GOP poll: Bost 51, Baricevic 35
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* It’s still pretty darned early for this. Also, pay attention to the generic ballot numbers at the end…
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, is leading Democratic challenger C.J. Baricevic 51 to 35 percent, with 14 percent undecided, in a poll of 12th U.S. House District voters released Monday by Harper Polling, a GOP-leaning polling firm. […]
Harper’s poll showed that 24 percent of those surveyed strongly approved of Bost’s job performance, while another 30 percent somewhat approved. Sixteen percent somewhat disapproved, 11 percent strongly disapproved and 18 percent were not sure, according to a survey conducted Sept. 12-13 of 400 likely 12th District voters. […]
Bost is also viewed favorably by majorities of Republican voters (71 percent) and independents (53 percent), according to the survey from Harper Polling, which is based in Harrisburg, Pa.
In addition, 71 percent of voters surveyed said they believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, while another 21 percent said it was moving in the right course. Likely voters were almost evenly split between a generic Republican candidate (43 percent) and a Democratic candidate (41 percent), with 9 percent of voters responding they are not sure, according to the poll.
That district is a lot different in presidential years. Democrat Bill Enyart defeated Jason Plummer by 9 points in 2012.
This is not to say that Bost is in trouble, by any means. Underestimate that guy at your own peril - Enyart and the DCCC did and look where that got them last year.
I’m just saying that the generic ballot doesn’t match up that well with actual district performance.
17 Comments  
|
Progress reported on child care bill
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From SEIU Healthcare…
After months of an intense public campaign to expose and reverse so-called “emergency” rule changes made by Gov. Bruce Rauner to the highly-successful Child Care Assistance Program – a statewide effort driven by providers, parents, children’s advocates, even First Lady Diana Rauner herself – a new report suggests the appearance of cracks in the governor’s dam.
This morning, the Peoria Journal Star reported that Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, sponsor of the legislation to overturn Rauner’s extreme administrative CCAP changes (SB 570), has identified – and in one case already converted – Republican legislators needed to reverse Rauner’s reckless and inhumane policy:
“With the possibility that not all Democrats would be present, she called on the audience to lobby local Republican representatives, even as she warned them that child care for low-income families is not a Republican or Democratic issue.
Gordon-Booth specifically mentioned Reps. Mike Unes, R-East Peoria, Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, and Dan Brady, R-Bloomington. She said another Republican legislator, Dave Leitch, R-Peoria, would vote for the bill but he is sick and unable to attend Thursday’s session.
Contacted later, Leitch said he would probably vote for the bill if he was able to travel to Springfield. “It’s one of the unfortunate casualties of not having a budget yet,” Leitch said. “But I hope it passes, it should pass.”
Earlier this month, SB 570 came up just one vote short on the floor of the Illinois House, and is likely to be reintroduced in Springfield in the coming weeks.
Republicans are now facing the hard reality that the public understands the truth behind Rauner’s extreme rule changes to CCAP, made by Rauner himself without public input or legislative debate – that they have absolutely nothing to do with the current budget impasse in Springfield, and are intended to dismantle the program entirely.
For months, Rauner and his allies have attempted to conflate these extreme, inhumane changes to the CCAP program with the budget impasse generally. Now, it appears the truth about this terrible policy – both cruel and harmful to Illinois’ economy – is now even understood by the Republican legislators Rauner has spent so much time trying to buy and bully.
The article is here.
With Rep. Esther Golar’s passing, the House Democrats are at least one vote shy of the 71 votes needed to pass the bill. So, with Rep. Leitch not attending due to illness and the expected absence of at least one other Democratic legislator, I doubt we can expect a vote.
The bill is on Postponed Consideration, so supporters aren’t facing a fast-approaching deadline. As long as Rep. Dunkin doesn’t skip town again and Rep. Leitch is eventually able to make it to Springfield the bill will likely pass on the next go-around.
23 Comments
|
Unclear on the concept
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Umm…
Democrat state Rep. Jack Franks of Marengo is constantly viewed as being vulnerable and his reluctance to back Boss Madigan on all things leaves open the possibility that Madigan and the Dems could sacrifice him if push came to shove.
Franks does represent a heavily Republican district. But the GOP has yet to find a viable opponent. Maybe that’ll change with Rauner’s bigtime money. I don’t know.
What I do know, however, is that while Madigan might possibly, conceivably, maybe, perhaps take a pass on saving a member in an overwhelmingly Democratic district during a primary (cough*Dunkin*cough), he ain’t handing over a seat to the GOP as long as he gets his vote for Speaker, no matter how much of a pain in the rear Rep. Franks can be.
The only conceivable scenario is that Madigan is putting out electoral fires everywhere next November (not hugely likely considering that it’ll be a presidential year) and Franks is so far out of contention that it isn’t worth spending money on him. But, even then, I dunno.
14 Comments
|
Let’s see some evidence
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This is quite titillating, but I’d have some faith in it if Smith had given us at least one example of those “dirty details”…
Andre Smith, a former personal assistant to the Rev. Corey Brooks, is threatening to dish dirty details about the clergy’s efforts to help Gov. Bruce Rauner attract black voters.
“I sat in on 98 percent of Corey’s meetings with Rauner. Nobody knows what I know,” Smith told me Friday.
Apparently, it was a cozy partnership until Rauner pulled out an ax to tackle the state budget.
“I took a stand with Corey [during the campaign] that Rauner wasn’t going to do these things, so me and Corey fell out,” Smith said.
“I believe that I am part of this dreadful thing that is hurting our people,” Smith said. “I believe that I should take the lead in helping to fix it.”
Smith, 47, twice ran for alderman in the 20th ward. He now has his sights on challenging state Rep. Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago).
Dunkin has come under fire for skipping the critical override vote on a major union bill. He was the only Democratic no-show, and his absence helped Rauner gain ground in his ongoing tug-of-war with House Speaker Michael Madigan.
All Smith will say is “stay tuned.”
This is Illinois, so obviously we can’t rule out the possibility of dirty dealings, but I’d really like to see something concrete before jumping to any conclusions.
* And speaking of Pastor Brooks, he just endorsed the governor’s choice to replace retiring Rep. Ed Sullivan. Press release…
Pastor Corey B. Brooks, Sr., founder of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and a community leader, endorses Nick Sauer for State Representative in District 51.
Pastor Brooks said, “Our state has been moving in the wrong direction for some time. We need strong and bold leadership to take us into a brighter future. I believe Nick Sauer is the type of leader we must have in these days and times if we are to forge ahead and create a better Illinois.”
Gov. Rauner appointed both Brooks and Sauer to the tollway board.
42 Comments
|
Edgar, Kinzinger backing Bush
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has won the backing of two key Illinoisans: former Gov. Jim Edgar and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Tribune has learned. The two will be state chairmen for Bush’s White House run. Bush was tops in Illinois presidential fundraising last month.
* Meanwhile…
State Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) is angry with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and what Acevedo called “derogatory comments” towards women and Latinos. Tuesday, the ten-term lawmakers introduced a House resolution calling on the RNC to denounce Trump and “distance themselves from him in the future.”
Acevedo’s resolution says “Donald Trump has repeatedly made misogynistic, sexist, and derogatory comments towards women; and Donald Trump has repeatedly made offensive and abhorrent comments towards people of Latino descent, Mexican immigrants, and Asians ..”
If the resolution passes, Acevedo wants copies of the resolution sent to the Republican congressional leaders, RNC Chairman Rheince Priebus and the GOP members of the Illinois delegation.
38 Comments
|
Putting human faces on line items
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A very worthy state program, without a doubt…
Jamie Anderson grew up in the foster care system. She relies on her 4-thousand-dollar MAP grant to pay tuition at the University of Illinois Springfield. She says she works two jobs totaling 50 hours a week to cover living expenses.
So what does she do in her spare time?
“I volunteer with kids,” Anderson says. “I’m in the 4-H program, I’m a mentor, I’m in Big Brother Big Sisters Program, so I’m a Big….”
Hoping to become a child welfare worker, she’s set to graduate in May with a degree in social work. But like the other 130,000 needy Illinois college students, Anderson needs lawmakers to fund the Monetary Award Program.
Most campuses, including UIS, have floated students in the fall semester, counting on eventual repayment from the state. But State Treasurer Michael Frerichs says college administrators around Illinois have told him they cannot afford to make the same bet for the spring semester.
* Another undoubtedly worthy state program…
Fear gripped 49-year-old Tina Wardzala of Cicero by the throat at a young age. It rarely has loosened its grip.
As a young girl, Tina said while her father was away driving a truck, her mother would invite men in, get drunk and pass out. Then the men would come to “play” with her.
About 15 years ago, Tina worked as a line cook at a diner and the regulars were like family. One of those regulars was elderly and ill. Tina was delivering a meal to the customer when she entered a dimly lit apartment hallway and found three men waiting. They raped her.
Before that moment of terror, Tina had worked at the diner and a branch library. She enjoyed music and waded into crowds at Grateful Dead and Neil Young concerts. In that moment, fear took her hostage. Mental illness enveloped her. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia and bipolar disorder. Cloaked in black, Tina shared her scariest secrets. At times, she choked out the words. At times, tears spilled. Fear has its hold. Now she also lives in fear of the state’s intractable politicians.
No court judge has risen to her rescue, nor those like her, diagnosed with mental illness. No continuing appropriation has saved her, nor the nearly 1,700 other adults and children who turn each year for help to the Family Service and Mental Health Center of Cicero, where she told her story from the safety of her therapist’s office.
“I’ve come a long way … thanks to my therapist and my team,” she said. It took Tina five years before she told her therapist about the rape that resulted in the birth of her 14-year-old son. She also has sons who are 25, 21 and 10 years old. Three still live with her, mostly on a $750 federal disability check and state food stamp money she says was cut recently from $365 to $140 a month.
Now her overarching fear is going somewhere uncomfortable, to a new doctor and a new therapist.
Executive Director John Morgan says the center got $190,000 in state grants and contracts for years. Now, only a $20,000 contract remains, one the state has yet to pay this year. Morgan has cut Tina’s psychiatrist’s weekly hours by three, as well as those of another psychiatrist, a woman who treats children and speaks Spanish in a majority Hispanic community. A crisis intervention worker and other workers’ hours also were cut. So far, Morgan has avoided layoffs. His staff refers some patients to a psychiatric hospital six miles away. There’s a six- to eight-week wait.
The problem, of course, is the lack of revenue to pay for these programs. Without a tax hike, the state is gonna run out of money or pile up unpaid bills in record amounts.
So, it’s great to put human faces on these problems, but we also need a recognition that the problems cannot be addressed without more money.
38 Comments
|
Kadner’s dogged determination kills casino mall
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Phil Kadner on June 22nd…
A developer is apparently hoping to launch a unique concept, a sort of casino mall, in strip malls in Crestwood and Hometown.
The idea would be to lease storefronts to multiple owners of gambling cafes, with up to five video machines in each, to create more opportunities for patrons to gamble and to generate more foot traffic.
Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta and Hometown Mayor Kevin Casey said they were eager to embrace such an enterprise, while noting that the Illinois Gaming Board will ultimately decide whether it complies with the state’s video gambling law.
Presta said the Crestwood location — just south of Cal Sag Road and west of Cicero Avenue, across from an off-track betting parlor — could eventually be home to seven storefront gambling cafes, each owned by a different person or business.
* Kadner on July 1st…
There apparently is nothing in Illinois’ gambling law that prohibits video gambling malls — a concept that may place as many as nine independently operated “casino cafes” in one location in the Southland. […]
[Hometown Mayor Kevin Casey] said that while he doesn’t gamble, he made a tour of video cafes in neighboring suburbs and saw people often waiting for a video machine to become available. He said some of those people walked out because they didn’t want to sit around and drink or eat, they wanted to gamble.
Most of those people, the mayor said, looked like middle-aged suburban housewives. And Casey figured that this idea of creating a string of gambling shops, each owned independently, in one location might prove to be a pretty nice attraction for his city.
* Kadner on September 15th…
State Rep. Robert Rita, D-Blue Island, is trying to enlist the help of the Illinois Gaming Board to stop the development of “casino malls,” but the first two video gambling malls in the state are rapidly moving forward in Crestwood and Hometown. […]
There are already more video gambling machines (about 21,200) in restaurants, bars, truck stops and veterans halls than in all of Illinois’ casinos. In August, gamblers wagered nearly $75 million on video machines, bringing the total to $590 million for the first eight months of this year, according to the Gaming Board.
“The Illinois General Assembly did not allowing these types of (casino) malls in legalizing video gaming originally and is not interested in seeing this type of activity authorized in Illinois,” Rita states in a resolution that he plans to file this week. “While proponents argue these ‘casino malls’ could generate more economic activity and revenue, there are legitimate concerns about these malls shifting video gaming away from its intended purpose of main street community entertainment for bars, restaurants and other local businesses.”
* Kadner on September 17th…
Video gambling malls proposed for Hometown and Crestwood are “backdoor casinos,” according to the chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, who said he’s “inclined to oppose them.”
Chairman Don Tracy made those statements at an August hearing of the board after the mayor of Hometown and a developer behind the concept of the casino mall in the suburb urged the board to approve license applications for three casino cafes in a strip mall that could eventually host as many as nine such businesses. […]
A spokeswoman for the Illinois Retail Gaming and Operators Association also appeared at the Gaming Board’s August hearing to oppose the Hometown casino mall. The association represents Dotty’s, one of the first innovators in the casino cafe industry; Loredo Hospitality Ventures, which owns Stall’s and Shelby’s cafe casinos; Gold Rush Amusements; Blackhawk Restaurant Group (which owns cafes under the names of Betty’s Bistro, Penny’s Place, Emma’s Eatery and Jena’s Eatery); Gold Rush Amusements; and Trident Partners, which owns Ruby’s.
She claimed that approving licenses for operators in Hometown Plaza would open the door for someone to buy an empty warehouse for the sole purpose of locating multiple video gambling operators under one roof.
“They simply don’t want any competition if they can stop it,” Casey said of the association. “That’s all that was about. The days of mom-and-pop stores, candle stores, Hallmark’s, (independent) pharmacies is over. Those are the sorts of places that used to operate in strip malls.
* Kadner last night…
Illinois Gaming Board members attempted to shut down the development of “casino malls” on Tuesday, voting unanimously to reject the video license applications of three operators who hoped to open in a Hometown strip mall.
Gaming board chairman Donald Tracy reiterated a statement he made at the board’s August meeting, saying he viewed such operations as “back-door casinos,” circumventing the oversight and regulation of traditional casinos under state law. […]
“All three of these locations relate to what have been called video gaming malls, mini-casinos, casino malls, and back-door casinos,” Tracy said before the vote. “I view gaming malls as back-door casinos, as I said at the last meeting, without the traditional safeguards of licensed casinos such as regulated security, on-site oversight, position limits, self-exclusion rules and internal controls.”
Tracy went on to say that he considers such casino malls “a threat to Illinois gaming integrity” and if the state had envisioned their creation, it would have specifically created riverboat, casino-like safeguards.
22 Comments
|
*** UPDATED x1 *** Rep. Golar’s arrangements
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From state Sen. Mattie Hunter…
Arrangements for State Rep Esther Golar
Visitation: A.A Rayner & Sons, 318 E. 71st St., Sept. 28
Funeral: Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St., Sept 29
Wake: 10am
Service: 11am
Repast: 3850 S. Wabash
*** UPDATE *** The visitation will run from 4-8 pm, according to Sen. Hunter.
3 Comments
|
Lawsuit illustrates layoff difficulties
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The SJ-R explains today that the governor postponed his union worker layoff plans because of an amended union lawsuit. The governor’s folks say they’re confident that they’ll win the lawsuit, but the unions flatly disagreee…
The amended lawsuit specifically talks about the layoff of 151 unionized state workers at nine different state agencies. The unions argued that the layoffs were scheduled in violation of labor agreements.
“While the governor has the right to initiate a layoff, there has to be a legitimate reason for doing do, for example a lack of work or a lack of funds,” Lindall said. “In no case do those conditions exist for these employees. The governor can’t arbitrarily target layoffs in one area for lack of a budget over another.”
Sean Smoot, director of the PBPA that represents 33 conservation police officers who were scheduled for layoff, said that’s particularly true in the case of the officers whose salaries are paid for with fees, fines and federal money rather than general state tax dollars.
“The existence of a budget or not really doesn’t affect the funding for these folks,” Smoot said.
I imagine this post is gonna cause a whole lot of conservative heads to explode.
170 Comments
|
|
Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
|
   
|
Hosted by MCS
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax
Advertise Here
Mobile Version
Contact Rich Miller
|
