Did Rauner learn an important lesson?
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Before Gov. Rauner haplessly diverted himself to the topics of Donald Trump and Speaker Madigan yesterday, he announced some good news about DCFS. From a press release…
Governor Bruce Rauner today discussed the transformations at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and how it’s better serving the needs of Illinois children.
“When I took office, DCFS was in shambles from a lack of leadership and direction,” Governor Rauner said. “Today, under the direction of Director George Sheldon, the agency has made an impressive transformation to ensure we are protecting our state’s most vulnerable children.”
Within the last year, DCFS has reduced the number of children in shelter care by 50 percent and instituted a new directive to ensure no child under the age of six spends the night in a shelter. DCFS has also reduced the use of deep-end residential treatment and partnered with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department to create the Child Recovery Unit.
In addition, DCFS increased its federal reimbursement for services provided to youth aged 18-21 by $20 million for FY16, and the state is expected to receive an additional $16 million in subsequent fiscal years by fixing a paperwork issue.
DCFS is also part of the state’s IT transformation by implementing the 360 Initiative. It is a platform that brings multiple databases together to ensure caseworkers have the whole picture of a family’s situation more quickly and efficiently.
“In the last year, we’ve accomplished a lot to improve Illinois’ child welfare system. These initiatives are just a starting point; we must also change the way we think about our youth in care,” DCFS Director Sheldon said. “DCFS is supporting new legislation to provide children in foster care more normalcy and to recognize the strong bond a child and foster parent may develop. We also must recognize the hard-working women and men at DCFS who are striving every day to restore families, and give children hope for their future and set them on a path for better lives.”
The bills supported by DCFS are SB 2371/HB 5551 which expand the definition of “fictive kin” to include foster parents, and SB 3041/HB 5665 which enable foster parents and caregivers to act as “prudent parents” and make decisions to give children a more normal life.
These transformations are part of the vision Governor Rauner laid out in his State of the State Address. The purpose is to improve how we provide health and human services in Illinois to produce better outcomes for our most vulnerable residents.
Emphasis added.
* With that in mind, here’s the response from Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago), DCFS’ most active legislative critic. She offers both praise and a couple of important historical reminders…
“In the last year, DCFS has indeed transformed and worked diligently to address the mounting issues uncovered by state hearings and news reports. And while the agency is better today than it was a year ago, let’s not forget how the governor sought to dismantle vital services in his budget last year.
“Governor Rauner called for a 12.5 percent reduction in spending for wards of the state and eliminating support for some 2,400 wards ages 18 to 21 years old, ignoring pleas from the community and the wards themselves to keep a roof over their heads and keep them safe.
“I called on the governor to take action after he entered office, just as I have called on previous governors to step up to the plate for our state’s children.
“Today, I am glad the agency is getting recognition for its improvements. Director George Sheldon and the DCFS advisory board have made great strides in improving the agency by listening to human service advocates and concerned residents. But, the Rauner administration needs to stop trying to take credit for programs that they considered nonessential and repeatedly tried to zero out of the budget.”
Not to mention that he vetoed the DCFS budget last year. But emphasis was added to point out that maybe the governor learned something on this topic after last year’s budget fight. Either way, it’s a good thing that it’s now part of the program.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* For what I believe to be the first time, the governor was asked today about his proposed budget, which zeroes out state funding for agriculture education…
…Adding… Democratic response…
State Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) issued the following statement after the governor’s comments regarding Illinois agriculture on Tuesday.
“The governor repeatedly mentions the fact that Illinois’ economy is driven by agriculture but at the same time he wants to completely eliminate agriculture education funding in the state.
“Agriculture education programs allow for our young students interested in careers in agriculture to be educated and prepared to enter that workforce. Without that funding, many school districts would completely eliminate their programs.
“Those who rely on agriculture education funding deserve the guarantee that it will be there. We cannot expect them to be successful when their funding is under attack from the Rauner administration.
“I don’t understand why the governor prioritizes roofs on the barns at the fairground over direct funding for agriculture education in classrooms.”
* The Question: Do you mainly agree with the governor’s approach? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
polls & surveys
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We’re number one… For now
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Good news and a warning from this press release from Clean Energy Trust and Environmental Entrepreneurs…
More than 113,000 workers are in Illinois’ clean energy industry, surpassing the number of clean energy jobs in other Midwestern states. The clean energy industry, which includes solar, wind, bioenergy and other technology, employs more individuals in Illinois than the fossil fuel industry.
According to a comprehensive analysis – available at www.CleanJobsMidwest.com - unveiled today by Clean Energy Trust (CET) and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), employment in the clean energy sector in Illinois grew 9%. In 2016, jobs in Illinois’ clean energy sector surpassed expectations for job growth, with small businesses employing nearly 70% of individuals in the clean energy sector.
“The expanding demand for energy efficient building design has allowed dbHMS to grow significantly and create clean jobs here in Illinois,” said Sachin Anand, Principal, dbHMS.
However, while jobs in the clean energy sector grew overall, solar and wind power generation saw job losses. Solar jobs dropped 3.5%, from 4,424 to 4,272 and wind generation saw larger losses dropping 11% from 3,980 to 3,549.
The decrease in solar and wind jobs can be attributed to the failure to fully implement the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in Illinois. Illinois currently has energy efficiency standards and a RPS mandating that by 2016, 25% of the State’s energy come from renewable energy. However, as a result of a spending cap on energy efficiency, Illinois is not currently reaching its’ energy efficiency goals. Businesses project that Illinois’s clean energy workforce overall will grow by only 5.3% over the next 12 months compared to the 9% growth from last year. Fixing the RPS would stimulate growth in these sectors.
“Clean energy is a dynamic sector and central to economic growth in Illinois. Smart public policy will further accelerate the clean energy sector and create thousands of new jobs created across the state, a big economic advantage for Illinois,” said Erik Birkerts, CEO of Clean Energy Trust.
“Microgrid Energy helps businesses install solar power systems, reducing their power bills and saving them money. Illinois has great solar potential, but we need to fix the broken Renewable Portfolio Standards in Illinois to provide certainty for businesses like ours,” said Will Kenworthy, Vice President for Regional Operations at Microgrid Energy.
The report also found:
· Energy efficiency jobs, such as working with high-efficiency lighting, Energy Star appliance manufacturing and high-efficiency HVAC services, are by far the largest clean energy sector employer in the state, employing over three-fourths of the Illinois clean energy workforce.
· The Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area has the largest regional clean energy employment in the state with over 81,000 clean energy jobs.
· Clean energy employs more than 550,000 people across the 12-state Midwest region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin).
· Renewable energy generation employed almost 13,000 Illinois workers, distributed relatively evenly between mostly solar, wind, and bioenergy— with 4,200, 3,500, and 3,000 jobs respectively.
“The Midwest is a central hub of America’s clean energy jobs market. Other regions may attract more attention, but there’s no doubt the Midwest is a force in its own right,” said Philip Jordan, Vice President and Principal at BW Research Partnership. “Having such a massive clean energy workforce concentrated in the Midwest is due in no small part to some strong state- and federal-level policies. But as the clean energy businesses we spoke with made abundantly clear, there are some major opportunities for more growth within the sector.”
The analysis – available at www.CleanJobsMidwest.com – is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and a comprehensive survey of thousands of businesses across Illinois and the region. This analysis was developed with BW Research, and included as part of a major U.S. Department of Energy study of all energy jobs in America released earlier this month. The Clean Jobs Midwest report provides detailed breakdowns of clean energy jobs not available previously – including job totals for every county in Illinois. Illinois is currently home to 113,918 clean energy jobs.
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Not quite on the same page
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Last week’s primary has caused a bit of messaging confusion. From today…
* From yesterday…
[State Sens. Michael Connelly, R-Wheaton, and Chris Nybo, R-Elmhurst] said only political pressure, whether it be Democrats losing seats in the November election or increasingly dire financial straits, seemed likely to bring Madigan to the bargaining table.
That seems to run directly counter to the governor’s new messaging.
But here’s something to ponder: What if the Democrats gain seats? It is a presidential year, after all, and they do have the map.
While that seems to be a less likely prospect in the Senate, with John Sullivan’s retirement, it might conceivably happen in the House.
* Full raw Rauner audio from today…
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This message ain’t gonna work, either
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* So, does this mean he won’t be backing the winner of the 50th Senate District Republican primary? I thought as the self-described “leader of the Republican Party,” he was obligated to support the nominee?…
Sam McCann: Infinitely worse than Trump!
Or… something.
…Adding… Can’t this message also be read to somehow imply that the people who voted for the winners somehow aren’t taxpayers? Not cool, governor. Not cool.
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A tweet unexamined…
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois News Network on legislative social media presence…
Carl Palmer, associate professor of politics and government at Illinois State University, said for someone like Speaker Michael Madigan, the platforms aren’t necessary. “Madigan has the name recognition, he has the power and influence.”
Palmer also notes that some older politicians may not see the importance of social media at all.
“There are older political actors, older political figures, that are just more resistant to adapting and changing,” Palmer said.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said he hasn’t examined the issue of social media and didn’t want to comment.
Those House Democratic top guys are openly hostile to social media. But as more people decide not to answer their phones and their doors during campaigns, tune out direct mail and migrate even further away from network TV and terrestrial radio, the brain trust is gonna eventually have to drag itself into the 21st Century.
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Time for a messaging reboot
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* When you flatly deny something that everybody else can plainly see with their own two eyes, like the governor’s high-profile primary election losses last week, it tends to create problems. From WLS Radio…
Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling for more budget talks now that the primary elections are over, but he’s ignoring the results of those primaries.
Now that Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) trounced him in last Tuesday’s primaries, Rauner wants Madigan to compromise.
Oof.
That’s gotta sting.
* Also, let’s reexamine this other gubernatorial quote from yesterday…
“It seems to me that the crisis is being extended for political gain and messaging, and that’s wrong.”
At the very least, doesn’t that statement imply that the other side’s message is “#Winning”?
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Cleaning up Quinn’s mess
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Quinn’s administration sat on hundreds of millions of federal dollars for homeowner weatherization, which could’ve created huge numbers of jobs during the Great Recession. And, guess what? A half-billion dollar school construction program was also never activated…
In the depths of the Great Recession, then-Gov. Pat Quinn celebrated a roughly $500 million school construction bond program that would allow Illinois districts to build new facilities, fix old ones and handle a bevy of housekeeping needs, all via a federal program that would subsidize interest payments on the borrowing.
But while other states charged ahead with their slice of the Qualified School Construction Bonds program, Illinois did nothing.
The $495.6 million in bonding authority granted to Illinois sat on the shelf in Springfield for six years, denying schools a chance at a unique borrowing deal that could save taxpayers money.
It only became available late last year, after district administrators like those in West Aurora School District 129 caught wind of its existence and started “clamoring” for its release, according to interviews and Illinois board of education records obtained via a Freedom of Information request.
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Lip service
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the twitters…
* From the news…
Illinois risks losing thousands of tourism jobs — and hundreds of millions in state and local tax revenue — from marketing cuts and ongoing budget uncertainty, according to an industry study released Monday. […]
According to the report, a 20 percent cut from $63.8 million for tourism marketing in fiscal 2014 would cost the state $2.3 billion in visitor spending, 4,600 jobs and nearly $200 million in state and local taxes over four years. If marketing money were eliminated, according to the study by Oxford Economics Co., the four-year figures increase to $11.3 billion in visitor spending, 22,800 jobs, and $970 million in state and local taxes. […]
“When they hear ‘museum,’ they think presidential museum,” said Gemberling. “We get calls into our office asking, ‘Is Springfield closed?’ There’s this perception out there that all of our sites are closed. So we have increased our media buys in St. Louis and Chicago, as well as regionally, to combat and stop that message.” […]
Marketing cuts also threaten to set back one of the state’s fastest-growing industries in tourism, said Brett Stawar, president and CEO of the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Stawar said Illinois is pulling back at a time when neighboring states, including Missouri, are aggressively targeting Illinois travelers.
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#Winning!
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You’ve undoubtedly seen this…
* The candidate was asked to explain by the Washington Post’s editorial board…
HIATT: I’d like to come back to the campaign. You said a few weeks ago after a family in Chicago gave some money to a PAC opposing you, you said, “They better watch out. They have a lot to hide.” What should they watch out for?
TRUMP: Look, they are spending vicious … I don’t even know these people. Those Ricketts. I actually said they ought to focus on the Chicago Cubs and, you know, stop playing around. They spent millions of dollars fighting me in Florida. And out of 68 counties, I won 66. I won by 20 points, almost 20 points. Against, everybody thought he was a popular sitting senator. I had $38 million dollars spent on me in Florida over a short period of time. $38 million. And, you know, the Ricketts, I don’t even know these people.
HIATT: So, what does it mean, “They better watch out”?
TRUMP: Well, it means that I’ll start spending on them. I’ll start taking ads telling them all what a rotten job they’re doing with the Chicago Cubs. I mean, they are spending on me. I mean, so am I allowed to say that? I’ll start doing ads about their baseball team. That it’s not properly run or that they haven’t done a good job in the brokerage business lately.
RYAN: Would you do that while you are president?
TRUMP: No, not while I am president. No, not while I’m president. That is two phases. Right now, look, you know, I went to a great school, I was a good student and all. I am an intelligent person. My uncle, I would say my uncle was one of the brilliant people. He was at MIT for 35 years. As a great scientist and engineer, actually more than anything else. Dr. John Trump, a great guy. I’m an intelligent person. I understand what is going on. Right now, I had 17 people who started out. They are almost all gone. If I were going to do that in a different fashion I think I probably wouldn’t be sitting here. You would be interviewing somebody else. But it is hard to act presidential when you are being … I mean, actually I think it is presidential because it is winning. And winning is a pretty good thing for this country because we don’t win any more. And I say it all the time. We do not win any more. This country doesn’t win.
* Related…
* Mark Brown: I know for a fact that Illinois GOP leaders have been dreading since last year the possibility of a Trump nomination and the detrimental effect it might have on their efforts down the ballot — in particular Rauner’s hopes of clawing back state legislative seats from Democrats and keeping his appointee Leslie Munger as state comptroller… Rather than speak out about Trump, Rauner says that if Trump is the nominee, he’ll do everything he can for him. If he does, I can only hope that Illinois voters make him pay a price for it.
* Jim Dey: Democrats smell what Republicans fear — another Goldwater-like landslide defeat — and they think either tying Republicans to Trump or forcing them to repudiate him will boost their electoral prospects.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Question of the day
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the twitters…
* WBBM Radio reports the governor claims his office reached out to Speaker Madigan’s office last week about setting up a meeting, but received no reply. “My understanding is the Speaker is in town, which is good, so maybe he and I can meet, I think that could be productive.”
If you listen to the raw audio of the Q&A, the governor also said, “It seems to me that the crisis is being extended for political gain and messaging, and that’s wrong”…
*** UPDATE *** Tim Mapes’ mom passed away over the weekend. Mapes is Madigan’s chief of staff. If Team Rauner tried to get Mapes on the phone last week, its more than just conceivable he was dealing with his mom. Let’s really hope that isn’t the case because going public with a missed communication without checking first would be a very huge blunder by Rauner if true.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The Question: Do you think one-on-one negotiations between Rauner and Madigan will make any difference? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
free polls
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Rauner and “stealth democracy”
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Brian Mackey’s “Rauner, Trump And The Lure Of The CEO Politician”…
Much has been made of Trump’s appeal among voters who tend toward authoritarianism. But that’s not Rauner. Instead, political science offers a better explanation of the appeal of the governor’s pitch: stealth democracy. The idea was outlined by John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse in their 2002 book Stealth Democracy: Americans’ Beliefs about How Government Should Work. It goes like this: people are angry, but not because they don’t like the policy outcomes of our political system. Rather, they don’t like the process. The three main components of the idea have to do with misunderstanding how much people agree on a public agenda, a disdain for self-interested policymakers and intense dislike of the arguments and mess inherent in democratic governance. Seen through the framework of stealth democracy, Rauner is a most typical American.
“People tend to see their own attitudes as typical, so they overestimate the degree to which others share their opinions,” Hibbing and Theiss-Morse write. Last week, Rauner said Illinoisans needed to make their voices heard in the Capitol: “We need democracy to get restored in Illinois, and we need the people to put pressure on members of Speaker Madigan’s caucus to do the right thing.” Of course, thousands of people are doing just that. But among the Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, they’re being pressured to do a “right thing” that is not what Rauner has in mind. Where Democrats would balance the budget with a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, Rauner says he would balance the budget with a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts only after passing business-friendly legislation and weakening collective bargaining.
When the governor makes this case, which he’s done again and again, Rauner is playing on the Stealth Democracy idea that most voters don’t understand why politicians are always fighting. Hibbing and Theiss-Morse write that because most people are not interested in getting informed on more than a few issues — if that — they can’t see what all the fuss is about: “When it is apparent that the political arena is filled with intense policy disagreement, people conclude that the reason must be illegitimate — namely, the influence of special interests.”
There are few phrases more central to the Rauner lexicon than “special interests.” He told Chicago in 2013: “The government unions, the trial lawyers, the folks who make their money from government, they bought, they own the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, they control Springfield. There is nothing — we should be really clear — there is nothing weak, vulnerable, discriminated against about those special interest groups, and they have bought the Democratic party in Springfield. Unfortunately they have bought a number of the Republicans, too. And when you look at what’s happened as a result — our taxes are high and rising, unemployment is rising, and we’re shredding our safety net.”
Rauner makes no allowance for the notion that Democrats — and some Republicans — might have sincere reasons for supporting government unions and trial lawyers. Perhaps they question the wisdom of emulating the relentless layoffs in the private sector or think trial lawyers occasionally do good. The world is more complicated than the governor’s rhetoric allows. But voters tend to think there are simple solutions to what they don’t see as complex problems, and so they eat it up.
“People’s tendency to see the policy world in such a detached, generic and simplistic form explains why Ross Perot’s claim during his presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996 that he would ‘just fix it’ resonated so deeply with the people,” Hibbing and Theiss-Morse explain. Remember Rauner’s campaign slogan? “Shake up Springfield. Bring back Illinois.” And Trump’s? “Make America great again.” They could slogan-swap without missing a beat. Stealth Democracy tells us that that since most Americans think everyone else agrees with them on what’s best for the nation, and that achieving those results ought to be as simple as putting a bill up and voting for it, we should not be surprised when people see no need for debate and compromise.
Thoughts?
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Down the memory hole
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
State Senate Republicans are calling on Democrats who control the chamber to join them in supporting Governor Bruce Rauner’s call for full funding of elementary and secondary education.
Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno says Rauner’s proposed increase in general state aid of $55 million dollars will meet the recommended per-student spending of about $6,000 a year.* WAND TV…
For the better half of the past decade local school districts have seen yearly cuts to their funding from the state.
This year, Governor Bruce Rauner and Republicans are calling for full funding for the first time in recent years. […]
Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) said, “a hundred percent funding means for the existing formula the districts who need it the most are going to get more of the money the would see if proration continues.”
* Daily Herald…
Republicans Thursday continued to support Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan to send districts more money in the next budget by paying out what they’re supposed to under state law anyway.
* In my mind, anyway, I think it was a political mistake for Senate President John Cullerton to say he wouldn’t advance a K-12 appropriations bill until the funding formula was revamped to keep Chicago from enduring reduced state funding levels every year.
Why? Partly because of the media’s memory hole.
It’s pretty much impossible to find a story on the above topic which mentions the historical fact that every Republican legislator voted against funding K-12 last May. Yet, after voting last year to kill an education funding bill, they now openly weep about the possibility that an approp bill won’t be moved forward this year.
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After the general?
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Public Radio…
The primary is over, so will Illinois lawmakers and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner finally agree on a budget? Some who watch state government closely say chances aren’t so great.
Emily Miller is with ‘Voices for Illinois Children.’ She says the state’s political leaders will now likely shift focus to the general election in November.
“At first folks thought that perhaps after the primary election, people would be removed enough from the political side to make sound policy decisions. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that it won’t be until after the general election that people are able to leave politics behind.”
Even that may be optimistic.
* This is a long game for both sides, but the governor has more than ample resources to fight…
Surface results from the March 15 primary election are in: Gov. Bruce Rauner can apparently neither protect those who support him nor punish those who oppose him, while House Speaker Mike Madigan and his union allies can do both.
But billionaires playing in Illinois politics have more money than Madigan and his allies can ever scrape together, and the latter burned through much of their stockpile to defend important yet small parts of their turf on Tuesday.
As savvy political pundit Rich Miller pointed out recently, Rauner makes about a million dollars a week, and his buddy, hedge fund director Ken Griffin, just dropped $500 million to buy a couple of paintings. So scores of millions for politics are but trifling matters to the governor, Griffin, and their sympathizers.
* Meanwhile…
However, the primary results don’t mean Rauner and those who support his agenda will change their strategy, campaign finance expert Redfield said.
“Is it possible the governor can look at this and say, ‘There’s a limit to what I can do with my money, and I need to recalibrate’?” Redfield said. “I don’t think that’s the lesson he’s going to draw from this.” […]
The $6 million in the Dunkin-Stratton contest is more than most governors raise to win elections and more than many members of Congress raise, [Edwin Bender, executive director of the Montana-based National Institute on Money in State Politics] said. […]
“This isn’t about elections; this is about winning a policy war, a political war,” he said. “When you have the concentration of money and power in the hands of so few people, that’s a very frightening prospect for the future of policy making in Illinois.”
…Adding… Related…
* More spent on just 3 races than in all 2014 legislative races
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* I kid you not. From a Belleville News Democrat editorial…
House Speaker Michael Madigan uses neither e-mail nor a planner.
Lack of a planner might that explain why we are 263 days into the 2016 budget year and still have no spending plan. No day planner, no calendar, Madigan simply doesn’t realize the budget is overdue.
Lack of a planner might explain why the House took off a month when there were so many issues left hanging. Without a planner, how is Madigan to realize that budget and pensions and overdue payments and college expenses all need attention.
Lack of e-mail might explain why there is no movement on reforms or the budget or anything else of substance. All those Google calendar invites from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office have been evaporating into cyberspace because mike.madigan@il.house.gov just doesn’t exist.
Only the Unabomber was farther off the grid than Madigan, and he, arguably, did less damage.
The hate is more than just palpable, folks. And it’s gonna crank up even higher by November.
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This Is Illinois
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Our state fossil turns out to be a bloodsucker…
Remember the Tully monster? It hasn’t been much in the news lately, but many of you may know it is the official fossil of the state of Illinois.
It achieved that exalted status by virtue of it’s fossilized remains being found by FRANCIS TULLY in 1958 in deposits near the Mazon Creek in northern Illinois. But even though the thing was first found nearly 60 years ago, it turns out that scientists have never really been sure what the monster was exactly. According to a story in the New York Times last week, some scientists thought the thing was a mollusk, like a snail. Others thought it was more like an arthropod such as an insect or a crab. Still others thought it was a worm. That’s a fairly divergent list of possibilities for the critter.
Now, according to the Times story, Yale researchers have come to a new conclusion. The Tully monster is a vertebrate “most closely related to the lamprey, an underwater bloodsucker.”
Did state lawmakers know what they were doing in making the Tully monster an official Illinois state symbol or what?
Well, we are known as the Sucker State, so I guess it fits.
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Why Dunkin lost and McCann won
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
One of the most common analytical errors made during the Illinois primary season was treating the state’s two hottest legislative contests the same.
Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, and downstate Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, were both portrayed as legislators who broke with their parties and, as a result, faced harsh punishment by their respective party leaders.
If you want to merely skim the surface, that’s kind of true. But scratch a millimeter more and you’ll see the huge difference between the two men.
First, a little background.
Dunkin enraged his fellow Democrats and organized labor when he left town for a New York jaunt and missed two highly important votes. One vote was to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill to prevent a strike by American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. The other was to override a veto of a bill to fully fund the state’s child care program for working-poor as well as indigent parents attending college. After he came back to town, Dunkin made things worse by openly siding with the Republican governor.
McCann voted to override the veto of that AFSCME-backed “no strike” bill, against the wishes of his party and especially Rauner, who claimed the bill would’ve tied his hands by forcing the two sides into binding arbitration. Proponents were convinced that Rauner was (and still is) trying to force a state workers strike in order to break the union, which he often calls “AFScammy.”
The bottom line here is that Dunkin…
Click here to read the rest before commenting, please. Thanks.
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Rauner has his work cut out for him
Monday, Mar 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
“He was a god in that district,” a high-level Rauner guy told me about state Sen. Sam McCann’s poll numbers from before this year’s Republican primary campaign began.
Benchmark polling taken months ago showed McCann, R-Plainview, had a voter approval rating of about 70 percent. McCann “really was everywhere” in the district, attending events all over the place throughout his tenure, the Rauner official admitted.
Looking at those initial numbers, “you’d have to be crazy” to take McCann on, the official said. But the governor had threatened to punish any Republican who voted with AFSCME on a now infamous bill which barred a state employee strike and instead forced binding arbitration. McCann was the only Republican to vote against Rauner, so a massive game plan was devised.
What followed was the most expensive Republican legislative primary race in the history of Illinois. In the past, the million dollars or so raised and spent by and on behalf of McCann would’ve dropped jaws everywhere. But McCann’s $1 million was less than a quarter of the race’s $4.2 million grand total.
Even so, McCann defeated his Rauner-backed opponent Bryce Benton by more than 5 points.
Aside from the fact that beating any incumbent who starts off beloved by 7 in 10 voters is almost impossible, some folks think McCann’s opposition actually spent too much money. They claim that after the first $1 million, the rest was all white noise and may have prompted voters to start wondering just what in the heck was going on.
McCann never directly rebutted the allegations from the other side’s dogged research into his mileage reimbursements or his personal financial problems and claimed but nonexistent military service, but he did have an answer for voters who wondered why their television screens were filled to the brim with anti-McCann ads: “Chicago.”
“I’m being attacked because I did what was right for this district,” McCann said in what became a ubiquitous TV ad at the same time a “Chicago PAC spends $1.5 million against McCann” headline flashed across the screen. The ad started airing weeks before the total climbed to more than double that amount.
Benton, McCann’s opponent, never really established himself with voters as a hometown guy. That lack of biographical information probably bolstered McCann’s “Chicago” claim.
The “Chicago” attack worked in another race, Team Rauner admits. They used it themselves to beat back state Sen. Kyle McCarter’s GOP congressional bid against U.S Rep. John Shimkus. McCarter didn’t have more than a few dollars, so most voters had no idea who he was. Shimkus’ campaign defined him as a Chicago-loving guy. Shimkus never polled above 55 percent, but he wound up with 60.
Raunerite fingers are also angrily pointing at the “regulars” in the Sangamon County Republican Party who stuck with McCann to the end. McCann actually lost Sangamon by a few votes, but they say he would’ve lost by more if the party leaders had stuck with Rauner.
The reasons those party folks stood with McCann are twofold: 1) He’d built up a lot of goodwill and 2) Thousands of unionized state employees in the county are reliable Republican voters.
“If McCann loses, it won’t be due to a lack of volunteers on election day,” a union staffer texted me the morning of election day. “I’m not kidding when I say I’ve never seen a campaign have to adapt because of so many volunteers,” he texted a few hours later.
Those Springfield-area state workers have their own informal but vast communications network. They talk politics with coworkers, and then they bring informed opinions to their homes and their social circles. It worked two years ago when they thumped Bruce Rauner in Sangamon County, and it worked again this time when they helped carry McCann across the finish line.
The question now becomes how the Republicans retool their message for November. The McCann primary had been expected to be a preview of what’s to come. Unprecedented money from Rauner, charges that an incumbent is House Speaker Michael Madigan’s “favorite” legislator and brutally unflinching opposition research. But, just like McCann, most targeted Democrats have built up enormous local goodwill over the years.
Rauner and Proft’s money and effort won numerous primary races around Illinois this year where the opponents were little-known and relatively lightly funded. Those often hapless opponents could be defined almost at will. But, like with McCann, Rauner’s top targeted House Democratic incumbents won’t be so easy to redefine.
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