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Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Today is Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair, so let’s do a GOP-related question. The setup is a quote by Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady…

“If you want to come to a state that is completely screwed up, not only by the local Democrats but by the national Democrats, I invite you to come to Illinois and spend a week here,” Brady said.

* The Question: Your reaction to this quote? Try to avoid ad hominem attacks, please. Focus on the quote.

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Sponsor claims that gaming bill is “75 percent of the way toward a resolution”

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Are the gaming bill negotiations working? Maybe…

[State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, one of the gambling bill’s sponsors] said he thinks the governor and the bill’s sponsors are 75 percent of the way toward a resolution.

Quinn also hinted at a timetable. “I think here by the end of the summer, we’ll have some basic principles that we have to have,” he said.

* But getting the governor to comment publicly about specifics has been nearly impossible. Yesterday, he told reporters that the Gaming Board had identified three regulatory problems with the bill, but he didn’t even say what those were. Considering that many or even most of the Board’s objections were shown to be without merit, maybe that’s why he wouldn’t elaborate. And Mayor Emanuel pointed out yesterday that he was for proper oversight…

“Jobs and proper oversight go hand in hand,” Emanuel said during an online chat hosted by the Better Government Association. “They are not at loggerheads.”

“I want the right oversight, because I want the integrity of this, and it can be done,” Emanuel added.

* Until now, one of the few specific problems Quinn has cited is that he doesn’t want slots at the State Fair Grandstand, even though people bet on horses almost every day during the event…

“Harness racing has been at the fair for a long time, but when you put in slot machines, that’s a wholly different situation,” Quinn said. “Who needs slot machines when you have (Grandstand entertainer) MC Hammer?”

But those slots will mean money for Downstate programs…

A gaggle of expansion supporters flooded the rally, wearing bright orange T-shirts asking Quinn to sign the legislation.

Gerard Fabrizius, chairman of the Kane-DuPage Soil and Water Conservation District, was among them, though he didn’t have an orange shirt because organizers ran out.

The gambling package includes the promise of new money for districts like his, which is why he traveled to Springfield to show his support.

“He needs to sign it because we’re floundering locally,” Fabrizius said.

* Quinn did offer up something new yesterday. Apparently, the existing casinos have gotten to him…

“I don’t think we can have what’s called cannibalization of gaming in Illinois, where there’s so many different places there’s gambling that it ends up hurting the overall product,” Quinn said. “We have to do this in a prudent way.”

Considering all that Illinois money going to Indiana’s casinos, however, this may not be as big a problem as it may appear. Also, Quinn has publicly dissed Danville’s bid to host a casino. Where the heck would they cannibalize from?

* Watch Gov. Quinn discuss the gaming issue…

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Quinn on the defensive in face of union protests

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Gov. Pat Quinn was more than a little defensive yesterday when asked by reporters about the union protesters outside the State Fair gates. The protesters were upset at Quinn’s decision to halt scheduled, contractual raises for unionized state employees…

“Sometimes you gotta tell your friends not what they want to hear, but what they need to know,” Quinn said. “I don’t know why they (union members) constantly focus only on me when the General Assembly is the one that didn’t appropriate the money in the first place.”

* One of the Senate’s budget experts wasn’t so kind to the governor, however…

But state Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, said the governor mishandled the situation. Lawmakers expected Quinn to hold down spending by not filling vacant positions, Sullivan said.

“If you enter into a contract and you make an agreement, and then you go back and say, ‘Well, I’m not going to adhere to that contract’ … it’s going to make it pretty tough to negotiate down the road,” he said.

Very true. Also, if the governor hadn’t made himself so irrelevant in the budget process last spring, he might not be in this mess today.

* But I’ll believe this when I see it…

At a news conference, one union leader suggested labor could withhold financial support over the pay raise issue.

“We can’t just give money away to politicians that turn around and screw us,” said Tim Drea, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

* The governor claimed that he had the support of working people, if not union leaders…

“Working people are behind me. I know that every day,’’ Quinn said.

* Yet there’s no doubt that union leaders have cranked up the rhetoric…

“With each passing day the governor leaves a more bitter taste in the mouths of public employees,” said Roberta Lynch, deputy director of AFSCME Council 31, the largest public employees union in the state and one of nine unions to present a united front against Quinn at Wednesday’s Democratic Party festivities.

Union protestors manned several entrances to the fairgrounds, holding up signs that said, “Gov. Quinn Keep Your Word” and “Collective Bargaining is the American Way.”

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“Our secretary of state forever”

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White used Governor’s Day to announce he has officially changed his mind and decided to run for a fifth term…

Democrat Jesse White announced Wednesday that he plans to run for a fifth term as Illinois secretary of state, a reversal of the position he took before last year’s election.

“I used to jump out of airplanes,” said the former Army paratrooper. “You never jump off an airplane and stop halfway. It’s all the way.”

The crowd at a Democratic rally at the Illinois State Fair cheered loudly at his announcement. White is well-liked personally and has been one of biggest vote-getters in state history. Although much could change between now and 2014, another White campaign could make it much easier for Democrats to hold onto an important statewide office.

Gov. Pat Quinn called White “our secretary of state forever.”

* More…

White learned the lessons of political longevity from a master. His mentor was George Dunne, the late 42nd Ward Democratic power broker who was Cook County Board president for two decades until retiring in his late 70s.

White’s announcement drew widespread approval from Democratic crowds at a partisan breakfast and later at a rally on Governor’s Day at theIllinois State Fair.

Marion state Rep. John Bradley, the master of ceremonies at the rally, proclaimed White “secretary of state for life.”

Thoughts?

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State Fair videos and pics

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As usual, I couldn’t get the official State Fair video to import to my computer, but, luckily for us, Illinois Statehouse News was also at yesterday’s “celebrity” harness race…

Many congrats to Mica, who was more than a little nervous about her first time racing. Now, of course, she wants in every year. Patterson has been such a braggart about winning last year’s race that it was just a wee bit satisfying to see him out of the money this year…

The winner’s circle…

* Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s band played at the Miller Tent after the race…

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A rare year leaves reporters struggling

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* We had some real controversies at the Illinois State Fair back in the days of Rod Blagojevich. In 2002, when he was first running for governor, Blagojevich slammed House Speaker Michael Madigan for a $300,000 grant to the International Livestock Exposition as a “misplaced priority” and a “product of arrogance.” On Democrat Day, Madigan shot back…

“I don’t plan to get into any criticism of Blagojevich,” Madigan says. “I could do that. I could talk about his indiscretions. But I’m not going to do that because I believe in solidarity within the political party.”

Several years later, during another Blagojevich vs. Madigan war, the governor brought in a busload of Chicagoans to heckle Madigan during the Speaker’s speech.

There was actual news to cover during those State Fair experiences.

* Not so much this year. There are no statewide elections in Illinois next year - the first summer this has happened since 1999. I even skipped the State Fair that year, heading to Europe for two months to cover the war in Kosovo and other stuff. Unfortunately, that meant missing Bob Dylan’s last State Fair performance. Oh, well. I was in Paris that week with my daughter.

* Anyway, like in 1999, this year’s fair has been pretty boring, politically speaking. No statewide election means no flocks of candidates hauling down their legions of supporters. But reporters still have to find something to write about, so a large handful of union protesters, a few people supporting the gaming bill and the vacationing Speaker Madigan made due…

Labor strife marred “Governor’s Day” at the Illinois State Fair Wednesday as the state’s largest public-employee unions teed off on Gov. Pat Quinn for his “fundamental assault on worker’s rights.”

That storyline, rooted in a series of pay raises Quinn yanked last month for about 30,000 state workers, dominated the Democratic Party’s annual Illinois State Fairgrounds pep rally, which boasted a crowd of several hundred party supporters.

The day’s political events also were overshadowed by the appearance of President Barack Obama about two hours away from Springfield. They took place despite a prominent absentee, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).

Madigan, normally a fixture at the Democratic events at the State Fair, opted uncharacteristically to skip the rally and the Obama event in order to “spend some time with members of his family out of state,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown told the Chicago Sun-Times.

More…

Policy disputes trumped party unity Wednesday as Illinois Democrats gathered for a perfunctory celebration of Governor’s Day at the state fair.

Unions protested Gov. Pat Quinn’s attempt to cancel raises promised in labor contracts with state government, while Quinn blamed legislators. Scores of people attended the state fair rally clad in orange T-shirts urging Quinn to sign a huge expansion of gambling. Quinn, however, continued criticizing the legislation without saying how he would like to see it changed.

State Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House, was nowhere to be seen, nor was Sen. Dick Durbin or most other Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation.

Even Quinn left his own party early so that he could join President Barack Obama at an event in the northwestern Illinois town of Atkinson.

The union members were outside the fair’s gates and the people wearing orange T-shirts were polite and even cheered at times. This was nothing at all like the controversies of the Blagojevich days.

More…

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn faced discord from both union members and those who want Quinn to sign a bill expanding gambling in Illinois Wednesday, as he tried to rally a sparse crowd of Democrats at the Illinois State Fair.

* And the off year sparked at least one prediction of doom and gloom…

On Wednesday, as the state’s Democrats held their annual Democrat Day at the Springfield fairgrounds, the head of the state party did not show, only one congressman appeared and the governor left the main event after a few minutes.

The poor turnout reflected the fair’s diminished value for politicians. Once a celebrated affair that connected Chicago politicians to downstate voters, the state fair seems to be losing its political capital.

Meh.

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