* I’m not sure that the out-of-state (and even some of the in-state) media really understands (or wants to understand) what’s going on with all these Rod Blagojevich subpoenas of powerful people to testify at his trial.
Some are reacting as if the subpoenas of Harry Reid, Jesse Jackson Jr., Dick Durbin, etc. mean that those guys did something wrong.
Actually, it’s just the opposite. Blagojevich wants them to testify on his behalf, meaning he wants them to swear under oath that he didn’t do, say or even imply anything illegal during their conversations about the US Senate seat vacancy or anything else. The idea is to undermine the federal case against him by having some high-level government types (including the President, before the judge squelched that attempt) say that the conversations always sounded legal to them.
The added bonus, of course, is that the subpoenas naturally taint these targets before the trial. But he’s not bringing them in because they did something wrong or know of something wrong. He’s doing it to show that Blagojevich did nothing wrong.
* Blagojevich’s former chief of staff, meanwhile, has taken up a more honorable trade. According to his attorney, John Harris, 48, is now “working as an apprentice electrician.”
Candidate for Governor Scott Lee Cohen is telling Bill Cameron he quit the Democratic party’s nomination for Lieutenant Governor after being threatened with prison by a high-level party official. […]
“It was, if you don’t drop out today, then all your tax records better be in impeccable order, because someone’s going to jail. And then I was told, if they couldn’t find anything to put me in jail over, they’d still put me in jail. They would make something up to put me in jail. They did not want me on that ticket.”
Lots of commenters here immediately jumped to the conclusion that Cohen was talking about Speaker Madigan. The Sun-Times has a more complete story than WLS, which is no surprise…
No, it was not party Chairman Michael Madigan or Gov. Quinn, [Cohen] said.
I still don’t believe a word of what Cohen said unless he’s willing to put names behind it. And probably not even then. Remember, this is the same guy who claimed anti Semitism played a role in his ouster from the ticket without naming any names…
The elected officials would never say that they don’t want me because I’m Jewish. But it did come up in chatter and in backroom meetings.
Yeah. The alleged hooker knifing had nothing to do with it, I’m sure.
Like Blagojevich, this person is not to be believed.
* And now back to Blagojevich for our finale. Chicago Magazine has put its article about the suicide of Chris Kelly online. It’s definitely worth a read…
Such loyalty would be in keeping with Kelly’s personality, says a former senior aide in the Blagojevich administration who clashed often with Kelly. “We didn’t always see eye to eye,” he told me. “But if he was your friend, he was your friend to the end. And if you were on his team, he was on your team, and he’d fight anybody for you. I think it showed that everybody else flipped on Rod except Kelly. He’d rather take his own life than rat out a friend.”
The new Legends spreads more than 11,000 square feet of space over two levels with two stages, more than twice the size of the old venue. It will offer ample space for the club’s famous namesake to show off a lifetime of memorabilia, including vintage guitars and personal photographs of blues greats.
And it will come equipped with a $200,000 state-of-the-art sound system. The club will accommodate about 400 people downstairs in the main music room, and up to 250 upstairs in a more intimate space with pool tables and a movie screen. […]
Gary Gand, owner of Gand Music and Sound in suburban Northfield, says his company installed a digital mixing console and sound and lighting equipment “comparable to what you’d see at a major music festival or the United Center rather than a typical blues club.”
Speakers in the ceiling will provide a strong bass presence throughout the club. “We can steer the sound coming out of them with computers,” Gand says. “We can reflect sound around the room electronically and keep it off the stage so the microphones don’t feed back. Every seat in the house will have great sound. We’re looking to blow people’s minds.”
Oh, yeah.
And who else but Buddy himself could play us out after that? This is from a 1970 documentary called “Chicago Blues.” Turn it up…
You shoulda heard me beggin’
‘Blues, don’t murder me’
* Pat Quinn’s campaign has issued a pretty darned harsh response to Bill Brady’s new TV ad…
The best way to judge a politician’s character is not just by what he says, but more importantly, by what he has done. In Bill Brady’s first campaign commercial, nearly all of his statements are contradicted by the facts, by his record and even by his own statements. Here are the commercial’s claims and the facts that contradict them:
“As a family man and a home builder, we’ve had to tighten our belts to survive”—During the economic recession, Brady’s business was bailed out by taxpayer-funded federal assistance, and his main source of income for the past two years was his senate salary, paid by Illinois taxpayers. All while paying no income taxes on over $100,000 of income in more than one tax year.
“I know we’ll succeed as long as we have a blueprint”— Bill Brady has no blueprint for Illinois. Former Republican Governor Jim Edgar has pointed out several times that Brady’s plan for solving the budget crisis is short on specifics and doesn’t add up. And Brady himself called for a 10 percent across-the-board cut only to deny he ever advocated such a plan.
“Pat Quinn’s idea is to feed big government by raising your taxes by 33 percent.” Governor Quinn is committed to closing the budget deficit while retaining vital services. Pat Quinn has proposed budget cuts, tax breaks for small businesses, property tax relief and a sales tax holiday. But providing funding for education, public safety and infrastructure isn’t big government, it’s giving Illinois residents the basic services they need to live safe, productive lives.
“[Quinn] thinks government growth is more important than ours.” Governor Quinn has provided strong leadership and made tough decisions to make government smaller and more effective, including reforming the state pension system to save billions in the coming decades. He’s also successfully implemented jobs programs to save companies from leaving
Illinois, grow our economy and put Illinois residents back to work.
“I’ll make a clean break from the politics of the past, with real contribution and term limits for politicians.” Senator Brady is the politics of the past. He has been in office for the past 17 years and has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from special interests and lobbyists during that time. In 1994, Pat Quinn led a petition drive called “Eight is Enough” for term limits. The petition received nearly a half a million signatures - Senator Brady was not one of them.
The commercial concludes with the statement, “I’m Bill Brady, and as governor I’ll put you first.” Based on all his empty claims, Illinois residents shouldn’t believe it.
* I can’t confirm this story, but I can say that if some leaders did ask Exelon to present this proposal then they’re probably freaking upset that Exelon just outed them…
A senior executive for Commonwealth Edison Co. parent Exelon Corp. said Illinois legislative leaders asked ComEd to submit its recent offer of $500 million to help the state with its massive budget shortfall in return for freezing electric rates at above-market levels for four years.
“This was done by us — by invitation — from the highest leadership in the Illinois Legislature,” Exelon Executive Vice-president William Von Hoene Jr. said Wednesday at an investor presentation in New York. “Over a month ago, we met with legislative leaders, who told us that they would like us to put together a proposal that would provide cash for the state of Illinois to address parts of its budget shortfall and also provide some innovative features that would be attractive to us.”
But legislators deny they provoked the short-lived and highly controversial plan that some critics likened to bribery.
According to chief sponsor Lou Lang (D-Chicago), momentum is slowly building in the Illinois House for a bill (SB 1381) to legalize medical marijuana. In April, the Deputy Majority Leader told the Reader that while 92 lawmakers “have looked me in the eye and said, ‘This is a great bill,’” only 52 explicitly stated that they would vote for it. Last Thursday, he bumped the whip-count up to 56. And in an interview on Fox Chicago last night, the Democrat said 58 are currently on board, two shy of the 60 needed to pass it. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for a vote on this bill before the end of the month.
The Committee for Truth in Politics, a conservative group with a tongue-in-cheek name, an aversion to disclosure, and no public presence beyond its large ad buys targeting Democrats, appears to have lost a tussle with Alexi Giannoulias over an ad it sought to air in Chicago. […]
The Committee attempts to take refuge under the First Amendment, but the First Amendment does not shelter lies, and, as I stated in my earlier letter, you have a duty ‘to protect the public from false, misleading, or deceptive advertising,’” a lawyer for Giannoulias’ campaign wrote Comcast Spotlight, objecting to the description of the takeover as a “bailout.”
After an exchange of letters, the ad did not air, though the political sales manager for Comcast Spotlight, Richard Brehm, declined to explain in detail why.
“”We did not pull the spot in question – the agency asked that we suspend the order and we complied with the request,” he said, noting the ad never aired on Comcast Spotlight, the Chicago cable provider.
Candidate for Governor Scott Lee Cohen is telling Bill Cameron he quit the Democratic party’s nomination for Lieutenant Governor after being threatened with prison by a high-level party official.
Scott Lee Cohen says he regrets getting off the ballot for Lieutenant Governor.
He says the allegations about his personal life were false, but he was intimidated by this threat.
“It was, if you don’t drop out today, then all your tax records better be in impeccable order, because someone’s going to jail. And then I was told, if they couldn’t find anything to put me in jail over, they’d still put me in jail. They would make something up to put me in jail. They did not want me on that ticket.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Bill Brady talks about the Highland Park school district decision to not allow the girls basketball team to travel to Arizona…
Two former Democratic candidates for governor will try again to make it onto the Illinois ballot — this time as independents.
Chicago businessman William “Dock” Walls will run for governor, with Oak Park attorney Ed Scanlan as his running mate.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The real question here is who will challenge them? Brady? Stay tuned…
Seven Libertarian candidates for statewide office will likely appear on the ballot for November’s general election, as they have topped the minimum 25,000 signatures needed to join the contest.
But Lex Green of Bloomington, who’s leading the charge as a candidate for governor, said the party will continue to collect signatures in an attempt to prevent any challenges from contenders of other parties. Green, an electrician at a Mitsubishi plant in Normal, made his first campaign visit to Southern Illinois Friday.
* The AP takes a look at what putting off paying bills has done to providers…
For 35 years, frail senior citizens in southern Illinois could turn to the Shawnee Development Council for help cleaning the house, buying groceries or for any of the chores that make the difference between living at home or moving to an institution.
No more. The council shut down the program Thursday because of a budget crisis created by the state of Illinois’ failure to pay its bills.
Paralyzed by the worst deficit in its history, the state has fallen months behind in paying what it owes to businesses and organizations, pushing some of them to the edge of bankruptcy.
Dale Colee, who owns Dale’s Southlake Pharmacy, told Herald & Review reporter Ashley Rueff that he pays more than $1,000 a month in interest because of the state. His Medicaid reimbursements from the state are coming in on a 98-day cycle, but he has to pay his supplier once a week. To pay his own bills, Colee borrows as much as $25,000 a month, which adds more than $1,000 in interest payments to his monthly budget.
And the Peoria Journal Star appears to understand the danger that STAR bonds bill could eventually do to the state’s budget…
One bill that deserves an unqualified rejection is House Bill 2093, which would create a new economic development incentive in the southern Illinois town of Marion. It would help fund bonds for a developer to build a retail and entertainment complex there, paying them off over the next few decades with sales tax money that would ordinarily go to the state and local municipalities.
Though the so-called “STAR bonds” bill is designed to apply only to Marion, we have a hard time imagining that other communities - already addicted to TIF districts and enterprise zones - won’t want a piece of the action. State sales tax receipts already are down nearly a half-billion dollars this fiscal year, a drop the Legislature’s fiscal arm labeled “disastrous” in April. Taxpayers can’t afford the government they have; doesn’t anyone in Springfield believe they’ve had enough of propping up the private sector, too? Enough already.
Eight years after promising to help build and repair old schools, the state of Illinois is finally delivering the money.
State officials announced Thursday they’re releasing nearly $149 million to 24 school districts around the state.
That means Winfield Elementary District 34 will finally get the approximately $2.3 million the state was supposed to chip in for classroom additions and interior renovations to its former middle school. Local taxpayers ended up covering the state’s share. The school board voted in July 2005 to borrow $1.7 million to help pay off renovation of its schools and to build a nest egg against emergency repair projects.
Carol Stream Elementary District 93 is in line for $1.6 million. Eight years ago the district wanted to use the money to convert its old administration building into an early child care facility, but officials ended up not pursuing the project.
Illinois’ two most powerful teachers’ unions said Thursday that more than 18,000 school layoffs statewide could continue unless lawmakers approve an income tax increase.
Their announcement comes even though the Illinois Senate last week advanced a budget that wouldn’t cut funding for schools.
Still, the unions said, there’s no money to pay for that spending.
“The sad fact is this is a budget that’s really built on quicksand, absent additional revenue,” said Steve Preckwinkle, director of political activities for the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
The state is behind in sending state schools money by $1.4 billion. Without an income tax hike to solve those cash-flow problems, the layoffs may have to continue, said Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association.
The state House of Representatives and Senate recently passed House Bill 6041, which would permit school districts to spend money in their working cash fund however they pleased. This revenue often comes from sources not subject to direct voter approval, and the bill would let school districts use it for items that are supposed to be decided at referendum. The bill now awaits action by Gov. Pat Quinn.
By dipping into their working cash fund, school boards can abuse the backdoor referendum process to finance unauthorized projects. A backdoor referendum refers to the way local governments issue bonds not subject to the normal referendum procedure.
If residents fail to collect enough signatures to stop a backdoor referendum within a specified period, taxing bodies have the green light to spend away. Then, they shift this revenue to other areas normally reserved for referendum measures, such as construction projects.
The rationale of HB 6041 appears to be that school districts are passing revenue between these funds anyway, so why not tell them it’s OK given the lousy economy? Revenue streams are shrinking for all governmental bodies, and Illinois is woefully behind in what it owes school districts.
* Related and a roundup…
* SJ-R: Pass a pension fix for police, firefighters
* $32,000 ice cream budget explained: It turns out the state provides the occasional ice cream treat to the mentally disabled residing in mental institutions
* My Sun-Times column points out some ominous poll numbers for Illinois Democrats in a formerly loyal demographic…
Back when John F. Kennedy was gearing up to run for president, the Teamsters Union local that my paternal grandfather organized for and belonged to sponsored an event for him. Both of my grandparents drove to Chicago to meet this young upstart.
As Grandma tells the story, Kennedy eventually approached my grandparents, put his arm around my grandmother, kissed her on the cheek and told my grandfather what a beautiful wife he had.
To this day, you’d better not say anything bad about JFK around Grandma, or she’ll tan your hide. I long ago learned to stay away from that topic.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandma lately. A series of strokes has required her to spend some time in a nursing home, although she’s back in her own home now. She’s also pretty much lost her interest in politics. “I guess I’ll leave that to others,” she said two years ago when I asked her how she planned to vote in the election.
Grandma is a lifelong Democrat, except in 1994 when she crossed over to vote for a local Republican. She said the candidate came to her door and asked for her vote, so he deserved her support.
I’ve told that story dozens of times to people who want to run for office. Nothing, but nothing, beats “touching voters” in campaigns. You have to get out there and work, knock on doors until your knuckles bleed, shake so many hands that you have to soak your own hands in ice every night. Successful candidates know that campaigns are a pain endurance test. No pain, no win.
But there is something else about Grandma’s 1994 vote. It came during the last national Republican landslide. I’ve always believed she was more amenable to voting for her first ever Republican because the Democrats did so poorly that year. The Republicans had the winning message.
And here we go again. Another Democratic president’s first midterm election, and the Democratic Party can’t seem to get it together. Like 1994, the party has become a pathetic collective punching bag for the fired-up Republicans.
Something ominous for Democrats is happening here among people near Grandma’s age. In 2006 and 2008, senior citizens voted for statewide Illinois Democrats by at least 10- point margins. This year, every statewide poll I’ve seen has the major Republican candidates winning by as many as 10 points.
The Medicare funding cut contained in the national health care bill has allowed Republicans to simultaneously decry “socialized medicine” while berating the Democrats for slashing care to the old folks. That socialism slam works a lot better with seniors, who clearly remember the Cold War. And it’s pretty easy to frighten them with any Medicare cuts (which is socialized medicine, but that’s another story). There may also be a racial thing involved to a point, or natural resistance to rapid and massive change, or the ever-increasing national debt, or the economic woes faced by their children and grandchildren. It’s probably a whole lot of stuff.
Grandma likely won’t be voting this November, but seniors as a whole tend to vote in far higher numbers than any other group. If the Democrats don’t quickly figure out a way to get senior citizens back on their side, then their party is in for a world of hurt this fall.
So far, I haven’t really seen any Democratic attempts here to connect with them. That’s a mistake they will live to regret. All the door-knocking and hand-shaking in the world won’t save the Democrats if they can’t even win over one of their most reliable bases of support.
* Meanwhile, Edjuan Payne made news last December when it was discovered that he was released from prison early under the secret and controversial MGT Push program at the Department of Corrections…
Edjuan Payne, 39, sentenced to 2 years for criminal damage to property, previously convicted of murder and drug manufacturing or delivery; spent just over 6 months in Winnebago County Jail and 14 days at Stateville. Total sentence: Six months, three weeks
* And Bill Brady got some good local press this week for a campaign stop in Aurora Township…
Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady plans to make serious cuts — cuts that some 200 Fox Valley supporters are gladly applauding.
On Thursday, Brady told those attending the annual Aurora Township Republicans Lincoln Day Reception that he plans to reduce the tax burden in Illinois by eliminating the gasoline sales tax and the estate penalty tax and ending the pension system.
“If we eliminate the sales tax on gasoline and make the sales tax more competitive, fewer people will drive to Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin. When they do that, they also purchase their bread, and their beverages and maybe their cigarettes. … We’ll drive more revenues by making our state more competitive,” he said to guests at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Aurora.
George Ryan used to say that his worst policy mistake as governor was listening to the petroleum marketers’ advice and cutting the sales tax on gasoline during a major rise. It was tough to notice the cut at the pump and it didn’t drive up sales tax receipts on other items, as had been predicted. Instead, it blew a big hole in Ryan’s budget when he could least afford it. The sales tax was restored.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard Brady say that he would “end” the pension system, but the story said so and his quote implied it…
Brady also called for a “giant step, not a baby step” to also retire the pension system in Illinois and “do what the private sector does,” adding that his own business offers 401(k) plans to employees who wish to contribute.
The bank unit of Melrose Park-based Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. is expected to be seized by federal regulators late Friday, according to people familiar with the matter.
The $3.2-billion-asset bank — whose CEO, former Banco Popular North America CEO Roberto R. Herencia, was hired a year ago to raise capital to remain solvent — all but said it would fail in a regulatory filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In Chief Executive Magazine’s annual “Best and Worst States for Business” list, Illinois ranks No. 46 out of 51 — the same spot as last year.
The list, which ranks the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, is based on responses from 651 CEOs nationwide. They were asked to rate each state in three main areas: taxation and regulation, quality of workforce and living environment.
Reaction was swift to the news that Michael Hogan, the incoming UI president, will receive a base salary of $620,000 a year, plus $225,000 in deferred compensation after five years.
“It seems high, given the extraordinary financial pressure that we’ve been told the university is under,” said Professor Harriett Murav, a leader in the Campus Faculty Association. […]
The presidents of Northwestern and the University of Chicago receive close to $900,000, Hardy noted. E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, tops the Big Ten with a $1.5 million package. And the president at Michigan earns close to $750,000.
He revamped the city’s new website to include a log of all Freedom of Information Act requests. The list includes the name and organization of each applicant, documents demanded and dates the information was requested and is due to be released.
A new state law merely requires city departments to maintain such a log — not to post it on the Internet to tip investigative reporters about the trail being followed by competitors.
But Daley gleefully declared that he was going “above and beyond what’s required” in the interest of “transparency, openness and the free-flow of information.”
A top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, back to work after a five-day suspension, admits that she signed off on a no-bid county contract with her public relations firm.
She also admits fast-tracking the $24,975 payment to her firm.
But Carla Oglesby, Stroger’s deputy chief of staff, said those actions simply were mistakes made by someone new to government work, adding that Stroger’s other executive staffers signed off on the contract, too.
The commission’s former finance administrator was blamed again for another accounting error that cost the agency $426,515 over the span of the last two fiscal years. Unlike the last accounting missteps that caused the commission to spend all of its $69 million reserve fund, these dollars will be recouped.
Commission officials said former finance chief Max Richter erroneously adjusted a billing formula for Darien in July 2008. The mistake had a major impact on that municipality’s water invoices while simultaneously creating a minor undercharge for the other two dozen municipal customers.
* Cronin’s water plan seems like a play for his future benefit
The total crime index — or rate of crime per 100,00 people — for sexual assaults, burglaries, thefts, car thefts, arsons and murder dropped 17 percent from 2008 to 2009, while the arrest index increased by 40 percent, he said.
Former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese says she has quit her job as hostess at an Oak Park pizza restaurant because she did not make enough money and would like to pursue a career as a radio talk show host.
* As I told subscribers this morning, Bill Brady is up with a new TV ad on Chicago broadcast and cable. Rate it…
From a press release…
Bill Brady shares his plan for growing jobs with a new commercial that begins airing today in the Chicago area.
The commercial will air through a significant buy on broadcast and cable television. Brady talks directly to voters about his plan to hold the line on taxes and pursue job-creating policies in the state. He also reiterates his commitment to term limits and contribution limits.
“I know voters in the Chicago area want to hear more about my vision,” Brady said. “I’m going to continue spending a great deal of time in the city and suburbs and will do everything I can to hear concerns of people here and talk about my goal to bring a clean break to the state.”
Brady is pushing for campaign contribution limits, capping individual campaign contributions at $4,800 for a primary-general election cycle and prohibiting union and corporate contributions. He also is calling for term limits to ending control of the General Assembly by a powerful few.
