* Charles Thomas is at today’s court hearing on Gov. Pat Quinn’s legislative salary veto, so let’s follow him. Gov. Quinn is in attendance and I’ll be posting what I’m hearing from somebody else who is there.
Watch the hearing unfold…
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State senator takes “SNAP Challenge”
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* All respect…
State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) is taking the SNAP Challenge this week to better understand the hardships faced by food stamp recipients. The SNAP Challenge, sponsored by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, invites elected officials, community leaders and others to spend only $35 on food for a week – the average weekly SNAP benefit for a single adult.
“I’m taking on this challenge to educate myself about the struggles poor families face when trying to put food on the table,” said Collins, a member of the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty. “With some members of Congress questioning the necessity of SNAP benefits, it’s important to draw attention to the barely adequate but still critical lifeline food stamps represent for the poor in Illinois.”
SNAP – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps – provides benefits to more than 820,000 Cook County residents and 47 million people nationwide. The average individual SNAP recipient in Illinois receives just $35 each week to spend on food. SNAP Challenge participants are asked to eat only food they have purchased using the $35 available for the week, include food purchased at restaurants and avoid accepting free food.
“Every day, low-income individuals and families must make heart-wrenching decisions between buying food or medicine, or between paying the rent or paying a doctor’s bill,” Collins said. “It’s a privilege to stand with ‘the least of these,’ even in a small and symbolic way, and challenge the apathy that consigns them to the margins of our awareness.”
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, a network of 650 food pantries throughout the Chicago region, distributes food to 678,000 individuals each year while offering training programs that help break the cycle of poverty.
The Food Depository estimates that in order to compensate for the five percent cut in SNAP benefits proposed by some members of Congress, its pantries would have to increase the amount of food they provide by 50 percent.
I simply can’t imagine living on that tiny food allowance.
And, as far as I’m concerned, all those legislators who are constantly complaining about the cost of the food stamp program really ought to take this challenge. Walk a mile in the shoes of someone less fortunate for a change.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A text message from a very good friend…
you’ll get a kick out of this. [Hillary Clinton] is the keynote speaker for this charity luncheon im at. She just took a swipe at Pat Quinn- who is here- and called him the luckiest politician in the world. The room erupted in laughter.
* The Question: How would you describe Gov. Pat Quinn’s luck?
…Adding… A text from the governor’s office…
From someone sitting in that same room - not me - “it was NOT a swipe - it was friendly! She said she loves working with the Governor and looks forward to continuing to work with him in the future.”
OK, but it’s still funny.
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* Tom Cross officially announced for state treasurer today. From an e-mail to supporters…
State law requires we have a balanced budget, yet the gimmicks legislators and Governor’s have used over the past decade have resulted in the nation’s worst budget deficit and over $7 billion in unpaid bills.
It’s not fair to taxpayers and it has to stop.
On day one, I will let the legislature and Governor know that I will use all the powers available to me under the Constitution, including legal action, to enforce the state’s balanced budget requirement.
Taxpayers deserve no less.
That’s not a bad idea. The attorney general has said that if the Legislature passes a budget that it considers to be balanced, then it satisfies the constitutional requirement for a balanced budget, even if the House Speaker himself admitted publicly that the budget wasn’t balanced. Remember this from 2010?…
A more activist approach to this question would be welcomed.
* WLS AM…
Cross jumped in promising to be a different kind of state treasurer.
“I think the conventional time and the conventional day, the conventional wisdom of the treasurer’s over here just watching the books like Mr. Drysdale did for the Clampets is over!” Cross said.
Now Cross is not without a primary challenger. DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan is also running.
“I’m a CPA and a certified fraud examiner and Tom is an attorney!” [Grogan] said.
* Perhaps Mr. Grogan, CPA, should audit his grammar before posting on Facebook…
I want welcome Tom Cross the the race for State Treasurer. I know this office was not his first choice, but I look forward to a spirited debate.
I doubt he’s gonna get much debate unless he can show he can actually run a real campaign. So far, he hasn’t.
…Adding… Grogan updated his page…
I want to thank Rich Miller of CapitolFax for pointing out that, in my prior post, spellcheck put an extra “the” instead of the word “to”. If I only had free help from HRO staff as I was starting my campaign my posts might read more like they were written by a lawyer and less like a CPA.
I want welcome Tom Cross to the race for State Treasurer. I know this office was not his first choice, but I look forward to a spirited debate.
And he still makes a mistake.
Hilarious.
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One primary does not a Democrat make
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Taken alone, this is not a big deal. How many decades did Ronald Reagan register as a Democrat before switching to the GOP, for instance?
Tom Kacich reports…
Although he voted in Republican primaries at other times, [Republican GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner] took a Democratic ballot in the 2006 primary election.
As Kacich reports, Rauner took the Democratic ballot to vote for Forrest Claypool, who was running against John Stroger for county board president. Claypool was, and is, a darling of the Chicago monied elite. They also backed his doomed independent campaign against Joe Berrios for county assessor.
So, again, this ain’t a big dealio taken by itself. Lots of bigtime, GOP-leaning money bags took “D” ballots in ‘06 to back Claypool.
* The problem becomes when you add it to Rauner’s coziness with Rahm Emanuel and his campaign contributions to other Democrats.
In the general election, that’s not a real issue (except for the pay to play allegations regarding Gov. Rendell). But in a primary, GOP voters (and Democrats, for that matter) tend to prefer purity.
* So, taken as a whole, this is just one more bit of “evidence” that can be used to paint Rauner as a “closet Democrat” - if, that is, anybody finally raises the money to go after the guy.
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*** UPDATE *** Alexi Giannoulias responded this morning to the NBC 5 story about how he’s considering a bid for governor…
“Ain’t happening. My life is great right now, Quinn’s my friend, and frankly I think it’s too late for anyone serious to get in anyway.
“Ahern’s correct: I’ve gotten calls, but I imagine that the folks who called me are probably calling others as well. Flattered, but no interest. I do, however, miss Springfield and especially the folks in the treasurer’s office dearly.”
So, let’s put that goofy rumor to rest once and for all, shall we?
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* NBC 5…
With Democrat Bill Daley out as a candidate for governor, who might be in?
NBC 5 has learned that some Democratic insiders not satisfied with Gov. Pat Quinn are reaching out to others, including former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
Also on the wish list is Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle as well as perhaps a newcomer — a business man or woman.
While there are concerns it may be too late even though the official filing isn’t until December 1, Giannoulias is said to be at least entertaining the idea.
Yeah. Another banker. And a bank that failed, to boot. That’ll work.
I’ve reached out to Giannoulias via voicemail, text and e-mail, but haven’t heard back. I’ll let you know if he responds.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been asked by some folks to write stories encouraging others to run, including about Alexi and Dan Hynes. But I’ve told everybody that unless I hear from those guys directly, I’m not gonna write anything beyond what’s being reported already.
That was my rule with Kwame Raoul. We talked, he was clearly interested, I thought he could pull it off, so I wrote about it.
* Meanwhile, the folks who already decided not to run aren’t changing their minds…
Lisa Madigan, who is seeking re-election as attorney general, said Tuesday that she is not reconsidering her decision to bypass a run against Quinn.
“My decision was based on nothing else to do but my own considerations, not those of any other potential candidates in the race,” she said.
Democratic state Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago, who also had weighed a primary challenge to Quinn, said he was not reconsidering. Raoul indicated his decision was due to a variety of factors, not simply whether the primary would have been “a three-way or a two-way race.”
* Related…
* Is Bill Daley back in frame as possible Ambassador to Ireland?
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Why isn’t there more coverage of this story?
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Fox Chicago ran a story this week about a man who spent 14 months in Cook County Jail after being busted for violating a state Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon law that was recently tossed out by the Illinois Supreme Court. A total of twenty people are being released from Cook County’s lockup in the wake of the ruling and another 60 will have charges dropped.
From the story…
Edward Hambrick has already spent more time behind bars at the Cook County Jail than some who’ve been convicted of violent crimes. His case began 26 months ago, when he said he left Pierre, South Dakota, where he’d been working as a computer programmer, to return to his native Englewood for a 20th high school class reunion.
Hambrick was staying at his mother’s house. Law enforcement sources told FOX 32 News it’s on a block controlled by a faction of the Black P Stone street gang. While his South Dakota license plates might have drawn attention, Chicago police said they stopped Hambrick on 79th Street because he wasn’t using his truck’s seat belt. That’s when an officer found his loaded, .45 caliber Taurus handgun and two magazines with 10 rounds each.
“‘Whose gun is that in the car?’ I said, ‘It’s mine.’ He said, ‘Well, why do you have a gun?’ I said, ‘For the same reason you have a gun, to protect myself,’” Hambrick says, describing his conversation with the cop.
Hambrick said he showed the police his Illinois Firearm Owner’s ID card, as well as a concealed carry permit valid in South Dakota. Precisely because he’d grown up on the bloody streets of Englewood, he said, he felt he needed a gun to protect himself. Hambrick, who said he once belonged to the National Rifle Association, admits he became belligerent as he then addressed the alleged shortcomings of Chicago’s gun laws.
“He said, ‘Well, Chicago has this ordinance that bans guns and you can’t have a loaded weapon, blah, blah, blah,’” Hambrick recalls. “I said, ‘Officer, did you take an oath to the constitution?’ He said, ‘Yes. We all did.’ ‘So, right now you’re violating your oath and you’re violating my rights.’ They subsequently ignored all that and arrested me for Aggravated UUW.”
It’s that charge, aggravated unauthorized use of a weapon for personal possession, that the State Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional last week. That’s why a spokeswoman said State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez will send assistant prosecutors into courtrooms Tuesday asking to dismiss AUUW charges against about 80 defendants, including 20 or so like Hambrick who couldn’t bond out and are in County Jail.
The 40-year old Hambrick said he wouldn’t plead guilty even to a lesser charge because it would instantly end his career in information technology.
So, isn’t the release of this guy an admission by State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez that people who have a valid FOID card and aren’t committing any other felonies can now carry loaded, concealed guns in Cook County?
Either way, I’m still amazed that the recent ILSCt ruling hasn’t managed to generate more interest from the Chicago media. Baffling, even.
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Today’s quote
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sneed talked to Bill Daley…
◆ Sneed: “I’m told you think Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, who is close to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, could win?”
◆ Daley: “I do think Bruce Rauner is the strongest candidate.”
Of course he does. The two have serious partisan differences, of course, but overall they’re ideological soul mates.
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* So far, at least, Bill Daley’s exit from the Democratic primary is not prompting the Republican candidates to focus their attacks on Gov. Pat Quinn. Instead, they’ve used the occasion to mostly attack each other. Bill Brady…
According to Brady, both Rauner and Dillard have so-called RINO problems to overcome. For Rauner, it’s his association with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“80 percent of those polled by a We Ask America poll say that if they know you were supportive of Rahm Emanuel, meaning Bruce Rauner, it’s a non-starter. They won’t support you as a Republican candidate for governor,” Brady said. […]
Brady said Dillard’s main problem with Republican voters will be his past support for President Obama, appearing in a television ad for Obama during his 2008 campaign. However, Dillard’s quotes in the ad praised then Senator Obama for his ability to work in a bi-partisan way, as well as his negotiation skills.
While more and more voters wish that legislators could work in a bi-partisan manner, Brady thinks party lines supercede that desire, and Dillard’s appearance will hurt him in the race.
“These folks have compromised in ways that [Republican voters] can’t accept.”
* Kirk Dillard…
“It’s very clear that Mr. Rauner is now, especially with Bill Daley out, that Bruce Rauner would be Mr. Emanel’s choice,” Dillard said. “I think you want someone who’s independent from the Mayor of Chicago. We have major battles going on over school funding, funding of the Regional Transportation Authority and I have a respectful and good-working relationship with the Mayor of Chicago, but I’m not in his inner circle as is Bruce Rauner.”
Dillard went on, “I believe that for a Republican nominee, that closeness to Rahm Emanuel - the guy who made Rahm Emanuel rich by giving him tens of millions of dollars right after he left the Clinton administration - that is not a healthy governmental relationship for a Republican governor.” […]
As for Bill Brady, “he proved last time - in 2010 - he was unelectable and it hasn’t gotten easier for him this time,” Dillard said.
* But Bruce Rauner did stick to the subject of Quinn…
“We’re the worst run state in America. And it’s all about lack of leadership, all about lack of driving results. Quinn, clearly — worst governor in America. The good news for us is, it doesn’t look like he’s such a crook he’s going to jail.”
* In another interview, Dan Rutherford merely repeated his claims that he was the only candidate who could win in November. And Dillard did get in an anti-Quinn line…
Republican state Sen. Kirk Dillard said, We know Pat Quinn … 12 credit downgradings by Wall Street, an economy that is the second worst in America … he is a completely ineffective leader.”
Coverage follows conflict, and whacking each other is a surefire way of getting into the newspapers and on TV. Expect more of it.
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Hearing today on lawmaker pay
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
A Cook County Circuit Court judge was expected to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging Gov. Pat Quinn’s decision to stop lawmakers from being paid until they agree on how to deal with Illinois’ nearly $100 billion public pension problem.
House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton sued after Quinn used his line-item veto earlier this summer to cut money for legislators’ salaries from the state budget. They contend that their fellow Chicago Democrat’s actions were unconstitutional and violated the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
The lawmakers have asked Judge Neil Cohen to order paychecks to be issued. Cohen set oral arguments for Wednesday. It was unclear if he planned to rule immediately following the hearing or at a later date.
* Tribune…
There are a number of potential outcomes to the hearing before Judge Neil Cohen. He could rule legislators should be paid immediately with back pay. He could rule in favor of lawmakers but put the decision on hold while the governor’s office appeals it. He could stand by Quinn. And Cohen could listen to arguments and take some time to deliberate.
* Bloomberg…
Quinn, in a July 30 statement, called the lawsuit “just plain wrong.”
The governor’s intent shouldn’t be disregarded, his attorneys said in a Sept. 13 court filing. “A line-item veto, after all, is part of a legislative process for which the fulfillment of legislative intent is the primary objective.”
The Legislature maintains the power to override his veto rendering the lawsuit moot, Quinn said in an earlier filing.
The lawmakers disputed Quinn’s assertion their case was merely hypothetical because the legislative process hasn’t run its course.
“This will come as a surprise to the legislators (and their families), who now have not been paid for two months,” Madigan and Cullerton said in a Sept. 6 filing. “Perhaps their banks can issue hypothetical credits to their accounts so that they can write hypothetical checks to pay their very real monthly bills.”
Subscribers have those September filings.
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Bustos barely leads Schilling
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Bobby Schilling publicized a poll I had taken for subscribers this week. Kinda ticks me off, but here’s part of his press release…
- A new We Ask America poll indicates U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline) is in for a tough rematch against Bobby Schilling (R-Colona). The poll of 1,496 voters in the Illinois 17th District gives Bustos a slim 45-44 lead over Schilling, which falls within the margin of error. Schilling leads among Independents 51-34. The poll sampled 37% Democrats, 24% Republicans, and 39% Independents.
Some of the crosstabs from the poll are here. Subscribers have results and crosstabs for all questions asked.
* The DCCC knows they have a fight on their hands. From a Sun-Times story during my vacation…
The chair of the Democratic House political operation on Tuesday deemed every Chicago area incumbent in good shape heading into the 2014 contests, not expecting—with one exception—replays of bruising 2012 battles.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) briefed reporters on the 2014 political landscape at a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor.
I asked Israel about the Illinois House delegation, which has a large Democratic freshman contingent: Rep. Robin Kelly, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Brad Schneider, Rep. Cheri Bustos, Rep. William Enyart and Rep. Bill Foster, who is a freshman with an asterisk since he has previously served in Congress.
Kelly is the only one in the freshman bunch from a safe Democratic district—you may remember, the one that re-elected former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. last year—even though no one had seen him for months and there were ethics clouds handing over him. Jackson is, as most of you need no reminding, booked for a 2.5 year prison term starting Nov. 1.
DCCC polling shows all of the freshmen incumbents “running strong,” Israel said.
The members with the biggest fights on their hands are Bustos and Enyart, representing Downstate districts that “some would call more competitive,” Israel said.
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* From WUIS…
Running against [Attorney General Lisa Madigan] will not be easy. She’s a three-term incumbent, has one of the richest campaign funds in Illinois, and happens to be in one of the state’s most powerful political families.
But none of that is deterring [Republican] Paul Schimpf, a retired Marine Corps lawyer from the town of Waterloo.
“Unlike four years ago or eight years ago, I actually think there are a number of reasons that Democrats — not Republicans, but Democrats — would vote against Lisa Madigan,” Schimpf says. […]
“Who can you trust to protect your religious liberty? Who can you trust to be an honest broker on the pensions issue? Who can you trust to actually fight corruption?” Schimpf asks. “I can do a better job than Lisa can.”
Discuss.
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Fun with numbers
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office did its best to play down the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down a gun control law last week…
Cook County prosecutors will drop weapons charges pending against a small number of licensed firearms owners after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled this week that part of a state gun law is unconstitutional.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state prosecutors must follow a ruling from a federal appeals court last year that ended Illinois’ status as the last state without a concealed carry law.
The ruling from the state’s highest court affects only a portion of a law prohibiting people from carrying guns outside their homes. Cases of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon brought against people who have valid FOID cards and were carrying firearms will not be pursued, prosecutors and defense attorneys said. […]
“It’s going to be a very, very small percentage of those charged,” said Fabio Valentini, who heads the Cook County state’s attorney’s office’s criminal prosecutions bureau. The office does not plan to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a spokeswoman.
* From the Twitters today…
Eighty people is probably a small percentage of those charged with violating the law, but that’s still quite a lot of people.
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Still kicking myself
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I went out with some pals after work yesterday to enjoy the cool air and warm sun and maybe pick up a story idea or two.
My phone rang at 5:25 pm. I noticed it was a friend who is very close to Bill Daley’s campaign. But somebody was telling a funny story about his vacation, so I didn’t answer the call. My friend didn’t leave a message, so I figured it must not be too important and I’d just call back when I got home.
* An hour and a half later, I was at Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign kickoff event when everybody’s phones suddenly started blowing up, including mine…
That text was from the same person who’d called me earlier.
Oops.
* I’m still so mad at myself for not answering that call and then getting scooped by the Tribune that I felt I needed to share my pain.
Arghhhh!!!!
Anybody else have a similar story?
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More consequences of the Rauner plan
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A little-discussed aspect of Bruce Rauner’s term limit proposal is that it reduces the size of the Illinois Senate by almost a third…
Rauner is heading a petition drive to institute term limits, to make it harder for legislators to override a governor’s veto, and to reduce the size of the General Assembly. His plan adds a handful of members to the Illinois House, but takes away 18 senators.
Rauner says that’ll make elections more competitive.
“By having three House members per Senate district, no one House member already has half the district sort of locked up and have power of incumbency there,” he says. “It’ll allow challengers to take on incumbents.”
* Rauner opponent Kirk Dillard makes a very good point in opposing the idea…
“I think it’s a real slap in the face to downstate Illinois to downsize the state Senate because the districts become so geographically large, your chances of having input face to face to your state senator are greatly diminished,” Dillard says.
* Click the pic for a larger image, but it’s easy to see that lots of Downstate districts are already huge…
The 53rd Senate District is well over 5,000 square miles, for example. But it would have to grow much larger if the current 59 seats were reduced to 41.
* Texas has 36 Senate districts, so each has about 724,000 people in them. Those districts have more people than congressional districts. California’s 40 Senate districts have even more people in them, with over 950,000 per district.
So, I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Rauner’s idea comes into being. But things would definitely be different. For instance, if you think the Democratic map spokes Chicago districts pretty darned far into the suburbs now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Treasurer Dan Rutherford believes that Bill Daley’s decision to drop out of the governor’s race helps Gov. Pat Quinn…
“Without having to contest a primary, he won’t be spending as much money, so he’ll be able to reserve his funds. For those of us that are in a contested primary, we’ll need to use our funds and replenish to get ready for the General Election, so that’s an advantage for him,” Rutherford said.
* Ed Morrissey at Hot Air believes the same…
Daley had the money and the organization to force Quinn to spend a lot of money and effort in the primary, leaving him weaker in the general election.
* There was a debate about this in comments last night as well. Some believed that Daley’s move benefits the Republican Party for an obvious reason…
Of course it helps the GOP.
You just guaranteed that you will be facing an incumbent with perhaps the lowest approval rating in the country while presiding over the 50th worst unemployment rate in America.
Short term? It would have been nice to have Daley beat up Quinn for a while and force him to spend cash.
Long term? You would much rather face Quinn than Daley or just about anyone else. Even with his reputation as a strong closer.
Plus, every GOP contender just got themselves a nice punching bag. If you don’t want to bloody the party, you pile on and bloody your common enemy. This may actually serve to unite the candidates a bit (not completely, but a bit) by focusing them on a single opponent.
* The Question: Does Bill Daley’s exit help or hurt the Republican Party’s chances? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
survey service
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Adventures in misgovernance
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The state settled a suit against Sylvia Riperton-Lewis brought by one of her employees at IDHS…
The plaintiff, Kenneth Shanoff, says that Riperton-Lewis, his supervisor at the Illinois Department of Human Services, made life so unpleasant while he worked at the John Madden Mental Health Center in Chicago that he became ill. He says in his lawsuit that Riperton-Lewis called him a “haughty Jew” after she was hired as a manager in 1996 and once lunged at him with a pen.
Soon after becoming his supervisor, Riperton-Lewis told Shanoff that he did not want to see “this n*gger get angry,” according to his lawsuit, and that she once told him “I know how to put you Jews in your place.” When he asked to have days off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Shanoff says that Riperton-Lewis told him “I don’t give a damn about your holidays.” […]
Riperton-Lewis denied making any discriminatory statements. A federal trial court ruled that Riperton-Lewis’ remarks weren’t sufficient to constitute a hostile work environment and so dismissed the lawsuit, but a three-judge appellate panel disagreed and ordered the case reinstated.
“She (Riperton-Lewis) used her supervisory position to bully, intimidate and insult Shanoff because of his race and religion, which is the type of ‘extreme’ harassment that is the hallmark of a hostile environment claim,” the appellate court wrote in a 2001 ruling that revived the case that was settled soon thereafter. “Riperton-Lewis’s remarks were not merely inappropriate, insulting, demeaning or annoying, and there is no indication that she was teasing Shanoff or that she simply lacked a proper sensitivity to his race and religion.”
Taxpayers shelled out $300,000 to settle the suit without anyone admitting any wrongdoing.
* But guess what? She’s now back on the payroll…
Last month, the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services hired Riperton-Lewis as a manager for the the department’s Bureau of Quality Management, a position exempt from civil service rules. She is paid $94,500 a year, more than $2,000 more than she was paid when she last worked for the state.
Sheesh.
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Pwned!
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This photo was shared by Gov. Quinn’s campaign. It’s from a Labor Day event that Bill Daley apparently did not advance all that well…
Oof.
Best caption wins a free beverage on me anywhere in Illinois.
…Adding… You can watch Daley’s 9:30 press conference live by clicking here.
…Adding More… This just doesn’t make sense…
He adamantly refuses to endorse the incumbent Democratic governor and leaves open the possibility that he could endorse Gov. Quinn’s Republican opponent, yet he’s angry that anyone would dare question his Democratic bona fides?
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Bill.
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Brady picks Rodriguez
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I told subscribers about this last night…
* More…
Rodriguez (53) is the former Village President of Long Grove, Illinois, and was a 2010 GOP candidate for the Congress in the 8th CD, losing in the primary to former Congressman Joe Walsh.
During her 2010 bid, Rodriguez was endorsed by conservative groups such as Concerned Women for America (CWA), Eagle Forum PAC, Susan B. Anthony and Illinois Pro Life Federation Federal. She was also endorsed by the Sun-Times and the Daily Herald.
Following her 2010 campaign, she was Executive Director of Adam Andrzejewski’s For the Good of Illinois.
* Here she is speaking at a 2010 tea party rally…
Not the greatest public speaker, but that could change.
Despite her surname, Rodriguez is not a Latina. But this still has the potential to be a dramatic pick for Brady.
* And here’s a photo of Brady and Rodriguez from a 2010 Family PAC event…
Shall we welcome her to the race with a caption contest?
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“This isn’t the best thing for me”
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Greg Hinz talked to Bill Daley…
“I’ve thought about elective office as sort of the crowning thing that I’d do,” Mr. Daley said in our phone conversation. “It’s one thing to think about it, another thing to do it.”
Mr. Quinn “is in bad (political) shape. I would have beaten him,” said Mr. Daley. “Pat Quinn is a great guy and a White Sox fan. But this state is in deep doo-doo.”
However, he added, “I had to ask, is this really what I want to do in the next four or six or nine years?” There was no one particular event, a poll or attack that drove him out of the race, Mr. Daley said. “It was an accumulation of things . . . Is this what you’re going to commit yourself to?”
Mr. Daley said he has not yet decided who he will support for governor next year, but asked if he will endorse Mr. Quinn, had a one-word answer: “No.” Asked if he actually might endorse a Republican, Mr. Daley replied, “I don’t know . . . I don’t know who’s in the race yet.”
There are so many things wrong with that thinking that I’m almost overwhelmed. But here are two…
1) Essentially, he admitted that he was trying to enhance his resume by running. It was about him, not the office or what he could do for the state.
2) He calls himself a Democrat, but leaves the door opening to endorsing a Republican? It truly was all about him.
* More from the Tribune story…
Daley said the weight of his six-week struggle over whether to continue his candidacy fell heavily last week during a news conference when a reporter reminded him of a Quinn comment that the governor “was put on Earth” to solve the state’s pension dilemma. At the time, Daley said he hoped that he was on Earth for more than just solving the pension mess.
But in an interview at his Loop office Monday, Daley said the moment left him to ponder, “is that really what I’m put on Earth for?”
Ugh.
* We’ve been sucked into a year-long psychodrama by a guy who, ironically, turns out to have few actual leadership skills…
Daley also could have faced questions for his handling of the White House during Obama’s first term.
In “The Message: The Reselling of President Obama,” a new book on the 2012 presidential campaign, political reporter Richard Wolffe quoted one campaign aide describing Daley as a “walking disaster” whose 2011-2012 West Wing stint was “chaotic,” according to Monday’s Washington Post.
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