* CLTV political reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez died tonight at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago after a tough bout with cancer.
A blood clot in his leg moved to his lung this morning. He then suffered a massive heart attack and was kept on life support until his entire family could be with him. Also with him throughout the day were several of his friends and journalism colleagues.
Carlos was one of a kind. A hard-hitting, sharp-tongued, take no prisoners reporter who often dressed like it was still the late 1950s - complete with snazzy fedora and skinny tie. Carlos put this on his Facebook page under “job description”…
Carlos was the best friend I ever had in journalism. We hung out at the Billy Goat when I lived in Chicago, and then after I moved to Springfield he occasionally stayed at my house when his employer wouldn’t spring for a hotel. I accidentally got him in trouble on his wedding day because the two of us went out way too late the night before to celebrate. Oops.
We had such great chemistry whenever we did “Chicago Tonight” together that we often discussed partnering on various projects. Last year, Carlos and I talked more about starting a new political media company, but we decided he needed to keep his corporate health insurance until he got past the cancer. At one point, we all thought he’d make it through. But it was not to be.
Carlos’ wife, Randi Belisomo Hernandez, is also a CLTV reporter and one heckuva woman. Randi has been forced to endure so much pain since they discovered the cancer. I can’t imagine what must be going through her mind now.
I’ll post arrangement information when I know more.
Carlos was a leader as a reporter, and more importantly, as a person.
Life can come up short on humanity. But Carlos exuded far more than his share.
The press corps is not known for warm embraces, especially for their own kind.
Carlos, however, would joke and gab with the alphas just as often as the runts. His friendships spanned the social ladder and connected every rung.
Without Carlos, the storied Chicago press corps is less.
Yet, for having known him, been inspired by him, been thrown into fits of laughter and pushed to keep fighting by him - we are all better people than before.
Carlos Hernandez Gomez, political reporter for CLTV, stood out among Chicago reporters not only because of his old-school fedora, but also because of his encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago politics.
He didn’t need notes to tell his audience who was backing whom in a campaign, why a specific endorsement was so important — or why two politicians couldn’t stand each other.
Off camera, he was the life of the party, a friendly, down-to-earth storyteller who would do spot-on renditions of politicians’ speaking styles — often at their request. […]
“Carlos was more than a great reporter and a great friend to hundreds of people. He had a great heart,” said Sun-Times investigative reporter Steve Warmbir, who was best man at Mr. Hernandez’s wedding.
“In a business filled with cynics, he was one of the kindest and most decent people you would ever want to meet.”
* Sen. Kirk Dillard’s campaign claims a recent poll has their guy with a big lead…
The Dillard campaign paid for an automated poll of 2,153 likely Republican primary voters on Wednesday, results of which showed Dillard leading with 22.4 percent support.
Andy McKenna had 13.5 percent, former Attorney General Jim Ryan 10.3 percent, state Sen. Bill Brady 8.3 percent, Dan Proft about 6 percent, Adam Andrzejewski 5.6 percent and Bob Schillerstrom 2.1 percent. Nearly 32 percent of those polled were undecided.
But Tom Cross isn’t buying it…
Illinois House Minority Leader TOM CROSS, R-Oswego, who has endorsed McKenna, said fresh results from a poll of 500 people in the Kane and Kendall County areas on Wednesday put McKenna at 23 percent, Ryan at 14 percent, Dillard at 10 percent, Proft at 7 percent, Andrzejewski at 6 percent, Brady at 4 percent and Schillerstrom at 2 percent.
“That’s the take we have on reality,” Cross said.
Bill Brady’s campaign says both polls are phony. From a press release…
Occasionally, a journalist will fail to ask the right questions and publish what amounts to campaign propaganda, as columnist Bernie Schoenburg did today. Schoenburg also uncritically published a claim by an Andy McKenna surrogate that unsurprisingly claims that McKenna is doing well in two counties representing 6.8 percent of the state vote. Were the full results released? No. Did McKenna release any statewide numbers. No. Another phony poll.
I did see the background material on the Dillard poll, and they make a decent case that Dillard - and McKenna - are both spiking upwards.
…Roeser has contributed $250,000 to Dillard, with more potentially on the way. In the past two governor primaries, Roeser backed candidates with $450,000 apiece — businessman Jim Oberweis and former state Sen. Pat O’Malley — in unsuccessful bids for the GOP nomination.
Asked if Dillard could expect similar financial support, Roeser said, “I will support him considerably, as will other men of conscience.”
Dillard’s courting of Roeser’s money is partly driven by his troubles in raising campaign contributions, sources familiar with his governor bid acknowledged. But the move also could run counter to Dillard’s attempt to build the image of a pragmatic conservative unafraid to work with Democrats to get things done.
Should Dillard win the Republican governor nomination, he could be sharing the top of the ticket with U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the party’s front-runner for Senate. Roeser, Dillard’s new patron, has been a longtime critic of Kirk, promoting a “Kick Mark Kirk to the Curb” effort over the five-term North Shore congressman’s socially moderate positions on abortion and other issues. Roeser also has worked to enlist disaffected “tea party” support for his favored candidate in the Senate race, Hinsdale businessman Patrick Hughes.
Oddly, not mentioned in the story is Roeser’s long-running war against the Illinois Education Association, which, you already know, endorsed Dillard on Friday. For instance, here’s Roeser rapping the IEA over its opposition to pension reform…
The IEA particularly is a villain making the education of our children unfairly expensive.
The IEA is apparently not happy with the Roeser cash.
Illinois Review caught up with Dillard and asked him about the IEA endorsement. Watch…
When asked whether he sought the IEA’s endorsement, Dillard said he “filled out their forms.” But it’s been known for some time that he’s been seeking the group’s nod. Dillard said in a Tribune “debate” back in early December that he had told the “educators” the previous weekend he wouldn’t rule out a tax hike…
At about the 11:10 mark…
Moderator Question - Senator, you’re still leaving a tax increase on the table as a possibility?
Dillard Response – Every option Bruce. You know, I told the educators just this weekend, everything needs to be on the table…
IEA President Ken Swanson talks about the Dillard endorsement. Have a look…
Sen. Bill Brady said in a press release that the Dillard nod meant taxes would go up if his colleague is elected…
Illinois voters should expect their taxes will be raised if my opponent Kirk Dillard is elected Governor.
The Illinois Education Association’s endorsement of Senator Dillard this weekend highlights the fact that he hasn’t completely ruled out a tax increase as the reason why he received the backing of the teachers’ union. IEA says Dillard is “interested in finding reductions and efficiencies that make sense, but if and when that’s not enough, he can pragmatically reach out to the other leaders and work out a (revenue) solution that’s good for the state.”
* 10:23 pm - Not unexpected, and this is going to be a big boost to both men. Cash is expected to be in the neighborhood of $250,000 each, plus lots of in-kind stuff like phone banking, etc. The IEA press release is here. The Trib has more…
IEA President Ken Swanson said the union’s board voted unanimously on the choices and said that its 133,000 educators cast ballots in both primaries and believed it prudent to issue recommendations for both Democrats and Republicans. […]
“He has been a voice for years trying to warn us this is coming, a voice in the wilderness, perhaps, at times,” Swanson said. “But we believe he has the vision and ability to work across party lines, work with the four (legislative) leaders…and finally systematically overhaul school funding to provide adequate and sustainable funding for public schools in a way that works for the schools, all of us who work in our schools and the taxpayers.” […]
“If you look at the field of Republican candidates, it is quite clear [Dillard] has the leadership ability and vision to pragmatically and appropriately put together a plan with leaders in both parties to put the state on sound fiscal footing,” Swanson said, adding that Dillard backs a plan that adequately funds schools, “is sustainable and fair to taxpayers.”
Apparently, Gov. Quinn’s emphasis lately on his tax hike pledge didn’t sway the IEA. Frankly, though, I think Quinn was doing that to either bait Hynes into switching his advertising message, or at least get the media to change the subject from the botched early release program. It’s worked with the media for a couple of days, but those Hynes TV ads are still flailing away, and now Hynes has more money to push more points.
As for Dillard, well, he just got some more money to remind people that he was Jim Edgar’s chief of staff. That IEA dough ought to go well with the Jack Roeser cash, said to be in the $250K neighborhood as well. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
Go Cheryle for Senate Campaign Concert featuring Lupe Fiasco Thursday January 28 at 8:00 p.m. at The Shrine Chicago hosted by Leon “The Destined Legend” Rogers with performances by J. Ivy and Lorenzo Owens. Lupe Fiasco will help raise money for Cheryle Jackson’s U.S. Senate campaign and to remind people to vote on Tuesday February 2.
Fiasco for Jackson? Heh.
Since I’m not exactly up on current hip hop, I looked up Fiasco and discovered that some of his stuff is pretty darned good. Check it out…
* As you already know, Gov. Pat Quinn called himself “Soy Boy” during his State of the State address this week.
* The Question: What other nicknames can you think of for Illinois candidates this year?
Keep it clean (unlike Patterson, who looked up “Soy Boy” in the Urban Dictionary), light and funny, please. No need for harshness before a three-day weekend.
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* Gov. Quinn repeated his claim yesterday that if he loses the primary to Dan Hynes, a tax hike could be doomed…
Quinn also continued pressing his case for a hike in the state’s 3 percent flat rate income tax hike, to 4.5 percent, to address an $11 billion state budget deficit that has the state failing to pay its bills. He suggested that if he wins the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next month while pressing for the tax hike, it will spur support for it in the Legislature, which refused to pass the measure last year.
“Perish the thought, but if I don’t prevail, it will be extraordinarily hard to get any revenue reform in Illinois,” Quinn said.
It’s going to be extraordinarily hard to get that tax hike passed even if Quinn wins the primary. And while everybody dithers, more problems pop up…
Doctors and other health-care providers increasingly are asking — and in some cases demanding - that state workers and others insured through Illinois state government pay for treatment in advance, according to a state employee union spokesman.
“We hear from members who are told to basically front money for the state,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Most of the late payments involve people covered by the state’s self-insured plans, Lindall said. Those plans are operated through Cigna Corp., Health Alliance, Humana Benefit Plan of Winnebago and HealthLink OAP, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
At one point last year, officials said the state’s expected cost of health coverage is underfunded by $600 million, or 46 percent, in the current fiscal year. The delay averaged 200 days last fall.
* The governor was on a tour of southern Illinois yesterday, where the questions are usually much softer…
The governor visited Belleville a day after delivering a State of the State address that was roundly panned for revealing too few details about his ideas for solving the worst fiscal crisis in state history.
Quinn attributed the lack of financial details in Wednesday’s address to the fact it was not “a budget speech. I got to do one of those later.”
Instead, after a turbulent, tumultuous year, Quinn said he thought it appropriate “to lay out where we were a year ago and where we are today.”
If that was his goal, he failed. In the future, some historian is going to stumble over the transcript of Pat Quinn’s State of the State address and find stuff like this…
That’s just the beginning of openness in our government. We had to work together on all kinds of important tasks. One of which, a very important one that’s important for our economy, is that we had to get three-fifths vote of the general assembly in the House and in the Senate, 60 percent of each house, to vote for what is a called a capital bill or a job recovery bill, whatever you want to call it.
And that historian is going to wonder what the heck happened. Zorn has more…
There’s an undeniable authenticity to this kind of off-the-cuff windiness. Part of Pat Quinn’s charm is that he’s not in the least bit slick, and nowhere was that more evident than at the close of the speech when he choked up speaking about his late father’s military service.
But there’s also an undeniable echo in all the verbiage of a desperate college student taking an essay exam and trying to fill up the blue book with ground-pawing words in hopes their sheer volume will disguise the fact that he doesn’t really know the answer.
For whatever reason, Quinn decided to wing it rather than bring it Wednesday. The moment slipped through his grasp.
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he’s raised nearly $1.9 million since October in his bid for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.
Kirk’s campaign on Thursday also said the five-term congressman from Chicago’s northern suburbs has more than $3 million in his campaign bank account.
* Democrat Julie Hamos, who is running to replace Kirk in the 10th District, just sent out a press release claiming to have raised $535,000 during the latest filing period.
We’ll probably have more of these financial reports as the day goes along.
Andy McKenna, Jr., appears to be raising money in violation of the state’s new campaign reform law, taking contributions from state contractors who aren’t allowed to give, one of his rivals for the GOP gubernatorial nomination is charging.
In a campaign where every candidate is championing ethics and reform, a review of early fundraising reports shows many of those seeking to be governor are taking money from companies receiving taxpayer dollars.
“On the face of it, it looks like [Mr. McKenna] is afoul of the law,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, one of the groups which lobbied heavily last year for tightened limits on pay-to-play politics in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal. Principals in companies that hold more than $50,000 in state contracts “aren’t supposed to give” to candidates for statewide offices which administer those contracts, she said.
And the statement from the rival candidate who discovered the contributions…
“Whether improperly using state GOP funds to advance his own interests or flouting state campaign finance laws, Andy McKenna clearly believes the rules don’t apply to him,” said conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft. “McKenna is spending millions of dollars, some of it apparently raised illicitly, to lie to Illinois GOP primary voters. He labels himself an outsider while playing the same insider, pay-to-play politics that has destroyed Illinois’ economy and has one former governor in federal prison with another on his way.”
If a violation is found, the candidate will have to write a check for the donated amount to the state’s general revenue fund. The company could lose its state business if three violations occur within 36 months.
It is up to the company to tell the candidate it has state business.
Rupert Borgsmiller, assistant executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said his agency isn’t in charge of policing the donations or checking to see if they come from state contractors.
When it comes to meting out punishment, Borgsmiller said that would fall to the various state managers who handle contract awards. [Emphasis added.]
Under the law, the onus to disclose is on the contributor. The candidate has to write a check to the state if the contribution was in violation of state law, but the contractor is the one who faces the real punishment.
In response, the McKenna campaign is suggesting that some donors may have merely tripped up on a complicated new law.
In a statement, Team McKenna said that it carefully notifies donors of campaign rules and will return any improper gifts “when someone inadvertently made a contribution they should not have made.”
* In other campaign news, Dan Hynes was endorsed by the Daily Herald. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Judy Baar Topinka were endorsed by the Sun-Times.
* Democrat Dan Hynes has a new TV ad on the early release program. The ad accuses Pat Quinn of “lying to us” and says an earlier Quinn spot is an “insult to our intelligence.” Have a look…
* As I told subscribers the other day, the Quinn administration is trying desperately to prevent any of those violent prisoners who were released early from doing any harm to victims and Quinn’s campaign…
Nearly 130 parolees released from prison early are back behind bars because of an extraordinary crackdown led by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration, which has been stung by denunciations of a secret program that freed 1,700 inmates weeks ahead of time.
The Corrections Department confirmed it has begun “intensive compliance checks” on parolees released under the program known as “MGT Push,” beginning with those who committed violent crimes.
State records reviewed by The Associated Press show the department has picked up 129 of the parolees in the last ten days, most of them serving sentences for unlawful weapons charges or battery. They’ve likely gone back to lockup for violating terms of their discharge, but officials will not comment on the reasons or confirm how many have been apprehended.
The rules they’re forced to follow are unprecedented in terms of severity, according to law enforcement officials.
This is probably a good idea, but spending so much time on those released prisoners means others may fall through the cracks.
* Did Quinn’s early release plan violate the Illinois Constitution? Maybe so…
Jennifer Bishop Jenkins is the co-founder of IllinoisVictims.org. She says victims were not notified that the convicted felons were released.
BISHOP-JENKINS: We want to know exactly what this cost-based decision was, and exactly how much it is ending up costing us. We want to know how it is that the vicitms could not have been notified of these crimes when their lives were literally in danger.
The Illinois Constitution has a provision stating that victims have the right to know when the offender is released from prison. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections says officials are looking into the claims. Governor Quinn has suspended all early release programs.
Oops.
* Yesterday, Sen. Bill Brady claimed in a press release that Gov. Quinn’s Department of Corrections was engaging in a “dangerous practice”…
“I’ve been alerted that Governor Quinn is allowing the Department of Corrections to reclassify higher level inmates to lower level facilities,” said Brady of Bloomington. “Maximum security prisoners are being sent to medium security prisons, while medium security prisoners are being sent to minimum security prisons. It’s an extremely dangerous practice that is putting our front-line correctional workers at serious risk.” […]
“It’s become abundantly clear why Governor Quinn allowed for the early release of 2,700 inmates since September,” says Brady. “He was freeing up bed space at lower level facilities to accommodate the compression of upper level inmates, ultimately making the argument that Illinois could do without the Thomson Correctional Facility as a state prison”
But a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said the claims made by Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, were “inaccurate and without merit” and that “no such classification is underway other than routine classification of inmates.” […]
Brady maintained the reclassification of inmates occurred after an undocumented visit by federal authorities to the Thomson prison occurred on Sept. 21 to look at the prison as a possible replacement for the controversial Guantanamo Bay facility. Corrections Department officials did not have a response on whether such a visit occurred.
But corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said the reclassification of inmates is something the agency and correctional systems throughout the country “do routinely when an inmate is transferred or has disciplinary problems” and that “offenders rarely remain at the same security level throughout their incarcerations.”
* Quinn stands behind corrections director: Gov. Pat Quinn says Corrections Director Michael Randle is the right leader for the state’s prison system, even after embarrassing early release programs created a major headache for the governor in recent weeks.
Orl and School District 135 Supt. Dennis Soustek said he wasn’t surprised when he heard of Suburban Cook County Regional Schools Supt. Charles Flowers’ arrest Thursday.
“I’m amazed it took so long, but I’m not shocked,” he said.
At a breakfast meeting with superintendents in South Cook County four years ago, Flowers said he was going to clean up “corruption that must be rampant in all our schools,” Soustek recalled.
The investors include William Pacella and George Bonomo of Bridgeport. Pacella owns a trucking firm that won contracts under the city’s scandal-scarred Hired Truck program exposed by the Chicago Sun-Times. Bonomo owns a supplier of paper and cleaning supplies.
Now, a recent snafu threatens to undermine the increasingly fragile level of cooperation in overseeing the operations of the commission, which is more or less jointly controlled by DuPage’s towns — whose mayors select six of the 13 commissioners — and DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, who has appointed the other six commissioners and the agency’s chairman. Some $19 million in reserves have been spent, leaving the commission with little cash on hand, and no one has taken responsibility for the situation. Replenishing the reserves will require borrowing money and imposing a rate increase.
The police union contract requires the city to provide 60 days notice of potential layoffs, but the union this week agreed to require only 45 days notice. That change saved money, and potentially three jobs, said Don Edwards, president of the police union.
Keystone had long enjoyed a utility tax exemption because of its location in an enterprise zone and employment of more than 1,000 full-time employees. But with the decline in the economy and accompanying loss of jobs and reduced hours at Keystone, the company no longer qualifies.
* CLTV political reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez died tonight at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago after a tough bout with cancer.
