SEIU issue moves to the 10th CD, and other political stories
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * SEIU and ACORN have now become an issue in the 10th Congressional District GOP primary. From a press release…
IllinoisReview has compiled a list of some Republicans who took money from SEIU. * Once again, Pat Quinn referred to Dan Hynes as an ankle biter…
Quinn gets on a phrase and can’t get off of it. Chirping on the sidelines is another one. He referred to Hynes as an ankle biter last month in southern Illinois when asked about a Hynes critique…
* Little surprise here. Congressman Danny Davis may be leaning towards reelection. From The Hill via Progress Illinois…
He hasn’t muscled anyone out at all, and it won’t ever happen. A group of black ministers are having a tough time with the county president’s campaign as well…
At least one of those ministers also had a tough time watching his language…
“The forces of evil.” Sheesh. Todd Stroger was also at the meeting…
He lives in another world, campers. A world that none of us will ever visit. * Speaking of other worlds, Ab Mikva thinks David Hoffman is less of a long shot than Barack Obama was…
Yeah, but he raised a lot of money, ran a super-smart campaign and was a natural. He also had something that Hoffman completely lacks: Campaign experience, including a defeat. * Here’s something else to consider when backing longshots in the primary…
Tougher and a whole lot more expensive. It won’t be easy to go from relative obscurity to beating a well-known, well-funded candidate by February 2nd. * Other stuff…
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * The big news today, of course, is the US Supreme Court has decided to hear an appeal to overturn Chicago’s handgun ban. * The Question: Should the US Supreme Court strike down Chicago’s handgun ban? Explain, and tell us where you live (Chicago, suburbs, Downstate).
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Dead doctors, dead patients and Illinois pays the tab
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * A new Government Accountability Office audit out of DC has found some serious abuses of the Medicaid prescription program. The GAO looked at five states, including Illinois. Those states alone made up 40 percent of Medicaid’s prescription-drug payments in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, according to a story in USA Today…
Not good at all. Here’s what the GAO found…
Dead voters, dead patients and dead doctors. A perfect fit for Illinois [/snark]. In the big picture, we’re not talking about a gigantic dollar amount here. It’s less than $33 million per year for two years - and that’s all five states combined. If Illinois shares equally, that’s less than $7 million, or about $3.5 million in state dollars at a 50-50 match. With the state’s ongoing budget problems, this could become an issue, however. The full GAO report is here. * More budget stuff…
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*** UPDATED x1 *** From the “Strange Campaign” files
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller *** UPDATE *** William Kelly has asked his supporters to come over here and comment because he thinks we’re being unfair to him. He apparently doesn’t respond well to criticism. I’ve already deleted several comments from his supporters because they are commenting under different names with the same IP address. Very stupid move, and usually done to make it look like somebody has more supporters than they actually do. Those people are banned from the blog for good. They probably don’t care because they’re newbies anyway. Still, if you come here, expect to play by the rules or you’ll just be deleted. Thanks. [ *** End of Update *** ] * I guess it takes all kinds to make a political world. William Kelly, the host of a twice a week Comcast Cable TV show which airs after midnight, has tried and tried to get noticed by a wider audience, without a lot of luck. Kelly began his quest by challenging Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias to a charity boxing match. No coverage resulted and there was no response from Giannoulias, of course. Then, Kelly stopped Giannoulias in front of a US Senate campaign fundraiser on the morning of September 11th to interview him. Giannoulias smiled, said “It’s good to see you, Bill” and walked away. Kelly sent out a press release claiming he had “flustered” Giannoulias, but that’s not really what the videotape showed. The video did earn Kelly a write-up in a Washington Times blog, but little else. So, like just about everybody else in the world, Kelly has now jumped on the SEIU/ACORN bandwagon and tried to talk to Giannoulias at a fundraising event this week. Giannoulias kept walking. Hard to blame him. Here’s the video… From Kelly’s press release today…
* Kelly is actually running for comptroller as a Republican. This has to be one of the oddest campaign strategies I’ve ever seen. Giannoulias is the treasurer. So, what’s the beef? I just don’t get it. Strange. It’s really all for naught anyway because he’s gonna get creamed by Judy Baar Topinka in the GOP primary. And I gotta wonder how long Comcast is going to tolerate him using his TV show to boost his campaign and vice-a-versa. But, hey, this is a free country. It’s actually kind of fun to watch Giannoulias squirm a bit. But this is weird, man. Weird.
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Jesse White kicks off final campaign
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * Secretary of State Jesse White formally kicked off his reelection campaign yesterday. If he wins, and it’s more than just highly doubtful that anybody could beat him, he’ll get a fourth term. And if he serves out that term, he’ll have held the job longer than anyone else in Illinois history. But this will almost undoubtedly be his last campaign…
White ran in 1998 and promised not to use the office as a springboard. Jim Edgar and George Ryan had both used their SoS tenure to get them elected governor. But White’s promise has meant that nobody else has been able to move up the ladder. SoS is a much coveted job, to say the least. So, while he’ll be lauded for the next year by members of both parties, inside many will be plotting their 2014 bids. Most of the heavy-hitters showed up for White’s Chicago announcement yesterday…
Not too sure what to make of Hynes’ no-show. …Adding… I’ve been told that Hynes’ twin sons had a birthday yesterday. Completely understandable why he missed the event. White didn’t just announce in Chicago. He also headed Downstate…
White is a talented politician. He won all 102 Illinois counties in 2002 - an amazing feat. His work with the Jesse White Tumblers made him a hero in many minds. Few people even want to drive past Cabrini Green, let alone go in there and turn so many kids around…
And he wisely made some early moves to clean up his office which have allowed him to stay in the office…
He’s about as close to unbeatable as one can get in politics. It’s no wonder that the Republicans had to search high and low and ended up with an amateur from Aurora to run against him. Thoughts?
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Morning Shorts
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray * Oops: County computer error further delays Cook tax bills
* Daley appoints CHA chief Peterson to CTA board * Mayor Daley taps ex-campaign manager to lead CTA board
* Gift cards for city workers?
* Weis: Help us get others
* Fenger beating death: Violence, tension had been building over years
* Guilty verdict in Brown’s Chicken case * Jurors to Decide on Death Penalty in Brown’s Chicken Case * Oak Lawn board OKs sexual harassment settlement
* Chicago Olympics: How the Copenhagen vote will work Friday * IOC to 2016 bidders: Play nice * Poll shows Chicagoans, Americans support 2016 Games in U.S.: Ryan * Poll shows steady support for Olympics: Chicago 2016 * Community Organizer Says Olympics Will Bring Long-Awaited Improvements * Protestors Against Chicago Olympics Gather at City Hall
* Some Chicago residents hoping Olympics bid a bust * South Side Resident Fears Chicago Olympics Will Uproot Community * City failed to sell key Olympic idea: Fun * Landing Games would be 7-year feast of news * Joliet hoping to boost profile if Chicago wins Olympics
* Blue Island reaches deals with unions to avoid most layoffs
* Elk Grove Village restaurants offer 10 percent off meals * Support drying up for early learning center
* New Lenox approves round -the-clock construction on Wal-Mart * Illinois utility begins light bulb recycling
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A little problem
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * The template I chose for our new website is currently unable to handle the sort of high-volume traffic that we experience here on a regular basis. We’re working on a fix, but we’re also taking the new site offline for a while because it was killing this site as well (they’re both on the same servers). Be patient. We’ll get it worked out somehow. I’d hate to have to start all over again, though. Sheesh, that was a lot of work.
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Tell the truth, governor
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * Gov. Pat Quinn is hosting a rally of university types this afternoon at UIC. The rally is designed to boost Quinn’s efforts to pass legislation to fund the rest of the year’s MAP scholarship grant program. The money runs dry at the end of this semester. But as I told subscribers in detail yesterday, Quinn has blamed everybody else except himself for this mess. Dan Hynes’ campaign issued a press release earlier today suggesting six questions that should be asked of Quinn at the rally. Question 2…
Quinn made that “no reservations about signing the budget” comment during a July press conference that we videotaped at the time. Quinn, you may recall, surrounded himself with his budget staff during the media event. I’ve isolated Quinn’s “no reservations” comment for you today. Also in this clip, Quinn talks about how he would have to “manage” the budget “very well” to make sure everything went smoothly. I guess that didn’t happen? Watch it… Question 3…
As I told subscribers yesterday, the governor used his wide discretionary authority (given to him by the General Assembly) to squirrel away $180 million in a reserve account. But throughout this MAP debate, Quinn hasn’t said Word One about using that cash stash to help keep the scholarship program alive. The program is short about $225 million. Instead, he wants to raise income taxes to shore up the program or hike the cigarette tax by a buck a pack. * In other political news, the National Journal today defended its decision a few weeks ago to raise the competitive rating of Illinois’ US Senate race to the second-most vulernable seat in the country…
Thoughts? Hoffman, by the way, was endorsed today by Abner Mikva. * Other campaign stuff…
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The trouble with witch hunts
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * One of the problems with witch hunts - aside from the fact that they’re too often used for nefarious purposes - is that they eventually start to burn those who merely associated with the alleged witches. Things can get way out of hand because it becomes impossible to stop the endless strings of associations that can be made. And so it goes with this ACORN thing. Not content to just bash the organization, it’s now been deemed necessary by some that those who’ve associated with the group must also be demonized. Enter Republican US Senate candidate Mark Kirk. You’d think with all the boasting about how Kirk is the heavy-duty GOP primary front-runner, that someone known as one of the most liberal Republicans in DC (which is somewhat of a misnomer because DC GOPdom is so rightwardly skewed) wouldn’t have to prove he’s just like those bloggers at Illinois Review. Now, don’t get me wrong here. IR does a very good job on many, many things. But the site has been obsessed with ACORN lately and has been pairing the group with the Service Employees International Union in a single name for weeks. Kirk eagerly jumped on the IR bandwagon yesterday and produced a complicated flow-chart to demonstrate why the US Census should disown SEIU because the union has supported ACORN in the past. ABC7 didn’t cover the presser, and neither did NBC5 or CBS2. The Olympics coverage is pretty much drowning out almost everything right now. Fox Chicago had a preview of yesterday’s Kirk presser on its early morning show, but nothing else has been posted on its site. The Tribune ran a brief story…
The Sun-Times mixed in a foreign policy angle…
* Obviously, Kirk is following the classic GOP presidential election strategy. Move way right in the primary and then move to the center for the general. Reassure the Downstaters and the more right-leaning suburbanites that he’s with them now. Then worry about assuaging the moderate independents later. He’s also obviously taking advantage of the fact that SEIU has endorsed the Democratic frontrunner, Alexi Giannoulias. But, as I’ve pointed out before, this SEIU thing is a landmine for Illinois Republicans. State Rep. Beth Coulson is considered the best bet to hold onto Kirk’s US House seat, but she’s been endorsed by SEIU in the past. GOP gubernatorial candidate Kirk Dillard received an SEIU contribution earlier this year. The Republican State Senate Campaign Committee accepted $10,000 from SEIU in March. House Republican Leader Tom Cross took a $10K contribution in February from SEIU Healthcare, which was once a brother/sister of ACORN Illinois, back when the group existed (there are actually two $10K contris listed from SEIU to Cross on the same day, but that could be a duplicate computer entry). As explained at the top, it’s dangerous to conduct a guilt by association witch hunt of SEIU when so many of Kirk’s fellow Illinois Republicans have been taking the union’s cash over the years. If SEIU is guilty of its associations with ACORN, then what does that say about the Republicans who have associated with SEIU? Where does the witch hunt end? Does he want to burn them all? Maybe that’s why yesterday’s presser was so lightly covered.
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Morning Shorts
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray * Data shows more Illinois residents live in poverty
* Applause for Mayor Daley’s Olympic effort * PJSTAR: An Olympian effort from the Windy City * Chicago delegation leaves for Copenhagen * Olympic countdown: Long night’s journey into day * With Games on the line, we’ve got perfect go-to guy * Will Obama tip Olympic scales for Chicago? * Chicagoans Protest the 2016 Bid
* If we end up losing … * Blame Rio site on ad exec * Report: Fire city public safety exec
* Sources: Ex-CHA chief, Daley ally next CTA head
* Congress Hotel: Despite strike, judge allows sidewalk cafe
* Escapee case: 2 investigators overpowered by felon may face administrative charges
* In-your-face brutality rivets and disgusts
* Tensions Flare at Vigil for Teen Beating Victim
* 3 teenagers charged in Chicago beating death
* 4th teen charged in beating death of student
* Fenger High School: Fear, frustration come to campus
* When school bell rings, hell can break loose
* Union leader: Mayor ‘a threat’ to Rockford
* $2.5M going to reduce Illinois DNA backlog * Illinois 33rd Brigade wraps up Afghanistan mission
* Troops’ return ends Ill. Guard Afghan mission
* Nativity scene to be back in Capitol this Christmas * Late harvest, shorter days could mean danger for farmers * Every 26 seconds, someone hits a deer
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller • I’m in transit so blogging will resume later this morning. Let’s reverse the order today and do the question first. • Whom are you supporting in the US Senate campaign? Why?
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