In a new Kirk ad, a mother complains about how, “our daughter was a freshman when I opened up the envelope (from the treasurer) and found that they’d lost more than half of our college savings.”
Problem is, the fund involved, known as Core Plus, only lost 38%, and half of that was recouped in a lawsuit. I’m not always great at math, but 19% or so strikes me as somewhat short of half.
Giannoulias said he has been “absolutely, unequivocally consistent in all my statements for the last four years.
“I left day-to-day operations in 2005, and I fully left the bank about April 2006,” he said.
“Absolutely, unequivocally consistent”? Um, didn’t he tell the Tribune last week that he left the bank in May of 2006, not April, as he just told the SJ-R?
James Wright, who recently was forced out as the state’s executive inspector general, has a new job as the campaign manager for mayoral hopeful Gery Chico, the candidate told the Chicago News Cooperative on Wednesday. […]
Chico said he is not concerned that Wright has never run a campaign.
And Chico expects us to take him seriously? Dick Durbin is also clueless…
Chico was an “outstanding candidate” in the 2004 US Senate primary? Is Durbin nuts? Chico got barely over 5 percent of the Cook County vote that year and four percent statewide. Sheesh.
Houle believes that in Chicago and across the country, voters are sick of being pandered to and want someone who will tell them in blunt terms about problems and real solutions.
Rahm Emanuel is only “blunt” behind closed doors. His campaign won’t be anything like his private personality.
It’s not always possible to predict the positions of all the players in the game of politics in Illinois.
A case in point came to me in the form of a copy of an e-mail invitation from Mark Denzler, vice president and chief operating officer of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, to folks who were being encouraged to attend two fundraisers — one for Democratic House Speaker Madigan of Chicago, and the other for Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont. […]
When we spoke recently, Denzler said House GOP Leader Cross hadn’t asked for a fundraiser this year
Look, I know Cross has no love for the IMA, but maybe he could at least ask them to hold a fundraiser? Put them on the spot, maybe?
[Democratic treasurer nominee Robin Kelly] linked two votes by [GOP treasurer nominee Dan Rutherford] —in 1995 and 1997 against lowering the DUI standard to .08 from .10—to more than $70,000 in campaign contributions he’s received since then from beer distributors and other liquor interests.
“Rutherford sold out safe roads for campaign cash,” blared a Kelly press release.
Mr. Rutherford responds that Ms. Kelly has to be “desperate” to drag up 15-year-old legislative votes. He opposes and still opposes .08 and the state’s mandatory seat-belt law, Mr. Rutherford says, but money has nothing to do with it.
Rasmussen cannot justify its failure to name the “some other candidate” who has 1% more support than Jones. Disappointing. Rasmussen had a duty to name Labno in the interest of fairness to all parties, to ensure more accurate reporting by the media
Rasmussen is officially blacklisted by me until they start including everyone’s name in their polls. There’s no excuse for their behavior. “Rasmussen” is also a banned word in comments right now, so if you want to talk about them use: “The polling company that shall not be named” in comments or your post will be held automatically for moderation.
U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk (R-10th), of Highland Park, listed country, pop and jazz - from Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” to Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gun control group Brady PAC Illinois is doing an initial round of 65,000 robocalls with the following message…
“My husband, JIM Brady, is from Illinois,” Sarah Brady says in the call. “We’ve voted Republican many times, but we think BILL Brady’s gun policies are awful.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Personal PAC has a powerful new ad featuring a rape victim. The ad is running on cable TV in the Elgin area. The group is holding a fundraiser later this month to raise money to put the spot and three others on the air throughout the Chicago region. Rate it…
Script…
Jennie: When I was 18, I was raped. I don’t know what I would have done if I had become pregnant.
Narrator: As governor, Bill Brady would seek to outlaw abortion, and Brady opposes any exceptions, even for victims of rape and incest.
Jennie: Forcing a rape victim to carry a pregnancy is unthinkable, and scares me to death.
Narrator: The more you learn about Bill Brady, the worse it gets. We deserve better than Bill Brady.
* Alexi Giannoulias has a new TV ad that, once again, calls Mark Kirk a liar and a George Bush guy. Watch…
* “Vote No Kilbride” has a new radio ad blasting the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Listen…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Kilbride’s campaign responds…
Kilbride actually voted in support of the state’s position in one of the cases. Together with the Supreme Court’s majority, Kilbride voted to support a harsher sentence against the defendant in this case. The case is People ex rel. Waller v. McKoski. […]
In the Waller decision that JustPac skewered in the radio ad, Tom Kilbride wrote a concurrence opinion arguing the Supreme Court should issue its order through a supervisory order rather than through a mandamus writ - a purely procedural distinction that did not interfere with his support for the harsher penalty.
JustPac’s pretend criminals also flubbed explanations of the other two specified cases. In People v. Bannister, Kilbride questioned the wisdom of allowing testimony from a convicted murderer in a 13-year-old case. This convicted murderer was given a plea agreement vacating his two murder convictions and reducing his sentence in order to get his testimony. And in People v. Runge, Kilbride and Justice Charles Freeman joined a dissent authored by Justice Anne Burke. In this dissent, Burke argued a juror who cheered out loud for the prosecution in a capital case should have been excluded.
[ *** End Of Update 2 *** ]
* Justice Kilbride’s campaign has two new ads. Here’s one…
Independent candidate for governor Scott Lee Cohen lost his temper with the media during a campaign appearance Wednesday morning.
Cohen was angry because a reporter asked whether his plan to create more jobs could take 10 or 15 years.
“You know, I am so sick and tired of the negativity by the media. Do you see anybody that has a better plan? Do you? Do you see anybody out there trying to put the people back to work? You know, that’s enough, I’ve had enough, thank you very much for coming,” Cohen said.
With that Cohen walked away from the podium. He later came back to say what made him angry was a negative Associated Press story about his Rockford job fair Tuesday - a story that quoted attendees who said it was more like a campaign event.
“We’re down about 60,000 registered voters from where we were two years ago,” said Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal. […]
“We did a major canvass in which we verify our rolls to make sure they’re clean this summer,” Neal said. “So, we’ve cleaned the rolls so that our voting rolls are very accurate in terms of eligible voters, so that results in some loss of voters.” […]
Outside of Chicago there has been a spike in registration compared to 2006. In each of the collar counties, the numbers of registered voters is up: in DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties the increase totals almost 110,000 new voters.
* The Question: How big of a GOP wave are you predicting for this year? Quantify it, please and explain.
* During his Sun-Times editorial board interview this week, Bill Brady was asked about his lack of union support. He quickly pointed to his endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police. Brady was then asked if he would support applying the same two-tiered pension system to police and firefighters that he supported for state workers and teachers. He didn’t answer directly, saying, rightly, that there are different issues with public safety folks on things like retirement age (although teachers and some others can make the same sort of claims).
[Brady] said as recently as the first gubernatorial debate on September 29 that he would not be cutting anything other than self-identified “waste” from public safety departments–a far cry from the “dime on every dollar” cuts he has proposed for other areas of government. […]
[FOP president Ted Street] said Brady assured union leaders at a private meeting in July that they would be at the table when cuts are made: a move he said “has never been done before.”
“Senator Brady has reached out and asked that I facilitate a meeting between State Troopers lodge (of the union)…and the Department of Corrections lodge…to come up with and organize cost-cutting measures,” Street said. “Senator Brady has offered us input, a voice of representation in the decision making process.”
Brady blasted Quinn for a deal the governor negotiated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union shortly after the group endorsed him. The deal will prevent the state from laying off workers in exchange for furlough days, wage freezes and cost-cutting measures, identified by the union itself. […]
But he now finds himself accusing Quinn of selling out the people of Illinois for his suspect deals with political supporters, while negotiating a similar one on a signature issue. His two pronged attack now appears double edged.
Once you bring up a quid pro quo with your opponent’s endorsers, you subject yourself to similar scrutiny. It’s a fair hit.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R took a look at the agreement between AFSCME and Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration and discovered that while it sets a $100 million budget reduction goal, it specifies just $10 million in immediate cuts…
The immediate $10 million in savings will be met by “reduction in the use of overtime, expansion of the voluntary furlough program and by in-sourcing work that can be provided more economically if performed by state employees,” according to the agreement
A total of $50 million must be found by the end of this month.
Gov. Pat Quinn blasted Republican challenger Bill Brady today for leaving open the option of borrowing $50 billion to shore up state pension funds, saying it would lead to a massive tax increase.
Quinn seized on the issue in an attempt to turn the tables on Brady, who has hammered the Democratic governor for pushing an income tax increase and borrowing money.
Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, has refused to rule out a $50 billion pension loan. He has said all options should be on the table when it comes to ensuring the health of the underfunded retirement systems. The Brady campaign said it is not backing the idea, saying it would be an option only as part of a comprehensive package that could save the state money.
Quinn brushed aside such nuances, saying a $50 billion pension bond “will never happen as long as I’m governor.”
Gov. Pat Quinn is defending spending $50 million on a new initiative aimed at helping to rebuild struggling neighborhoods while the state has unpaid bills piling up.
The governor’s office says the new anti-violence initiative is a mix of federal money and state money that lawmakers gave Quinn discretion to spend.
It’s the second time in two weeks Quinn has announced he’ll spend some of that money.
The Chicago Democrat recently announced he would use $75 million to keep a temporary jobs program going while Illinois waits for Congress to approve more money for it.
Nonprofit organizations that serve some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens have been forced to freeze salaries, dip into cash reserves and cut programs because government funding is shrinking and often late in coming, according to a report released Thursday by the Urban Institute.
And human service nonprofits in Illinois have been among the hardest hit.
Nationally, 41 percent of human service nonprofits reported late payments from state, federal and local government sources in 2009, the survey found. In Illinois, that number reached 72 percent, highest in the nation.
Despite Gov. Pat Quinn’s call for cost-cutting throughout state government, at least two state agencies are planning to buy or lease new vehicles this month.
Illinois Is Broke, an organization pretty much put together by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, this week began spending what I’m told is in the low-to-mid six figures on radio and print ads urging voters to “ask the candidates what they will do: fix the pensions, or just raise taxes?”
The radio version of the spot has a mother gently griping that, “Our family has to live within our means, but Illinois state government doesn’t.”
The ad then goes on to talk about “free health insurance” for state retirees and a state debt amounting to $25,000 per family.”
The spot doesn’t name any names, but it should be mildly helpful to GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady — a Republican, like the bulk of those who paid for the ad are believed to be. But neither he nor Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn has been specific on what they’d do to close a hole of at least $75 billion.
* Related…
* Obama comes home for Alexi; to help Quinn: Quinn campaign spokesman Mica Matsoff told me that Obama cut a radio spot for Quinn — to start Monday — where he says he will be voting for Quinn on Nov. 2 and urging others to cast their ballot for Quinn… White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday during a briefing that Obama will be greeting Quinn when he lands at O’Hare. Matsoff said Quinn will be bringing two people who benefitted from his “Illinois to Work” jobs program to the tarmac to meet with Obama. While the Obama ad for Quinn starts Monday, on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden joins Quinn in Chicago for a ‘’Putting Illinois Back to Work'’ get-out-the-vote rally at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130 Hall on the near West Side.
* Teachers endorsement means donations, volunteers: For candidate Pat Quinn, Wednesday was like walking into a room filled with money. The governor and his running mate, Sheila Simon, can expect six-figured campaign donations from the 103,000 member teachers’ union.
* Brady brings GOP bid for governor to Alton: “We’re going to clean house in Springfield,” Brady said. “We’re going to get rid of all the political patronage bureaucrats, and we’re going to bring in real professionals to run Springfield for your benefit and not their personal interests.”
* Brady, Schilling rally with supporters in Quincy, Pittsfield: “It’s you who are going to decide the future of this state, not the special interests,” Brady said, flanked by his wife, Nancy and running mate, Jason Plummer.
Most suburbs examined experienced more than 50 percent increases in the number of poor from 2000 to 2008. In Aurora, the number jumped nearly 62 percent to 19,479, and in Joliet, it rose 39.5 percent to 15,266. […]
“Poverty rose in almost every Chicago suburban community that we looked at,” said Scott Allard, study co-author and associate professor in the U. of C. School of Social Service Administration. “More recent data would show that these trends have only continued.”
But few suburban communities have a social services infrastructure in place to address the challenges of increased poverty, he noted. In Cicero, there are 3,648 poor people per social service non-profit, the study revealed. In Carpentersville, there are 3,013 for every nonprofit, in Aurora, 1,299 for every one and in Skokie, 1,274 for every one.
Bamani Obadele, 37, stepped down as a deputy director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 2005 after an internal investigation found he had profited from state contracts.
In pleading guilty Tuesday to one count of mail fraud in federal court in Chicago, Obadele admitted he had DCFS vendors buy tote bags, magnets and other items from a promotional company he secretly owned. He also directed DCFS contractors to subcontract work to a company in which he held a board seat.
Many of Huberman’s signature initiatives are still unrealized. The district is in the midst of creating a new teacher evaluation, implementing a $40 million anti-violence initiative, and trying out Huberman’s favored performance management system, which attaches performance metrics to everything from transportation to teaching.
The protesters at Whittier Elementary School should not be made to suffer while staying in the building at 1900 W. 23rd St., said Ald. Daniel Solis, 25th. The parents on the site want another assessment of the building, which they have occupied since mid-September.
“But in the meantime, the Board of Education cannot make a very dumb mistake, in my (opinion), of turning off the gas because the issue of safety comes up again,” Solis said.
Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Johnson was a newlywed. He got married just four months ago.
Johnson died Tuesday as he tried to deactivate a bomb near Kandahar, Afghanistan when an improvised explosive detonated, injuring the sergeant and killing Johnson. He lived in northwest suburban Schiller Park before moving to California.
He had one of the toughest assignments in the military - explosive ordinance disposal - commonly known as the bomb squad. Every job is literally a life or death operation. But his family says he loved it.
* This is a self-made video that’s already running on TV in Champaign. It’s going up around the state starting this weekend, the Pat Quinn campaign says. I think it’s one of the better ads of the season…
