“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.
*** UPDATE - 5:30 pm *** Vallas has gone back and forth on a potential candidacy for months. But he talked to an old friend of mine this afternoon and that friend tells me that Vallas definitely appears leaning hard against a run. Again, considering the guy’s history, things can change.
Vallas will be a speaker during a luncheon from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Friday at WeaverRidge Golf Club, 5100 N. Weaveridge Blvd. He will also discuss education during a special City Council retreat that starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* The Tribune praises Paul Vallas today and practically begs him to return to Illinois…
Now he’s deciding whether to return to Chicago and run as a Republican for Cook County Board president. He told us that he’s still a few days away from a decision. He sounded just as likely to stay in Louisiana as he is to leave.
He probably knows that raising the performance of the Cook County GOP is a more Herculean task than taking on any school system — hurricane or not.
But it would be very, very good to see him come home.
* The Question: Under what circumstances do you see Paul Vallas winning the Cook County president’s race as a Republican? Don’t forget to explain fully. Thanks.
The Public Building Commission approved moving ahead with the designs and construction. Rob Rejman with the Park District says the new harbors will hold more than a thousand boats.
* Vision for fully open lakefront put into action plan
The Friends of the Parks plan would seem a shoe-in. Chicago controls about 80 percent of its 30-mile lakefront, but transforming the last four miles into park or bike paths could become a political headache.
Illinois joins effort to update school curriculums: Illinois has joined a list of 13 states in a project designed to make public-school curriculums and teaching methods more relevant to today’s world, the Illinois State Board of Education announced Tuesday.
Chicago’s embattled parking meter contractor still isn’t writing parking tickets to augment city enforcement and won’t until myriad problems that have plagued the transition are fully resolved, a top mayoral aide said Tuesday.
“We haven’t even had the discussion on when they’re gonna resume. . . . [It won’t happen] until we are comfortable. . . . Our concern is making sure they focus their efforts and resources on putting pay-and-displays in and making sure they’re operating well.”
“It’s worth a try. It’s one last-ditch effort to find a resolution, so he doesn’t even have to cause people anxiety by sending out layoff notices,” she said.
But, Heard reiterated what the mayor has been saying for weeks: With city revenues continuing their steady decline, Daley is in no position to offer union leaders a two-year, no-layoff guarantee in exchange for cost-cutting concessions.
Up to 1,000 Chicago Public Schools non-classroom employees will lose their jobs this year under a reorganization to save $100 million.
About half the layoffs will hit central office — 27 percent of employees there — in the next two weeks, while another 500 will be cut from citywide positions over the next year, sources said.
Davlin warned late last month, only three months into the city fiscal year, that city finances were heading sharply into the red. In an op-ed article published in Sunday’s State Journal-Register, Davlin disclosed that the projected deficit is $7 million to $9 million.
But their revelation that the city started leasing the space in October 2007, one month before they bought the building, only makes anyone with knowledge of real estate time frames more suspicious about the arrangement. At this point, I start with the presumption that the lease was done for the benefit of the Vanecko group until the city can prove it wasn’t.
That’s the price the Daley family has to pay for going down this road in the first place.
Inspector General Hoffman, meanwhile, sought information from the city pension boards about the Vanecko and Davis deal. The pension boards in question, some of whose members are city officials, wouldn’t answer, refusing to respond to a Hoffman subpoena. That’s when Hoffman brought in the feds and lowered a larger subpoena boom on them.
That shouldn’t have been necessary. Those pension funds, those city officials and all those stonewalling city departments should have been as transparent as the mayor claims he is.
Citing Scaccia’s letter and other documents, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday that accuses Crestwood officials of lying more than 120 times about their secret use of a community well contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. The suit outlines a systematic coverup of Crestwood’s routine use of its tainted well and provides more details about actions first publicly revealed by the Tribune in April.
“Crestwood officials violated the public’s trust and the laws designed to protect public health,” Madigan said in a statement. “Through this lawsuit, we are seeking to hold these officials accountable for their conduct and to make sure that this does not happen again in Illinois.”
That proclamation was the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s official warning to rebellious Southern states to return to the Union within three months or face military emancipation of their slaves.
The son of former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert took another step toward running for his father’s old congressional seat, announcing [yesterday] that he’s forming a committee to start raising campaign cash.
Ethan Hastert, 31, is a lawyer and former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who moved back to far west suburban Elburn in the 14th Congressional District. After Dennis Hastert retired, Republicans lost the long-held seat in a special election last year to Democrat Bill Foster of Geneva, who also won a full term in November.
From his press release…
Ethan Hastert on Tuesday announced that he will form a political committee to advance his run for Congress representing the Illinois 14th Congressional District.
The longtime Fox Valley resident took the next step in his bid for the U.S. House after spending recent weeks traveling the district, meeting with and listening to voters and local leaders. Those conversations revealed that residents are hungry to rein in government and spending and disappointed with what they see from the current leadership in Washington, Hastert said.
* Moving on to the Senate race, Collin Corbett has a sharp rundown on why doesn’t believe that Lisa Madigan is running for Senate, why her touted candidacy is helping Democrats and how the GOP can counter it…
Lisa Madigan is a powerhouse in the gubernatorial race, but after losing her funds and diminishing her name advantage she is a weaker candidate for the US Senate. In addition, the field has been cleared for her to run for Governor. That is why, despite the rumors, she is not even remotely considering a run for Congress’ upper chamber. Her name is simply being floated as a tactical move by Democratic strategists. This rumor was started and perpetuated by Democratic interests for several political reasons, and Republicans have been playing along needlessly. An examination of the thinking behind this move reveals a glimpse of the strategic games Democrats play on a regular basis.
* GOP Congressman Mark Kirk has taken heat in the Democratic blogosphere over comments he says he made to Chinese officials…
“One of the messages I had - because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor - is that the budget numbers that the US government has put forward should not be believed,’ Mr Kirk said.
‘Congress is actually going to spend quite a bit more,’ he said.
America’s credibility — and, in particular, President Obama’s reliability — with China is absolutely necessary to the health of the nation’s economy. It’s one thing for conservative lawmakers to try to undermine confidence in America’s leadership on Fox News or in some tirade on the House floor, but Mark Kirk, by his own admission, went directly to the Chinese and told them not to believe the Obama administration. Our role in international finance is predicated on the full faith and credit of the United States government, and Mark Kirk wants China to think this isn’t worth much.
There may be more reckless and irresponsible moves a congressional Republican can make, but very few come to mind.
But is what he said true? If it was, and it seems likely, then what’s the big deal?
Still, he may not have helped his case on this point when he told a Fox News host this…
VAN SUSTEREN: So why is — so why would [Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner,] make — why would he say something else, the “justifiable confidence”? I mean, why — why would he tell us something different?
KIRK: Well, because both parties don’t want to create a panic,
Um, does that mean one party does want to create a panic? Just askin…
* Political consultant John Ruff dies in auto accident: A key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris died in an automobile accident Monday, authorities in far west-suburban Kendall County confirmed Tuesday.
* Gov. Quinn has a real problem with people distrusting his word. The CFofL’s Gannon complained to CBS2 that Quinn promised to sign the capital bill then reneged…
“I feel like the governor has let us down,” said Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon. “If somebody gives you their word to do something, I think you’ve got to live up to that word. And he indicated to all of labor that he would sign the bill. Now we’re just asking him to sign it.”
At a time when Quinn needs people to believe his budget-cutting threats, there’s a growing sense that his word is not his bond. Not good.
“It’s tough for a whole host of agencies, groups that take care of victims of domestic violence, the list goes on and on. The Democrats have enough to get through six months with the budget,” said State Rep. Tom Cross, (R) House minority leader.
* But the governor is sending out notices soon to groups reliant on state grants…
Quinn says that unless lawmakers pass a tax increase by July 1, the state will be forced to slash social service programs that benefit the needy. He said his office will send notices to hundreds of agencies later this week notifying them that their budgets will be cut in half. Lawmakers approved a budget with only enough money for about six months of state operations.
“If we don’t get a budget by the end of this month, very bad things will happen to innocent people in Illinois and I don’t want to see that happen,” Quinn said after the meeting.
* And Speaker Madigan explains why some of his members are reluctant to vote for tax hikes…
[Their constituents] are telling them, “Look, I’m out of work, or I’m working less hours than I was two or three months ago, and so I can’t afford the tax increase.”
* The Southern Illinoisan apparently doesn’t realize that state employees have a union contract…
Wouldn’t it be simpler if Gov. Pat Quinn called a special session and our lawmakers seriously explored all potential budget cuts - not just the headline-grabbing scary proposals to cut teachers and police while releasing prisoners?
Surely there must be other areas to consider. Businesses cut costs when times are tough. Why can’t the state consider ordering unpaid furloughs for employees, leaving all vacant positions dark, operating state offices only four days per week, deferring scheduled pay raises and reducing the pay of all state employees by 10 percent?
The SI also doesn’t grasp the depth of this problem. Laying off half of all state employees would save about $1.5 billion, so their suggestions would save infinitely less. And even if you did whack half the workers from their jobs, that still leaves a $5.5 billion hole for next fiscal year.
* Wills tries to get a straight answer on tax hikes from statewide officials without much success…
As the governor and legislators struggle to balance the state budget, Illinois’ other statewide elected officials are largely ducking the key question of whether to raise income taxes.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a likely candidate for governor next year, won’t take a firm position. Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois’ chief financial officer and another politician looking at his 2010 options, says raising taxes is acceptable only as part of a “fundamental restructuring” of state government. He won’t explain what that means.
And Secretary of State Jesse White, a government official for 32 years, says he doesn’t know enough about the problem to judge whether a tax increase is necessary.
Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias hasn’t played a leadership role in the tax debate, but he does answer the tax question clearly, arguing an income tax increase must be part of the solution with state government drowning in red ink.
Republicans have urged major cuts in the budget instead, including to pension benefits going to state workers. Jacobs rejected that idea Tuesday.
However, Republicans say tax increases won’t solve the state’s long-term problems. And, they say, savings can be found without wreaking havoc.
“There’s a lot of things they can cut out of that budget that’s not going to affect the quality of life for people in Illinois,” Rock Island County GOP Chair Susan Carpentier said.
Quinn, a Democrat, proposed the pension benefit cuts. Several Republicans in the House were not enamored with them. And if the chairperson knows of these cuts, she should make a list and count to $7 billion.
* Domestic abuse cases spike: And just when the demand for services is at its peak, domestic violence programs are colliding with other economic factors — budget shortfalls, hiring freezes and shrinking contributions.
