Preckwinkle was defending the recent move by city officials to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, saying out of whack drug laws unfairly lead to more minorities behind bars.
Republican state Rep. Chapin Rose questioned whether such an approach includes drug treatment for those who are ticketed. Preckwinkle said no, arguing that drug treatment should be part of health care system, not criminal justice. She said Reagan deserves a “special place in hell” for his involvement in “making drug use political.”
“What? You didn’t like that?” Preckwinkle said after members of the audience gasped.
Um, she was speaking Downstate and this is Reagan’s home state. Not a good thing.
And it was Nixon who was really responsible for the War on Drugs. Reagan just amped it up, which, at the time, was a pretty popular thing to do. I opposed it, but I was in a very small minority back then. It’s a horribly failed program, but saying a former president deserves a “special place in hell” for his part in it is way over the line.
If she wants to run statewide (subscribe to find out more), then Preckwinkle will have to learn how to speak to groups which aren’t always full of hardcore Chicago Democrats. Champaign-Urbana is a pretty liberal place, but it isn’t the 4th Ward.
* In his latest online video, Democratic congressional candidate David Gill tries to use an alleged GOP money laundering scheme allegedly involving his Republican opponent. I’m not sure it works all that well…
I just don’t see how that video works on any level.
* From a Gill press release…
The Gill campaign released a letter sent from Dr. Gill to State Republican Chairman Pat Brady requesting that Brady disgorge funds channeled to the party in a scheme cooked up by 19-year political insider and George Ryan protege Rodney Davis to evade campaign fundraising laws implemented following the Ryan and Blagojevich scandals.
In his letter to Brady, Gill says, “As you know, billionaires Ken and Anne Griffin funneled more than $200,000 to local Illinois Republican groups and several of those organizations soon thereafter channeled approximately $140,000 of that money back to the Illinois Republican Party via purchases of tickets to an event with Karl Rove, among other routes. Rodney Davis freely admits that, as Acting Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party, he helped the Griffins find local Republican entities to receive the Griffin’s largess. Many of the targeted local Republican entities had rarely, if ever, received such large donations. Yet, instead of holding onto the surprising windfall to assist their programs and efforts, these local entities almost immediately funneled the money back into state Republican party coffers.”
Gill further asks Brady to work with him “to ensure that the corruption that was rampant in Illinois politics during the George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich-eras will one day become a distant memory.”
Thus far, Davis has refused to answer questions about the dubious financial transactions he orchestrated — donations that enriched the Illinois Republican party shortly before party officials hand-picked Davis to replace Rep. Tim Johnson on the November ballot.
Gill Campaign manager Michael Richards noted, “Rodney Davis is a lifetime political campaign operative who’s been paid by taxpayers like us for 19 years. He serves his politician bosses, not the public who pays him.”
This was actually a serious issue that ought to be looked at by somebody in power. So far, nothing.
* By the way, the Democratic tracker assigned to monitor Davis showed up at a Champaign County Republican Party Central Committee meeting last night. She was recognized from the video I posted online and was asked to leave.
* Will Caskey compares the Illinois Democrats’ 2010 Scott Lee Cohen debacle to the current national uproar over Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin, a US congressman who recently said that women who are raped rarely get pregnant: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”…
The general consensus was that Cohen had to drop out for the high crime of winning a primary no one previously cared about or paid attention to. Now of course this isn’t exactly the same situation as that facing Missouri Republicans regarding Rep./U.S. Senate nominee Todd Akin- after all, U.S. Senators generally accomplish much less than any random Lieutenant Governor. Nevertheless we can take some general lessons from the Cohen incident to advise my Republican colleagues to the south: […]
Cohen won the primary on February 5, 2010. He dropped out the following week. In between he endured an astonishing lashing from every conceivable constituency in the Democratic party (with the occasional exception of politicians he had given $10,000 contributions). The thing is that brain damaged crazy people such as Cohen and Aiken don’t properly understand how not-fun even normal, competitive campaigns are. These sorts of spotlights provide a harsh object lesson. Yes, they usually have an inner circle of yeasayers- Cohen had his willing consultant, Aiken had his familymembers running his campaign (and seriously, NRSC: great job letting that happen). But continuing to campaign means continuing to talk to people who aren’t in your inner circle, and it gets really tedious after a while when every single one of these people hates you.
It can actually sort itself out. Yes, Cohen wreaked a considerable amount of havoc during his brief time as Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Illinois. When he dropped out he did so from a bar, drunkenly sobbing, during the Superbowl half time show (I’m not making this up). And Gov. Pat Quinn was in a considerable amount of trouble, particularly when Cohen decided to run for Governor as an independent in a bizarre spite campaign. But he did drop out, and the press moved on to other things (like yelling at Quinn). And in the end, Quinn didn’t win pretty and he didn’t win a majority, but he held on to the governor’s mansion in a year when Democrats got massacred and even Illinois ejected four of its Democratic House members.
So cheer up, Missouri GOP. Yes, your nominee in a state you absolutely must win accidentally broadcast that you all think somewhat more highly of fetuses than rape victims, and yes he’s apparently determined to ride his nomination through 5pm today. But McCaskill was trailing him on Saturday, and you might yet pry her out of her seat.
Tuesday, Aug 21, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady is calling for a Federal investigation of the acceptance of nearly a quarter of a million dollars in labor union money by Illinois House Speaker/Illinois Democratic Party Chairman/Father of the Illinois Attorney General Mike Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton just before a Special Session of the Illinois General Assembly called primarily to address the state’s pension crisis.
Illinois State Board of Elections records show that on Aug. 17 – the same day as the Special Session – Service Employee International Unions (SEIU) gave $47,000 and another $50,000 to the Democratic Majority (a committee chaired by Madigan to elect Democratic State House members); on Aug. 13 it contributed $50,000 to Cullerton; on Aug. 10, $45,000 to the Senate Democratic Victory Fund, and on Aug. 6, $50,000 to the Democratic Party of Illinois (chaired by Madigan).
“Mike Madigan might as well hang a ‘For Sale’ sign from the Dome of the State Capitol,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady. “This clearly does not pass the smell test and it merits investigation by federal authorities.”
* I asked SEIU for a response. Here it is…
The allegations levied today by the GOP are baseless election year rhetoric.
The facts are that the SEIU contributions coincide with our July 23rd endorsement session.
The contributions reported are in line with our political donations over the past decade.
These contributions have no relationship to the special session called by Governor Quinn. Fewer than 10 percent of our 170,000 members statewide have pensions administered by the State of Illinois.
* OK, so let’s look back two years to see how the giving went. Cullerton got his SEIU money around this very same time in 2010…
* Madigan’s Democratic Majority fund didn’t exist two years ago, but here are his other two funds…
Those contributions to Madigan came a bit later in the cycle, perhaps because public employee unions in general were quite upset at Madigan two years ago. AFSCME and others boycotted giving to his fund altogether. Whatever the case, since the endorsement session was in July, the union makes a pretty good argument that there was no direct quid pro quo here.
* Is this really worthy of a federal probe? House Republican Leader Tom Cross thinks something smells bad. From WJOL radio…
It was this past Friday that state legislators accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING during a special session called by Governor Quinn to deal with the “pension reform issue.”
But House Minority Leader Tom Cross announced Monday morning on 1340 WJOL that it was discovered over the weekend that INTERESTING POLITICAL DONATIONS WERE MADE…..on THURSDAY….the day before the special session. With the “48 hour rule” concerning how quickly political donations need to be reported, it was on SATURDAY that Cross and others noticed that 100 thousand dollar contributions were given last week to House Speaker Mike Madigan, and Democrat Senate President John Cullerton. Cross says these contributions were made by the SERVICE INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES UNION, one of pension reform’s BIGGEST OPPONENTS. Cross says that EVEN IN ILLINOIS, with its corrupt reputation, this should have looked AWFULLY BAD.
When no progress was made on pension reform Friday, Cross says he simply thought….WELL….Madigan once again GETS WHAT HE WANTS…..or in this case DOESN’T GET what he DOESN’T WANT.
The House Democrats dismissed the allegations as pure politics.
Her union represents 2,450 employees in Secretary of State Jesse White’s office and 525 toll collectors and other workers employed by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, all of whom had pensions that would be affected by the outcome of Friday’s special session.
A union spokesman late Monday insisted that the contributions actually were given to Madigan’s fund several weeks ago but that the campaign committee merely got around to reporting them to the State Board of Elections last Friday.
…Adding… From the Senate Democrats…
This is just political theater from the Republicans.
* I wanted to take a closer look at one of the IEA’s poll results…
Now I am going to read you possible ways to close the deficit in the pension systems in Illinois and I would like you to rate each one using a scale from 0 to 10. A 0 on this scale means you think that proposal is a VERY BAD idea. A 10 on this scale means you think that proposal is a VERY GOOD idea.
Click the pic for a better look at the responses…
* What I’ve done below is combined the 0-3 and 7-10 responses to give us a better idea of where the opposition and support is…
* Laying off teachers and college faculty - 59% (Bad) 13% (Good)
* Raising property taxes - 72% (Bad) 11% (Good)
* Allowing new casinos to be built in Illinois - 32% (Bad) 41% (Good)
* Raising the income tax rate in Illinois for people making more than $100,000 a year - 29% (Bad) 45% (Good)
* Forcing Illinois to put the money into the pension fund - 14% (Bad) 59% (Good)
* Cutting benefits to current retirees - 70% (Bad) 10% (Good)
* Cutting pension benefits for teachers who have not retired yet - 49% (Bad) 24% (Good)
The public clearly does not want anything bad to happen to anybody except corporations which take advantage of tax loopholes. I’m not sure they really understand the consequences of what “Forcing Illinois to put the money into the pension fund” would do. And, notice, that even though a strong plurality supports raising the tax rate on people making over $100K a year, it’s not a majority by any means. And property tax hikes? Forget it, man.
There was no question about raising income taxes again on everyone. I doubt it would be all that popular.
* And people wonder why it’s so difficult to pass a pension reform bill. It’s not just the General Assembly which doesn’t want to make tough, grinding choices. The people don’t want to do it, either.
I think the General Assembly and the governor need to find another way to do this. It’s probably time that they take a good, long look at Rep. Mike Fortner’s pension proposal. If Fortner’s numbers work, it appears to be a whole lot more doable politically than anything else out there, and it’s a whole lot more humane that what’s on the table right now.
* From a press release by Illinois Education Association President Cinda Klickna…
A new scientific statewide poll shows that, despite years of hostile editorials, a well-funded public relations campaign and the non-stop efforts of anti-union “think tanks” to turn the public against education employees, more than two-thirds of Illinois voters (68%) believe that teachers should receive their pensions as they were promised, even when pressed about the state’s budget problems.
The percentage siding with teachers receiving their full pensions increases (71%) when voters learn that teachers are ineligible for Social Security and rises higher still (75%) when they hear that Springfield politicians failed to put money into the pension systems and spent it on their own priorities instead.
These data show the public understands that education employees are being reasonable when they argue that public employees should not be made to bear sole responsibility for fixing the pension mess.
A majority (58%) of voters believe the legislature is most to blame for the current pension deficit with only 5% laying blame at the feet of teachers.
When it comes to solutions, a majority (58%) considers cutting benefits to current retirees a very bad idea. Most think closing tax loopholes for corporations (54%) is a better solution.
* From the poll…
Which point of view do you agree with more: [RANDOMIZE]
IEA, the teachers’ union, helps the public schools by advocating for better education policies and helping teachers and staff.
IEA, the teachers’ union, hurts the public schools by protecting the jobs of bad teachers.
(WAIT FOR RESPONSE) Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?
TOTAL HELPS ………………………………………….. 51%
TOTAT HURTS …………………………………………. 40%
* On to pensions…
As you may know, over the long run, there is an $83B deficit in Illinois for the pension systems. Who do you think is mostly to blame for most of the current pension systems deficit [RANDOMIZE] Governor Quinn, the Illinois legislature or the teachers and college faculty?
QUINN …………………………………………………….. 12%
LEGISLATURE …………………………………………. 58
TEACHERS AND COLLEGE FACULTY ………… 5
(ALL THREE) ……………………………………………. 13
(NONE OF THESE) …………………………………….. 5
(DON’T KNOW) …………………………………………… 7
* The public appears to support the teachers in this pension fight…
As we mentioned before, Illinois currently has a pension debt of $83B in unfunded pension liabilities for teachers and college faculty. Which statement comes closer to your point of view [RANDOMIZE]
Teachers and college faculty contributed to their pension from every paycheck, and should receive the pensions they were promised, despite these deficits.
Given the state’s budget problems, we just cannot afford to pay the full pensions of teachers and college faculty.
(IF CHOICE:) And do you strongly or somewhat agree with that statement?
TOTAL RECEIVE PENSION ………………………. 68%
TOTAL CAN’T AFFORD …………………………….. 24%
And which of these statements comes closer to your point of view [RANDOMIZE]
Teachers and college faculty have done their part, never missing a payment of their share into the pension system. Plus, Illinois teachers do not get Social Security. They should receive the pensions they were promised, despite these deficits.
Given the state’s budget problems, we just cannot afford to pay the full pensions of teachers and college faculty.
(IF CHOICE:) And do you strongly or somewhat agree with that statement?
TOTAL RECEIVE PENSION ………………………. 71%
TOTAL CAN’T AFFORD …………………………….. 21%
One last time. Which of these statements comes closer to your point of view [RANDOMIZE]
It is the politicians in Springfield who failed to meet their obligation by taking the money that should have gone to the pensions systems and spending it on their own pet projects. Teachers and college faculty should not be penalized and should receive the pensions they were promised.
Given the state’s budget problems, we just cannot afford to pay the full pensions of teachers and college faculty.
(IF CHOICE:) And do you strongly or somewhat agree with that statement?
TOTAL RECEIVE PENSION ………………………. 75%
TOTAL CAN’T AFFORD …………………………….. 18%
* The public is initially opposed to the cost shift idea, but opponents come around when it’s phased in…
One other proposal that people have mentioned is to make local school districts, rather than the state, responsible for teacher pension plans, which are currently paid for by the state. [RANDOMIZE]
SUPPORTERS of this idea say that it would help the state address its pension crisis, and that local school districts should be responsible for teacher pensions since they negotiate the teacher contracts in the first place.
OPPONENTS of this idea say that the state has been responsible for teacher pensions for decades, and shifting that burden to local school districts would be an unfunded mandate that would result in much higher local property taxes or cuts to education at the local level.
After hearing both sides of the issue, do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose making local school districts, rather the state, responsible for teacher pension plans?
TOTAL FAVOR …………………………………………. 32%
TOTAL OPPOSE ………………………………………. 59%
[IF OPPOSE Q18=3-4]
And what if the change to make local school districts, rather than the state, responsible for teacher pension plans was phased in over ten years so that each year local school districts took more responsibility? Thinking again, do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose making local school districts, rather the state, responsible for teacher pension plans?
TOTAL FAVOR …………………………………………. 45%
TOTAL OPPOSE ………………………………………. 45%
* But the cost shift would still cost legislators votes…
Now I want to ask you abut your vote for state legislature. If a candidate for the Illinois legislature voted to change the pension system for teachers and college faculty so that the costs were shifted to local school districts would you be MORE or LESS likely to vote for that candidate? [IF MORE/LESS] And would you be much [MORE/LESS] or somewhat [MORE/LESS] likely to vote for that candidate?
MUCH MORE …………………………………………… 11%
SOMEWHAT MORE ………………………………….. 20
SOMEWHAT LESS ……………………………………. 20
MUCH LESS …………………………………………….. 31
(DON’T KNOW) ………………………………………… 18
TOTAL MORE …………………………………………… 31%
TOTAL LESS ……………………………………………. 51%
* Methodology…
(T)elephone survey conducted among 600 frequent voters in Illinois. Interviews were conducted August 6-13, 2012. The sampling error for this survey is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel will address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., next month.
Emanuel is scheduled to speak Sept. 4, the first night of the three-day convention, a Democratic source said. Democratic officials did not say what day or time the governor and mayor will speak. Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton declined to comment. As President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff, Emanuel is well-versed in the early successes and failures of the administration. […]
Quinn’s name was not listed among the latest wave of speakers, but he’s got a speaking role, according to campaign staff.
* The Question: What do you think will be the theme of Gov. Pat Quinn’s convention speech?
