Governor Bruce Rauner is making another high-profile pitch for term limits. The longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan has an opposite view on the idea … as he told Amanda Vinicky at the Democratic National Convention.
Madigan’s been House speaker for a long time (nearly uninterrupted since 1983), and during that time, he’s amassed a lot of power.
That’s a big asset for Democrats trying to fend off the governor’s agenda, Madigan says.
“Why, I think it’s pretty clear that my longevity has put me into a position where I can successfully resist the extremism of Rauner, provide a check against the extreme ideas that he wants to bring into government.”
Suburban Republican officials have chosen a replacement to fill the term of former state Rep. Ronald L. Sandack, the outspoken ally of Gov. Bruce Rauner who resigned abruptly on July 24.
David Olsen, 27, a member of the Downers Grove village council, was picked by the Republican Party chairmen of DuPage and Will counties to represent the 81st House district through January.
* I wish I could’ve found a pic of Olsen actually wearing the hat, but this one will have to suffice for now…
* Rep. Jeanne Ives makes some valid points about useless and do-little committees, but I don’t think rants like this one will ever translate into legislative success…
Over the past two years, Illinois’ problems have compounded at the hand of Speaker Madigan. Between the state’s growing insolvency, a budget impasse that has shut down social services and Democrats’ inexplicable determination to continue expanding their failed government, Illinoisans are suffering as they have never before suffered. Although we reached a compromise on a stop-gap budget, it seems as if the IL state government is more divided than ever. Why is that? How can that be? It all comes down to two things: a man and money.
The money is ours. And the man is Speaker of the House Mike Madigan. During his years in power, Madigan has padded the House, keeping himself surround by hand chosen, seat-warmer representatives to do his bidding. These individuals have reaped the rewards of this system, and are the first to fall for the mistakes of their beloved leader.
Willing foot soldiers being “taken care of” for surrounding their leader and advancing his will sounds more like the plot of a mob movie than the modus operandi of a legislative caucus. Yet, the similarities persist. Paid off for their loyalty and punished for their insubordination, the 98th and 99th General Assemblies of House of Representatives have played out like plot of a bad gangster movie. Of course, this isn’t ‘The Godfather’, it’s nevertheless important to see the role of money in Don Madigan’s Illinois. (Never ask him about his business, by the way).
Loyalty pay— a bonus in which a legislator is rewarded for their loyalty toward to party leaders and their agenda. The Illinois House of Representatives spent nearly $1 million giving stipends to legislators for their roles as chairperson or minority spokesperson for one of 50 house committees. Three out of the 49 committees never met, and 36 of these very committees decreased their number of meetings. Yet still, each legislator acting as the committee chair received an additional stipend of $10,326. Legislators’ base pay is $67,836 annually – the 5th highest in the nation – for part-time work. Keep in mind, these same legislators have not passed a balanced budgets for the state in 13 years.
The average committee met only 4 times, meaning that the committee chairman’s time was for $2,581.75 per hour-long meeting. Of course this being Mike Madigan’s Illinois, results don’t matter. Chairs receive their stipend regardless of the work that comes out of these committees.
There can be no doubt that these bonus are handed out by caucus leaders to reward loyalty. It doesn’t matter if the chair has any expertise in the subject matter. It doesn’t matter how long or often committees meet or what real work is accomplished. It is simply a 15% bump in pay.
Minority party spokespersons also receive committee stipends, so this goes both ways.
One of the reforms I’ve long pined for is giving committee chairs and spokespersons more autonomy from leadership, with staff members who report directly to them, not the leaders. And perhaps even allowing their respective caucuses to elect chairmen and spokespersons. The power is way too focused upward and needs to be spread out more.
* The governor signed a ton of bills on Friday. Here are stories about some of them…
Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a measure designed to prevent people with mental disabilities from owning guns.
The proposal Rauner signed Friday strengthens existing law by requiring circuit court clerks to report the names of people a judge deems mentally disabled to the Illinois State Police at least twice a year. The new law takes effect immediately.
Under the old law, a person deemed by a judge to have a mental illness could lose his or her gun owner identification card. One of the plan’s sponsors, Democratic state Sen. Julie Morrison, had said that not all counties in the state were complying.
External Audits (Senate Bill 2155) – Amends existing laws to require the auditor general to audit one-third of all community colleges every year.
Community College Trustee Training (Senate Bill 2157) – Requires new college board trustees to complete four hours of professional development training that range from labor laws, open meetings act, freedom of information regulations, ethics and financial and accountability oversight.
Preventing Lame-Duck Decisions (Senate Bill 2158) – Prohibits community college boards from entering into new employee contracts or changing existing employee contracts 45 days prior to Election Day for trustees and extends through the lame-duck period until the first meeting of the new board.
In 2009, Former DuPage Community College President Breuder’s contract extension was approved by a lame-duck board.
Transparency at Community Colleges and State Universities (Senate Bill 2159) – Promotes transparency by requiring contract terms, annual performance reviews of administrators and forbids contract buyouts in cases of pending criminal charges.
University Board Training (Senate Bill 2174)- Requires every voting member of a public university governing board to complete a minimum of four hours of professional development leadership training that range from labor laws, open meetings act, freedom of information regulations, ethics and financial and accountability oversight.
Sponsored by Rep. Sam Yingling and Sen. Daniel Biss, House Bill 6021 allows retired public employees in the Illinois Teachers Retirement System, State Universities Retirement System or Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and who are in a same-sex civil union or marriage to designate survivor benefits for their spouse. Equality Illinois advocated for the bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support… HB 6021 passed the Senate by a vote of 49-3, and the Illinois House of Representatives approved it on April 13 on a vote of 102-4.
Illinois lawmakers have passed a bill that aims to protect high school journalists from interference in school publications.
The Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act was passed unanimously by both the House and Senate and signed Friday by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The law places responsibility for content in school-sponsored media in the hands of student journalists, under the guidance of student advisers and subject to limitations on material that is libelous or obscene, constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy, violates federal or state law or school district policies or disrupts the orderly operation of the school.
School officials would have the burden of proving that a publication is subject to restriction.
Two years after her stepson’s murder, St. Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, (D)-92nd Dist., got legislation signed protecting people who may have information about violent crimes.
Gordon-Booth and her husband, Manual basketball coach Derrick Booth, Sr., and Mecca Beasley lost their 22-year-old son DJ in May of 2014.
DJ, who was named after his father, was gunned down while at a house party in Peoria.
The parents had a difficult time getting witnesses to come forward, due to fear of retribution.
This spring, the state legislature unanimously approved the bill, and Gov. Bruce Rauner, (R), signed it into law on Friday.
The bill guarantees assistance and protection for people who may have information linking someone to a crime.
Running the flashing red lights at railroad crossings will cost you more in the state of Illinois.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a law that will double the current fines if you are busted running a crossing.
The first offense will now cost you $500 and after that, it will cost $1,000.
…Adding… From a press release…
Advance Illinois applauds Governor Bruce Rauner for signing HB5729, the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness (PWR) Act, into law on July 29, 2106. HB5729 is the culmination of years of work with an array of cross-sector partners and is a transformative step toward achieving Illinois’ goal of 60% of Illinoisans having a postsecondary certificate or degree by the year 2025.
This comprehensive legislation establishes four new initiatives to smooth the transition for students from high school to college or career. It helps students avoid remedial education in community college with a jointly-designed fourth year of high school math instruction. It establishes new career and college endorsements on high school diplomas to demonstrate that students have fulfilled specific requirements for that career path. To help students plan for life after high school, the bill establishes benchmarks from 8th through 12th grade for what students should know about college and career. Finally, it allows districts to pilot updated high school graduation requirements based on what students know and can do rather than what courses they have taken.
Yoga instructors in Illinois will be able to practice freely without state regulation under legislation sponsored by Senator Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) that was signed into law Friday. […]
The measure exempts yoga teacher training from state oversight as a trade, occupation, vocation or professional school. The legislation was prompted by news earlier this year that several yoga teacher training programs in Illinois were notified by the Illinois Board of Higher Education that they would be subject to state regulation as vocational schools and that they must obtain IBHE approval to operate in the state.
Three of every four property owners in Chicago have been hit with higher property taxes this year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows — often thousands of dollars more and in some cases in the Loop and surrounding hot neighborhoods twice what they were last year.
That’s the result of a perfect storm of higher property assessments from Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $318 million tax hike, passed to shore up the city’s shaky finances and boost police and fire pension funds that for years have been shortchanged.
Eighteen of the city’s 50 aldermen — including Ald. Patrick O’Connor, the mayor’s City Council floor leader who rounded up the votes to pass the tax increase last fall — staved off the hefty tax hikes, shifting a total of $19,484 in taxes to other property owners. Those aldermen, including several whose wards have seen real estate prices skyrocket, did that by convincing Berrios or the Cook County Board of Review to lower the estimated value of their homes or apartments.
Five of those aldermen — including four who voted against the tax hike — owe less than they did last year, even as most of their constituents pay more, the Sun-Times found in an analysis of the 882,965 tax bills sent to Chicago landowners. Monday is the deadline to pay.
The city really needs to change its assessment system. I mean, c’mon, man. Even if every change was accurate and fair, this just stinks.
The city has locked into increases of at least $225 million over the next three years, while CPS is planning to increase taxes by an additional $250 million for teacher pension funding next year. That’s $475 million total over the next three years.
* Press release…
Governor Rauner issued the following statement as many homeowners throughout Illinois face a deadline today to pay property taxes:
“Illinois residents are being hit with record property tax increases in communities all around the state even though they already pay the highest property taxes in the nation.
“People are literally being driven from their homes by the failure of the General Assembly to enact the reforms that would stop this unnecessary destruction of the American Dream.
“I think every day about the moms and dads who are cutting important things from their family budgets, from summer vacations to school activities to youth sports to tutoring and more. Parents are forced into tough choices because the leaders in Springfield have failed once again.
“Since 1990 property taxes have risen 3.3 times faster than Illinois median household incomes. Today, in many communities, particularly the south Cook County suburbs, property taxes now exceed mortgage payments.
“My proposals will stop the harm out-of-control property tax increases cause families and businesses. When I talk to people throughout Illinois, they tell me that they feel they have lost control of their own property and are simply renting it from the government. That is not fair. We must pass the reforms I have outlined to rein in and then lower property taxes.”
What: GOP lawmakers and State Senate/House candidates hold press conference to discuss the need for term limits and other political reforms. Lawmakers and candidates will be available for questions following the press conference.
Who: House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (HD 82)
Sen. Sue Rezin (SD 38)
Rep. David Welter (HD 75)
Jerry Long (HD 76)
Lindsay Parkhurst (HD 79)
When: Tuesday, August 02, 11:30 AM
Where: Peak Fitness
1010 S Ridge Rd
Minooka, IL 60447
When Tamar Manasseh formed Mothers Against Senseless Killings to patrol the neighborhood after a murder in the 7500 block of South Stewart last month, she hoped to stop any retaliatory violence.
So far, in the five weeks since a man opened fire on three women on June 23, killing 34-year-old Lucille Barnes, there have been no shootings on the block or on the 7500 block of South Harvard where the patrols have also been set up, according to a DNAinfo Chicago map of shootings in the city. […]
But Manasseh, who makes the trek daily from her home in Bronzeville to the neighborhood, said her group really needs more people in the area to join the effort, and that recruitment has been difficult.
“Recruiting and getting more volunteers has been quite the challenge,” Manasseh said as she sat on her folding chair on 75th Street and Stewart Avenue, watching over the block, not far from where she used to live at 55th Street and Bishop Avenue.
Right now there are about 15 adult volunteers who have pledged to be out there every day until Labor Day. That’s about the same number the group had when it started a few days after the June shooting.
…Adding… I saw this linked on Twitter yesterday and saw the late July publishing date, but didn’t notice it was from 2015. Oops. Still, it’s a good story.
Secretary of State Jesse White announced today that his office has reinstated the mailing of vehicle registration reminder notices to Illinois drivers. To offset the cost of the mailings, White is drafting legislation allowing his office to offer advertising space on the mailings. In addition, White is urging the public to sign-up for email notices to further reduce mailing costs.
The Secretary of State’s office discontinued mailing reminders in October 2015 due to the lack of funding as a direct result of the state budget impasse. The stop-gap budget recently passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor allows White’s office to reinstate the notices.
“The notices are an essential tool for the public to be sure their vehicles are in good standing and avoid paying late fees and fines resulting from tickets issued by law enforcement,” White said. “The driving public paid the price for the budget impasse and it proved to be an unfair burden. With the funds from the stop-gap budget the notices will resume. In addition, we are reducing the number of mailings and seeking alternative funding sources for the postage costs.”
“Although we are now able to reinstate mailing the vehicle registration reminder notices, I continue to strongly urge motorists to sign up for email reminders,” said White. “Saving taxpayer dollars is always a priority of our administration.”
White noted that more than 2.3 million people have registered for the email notification, 800,000 of which signed up since October 2015.
The SoS was spending $450,000 a month on the reminders before they were discontinued.
Congresswoman and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Tammy Duckworth’s campaign today released a new TV ad, entitled “Uniform.” The largely biographical spot highlights how Tammy committed herself to serving her fellow Veterans after being injured in Iraq in 2004, with tangible accomplishments helping Veterans find jobs in a tough economy, as well as combating suicide and homelessness among Veterans. In response to continued distortions from Mark Kirk and is super PAC allies, the ad concludes with combat Veteran Wally Kubicki Jr, who says any Veteran who lies about another Veteran’s record will never get his vote.
“Tammy served this country for 23 years in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve and has made advocating on behalf of her fellow Veterans her life’s work, with real accomplishments,” campaign spokesman Matt McGrath said. “Republican Mark Kirk, on the other hand, has lied repeatedly about his military record and now he and his allies are in the process of trying to swift-boat Tammy’s record, even using the same tactics and right-wing contributors. Illinois families know Tammy Duckworth has dedicated her life to serving her country, and won’t be fooled by Kirk’s desperate attacks.”
An enemy rocket took Tammy Duckworth’s legs, but nothing could take her resolve
She served in uniform for another decade, dedicated herself to helping veterans, led important fights to help Veterans get jobs in a tough economy and fight homelessness
Now Mark Kirk is attacking Tammy with false ads about her service
Wally Kubicki, Jr: Any politician who would say that about another Veteran would never get my vote. I’ll stick with Tammy.
* Chris Kaergard’s latest column makes a good point about how legislative turnover is dealt with in Illinois. It’s a particularly important issue in the Peoria area…
In the last five years, [the Peoria region has] seen replacements for both House and Senate. Incumbent senator Dan Rutherford was sworn in as treasurer in 2011, with a committee tapping then-Rep. Shane Cultra to take his seat. Cultra’s seat was filled by another committee with a young up-and-comer named Jason Barickman.
Barickman, as an appointee, later ran against and beat Cultra in a primary for the Senate seat. He was succeeded by Josh Harms in the House after a competitive primary. (Harms withdrew from the ballot after being nominated for a second term, and his replacement in the election was, again, chosen by party leaders.)
In Peoria, shortly after being re-elected in 2010, Sen. Dale Risinger stepped down abruptly. A collection of GOP party chiefs in the sprawling district selected Darin LaHood to succeed him in 2011. When LaHood won the special election for Congress last year, it fell again to party leaders to pick a successor in closed session, and Chuck Weaver got the nod.
My brother Doug, who occasionally comments here, lives in Texas and he’s appalled by all the appointments to fill vacancies in Illinois. Down ‘yonder, they hold special elections to fill their vacancies.
Rauner — whose political wishes have, shall we say, often been taken into account in some of the GOP vacancy appointments in the last 18 months — may have been a bit surprised at our question, but didn’t dismiss it.
“That’s a great question, and I think that’s a topic we can take up and discuss,” he said before inviting input on ideas and pivoting back to his term limit and remap stump speech.
* The Question: Should Illinois fill state legislative vacancies with special elections? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but I read two amazingly insightful stories online this past weekend about the Donald Trump phenomenon. So, I decided to post some excerpts here.
First up, David Frum describes his new piece for The Atlantic as “a synthesis of the conversations I’ve had, and the insights I’ve gleaned, presented in the voice of an imagined Trump supporter.” It’s pretty good…
“You Acela people live in a beautiful country where everything works. You believe in institutions because they work for you. So it bothers you that Donald doesn’t seem to know what the OECD does or who’s in charge of the FDIC. But our people don’t believe in institutions any more. The institutions they do still care about—the military and the cops—you use for props when you need them, and as dumping grounds when you don’t. I noticed that when Tim Kaine took a bow for his son’s military service, he pointed out that he was a Marine—because we all know that what you’ve done to the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Yeah, they’re just as lethal as Obama and Hillary said. When you spend as much as the rest of the planet combined, you can make a lot of things go boom—even if the soldiers can’t do chin ups any more and the sailors get pregnant when they decide their tours of duty have gone on too long. And the cops! One minute you’re calling them murderers, the next you’re slobbering all over them. Our voters are cops. They know who’s on their side. Not you.
“You loved the Democratic convention didn’t you? Soaring rhetoric, we’re all together in just one big beautiful rainbow quilt: illegal aliens and billionaires, all together. And the flags? So many flags. You wave the flag one day every four years, and you think it means you’ve taken America from us. You haven’t, not yet—and that’s another thing our voters will be wanting to say on Election Day. Lots of ideas too: free this, free that, more investment in this, higher taxes on that, and ‘common sense gun laws.’ I bet you don’t own a gun. I bet you’ve never had a DUI either. So it wouldn’t worry you that you could lose the first if you get the second. But it worries our voters. Their lives are kind of messed up. They get into trouble. That’s why they want guns for themselves, and not just for Mayor Bloomberg’s bodyguards.
“Here’s the bottom line. You live in an America that’s still a lot like your parents’ America. It’s mostly white. Nobody’s displacing and replacing you. It’s pretty safe too. You can read about rising crime—you don’t live it. In your America, you worry about how there aren’t enough women making Hollywood films or sitting on corporate boards. In our America, the gender gap closed a long time ago—and then went into reverse. Obama in the Oval Office was humiliating enough. But Hillary will be worse: We’re going to lose any idea at all that leadership is a man’s job. […]
“You tell us we’re a minority now? OK. We’re going to start acting like a minority. We’re going to vote like a bloc, and we’re going to vote for our bloc’s champion. So long as he keeps faith with us against you, we’ll keep faith with him against you. Donald’s a scam artist, you tell me. You’re from The Atlantic? Read that great book by one of your former colleagues, Jack Beatty, about Boston’s Mayor Curley, The Rascal King. Curley was a scam artist. The Boston Irish loved him for it—even when he scammed them, too—because Curley p*ssed off the people the Boston Irish hated and who hated them. (I can still say ‘p*ssed off,’ right?) It’s going to be just that way with Donald. I mean, Mr. Trump. I mean, President Trump.”
* And Nancy Isenberg, the author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, writes about Trump and her favorite topic…
Class confusion is everywhere in the news today. Fox News can’t seem to mention class without jumping immediately to the dire prospect of “class warfare.” Journalists on the poverty beat since the ’60s have tended to equate it with one race only. Yet almost half—42.1 percent, or 19.7 million Americans—of those below the poverty line are white. In the South, more than half of the poor are white. Anxious academics, even when they’re trying to describe class more broadly, are more comfortable highlighting “white privilege” than looking down at the bottom of the ladder to see who’s been left out.
The derisive language of class pervades explanations of the Trump phenomenon. The less circumspect journalists have reduced the Republican frontrunner’s constituency to “white trash” and “trailer trash,” and cast their protests as the “revenge of the lower classes.” Kevin Williamson of the National Review dismissed Trump’s followers as refuse drawn from dying communities; to him they are an inferior breed of American whose discontent resembles, in his words, the “whelping of children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog.”
When class is mentioned in stories about the 2016 campaign, Trump’s constituency is the only slice of the population cast in negative terms. For Hillary Clinton, the focus is on “working families.” In going after the Wall Street 1 percent, and announcing a free college tuition plan, Bernie Sanders mostly appealed to the children of the middle- and upper middle-class. In his imprecise pandering, even Ted Cruz bemoaned the demise of the middle class. But as they cling to the mighty balm of the middle class, our politicians ignore the one thing Trump has uniquely capitalized on: an outright celebration of those who don’t fit the ideal of middle-class attainment. […]
Oddly, Bernie Sanders voiced the greatest blindness to class when he said in one debate, “When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in the ghetto. You don’t know what it’s like to be poor.” He’s dead wrong, denying the long history of white poverty. Sanders is not the Left’s version of Trump, because Trump’s supporters want class security, not revolution. They want more blue collar male jobs, not equality, not social justice. They want to turn the clock backward in order to regain the male pride that comes being the family breadwinner. Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is a nostalgic appeal to the golden age of the ’50s and ’60s, when America was an industrial power and working-class jobs were plentiful. Until we understand our class system, warts and all, we will be saddled with an anemic democratic system that only makes our class resentments worse.
* The Sun-Times published a very good story about several former Rod Blagojevich staffers and insiders. Here are a few excerpts…
Sheila Nix, a deputy governor to Blagojevich who steered clear of his administration’s scandals, for several years after her departure in 2008 worked as U.S. executive director for U2 frontman Bono’s ONE Campaign, a group raising awareness of hunger and poverty. In 2013, she landed a role as chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden.
But on her White House biography Nix left off her Blagojevich job. That’s not uncommon among his former staffers. On their resumes, many say they worked for the “Governor of Illinois” but don’t say which governor. […]
William Quinlan — who was Blagojevich’s general counsel — said his Chicago- and Phoenix-based law practice is doing well, but the Blagojevich experience scarred him.
“My desire to work in public service or run for public office — that desire is gone,” Quinlan said. “There are a lot of people like me who would have stayed in public service, but now there is no desire.” […]
“The governor too often preferred a fight over hard work and coming to a resolution,” [former Blagojevich spokesperson Abby Ottenhoff] said. “His approach was so controversial that eventually nothing got done.”
Rauner’s been going around the state saying the General Assembly should vote during the veto session to put the proposed amendment before voters. The next opportunity for that is 2018, when Rauner presumably will be running for re-election.
In the meantime, the term-limits idea is fertile ground for Republican lawmakers to issue press releases showing their support. Well, at least those who haven’t already blown through whatever limits would be in place.
But that’s the whole point. Because of the courts, Rauner said, it will be up to the legislature to put the term-limits proposal before voters. However, the Democrats who control the General Assembly have shown no inclination to do that. (And don’t think there aren’t some Republican lawmakers perfectly happy that the Democrats will do the dirty work and keep the issue bottled up).
So Republican candidates have an issue they can try to exploit during the fall elections, one that polls well with voters of both parties. But it also looks like one of those issues any candidate in a competitive race can endorse while knowing full well they’ll likely never have to vote on it. […]
Rauner’s call to pass a term-limits amendment this fall was questioned by some because it will be another two years before voters can do anything with it. So what’s the rush?
There is no rush, but the issue polls well and the governor doesn’t. So, by attaching himself to a popular proposal he likely hopes that its overwhelming popularity will rub off on him.
Gov. Rauner also firmly believes in term limits, so this is a no-brainer.
[Former Gov. Jim Edgar] says he agrees with Rauner on the need for reform in the way legislative districts are drawn. But he’s not a fan of another Rauner-pushed issue: term limits.
Edgar said that “maybe you can make an argument” to term-limit governors, but there is “pretty good turnover” of state lawmakers.
Edgar opined that Rauner’s push for term limits is “all geared toward” Madigan.
“And even if they get to term limits, he (Madigan) still has 10 more years,” Edgar said, noting that would put Madigan in his mid-80s.
And even then, he and some of his House members could conceivably trade places with John Cullerton and some Democratic Senators and then Madigan could serve as the Senate President well into his 90s.
The bottom line here is that if you think you can be rid of Madigan with term limits, you’re flat-out wrong.
What: Suburban GOP lawmakers and State Senate/House candidates hold press conference to discuss the need for term limits and other political reforms. Lawmakers and candidates will be available for questions following the press conference.
Who:
Sen. Michael Connelly (SD 21)
Seth Lewis (SD 23)
Sen. Dan McConchie (SD 26)
Mike Amrozowicz (SD 31)
Rep. Jeanne Ives (HD 42)
Rep. Christine Winger (HD 45)
Heidi Holan (HD 46)
Michelle Smith (HD 49)
Nick Sauer (HD 51)
Rep. David Harris (HD 53)
Dawn Abernathy (HD 59)
Rod Drobinski (HD 62)
Allen Skillicorn (HD 66)
Rep. Mark Batinick (HD 97)
When: Monday August 01, 11:30 am
Where: 808 E. Nerge Road Roselle, IL (Schaumburg Township Republican Organization)
* Related…
* Governor calls for redistricting and term limits: “This isn’t a democracy, this is a rigged system. And we’ve got people in office for 20 years, 30, years, 40 years and a lot of corruption and cronyism.”
* Mapping a way to term limits in Illinois: Term limits have been an uphill battle for years. But despite being muzzled again and again, Illinoisans should take heart in knowing they’ve shone a spotlight squarely on those who have rigged Illinois’ political system in favor of the powerful.
* The number of bills the governor has signed on this particular topic is really quite amazing. Democratic governors would normally shy away from these bills to avoid being tagged as soft on crime. Rauner has no problem with them…
State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) is pleased to announce the governor has signed her legislation ending Illinois’ practice of discouraging parolees from worshipping, doing community service and participating in mentorship programs together.
“Freedom of association in positive settings can facilitate a smooth reentry into society and help those on parole obtain the help and resources they need to succeed outside the prison walls,” Collins said. “When parolees mentor and encourage each other, engage in job training together, worship or volunteer together, they can build up their peers and their communities.”
Current law prohibits individuals who are on parole, aftercare release or mandatory supervised release from knowingly associating with others who are also under one of these restrictions without the written permission of their parole agents or aftercare specialists. This limitation is designed to prevent ex-offenders from returning to former criminal associates or gangs, but Collins recognizes that the ban is over-broad and can prevent parolees from engaging in many positive activities, such as worship services, volunteerism and community activism.
“When offenders have completed their time behind bars, they must be reintegrated into our neighborhoods in ways that allow them to give back and pursue alternatives to crime,” Collins said. “Participation — alongside others with similar life stories — in a religious congregation, community service organization or mentoring program can serve as a powerful catalyst for purpose and change, and as we continue to struggle as a society with cycles of recidivism and violent crime, we must embrace creative solutions.”
* There was a ton of downright bizarre speculation online and in the mainstream media about why Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was sitting next to former President Bill Clinton at the convention during primetime last Monday night. Laura Washington helps clear things up…
The conspiracy crazed Chicago media and Rahm haters everywhere were salivating. Finally, the wicked wizard of Chicago was dead, dead, dead, at least politically.
Even better, Bill Clinton had delivered the final blow to his old friend and former operative, and invited Preckwinkle to dance on his bones.
True? I asked.
“It was serendipity,” Preckwinkle replied.
Her press people, she laughed, “will kill me for doing this … .”
Yes, the Clinton campaign had invited her to Bill Clinton’s box Monday night. The honor came in appreciation for Preckwinkle’s help in the Illinois presidential primary.
Bill Clinton arrived late, and Preckwinkle ventured over and sat down to offer a quick thanks. Then, “Michelle started speaking and, well… .” She had to stay put.
No political murder had occurred. Just “serendipity.” […]
“I am not going to run for mayor. I am not going to run for governor.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner has often been compared to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“So when anyone says Trump will be like Rauner, who has had the courage to stand up against the corrupt Illinois establishment and (House Speaker Michael) Madigan, I say, ‘I certainly hope so,’ “ says a recent letter to the editor published by the Daily Herald. It is just one of many such letters I’ve seen.
Madigan, for his part, has also made the comparison, albeit in a far less kindly manner. The Democrats “are coming together against the extremism of Trump and Gov. Rauner,” he told WGN-TV/Channel 9 during the Democratic National Convention.
On the surface, there are most definitely some striking similarities. Both politicians are wealthy outsider businessmen, opposed first by their own Republican Party establishments during long and bitter primaries, and eventually pounced upon for business deals gone bad.
They both frequently paint the fiscal and economic environment in stark, dystopian terms. Rauner has often said that Illinois is in a “death spiral.” In his Republican National Convention acceptance speech, Trump said Americans were enduring a “domestic disaster” and have “lived through one international humiliation after another.”
They share some policy similarities, particularly when it comes to public employee and teachers unions. Hint: Both men despise them.
“Do you think he knows what he’s doing?” asked a top Republican last week about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s high-profile role at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Madigan heaped public praise last week on at least two potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates, US Sen. Dick Durbin and Chris Kennedy. And he mentioned US Rep. Tammy Duckworth by name as his state’s next US Senator during Tuesday’s presidential nomination roll call, which was broadcast throughout the country.
That may all seem like the usual national convention duties for a state Democratic Party chairman like Madigan, and it is. But Speaker Madigan’s poll numbers are so darned awful that the Republicans believe anyone he publicly “touches” is hugely tainted. A recent Republican-sponsored poll found that Madigan’s favorability rating was just 13 percent.
“He should keep doing what he’s doing,” cracked one Republican campaign type, who said he was carefully making notes of Madigan’s public utterances.
As is often the case, the two political parties exist in parallel universes. Yes, the Democrats say, Madigan polls poorly. But they don’t believe that voters will make up their minds about individual races based on that one “issue” alone. And some are even saying they’re pleased that the Republicans are “wasting” their money on a strategy that the Democrats believe won’t work.
Indeed, the Republicans spent tons of money during several election cycles attempting to tie the fabulously unpopular and currently incarcerated Rod Blagojevich to Democrats, and it only worked once, against Rep. Jay Hoffman in a newly drawn district with lots of unfamiliar voters. And they’ve been blasting away at Madigan for years, without any discernible impact at the polls.
Even so, if there was another high-profile Illinois Democrat out there whose favorability rating was hovering around 13 percent, you can be certain that Madigan and his people would mandate that their candidates and incumbents stay as far away from that person as humanly possible. Heck, the person’s rating wouldn’t even need to be that low. How many Downstate Illinois Democrats openly campaigned with Pat Quinn two years ago when he lost every county but one to Rauner?
The simple fact is that the GOP is placing a multi-million-dollar bet this year on a single person’s smashing unpopularity. Yes, the Republicans have tried and failed to do this same thing for literally decades. But never has so much money and effort been expended on the task—and Madigan has never been as well-known as he is today. Local news media outlets have so far been mostly cooperative, and the Republicans essentially have their own “newspapers” that are being mailed to voters just to make sure their message gets through.
The House Democrats are expected to counter all this with various retorts, including one that labels the Republican Bruce Rauner as a “failed governor.”
The Democrats will try to tie Republicans to a governor with a dismal 33 percent job approval rating who, they’ll say, wants to slash vital services and inflict harm on everyday working people.
In a preview of this, Rep. John Bradley’s latest TV ad claims the Democrat “stood up to Bruce Rauner’s massive cuts to our schools,” and points out that Rauner is “bankrolling” his opponent’s campaign and claims his GOP opponent “is worse than Rauner.” Bradley (D-Marion) sits at the very top of the Republicans’ target list and he has been hammered for weeks in the mail and on TV for being a Madigan “pawn.”
The House Democrats have often launched their campaigns in early to mid-August, well before the Republicans could afford to fight back. This time, though, the Republicans are flush with Rauner’s money and have dominated the playing field for weeks. Speaker Madigan reportedly told attendees at an Illinois Federation of Teachers political conference in early July that the governor’s campaign operation had spent more than a million dollars on House races in just two weeks.
And they’re not just spending money on negative attacks. A recent mailer for Rep. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) touts her vote for the stopgap budget “without a tax increase.” The mailer also claims Rep. Bryant is fighting “against the Chicago political machine.” The Republicans have already sent innumerable mailers like that to voters everywhere before the Democrats have even gotten out of the gate.
Not mentioned, of course, is that the stopgap budget Bryant voted for had an $8 billion deficit and will create a $10 billion state payment backlog by December. Details, details.
* Related…
* House races key to Illinois’ political power struggles: Rauner blames House Speaker Michael Madigan and the Democrats for the state’s long-running financial predicament, and Republicans are asking voters to punish them for it in the November election. But the Democrats warn that Rauner’s agenda would be destructive to the middle class, and are banking on voters ultimately strengthening their hand in the legislature, which they control… “This will be a vote for what the governor is trying to do or what the Democrats are trying to do,” said Christopher Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. “Even if voters aren’t voting that way, it’s going to be seen that way.”
* Cavaletto Says Governor and House Speaker Out to Destroy Each Other: “They’re two stubborn, unpopular men who believe they are right and are intent on destroying each other. It’s as simple as that,” said Cavaletto. “And now we’re in the the middle of the fight in a state that could be booming, could be growing, people could be working, and we could flourish because we have the people here to do that. But we’ve got this going on.”
On term limits: “In the last primary election, friends of Bruce Rauner spent over $1 million in an Illinois House district on the Southwest side of Chicago, attempting to remove me from office. The voters of that district recognized who the enemy was and voted to keep me in office. That’s how term limits should be administrated.”
On the Monetary Award, or MAP, grant for low-income college students: “So if you’re a poor student today planning to attend college in IL starting in Sept, you don’t know the status of the MAP program, you don’t know whether there will be state support for your college tuition, or whether it won’t be there. That’s the product of the Rauner extremism in Illinois. It’s wrong. It ought not to happen, if Bruce Rauner wants to pick on some people, he ought to find some big people to pick on, not little people who are trying to put themselves through college.”
On his relationship with Senate President John Cullerton: “What the governor should understand is that that’s an old divide and conquer theory which was practiced by the British against the Irish. And he’s working with two Irishmen – Madigan and Cullerton – who are very aware of the British history, and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”
On if Democrats can pick up General Assembly seats in the November election: “You know I don’t think along those lines because it’s going to be a very interesting election. Clearly it’s going to be an ordinary election. You’ve got different personalities, very different types of personalities, different approaches. And so given all of that, why, there could be surprises in the election. We could suffer loses or we could have gains.”
