Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2012

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Groups often give stipends to people who agree to attend an event, like a few dollars and a box lunch to travel to Springfield for a day of “lobbying” or a protest event. It’s a common practice, but can sometimes do more harm than good because the bused-in folks are just bodies designed to fill a room. They don’t usually know what the heck they’re doing there. Remember when ComEd worked with Chicago-area ministers to send a bunch of people down to Springfield to demand a rate increase? I talked to some of them and they had not one clue why there were at the Capitol.

But I can understand why folks are upset that some ministers bused in protesters to a community event in order to loudly support the Chicago Public Schools’ position of closing a school, . The Sun-Times editorialized on the issue today…

Outrageous.

There is no other way to describe the practice, revealed by the Sun-Times and other media, of ministers hiring “rent-a-protesters” to advocate for proposed Chicago public school closures.

Reporter Rosalind Rossi on Tuesday told the story of two men who said they were offered $25 to $50 to support the closures of two schools. Both men said they were asked to attend two separate closure hearings this month after they showed up to apply for financial help with their energy bills at the Englewood office of the HOPE Organization.

The Rev. Roosevelt Watkins III, who runs the group, denies they were paid to protest, saying the money paid was for training. The facts say otherwise, including testimony by many who watched the so-called protesters, many of whom switched from pro-closure to anti-closure by the end of the hearings, along with the container of envelopes filled with cash seen at the HOPE office after the hearings. WBEZ profiled a third protester allegedly paid by HOPE and a fourth who said she was among a busload of rent-a-protesters paid at a different hearing by another church.

We hope the outing of these rent-a-protesters will be enough to kill the practice.

It might “kill the practice” on the school closure issue, but the rent-a-body game has a long history in Illinois because it brings in revenues. What nobody has asked yet is if Rev. Watkins is using indirect taxpayer cash for these actions.

Rev. Watkins, by the way, was part of AT&T’s Statehouse “citizen lobbying” effort in its legislative fight against Comcast a while back.

* Props to Tim Furman for shooting this video of the rent-a-protesters at a West Side school closing hearing. The protesters are completely ignorant of why they are there, including one person who says to Furman that she’s there to “save our school for the children”…

Sheesh.

* Furman wrote about the protesters on his blog last weekend, before the source of their funding was known…

With the exception of a lone “boo,” the paid people were silent until near the end, when one of them - I believe it was this fellow on the right - gave an incendiary anti-teacher, anti-Crane, anti-union speech. I’ll dig up that audio later. In any event, the audience was howling, and a bit of a shoving match followed. A lot of people out of their chairs, but it ended quickly. I’m not sure who’s paying these people to come in but I can’t imagine that bringing in these obvious fakes is in anyone’s interest. If I were a charter operator busing in ringers for a public hearing, I’d want better ringers.

Good ringers are hard to find.

…Adding… WGN also has video of the rent-a-protesters.

* Meawhile, go get ‘em, Lisa…

The Illinois attorney general filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing Standard & Poor’s of misleading investors by assigning its highest ratings to risky mortgage-backed investments during the years leading up to the crash of the housing market.

The lawsuit from Lisa Madigan’s office alleges the agency compromised its independence by issuing high ratings for unworthy or risky investments as part of a strategy to boost revenue and market share. The lawsuit cites internal emails and conversations, including an instant messenger exchange in April 2007 in which an employee tells another that an investment “could be structured by cows and we would rate it.”

“Publically, S&P took every opportunity to proclaim their analyses and ratings as independent, objective and free from its desire for revenue,” Madigan said. “Yet privately, S&P abandoned its principles and instead used every trick possible to give deals high ratings in order to retain clients and generate revenue.” [Emphasis added]

But, now, of course, S&P’s ratings are supposed to be akin to the word of God when it comes to Illinois finances.

* Did Congressman Don Manzullo scrub his website? From a Congressman Adam Kinzinger press release…

For years, members of congress came to Washington with one goal: let’s start spending. Some like Congressman Don Manzullo even bragged about it. The times have changed leaving long-time politicians to decide one thing: stand by their past spending record or run away from it. Congressman Manzullo decided not only to run away from his record but also to erase it.

Just last week, under Don Manzullo’s biographical page of his governmental website, he proudly highlighted a laundry list of earmarks totaling millions of dollars. The disappearing language came after the Kinzinger campaign questioned Congressman Manzullo’s record on earmarks. Now, in order to find any mention of what was once proudly and easily found on his congressional website, one must now dig through thirty-nine pages of past press releases.

Hilarious.

* What happens when you quietly give a former alleged mob bookie a state job and then have to quickly fire him when word leaks out? He gets reinstated, of course…

According to IDOT, an arbitrator recently ruled the state did not have “just cause” to fire Peluso. The arbitrator ordered him reinstated to his job, including back pay totaling more than $103,000.

IDOT said in a statement that it is disappointed: “The department aggressively defended its position and strongly disagrees with the arbitrator’s decision.”

“Why would the collective bargaining agreements protect someone like this?” Rep. Ed Sullivan asked.

The Republican state representative is asking for an investigation into Peluso’s re-hiring, as well as how the ex-mobster got the job in the first place.

* Usually, one can expect one’s attorney to stick up for him when a reporter calls. Sam Cahnman’s lawyer kinda threw his client under the bus when the SJ-R asked him about his attempts to have a civil “no-contact” order dismissed against Cahnman, a Springfield alderman who is running as a Democrat for the Illinois House…

Through his attorney, Dan Fultz, Cahnman, 57, is requesting that the case be tossed because, when filing her petition for a no-contact order, the 23-year-old who sought it didn’t allege sexual conduct between herself and Cahnman was “non-consensual.” The motion to dismiss states that “non-consensual sexual conduct or non-consensual sexual penetration” is a requirement under the Civil No Contact Order Act.

Peggy Ryan, the woman’s attorney, has asked that the motion to dismiss be denied. She says non-consensual sex can be alleged not only through the petition but also through sworn testimony.

“Mr. Cahnman, seven months after an emergency civil no contact ordered was entered, is asking the court, despite (her) sworn testimony before the court and statutory provisions requiring that testimony to be taken into account, to dismiss the petition because a pro se petitioner did not use the words ‘non consensual’ in her petition,” Ryan wrote.

Fultz said Wednesday that Ryan’s response is “well taken,” and he will meet with Cahnman to decide how to proceed. [Emphasis added.]

That’s all you got, dude? Really?

* Other stuff…

* School watchdog probes reports of paid protesters

* Paid protesters a new force in school closings debate - Protesters say they were paid $20, $25 to attend hearings

* Standoff Between City Colleges And Their “Frontline” Employees

* Illinois Humanities Council board member resigns in protest of auctioning a dinner with Bill Ayers

* City watchdog accuses Emanuel administration of stymying probes

* ‘Disturbed’ Preckwinkle announces changes at Cook County morgue

* City stumbles with damage control on NATO/G8 summits

* Jesse Jackson Jr. Absent During State of Union

* Illinois Commerce Commission executive director departing

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Question of the day

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This article about complete partisan opposite Congresscritters Joe Walsh and Jan Schakowsky led me to this video, from which this screen cap comes…

* The Question: Caption?

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Cartoonist Chris Britt booted by SJ-R

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is just a huge loss for Illinois…

Chris Britt, editorial cartoonist for the State Journal-Register, has been fired.

Britt was let go this morning.

“I was just informed,” Britt said.

Britt, who began his career as an editorial cartoonist in 1990 and joined the State Journal-Register staff nine years later, said he wasn’t sure whether he was given a reason for his firing.

“They may have – I was just in a little bit of a daze,” Britt said. “Economic re-structuring, or something like that.”

The newspaper last week informed copy editors that their jobs would be eliminated this summer, with a net loss of ten full-time positions. Two days later, the newspaper began firing other people, with at least eleven people laid off in various departments, sources have told Illinois Times. The newspaper shut down its press last year, moving printing to Peoria with a loss of more than 50 jobs in Springfield.

Bean counters tend to put editorial page cartoonists on the lowest rung of the food chain. I’ve always thought that was odd, believing a good cartoonist can draw lots more people to an editorial page than the actual editorials or columnists. Britt is one of the best. He’s gonna be missed.

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Surgeons operate again on Sen. Kirk

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Sen. Mark Kirk underwent a second surgery last night. From the Sun-Times…

Dr. Richard Fessler said doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital removed two small pieces of brain tissue that were destroyed by the stroke.

Fessler said Wednesday’s surgical procedure is commonly performed in similar cases and meant to create more space around the brain to accommodate “the expected peak of swelling.

“The procedure — which removed two small pieces of tissue previously destroyed and rendered non-functional by the senator’s stroke — was completed successfully and without complication. The procedure is unlikely to have any impact on his physical or neurological prognosis.”

Fessler said that, on Thursday morning, the Republican from Highland Park “was alert, responsive and gave us the thumbs-up on request,”

* Lynn Sweet has the full statement…

“Senator Kirk continues to progress as expected and remains in serious but stable condition this morning with no change in his neurological or physical prognosis. Late yesterday, we performed a common surgical procedure to create more space around the Senator’s brain in order to accommodate the expected peaking of swelling. The procedure, which removed two small pieces of tissue previously destroyed and rendered non-functional by the Senator’s stroke, was completed successfully and without complication. The procedure is unlikely to have any impact on his physical or neurological prognosis. Upon examination this morning, the Senator was alert, responsive and gave us the thumbs up on request,” said Richard Fessler, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Don’t panic or worry too much. These things can happen. It’s best to just let the docs do their work. Northwestern is a fine hospital and they know what they’re doing. And while the growing speculation in the press about Kirk’s future in the Senate is expected, it’s way too premature. Let him have a little space, for crying out loud.

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Campaign battle over pension reform begins to heat up

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I told subscribers about this last week…

Ty Fahner, the head of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, over the holidays quietly put together a big-bucks political action committee that raised $142,750 in its first week of operation and likely will raise a ton more in this election year. […]

In its statement of purpose, We Mean Business PAC — catchy name, no? — says it’s function is to “reform public pensions in the state of Illinois through non-federal political activity.”

Translation: It’s going to bankroll candidates who are willing to cross labor unions and vote to reduce pension benefits and/or require workers to pay more for them.

Insiders say the goal is to emulate what school reform forces did in the last election — putting hundreds of thousands of dollars behind legislative candidates who promised to be independent of the teachers union. That strategy worked when the unions came to the table and agreed to things such as a longer school day and year.

You can read through the list of We Mean Business PAC’s donors here. The Crown family contributed most of the PAC’s startup money. But, as I told you already, this is just one of many new pro-business PACs that will be flooding campaign coffers this year.

* Speaking of the wealthy and powerful, there is quite a bit of overlap between Ty Fahner’s pro-reform Civic Committee board of directors and Aon’s board. Aon, of course, recently decided to move its corporate headquarters from Chicago to London for tax purposes, but the company also more than just implied that London was a better center of commerce than Chicago.

Eden Martin, the Civic Committee’s former president, sits on Aon’s board. Aon’s President and CEO Gregory Case sits on the Civic Committee’s board. Lester Knight, the founding partner of RoundTable Healthcare Partners, sits on both boards. Andrew McKenna, the McDonald’s Chairman, sits on both. Ariel Investments CEO John Rogers, JRr. also sits on both boards.

That’s a fine example they’re setting for the rest of us.

* Related…

* Aon employees face tax hit in HQ move to London

* Illinois Issues: Pension reform across the country

* Illinois Issues: Part 2: A look at pension reform across the country: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley pitched a proposal this month that follows in the lines of Quinn’s statements. Under O’Malley’s plan, local governments would pick up half of the cost of teachers’ retirement benefits, including Social Security contributions. Currently, districts pay about one third of the cost. If O’Malley’s plan were approved, local governments would pay almost $240 million more, but they would get some funding — from the proposed elimination of a tax break for top earners — to help with the transition.

* Illinois Issues: Part 3: A look at pension reform across the country: “I think what happened in Vermont is that the governor and others sat down with labor and said, ‘We’ve got this problem. There’s only so much money to go around, and something’s got to give,’” Brainard said. The state is facing a deficit, a pension funding shortfall and, according to Vermont Public Radio, 25 percent of Vermont state workers will be eligible to retire by 2015. Other key factors in the negotiations may be the fact that Vermont is a small state and has a tradition of public civic engagement.

* Municipal pensions eat more, but they’re still hungry

* Kadner: No state plan to treat mentally ill

* Dozens protest CME Group incentives - Activists chant slogans decrying CME Group Inc.’s ‘corporate welfare’ as they deliver a golden toilet to its headquarters

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Madigan clears the field for Degnan son

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Yesterday’s Sun-Times story about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s speech to Elmhurst College included this graf…

Madigan refused to answer questions about any role he may have had in four judicial candidates — including slated sitting Judge Tom Carroll — dropping out of a primary election in a Southwest Side judicial district Madigan controls so that Dan Degnan, son of former Mayor Richard M. Daley top adviser Tim Degnan, wins unopposed.

* I Googled around and soon realized that John Kass had broken this Degnan story a few days ago. I don’t always read Kass, but apparently I missed a good one…

Now, Daniel R. Degnan is running unopposed as a Democrat in the 3rd Judicial Subcircuit. In practical terms, that means he’ll have a job for life, with a six-figure salary and no heavy lifting and all those holidays off with pay.

Still, inserting a judge with little legal experience is quite bold, even for a guy like Mike Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House and absolute lord of the Midwestern state now known as Madiganistan. When it comes to making judges, all robes begin with Madigan, especially in his Southwest Side stronghold.

I asked around City Hall, wondering if Degnan’s kid even had 10 minutes in a courtroom.

“Ten minutes?” said a guy who knows. “You’re exaggerating. I’d say about eight minutes in a courtroom. Not bad for a judge.”

You can’t be serious, I said.

“It is what it is,” he said. “Madigan endorsed him.”

Degnan’s resume read like this: law school at Loyola, then about 31/2 years at the firm of Sullivan, Hincks & Conway ending in 1999. Then a series of political jobs, first with Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, then with the county pension fund.

Somehow, it just doesn’t sound like “The Good Wife” to me.

The judicial candidates started dropping out on January 9th, according to the Board of Elections’ website. Judge Carroll, who had been slated by the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, was the last to withdraw, on January 17th. Two of the withdrawn candidates had their petitions challenged by the same guy, Peter Andrews.

That’s classic South Side Madigan politics, kids.

…Adding… So, Peter Andrews is Ed Burke’s guy. Burke, via Andrews, challenges to two other candidates’ petitions to get them out of the way. Degnan decides to put his kid in there. Madigan agrees. Burke beefs. Kass writes. That’s my theory, anyway.

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Rep. Mulligan bows out

Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I had been keeping this saga behind the subscriber firewall, but the AP picked up on Rep. Rosemary Mulligan’s retirement announcement, so we might as well discuss it in the open. Here’s the AP story…

Mulligan’s decision came after House Republican leader Tom Cross on Friday said he wouldn’t back her in the upcoming primary election. The primary race is now between Susan Sweeney and Kelly Schaefer. Both Park Ridge residents are write-in candidates.

Mulligan says she decided to pull out of the race because she was “spending too much time getting angry about it.” She says she looked at what happened to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who suffered a stroke over the weekend, and thought “life is too short.”

* As you already know, Mulligan failed to file enough petitions to make it onto the primary ballot. She withdrew from the race and ran as a write-in candidate. But then, as subscribers know, two other Republicans filed to run as write-ins last week and House Republican Leader Tom Cross decided to support one of those candidates, who is allied with a Penny Pullen organization. Ironically enough, the pro-choice Mulligan beat the pro-life Pullen in 1992.

Anyway, I was out of the office for a little while late yesterday afternoon when Rosemary’s press release was issued. So, the Daily Herald beat me to the story…

“I watched the stuff going on with (U.S. Sen.) Mark Kirk (who suffered a stroke over the weekend) and I thought, you know, life is too short. You have to watch somebody like that and think, ‘Why am I racing my motor over this?’” […]

House Republican Leader Tom Cross said Friday he wouldn’t back Mulligan’s primary election bid, instead taking the rare stance of lending support to [Susan] Sweeney. […]

Cross spokeswoman Sara Wojcicki Jimenez has said Cross recruited Sweeney because House Republicans didn’t know for sure whether Mulligan would file as a write-in candidate by the deadline Jan. 19. Mulligan earlier had to pull her name from the regular ballot after conceding she did not have enough petition signatures to qualify.

If Mulligan didn’t file as a write-in, Cross feared the seat would have more easily fallen into the hands of Democratic candidate and Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan without giving the GOP a chance to put up a fight, Wojcicki Jimenez said.

I’ll have more from Mulligan for subscribers tomorrow.

Discuss.

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