“I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived,” Blagojevich said. “I saw it all growing up.”
On Monday, Blagojevich said the comment was “stupid, stupid, stupid.”
He said it was meant as a metaphor for his disappointment with Obama, whom he accused of doing more to help Wall Street than Main Street.
I was going to do a post today about how his apology revealed more about his jury strategy than anything else, but Mark Brown beat me to it and is exactly right on the money…
What’s just as obvious is that Blagojevich was particularly worried he might have offended those in the African-American community he has worked so hard to cultivate since his arrest — Exhibit A being the appointment of Roland Burris to replace Obama — in hopes of getting at least one person on his jury who might take pity and vote to acquit.
And if this stuff about Attorney General Lisa Madigan is, indeed, on the federal wiretaps, jurors are gonna be horrified…
Playing cute with what he could say about the government wiretaps, Blagojevich let this drop to Esquire about the deal he says he proposed to send Lisa Madigan to the Senate:
“In conversations over the telephone, without me saying what’s on it, because I can’t, but I recall over and over I’m saying things like, ‘If I can get this, how much do I love the people of Illinois to make that [bleep] senator?”
The magazine didn’t bleep out the c-word, but Blago was caught off guard when reporters asked him about using it, admitting he hadn’t read the article yet.
“I don’t think I said that,” he offered, getting that worried look he gets in his beady little eyes when he’s been caught.
He better not have used that word because female jurors will revolt. Steve Brown, a spokesman for the AG’s father, gave his usual response…
“The former governor is a very confused and troubled human being,” said Steve Brown.
“If everyone looks up the word sociopath on Google I think they’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on.”
* Congressman Bobby Rush will endorse Cook County Board President Todd Stroger today. According to a press release, Rush will be “surrounded by a dynamic coalition of clergy,
civic, elected officials, community leaders and the candidate.”
Rush is infamous for his race-baiting ways, but he’ll have a tough time topping a group called “Soldiers for Stroger,” headed by Gator Bradley, which is distributing some pretty nasty fliers on behalf of the board president…
* Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorsed Toni Preckwinkle for county board president yesterday, calling the Alderman “the only progressive in this race.” Have a look…
* The Cook County Board President candidates debated yesterday and threw a bit of mud…
Preckwinkle bashed Brown on several fronts, including the clerk’s receipt of gifts from her employees and Earnfare workers passing her nominating petitions. Preckwinkle characterized the clerk as having “stumbled from one crisis to the next.”
Brown said the incidents Preckwinkle cited “relate to others and not myself.”
Brown said she got rid of the Earnfare campaign worker as soon as she learned of the problem.
As far as employees giving her gifts, Brown said: “I gave them gifts, too. That wasn’t reported. We’re like a family. We give each other gifts during the holiday time period.”
Terry O’Brien, head of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, asked incumbent Todd Stroger about a July 2009 Better Government Association study that found of 11 county service contracts only three went to the lowest bidder and all were tied to political donations.
“You claim to sponsor a number of reform initiatives, is that what you’d consider reform?,” O’Brien asked.
Stroger responded during the City Club of Chicago-sponsored debate that he didn’t know “exactly what contracts you are talking about.”
Brown asked Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien how he got to be a millionaire on his $80,000 government salary, suggesting it was in doing consultant work for polluters. “I do not apologize for being a successful businessman,” O’Brien said, adding, “Terry O’Brien does not protect polluters.” He called those charges, previously leveled by Preckwinkle as well, “defamatory.”
Meanwhile, it seems top Republican leaders are turning on Palatine Township GOP Committeeman Gary Skoien as he seeks re-election following a domestic incident involving his wife and two other women at his Inverness home.
Challenger Aaron Del Mar, a freshman Palatine councilman, says he has landed the backing of both Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady of St. Charles and Cook County GOP boss Lee Roupas. Roupas has the seat Skoien had from 2004 to 2007 when he famously put a bounty on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s head for evidence that would lead to his conviction on corruption charges.
Meanwhile, Del Mar has never voted in a Republican primary. According to voter records, the 31-year-old has only voted in one primary - a Democratic one.
Del Mar tells Animal Farm that is because he is young. He hasn’t had much time, he says, to cast primary ballots. He says he voted in the 2008 Democratic primary to help drag out that parties internal battles leading into the general election.
The proposal announced by the mayor and the governor calls for giving convention center officials more control over labor rules and taking some of the power away from the many trade unions that work at the convention center, including the right to strike. The proposal also includes an effort to restructure the crushing debt schedule facing the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the convention hall and Navy Pier.
But in Springfield, lawmakers threw cold water on the idea of giving any more authority to the current McPier managers, appointed by the mayor and governor. Instead, a House committee sent a bi-partisan message with an 11-0 vote for a bill that would dump the current McPier board and put in place a smaller interim panel to examine the growing expenses and loss of convention activities.
“We’re at a crisis, a crisis of management,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, Madigan’s top lieutenant. She said lawmakers would not consider going along with the work rule changes or giving the convention authority more borrowing power until they know what went wrong.
“It’s time for a little new broom, a little sweep clean,” Currie said. “If they can convince us that it makes economic sense to extend the taxes or extend their borrowing power, well, we have the opportunity to come back and do it.”
“A few hundred workers in one building” would lose some rights, McPier Chairman John Gates said, but in exchange, “Thirty-five thousand (industry) workers would save their jobs.”
One top labor leader, Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, had a mixed reaction to the proposal.
Auditing contractors is a good idea, one that workers have sought for many years, Mr. Gannon said. But despite several questions on the subject, he declined to take a position on the public employment/no-strike clause. “I need to run that up the flagpole with the unions down there (at McCormick Place),” Mr. Gannon said.
Prosecuting attorneys would receive advance warning about the early release of prison inmates under legislation a House committee approved Monday.
As proposed, the Department of Corrections would have to notify the relevant state’s attorneys at least 14 days before an inmate could be released early. State law presently proscribes only that state’s attorneys get “reasonable” notice before an inmate is let out before the scheduled date. […]
The amendment approved Monday also will require inmates to serve at least 60 days in the state correctional system before review for early release.
State Rep. Jim Sacia, a Republican from Pecatonica, said he would like to see another addition that would require victims, too, be notified.
* A committee also advanced a bill to allow the state to borrow $250 million to help ease the financial crunch on human service providers…
Gov. Pat Quinn could get the ability to borrow additional millions to make health care payments under legislation that gained initial support from lawmakers on Monday.
Quinn’s attempts at short-term borrowing have been thwarted by Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, who’s criticized the governor for being inconsistent in his plans and having no real way to pay off the loans. […]
Lawmakers entered the picture on Monday when an Illinois House committee voted to let Quinn access federal health care money to leverage additional borrowing since Hynes has not gone along. If the House and Senate were to approve this deal, Quinn may not need Hynes’ approval.
Although they rejected the idea in October, the Illinois House is again mulling whether to give Gov. Pat Quinn extra time to craft a proposed state budget.
In action Monday, a House committee endorsed legislation that could eventually push Quinn’s budget address into March. Usually, the governor’s budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is presented in mid-February.
Republicans Monday continued to push an idea to give people a penalty-free chance to catch up on back taxes in order to generate some quick cash for the struggling state budget.
Republicans first floated the so-called “tax amnesty” plan last year as a chance to get $100 million immediately to pay for the state’s largest need-based college scholarship program.
Democrats largely ignored the idea then, and lawmakers approved spending $200 million on the Monetary Award Program without a way to come up with the money.
At a hearing Monday, a House panel discussed the tax amnesty plan again, but declined to vote on it.
Downstate hotel owners, including those in Springfield, will have to wait to see any adjustment in state reimbursement rates.
The latest effort to get a change went nowhere when it was presented to the Governor’s Travel Control Board in December. […]
In an e-mailed response, Alka Nayyar of the Department of Central Management Services said lodging rates for downstate hotels are set by the Travel Regulation Council, which hasn’t raised downstate rates since 2003.
The Springfield state rate is $70 per night. The federal lodging rate is $83.
* In legislative campaign news, the Chicago Reader has a very good article about how the IVI-IPO endorsement process was subverted by the 47th Ward regulars…
On December 29, a group of north-side members of the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization gathered to endorse attorney Dan Farley as their candidate in the upcoming Democratic primary for 11th District state representative. This was a coup for Farley, a first-time office seeker. North-side candidates covet the group’s stamp of approval, which gives them an aura of machine-fighting progressivism popular with voters.
The joke of it all is that there was hardly a real independent in the room that night.
In fact, leading the charge for independence was none other than 47th Ward alderman Eugene Schulter, one of Mayor Daley’s most loyal north-side City Council allies.
The IVI-IPO’s endorsement process is a joke.
* And GOP state Rep. Suzie Bassi’s primary opponent has a new Internet video criticizing the incumbent for missing 242 votes during her last term. Take a look…
* Sen. Kirk Dillard questioned the ethics of two of his Republican gubernatorial primary opponents today. From a press release…
“Unfortunately, we have candidates in our own party who lack ethical judgment,” Dillard continued. “I’m proud to say that as Chairman of the Du Page County Republican Party, my central committee never found me guilty of ethics violations. My opponent Andy McKenna, the ‘insider,’ cannot say the same.”
The Illinois Republican Party announced Friday that McKenna, the former state GOP Chairman, inappropriately used party funds while he was Chairman. McKenna admitted to the allegation.
Dillard also questioned the ethical judgment of Jim Ryan. During Ryan’s previous, unsuccessful run for governor, he received campaign contributions from convicted influence peddler Stuart Levine, including more than $150,000 after the election. A New York Times article recently referred to Levine as ‘the convicted swindler and Blagojevich buddy who was a former aggressive Ryan fund-raiser.”
But Dillard also came under fire by Sen. Bill Brady, who claimed at today’s City Club event that Dillard was Jim Edgar’s chief of staff when the corrupt MSI contractor was hired.
Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that one.
Brady said later that he was just pointing out electability problems with Dillard, and said the Democrats would most likely use the MSI issue in November if Dillard was nominated.
Brady also went after Jim Ryan’s ties to Stu Levine. More about Brady’s remarks from the AP…
State Sen. Bill Brady blasted McKenna for using state party resources when he ran the Illinois Republican Party to conduct a poll that questioned voters about McKenna’s potential as a statewide candidate.
And Dillard questioned Brady about a campaign contribution he’d received.
Afterward, Illinois GOP chairman Pat Brady said he isn’t concerned the GOP sniping would hurt the party’s chances in the fall.
I talked to Jim Ryan at a different event today in the south suburbs and I’ll have more for subscribers tomorrow about that conversation. He made some excellent points about his campaign and about his opponents.
* Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom has a new TV ad. It’s a modest buy, but I really like this spot. Have a look…
* Democrat US Senate candidate David Hoffman also has a new ad with a tiny buy. It’s mainly designed to provoke publicity, at least at the moment. Watch it…
Giannoulias is running two campaign ads that include the Consumer Reports logo and a quote from the magazine. But the watchdog publication tries to stay strictly neutral and doesn’t let businesses or politicians use its name.
On the Republican side, former Attorney General Jim Ryan received a total of $75,000 in recent days in $25,000 donations from the three men who head ATI Physical Therapy and operate a group of clinics that deal with orthopedic rehabilitation, including sports medicine. Among the schools where ATI is recognized as the “official sports medicine provider” is Benedictine University in Lisle, where Ryan taught after losing his 2002 bid for governor to Rod Blagojevich.
Speaking of sports, Ryan also reported a $5,000 donation from James Irsay, the owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
Previously, Republican contender Andy McKenna, a former state GOP chairman, reported that his wife had loaned his campaign for governor $800,000.
Another Republican candidate, GOP consultant and commentator Dan Proft, reported a contribution of $20,000 from Richard Uihlein of Waukegan, the CEO of Uline, a packing and shipping supply company based in Waukegan.
* Illinois Review reports that Bill Brady went after JRyan and Kirk Dillard today at the City Club debate…
Former Attorney General Jim Ryan and State Senator Kirk Dillard were the targets of State Senator Bill Brady, who challenged their refusal to oppose an income tax increase, as well as Dillard’s participation in an Obama ad during the Iowa primary. Observers say Ryan appeared undisturbed by the verbal punches, and pointed the conversation elsewhere. Also on the panel was Dan Proft and Adam Andrzejewski.
While the candidates jabbed each other and missing candidate Andy McKenna, emcee Paul Green joined in the poking at McKenna when awarding the club’s traditional token of appreciation - a City Club coffee mug. When one rolled to the floor and broke, Green joked, “That one’s for Andy McKenna”.
* Related…
* Hurckes connection, clout dog House race: Officer Joseph Hurckes, brother of Oak Lawn Trustee Jerry Hurckes, is serving a 30-day unpaid suspension for using the LEADS system to download photographs to help Southwest Side state Rep. Michael Zalewski’s re-election campaign, two sources familiar with the investigation confirmed.
* Tension arises at 62nd House forum: Some visible tension occurred late in the forum when, as part of an answer to an unrelated question, Mitchell said Cole has favored charging in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants.
* I’m giving a speech this morning, so I’ll post more later, so let’s get to the setup…
Gov. Pat Quinn says his Democratic primary campaign is a referendum on raising taxes to solve the state’s budget crisis.
“If I prevail on Feb. 2 - I believe I will - I think that is a message,” Quinn told the Daily Herald editorial board Friday about his upfront push to raise taxes.
And if he beats Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes in the primary, Quinn argued lawmakers will feel safe to vote for a tax hike, and perhaps even make cuts in state pension benefits, by the end of March.
“My view is between Feb. 3 and the end of March, within the first quarter, we will deal with revenue and I think we will pass revenue,” Quinn said.
* The Question: Assuming Quinn wins the primary, do you believe the General Assembly will pass a tax hike before the end of March? Explain fully.
* Doug Finke doesn’t like the idea of legislators being involved in any investigation into Gov. Pat Quinn’s secret and botched early release program for violent prison inmates…
But an investigation during an election year? One that includes legislators? Oh, yeah, that will get to the bottom of things. No way that could degenerate into an endless round of political grandstanding.
He doesn’t propose an alternative, however. Just cynicism. And while I agree that there would be grandstanding (there was plenty of it during the Blagojevich impeachment, but Finke didn’t argue against that process), I also think a probe with subpoena powers would be more likely to get to the bottom of things than nothing at all.
Gov. Pat Quinn was quoted by the Associated Press last week as saying he’s answered all questions about his administration’s controversial, secret and completely botched early prison release program, so he’s done talking about it.
I beg to differ.
I called the Department of Corrections soon after I saw that quote and asked a few questions that I’ve never seen asked.
For instance, state Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican candidate for governor, claims that Corrections Director Michael Randle has said he had informed the governor about the so-called “Meritorious Good Time Push” program, which let attempted murderers and other violent types out of prison early - several of which were then re-arrested for violent crimes. Quinn, however, has said that he didn’t know about the program until he read about it in the newspapers. How does the director explain the discrepancy, I wanted to know.
I also asked whether the word from inside was true that Director Randle had made himself the department’s direct conduit to the governor. How often, on average, did the two men talk every week, I asked.
And, most importantly, if Quinn is telling the truth that he didn’t know about this disastrous and now suspended MGT Push plan, what reason can Randle provide for his failure to inform the governor?
Not one of those questions was answered. I received an e-mail pointing me to an audio file of the governor’s press conference during which he talked how things got so out of hand. But none of my answers were found in Quinn’s comments, except that the governor reiterated he did not know about MGT Push, and that it was a mistake and that he had killed the program.
Quinn did make some good points in his presentation. For instance, inmates released under the program, beginning in mid September, would’ve all been out of prison by this month anyway.
But the governor also spent much of his time laying the blame on the General Assembly for the debacle. Quinn claimed that the director’s hands were tied because state law required that some pretty nasty convicts must be eligible for early release. While partially true, this was an accelerated early release program, and the responsibility for that acceleration - and the crimes committed during the early release periods - must fall on the administration, and ultimately on Quinn himself.
We need more answers about this botched operation, regardless of what the governor says. Quinn has stonewalled tough questions while answering only those that he can spin - and he isn’t doing a very good job of that, either.
If Quinn and Director Randle won’t provide more answers, then the General Assembly must act by holding hearings with full subpoena powers.
Another Republican running for governor, state Sen. Kirk Dillard, is also pressing for an investigation. Dillard wants the entire Legislature to sit as a “Committee of the Whole” with full subpoena powers to get to the bottom of this mess.
“Governor Quinn and his administration continue to provide vastly different stories about these programs including who made the decision to authorize the early release, why violent criminals were included in the program, and why the MGT program was secretive,” Dillard was quoted as saying in a news release.
AFSCME, the union which represents prison workers, also wants a bipartisan probe in the form of a special joint task force, including legislators from both parties and both chambers, to answer urgent questions about the administration of the corrections department
Full hearings with subpoena powers are probably the last thing the Democrats who control the General Assembly want, particularly in an election year. But this botched program literally endangered the lives of Illinois citizens. At least one prisoner released early was subsequently arrested for shooting somebody - and that’s just what we know of. The whole program was concocted and conducted in secret, and details have been few and far between.
For six years, Illinois endured the Rod Blagojevich administration, which made a bad habit of keeping things secret, blaming the General Assembly for its own mistakes and wrecking almost everything it touched. This early release program and its aftermath look more than just vaguely familiar.
When Quinn took over after Blagojevich was impeached and ousted, he said he would be different, that he believed in accountability and transparency in government. Quinn’s behavior on this issue, however, is downright unacceptable.
* Meanwhile, Gov. Quinn’s campaign tried to gin up some “stone-throwing in a glass house” coverage over the weekend. The Daily Herald fell for the bait…
llinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s opponent in the Democratic primary has criticized him for the early release of felons from state prisons.
Now the tables are turned, with Quinn calling Comptroller Dan Hynes a hypocrite for handing a part-time campaign consulting job to a felon who himself was released early.
“Maybe Hynes should clean up his own house before throwing more stones,” Quinn said in a statement released Sunday.
Quinn has been criticized for secretly releasing hundreds of violent inmates early, some of whom were then rearrested for violent crimes. That’s quite different than this, but it’s still a good gotcha game point and the DH went for it hook, line and sinker.
Gov. Quinn late Friday abruptly canceled a planned appearance at a weekend fund-raiser organized by north suburban lawyer and lobbyist Anthony Abboud, known as “Individual Q” in convicted political insider Tony Rezko’s federal indictment.
Abboud had sent out an invitation to donors promising “an intimate gathering with Gov. Quinn” in Abboud’s Northbrook home Sunday night. […]
Quinn’s “Abboud-face” came after the Chicago Sun-Times raised questions late Friday about why the governor would consider raising campaign funds from someone tied so closely to Rezko, who was a main fund-raiser and advisor for impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. […]
But Rezko’s indictment disclosed that after being named by Blagojevich to the state Teachers’ Retirement System board, Abboud and another Blagojevich TRS appointee were told by Rezko to take direction from convicted influence peddler Stuart Levine, a fellow TRS board member and fund-raiser for Blagojevich.
Oops.
* The governor needs plenty of money to churn out his campaign ads, and, as expected, he’s getting bigtime help from SEIU…
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign for election wasted little time after the New Year holiday in hitting the fundraising circuit, generating more than $140,000 in cash and services in three days last week, with nearly half coming from a politically powerful union, records show.
Records on file with the State Board of Elections show that of the $142,000 Quinn raised from Jan. 4 through Jan. 6, nearly half–$67,557—came from the Service Employees’ International Union.
* Related…
* Mark Brown …I guess there are two ways you can look at Quinn courting [Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr’s] endorsement this time. Either he’s a stand-up guy who sticks with his friends, or he’s so determined to carry the African-American vote in the primary that he’s willing to risk possible future embarrassment from his Jackson connection in exchange for the mileage he can gain from it now.
* Jackson endorsement of Quinn could help with black voters, draw attention to Blagojevich scandal
