An Illinois lawmaker said Monday she was forced out of her job with the Cook County Sheriff’s office, given no choice other than to resign from her part-time position after speaking publicly against powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan.
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Democrat who represents portions of Chicago’s North Side, was the lead voice calling for an independent investigation after allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced within Madigan’s political staff. […]
Days after she publicly called for a review of harassment policies and past responses to complaints, Cassidy said she was told by Sheriff Tom Dart’s spokeswoman Cara Smith that Madigan’s chief of staff Tim Mapes had called “to confirm that I was still employed,” adding, “that call from Mapes felt like a warning, it was a little chilling.” […]
Last week, Cassidy said state Rep. Bob Rita “summoned” her over to discuss Dart’s bill and said, “I really just can’t get over the fact that you’re opposed to your boss’ bill.” […]
That conversation with Rita led Cassidy to speak to Smith once again. Cassidy said Smith told her that Rita had reached out to tell her, “when I worked for a politician, when I opposed him, I expect to be fired.”
“My blood ran cold at that,” Cassidy said. “It was very, very clear at that point, the combination of the call in February and this action by Rep. Rita, that this job was their point of leverage to use against me.” […]
Cassidy said she did not link Dart to the retaliation and chose to resign from her position. […]
“This is retribution, there is zero doubt in my mind,” she added. “This is about me having the gall to speak out.”
“It was clear to me that this would be the first of an unlimited number of shots at me, and I respect the sheriff [Tom Dart] too much and the work they do. But I felt like the only way that I could bring an end to this is to come out,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy said she resigned, but believes what happened is a clear form of “retaliation.”
“My speaking out is about wanting to be safe from retaliation in this workplace, and I believe that the only way to do it is to take this public,” Cassidy said. “What kind of an example am I setting for my kids if I allow myself to be silenced in this way?”
“You don’t get to get to sit on the executive committee without being loyal,” Cassidy said of Rita’s allegiance to the speaker.
* For a 94-page document, a report from the Office of the Executive Inspector General really didn’t find all that much…just seven jobs within CMS that should not have been classified as ones that could be filled from political consideration. The jobs had been filled with names recommended to CMS by the governor’s office, and the employees were hired in the year or so after Gov. Rauner was sworn into office.
The OEIG did a two-year investigation into seven jobs called “Regional Client Managers” and found that the jobs, originally created in 2004, should no longer be considered “4d(3) exempt,” which is similar to the “Rutan exempt” classification of state employee jobs. Like Rutan exempt jobs, positions classified as 4d(3) exempt can be filled using political consideration.
* When conceived of during the Blagojevich era, the Regional Client Managers were imagined as people who would oversee a bunch of state properties and make sure they were well-functioning. The original job descriptions, and even updated job descriptions years later, envisioned the managers to be fairly independent, create programming, have employees who reported to them, etc. Two examples, which explain why the positions might have been classified as exempt…
“This Client Manager works in concert with the Deputy Director on policy formulating, planning, directing, implementing and administering all property management operations for the client agencies in partnership with the agencies’ Directors.” […]
“This position serves as official agency spokesperson on behalf of the Deputy Director to all internal and external entities such as vendors, contractors, the public, and private and federal officials in the development of initiatives and the resolution of issues associated with client agencies’ property management.”
* Years later, as the OEIG investigated the seven Regional Client Manager positions, it seems most of the jobs turned into kind of glorified custodial managers. One of the people in the jobs said his duties consisted of…
- Setting up tables and chairs for special events
- Reporting the condition of conference rooms to his supervisor; and
- Monitoring inventory inside shared spaces in the Thompson Center.
A far cry from the dozens of bullet points’ worth of responsibilities the jobs were supposed to have. The annual salaries for the seven positions ranged from $51,540 to $75,000.
Does it look flattering for the governor’s office that these employees can be considered “patronage?” No. They were costing the state money, especially as the state went through a two-year budget crisis.
* But I talked to former CMS Director Mike Hoffman this afternoon, who pointed to the 2,500 former patronage jobs he and his team were able to eliminate from the state payroll and the others they reclassified to merit-based hiring. Hoffman was put in charge of efforts to help the Quincy Veterans Home in March.
“It’s frustrating to be called out for mismanagement when you’ve spent the past two years cleaning up,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he ultimately accepted responsibility as CMS director, and pointed out that he eliminated the positions on January 1. Also starting in January, CMS has put in place an affidavit process when supervisors do performance reviews — they’ll also have to do more consistent position description reviews so situations like these don’t happen in the future.
A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Dolores French had been a resident of the Illinois Veterans Home for six weeks when she was found dead in her independent-living unit on Aug. 29, 2015. She was one of 13 elderly residents at the facility to die from Legionnaires’ since that first outbreak. […]
Last December, WBEZ reported French may have laid dead in her room for two days before anyone found her.
State officials have ruled out that possibility categorically.
“What we know to be sure, she was not dead in her room for two days with nobody knowing about it,” then-state Veterans’ Affairs Director Erica Jeffries told reporters after a January legislative hearing into the outbreaks.
But in his first interview about French’s case, the local coroner who delivered the sobering news to Steve French about his mother’s condition has a very different take. He tells WBEZ that she could have been dead between 36 and 48 hours before she was found.
And newly obtained health documents related to her case demonstrate a litany of questionable procedural and record-keeping practices at Illinois’ largest state-run veterans’ home, which takes in residents from across the state, including the Chicago area.
“Once again, Bruce Rauner’s administration proved they’re more interested in dodging blame than accepting responsibility for their mismanagement at the Quincy Veterans’ Home,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “In their enduring quest to avoid admitting fault, Rauner’s administration will not even give one family the dignity of telling the truth about their loss.”
Today, drinking a beer at a public park or beach in Chicago is an ordinance violation carrying a fine of up to $500. But what if starting tomorrow it became a felony offense instead of a ticket, just because the city of Chicago argued that sending all those beer drinkers to prison was the only way the Chicago Police Department could crack down on drunk driving?
Sounds ridiculous, right? It is, but this is precisely the reasoning that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Police Department are using to persuade legislators to increase penalties for criminal trespass and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. Emanuel’s little-understood bill pending in Springfield is being touted by city officials as a “carjacking” bill, but in reality it achieves a completely different objective.
Senate Bill 2339 proposes to raise a nonviolent misdemeanor charge (trespass to a vehicle) up three full felony classes to a Class 2 offense (possession of a stolen motor vehicle) for anyone who is in a car (or a truck, golf cart, or ATV) without the owner’s permission, regardless of whether the person charged knew the car was stolen and regardless of whether it was taken hours, months or years ago. By the way, all of this applies to merely possessing just an “essential part” of a car, too — a transmission, a muffler, a trunk lid.
Worst yet, the bill creates a blanket presumption that youth will be held in detention and undergo a psychological evaluation, which could take weeks or longer.
As currently written, the bill “will not have a significant impact on preserving public safety,” Preckwinkle said. “Rather, it will perpetuate Illinois’ longstanding trend of unnecessarily incarcerating young black and brown youth for nonviolent acts.”
The real problem is with police, she went on to add. “This bill doesn’t hold police accountable for their lack of arrests for violent crimes. Similar to the low clearance rate in Chicago for shootings, 9 out of 10 carjacking offenses in Chicago do not result in an arrest,” she said. “Incarceration, even for a short period of time, is extremely harmful to young people and increases the likelihood that they will reoffend in the future and be incarcerated as adults.” […]
The sponsor of the Senate bill, state Sen. Tony Munoz, who is Latino and represents a heavily Latino West Side district, strongly disputes that.
In a phone interview, Munoz insisted that his bill “isn’t an enhancement” of existing penalties in law, but merely an attempt to make sure those who break the law are held accountable.
Munoz says police are right when they argue there’s a loophole in the existing law in which a group of young adults riding around in, say, a $100,000 Mercedes, all insist they had absolutely no idea it was stolen and end up getting off with little if any penalty because police can’t prove they did know. “I don’t agree with that,” Munoz said, referring to Preckwinkle’s argument. “We do have a problem. . . .I don’t want to lock up anybody who doesn’t deserve it.”
Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, tells CBS 2 News, “The Black Caucus’ issue with the legislation is the enhanced penalty and its effect on juveniles.”
Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was confident the bill would pass.
“We’ll work through the issues, but I believe at the end of the day, since it affects every part of the city it will get a lot of support” said Emanuel. […]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others supporting the legislation say juveniles in possession of a stolen vehicle would get help, while in detention, after a psychological evaluation.
Opponents say that could take weeks in custody.
* Other bills…
* Illinois mayors say don’t balance state budget on the backs of their residents: On Friday, Gov. Bruce Rauner, talking to reporters after meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the city, was asked about the concerns of the Illinois mayors. Rauner didn’t directly answer the question, saying only that budget negotiations are ongoing.
* Yingling wants voters to elect Lake County assessment chief: Currently, the position is appointed by the county board chairman and approved by the county board. But Yingling plans to introduce legislation this week that would let voters decide if the post should be filled via an election in the future.
* Hospitals push back against timeline to train more nurses in sexual assault care: The bill, which passed the House in April and is being considered by the Senate, would require hospitals to have a provider trained to treat assault victims present within 90 minutes of a patient’s arrival in an emergency room by 2021. “We’re still concerned that there won’t be enough time,” David Gross, senior vice president of government relations for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, said Thursday.
* Back in March, Gov. Rauner talked about one reason why property taxes are so high in Illinois…
(W)e have more bureaucracy, we have more government than any other state in America. We have seven thousand local units of government in Illinois. Two thousand more units than the number two state. Thousands and thousands.
And these are small, you know, mosquito abatement districts and water reclamation districts, and – we have dozens. And you’re paying taxes on all of those. And they’re redundant. No other state has as many as we do.
They overlap with each other and each one is a little fiefdom, a little kingdom for a politician. Where they have their buddies, and their cronies, and they do their – we’ve got to get rid of those. And we need to free it up, so your local community, you can get rid of some of these layers, so we can bring down your property taxes. That’s what we’re working to, advocating for every day.
Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider, a close ally of Gov. Bruce Rauner, was unanimously re-elected chairman of the Illinois Republican Party in Springfield Saturday morning.
The result was a show of unity for a party that needed it following the bruising gubernatorial primary that saw Gov. Bruce Rauner almost upset by the more conservative state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, who tapped into grassroots anger over Rauner’s more liberal positions on social issues like abortion and immigration.
“It’s been a long road, but we’re finally home,” Schneider said during a meeting at the Illinois Realtor’s headquarters, 522 S. Fifth St. “And hopefully when we leave this room today, it will be together.” […]
Nominating Schneider for the post was Lake County GOP chairman Mark Shaw, who up until a few days ago — with the backing of Ives and the conservative grassroots — was running to unseat him. […]
“As a party united now, we have a lot of work to do — pulling together to fight, take back our beloved Illinois, and get rid of Mike Madigan and the evil Democrats that infect Chicago, Cook County and the rest of the state,” Shaw said.
A veteran Illinois GOP official who says Gov. Bruce Rauner’s allies rigged a vote last month to unseat him will fight in court to get his job back.
Bob Winchester of Rosiclare, who has long represented most of Southern Illinois on the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, filed suit in Hardin County last Thursday, claiming he won re-election to his post, but party officials loyal to Rauner manipulated the results in favor of his challenger, State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet).
At a meeting in Springfield on Saturday, the State Central Committee, as expected, officially seated Rose and not Winchester.
“The evidence we have collected by affidavit makes it plain that Bob Winchester won this election,” said Steve Boulton, Winchester’s attorney. “It was reported by the party differently. We will be taking that in justice to court.” […]
Sources tell Prairie State Wire that Shaw tried furiously last week to strike a deal with Winchester to get him to drop his lawsuit, offering to give his deputy a high-ranking party position and to “find a job” for a family member in state government.
But Winchester refused.
Overtures were also made to Winchester’s lawyers, who were asked if a deal could be made to get them to withdraw from the case.
Dave Donahue, a one-time aide to House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago) and former Chicago Alderman “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak turned strip club impresario, was even enlisted to help broker a detente, sources said, asking what it would take to “buy Winchester out of his complaint.” […]
“If the story is true that Rauner allies promised jobs in exchange for Bob Winchester withdrawing his lawsuit against the party, then everyone in our party leadership who knew about it should resign immediately,” said [Rep. Jeanne Ives]. “They have been lying to the grassroots long enough. If party leadership thinks we will now turn a blind eye to corruption, then it just goes to show you how out of touch they are.
“We won’t win if we can’t be honest, and we don’t deserve to win if we can’t be honest. Republicans need to lead by example, not play the same political games that the Democrats do,” she said.
* The Pritzker campaign’s first ever fundraising appeal…
Hi there–
Throughout this campaign we’ve asked Illinoisans for your ideas about how to best improve our state, your voices calling for change, and your time, which you’ve given generously, knocking doors, making phone calls, and getting out the vote. I feel so grateful and lucky for all the time and energy so many of you have given to this campaign.
Now that we’ve won the primary, I know how important it is that we don’t just beat Bruce Rauner, but that up and down the ticket Democrats have the resources they need to win. That’s why I’m excited to tell you about Blue Wave Illinois 2018, a new project within my campaign we’re launching to make sure Democrats win this November.
And I’m asking for your help. Your contributions to Blue Wave Illinois 2018 will go towards efforts that will not just help elect amazing Democratic candidates across the state, but will make sure we have the field, digital, and messaging training and capacity to win. I’ll be supporting Blue Wave Illinois 2018 and I hope you do too.
Can you chip in today?
I am going to fight for Illinois every day in Springfield. But the more Democrats we have at every level of government, the more we can do to put Illinois back on the side of working families.
Donate to Blue Wave Illinois 2018 today and make sure Illinois works for everyone.
In an interview Wednesday with Chicago Tonight, Pritkzer wouldn’t share whether he’s set a personal spending cap on his campaign, which he’s committed to entirely self-funding.
So, did Pritzker break his word? I don’t think so because he’ll still be responsible for his own campaign funding. Others may differ. From the linked Pritzker fundraising page…
Blue Wave Illinois 2018 is a grassroots fundraising project of JB for Governor that is fighting to elect Democrats up and down the ballot across Illinois. Your contribution will help Democrats across the state run competitive races and have the resources to win – and win big. Every contribution, no matter how large or how small, will help fight for a better future for Illinois. Together, we can not only beat Bruce Rauner, but take back all the seats that have allowed him to push his destructive, failed agenda in Springfield. […]
Blue Wave Illinois 2018 is a project of JB for Governor and exists as a separate account within JB for Governor. Contributions made here will be placed in the Blue Wave Illinois 2018 account.
We also propose new funding sources that allow schools to hire mental health professionals and school resource officers to prevent tragedies from happening in the future.
As we’ve already discussed, that “new” funding source is an old funding source: Local sales taxes designated exclusively for school infrastructure spending.
The school district had an active-shooter plan, and two armed police officers walked the halls of the high school. School district leaders had even agreed last fall to eventually arm teachers and staff under the state’s school marshal program, one of the country’s most aggressive and controversial policies intended to get more guns into classrooms.
They thought they were a hardened target, part of what’s expected today of the American public high school in an age when school shootings occur with alarming frequency. And so a death toll of 10 was a tragic sign of failure and needing to do more, but also a sign, to some, that it could have been much worse.
“My first indication is that our policies and procedures worked,” J.R. “Rusty” Norman, president of the school district’s board of trustees, said Saturday, standing exhausted at his front door. “Having said that, the way things are, if someone wants to get into a school to create havoc, they can do it.”
The House Judiciary - Criminal Committee will meet this afternoon to hear testimony on the governor’s amendatory veto language. Hannah Meisel will be live-tweeting, so you can monitor the action on our live coverage post.
* More background…
* With his death-penalty ploy, Rauner uses an old trick he learned from his enemy: Mike Madigan: C’mon, we all know Rauner’s veto wasn’t about passing the bill so much as putting Democrats in an embarrassing position on the eve of November’s election. Vote with the governor’s veto and the Dems violate their anti-death penalty principles. Vote against it, and they expose themselves to weak-on-crime mailings, financed by Rauner, that they’re probably going to get anyway. Ironically, it’s a trick-bag strategy straight out of house speaker Michael Madigan’s playbook. Madigan essentially did the same thing to Rauner with the HB 40 abortion rights bill, eventually forcing the governor to choose between right-wingers or suburban swing voters.
* Madigan sets up vote on Rauner death penalty plan, creating political minefield: The move provides some political insulation for Madigan, the chief political nemesis of the re-election-seeking governor. It prevents the governor from attacking the veteran House speaker for defending the lives of cop killers by blocking a vote on Rauner’s crime-fighting initiative. … The bill is more complex for Republicans. While reinstating the death penalty has its appeal to Republican voters, Rauner’s plan also would create a 72-hour waiting period for all guns, not just military-style firearms contained in the original bill. An expansion of the waiting period is opposed by the politically powerful National Rifle Association and is at odds with many voters in rural Illinois legislative districts represented by Republicans who champion their support for gun rights.
* Rauner has a new campaign issue — reinstating the death penalty: The real question becomes what the governor will do if he receives a stand-alone bump-stock ban, or a bill requiring a 72-hour waiting period to buy any gun, or a “gun violence restraining order” bill, or legislation to put more mental health workers in schools, or measures to counter interstate gun trafficking. All of those proposals and more were also in the governor’s sweepingly broad and likely unconstitutional amendatory veto. Will Rauner accept half a loaf – or even a couple of slices? Or will he go with his usual all or nothing approach by demanding a “comprehensive” solution and then wind up yet again with nothing except his rhetoric?
* Gov. Bruce Rauner: Comprehensive gun bill would make our schools, cities safer: We call on the General Assembly to act quickly and approve this comprehensive package that tackles gun violence head-on, protects Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, and empowers communities to keep students safe. We can’t let politics get in the way of good policy. For the safety of all Illinoisans, let’s show that we’re capable of working together and enact these important public safety solutions.
* Rauner dismisses bipartisan gun bill compromise as ‘political grandstanding’: Even after the Democratic sponsor of a gun dealer oversight measure made changes and brought in bipartisan support, Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday called a revamped effort “political grandstanding” while also blaming a familiar foe: Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
* Sun-Times Editorial: One way to crack down on shops that sell guns used in crimes: Most gun shops in Illinois sell few or no guns that eventually turn up at crime scenes in Chicago. But a handful of shops sold hundreds of such “crime guns” from 2013 through 2016. Why should we let them sell hundreds more? … We can only assume the governor has never read a city of Chicago report released last year showing that just two suburban gun shops sold 1,673 of the guns used in crimes in Chicago from 2013 through 2016. Or, to look at it another way, each of those two shops sells a future crime gun, on average, almost every day and half that they’re open for business.
Elizabeth, the singer’s third-eldest daughter, is a model, actress and activist who has traveled the country pushing for state legislatures to pass the amendment to codify equal rights for women into the U.S. Constitution. She stopped by Springfield last week to attend a rally in support of the Illinois bill, according to Rep. Lou Lang, the House sponsor of the amendment.
“She asked her father to send a letter and he did,” the Skokie Democrat said. Lang saw a draft of the letter but said he wasn’t sure if it had been distributed directly to members yet. […]
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said that with a boost from the superstar, this could be the last time lawmakers have to settle the issue.
“We’ve got to get to 71 votes, and if Mick gets us to 71, I’ll be an even bigger fan,” she said.
Lang — admittedly “more of a Sinatra fan” — said Jagger’s letter “adds some flavor” to the Illinois ERA effort, but he doubted it would draw much sympathy for the devil.
* The governor and Mrs. Rauner moved back into the governor’s mansion today…
Great to be home. Three and a half years ago, @ILFirstLady and I made a promise to renovate and restore the @ILMansion. Proud to say it is happening on time, on budget and with private dollars. pic.twitter.com/ImPpu0ZO7N
This renovation is a metaphor for Illinois. The state is in need of repair. If we can unite on a plan to fix it, Illinois will be stronger, and people and businesses will want to stay. pic.twitter.com/8xmf4P014F
* Most people remember how Rep. Ken Dunkin’s strategic absence helped kill the AFSCME bill override motion…
ILGov Bruce Rauner in WSJ says about Democrat Ken Dunkin, seeking to return to the legislature, about his absence on a failed Democrat-backed labor veto override: “Boy, did we work our tails off. We got one Democrat to stay in New York at the U.S. Open during the vote override.”
There was a reason why state Rep. Esther Golar, D-Chicago, showed up late for the legislative session last Wednesday. She has been quite ill.
Unbeknownst to many of her colleagues, Golar was brought into the Statehouse Wednesday afternoon via wheelchair. With a weak and halting voice, Golar asked for assistance putting on a light jacket while chatting with a smattering of well-wishers before bravely walking to her seat on the House floor.
She told friends that she hadn’t eaten solid food in three weeks, although she didn’t say what had made her so ill. In desperate need of intravenous fluid, Golar eventually had to be taken to a Springfield hospital.
Golar had cancer, but in one of the gutsiest things I’ve ever seen a legislator do, she checked herself out of a Chicago hospital against her doctor’s advice mainly to vote on a measure to reverse Gov. Rauner’s massive cuts to the state’s childcare assistance program. Dunkin’s US Open absence killed that bill. Rep. Golar died a few weeks later.
So, when you see stories about how Speaker Madigan went after Ken Dunkin over AFSCME’s bill to force stalled contract negotiations into binding arbitration, keep Esther Golar in your thoughts. The simple fact is Madigan’s members wanted revenge for Esther, and they got it when Dunkin got creamed by Juliana Stratton.
Rauner’s organization helped Dunkin fight back with huge amounts of money washed through various committees, including the Illinois Chamber’s.
* Multiple sources have said since Dunkin’s 2016 loss that the Rauner loyalist wanted a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. In the meantime, Dunkin tried and failed to make a House comeback in the March primary, placing a distant third while receiving assistance yet again from the Illinois Chamber.
Dunkin ally Maze Jackson has been giving Gov. Rauner a bit of a rough time lately. Jackson is an opponent of the death penalty, even labeling Susana Mendoza as “hostile” to the black community for “voting to expand the death penalty.”
So, I suppose it’s possible that tamping down criticism of his amendatory veto played in to Rauner’s decision to finally put Dunkin on the MWRD…
A former House Democrat who spurned powerful Speaker Michael Madigan in favor of his nemesis, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, has been appointed by Rauner to a $70,000-a-year political post.
Secretary of State records released Friday indicate that Rauner tabbed Chicago Democrat Ken Dunkin for a vacant post on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. […]
Dunkin takes a post on the board that manages Chicago’s sewage and storm water runoff from David Walsh. Rauner appointed Walsh in March to fill a vacancy left by a board member’s December death. It was unclear Friday night why Walsh left.
“There’s no payback. There’s no such thing,” Dunkin told The Associated Press on Friday. “My history of serving speaks for itself. I wanted to serve as I have in the past and this is another opportunity.”
Walsh didn’t leave the MWRD, by the way. Walsh was appointed to the MWRD in 2015 when Patrick Daley Thompson left to join the Chicago City Council. He held that MWRD seat through December of 2016, when Rauner appointed Cynthia Santos to the Illinois Pollution Control Board and Walsh was moved over. Walsh then resigned the Santos seat before the primary and was appointed to the seat left vacant after Tim Bradford died last December. That appointment is now the subject of a lawsuit. Dunkin is getting the Santos seat, which means he can serve on the MWRD until this December.
The notion that you’re going to come in here and that you’re going to hit a three-run home run without the votes, that’s highly unlikely to happen. Here’s how it works in the minority: You’re gonna beat out an infield hit, you’re gonna bunt the guy to second, you’re gonna steal third and you’re gonna score on a wild pitch and you’re gonna plant your flag in the ground and you’re gonna live to fight another day. And if you don’t understand that that’s the reality, you need to ask someone who’s been here for 30 seconds.
Heh. Three and a half years too late for a certain somebody, but good advice nonetheless.
Rep. Hays went on to say he wasn’t suggesting that people “check their values at the door.” Instead, he said, they should ask “Where are areas where we can make progress?”
Illinois on Friday said it won’t get in the way of an 11-year-old girl whose parents want her to be allowed to use medical marijuana at school to regulate seizures, despite state laws that prohibit the use of prescription cannabis on public school grounds. […]
[Ashley Surin] has suffered from seizures for years. She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2, and subsequent chemotherapy triggered debilitating seizures and brain trauma that she continues to experience as an adolescent, said her father Jim Surin. For months last year, Ashley had to use a wheelchair after hitting her head during a particularly bad seizure.
Traditional medicines had limited success in helping Ashley with the seizures — she would suffer one to three seizures per day. Late last year, a physician prescribed a ketogenic (high fat, low carbohydrate) diet and medical marijuana for Ashley — what her parents say is proving to be a “golden cure.”
Legislation was introduced this year to protect Ashley and people like her. It passed the House 99-1 and cleared the Senate last week 50-2.
Ashley has been wearing a patch and using lotion containing cannabidiol, or CBD oil, with a small amount of THC, the psychoactive element in cannabis, since December. It does not get her high, but has eliminated her seizures, her parents said.
“We feel like we’re watching a miracle happen,” Maureen Surin said. “She thinks better, she talks better. She used to do one- and two-word sentences. Now she speaks in run-on sentences. Her life has been given back to her.”
Illinois law allows children under 18 to take medical marijuana if two doctors certify that they have a medical condition that qualifies. But the new proposal would change current law, which prohibits possessing marijuana on school grounds.
* I have a regular feature on this blog called “It’s just a bill.” But, sometimes, legislation can be absolutely life-changing. Ashley and her parents were in the Senate gallery when the bill passed and their reaction speaks louder than a million blog posts ever could…
Gov. Rauner is not a marijuana fan, but I hope he watches that video clip before he decides what to do about this legislation. Frankly, everyone should watch it.
Today, the Champaign News-Gazette published an editorial criticizing JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan for failing to release specifics on their graduated income tax hike. The News-Gazette forecasted that raising the overall rate from 4.95 to 5.95 seems likely, which would mean a 20 percent income tax hike on every single hardworking taxpayer in Illinois.
Robert Martwick is the only elected Democrat to release a tax plan with specifics, and his proposal would significantly raise taxes on everyone making more than $17,300 a year. Between that plan and this forecasted 20% tax hike, it’s clear that Pritzker and Madigan are committed to raising taxes on Illinois families.
But as bold as he has been in announcing his general intentions, the billionaire businessman continues to shy away from the specifics voters need in order to judge his candidacy.
Pritzker, who is running on a costly platform that includes universal health insurance, has forthrightly suggested a two-tiered approach to income taxes in Illinois.
Legislators increased the state’s income tax to 4.95 percent last year, overriding Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the measure. But Pritzker has indicated that the state needs even more revenue.
So he has said that, if elected, he’ll concentrate first on increasing the 4.95 percent rate, although he has not said how much he would increase it. It probably would be in the area of 1 percent, lifting the state rate by another 20 percent to 5.95 percent.
So, the ed board takes a guess at the new rate (without noting that Pritzker also wants to boost exemptions to make the new rate more progressivey) and the Rauner campaign pounces.
* DGA…
Over the weekend, the Champaign News-Gazette Editorial Board sounded the alarm on Republicans’ disunity after a close and heated primary battle that nearly cost failed Governor Bruce Rauner his party’s nomination. Two months after the election, Rauner’s primary opponent still regularly attacks him and the Governor was forced to cede control of his party.
“[O]ne of Pritzker’s greatest strengths is that the Democratic Party is united behind his candidacy…
“Conversely, Republican Rauner is trying to put his fractured party back together after a bitter primary election he almost lost to state Rep. Jeanne Ives.
“For Rauner to have any kind of chance, he has to make peace with GOP dissenters angered by, among other things, the governor’s decision to sign legislation authorizing taxpayer-funded abortions.
“Complete unity may not be possible with GOP conservatives, many of whom would rather Democrat Pritzker win as a means of ideologically cleansing the GOP…
“The GOP dilemma cannot be understated.
“Just as family fights are the worst — leaving deep scars and long memories — so, too, are intra-party battles. Democrats and Republicans can fight ferociously over the issues, and it hardly matters because that’s what they are supposed to do. It’s different within a political party, where personal and political differences generate bitterness that only dissipates with time and sometimes not at all.
Last week’s press conference announcing his latest amendatory veto was, without a doubt, the best press pop Gov. Bruce Rauner has had since he fired his top staff last July and brought in that Illinois Policy Institute crowd (which he also fired).
The governor developed an unexpected and dramatic message and then stayed relentlessly on-message during his press conference at an Illinois State Police facility that featured plenty of law enforcement types by his side. Not a word leaked out in advance, either.
The result: Newspaper headlines and TV news lead-ins essentially copied and pasted Rauner’s press release headline: “Gov. Rauner proposes death penalty for mass murderers and killers of law enforcement officers.”
The event demonstrated a level of skill not seen in the governor’s office in a good long while.
Also, the governor clearly has a new campaign issue. And the strength of that issue could be seen in the lack of almost any immediate press releases from legislative Democrats criticizing Rauner’s announcement.
Abolition of the death penalty has been mostly a settled matter here, starting when Gov. George Ryan halted executions and then cleared out death row more than 15 years ago. But the public hasn’t lost its appetite for the blood of the guilty, so members generally kept their heads down.
What comes next is far more important than everybody eagerly chasing Gov. Rauner’s bright, shiny bouncing ball down a dead-end street. But first, a little bit of recent history.
The governor complained in late February that the General Assembly’s majority Democrats were not negotiating with either him or Republican legislators about criminal justice matters.
In March, the governor sent a letter to the four legislative leaders asking them to set aside the “weapons-focused legislative responses to violence,” and instead work with him to come up with better ideas. “Collaboration is our best hope of finding common sense solutions to gun violence,” Gov. Rauner wrote.
Rauner’s letter also asked the leaders to appoint members to a new task force. Senate President Cullerton penned a blistering response. Cullerton demanded the governor sign the bills sitting on his desk and help pass other bills in the legislative hopper before he’d even consider appointing anyone to yet another blue-ribbon panel. As the governor might say, Cullerton has always had a “weapons-focused legislative response to violence.”
Speaker Madigan complied, however, and Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) agreed to serve on the governor’s new task force, which he says has met twice a week since its inception.
“It seemed like we were making progress,” Rep. Ford told me, adding the task force members were receiving “great research from experts.”
Ford complained that Rauner’s AV was “contrary to the agreement made between members and the governor’s team,” but also said he believed the group could still “meet and continue to work on meaningful legislation.” Ford insisted that the governor’s amendatory veto shouldn’t have an impact on the group’s work.
But will it? The amendatory veto can easily be seen as a defensive shield against any gun control measures that arrive on his desk. Rauner vetoed the gun dealer licensing bill in March because he said (about 20 times) he wanted a “comprehensive” solution. He has now proposed his own comprehensive solution.
The governor is also constantly asked about specific gun issues, like school shootings. Last week, Rauner started pointing to his amendatory veto. He wants to allow schools to use highly restricted local infrastructure sales tax money to pay for guards and counselors.
The real question becomes what the governor will do if he receives a stand-alone bump-stock ban, or a bill requiring a 72-hour waiting period to buy any gun, or a “gun violence restraining order” bill, or legislation to put more mental health workers in schools, or measures to counter interstate gun trafficking. All of those proposals and more were also in the governor’s sweepingly broad and likely unconstitutional amendatory veto.
Will Rauner accept half a loaf – or even a couple of slices? Or will he go with his usual all or nothing approach by demanding a “comprehensive” solution and then wind up yet again with nothing except his rhetoric?
A cynic would say that the governor probably prefers no real legislative results. He can run on the death penalty reinstatement when and where it suits him and use those other proposals to help him pivot to the center.
Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley once said, “Good government is good politics.” But way too many politicians get that quote bass-ackwards. Make no mistake, last week was good politics for the governor, but good politics isn’t necessarily good government.
TUES, 9:30AM: Ex-Madigan aide Alaina Hampton’s federal suit against Democratic Party begins court process
WHO: Attorneys Shelly B. Kulwin and Rachel Katz of Kulwin, Masciopinto & Kulwin, LLP
WHERE: Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, 219 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60604
WHEN: Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 9:30AM
WHAT: Attorneys for Alaina Hampton will appear in federal court on her behalf regarding a suit filed against the Democratic Party of Illinois, Friends of Michael J. Madigan, the 13th Ward Democratic Organization and Democratic Majority, the political action committees associated with Madigan’s organization. Hampton brings the suit after filing a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in February 2018. Attorneys for Hampton will be available for comment.
On Friday, Judge Andrea Wood cited Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady’s legislative immunity in her dismissal of gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann’s motion for a temporary restraining order in his lawsuit against Brady and the Senate Minority Caucus.
Judge Wood did not discuss the lawsuit, which was filed after McCann was denied access to various legislative support services on April 19, when he announced his intention to run for Governor in the new Conservative Party.
McCann issued the following statement:
Bruce Rauner and his Republican Party are hiding behind immunity to try to silence me, but every attempt to weaken me and attack my constituents shows the Party’s need to resort to desperate tactics to protect its dwindling hope in November’s election.
The truth is that Illinois has lost faith in Bruce Rauner and the Republican Party that he has purchased and poisoned. We stood witness to his weakness in the March Primary Election, but instead of allowing another candidate a fair chance to right the ship in Illinois, his allies are carrying out a war against many of the Conservatives who elected him, to the detriment of the constituents who are watching in disgust. More recently, the creation of a co-chairmanship of the Rauner Republican Party is yer another shameful backroom deal designed to silence those that disagree with his liberal positions.
Rauner’s allies are relying upon immunity to wage a civil war because he has no true interest in defeating Madigan and the Chicago liberals whose agenda he has helped to advance in the past three and a half years.
Conservatives who love Illinois won’t be fooled. It is time to rise up and fight back for the future of our great state. Rauner and his allies can attack me, but they won’t stop me, and every attack only solidifies Conservative voters against him and coalesces voters behind me.
But back to the Girl Scouts and window dressing. The House on Wednesday met in session for one hour. It spent that time passing a resolution honoring U.S. Sen. John McCain and introducing friends and visitors observing from the House gallery. That was it.
Yes, it’s an election year. Lawmakers and, frankly, voters are accustomed to the derelict tradition of doing nothing in an election year — nothing transformative or controversial that could pinch them at the ballot box, that is. News flash: Illinois lawmakers don’t do much transformative or controversial in a non-election year either. They tinker. That’s all you can expect.
This year, they’ve hardly met at all. The House and Senate calendars for January, February and March were mostly blank this year. Legislators weren’t even required to report to Springfield except for a handful of days.
Um, last Friday was the House’s deadline to move Senate bills out of committee. Typically, they don’t do much work on the floor during committee deadline weeks because they spend so much time in hearings.
But the Tribsters are correct that the General Assembly’s session schedule is super light during election years. So far, the House has officially met just 33 days this spring session. Everything has been back-loaded.
* The Senate convenes this afternoon at 2:30. The House convenes at 4. The House Judiciary - Criminal Committee meets at 2 to take testimony on a legislative replica of Gov. Rauner’s recent amendatory veto. Follow along with ScribbleLive…
