“A couple hundred grand to Barack and playing hoops on the court with Barack, and you weigh that political capital next to the endorsement of my family for Barack at the critical juncture for his campaign when he did,” Rep. Kennedy said. “And to me, if that were a fight, they’d have to stop it because it’s a slam dunk for the Kennedys.”
Oof. Looks like a throwdown to me.
Giannoulias responds on the high road…
In a phone interview, Giannoulias responded to Rep. Kennedy’s statement by touting his long-standing relationship with Obama. “I’ve been friends with the president for a long time,” Giannoulias said. “He is like a mentor to me. He is one of the reasons I got involved in politics. I don’t want to get into an argument about who knows him better.”
* 2:07 pm - As I suggested to you yesterday, Paul Vallas has decided not to run for Cook County Board President next year…
After months contemplating switching political parties and running for Cook County Board president in 2010 as a Republican, the former Chicago Public Schools chief has decided to renew his current contract as chief of the Recovery School District in New Orleans.
Vallas said today he feels strongly that his work to restore public schools in the Hurricane Katrina-ravished area is not close enough to completion to allow him to leave. […]
“I’m not going to be able to transition out of here and run,” Vallas said.
“I’ve got too many things pending here. Our test scores took off here, but there’s more to do. Politics would create too much of a hardship.” This comes as bad news for the Illinois Republican Party, which has been searching for a political star to back in a prominent ballot position.
* 3:39 pm - House GOP Leader Tom Cross talked to WUIS about the budget, capital bill and other stuff. Raw audio is here. Cross talks up front about something I’ve been telling readers about since the end of session - a little provision that Speaker Madigan inserted into the BIMP bill.
A Republican state senator who appeared in campaign commercials for President Barack Obama says he’s considering a run for Illinois governor.
Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale told Chicago’s WFLD-TV on Thursday that it’s time for a change after six years of Democratic rule in Illinois that started with ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Here’s that Obama campaign ad to refresh your memory…
* The Question: Can Dillard overcome that TV ad in a GOP primary? Explain.
The Illinois Finance Authority board signed off on more than $1 billion worth of nonprofit health care deals and accepted the resignation of executive director John Filan, but then rehired him in an advisory capacity to help implement a revamped $3 billion program for renewable energy. […]
Filan’s resignation, effective July 1, fulfills a commitment Gov. Pat Quinn made to House Speaker Michael Madigan last month. Madigan specifically targeted Filan in so-called fumigation legislation he proposed to purge state government of about 700 political appointees made by former governors Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan. Blagojevich faces a federal corruption trial on pay-to-play charges and Ryan is serving a federal prison term for corruption. […]
Quinn had been reluctant to force Filan out. The two men are longtime friends dating back to their work on former Democratic Gov. Dan Walker’s campaign 35 years ago. With Madigan’s legislation pending, Quinn asked the speaker to remove the language targeting Filan so he could exit on his own by July 1. Madigan made the agreement public on the House floor prior to the vote last month on the legislation. The House passed the legislation, but the Senate never voted on it. […]
Quinn spokesman Robert Reed said the governor supports the action. “We think it’s for the good of the agency in terms of continuity and to ensure a smooth adjustment,” he said.
Governor, when you agree to a deal that includes Filan resigning, you shouldn’t then stick up for a contract extension.
* In other budget-related news, I told subscribers about this on Monday…
According to Illinois Department of Human Services spokesman Tom Green, plans are being made to close state psychiatric hospitals and developmental centers in the event a state budget is adopted that does not adequately fund mental health programs.
As subscribers well know, the plan is far wider and deeper than that.
* As I’ve been telling subscribers for days now, one of the reasons for the planned mass closures is that, on top of the inherent problems with the 50 percent budget, the budget passed by the GA has a $1.7 billion deficit in it…
While state officials have declined to put a price on the potential loss in federal matches to the state, a policy expert from the Heartland Alliance tells us that an estimate floating out of the governor’s office — based on the bare-bones budget bill that passed the General Assembly last month — puts the figure at a whopping $1.7 billion.
The state’s pension payments are appropriated but not fully funded, which means the state won’t be able to put up the money to acquire matching federal Medicaid dollars, to the tune of $1.7B. Great, eh?
In the meantime, advocacy groups are hoping to keep the political pressure on lawmakers to adopt an income tax increase — clearly the best hope for salvaging the state’s safety net. [Today], SEIU Healthcare Illinois is holding demonstrations outside the offices of Democratic Reps. Jack Franks, Mike Zalewski, Jim Brosnahan, and Kevin McCarthy, all of whom voted against a temporary income tax increase last month.
If lawmakers spend money on higher education, it’s not because they want to improve our colleges but because they want to send unqualified students to the University of Illinois.
* After calling around about this the other day, I have my doubts that Daniels will actually pull the trigger…
Former House Speaker Lee Daniels is weighing a political comeback after a federal investigation into the misuse of state-paid House Republican staffers on legislative campaigns sank his government career.
Those close to the longtime House Republican leader have made it known that Daniels is interested in succeeding DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, who is considering a run for governor next year.
Polling is under way to measure Daniels’ popularity in a race for chairman against other potential candidates, including state Sen. Carol Pankau (R-Itasca).
“I know he is interested, and I think he and others are exploring the possibility of him coming back out of retirement to help reform county government in DuPage,” said Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst), chairman of the county GOP.
There is a major local move afoot to block Sen. Pankau from running in that race. Daniels is being used. We’ll see if he takes the bait. Again, I’m not sure he will. The lede in that Sun-Times story ought to be enough to remind him that political retirement would be preferable.
Schillerstrom hasn’t made an official announcement, but he is making the rounds, raising the money and talking the game. He has a staff in place and a Web site up.
“This is very much for real,” says campaign spokesman Brad Hahn. “This is what we are doing.”
* The list of people interested in lieutenant governor is quite long on the Democratic side. Expect the same for the GOP…
State Rep. Dave Winters (R-Rockford) has apparently decided to run for the GOP 2010 bid for Lt. Governor. […]
And Chicago’s 42nd Ward GOP is hosting a wine tasting party on June 24, and they’re announcing Rep. Winters as their featured guest, as well.
The fee from ASK Public Strategies was paid to Burris for appearing in a political TV ad in which he urged Illinoisans to vote against a new state constitutional convention in a referendum, said Jim O’Connor, a spokesman for Burris
* And while we’re kinda sorta on the subject of Blagojevich…
During an episode aired Wednesday of NBC’s “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!,” Patti Blagojevich said her husband’s good friends “just weren’t strong enough to stand against the tide or speak up for him.”
“People that he’s known for 17 years, they had to vote to impeach him …” she said.
They “had” to vote to impeach her husband because he was crooked and the case was ironclad. Plain and simple.
* Delmarie Cobb: Roland … Has Made Dick Durbin A Better Senator: Delmarie Cobb, adviser to Sen. Roland Burris, said that she “jokes with Roland that he has made Dick Durbin a better senator than he ever was.” She also asserted that Durbin “is so busy trying to show Roland up that he is suddenly running all over town at ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings.” Hanania asked in response, “Is it really him leveraging Roland’s problems to make himself look better?” “Oh, that’s exactly what it is,” Cobb responded.
* Rep. Shimkus Offers Full Disclosure: The congressman’s diligence extended to recording his receipt of an “I’m a Bush Republican” button sent tauntingly to members of Congress ahead of President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union Address by the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change.
* Gov. Pat Quinn was quite proud of his executive order to consolidate these two agencies, but the GA thought otherwise and slipped a bill through that has gone unnoticed until now…
In one of their last pieces of businesses before leaving town early June 1, legislators sent the governor a bill that would cancel his directive to transfer the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s functions to DNR.
Under Quinn’s executive order, issued in April, the transfer would take effect July 1. […]
“We believe that executive order exceeded his authority to reorganize the executive branch,” said Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat who sponsored House Bill 88, the measure that would reverse Quinn’s executive order. […]
His bill passed in the Senate, 52-1, on May 29. Two days later, the House voted for it, 107-11. It’s now on the governor’s desk.
Can’t believe I missed that one. Oh, well. Good pickup by the SJ-R.
* I did catch this one, though, telling subscribers the headline would write itself…
Video poker and other video gambling machines would be allowed to locate as close as 100 feet from a school or a church under a late-night, last-minute change included in the nearly $29 billion construction program state lawmakers approved last week.
The original video gambling proposal required the machines to be more than 1,000 feet - about two city blocks - away from schools, churches, riverboat casinos and horse tracks.
The bill was then changed to allow video gaming establishments to be licensed within 100 feet of schools and houses of worship. The 1000-foot restriction remained in place for riverboats, tracks and OTBs.
The explanation makes sense, however…
“If you have a church in a town square in a small town, then everything is within 1,000 feet,” said Mautino, a Spring Valley Democrat. “I looked around my town and there would only be one place that wouldn’t be within 1,000 feet.
“Whatever the law is for a liquor license, that’s what it should be.”
Mautino also admitted that if the line was moved closer to schools and churches, it should’ve also been moved closer to the other establishments.
In one of his final acts as a top prison administrator in Ohio, Michael Randle helped implement a plan to release medically ailing prison inmates to nursing homes. It’s not clear whether he might bring that same proposal to Illinois. […]
In Ohio, Randle’s plan to move terminally ill and incapacitated inmates into nursing homes was aimed at shifting the cost of medical care from general state funds to federal health care dollars.
Randle, who was a top deputy in the Ohio system, said the affected prisoners – about 20 to 40 low-level, non-violent offenders – would be essentially bedridden. Prosecutors, judges and victims would be notified before a prisoner is moved.
Randle has yet to be confirmed. And I have no idea why this story hasn’t gained any real traction in the Illinois media as of yet.
Revenues for Illinois’ nine casinos fell by 9.3 percent from January through March of this year compared with the first quarter of 2008, the American Gaming Association reported.
That rate of decline was the third-worst among the 12 states that have casino gambling, trailing industry leaders Nevada and New Jersey, which experienced revenue declines exceeding 14 percent for the period.
But the drop in revenue wasn’t as steep as what Illinois experienced between 2007 and 2008, when casinos had to transition their facilities into smoke-free areas.
City Hall employees already have been forced to take as many as two furlough days in 2007 and six last year. But most elected officials took no more than three unpaid days last year, according to city budget documents obtained by the Tribune through the state’s public records law.
Aldermen George Cardenas (12th), Frank Olivo (13th), Howard Brookins (21st), Daniel Solis (25th), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Richard Mell (33rd) and Brian Doherty (41st) had not taken any unpaid days off since January 2007. The other 43 aldermen, as well as Daley, Clerk Miguel del Valle and Treasurer Stephanie Neely, have voluntarily accepted at least some days without pay.
Navy Pier has more than tripled its surveillance network — with cameras so sophisticated, they can pick out a face in a crowd six blocks away — thanks to a $4.2 million Homeland Security grant designed to prevent a lakefront terrorist attack.
