“I am disgusted by these recent comments, and as I’ve said many times, I’m appalled by the rhetoric in the presidential race. Those comments do not reflect the values of the Republican Party. They do not reflect the values of America.”
“I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers–not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American.
As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party.
It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.”
…Adding… This vote is legally meaningless because Petraeus is not registered as a write-in candidate and probably won’t ever be…
MARK KIRK says he will write in "Petraeus" when he votes this fall and definitely won't vote for Hillary
In response to Republican Mark Kirk’s reversal on his endorsement of Donald Trump, Duckworth deputy campaign manager Matt McGrath issued the following statement:
“What took so long? Apparently for Mark Kirk, it’s acceptable to refer to Mexicans as rapists; to propose banning Muslims from entering the country; to call women fat pigs and dogs; to mock a reporter’s disability; and to insult just about everyone who doesn’t look like Donald Trump. Until today, and for nearly a year, Kirk was fine with all of that, and even saw a ‘net benefit’ in Trump’s campaign, and offered himself up as a potential adviser. Yesterday, Tammy Duckworth called Senator Kirk’s silence in the face of Trump’s bigotry a betrayal, and we’re standing by our statement.”
…Adding Still More… Press release…
Democratic congressional candidate CJ Baricevic (IL-12) today called Donald Trump’s attacks on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel as racist and challenged Congressman Mike Bost to join Speaker Paul Ryan in denouncing Trump’s comments and urged Bost to withdraw his support of Trump as Senator Mark Kirk did on Tuesday.
Baricevic issued the following statement:
“I join Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mark Kirk in condemning Donald Trump’s racist attack that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a native of Indiana, cannot impartially try a case in our federal court system due to his family heritage. This despicable racist attack on Judge Curiel has no place in our country and deserves universal condemnation. Congressman Bost should immediately condemn this attack and rescind his support of Donald Trump for President. Shame on Mike Bost if he does not deplore Donald Trump’s racist statement and continues to support Donald Trump.”
Rauner also ripped into Democratic Senate President John Cullerton, calling “corrupt” his tactics in pressing for a school funding formula change. Once again, Rauner referenced a January Cullerton speech to the City Club of Chicago in which the Democrat said “We got to change the school funding formula. … Before we appropriate money for education for next year that starts July 1, we have to fix this formula.”
Said Rauner on Tuesday: “(Cullerton) has said he doesn’t want schools to open, doesn’t want the schools to open, unless the formula changes and there’s a lot more money for Chicago. He said it. This is not, I mean I am not making it up,” Rauner said. “That is wrong. That is corrupt. That is a conflict of interest, using political leverage to damage other communities and we cannot let that happen.”
And this gets us to a budget… how?
…Adding… As a commenter points out, using “leverage” that could damage communities is something the governor himself proposed a bit over a year ago…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked off a campaign-style statewide tour Monday by indicating he’ll try to “leverage” the state’s money woes into securing a series of pro-business changes from a General Assembly controlled by Democrats likely to fiercely oppose them. […]
The first stop was at Tribune Tower, where the governor sought to frame up the last seven scheduled weeks of the spring session during an appearance before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. The governor and legislative leaders will try to craft a new budget before the May 31 adjournment deadline against the backdrop of a projected deficit of $6 billion and Rauner calling for major cuts.
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner […]
“It’s critical that in public arenas that we treat our adversaries with civility because one of the things I also learned (in politics is that) today’s adversary is tomorrow’s ally because issues change. But if you just call somebody stupid or a crook, it’s going to be a little harder the next day for you to meet them as allies,” he said. […]
Still, Edgar added, “There’s nothing worse than an old governor telling a new governor what to do.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Senate President Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson…
“For too long the state has failed to meet the needs of schoolchildren throughout Illinois. The Senate President remains hopeful that the governor is serious when he says education is his top priority. He also hopes that the governor understands his role is to advocate on behalf of all public school students in every community. We need to rise to confront the educational challenges together.”
Kept it classy.
* Related…
* Social services brace for more uncertainty as key deadline looms: Yet, as Rauner travels the state pushing his proposal, the spending plan that would get at least some money for this fiscal year to social service groups sits on his desk. “(Signing it) is just common sense and it just needs to be done,” said Marilyn Krolak, director of the DuPage Senior Citizen Council.
* July hearing set in social services lawsuit against Gov. Rauner: A coalition of 82 groups called Pay Now Illinois filed a lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and state agencies citing fallout from the state’s budget impasse. The group claims it’s owed more than $130 million for 11 months of unpaid work.
As Illinois draws close to entering its second year without a budget, one of its many unpaid bills threatens to provoke a dispute with the nation’s top crime-fighting force.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the state owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks. The debt is now so long overdue that it could be turned over to the federal government’s collection agency — the Treasury Department.
Maybe Treasury could declare us in receivership and just take over the entire government. /snark
* Gov. Rauner said again today that Speaker Madigan wants school funding held up to “create a crisis to force a bailout of the Chicago Public Schools and the City of Chicago.” He said Madigan also wants that crisis in order to force a tax hike after the election.
“He wants no reforms, he wants a tax hike after the general election,” Rauner said while speaking at the Bloomington Regional Alternative School.
Rauner said his signing the K-12 funding bill last year “upset the Speaker,” which is why Madigan included K-12 funding in an omnibus approp bill this year.
And Rauner warned: “One way or another we’re going to get the legislature back in town.”
* Asked about the suburban and Downstate superintendents who yesterday criticized the governor for wanting to put “more money into this worst-in-the-nation K-12 funding system in the same way,” Rauner said, “The vast bulk of the money that they’re advocating for goes to Chicago, not to school districts around the state.”
When asked, specifically, why superintendents in Peoria and other districts are pushing a different funding plan, Rauner said, “Because they get a little bit more. Chicago gets a lot more, unfairly more. Peoria gets a little bit more.”
Madigan, Rauner said, is being hypocritical because he has “killed” funding reform “for years.”
* Rauner also defended the comment he made yesterday about how some Chicago schools resembled crumbling prisons.
“I’ve been in dozens” of city public schools, he said. “In too many of them, I cry. Tears come into my eyes. No student, no child of Illinois should have to go to school in some of those facilities. They have metal on the windows. They’re dark, they’re depressing, they’re crumbling, they have metal detectors at every door and they have police officers and security officers everywhere. Our children deserve better than that. No child should have to go to school in those kind of conditions, and I’m outraged by it. And I will always be outraged by it and I’m fighting against it.”
Good points. However, as a commenter points out, fixing those problems isn’t gonna be cheap. And the city probably can’t do it alone. It takes money, and the governor isn’t offering any more.
* But here’s today’s quotable. Rauner was asked about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s comment yesterday that the governor sounded like he was auditioning to be Donald Trump’s running mate…
“I think politicians sometimes, when they’re not confident in their own policy positions, just throw a lot of mud. There’s a lot of mud being thrown by the mayor and others.”
Illinois Department of Public Health Prepares for a Public Health Emergency
Next week, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) will test the ability of the state public health system to receive and distribute medicine and medical supplies during a public health emergency. In the event of an emergency severe enough to cause local medical supplies to run out (terrorist attack, flu outbreak, earthquake, etc.), the State can request what is called the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). The SNS is a national repository of antibiotics, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, life-support medications, airway maintenance supplies, and medical/surgical items. The SNS is designed to supplement and re-supply state and local public health agencies in the event of a national emergency.
“The anthrax attacks in 2001 and the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic highlight the importance of being prepared for various health threats,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. “And that preparation requires continual and coordinated efforts between all levels of government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and individuals. This exercise will allow us to identify any gaps we have in our plan to quickly distribute medicines during an emergency.”
Next week’s exercise will simulate an anthrax release. It will require the State to request the SNS from the federal government, receive packages of supplies within 12 hours of the request, break down the packages, and distribute them across the state to locations where medicine is needed. Numerous local health departments and hospitals across the state will simulate receiving the SNS supplies and dispensing medicine to people who have volunteered to act as the public coming to pick up medicine.
The State regularly conducts training and SNS deployment exercises to evaluate the strength of the SNS plan and improve various aspects as needed.
* OK, fine. They should definitely do their job.
But there’s an urgent and ongoing public health emergency that the state appears to be mostly ignoring. For instance…
A 6-year-old girl was among 11 people shot across Chicago within seven hours Monday night.
The girl was critically wounded Monday night in a shooting in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Rauner agreed the [K-12 school funding] formula is unfair, but said two GOP school funding plans will allow time to negotiate a balanced budget and for schools to open as planned, something he’s “very concerned” about.
* I asked CPS spokesperson Emily Bittner if the district supports the governor’s latest proposal, which would hold all schools “harmless” but wouldn’t provide any extra money for Chicago’s school system. Her e-mailed reply…
Opposed. Doubled down on a broken funding formula that punishes the state’s poorest kids.
* Meanwhile, the Illinois GOP sent this out on behalf of a Republican legislative candidate today…
Time for Springfield Politicians to Work Together
Legislators Need to Come Together, Compromise to Stop Nuclear Plant Closures
Last week, Exelon announced that it would begin taking steps to shut down the Quad Cities nuclear plants. Candidate for State Representative in the 71st District, Tony McCombie, issued the following statement:
“The culture in Springfield is toxic. Politicians continue to refuse to work together and compromise on anything. Eight hundred hardworking employees will lose their jobs if our legislators fail to immediately act. The closure of the Quad Cities plant will simply devastate the region and add to our decline in economic activity. It is time for our representatives put the future of Illinois first and work around the clock to come to an agreement on Exelon, our state budget, and much needed reforms before the damage is permanent.”
Some good faith on helping CPS might go a very long way toward an Exelon agreement. Just sayin…
* By the way, Emily at CPS also sent me this…
Hey, Rich -
Thanks for indulging me on this. We tracked down the classroom featured in the photo you have (which I think comes from a 2014 DNAInfo story).
Goes without saying that CPS has issues with infrastructure and classrooms all over the system - which is what happens with a $3 billion deferred maintenance backlog. But in this particular case, repairs were made. Attached is a photo of what the classroom looks like today.
We’ve invested at least $1.6 million in capital improvements at Gale in the past five years, including repairs to steam leaks that caused peeling paint, as well as priming and painting the ceiling.
* That looks pretty good. Unfortunately, Hillman sent me another photo today along with this e-mail…
This was the hallway photo taken when I was given Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky a tour. (Whose mother once taught at the school). We let CPS know about this months ago, which was dismissed until “maybe this summer”. It was asked if they could speed it up and do over Spring Break but they didn’t. In the meantime, lead paint continues to fall on the kids.
Also if you look at one of the FOIA’d lead tests you will see they found maximum lead readings throughout the building - this was after they “fixed” the earlier classroom, and in another test they found lead dust on the handrails. They have a problem, but won’t fix anything unless we go to the media.
We had a malfunctioning fire alarm for two years and it took Congresswoman Schakowsky, Sen. Steans and Rep. Cassidy to demand a meeting before CPS finally decided to fix it.
Would be great if CPS worked as diligently as the communications department does though.
Today, as Republican Mark Kirk refuses to criticize Donald Trump for his racist comments about Latino & Muslim Judges, the Democratic Party of Illinois is launching a new website to highlight the similarly offensive rhetoric employed by Kirk and Trump. The website, www.TrumporKirk.com, will be accompanied by a digital advertising campaign. It presents viewers with a series of ridiculous comments and quizzes them on whether they were said by Mark Kirk or Donald Trump.
“Republican Mark Kirk and his endorsed presidential candidate Donald Trump share a habit of making offensive comments and embracing fringe conspiracy theories. One endorsed discriminating against Muslims and accused President Obama of having a U.S. Senator indicted out of political retribution. The other says Latino and Muslim judges are incapable of objective decision making. Examining their rhetoric, it’s clear that Republicans Mark Kirk and Donald Trump are two peas in a pod. No wonder Kirk said he’d ‘certainly support’ Donald Trump and offered to serve as Trump’s ’steady conservative hand,’” said Democratic Party of Illinois spokesperson Sean Savett.
Yesterday, Democratic Senate nominee Tammy Duckworth delivered a forceful speech condemning Trump’s racist comments about Judge Curiel and Kirk’s refusal to disavow them.
Examples of the quotes featured on the website include:
“She’s as good-looking as a super model, but with a business education.”
“He’s going to have a rotating first lady … he’s a bro with no ho.”
“Tens of thousands of people are gonna lose their lives because of Barack Hussein Obama.”
“The little rich girl is having a temper tantrum. It is ironic that an heiress with no record of service to her country would attack me.”
“She has yet to lift her manicured little pinkie for our national security.”
* OK, now on to the other “controversy” mentioned above. Here’s the Tribune…
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth on Monday accused Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and others of being “complicit” in Donald Trump’s campaign of “hate and division” and said they deserve “to be judged harshly” for failing to publicly rebuke the presumptive GOP presidential nominee over comments about the judiciary.
Speaking to a West Loop gathering of the national pro-Democratic women’s group EMILY’s List, the two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates warned the first-term Republican senator that “silence is betrayal” when it comes to failing to take a stand against Trump’s criticism of federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
The problem here is that the Republicans are in a major trick bag. The moment they denounce Trump, they look like fools because they’re immediately asked if they still support him.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had harsh words Tuesday for Donald Trump‘s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, calling out the presumptive GOP nominee for racist comments while simultaneously reaffirming that his endorsement of Trump stands.
Kirk needs a better answer than Ryan. We’ll see soon enough if he comes up with one.
…Adding… Forgot to note that I received this postcard in the mail…
After discussing how to keep our schools and prisons open during this budget impasse at an event yesterday in Ottawa, Senator Sue Rezin was verbally assaulted by a union protestor as she was walking back to her car.
“This type of behavior is not acceptable. Protestors have every right to speak their minds, but they do not have a right to verbally assault those they disagree with. If union bosses are serious about working cooperatively to solve Illinois’ many problems, they should condemn this type of language and behavior immediately.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
* Gov. Rauner was asked in Oregon yesterday about the lack of funding for the Redeploy Illinois program. If you’re not familiar with the program, here’s a brief explanation from the Sun-Times…
Under the juvenile version of Redeploy Illinois, which started in 2005, judges give juveniles ages 13 to 18 who commit less-serious crimes a community-based option instead of prison. The juveniles also get counseling, career training and treatment for such things as trauma, substance abuse and mental health issues.
“It’s outrageous that we don’t have a budget… If we don’t have a balanced budget we don’t have the resources to put into our essential human services. And Redeploy is a very important program. Now, the good news is we’ve been studying the data, so far we’re not seeing any increase in crime related to Redeply being strangled by the lack of a budget. But at some point it will.”
After a rash of armed robberies and carjackings startled Rockford residents this year, police recognized a few teenagers among those arrested in an ensuing crackdown.
The youths had been enrolled in a state-funded program called Redeploy Illinois, which is almost universally praised as an alternative to jail that diverts troubled youths from further crime. But due to a loss of funding in Illinois’ unprecedented budget impasse, a Rockford-area nonprofit ended its program in October, leaving some 40 juveniles without the one-on-one attention they’d been receiving.
Within months, police say, some of those teens were re-arrested, including after 14 robberies on one January day.
“When all these social service agencies are cut, the only public agency left to pick up the pieces is law enforcement. We’re not equipped to do that,” said Pat Hoey, Rockford’s assistant deputy police chief. “You can’t arrest your way out of youth violence crime issues.”
As the Sun-Times noted, “You can pretty much draw a straight line from the political stalemate in Springfield to a flurry of robberies in Rockford.”
* As I told you yesterday, Gov. Rauner claimed in LaSalle County yesterday that Attorney General Lisa Madigan is attempting to stop “hard workin’ state employees” from gettin’ paid in order to force a massive tax hike.
More from the Illinois Policy Institute’s radio network…
“I’m asking Attorney General Lisa Madigan: Don’t try to stop our state government employees from being paid. Don’t hold up salaries,” Rauner said.
The attorney general’s press secretary, Annie Thompson, said, “[T]he best way to ensure state employees are paid for the rest of this fiscal year and all of the next fiscal year is for the governor to work with the Legislature to pass an appropriation to cover state-employee pay.” The response did not provide any update on a review to possibly file a motion to block pay.
The Illinois Supreme court ruled not long ago that state employees can’t be paid without a legislative appropriation. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
* As you already know, Gov. Rauner was forced to change venues in LaSalle County yesterday because hundreds of protesters had physically surrounded his scheduled speaking site. The protesters followed him to the new venue and some waited around for him…
As he emerged, dozens followed Rauner on the sidewalk. Many shouted obscenities. Some pointed their fingers at him. The governor smiled.
A man in a yellow shirt and cargo shorts tried to block the governor’s path, but police officers pushed him out of the way.
Rauner went into the back seat of a black SUV, which quickly drove off.
He then made a visit to the Tangled Roots tasting room a couple blocks away within The Lone Buffalo brewpub, where he spent less than a minute.
As he left, protesters spotted him and shouted at him again.
Oof.
* This video of part of the aftermath is not safe for work if obscenities will get you in trouble. Seriously, be careful here…
I thought he showed remarkable poise considering all the obscene screaming.
Illinois plans to sell $550 million of bonds on June 16, the governor’s office said on Monday, as the state struggles through an unprecedented budget impasse that has heightened concerns about its financial health.
The tax-exempt general obligation bond sale, which will be competitively bid, comes after state lawmakers ended their spring session on May 31 without passing budgets for the current and next fiscal years.
The deal’s prospectus, released late on Monday, acknowledged Illinois’ financial condition has been “materially adversely affected” by the impasse between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature. […]
Credit rating agencies have warned Illinois, which has the lowest bond ratings among the 50 states, of further downgrades if it fails to tackle a $111 billion unfunded pension liability and huge structural budget deficit.
Illinois’ sold $480 million of bonds in January, the state’s first deal in nearly two years.
I doubt Mayor Emanuel will retaliate by bad-mouthing the bond sale like Rauner repeatedly has to the CPS sales. But, stranger things have happened, I suppose.
* Related…
* Illinois hires consultants to ease interest rate swap risk: Illinois has hired outside consultants at a two-year cost of $525,000 to reduce its exposure to bond-related agreements with banks that could cost the cash-strapped state more than $100 million… Further downgrades of Illinois’ relatively low general obligation credit ratings could force the state to pay termination fees to the banks estimated at $163 million, according to the state’s solicitation to prospective law firms. The trigger would be a two-notch downgrade of the state’s Baa1 rating with Moody’s Investors Service to Baa3 or a three-notch downgrade of its A-minus rating with Standard & Poor’s to BBB-minus. Both agencies have warned of future downgrades if Illinois’ big pension problem and structural budget deficit worsen.
* Still budget-less Illinois has U.S. muni market on edge: The state appears to be bracing for credit rating cuts. The governor’s budget office has hired consultants to help Illinois disentangle from interest rate swap agreements that could cost the state more than $100 million should its ratings fall below specified levels.
Democratic members of the bipartisan working groups continue to meet with Republican legislators and the governor’s office to develop a resolution to the state budget impasse. The Speaker is hopeful that progress will continue, as it has over the past few weeks. Given this progress and the need for these discussions among the working groups on the budget and other issues to continue without interruption, the House will not be in session on Wednesday, June 8.
Tim Mapes | Chief of Staff
Speaker Michael J. Madigan’s Office
*** UPDATE 1 *** Kind of an odd press release, but whatevs…
Time for Mussman to Stand Up To Mike Madigan, Get Back to Work
Today, Speaker Mike Madigan informed legislators that tomorrow’s planned house session has been canceled. Jillian Rose Bernas, candidate for State Representative in the 56th House District, issued the following statement:
“After failing to pass a budget to ensure that our schools open on time, Speaker Madigan’s decision to cancel session tomorrow clearly shows that he is not willing to do the work that needs to be done to pass a balanced budget and reform state government.
Representative Michelle Mussman needs to stand up to Mike Madigan and work with Republican legislators to compromise so that we can begin to rebuild Illinois.
I have been walking door-to-door talking with neighbors, and they are frustrated with rising taxes and the lack of opportunities. Mussman is in a position to do something about this, but she continues to side with Speaker Madigan and it’s unacceptable. She was elected to represent the people of this community, not the personal agenda of Speaker Madigan.”
“Speaker Madigan promised me that they were going to come in every Wednesday. I said, ‘That’s not enough Mr. Speaker, you should be coming in every day until we get a budget, and get a balanced budget and more resources for our schools. Then I heard this morning, he just announced today they’re not going to come in tomorrow like he said they would,” Rauner said. “They’re not going to come in at all this week. They are slow rolling the process. They want a crisis in the schools. They want a crisis in the government to leverage a Chicago bailout and leverage a big tax hike without any reforms.”
“I am concerned,” Rauner said. “That’s the reason I need your help. They’ll come back if we demand, if we the people of Illinois, demand they come back. They should be doing their jobs.”
He could just call a special session. He’s not a totally helpless victim here.
