* 4:41 pm - Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka and Gov. Pat Quinn were both endorsed by the Illinois AFL-CIO, according to a news release from the organization.
I think this is the first time that the AFL-CIO has endorsed a statewide Republican since 1986, when Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar were given the nod, so it’s a very big deal for JBT and a major, crushing defeat for Sheila Simon.
And the nod for Quinn should put to rest the constant media speculation that all of organized labor is angry with him - although you gotta figure that AFSCME and the teachers weren’t too pleased with this move.
Additionally, the [AFL-CIO] board passed a resolution to engage union members to defeat GOP candidate for Governor Bruce Rauner. Rauner, a billionaire private equity magnate, has advocated for a minimum wage cut and made his disdain for unions a centerpiece of his campaign.
“It’s critical that we not only advocate for who we think will be the best candidates for working families, but that we also make sure workers understand who is using them as scapegoats for the state’s problems,” [Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan] said.
* Surprise, surprise, Eden Martin uses his Sun-Times column to endorse his old friend Bruce Rauner…
Supporters of some of the establishment Republican candidates for governor and a few media commentators are now taking shots at political newcomer and present front-runner Bruce Rauner. Some say he has an “arrogant” streak, and others claim it’s hypocritical for a wealthy candidate to refer in campaign ads to wearing an old watch or driving an old van.
I’ve worked with Bruce for years on state finance and education policy, and I can understand how some who disagree with him might easily mistake self-confidence for arrogance. But I’ve found him to be smart, disciplined and focused on getting results. Full disclosure: I like and respect him, and I’ve contributed to his campaign.
He’s not only given money to Rauner’s campaign, he hooked Rauner up with a key supporter. Mark Brown has the story…
The Rev. James Meeks, a former Democratic state senator who pulled out of the 2011 mayor’s race against Emanuel, and Rev. Marshall Hatch, a lower-profile West Side minister most recently in the news for helping bring Rev. Al Sharpton to town, are actively supporting his campaign, Rauner told a Gurnee audience in November.
“They want more jobs, and they want better schools, and the Democrats aren’t delivering,” explained Rauner, who said he expects to win 25 percent of the city vote with their help, enough to keep a Republican competitive in a statewide race. […]
In a phone interview this week, Meeks confirmed he supports Rauner and said he will try to convince other African-American ministers to help him, too.
“I was with him since Day One,” said Meeks, who describes Rauner as a friend and fly-fishing buddy with a shared interest in education. “I think he will do good things for people.”
Meeks said he’d never heard of Rauner before Eden Martin, President of the Civic Committee, called on Rauner’s behalf about five years ago to request a meeting. […]
Rauner ended up paying a three-hour visit to Salem Baptist Church, the 20,000-member megachurch Meeks built in Roseland.
That led to dinners and eventually Rauner hosting Meeks for some fly-fishing at his ranch in Montana. Now he and Rauner email back and forth with photos of fish they’ve caught, Meeks said.
* The two met in 2008, when Meeks was leading protests demanding that South Side kids be allowed to enroll in New Trier. Ironically, Rauner was trying to get his New Trier daughter into a Chicago public school at the same time.
Mark is quite surprised at Meeks’ support for Rauner, but look at the history. Meeks initially fought for a Dawn Clark Netsch-like tax hike for schools, but that was blocked by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Meeks never forgave the Speaker. So, Meeks and Rauner have their distaste for Madigan in common.
* Meeks eventually soured on the whole project and in 2010 keynoted an Illinois Policy Institute school choice symposium. He launched a blistering attack on teachers unions at that event, another Rauner enemy.
* And, of course, there was this tweet from last summer when Rauner announced he was running…
Congrats @BruceRauner. I think you will make a great governor.
— Rev. James T. Meeks (@revjamesmeeks) June 5, 2013
An obscure panel of lawmakers unexpectedly shot down video gambling reforms Tuesday, leaving regulators grasping to close loopholes in the lucrative business.
Aaron Jaffe, chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, which proposed the reforms, said he was “astounded” by the move, which came with no public discussion after a closed-door meeting by the lawmakers.
“This is an open invitation for bad people to come into gambling,” Jaffe said.
In explaining the vote, state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said the Gaming Board “exceeded their authority.” Lang, who has long supported gambling expansion and who has often been at odds with Jaffe over regulation, received about $70,000 in campaign contributions tied to a Louisiana businessman who could be excluded by the reform.
First of all, this was a unanimous decision by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. The committee is only “obscure” to those who know little about it. It’s also a bipartisan committee that’s co-chaired by Democratic Sen. Don Harmon and Republican Rep. Tim Schmitz. Look at the membership list for yourself and tell me everybody on there is an ally of organized crime. Please.
The Illinois Gaming Board is demanding answers about why a panel of lawmakers this week rejected a series of proposed video gambling reforms, including blacklisting some felons..
* OK, wait a second. These rules went way beyond “blacklisting some felons.”
And maybe Chairman Jaffe or the Sun-Times could’ve just picked up the phone and called a random JCAR member. I chose Rep. Greg Harris, who said committee members had a few major concerns.
The emergency rule, Harris said, would conceivably banish far too many people from working in bars, restaurants, etc. where video gaming terminals are located. A waitress with a pot conviction 30 years ago could possibly be put on the board’s “exclusion list,” Harris said. And the same goes for people who work for vendors who supply those taverns, restaurants, truck stops, etc. and for those who aren’t even convicted of anything.
Also, the Gaming Board chose to issue emergency rules, rather than go through the normal rule-making process. There were just too many questions about whether the proposed rules went further than the law allows.
The Administrator or Board may place a person on the Video Gaming Board Exclusion List for any of the following reasons (which parallel the reasons for placement on the existing Riverboat Gambling Exclusion List established for riverboat gambling by Subpart G of 86 Ill. Admin. Code 3000):
* Conviction in any jurisdiction of a felony, crime involving gaming, crime of moral turpitude, or crime of dishonesty. […]
* Performance of any act, or notorious or unsavory reputation, that would adversely affect public confidence and trust in gaming.
Yep. Pretty darned broad, and well beyond the rules for Riverboats, which the Gaming Board claims this proposal “parallels.”
Less yellow journalism, please.
…Adding… Wordslinger makes some excellent points in comments…
Seriously, a “black book” for video gambling? Give me a break. How do you skim the machines when they’re hooked up to a state monitor and the state collects and disburses the money?
By Jaffee’s logic, shouldn’t you have a “black book” for every business that has a lottery machine?
Just like the lottery put the illegal Policy Wheel games out of business, legal video gambling will put illegal video gambling out of business. So who’s shilling for whom here?
* Do you think any of the three Republican gubernatorial candidates who are being vastly outspent by Bruce Rauner should drop out of the race? If so, which one(s)? Take the poll and then don’t forget to explain your answer in comments, please.
* I forgot to put up a link for this morning’s Republican gubernatorial debate. However, here are the tweets from three reporters on the scene, Mary Ann Ahern, Mike Riopell and Natasha Korecki. Click here if your phone can’t see the embed…
Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner poured $3.2 million into advertising during the final three months of last year, far outraising and outspending his three rivals for the March 18 nomination, campaign disclosure reports show.
Rauner spent more than he raised, but he’s a kabillionaire and can afford it. Not so much for Kirk Dillard.
* Check out the burn rate for a campaign that has done almost nothing except, well, I’m not sure what…
Dillard, of Hinsdale, who lost the 2010 nomination to Brady by 193 votes, reported raising $328,700 in the two funds he controls during the last three months of 2013. He spent $389,555, leaving $144,866 in cash to start the year. He has raised $6,000 since Jan. 1, but he also is carrying a $50,000 personal debt in one of his campaign funds.
He barely has enough in his account to pay January’s overhead expenses. Not good.
* Dan Rutherford is the only candidate in a financial position to make a major run if Rauner stumbles or is knocked off his throne…
Rutherford brought in $393,000 during the final three months of 2013. The more than $1.37 million in his political fund as of Dec. 31, leaves Rutherford as the only other candidate positioned to purchase some TV time before the March 18 primary.
State Sen. Bill Brady, one of four Republican candidates for governor, drew in $74,000 during the last three months of 2013, his campaign revealed Wednesday.
Republican candidate for treasurer Tom Cross had shown more than $327,000 in receipts and $388,000 cash on hand in his campaign fund, and primary competitor Bob Grogan reported raising $9,749 last period, closing out his fund with a total of $21,087.
* But unless he can raise any real money, Hardiman’s campaign appears quite doomed…
Gov. Pat Quinn has banked about $4.5 million for his re-election bid.
Campaign finance reports filed late Wednesday show the Chicago Democrat raised about $1.9 million in the final quarter of last year. His biggest donations came from labor unions. […]
Tio Hardiman of Hillside is challenging Quinn in the Democratic primary. Hardiman raised about $15,000 in the same three-month period. He finished 2013 with about $550 in his campaign account.
* Bernie Schoenburg interviewed Bruce Rauner about clouting his kid into Payton Prep back in September. Bernie asked if Rauner called then CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan about his suburban daughter’s application to the Chicago public school…
Well, that’s not what was being reported in various media outlets this week. Rauner did a round of interviews, including talking to ABC, NBC and CBS stations in Chicago, to explain himself on Monday — the day that Sun-Times story hit the streets. All three stations reported that Rauner called Duncan.
Jay Levine of CBS-Channel 2 said in his story: “Rauner admits making a call to Arne Duncan to get his daughter into Payton despite what he calls her middle school attendance record marred by illness.” […]
Mary Ann Ahern, in her story on NBC-Channel 5, said: “Bruce Rauner says yes, he made a phone call to then-Superintendent of Schools Arne Duncan, so his daughter, moving into the city from Winnetka, could get into Walter Payton College Prep.” […]
And CHARLES THOMAS of ABC-Channel 7 reported: “When his daughter’s application was rejected, Rauner admitted calling then-CPS CEO Arne Duncan to get her admitted to Payton, which had a waiting list of over 7,000 city teenagers.” […]
Rauner spokesman MIKE SCHRIMPF said this week that when Rauner told me in September he hadn’t talked with Duncan, it was because of how Rauner interpreted my query.
“They didn’t ask for him to put her into the school,” Schrimpf said of Rauner and his wife, Diana, “which I think is what the thrust of your question was.”
How can Mr. Rauner be trusted to clean up corrupt Springfield when he won’t fully explain how and why Mr. Levine made $25,000 a month trying to get government business for a company owned in part by Mr. Rauner?
As I reported last March, Mr. Rauner made his fortune as a principal in GTCR LLC, the big Chicago private-equity business. In fact, as my colleague Lynne Marek later reported, Mr. Rauner was the key “people person” in the firm, the guy who made the calls to potential clients trying to sign them up. And many of those big clients were pension funds, like the giant Teachers Retirement System of Illinois, which covers just about every public-school teacher in the state outside of Chicago.
That’s why my eyebrows went up when I discovered that in 2003, TRS initially turned down a request from GTCR to handle $50 million in its pension investments. The decision was reversed at the next TRS meeting, after Mr. Rauner personally showed up to make a pitch. And among those who voted to give the firm the $50 million was TRS board member Mr. Levine, whose legal problems hadn’t surfaced yet but who had objected at the first meeting to GTCR’s request.
Nowhere in the minutes of those meetings — and I’ve checked them for both the February 2003 meeting and for the May 2003 meeting — is a pretty pertinent fact disclosed: Mr. Levine at the time was getting $25,000 a month from a medical-bill processing company named CompBenefits that, a few years earlier, had been acquired by GTCR and three other investment companies. In other words, Mr. Rauner was seeking a favor from a guy whose bread was being very well-buttered, in part, by Mr. Rauner’s company.
* Rauner does, indeed, need to answer for this. But I checked with TRS executive director Jon Bauman about his recollections of those two meetings. Rauner claims he’s never met Levine, so I wanted to know if there was any interaction between the two men. His e-mailed reply…
They were both present at the meeting in May 2003 when GTCR got a do-over following a bad presentation at the prior meeting (I think Feb. 2003.) At that meeting, one of Rauner’s partners, a guy named Dave Donnini, showed up solo. We always encouraged money managers presenting to the Board to bring two people in case one screws up, has a bad day, or whatever. They didn’t, the presentation didn’t go well, and both Levine and John Glennon really bashed this guy’s head in. The Board almost voted it down but on the recommendation of the outside investment consultant, postponed action.
In May, Rauner came in with maybe 3 other guys and a clearly well-polished presentation. I don’t recall any controversy and few questions and the Board unanimously voted to approve the Fund.
To the Question, I don’t remember them interacting beyond a handshake or the like at that second meeting. I can tell you unequivocally that Levine never said anything to me about Rauner. He said he objected the first time because the guy was so bad and acted like the Board was a rubber stamp, in so many words.
So, maybe there’s not much “there” there, but Rauner still needs to answer questions.
Trading units of ConvergEx Group, a brokerage firm for big investors, agreed to pay more than $107 million to settle charges brought by U.S. authorities related to overcharging customers when the firm carried out their trades.
The units also agreed to admit wrongdoing, as did former employees Jonathan Daspin and Thomas Lekargeren.
Additionally, the U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against Messrs. Daspin and Lekargeren as well as ConvergeEx Group and a brokerage subsidiary. ConvergEx agreed to pay $43.8 million in penalties and restitution to settle those charges.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, which charged the firm with fraud, said the firms used a system that made customers “unknowingly pay more than double what they understood they were paying to have their orders executed.”
In a statement, ConvergEx said the employees were no longer with the company and that the Bermuda trading desk at the center of the alleged fraud has been shut down, while the activity in question was discontinued two years ago. […]
ConvergEx has faced volatility on other fronts, too. In 2011, a deal to sell itself to CVC Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, fell apart. The next year it managed to sell its Eze Castle Software and RealTick businesses to TPG Capital, another private-equity company, in a deal valued at $1.9 billion. In June it withdrew plans to issue stock to the public but didn’t comment on its decision.
* So how does this matter? Well, that 2011 deal which fell apart was announced thusly…
GTCR, a leading private equity firm, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its portfolio company, ConvergEx Group (“ConvergEx”), to funds advised by CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”). The transaction is an all cash transaction expected to close in the fall following receipt of financing and customary regulatory approvals. ConvergEx is a leading technology company offering software products and technology-enabled services to hedge funds, traditional asset managers, broker-dealers, corporations and plan sponsors. […]
“I’d like to thank GTCR for their unwavering support in helping ConvergEx become an industry-leading company. They have been a true partner,” said Mr. Velli. “We have had a fantastic period of growth with GTCR and look forward to working with CVC as we continue to execute our growth strategy and build out our capabilities to provide unique technologies that today’s marketplace requires.”
Sorenson Communications, an Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) provider, has agreed to pay $15.75 million to settle an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau into whether the company billed the TRS Fund for calls made by unregistered, unverified, or ineligible individuals, and for calls that were made by or on behalf of the provider itself.
In case you aren’t aware of it, the Telecommunications Relay Service provides services to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or who have a speech disability to communicate via the telephone.
Stung by a fortnight of miserable headlines, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner is calling in some major media-relations reinforcements.
Joining Mr. Rauner’s communications shop effective next week will be Lance Trover, a longtime veteran of Illinois politics who most recently has worked for U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., the state’s ranking Republican.
In a brief heads-up phone call late yesterday, Mr. Trover wouldn’t say much but insisted that his “leave of absence” to work for Mr. Rauner is not an indication of where Mr. Kirk stands. “The senator has made it clear he’s not endorsing” in the race among Mr. Rauner, Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford and state Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard, he said.
Trover would be the second Mark Kirk staffer to join the campaign. This is no coincidence.
