* 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
