* Chris Kennedy…
Kennedy to Rauner: Explain why your “Turnaround Agenda” is more important than passing a state budget
Chris Kennedy, Democratic candidate for governor, issued the followed statement today in response to the news that Governor Rauner will tour Illinois on a two-day swing throughout the state.
“Governor Rauner is a failed governor who has turned a budget problem into a statewide economic crisis that has hurt people across Illinois,” said Kennedy. “As he flies around the state, we hope he will finally give the people of Illinois an explanation as to why, by virtually every measure, Illinois is in worse shape than when he took office.”
Today and tomorrow, Governor Rauner is traveling to Bloomingdale, Rockford, Rock Island, Peoria, Springfield, Quincy, East Alton, Marion, Robinson, and Champaign.
“Rauner owes it to the people of Illinois to explain why his Turnaround Agenda is more important than a state budget. While he plays politics, our schools continue to go without the resources they need, the social safety net is being shredded, and violence has become the norm in neighborhoods across the state. We ask him to put his agenda aside and give the people a budget. It’s time we get to work to fix this mess,” added Kennedy.
* Pritzker…
Bruce Rauner Chooses Politics Over Governing (Again)
As Rauner Hits the Campaign Trail, Another Campus Forced to Shutdown
Chicago, IL — Today, as Bruce Rauner chooses to hit the campaign trail instead of working to pass a much-needed budget, Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is the second time in three weeks that Northeastern Illinois University has had to shut down due to the two-year deadlock over a new state budget.
“Today, Bruce Rauner is once again choosing to put politics over doing his job as Governor,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner heads out on the campaign trail, our state still doesn’t have a budget and Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is devastating. Illinois families have had enough of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership and they are ready for a progressive leader who will fight for what’s right and actually get things done for our state.”
* Pawar…
Ameya Pawar to Governor Rauner: ‘Put politics aside and govern’
CHICAGO — Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward Alderman and Democratic candidate for Illinois governor, issued the following statement today in response to Governor Bruce Rauner’s first campaign tour of the 2018 election cycle:
“Instead of working on passing a state budget that is now more than 21 months overdue, Governor Rauner is out campaigning in an attempt to distract us from the 22,000 seniors outside of Chicago who have lost access to services, the 130,000 low-income college students who are not receiving tuition grants, the nearly 47,000 children whose parents are without affordable child care, and the 80,000 people who have lost access to mental health services in Illinois. Earlier this morning, I joined students, faculty and staff at Northeastern Illinois University to protest Gov. Rauner’s $2.3 billion in cuts to higher education.
It’s past time for Gov. Rauner to put politics aside and govern. Our state can’t afford to wait any longer.”
* IWT…
Rauner puts campaigning ahead of doing his job
Gov. Rauner should put the people of Illinois first
Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis released the following statement in response to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “campaign tour”:
“With the state in the midst of a fiscal emergency and Election Day more than 18 months away, it is downright shameful that Gov. Rauner would rather campaign for his re-election than do his job. Rauner’s refusal to compromise has hurt students, seniors, and the Illinois economy.
“The question Illinois residents should be asking is: why is Rauner campaigning for re-election when he has failed to propose a balanced budget, his most basic responsibility as governor? Instead of campaigning, the governor should drop the political games, propose a balanced budget, and do his job.”
Nothing from the other candidates as of yet.
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HUD to poor people: Get out of Cairo
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Southern Illinoisan…
A gathering of Cairo residents erupted in anger Monday night as federal housing officials informed them that close to 200 families residing in two sprawling World War II-era family housing developments of the Alexander County Housing Authority will have to move out of their units in the coming months, and that there is no immediate plan to provide new government-assisted housing in Cairo to replace the developments they intend to demolish. […]
For more than a year and a half, The Southern Illinoisan has detailed the inhumane living conditions of ACHA’s Elmwood Place and McBride Place complexes, which have been in poor condition for years. The problems include mold, plumbing and electrical issues, inadequate heating and cooling, rampant infestation and other health and safety issues.
There are presently 82 families living at Elmwood and 103 families at McBride. Many units are vacant, as those that have been vacated since the housing crisis began and are not being filled, HUD officials said. […]
One by one at the standing-room only meeting, residents expressed anger and frustration that HUD does not have a plan to provide adequate housing for the displaced residents within the city, and that no one has been officially held accountable for the alleged mismanagement of the complexes by ACHA administrators, or the lack of oversight by HUD as millions of federal dollars were squandered.
“You have decimated a whole community and you don’t care,” one resident said to cheers and applause.
According to the story, about half of the students who attend Cairo Unit School District 1 live in those two housing projects. So, this is definitely going to have a ripple effect in Cairo and throughout the region.
* Background…
* Living large on the public dime: CAIRO – Hundreds of people here rely on public housing for shelter, with the average income among Alexander County Housing Authority residents just $8,655 a year, the majority of them raising children and nearly half as single mothers. More than half of the county’s children live in poverty, and nearly a third are considered food insecure – meaning they don’t always know from where their next meal is coming. But some of those who were charged with overseeing the shelter upon which many of them rely, lived large, records show, traveling extensively to conferences in destination cities, drinking on the authority’s dime, shelling out hundreds of dollars for steak, salmon, shrimp cocktails, sorbet and other multi-course meals, sometimes paying nearly $100 per person at fine-dining establishments. Meanwhile, the public housing developments that provide shelter in the state’s poorest county have deteriorated into abysmal conditions, besieged by infestation and violent crime.
* (March 30, 2016) HUD officials outline work under way in Cairo at first board meeting since takeover: The Alexander County Housing Authority Board, in a brief meeting on Wednesday afternoon, its first since a federal takeover, approved issuing a $380,000 contract to a Marion-based company to begin structural repairs on the outside of the Connell F. Smith, Sr., apartment complex in Cairo.
* One year after HUD took possession of the Alexander County Housing Authority, people still live with roaches, rats, mold and despair: In squalor, predominately black families live among roaches, rats, mold and despair while former ACHA managers and board members, according to records and as previously reported by The Southern Illinoisan, spent lavishly on themselves with taxpayer funds intended to benefit housing residents.
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* Yesterday’s infuriating story about a United Airlines passenger being dragged off a flight from Chicago because the company needed four seats for its own employees was made even weirder by this Chicago Police Department statement posted all over Twitter…
Yeah. “He fell.” Right. Is that a CPD spokesperson or a flack for The Outfit?
* OK, now check this out from the Sun-Times…
The city of Chicago has two police forces that patrol O’Hare and Midway airports: the Chicago Police Department, whose officers are armed, and city Department of Aviation police, whose officers are unarmed.
Aviation police officers alone handled the situation aboard the United flight.
Despite this, a Chicago Police news affairs officer — not the aviation cops — initially released a statement to an unnamed media outlet saying that a “69-year-old male Asian airline passenger” became “irate” aboard the United flight and that aviation officers “attempted to carry the individual off the flight when he fell.” The statement also said the passenger was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge with “non-life threatening injuries.”
As the Chicago Police statement began circulating on Twitter Monday afternoon — with people taking exception to the characterization of the man falling — police said that any further information about the matter should come through the Department of Aviation. “That was not a formal statement by me or CPD,” Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi explained in an email. [Emphasis added.]
Bizarre.
So, who issued the statement? And if a CPD employee did issue the statement, why would he or she do that? The cops who dragged the poor guy out of the airplane were with the Department of Aviation, and one of those cops has been placed on leave.
* Buzzfeed, by the way, ran into a byzantine bureaucratic buzzsaw when attempting to report this story out…
When asked why the airline had the man forcibly removed, and whether that was standard procedure in cases of overbooked flights, United refused to comment.
Instead they told BuzzFeed News all further questions should be referred to Chicago Police. BuzzFeed News contacted Chicago Police and were told to contact the Chicago Department of Aviation. When BuzzFeed News contacted the Chicago Department of Aviation, the call was transferred to a TSA message bank. A TSA spokesperson later told BuzzFeed News they were not involved and to contact Chicago Police.
* Related…
* Mark Brown: Aviation cops shoot themselves in the foot in gun debate
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* The Southern…
After the votes were counted for Tuesday’s election, the race for village president in Colp was still undecided. Candidates Tammy O’Daniell-Howell and Bryan Riekena each received 11 votes.
“We are not waiting for any absentee ballots, so the vote total should not change,” said Williamson County Clerk Amanda Barnes.
The race will be decided April 20 by the flip of a coin. A coin toss is the way to handle tie votes, according to Illinois statutes. […]
Riekena, the other candidate for Colp village president, said 29 out of the 250 registered voters in the village showed up at the polls.
“I would have liked to see a little more than 11 or 12 percent show up,” Riekena said.
So, if 29 people voted, then 7 people under-voted in the mayor’s race, which seems kinda weird.
* Either way, whenever you hear people talk about all the local governments we have in Illinois, always keep in mind that we have an absolute ton of these tiny incorporated towns all over the state. You can’t really talk about consolidation without considering that unavoidable fact.
Growing up in Iroquois County, I had some friends who lived in Kempton, population 231. For a time, my paternal grandmother lived in Martinton, population 375. There are only two towns with more than 1,400 people in all of Iroquois County, even though it’s the third largest county in the state at 1,119 square miles. It’s mostly farmland.
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Are Rauner’s new TV ads working?
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s approval ratings have seen a big bump compared to his numbers before the presidential election, according to a Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday.
The poll finds that Rauner improved his approval rating to 42 percent, compared to the 33 percent he fared in September, prior to the presidential election. His disapproval rating dropped from 56 percent to 49 percent over the same time period.
However, Rauner is still in the bottom 10 in the rankings, coming in 43rd out of 50 in terms of governors with the best approval ratings. Fifteen governors had approval ratings below 50 percent in the poll.
Rauner’s approval and disapproval ratings are about the same as Robert Bentley who just resigned as governor of Alabama after a sex scandal.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ranked first with a 75 percent approval rating. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie polled the worst with just a 25 percent approval rating.
* Take this poll with a grain of salt, however. Here is its methodology…
More than 85,000 registered voters in America have evaluated the job performance of key elected officials on Morning Consult’s weekly online national polling from January 2017 through March 2017 to determine the latest Senator & Governor Approval Rankings.
On each poll, Americans indicated whether they approved or disapproved of the job performance of President Donald Trump, their state Governor, both of their U.S. Senators, their Member of Congress and their mayor (if they lived in a city with more than about 10,000 residents). For each question, they could answer strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or don’t know / no opinion.
Morning Consult obtained an up-to-date list of Governors, U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives from Sunlight Foundation’s Congress API v3 and Open States API and obtained a list of mayors from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Survey respondents were assigned to their appropriate Governor and both U.S. Senators based on their state of residence, assigned to their Member of Congress based on a combination of zip code, IP address, latitude and longitude, and assigned to their mayor based on their state and zip code.
We obtained population parameters for registered voters from the November 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS). We applied post-stratification weights based on gender, age, educational attainment and race.
Notice anything missing? How were respondents contacted? How did they respond? When were they contacted?
But, their last survey tracked with other polls, so maybe they’re right.
* Related…
* Is Rauner polling on Democrats in governor’s race?: The respondent said the poll asked if Rauner or his chief political nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, was responsible for the Springfield impasse and whether Madigan’s tenure was part of the ingrained problems at the statehouse. In addition, the poll asked questions about Democratic governor candidates Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker, including a voting preference for either one as well as an opinion of each of the two candidates. The survey did not mention two others in the contest, Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar and state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston.
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Rauner denies he’s making excuses
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Rauner was on “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS Radio this morning. After going through his usual litany of how he’s changed the things he could change and has been blocked by Madigan on everything else, co-host John Dempsey asked him this…
You’re running for reelection and you’re saying the General Assembly has blocked us, things are unfair, the system is rigged. It’s one excuse after another. Would you hire somebody who came in and just offered one excuse after another?
* The governor’s response…
Well, that’s interesting, I’ve never heard Madigan’s majority called an excuse.
The reality is they rigged the system. It’s broken. It’s the reason we lead the nation in property taxes. It’s the reason we lead the nation in out-migration. They’re the reason we have so much cronyism and corruption. The system’s broken, it’s rigged by career politicians.
And I’m the one person as a volunteer - I’m not taking any compensation, I’m doing this because I love Illinois. I’m fightin’ against that corrupt machine and we’re gonna win ’cause it’s the right thing for the people of Illinois.
The full audio of the show is here. Many thanks to John for sending me the audio of his exchange with Rauner…
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Daiber, Pawar profiled
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Chicago Reader has a profile of the only Downstate Democrat in the race for governor, Bob Daiber…
“I’m the candidate who can carry the downstate vote,” he says. “I can carry Trump voters. On the county board I represented a largely Republican district.”
On social issues, he’s a moderate. “My personal values are more pro-life, but I recognize pro-choice is the law of the land and I will respect that law,” he says. “I’m fully supportive of reproductive rights. I support Planned Parenthood. And I recognize gay rights.”
As for gun control, he’s says, “I support concealed-carry gun laws. The Second Amendment is a big issue where I come from.”
On economic issues, he’s an unabashed pro-union progressive. “We have a revenue problem,” he says. “I would support a progressive income tax. There’s only one solution. The debt has to be bonded out. And we have to pay down that debt with the principal of new tax revenue. I want to become governor to stabilize Illinois. Education is my passion. No one needs to tell me how important education is to kids—I taught for 28 years. And no one needs to tell me about living in poverty—I was raised with solid New Deal Democratic values. This is who I am and who I’ve always been.”
Ironically, Daiber would probably have an easier time beating Rauner than he will winning the Democratic nomination. He’s up against two wealthy businessmen, Kennedy and Pritzker, who can self-finance their campaigns. The other two announced Democrats, alderman Ameya Pawar and Evanston state senator Dan Biss, have a wealthier base to tap for money.
Independent suburban have decided major statewide races for decades here. As Judy Baar Topinka found out, being a moderate on abortion means you get hit by both sides and that doesn’t help with suburban women. The same goes for other traditional hot-button items like guns and gay rights.
So, he actually might have an easier time of winning a super-crowded Democratic primary race.
* And Madeleine Doubek interviews Ameya Pawar…
“When jobs leave a small town,” he says in the ad, “that hurts Chicago.” How, I asked, and how do you make that message work in a state that’s been divided by politicians for so long that many voters south of I-80 wish they could secede from the city.
That line in the ad comes directly from a time when Pawar was standing in a barn on a working farm near Champaign with former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar and a group of others in Edgar’s first government Fellows class at the University of Illinois. Edgar paused, turned to the Chicagoans and told them to realize that what happens on LaSalle Street is dependent on what happens on that farm. He turned to the downstate Fellows and told them if they didn’t support Chicago’s infrastructure, then whatever was grown on the farm didn’t matter because it wasn’t going anywhere.
“We all have our visceral reactions to things,” Pawar said, “but then when you sit down to listen to people, you find we have things in common. Just sit down and listen. We’re not going to write people off based on who they voted for in the last election. We don’t care if a county is red or blue because, by the way, most of the state is red.”
Maybe the money, or the media’s obsession with it, will swamp Pawar. Or maybe this talk of being fiercely for family and one Illinois won’t fly in a state where it’s blue up north and fiery red south. It’ll be fascinating finding out.
“It’s important to go talk to people and to really listen to people,” Pawar said. “We have a lot more in common than we do apart.”
There’s no doubt that Pawar has a strong message. But messages usually only work if lots of people hear them over and over again.
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* Press release…
Today, as Bruce Rauner chooses to hit the campaign trail instead of working to pass a much-needed budget, Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is the second time in three weeks that Northeastern Illinois University has had to shut down due to the two-year deadlock over a new state budget.
“Today, Bruce Rauner is once again choosing to put politics over doing his job as Governor,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner heads out on the campaign trail, our state still doesn’t have a budget and Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is devastating. Illinois families have had enough of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership and they are ready for a progressive leader who will fight for what’s right and actually get things done for our state.”
* Twitters…
* Sun-Times…
Three class days were cancelled to cut costs during the budget impasse, and union leaders are planning a rally to protest the school’s financial straits — but Northeastern Illinois University was planning to pay former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett $30,000 to speak at its commencement ceremony.
Those plans changed after a few university trustees objected — and the Sun-Times began asking questions. Northeastern said late Monday that a donor came forward to pay the five-figure speaking fee.
But at an April 6 board meeting, trustees approved an honorary degree for Jarrett — while learning that a contract had already been negotiated and signed to pay her $30,000 for her May 8 speech.
Just the day before, the school’s interim president said the university was in a “state of emergency” amid the 22-month budget impasse.
Hearing of Jarrett’s contract on April 6, at least one board member uttered “wow,” according to audio of the board’s meeting.
Click here for the trustee meeting audio and fast forward to about the 1:38:00 mark. It’s quite the discussion, with one trustee arguing that it was “classist” to oppose the speaking fee.
And ironically enough, the trustees discussed a statement on impending employee furloughs immediately after they finished talking about the speaking fee.
…Adding… I didn’t see this item at first…
Additionally, the university’s board last week approved an “expenditure recommendation” of $98,000 to executive search firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates to search for a new university president.
Asked for comment on that approval, the university said it couldn’t comment on the search for president or the $98,000 approval.
Sheesh.
*** UPDATE *** Sun-Times…
Valerie Jarrett won’t collect a speaking fee for her commencement speech at cash-strapped Northeastern Illinois University.
Jarrett has spoken with the university president and will not be taking a speaking fee, a Jarrett spokeswoman said Tuesday.
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* AP…
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is launching the first official campaign tour of his re-election bid on Tuesday, as Democrats line up to unseat him in 2018 and the Republican tries to turn around his sagging approval ratings.
Rauner will kick off a two-day, multi-stop swing with a morning event in the Chicago suburb of Bloomingdale, followed by events in northern and western Illinois and an evening rally in Springfield, his campaign said. On Wednesday he’ll appear at five restaurants and businesses in southern Illinois, Quincy and Champaign. […]
Rauner’s campaign says he wants to take a message directly to voters that he’s working hard and is still determined to “deliver real change” for Illinois, such as term limits for lawmakers and a property tax freeze.
He also will criticize Democrats for trying to “duct tape over” Illinois’ problems - a central theme of television commercials that an arm of the Republican Governors Association began airing last month. In the ads, a plaid shirt-wearing Rauner stands in what appears to be a workroom stocked with tools and says he’s the one trying to fix Illinois.
* WHOI…
Governor Bruce Rauner will kick of his re-election campaign Tuesday with a stop in Peoria.
The Governor will be at the Brewer’s Distributing Company, talking about his plan to balance the budget, and fix what he calls a broken political system in Illinois.
* Peoria County Republican Party…
You are invited to join Peoria area leaders at a rally to support Governor Bruce Rauner this afternoon at 4:00 pm at Brewer’s Distributing, corner of Allen Road and Townline Road. The doors will open at 3:45 pm, no earlier. Come learn about the Governor’s plans to turnaround our state.
* KWQC…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is launching the first official campaign tour of his re-election bid as Democrats line up to try to take him out in 2018.
Rauner will kick off a two-day, multi-stop swing Tuesday morning, April 11, 2017 in suburban Chicago, with a stop planned for Rock Island at 1:45 p.m. The Governor’s itinerary says he will be at Performance Food Group, 8001 51st St. W.
* News-Gazette…
Wednesday’s scheduled 5:15 p.m. appearance at HL Precision Manufacturing, 2110 Round Barn Road, Champaign, is the final stop on a two-day swing around the state. […]
The media release about Rauner’s appearances echoed the theme of television commercials the governor’s campaign staff has been running on Illinois television stations since late March.
“Rather than work to finally solve Illinois’ structural problems, politicians in Springfield want to duct tape over Illinois’ challenges with more spending, higher taxes, and no real reforms,” said the notice. “Gov. Bruce Rauner will tour the state this week highlighting the need for a truly balanced budget with real reforms to fix Illinois’ broken political system, freeze property taxes, reduce the debt and grow jobs.”
Stops today include Bloomingdale, Rockford, Rock Island, Peoria and Springfield. Tomorrow’s campaign tour takes him to Quincy, East Alton, Marion, Robinson and Champaign.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the ILGOP…
Hi Rich,
This tour is not the governor formally launching his reelection campaign. He’s traveling the state to talk about the need for a balanced budget with reforms. It is being paid with political resources out of an abundance of caution.
Thanks,
Aaron P. DeGroot
Illinois Republican Party
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Rauner campaign…
This week, Bruce and the team are taking to the road, traveling all across our great state to listen to Illinois families and to talk about budget and reform.
But before we go, we need your help. Will you consider contributing to our Volunteer Fund today to directly help our grassroots team as we prep for this trip?
Chip in $5 >> Fliers for our events
Chip in $20 >> Fuel for grassroots team before hitting the road
Chip in $30 >> Pizza for our grassroots team
Chip in $50 >> Recruitment of more volunteers
Every donation counts as we work to get out the important message this week; we’re so grateful for your support!
Thanks,
Team Rauner
*** UPDATE 3 *** AP…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner says his two-day trip across Illinois “has nothing to do with the election” even though it’s being paid for out of his campaign fund.
Rauner spoke Tuesday in Bloomingdale before flying to stops around Illinois.
His tour comes after several Democrats in recent weeks announced they’re running for governor in 2018.
Rauner refused to say he’s running for re-election, saying it’ll be “discussed later on.” He insists the tour as simply “communication with the people of Illinois.”
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