* I’ve been thinking that it was a pretty smart move by the NRA not to get involved in the 2nd Congressional District on behalf of Debbie Halvorson.
Why? Well, the group has been assiduously courting African-American state legislators to vote for a concealed carry bill. Helping nominate a white Democrat in a black-majority congressional district might not go down too well with the Legislative Black Caucus, after all.
Besides, Mayor Bloomberg’s millions of dollars worth of TV ads have made it pretty clear that Halvorson is pro-gun. He’s educating the NRA’s base without the NRA spending any money.
* But the Illinois State Rifle Association has decided to jump into the race at the last minute…
“Just because I want to have an honest discussion of how we deal with the entire culture of violence, I’m being attacked,” added Ms. Halvorson, who does support universal background checks for gun buyers. “To ban one more firearm, all that’s going to do is harm the law-abiding citizen.”
Forced into an awkward spot between not feeding the fire against her and keeping Second Amendment-supporting voters engaged, Ms. Halvorson has said that she has not sought support from any gun groups in this election, despite holding steadfast on her positions.
Still, the Illinois State Rifle Association started fighting back on her behalf on Wednesday, sending out a direct mailer to thousands of its members living in the district asking them to vote for Ms. Halvorson, according to Richard A. Pearson, the association’s executive director.
“We can’t let that go unanswered,” he said of the advertising campaign against her. His group had planned to endorse Ms. Halvorson in a news release on Thursday, but decided not to at the last minute, Mr. Pearson said, though he would not explain why.
Discuss.
* Related…
* Kelly defends against ethics allegations in Jackson Jr. race
* As I’ve often said, a bill is just a bill, particularly at the start of session, when all sorts of weird ideas are introduced. There’s no sense in getting all fired up about silly legislation which is obviously going nowhere. I try to avoid posting articles about particularly goofy bills because I know doing so is mostly an empty exercise.
A recently introduced bill in the Illinois state Senate would require anonymous website comment posters to reveal their identities if they want to keep their comments online.
My initial response…
What?
Are you freaking kidding me?
* So, before I knew it, I was surfing frantically to the General Assembly website.
A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and address are accurate.
All web site administrators shall have a contact number or e-mail address posted for such removal requests clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted.
I eventually took a deep breath and reminded myself of my own advice. But I still couldn’t stop myself from posting about this legislation.
Sorry for breaking my rule here. But, man, if this isn’t the most intrusive Internet bill ever introduced in Illinois, I don’t know what is.
I normally wouldn’t write much about the retirement of a Springfield lobbyist. But I’m going to make an exception in the case of Dave Vite, who announced this morning that he’s retiring on Dec. 31 after 36 years as president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
He’ll be succeeded by Rob Karr, IRMA’s current executive vice president.
Mr. Vite is one of those guys who nicely maneuvered on both sides of the aisle in the Capitol. Earlier than most — and I’d put Illinois Manufacturers’ Association chief Greg Baise in the same category — he realized that even business groups would have to move a little bit as the state steadily became more Democratic.
It worked. Even though IRMA’s campaign war chest was a lot smaller than those of other groups.
* Some of the accolades in the press release announcing Vite’s retirement…
“The retail community in Illinois has had no greater champion than David Vite over the past 36-years. His poise, intelligence and persistence made him that rare forceful, yet likeable advocate, whose effectiveness was incomparable. The retail community in Chicago is so important to our economy and IRMA will always have a voice in Chicago on these issues.” - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
“IRMA has been a great partner with me in rolling back the sales tax hike. Dave Vite and his team are tireless advocates for retailers in Cook County. I’m proud to call Dave a friend and they are in good hands with Rob Karr and Tanya Triche.” - Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle
“I wish to congratulate David Vite on his retirement. In the 30-years I’ve known him, David has always handled himself with the utmost professionalism demeanor and his knowledge and expertise is why IRMA has the high-quality reputation it has in this state. Without a doubt, IRMA will continue to be the voice for retailers in this state with Rob Karr leading the way. Our door will always be open to retailers because of IRMA.” - House Speaker Michael J. Madigan
“I’m proud to call David Vite a good friend, ally and fierce campaigner. Retailers in this state have been fortunate to have Dave Vite as their advocate as he has built an industry model of how to do it right. We’ve worked with IRMA on countless issues at the capitol that have improved the business climate for retailers in this state. IRMA is a force to be reckoned with and that won’t change when Rob Karr takes over next year.” - Senate President John Cullerton
“We’ll miss David Vite and his advocacy for retailers, but I wish him and his family the best in his much deserved retirement. IRMA is one of the most impactful organizations in the state and that won’t change with Rob Karr leading them next year. I’ve been proud to work with them on so many critical issues in this state and I look forward to continued collaboration with IRMA in years to come.” - Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno
“David Vite has been a friend for a number of years and I congratulate him on his retirement. IRMA is one of the most vocal and active business groups in the state and they are a difference maker. Rob Karr’s selection as President is the perfect choice as he’s spent the past 20-years learning from the best. Retailers are lucky to have IRMA championing their issues in Springfield.” - House Republican Leader Tom Cross
* And a photo of Vite sent in by one of his “friends”…
About 1,500 unionized workers at the Illinois Department of Transportation and other agencies received raises last month, even though their union is still negotiating a new contract with the state.
The workers, members of General Teamsters/Professional & Technical Employees Local 916, received 3 percent wage increases Jan. 1, Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration confirmed.
The raises were awarded even though the contract covering the workers expired June 30 and a new agreement has not been negotiated. The Teamster raises were awarded at the same time as negotiations with the largest state employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, have ground to a halt and the union has advised members to prepare for the possibility of a strike.
Abdon Pallasch, spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget office, said there is a different climate surrounding negotiations with the Teamsters.
“With the Teamsters, productive bargaining continues,” Pallasch said. “In AFSCME, negotiations continue, but it’s been our argument all along that they really haven’t made many meaningful concessions.” […]
Although the Teamsters contract expired June 30, the same time as AFSCME’s contract, Pallasch said it has been renewed through April.
Rank-and-file members of the state’s largest employee union packed a conference room in a state office building Wednesday to hear the latest update on stalled contract talks.
With the possibility looming of a strike by 40,000 members of the state workforce, the hour-long session was among dozens being held around the state in recent days by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. […]
On Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn, who terminated the state’s contract with AFSCME in November, told reporters he hopes to avert a walkout.
“We’re negotiating. Everybody understands it’s a tough time economically for our state. I’m hopeful that we can get a good agreement that’s good for the taxpayers and good for the workers who work so hard for the public,” the governor said at an event in Springfield. […]
The governor said Wednesday that he has not told top aides to begin preparing for the possibility of a work stoppage. But, he said the state will be ready if a strike is called.
Premium-free health insurance for retired state workers is not a protected pension benefit, lawyers for the state argued in court Wednesday.
As a result, they said four lawsuits challenging a state law imposing such premiums should be dismissed.
Attorneys trying to overturn the law said the benefit is protected.
“The constitution prohibits the state from welshing on deals with its employees,” said Springfield attorney John Myers.
A ruling in the case is not expected for several weeks.
* And despite the criticism, I don’t think the governor meant what some think he meant…
Gov. Pat. Quinn said Wednesday that a long-awaited early inmate release program is starting “right now.”
“We’re carrying it out right now,” Quinn told reporters during a news conference in Springfield. “We had to follow the blueprint that’s outlined in the law, and I think we will do very well if we go forward right with that.”
The governor, however, may have spoken too soon.
The agency in charge of implementing the program still has not begun awarding credits for reduced prison time and does not have a set timetable to begin letting nonviolent inmates out of Illinois’ overloaded prison system. Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said officials continue to review inmate files.
Actually, they have started implementing the bill. Reviewing the files is the beginning of that implementation.
Citing studies confirming tanning beds are medically-proven to be carcinogenic to humans, State Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) introduced legislation Feb. 15 to protect minors from the potentially deadly effects of sunless tanning beds.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of developing melanoma due to tanning bed use increases by 75 percent for people under age 35, and the British Medical Journal agrees the earlier people start tanning, the greater the risk they will develop skin cancer,” Radogno said. “There are plenty of safe tanning alternatives available, and there is absolutely no need for young people to take this unnecessary health risk.”
Senate Bill 2244 would prohibit minors age 17 and younger from tanning in sunless tanning beds. Currently minors 14 to 17 are allowed to tan if they can provide a parental signature. However, this would be restricted if Radogno’s legislation is signed into law.
“Just as we don’t give children the option to smoke, they shouldn’t be allowed to tan indoors—which medical studies show is a dangerous, and even deadly, practice,” said Radogno, who noted that in 2009 experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category—the same classification given to arsenic and mustard gas. “The light from indoor tanning beds is considered a Class 1 carcinogen, and many respected medical experts agree sunless tanning does increase the risk of cancer.”
A proposal to ban the use of hand-held cellphones while driving a car was endorsed in a House committee Wednesday.
“A hand-held cellphone is a huge distraction while driving a car,” said state Rep. John D’Amico, D-Chicago, who sponsored the legislation.
Drivers using a hand-held cellphone are eight times more likely to be in an accident, he said, and California experienced a “dramatic” drop in accidents when that state adopted a similar ban.
Illinois already bans texting while driving, and 76 communities across the state have some restrictions on use of hand-held cellphones while driving, which was one reason a Verizon representative testified in favor of the measure. In the current situation, Illinois cellphone customers do not know where they might get ticketed, the Verizon representative said.
In 2007, the United States suffered some 15,000-19,000 accidental shootings. More than 600 of these shootings proved fatal. Is that “very rare”?
The total number of Americans killed and wounded by gun accidents exceeds the total number killed or injured in fires.
The number killed in gun accidents is 20% higher than the total number killed in all U.S. civil aviation accidents.
In 2011, the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted to ban drop-side baby cribs because these cribs have been blamed for “dozens” of infant deaths over the entire previous decade. The 600+ accidental gun deaths in any single year amount to 50 dozen.
Back when the Centers for Disease Control were allowed to do gun research, they found that American children under age 15 were nine times more likely to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy countries.
The Centers for Disease Control reserve the term “very rare” for accidental deaths from vaccines, the number of which is zero, or close to it. If more than 600 people a year were dying from vaccines, we’d have a national uproar, if not a revolution.
In one of the more unusual expenditures, Jackson Jr. also used campaign money in part to buy two mounted elk heads for about $8,000 from a Montana taxidermist.
The elk heads were later sold to an undercover FBI agent posing as an interior designer, and the money from the sale was wired to Jackson Jr.’s personal account, according to the court documents. Sandi Jackson oversaw the transactions in August last year, according to the court documents.
In March 2011, Jackson Jr. traded emails with a Montana taxidermist about a pair of mounted elk heads. Over the next several weeks, a person identified in court papers only as Person A received money with which to purchase the elk heads for Jackson Jr. (Person A has been identified by Crain’s Chicago Business as Jackson’s onetime campaign treasurer Terri Harris, who now goes by the name of Terri Jones.) Jackson Jr. gave Person A $3,000 in cash, money he has said was given to him by family members. Another $4,000 was given to Person A from Jackson’s campaign, in two checks whose memos indicated they were payments “for Data Reconciliation” and “for Data Entry & Cleanup.” Person A later sent two checks to the taxidermist in Montana, who shipped the elk heads in April to Jackson’s Congressional office.
Fast forward to July 2012. A month earlier, Jackson had reportedly collapsed at his home in Washington D.C., and subsequently took a medical leave of absence from Congress. (After an initial news blackout, it was revealed that Jackson was receiving treatment for bipolar disorder.) On July 23, Person A contacted the taxidermist again, asking if the taxidermist knew anyone who would want to buy the elk heads, or, alternatively, someone who could build crates in which the heads could be stored. A month later, Person A got a call from an undercover FBI employee posing as an interior designer interested in buying the heads.
Over the final week of August 2012, Person A and the undercover FBI employee negotiated the sale of the heads. They settled on a price of $5,300, which Person A told the FBI employee to wire straight to one of Jackson’s personal accounts. According to the court documents, it was Sandi Jackson who, knowing the elk heads had been purchased with campaign funds, had them moved from Washington D.C. to Chicago, and then directed Person A to sell the elk heads for less than the original purchase price, and to have the money wired to Jackson Jr.’s account.
“They have called this the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” said state Rep. David Reis, R-Ste. Marie, “but I think they should call it the Religious Persecution and Marriage Unfairness Act.
“But when you’re a county clerk and you don’t believe in same-sex marriage and you have to issue that license, that’s religious persecution.”
Reis urged those at the rally to tell legislators “to protect the institution of marriage in Illinois, and that they have civil unions and we don’t want any more.”
Pastor Richard Giovannetti of the Standing in the Word Ministries of Morris, told the crowd that “when we have gay marriage we are going to enslave millions of people back into a lifestyle that we know that God can set them free from.”
Pastor Linda Jernigan, who said she was “a former lesbian” who now operates a ministry in the Chicago area, asked repeatedly, “Did you know that God can deliver homosexuals?”
She said it was “a chosen behavior” and that “if you allow God, He can change your behavior.”
“Don’t believe the lie,” she said, “that homosexuality is a civil right. It is not a civil right. Homosexuality is a choice.”
Their concerns ranged from morality to intricate questions on religious freedom to the basic laws of human nature.
“It’s a plumbing issue, it comes down to basic plumbing,” said David Webster of Washington, as he stood outside Gordon-Booth’s office. He borrowed the plumbing idea from David Zietlow, an engineer and member of Grace Presbyterian, who wore a necklace of male and female pipe fittings.
Many insisted they had nothing against homosexuality, that they were there strictly to defend the sanctity of traditional marriage. But Robert Stine, a retired Peoria doctor, inadvertently touched on how much attitudes have changed about homosexuality when he said, “In fifty years it’s gone from being a felony to political, legalized status.”
Brian Elsasser of Princeville, a Peoria County Board member who rode on one of the buses organized by the Peoria diocese, said, “I pray and I love all humankind, no matter what they do. But that doesn’t give us the right to take an institution, which was ordained by God, and change it in Illinois.”
* Meanwhile, the only Senate Republican to vote for gay marriage has been hit with robocalls…
State Sen. Jason Barickman’s vote last week to allow same-sex marriages in Illinois has infuriated some conservative groups, including Family PAC, a Chicago-based group that already is calling for his resignation.
In robocalls to constituents in Barickman’s conservative district north of Champaign, the group urged voters to call Barickman’s office to register their anger.
“Was Barickman representing you, or the Chicago homosexual community?” asked Sandy Rios of Family PAC in the automated call. “Call Barickman today and tell him you’ve cast your last vote for him, and ask him to resign.”
* But Barickman was actually doing opponents a favor…
Barickman, a 37-year-old attorney who joined the Senate in January after beating state Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, last year, said he decided to vote “yes” after helping draft an amendment to the legislation that is designed to protect churches from reprisals if Illinois becomes the 10th state in the nation to allow gays to marry.
“It’s a vote that I understand that some have varying opinions on, but I feel that I voted in the correct way,” Barickman said. “The language in the amendment preserves those religious liberties that are so important to so many people.”
* From a lobbyist who worked with Barickman on the bill’s rewrite…
The original bill that came out of [Senate Executive Committeee] in lame duck session provided that:
* No church or religious institution could ever be required to solemnize a marriage in conflict with its beliefs. (This provision remains intact in the new bill.)
* Churches/religious institutions did not have to make any facility available for a same-sex wedding if the facility’s “primary use” was for religious purposes.
A facility qualified for this protection if:
* It was only occasionally open to non-members and did not charge money for their admission, and
* It was never open to the general public.
SB10, as passed, provides that anything deemed a “religious facility” does not have to open its doors for a same-sex marriage. This means that under no circumstances can the following types of facilities be required to hold a same-sex wedding:
* Sanctuaries
* Parish halls
* Fellowship halls and similar facilities.
“Religious facilities” do not include:
* Hospitals
* Businesses
* Schools
* Social service organizations
If a building has multiple uses, the test is applied on a “room by room” basis. For example, a gay couple cannot be barred from a hospital. But if the hospital had a chapel, that chapel could not be forced to host a gay wedding.
* The latest released results from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll. Pay attention to those income tax results…
The introduction to the various options for pension reform was read to each respondent: “As you may have heard, the state of Illinois has an unfunded pension liability of about 96 billion dollars. Some say this liability will grow rapidly as more people reach retirement age, and will hurt the state’s ability to fund other services, such as education, public safety, and roads. Others say that pensions are a binding contract between the state and its employees, and can’t be altered or reduced. I’m going to read some proposals that state officials have made to fix the pension liability. For each, please tell me whether you favor or oppose that proposal.”
1. Would you favor or oppose a proposal to suspend retirees’ annual cost of living increase for six years?
6. Would you favor or oppose a proposal to increase the share that Illinois school districts pay for their employees and to reduce the amount that the state pays?
7. The state of Illinois has a budget deficit of about 4 billion dollars. I’m going to read three statements that people have made about how to fix the deficit, and ask you which one comes closest to your views? If you haven’t thought much about the issue, just tell me that.
First is . . .
Illinois’ public programs and services have already been reduced significantly. We can only fix the problem by taking in more revenue, such as a tax increase.
Next is . . .
The state takes in plenty of money to pay for public services but wastes it on unnecessary programs. We can fix the problem by cutting waste and inefficiency in government.
Third is . . .
Illinois’ budget problem is so large it can only be solved by a combination of budget cuts and revenue increases.
Results:
More Revenue 7.5%
Cutting Waste and Inefficiency 54.7%
Combination of Budget Cuts and Revenue Increases 28.8%
Haven’t thought much about it 4.5%
Other/Don’t know 4.5%
8. Do you favor or oppose a proposal to make permanent the recently passed temporary state income tax increase?
“The results show the people of Illinois are aware of the problems in their state funded pension systems and of some actions which could be taken by state government,” said John S. Jackson, a visiting professor at the Institute.
“There’s a general feeling that state employees are going to have to take some losses in their pension plans, but a majority of people in Illinois is not supportive of draconian measures. There is majority support only for incremental changes to the pension system,” Jackson said.
The poll also shows strong opposition to raising taxes, making the 5 percent income tax permanent or expanding the list of items subject to the state sales tax. Instead, voters support cuts to state spending to balance the budget.
* And…
There were 45.1 percent favoring [the cost-shift] proposal and 42.6 percent opposed. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most support for this proposal was in Chicago where almost half of the respondents (49.1 percent) supported it with the next highest in the suburbs, where 48.6 percent supported. Downstate areas outside the city and suburbs were the regions with the most opposition. Only 36.6 percent favored it while 48.8 percent opposed or strongly opposed.
