*There’s no sense tipping one’s hand so early, but I think there’s little doubt that she wants to move up the ladder…
While Gov. Pat Quinn has publically committed to a 2014 run for re-election, his running mate has yet to say if she’s willing to take the plunge with him.
That was true again Friday.
Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon evaded questions about another run with Quinn during an interview regarding a group she is leading to discuss firearms issues.
“I think I’ll choose to keep the focus on the firearms working group,” Simon told the Chicago Sun-Times when asked if she was up for a second tour as Quinn’s running mate. […]
On Friday, Simon did not shoot down the possibility of going after the attorney general’s slot if Madigan were to run against Quinn.
“When we’re ready to talk about it, we’ll let you know,” she said.
Keep in mind that she was appointed to the ticket in 2010. She didn’t have to run for that office on her own, as Jason Plummer did.
* The Question : Your thoughts on what sort of statewide candidate Simon would be if she decides to run for something else?
I am sick and tired of the fair-weather Democrats. They date us, take us to the prom, marry us, and then divorce us right after the honeymoon. I am sick and tired of the so-called friends who commend us when they’re running for election, but condemn us after they’ve won. I am sick and tired of the politicians who stand with us behind closed doors, but kick us to the curb in front of the cameras. I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit and we’re not gonna take it anymore.
Many of you know some of the people I’m talking about. Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia. Governor Pat Quinn in Illinois. We’ve come to expect union-busting, anti-worker tactics from ultra-conservatives like Scott Walker and John Kasich. But now, everybody’s on the bandwagon.
Look at Nutter. AFSCME members in Philadelphia haven’t had a contract in four years, and Sister Baylor knows it. What does the mayor do? He goes to the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court to get a legal decision that would let him shove his contract down our throats. He’s no different from Governor Snyder in Michigan, who went to his state’s Supreme Court to get legal cover for cutting school employees’ pay. Different political parties, same political games.
Look at Governor Quinn. He has waged a relentless war on state employees – slashing pensions, driving down incomes and wiping out jobs. Last year he took the unprecedented step of terminating our contract. He is the first and only Illinois governor, Republican or Democrat, to take such a blatantly aggressive action.
I have had enough of these turncoats, and it’s time to make them pay.
“Bellicose rhetoric is not going to address Illinois’ financial challenges,” Anderson added in an emailed statement. “The governor respects the collective bargaining process and the right to organize. He’s been a lifelong ally of the labor community, leading the state’s largest capital construction program in history to put thousands of workers back on the job. He has long championed increasing the minimum wage and protecting workers’ rights.
“Governor Quinn inherited massive financial challenges from decades of mismanagement by previous governors and legislatures. He did not create these challenges, but he is committed to addressing them,” the statement read. “In these difficult economic times, trade unions have made concessions. Auto unions have made concessions. And the union of government employees will have to understand the importance of making concessions to acknowledge the fact that the current path of credit downgrades and debt is unsustainable.”
* James Warren has a long piece on Gov. Pat Quinn in this month’s Chicago Magazine. You really should read the whole thing. The most newsworthy section…
Quinn further suggests that [Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s] entry into the arena could bring surprises of a negative sort for a politician he has alternately praised and chided. He also claims that Mike Madigan, her father, told him: “If she runs, I have to leave.” (A Madigan spokesman responds: “I never heard that discussion or anything along those lines. I would doubt that it ever happened.”)
“He simply doesn’t get the credit deserved for smart, progressive moves in some areas, like getting juveniles out of adult correctional facilities, trying to deinstitutionalize care for the mentally ill, and having the state now well positioned to implement Obamacare,” says one Democratic state senator.
Notice that the Senator offering up praise wouldn’t go on the record.
A onetime Illinois Department of Transportation employee has been chosen by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to replace Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th).
Natashia Holmes was one of dozens of candidates who applied to fill the job vacated when Jackson resigned last month.
Holmes could not be reached for comment. An IDOT co-worker said she no longer works there. […]
The mayor’s search was hampered by his determination to steer clear of anyone with ties to the two powerhouse political dynasties that have controlled 7th Ward politics for decades.
Former Ald. William Beavers (7th) is now a county commissioner awaiting trial on federal corruption charges. Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Il.) signed a plea agreement last week on charges of misusing campaign funds.
* In case you don’t get that furniture reference, this is from a month ago…
Sandi Jackson assured her faithful supporters that she was still large and in charge as she signed off as the 7th Ward alderman Tuesday night. […]
“From an insider’s point of view, Mayor Rahm may say he wants to have interviews. The people he will interview will be the people I am suggesting,” Jackson told the gathering made up mostly of precinct workers. “They are interviewing people in the community, but they do that to calm people down. People want to have their input. But for the most part, they turn that matter over to the alderman.” […]
Jackson also noted that all of the furnishings for her ward office at 71st and Exchange were bought with campaign dollars.
“That means the city does not own any of the furniture that you are currently sitting on, any of the furniture that is in the campaign office, any of the furniture that is in the aldermanic office. I bought every item personally, and if the mayor upholds my wishes [to appoint her chief of staff Keiana Barrett], everything in that office will stay the same. Keiana will inherit everything,” Jackson said.
In 2010, aldermen grudgingly created the post of legislative inspector general — with little authority or resources — to escape the scrutiny of pests like Joe Ferguson, who has his hands full exposing breaches in the executive branch.
Now aldermen are upset that their watchdog, Faisal Khan, had the audacity to ask them to turn over two years worth of time sheets for full- and part-time workers. It sounds to us like he’s doing his job, or trying to. Aldermen have been known to pad their payrolls with friends and relatives, some of whom were paid to do nothing.
In the last 25 years, the city’s Board of Ethics has found zero cases of wrongdoing by aldermen. In that same period, 20 of them were convicted of felonies. [Emphasis added.]
Facing mounting criticism for paying insiders with state construction grant money, the leader of the United Neighborhood Organization said Sunday the charter school network would at least temporarily stop doing business with a brother of UNO’s No. 2 executive.
UNO CEO Juan Rangel said the group will not work with d’Escoto Inc. — owned by a brother of Miguel d’Escoto, UNO’s senior vice president of operations — until after completing an internal review of its contracting practices.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Feb. 4 that d’Escoto Inc. and other companies with close ties to UNO were paid millions of dollars to help build schools under a $98 million grant approved in 2009 by lawmakers in Springfield and Gov. Pat Quinn.
D’Escoto Inc., owned by Federico “Fred” d’Escoto, has been paid more than $1.5 million so far to serve as the “owner’s representative” for the construction of the UNO schools built with the state money, records show. Miguel d’Escoto’s son also works for d’Escoto Inc.
Public documents show Fred d’Escoto was UNO’s board secretary until stepping down at some point in 2010. The group’s first payment of state grant money to d’Escoto Inc. was made Aug. 31, 2010, according to UNO records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
* There’s no bill number yet, so we can’t look at the fine print. But this is from a press release…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy today announced the introduction of statewide gun safety legislation that increases minimum sentencing for the most serious gun crimes and requires offenders to serve at least 85 percent of the imposed sentences. […]
According to a recent University of Chicago Crime Lab analysis, the average sentence for a crime committed with a gun was slightly longer than two years, but offenders only served approximately one year in prison. After implementing a similar mandatory minimum law in New York, offenders began serving their full sentences while the murder rate and prison population fell by double digits. […]
The proposed legislation would have the following impacts:
· Increase the penalty for felons who carry guns, from two years to three years, with subsequent offenses requiring a minimum of five years.
· Increase the minimum sentence for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when the offender does not possess a valid FOID card and the gun is in their possession and loaded, from one year minimum to three years minimum.
· Add these specific gun crimes to the list of serious crimes that are subject to Truth in Sentences guidelines, requiring that offenders serve at least 85% of their sentence.
Until legislation is passed, the State’s Attorney has issued a directive to all Assistant State’s Attorneys to pursue the maximum possible sentence on gun crimes.
* I’m told that Gov. Pat Quinn will drop by today’s pension reform summit, which was called by organized labor. He won’t attend the whole event, but he has sent a couple of people in his stead, Gary Hannig and Jerry Stermer. The governor’s office stresses that Quinn and his staff have met with the unions “numerous times” over the past year.
Senate President John Cullerton is sending people today as well, but Speaker Madigan is not. House GOP Leader Tom Cross will attend today…
Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross will be available for questions from the media after the “We Are One Illinois” Pension Summit this afternoon. The Summit is being held at 1 p.m. at the Illinois AFL-CIO offices in Burr Ridge, 999 McClintock Drive, Suite 100. Cross will be available outside those offices immediately following the meeting.
* In related news, Finke had a very good piece over the weekend on pension reform…
“Of principle concern to the Commission is the accumulation of large unfunded accrued liabilities resulting for the most part from the inadequacy of government contributions in prior years to meet increases in costs due to the upward trend in salary rates and large additions to the membership of the funds.”
That could have come from any number of studies in recent years about funding problems facing public employee pension plans in Illinois. But it didn’t. That warning was part of a report by the Illinois Public Employees Pension Laws Commission to Gov. William Stratton … in 1959.
“Then, during the Thompson administration, they came up with this proposal that they felt they really don’t need to contribute even this 100 percent of payout because there’s been good years of investment return,” Goldstein said. “Because of that, they proposed they would only pay 60 percent of the payout.
The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club said Edgar’s approach “was structurally flawed from the beginning.” Not only was the payment plan backloaded, it wasn’t based on actuarial requirements. Consequently, pension debt continued to balloon.
Lawmakers have stalled on fixing this mess. They didn’t even meet for more than a few hours the entire month of January. February doesn’t look much better: The House meets for only nine days; the Senate is in Springfield only eight days. But the members rack up pension credit regardless of whether they’re in Springfield.
“I was very surprised at the large staffs available to state legislators,” he commented. “I don’t need that many people to run my office, and I don’t think anyone else does, either. I have my own secretary, and she’s very good at her job, but I don’t need a private secretary. My secretary could handle the workload from two or three senators. If legislators just hired the staff they needed instead of using their entire staffing budgets, we could probably run the state government with 25 to 30 percent fewer taxpayer dollars.”
This, by the way, is the same person who said recently that he was overwhelmed with e-mails…
“All of my time is now being spent responding to emails on social issues,” he said.
Senate secretaries also serve as clerks for committees on which their members chair. In the House, they have a separate staff for that job.
And considering the huge number of calls that members have been receiving on pensions and guns lately, I’m not so sure that one secretary can handle three Senators. Heck, even Speaker Madigan’s line is constantly busy.
The state’s largest employee union is urging its members to be prepared for the possibility of a strike.
With the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union at odds with Gov. Pat Quinn over a new bargaining agreement, government workers received a letter this week outlining steps they can take in the event a strike is authorized.
“The most important thing you can do to prepare for a strike is to begin to put some money aside now out of each pay check,” the letter notes. “Do not make any major purchases until the possibility of a strike has passed.” […]
In the letter, AFSCME said it is already working with “key financial institutions” to offer workers short-term loans if needed in the event of a work stoppage.
The union offers other advice as well.
“Schedule any predictable medical appointments right now,” the letter notes. “You may also want to talk with your doctor about lengthening any maintenance drug prescriptions so you don’t have to purchase drugs while on strike.”
* Here’s AFSCME’s memo. Click the images for larger versions…
* Robin Kelly has been making a lot of political hay over the gun issue, but she’s now taking some flak for not doing something that pretty much nobody else did in the previous decade…
But is Kelly, a former state rep, as pure on the gun issue as she’s trumpeting?
Records show that when Kelly was chief of staff to then-Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, more than $7 million in pension money was invested with Alliant Tech Systems, the world’s largest ammunition manufacturer, which supplies Wal-Mart and Cabela’s with ammunition as well as a small investment into Smith & Wesson, a top gun manufacturer.
The investment is a drop in the bucket when considering the billions of dollars in Illinois pension funds, and Kelly’s campaign says she was far removed from making such a decision. […]
Another opponent, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who changed her position on an assault weapons ban — now supporting one — asked why Kelly, who claims to have played a major role in directing policy under Giannoulias, didn’t urge against investing in weapons manufacturers when she was in a position to do so.
“Robin Kelly was the senior-most staffer in an office and . . . didn’t lift a finger to stop the state from sending millions of dollars to gun and ammunition manufacturers,” Hutchinson said. “She has repeatedly claimed to be an advocate for regular families and a fighter on guns . . . but she sent our tax dollars to the very gun manufacturers she says she’s been fighting for years.”
The Illinois State Board of Investment manages the investment of pension assets for the General Assembly, and the state treasurer is an ex-officio member of the board.
The irony of Hutchinson’s attack is more than just a little obvious.
A Mike Bloomberg-funded super PAC is about to surpass $1 million in ads in a House special primary election in Illinois, lambasting former Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson over her high marks from the National Rifle Association.
In a new spot out Monday, the group laces into Halvorson for her A+ rating from the NRA and her opposition to an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 and which some gun-control advocates are looking to restore.
* Meanwhile, I doubt that this endorsement will make a huge difference, but I guess one never knows…
Robin Kelly, candidate for Illinois’ second Congressional district, was endorsed by Congressmen Bobby Rush and Danny Davis at a press conference this afternoon.
“Our communities are facing an epidemic of gun violence, and we need more members of Congress who can be trusted to fight for common sense gun control measures. Robin Kelly is a woman of integrity and conviction, and President Obama, Congressman Davis and I need her as our partner in ending gun violence,” said Congressman Bobby Rush.
“Robin Kelly has the kind of pragmatism that you need to get results in Washington, while never compromising her beliefs like many do. If we are going to stop the NRA in their tracks, and make our communities safe again, Robin Kelly is the right woman for the job,” said Congressman Danny Davis.
* And the Tribune’s endorsement probably won’t have much sway, either…
Of the 16 Democrats on the ballot, Robin Kelly, 56, of Matteson is best suited for the job. The Tribune endorses her in the Democratic primary.
Kelly worked for the village of Matteson, served two terms in the Illinois House, oversaw the office of former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and served as an administrative chief for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. In each role, Kelly brought integrity and pragmatism.
She is not a show-boater. She won’t dazzle you with ebullience. She doesn’t grandstand. She just works hard.
In the Illinois House, she was the chief sponsor of a bill that encourages businesses to grow and expand. That program, known as the EDGE tax credit, is one of the state’s most popular tools to give small- and medium-sized businesses incentives to stay in Illinois. She was the chief sponsor of legislation that cracked down on illegal firearm sales, and she worked on economic development issues, including construction of a third airport.
The Tribune relentlessly attacked Giannoulias for months over the way he ran his office. I guess that war is now passé since he lost to Mark Kirk.
Gov. Pat Quinn used the phrase “our Illinois” almost 30 times in one form or another last week during his annual State of the State address.
“In our Illinois, everyone should have access to decent health care,” Quinn said.
“In our Illinois, working people find good jobs, not just for today but for tomorrow.”
“In our Illinois, we find a way to get hard things done.”
In our Illinois, Quinn said, we are a “community of shared values.”
While the phrase was mainly a rhetorical device for a constitutionally mandated annual speech, it’s important to point out that Illinois isn’t really “one” and doesn’t have all that many “shared values.”
“Our Illinois” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Imagine trying to govern a state so diverse that it included both Boston and Richmond, Va. Waukegan is about 40 miles north of Chicago at the same latitude as Boston. Cairo, at the southern tip of Illinois, sits at the same latitude as Richmond.
While the Chicago area’s similarities to Bostonian liberalism might be obvious, our state’s history has more in common with Richmond than you might think.
For the first few decades of the 19th century, a state-owned salt works in Saline County in southern Illinois used slave labor and produced almost a third of state government’s revenue. Fights over whether Illinois should become a slave state dominated the General Assembly for years.
These days, southern Illinois politicians closely resemble Kentuckians, or southern Virginians, for that matter.
But our diversity and differences go much further than that.
In Chicago, we have unimaginable wealth next door to some of the worst poverty in the nation.
We have the third-largest city in the nation, substantial suburban sprawl, numerous river- and energy-dependent regions and a vast portion consisting of rural counties with few people in them.
We have Chicago wards that voted almost unanimously for Barack Obama last year, and dozens of downstate counties that almost always vote straight Republican since Abraham Lincoln joined the party.
We have more black residents than any “free” state except New York. And we have some counties that are so “white” that I know some black legislators and lobbyists who are afraid to stop for gas on their way to and from Springfield.
Our industrial capacity is almost unparalleled, yet we grow more corn than any state except Iowa.
Our Republican Party is almost hopelessly divided and nonexistent in Cook County. We have Chicago-area Republicans who openly supported former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and now back Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
We have many downstate residents who believe Chicago is by far the biggest problem in Illinois, and the state would be much better off the city wasn’t part of Illinois.
Many of our southern Illinois Democrats make many suburban Republicans look downright liberal.
Barack Obama won most of those typically Republican suburban counties last year, but he lost Madison County, near St. Louis, even though every other countywide Democratic candidate won there.
Our liberal Democrats are among the most “progressive” in the nation. But there are so many Democratic factions in some Chicago wards that you almost need a passport to cross the street.
The Nov. 6 election produced supermajorities in the Legislature for the Democrats, but those are majorities in party name only. In a year when southern Democrats are pushing hard for a concealed-carry law, the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary election revolves largely around gun control.
So, while I often get frustrated with the way Pat Quinn governs — and for very good reasons — it’s always important to keep in mind that this state is nearly ungovernable, particularly in these times when people are so sharply divided by just about everything. Consensus among such cultural, ethnic and political diversity is almost impossible to achieve.
None of this means that governing is impossible, however, and this column isn’t meant to excuse any of Quinn’s many shortcomings.
But the next time you think that solving Illinois’ serious problems ought to be easy, remember that nothing has been easy in Illinois for many years.
