Gov. Pat Quinn today said he has encouraged Iraq military veteran Tammy Duckworth to pursue the vacant Democratic lieutenant governor nomination.
But the governor said Duckworth told him she has other considerations to weigh, including her job with the Obama administration in Washington. She serves as the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. Veterans Administration.
Here’s my question: How is Duckworth gonna pay her bills for the next 11 months? She’s just a middle class person who needs to have a steady income. She’s not an attorney, so she can’t work on the side while she’s campaigning with Quinn. The governor can’t just give her a state job - that would be a bit much. What’s he gonna do? Get her a job with one of his big campaign supporters? Oh, yeah, that’ll go over well. I guess they could put her on the campaign payroll, but even that might get a bit touchy.
Quinn also said he doesn’t agree with attempts to eliminate the lieutenant governor office. Madigan filed legislation to ask voters this November whether the office should be eliminated in January 2015.
“I told Mike Madigan I don’t think that’s a good way to go,” Quinn said. “I think we should have a lieutenant governor who is capable, who in the case of an emergency can assume the office of governor and do a good job for the people. I think it’s also important to have a lieutenant governor who’s a strong voice for veterans and for service members, for their families, that’s what I have done over the last six years when I was lieutenant governor.”
There are those who think the strident stance against deleting the LG office taken by the African-American members of the central committee was either at the governor’s bidding or the members thought they could score some points by doing so.
One of the proposals is a 10-percent, across-the-board cut in general state aid, which is the primary mechanism for the funding of schools. State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) posited that measure but [Rep. Frank Mautino] said it’s merely a consideration and nothing has been introduced or formalized.
Lawmakers are, however, putting together a list of all programs run by state agencies that would either be eliminated or suspended for two years. Mautino declined to identify any programs considered for elimination but noted suspension would have the same effect.
“Once a program’s been suspended,” he said, “it rarely comes back.”
Not until Quinn’s budget is in hand, however, will the scope of the cuts be known.
* I think Gawker or somebody had a titillating report about this book months ago, but I can’t remember. Anyway, there’s been a shakeup on Dick Durbin’s staff…
There’s a reason people get nervous around writers: You never know what might end up in their books.
Kathleen Rooney, a staffer for Sen. Dick Durbin, was fired earlier this month after the release of her latest book, “For You, for You I Am Trilling These Songs.” The autobiographical essays include three chapters about working in a Senate office: insider gossip, staff secrets and a complicated flirtation between the author and her boss, Durbin’s state director in Illinois. […]
The prose hit the fan after Joe Shoemaker, Durbin’s spokesman, saw a short review of the essay collection last month in The Washington Post and bought the book. […]
Although no one was named, Shoemaker was disturbed that she had written about the office and especially concerned about the relationship between Rooney and her supervisor: “Once upon a time there was a girl in unrequitable (but not unrequited) love with her boss,” she wrote. “He would place his hand at the base of her neck, or flick her earring, or twist a strand of her hair…”
Sen. Dick Durbin has sharply restricted the duties of a longtime aide who was his Illinois chief of staff after an internally conducted sexual harassment investigation that was prompted by the published essays of a woman who worked in his Chicago office.
Even though no evidence of sexual harassment was found, the senator has determined that Michael Daly, a former campaign manager and close aide for a quarter-century, will no longer have supervisory responsibilities, according to Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker.
“The judgments he made were not in keeping with what he wants out of a key employee,” Shoemaker said Thursday.
Daly had been placed on administrative leave during the course of the investigation and eventually was allowed to return to work.
* In other news, the Tribune editorial board and its little “me too” buddies at the Daily Herald both unleashed tirades against the Illinois Senate for holding that secret meeting to discuss an NCSL report. It was the Tribune’s second editorial in two days…
Yes, we wrote about this yesterday. We’re still mad about it.
A development group that wants to build a mammoth entertainment and retail center near the Interstate 270-Illinois Route 157 intersection has hired consultants for a new economic impact analysis of the 900-acre project.
The announcement came less than two weeks after the Illinois Department of Revenue estimated that the development would take up to $525 million in annual sales from businesses in surrounding communities.
That report also said that pending legislation would divert up to $1.3 billion in sales taxes over 20 years to the developers’ use.
Rather, they said, the authority, known as McPier, should take a series of nonlegislative steps to cut exhibitors’ costs for in-house electrical service, food and drink, and booth setup.
That in-house electrical service is a gigantic problem over there. They jack up electrical service costs through the roof to fund McPier staff salaries. The other items are a function of the contractor mark-ups, which I touched on earlier this week.
* Not even one minute after I received an e-mail notice about Tiger Woods’ apology, I got this e-mail from the Illinois Republican Party…
If Tiger Can Do It, Alexi Can Too
“If I’m fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation,” he said. His plan now seems to be to stonewall until November.
– Chicago Tribune Editorial, February 12, 2010
CHICAGO – As Alexi Giannoulias enters his 22nd day of silence since promising reporters he would answer questions surrounding his role in the near-collapse of his family’s Broadway Bank, the Illinois Republican Party today renewed its call for Giannoulias to answer the Chicago Tribune’s demand to come clean.
A suburban Republican lawmaker criticized colleagues Thursday for renewing the appointment of a Democratic lawmaker’s wife to a six-figure state post.
At issue is the reappointment of Lynne Sered to chair the state’s Education Labor Relations Board. Sered, who is paid $104,358 annually, is the wife of state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat and member of Senate Democratic leadership.
“The fact that elected officials’ spouses are receiving jobs in excess of six figures, I think is something the people of Illinois have a problem with,” state Sen. Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington said Thursday. He said the appointments should have been considered individually. […]
“These comments are demeaning and insulting to all women and to me, my wife and my family,” said Schoenberg. “It’s a very sorry state of affairs.”
I can’t wait to see what Duffy does when Mrs. Madigan is reappointed to the Arts Council.
* The Question: Should legislative spouses and family members be forbidden from holding state jobs? Explain.
* The League of Women Voters has set the bar pretty high for reforming the way legislative redistricting is done in Illinois…
Both [Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters] and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno agreed any proposal that would allow the legislature to draw the map would not be a genuine step toward reform.
But the Democratic chairman of a committee overseeing redistricting reform said the push announced Thursday goes around the existing bipartisan efforts to reach a compromise on the controversial topic.
“I was quite frankly offended and taken aback because this was being put forward as reform,” said state Sen. Kwame Raoul, a Chicago Democrat. […]
Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters, disputed Raoul’s contention that he’d somehow been left out of their plans. She said she’d met with Raoul shortly after he’d been put in charge of the redistricting committee and told him the league was considering a public petition drive.
Czarnik said Raoul’s Republican counterpart on the committee contacted her, but Raoul never did. “That is the fact of the matter,” Czarnik said.
Ummm. Raoul is the chairman of the committee, so perhaps a bit more diligence on the League’s part was in order.
* Raoul also pointed out to reporters that the League’s redistricting plan was actually drafted by a couple of lawyers on the Senate Republican staff, but that didn’t make anybody’s coverage. Watch the IL Statehouse News video…
If you watched the video, you know that Raoul also talked about a lack of protection for minority districts. Here’s more on that topic…
[Raoul] said he believes the plan that Czarnik and Republican state senate leaders are pushing does not take minority areas of the state into account.
He said changing the wording of the Illinois Voting Rights Act to prevent lawmakers from drawing boundaries is not enough. He said the legislation should protect areas of Illinois where a boundary change could smother minority influence.
“Instead of putting specific voting rights language into Illinois statute, we would protect communities of interest, we would say you have to be compliant with federal law,” Raoul said. “There would be a certain priority of principles that would have to be observed.”
“I couldn’t get any specific answers as to what minority groups had been consulted for this plan that’s supposedly so protective of diversity. It would seem that, if we are speaking transparency and openness, that such groups would be consulted before the proverbial train had left the proverbial station,” he said.
Czarnik said that Raoul did not follow up with her organization on the issue after the Senate committee hearings. However, Raoul said that when he asked about the plan in December, after hearing about it in news reports, he was told that it was too late to make any changes.
The proposals would remove the map-drawing power from the legislature and put it into the hands of a nine-member advisory commission.
Under the plan, the four legislative leaders would each choose two members to serve on the committee. Those members would choose a ninth member to head the commission.
Lawmakers could approve the commission-drawn map with a two-thirds vote. If that doesn’t happen, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and a justice from a different party would choose a “Special Master” to make a decision by Sept. 30.
That’s flipping around the current system, where lawmakers and the governor take the first shot. It then heads to a special committee and even to a name drawn out of a hat to end the political dispute.
Todd Maisch, a lobbyist for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce said the history of redistricting usually falls in favor of the incumbent. Since the last legislative remapping 10 years ago, less than 3 percent of elections were won by the challenger, Maisch said.
“Under this map, when you look at the fact that tested incumbents have won 536 elections and 11 losses…,” he said. “That is really compelling data.”
The Illinois Supreme Court today rejected a bid by imprisoned former Gov. George H. Ryan to keep part of his lucrative government pension in a 6-1 ruling. The decision will cost Ryan $70,824 per year, a benefit that would have come from his government service prior to his corrupt reign secretary of state and governor.
“As the victims of Ryan’s crimes, the taxpayers of the state of Illinois are under no obligation to now fund his retirement,” wrote Justice Bob Thomas in the court’s majority opinion.
Justice Anne Burke was the lone dissenter.
The state General Assembly Retirement System had moved to strip Ryan of the entire $197,037 pension he was drawing annually up until his 2006 conviction on corruption charges linked to his tenure as governor and secretary of state.
But last year, a state appeals court reversed that decision, saying he should get to keep pension earnings from his time as a Kankakee County official, state legislator and lieutenant governor – posts in which he was not accused of criminal wrongdoing.
A proposed pilot program that would affect about 40,000 elderly and disabled Illinoisans could save the state $200 million over five years, but that’s not reason enough to rush into things, legislators said today.
The program in question is Gov. Pat Quinn’s Integrated Care Pilot Program, which outlines changes to some Medicaid fee-for-service plans for residents in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake and Will counties and suburban Cook County starting as early as October 2010. The program – focused on wellness and prevention – would offer incentives to medical providers based on patient health outcomes.
HB 5086, sponsored by Aurora Democrat Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, would halt the program before it begins and create a task force to analyze its merits.
Heroin dealers would face tougher penalties under legislation the Illinois House approved today.
The minimum sentence for possessing five grams of heroin with the intent to sell would jump from four years to six years under the measure. Right now, heroin dealers face the longer sentence if they’re convicted of having 15 grams or more.
Elgin Area School District U-46 officials Thursday formally asked the state board of education to be reclassified as a Cook County district.
The move, which would help the district seize millions in lost general state aid payments each year, came just days after State Sen. Michael Noland detailed new legislation that would provide a funding fix.
However, since this bill was tied directly to tax revenues, it was more easily killed…
A proposed law to help the Illinois wine industry stalled Thursday because of concerns the cash-strapped state could lose money if it was approved.
State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, is sponsoring legislation that would divert a portion of the sales tax tacked onto purchases of wine to the Illinois wine industry. For every gallon of wine sold, or roughly five bottles, 2 cents would be put into a fund that would help promote wine industry tourism and research grapes that are more disease and weather resistant, among other things.
Without question, there are valid reasons behind all of these ideas. But it just goes to show how removed from reality so many legislators are that they’re still eagerly attempting to spend more money and reduce more state revenues.
We’re in a fiscal crisis, people. Wake the heck up.
Sneed hears rumbles that former Dem U.S. Senate hopeful David Hoffman, who ran a tough campaign against Alexi Giannoulias, is one of five names on state Dem party leader Mike Madigan’s wish list for lieutenant governor.
Steve Brown, party chairman Michael Madigan’s spokesman, said the item was not true, there is no list, added that Sneed had not called to confirm and said he was giving her his “Dumber than a box of rocks award.”
Back to Sneed…
Top Tip: The list also includes Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez as well as Gov. Quinn’s favorite pick: former state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth, who is considering the possibility.
Top Tip II: Sneed also has learned that Quinn personally called Alvarez over the weekend to see if “she would be available for the job . . . should it come to that,” but Alvarez respectfully declined.
* Republican US Senate candidate Mark Kirk criticized Alexi Giannoulias’ poll results this week. The Giannoulias poll showed the Democrat leading Kirk 49-45. But the Kirk campaign refused to release its own numbers, which tended to undermine their otherwise decent argument…
The Kirk camp attempted to refute the Giannoulias poll numbers which showed the Dem leading Kirk by 4%, but they refused to release their own internal numbers, and pollster Greg Strimple said he “thinks this race will be close all year long.”
Strimple argued that Giannoulias’ numbers lacked credibility because of the low number of undecided voters. The Kirk camp sees a high number of undecideds, particularly in the St. Louis media market and western edge of IL. Their polls also include Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones, who is on the Nov. ballot. He argued that Jones may win a significant number of votes this year from disenchanted Dems. […]
[Kirk campaign spokesman Eric Elk] did not deny that Pres. Obama is extremely popular in IL. The Giannoulias poll showed Obama with a 64% favorability, and Strimple said his poll showed a similar level. But Elk said he couldn’t “imagine (Obama) wants to campaign” alongside “Chicago politician” Giannoulias.
Elk might not be able to imagine Obama campaigning with Giannoulias, but I can.
Eric Elk, the Kirk’s campaign manager, indicated the Kirk campaign isn’t concerned about a third party bid, ideologically right of Kirk.
“A third party bid is somewhere between wishful thinking and a pipe dream for Giannoulias,” Richard Goldberg, another Kirk senior staffer said. They feel confident in the ability of Kirk to unite voters around fiscal sobriety, his Republican independence and homeland security issues.
* Meanwhile, incumbents can’t even have a fundraiser these days without being jumped on by the other party. I’ve seen it happen over and over, from both sides, and this is just the latest…
Good morning – Democrat campaign chairman Chris Van Hollen will be in Illinois today fundraising for vulnerable Democrat Representatives Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson. Please see the following comments and research from the Republican National Committee:
“The president and Democrat leaders promised vulnerable Democrats they would be taken care of if they sold out their constituents and voted for unpopular big government policies. After voting for government-run health care and the failed stimulus amid Illinois’ 11.1 percent unemployment, Representatives Foster and Halvorson are welcoming Van Hollen with open arms as they try to line their campaign coffers and stave off competitive Republican challengers who embrace the fiscally responsible policies voters in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia have already demanded. But they should give their constituents more credit – come November voters won’t forget how Foster and Halvorson sold them out during tough times.” – RNC Spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski
* With the one-year federal stimulus anniversary this week, a Republican congressional candidate went on the attack…
State Sen. Randy Hultgren used the anniversary to highlight U.S. Rep. Bill Foster’s support of a stimulus that the GOP challenger views as a failure in creating the job growth or job preservation promised to the country. Hultgren said in a written statement that he’s seen rampant unemployment and hurting families during his travels throughout the 14th District. The only growth Hultgren said he’s seen is in government spending and the national debt as the stimulus, originally estimated at $787 billion, is now projected to be about $862 billion.
And that brings us to our graph of the day. Click the pic for a larger image…
* Bean not worried about tea parties: “There is no question that when there is an economic downturn, that definitely the anxiety levels go up - absolutely - and the passion levels go up,” said the Barrington Democrat during an interview Thursday with the Daily Herald editorial board. “But I get a lot of people saying, ‘I like what you are doing.’”
