* 3:43 pm - Legislators and others have been grumbling about former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s executive order last August which barred the state from handing out contracts to contractors which contributed to legislative campaigns, and campaigns for those seeking statewide offices. The EO was roundly derided as unconstitutional, but nobody had the stones to challenge it in court. Here’s some background.
On Friday, without any notice that I’m aware of, Gov. Quinn issued Executive Order 9 which repealed the Blagojevich EO…
WHEREAS, the Illinois General Assembly passed HB 824 on May 31, 2008 and sent this bill to the former Governor for his signature on June 30, 2008; and
WHEREAS, HB 824 amended the Illinois Election Code to provide new requirements for business entities (and affiliated entities and persons) receiving or bidding for certain State contracts to register with the State Board of Elections and amended the Illinois Procurement Code to include limitations on the campaign contributions of such business (and affiliated entities and persons) to State officeholders responsible for awarding these contracts; and
WHEREAS, on August 25, 2008, the former Governor issued Executive Order Number 3 (2008), which addressed certain of the same subjects as HB 824, and then issued an amendatory veto of HB 824 one day later; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly overrode this amendatory veto on September 22, 2008, thereby enacting HB 824 into law as Public Act 095-0971; and
WHEREAS, Public Act 095-0971 and Executive Order Number 3 each had an effective date of January 1, 2009; and
WHEREAS, since January 1, 2009, there has been uncertainty and confusion regarding the scope of Executive Order Number 3 and its relationship to Public Act 095-0971; and
WHEREAS, the Illinois Reform Commission has proposed a number of legislative changes addressing the subjects of campaign finance and procurement reform and is planning further initiatives; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Government Reform is similarly considering campaign finance and procurement reforms; and
WHEREAS, in light of these pending reform initiatives, the context in which Executive Order Number 3 was issued, and the uncertainty of its scope, it would be appropriate to rescind Executive Order Number 3 (2008):
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Pat Quinn, as Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby order that Executive Order Number 3 (2008) be revoked and rescinded, effective as of this date of issuance.
He had to really stretch on that one.
* Also in little-noticed (until now) Friday action…
A judge has ruled state officials can’t force pharmacists to dispense the so-called “morning-after” pill.
Two Illinois pharmacists won the temporary restraining order in Sangamon County Circuit Court on Friday.
They claim a 2005 order from former Gov. Rod Blagojevich that they must dispense such pills violates state law prohibiting enforcement of health care decisions over religious objections.
More here.
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NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I was in such a hurry to get out the door this morning that I didn’t notice the password was different in the e-mail and fax versions.
Oops.
I’ve decided to use the faxed version of the password. The word should be used in its singular form, not plural. So, just take off the “S” at the end of the word.
Sorry about that.
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You can’t stop a gangster with reforms
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The SJ-R creates a straw man and then breathlessly sets it ablaze…
“Rod Blagojevich was such a freak of nature,” the argument goes, “that no law would have impeded his crazed pursuit of money and power.”
Therefore, the argument continues, Illinois doesn’t need limits on campaign contributions or new laws on who can and can’t donate to political campaigns. After all, we’re not going to see another Rod Blagojevich in office, right?
How about if we just argue the issue of campaign finance reform on its own merits instead of tainting people with arguments like this? Sheesh.
I mean, it would be easy to write a snippy blog post about how perhaps members of a small group of well-known reformers want us to forget that they stood with and heaped praise upon Rod Blagojevich when he unveiled some reform ideas back in the day, despite very specific warnings from myself and others that they would live to regret it. Or, one could write about the various editorial boards which backed this or that Blagojevich reform without realizing - duh - that he was taking them all for a ride.
But, I won’t do that… not today, at least.
That said, it is imperative to recognize that Rod Blagojevich was an old school gangster, evidenced by his alleged 2002 plot to use the governor’s office to personally enrich himself. Notice how the above editorial makes no mention of that blockbuster revelation. New laws can’t prevent gangsters from doing what they do.
Blagojevich has certainly given us a road map to reform on many issues, and we should learn some valuable lessons from him. But as the old saying goes, locks are designed to keep honest people out of your house. The same goes for reforms.
My weekly syndicated newspaper column looks at some specific reform ideas, and I’ll run that tomorrow.
* Dan Proft takes a whack at Patrick Collins, the chairman of Gov. Quinn’s independent reform commission. Proft believes that campaign contrbution caps are folly and designed to help incumbent Democrats here in Illinois…
Promoting contribution limits under the guise of reform, Collins does so against the backdrop of Lisa Madigan sitting with $3.5 million in her campaign account, Dan Hynes with nearly $2 million, and Alexi Giannoulias with more than $1 million.
It is terribly convenient for Collins to propose shackling Republicans with contribution limits after his Democrat buddies have stockpiled cash under the current system.
Is it really necessary to impugn somebody’s integrity just because that person might be from the other party? The points about those three Democrats having a fundraising lead are valid, but there are plenty of Republicans pushing for contribution caps, so the conclusion just doesn’t fly. Collins’ arguments ought to rise or fall on their own merits without this sort of hyperbole.
* The Tribune proposed some well-thought-out and much-needed reforms of the state’s FOIA laws in its Sunday edition. And the Illinois Civil Justice League came out for public financing of judicial campaigns as long as the campaigns were non-partisan and the candidates themselves were chosen by a bipartisan committee.
* Carol Marin e-mailed the top state officials and asked “Do you personally support the Illinois Reform Commission’s limits on campaign contributions?” Here are their replies…
Gov. Quinn: Yes
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias: Yes
Secretary of State Jesse White: Yes, support the idea.
Secretary of State [sic] Lisa Madigan: Yes, but as proposed in a different bill sponsored by Rep. Harry Osterman, which allows state party political committees to kick in $125,000 vs. Collins’ limit of $50,000.
State Comptroller Dan Hynes: Yes, but must be accompanied by other reforms so wealthy candidates don’t have an unfair edge.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno: Yes, but “$2400 cap is too low. $10,000 more realistic.”
House Speaker [sic] Tom Cross: Yes, but only with other reforms like moving the primary and banning lobbyist and labor union contributions.
Senate President John Cullerton: Not yet. “I believe contribution limits are inevitable” but have to deal with the “overwhelming influence of self-funders.”
House Speaker Mike Madigan: Not yet. “Limits could spur a growth in the number of self-financed, wealthy candidates. This harms the diversity of the legislature.”
They all pledge to keep an open mind.
Mike Madigan responded to an e-mail?
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Another look at 2010
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* TIME Magazine has Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on its finalist list for the 100 most influential people of 2008. You can vote here…
PRO: Dart became a renters’ rights icon last fall when he announced that he would no longer evict tenants from foreclosed buildings. And he recently filed suit against Craigslist, claiming the website is a major source of prostitution.
CON: His jurisdiction is not exactly huge.
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.
* The Tribune claims that Dart may be looking at running for state treasurer again in a story about Lisa Madigan…
So far, she’s been guarded when asked about issues in a potential governor’s race, such as Quinn’s push for an income-tax hike. On Friday, she told the Tribune’s editorial board: “Only as an absolute last resort in this economy can you add a tax onto working families.” But when asked whether the state could cut its way out of a projected deficit of up to $12.4 billion, Madigan said: “I don’t know at this point. I said cut and make significant reforms, and all of that has to be looked at.”
She also revealed a sense of exasperation when asked whether state workers should pay more toward their health insurance and pensions.
“I’m not in the middle of those negotiations,” she said. “Be fair. I’m not currently running for governor so even though most of you probably believe that I am, but I am not right now. I’m still your attorney general.”
That’s one very good reason for not declaring for governor until after the spring session concludes. As soon as you announce, you have to respond to every little thing the incumbent does. I’m not saying she’s running, by the way, I’m just saying.
* Meanwhile, Madigan is suing a Chicago school which received a $1 million state grant from Blagojevich.
* Gov. Quinn signed a foreclosure moratorium over the weekend and the AP has a feature story on Gov. Quinn which concludes with this quote…
“You ain’t seen nothing yet on populism,” he said. “I’m here to put the pop — the people — back into populism.”
* Related…
* Some things you may not know about Gov. Pat Quinn: Quinn is an “incorrigible” White Sox fan, according to longtime friend Dr. Quentin Young.
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Inside the indictment
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Blagojevich’s indictment last week was actually included in a superseding indictment of Bill Cellini. The Daily Herald explains what this means…
First, said DePaul law professor Len Cavise, it effectively steers the trial of Blagojevich to U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who was already assigned to the Cellini case. […]
But had prosecutors started fresh, the case would have been assigned to a judge at random, with possibly disastrous consequences. In Zagel, they have a known, stable quantity. If a guilty verdict is obtained, they can be fairly certain of prison time. Contrast that with the monster surprise prosecutors faced just last month when Judge Milton I. Shadur let former Chicago Alderman Edward Vrdolyak walk free even though he had pleaded guilty to his role in a crooked real estate deal.
From the Tribune…
Zagel, a Reagan appointee who has served almost 22 years on the federal bench, is widely respected but is seen by many attorneys as generally pro-government.
Back to the Daily Herald…
The second thing the maneuver does is make Cellini sit with Blagojevich while he defends himself. That’s something defense attorneys hate, particularly when there’s much less evidence against their client, or their client is much less well-known than another defendant. Both situations are true in Cellini’s case when compared to Blagojevich. […]
“The toxicity on him (Blagojevich) is going to spill over on anybody who has to sit next to him,” said an attorney involved in the case, who asked that he not be named. “The Cellini defense just got a whole lot worse.”
Tribune…
The move had another immediate impact: Terence Gillespie dropped out Friday as Blagojevich’s lead attorney because he once helped represent Cellini.
Clever. But is it fair to everyone involved?
* Related…
* The president of the Illinois Education Association is calling for the immediate resignation or removal of Jon Bauman, executive director of the scandal-plagued Teachers’ Retirement System.
* Candidate: Cellini money tainted
* Cost of corruption by state officials high for Illinois taxpayers
* Blagojevich fallout: With ex-friends lined up to testify against former governor, who needs enemies?
* Blago high-profile lawyer to drop out of case
* Edgar calls Blagojevich worst governor he’s seen
* Mentioned, but not charged: Did Patti Blagojevich dodge bullet?
* Despite scrutiny, Patti Blagojevich avoids indictment
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6 House Dems signed MOUs with Blagojevich
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* For months, the House Democrats have claimed that the House Republicans signed memoranda of understanding with Rod Blagojevich on the capital bill last year. The MOUs were reportedly promises to connect votes for the capital plan to support for the governor’s gaming expansion bill Lottery sale.
Turns out, the only people who signed MOUs were the Senate Republicans (as a group) and six House Democrats…
A handful of state lawmakers say they were looking out for their districts and nothing more when they signed agreements with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich last year offering to support his $34 billion, gambling-financed construction spending plan if he committed to local projects.
Those projects never happened as the spending spree stalled, but documents recently turned over to the Daily Herald by now-Gov. Pat Quinn’s office offer a rare glimpse behind the scenes of last year’s contentious power struggles at the Capitol as Blagojevich sought to shore up votes and wary lawmakers pondered their moves.
“At some point you’re here to represent your district and however you can … excuse me for lack of a better term … take the bacon home, you do that. That’s the way the process was going at the time. That’s what I was doing. Trying to take things back to Rockford,” said Rockford Democratic state Rep. Chuck Jefferson. “Maybe it wasn’t as wise as what I thought it was, but, I mean, that’s the way it goes.”
Last July, as Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan waged an almost daily political battle over construction spending, Jefferson signed a memorandum of understanding with Blagojevich in which he agreed to the gambling and lottery plans and the governor agreed to include millions of dollars in Rockford-area road projects.
Jefferson was one of a half-dozen House Democrats to sign such memos with Blagojevich last year. The others were Waukegan state Rep. Eddie Washington, Quad-Cities area state Reps. Mike Boland and Patrick Vershoore, Homewood state Rep. Will Davis and Morris state Rep. Careen Gordon. Then-Senate GOP leader Frank Watson of downstate Greenville had previously signed similar memos on behalf of the Senate Republicans.
Rep. Gordon was a loud critic of Blagojevich, so that MOU is quite surprising.
…Adding… John Patterson expands at his story on his blog…
It had the spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan wondering if there’d been some “shredding.” Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said House Republicans taunted Democrats last year over how much they were going to get in the $34 billion deal that Madigan was opposing. […]
House Republican leader Tom Cross said there never were any agreements, in large part because there never was any final agreement on the overall spending plan.
* Speaking of House Democrats, Gov. Quinn let loose on former Rep. Kurt Granberg’s pension bump over the weekend…
A “furious” Gov. Quinn wants to undo a $40,000-a-year pension windfall for a former lawmaker who qualified for the deal after serving only three weeks as Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s state parks director.
The State Employees Retirement System decided last month to grant a $113,305 annual pension to former Rep. Kurt Granberg (D-Carlyle), who served briefly as head of the Department of Natural Resources. […]
“I’m furious,” Quinn said. “For him now to seek a huge increase in his pension, I think, is an insult to the people of Illinois. “And I’d say to Mr. Granberg, ‘Have you no decency to take over a million dollars . . . in additional money from the people of Illinois?’ ” Quinn said.
* Semi-related…
* Who were Blagojevich’s early backers?
* Appetizers to a bigger meal
* Quinn praises Legislature for ‘team effort,’ but much work still to be done
* Gov. discusses roads improvement program
* Reform and construction bills: Gov. Pat Quinn-backed legislation responds to scandal and economic crisis
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Question of the day
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
Back in 1965, lobbyists were secretly recorded talking about which legislators were on the take. […]
In the ‘60s, embarrassed lawmakers responded to the scandal by making it illegal to secretly tape conversations without a court order, Bill O”Connell, a retired statehouse reporter for Peoria Journal Star, recalls.
Illinois is one of only 12 states where in most circumstances everyone participating in a conversation must consent to being recorded.
A gubernatorial commission created in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal has an idea for reform: allow secret recordings.
The logic is that once you can clandestinely record without a court order informants would crop up throughout government to better document corruption.
State employees could better document illegal orders from bosses and business executives could demonstrate when they are being shaken down by politicians. Lobbyists could again be recorded talking about who in the Legislature is on the take.
* The Question: Do you support this change in state law? Explain fully, please.
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A note to readers and subscribers
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The General Assembly is taking two weeks off, but we’ll be blogging and publishing most of that time. This morning, however, I need to get to the oral surgeon for a consult about having a wisdom tooth removed later this week [insert joke here].
I’ll be back as soon as I can. But blogging will be nonexistent until at least 10:45 am or so. Sorry about that. I’ll post a Question of the Day in a few minutes to whet your whistles, and I’ve opened comments on Saturday’s weekend update.
There’s a lot going on with much to be discussed, so just be patient and we’ll get around to it later this morning and through the afternoon.
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Morning Shorts
Monday, Apr 6, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray
* Moody’s downgrades state’s bond rating
Illinois’s rating on $19.4 billion of general obligation debt was cut by Moody’s Investors Service [Friday] in part because of “narrow operating fund liquidity,” Moody’s said in a press release.
* $6.8M of food help paid in area in Feb.
In February, nearly 45,000 Winnebago County residents were receiving food stamp assistance. With Boone and Ogle counties added, 54,336 were receiving the assistance, for a total of $6.8 million paid in benefits.
* Sun-Times may trim suburban frequency
Sun-Times Media Group Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection this week, may stop daily publication of some of its suburban newspapers as part of a push to return to profitability and boost the company’s appeal to a potential buyer.
“Everything is on the table, including frequency of publications,” CEO Jeremy Halbreich said in a Friday interview. “I’m hard-pressed to think of any other place with suburban dailies…It’s something we need to think about.”
Sun-Times is making other cost-cutting moves, including slashing compensation costs, which last year ran to about $100 million, by 15% through layoffs, pay cuts, benefit reductions and furloughs, including a five-day furlough required of all employees during the next two months.
* 30 Percent Decrease in Statehouse Reporters
That is the percentage of reporters who are no longer covering state legislatures, according to the American Journalism Review.
* Firehouse fallout
A city contractor — Castle Construction Corp. of Markham — pulled a bait-and-switch on the construction of the firehouse, according to the lawsuit and other records. Castle promised city officials it would subcontract all of the masonry work on the job to a minority-owned company, for $1.5 million.
Instead, records show Castle hired a white-owned masonry company — for $550,000 less.
* Illinois trying to improve response to floods
* Online university founders: University of Illinois’ Global Campus face uncertain future
After investing more than $10 million in a program that has attracted only a few hundred students, University of Illinois trustees are considering whether to shut down the university’s 2-year-old online campus.
* Census workers take to streets today
* A $6 billion hole in the ground
But the most expensive item on the city’s wish list is the West Loop Transportation Center. The multilevel station by itself would cost “only” $2 billion. But new transit lines running to and fro goose the tab: $3 billion for a new Clinton Street subway to run from the Red Line’s North/Clybourn station to Chinatown; $1 billion for below-grade busways, including “legs” underneath Monroe and Clinton Streets that meet at Union Station.
* 2016 Olympics: Chicago proposal would include restrictions on recreational use of lakefront
Plans for the proposed 2016 Olympic Village and lakefront sports venues would force cyclists, runners and walkers to divert from long stretches of the paths east of Lake Shore Drive during virtually all of July and August 2016.
* Daley Brushes Off 2016 Olympic’s Critics
* Torched by the Olympics?
* Lessons from an Olympic competitor
* Chicago Olympics: IOC commission tours potential sites
* IOC takes in the sights and possible sites on road trip around Chicago
* International Olympic Committee Team Inspects Chicago
* Chicago 2016 Woos Media
* Visiting Olympic Team Has Star-Studded Day Ahead
* White Sox Monday opener postponed
* Metra may hit a home run sometime in the 2010 Sox season
“It’s definitely going to happen,” Rush spokeswoman Barbara Holt said. “Sometimes these things take years to come to fruition. In this case, there is going to be a happy ending.”
* White Sox have reasons to believe … and to be concerned
* An ode to Opening Day
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