* Several Cook County voters have received some very nasty robocalls over the past day or so. A large number of Cook County pols have been slammed by these robocalls, and the one thing they may have in common is that they all are opponents of Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown.
Some commenters reported receiving robocalls today about a non-politician, however. Rick Pearson of the Tribune was attacked. Nobody I’ve found connected with this story seems to have any idea why a politician would be this stupid. I mean, attacking a reporter in a robocall? Stupid.
But the Tribune endorsed Rick Munoz, who’s running against Brown, so the enemies were all hit Godfather style - brutally and at the same. Listen…
* Text…
The Chicago Tribune was called a criminal enterprise by a federal bankruptcy judge. Perhaps this is why the Chicago Tribune proudly endorses three-time convicted criminals for political office. While we work hard and do what we can to provide for our families, the Chicago Tribune’s political reporter Rick Pearson actually lobbied corrupt politicians for government jobs for family members. Does the Tribune lose readership because its reporters and editors are essentially press secretaries for the most corrupt politicians in the state of Illinois? Call editor Bruce Dold at [redacted] and tell him to resign.
* And our live blog.BlackBerry users click here. Everybody else can just watch the automatically updated thingamabob. As before, when I open another precinct report post, I’ll move this ScribbleLive thing over to it…
* Let’s move into the next phase of our coverage with your predictions for tonight. Presidential, congressional, legislative, etc. Make as many as you can, and I won’t hold you to them. It’s all in fun. No wagering, please.
….Adding… NBC 5 has a live video feed. We’ll hopefully have more of these as the evening progresses….
US Congress : Jesse Jackson Jr., Tammy Duckworth, Adam Kinziger, Ilya Sheyman
General Assembly: Patricia van Pelt Watkins, Kirk Dillard, Derrick Smith
Supreme Court: Aurelia Pucinski
Cook County Clerk: Dorothy Brown
President: Mitt Romney (by 7 percent)
*** UPDATE *** Check the ScribbleLive feed for exit poll info.
* I asked Dan Curry, an old buddy who does PR for the DuPage County Election Commission, to explain what happened with their primary ballots. As you already know, the ballots were cut just a little too big and they won’t fit into the counting machines. This is a problem in at least 24 counties, according to the Board of Elections…
Jane Gasperin of the Illinois State Board of Elections says all votes will be counted, but tallying may go slower than usual in affected counties.
She says ballots from two vendors are causing problems in 24 counties. But not all precincts in those counties are affected. Some ballots are fine, even in the affected precincts.
* Anyway, according to Curry, the company DuPage uses is called ABS Graphics.
The county has used the printer for “23 elections straight” and it has “printed 15 million ballots without problems,” Curry said. The firm, Curry said, was selected because of its “close proximity, high security, high capacity and backup capabilities.”
When the problem was spotted, “ballots were reprinted and replaced within a couple of hours,” Curry claimed, adding, “As with all elections, a post-election day review will be done of all procedures and problems to make sure they don’t happen again.”
* Meanwhile, some tinfoil hat types noticed something sinister on ABC7’s website last night. From the Ron Paul Revolution website…
Illinois Primary Results A Day Early, Santorum Wins!
The Illinois primary is tomorrow, 3/20/12 but it looks like Chicago’s ABC 7 News has somehow obtained the results a day early. Not sure how ABC News came up with these results or if it means anything but it is interesting.
The blogger posted a screenshot on the site as well.
It was a test. The website results that appeared before polls opened were test results. Actual results will appear after the polls close.
The AP typically sends out test results the day before an election and news sites post them to see if their systems are working. No need to be alarmed.
* OK, let’s get back to the afternoon discussion. What’s going on out there? Details, please.
* Announcement: We’ll have live news video starting at 4:30 this afternoon.
Illinois Review has just been notified that 65 counties in Illinois are facing ballot size problems, according to the Macoupin County Election Clerk.
In 65 of 102 counties, judges will be forced to hand count ballots that are filled in with markers, which is expected to cause delays in counting after the 7:00 PM poll closing. Judges are encouraging the use of touch screens. As a result voting is expected to take longer.
UPDATE: We’re told county election officials are working to get templates to the precinct judges so they can hand cut the ballots down to size to fit into the machines.
I checked with Illinois State Board of Elections Executive Director Rupert Borgsmiller this morning. Borgsmiller said the problem stems from a printing company that different vendors are using.
So far, Borgsmiller said, he hasn’t heard of any big counties that have been effected. “The ones I’ve heard about were from smaller counties.” But he said he didn’t know if any big counties were having trouble.
Borgsmiller also said that he talked to his elections information director, who didn’t seem to indicate that it was a major problem. It’s being dealt with at the precinct level and things should be OK.
We’ll see.
*** UPDATE *** Longtime commenter OneMan says the City of Aurora is impacted by the ballot width problem.
…Adding… I’m hearing that the current suggested workaround is to trim 1/8th of an inch off the side.
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners spokesman Jim Allen says judges are reporting very light turnout so far.
One Chicago precinct may stay open an hour later because of a problem delivering ballots, but Allen says voting is going smoothly elsewhere.
*** UPDATE 2 *** I’m going to add a ScribbleLive thingy to this post in a minute. So, let’s use it as a mid-morning precinct report. I’ll close the earlier open thread.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Rep. Chris Nybo says at least some DuPage precincts are experiencing the ballot-width problem.
*** UPDATE 5 *** From Dan Curry in DuPage County Election Commission…
Problem confined to 23 locations out of 360. Small # of ballots at those 23 locations were too wide to be counted. New ballots are being taken to all those locations and all affected ballots will be counted under statutory procedures that judges are trained to implement.
Entire situation expected to be completely under control by 1 p.m.
* I’m told that Congressman Adam Kinzinger’s latest tracking poll has him ahead of fellow Republican Congressman Don Manzullo by three points. Whatever happens today, things are definitely getting testy…
Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor should step down from his leadership position for interfering in Tuesday’s primary.
The 10-term congressman said he was “outraged” that Cantor (R-Va.) endorsed freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) in the battle between the two lawmakers, which is growing nastier by the day.
“He needs to step down as majority leader,” Manzullo told The Hill on Monday afternoon, referring to Cantor. “Members of our conference don’t trust him, and when you don’t trust someone, you need to replace him.”
Locked in the fight of his political life, a visibly perturbed Rep. Don Manzullo unloaded on Majority Leader Eric Cantor for intervening on behalf of his opponent in their contentious GOP primary and revealed that Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy phoned him to convey distance from Cantor’s moves.
“McCarthy’s madder than hell at Cantor,” Manzullo told POLITICO in an interview. “He said, ‘I’m fighting with Cantor.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’”
Manzullo also accused Cantor of ripping apart the GOP caucus due to his glowing endorsement of freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger in the 16th Congressional District primary here. […]
Manzullo’s frustration with House GOP leadership appeared to boil over when a super PAC aligned with Cantor dropped $50,000 on a radio ad supporting Kinzinger. The Young Guns PAC is run by former top aides to Cantor. […]
Manzullo said the call by McCarthy was followed by a call from Speaker John Boehner, who said he would talk to his deputy.
“The Speaker called and I said, ‘I want that ad pulled.’ The Speaker said, ‘I’m going to call McCarthy,’” Manzullo recalled.
“This has been a real terrible process,” Mr. Manzullo told a reporter on the sidelines of an event for Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. He said that his rival’s campaign “brought in three super PACs that have dumped $400,000 against us trying to defeat us.”
* Former Speaker Dennis Hastert, who endorsed Manzullo, can see both sides…
“Usually, any leadership situation, you don’t want to get stuck in the middle, especially between two incumbents,” Hastert said in an interview with POLITICO. “But I have a great deal of sympathy for Cantor … I feel sorry for Cantor. He’s got 100 new members of Congress, and he has to work with these guys. That’s part of it. He supported Kinzinger because he’s representative of that new group of people he has to deal with every day. It puts you in a predicament.”
* Related…
* Romney, Santorum go head-to-head in Illinois GOP primary
* Cantor’s Big-Time Political Blunder: Third, if Cantor was going to take the bold step of endorsing against a colleague, he should’ve gone all in. The super PAC’s five-figure radio buy on Kinzinger’s behalf was enough money to draw significant attention, but not significant enough to make a real dent in the race.
* Rep. Cantor takes sides in Illinois House primary
* Illinois House primaries critical to balance of power: As colleague Aaron Blake writes: “No state in 2012 will be more crucial to Democrats ability to re-take the House than Illinois.” “Democrats have a great shot at picking up four seats from Republicans under a new redistricting map drawn by the Democratic legislature, but they will also have to defend the seat of retiring Rep. Jerry Costello (D),” Blake notes at The Fix. “In all, as many as six Illinois congressional seats could be competitive come November.”
* Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to shutter several state facilities and eliminate 2,300 jobs will cost the state $250 million in economic activity, according to a new report by the University of Illinois…
Those figures are based on economic impact statements for just eight of the 14 prisons, mental institutions and other facilities Quinn wants to close. When more reports are filed, the total impact could be significantly higher. For instance, closures planned in Centralia and Joliet will cost another 600 jobs just in state layoffs.
When the Democratic governor laid out his budget plan in February, he mentioned only the government jobs that would be lost. He estimated that figure to 2,300 state jobs at all 14 facilities combined.
But the new impact statements, which he is required to file before closing state facilities, also include estimates of the “ripple” effect on nearby communities.
For example, closing the “supermax” prison in Tamms would mean 295 state employee layoffs — and a ripple effect of 43 jobs lost in the community, such as grocery store clerks or car mechanics. The economic impact would be more than $32 million, the report says.
ccording to a report submitted to the General Assembly, the governor’s plan to shutter the super-maximum-prison at Tamms would have an economic impact of over $32.8 million in the southern Illinois region.
The studies, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, noted that closing the all-female prison in Dwight would have an impact of $53.7 million.
Larry Vaupel of the Greater Livingston County Economic Development Corporation, said the study doesn’t count the impact of closing Dwight on surrounding counties. He said the report also doesn’t reflect vendors and contractors who would lose income if the prison closes.
“It grossly underestimates the impact on the area,” Vaupel said.
* And while the state struggles to stay afloat, the CEO of Sears Holding is living large…
Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Lou D’Ambrosio’s total pay in fiscal 2011 was nearly $10 million, according to company filings.
He received $930,769 in base salary; a $150,000 bonus; just more than $8 million in stock awards, and $852,037 in travel-related compensation for a total 2011 pay package of $9.9 million, according to a company proxy filed this afternoon with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Other compensation” includes about $793,000 toward “personal use of chartered aircraft” between Chicago and the Philadelphia area, the site of Mr. D’Ambrosio’s principal residence.
He also received more than $3,600 for commuting costs in Sears-provided vehicles; just under $30,000 for temporary housing near Sears’ Hoffman Estates headquarters, and more than $18,000 in “tax gross-ups” that cover any personal tax liability Mr. D’Ambrosio may incur from the travel allowances.
Sears’ new CEO could be called the $10 million man. That isn’t unusually high pay for a big company boss these days, but there are a few aspects of Lou D’Ambrosio’s eight-figure compensation that are notable. […]
Last year, Sears threatened to move its headquarters from Hoffman Estates — and with it more than 6,000 jobs along with a century of ties to metro Chicago. Governor Pat Quinn and the General Assembly handed Sears a $150 million tax credit that prompted the firm to call off the moving vans.
Despite fourth quarter earnings down 50 percent, 62 additional store closings this year and 100 layoffs just last month at headquarters, Mr. D’Ambrosio has been handsomely paid - $9.9 million that includes a base of $930,000, a signing bonus of $150,000 and $8 million in stock awards, according to federal SEC filings.
But the SEC records reveal another interesting payment to D’Ambrosio, who lives in Philadelphia. To get to work in Hoffman Estates, D’Ambrosio had to fly and drive. For the plane and automobile travel he was reimbursed $803,000 last year alone.
That sum is 400 times more than the average Chicago commuter spends to get to work, and Chicago’s commuting cost is already highest in the nation.
The Governor certainly doesn’t approve of that [the $800,000 travel expense for CEO to get to work.]
However, the package you speak of, which passed the General Assembly with a bipartisan vote and support from all four leaders, pertained specifically to Sears Headquarters - it kept the 6,000 jobs that currently exist at the headquarters here in Illinois. This also has an large multiplier effect Sears headquarters creates a direct economic impact of $1.5 billion and supports thousands of additional jobs in Illinois. The package also ensured a private investment by Sears of $300 million in Illinois, at a time when Ohio was offering Sears a far more lucrative investment package.
In addition, the Governor secured tax relief for working families as part of this package. In fact, he said he would not sign any bill if tax relief for working families was not part of the package. Governor Quinn’s efforts resulted in an annual $105 million dollars in targeted relief for low-income working families through a boost in the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit and also an increase in the value of the personal exemption. Improving Illinois EITC will help almost 1 million Illinois families.
We are watching Sears carefully and will hold them accountable to live up to their commitment as part of the package. If there is any violation in the agreement on their part- if they did not meet their investment and jobs numbers, for example- the incentive would be eliminated.
Bottom line is that the Governor had a decision to make when it came to whether or not to sign this bill. Save the jobs- or let them go to a state that was offering three times the incentive as Illinois had proposed. He decided to protect thousands of Illinois jobs and hundreds of millions of investment in Illinois while also increasing tax relief to working families.
*** UPDATE *** From Sears…
If you add the cost of his commuting and related expenses to his salary and bonus, you will see that this is not out of line with his peers at other major companies (Fortune 100 CEOs, CEOs in Chicago or retail CEOs). In addition, Sears Holdings won’t receive a dime from the state if we don’t make investments in our HQ facility and campus. We are required to invest $300 million over the 10-year period or $30 million per year to receive our annual benefit (max of $15 million per year). And, any funds we receive back from local property tax due to the extension of the EDA are a reimbursement for monies we already spent on local infrastructure.
* Related…
* Online lottery sales in Illinois set to start Sunday
* Editorial: Paying up your $10,000: Who even knows what bankruptcy looks like for a state, other than the taxpayers at some level will provide the solution and in a fashion that follows demands instead of choices.
* Unemployment System Outdated For Current Economy, Experts Say
* Kiley Center families say group homes not an option for residents
* Editorial: Pension reform needs to look at big picture
* Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign continues to backbite Treasurer Dan Rutherford via anonymous quotes in the national media. As I told you last week, some Illinois Romney supporters shivved Rutherford for failing to kick several Rick Santorum delegates off the ballot. Politico looks at another angle…
News of the standoff was first reported Thursday by the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, but the Romney campaign’s effort to fix Rutherford’s mess has not previously been disclosed.
One Romney source described Rutherford’s leadership as “a complete disaster” and said Romney’s campaign headquarters had to fly paid staffers to Illinois to collect signatures at Chicago-area train stations and walk precincts because the treasurer’s organization had failed to collect enough signatures.
The Romney high command, the source said, “was flabbergasted that an Illinois statewide official had no organization.”
Once the Romney campaign challenged Santorum’s petitions, the Santorum campaign counter-challenged, pointing out the “fatal error” of the Romney petitions being notarized in Massachusetts instead of Illinois, said Santorum’s Illinois state director, Jon Zahm.
“I filed that challenge and they eventually asked me to withdraw my challenge in exchange for them withdrawing theirs,” Zahm said. “It was all a big waste of people’s time and money. But I didn’t use a law firm like they did, I did it on my own.”
Rutherford, who is widely expected to have ambitions to run for governor in 2014, then urged Romney’s Boston headquarters to withdraw the challenge to Santorum’s petitions, a request the campaign granted as part of what one Romney adviser called “home rule.”
I’m hearing, however, that it was Romney’s Boston people who wanted the petitions notarized in Massachusetts. As with everything else, they’ve got nobody to blame but themselves. Their candidate can’t close, so they blame others.
By the way, Rutherford attended Romney’s Springfield event. I wonder if the two had a chat?
* Thanks to you, Public Policy Polling surveyed Illinois. Romney is way up…
Mitt Romney is headed for a blowout victory in Illinois on Tuesday. He leads with 45% to 30% for Rick Santorum, 12% for Newt Gingrich, and 10% for Ron Paul.
Romney’s particularly strong among voters who live in suburban areas (50-29) and with those who live in urban areas (46-23). But he’s even running slightly ahead of Santorum, 38-36, with folks who identify as living in rural parts and that strength with a group of voters he hasn’t tended to do that well with is why he’s looking at such a lopsided margin of victory.
Romney tends to win moderates in most states and Santorum usually win voters describing themselves as ‘very conservative.’ The swing group in the Republican electorate is those identifying as just ’somewhat conservative.’ Romney is winning those folks by a whooping 60-20 margin in Illinois. Romney’s also benefiting from a 52-28 advantage with seniors.
We’ve tended to find Santorum a lot more popular with voters even in states that Romney has won over the last six weeks, but that’s not the case in Illinois. Romney’s favorability is 57/34, about par for the course of where we’ve found him this year. Santorum’s at only 55/36, much worse numbers than we’ve seen for him most places in the last couple months, and suggesting that GOP voters are starting to sour on him a little bit.
Santorum’s winning the group he tends to do well with- Tea Partiers, Evangelicals, and those describing themselves as ‘very conservative.’ But he’s not winning them by the kinds of wide margins he would need to take an overall victory- he’s up only 8 with Tea Party voters and 10 with Evangelicals, groups he needs to win by more like 25 points with to hope to win in a northern state. Santorum can’t blame Gingrich for his troubles in Illinois either. If Newt was out Romney would still have an 11 point advantage on Santorum, 45-34.
* PPP also asked these rather touchy questions of some southern Republicans a couple of weeks ago, but here are the Illinois results…
Q23 Do you think Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim, or are you not sure?
Christian…………………………………………………. 24%
Muslim…………………………………………………… 39%
Not sure…………………………………………………. 37%
Q24 Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
He was…………………………………………………… 36%
He was not……………………………………………… 36%
Not sure…………………………………………………. 28%
Q25 Do you believe in evolution, or not?
Believe in evolution………………………………….. 41%
Do not……………………………………………………. 43%
Not sure…………………………………………………. 16%
Q26 Do you think that interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?
Legal……………………………………………………… 75%
Illegal…………………………………………………….. 16%
Not sure…………………………………………………. 9%
Um, OK. According to the crosstabs, 23 percent of likely Illinois Republican primary voters over 65 think that interracial marriage should be illegal.
Santorum, a Catholic, has failed to win a plurality of the Catholic vote in any primary so far. Instead, the former Pennsylvania senator has relied on evangelical support.
According to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll conducted March 7-9, 42 percent of Illinois voters described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians. Of that group, 42 percent backed Santorum, compared with 26 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is Mormon. Of the 54 percent of voters who do not consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, Romney led Santorum, 43 percent to 22 percent. The poll did not give voters the option to identify as Catholic.
Romney’s Mormon faith may hurt him with some voters. In 2010, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale conducted a statewide poll of registered voters that found a majority would never vote for a Mormon, results that were not publicly released at the time.
“Rick Santorum’s faith should play well in Illinois,” said Tobin Grant, a professor of political science at SIU who worked on the poll. “It’s unlikely that people will choose him because he’s Catholic per se, but as a committed Catholic, Santorum shares the same values, beliefs and viewpoints as many Republican Catholics in Illinois. In central and southern Illinois, Santorum will also draw support from evangelicals and other conservative Protestants who will value his family and faith.”
It’s kinda bizarre that the Paul Simon Institute didn’t release those polling results.
* John Kass believes Santorum and Newt Gingrich are running for president just to hurt Ron Paul. I kid you not…
There are two other pseudo-conservatives in the race who’ve done the GOP establishment’s bidding by blocking U.S. Rep. Ron Paul from a one-on-one with Romney early on in the campaign.
* Meanwhile, things are truly getting nasty in the 12th Congressional District GOP primary. Some people calling themselves “Concerned Citizens of Belleville, IL” sent out a letter making all sort of allegations about Rodger Cook’s private and public lives. Click here if you dare. Oof. [Fixed link]
* I was on the Dan Ryan Expressway a little over a week ago and noticed something missing from Patrick Daley Thompson’s billboard: The word “Daley.”
“Patrick D. Thompson” was how he put it on the billboard. it was hard not to figure that his middle name isn’t necessarily an asset everywhere…
It’s not often a first-time candidate for an obscure public office gets endorsed by the city’s Democratic powerhouses, but that kind of political mojo comes easier when you’re related to the two longest-serving mayors in Chicago history.
In his bid for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Patrick Daley Thompson is endorsed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, City Council Finance Chairman Edward Burke, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and County Board Finance Committee Chairman John Daley — one of Thompson’s uncles.
That kind of backing is no doubt one reason Thompson in recent months has raised the most money out of six Democratic primary candidates vying for three seats in Tuesday’s primary.
Since September, he has raised more than $140,000, including a $10,000 contribution from another uncle, former White House chief of staff William Daley, according to state campaign finance records.
* VIDEO: Mitt Romney’s remarks at Charlie Parker’s
* Illinois Looking Like Fertile Ground for Mitt Romney: “I don’t think there was a single poll that had us up in Mississippi, so I don’t really worry too much about polls,” he told reporters after a speech in Osage Beach, Mo. “Look, Illinois’s a tough state, I understand. When you’re getting outspent 10 to 1, it’s hard. But we’re gonna keep working, and do the best we can. And we’re fighting money, we’re fighting the organization, and we’re fighting a divided conservative vote. That’s a pretty hard hill, but we’ve been climbing it and doing well.”
* Making the presidential decision: Tracking three Illinois GOP voters over months: Her vote is not that simple, though. She’ll pick Santorum for president. But on the vote that matters - delegates to the Republican convention - Eva will vote for those aligned with Gingrich. That’s because, she said, they’re Tea Partiers, and could raise a ruckus at the convention.
* Mitt Romney makes election-eve visit to Springfield: “These pancakes are as large as my win in Puerto Rico last night,” Romney quipped, making reference to the famously large 16-inch hotcakes Charlie Parkers has on the menu and his securing of all 20 delegates during Sunday’s vote in Puerto Rico.
“In light of the extremely damaging charges contained last week’s federal indictment of Representative Derrick Smith (D-Chicago),
I believe he should resign his position immediately.
“Representative Smith, who stands indicted on the charge of attempted bribery of a nursing home operator in exchange for official action,
has brought deep disrespect and damage upon the Illinois House of Representatives and the people of the State of Illinois.
“Rep. Smith should spare the House of Representatives any further embarrassment and step down immediately.”
Kinda late, and Smith was accused of shaking down a daycare center owner, not bribing a nursing home operator, but whatever. At least he said something. The same can’t be said for House Speaker Madigan.
NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar urged Chicago Public Schools students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
WBBM Newsradio’s Michele Fiore reports Abdul-Jabbar joined Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday at King College Prep High School to discuss his book, “What Color is My World.”
Quinn praised Abdul-Jabbar’s 36-page book about African-American inventors, which was provided to the 300 students who attended the event.
* Caption?…
* Winner will receive a free ticket to my March 28th Springfield birthday party charity fundraiser for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois.
* Abdon used the word “audacious” to describe this rally. I’d have to agree…
In the parks, churches, bowling alleys and VFW halls of Illinois, candidates for president, state supreme court, state representative and every office in-between made their last-minute pitches before Tuesday’s primary elections.
Perhaps the most audacious plea came from West Side Democratic elected officials who urged voters to support an Illinois House member charged with bribery. It looks bad, they acknowledged, but it will prevent the seat from falling into the hands of Republicans.
The rally in support of appointed state Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) featured U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), three aldermen and a county commissioner and even adopted a catchy moniker: “No defeat or retreat — keep the Dem seat.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a Republican, except that if people are going to vote for a Republican, they ought to know they’re voting for a Republican,” Davis said, referring to Smith’s Republican-turned-Democrat rival, Tom Swiss.
“We know that our colleague is charged with criminal activity, Davis said at a press conference outside the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. “But we also know that a charge is not a conviction.”
Still, Smith is not doing much to explain his innocence. He was not at the press conference and his campaign has not returned repeated messages seeking comment.
But Davis and others acknowledged their push is as much about Smith’s opponent as it is about Smith himself. Tom Swiss is the only other candidate running in the Democratic primary, and - as Davis pointed out - Swiss has held leadership positions in the local Republican Party.
“We want to make sure that we don’t elect a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Davis said.
* Gov. Pat Quinn avoided weighing in on the race when pressed over the weekend, saying it was “tough call for voters,” but one “they’ll be able to sort out.” Tom Swiss responds…
Swiss, the former executive director of the Cook County Republican Party — who is white but uses images of African-Americans on billboards and mailers in this predominantly black district — teed off on his critics: “I think it’s inexcusable that they’re reinforcing the culture of corruption by asking voters to support Derrick Smith, a man that was arrested and caught red-handed for taking a bribe,” Swiss told the Chicago Sun-Times.
State Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) hasn’t been in the House very long, but few would’ve picked him as a future legislative star. He stumbles badly during debates, isn’t well informed on the issues and has obviously had a lot of trouble getting his arms around his new job.
In other words, he probably won’t be missed.
Smith was arrested last week on federal bribery charges. The feds say a campaign worker allegedly told them that Smith was anxious about fundraising problems and was willing to trade favors for checks. After being told that a day care center owner was willing to pay big bucks in exchange for an official letter requesting a $50,000 state grant, Smith allegedly pounced on the opportunity.
Smith’s fundraising problems were abating, however. Just before his arrest last week, his campaign had reported raising about $57,000 from several established state political action committees over the previous few days.
No longer in dire need of campaign money, Smith apparently decided to get some cash for himself. He allegedly worked it out with the campaign worker that he wanted $7,000 in cash from what turned out to be a fictitious day care center owner. Smith rejected a cashier’s check because he didn’t want a paper trail, but then he offered to kick back part of the bribe via check to the campaign worker.
Now, first of all, what person with even half a brain believes that a day care center owner has $7,000 in cash lying around? And what kind of idiot would also believe that the aforementioned day care center owner would be willing to give that $7K to someone like Smith, an appointed, back-bench freshman lawmaker, in exchange for a grant recommendation letter?
I mean, really, a grant letter from Smith is supposed to be some sort of slam dunk? You’d have to be truly stupid to believe this was a “legit” offer.
And, secondly, you’re going to write the campaign worker a kickback check as part of your grand scheme? Really? Hello? Is anybody at home in that cranium?
Rep. Genius came to the General Assembly courtesy of Secretary of State Jesse White, who is also Chicago’s 27th Ward Democratic committeeman, despite the fact that Smith had been fired from his city of Chicago job a few years ago. The Chicago Sun-Times discovered that Smith had “used city equipment and personnel to do private landscaping work and improperly used state-financed Earnfare workers to lighten the load of city employees.”
It ain’t easy to get fired from a city job, but Smith somehow managed to, and White dutifully hired him at the secretary of state’s office. And then, despite Smith’s questionable past, White installed him in the House when state Rep. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago) was appointed to the Senate after Sen. Rickey Hendon retired.
White has been trying to obtain a foothold in that particular House district for years to no avail. He fought hard with Hendon. White never really got along with Collins when she was in the House either. When he helped appoint Collins to the Senate, White told the media that Collins had probably just promoted herself out of a job. White also controlled neither former state Rep. Art Turner nor Turner’s son, Art Turner Jr.
Smith’s appointment finally gave White his long-sought foothold. Once White took care of that, he picked a candidate to challenge Collins in the Democratic primary — Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, who ran for Chicago mayor last year.
Smith’s political sponsor is Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), White’s handpicked alderman. Smith and Burnett grew up together in Cabrini Green, the notorious public housing project where White has recruited members of his world-renowned Jesse White Tumblers team.
White issued a statement last week, saying he was “disappointed” in Smith. But White said infinitely more than House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who was completely mum on the bribery charge.
There is, of course, a tricky political dimension to this arrest. Smith’s Democratic primary opponent, Tom Swiss, has been a Republican for years. Swiss is a former director of the Cook County Republican Party and is a white man running in a majority black district.
If Madigan called on Smith to resign, it would essentially have meant letting a Republican into his caucus. Some things transcend mere bribery arrests.
* Last summer during the State Fair, a group of us was sitting in a Springfield beer garden talking politics. Some of the folks at the table were from Chicago, so they had to be briefed a bit when talk turned to Springfield ‘tics.
One topic they couldn’t quite get their heads around was Springfield Ald. Sam Cahnman. He’d recently been accused of inappropriate contact with a woman, and some of the locals at the table were recounting their own Cahnman stories. His history isn’t pretty, but he’s one of those “never been convicted” people.
In case you don’t know who Sam is, the SJ-R’s Bernie Schoenburg did a column recently on some direct mail attacking Cahnman, who’s now running for the Illinois House…
But another flier certainly won’t make a friend of Cahnman. It delves in an ominous way into what is familiar territory in Springfield — Cahnman’s brushes with inappropriate situations and an arrest resulting from an encounter with two undercover policewomen in which the conversation turned to cash for sexual favors.
“What you may not know about This Man could hurt you,” one side of the flier states. The other side, before enumerating the allegations, says, “He may have even been on your doorstep,” with the “your” underlined.
The flier doesn’t say that Cahnman was found not guilty in court of a misdemeanor charge that resulted from the case involving the undercover policewomen. It instead mentions that the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has a pending case against Cahnman, a lawyer, connected to that and other incidents.
Cahnman said the flier is “filled with lies.” For example, he said, the ARDC complaint doesn’t say he propositioned the women, but that they propositioned him.
That complaint states that Cahnman asked the two women what they would do to “make money.” One woman told him each would perform a sex act for $40 each. “Respondent (Cahnman) agreed to pay them for the sexual acts,” the complaint says.
A mostly female jury took about an hour to find him not guilty of the misdemeanor charge, Cahnman noted.
He also disputes the flier’s accusation that he used his position as a lawyer to have “intimate” contact with a jail inmate. The ARDC complaint instead refers to “personal physical contact.” The complaint says Cahnman was observed “kissing and embracing” a woman who was being held in the Sangamon County Jail. The former inmate has told me the encounter was “just a brief hug” that involved nothing inappropriate.
The flier also mentions a controversy that started last summer, when Cahnman invited a woman in her early 20s to his apartment following a Springfield music festival. Cahnman served the woman wine, and she says she woke up wearing no underwear. Cahnman was not charged in that case, but he has agreed to stay 500 feet from the woman until next June — something he said he would want to do anyway.
* I’ve known Sam Cahnman for over 20 years. We’re not exactly friends, but we’ve always gotten along well enough. We once bumped into each other in Memphis at 3 o’clock in the morning and had a fine time. He’s always been honest and straightforward with me on official stuff. I bear no personal or professional ill will against him.
It’s no secret, however, that he has a certain reputation.
* Let’s get back to my State Fair story, shall we?
As I was saying, we were trying to explain Sam to the Chicagoans. They thought we must be joking. But then I made a half-joke by saying something like, “Pretty much every woman in this town who spends any amount of time in a tavern has a Sam Cahnman story.”
They told me to prove it.
So, I rose from the table, walked to another part of the beer garden and asked an attractive 30-something woman if she lived in Springfield. She said she did. I asked if we’d ever met before. She said we hadn’t. I asked her to come with me.
I escorted the woman to my table and asked her the same questions again. She assured them we didn’t know each other and she was indeed from Springfield.
Then I asked: “Do you have any Sam Cahnman stories?”
“Do I?!!!” she exclaimed, and then proceeded to tell a story about what she said was an unwanted and what she thought was a particularly overly forward romantic advance.
* I am not totally kidding when I say that just about every decent-looking woman I’ve asked in this town has a Sam Cahnman story. I was talking to a female lobbyist last week who mentioned that she’d heard Cahnman’s new radio ad. “Sam Cahnman admits he’s far from perfect,” she said was the spot’s opening line. She laughed about the ad and when I asked if she had a Sam story she sighed and said, “I have so many I can’t even remember them all.”
I was telling my State Fair story a few weeks ago while sitting at a bar and I could see out of the corner of my eye that the female bartender was listening intently and had a scowl on her face. After I finished telling the story, she related her own Sam Cahnman story.
This has happened time and time again. I have no solid proof that Sam has done everything he’s been accused of, but how many times can I hear these stories and not wonder about him?
* The local Springfield media has bent over backwards to be fair to Sam during this campaign. That’s their job. I get it. I’m not complaining. Candidates should always get a fair shake. And I am usually viscerally opposed to delving into a candidate’s private life. Their private lives are their business, not mine. I’m far from a moralizer and am in no way a pure person myself. I have more faults than I care to admit.
But in my opinion an important story about this race has been ignored. Yes, it’s not your usual political story, but, heck, I’m sure even Sam would admit that he isn’t your usual politician.
* I asked Sam for a response to this story last Thursday. I sent him a rough draft of this post and we talked on the phone and texted each other about whether he’d reply. He then sent me an e-mail at about 4:30 this morning…
As you can see from the hour, I am too swamped to ansewer the other [question], except to say that while focusing on my warts & foibles, it would be fair to recognize my many years of service as a conscientious public elected official and a Dem in a majority Repub County who got a lot of good things done.
I don’t disagree. Sam has managed to get a lot of things done. Like I said, he’s not your ordinary politician. But like he admits in his own radio ad, he’s far from perfect.
Keep your comments clean, please. Thanks.
* Meanwhile, Cahnman has filed a defamation suit in Sangamon County Circuit Court against two of Speaker Madigan’s campaign committees. From a press release…
“I regret it came to this, but I had no choice,” Cahnman said. “I was willing to let it go the first time Mr. Madigan through his committees told lies about me in the attack ad of my opponnent, Sue Scherer. But after the false statements were pointed out in a newspaper article after the first piece hit mail boxes, and Mr. Madigan then sent the exact same lies out a second time, I could not stand idly by,” Cahnman said. Madigan also sent the lies out a thrid time.
Cahnman noted that some people think in politics you can say anything about anyone, but that’s not ture. “You can’t make blatantly false statements about a political opponent that are defamatory and get away with it.” The public record cited by the Scherer ad shows the statement are blatantly false. Cahnman noted that the Chicago Tribune called Sherer’s ad “misleading”.
Cahnman said he received many “attaboys” from people in Decatur this morning, where he was to speak to the United Transportation Union. “The people particularly in Decatur are sick and tired of Madigan’s negative personal attacks, which they experienced in 2010 and 2008. Somebody had to say, “Enough,” Cahnman said.
When Gov. Pat Quinn laid out his proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and called for closing dozens of facilities around the state, he revived a debate started nearly a decade ago under then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Just how much authority should state lawmakers have to block the governor from closing facilities that are often major employers in an area and provide significant economic impact?
The issue could come to a head this spring with at least one bill pending that would specifically give the General Assembly a final word on whether a facility stays open or is closed.
Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, introduced Senate Bill 3564 that requires the General Assembly to vote on a facility closure after the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability makes a recommendation. The bill is pending on the Senate floor.
As the above article notes, CoGFA’s vote is only a recommendation. The governor can still go ahead and close a facility if CoGFA votes against it. That hasn’t yet happened, however.
* The Question: Should the General Assembly be given authority to nix state facility closures? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
