* Karl Rove’s tax exempt group American Crossroads has launched its new TV ad that attacks Alexi Giannoulias. “Friends don’t let friends vote Alexi” is the tagline. Make sure to watch…
…Adding… They pulled the video down and reposted it. So, it’s fixed now.
The group has put $482,000 behind the ad for a single week in Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis. That’s almost twice as much as the Democrats are spending right now. And St. Louis means they’ve expanded the field of play…
In the 30-second spot, a cutout figure of Giannoulias careens in a cartoon sports car through a Chicago landscape as a voiceover says, “He’s quite a driver. He helped drive his family’s bank into a ditch,” a reference to his tenure at Broadway Bank, which later went in to federal receivership because of bad loans.
The ad also refers to the Bright Start college education fund, which Giannoulias was responsible for overseeing as state treasurer. The fund lost money due to poor investment decisions by an outside firm. Giannoulias has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the bank or the scholarship fund.
The Giannoulias campaign tried to get in front of the ad yesterday by predicting it would be a cheap shot. It’s actually a pretty solid ad, and, as you’d probably expect, well done. Probably too wordy, but the visuals keep you focused. Here’s what Giannoulias was quoted as saying…
“I’m not surprised that Karl Rove, the architect of the same policies that drove our economy to the brink of collapse, is now bringing special interest money to bail out Mark Kirk,” Giannoulias said.
* The AP is up with a short radio-style piece on Bill Brady’s media availability today. Check back because I expect more soon…
Brady calls the [AFSCME “no layoffs] agreement a “secret deal” that’s scandalous because it comes shortly after an endorsement from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Brady says it’s also questionable that Quinn’s budget director was at the endorsement interview.
As reported by Capitol Fax, state Budget Director David Vaught both negotiated the deal and accompanied the governor to a meeting with union officials to discuss its endorsement.
And adds…
Mr. Quinn said the new concessions, together with earlier concessions on pensions and other matters, amount to more than a $300-million savings for taxpayers. In comparison, he said, Mr. Brady has only a “secret” budget-cutting plan that could lead to increases in property and other taxes.
The deal is not and does not look bad, Mr. Quinn said. “Sometimes, a governor has to make tough decisions.”
But Mr. Brady termed the deal “unconscionable,” and called on Mr. Quinn not to sign the deal, which is expected to be finalized later this week.
…Adding… A friend sent me this earlier today after reading this morning’s subscriber edition…
The news about Vaught attending the AFSCME endorsement session reminded me of the scene from the Godfather when Frankie Pentangeli is getting ready to testify, and his brother shows up and sits in the back of the room, causing him to change his story. Vaught didn’t need to say anything in the meeting - the message was pretty clear.
I hate to say it, but Quinn really screwed up on this one. How is this any different from having the administration point person on a vendor contract be present at a political meeting when the vendor is asked to make a campaign contribution, and then the contract is approved a few days after the contribution is made? That would have the US Attorney all over it.
I have been fighting for reform all my life! When I cut a politically advantageous deal, it’s ethical because I said so!
*** UPDATE 2 *** Bill Brady campaign press release…
Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Brady today called on Pat Quinn to renounce a secret deal with state employee union leaders, calling it an apparent example of old pay-to-play politics that will cost taxpayers millions.
“This secret, backroom deal reminds voters of pay-to-play politics,” Brady said. “It ties the hands of the next governor to fix this economic catastrophe, and proves Pat Quinn is more concerned about his political crisis than our fiscal crisis.”
Reports yesterday revealed that Quinn’s office and leaders of AFSCME, the state employee union, struck a deal at almost the same time union leaders endorsed the Governor’s re-election bid. The deal mandates increased state pay hikes, job security and no layoff guarantees in exchange for promises of future, but limited budget efficiencies.
Brady also raised the fact that the state’s budget director apparently helped negotiate the deal and also sat in on the endorsement session.
“Illinois should be outraged that the same budget aide that received a $24,000 pay hike from Pat Quinn was present at a political endorsement session with the very union leaders with whom he’s negotiating an agreement that mandates even more pay hikes.
“Unfortunately, this is part of a disturbing pattern we’ve seen from Pat Quinn,” Brady said. “He should embrace every cost-cutting measure possible, work with union leaders to freeze salaries, and avoid eleventh hour, election-year agreements that lock in more pay hikes and job security guarantees in an arrangement that reminds voters of the very pay-to-play politics that I seek to end”
* House Speaker Michael Madigan usually takes no chances when it comes to his district. Madigan’s Republican opponents are generally friendlies that can be counted on to safely disappear.
This year’s self-sacrificing victim is Patrick John Ryan, whom the Republicans say “is a 30-year old resident of Chicago’s 13th Ward who voted in Democratic primaries until this year.” He has no campaign committee, which means he hasn’t raised any real money.
So, the Illinois Republican Party has decided to tweak Madigan and gin up some publicity by holding a “fundraiser” for his “opponent.” The party issued this tongue in cheek press release today…
“We applaud Mr. Ryan for taking on such an enormous challenge of trying to unseat Speaker Madigan, and we want to show our support,” said Chairman Brady. “He’s definitely got the intestinal fortitude we look for in our Republican challengers. I’d just like to meet him.”
The “funder” is Thursday, September 30, at English, 444 N. LaSalle Boulevard, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Be there!
In a year in which TARP has become a dirty word from coast to coast, most Republicans are ripping the government’s decision to bail out Wall Street through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
But one local congressional candidate can’t do that —because his day job is to market securities for a firm that offered investments backed by TARP and subsidized by another federal bailout program.
Hultgren has said he would’ve voted against TARP, and he denied that he was the lead marketer for the firm on TARP-backed securities. Here’s what his firm, PTIA, marketed…
One of the four funds offered by PTIA in the past year or so is known as Performance Trust TALF Fund Ltd. TALF stands for Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility. The TALF program was set up by the Federal Reserve Bank to help banks get toxic assets off their books by loaning those who would buy the securities up to 90% of the price at low interest rates — something that wealth adviser Carol Pepper described to Forbes Magazine as “an incredibly free lunch.”
And what about Hultgren’s flat-out denial that he was involved with marketing any of that? His firm threw him right under the bus…
But PTIA, in answer to written questions submitted by me, said, “Mr. Hultgren’s role has not changed.”
* And if you watch this video at work, make sure you have an understanding employer or you’ll be bringing some problems on yourself. It’s from Vote Naked Illinois and it’s ostensibly about encouraging early voting. As you might imagine, it’s also the most unusual Illinois political video I’ve ever seen. It’ll probably also become the most watched. The thing just went up yesterday and it has almost 3,000 views already. Take a peek…
* A big down-ballot campaign roundup…
* Stark contrasts in 8th District race over abortion, guns
* Besides “jobs,” the economy, etc., what specific campaign issue would you like to see discussed more often this year by the gubernatorial and US Senate candidates? Explain.
* The AP’s John O’Connor has the opposite of ADD. Once he gets on a story’s trail, he never, ever quits. So, here we go again…
Just weeks after a convicted burglar was freed under a secret Illinois early prison-release program last fall, his parole officer learned he was a suspect in a violent battery case.
Instead of being locked back up, however, Darrell Bracey was on the street for another 11 weeks — during which time he was accused of a second beating and became the suspect in the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl, according to internal and public records obtained by The Associated Press.
Corrections Director Michael Randle, who resigned this month after coming under criticism for the secret release program known as “MGT Push,” told the AP last spring that the sexual assault allegation was “horrible” and that he would investigate whether miscommunication inside the agency prevented agents from picking Bracey up sooner.
But now state officials refuse to say what they learned in the promised investigation or whether they have taken corrective steps.
Bill Brady plans to do a media availability after today’s closed-door gubernatorial candidates forum. I imagine he’ll talk about O’Connor’s story and the AFSCME “no layoffs” deal which was finalized two days after the union endorsed Gov. Pat Quinn - and possibly my follow-up in this morning’s subscriber edition.
“Balancing the budget is relatively simple,” Brady said. “Bottom line of it is, you can’t spend more than you have.”
Yeah. Simple. It’s really easy if you’re just looking at numbers on a piece of paper. Try putting those numbers into real, human terms, however, and that’s when it becomes difficult.
* During Saturday’s Right Nation 2010 to-do, Brady roused the crowd by saying “we have to end career politicians.” Watch him…
Ungrammatical as that may be, Brady has been in the Illinois General Assembly all but two years since 1993. Billy, 15 years is a career.
* Brady also told the RN2010 crowd, “Unfortunately, we live in a state where there’s one city that might steal four or five points from ya’ the night before the election.” Have a look…
The night before the election? That’s one powerful machine, baby. Not to mention that stealing that many votes in these times would be practically impossible. Doug Ibendahl is spot on…
The stolen election in Chicago canard is a lame excuse Republicans have been using for years in Illinois as a way to distract from their own failures.
“There are too many people that gravitate toward politics that are in it for the ego; quite a few of them are in it for the money,” Dart said.
“I remember my father — he told me a long time ago, ‘If you are serious about a political career, Tom, you cannot be serious about making money. And he actually was much more in favor of me making money,” Dart said to laughter at the gathering of 260 “Women for Dart.” […]
“I made no money,” Dart said. “There were quite a few attorneys when I was down there in Springfield, who were legislators. I was one of two or three who did not practice law. My sole income was out of the Legislature, a whopping 30-some thousand a year. [I had a] 700-square-foot house and a dog, and I was happy.”
His father referred to him as “My son who lives in abject poverty” but Dart said, “If you’re serious about politics, you’re serious about government, you can’t be in it to try to make money. If your dreams are having multiple houses and cars and the rest of it, you’re in the wrong business and you need to get out of it. The people like that are the ones destroying it for everybody else and it’s really horrible.”
After Emanuel left the Clinton White House and before he ran for Congress, he made big bucks helping put together the ComEd/Exelon deal, among other things. And, of course, Emanuel’s ego is beyond legendary.
* Congressman Danny Davis becomes the latest to kinda sorta toss his hat into the mayoral ring. From a press release…
As a result of discussions with a large number of individual citizens, groups, elected officials and clergy from diverse sections of the city, I have decided to formally explore the possibility of running for Mayor of the City of Chicago.
The retirement of Mayor Daley will leave a tremendous leadership void and I feel that the city must be organized, united and structured with leadership that will embrace the thoughts, ideas, hopes and aspirations of all people and all communities throughout the city.
Chicago, like most large urban centers throughout the nation is plagued with a plethora of problems; therefore, it is going to need solutions oriented leadership, leadership willing to face realities head on, willing to engage the people, willing to assemble the most talented people that can be found and willing to listen.
I believe that I can pull it together. Therefore, we begin circulating nominating petitions today.
* Carol Moseley Braun is trying to shut down her federal campaign account, but the FEC won’t let her because she still owes more than $262,000 in unpaid debts…
The other debts from that 2004 campaign include almost $90,000 to a Washington law firm, about $76,000 to the committee’s accounting firm and almost $13,000 to East Lake Group Inc. for office rent. East Lake is led by Elzie Higginbottom, a prominent Chicago political fundraiser.
Moseley Braun said the lawyers and accountants want to waive those debts but the FEC would not allow it. “They were perfectly happy not to ask me for any of it,” she said. “If I have a winning lottery ticket, I will try to pay them back just because they were so nice.”
Braun made her announcement yesterday at the Hyatt Regency, even though the hotel union has authorized a strike. And she said she will bow out of the race it if turns nasty…
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun kicked off her “almost candidacy” for mayor Monday with a warning that she won’t get in the wide-open contest if it becomes “divisive.”
“If it gets nasty and there’s name calling and scurrilous allegations, I’m not going to be a part of that,” Braun said.
* Sandi Jackson, another unannounced but possible candidate, was supposed to appear with her husband yesterday to hand out 1,500 free chickens to constituents and talk about jobs. A bit Hooveresque, no? Anyway, Congressman Jackson didn’t show. He had a stomach ailment, Mrs. Jackson said. I would too if I knew that Sun-Times story was coming.
…Adding… No surprise. Fioretti says he’ll circulate, Ald. Joe Moore says he’s probably a no-go…
“Petitions will be circulated in all 50 wards in the next couple of days,” said Ald. Robert Fioretti, who also has petitions out for re-election as 2nd Ward alderman while he weighs his options. “We are starting a fund-raising campaign.” […]
“Barring some unforeseen event, I am running for re-election,” Moore said. The Rogers Park alderman is one of the council’s leading independent voices.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. directed a major political fund-raiser to offer former Gov. Rod Blagojevich millions of dollars in campaign cash in return for an appointment to the U.S. Senate, sources said the fund-raiser has told federal authorities. […]
…[Oak Brook businessman Raghuveer Nayak] said he had a critical conversation with the congressman about the seat while the two were alone. Nayak, also a former Blagojevich fund-raiser, said that Jackson asked him to tell Blagojevich that if the then-governor appointed Jackson to the U.S. Senate, Chicago’s Indian community would raise $1 million for Blagojevich and — after Jackson was appointed — Jackson would raise $5 million for the then-governor.
The Oak Brook businessman had been in Washington for a bill signing regarding U.S.-India relations. Jackson picked up Nayak from the White House, where they posed for a picture together. The photo was entered into evidence during Blagojevich’s summer trial.
Nayak also told authorities he paid for two airline trips for a “social acquaintance” of the Democratic congressman at Jackson’s request, raising more potential ethical and political problems for Jackson.
The FBI interviewed that acquaintance — a Washington, D.C., restaurant hostess named Giovana Huidobro — about a year ago as part of its corruption probe of Blagojevich. […]
[Huidobro] also said she flew to Chicago on several occasions at Jackson’s request and that Jackson sometimes reimbursed her for her travels.
Nayak told the FBI that he paid for two airline trips for Huidobro from Washington to Chicago in 2008.
Now, new revelations suggest that an Indian-American businessman, Raghuveer Nayak, was doing favors of another kind for Jackson.
A Chicago Sun-Times report today that Nayak - the same political fundraiser who told federal authorities he agreed to help Jackson get the Senate seat - bought airline tickets for a restaurant hostess to visit Jackson in Chicago paints Jackson as a sleazy wheeler dealer with friends to get him anything his heart desired.
Here’s what we know for sure: A meeting between Rod Blagojevich and Jackson did take place on Dec. 8, 2008, at which the Senate seat was discussed.
And the next day Blagojevich was arrested by FBI agents for, among other things, trying to sell the Senate seat.
Mess with the bull, get the horn.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Ms. Huidobro is also a model and has served as a “host” for her modeling agency, according to its website.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Tribune confirms most of the Nayak stuff with their own sources.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Congressman Jackson responds…
“The allegations about fundraising and the Senate seat are not new. I’ve already talked with the authorities about these claims, told them they were false, and no charges have been brought against me. The very idea of raising millions of dollars for a campaign other than my own is preposterous. My interest in the Senate seat was based on years of public service, which I am proud of, not some improper scheme with anyone.
“The reference to a social acquaintance is a private and personal matter between me and my wife that was handled some time ago. I ask that you respect our privacy.
“I know I have disappointed some supporters and for that I am deeply sorry. But I remain committed to serving my constituents and fighting on their behalf.”
Well, he pretty much just confirmed the “social acquaintance” angle. The media should be commencing with the feeding frenzy any moment now.
“Today’s disclosure, one that my family and I have been privately addressing for several months, is a very private, painful and unfortunate situation. Therefore, I would hope that the public will respect our ongoing personal handling and healing from this matter,'’ she said in the statement.
* Sneed: New gig for Rod Blagojevich: Blago — who is desperate to support his family and fund additional lawyers for his upcoming trial — has inked a deal for major bucks to star in a national commercial.
* The DSCC is spending about $250K on this ad blasting Mark Kirk. Rate it…
The NRSC has committed $3.4M in coordinated campaign funds for Kirk. It shouldn’t be too long before we start seeing that cash. We’re running out of time.
Script…
We’ve heard a lot about Mark Kirk’s problems lately…
But Kirk doesn’t know much about ours.
On unemployment, Kirk said, “I’ve heard very little…I have a very high-income district.”
And voted six times against extending benefits for laid-off workers. And five times to block increasing the minimum wage.
While voting to raise his own pay six times.
Congressman Mark Kirk. The problem is him.
From the Kirk campaign…
The DSCC ad does not mention the quote they reference was from over two years ago - June 2008 - when unemployment stood at 5.5 % according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (GOP Rallies on Unemployment, Roll Call, June 16, 2008)
Mark Kirk has voted to extend unemployment benefits eight times… Mark Kirk has said he would vote to extend unemployment benefits again if the legislation did not add to the debt or raise taxes.
Mark Kirk broke with his party to support raising the minimum wage to its current level.
[Pay raise claim] This is a tired and misleading attack that uses procedural votes that have nothing to do with Congressional pay increases. According to the Congressional Research Service: “There are no provisions for funding the salaries of Member in the Treasury and General Government Appropriations bill. Member salaries are funded in a permanent appropriations account of the legislative branch in the Federal Budget.”
On up or down votes specifically dealing with congressional pay, Mark Kirk voted for a congressional pay freeze all four times.
The DSCC ad makes no mention of the fact that Alexi Giannoulias’ pay increased over $20,000 from 2007 to 2009 - even though he pledged not to accept any pay increase when he ran for Treasurer in 2006.
As I’ve been telling subscribers, pay raises have become a gigantic issue in this campaign season for both sides.
*** UPDATE *** Speaking of pay raises, Giannoulias responds…
In response to an ad that highlights how completely out of touch he is with the effects of his disastrous economic agenda, Congressman Kirk responded the only way he knows how — with a lie.
“Alexi pledged not to take a pay raise, and he did just that,” said Alexi for Illinois campaign spokesman Scott Burnham. “Annual salaries of constitutional officers are determined by the State Legislature. Alexi has reimbursed his pay raise back to the State of Illinois for every year he has been in office.”
Giannoulias has returned $19,280.03.
* Related…
* Donor Names Remain Secret as Rules Shift: Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies would certainly seem to the casual observer to be a political organization: Karl Rove, a political adviser to President George W. Bush, helped raise money for it; the group is run by a cadre of experienced political hands; it has spent millions of dollars on television commercials attacking Democrats in key Senate races across the country. Yet the Republican operatives who created the group earlier this year set it up as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, so its primary purpose, by law, is not supposed to be political.
Richard “Joe” Jordan was one of those “shirt off his back” guys, always smiling and trying to help, according to friends.
That spirit will be rekindled Oct. 8 and 9 in Antioch with a pair of memorial events for the Army staff sergeant who died last March in a vehicle rollover while on duty in Iraq.
The report cites several errors including ineffective fire control tactics, insufficient staffing and failure to recognize and react to deteriorating conditions.
Parents, children and activists have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School around the clock since Wednesday. CPS says the building is unsafe and must be demolished because there is no money for renovations, but protesters insist it could be converted into a library for less than the cost of demolition.
The historical graveyard is at the center of both a runway under construction and a legal dispute between the city and relatives of people buried there.
The 2nd District appellate court’s decision Friday means Chicago can continue with relocating graves, although it’s possible families and St. John’s United Church of Christ in Bensenville, the landowners, will appeal the decision.
