* I was pretty tough on Democratic Congressman Phil Hare’s latest TV ad yesterday. He had it coming. But Hare now has a new ad up that whacks Schilling for not paying taxes while alleging that Schilling wants to raise payroll taxes. Rate it…
The payroll taxes hit comes from a Chicago Tribune questionnaire that Schilling’s son says he filled out and “misphrased”…
…Schilling responded to a question about the solvency of Medicare and Social Security by saying, “I believe that there will need to be an increase in Medicare and Social Security withholding taxes.”
The “not paying taxes” hit is about Schilling twice not paying his annual business franchise tax to the Secretary of State. Schilling’s corporation was officially dissolved both times. Click here for the documentation. This is a pretty minor offense, but Debbie Halvorson was hit with the same thing two years ago by Republican Marty Ozinga.
POLITICO has learned that the National Republican Congressional Committee will take a bank loan of at least $6.5 million – but likely more—to expand its ad buys into seven additional districts beyond the 55 where the committee has already reserved time.
According to an NRCC source familiar with the effort, the newly-added targets include five Democrats whose districts until recently were thought to be out of reach this year: Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, Illinois Rep. Phil Hare, and Ohio Rep. Zack Space, and Colorado Rep. John Salazar.
A recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies of 400 likely voters, conducted on September 26 and 27, with a margin of error of 4.9 percent shows Schilling and Hare tied at 37-38 percent. Schilling leads Hare by 18 points among voters who have heard of both candidates, and by 29 points among voters who have an opinion of both candidates. Pollster Glen Bolger said of this poll “Incumbent Phil Hare has real problems with the electorate in this district. Voters are upset at the direction of the country. Hare’s image is underwhelming. Incumbents at 38% on the ballot test don’t win unless they are successful at burning down their opponent.”
* Rahm Emanuel has been asking Twitter denizens to send him questions, comments, etc. via the #TellItLikeItIs hashtag. It’s apparently part of his “listening tour.” He’s calling the Tweets and responses a “data driven effort” to find out what’s on everybody’s minds. OK. Whatever.
So, how about telling us who you’re supporting for county assessor? That might tell us a lot.
Our longtime commenter and blogger’s blogger OneMan followed up…
I too am curious who you are supporting in the assessors race..
No response. Actually, there aren’t many real responses. Nobody’s asking many serious questions. So if you have a Twitter account, click here, if you dare, and pose a question to Rahm using the #tellitlikeitis hashtag in your question. Maybe he’ll even answer. Report back if you sent him a question and if whoever is running that Twitter account actually talks back.
A new report claims Chicago has the most dangerous neighborhood in America, although the neighborhood in question is not particularly infamous for crime.
The report by geographer Dr. Andrew Schiller for the commercial real estate site NeighborhoodScout.com said a neighborhood identified as “W. Lake St.,” located on the Near West Side and bounded by Kinzie Street on the north, Washington Boulevard on the south, Damen Avenue on the east and Western Avenue on the west, is the most dangerous neighborhood in the country.
The report claims that the chances of being a victim of a violent crime in the neighborhood are 1 in 4. It says the neighborhood sees 257.72 crimes per 1,000 residents.
But official police statistics seem to show a different story. The “neighborhood” named the most dangerous in the report corresponds directly to Census Tract 280500, which ranks toward the middle for crime among city neighborhoods.
So, the supposedly most dangerous neighborhood in the country isn’t even close to the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago? Somebody’s “data driven effort” just failed.
* Meanwhile, Rev. Sen. James Meeks continues his own listening tour by actually sitting down and talking with real, live human beings…
In a move sure to surprise many people, but one that also signals just how serious he is about running for mayor of Chicago, Ill. state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) traveled to Boystown Oct. 5 to meet with several LGBT leaders at the offices of Equality Illinois. […]
“One of the things I was asked was if I would keep the office of the mayor’s liaison to the LGBT community and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame,” Meeks said. “I was very surprised that people would think that I would do away with that office or the Hall. It’s very important to me and the city, and I would definitely keep that.”
Meeks also said he told the leaders that he would support efforts to lessen bullying against LGBT students in schools. Education has been an issue that Meeks has focused on as a legislator – he threatened to run against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2006 over education funding and has pushed comprehensive legislation to revamp the state’s tax system in order to fully fund public schools.
I think I much prefer the old school social networking to the “data driven effort.”
An upcoming debate between Illinois candidates for U.S. Senate has been canceled, as organizers say Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias has turned down a request to participate.
The debate, originally scheduled for Oct. 21 at the WSIU broadcasting studios in Carbondale and co-sponsored by The Southern Illinoisan, was meant to include senatorial candidates from all three of Illinois’ legally established political parties, but Giannoulias’ withdrawal caused organizers to cancel the event.
David Yepsen, of SIUC’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said the Giannoulias campaign refused to participate in the debate because the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, Michael Labno, was not allowed to join the discussion.
“It’s disappointing, but these things happen in politics,” Yepsen said. “The rules we put together were that we would invite any candidate of an established political party. We’re not going to change the rules for one candidate.”
I wonder if Team Giannoulias has forgotten a lesson that former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun learned the hard way the year she lost her re-election bid: Downstate still counts, and Downstaters don’t like to be ignored.
* Carol Marin takes off after GOP lt. governor nominee Jason Plummer for his new answer to a question he’s been dodging for months: His refusal to release tax returns, as every gubernatorial and (almost every) lt. gubernatorial candidate for decades has done…
“I’m coming from the private sector,” answered Plummer. “I didn’t serve in the public sector last year.”
I fully agree with Carol’s next line: “Huh?”
Marin continues…
But even former Gov. George Ryan, now in prison, and Rod Blagojevich, who’s heading there, disclosed their income taxes.
And as Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney pointed out to Plummer, Blagojevich’s tax forms provided the public with the first clue that convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko was paying Patti Blagojevich.
That was an excellent point by McKinney. It blows away Plummer’s argument that all we need to know is in his Statement of Economic Interests report filed with the state. And that argument doesn’t hold much water, either…
“That’s the most incomprehensible, terrible, convoluted form known to man,” scoffed Dennis Czurylo, a former supervisor for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division who has put many a politician in jail. “Government purposely uses these obscure and useless forms,” he said, because they “don’t disclose what a federal tax form does,” things like debt and land trusts.
And here’s another new argument that I haven’t seen before…
Plummer didn’t mask his exasperation, telling the Sun-Times, “When we’re elected on Nov. 2, I’ll be more than happy to use . . . your interest in my tax return as leverage to force a lot of folks in Springfield to show their tax returns.”
“It’s not too much to expect from a candidate for statewide office [that] their priority would be statewide office and representing the people of Illinois rather than protecting their family’s business interest,” said Simon, whose late father, U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, would divulge tax records that showed how much income she made as a teen-age babysitter and how much her adolescent brother made from his paper route.
“It says his priorities are different than mine and the governor,” Simon said of Plummer. “We’ve disclosed this without being asked and disclosed it fully.”
GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady said Tuesday he would not stand in the way of a public school board should it want to teach creationism.
“I believe knowledge is power, and I believe local school districts should establish the curriculum when it comes to those things,” Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board in a wide-ranging interview session with running mate Jason Plummer.
This is not really new news. He’s said it before. You can watch the entire Sun-Times editorial board endorsement session if you’d like…
* Question: Do you agree with Brady that it ought to be OK with the state if a local school district decides not to teach evolution and substitutes it with creationism? Explain.
* Bonus Question: Do you think this will make much difference in the campaign? Explain.
If you’re going to answer the bonus question, please make sure to answer the actual question, first. Thanks.
* John Kass writes again today about a forensic audit. He’s talking about Chicago, but the idea is part of Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign platform as well. Brady uses the proposal to deflect questions about his budget details, saying he needs to see the results of such an intense audit before he can make any decisions.
Now, I am not opposed to the idea at all, but here’s the thing: A normal Auditor General agency audit takes months to complete. A complicated and detailed forensic audit of the entire state government all at once might take years. Whatever the case, there’s just no way I can figure that Brady could launch a complete forensic audit after he’s inaugurated in January and get the results back before introducing a new state budget in March or April, or even May or June.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party, says state Sen. Bill Brady should not offer too many details about how he would cut Illinois’ $13 billion budget deficit if Brady is elected governor.
Christie, who endorsed fellow Republican Brady at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport Tuesday, said Brady shouldn’t worry about criticism that his budget plan lacks specifics.
“I heard the same things … a year ago right now,” Christie told reporters. “What I said was, ‘I am laying out for the people of New Jersey the direction that I’m going take the state. And I’m not going to sit here now and talk about each and every specific cut and how it all adds up as if I’m a CPA.’
“Candidly, I’m really happy I didn’t. Because the problem I found in New Jersey was much worse than my predecessor advertised, and anything I would have said would have had to have been thrown right in the garbage in January 2010.”
Illinois capital-markets director John Sinsheimer and Citigroup Inc. bankers took a globe-girdling trip from the U.K. to China in June to persuade investors that the state’s $900 million of Build America Bonds were a bargain.
The seven-country visit worked. The state sold one-fifth of the federally subsidized securities abroad the next month, tapping investors who are the fastest-growing source of borrowed cash for U.S. municipalities. Illinois, with the lowest credit rating of any state from Moody’s Investors Service, dangled yields higher than Mexico, which defaulted on debt in 1982, and Portugal, which costs more to insure against missed payments.
To retire the fiscal 2010 bills by the end of the year, [Comptroller Dan Hynes] warned that the state must complete its up to $1.75 billion tobacco bond sale because the budget relies on at least $1.2 billion from the deal. Illinois recently named a finance team for the transaction. The state also must make additional interfund transfers and collect additional revenue from a tax amnesty program.
“A significant failure of any of these sources will place remaining fiscal year 2010 obligations in jeopardy,” Hynes warned. “This would create a scenario in which unsatisfied payees could be forced to seek legal and judicial remedies to obtain payments in amounts unprecedented in the state’s history.”
The comptroller said barring any major changes, the state’s liquidity crisis will continue through the fiscal year and Illinois could end the year with an even larger bill backlog of $8 billion as additional debt service comes due. That number could rise if no action is taken to address a $3.7 billion pension payment. […]
However, Hynes warned: “The structural imbalance in the current budget, combined with higher debt service costs and the loss of federal stimulus revenues, creates the very real possibility that the governor and General Assembly will face a working deficit of $15 billion or more when the fiscal year 2012 budget is crafted early next year.”
Republican governor candidate Bill Brady has been blasting Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for taxing, spending and borrowing, but Tuesday the challenger refused to rule out borrowing a record $50 billion to shore up state finances.
“All options have to be considered,” Brady said.
Yeah. That’ll be no problem, considering the inflated interest rate, the ever-worsening deficit and still-horrible revenues.
Nobody is gonna buy that many bonds from this state without a definable revenue stream. Brady has said he’d pay them off with “natural revenue growth.” As I pointed out yesterday, there is no revenue growth.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration has finalized a deal with the state’s largest employee union that will prevent layoffs until 2012 despite repeated calls from Republican challenger Bill Brady for Quinn to abandon the plan.
The agreement between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was finalized on Sep. 24, and was signed by union director Henry Bayer and James Sledge, head of Illinois Central Management Services.
Under the deal, the state cannot layoff workers or close facilities until July 2012. In exchange the union says it has agreed to cut costs by at least $170 million by cutting healthcare costs, restricting overtime and other yet-to-be-identified measures. Quinn’s office hopes ongoing negotiations will push savings higher.
Too often, this governor walks right into the punches.
Martina Love had two words to describe the job fair hosted Tuesday by Scott Lee Cohen, the independent candidate for Illinois governor: “false advertisement.”
Out of work for a year, the 23-year-old said she’s looking for a “real job” at a factory or somewhere else, not selling jewelry or enlisting in the military like recruiters at Cohen’s Rockford-area job fair were offering.
“If he’s supposed to be a governor, I would think that he would have had more things in here knowing how the economy is,” said Love, who used to work at phone customer service company.
The job fairs are a cornerstone of Cohen’s campaign for governor, but the job seekers who lined up Tuesday to talk to more than a dozen companies weren’t necessarily interested in helping him gain employment as Illinois’s chief executive.
* As I told subscribers this morning, The Hill has a new poll showing the 11th Congressional District race isn’t even close. Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson is getting blown out by Republican Adam Kinzinger…
Right now, the outlook for Halvorson appears grim. The Hill/ANGA poll found she trails Kinzinger by 18 points — 49 percent to 31. Another 18 percent of likely voters remain undecided.
Kinzinger also leads among most major demographic groups. He’s ahead by 26 points among male voters and by 11 percent among females, and leads in all age groups by 10 points or more. Kinzinger also holds a wide lead with independent voters — 53 percent to 24.
All this threatens to occur over a critical set of months, when CPS traditionally devises its budget, prepares for state tests and decides which schools to close. It must tackle the tasks with an administrative staff decimated by budget cuts, teachers left disgruntled by cost-saving layoffs and the specter of even worse budget woes next school year.
He said he would likely stay through January, when a new school year begins for some CPS students. He said any time there is a transition in leadership, there is some consideration of who else will leave, but speculation he will leave soon is untrue.
Calling threats of a $300 million deficit in the upcoming 2011 budget a “fallacy and “scare tactics, Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica called for the full rollback Tuesday of the sales tax, which the county board reduced by half this summer.
A real estate advising company says a neighborhood bordered by Damen and Western Avenues on the east and west and Kinzie Street and Washington Boulevard to the north and south has the highest predicted rates of violent crime in the nation.
* Many of you who read this blog run the campaigns, walk the precincts, make the calls, coordinate the schedules, dig the dirt or dish it, deal with goofy candidates, or are a candidate yourself. I’d like to take this opportunity to say my hat is off to you.
The election is less than four weeks away, but you’re certainly weary from the never-ending days and nights. You’ve no doubt been busting your hump for weeks or months on end. Living on coffee, cigarettes, cold pizza and warm beer. Your candidate may be behind, or maybe you’re in a close race and fighting for what feels like your very life.
For the hacks in the streets, it’s starting to get chilly outside. Soon, it’ll be downright cold, which will be murder on your frozen knuckles (Hint: Kick the door, don’t knock, it’ll save those knuckles). You’ve probably been chased by a dog at least once by now. You may even have been bitten (try to remember to carry dog biscuits in your coat pocket). Some idiot has undoubtedly pulled up half the yard signs you placed the last time you were there. Stay calm. They can make more signs.
You may be losing your patience and your voice, but you can smell something familiar in the air: “The end.” People are finally paying attention and you’ve been feeling that ol’ adrenaline rush. You’re gonna need it. It’s the only thing that’ll keep you going through the miserable days ahead.
No matter. You press on. You may not even like your candidate, but it’s always ever onward. Sometimes - maybe more often than you might care to admit - you don’t even know why you’re pushing yourself so freaking hard. Campaigns are never easy, always unpredictable, maddeningly emotional, completely exhausting. Worse yet, nobody on the outside really understands your choice. Some even disrespect you for it. But it’s what you do, and, God help you, you love it.
You live a zero-sum life. You win or go home. There’s no silver medal. And the rewards aren’t all that great unless you are one of the chosen few. For everyone else, it’s just more work. Always, more work. But that rush you get when you win beats the heck out of trading in your way of life for some mundane sideline existence. You can’t just be someone who wouldn’t bother to invest their own sweat in this insanely bizarre American process.
So, whoever you are and whichever campaign you’re working for or with, this video is for you…
