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Props to two Mikes and a Rickey… And an Amy… And a John

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Years ago, I was a regular on Mike Wilson’s WMAY talk show in Springfield, mainly on Wednesday afternoons when the station would broadcast from a downtown studio connected to a tavern. I was on his last show before he was laid off, but I wasn’t the reason. The station made the move because of financial pressures.

Mike was a young phenom. He was one of the youngest radio producers in Chicago when he worked for WLS, then was the Statehouse Bureau Chief for WMAY at the tender age of 21. He won the ACLU’s 2008 Ethel Gingold award for defending free speech rights while on the air.

Mike ended up on the Senate Democratic staff. But he left two years ago and is now doing stand-up comedy and writing in Chicago.

Mike has a new blog that you should make sure to check out. He’s done some pretty darned funny political advertising spoofs. The best so far is the one he created “for” Mark Kirk, which was produced by Horacio Ramirez…

Hilarious.

* In other “Mike” news, my former cartoonist Mike Cramer’s award-winning film Dear Mr. Fidrych is playing at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan on June 27th at 3 o’clock Eastern Time. Mike says the town is about an hour and a quarter from the Loop. If we can get enough people to go, I could easily be talked into a road trip.

A description of Mike’s film…

It’s 1976 in Detroit. Twelve-year-old Marty Jones is intellectual and poetic. But, in his final year of youth baseball, he desperately wants to ascend to his local youth league’s ‘majors’ and star as a pitcher. Marty blows tryouts and finds himself mired on a terrible team in the youth league minors.

When Bird-mania hits, Marty is motivated by the overnight success of the Detroit Tigers’ quirky rookie sensation, Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych. Marty writes a poem to the Detroit Tigers’ star, and Fidrych unexpectedly writes back, propelling Marty on a winning streak.

Thirty years later, Marty is a Chicago advertising executive muddling through a mid-life slump. His wife is thinking of leaving him; he barely knows his son; his career is faltering; and he can’t find the inspiration to write new poems.

Can a father-son road trip in search of Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych help Marty reconnect with his family and his youthful optimism? Who will be the hero of Marty’s own life?

The film features a poignant performance by the late Mark Fidryich, who died in a tragic accident in April 2009, just as the film was nearing completion.

Click here to watch the trailer.

* And while we’re plugging things, Sen. Rickey Hendon is about to release his second book in a year. This one is called Backstabbers: The Reality of Politics. From a press release…

Rickey Hendon is the illustrious Democratic state senator from Illinois’ fifth senatorial district—located on the west side of Chicago—who has served as assistant majority leader in that chamber for the last ten years. As a professional politician, political consultant and active campaign manager for numerous political contests, Hendon brings his considerable insider’s perspective to bear in this lively and informative book just in time for election season.

In Backstabbers, Hendon teaches the nuts and bolts of all aspects of political campaigns. It is the ultimate political handbook for winning elections; written by someone who practices what he preaches. Hendon has been an elected official since 1988 and has won an astounding 16 elections over his extensive career.

Hendon describes the petition process—getting on the ballot while knocking your opponent off—and details the different strategies for not only beating out the competition, but destroying it. He is a winner because of his people skills, his dedicated organization and his remarkable ability to motivate voters, and his book is sure to be a valuable resource to fans of politics and future politicians alike.

Senator Rickey Hendon lives in Chicago and is the author of Black Enough/White Enough: The Obama Dilemma. He has also spent time as a film producer and actor.

It’s the film that I really want to see. So far, no luck in convincing Rickey to re-release it.

…Adding… I forgot to add that a former college classmate of mine Amy Dean is promoting her best-selling book, A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement, via a “Webinar”…

This compelling webinar complements the vision and strategic plan that forms the basis of her book. Using case studies, Amy will demonstrate how this model has already started to show tremendous results for workers and the progressive movement around the country. Amy’s message on doing labor organizing and politics differently – focused on building a larger, sustainable grassroots base and stronger progressive collaboration – will get you energized and inspired to take the next steps.

Sign up today to take the first step toward developing and executing a practical plan for real change in your community.

An autographed copy of A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement ($29.95 value) is included in the webinar package, arming you with everything you need.

Amy also blogs for the Huffington Post.

…Adding More… My Statehouse office-mate John Patterson of the Daily Herald has accepted a position with the Illinois Senate Democrats. Best of luck, John!

Anybody else out there wanna plug something? Have at it.

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Poll: Brady leads 34-30-9

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As I told subscribers this morning, Public Policy Polling has released more results from its latest poll. PPP’s April results are in parentheses…

Brady 34% (43)
Quinn 30% (33)
Whitney 9% (n/a)
Undecided 27% (24)

This is the first time that PPP included Green Party nominee Rich Whitney in its polling, so that led to some of the change since April.

* From the pollster…

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is his own worst enemy. 50% of Illinois voters disapprove of him, while only 27% of voters approve and 23% have no opinion. His opponents are generally unknown. 56% of voters have yet to form an opinion of Republican Bill Brady and 80% are unsure of Green Party candidate Rich Whitney.

In a horserace Brady comes out on top with 34% of the vote, even though he is unknown amongst a majority of voters. Governor Quinn follows with 30% and Whitney receives a meager 9%. This may be a sign of people voting against Quinn, not for Brady.

It appears that Governor Quinn has not recovered from his primary battle. 62% of Democrats either disapprove (37%) or have no opinion (25%) of their party’s nominee.

While the same is true for Brady—62% of Republicans either disapprove or have no opinion of their party’s nominee—only 10% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Brady. Quinn has an uphill battle, as he has to regain the support of Democrats who know him and dislike him. Brady simply has to get his name out.

* Quinn is only getting 51 percent of the Democratic vote, which is just plain horrible…

And check out how badly the governor is doing with women voters…

Racial breakdown…

This is what you’d call an extremely unmotivated Democratic electorate.

* More from the pollster…

Quinn’s numbers really haven’t changed much at all over the course of the three Illinois polls PPP has conducted this year. The chances of his actually convincing Illinois voters they like him by November do not seem very good. But he can make voters in this strongly Democratic state think that Brady is an even worse alternative and there’s a lot of room for him to make that argument with most voters not yet having formed an opinion about the GOP nominee.

Green Party candidate Rich Whitney, who got 10% of the vote in 2006, is polling at 9% in this poll. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up that level of support. Rod Blagojevich’s reelection was pretty much a foregone conclusion by election day last time so disaffected Democrats could safely cast a vote for Whitney without it resulting in the election of a Republican Governor. It doesn’t look like that will be the case this time and Whitney could see an erosion in support if Democrats who don’t like Quinn still end up voting for him because they feel the need to keep Brady from being elected.

Brady is still favored here but he is not strong enough on his own merits as a candidate for this race to turn into a blowout. It should be competitive into the fall.

Thoughts?

33 Comments

Question of the day

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The setup…

Smokers in Kane County can breathe easy now that county board members snuffed out a call for a ban on outdoor smoking Tuesday.

The county began researching a potential ban after a private citizen from Aurora approached the county board’s development committee last month. Stacy Blaszak told the committee members she has a respiratory condition and outdoor smoking often impinges on her right and need to breathe as well as compromises her health and the health of babies and pets.

County staffers spent the last month researching any precedent for an outdoor smoking ban. At the most, communities have addressed the issue by inserting a clause into their public nuisance laws to address any unusual circumstances involving smoking, the staff reported. Development Director Mark VanKerkhoff said even organizations with missions to curb smoking said they only get a few of inquiries a year about how to institute an outdoor or residential smoking ban.

* The Question: Could you support a ban on smoking outdoors in your town? Explain.

33 Comments

A severe case of whiplash

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Over a week ago, Gov. Pat Quinn said he believed he had “three or four” Republican votes to pass the pension borrowing plan in the Senate. As you know already, the House passed the bill last month with two GOP votes, but it stalled in the Senate when two Dems expressed opposition.

A couple of days later, Quinn said that Senate President Cullerton had enough Democratic votes to pass the borrowing bill on his own. Cullerton has 37 Democrats and the bill requires a super-majority of 36. Cullerton’s office said Quinn was dreaming.

Yesterday, Quinn again said he believed the Senate had enough votes to pass the borrowing bill and said the chamber would return at the end of this month…

“They want to do it on the last day of the month, so be it.”

Trouble is, the Senate has no plans to return at the end of this month because the votes are still not there…

But a spokeswoman for the Senate President says there’s no plan to make lawmakers return to the capitol.

I’m getting whiplash from all this back and forth.

* And this sort of inflammatory, Blagojevich-like language won’t help his cause with the Senate President…

“They have to get their vacations and all this and that in order. But I expect them by the end of the month to come together. I mean this is what government is about. If you get sworn into office to protect the common good and carry out the public interest, then you have to be there when it counts.”

Like Blagojevich before him, Quinn is trying to deflect his problems onto the General Assembly. And like Blagojevich, Quinn may not fully realize that the governor always wears the jacket…

The executive director of the Elgin-based Community Crisis Center would rather help victims of domestic abuse than side with a party or endorse a specific agenda.

But Tuesday, crisis center supporters unfurled a large banner saying that the state owes the center $327,928 and people should call Gov. Pat Quinn’s office at (800) 642-3112 to protest.

It was a last resort move by Vapnar who, like many social service agency heads, has been pushed to the brink by the state budget mess.

“It’s like dominoes,” she said. “If one of us goes down, all of us are affected.”

Fair or not, the buck stops at the governor’s desk. And that goes for school funding as well…

Faced with a deficit projected to be at least $427 million, Board of Education members gave unanimous approval at an emergency meeting on Tuesday to resolutions that will allow CEO Ron Huberman to raise class sizes to 35 students and still pay teacher raises promised in the union contract. […]

Huberman stressed that he doesn’t know exactly how much he will have to cut because Gov. Pat Quinn has yet to sign the state budget. Also, the Legislature gave Quinn the power to make changes in the budget.

“This could be good for us or not so good,” Huberman said. Quinn could decide to keep education funding level, which would reduce CPS’ budget gap by $127 million, or make cuts.

Another big question mark is whether and when the state will pay out what it already owes CPS for this year. That amount now stands at more than $400 million, prompting Huberman to ask the board for the power to borrow $800 million. He explained it as a short-term loan that the district will pay back as soon as they get the money from the state.

* Related…

* Teachers to picket School Board vote

* CPS and Unions Face Off in Budget Showdown

Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman and the city’s teachers union are in a tug of war over how to close an estimated $427 million deficit.

* Chicago School Board opens door to 35 in a class

* Huberman gets authority to lay off teachers, boost class sizes

* Chicago teachers must give up 4% wage hike

* Illinois is broke. Who’s gonna fix it?

* Pension crisis scares off businesses: group

* Village still reaping tax revenue for residents who left: A new state law could determine how much shared tax revenue the new village of Campton Hills is entitled to collect from the state. The county says it’s collecting part of the county’s share.

* Illinois applies for high-speed rail funding

* State DNA database is more than 20,000 samples behind

10 Comments

Caption contest!

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From Congressman Mark Kirk’s Facebook page…

…ADDING… Geez, I didn’t think I had to warn y’all about something like this, but keep it clean or you’ll find yourself banned for life.

* Other US Senate campaign news…

* Millionaire may shake up race with independent bid in race for Obama’s old Illinois Senate seat

* Kirk on defensive against Pentagon over politics

* Giannoulias outlines energy plan

* Giannoulias backs drilling-permit moratorium

77 Comments

Brady: I could beat Obama

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* OK, this Bill Brady quote is one of the most delusional campaign statements I’ve seen so far this season…

“I think I could beat the president running for governor in Illinois today,” Brady, a state senator, said during a visit to Washington this week, pointing to Obama’s record on government spending.

Bravado is one thing, but that’s something quite different.

* Gov. Pat Quinn is sending unpaid state interns to attend and monitor the Blagojevich trial. Here’s the Quinn statement issued to WBEZ…

“Unpaid interns from our legal staff have been attending the Blagojevich trial on a regular basis. The reason is twofold: trial observation is often a requirement of internships for law students, and the interns who attend the trial can provide our legal staff with recaps on any testimony relating to current State government.”

The question becomes whether their daily reports are getting to the campaign. I’ll check.

* The Democratic Governors Association has removed an Internet ad that may have violated the General Assembly’s rules. The ad featured footage apparently from the official GA website of a House proceeding. The House footage was used to illustrate Sen. Bill Brady’s hundreds of missed Senate votes. But the House has a policy against using the footage without permission, and the campaign never received that permission…

In addition to the General Assembly’s policy, state law clearly prohibits the use of public resources for political purposes. The use of this footage in a political ad could fall into a gray area, said Ronald Michaelson, a political consultant and former executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections.

“This is a little obtuse, but I suppose one could argue this was public material,” he said. “This was footage produced by a public agency.”

Frankly, this is a goofy policy. There is a “Fair Use Doctrine” in this country, and I really doubt the House can legally prevent anyone from using the video. There is, however, a “gentleman’s agreement” to not use the video in campaigns to avoid embarrassing anybody. And that’s what is really at stake here.

…Adding… I forgot to post a video from the Quinn campaign. As you may know, Quinn signed AT&T’s deregulation bill yesterday during a Chicago ceremony. He received plaudits from all involved, including a somewhat unlikely source: Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Doug Whitley. Here’s Whitley…

* Related…

* Young Republicans hoist a sign of change

* Has the tea party peaked?

* Quinn signs overhaul of state’s telecom law

* Quinn signs telecom rewrite

48 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Listen to the tapes as prosecution case undermined by defense

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** UPDATE *** I told subscribers about this earlier today, but the Tribune now has a story online about how Rod Blagojevich is caught on tape dissing his former bigtime contributor Blair Hull…

…Blagojevich was sitting in his house with the “golden” opportunity to appoint whoever he wanted as a U.S. Senator. Hull, who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2004 against Barack Obama, was calling around to people close to Blagojevich to see if he had a shot to get the seat this time.

He didn’t. But Blagojevich didn’t want him to know that.

So just before 11 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2008 – even before Obama won the presidency – Blagojevich was on the phone with his brother, Robert, asking him to get another $100,000 in contributions from Hull, for whom the governor clearly had little respect.

“Blair Hull actually thinks he can be senator, you believe this guy?” Blagojevich is overheard on a federal wiretap of his home phone telling his brother, who laughs.

“He’s an idiot,” the governor concludes.

Maybe so. But Hull ain’t going to prison.

[ *** End of Update *** ]

* The US Attorney’s office has posted its trial exhibits to date online. Click here to see them. They’ve embedded the audio recordings into the transcripts, so you can hear Rod Blagojevich in all his glory. The Tribune has posted both prosecution and defense exhibits on its site. You may be able to get the audio to work better with the Tribune’s version.

* Meanwhile, Lon Monk’s cross examination by Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam, Jr. didn’t go all that well yesterday…

Adam worked to undo the damage Monk had done over three days on the stand.

Monk leveled severe allegations against his old law school roommate and boss, including that Blagojevich was in on meetings in which associates plotted to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off of state deals.

In one exchange Tuesday, Adam asked Monk if he recalled additional details about his testimony that Monk, Blagojevich and fund-raisers Tony Rezko and Christopher Kelly met secretly to set up ways to split up money from state deals.

Probing for increasing levels of detail, Adam designed his questions so that time and again, Monk could only offer the same reply: “I don’t remember.”

“This is the first time you all sit down and agreed to commit crimes together and you can’t remember?” Adam shouted.

More…

Monk, a longtime friend and top aide to Blagojevich, had testified that Rezko was the instigator and the one who was going to be the keeper of the cash, including $500,000 that allegedly was diverted from the 2003 sale of $10 billion in state bonds designed to shore up Illinois pension systems.

But under questioning from Adam, Monk acknowledged that he knew nothing about where the money he supposedly was going to get was being held.

“You can’t tell us the name on the account?” Adam asked Monk, who agreed. “You can’t even tell us the state the account was held in?”

“What if Rezko dies?” Adam continued. “You don’t know where the money is. What if Rezko is arrested? You can get the money, can you?”

* The defense did a decent job of undermining another prosecution witness…

Rezko associate Bob Kjellander worked as a lobbyist for Bear Sterns during the bond sale and was awarded more than $800,000 for helping secure the contract, according to Vincent Mazzaro, an accountant for the investment firm at the time of the sale.

Kjellander also has been a longtime player in Springfield Republican politics, serving as a committeeman on the Republican National Committee until he stepped down in September 2008.

But the government’s case is a complicated one.

Prosecutors allege that Blagojevich increased the size of the [pension bond] contract in addition to rigging it, in order to increase Kjellander’s profits.

Mazzaro testified Kjellander would receive “success fees” based on how much money Bear Sterns received from the deal. Those fees increased when the state decided to unload all $10 billion on June 5, 2003, rather than the three installments as was originally intended.

But the defense argues the decision was influenced by economics, rather than greed. Prosecution witness and former Illinois Director of Debt Management David Able affirmed that notion during cross examination.

Interest rates were at 5.05 percent in early June, the lowest in more than 30 years. Able said it was good economics for the state to issue bonds when interest was low and would benefit future returns on investment.

* And I’m not quite sure that the $600,000 loan from Kjellander to Joseph Aramanda is easily traceable to Blagojevich, Monk and Chris Kelly…

Prosecutors appear to be trying to link money that was in Aramanda’s account to earlier testimony, which indicated that more than half a million dollars was routed through Kjellander from a state pension bond deal and eventually was to be divvied up between Rezko, Blagojevich and two other associates. […]

Aramanda planned to use the money to rebuild a pizza business which he’d bought from Rezko.

Instead, Aramanda testified that once Rezko helped arrange for the loan, he turned around and demanded the money.

Aramanda said Rezko forced him to use the money to settle a $475,000 debt Aramanda still owed Rezko from Aramanda’s pizza franchise purchase.

Aramanda ended up paying $461,000 to people to whom Rezko owed money, he said. He said he used the rest of the money to try to help his pizza restaurants stay afloat.

Then, in April 2004, Kjellander called Aramanda wanting the one-year loan repaid early.

That’s when, according to Aramanda, Rezko arranged for another loan to him — from Jay Wilton, a California developer who’d recently been awarded a deal to operate oases for the Illinois Tollway. Wilton also was a major Blagojevich campaign contributor.

Aramanda used the Wilton loan to repay Kjellander the $600,000, plus another $24,000, which was presumably interest.

OK, so the original loan was used to pay off Rezko’s debts. Then Aramanda got another loan from Wilton to repay Kjellander. So, my question is, where is the money that the “cabal of four” were supposed to divvy up? There appears to have been a plan to do so, but it doesn’t look like they ever got the cash, unless those pay-back recipients kicked it all back to Rezko. Then again, a conspiracy is alleged. Not necessarily a result.

* Roundup…

* Suit against Blago aides by fired workers going to trial: Sixteen former state workers fired during an alleged partisan purge under impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich cleared a major legal hurdle Tuesday after a federal judge ordered that their lawsuit against three Blagojevich appointees proceed to trial.

* IDOT patronage case headed for federal court

* Rod Blagojevich Trial Day 9: Former DNC Finance Chair Joe Cari on the stand

* Judge Releases Some of Blagojevich’s Secretly Recorded Coversations

* Blagojevich pal-turned witness leaves stand shaken

* Palos heights lawyer defends other Blago

* Pizza franchise owner back on stand in Blago trial

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

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