This year, the nation’s 16th President will be among the numerous items you can get on a stick at the Illinois State Fair.
Visitors to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s area in the air conditioned Illinois Building at the 2012 Illinois State Fair may pick up free fans bearing the famous Alexander Gardner portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The reverse side of the fan will include a list of central Illinois historic attractions, and by showing the fan at any of these places, visitors will receive special discounts on admission or merchandise from the sites’ gift shops.
* People try to sell their books. That’s no surprise at all. Reporters who write books often try to sell their books by disclosing never before heard “news.” That’s not new, either. But relying on Rod Blagojevich’s veracity about a rumor he’d heard about someone he despised is a new one on me…
An upcoming book about Rod Blagojevich says undercover recordings caught the former governor saying he had heard that convicted influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko secretly channeled $25,000 in cash to Barack Obama, but federal authorities did not deem the claim credible.
The book, “Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor’s Office and Into Prison,” suggests Blagojevich was talking about an undisclosed payment to help Obama with his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
The book says that federal investigators pursued the claim but ultimately gave it little credence. “Never was Blagojevich seen as a credible threat to the incoming president,” says the book, an outside project by two Chicago Tribune reporters. […]
The disclosure of Blagojevich’s comments comes as the president is locked in a tight re-election campaign with Republican Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who has sought to link Obama’s Chicago connections to the city’s culture of political corruption. […]
According to the book, Blagojevich was repeating “a story that (he) had heard that he believed” when he spoke of the $25,000 in cash from Rezko. Talking to his then-chief of staff John Harris shortly after Obama’s election, Blagojevich said he had heard that Rezko had given the cash to Bruce Washington, who has held jobs with the state, Cook County and the city school district.
Drudge linked to the Tribune’s story today and I’m sure it will gain traction on the blogs.
But, really, you use a recording of Rod Blagojevich repeating a rumor in order to sell books? Seriously? Rod Blagojevich? The most delusional man in America? You gotta be kidding me.
The meat of this story — that Blagojevich claimed to have heard a unflattering story about Obama that he believed — is an unsubstantiated, uncorroborated third-hand rumor. Anyone want to argue for the relevance?
* So far, at least, all the speculation about Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. stepping down has been just that. His staff is now trying to change the narrative…
In one move, Rick Bryant, Mr., Jackson’s chief of staff, phoned about 25 south suburban mayors to update them on the congressman’s condition.
In another, longtime Jackson campaign consultant Kevin Lampe told me that not only is Mr. Jackson running for a new term, but the congressman expects to hit the campaign trail soon.
Mr. Bryant said he made the calls in the past couple of days “at the congressman’s request.”
“I told them that the congressman was feeling much better and that he was looking for updates on several projects in the district,” Mr. Bryant told me in an email. “The congressman also said he expects to be home soon; he is looking forward to getting back to work; and he fully expects to be running for re-election in the fall.”
A similar message came from Mr. Lampe.
The congressman “is on the ballot. The campaign is moving forward,” Mr. Lampe said. “He is running for re-election.”
Mr. Jackson will get out to press the flesh with voters “as soon as he’s better,” Mr. Lampe added.
All those folks who whispered in reporters’ ears that Jackson would be leaving may live to regret their actions. And the folks who’ve floated their own names while Jackson has been down and out will have to rush back to his side if he does indeed return.
* Meawhile, Republican Congressman Bob Dold has a new TV ad that positions himself as a brand new candidate instead of an incumbent and highlights his independence…
As you can tell by the poor quality, this is an Internet ad.
Also, I think The Who might be a bit angry about the ILGOP stealing their stuff.
* But neither ad is the real story, says Greg Hinz…
But the real news was buried at the bottom of Mr. Dold’s press release.
And that’s not about this ad, which will run only on cable TV and will cost just $25,000 or so a week, but the “additional $1.88 million in Chicago network (broadcast) television” that the Dold campaign has purchased in October and November.
Though TV ad buys are a matter of public record, campaigns rarely announce their ad strategy, much less two months in advance. Team Dold clearly is trying to make a point here, and it does have money in the bank, a lot more than does Mr. Schneider. The implied message is that Dold can’t be beaten.
Of course, “reserved” time has not yet been paid for, only put on hold. But the Dold campaign will have to pay a financial penalty if it backs out.
I’ve noticed this year that lots of people are announcing their reserved TV time well in advance of the fall campaign. It helps fill up the news hole during slow periods, but as Greg points out we don’t really know yet whether any of it is real until it actually happens.
A brand new poll in Illinois’ newly redrawn 13th District shows Democrat David Gill continues to lead in the race for Congress. In a poll conducted August 4-7 for Gill’s campaign by Victoria Research and Consulting among 400 registered likely 2012 general election voters, the Bloomington emergency physician holds the lead in the initial trial heat with 36% for Gill to 30% for Republican Rodney Davis and 9% for Independent John Hartman with the remainder undecided. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 4.9%.
The poll’s results indicate that Davis has made no progress since an earlier April poll, in which the Republican got 31% of the vote against Dr. Gill. Gill’s lead continues to grow in additional ballot tests throughout the course of the poll. The poll reflected that Gill has a solid base of supporters in the Champaign/Bloomington area, whereas Davis is an unknown quantity, with 4 out of 5 voters in the district not recognizing his name at all.
The poll’s results also indicate, however, that Gill is losing ground and that the independent candidate may be taking away votes from the perennial Democratic candidate. That April poll taken by the Democrats had Gill leading Davis 41-31, before Davis was even a candidate.
* Also from the press release…
“The last thing voters in central or southwest Illinois want is a career political insider who has been on taxpayer payrolls or bankrolled by politicians since he was 23 years old,” commented campaign manager Mike Richards. “People in the new 13th District know they can’t trust Rodney Davis to clean things up. He was handpicked by Washington insiders who want to keep controlling Congress.”
In recent days, Gill’s campaign received the endorsement of US Senator Richard Durbin on Sunday
Um, I think Sen. Durbin also qualifies as a “career political insider.” Also, doesn’t running for Congress every two years for the past eight kinda make Gill a career wannabe insider?
U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, had a conference call Wednesday to announce the addition of 13 races nationally to what it calls “red-to-blue” status. There are now 51 races nationally they put in that category, and the two Illinois candidates newly named to the list are David GillL of Bloomington in the 13th, who is running against Republican Rodney Davis of Taylorville; and William Enyart, former adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, who is taking on Republican Jason Plummer in the new 12th District in southwestern Illinois.
“It’s a district that gave President (Barack) Obama nearly 56 percent of the vote,” Israel said of the new 13th, which includes part of Springfield. He said Gill has “put together a … very impressive grass-roots campaign.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Isreal of New York is committee chairman. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Israel says the committee will provide technical expertise to Gill in the 13th District race and what he called other support.
It isn’t clear what that other support is, and Gill spokesman Michael Richards says Gill isn’t yet sure.
Hartman said this morning that he wasn’t surprised by his showing.
“I think I’ve met about 8,000 people, when I was petitioning (to get on the election ballot) and I got very good feedback because I was an indepenedent. I was in Carrollton and I asked 20 people to sign my petition and 19 signed. In Litchfield I asked 26 people on the last day of my petition drive and all 26 signed it and wished me well. I know that this is a viable campaign.”
In the feedback he has received, Hartman said, “They just said ‘I’m going to vote for anybody who’s not in there.’
“In this case we don’t have an incumbent, but that’s the mood. I heard that over and over again. ‘We need fresh blood. You can’t be as bad as they are.’ That kind of stuff.”
* Related…
* Durbin calls Gill best choice for 13th District seat
State and union officials agreed Wednesday to postpone further transfer of inmates from prisons and other facilities slated for closure.
The decision is at least a temporary victory for the union representing the state’s correctional officers, who are opposed to Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close the facilities, including the Tamms “supermax” and Dwight prisons, and to consolidate inmates elsewhere.
* It helped, of course, that the union filed its lawsuit in Alexander County, one of the poorest counties in Illinois and home to the Tamms super max prison. You don’t have to possess a great imagination to figure out what went on behind closed doors yesterday…
Wednesday’s agreement came after about an hour of closed-door meetings between the state, AFSCME and First Judicial Circuit Judge Charles C. Cavaness on the day the union’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt closure-related transfers was to be heard. Inmate transfers not related to the closures can continue. […]
Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said the state remained committed to closures, and it agreed to interrupt the process because of an Aug. 17 court date in Alexander County at which time the sides will update Cavaness and the court on arbitration progress.
“We offered to properly hear AFSCME’s grievances on an expedited basis, and we now look forward to resolving this matter as quickly as possible through the arbitration process set out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” Kraft said in an email.
AFSCME has until Aug. 17 to respond to the state’s motion to dismiss the union’s lawsuit. The state has an Aug. 20 deadline to respond to the union’s arguments against dismissal.
“The conditions to which these men at Tamms are subjected are deplorable. Long-term isolated solitary confinement ruins prisoners psychologically and makes it more difficult for these men to re-integrate into society once they are released. There is empirical evidence that supermax prisons, such as Tamms, do not affect the level of violence within a prison system. On the contrary, once Mississippi reduced their supermax population there was a dramatic reduction in prison misconduct and violence.”
That dismissal wasn’t a good sign for the state’s case, either.
AFSCME has sued the state before over prison closings. The union launched three separate lawsuits against the state back in 2008 as a response to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s planned closure of the Pontiac maximum-security prison.
Then, as now, the union accused the state of compromising employee and public safety. “Pontiac is an essential part of a safe prison system, and without it, all Illinois prisons, staff, inmates are at greater risk of violence and personal harms,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer said in 2008, according to the Peoria Journal-Star.
As the Blagojevich administration fell apart, the governor was impeached in January 2009, the Pontiac closing plan also unraveled. In March 2009, Quinn, who had been governor for all of two months, said Pontiac would stay open. Ironically, the governor gave greater fiscal responsibility as the reason, noting that the prison provides 600 jobs and $54.4 million in revenue for the Pontiac area.
The inmate advocacy group Tamms Year Ten will host a protest beginning noon today at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee Council 31 headquarters in Chicago.
Entitled “Reject Torture, Stop the Lies and Remember the Real Story at Tamms,” the protest is a reaction to what Tamms Year Ten described as weeks of AFSCME “scare tactics” used against Gov. Pat Quinn’s planned Aug. 31 closure of the Tamms Correctional Center in Alexander County. Family members of inmates and human rights advocates will attend the protest.
* The guy floated his name in 2001 and 2009. I really doubt he’s gonna pull the trigger this time around, but whatever. It’s August…
Is former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley eyeing a future bid for governor?
It’s the latest rumble in the state’s political jumble — now that Dem insiders tell Sneed Gov. Pat Quinn’s poll numbers Downstate are heading lower than the equator on a cold day — specifically where close legislative races are being fought.
So Sneed called Bill Daley, whose political credentials also include a tenure as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, for a definitive answer.
◆ Quoth Daley … after a rather dramatic Irish sputter:
“What? The race is two and one half years away! This is no time for anyone to be thinking about entering that race now! This is the time to get President Obama re-elected!
“It’s a joke to be talking about that [gubernatorial] race when the focus should be on the presidential race and the problems we face in the country.”
“Right now I’m focusing on that and my family.”
◆ Translation: If Daley starts doing polling after the presidential election is over, the answer is a probable “yes.”
