* Great entries today on our caption contest. Anon sequitor is fourth runner-up…
Brady and Quinn congratulate each other for saying nothing of substance during campaign nor taking any hard issue stands. Meanwhile an aide demonstrates to the media the preferred campaign stance for straddling the fence.
gadfly’s was very funny…
that’s it!!! i’m done with eharmony FOREVER. 29 Dimensions® of Compatibility for lasting and fulfilling relationships my foot. and i bet everyone else in this folder is just as bad or worse.
dave’s was great…
Pat Quinn: “So that’s what Bill Brady looks like. I never looked at the back row of the Senate.”
Bill Brady: “Look… a long-time state worker. Lets lay him off. Or pay him minimum wage. Or, at least, pay him minimum wage after we lower it.”
Oswego Willy continues his streak of being a bridesmaid but not quite a bride…
Brady, “I was expecting Dan Hynes.”
Quinn, “That’s funny, I was expecting Kirk Dillard.”
Brady, “Funny how things work out, isn’t it?”
Quinn, “Yeah … funny…”
But Cuban Pilot wins it with this gem…
BB: “Pat, from the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to come over here and thank you personally for being the worst statewide candidate ever and thus allowing this right-wing, puppy gassing, porsche driving, empty suit the opportunity to be governor.”
Congratulations to all. CP should send me an e-mail so we can work out our night of drinking.
* Jim Torricelli died this week. I’d often run into him in a certain Statehouse back office. Always a good guy. His many friends are pretty broken up about it, and my heart goes out to them all. From his obituary…
Jim was well rooted in his Italian heritage and was known as a colorful, unique man who was devoted to his family. His word was his life. He was a member of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He was also very involved in local and state politics and was a member of the Sangamo Club, Past Member of the Roman Cultural Society and founding member of the Bulldog Baseball Dugout Club. He loved to travel, read, fish, hunt, cook Italian food and dance.
* Another noted Italian-American will play us out…
Like painted kites, those days and nights
They went flying by
* Democrat Debbie Halvorson’s new TV ad has the same tenor and feel as her last ad. But this one is about Social Security. Watch it…
[Oops. Posted the wrong one. Fixed. Sorry. Too many tabs open at once, I guess.]
* From the Halvorson campaign…
FACT: Adam Kinzinger has proposed capping Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age, and ending the cost of living increase for Social Security recipients.
“…Social Security will need to be capped at the rate of inflation. You can’t raise the retirement age right now, but at some point, you will have to look at it.” -Adam Kinzinger, Kankakee Daily Journal, January 25, 2010
“If we were to cap the growth above inflation for the upper-income households while leaving the households at the bottom under the current system we could fix over half of the current projected shortfall, according to CBO. If we also think about indexing the normal retirement age to take into account increases in longevity every decade we can eliminate most of the rest of the shortfall.” -Adam Kinzinger, Chicago Tribune Primary Election Questionnaire, January 2010
“As it currently stands the initial Social Security benefits of new retirees, after adjusting for inflation, increase at about one percent a year. We cannot afford such largesse…”
-Adam Kinzinger, Chicago Tribune Primary Election Questionnaire, January 2010
* From the Kinzinger campaign…
ATTACK: Social Security benefits need to be capped.
FACT: Adam Kinzinger stated capping Social Security benefits is “a recipe for disaster”.
“…while tinkering with the Social Security cap max, as the Democrats have pursued, together is a recipe for disaster” (Chicago Tribune Primary Questionnaire).
ATTACK: Adam Kinzinger plans to raise the retirement age.
FACT: Adam Kinzinger has consistently stated that promises made should be promises kept and does not support raising the retirement age.
“We need to ensure that promises made are promises kept to our seniors. I do not support privatizing Social Security. I do not support increasing the payroll tax nor the retirement age. It is absolutely wrong to change the rules on seniors when many are living paycheck to paycheck.” (Source: Kinzinger for Congress Website)
“We need to ensure that promises made will be promises kept to our seniors and to those nearing retirement” (Source: Chicago Tribune Primary Questionnaire).
“And I don’t support raising the retirement age,” Kinzinger said. (Source: Ottawa Delivered, 9/22/10).
* Actually, Kinzinger didn’t say that capping benefits was a recipe for disaster. He was talking about the payroll tax. And he did not swear off raising the retirement age. From his Tribune questionnaire…
I’m not sure what the top tax rate ought to be, but I do know that repealing the federal tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, imposing surtaxes on upper-income taxpayers, and boosting the Medicaid tax while tinkering with the Social Security cap max, as the Democrats have pursued, together is a recipe for disaster. […]
If we also think about indexing the normal retirement age to take into account increases in longevity every decade we can eliminate most of the rest of the shortfall.
* Meanwhile, Republican congressional candidate Randy Hultgren claims that Democratic Congressman Bill Foster lied in his recent TV ad. He has a new YouTube video out explaining his side…
* Other stuff…
* Kirk, Giannoulias differ on ‘Daley factor’ in November election: “Would you please stop focusing on the mayor’s race and focus on the Nov. 2 election, former State Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch pleaded with reporters at a fund-raiser for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart Monday. “The future of Chicago may all be decided Nov. 2 — it will determine how much money and resources keep flowing to cities like Chicago.”
* 538: The Bias of the Generic Ballot: It’s Complicated
* NBC5: Del Valle First to Air Mayoral Campaign Ad
There were other stories, but you get the idea. Here’s Miguel del Valle’s much-covered ad…
I checked and del Valle is spending just $10,000 to run this ad. The city-wide cable TV buy started yesterday and runs until Tuesday. Only ABC7 [ADDING: and the Sun-Times] noticed this little factoid.
By comparison, the Senate Democrats are spending $36,582 a week, every week, on cable in appointed state Sen. John Mulroe’s campaign. And that’s just in one Comcast zone out of the company’s five zones. The Republicans are spending $8,350 per week in the same zone.
I’ve been gamed this way myself, but I try to update you when that happens. We’ll see if anybody else does that now.
* I haven’t spent much time on Daleypalooza the past few days, but I did want to point something out from earlier this week. The Associated Press claimed a major scoop on Wednesday…
Tom Dart, the Cook County sheriff who made national headlines when he sued Craigslist, halted court-ordered evictions and headed a probe into the alleged resale of a historic cemetery’s burial plots, will run for mayor of Chicago, two people close to Dart said Wednesday.
“He’s all the way in,” said one person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk publicly about Dart’s plans. “He’s decided to run.”
But now that Daley is out, Dart, an Irish-American son of Beverly, whose father was a confidant of the mayor’s father, “is all in” the race, a top source said.
Not much of a scoop. Heck, it was basically the same quote recycled two weeks later.
* Considering that Terry Peterson has been seen as a potential mayoral candidate, this is an interesting little development…
Sneed hears rumbles CTA board Chairman Terry Peterson, who was Mayor Daley’s campaign manager four years ago — and was considered a possible mayoral contender — has reportedly signed on to manage Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid.
Since the rest of her story was about her interview with David Axelrod, we might infer that’s where her little nugget came from.
* From our friends at WBEZ comes your weekly advance copy of their fine politics show…
Best Game in Town 9/24/10 – Daley, Nixon and the mad dash for cash
As the race for mayor becomes the race to raise dollars, a quirk in the new fundraising law may make holiday parties an expensive proposition.
Also, we talk with an author who is finishing up work on a forthcoming biography of Richard M. Daley.
And Frost/Nixon makes its Chicago debut at the Timeline Theater. We talk with actor Terry Hamilton about what he learned playing President Richard M. Nixon.
* While I completely agree that elected members of Congress ought to hold town hall meetings, I’m not surprised some of them choose not to considering the new breed of angry, opportunistic paparazzi that have sprung up in this country. Everybody wants to get into Breitbart’s act, apparently. Consider this, for instance…
I’m of two minds on this. Constituents have an absolute right to be angry with their elected representatives and to voice that anger. And citizen journalism is something I support with all my heart. But essentially heckling somebody while hoping for the best gotcha response so they can get lots of YouTube views is starting to really grate on my nerves. Maybe I was just raised differently than that. I don’t know.
I’m quite interested in what you think about this development.
And I’m not trying to pick on the tea party or Republicans, by the way. This video is recent and TPP sent me an e-mail about it yesterday, so I’m using it. I’ve seen a large number of videos in the last months of protests at offices, and other stuff by Dems and GOPs alike.
…Adding… From comments…
I am just waiting for the candidates to start filming these events themselves so they can post counter videos of the conduct
That’s a very good idea. If they’re really being that mean, tape ‘em yourself.
Thoughts?
…Adding More… Another very good point from comments…
But here’s a quick question — why are we talking about these people as if they’re just ordinary constituents with a disinterested desire to speak to their representative? Aren’t they avowed partisans? Aren’t they, as part of a group that has explicitly backed and endorsed this lady’s opponent, part of the campaign? Does an elected official have a responsibility to stop and answer all the questions of a rival campaign whenever they show up? I thought that was why terms for debates were negotiated and planned out.
* CHANGE Illinois has sent out a questionnaire to all statewide and legislative candidates. You can see the answers at their website. To see a list of legislative candidates who have and have not responded, click here. Those highlighted have responded. The SJ-R editorialized on the questionnaire today.
Here’s one of the group’s questions…
Should there be limitations on the number of terms for anyone elected:
a. To statewide office?
b. To the General Assembly?
c. As Speaker of the House and President of the Senate?
* The Question: How would you answer those questions? Explain if you want.
* Democratic US Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias is out with a new TV ad. Rate it…
* The ad is being publicized as Giannoulias holds a conference call with reporters to talk about Mark Kirk’s vote yesterday in the US House. From a press release…
U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias will discuss Congressman Mark Kirk’s latest vote against providing much needed tax relief and access to capital for small businesses during a conference call with reporters TODAY, September 24, at 10:15 A.M. CT
Kirk’s vote comes after he vowed repeatedly to help Illinois small businesses struggling in these difficult times. The legislation, which is deficit-neutral and won’t cost taxpayers a penny, will provide much-needed tax breaks to help hire new employees and gain access to capital through a new loan fund.
Giannoulias will call on Kirk to explain his vote and why he continues to say one thing in Illinois and then vote differently when he’s in Washington, D.C.
* But Kirk is also holding a teleconference at 11 o’clock with the NFIB…
The National Federation of Independent Business will host a conference call this morning to highlight why Mark Kirk is the best U.S. Senate Candidate for small business employers in Illinois.
“Mark Kirk is the proven, pro-small business candidate for Senate,” NFIB Vice President of Public Policy Brad Close said. “He has been a long time supporter of small business, and is promoting a pro-growth agenda that small business owners need to remove uncertainty and help get our economy working again.”
* Being a state government/politics person, I honestly don’t know enough about that bill to comment. So here’s a news roundup…
* Congress sends small-business bill to Obama: It provides new tax breaks to small businesses, increases Small Business Administration lending limits, waives SBA loans fees and provides banks with $30 billion in new capital to increase lending to small businesses. Republicans criticized that lending fund as “TARP Jr.,” a reference to the Troubled Asset Relied Program initiated by the Bush administration in 2008 to help failing financial institutions and keep credit markets from drying up.
* House approves small-business bill: Business organizations that have backed the measure say the loan fund could spur $300 billion in lending.
* Small-business aid package likely to become law: A so-called “carryback” provision, which lets small business owners collect a tax refund if their business suffers a loss, will be extended to five years - so owners can claim a refund on profits that they booked as many as five years ago. Also in the act is an expansion of a part of the tax code called Section 179. The section lets small companies immediately write off capital expenditures of up to half a million dollars.
* House Democrats OK small-business bill: Republicans warned the bill would open the door for banks to use taxpayer-funded bailout money to lend to small businesses, which the GOP feared would give the federal government added influence over those businesses.
* Democrats Slam GOP for “Pledge to America,” Small Biz Bill Vote: Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman Brendan Daly put out a memo to reporters today pointing out that Republican leaders claim to be pro-small business, and met with a group of them this morning, but that they almost unanimously voted against the small business lending bill on the House Floor today. “Their hypocrisy is breathtaking,” Daly said.
* National Restaurant Association Welcomes Passage of Small Business Jobs Act: “This bill will help restaurants and small businesses with tax relief and assistance in gaining access to capital that is critical to economic and financial recovery,” said National Restaurant Association Executive Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Scott DeFife. “Our industry, employing nearly 13 million Americans at 945,000 restaurants locations nationwide, is comprised mainly of small, independent businesses.”
* Congress sends small business bill to Obama: The GOP-tilting National Federation of Independent Business is only tepidly backing the legislation. The group is pushing both a full extension of Bush-era tax cuts and repeal of a requirement in the new health care law that requires that businesses file tax forms called 1099s with the Internal Revenue Service for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods. “There’s some OK stuff in it, but the impact’s going to be minimal,” NFIB tax counsel Bill Rys said of the bill.
* Small-Business Bill Advances: Mr. Obama said in a statement that he would sign the small-business bill on Monday, calling it “a common-sense plan to put Americans back to work.”
Apparently, according to the House Republicans, the budget can be balanced without any negative impact on people whatsoever. That’s a complete, total, irresponsible, idiotic lie. One way or another, somebody is gonna get hit, whether it’s tax hikes or budget cuts or both. That’s actually what Rep. Lisa Dugan was talking about, if you watch the unedited video. This painless magical fairy dust idea of theirs just turns my stomach.
* Speaking of visits from magical fairies, Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday reiterated his claim that Bill Brady has some secret tax hike planned…
Quinn accused Brady of having a “secret set” of budget proposals that he doesn’t want to share with voters until after the November election, something Quinn called “the Republican way” because some GOP governors have worked to raise taxes after getting elected.
“That’s what Sen. Brady is all about and we shouldn’t let him get away with it, especially after 10 years of problems with governors who weren’t straightforward with the people,” Quinn said after appearing separately from Brady at a Chicago candidate forum that was closed to the press. “I try to be as honest and direct about everything, including the budget, including revenue.”
* But Jim Edgar didn’t help matters much when he said yesterday that Brady’s cuts aren’t enough and tax hikes may be in the cards…
Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar says a 10 percent spending cut may not solve the state’s budget problems and Illinois residents eventually might support higher taxes.
Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor, backs a 10 percent cut coupled with tax reductions to balance the Illinois budget. That amounts to less than $2 billion in cuts, compared to a deficit of roughly $13 billion.
Edgar told reporters Thursday there may come a time when Illinoisans oppose more spending cuts and would be ready for a tax increase.
Edgar says he does not think Brady is planning any tax surprises if he wins the November election. But he counsels Brady to be flexible.
Does Bill Brady want to hike taxes? No. Does he have a secret plan to hike taxes? No. Will he wake up to a very stark reality once he puts his budget together? Yes. Does that mean he will hike taxes? I really doubt it, but the problem is so bad that he may do something along those lines.
* And while the candidates and parties “debate” their little fantasies, we got more bad news yesterday…
Moody’s Investors Service Inc. on Thursday lowered its rating outlook for Illinois’ general obligation debt, citing the state’s continuing problems funding is pension program and a fiscal shortfall.
The state’s rating now stands at A1 with a negative outlook. It previously stood at A1 with a stable outlook.
The change will affect roughly $25 billion in general obligation bonds. […]
Moody’s said that the state does have the ability to raise revenue and reduce spending, both of which could help improve its rating and outlook.
“We see risks that could trigger a downgrade in the next 18 months to two years,” Ted Hampton, an analyst with Moody’s, said in an interview from New York. “In June these risks were less apparent.” […]
The yield of taxable Build America Bonds issued by Illinois in June has risen to almost 2.5 percentage points above benchmark 30-year Treasury bonds from just over 2 percentage points on June 24.
A good friend of mine will soon be unemployed. Grant’s factory is moving to Mexico and he’ll be out of a job by Election Day. Grant is 50 years old. No college degree.
If misery loves company, then Grant will soon have plenty. Twenty thousand Illinoisans lost their jobs last month.
Those are 20,000 real, live people with rent or mortgage payments, credit card and utility bills, car payments, groceries to buy, kids to educate. Almost all of us know somebody in the same situation. These are our friends and families, neighbors, fellow church members.
Yet, they seem to be invisible. If you read the media’s coverage of the unemployment numbers released last week, you probably only saw that Illinois lost a net 4,200 jobs in August. The revised numbers showed that our state’s unemployment rate actually dropped below 10 percent for the first time since May of last year.
One reason for the “good” news was state and federal spending on a massive infrastructure program. More than 14,000 new jobs were created last month in construction, and most of those jobs were created by the repairs being done to our roads, bridges and schools.
I’m happy for those people and hesitantly encouraged by the overall trend. But I still fear for those who’ve suddenly found themselves out of work, and those, like my friend Grant, who are about to be jettisoned into the abyss. He’s not a bulldozer driver.
Meanwhile, the only candidate for governor who is showing any concern for the real people who’ve lost their jobs is Scott Lee Cohen, who is conducting some well-attended employment fairs. But he was once arrested for allegedly holding a knife to his hooker girlfriend’s throat. I can’t exactly vote for him. Then again, he might be just the sort of vicious character we need to keep the General Assembly’s sultans in line. I kid. That’s not going to happen. Plus, he hasn’t said if he has actually found jobs for those desperate folks he says he’s helping.
They look like cynical props to me.
Republican Bill Brady talks a lot about what’s wrong, but his solutions are mostly platitudes. Our workers compensation system is too expensive, he rightly notes. But all he says he will do is lower the cost without actually saying how. Most of his proposals involve a two-step process: Create a blue-ribbon commission and then implement its results.
This allows Brady to avoid specifics, and because he’s leading Gov. Quinn in all the polls, that’s politically smart. Unfortunately, it leaves the rest of us in the dark.
Gov. Quinn talks a lot about what he has already done with the state’s huge infrastructure program and his efforts to help big companies such as Ford and Navistar expand here. But his administration has been so preoccupied with crisis management that he really doesn’t have any definable vision. It’s all too ad hoc. And the infrastructure program was passed with large bipartisan majorities. The only thing stopping it before was the fear by the House speaker that Rod Blagojevich would try to steal all the money.
A governor cannot control a national economic crisis. But there is still plenty of room for improvement here. If anybody running for governor can convince my friend Grant that he has reason for hope, then he will get my vote. I’m not holding my breath.
I will probably end up skipping that office or voting for Green Party nominee Rich Whitney. He’s for legalized marijuana. Maybe then everybody will be too stoned to care.
Cordell Glover, 19, of the 7100 block of South Wood Street, was charged Thursday night with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting Christopher Travis, a 12-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man Sept. 14 at the intersection of 65th Street and Drexel Avenue, according to police.
In the nine-county Chicago region, sales of single-family homes and condominiums decreased nearly 20% last month, to 5,633, compared to 7,008 sales in August 2009, according to a release Thursday from the Illinois Assn. of Realtors.
Chicago-area sales fell 25.1% in July compared with July 2009, ending a streak of 12 consecutive months of increases.
In the city of Chicago, sales of homes and condos in August dropped roughly 23%, to 1,486, compared with August 2009.
Jose Hernandez, 47, is the 15th city inspector convicted of pocketing payoffs in the Operation Crooked Code probe of bribery. Four other people in the case have also been found guilty, and eight individuals still face trial, said Jon Davey of the city inspector general’s office, which teamed up with federal authorities in the investigation.
* Another City Inspector Convicted for Taking Bribes
The University of Illinois on Thursday denied 1960s radical William Ayers emeritus faculty status after trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy noted Ayers dedicated a book to, among others, the man who killed Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy.
All nine voting trustees either opposed granting Ayers, a recently retired University of Illinois-Chicago professor, the largely honorary status or abstained from the vote.
The investment will target 25 city schools — and an estimated 1,125 teachers who work in them — where educators who improve student performance would be eligible to receive bonuses. […]
The participating schools have not been selected yet, said district spokeswoman Monique Bond. But sources said they plan to focus on elementary and middle schools where at least half of the students are low-income and where an average of 18 percent of teachers leave at the end of every school year.
To participate, schools likely will need to show the support of their classroom teachers. When Chicago launched its first teacher incentive program in 2006, schools were considered only if three-fourths of their staff endorsed the plan.
“The last couple of years the economy had a big impact on us,” said Oswego Village Manager Gary Adams. “We had to cut our budget significantly, we cut staff and cut expenses. We had to deal with it as everybody else had.”
But the pain could have been a lot worse. And there now are glimmers of better days ahead.
Through the recent 18-month national economic downturn, Oswego’s growth slowed but never stopped. Retail and commercial space that was added during the good times continued to reliably churn out tax revenue.
The panel discussion, hosted by the Southern Illinois Mayors Association, covered topics such as income and gas taxes, the cost for local governments to file or fill Freedom of Information Act requests, revenue from video gaming in fraternal organizations and bars and pension funding for firemen and police.
State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, joined state Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, and Reps. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg and John Cavaletto, R-Salem, on the panel.
Collins, 49, was convicted of income tax evasion for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Collins also was convicted of two counts of election fraud for providing false residency information. Prosecutors said he voted from an address at 22 Loisel Drive in East St. Louis during two federal elections in March 2006 and February 2008, but really resided at a home in Swansea.
As with a couple of weeks ago, the winner gets one hour of cocktails (or soft drinks) with yours truly. That last night out with the winner went so well and I had so much fun that I figured I’d do it again. Have at it.
* Jim Torricelli died this week. I’d often run into him in a certain Statehouse back office. Always a good guy. His many friends are pretty broken up about it, and my heart goes out to them all. From his 
