* The National Association of Social Workers tells me that the group has $400,000 budgeted for direct mail programs through June. As mentioned earlier today, the NASW hotly opposes the Exelon bailout bill. Here are a couple of mockups of planned post-session mailers. Click the pics for larger, clearer images…

Thoughts?

       

35 Comments - Deft Wing - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:27 pm: Pretty smart politics. - Ggeo - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:28 pm: Did big coal fund this like BEST? - Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:31 pm: I hope this plays well. Many legislators at the hearings were expressing their displeasure at Exelon’s dancing around the rates. Only problem is, if this passes and is signed, it may be 2-4 years before we know the real “economics” of this behemoth package, and it’s impact on individual tax and rate payers. That plays into Rauner’s game book, too. - 100 miles west - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:33 pm: Yes. And while they are at it why doesn’t somebody start posting the daily attendance roll call for the house and senate? - Night Rider - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:34 pm: I do wonder who actually paid for this. How does NASW have $400,000 for direct mail? - Quiet Sage - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:34 pm: Good for the NSAW. No words are too strong to oppose this unconscionable multi-billion bailout, reaching passage as Illinois nears a budgetary shutdown. That the bailout is intended to save nuclear power plants, with their small but real threat of catastrophic malfunction (e.g. Chernobyl, Fukushima) makes it even worse. Truly a low point in Illinois politics. - Quiet Sage - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:38 pm: I meant NASW. - Longsummer - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:40 pm: The world doesn’t stop turning because IL doesn’t have a budget. $400k on mail? Maybe the social service providers aren’t prioritizing downtrodden people either - Jed - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:44 pm: That cat should watch its back if the meals on wheels stop - Anonymous - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:46 pm: 400,000 to produce two mail concept pieces? Boy, that would be a great biz. Suspect it was more like 500 bucks. - wordslinger - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:47 pm: Good on them. Don’t forget the guy who reneged on your contracts and has been crafting this corporate welfare travesty behind closed doors. - Longsummer - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:55 pm: So mail two years before next election is an effective use of $ that could be used to help people? Hmmm - Avis - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:07 pm: Just wait until the mail piece hits on the requirement in 2814 that felons be hired for solar jobs over veterans. - Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:14 pm: Election was last month. Mailers now mean nothing. - Jabes - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:19 pm: To address a couple points I’ve seen in the comments, I doubt that all $400,000 were spent on these two pieces in Illinois. This is a national group, and they’re budgeting through June- six months. Also, they’re a professional standards and advocacy organization, not a service provider, so it’s not like this $400,000 was going to be spent on helping individual people if it wasn’t being used for direct mail. - Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:20 pm: Ron Burgundy- “Election was last month. Mailers now mean nothing.” Well, Rauner won in 2014, and he’s still campaignin’ ! These mailers, right here and now, before the holidays, really have a lot of meaning. Anyhoo, I get mailers year round from my legislators touting their accomplishments or town hall meetings. Why is that different? Votes, of all kinds, have consequences. - Grand Avenue - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:26 pm: This money would be better spent in February and October 2018 not June 2017 - Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:30 pm: –These mailers, right here and now, before the holidays, really have a lot of meaning.– That no one will remember in 23 months. And weeks after an election in which many people in target districts were suffering from mailer fatigue? Straight to the trash for many. - Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 1:45 pm: Ron Burgundy- Some will, some won’t. Are these the LAST and ONLY mailers, the LAST and ONLY efforts by NASW??? The 400K, as stated by other commeters, is not ALL being spent right now. These mailers are part of a larger budget. A budget which this effort may only have to be a small part of. They are addressing an important issue right now, and effectively as far as I’m concerned. Rich put them up on CapFax, and a LOT of people will be considering their message before the Exelon vote. - Ggeo - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:06 pm: “Rich put them up on CapFax, and a LOT of people will be considering their message before the Exelon vote.” So there won’t be mailers and this was just for show? - A guy - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:06 pm: The timing is wrong and the money is too little in one instance and too much in another. Too little to effectively have any enduring appeal to make it effective. Too much when you think that $400K could be spent for something more urgent. Could backfire badly. - Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:18 pm: There may be mailers, not for show, vote hasn’t been taken yet. And why are some commenters trying to keep saying that NASW is blowing their entire rest of FY budget of 400K on just this issue? Did you read Rich’s first paragraph, or are you just caught in a “spin cycle”? “The National Association of Social Workers tells me that the group has $400,000 budgeted for direct mail programs through June. As mentioned earlier today, the NASW hotly opposes the Exelon bailout bill. Here are a couple of mockups of planned post-session mailers.” - wordslinger - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:19 pm: –Too much when you think that $400K could be spent for something more urgent. Could backfire badly.– Huh? What “backfire?” They’re the national association and advocacy group for social workers. They’re advocating for their members. They are not in the business of or equipped to pick up the hundreds of millions in broken contracts of Gov. Deadbeat. - fed up - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:20 pm: Did you know that nuclear is the only power generation technology that gets more expensive as time goes by? Learned that not long ago. So no wonder they need a bailout. Illinois in my opinion would be better off subsidizing cleaner and more sustainable forms of power generation. It can be done, but when you have the industry integral in writing the bill for the sole interest in preserving its own bottom line, it is not going to happen now. Let’s be clear though, this bill has nothing to do with downstate energy generation or the best interest of Illinois residents. This bill is about subsidizing to preserve Exelon’s business in its current form. Kudos to NASW for stepping into this battle. Unfortunately it may be too little, too late. - Anon1776 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:24 pm: I would think that money used for a mail piece most likely can not be used for other purposes. Those folks have a heart and it would already be put to benefit those who need it if possible. I think it makes a valid point and when you are fighting for your members they understand!! - Emily Miller - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:34 pm: –Too much when you think that $400K could be spent for something more urgent. Could backfire badly.– Spending oodles of money on mail (or, say, endless broadcast tv buys) when it could be spent on something more urgent hasn’t seemed to be something that’s backfired. Not recently, anyway. - A guy - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:43 pm: Ms. Miller. Agreed. But take into account who’s doing the spending. Just an observation on my part that this may not sit well with people. People view these services as severely lacking funding, but on the other hand…they’ve got $450K for political mailing. I get the financial separation between services and communication. I’m not sure most people do. - Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 2:57 pm: Well Dynegy may help with targeting any GA member’s, and probably Rauner as well, if this passes… See 1 pm Crain’s update. Dynegy is NOT happy… “(Dynegy CEO Robert) Flexon said in a follow-up interview that Dynegy will spend to defeat any downstate lawmakers who vote for the legislation hiking rates statewide to bail out the two money-losing nukes Exelon has slated for closure. If the bill becomes law, the company also will sue to overturn it on grounds it interferes with federal control of wholesale power markets. New York State’s program to subsidize Exelon-owned nuclear plants in that state already is the subject of such a lawsuit, and Dynegy is one of the plaintiffs. “I think you can look to New York to see what we’ll do next,” he said, referring to the lawsuit.” http://tinyurl.com/zjblzmq - Huh? - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 3:31 pm: What’s another piece of junk mail in the never ending campaign cycle? Scratch out the addressee and write “Return to Sender”. It doesn’t make sense to the average person. But 1.4% has taken the endless campaigning to the extreme. - Anon9090 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 3:31 pm: Fed up- There IS no more reliable source of energy than nuclear. A few winters back when we experienced the polar vortex, gas plants froze up and coal piles literally froze solid. Know what nuclear plants did in IL? They continued to operate at a 95% capacity factor, keeping the lights and the furnaces on. - Signal and Noise - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 3:38 pm: I wouldn’t vote for Smith or Jones anyway - W_Flyer - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 4:27 pm: ==Spending oodles of money on mail (or, say, endless broadcast tv buys) when it could be spent on something more urgent hasn’t seemed to be something that’s backfired. Not recently, anyway.== $400k doesn’t come anywhere close to any kind of saturation. It doesn’t approach what Rauner and the Republicans did. Comparing this to Rauner’s spending doesn’t make any sense. But where the heck did NASW get $400k? They spent just $13k on campaign giving this year. Maybe they could have spent some of that $400k helping win some elections that would have helped us get closer to a budget? Further, while I get the frustrations, NASW doesn’t seem to understand what is actually in the bill - either the rates or environmental pieces. 70% of this bill is going to renewables and efficiency - these portions of the bill are arguably the best in the country. That is a big deal. Further, those things should and will have a direct impact on the clients NASW serves. And NASW’s clients will be paying LESS after this bill, not more. - Cubs in '16 - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 4:48 pm: - Jed - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 12:44 pm: ===That cat should watch its back if the meals on wheels stop=== You read my mind. lol - stateandlake - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 5:50 pm: The money is coming from the membership dues (including mine) paid to the NASW Illinois Chapter, most likely. There’s also an NASW-IL PAC. NASW-IL only provides services to its members that are typical of any professional association, such as professional education, group insurance, etc. It is NOT a human services provider. Personally I think the ads will help shine a spotlight on the choices being made by the legislature. - wordslinger - Thursday, Dec 1, 16 @ 6:18 pm: S&L, the concern trollers who suggested the money could be spent on “something more urgent” are backers of the governor’s squeeze the beast strategy of reneging on contracts and putting providers out of business. The governor is spending plenty on election-type communications right now, and they think that’s a great idea. W Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.