More on that Cullerton meeting
Friday, Jun 24, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* We talked earlier this week about Senate President John Cullerton’s not so pleasant meeting with school parents when he attempted to shift all the blame to Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Tribune editorial board has more…
“It seems like that was the Democratic playbook. I’m a Democrat. I’m about as far left as you can get. But he just kept pivoting to the governor,” says Jeff Jenkins, a member of the Coonley local school council. “We know the governor isn’t doing us any favors. That said, he’s been there 18 months and (Cullerton) has been there 37 years and (House Speaker Michael Madigan) 45 years, and so for 80-plus years, you’ve been running the state.” […]
When a member of the Coonley audience raised the longevity issue, Cullerton got defensive, according to Jenkins, who was sitting next to him. Cullerton reminded the audience that he had “volunteered to be here.” That didn’t go over well either.
“He was rolling his eyes,” Jenkins said. “He was dismissive of people. He offered no practical solutions. He said it wouldn’t be helpful if they were in Springfield working.
“This was an audience that could have been his greatest allies. But people were flabbergasted that he came in the way he did. Most people had never met Cullerton before. I’m sure they’ve all voted for him in the past.”
Ouch.
- illinois manufacturer - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:32 am:
More like a primary from the left than Chicago Rauner supporters
- Georg Sande - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:37 am:
Terrific stuff. More to come, hopefully.
- illinois manufacturer - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:42 am:
Lot of anger at establishment….everwhere.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:44 am:
This has been a problem with President Cullerton over the years. While he is one of the most intelligent members I’ve known over the years, his intelligence sometimes gets in the way of how he interacts with people, and it is off-putting. And it goes for both friends and foes alike.
After 37 years in office, he ought to know better. I haven’t lost respect for the President, but he should have responded better - the audience was his constituents after all.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:44 am:
If the schools don’t open on time, every GA member, Emanuel and Rauner will be stung badly, and deservedly so.
That’s the issue — the schools opening on time. Who cares about the politicians or the election?
Katrina, however, thinks the most important issue of the day — every day — is that the governor of Illinois not be held accountable for anything that goes on in the state.
She’s a one-trick pony when it comes to the important “issues” of the day: Don’t blame Rauner, he’s only the impotent governor.
Has anyone ever trolled so long and hard for a flack job? It’s embarrassing.
- Hedley Lamarr - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:45 am:
The Trib edit board, always being reasonable.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:46 am:
the arrogance and condescension is not new
- Common Sense - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:47 am:
That said, he’s been there 18 months and (Cullerton) has been there 37 years and (House Speaker Michael Madigan) 45 years, and so for 80-plus years, you’ve been running the state.”
Thats some goofy math!
- Joe M - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:49 am:
As shown in this meeting, just because parents and voters are frustrated with Rauner, doesn’t mean they aren’t frustrated with the Democrats either. I think many voter’s mood towards members of both parties is becoming “what can you do to help the situation?”
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:51 am:
Joe is correct and it’s something that I do not think the Dems fully appreciate.
- A guy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:51 am:
This, I believe, is a testament to Cullerton’s frustration. His public persona is that of a pretty patient and very cordial guy. He’s feeling some heat and he’s not able to do as much as he’d like about it.
The people working to get a bill passed to open the schools will get some credit and slack from folks. The people who work against it or worse yet, vote against it, will be cooked.
- Politix - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 9:59 am:
It’s nice to read about an engaged group of people willing to ask tough questions for a change. And kudos to Cullerton for putting himself before this kind of audience. He blew it, but at least he was there.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:10 am:
Agree with Joe M……every one is tired of all of it…..Democrats and Republicans.
- Sue - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:11 am:
Cullerton is Bart Simpson “I didn’t do it”
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:16 am:
Cullerton missed an opportunity to explain a bit about how the state works, or in this case, how it doesn’t work. He should have explained to the Coonley parents how the CPS issue has been framed by the Tribune and by suburban and some downstate interests. He should have pointed out that Mayor Daley asked for certain things in the School Reform bill that passed twenty years ago and led to some of today’s problems.
CPS parents have been lied to for generations about who screwed up their kids’ schools. Cullerton had a chance to level with them and he should have taken it. They deserve to hear some unvarnished truth about how and why things are so messed up. Maybe then the parents would understand the role they’ve played too.
- Very fed up - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:23 am:
Hopefully there is more of this to come. Yes Rauner is not doing the state any favors but Madigan and Cullertons longterm record is not defensible to voters who have paid attention.
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:35 am:
You have to remember too what was stated yesterday. A lot of the flack directed at Cullerton, was from supporters of an elected school board. Jenkins, a staunch and vocal supporter of an elected board, which I would like too, was attempting to turn up the pressure on Cullerton to call the school board bill in the senate. I wouldn’t put too much into equating the level of anger Cullerton was facing as placing equivalent blame on him as is being directed towards to governor. Let’s be honest here.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:44 am:
Why do you think there is not the same level of anger at Cullerton and Madigan as the Governor? What solutions do they have? Just a tax increase and more money for Chicago.
They don’t want to reform anything to encourage business to hire more people in Illinois
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:48 am:
With parents highly concerned about the prospect of schools opening later this summer, who will get the blame if/when the General Assembly approves a stop gap that includes funding for a full year of K-12 and Governor Rauner vetoes it?
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:52 am:
Business is encouraged to hire more people in Illinois when more Illinois consumers buy more of their products. The governor has impoverished many thousands of those consumers over the last year and a half due to his refusal to discuss both cuts and new revenues with the dems to get us to a balanced budget.
Additionally, he’s not paying the businesses that have done business with the state these last 18 months, and the unelected courts are ordering revenue expenditures based on previous revenue levels.
You want to reform something that businesses care about? Reform the governor’s refusal to sit down and talk balancing this state’s budget. That’ll help businesses to hire more than anything in his extreme turn around agenda ever will.
- Abe the Babe - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:53 am:
==Just a tax increase and more money for Chicago.==
Lucky P, swing and miss again. The fallacy you push is that the Ds are just itching to raise taxes. That they just cant wait to do it.
Anyone who has completed 7th grade math knows a tax increase is required for the state. Not a policy preference, not a want or desire. A necessity.
The difference is that Rauner is leveraging this necessity to ram through an agenda that no rational economic analysis has said will create more jobs than it will lose or at best it will bring in 1% in revenue.
As for cullerton, he is smart. The trouble is that he knows it and doesnt suffer fools. Two bad qualities in a leader and politician.
- Gone - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:56 am:
No agenda = nothing to say, except “blame that guy”
- Wensicia - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:56 am:
It’s interesting that they mention Cullerton and Madigan, but leave out Mayor Daley. CPS is a mess because of decades of mismanagement and failure to fund pensions by the former mayor. Now they’re finally going to have to pay for these abuses instead of expecting Springfield to come to the rescue. Hard medicine.
- Juvenal - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:57 am:
=== We’ve labeled as dishonest the grossly unbalanced budget that Madigan proposed and Cullerton supported ===
Don’t be such a Poindexter, McQueary.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 10:59 am:
Cullerton was not smart enough to present a unified democratic budget with cuts and revenues and some reasonable reforms
- Just Me - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:02 am:
Politicians don’t volunteer to meet with their constituents. Further evidence that the GA believes they rule their voters, not the other way around.
- Maguffin - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:03 am:
Other than Mr. Jenkins’ version of events, swallowed hook, line, and rolling eyes by the Tribune editorial board, is there any independent, and perhaps, less biased, view of what transpired?
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:03 am:
–They don’t want to reform anything to encourage business to hire more people in Illinois–
Ah, yes, in our collectivist economy, General Secretary Rauner and his commissars bend the economy by force of will for the glory of the Union of Soviet Socialist Counties of Illinois.
Sell it, LP, like the big kids in the private sector do. Let’s see your work: assumptions, projections, data. Otherwise, it’s just cult-like chanting and beyond silly by now.
You know what would be swell for the economy, LP? If the state would pay its bills. Billions of dollars going to Illinois businesses, just by doing what it should be doing, anyway.
I know your dorm-room chinwags are deep on obtuse theory, but in the real world, getting paid for goods and services provided is the bees-knees for the economy.
And it’s actually something the state is capable of doing.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:07 am:
–Cullerton was not smart enough to present a unified democratic budget with cuts and revenues and some reasonable reforms–
LOL, how’s your Boss doing on that front?
Check out what the governor’s peeps told the rating agencies about the billions of red ink in his proposed budgets.
Careful, LP, there are real numbers in the link.
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/budget/capitalmarkets/Documents/Presentations/June%202016%20Summary%20of%20Ratings%20Presentation.pdf
- Illinois bob - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:09 am:
@Abe the Babe
=The fallacy you push is that the Ds are just itching to raise taxes. That they just cant wait to do it.=
Dems DON’T want to take the HEAT for raising taxes, Babe. They just want the money FROM the tax increases to spend for their patronage and pork.
That’s why they want the GOP to take ownership of a tax increase while they reap the fruits with much higher spending and big raises for their public union buddies.
Madigan could have made the massive tax increase permanent had he wanted to do so. He didn’t want to take the political hit from it. He wanted Rauner to do that.
If you think that he deferred action on making the 67% take increase from decreasing to “only” a 25% tax increase out of deference to Rauner, I’ve got some prime real estate near the marshes near Lake Calumet in which you may be interested…
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:12 am:
===Cullerton was not smart enough to present a unified democratic budget with cuts and revenues and some reasonable reforms===
Dude, try reality instead of blind partisanship someday. Lawmakers of both parties are needed to first negotiate and then put their votes on a bipartisan cutting/sufficient-revenue-raising bill, or it’s not going to get done.
The root cause of the lack of negotiations is and always was the governor.
- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:19 am:
Times have changed, and people are sick of the political games. They want answers, they want solutions - not the same old blame game.
- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:22 am:
I’m sure if it was up to Cullerton, IL would have had a budget a year ago. I think this is why he came unglued at the meeting.
- A guy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:23 am:
===Cullerton was not smart enough to present a unified democratic budget with cuts and revenues and some reasonable reforms===
Aside from the fact no budget like that currently exists from either side of any aisle….
What in the world makes you think that crowd was ready to hear anything beyond “I hear you”.
“We’re prepared to get to work on exactly what you’re bringing up here”.
That’s all that could have been done in a room like that. John blew his cool a little. That’s not normal for him. He went into a room he suspected were folks on his team. His team is very upset with their captain. I bet he gets it now.
- Clark - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:27 am:
===The root cause of the lack of negotiations is and always was the governor.===
Yeah, you’re right, Madigan and/or Cullerton should take zero blame on this too.
Come on, everyone is at fault here
- JS Mill - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:38 am:
=getting paid for goods and services provided is the bees-knees for the economy.=
Sad that yo have to explain that basic economic premise to some people. But, I do love the way you explained it.
Where would our economy be if the bills were paid? I am thinking it would be in better shape. No?
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:40 am:
@Clark, only the governor has pre-conditions to begin discussions on balancing the budget. If the “this” you’re talking about is Illinois financial situation, then yes, there is a lot of blame to go around, but assigning it isn’t getting us any closer to solving those problems. Only budget negotiations can do that, and only one party is stopping that via pre-conditions, and that is my point.
- Rod - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:40 am:
Amazingly accurate description based on communications I received from supporters of the Raise Your Hand organization who were also there. President Cullerton represents an old Irish machine family in a City that is very different than the one his father John J. Cullerton Sr. and his family clan, with characters like P.J. “Parky” Cullerton, has operated in. President Cullerton’s family has been in city politics almost continuously since the Great Chicago Fire. There was a Cullerton serving in the Chicago City Council from 1871 until 2008.
But really what relevance does that tradition have for middle class white professional families living in Lincoln Park, and Lake View sending their children to public elementary schools where they are donating maybe a thousand dollars a year or more?
The vast bulk of residents of Illinois State Senate District 6 are higher income whites who have little in common with Cullerton. His District even has very few foreign born residents, about 12.6% to be exact. The entire demographics of Cullerton’s District is not consistent with machine politics, which is why in 2014 the unknown Republican candidate running against President Cullerton got 33.7% of the vote in the District with a campaign budget of only $11,728.
- Abe the Babe - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:42 am:
@Illinois Bob…
So many things wrong. Not sure where to start.
Why dont we start by you supporting your argument that a tax increase is not necessary and as you claim is only needed for “patronage and pork”. Every 1% increase in the income tax generates about 3 billion. IL taxes went from 3-5% which is 6 billion more each year in revenue. Please point to me the $6billion in patronage and pork that the additional money was spent on. Bonus points if you can name line items too! dont forget to show your work.
And of course Madigan wants GOP to take some of the hit for raising taxes. Thats politics. Especially when a lot of GOP members benefited from the additional revenue by keeping more state facilities from closing yet they had the privilege of saying they were against said revenue.
What politician wouldnt want the other party to do the heavy lifting when that lifting is NECESSARY. Unless of course you can show me 9 billion in cuts? And if you say waste fraud and abuse then the conversation is over. Thats what people say when they dont know anything about public spending.
- Daniel Plainview - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:42 am:
- just want the money FROM the tax increases to spend for their patronage and pork. -
By that logic, your pal Bruce should have been able to present a balanced budget by cutting back that patronage and pork. Any thoughts on why he didn’t do that, genius?
- BluegrassBoy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:43 am:
I’m much supportive of the Legislature than the Governor in this deal. But everybody’s lost patience with this situation - and everyone involved in it.
That said, the Senate President is a Public Servant and I have the upmost respect for him. But he HAS to maintain his cool and respond appropriately to a frustrated (and yes possibly uniformed) electorate at times. It seems to me he’s been the least petulant of the leaders so far - but maybe it’s catching up with him.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:46 am:
=== Republican candidate running against President Cullerton got 33.7% of the vote===
Rauner got 38 percent http://illinoiselectiondata.com/analysis/precinct/statewidebyalldistricts.php?State=180&Category=State+Senate
- Precinct Captain - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:53 am:
Not sure Jenkins understands math.