is this Lisa Madigan fan club day? Those of you who claim she is charismatic and only a notch below Obama in terms of appeal better check the alcohol content of whatever you are drinking. She likely will run for Governor and she may win the primary and then the general election, but it’s far from a sure thing. If you see people fawning over her when they see her that has more to do with expectations and her father’s influence than her sparkling personality. I can picture the Quinn campaign commercial with the ominous music and the photos of Mell and Blago in 2002. Do you want another Chicago Pol’s relative in the Governor’s Mansion? Close the commercial with a cell door slamming. Not nice, probably not Quinn’s style, but potentially devastating. Next thing some of you will try to convince us that Dan Hynes has charisma in droves. Lisa and Dan are seemingly decent pols, but the only way they have “Charisma” is if they buy perfume named “charisma”. I have a contact deep within the Dart team and he claims that ultimately Dart wants to be Governor down the road. What Dart plans to do in the next few years is open for debate. I do know his fellow 19th Warders will not look kindly upon him if he gives up the patronage filled Sheriff’s Office for some relatively minor State elective position. Unless he runs for Cook County Board President my guess is he will stay where he is for awhile. I could be wrong. I thought Obama would pick Bayh for VP and have made numerous other bad predictions. - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:00 pm: ===Close the commercial with a cell door slamming.=== That assume he raises enough money to buy that ad. lol - Irishpirate - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:23 pm: Rich, all Quinn had to do is run the ad once and let the internet and TV news do the rest. Hell, I can put a bad version of the ad together in a few hours on Windows Movie Maker. I can even break out my best Chi caw gah accent and do a voice over with giggling and cash registers clanging in the background. Lisa Madigan got where she is because of her father. She may become Governor, but the relationship between her and MJM is ripe for an opponent to exploit. Think of Obama and Bill Clinton during the campaign. Mike Madigan has a seriously nasty vindictive personality. What are the chances he is disciplined enough to stay on the sidelines? Probably better than Bill Clinton keeping his mouth shut, yet………… Mike Madigan is not omnipotent. What was the name of his Treasurer candidate again? I only recall the name of the guy who won……..Alexi G. I guess time will tell. Quinn needs to hire me for his below the radar internet campaign. I work cheaper than David Axelrod and like Mike Madigan I have a vindictive south side Irish personality. We’re not the happy JFK types. We’re more the RFK in the McCarthy hearing type of amadans. * Amadan is the Irish Gaelic word for “fool”. - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:29 pm: ===let the internet and TV news do the rest.=== That doesn’t really work all that well. You gotta burn that message in, and that takes time and money. Just ask Rod. - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:30 pm: ===I only recall the name of the guy who won……..Alexi G.=== Probably because he ran lots of TV ads. lol - Irishpirate - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:38 pm: Rich, your point about burning the message is is legitimate. Probably better to ask Governor Vallas and Governor Topinka about that. However, I do think the internet and TV news will play an increasingly large role. How large? I dunno. The more MJM works for Lisa Madigan the easier it will be for an opponent to exploit. My guess is the next election is going to be a “throw the incumbents out” election because of economic woes and corruption. Some people seem to think Lisa Madigan is going to be the next Governor. It could very well be. However, the Madigan “Juggernaut” reminds me of the Hillary Clinton juggernaut of last year. Of course I fully expect the possible Madigan campaign to be better organized and disciplined. It shall be amusing to watch. - Ken - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:54 pm: The job of the Sheriff is to enforce the laws not make them. Deciding selectively which laws to enforce or not enforce,is bad policy. - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 4:56 pm: Easy to say, not so easy to do in the real world. - Irishpirate - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 5:03 pm: Cops ignore various laws all the time. Think of kids being caught with beer or weed. What Dart did on the evictions, besides garner lotsa publicity, is refuse to evict tenants in apartment buildings or condos who had paid their rent, but were being evicted because the landlord did not pay the mortgage. Often this was happening without the tenants getting any notice because the mortgage holders were not following the rules. I’m no “dartite”, but I respect his position on evictions. I think his going after internet hookers, at least those who are legally of age and doing it without coercion, is a serious waste of law enforcement resources. Let consenting adults do what they wish. I wonder what part of the concept of “freedom” he is unfamiliar with. - "pop" back in Populism - Monday, Apr 6, 09 @ 6:09 pm: Rich, If Quinn is going to bring some ‘pop’, is he going to push for the “trigger” in the Unemployment re: HB 3860? I am sure a great many of the unemployed who are having their Unemployment Insurance end are wondering, as well as businesses. Looks like Madigan sent it back to Rules … - Zora - Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 8:55 am: Irishpirate, I agree that Lisa-Obama comparisons are over the top. So, where does that leave Quinn vis-a-vis the 2.0 generation? How does he remake himself into viral guy and get traction on the web? Okay, Bloggers may relate to his Taurus… Am honestly wondering about his authenticity versus how campaigns “package” authenticity, esp. in this age. Obama re-wrote the playbook and set a soaring new benchmark that every candidate / consultant / operative cannot help but gaze up at. There are more inapt comparisons to come. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.