* 3:27 pm - Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle finally released his mayoral campaign finance report, which was due last night at midnight. His total cash raised? $59,440.
Yes, you read that right.
Cash on hand as of December 31st: $2,115.33.
Oy.
Money isn’t everything in politics, but it is a very important means of gauging a candidate’s support. Del Valle formed his committee on October 1st. That gave him three full months to raise money.
Miguel del Valle was always one of my favorite state Senators. He’s a decent, kind man who fought the good fight and won. But that was then and this is now, and I just hate to see him go out this way.
On Sunday the Green Bay Packers take on the Chicago Bears for the NFC Championship.
The rivalry is so intense that one Green Bay, Wisc., radio station - WOGB-FM -(103.1) has pulled the band Chicago from its playlist.
“Every single song,” says the oldies station’s program director, Dan Markus. He tells Lifeline Live, “They named themselves after the city whose team is blocking our way to the Super Bowl.”
It’s kinda difficult to retaliate in kind since no Chicago radio stations regularly play German marching band music. But I’m with Otter on this one…
Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!
Suggestions?
…Adding… The best so far…
In a well-intentioned gesture, Governor Quinn retaliated by calling on all Chicago radio stations to ban Green Day from their playlists.
Fur will fly tomorrow at Tiffany’s Sports Lounge when fans gather to watch the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears face off in the NFC Championship. The fuss won’t just be about which team goes to the Super Bowl.
The St. Paul Packer’s bar is hosting an impromptu bear roast — a 180-pound black bear cooked in a pig-roaster over hickory and charcoal. Tiffany’s co-owner Blake Montpetit said he had to scramble to find a whole unprocessed bear.
Roasting a meat-packer probably wouldn’t be as tasty, unfortunately.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Duct-taping a Packers fan to a Stop sign might be a bit much, but it looks like they had a good time…
The sidewalks on both sides of Walnut Street beside the Brown County courthouse were a sea of green and gold and blaze orange Friday afternoon.
The fans braved below-zero wind chills to cheer on their team ahead of Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Bears.
Mayor Jim Schmitt announced his wager with Chicago’s mayor for wine and cheese.
In a skit, a Chicago Bears fan was arrested in front of the crowd by a Brown County sheriff’s deputy and brought in front of a judge who ordered him to change his ways.
Well, that’s different. Usually, Bears fans are arrested for speeding in Wisconsin because they’re so anxious to get outta that dump.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Now, that’s what I call a Bears fan…
Brad Buell called giving his tickets to the Bears-Packers game to wounded veterans a “no brainer.”
A season ticket holder for the last 10 years, the Libertyville man said veterans have sacrificed more than enough. So he can sit out on the biggest game in Chicago history: Bears-Packers in the NFC Championship.
“These veterans are doing something that I think 99 percent of people out there won’t do,” Buell said. “They run into harm’s way when everyone else is running away.”
* We had a lot of fun with Gov. Pat Quinn’s rambling ways during the campaign. He’s the jam band governor, this guy. He ought to tour with The String Cheese Incident. Sheila Simon could play banjo. Maybe she could do even better than the $500 she made last year picking and grinning.
Anyway, in our latest edition chronicling the governor’s meandering ways, Gov. Quinn extols the virtues (and the long Illinois history) of the “miracle” soybean. From there, he segues into the University of Illinois and then to China, back to the U of I, then back to China.
He even has mic problems at one point, but keeps right on going. Have a listen…
* Meanwhile, you should also take a look at Rahm Emanuel defending himself for not appearing at community forums with the other mayoral candidates. It’s no big deal, he says, because, among other things, he’s been to 30 grocery stores…
* Gov. Pat Quinn picked the Bears to win 27-17 this Sunday. President Obama said the Bears would defeat the Packers 20-17.
* The Question: What will be the final score in Sunday’s big game?
* Bonus Question: What’s the best trash talk you’ve heard about the Cheesehead team or its home state this week? Make sure to keep it clean, people. But have fun and, of course, Go Bears!
Braun polled at 6 percent last month but made major inroads among African-American voters. Emanuel was at 32 percent in the previous poll, but he, too, gained black voters. Chico was at 9 percent in the December survey and has picked up white and Latino support since then. […]
Braun, meanwhile, is viewed unfavorably by 30 percent of the city’s electorate — the highest negative score for any mayoral candidate. But Braun also is viewed favorably by 39 percent and continues to enjoy strong support in the black community, where 55 percent viewed her favorably and only 11 percent unfavorably. Emanuel’s scores are similar in that community. […]
As the only major female candidate in the race, Braun also may be counting on the support of women. But Emanuel was doubling up Braun among female voters, 47 percent to 23 percent. And 61 percent of women viewed Emanuel favorably, compared with 37 percent for Braun.
Chico, who is Daley’s former chief of staff, scored a 10 percent gain among white voters since the last Tribune poll.
* As we saw yesterday, Emanuel raised $10.6 million last year, plus another $1.1 million transferred from his congressional account for a total of $11.7 million. There were some big names on his contributor list…
Emanuel received $2.6 million in $100,000 chunks, the bulk of which - $1.2 million - came from Chicago private equity investment houses including Citadel Investment Group, Aragon Global Management, Grovesnor Capital Management, and others.
Emanuel also collected $100,000 checks from some Hollywood heavyweights like producer David Geffen, Fox Family Network CEO Haim Saban and William Morris Endeavor agent John Fogelman. Ari Emanuel, the candidate’s brother, is the CEO of William Morris, one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange gave Emanuel $200,000, records released Thursday show. He also took in $100,000 apiece from wealthy Chicago businessmen James Crown and Fred Eychaner, plus another $100,000 from Hollywood mogul David Geffen, $75,000 from film director Steven Spielberg and $50,000 from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. […]
Emanuel spent nearly $3.5 million, including $2.2 million to AKPD Message and Media LLC, a publicity firm once run by David Axelrod, now an Obama senior adviser. That left Emanuel with more than $8.3 million to spend on the mayor’s race as of the start of this year.
Though he’s been criticized by his opponents for raising big bucks from outside Chicago, Emanuel’s campaign said 74 percent of his 2,494 contributors live in Cook County and more than half gave him $250 or less.
Demonstrating his expected money advantage over his competitors, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel is shelling out big bucks to run a campaign ad during Sunday’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC Championship game.
The cost of Emanuel’s ad is $5,000 a second, or $150,000 for the 30-second commercial, according to an industry source familiar with political TV advertising who was not authorized to speak publicly about ad buys. No other mayoral candidate has purchased time during the game so far.
* Carol Moseley Braun filed her campaign finance report at 9:25 this morning. The deadline was midnight. Her report is here. She raised just $446K and had just $164K on hand at the end of December.
Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, a community activist, raised $500,367 as of Dec 31. More than half of that money, $296,754, came from Joseph Stanford, pastor of Ambassadors for Christ Ministries.
Watkins spent $138,868, leaving her with $361,499 to spend as of Jan. 1.
* At least Braun filed. As of 9:32 this morning, Miguel del Valle had not filed his required disclosure report.
Gery Chico raised $2.3 million through Dec. 31, according to reports filed today. He has since reported another $98,000 in contributions over $1,000 – for a total of $2.39 million raised. He had $2 million on hand to start the year.
Among Chico’s largest contributors were Bo Zhang, the chairman of American Electronic Products, who gave the candidate $30,000 and Patrick Ryan, the former chairman of Aon, who wrote Chico a $25,000 check.
Chico also received $25,000 from Symon Garber, the president and CEO of Chicago Carriage Cab Co. But the candidate gave the money back to Garber, who is facing millions of dollars in city fines for illegally putting salvaged cars on the street as cabs.
* Whatever happens in Sunday’s big football game, there’s no way a major international business conference like this would’ve been held in Green Bay, or Indianapolis for that matter…
Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and other dignitaries’ participation in a signing ceremony Thursday of business deals between Illinois and Chinese companies signaled how China’s growing middle class is opening potentially explosive revenue-growth opportunities.
Midwestern agricultural giants Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Cargill, Bunge, soybean and renewable-energy company Louis Dreyfus and farmers represented by the Illinois Soybean Association and other advocacy groups will benefit from the deals, worth a total of $1.8 billion. The deals signed Thursday at the Chicago Hilton represented eight U.S. and 24 Chinese companies. One-fourth of the total, or $450 million, will go to purchase Illinois soy this year, according to state government statistics. Indeed, one of every four rows of soybeans planted in Illinois is exported to China each year, helping make Illinois the sixth-largest state exporter to China, according to Quinn and the Illinois Soybean Association.
The event was tied to China President Hu Jintao’s historic visit to the United States and Chicago but took place a few hours before his arrival.
From karaoke equipment makers to wind turbine manufacturers, Chicago area companies and business groups are looking for ways to capitalize on the burgeoning market in China and welcome the Chinese president’s visit here.
President Hu Jintao’s two-day stop here includes a trade and economic cooperation forum at the Hilton Chicago today at which some 350 Chinese executives and more than 500 U.S. executives will gather.
The economic downturn has been one with many twists and turns and no one is totally immune, even where things are going well.
Last fall, Japanese firm Nippon Sharyo held a ground breaking ceremony for its newest railcar manufacturing facility to be located just west of Rochelle. It was a highly-attended event, including Gov. Pat Quinn and other politicians, with extensive media coverage.
On Wednesday, Rochelle City Manager Ken Alberts confirmed that the Black Earth Development Resources, LLC., which is developing the property, is having difficulty securing financing for the project.
“I can confirm that there is an issue, and the issue relates to the financing of the infrastructure above and beyond what is being paid for by grants,” Alberts said.
The state grants still left the locals about $2 million short. They’ve been applying for other grants, but you’d think DCEO would step in with at least some paperwork assistance, since Gov. Quinn made such a big deal about this facility last year.
*** UPDATE *** Just this week, Gov. Quinn used the Rochelle manufacturer as an example of how Illinois one-upped Wisconsin by taking Nippon Sharyo away from the Cheesehead State. Check it out…
Sam Beelman has dealt with taxing issues as an Illinois-based business before, but the recent round of income tax hikes may force him to move more of his trucking business out of the state, he says.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Beelman, who owns and operates Beelman Truck Co. in Alorton. “We will try to move whatever business we can out of this state.”
* And a thank you note and a promise to do better to this businessperson might also be in order…
The leaders at Allsup Inc., a Belleville-based business that helps clients maximize their access to Social Security disability insurance and Medicare, are also dismayed with the increasingly cost of doing business in Illinois. However, company spokeswoman Mary Dale Walters said there are no plans to move.
“Like every other business in the state of Illinois, we’re disappointed that this has occurred,” Walters said. “We really haven’t completed any analysis of what the impact will be in the end. We’re not going anywhere. Jim (Allsup) built the business here, and it continues to grow here. We will add (90) more jobs here, and we had our best year ever last year.”
“Today’s message is brought to you by the Illinois Labor Union Mafia: We would like to thank the Democratic Socialist Party of Illinois for doing just what we bought them to do, continue to pump us billions of dollars at taxpayer expense. We know that the union system is unsustainable without extorting money from the general public, so thank you for a job well done.”
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Illinois’ pension problem is quite large. Scary large. But there was that tax hike last week which took care of most of the state’s structural deficit. Perhaps Texas or New Jersey, which are skipping pension payments yet again, would’ve been a better example. That would require an alteration in the media meme, so don’t bet on it.
The state’s stack of unpaid bills will soon double despite an income tax increase, according to state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
The four year, temporary personal income tax hike of 67 percent was approved on the final day of the previous Legislature and recently signed by Gov. Pat Quinn. In part, the income tax hike is designed to help Illinois catch up on past-due bills and stop being delinquent on its payments.
“Our current backlog of bills stands at $6 billion, and the increased revenues will help address this backlog,” said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
Not quite, according to Topinka, who is in charge of Illinois’ checkbook.
“By the time we get through four years from now and all of this and what they’re able to spend, we will probably have a debt of $12 billion of unpaid bills that have yet to be dealt with,” the Riverside Republican said.
Then again, the borrowing bill which stalled last week (and would pay off the overdue debt) isn’t factored into her estimate. And Topinka’s $34 billion revenue estimate for the coming fiscal year is about $2.6 billion below what I’m told will be the governor’s new FY 2012 estimate, which should be released today.
* Related…
* ADDED: Study: States don’t need bankruptcy option
* ADDED: Impact of higher taxes unclear on real estate market
