* Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno started her media availability earlier than she announced, so here is the last minute or so of her response.
More in a bit.
* Sen Bill Brady offered his reaction to reporters. Take a look…
The budget also includes more than $2 billion in proposed cuts, including a deep reduction in education funding. In his budget address, Governor Quinn called on the General Assembly to rescue education from devastating cuts by passing a one-percent income tax surcharge for education. The surcharge for education would restore the education budget to its current level.
“If we enact this emergency rescue plan promptly, we can keep thousands of committed teachers from getting layoff notices,” Governor Quinn said.
* I’m told that the one point tax surcharge would bring in somewhere between $2.8 and $3 billion. Wish I knew that when I was on live TV and was asked the question cold.
Speaker madigan just said the people don’t want to hear about tax increases.
*** UPDATE *** I just got off the phone with Fox Chicago. They accidentally misreported the numbers this morning. The actual numbers are…
Giannoulias 44
Kirk 41
Undecided 10
Other 5
The poll was taken March 8th (the same day as the Quinn/Brady poll) and the margin of error is +/-4.5.
[ *** End of update and text corrected below to reflect update *** ]
* A new Rasmussen poll has Alexi Giannoulias leading Mark Kirk 42-41 44-41.
Rasmussen hasn’t posted the numbers as of 10 o’clock this morning, but I’ll check back later. [UPDATE: Check back after four o’clock for the full poll results.]
So, what the heck is going on? Yesterday’s poll, presumably of the same set of voters, had the governor’s race a lopsided 47-37 Bill Brady lead over Gov. Quinn.
I originally thought that the Quinn/Brady poll was an outlier, but Rasmussen’s US Senate numbers are in line with recent polling…
Again, if Rasmussen polled the same people for US Senate that they polled in the governor’s race, then this is a screwy year, baby. Screwy.
* Anyway, back to the Senate poll. Here are Rasmussen’s numbers for the current poll with their February, December and October results in parentheses…
Giannoulias 44 (40, 42, 41)
Kirk 41 (46, 39, 41)
That’s a huge apparent swing for Giannoulias/Kirk in the past month - a month when the Democrat has been hammered incessantly over his family bank’s troubles. Today was no exception. Tribune…
It’s usually understood that a Democratic president supports his party’s candidates for office, especially when the nominee in question is running for the U.S. Senate seat the president himself once held.
But today Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign went out of its way to announce that he does, in fact, have the backing of the White House.
Giannoulias campaign sent out a news release highlighting remarks by President Barack Obama’s press secretary about the president’s support for Giannoulias, who not only is the Democratic nominee running for Obama’s old Senate seat but also is known for being a longtime personal friend of the president’s.
Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the party’s nominee for the state’s open Senate seat, visited the White House Tuesday and picked up a somewhat tepid endorsement from press secretary Robert Gibbs.
While Democrats may scoff at any notion of a latter-day Reagan revolution coming to the blue state of Illinois, they are hardly cheered by the challenges facing state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in his U.S. Senate battle vs. Kirk.
Giannoulias has tried to get out in front of the seemingly imminent failure of his family’s Broadway Bank, but there’s no way to put that story behind him as long as the FDIC could move in at any time and take it over.
Giannoulias met with David Axelrod at the White House on Tuesday. At the same time, Republicans were sending out dispatches with a reminder of President Obama’s recent denunciation of “fat cats who are getting rewarded for their failure . . . bankers don’t need another vote in the U.S. Senate.”
Chicago’s reluctance to allow video gambling in the city will deprive the state of almost $178 million annually, according to a new analysis by the Legislature’s budget-forecasting arm.
That shortfall could blow a nearly $2 billion hole in Gov. Quinn’s $31 billion construction program, which was partly reliant on proceeds from video gambling in bars and restaurants across the state.
“This puts a monkey wrench in a couple billion dollars worth of projects we can’t move forward on and do jobs,” said Rep. Raymond Poe (R-Springfield), who requested the estimates from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
The panel projected that up to $475 million worth of wagering would occur on video gambling machines in Chicago if the city were to authorize them.
The commission said the state stands to lose between $95.6 million and $177.7 million by Chicago’s absence from the video gambling bandwagon.
As we’ve discussed before, Chicago has to approve video gambling before it can commence inside city limits and Daley has grumbled about not wanting to do it yet. He and the city council are up for election next year, and they’ve all got enough problems without adding this to the mix.
* Slots at racetracks is being pushed as a way to supplement (or even replace) video gaming revenues. It’s getting some bipartisan support, but Speaker Madigan’s spokesman sounded non-committal…
Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, said approving slots for racetracks isn’t an immediate priority, but there is some interest brewing among members given the state’s $13 billion budget hole and underfunded capital construction program.
“I don’t know I would say there’s serious interest on the part of leadership,” Brown said.
Burns said the idea of installing slots at racetracks has been floated for years, to no avail. He’s hoping he’ll get more traction as the session continues.
“It’s always hard to read the tea leaves this early in the process,” Burns said.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat, introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
If Brown had been jumping up and down for joy, the Statehouse would’ve exploded with interest, so I get what he tried to do there.
[Illinois State Superintendent of Schools Christopher Koch] once again told lawmakers that schools across Illinois will be looking at $500 less per-student next year in general state aid. Koch reiterated that the 13,000 layoffs he talked about last week is the best-case scenario. He said if lawmakers ordered cuts for the last three months of this school year, or Gov. Pat Quinn followed through with a billion-and-a half dollars in cuts to education, the number of layoffs could triple.
But the newest warning from Illinois’ school chief is that he cannot tell local schools when, or if, they’ll get money for the mandated categorical of special ed and transportation, or for early childhood education programs.
“I’d not be comfortable saying [the governor’s proposed budget is] dead on arrival. But if I was simply assessing how I thought it would fare in the Senate, we’d have to assume we’d have to get Republicans on board to the idea of borrowing . . . and I do not see that happening,” said Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago).
Borrowing beyond a fiscal year requires a three-fifths majority, and that means Republican involvement. It’ll be tough, for sure.
Even if lawmakers go along with Quinn’s cuts, the state still would be $11 billion short next year, Quinn budget officials said.
That’s where the options of a tax increase or borrowing come in.
Quinn aides said the administration will propose borrowing $4.7 billion and carrying over $6.3 billion of the state’s debt.
“Carrying over” means “not paying bills anywhere near on time.” That’s the biggest component of the Quinn plan, but it got the least media attention today.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) issued a joint statement urging ruling Democrats to cut spending and rein in Medicaid expenses and state pension costs before asking taxpayers “to invest more of their hard-earned money into a state government that has not and is not serving them well.”
There aren’t nearly enough Medicaid and pension cuts in this proposed budget to satisfy the GOP. Then again, I kinda doubt that satisfying them is possible at this stage of the game. Going in relatively low leaves room for negotiations.
Stermer also said there was “an agreement in the works” within the legislature that would institute a two-tier pension plan with lesser benefits for future state workers. Such a plan, he said, would provide up to $300 million in savings in the budget proposal. While pushed by prominent politicians in both parties, a two-tier system has been fought by state labor unions.
* As I told subscribers this morning, Murphy proposed borrowing as a solution when he was a gubernatorial candidate, so this is more than a bit disingenuous…
“They want to borrow their way past the election so they can pass the tax increase without risk of retribution from the voters, and that’s what this is set up to do,” said Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine).
* If you watched the briefing videos, you know that the governor’s people had to be pushed and prodded over and over to come clean on just what some of this stuff meant. One of the big questions was about the missing tax hike component…
“The General Assembly has not acted on a tax increase and has given symbols that they don’t want to act on a tax increase,” said Jerry Stermer, Quinn’s chief staff. […]
As to whether Quinn would propose a specific revenue increase in his budget address, or divulge what he plans to do with the money that would come from one, no one in the room would answer that question.
“Quinn’s not included a tax increase in this budget, and that’s a conversation that has to happen,” Stermer said. When pressed on the issue, Stermer said, “The governor will talk about that tomorrow — noon sharp.”
“I don’t think he intends to cut a billion dollars out of education… He’s doing it to get the education community upset and to call lawmakers and say, ‘Vote for a tax increase so we don’t have this cut.’”
There have to be cuts, but education’s share is disproportionate to its budget size. The Sun-Times also rails against the education cuts today…
But we think his education cuts are too severe. We prefer a plan by the conservative-leaning Civic Federation to exempt from cuts Medicaid and a significant portion of the state public school budget, known as general state aid. The Civic Federation recommends across-the-board 7 percent cuts to bring Illinois back to 2007 spending levels, given how revenues have been whacked by the recession. Quinn also will propose a two-tier pension system today, with less generous benefits for new hires. This is both the right thing to do and a good way to bring around recalcitrant Republicans who refuse to support an income tax increase without pension reforms and budget cuts.
As I said earlier, I’m not sure those pension reforms are quite enough yet. The Republicans don’t really want to get in front of this issue because they also fear upsetting the unions. They’ve been content to hang back and demand the Democrats take the lead, which is what the minority party does. So, we’ll just have to wait and see what the actual agreement looks like, if they ever get one.
“Anything meaningful is gonna be very politically unpopular. You’re gonna be cutting programs, eventually you got to look at a tax increase, I just don’t think that’s gonna happen during an election year. What worries me is I’m not sure that’s gonna happen after the election. I’ve become very pessimistic.”
Edgar says his biggest hope is that politicians don’t make the state’s budget mess worse during the upcoming legislative session.
* Former Illinois governor Jim Edgar had some not-so-kind words for his party’s Republican nominee on Chicago Public Radio yesterday. Edgar called Brady’s ten percent across-the-board budget cut plan “naïve“…
“I don’t agree with across the board. I think that’s a naïve approach,” Edgar said. “There are some more essential [programs] than others. It’s a difference of life and death… we don’t want to make a cut that will result in somebody dying. There are some programs in state government that [can mean] the difference between life and death. Those programs you can’t cut.”
And he’s not planning to campaign for Brady, either…
“I was hoping that Kirk [Dillard] would be the [Republican] nominee,” Edgar said. “He was my chief of staff and I think he had a good understanding of what it took to get the problems…I’m at the University of Illinois and I think I’ll take a professorial role in this campaign and just sit on the sidelines.”
* As I already told you, several pro-choice groups held a presser yesterday to blast Brady…
Beth Kanter with Illinois Planned Parenthood’s politcal action committee and several other activist groups gathered in Chicago to declare Brady “anti-woman,” vowing to support Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.
“Over 17 years in Springfield, Bill Brady has amassed quite a scary record,” Kanter said. “And in his run for governor, Bill Brady is not backing down in his extreme positions against women.”
Kanter was joined onstage by representatives from the National Organization of Women, Personal PAC, Citizen Action, and a supporter of stem-cell research. She said she and other activists scrutinized Brady’s Senate record and campaign questionnaires in formulating their opinion of him as a gubernatorial candidate.
Kanter cited Brady’s opposition to abortion rights, noting his response to an Illinois Federation for Right to Life questionnaire.
“Sen. Brady has said he would sign a law banning abortion except to save the life of a woman,” she said. “That means if a woman is raped or the victim of incest, she would not be allowed to get an abortion.”
Cosgrove and the other speakers admitted they would probably be launching the same campaign if any of the other five Republicans had won the nomination for governor.
All the GOP candidates were anti-abortion except for DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who dropped out a week before Election Day. The other six agreed with 26 out of 26 positions supported by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life on the group’s questionnaire, except for Andy McKenna, who agreed with 25 out of 26.
But Cosgrove said surveys of Republican primary election voters showed 70 percent of them supported a right to abortion in cases of rape and incest, unlike the candidates.
* Representatives from Gov. Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget presented a budget plan Tuesday night in the Illinois State Museum Auditorium. They opened with a PowerPoint before taking questions from reporters. Videos from the briefing are below in chronological order.
*** UPDATE *** I’m at the budget briefing. The materials include broad outlines of some of the cuts. Human services will take a $276 million hit, including adult home care, child care and community mental health.
Health takes a $325 mil reduction with cuts to prescription drug assistance [benefits cut in half] and retiree group health.
Education, including universities, is in for a $1.3 billlion cut.
464 reduced head count at state police and 30 at Corrections.
Increased head count at Ag (6.5) DCFS (208) DCEO (33) DHFS (23) Rev (75) IDOT (262) Vets (87).
• They built into the budget the 62% Medicaid match even though that extra cash expires Dec. 31. They claim strong signals that the increased match will be extended.
• There will be no briefing on any tax hike. Gov Quinn will save that for himself.
• after proposed cuts they “still have an eleven billion dollar problem.”
• The “Voucher payment notes” are various borrowing plans, the budget director says. That could include another pension note plan. Since increased pension payments appear to be $4.16 billion and the voucher payment notes are listed at $4.67 billion, that looks likely to my eyes, but we’ll have to wait and see.
• Much confusion now over what this briefing is. This is the budget, Jerry Stermer says, but this doesn’t include a tax hike, and the guv will lay out new state revenues tomorrow. So, go figure.
• It’s taken a bi to get this out of them, but it looks like they’ll borrow about 4.7 cut a couple bil and roll over about 5.7 bil to fiscal year 12. In other words they have a 4.7 bil operating deficit built in to next FY plus 6 billlion from this fiscal year.
[End of live-blogging portion.]
* I was able to obtain a little bit of the governor’s proposed budget. His total operating expenditures will rise from $29.145 billion this fiscal year to $32.117 billion next FY - mainly, it appears, because of an increase in pension payments.
Quinn’s also using $4.672 billion of something called “Voucher payment notes” to balance the budget. The explanation at the bottom of the page is “A series of notes to pay specific vouchers during the fiscal year.” Not sure yet what that means. We’ll hopefully have more after the budget briefing later this afternoon.
…Adding… The top sheet referenced above can be viewed by clicking here.
* Here are some of the state agency numbers from the governor’s soon to be proposed FY 2011 budget. The first number is the current fiscal year’s estimated expenditure and the second is the proposed funding level for next fiscal year. All numbers are in thousands…
AGENCY ($ thousands) … FY10 EST. EXPEND. … FY11 REC. APPROP
General Assembly … 50,099 … 43,155
Legislative Agencies … 103,601 … 83,348
Judicial Agencies … 400,764 … 376,608
Office of the Governor … 93,896 … 4,705 [GOMB Typo. Waiting on actual number.]
Office of the Lieutenant Governor … 94 … 0
Office of the Attorney General … 76,852 … 69,556
Office of the Secretary of State … 394,391 … 355,967
Office of the State Comptroller … 108,968 … 87,325
Office of the State Treasurer … 1,743,160 … 1,732,926
Elected Officials and Elections … 2,435,411 … 2,286,215
Department of Aging … 732,919 … 703,147
Department of Agriculture … 101,262 … 97,560
Department of Central Management Services … 846,129 … 1,064,405
Department of Children and Family Services … 1,394,312 … 1,439,450
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity … 1,053,678 … 2,389,531
Department of Natural Resources … 214,092 … 278,731
Department of Corrections … 1,202,307 … 1,305,163
Department of Employment Security … 306,510 … 350,649
Department of Financial and Professional Regulation … 78,014 … 84,185
Department of Human Services … 6,199,214 … 6,346,019
Department of Healthcare and Family Services … 14,630,665 … 15,920,104
Department of State Police … 357,519 … 359,019
Illinois Arts Council … 9,215 … 9,577
Governor’s Office of Management and Budget … 321,930 … 338,319
Office of Executive Inspector General … 6,859 … 6,931
Illinois Gaming Board … 117,127 … 137,359
GOVERNOR’S AGENCIES TOTAL … 36,013,295 … 39,719,582
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION … 10,314,159 … 9,861,256
TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM … 951,540 … 157,594
HIGHER EDUCATION TOTAL … 2,796,227 … 2,591,954
The new survey finds Brady leading by 17 points among women but just three points among men.
We’ve known for a while that Quinn had trouble with women, but I cannot possibly see how the Democrat is trailing among women to a Republican by 17 points, while losing by just 3 among men.
The crosstabs (subscribers only) show Brady ahead of Quinn 50-33 among women and 45-42 among men. The crosstabs also show Quinn leading Brady among Democrats 63-21, while Brady leads Quinn among Republicans 82-10.
The only other poll we have is the Research 2000 for Daily Kos which had Quinn up 47-32 - an almost reverse image of this one. So, go figure.
Even Rasmussen has a bit of trouble with these results…
Brady’s numbers likely reflect at least a modest bounce from the news of his victory. Given Illinois’ strong Democratic leanings, the race is sure to tighten in the days ahead.
* Meanwhile, Rasmussen has support divided over whether the LG’s office should be eliminated…
Should Illinois eliminate the position of lieutenant governor?
41% Yes
40% No
19% Not sure
The governor hopes the measure will generate as many as 20,000 jobs.
According to a source in Mr. Quinn’s office, the program will be open to companies with 50 or fewer total employees as of June 30.
For each new, full-time Illinois job created and maintained for at least one year, employers would get a $2,500 credit.
This is pretty close to a campaign proposal by Sen. Bill Brady…
I will help create and retain jobs in Illinois through employer incentives. I am proposing a $2,100 tax credit to businesses for every new job they create. The average job brings in $4,200 in revenue to the state. I believe it’s a good investment for the state, attracting new jobs to get Illinois’ unemployed back to work.
The difference, apparently, is that Quinn’s program only applies to small businesses, not big ones. That tack has obvious political advantages.
* Sheila Simon’s on the LG short list, according to Sneed…
Word late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon’s daughter, Sheila, submitted her application for the job is worth noting: Sneed has learned she was on Gov. Quinn’s list of five nominees for the job weeks ago.
Pssst! Sneed is told Quinn treasures a bow tie that once belonged to Sen. Simon, one of his heroes — given to him by Sheila Simon after her father died.
Sneed’s bet: The Dem party will select state Rep. Art Turner, for lieutenant governor.
The buckshot: Watch for a rumpus and a ruckus from angry African-American congressmen if Turner, who placed second in the primary, doesn’t get the ballot spot.
We’ll see soon enough.
* More on the hopeful LG horde, which now tops 200…
Mary Stonor Saunders of Chicago, for example, notes that she runs a company that sells high-end granola.
Carol Qualkinbush of Evanston is a partner in a company that sells products aimed at controlling foot odor.
“I am definitely not a politician but will hopefully bring an integrity that career politicians cannot often afford,” Qualkinbush notes in her application. […]
The son of Joseph Hartzler, the federal prosecutor who oversaw the conviction of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, also has tossed his name in the ring.
* Erickson looks at what these people are vying for…
On a recent tour of the space, visitors were greeted by the sound of the Capitol heating system, which still pours warm air into the offices.
Desks had been hastily cleared in the aftermath of the exodus. One room contains a jumble of furniture. Computer monitors remain, but important paperwork and any personnel effects left by Quinn’s staffers is nowhere to be seen.
In all, there are six offices jammed into the small space, including a large, high-ceilinged affair that serves as the main meeting room for the lieutenant governor’s team.
The desk in that room was once former Gov. Richard Olgilvie’s. The desk was brought into the office in 1991 when newly elected Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra walked into the space to find that his predecessor, George Ryan, had cleaned almost everything out.
To accommodate other aides, there are five offices crammed into the area. There also is a tiny bathroom, a couple of utility closets and a kitchen. In all, the budget allows for about 30 people to work for the lieutenant governor. Some work out of other offices in the Capitol complex.
* Meanwhile, in other campaign news, Ben Smith at Politico reports that Giannoulias is meeting with Axe today…
Embattled Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias — an old Obama ally, but not his preferred candidate — will be by the White House for Greek Independence Day tomorrow, and the local press has been asking the campaign what kind of welcome he’ll receive.
I’m told he’s likely to stop in and chat with political aides like Axelrod and Patrick Gaspard, part of a running effort to convince national Democrats not to write the race off.
The hits are obviously working if the national press is starting to think that Giannoulias’ troubles give him little chance of beating Mark Kirk.
A group of centrist Republicans found themselves target of robocalls on Tuesday, courtesy of a liberal action group, pressuring them on healthcare reform.
Americans United for Change launched a series of robocalls targeting 10 potentially vulnerable House GOP lawmakers, as well as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The calls take aim at the House lawmakers for “being an important member of Congress, but when it comes to his health care he should be no better than the rest of us,” and, in the case of McCain, makes an issue of his own personal wealth.
* Preckwinkle commits to debates, reforms: The Chicago Democratic Hyde Park alderman said she would debate Republican Roger Keats and Tom Tresser of the Green Party in front of the City Club some time before the November election. She also promised a full rollback of the 1 percentage point increase in the county sales tax imposed in 2008 and scheduled to be cut in half in July.
The Illinois Department on Aging plans to move from two state-owned locations in Springfield where it pays no rent into a private office building where it will lease space for more than $530,000 a year.
The department said the move was in the works before the state’s financial problems hit and that it will enable all department employees to be in one location.
OK, hold it right there. “Before the state’s financial problems hit”? When was that? August of 2001?
Let’s continue…
Beginning July 1, Aging will lease space in the Jefferson Terrace office building in the 300 block of West Jefferson Street in Springfield. Information posted on the state’s procurement Web site said the state will lease 49,214 square feet of space for five years at a total cost of $3.3 million. That comes to about $662,000 a year, or $13.45 a square foot.
$13 billion budget deficit? Difficult, if not impossible to conjure by your average voter. But this goofy plan? Real easy to digest. Well, not so easy to digest, but you get the picture.
Isn’t there a lot of open space in IDOT’s building out by I-55? And is it really so all-important that the department be put in one building while the state is literally scrounging around for every dime to pay vendors, universities and schools?
Stupid. Just stupid. They richly deserve whatever ridicule is coming their way.
Created in an effort to keep the cost of electricity as low as possible, the Illinois Power Agency has only one employee and no one to handle its finances, a recent audit found.
Mark Pruitt was tapped to run the agency almost two years ago, and he’s remained its only employee ever since.
Here’s why…
Pruitt’s agency was created in 2007 after a months-long controversy over a spike in some Ameren and ComEd power bills. Some of the money from a $1 billion settlement with Ameren, Exelon and others, pays for the Illinois Power Agency’s operation.
David Kolata, director of the utility-watchdog Citizen’s Utility Board, said he thinks Pruitt’s doing a good job helping keep costs down. The fact that Pruitt remains alone in the agency is just a matter of bad timing, he said.
“The creation of the IPA coincided with the fiscal crisis of the state,” Kolata said.
* In other budget news, mayors are gearing up to fight the governor’s budget idea to slash local government revenue sharing by $300 million…
Normal Mayor Chris Koos said the town could lose up to $400,000 at a time when officials already have cut workers, halted new programs and increased the local sales tax to cope with current budget shortfalls.
Lincoln Mayor Keith Snyder suggested his community would face additional belt-tightening.
“Any loss of additional revenue would require further cuts,” Snyder said.
While some mayors wouldn’t speculate on how exactly they would deal with cuts in state aid, Pana Mayor Steven Sipes said his town may need to look into some kind of tax or fee increase to plug such a shortfall.
And the State Journal-Register has a pretty decent editorial today which tries to give the governor some advice…
It was amateur hour when Quinn delivered his state-of-the-state speech, a stream-of-consciousness stemwinder based off of notes jotted down on a yellow legal pad. Everyone knows Quinn fancies himself a man of the people. But he’s also chief executive of the fifth-largest state in the union. He has a responsibility to present a coherent set of well-thought out, specific ideas.
* Related…
* Quinn has five in mind to take driver’s seat at tollway
* Daley’s gun control legislation proposes ‘micro-stamping‘ pistols, harsher penalties
* Daley calls for new state laws on guns: This time, the mayor also is asking the General Assembly to make it a Class 1 felony to knowingly sell a gun to a known gang member, stiffen penalties for unlawfully using a weapon and require “micro-stamping” of guns that make it easier to match weapons used in crimes.
* Bill Brady said this during his campaign kickoff fly-around yesterday…
“Our statewide ticket is not only broad-based in terms of geography, but also in terms of ancestry and background, unlike the Democrats’ ticket,” Brady said.
Ancestry?
There are two Irish-Americans (Pat Quinn and Lisa Madigan, by adoption) and three African-Americans (Jesse White, David Miller and Robin Kelly) on the Democratic ticket.
If nothing else, Brady’s comment should make it pretty clear why the Democrats are thinking about somebody other than a black person and an Irish-American for lt. governor, despite some of the uproar that the thought process has generated.
But Brady ought to be very, very careful about bringing race into this campaign. We’ve got enough problems without that. The Peoria paper passed it off as a joke. They’re doofuses. Other reporters aren’t.
* Speaking of silly statements, Brady also talked yesterday about what he would cut…
If elected he would look to reduce state spending by $3.5 billion, and call for across –the-board cuts to reduce deficit spending by 10 percent.
$3.5 billion in spending cuts? Plus a $1 billion tax cut? And the budget is magically balanced? Waiter, I want what he’s having.
“I have to cut state spending by 10 percent if I’m going to pay for my tax breaks, if I’m going to reconcile the budget in a balanced way, and pay back the backlog of unpaid bills that Gov. Quinn and Gov. Blagojevich have accumulated,” he said.”
A ten percent cut of just the operating budget wouldn’t even be $3 billion. I really would like to see his numbers on one sheet of paper.
* Meanwhile, Zorn was given an opposition research document by the Quinn campaign yesterday of some of Brady’s more socially conservative votes and statements. Read the whole thing. I’ve already written about most of these bills, but Zorn also had some quotes…
Brady said the minimum wage should be controlled by “market-forces” and opposed increases in the minimum wage. “I think supply and demand in the marketplace determines the rate of minimum wage. I don’t think governmental intrusion is as effective,” said Brady. [Pantagraph, 1/23/03]
Regarding pay equity for men and women, Brady said the marketplace should set pay standards. Responding to a question about pay equity between men and women, Brady said the marketplace should dictate pay rates. On a question about affirmative-action programs for college students, Brady said he “opposes setting quotas.” [State Journal-Register, 5/8/06]
A few more…
Co-sponsored SB 908 – Insurance Without Mandated Coverage (2003)… Voted NO on HB 211(2003) – Contraceptive Coverage in Private Health Insurance… Co-sponsored SB 2343 (2006)– Pharmacy/Pharmacist Refusal… Voted NO on SB 4 (2007) – Stem Cell Initiative… Voted NO on SB 144 Senate Concurrence with House Amendment #3 (2007)– Prevention coverage in the Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (CHIP)… In a questionnaire submitted to the Illinois Federation for Right to Life, Senator Brady indicated that he would sign a law banning abortions except to save the life of the woman (2010)
Expect to hear more about Brady’s voting record later today. From a press release…
WOMEN LEADERS, ADVOCACY GROUPS TO DENOUNCE GOP GOVERNOR CANDIDATE BILL BRADY’S POSITIONS ON WOMEN’S ISSUES
In an 11 a.m. news conference on Tuesday, March 9, the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization for Women (Chicago NOW) will gather with several advocacy groups, including Citizens Action, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action and Personal PAC, along with a number of women business and political leaders, to discuss GOP Governor Candidate Bill Brady’s extreme record on issues including the Family Medical Leave Act, healthcare funding and choice issues, along with the dire consequences they entail for Illinois women and families. The choice that Illinoisans make for governor in the upcoming election will have a profound impact on the direction of our state for the next four years. But for the women of Illinois, the outcome carries particular importance.
“The Democrats are going to try to distract us, which they typically do,” Brady said. “They’re all about politics but we’re going be about policy. We’re going to be about job policy and ending the culture of corruption.”
“You’d be surprised (by) the number of people who come up to me and say ‘Hey listen, you’re pro-life, I’m pro-choice, but I’m going to support you because, A) you don’t scare me and B) I know we need someone who can take a business approach to rebuilding Illinois,”‘ Brady told The Associated Press in a telephone interview before an eight-city fly around.
“A lot of pundits don’t believe Republicans can win statewide offices in Illinois. But you and I know we can.
“Just like the states of Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey were challenged, Illinois can rise above it. We can reach out to independents and Democrats, through the Republican Party, and build the strongest groundswell of support with principles, values and economic development.”
Brady also said he would lift the state’s freeze on executions and would refrain from cutting funding to help ensure fair trials.
While on the topic of law and order, Brady criticized Quinn for allowing 1,700 prisoners to be freed from state prison early; some were sent back for new offenses.
“I will do everything I can to keep Illinois safe,” Brady pledged.
llinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is calling on the state health department to cancel its contract with VIP Security & Detective Services, citing a Chicago Sun-Times report that raised questions about the firm’s nursing home safety deal….Madigan described a State Police takeover as ideal.
Mr. Warren said in an interview that his resignation was effective today and that Alison Draper, who last month became Creative Loafing’s chief sales executive based in Chicago, will now be interim publisher at the Reader. While he acknowledged “differences” with Ms. Petty, he said there was nothing unusual about the transition.
* Survey finds more Peoria employers plan to add jobs
The survey showed that 21 percent of the employers interviewed expect to add to their payroll during the second quarter, April through June, while only 6 percent said they will likely reduce employment. Another 70 percent expect to maintain current levels, and 3 percent are uncertain.
The next employment outlook of 15 percent for the quarter is well above the 5 percent outlook from a year earlier, when 19 percent of the employers interviewed said they would add staff and 14 percent said they would cut staff, with 63 percent maintaining then-current levels and the rest uncertain.
* Dick Simpson back in saddle as protests grow over state budget cuts
“It seems like old times,” quipped Dick Simpson, who, as 44th Ward alderman from 1971-79, once railed against misdeeds by Mayor Richard J. Daley. He’s now chairman of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Gov. Pat Quinn’s threatened 15% cut in spending on higher education in fiscal 2011 literally will leave students unable to get the classes they need, Mr. Simpson charged, with 150 students to lose slots in poly sci classes alone due to professor layoffs and cutbacks.
* Architect who designed Willis Tower, John Hancock dies
The 53-year-old Congress bridge over the south branch of the Chicago River is about to get a well-needed face lift. Beginning April 1, dot will close the eastbound side for repairs and shift traffic to the westbound side….
At the same time IDOT begins the Congress bridge project, CDOT will begin the three-year reconstruction of upper and lower Wacker from Randolph to Congress.
This year, crews will be doing utility work on Lower Wacker, which will be open for local traffic only. The ramps to and from Lower Wacker and the Eisenhower will close April 1st for the duration of the project. This could create more congestion on Upper Wacker.
* Fines, Safety at Odds Where Chicago Has Red Light Camera Intersections
A study conducted by Texas A & M University found that adding one second of yellow decreases crashes 35 to 40 percent and violations by 60 percent. But Brian Steele, Chicago Department of Transportation director of communications, said he envisions more crashes if the city were to add an extra second of yellow at its intersections.
The collaboration could bring university doctors to Cook County’s Provident Hospital in Chicago where they would work alongside county providers.
* Grandson of Ex-Cook Co. Commissioner Fatally Shot
Bowen, who was in the Navy but was recently unemployed, is the grandson of Charles Bowen, who served a four-year term on the county board in the early 1980s. Charles Bowen, 76, later spent more than 15 years as Mayor Daley’s chief liaison to black ministers before retiring.
Every one of the 107 students in Urban Prep’s first senior class has been accepted to a four-year college.
That’s a remarkable achievement, especially considering that the overall college acceptance rate for Chicago public school graduates is 52.5 percent. And that number doesn’t include the many students who start high school but don’t finish it.
