* A buddy of mine and I are taking my camper out to the fairgrounds this afternoon, so blogging will likely be non-existent for the rest of the day. Talk amongst yourselves, but please be decent to each other and keep it focused on Illinois. If you want to argue about presidential politics there are plenty of websites out there that would love to have you. Thanks.
Also, FYI, my wrenched ankle has felt a whole lot better since lunchtime. It may not last, but at the moment I feel like I’m healing faster than expected. Two friends just warned me not to get too confident and hurt myself by trying to do too much, and I plan to comply - which is why I asked a buddy to help me move my camper.
I’m really excited to be attending the Illinois State Fair this year. You’ll recall that I missed much of the fair last year because of a health issue. No way was I gonna allow an ankle injury to keep me away this year. Also, I’ve been invited to participate in the “Celebrity Beef Showmanship” event this coming Friday. I haven’t shown a steer since my 4-H days many, many, MANY moons ago in Iroquois County, so I’m pretty stoked. Hopefully, my ankle will be all better by then.
Judge William Becker has ruled the Illinois law that keeps certain individuals off the election ballot in the state unconstitutional, and has ordered Michael DePoister back on the ballot.
DePoister, who is currently a member of the County Board, was seeking re-election as a Republican when he learned that the county’s Republican Central Committee then-chairman Steve Donaldson was supporting another person in the March primary. That led DePoister to announce plans to run for re-election as an Independent candidate. He then voted in the March primary using a Republican ballot.
State law in Illinois currently indicates that if you vote a Republican or Democrat ballot in the primary, you can’t run as an independent in the general election that year. Donaldson filed an objection to DePoister’s candidacy and the Effingham County Officers Electoral Board upheld Donaldson’s objection and ruled DePoister off the ballot. […]
Judge Becker said that provision was troubling, asking Mette, “If I’m not a Democrat or Republican, why is this a compelling interest for me? Why can’t I run after the primary? (Under this law) I can’t even run against the people I don’t like.”
In making his ruling, Judge Becker said, “It’s personally offensive to me that if I take a certain ballot, I can’t run…I think the statute is unconstitutional.”
It’s not just independents. People who take Republican ballots in the spring can’t run in the general election as a Democrat. We’ve seen a handful of appellate cases with diametrically opposed rulings on this topic, which is why they passed a new law.
A person (i) who filed a statement of candidacy for a partisan office as a qualified primary voter of an established political party or (ii) who voted the ballot of an established political party at a general primary election may not file a statement of candidacy as a candidate of a different established political party or as an independent candidate for a partisan office to be filled at the general election immediately following the general primary for which the person filed the statement or voted the ballot. A person may file a statement of candidacy for a partisan office as a qualified primary voter of an established political party regardless of any prior filing of candidacy for a partisan office or voting the ballot of an established political party at any prior election.
Leaders from three West Side gang factions allegedly met last week to discuss plans to shoot members of the Chicago Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Paul O’Neal.
The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.
The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all three factions also have agreed to use against police, the alert states. […]
According to police sources, department members have also been advised to “limit interactions and visibility.”
And then the FOP president blamed the O’Neal family lawyer and the Independent Police Review Authority for the problem. Always helpful, that guy.
* Mayor Emanuel’s response…
There are 12,500 men and women who wake up every day, put on a uniform, hug their families, and leave their houses to spend their day protecting our families and our neighborhoods. Our city asks officers to step into harm’s way to protect us and our communities. We need to support them, work with them, and never forget their dedication to doing an incredibly dangerous job and doing it well. We can have a reasonable conversation about the need for police accountability reform, but the idea that a bunch of gang members would threaten violence against the men and women every Chicagoan relies on for their own safety is absolutely unacceptable.
* Speaking of the O’Neal police shooting case, 2nd City Cop, which has always been a vigorous defender of the police, took a look at the issue. They don’t think that charges will be filed against the cops, but there are some departmental policies that appear to have been violated…
First is the prohibition on chasing hot cars:
General Order 03-03-01
Section III - Prohibitions
Subsection C: The continuation of a motor vehicle pursuit is prohibited whenever
Item 2a: the most serious offense for which the pursued vehicle is wanted is […] a theft
And if you go to the Glossary, the definition of a Theft is as follows:
Theft - Any violation of any subsection of 625 ILCS 5/4, including Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle, or 720 ILCS 5/16.
We haven’t heard the complete audio tape, so we have no idea if the chase was terminated at any point, but the moment that it was determined the car was stolen, without some sort of extenuating circumstance, termination is a given, including self-termination by the officers. That item has been in effect for many years now.
However, there is a bigger order in play here. The Department’s Use of Force is deliberately written as a “preservation of life” policy and has been taught for years as being “more restrictive than state law.” The Department is going to hang one or both officers on the following violation:
General Order 03-02-02 - Deadly Force
Section III - Department Prohibitions for Use of Deadly Force
Use of firearms in the following way is prohibited:
(E) Firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force being used against the sworn member or another person.
Public pension plans are reporting dismal investment returns this year, a development that will likely mean governments will have to pony up more money in the coming years.
So far, no major pension plan has reported a preliminary annual investment return of more than 1.5 percent. That’s thanks to a volatile stock market that’s seen wild swings spurred mainly by political and economic events abroad. Some smaller plans, such as the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, have reported earnings as high as 2.6 percent. Still for many, this year marked their worst earnings year since the Great Recession.
The slim earnings for fiscal 2016, which ended June 30 for most plans, is well below the average earnings target of about 7.5 percent. It also marks the second year in a row that plans have missed the assumed rate of return: Most reported an investment gain between 2 percent and 4 percent in fiscal 2015.
Plans rely heavily on investment earnings — roughly 80 cents on every dollar paid out to retirees is from investments. When plans don’t meet their earnings target in any given year, it negatively impacts their assets because annual payments from current employees and governments aren’t enough to cover the annual payouts to retirees.
Illinois’s largest public pension agrees with Bill Gross’s admonishment that it’s time to face up to the reality of lower returns and reduce assumptions about what funds can make off stocks and bonds.
Fund managers that have been counting on returns of 7 percent to 8 percent may need to adjust that to around 4 percent, Gross, who runs the $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, said during an Aug. 5 interview on Bloomberg TV. Public pensions, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest in the U.S., are reporting gains of less than 1 percent for the fiscal year ended June 30.
Illinois’s largest state pension, the $43.8 billion Teachers’ Retirement System, plans to take another look at how much it assumes it will make in the coming year as part of an asset allocation study, said Richard Ingram, executive director. Currently it assumes 7.5 percent, lowered from 8 percent in June 2014. Plans for the study were in place before Gross made his remarks.
“Anybody that doesn’t consider revisiting what their assumed rate of return is would be ignoring reality,” Ingram, whose pension is 41.5 percent funded, said in a phone interview. The fund has yet to report its June 30 return.
* If you’ve been following our live coverage post, you know that Judge Zagel just refused to reduce former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence.
* The Question: Do you agree or disagree with Judge Zagel’s sentencing of Rod Blagojevich? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* The Tribune’s Rick Pearson went to the NCSL redistricting panel featuring House Speaker Madigan’s chief of staff Tim Mapes and a legislator from Iowa…
Mapes noted that Iowa’s homogeneous population doesn’t force it to come up with districts to support federal minority voting rights like Illinois and is able to have a much more streamlined process for making districts compact. […]
“Legislators like to be involved in this state on how they frame their districts. Whether they like all of it is another thing. But they like to be involved, and it’s still a big part of what we do,” Mapes said. […]
Mapes said those pushing the proposals “sort of claim to be nonpartisan.”
“But in my experience (being) around this business for a while, almost everybody’s got an agenda at some point. It may not be your agenda, but it will be an agenda,” Mapes said.
“So those (remap) initiatives have not done well as far as getting through the court system. And one currently in Illinois is before the Illinois Supreme Court, and I’m not a lawyer, but my guess is they’re going to rule pretty soon on that as well,” he said.
Students in Illinois driver’s education classes will soon be required to learn something new before they can get behind the wheel. A new law requires instruction time on how to handle being stopped by the police.
Governor Bruce Rauner signed the bill into law on Friday. The change is aimed at preventing teens from panicking when being pulled over, and also from doing anything that may seem like a red flag to police. […]
“It’s important for individuals to know what conduct they should demonstrate when they’re stopped by a law enforcement officer,” Jesse White, Secretary of State, said.
Retired Chicago police officer Eddie Chapman has made it his mission to educate new drivers. Ten years ago, he wrote a poster book called “Drive Safe, Stop Safe,” which explains what to do during a traffic stop. The book is used in Chicago Public Schools.
Chapman said it’s important to stay calm, keep your hands on the wheel and cooperate with the officer.
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says a voter referendum aimed at imposing term limits on Chicago’s mayor and creating a consumer advocacy position won’t make the November ballot.
Quinn told The Associated Press he’s short of the roughly 53,000 signatures required by a Monday deadline. The Democrat says his goal is to get 100,000 and he’s got roughly 20,000.
He launched the petition drive in June, but wouldn’t say which election. He tells AP he’s aiming for 2018’s primary, when Illinois next elects a governor. Quinn hasn’t definitively ruled out another gubernatorial run.
* But, the AP didn’t tell the full story. I got to thinking about it last night and looked it up and realized that Quinn got a raw deal yesterday.
The binding referendums could be on ballots as early as November or in the 2018 cycle, meaning there’s potential to make Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel ineligible to seek a third term in 2019. [Emphasis added.]
If he gets enough signatures, the two referendums could be on ballots as early as November. However, Quinn says getting nearly 53,000 valid signatures before an Aug. 8 deadline would be challenging.
* And this is from Quinn’s press release at the time…
Quinn said Take Charge Chicago needs to collect about 100,000 petition signatures to safely qualify the two referendums for the ballot and the goal is to collect signatures “from every city neighborhood for as long as it takes.”
In other words, he never promised to meet yesterday’s deadline.
*** UPDATE *** From Billy Morgan…
Hello Rich,
Thanks for your comment this morning about our petition drive, Take Charge Chicago.
The petition was specifically written to allow for signatures to be valid up to the deadline on December 18, 2017.
The question will be on the ballot March 20, 2018, well ahead of the 2019 municipal elections.
All of the signatures already collected remain valid.
Our goal has always been 100,000 signatures — not August 8th.
The people of Chicago have shown overwhelming support for our petition, which allows for everyday people to make the rules for City Hall, not the other way around.
We continue to travel the city collecting signatures and we receive petitions in the mail daily from citizens that have downloaded the petition online.
For the record, here is the heading of the Take Charge Chicago petition:
We, the undersigned, qualified electors and registered voters residing within the City of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, who have affixed our signatures in our own proper person to this Petition, do hereby petition, pursuant to Sections 6 (f) and 11 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution and Article 28 of the Illinois Election Code, that the following two questions of public policy be placed on the ballot and submitted to the voters of the City of Chicago for their approval or disapproval, by referendum, at the next regular election to be held at least 92 days after the filing of this petition and if approved, each question shall take effect immediately upon referendum approval of that question. (Emphasis added.)
Tuesday, Aug 9, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
A bipartisan group of State Senators asked the Supreme Court to uphold the Independent Map Amendment:
“The court should uphold the democratic rights of Illinoisans and allow a vote this November on whether a new redistricting system should become part of our state Constitution.”
[Chicago Tribune, 8/2/2016]
Editorial boards weighed in:
“If district lines are drawn so that representatives actually have to serve a constituency rather than a carefully selected clientele, government should become more responsive.”
[The Southern Illinoisan, 8/1/2016]
“Redistricting reform is also, we believe, entirely constitutional… It relies, not on a self-interested interpretation of that 1970 document by those trying to hold onto power, but where it should and must rest: On the intent of delegates who wrote a citizens initiative provision designed to ensure that the power to elect our legislature lies, not with those legislators, but the people.”
[The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus, 8/1/2016]
“We urge justices to put aside their political leanings, carefully study the merits of Independent Map Amendment, and give it their approval. We urge justices to overturn Judge Larsen’s ruling… which hangs upon technicalities that common sense would find unconvincing.”
[Sauk Valley Media, 7/28/2016]
* Nicole van Rensburg owns a suburban medical marijuana dispensary and wrote this for Crain’s about the current state law…
The current application is cumbersome, onerous and time-consuming. It requires submission of proof of residency, consent to a background check via a Livescan fingerprinting vendor and completion of several forms related to medical history, age, identity and more. The fingerprinting requirement is particularly difficult for patients suffering from serious medical conditions, and it appears to be unnecessary—no other state requires fingerprinting.
Once the application has been submitted—and this assumes that all portions of it have been correctly completed—it takes 30 to 45 days on average for the state to issue a patient’s card. If people can get an opioid prescription filled in a day, then why should they have to wait so long to get a medical cannabis card? While these delays may be the result of larger budgetary and human resource issues facing the state, it is our hope that some of the laws and rules that make the process so difficult can be changed.
Second, Illinois should consider adding medical conditions that affect large numbers of people. Chronic or severe pain afflicts over 100 million Americans, with total costs reaching as much as $635 billion per year—that includes health care costs and estimated loss of productivity—and is the most common qualifying condition for medical cannabis in other states. It has been reported that nearly two-thirds of registered cardholders in eight other states treat their chronic or severe pain with medical cannabis. Chronic or severe pain is currently not a qualifying condition in Illinois.
According to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Pain, “Expanding evidence indicates that herbal cannabis has analgesic effects in neuropathic and nonneuropathic pain….There are at least five high-quality randomized controlled clinical trials establishing analgesic efficacy of smoked cannabis.” Many chronic pain sufferers are turning to cannabis as an alternative treatment and a means to reduce their use of pharmaceutical painkillers. They find that a cannabis regiment is equally as effective as pharmaceuticals but with far fewer side effects.
* The process is indeed cumbersome, and it’s expensive for patients. From a patient advocate…
Each applicant has to do a digital fingerprint scan service ($60+) to PROVE that they are not a drug felon (or other violent crime convict), active in law enforcement, or have a Commercial Driver’s License.
I contacted the lawyer that won the case against the state (for illegally blocking the addition of qualifying conditions to the medical cannabis program). He agrees that it is unconstitutional to block anyone from medicine based on their profession or criminal history. He believes that with a plaintiff, he can win the case AND additionally have the fingerprinting requirement for all applicants removed as that is also a violation of privacy and civil rights. […]
The whole state just decriminalized under 10 grams. The federal government is negotiating the transition of cannabis off of Schedule I designation. How much longer is cannabis going to be illegal? Why the draconian application process/bureaucratic institution for access to a non-toxic plant? Let’s move in the logical direction instead of letting this department sink it’s money-thirsty fangs into the sick patients of Illinois.
Did you know that when the new changes to the medical cannabis program were implemented on 8/1, the fee jumped from $100 to $300? Yeah, like getting into this program isn’t enough of a challenge. We knew that the cards would expire in 3 years, but no one NO ONE heard a word about charging $300 in advance for a 3 year card!! — They aren’t processing an application every year, so why charge the same $100 fee for every year? — totally insane… trust me, I know too much about how this department is using deficiency letters to discourage patients from pursuing their medical cannabis card.
* She then followed up on the “deficiency letters”…
1) Making a patient that has endured cancer treatment be re-fingerprinted to get access to a non-toxic plant.
2) Patients get a deficiency letter 4-6 weeks after they apply. Then, if they comply and provide anything they ask, it takes 14-30 days more to get the card!!
3) Those that don’t comply in the 45 day time frame lose their application fee.
4) Requiring an entire year of records from the VA to prove “ongoing care” is not in the law and is a violation of privacy.
5) Requiring the veteran’s DD214 to include character of service is not a part of the law but was added to the recently released application forms (8/1/16).
I’ve worked for 10 weeks with an agency that assists patients with the application process. I can’t un-see what I have witnessed. Just this week, a patient got the deficiency letter: Caregiver’s Fingerprint Consent Form is blurry. I went right to my file and resubmitted this document which is perfectly clear and sent it “actual size” — not compressed. This patient and many many more get these letters even though their application is PERFECT! The patient will be confused, frustrated and discouraged by the letter of deficiency. They abandon their application and the state keeps the application fees.
When this agency assists the patient, we immediately respond to the letter of deficiency. We see how regularly these deficiency notices are inaccurate. Because we push back on these situations, I’m pretty sure they hate us.
The law was made overly strict so liberal legislators could pass it with conservative support. I was OK with that at the time because I wanted to see it signed into law, but it’s way past the point that we move forward without all the “This Is Illinois” nonsense bureaucracy.
Today, the Democratic Party of Illinois is launching a new tumblr to highlight Republican Mark Kirk’s Trump-like habit of making offensive, embarrassing comments and the backlash Kirk’s gaffes have received. The title, “$#*% My Senator Says,” is a play on [S**t] My Dad Says, a New York Times bestseller.
“Republican Mark Kirk’s Trump-like tendency to make offensive comments isn’t just embarrassing — his frequent gaffes belittle the office he holds. They are a good reminder of why it’s hard to take anything he says seriously,” said Democratic Party of Illinois spokesperson Sean Savett.
Head-turning Kirk quotes featured on the Tumblr include:
And then it goes on for 45 minutes with the 27, 8×10 colored glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one as evidence against him.
More troubling in recent weeks, to our thinking, have been a couple of scurrilous accusations by Democratic Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth against her Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk. If we ever thought Duckworth might be above cheap shots, we know better now.
Duckworth loaded the two false accusations into a single tweet on June 8: “Kirk, who called for the mass arrest of 18,000 African Americans, was apparently fine w/ Trump’s #StillTooRacist call for mass deportation.”
Did Kirk in fact call for the arrest of 18,000 African-Americans? No.
Is it true Kirk has no objection to Trump’s call for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants? Also not true.
At that time, it was just a single tweet, so I didn’t get too fired up about the whole thing. Yes, it was underhanded, but it was only one tweet.
He has said that um, you know, he thought that, um, all the members of the uh, uh, uh you know 15 thousand plus of African-American men should be jailed because they’re suspected of being members of a gang, without due process.
* A state legislator saw yesterday’s post of Rep. Bob Martwick’s rant about Comptroller Leslie Munger holding up state lawmaker pay checks until there’s a formal state budget passed and weighed in via text message…
What’s next? Reinstate the death penalty and we’ll pay you? Or how about that abortion bill? Vote on that and you’ll get paid.
Yes, Munger’s move is undoubtedly popular, but that lawmaker does make a decent point. A precedent has clearly been set here. What if a Democratic comptroller decided to hold up paychecks until a gun control bill was passed, or until home care providers got a raise, or… ?
…Adding… A text message from a top Republican official….
I don’t know why these Democrats think publicly complaining about how they can’t get paid helps their cause with the voters - it only makes people like Leslie more and like them less. On the substance of their arguments, there is no slippery slope because no conditions have been set, no blackmail is going on, no tying of pay to specific votes or issues — she is the comptroller and we have a cash flow crisis with billions of dollars in unpaid bills. And as Democrats argued powerfully on the floor when urging passage of their unbalanced budget, all she needs to do to make an unbalanced budget work is choose not to pay certain bills. Well, you get what you ask for. That’s what makes this situation so unique and perfect — legally and politically.
* The Chicago media is all over Patti Blagojevich’s letter to the federal judge who is expected to decide today how much more prison time that former Gov. Blagojevich will serve. But this previously undisclosed letter on RRB’s behalf caught my eye…
Another unnamed inmate, whom Rod Blagojevich met at the Federal Prison Camp in Englewood, Colorado, said he has “no entitlement issues, does not display any narcissistic behavior, and is not self-centered.”
So, in my opinion, either Rod has had a complete personality transplant, or (donning my special tinfoil hat) he wrote that letter himself. I mean, for crying out loud, he had oodles of self-centered, narcissistic entitlement issues when we knew him. Could he really have changed that much behind bars or is this just a cynical ploy to address longstanding criticisms of his behavior?
I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
* The hearing starts at 10:30 this morning, so we’ll have a ScribbleLive feed up by about 10, when Mrs. Blagojevich is expected to arrive.
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says a voter referendum aimed at imposing term limits on Chicago’s mayor and creating a consumer advocacy position won’t make the November ballot.
Quinn told The Associated Press he’s short of the roughly 53,000 signatures required by a Monday deadline. The Democrat says his goal is to get 100,000 and he’s got roughly 20,000.
He launched the petition drive in June, but wouldn’t say which election. He tells AP he’s aiming for 2018’s primary, when Illinois next elects a governor. Quinn hasn’t definitively ruled out another gubernatorial run.
We are writing to you regarding the importance of House Bill 5931 that has recently passed the House and Senate with significant support and is now on its way to Governor Rauner’s desk.
This bill would raise the wages of Direct Support Professionals that provide services to children and adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. DSPs play a critical role by providing assistance to people with I/DD to learn daily living skills, find jobs, administer medications, provide transportation, and respond calmly to diffuse volatile situations that keep people out of the police departments or emergency rooms. Without DSPs, the health, safety, and welfare of thousands is jeopardized.
We serve as CEOs for three community organizations that combined serve more than 10,000 children and adults with I/DD. We are challenged with an unprecedented staffing crisis! This situation was not created by the current budget impasse, but rather years of neglect from our state government resulting in a system that ranks 47th in the nation. Today, the average wage for DSPs statewide is only $9.35/hour and community providers are reporting staff vacancy rates as high as 30 percent. With more than 23,000 people waiting for services, community providers can no longer respond to the needs in their community.
Our disability system is on the brink of disaster in Illinois. House Bill 5931 not only provides a livable wage to a valuable workforce, but it is the single most important measure that will stabilize a crumbling system. Governor Rauner must sign House Bill 5931.
* The Tribune editorial page likes the concept, but not the cost…
The bill sounds swell but includes no funding source. Even if Rauner signs it, the state doesn’t have the roughly $300 million to pay for it (about half of that would be reimbursed by the federal government). Think check-kiting scheme.
Had legislators and Rauner hammered out a full-year budget, Perez and other parents might not be trapped in this vise.
But this is what happens when politicians care more about the November election than about helping the people they profess to help. The Democrat-led General Assembly, and eventually Rauner and many Republicans, decided this was the best they could do: Pass a half-measure and go home to campaign.
* As I told you last week, Speaker Madigan’s vanquished primary opponent Jason Gonzales was planning to file suit against Madigan and others today. The suit has now been filed. Click here to see it.
The lawsuit also names Madigan lieutenant Shaw DeCreamer, Rep. Silvana Tabares, Ray Hanania, Joe Barbosa and Grasiela Rodriguez, as well as political funds Madigan controls. Barbosa and Rodriguez were allegedly Madigan’s put-up candidates to split the Latino vote against Gonzales. They received a combined vote of about 2,000. Gonzales got 7124 votes to Madigan’s 17,155.
The lawsuit claims that Madigan violated several of Gonzales’ rights by “tainting the pool of voters with messages” that Gonzales was a “convicted felon” who could “not be elected to public office.” Gonzales had been pardoned by Gov. Pat Quinn.
He also claims that Madigan “abridged the voting rights of Hispanics, including Gonzales, by diluting the Hispanic vote by registering two fake candidates with Hispanic surnames minutes after Gonzales filed his nominating petition.”
* Speaker Madigan’s response…
Jason Gonzales cannot be trusted and his lawsuit is without merit. According to Gonzales’ own court filing today, his criminal activity “resulted in several arrests, criminal charges, and felony and misdemeanor convictions.” Further, in an interview with FOX 32 News political editor Mike Flannery on March 4, 2016, Gonzales admitted to being a convicted felon. Additionally, many times during the campaign, Gonzales made statements about his criminal past. Gonzales’ losing campaign against me last spring was funded with more than $1 million from supporters and allies of Governor Bruce Rauner. Voters of my district soundly renominated me based on my strong record of service, giving me more than 65 percent of the vote, and they emphatically rejected Jason Gonzales because they knew he couldn’t be trusted.
“I knew that this battle was going to be a uphill battle when I started. I knew it was going to be tough. I knew Speaker Madigan was going to play dirty, but I had no idea that he was going to come and use fraudulent, dirty and illegal tactics to win a race,” Gonzales said Monday.
“This stuff has got to stop. These fraudulent illegal tactics have got to stop. We have to stand up. We have to stand united against the machine when they do these kinds of things, and we have to keep fighting,” Gonzalez said.
Throughout the campaign, Gonzales maintained that he and Madigan were the only candidates on the ballot until he submitted his paperwork just minutes ahead of the filing deadline, allegedly prompting a Madigan operative to quickly pull out petitions in Grasiela Rodriguez’ and Joe Barbosa’s names.
“We know a phony ghost candidate when we see one,” Peraica said. “And I’ve seen plenty. These two are it. And Speaker Madigan knew it. He allowed it. He promoted it.”
Individuals who will be 18 years old at the next election are now able to fully participate in the election process under legislation sponsored by Senator Dan McConchie and signed into law by Governor Rauner on August 5.
“There’s no reason to say that 17-year-olds have the right to vote and prevent them from otherwise participating in the election process,” said Senator McConchie. “Now, qualified 17-year-olds can sign and circulate petitions, pre-register to vote and act as deputy registrars. This new law makes the voting rights that 17-year-olds already have more complete.”
The new law also acts as an expansion of a 2013 law that allowed 17-year-olds who would be 18 by the general election to vote in the primary election. House Bill 6167 went a bit further to allow 17-year-olds the ability to vote in a caucus or a consolidated primary as long as they would be 18 when the corresponding election takes place.
“As the state has already decided that 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote in general primary elections for federal, state and county office, they then too should be allowed to have a say at the local level,” said Sen. McConchie.
A police investigation that Republican Ronald L. Sandack initiated shortly before he mysteriously resigned from the Legislature last month doesn’t involve Sandack’s former role as a west suburban state representative, a newly released document related to the case shows.
And while an initial police report disclosed that Sandack had reported an “internet scam” to police, “the actual criminal activity that took place” was something different, the document also appears to reveal. But exactly what police are investigating is being withheld because that investigation is ongoing. […]
The letter also reveals that screenshots of “messages and social media pages” have been preserved as evidence. […]
“Mr. Sandack came to the police station to report that he was the victim of an ‘internet scam,’ as he later publicly reported,” Petrarca wrote. “However upon providing further information to the police officer it was determined that the actual criminal activity that took place and was being reported was [redacted]. This is certainly different than an ‘internet scam’ or ‘hacking’.”
Official statement of the Illinois Press Association Board of Directors
The Illinois Press Association has been approached about the regional ‘newspapers’ which have been introduced to Illinois voters this election cycle.
Obviously, the IPA respects the First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press which allows each of us the right to speak freely, and publish newspapers or newsletters if we wish. While imitation is the highest form of flattery, the IPA cautions readers to become as news literate as possible; that is, to try to determine the source behind the news and information they receive and to question the legitimacy, integrity and intent of both the source and the message.
Technology has significantly lowered the barrier for entry into publishing—for both print and digital, making it extremely difficult to distinguish between legitimate news and political propaganda. News and information shape the decisions we make every day and the importance of news literacy is becoming more and more important each day.
People are continually inundated with messages from this growing number of platforms and it is often unclear as to the source or the integrity of the message or the platform. The newspapers published under the banners of Chambana Sun, DuPage Policy Journal, East Central Reporter, Kankakee Times, Lake County Gazette, McHenry Times, Metro East Sun, North Cook News, Rock Island Today, Sangamon Sun, SW Illinois News, West Central Reporter, West Cook News, are not members of the Illinois Press Association, nor are they eligible for membership in the Association.
The IPA is grateful that so many continue to view local newspapers as the best method to communicate with Illinois communities and Illinois voters.
Dave Severin, Republican candidate for House District 117, recently called out his opponent John Bradley (D-Dist. 117) after second quarter fundraising reports were released by the State Board of Elections.
“Second quarter fundraising reports are in,” Severin said. “Now we know where John Bradley’s money and support comes from. Will you help us beat John Bradley, Springfield insiders and the Chicago political machine?”
Severin pointed out that while his own funds are raised in southern Illinois, his opponent’s financial support originates primarily in Chicago, with a significant amount raised in Springfield. Severin raised $9,335, while Bradley raised $55,000 in Chicago, $12,400 in Springfield and approximately $2,000 in Southern Illinois.
The source of Bradley’s campaign funds adds fuel to Severin’s claims that the Democratic incumbent is part of the Chicago political machine. Bradley also supported House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Dist. 22) during the budget impasse.
No mention, of course, that Severin is already benefiting from hundreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads and mailers that were almost completely financed by Gov. Rauner.
A Winnebago County courtroom is the setting for a struggle over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s so-called turnaround agenda.
A lawsuit by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 is technically about whether the Rockford City Council violated the state Open Meetings Act in April. The Rockford Register Start reports (http://bit.ly/2aDlbRC ) that aldermen approved a resolution supporting the Republican governor’s pro-business, anti-union proposals. […]
Republican state lawmakers urged the city to adopt a “compromise” resolution. It was not on the council’s agenda the night of the vote. Ed Maher of Local 150 says the lawsuit is justified.
Ald. Joe Chiarelli said he had no idea how high the stakes were surrounding the Turnaround Agenda resolution before the matter made its way to the City Council floor. He said he remembers sitting at home on the Sunday morning before the meeting, studying the City Council agenda to prepare for the meeting. It was raining outside. Then the phone rang. Chiarelli answered it, and a member of Rauner’s staff asked if he would take a call from the governor.
“He told me that the resolution was really important to him,” Chiarelli said. “He said he ran his campaign on this Turnaround Agenda. He said (the resolution) could be contentious. The first thing I thought was, why is the governor calling me?”
There are 14 aldermanic wards in Rockford, and Chiarelli, a Republican, represents the 14th Ward. If a roll call vote on the City Council floor begins with the 1st Ward alderman, Chiarelli votes last, which means he can be a tiebreaker — or force the mayor to break a tie — on a controversial matter.
“It was clear to me after my deposition why the governor called me,” Chiarelli said. “I’m the 14th vote. I have been friendly to labor. How the governor found that out, I don’t know. But he told me: ‘I’ve heard that you’re an alderman that will look at both sides … . I’d really like it if you could take a hard look at this resolution.’”
Sheesh. If he’d spent half that energy lobbying the General Assembly’s Democrats during his first session, we might not be in this mess today.
Also, too, Rauner didn’t run on “right to work” in the fall campaign, which is what that push for local municipal resolutions was really about.
* I was power-washing my deck yesterday afternoon and tripped and fell down some stairs. Got some road rash on an elbow and twisted my right ankle but good. No broken bones, according to the x-ray, but man am I ever sore today on my right side. Hip, leg and ankle are all ouchies.
I missed most of the State Fair last year because of surgery, and I remember thinking as I was struggling to get up off the wet concrete yesterday that no way would this keep me from going this year. I should be fine in a few days.
Offering a financial incentive to an elected official to secure their vote on a subject is corruption. If you do that, you will go to jail. Withholding pay in order to force a vote is no different. Our impasse in Springfield has nothing to do with being able to do that math. Instead it is about one side wanting to impose profound change to our system and is trying to force the other side to do it against the wishes of the people they represent. Politicians in Illinois are not very popular. I often hear “you should work for free.”
Of course if we did that, then the only people who could serve would be people like Rauner, Madigan, Cullerton, and me. Shouldn’t everyone have the opportunity to serve? Do you really just want a bunch of wealthy businessmen and lawyers making the laws that affect your life? Wouldn’t you rather have some representatives who know what it means to struggle from day to day so that when they vote on laws, they can relate to the issues you deal with?
Jaime M Andrade Jr. is an extremely effective, smart and hard working representative. He has an understanding of the legislative process that is unparalleled. By denying him pay, Leslie Geissler Munger and Bruce Rauner are trying, and succeeding, at putting him in a very difficult financial decision. That is extortion and corruption. Plain and simple. Kudos to Jaime for being willing to do whatever it takes to stay true to the people he represents.
The National Conference of State Legislatures is in town for its annual meeting. Tim Mapes, longtime righthand man to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, is scheduled to speak on a panel about redistricting.
To: Interested Parties
From: Jill Normington
Date: August 8, 2016
MEMORANDUM
The following is a summary of findings from a live interview telephone survey conducted among 800 likely voters in Illinois. Respondents were reached on both landlines and mobile phones. Interviews were conducted August 1-4, 2016. The sampling error for this survey is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Summary
• After the recent television exchange, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth has expanded her lead over Senator Mark Kirk to 44% to 37%.
• Duckworth clearly won the recent television exchange that has strengthened her position and drained him of resources.
• These improvements for Duckworth took place without any commensurate advantage in the presidential race.
Over the course of the last three weeks, despite national polls showing a convention bounce for Hillary Clinton, our polling indicates that Illinois is unaffected. Our July 11-14 poll showed Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump 51%-32%. The current August 1-4 poll shows Clinton besting Trump 51%-32%. Partisan identification is actually net two points more Republican over that span. While there is stasis at the top of the ticket, what has changed is the Senate race.
In late June, Republican incumbent Senator Mark Kirk began an advertising campaign in the Chicago media market focused on distancing himself from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. From June 23-July 28, Kirk spent more than a million dollars on two television ads that sought to establish his independence from his Republican party and attacked Tammy Duckworth on her commitment to Veterans, using the IDVA lawsuit as his primary evidence. According to his most recent FEC filing, Kirk’s million-dollar television expenditure was roughly one-third of his total cash on hand of $3.1M.
From July 14-29, Duckworth spent just $620,00 defending herself and reacquainting voters with her record. The net effect of this exchange, despite getting outspent, is that Duckworth increased her lead over Kirk. As the chart below indicates, our July poll showed Duckworth leading Kirk by just two points, 40%-38% in the wake of more than $500,000 worth of advertising from Kirk to which Duckworth had yet to respond. This most recent poll shows Duckworth leading Kirk by seven, 44%-37%, after airing her rebuttal ad.
Duckworth made gains among constituencies critical to Kirk’s success in November. She pulled ahead among Independents and grew her vote among white voters downstate, among whites without a college degree and among Veteran households. Moreover, she continues to hold substantial leads among the core Democratic constituencies of African American (71%-12%), Hispanic (69%-17%), women (48%-31%) and millennial (46%-32%) voters.
It is clear that when Duckworth has adequate resources to compete in a television exchange, that she can win it. Moreover, Kirk expenditures only served to increase Duckworth’s already sizeable cash on hand advantage over him. While there are still three months to go until Election Day, Tammy Duckworth has emerged from the initial round of paid communication with Mark Kirk in better electoral and fiscal shape than when it began.
…Adding… Mobile phone users were 50 percent of the total.
*** UPDATE *** From the Kirk campaign…
Just like every other Democrat, Duckworth got a temporary bump after the Democrat convention. But as her previous poll shows and the one released by the super pac demonstrates as well, once the race settles back down it’s a dead even race heading into the fall.
Is Illinois the next state to deal with “voter suppression”? Maybe, depending how you look at it.
You may know that a conservative group filed a federal lawsuit last week to stop Illinois’ election-day voter registration law from being carried out this November. The group’s top expert in the case is probably best known for his vigorous defense of Wisconsin’s controversial voter ID law, which was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge last month. Requiring voters to produce identification at the polls has often been ruled as an unconstitutional suppression tactic in numerous recent cases.
M.V. Hood III, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, is consulting on the new case for the Illinois Policy Institute’s legal arm, the Liberty Justice Center. The lawsuit argues that since Illinois only requires in-precinct voter registration on election day in counties with populations over 100,000, it should be struck down for violating the constitutional equal protection rights of people in the other counties. Under state law, counties under 100,000 population must have a same-day voter registration process, but they are allowed to have only one central registration/voting location.
Same-day registration proved crucial on election day two years ago in a super-tight Illinois House race, when state Rep. Kate Cloonen (D-Kankakee) barely defeated Republican Glenn Nixon by a mere 122 votes. Cloonen is near the very top of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s political hit list this year.
Not all, but most of the legislative Democrats targeted for defeat this year are in counties of over 100,000 people where same-day in-precinct registration is mandatory. Same-day registration certainly gives them an advantage in those counties because Democrats generally have a much better “ground game” than the Republicans. They have far more foot soldiers and a system to get people to the polls at the last minute.
But if the entire same-day registration law is enjoined for this cycle, as Hood and the Illinois Policy Institute want, the ruling would undoubtedly have a negative impact on Democrats in every single contested House and Senate race in the state.
Rauner has supported same-day registration in the past, but he has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Illinois Policy Institute, although everybody denies any current direct involvement. Even so, the Institute’s director John Tillman maintains very close ties to Rauner, is said by GOP insiders to be assisting Rauner with his messaging and was seen on video walking out of a recent Chicago term limits press conference with the governor.
Hood was a witness for Wisconsin this year as the Republican-controlled state attempted to fend off an attempt to declare its voter ID law unconstitutional. He claimed he knew of no reason why the state’s requirements to provide proof of identification in order to vote “will have a detrimental impact on the ability of Wisconsin voters to cast a ballot, including minority voters,” according to a May 26th Wisconsin State Journal article.
But on July 29, U.S. District Judge James Peterson declared, “To put it bluntly, Wisconsin’s strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease” and ordered the state to supply voters with ID cards within 30 days. Earlier this year, the former chief of staff to a Wisconsin GOP state Senator alleged that Republican Senators were “giddy” during a private caucus meeting “and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters” with a voter ID law.
Hood has also defended Georgia’s voter ID requirements, saying that while it did suppress turnout, he could find “no empirical evidence to suggest that there is a racial or ethnic component to this suppression effect.”
The new Illinois lawsuit points out that the same-day law was passed with only Democratic votes and was signed by a Democratic governor. “Not coincidentally,” the group wrote in a statement, “high-population counties in Illinois tend to favor Democratic candidates; low-population counties in Illinois tend to favor Republican candidates.”
But state Rep. Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago) took to Twitter to repeatedly denounce the Illinois Policy Institute’s lawsuit as an attempt at “voter suppression,” similar to what happened in Wisconsin. Mitchell, an African-American legislator who strongly supported the same-day bill, claimed that, after “defending Rauner ‘budgets,’” the conservative think tank is “now doing his dirty work of voter suppression.” The group responded by repeating its legal claim that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
This is, without a doubt, the single most fascinating year for Illinois politics in my lifetime. And it’s only gonna get weirder as every single trick in the book is played—and maybe some that aren’t even in the book.
