* Equality Illinois’s chief lobbyist claims that his coalition can pass the civil unions bill through both chambers by the end of session, even though they haven’t yet proved they can pass it in the House…
Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois, said Thursday he’s “absolutely” expecting the full state House and the Senate to pass a civil union measure either Tuesday or Wednesday. The bill has support from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D).
And here’s the plan…
The House Youth and Family Committee, chaired by Rep. Greg Harris, who’s gay, intends to attach an amendment legalizing civil unions to a “shell bill” that’s already been approved by the Senate, Garcia said. If the full House votes in favor of the legislation, the bill would be sent to the full Senate within hours for a vote of concurrence.
That’s still a very big “if.”
More…
Garcia said Illinois lawmakers often use “shell bills” to pass legislation expediently. He said it’s necessary to legalize civil unions through this method because the legislative session ends May 30 and the approach limits the time that opponents of civil unions can lobby lawmakers.
“We get it out of the House and then senators only have a few hours of being beat up by our opponents rather than three days or a long weekend,” he said. “Since there is a perfectly legitimate way of doing it in one day, that’s what we’re going to do.”
They have to get it out of the House first, of course, but other bills have passed this way. The civil union bill is not like a lot of “other” bills, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Admitting to this strategy might also not go over too well. Again, we’ll see.
EI also has a bunch of lobsters, plus support from SEIU…
Garcia said Equality Illinois has nine lobbyists working as either full-time staffers or contractors to encourage lawmakers to vote in favor of civil unions. Other groups assisting in passing the measure include the American Civil Liberties Union, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Service Employees International Union, Garcia said.
* Good catch by Progress Illinois of a remark by WTTW’s Elizabeth Brackett about how she had talked with some of Republican Congressman Mark Kirk’s people and was told Kirk won’t run for the Senate if Attorney General Lisa Madigan does…
I don’t think Madigan will run for the Senate, but since this idea apparently freezes Kirk in place, it’s not a dumb move by the Dems.
…an Illinois Democrat also speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN that Kennedy’s political allies are telling state Democrats that he will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for the seat once held by President Obama.
Caroline Kennedy’s campaign for New York’s U.S. Senate seat was a non-starter, but the Kennedy name is still magic in Illinois, Mayor Daley said Wednesday, in a political assessment that Chris Kennedy should find encouraging.
“Sure it does. Yes, it does. You’d better believe it. Same thing as Barack Obama’s name. Those two names. You’d better believe it,” Daley said.
Having met him on more than one occasion, I can tell you that Chis is definitely not the mumbling Caroline.
* Related…
* Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
* Pew Research Political Values Study: “The lead,” as Pew Research president Andrew Kohut explained in a briefing yesterday, “is that centrism has emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion.” The percentage of adults who describe their party identification as independent — 36% so far in 2009 — equals its highest level in 70 years.” Meanwhile, Republican numbers “have dropped precipitously” since 2004, while the Democratic numbers though markedly improved during the Bush years have ‘fallen off a little bit” since November 2008. Meanwhile, basic measures on other political attitudes remain stable.
* Local diversity champ weighing statewide bid [fixed link]: In the General Assembly where she served four years, Kelly avoided the political theater embedded in the lawmaking process. She rarely spoke on the House floor during debate, unlike some members who regularly throb and thrash at the microphone to the delight of their colleagues.
* Kinda surprising that this DNA bill went down, considering the get tough on crime attitude of the GA in the past and the fact that it passed the House by an almost unanimous vote…
A controversial measure that would have required people arrested on felony charges to contribute a DNA sample to create a state database was narrowly rejected today by the state Senate.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), would require people arrested to submit to a mouth swab to collect DNA in much the same way arrestees are required to submit to fingerprinting. The DNA collection would be expunged in the event the person was found not guilty or the felony charges were dismissed.
With the Illinois State Police already facing a serious backlog in DNA processing, lawmakers said the measure would not have gone into effect until 2013.
Since it didn’t take effect until 2013 anyway, there was no real rush to pass it.
More…
“The innocent have nothing to fear from this legislation…” said state Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry).
Sentences like that always make me a little nervous.
* But, the rhetoric wasn’t exactly cool on the other side…
“It’s 25 years later, but we’re approaching George Orwell’s ‘1984’ right now,” said Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), who opposed the proposal, saying it would have violated the due-process and equal-protection clauses of the Illinois Constitution.
“To have an officer come up to me without probable cause, arrest me and stick a swab in my mouth is against my constitutional rights,” Raoul said.
A cop shouldn’t be arresting anybody without probable cause.
* Both sides invoked the name of Barack Obama during the debate, claiming he’d either support or oppose the legislation. Sen. Rickey Hendon had this to say…
“I’m just sick and tired of people who hate Barack Obama who (are) always on tv against Barack Obama acting like they had a text message from him while driving this morning on the way to the Capitol telling them about this bill. It’s outrageous. You wasn’t with Obama, quit quoting his name.”
The fact that Quinn arrived 10 minutes early to the Crowne Plaza for the 47th annual [prayer] breakfast was contrast enough. But Quinn did more, by taking time to introduce family members of nine fallen servicemen his office had invited to the event.
Quinn said that passing a budget to keep social programs in place should come before a capital plan, but lawmakers plan to pass parts of the capital bill as early as today. This is the first time Quinn has publicly voiced opposition to passing a capital plan before passing an operating budget.
“I want to tell the members of the General Assembly I know they want a lot of [capital] projects and so on, and so do I. But that is not coming before the priority of taking care of real live human beings.”
If you want to be the Senate President, run for the Senate. Otherwise, stick to being governor.
* More Rodlike behavior - breaking his word to the leaders…
* Speaking of the budget, AFSCME has a new TV ad about the need for a tax hike…
Shortly before passing the capital plan, [a Senate committee] debated a proposal that would drastically change the tax structure for the state and possibly resolve a pending lawsuit. The bill, which has been considered in different versions for the last seven sessions, would raise the personal income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent and expand the sales tax to specific services.
Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, classified some of the services as “luxury,” including limousine rentals, massages and pet grooming. But the bill also includes movies and movie rental, taxis and bowling. It would also double the earned income tax credit to protect low-income families and provide property tax relief for all.
Meeks said the intent of the measure is to create more revenue for Illinois schools and ensure schools receive equal funding because the state would take over most of the responsibility. Currently, school districts heavily rely on local property taxes, so funding can vary greatly among districts depending on how much revenue the local tax generates.
* Both Blagojeviches to take part in TV show: While Patti Blagojevich roams the jungle in Costa Rica on a reality television show as a replacement for her indicted and travel-restricted husband, the former governor will still participate in a “surprise” manner, the couple’s publicist said today.
More than 2,000 employees would be spared in the latest effort to rid state government of appointees of former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, Wednesday offered a revised version of his bill to “fumigate” state government that now affects about 750 people, rather than the 3,000 who would have been axed under his original proposal.
In the new version, people who are “double exempt” — not protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Rutan patronage decision or the state’s personnel code — are targeted. However, people holding Rutan-exempt jobs, but still protected by the personnel code, are no longer included.
That change was a no-brainer. Some of you got all upset for nothing, even after I suggested you calm down. Also, the guv will hve 90 days to make his fumigation decisions from the time the bill becomes law. If he wants, he can stretch that out another 60 days by delaying his signature on the bill. And the GA doesn’t have to send it to him until 30 days after it passes both chambers. In theory, he could have as much as 6 months to make his decisions. That’s way more than enough time.
The Illinois House of Representatives voted Wednesday to change the method by which lawmakers and other top state government officials get pay raises.
The Compensation Review Board no longer would have the authority to recommend hikes in the base pay for lawmakers, constitutional officers, judges and state’s attorneys under Senate Bill 2090. Instead, lawmakers would have to introduce and vote on specific legislation to grant pay raises to themselves or other officials. […]
Also, SB2090 would require all 118 state lawmakers to take four furlough days off work and forfeit the pay they would receive for those days.
The upcoming cost of living raises have also been killed off.
* Meanwhile, reform commission chairman Patrick Collins pens an op-ed in today’s Sun-
Times…
Again, as this paper has argued, sensible limits — limits that mirror those imposed on candidates for federal office — should be passed for our state, particularly given our corruption-scarred past. The number 46 is again instructive here: 46 states have imposed some form of contribution limits or prohibitions. See a pattern here? Yet, even though campaign fund-raising excesses are at the core of most of our corruption scandals, the apologists talk about the “parade of horribles” that will ensue if we dare to adopt the same limit system in which U.S. presidential candidates must function.
Notice the rhetoric here. People who oppose his plan are “apologists.” Apologists for what, he doesn’t explain.
I suppose, then, that two conservative activists who wrote a guest column in the SJ-R today are also apologists…
Contribution limits are not an indicator of good governance, either. Research conducted by the Center for Competitive Politics found no correlation between the presence of contribution limits and the Pew Center on the States’ ranking of “best governed” states.
* The Illinois Senate Democrats unveiled their contribution caps proposal yesterday…
Under the legislation, candidates could get up to $5,000 a year from individual contributors and up to $10,000 a year from corporations, labor organizations, trade associations and political issue groups. […]
Political funds controlled by state political parties and legislative leaders would get greater leeway. Each year they could collect up to $10,000 from individuals and $20,000 from other political committees.
But the proposal by state Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) does not address what critics say is a gaping hole in campaign finance law: limits on how much powerful legislative leaders can transfer from their funds to individual House and Senate candidates.
We are hearing that, while limits at a much higher level may be considered, the sacred cow of legislative leaders being able to transfer as much as they like from their war chests to local races will remain just that, a sacred cow.
These transfers, when exceedingly large, are a gaping loophole that transforms local races into well-funded mudfights and erodes the independence of legislators once elected.
One person’s “well-funded mudfight” is another person’s idea of how a campaign ought to be run. The independence of legislators is important, of course. The leaders have far too much power. Collins’ own proposal is now in bill form and can be downloaded here.
Proposed legislation to revise the Illinois Freedom of Information Act is significantly watered down from recommendations to lawmakers by the Illinois Reform Commission, the state attorney general and others, according to the interim head of the Illinois Press Association.
“Only in Illinois would this be defined as reform or transparency,” Don Craven, the association’s interim executive director, said during a telephone news conference today. The association first learned of the changes about midnight Tuesday in a draft of the bill obtained from Illinois House leadership.
For example, the new law would make postal addresses of public employees or anyone arrested exempt from disclosure and it also creates an undefined, broad category for exemptions of personnel material. It continues to allow lawsuit settlements involving taxpayer dollars to be secret.
The revision also limits the authority of the attorney general’s office in pressuring government agencies for disclosure and it removes earlier provisions for criminal penalties for noncompliance.
Steve Brown, spokesman for the House speaker, would not discuss the specific provisions of the newest proposal.
“These are preliminary discussions and nothing has been finalized,” Brown said.
Brown said he has been told the 75-page proposal may contain drafting errors and it is too early to draw conclusions from it. “I don’t know how these groups jump to these conclusions, but that’s the way they are,” he said.
* As you know by now, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the revenue stream yesterday to finance the capital construction program. Included in that stream was legalized video poker at bars, VFW clubs, etc…
Video poker, which would be overseen by the Illinois Gaming Board, attracted virtually no dissent during floor debate despite anti-gambling advocates insisting it will let organized crime flourish and lead to new cases of gambling addiction.
“This would be unregulated mayhem,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who has busted illegal video poker machine operations and has said his office receives calls from people whose spouses have lost their paychecks on the machines.
Unregulated mayhem? That’s what we have now with illegal, unregulated machines that are in most every tavern, truck stop and fraternal club in the state. And the Outfit is handsomely profiting off all of it.
The state lottery helped all but kill off the numbers rackets, and taverns could lose their liquor licenses if they kept illegal machines in their places of business now, so we can expect the same fate awaits illegal machines.
“Well, everybody thinks gambling is bad. Let’s be realistic, everybody does. But why is it in Mississippi? Why is it all over? It’s even in Illinois. If it’s that bad, then why did we allow it to happen if everybody thinks it’s that bad?”
The city will get a cut from the proceeds, which will help Daley balance his budget. Right now, he’s getting no money from the illegal machines. And since it’s currently a cash business, there’s some question whether bar owners are even paying income tax on it.
Just ten Republicans voted against the revenue stream bill. Ten.
“What I really hope is our Department of Revenue will use this to crack down on the rumor that organized crime has been involved with video poker,” said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican. “Those machines are already there so we’re not fooling anybody.”
“What a mistake,” Dart said after hearing of the vote. “This is a horrible idea because this is a form of gambling that by its very nature is very addictive… You are going to have guys dropping their whole paycheck at the bar.”
They already do, and there are no betting limits on the machines now.
Two of Mayor Daley’s former top aides — and a security company once co-owned by the brother of Ald. Danny Solis (25th) — are poised to make some serious coin from the $1.15 billion deal that privatized Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters.
Under pressure from aldermen to comply with the city’s minority set-aside requirements, LAZ Parking Chicago LLC has hastily assembled a team of subcontractors that includes former mayoral press secretary Avis LaVelle and Cortez Trotter, who was Chicago’s first African-American fire commissioner before being promoted to chief emergency officer.
Monterrey Security — owned by former Chicago Police Officer Juan Gaytan and once co-owned by former Chicago firefighter Santiago Solis — is in line for $1.2 million in 2009 and has already been paid $413,152, according to a document distributed to aldermen.
Murder in Chicago is an all too common occurrence. And for all the hand-wringing that goes on when people are shot and killed, very few people actually know what to do to prevent future gun violence. Federal prosecutors, including U.S. attorney Pat Fitzgerald, think they have part of the answer.
The whole idea that you can reduce crime from meeting in an hour is just to me so powerful as long as we have enough job opportunities and GED opportunities for people at the other end. It’s not going to be very successful if we go around and tell a whole bunch of people getting out of prison, you have a choice and then they make the right choice and then we say, well actually you don’t have a choice because we don’t have a job opportunity.
Fitzgerald says his time as a prosecutor has convinced him that law enforcement is not going to be able to prosecute it’s way out of the gang and gun problems plaguing Chicago. He says employers need to step up and start hiring ex-offenders.
The combined company, which brings together two family-owned businesses in an industry increasingly dominated by global behemoths, will have about $425 million under management, according to executives from both companies. The acquisition is the first of what Peregrine President and Chief Operating Officer Russ Wasendorf Jr. says will be a series of purchases en route to a target of $1 billion under management.
“You need to get to critical mass,” Mr. Wasendorf says in a telephone interview. More acquisitions are in the offing, he adds, particularly as new rules for currency trading that go into effect later this year force smaller brokers to seek bigger pools of capital.
However, in Wednesday’s entry, I wrote that ratings for game 2 of the Hawks-Detroit series Tuesday were off 31 percent from game 1 on NBC Sunday. It isn’t a complete apples-to-apples comparison and other factors were involved. However, while you would expect some decrease, a 31-percent drop does seem to validate some of Mr. Wirtz’s concerns about people being able to find the channel.
In fairness to Versus, it is only one game, and the network will get another shot Friday when the series returns to Chicago. It also will air games 5-7 if the series gets that far.
* When you’re dealing with pensions, it’s all about where you start and stop counting…
- Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to overhaul government pension systems to save money actually would cost Illinois taxpayers $95 billion extra over the next three decades, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Wrestling with an $11.6 billion budget deficit, Quinn wants to cut in half the amount of money the state would put into retirement systems for state employees in the next five years. […]
The total cost would be $532 billion through 2045, up from $437 billion under the current pension plan. […]
Quinn spokeswoman Katie Ridgway countered that, ultimately, Illinois pension systems would wind up owing less to retirees under the governor’s proposal because benefits would be scaled back. In 2045, for instance, the amount owed under Quinn’s plan would be $150 billion less than under the current system.
The same goes for the return on investments. The pension systems use a start and end date which shows great returns, which is how they justify charging the state 8.5 percent interest every year for underpayments.
* The Question: Should the General Assembly pass pension reforms in order to justify skimming over $3 billion next fiscal year to patch the budget deficit? If not, how would you close that gap? If so, justify it, please.
* Thanks to a commenter, there’s a recent poll for the Cook County Board President’s race, but there are some major caveats here. First, we don’t know who was polled, how many were polled, which firm did it, the MoE, and whether they identified the candidates’ respective party affiliation, etc…
Business consultant Steve McClure, who headed the State Commerce Department during the administration of Gov. Jim Thompson, secretly commissioned a recent poll for potential Cook County Board Presidential candidate Paul Vallas — without telling him.
The backshot: The recorded telephone poll pitted former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas/Republican and Cook County Board Commissioner Forrest Claypool/Democrat, against each other for the job. Left OFF the list of potential candidates was current Cook County Board President Todd Stroger .
The kicker: McClure told Sneed: “Paul only learned about the poll after it was completed — that’s when I told his wife to tell him about it.”
The upshot: “Vallas won with 44 percent of the vote; Claypool came in with 23 percent; and 33 percent were undecided,” said McClure. “I’m told Paul was very pleased,” McClure added.
* Sales Tax Causes Rift Between Daley, Stroger: At yesterday’s board meeting, Daley criticized Stroger for not doing enough to curb county spending, in particular, for not issuing a hiring freeze. Stroger disagreed with Daley over the sales tax cut and addressed him directly.
* Commissioners’ vote no ‘present’ to taxpayers : Then Collins added for the benefit of those who might disagree with her non- decision: “You want to vote me out of office? Hooray. I would just love to go home for once in my life and relax.”
* Lots of driving-related legislation this week. Two bills passed the Senate yesterday…
The two measures approved by the Senate were House Bill 71, which would bar texting behind the wheel, and House Bill 72, which would prevent drivers from using cell phones in school or construction zones. Both go back to the House for consideration.
Adds exceptions for specified emergency purposes and law enforcement officers or emergency vehicle operators when performing their official duties. […]
Adds an exception to wireless telephone in school and construction zones prohibition for a person using a wireless telephone in voice-activated mode.
changes an exception in the definition of “electronic communication device” to exclude a global positioning system or navigation system (rather than a global positioning system or navigation system used exclusively for the navigation purposes) from the definition, creates an exception to the electronic message prohibition for a driver using an electronic communication device while parked on the shoulder of a roadway, and creates an exception for a driver using an electronic communication device when the vehicle is stopped due to normal traffic being obstructed and the driver has the motor vehicle transmission in neutral or park.
Sens. Kwame Raoul and James Meeks, both Chicago Democrats, said they did not vote for the bill because the language remained ambiguous and gave law enforcement too much power. Meeks said it would be virtually impossible for an officer who pulls an individual over to determine from a distance whether the driver was texting, using a navigation system or dialing a phone number. Raoul added that existing laws for improper lane usage already apply.
Meanwhile, the Senate killed legislation that would compel motorists to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks at all times and a measure to expand use of speed cameras in school, hospital and park zones.
Speed cameras will not be coming to Illinois roads anytime soon.
The state Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have allowed using cameras to automatically measure speed in school, park and hospital zones and issue tickets to speeders. The plan failed with 13 senators voting in favor and 35 voting against it.
State Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat, tried to convince fellow lawmakers that speed cameras would improve road safety.
The wife of the state’s transportation secretary has been driving around central Illinois with her husband’s old, no longer valid state lawmaker license plates.
This week, Betsy Hannig was seen driving around Springfield in a Cadillac bearing the “3″ Illinois House license plate on the back and a “deputy majority leader” plate on the front.
That plate and designation had been registered to her husband Gary Hannig when he was a senior member of the Illinois House. But the downstate Democrat was named state transportation secretary by Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this year.
Hannig’s wife Betsy was then named to serve out her husband’s term in the Illinois House. She’s been assigned plate No. 118B. House license plates are assigned based on seniority. The lower the number, the higher ranking the lawmaker and vice versa.
* David Ormsby makes an interesting point at the end of his post about the Senate Democrats’ recent blogger conference call on ethics…
Finally, [Sen. Don Harmon] reminded the bloggers [that] for all the editorial commentary criticizing the legislature on ethics there has been no lawmaker subject to FBI inquiry or subpoena or taint from the Blagojevich scandals.
What Harmon left unsaid was that a certain Chicago newspaper critical of the legislature can make no similar claim.
There has been taint, but that “unsaid” observation was priceless.
* Illinois reform commission chairman Patrick Columns pens an op-ed…
While some people have taken issue with some of the proposals, the harshest critics have said the commission members are neophytes who don’t understand the “sausagemaking” process of Springfield. In effect, they are saying that even though our state is a regular segment on “Saturday Night Live,” we shouldn’t expect anything meaningful to occur in Springfield.
From corruption victim Scott Willis to Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman, from former investigative reporter Hanke Gratteau to corporate whistle-blower Pam Davis and the rest of our team, we are not neophytes. We understand far too well the sausagemaking syndrome.
Actually, the harshest critics have said that Collins has relied too heavily on confrontational black hat/white hat arguments. One, a likely GOP gubernatorial candidate, has claimed he was overly partisan. Others have posited that since Rod Blagojevich proposed pretty much the same campaign finance reform laws, he must’ve already figured out how to get around them.
* The News-Gazette runs a story which inadvertently illuminates the sausage-making process…
llinois is about to get reform, but probably nothing close to what was recommended last month by a commission appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn.
“I think they’ll try to do a soft package of reforms,” said state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville. “But I don’t think the public will put up with that. The newspapers aren’t going to let this go away, and they shouldn’t.”
But later…
But even Black doesn’t buy into all of the commission’s ideas. He and other lawmakers aren’t enthusiastic about campaign contribution limits.
“I have a problems with the freedom-of-speech issue,” he said. “If someone could use their own money and blow you out of the water as you’re trying to raise the money in $2,400 increments, you’re at a disadvantage. It’s an incumbency protection plan.”
* Meanwhile, the Daily Herald has posted Speaker Madigan’s responses to its reform survey. I’ve added House GOP Leader Tom Cross’s responses after Madigan’s for comparative purposes…
1. Should there be limits on how much individuals, businesses, unions, lobbyists and others can give to candidates?
Madigan: Undecided Cross: Yes
2. Should there be a state-contracting czar overseeing all procurement independent of the governor and lawmakers?
Madigan: No answer. Cross: Yes
3. Should the attorney general and local prosecutors be given powers akin to the U.S. attorney to investigate corruption?
Madigan: No Cross: No
4. Would you support limiting how long a legislative leader can serve in the leadership post?
Madigan: No Cross: No
5. Would you vote to do away with the current redistricting process and replace it with a nonpartisan system?
Madigan: No Cross: Yes
6. Should the state freedom of information laws be rewritten to include penalties for those who intentionally violate them?
Madigan: Yes Cross: Yes
7. Should the state reduce the number of political jobs?
Madigan: No Cross: Yes
8. Should the primary be moved to June?
Madigan: No. Cross: Yes
* Sneed claims a Chris Kennedy run is a done deal…
Scoopsville . . .
Bet the ranch.
Sneed has learned the Merchandise Mart’s Chris Kennedy, son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, will announce next week he is running for the U.S. Senate.
Sneed has also learned Kennedy, who lives with his wife, Sheila, and four children in Kenilworth, has hired the prestigious media consultant firm AKPD and has already shot his first TV campaign commercial.
AKPD was founded by President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod. Axelrod divested himself of the firm when he took the White house job.
• • The rationale: Top Dem party sources tell Sneed a Kennedy candidacy would come with instantaneous name recognition. “He’s also lived here for 25 years, is in his late 40s, comes from a business background, and has that Kennedy magic,” the source added.
• • The pol shot: The battle for Obama’s old seat is up for grabs. Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley just opted out of the race; state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias held a fund-raiser for his Senate exploratory committee starring rocker Pete Wentz May 11 in Chicago, and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky is now seriously eyeing a bid.
* Sweet isn’t as sure, but filed this yesterday afternoon…
-Everything I am hearing on Tuesday points to Chris Kennedy getting into the Illinois 2010 Senate race. Maybe this will change but a Kennedy decision is close. As of Tuesday afternoon, the plan calls for him to be announcing sometime probably next week. Long time Kennedy family friend Jay Doherty is being tapped to head up the fund-raising effort. […]
I talked to Kennedy on Tuesday night. “I’m keeping my options alive and working through a whole series of issues still,” he told me.
* And Larry wonders why a Cleveland deal isn’t getting more press…
Chris Kennedy has been getting pretty glowing coverage lately–in Chicago–not so much in Cleveland. Kennedy’s Merchandise Mart company has clouted a deal through the Cuyahoga county board where the county will float $900 million in bonds to build a mart that Kennedy’s company will then own, having only to put up $20 million and get all the profits for 20 years and having all their property taxes comped.
There’s profanity there, so beware if you are or have to be sensitive, but check out this excerpt from a Cleveland Plain Dealer story…
The decision, if it holds, would mean the county has decided to spend nearly a half-billion public dollars without holding a meeting in public to discuss the basis for its decision.
To make it happen, Hagan overrode the concerns of the county’s $100,000 negotiator, who wanted time to bargain with landowners before committing to one site.
Why the sudden rush? Why all the secrecy? And why would a county government in the middle of a sweeping federal corruption investigation choose not to conduct its business in the most open way possible?
Try to avoid generic Kennedy family bashing in comments. It’s truly boring. Come up with something new, please.
“It’s like a tsunami. It’s all coming together,” Daley said as he urged Chicago businesses to make their employees aware of government assistance programs.
“This is not a recession that we’ve seen in the past that’s one part of the economy. This is the financial industry. This is retailing. This encompasses manufacturing. It encompasses everything you see in society.”
He added, “Everybody wants a glimmer of hope. I do, too. I want the sun to come out. But, the glimmer of hope is not what we’re talking about here. … I’ve talked to many, many business leaders. They have the same perception. This is much longer and stronger. … It’s much different from any recession they’ve ever seen in the last 40, 50 years.”
Chrysler LLC, the struggling automaker reorganizing in bankruptcy, will lay off 992 workers from its Belvidere assembly plant and convert the plant to a one-shift operation.
The company sent out an e-mail today at 6:42 p.m. Tuesday with the new plan for its Belvidere plant, where about 2,600 workers on two shifts have been assembling Dodge Calibers, Jeep Compasses and Jeep Patriots.
* My news feed provider is doing some maintenance which slowed my site to a crawl. So, the news feeds are temporarily removed until the provider goes back online.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
*** UPDATE *** OK, so my web guys have adjusted the settings so that the feed provider’s lack of output won’t slow down my site. The feed titles are back, some feeds appear to be loading, but the delays should be gone for now. The newer feeds are still not back on this site (Twitter, Post-Dispatch, etc.) because they use a different system. Hopefully, everything will soon be right with the world.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The world is right with itself. All news feeds are now back in place. I’ve adjusted the Twitter feed to truncate some of the overly long posts and I’ve added several state legislators to the feed. Tweet Illinois is at the Statehouse today and they’ve signed up a bunch of new legislative tweeters.
* We have two new TV ads today from opposite sides of the budget debate. The first is from the Jobs Coalition. It makes a bit of fun of SEIU’s earlier ad which featured a hunk of raw meat…
* AFSCME’s new TV ad warns about the dire consequences of not raising state taxes…
* Since so many newspaper editorial boards are screaming for reform, should Illinois fund any enacted reforms (consolidated purchasing czar, publicly funded court elections, ramped-up Board of Elections and state’s attorney powers, etc.) by removing the state sales tax exemption on newsprint and ink?
* No surprise here, but Robin Kelly is announcing her bid [or just exploring her candidacy] for state treasurer today. Kelly is a former south suburban state Rep. This is from an e-mail to supporters sent today…
Dear Friend,
There’s been a lot of talk around the state about different people running for different offices. I wanted to take this opportunity to personally inform you that I am exploring a bid for the Illinois State Treasurer’s office.
I hope you’ll take a moment to visit www.robinfortreasurer.com. You can forward this message to your friends and make a contribution today!
I believe Illinois families need a leader they can count on to guard their tax dollars and help them during these difficult economic times.
As Chief of Staff in the Treasurer’s office, I helped lead a complete turnaround of the agency. We made great progress by improving transparency, demanding accountability, and establishing tough ethical guidelines. I am proud that this is the first Treasurer’s office in history to ban contributions from banks and contractors who do business with the office, a policy I will continue as Treasurer.
We invested Illinois tax dollars wisely, generating more revenue for the state, and protecting jobs by providing Illinois businesses with low-interest loans.
We have made protecting opportunities for college students a top priority. That’s why we transformed the Bright Start college savings program from one of the worst into one Money Magazine ranked in the top three nationally. We also created the Fallen Heroes Scholarship Fund, which gives a $2,500 deposit into a college savings fund to children whose parent made the ultimate sacrifice. In addition, aggressive legislation we championed to crack down on the overly aggressive marketing of credit cards to college students is on the Governor’s desk! …
Obviously, if Kelly and Giannoulias don’tt get that Bright Start problem straightened out soon, it will be an issue. Also, the SUV thing won’t help.
For now, at least, there aren’t any other Democrats talking about the treasurer’s office. That may change. We’ll know more soon after Lisa Madigan announces her own intentions - an event that will undoubtedly spur a gigantic domino effect.
* You certainly can’t blame all of our problems on Pat Quinn’s infamous “Cutback Amendment,” but it is a case study in why reformers can sometimes do more harm than good and should never be thought of as having all the answers…
The Illinois governor ultimately responsible for many of the state’s current ethics woes may not be Rod Blagojevich or even the imprisoned George Ryan. He may be Pat Quinn.
While Blagojevich’s rampant political corruption during six years as Illinois’ governor led to his arrest, ouster, indictment and now widespread calls for reform, some experts argue the structure of state government that has led to entrenched leadership and a lack of electoral competition has its origins during an earlier burst of state government reform, led by none other than Quinn.
In 1979 and 1980, Quinn was a good-government activist leading the charge for the “Cutback Amendment,” which reduced the size of the Illinois House by one-third and ended so-called cumulative voting in Illinois. Quinn and other proponents claimed cutting the size of the legislature would save the state money and lead to more competitive elections.
Most of our serious corruption problems in state government (as measured by federal action) have been at the executive level. Four disgraced former governors, Secretary of State Paul Powell’s shoe box, Attorney General Bill Scott’s slush fund. etc. You can’t blame any of that on the Cutback Amendment.
* The real problem with the Cutback Amendment is the consolidation of power by the House Speaker…
Filling a vacant U.S. Senate seat. Providing tax relief. Blocking legislative raises. Improving government efficiency. What do they have in common? A single lawmaker blocked every one of those ideas from being debated in the Illinois House.
Under the House’s strange rules, an objection from just one lawmaker will kill any effort to release legislation that has been bottled up in committee, no matter how many other people support the idea.
So Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie — the No. 2 Democrat in the House — is charged with standing up and objecting when Republicans file motions to release bills they feel should be debated.
The objection itself doesn’t kill the motion. The objection is usually voted on by the full chamber, almost always on a partisan roll call.
Still, it was the Senate Republicans who invented those rules when they were in charge, and the Cutback Amendment only dealt with the House. You can’t completely blame this problem totally on Quinn, either - although the SGOPs adopted the rules because they were proceeding to a “war footing” with Madigan’s tightly controlled House.
Gov. Pat Quinn appeared to take a page out of his predecessor’s playbook Monday. While state lawmakers were meeting in Springfield, Quinn unveiled what he called a “doomsday” budget to a civic club in Chicago. […]
Just as Blagojevich once threatened to lay off state police troopers during budget negotiations, Quinn warned that thousands of teachers and other state employees would be laid off if lawmakers don’t work to fill a gaping budget hole. […]
Quinn’s move was reminiscent of the ousted Blagojevich, who often traveled around the state or held events in Chicago to criticize lawmakers while they were at work hours away in the Capitol.
Quinn apparently learned nothing. He had a perfect opportunity to draw attention to the very real problems faced by his proposals, and instead he pulled a wildly goofy stunt in Chicago - just like Blagojevich would’ve done.
* Quinn is even talking sports like Blagojevich now…
Quinn declined to say who he’d like to have as his running mate when he runs for re-election, but joked, “If the Cubs win the World Series, then probably Lou Piniella.”
“I wish the governor would spend as much energy on finding efficiencies in state government, as putting together this document,” he said.
* The Tribune editorial board, however, apparently thinks the governor should get more strident…
If you want reform, Governor, fight for it. If you then want a tax increase, fight for it. If you want to look like a guy who’s just angling to make friends for the next election, keep letting the people who see you as a short-term placeholder set your agenda.
Here’s some perspective on the financial pickle. The state taps its main checkbook for more than $30 billion a year in spending, and more than half is dedicated to politically sensitive programs in education and health care. Both have proved impervious to significant cuts in the past, one reason why Quinn’s new threat was a gamble.
Factor out the cost of other must-have programs in human services, law enforcement, prisons and the like, and all but 5 percent of the budget is in practical terms immune to the chopping block, said Chrissy Mancini, analyst for the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
Bottom line? There’s no practical way to cobble together enough cuts to make ends meet.
An industry group said Illinois saw the country’s biggest percentage drop in gambling revenue in 2008, and it lays part of the blame on the state’s smoking ban.
In a report released Monday, the American Gaming Assn. said Illinois casinos collected $1.57 billion in 2008 revenue, a 20.9% drop from the previous year. The state’s ban on smoking in public places took effect Jan. 1, 2008.
Indiana saw a 1.6% increase to $2.67 billion in 2008.
* Chicago Magazine has a pretty darned good profile of Rod Blagojevich in its latest issue. Read the whole thing…
Axelrod also had serious doubts about Blagojevich’s readiness to be governor—his ethics, his maturity. “At one point, David asked Rod, ‘Why do you want to be governor?’” says Forrest Claypool, the Cook County commissioner and a longtime friend of Axelrod’s. “And the best that Blagojevich could come up with was, ‘It’ll be fun.’ There was no mission, no principles. It was just, sort of, a game to him.”
* This is classic Rod…
One summer day in 2001, Blagojevich went jogging around his Ravenswood Manor neighborhood. Afterward, he called a colleague. “Guess what?” Blagojevich asked him. “I just ran by Rahm Emanuel’s house. There he was, and we started talking. I told him I was definitely running for governor, and I said, ‘Rahm, you should run for my seat.’”
What Blagojevich didn’t tell Emanuel was that he had offered similar advice to several other prospects who lived in the district. Truth be told, Blagojevich didn’t really care if Emanuel succeeded him or not. (He didn’t much care if the Fifth Congressional District even existed after he gave up the seat, according to a former aide to Emanuel with knowledge of Blagojevich’s dealings. Blagojevich and Mell undertook a failed attempt to reapportion the seat out of existence in return for gubernatorial endorsements from the two downstate Democratic congressmen, whose seats would be spared.)
That’s very true. Blagojevich and Mell were completely open about that proposed deal to eliminate the district, which upset Mayor Daley to no end.
* A clear warning…
But when U.S. senator Dick Durbin met with the new governor in his office two months or so after the election, he says he didn’t exactly see a genuine change agent. “He was excited about filling jobs and contracts,” recalls Durbin. “That stopped me cold. I remember, he said to me, ‘It’s all good.’ He kept saying it over and over—‘It’s all good.’”
* Rod’s delusions and his Obama envy…
Blagojevich told some of the people around him that he was basically a lock to be on John Kerry’s vice presidential short list in 2004—a notion that Whitney Smith, a spokeswoman for Senator Kerry, flatly refutes. Later, the governor felt doubly snubbed by Kerry’s campaign when he wasn’t even asked to speak at the Democratic convention in Boston, according to several Blagojevich associates. Kerry, of course, plucked Obama from obscurity to deliver the keynote speech.
Blagojevich watched the speech from the floor of the Fleet Center. At a backstage reception afterwards, Blagojevich could barely conceal his envy. According to a Democratic insider who asked to remain unnamed, Blagojevich told Obama, “Great speech, Barack.” Then he added, backhandedly, “But, remember, this is as good as it gets.” Obama shot back, “We’ll see.”
An inmate who wants a new murder trial claims he was tortured so badly by Chicago police officers in the 1990s that he would have signed anything, including his murder confession.
