* Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Kilbride’s campaign says that three radio stations, including WLS Radio in Chicago, have decided to at least temporarily pull an ad by JustPAC that was posted on the blog yesterday. The campaign claims the ad includes false statements about the Justice. WLS says the ad is suspended until at least Monday to give them time to check out the facts involved. The other stations are WRXQ and WGFA.
* Now, on to much more pleasant matters. My grandmother’s 90th birthday party is this weekend. People are coming from all over the country for the event. We usually get together every five years to celebrate with Gramma. She’s more than just the family matriarch. She’s the glue that holds it all together.
Gramma was born in Kentucky and she’s always loved music. So, this one’s for her. Happy birthday, Gramma. See you soon…
When it comes to managing the state, Republican Bill Brady says Gov. Pat Quinn is worse than former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“There’s no question,” Brady told reporters during a campaign swing through central Illinois Thursday. “In terms of fiscal mismanagement this administration is far worse than the Blagojevich six years.”
Pat Quinn is not a good manager, but he didn’t get us into this mess.
And “Rod Blagojevich was better” is not really a message that will sell with voters. So why bother? Brady has been off his game since his campaign ran that anti-union ad last week and polls showed a tightening race. Stick to the message, man.
Gov. Pat Quinn said Tuesday he believes civil unions, agreements legally recognized to give gay and lesbian partners rights and benefits, could be passed into law by the time “Christmas comes around.
“The votes are there, I believe, Quinn said. “In the Senate for sure, and definitely I think we can do it in the House. […]
While he believes there is enough support among Democrats and Republicans for a new General Assembly to pass the measure in 2011, he said he thinks it will be taken up before then, during the fall veto session.
“I think we can pass it this year. I would like to see it voted on earlier, Quinn said.
Why the public desire to push a plan like that through a lame duck General Assembly? Stick to the economy, governor.
We also — if I’m not mistaken, we’ve got the junior senator from Illinois, Roland Burris, in the house. Where’s Roland? There he is right there. (Applause.) Appreciate Roland for his outstanding service.
“Outstanding service”? He’s just lucky nobody picked up on that.
* With everything going on in the city and the state and the country, the Sun-Times choose to front-page a story about how Rev. Sen. James Meeks will continue to serve as a pastor if he’s elected mayor. And this part is just silly…
His steadfast refusal to leave the pulpit could rule him out as the consensus black candidate for mayor, according to sources familiar with the protracted selection process. That would leave former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun and Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers as front-runners.
I have “news” for you. There won’t be a single, consensus black candidate chosen by the hierarchy. There’s just too much ego and division out there.
More on that subject deeper in the story…
Asked whether he would run, even if he’s not the consensus black candidate, Meeks said, “I’m not prepared to answer that question at this time.”
But, he said, “I am concerned — and I have shared this with the group — that the longer they take, the more difficult it’s going to be for a consensus candidate to get up and running. That’s why I put everything together already, regardless of that process.”
With 22,000 parishioners and 25,000 signatures already gathered, Meeks enters the race with arguably the biggest base.
Yep.
* After looking around at today’s stories and columns, I appear to be in the minority when I say that Meeks’ decision to remain a preacher doesn’t particularly bother me, as long as he can confine it to the weekends. If he can get somebody to run the actual business of the church (the school, the activities, etc.), then it’s basically just a speaking gig. There are some who are appalled at this mixing of religion and politics, but I don’t feel particularly threatened by it. So, I agree with Dick Durbin…
Rev. James Meeks is taking some heat for refusing to give up his pulpit if he’s elected mayor. […]
“He has every right to do that. The only question is, will you have time to do both? And that’s the question he’ll have to answer,” Durbin said.
Durbin said he doesn’t believe this is an issue of separation of church and state.
“I think you could make a good break there in terms of his role as mayor and his role as pastor. I don’t see a problem with that,” Durbin said.
Rev. Meeks says he was asked earlier in the week if he intended to step down and replied no. But he wasn’t asked if that position is subject to change later, he says.
In fact, “There’s always a possibility I could reduce my role” in the church — even though the church now has four pastors and an adminstrator, all full-time, he says.
Does that mean he might, say, become pastor emeritus? “If I became mayor of Chciago and I saw the necessity to do that, I might,” he replies. “I’d be dedicated to the mayor’s job seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
Seems reasonable.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* James Warren was right to think that Rahm Emanuel’s “listening tour” made him look like an out of touch alien…
You don’t necessarily exploit a candidate’s strengths by touring parts of the city he doesn’t know well, or by chowing down on supposedly working-class cuisine.
For one, it might look like the candidate doesn’t know the town or its food. It was one thing for Hillary Rodham Clinton, an out-of-stater, to do a “listening tour” of New York State when she ran for the United States Senate. But Mr. Emanuel is a Chicago resident.
There are “Chicago residents” and then there are “Chicago residents.” He hasn’t been a real one in a while, if ever. He was impressed by Ricobene’s? That’s an every-day stop for a whole lot of Chicagoans. It’s like standing under the L tracks and marveling at how loud the trains are.
His bid already has been the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch and a New York Times front-page photo featuring a Chicago voter starting with surprise at the sight of the new candidate out on the campaign trail.
Check out the goofy photo posted on Halperin’s breathless mash note…
* Just so you know, my intention at the moment is to at least temporarily move back to Chicago after the veto session to get a daily view of the mayor’s campaign. I don’t think I can pass up the chance to see this thing first-hand. I’ll commute from the city to Springfield for session days, just like I used to before I bought a house down here.
* And now for some state stuff. From the producer of WBEZ’s The Best Game in Town…
We’re less than a month away from the state-wide election. Host Steve Edwards brings together a panel of political insiders to give us a gut-check on the status of some of the tight races, including U.S. Senate and Illinois Governor.
Scott McPherson, Rebecca Siv and Audra Wilson join Steve at Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant on West Jackson Street in Chicago.
* Rahm-for-Mayor Campaign Starts to Take Shape: Rahm Emanuel has named African-American businesswoman Mellody Hobson to co-chair his campaign to become mayor of Chicago. “He’s been a very long-term friend,” she said in a phone interview, “and I think he’s extraordinarily competent and capable.”
* Party loyalty? Matter of convenience for Berrios: Lectures about party loyalty are especially hypocritical coming from a guy like Berrios who twice jumped party lines, crossing over to the Republican side to support former Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan. Was it principle that made him abandon his party’s nominees, as it is in the case of those supporting Claypool? Sorry, no principles involved. He got some patronage jobs — and he was not the only Democratic committeeman to cut similar deals.
State Republican Party Chair Pat Brady said that Obama’s need to appear in his home state — which is supposed to be the bluest of the blue — just 26 days before Election Day shows the Democrats fear a Republican landslide in Illinois and around the country.
Democratic campaign strategist David Plouffe said voters should take the opposite message: “I can assure you, if we didn’t think Alexi could get to 50%, then the president and the vice president would not be campaigning there. When you’ve got this many competitive elections, you have to make sure you’re spending your time and your resources and your effort in places where you see a pathway to victory.”
Since the Chicago Tribune endorsed Chicago Democratic bums for Congress, it is only fair you know who some of these bums are.
And the photos…
Hey, doofuses. You want to get taken seriously? Stop doing idiotic stuff like this.
…Adding… Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady just called to make it extra special clear that the state GOP has nothing to do with these Chicago jokers. Brady has had some go-arounds with those clowns, and he was clearly upset at that ridiculous posting.
Instead of a hearty endorsement to throw the bums out, the Tribune decided they love bums.
Jan Schakowsky, Luis Gutierrez, Bobby Rush, Melissa Bean, Jesse Jackson Jr., Mike Quigley, and Danny Davis. Bums one and all.
Class act, that guy.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From a press release…
Statement from Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady
(CHICAGO) – Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady today released the following statement in response to the “Chicago Bums” post on the Chicago Republican Party’s web site:
“I am appalled at the actions of the Chicago Republican Party. This is not what the Illinois GOP stands for, nor condones in any way. We have instructed the appropriate individuals to remove the offensive material immediately.”
The campaign manager for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is taking heat for an expletive-laced Twitter post about opponents of the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero in New York.
At the conservative National Review, publication National Review, blogger Jim Geraghty noted Alex Armour posted a message on his open Twitter page declaring opponents were “(expletive) dumb (expletive) who haven’t read the 1st amndmnt .
Conservative media are pushing a deceptively cropped video of Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) to claim he “doesn’t believe the national debt is real.” In fact, the context of Hare’s remarks make clear he was referring to the “myth” that you can’t “just can’t spend” to put “people back to work” because “this country is in debt,” an opinion with which liberal and conservative economists agree.
* With all the heat that Republican Bob Dold’s campaign has taken for sock puppetry, you’d think they might be a bit less blatant about sending out mass e-mails like this one…
From: Caitlin Wolff
Date: Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 6:14 PM
Subject: Dold for Congress - Easy Volunteer Opportunity
Dear Volunteers,
My name is Caitlin Wolff from the Dold for Congress campaign. If you have received this email, it means that you have either sent Letters to the Editor before on our behalf or that you have expressed some interest in writing/sending Letters to the Editor for us.
We have only 27 days left to get Bob’s message if fiscal responsibility out to the voters. Dan Seals knows that he can win on the issues and has started throwing baseless accusations against Bob instead, trying to paint him as an extremist. One way we can combat these attack is by volunteers like you sending out Letters to the Editor. Could you send a letter in this week for us?
Most often we send letters to the editor to the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and the Pioneer Press, as well as other local papers. We have pre-written letters that you can simply submit electronically or you can write your own. Most papers limit letter length to around 250-300 words. I would love to speak further with you about which way you would like to participate in our Letters to the Editor.
Please feel free to contact me at this email (XXXX@robertdoldforcongress.com) or at 847.XXX.XXXX.
Faced with the problem of increasing access and speed, statist Bill Foster is happy to trumpet his recent grant for rural broadband, that I wrote about recently. The trouble is that with free-market forces, the same thing could have been accomplished for free.
“I’m not interested in being a media star, nor am I interested in being a rising political figure in my party,” Hirner told members of The State Journal-Register’s editorial board on Thursday. “[Congressman Aaron Schock] is a young man in a hurry. I don’t see how that translates to serving the people in the district.”
* In far more sane congressional news, former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar has endorsed Republican Bob Dold for the open 10th Congressional District seat. From a press release…
“Robert Dold is the right choice to represent the 10th Congressional District in Washington because he is a socially moderate, fiscally conservative Republican. He will help bring fiscal discipline to Washington and cut our federal debt,” said Edgar. “As a small business owner, Robert understands the needs of workers and small businesses and will take this much-needed perspective to Washington.” […]
“We need more people like Robert Dold in Congress,” Edgar said. “Robert’s commitment to sound fiscal principles, his hands-on experience running a successful small business, and, most importantly, his integrity make him a clear choice for the voters in this election.”
“I’m very grateful to accept Jim Edgar’s endorsement,” said Dold. “Governor Edgar led our great state with responsible economic policies and also with honesty and integrity. Governor Edgar’s tenure is an example of fiscally responsible government that is sorely needed in both Springfield and Washington, and is the kind of leadership I will provide as Congressman.”
“Robert has the no-nonsense approach that will get our country back to work and reduce the growth of government while maintaining the tradition of independent leadership this district is known for,” said Edgar.
That ought to help Dold with his “Yes, I’m really a moderate no matter what my own supporters say,” campaign.
* GOP groups focus resources: Hare wasn’t on the target lists of many Republicans at the start of the cycle – but he is now. The American Future Fund has taken out a $455,000 cable and broadcast buy that will run until Election Day against the second-term Illinois congressman—good enough for a bracing 3,391 gross rating points.
Two leading groups fighting violence against women and youth rapped Gov. Quinn Thursday for launching a $50 million anti-violence initiative when Illinois has become the biggest deadbeat state in the country by one new survey.
“We are dismayed and disheartened by the governor’s decision to spend $50 million on a new initiative at a time when the state owes millions of dollars to agencies and organizations that are providing critical services and prevention programming in countless communities across the state,” said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Her organization, which distributes a mix of state and federal funding to 22 rape crisis centers across Illinois, has had its state funding cut 27 percent in the past two years and is owed more than $1.7 million because the state is five months behind in its bills. Because of the funding squeeze, six of those rape-crisis centers may not meet their payrolls by month’s end, she said.
“We are confused by the ability to find dollars in our current budget crisis when our local agencies are still waiting to be paid for fiscal year 2010,” said Vickie Smith, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Governors love shiny, new programs. Too often, that comes at the expense of helping improve and fund existing services.
Gov. Pat Quinn pledged Thursday that the state will “soon” come through with promised payments to the Chicago Transit Authority so the agency is not forced to raise fares.
The CTA agreed to cancel proposed fare hikes for this year and next after the state agreed to cover for two years the cost of a loan the Regional Transportation Authority took out to make ends meet. The state has been slow to produce those funds.
“No, they aren’t going to raise fares,” Quinn said at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Salvation Army community center in the West Pullman neighborhood. “We have an agreement that we have with the RTA, and they will get the funds necessary to make sure the fare freeze for this year and next year continues. We’re in a tough economic time, and there aren’t going to be any fare increases at the CTA.”
Quinn said the transit agencies will get the funds “as soon as we possibly can.”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
* I told subscribers the other day about a recent poll by the Pew Center on the States. It fits well here, so let’s discuss it. From Pew…
On the revenue side of the ledger, 70 percent of Illinoisans, like respondents in the other four states surveyed, say they would be willing to pay more in taxes to maintain the current level of support for elementary and secondary education, and nearly six in 10 say the same for health and human services.
But when given a choice of several options for raising new money for the state, respondents continue to shy away from broad-based tax increases. Sixty-six percent say they favor raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes and 54 percent favor expanding gambling, while 60 percent favor raising corporate taxes. But these are not major sources of revenue for the state, so even if they were increased, they would not bridge the gap. And there are other obstacles to these options: For instance, increasing income taxes on businesses is complicated by restrictions in the state constitution.
Just 26 percent of Illinoisans say they favor an increase in the income tax, the main source of state revenue. When asked which option they would prefer if the state had to raise taxes on individuals to keep the same level of services, just 18 percent say they prefer an across-the-board income tax increase; another 18 percent select extending the sales tax to services, and 12 percent say they favor raising the sales tax on all purchases. Nearly half of respondents favor raising income taxes on the wealthy—but that would require a constitutional amendment in Illinois.
It’s always “tax the other guy.” Gaming expansion and higher corporate taxes would fit that mold.
* And check out these responses. Click the pic for a larger image…
I have a feeling that if given the choice, Illinoisans might not do much better than the legislature when it comes to cutting services and raising revenues, especially when the TV ads started blaring. Your thoughts?
* And while everybody’s talking about the capital bill, the public says they’d rather more money be spent on schools…
Ironically, transportation ranks low on the list of priorities for Illinois residents, according to the survey. In fact, only one in five Illinoisans says he or she would be willing to pay higher taxes to maintain transportation funding at current levels.
And given a choice among major areas of state spending—K-12 education, higher education, Medicaid and transportation— more than half of Illinois respondents choose transportation as the area they would least protect from spending cuts. Only 5 percent say it is the area they would most want to protect.
* They don’t much care for borrowing, either, which is probably why Bill Brady has tried to tippy-toe around his $50 billion pension bond scheme…
* About half are “very concerned” about spending cuts. As coverage grows, so will that number…
* These next two will give you an idea of how Illinois stacks up with the other polled states. Again, click the pics for larger images…
* Somebody had to say it in a major Chicago daily newspaper. So, I did…
A little more than three weeks remain until Election Day, and it’s driving me nuts that the Chicago media is spending most of its time focusing on a candidate who’s running in an election that’s not until next year.
Illinois is in crisis, and all anyone wants to report on is Rahm Emanuel. The coverage finally reached its nadir this week when Fox Chicago put a “futurist” on the air to predict that Emanuel would win.
The National Rifle Association endorsed Bill Brady for governor and it was almost completely ignored by the same city media that has covered how many gun-related crimes?
Gov. Quinn just announced that he would push hard for civil unions for gay couples after the election, but hardly anyone has noticed.
Instead, Emanuel shakes a few hands at an L stop and every reporter in town is dispatched.
We have a gigantic budget deficit in this state and neither candidate has a real plan for balancing the books. In fact, they’ve both offered up sham proposals void of specifics. The Sun-Times editorial page did an excellent job yesterday explaining why Bill Brady’s budget proposal is ridiculous. But it let the governor slide.
During the past 18 months, Gov. Quinn has switched positions on which tax increase he supports more times than Emanuel has used the “F” word.
Quinn’s latest version uses most of the tax increase money for property tax relief. In other words, it’ll barely make a dent in the deficit. So, what will he do about that deficit? He won’t say, other than that he’ll try to make some more cuts and he’s hoping for additional federal money.
Hope, as they say, is not a plan. Just ask President Obama, who came to town Thursday to help Quinn’s campaign.
But Brady is the Hopemeister General when it comes to jobs. The Bloomington Republican told the Sun-Times that he wants to create as many as 400,000 new jobs by the end of his first term. Brady wants to use Indiana as a model, but Indiana has a higher unemployment rate than Illinois does at the moment.
Also, Indiana has higher personal and corporate tax rates than Illinois. Unlike Illinois, Indiana taxes pension income. And its state sales tax rate is higher and covers more things.
According to estimates generated by our state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, Illinois would bring in about $5.6 billion more a year if it had Indiana’s state tax structure. But Brady says he’s against all tax increases.
There are two very good candidates running for state comptroller with interesting ideas on how the state can prioritize its bill-paying efforts. That’s hugely important to hundreds of thousands of people here because the state has a stack of overdue bills higher than the Willis Tower stacked on top of Emanuel’s ego.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on a very competitive state Senate race on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Ald. Brian Doherty, the city council’s lone Republican alderman, is up against appointed state Sen. John Mulroe. Doherty is being blasted for voting for the parking meter debacle. Mulroe is taking heat for having several taxpayer-funded incomes. It’s a fascinating and brutal campaign that might be newsworthy if everybody wasn’t so gosh-darned concerned about whether Emanuel had a good night’s sleep.
Time is running out, people. You’ve had your fun, but there is much to cover and precious few days remaining to cover it. Get over your grotesque Rahm fetish and get to work, for crying out loud.
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent. The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.
Her parents drove from their suburban St. Louis home with a $25,000 check to bail her out of jail. White and Rita Oglesby withdrew the money from an equity line of credit on their O’Fallon, Mo., home, her father told a judge during a morning hearing in Cook County criminal court.
John J. Sullivan continued to rip off elderly homeowners in Chicago even after the city won an injunction barring him from doing home-repair work, federal prosecutors allege.
Sullivan, 48, is charged in U.S. District Court with carrying out a home-repair fraud scheme between 2002 and 2006, according to an indictment unsealed this week.
In an unrelated twist, police in Arizona said they found more than $550,000 in cash, more than 100 baggies of marijuana and four handguns in Sullivan’s home there. He bought the house last year, records show.
Dan Johnson garnered a little limelight after “The Hurt Locker” won the Best Picture Oscar earlier this year. A California TV station featured him in a news report about U.S. Air Force explosive disposal experts, similar to those portrayed in the film.
People would tell him “you must be crazy to do what you do,” Johnson said in the report on KSBY, an NBC affiliate in the central coast of California. “I never really thought about it. It seemed like a cool job.”
Seven months later, on Oct. 5, Johnson, who resided briefly in Schiller Park and attended Triton College in River Grove, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. In June, he married a woman he’d met through church friends.
* State Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park) was debating his Republican opponent Jeffrey Junkas the other day in the south suburbs and the subject of pay raises came up. McCarthy said he was proud to have voted for a bill that will require legislators for the first time in years to actually vote to approve their own pay raises. Until the reform bill passed, legislators would vote to accept or reject the recommendations of the Compensation Review Board. Both chambers would have to vote the recommendations down or the pay raises would take effect. As you can imagine, that led to all sorts of political gamesmanship between the chambers and the parties.
Anyway, McCarthy went on to talk about earlier pay raise motions when he took the “morally correct” route and bravely voted to accept his pay raise. McCarthy claimed that sometimes he “really stood out” on those votes. It was, he said, “easy to find me,” because of all the members voting to accept the Board’s recommendations he was “the only caucasian on the list.”
Yes, he was making a joke. Yes, it was a very stupid joke. Notice that nobody laughed. If you watch the full video, you’ll see that even his opponent didn’t react with a rebuke of any kind. And McCarthy’s comment received zero local media coverage. Either nobody heard him, or there must be something weird in the water Out South.
* 8:04 pm - The Tribune was up first this evening with its US Senate endorsement of Mark Kirk…
So if you’re looking to elect a party-line Illinoisan to the Senate, you have your man. On the climactic Senate votes that define this nation’s very future for better or worse — be they on spending obligations or defense policy or industry bailouts — Alexi will be on the bus. […]
• Which of these two candidates will weigh, and decide, questions on national security and other crucial issues more on the merits than on the politics?
• Which would we want as the senator who could eventually make the extraordinarily sensitive selection of U.S. attorneys — the top federal prosecutors, such as Patrick Fitzgerald — for Illinois?
• And on the issue that most roils American politics this autumn, out-of-control federal spending, would Giannoulias or Kirk make unpopular, potentially career-ending votes for restraint? […]
We want the most capable senator protecting the U.S. from its enemies abroad and its unsustainable finances at home. Mark Kirk will be that senator.
* And the Sun-Times was close behind with its endorsement of Alexi Giannouolias…
We no longer know who Kirk is, where he stands or what he would do. […]
What does seem clear is that the experience of working for a community bank influenced Giannoulias’ views on Wells Fargo’s responsibilities to Hartmarx, a small company just trying to survive.
“I know what it’s like to lose a family business,” he told the Sun-Times editorial board. “It breaks your heart.”
Giannoulias is young, just 34, but seasoned in life and politics.
He’s got the stuff to be an excellent United States senator.
