Question of the day
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
More than half the states to hold primary elections so far have seen record-low turnouts, according to a nonpartisan survey of voter rolls released Monday. That perhaps is a sign of widespread apathy within both political parties ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Of the almost 123 million voters who were eligible to cast ballots in primaries, only 18 million have done so, and states with same-day voter registration actually saw their turnout rates drop, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Despite heavy campaign spending that is poised to make history, 15 of the 25 states that have held statewide primary elections each reported a record low percentage of voters who cast ballots. […]
Nonetheless, Democrats saw a 29 percent decline from 2010’s primaries, the 11th consecutive midterm elections to see a drop in participation.
Republicans posted a 15 percent decline in participation from 2010. But their rate was closer to historical norms after tea party enthusiasm in 2010 led to a turnout spike.
The two parties’ combined participation rate this year is less than half of the most recent high of 32 percent, posted in 1966.
* The Question: Should we abandon traditional partisan primaries and move to an “open” system where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
panel management
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Today’s numbers are grim, but slightly hopeful
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, in June of 2004, total Illinois employment was 5,932,487. Ten years later, in June of 2014, total Illinois employment was 6,068,068.
That’s a net increase of less than 2.3 percent.
In ten years.
Oy.
* In November of 2006, the last time the state’s unemployment rate reached a low of 4.4 percent, total Illinois employment was 6,306,527, or almost 4 percent higher than where we were in June of this year.
* According to the BLS, the state’s labor force in November of 2006 stood at 6,599,004. The state’s labor force then reached its peak in January of 2008 at 6,725,940. It’s now at 6,529,781 - an astonishing drop of almost 200,000 people.
* One BLS graph shows we are starting to bounce back a bit. Employment…
* But look at the labor force trend…
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One way or the other, the bill has to be paid
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Pat Gauen on the bickering between Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner over the state’s finances…
(I)t’s important to remember that the mess was delivered not by today’s sons but by their political fathers. The problems follow decades of others’ leadership that operated the state on credit while courting votes from happy constituents who suffered neither service decreases nor tax increases.
The recession finally delivered the bill, like a waitress bringing a sizable check to a table of people who ate and drank more than they realized.
They can argue, blaming each other for who ordered what. But when the bickering is done, somebody has to figure out how to pay.
Yep.
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Tax issues are bipartisan because they work
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Some Republicans have complained (with some justification) that Bruce Rauner is being excoriated for legally avoiding paying payroll taxes over two years. But this rather draggy, not well produced YouTube ad by Republican Darlene Senger’s campaign uses basically the same issue against her Democratic opponent…
Bill Foster voted to raise our taxes, even though in 2011 he didn’t pay any taxes at all.
The video…
Obviously, Foster did pay some taxes, like sales taxes. But it’s a good political issue to use against somebody and that’s why people do it.
Also, note to the Senger campaign: If you want people to watch your YouTube ads, make them shorter, make them more watchable, give them some snap, for crying out loud. YouTube ads shouldn’t just be a mass dumping ground.
* Meanwhile, Republicans have also complained about Pat Quinn’s demands that Bruce Rauner release his 2013 taxes - which he hasn’t yet filed - and provide much more details about his previous tax returns. As much as the GOP hates to admit it, that attack works as well. Illinois Review…
Former Congressman Bob Dold is polling ahead of freshman incumbent U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider in the north suburban 10th CD, and the Congressional Leadership Fund is taking advantage of Illinois voters’ disgust with corrupt politicians to raise even more questions about re-electing Schneider.
The Congressman refuses to be transparent, the group says, by refusing to open his tax returns for public perusal.
“Illinois voters have seen too many corrupt politicians with a lot to hide, and Illinois 10 residents deserve the truth from Brad Schneider. Brad Schneider may claim he will release just his 2013 return, but hitting the delay button while still hiding his 2011-2012 tax returns tells voters he’s not serious about accountability” spokeswoman for CLF Emily Davis said Thursday.
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Adventures in tracking
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A series of texts from someone on the Pat Quinn campaign…
FYI we just found Rauner’s tracker in the bathroom.
Again
In church where the gov is having event
Lol
…Adding… The Rauner campaign says the Quinnsters are “lying” and point to this Tweet as evidence that their tracker couldn’t even get inside today…
* There won’t be many tracker opportunities for Gov. Quinn’s folks at tomorrow’s Chris Christie events…
Republican Governors Association Chairman Chris Christie will travel to Chicago, IL this Friday to attend events for the RGA, GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
Friday, July 25
3:00PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends an RGA finance event in Chicago, IL.
Press: CLOSED
4:15PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie and GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner attend a retail stop in Chicago, IL.
Press: OPEN; Availability to follow
For Press interested in attending, contact Lyndsey Walters at xxxx@xxxxx.com
5:00PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner in Chicago, IL.
Press: CLOSED
6:30PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends a fundraiser for Florida Gov. Rick Scott in Chicago, IL.
Press: CLOSED
* Unless, of course, the Quinnsters try to emulate the Michigan Republicans. The Michigan GOP is using trackers who wear eyeglasses that contain a hidden camera in their frames. I kid you not and the GOP freely admits it…
For the third time this year, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer is accusing Republicans of attempting to spy on his campaign.
But this time, the suspected political subterfuge involves a high-tech hidden camera and a video memory disk that fell into the hands of Democrats.
And Republicans are defending their campaign snooping.
Schauer’s campaign and Oakland County Democrats recently came into possession of a tiny disk containing raw video footage of a young woman and man who secretly recorded a Schauer campaign fundraiser June 22 at a private home in Bloomfield Hills.
* The Michigan Democrats posted some of the video they found on YouTube…
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* The Executive Mansion isn’t the only state property falling into disrepair. Greg Hinz…
The carpeting is beyond ratty, literally held together by duct tape on almost every floor.
The ceiling leaks and the metal panels are rusted. The walls need repainting, and many are discolored. The covered walkway around the building is filthy, and the planters finally got a few plants just last week, though the dead growth from last season’s roses is still there.
Even the landmark Dubuffet sculpture looks discolored, old and tired.
If you wanted to pick a metaphor for the sad shape of Illinois and its government, you couldn’t do better — really, I should say worse — than to stop by the James R. Thompson Center in the North Loop, the seat of state government in Illinois’ largest city. Though the marble floors sparkle and signs of recent work exist here and there, overall it’s a truly sad sight. […]
“It looks like a scrap heap,” [former Gov. Jim Thompson said]. “It’s terrible, just terrible.” […]
“They still have the same [carpet] we put in when the building opened in 1985,” Mr. Thompson said. “And we did cheap carpeting then to stay within the budget. But it wasn’t supposed to last 30 years.”
“What kind of message does it send,” he continues, when visitors walk into a dump? “What impression do you want people to have of state government?”
Discuss.
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Rauner takes page from Oberweis playbook
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Back in 2006, GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis faked some newspaper headlines in a couple of TV ads…
Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis is launching two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines to attack front-runner Judy Baar Topinka’s integrity.
The words are displayed as if they appeared on the front pages of the Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the State Journal-Register of Springfield.
But Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said, “those aren’t headlines.” Instead, he said, the “text is excerpted” from stories that appeared in those publications. A review of the stories did not find the exact words as they were presented in the ads, which are to begin airing Wednesday.
“We are not printing a newspaper,” Wiegand said Tuesday. “We are doing a television advertisement.”
Charles Wheeler, a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, called the ads deceitful.
* Bruce Rauner is doing pretty much the same thing with his latest TV ad…
Bruce Rauner debuted his latest attack ad against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday — a TV spot called “Headlines” that relies in part on independent news stories but features headlines the Republican’s campaign made up and doctored to make them sound more critical. […]
But in two other cases, the Rauner ad makes up headlines that did not appear with the source cited, and in at least three other cases, headlines were shortened to buttress the campaign’s attack on Quinn. Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf defended the technique, saying in an e-mail that “due to time and space constraints, the phrases had to be condensed.”
In one case, the ad displays the words “Quinn education cuts lead to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes,” which the Rauner campaign attributes to an April 11 Associated Press report that appeared on the Washington Times web site.
But the actual headline was “Quinn, Rauner spar on education in 1st 2014 event” from a story about a joint appearance by the two candidates before the Illinois Education Association.
The quoted “headline” by the Rauner camp’s ad also does not appear as a phrase in the AP’s news article. Instead, the “headline” paraphrases a Rauner attack on Quinn from the event, not an independent statement of fact from the AP.
* From today’s Quinn presser…
* The ad in question…
Discuss.
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Today’s must-read
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Springfield’s top lobbyist, Gov. Pat Quinn, House Speaker Michael Madigan, David Axelrod’s son and many others were all apparently bamboozled by a guy who took advantage of a lucrative federal program to raise millions from overseas investors for a complete turkey of a project. Fortune Magazine…
On Nov. 15, 2012, about 100 people gathered in a parking lot near O’Hare Airport in Chicago for a ceremonial occasion: the demolition of a fleabag motel to make way for what was intended to be a world-changing construction project. Next door to a Hooters restaurant, just off the Kennedy Expressway, was to rise a commercial and environmental wonder—the “World’s First Zero Carbon Platinum LEED-certified and 100% Allergen Free convention center and hotel complex.” Lest anyone doubt its global eco-import, the project’s developer was branding it as a “Kyoto Protocol Centre.” At a projected cost of $913 million, it was to include three connected towers—14, 17, and 19 stories tall—containing five upscale hotels with 995 suites and rooms, four levels of convention space, a green roof with a spa and yoga studio, a miniature golf course, and a 1,720-car “automatic robotic” parking garage. All this would be financed with the help of a government immigration program known as EB-5, which allows wealthy foreigners to obtain U.S. citizenship by sinking $500,000 apiece into a venture that creates American jobs. Spellbound by the sales pitch—which included “guarantees” that the project would deliver visas and juicy returns—nearly 300 eager Chinese investors had anted up a total of $147 million.
Go read the whole thing. Fascinating stuff.
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Fanning the flames
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The AP rewrites the Sun-Times story from yesterday…
Emails turned over to a legislative panel have raised questions about the role of politics in Gov. Pat Quinn’s defunct anti-violence program that’s under federal investigation, according to a published report Wednesday.
Exchanges between former Quinn aides appear to show a suburban Chicago mayoral race factored into determining which service providers got money through the 2010 Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Quinn started the approximately $55 million program to help curb neighborhood violence. Earlier this year, state auditors detailed problems with mismanagement and misspending, and top Republicans claimed it was a political slush fund to help Quinn ahead of a close November 2010 election.
Notice how the AP labels the program as “the 2010 Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.”
But hold on a second. The e-mail exchange actually happened in 2011 - which is, of course, after the 2010 election. You have to read further down in the AP story to see a mention of 2011.
* BND…
Just days before the 2010 gubernatorial election, two of Gov. Pat Quinn’s top lieutenants were talking about expanding a controversial anti-crime grant program to East St. Louis. […]
Emails obtained by the News-Democrat show that the former head of the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, Barbara Shaw, wrote to the head of another state agency about expanding the program to downstate, including East St. Louis.
The email was sent Oct. 25, 2010 — just eight days before the election — to Michelle Saddler, the head of the Illinois Department of Human Services.
“Hi, Michelle. Any further thoughts about taking NRI to Rockford, Decatur and East St. Louis?” Shaw stated in the email. “If we want to do that, it would be great to announce it this week.”
Saddler, as secretary of the Department of Human Services, served on the Violence Prevention Authority’s board.
The expansion never happened. And, as it turned out, those Downstate communities, including ESL, were part of a different anti-violence program. Director Saddler’s response e-mail, if any, and e-mail exchanges leading up to the one Shaw sent weren’t included in the story.
…Adding… The reporter on the ESL story says he couldn’t find any response by Saddler.
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* The Cook County Board approved a non-binding referendum on gun control yesterday…
Democratic board members unanimously supported the gun control measure, which asks if the state should “require universal background checks for firearm transfers and prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and high capacity ammunition magazines?”
Gov. Pat Quinn also has called for a similar law, though legislation has failed to move forward in Springfield. The board’s approval of the ballot question comes as Quinn’s campaign has tried to hit Republican rival Bruce Rauner on the issue. Recently, Quinn’s campaign released a new online video juxtaposing TV news reports on Chicago gun violence with footage of Rauner stating he believes gun owners should be free to use assault weapons for “target practice … on their property as they choose fit.”
Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the ballot measure was a continuation of the board’s attempt to reduce gun violence – not part of a coordinated effort.
* But soon after, Quinn’s government office sent out this release…
“This November, voters in Cook County will have an opportunity to raise their voices at the ballot box on two important issues to keep our streets safer.
“The violence epidemic in Chicago has taken far too many lives.
“While many factors contribute to the wars on our streets, there’s no question that there is a crying need for common-sense gun laws that make our communities safer.
“No child in any community should have to fear for their lives when they step outside.
“Military-style assault weapons have no place on our streets. These weapons – which have the capacity to shoot a large volume of ammunition – have no purpose other than killing. By taking these weapons off our streets, we can help lessen the risk for tragic mass shootings that have destroyed innocent lives across our country.
“Additionally, universal background checks for gun sales will help ensure that guns don’t get in the wrong hands.
“I applaud the Cook County Board for adding these important referendums. With proper gun control regulations and investment in mental health care we can help save lives and improve safety within our communities.”
* And early this morning, Quinn’s campaign office sent out a media advisory…
CHICAGO – Governor Pat Quinn will support the recently approved Cook County referendum questions regarding gun safety and a ban on military-style assault weapons.
WHEN: 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: People’s Church of the Harvest
3570 W. Fifth Avenue
Chicago, 60624
* And Republican board members kept a low profile…
Republicans on the board, including state GOP chairman Com. Tim Schneider, did not oppose the gun control measure. Instead, they requested to be marked as “present” during the vote.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Rauner campaign response…
Pat Quinn’s anti-crime policies have been disastrous for Illinois. He has let numerous violent criminals out of jail early, only to see them commit more crimes. He has turned an anti-violence program into a political slush fund that is now under local and federal investigation. His only answer is a non-binding election year referendum. Pat Quinn is just not serious about dealing with crime in our communities. It’s tragic.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Quinn campaign…
Governor Pat Quinn today announced his support for Cook County’s referendum question asking voters this fall whether the state should ban the sale and transfer of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Governor Quinn also denounced Bruce Rauner’s cowardly silence on the issue of gun violence and his support for military-style assault weapons. Rauner has said that people should be able to use military-style assault weapons “as they choose fit.”
Governor Quinn is pushing legislation to ban semi-automatic, military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
“There is no place in Illinois for military-style assault weapons,” Governor Quinn said. “These weapons are specifically designed to rapidly fire at human targets and kill, only proliferating the violence epidemic that is plaguing our communities. Bruce Rauner’s strong support for military-style assault weapons is not only out-of-touch, but extremely dangerous to our children, our communities and our policemen who put their life on the line every day to keep us safe.”
Earlier this week, the Quinn for Illinois campaign released a Web video highlighting Rauner’s continued support for the proliferation of semi-automatic, military-style assault weapons in Illinois. The video shows Rauner’s response at a Republican gubernatorial debate earlier this year, where he voiced strong support for assault weapon ownership, and merely shrugged when an incredulous host asked, “When it would make sense to use an assault weapon?”
Watch the video and Rauner’s comments here: http://youtu.be/LwpqXHTHW7U .
Last year, the Governor met with parents who lost children in the Newtown, Conn., tragedy and worked with them to advocate for legislation to ban the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines in Illinois. The Governor is currently pushing Senate Bill 3659 - the Illinois Public Safety Act - to make Illinois communities safer by banning the delivery or sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines and military-style assault weapons, and requiring background checks for the transfer of guns.
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Teh crazy spreads
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Review…
The Ottawa Times and the Kankakee Daily Journal report that the Ku Klux Klan (yes there is still at least one of them around) has been leaving leaflets in communities in Northern Illinois.
The leaflets have so far been found in the Illinois towns of Streator, New Lenox, Tinley Park and Seneca. It appears only one person is involved in the leaflet campaign.
* But it’s not just northern Illinois. The Klan hit Effingham the weekend before last…
A distribution of Ku Klux Klan recruitment material in Effingham during the weekend resulted in 20 anxious calls to Effingham Police Department.
“The first call to us came at about 9 p.m. on Saturday. It concerned Klan material being left on private property. There were about 20 calls overall about this incident. It was something out of the ordinary for our community and people wanted to make contact with the police department,” said Effingham Police Chief Mike Schutzbach Monday morning.
The group is attempting to take advantage of the rage over the current border problems…
The one-page flier promoted the Klan and sought recruits through what one Klan spokesman called a national “Night Ride.” Dozens or possibly hundreds of them were left on Effingham residential driveways and sidewalks across the city during the weekend.
The material was contained in plastic baggies and weighted down by small gravel rocks. There were no direct threats contained in the material, but a recorded message on the “Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” hotline advocated “shoot-to-kill” policies along the United States border with Mexico and stated, “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right!”
* From the Ottawa Times…
Robert Jones, a high-ranking official with the Loyal White Knights, told The Daily Journal he believes border patrols should shoot all immigrants attempting to cross illegally. A message on the leaflet’s telephone number says the same.
“It’s supposed to be, protect the border at all costs,” Jones said. “I think it should be a shoot-to-kill policy if it doesn’t stop. They’re not even supposed to be here and they’re destroying America.”
But…
The number of Klan chapters has declined nationally from 221 in 2010 to 163 at the most current tally taken in 2013. While the Loyal White Knights group has grown, their members largely have come from groups which have ceased to exist, Potok said. National membership is between 4,000 and 6,000 members.
“It’s good to let local police know if you get a leaflet,” Potok said. “It’s not a crime, but it helps to keep an eye on where they’re operating.”
My maternal grandfather was from southern Illinois. He used to derisively joke that it was easy to tell who the hooded Klansmen were because everybody recognized their horses.
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