Hotel Scion Pritzker Using Inherited Wealth on Inherited Agenda
Pritzker’s Advertising Follows Gov. Rauner’s Action
Today, J.B. Pritzker launched an ad campaign that aims to mirror Bruce Rauner’s actions as Governor.
He’s using his inherited wealth to push for an inherited agenda.
Pritzker’s ad claims he helped 55,000 kids get school breakfasts and touts his support for early childhood education.
What J.B. won’t tell you is that Gov. Rauner signed a bill providing 175,000 children with school breakfasts last year.
As Governor, Bruce Rauner increased education funding by $700 million since taking office, including a $100 million increase for early childhood education.
If J.B. Pritzker wants to take real, impactful steps to fix our state, he should use his fortune to encourage Mike Madigan to come to the table and pass reforms.
* The Question: How would you rate the phrase “using inherited wealth on an inherited agenda”? Don’t forget to explain your answer.
*** UPDATE *** From Pritzker campaign manager Anne Caprara responding to the above release…
“Yesterday it was reported that early childhood education programs were at risk of getting cut because of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership.
“This is laughable. The only person Rauner’s convinced that he’s making a difference when it comes to these issues is unfortunately himself.”
Downstate transit is funded in part through city and county sales taxes. But before that money can be spent, it passes through state government. That means transit agencies have to wait in a long line to get paid — Illinois’ so-called backlog of bills stands at more than $11 billion.
State Rep. Katie Stuart, a Democrat from Edwardsville, is sponsoring legislation that would essentially pull downstate transit out of line, sending them tax money directly.
“We have transit districts downstate that are under threat of closing, and we have people that can’t get to school, and jobs, and medical appointments,” Stuart says.
In a fiscal note on the legislation, the Illinois comptroller warns that this would remove her discretion to say whether some other claim on state money should take priority over transit — like schools, drug treatment centers, or even state employee paychecks. But spokeswoman Jamey Dunn says the office is not taking a position for or against the bill.
Dunn says the comptroller’s office released $19.3 million for the transit agencies Monday, but still owes $70 million.
The legislation was approved in the Illinois House last week on a bipartisan vote of 102-12, and goes next to the state Senate.
Provisions of HB 2453 would require the deposit of transit funds derived from sales taxes directly into the Downstate Public Transportation Fund that would amount to an estimated $205 million annually. Currently, the Office of the Comptroller makes transfers from the General Revenue Fund into the Downstate Public Transportation Fund as available balances in the GRF allows throughout the fiscal year while facing a general funds backlog of bills at $12.6 billion. This legislation would essentially remove the Comptroller’s discretion for making such payments for downstate transit districts from cash management criteria used by the Comptroller in balancing payments for all the other pending obligations such as for education, medical programs, certain human service programs, debt service and State payrolls. As of March 24, 2017 the pending backlog for the Downstate transit programs was estimated at $70 million.
So, wait a second.
When money is piling up in special accounts for higher education and social services, legislators shouldn’t remove the “pressure” by releasing those funds? But when money for transit agencies is caught in the impasse morass, it’s OK to appropriate the money?
“The fact that we have gone now without a budget for over two years has put this state in the worst condition I can ever remember. Even during the Blagojevich years it wasn’t this bad.”
“All our universities are great assets. I think that they are one of the most important elements in our economic progress. And the damage that’s been done now, it’s gonna take years to undo that. If people are worried about the economy, that alone ought to underscore why we need to get a budget.”
* Related…
* Greg Hinz: State gets new reminder of slipping finances
* Bob Reed: Illinois’ medical debt spiral injures people, economy
Today, the JB Pritzker for Governor campaign released its first TV ad, a 60-second spot called “Think Big.” The ad will air in markets across the state.
“Think Big” highlights JB’s progressive record of getting things done, including his work to bring new, good paying jobs to Illinois by helping build 1871, a non-profit technology small business incubator, by working with non-profits like Share Our Strength and Greater Chicago Food Depository to provide school breakfast to 55,000 Illinois kids, and JB’s work as a national leader in early childhood education.
“Today, I’m excited to release our campaign’s first TV ad and continue introducing myself to people across Illinois,” said JB Pritzker. “As I’ve traveled across the state, I’ve visited organizations and met with Illinoisans who are paying the price for Governor Rauner’s failure every day. It’s time we fight for what’s right and get our state back on track. By working together, I know that we can get real results for Illinois families and our communities.”
In the spot, Pritzker takes only a passing shot at incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner, saying that, under him, “things have only gotten worse” in Illinois. And he completely ignores other rivals for the Democratic nomination.
Instead, under the theme of thinking “big,” Pritzker talks about how he founded a successful tech incubator and worked to arrange funding for early-childhood education and nutrition programs. “Small ideas won’t help Illinois’ future,” he concludes.
But the “big” line is used to self-deprecating purpose, too. I’m not sure if he’s ever been skinny, and the spot depicts him walking down a street, stomach bumping above his belt, hammering on the “big” line.
Kinda cute, I thought. But look for yourself. At least we’re starting what likely will be a bitter campaign on a humorous note.
* We’ve already talked about JB Pritzker’s 2012 remark on a cable TV show how he hadn’t yet made up his mind whether he would support the Republican presidential nominee or President Obama’s reelection. At the time, the Republican candidates remaining in the race were Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
If you watch the video, however, you’ll see Pritzker first say “Look, I’m a Democrat and I tend to lean toward voting for the President,” and then he went on to say…
But I think this is gonna be a long campaign, we’re gonna learn a lot during this campaign. And ultimately, as in every election, it’s gonna be a choice between two people and two parties that you’re not a hundred percent behind either one. You just have to pick sort of the, the best of a mediocre set of choices.
The Pritzker camp is shrugging off the attack. “J.B. looks forward to working with grassroots, Democratic and other organizations across Illinois to fight back against the failed leadership of Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump,” said his communications director, Galia Slayen. “And, unlike the current governor, J.B. doesn’t tear things down. He has a proven record of bringing people together.” […]
The Kennedy folks think they’re on to something here and intend to continue this line of attack. “We’ve seen what happens when someone like Gov. Rauner doesn’t need to reach out,” spokesman Mark Bergman said. “It’s resulted in gridlock” as GOP lawmakers who need Rauner’s financial help in their campaigns have refused to back a bipartisan deal, perhaps fearing that Rauner allies will oppose them in primaries as occurred in some instances this spring. Or, as the mailer put it: Big money “silences us. It says . . . that if you fight our fight for us, we’ll make you our king.”
Of course, Kennedy does not exactly reside in the poorhouse, having donated $250,100 to his own campaign. But that’s peanuts compared to the $7 million Pritzker donated to himself just in the campaign’s early days, Bergman said. “There’s a difference (between them). Chris has to raise money from people across Illinois,” Bergman said. “J.B. doesn’t.”
All of this will thoroughly delight GOP leaders. “Do the Democrats listen to any voice except Mike Madigan?” asked former state GOP Chairman Pat Brady.
There’s also some word going around that Pritzker may be going up on TV very soon. Stay tuned.
Planned Parenthood on Tuesday released a poll and TV ad aimed at putting pressure on Rep. Peter Roskam — who is already being targeted by Democrats as a vulnerable Republican in a district that favored Hillary Clinton for president.
“Extreme politicians are trying to defund Planned Parenthood which would have a devastating impact on the more than 60,000 people who rely on Planned Parenthood in Illinois,” the ad says, while urging constituents to call Roskam to ask him “to protect women’s health.” The ad is paid for by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. The ads will run for at least one week in the Chicago area media market. […]
The Planned Parenthood poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found — out of 566 voters in the Sixth Congressional District — 57 percent opposed changes to health care that would “defund” Planned Parenthood. Of those polled 49 percent said they supported the Affordable Care Act, with 39 percent opposing and 11 percent unsure. […]
The poll also sought to learn whether Trump’s proposed actions to defund Planned Parenthood made them more likely to participate in grassroots activity: 51 percent said they were more likely; 26 percent said they were less likely; 22 percent said it didn’t make a difference and 1 percent said they were not sure.
* Democrat and former Naperville school board member Suzyn Price has been hitting the incumbent hard in recent days on this general topic…
“If you have cancer, diabetes or if you’re pregnant, insurance companies will be able to deny you care or vastly increase the cost of it under the new Roskam-Ryan-Trump plan,” she said in a statement. “We need a representative in the 6th district that listens to what people want and stands up against this radical agenda.”
Alex Paterakis is arguably the longest shot of all of them. He is the youngest candidate in the race at 29 years old. The graduate of Purdue University is a civil engineer by trade who’s worked on highway construction projects in Illinois.
He has never run for political office before.
He has an economic agenda that sounds a bit like the current governor. Paterakis calls for spending reform to limit the taxes on manufacturing companies, tax reform that includes a property tax freeze, removing sales taxes on manufacturing and he supports term limits.
Then he has ideas that align more with Democrats: providing more money for primary education, reforming the financing system for college like being able to refinance student loans and cutting interest rates. He calls for increasing the minimum wage to $12 an hour. All of this seems hard to do while holding the line on taxes.
CT: Many people may agree with you in terms of not liking how money can dominate politics but, nevertheless, the system as it is certainly favors people who can buy lots of political advertising and get their message out more easily. How are you planning on overcoming that disadvantage?
AP: Through my social media presence. To take advantage of the volunteers that have advocated for me and who are going to be working for me. Money does not always buy… it gets you to the table. Trust me it gets you to the table. Some of these guys running throw millions and millions of dollars – Bruce Rauner for example threw millions of millions of dollars (at his campaign) and it got him to the table, he’s self-funding the Republican Party, but I see it as I’m going to reject the system and reject that you have to spend $40 to $50 million on advertising agencies and am going to use social media platforms via live videos, via Facebook, via Instagram, via Twitter, via Snapchat – all those things to get my message out there rather than the traditional form of media which is going through advertising on TV and things like that. I’ll have to do some of that there’s no doubt about that but that’s how I’m going about things. And also visiting as many people as I can both in the north suburbs of Chicago, in Chicago and also the people that have been forgotten in southern Illinois.
Give the guy some credit. He’s working the social media angle hard. His Facebook page has 37,984 “likes.” That’s more than every other Democratic candidate, but shy of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s 52,570.
Rauner and Pritzker have far more Twitter followers. But Paterakis has more Twitter loyalists than Kennedy, Biss and Pawar.
But, to give you a little perspective, I have more Twitter followers than all the candidates and the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet has almost twice as many Twitter followers as Rauner.
Paterakis has just $5,000 cash on hand. He’ll need more than that for gas money to get to southern Illinois from Vernon Hills.
Koshko: How would you balance the budget if you were governor right now?
Kennedy: Well, the first thing I would do is I would abandon the need to adopt his Turnaround Agenda first. This isn’t a stalemate, this isn’t a logjam, this is a hostage-taking. Gov. Rauner is holding the state budget hostage for ideas that only he thinks are more important than what the rest of the state believes in. If he gave up on those ideas, there would be a balanced budget passed in Springfield within ten days.
Koshko: Revenue, cuts or both?
Kennedy: I think the legislature would figure that out in these next ten days. If you’re talking about what happens two years from now, I think we need to know what damage Gov. Rauner does. Enormous pile of unpaid bills that he has created under his own management, it leaves the state really at risk and I don’t know how bad it will get.
Koshko: With some Democrats saying, look, it’s Rauner’s job to propose the budget, it would be reasonable for them to say it’ll be your job to propose the budget. So what would you do, how would you propose the budget?
Kennedy: I don’t know what the size of the unpaid bills is. How can I answer that? Could you have predicted that he’d go with $12-14 billion in unpaid bills? Can you tell me what it will be like, you know, two years from now? I’m sorry, I can’t do that. We have one governor at a time. It’s his job. He ought to get it done.
* The House, in its infinite wisdom, is on break this week (the first time I can remember that happening in May). The Senate convenes at noon with an approp committee meeting this morning at 9. Follow everything in real time right here with ScribbleLive…
“It’s a horrible situation,” Lisa Madigan said. “It’s unconscionable that there hasn’t been a budget in place because people who rely on state services are suffering.”
Is it something she and her father talk about during family gatherings? Nope.
When there are grandchildren about, her father is focused only on them, she said. Indeed, Madigan’s mom, Shirley Madigan, attended the luncheon with pictures of Lisa’s two daughters hanging on a lanyard around her neck.
“She’s everyone’s favorite Madigan,” Lisa Madigan said of her mom, prompting laughter and applause.
That last part is certainly true. Nobody doesn’t like Shirley Madigan.
