* A top political adviser in Lisa Madigan’s organization has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Mary Morrissey, who was most recently deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Attorney General but had also served in high-level positions in Lisa Madigan’s political operation, started earlier this week, spokesman Steve Brown confirmed. As a direct report to the Executive Director, Morrissey will oversee the organization’s day-to-day operations.
The Executive Director post has been vacant since Tim Mapes’s sudden resignation, and a search committee has been appointed to find a permanent replacement.
Mary Ann Ahern initially reported Morrissey’s hiring along with a quote from an anonymous “source who worked for both Michael Madigan and Lisa Madigan.” The source called the executive director search committee’s work “an exercise in futility” in the wake of the Morrissey hire.
Brown said there was a need for someone to perform those duties given the active campaigns for statewide and legislative offices. He said Speaker Madigan was involved in the selection and hiring process, and that Morrissey brings a lot of experience to the post. He said he was unaware if Morrissey is a candidate for Executive Director.
* So yesterday Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk’s Boring Company won a bid to build a high-speed train from the Loop to O’Hare. Chicago Twitter reacted as only Chicago Twitter could.
THERE IS A TRAIN FROM THE LOOP TO O’HARE IT IS CALLED THE CTA BLUE LINE https://t.co/n7ACdWFI8j
Ok for all of you out of towners who are hearing about Elon Musk's big bold initiative to get people to and from O'Hare — Riding the blue line is not a bad experience. It's not perfect, but it's much less rage inducing than dropping $30-50 on a cab.
People were also annoyed with the New York Times’ story on the proposed project, which described the two ways of getting from O’Hare to downtown (take the Blue Line or drive on the Kennedy) as “rage-inducing.”
Hyperbole much, @nytimes? The nation's paper of record describes the kinda-pokey Blue Line ride to O'Hare as "rage-inducing." Maybe it's a New York thing https://t.co/DacWIZHgl6
* The last time I took the Blue Line from the city to O’Hare was in December, and I remember being pretty pleased with the experience, minus the freezing cold wind on my face as I waited for the train at 5(ish) a.m. I’m also a frequent driver on the expressway and it’s really not as bad as everyone says it is. I promise.
The question: Do we really need a high-speed train from the Loop to O’Hare? If not, what do you wish Elon Musk and his Boring Company would do for Chicago/Illinois instead? Snark and imagination highly encouraged!
Kasper replaces another Madigan loyalist, former Chief of Staff Tim Mapes, who was ousted last week after a Speaker staffer named Sherri Garrett alleged Mapes had harassed her and other female staffers, in addition to allegedly turning a blind eye to harassment she and others reported. Mapes had not only been the Speaker’s CoS, but also the Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Illinois and treasurer for both aforementioned funds.
The D-1 filings show Kasper signed the papers on the 11th, but they weren’t filed til yesterday.
Picking Kasper is no surprise here; he’s clearly been loyal and it’s a stable choice. He’s also already the treasurer for the Democratic Party of Illinois. However, if there isn’t at least an attempt to search for new faces, it might undermine damage control work that Madigan is trying to pull off now that he and the Democratic Party have been weakened by #MeToo allegations.
Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, told me that he expects Kasper will do it “as long as necessary.”
Obviously the funds need a treasurer and Mapes’ name couldn’t be on them for much longer. When a new executive director for the Democratic Party of Illinois is named, s/he may want a new(er) name for the treasurer spot too.
*** 2:10 p.m. *** - Rauner campaign spokesman Alex Browning in a press release…
“This isn’t change from Mike Madigan. It’s more of the same culture of corruption we’ve seen for decades. If JB Pritzker actually cares about fair maps, he will immediately denounce the decision by Madigan to appoint his personal attorney and longtime opponent of fair maps and term limits to his political committees. Pritzker just gave one of these funds, Democratic Majority, a $1 million check. Pritzker should demand his money back.”
Further down…
JB Pritzker claims to support fair maps – but will he put his wallet behind his words? Will he ask for his campaign cash back and use his influence to stop Mike Kasper’s appointment? Or will he reward the very person who has dedicated his career to stopping fair maps and term limits?
Governor Bruce Rauner really outdid himself this time. Yesterday, Rauner linked “tornadoes” to the 2015 outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed 12 people at the state-run Veterans’ Home. Rauner’s response to the outbreak has been questioned for months, and yesterday’s statement is just the newest twist in his attempt to dodge blame.
“State and local public health authorities have looked high and low for the sources of fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Quincy veterans’ home. Now, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is offering a new theory. ‘Massive floods and tornadoes’ and ‘a lot of dirt.’ But Rauner offered no proof, and experts who spoke to WBEZ were skeptical.”
In fact, the National Weather Service said there were no tornadoes or unusual flooding near Quincy in July of 2015.
This is not the first time Rauner’s administration sought to spin blame onto something or someone else. An earlier uncovered email from a top Rauner official suggested the administration “tie this back” to combat veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth. Rauner still has not said if he agreed with the email.
“What’s Bruce Rauner going to blame next? Did earthquakes cause the spike in state debt? Are alien abductions really driving out-of-state migration?” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Rauner has now resorted to blaming mother nature for his failures but the truth is his administration has been a disaster of his own making.”
WBEZ posted its article last night that raised questions about the Governor’s remarks, which were made during an appearance Tuesday in Marion. Video of the event is here (Quincy Home comes up at about the 18-minute mark), and full audio is here (scroll to the 12th minute).
I have asked the Governor’s Office what information the Governor relied on in making his remarks, but according to McKinney…
Neither Rauner’s office nor the state public health department could point to any specific analysis that directly linked flooding in Quincy to the facility’s recurring Legionnaires’ outbreaks in 2015, 2016, 2017, and again this past February.
In a half dozen reports investigating the crisis at Quincy, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made no such linkage, and the head of the public works department in the west-central Illinois community told WBEZ he’s aware of no connection.
We want to build things in America, we want people hiring in America, and we want everyone buying American. Build, buy American. And we want to build and buy Illinois products. Illinois, good made, homegrown products That’s what Chelar is, that’s what you guys do, and that’s what I’m fighting for every day. I’m very proud of what’s been going on in the Federal government, Congress, and the White House. They’re making sure that we get a strong economy, that we’re bringing manufacturing back to America, we’re getting fair trade deals, we’re getting the tax burden down, the regulatory burden down on businesses - that’s one of the reasons we got a strong economy going around the nation. I want to do the same thing in Illinois.
So on and so forth. If you are watching the video, the line in question begins at about the six-minute mark.
In one portion of the ad, Trump is shown after a protest led by white supremacists turned deadly last summer in Charlottesville, Va., when he said that there were “very fine people on both sides.” That is followed by a clip of Duke saying, “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”
At the time, Rauner did initially stumble by telling reporters that he could not say that the death of protester Heather Heyer, who was struck by a car driven by a white supremacist supporter, was an act of “domestic terrorism.”
But Rauner’s office later issued a statement saying the governor “absolutely” believed the death to be domestic terrorism. And he went further at the Illinois State Fair, issuing a rare rebuke of Trump.
*** 10:48 a.m. *** From Will Allison at the Rauner campaign…
“Unlike Pritzker, who is Mike Madigan’s lapdog, Governor Rauner will always stand up for what he believes is best for Illinois. The governor supports the president and Republicans in Congress on the need to fix our broken health care system and for lower taxes, but he won’t hesitate to speak out when he thinks the president is wrong.”
*** 2:22 p.m. *** Pritzker is now hitting the Rauner campaign for it’s statement earlier today…
The Trump administration’s current effort to “fix” the healthcare system entails stripping protections for pre-existing conditions, a move that would force tens of thousands of Illinoisans to pay astronomically higher insurance premiums or go without care altogether. Since Rauner has not only hesitated to speak out on this, but has been entirely silent, it’s only reasonable to conclude that Rauner fully supports Trump’s attacks on people with pre-existing conditions.
“Donald Trump is trying to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and the Rauner campaign is now offering the president their full support,” said Pritzker campaign communications director Galia Slayen. “This failed governor is cheering Trump on from the sidelines as he puts tens of thousands of Illinoisans at risk and continues his onslaught of attacks on the working families of this state.”
Meanwhile…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said his campaign has “a whole bunch” of ads coming like one that featured governors of neighboring states mockingly thanking Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan for “raising Illinois taxes” and “helping create new jobs” in their states.
* Hannah and I will have some fresh, totally thought provoking, totally worth your time and comments, and certainly worth wearing out the F5 key content within the next few hours. Meanwhile, here is some of what broke last night…
* Gun Group Dumps Broken Guns At Police Buyback Event, Uses Cash For NRA Camp For Kids: “They had no effective value in the grand scheme of things,” Boch said. “We went up there to trade our unwanted firearms for perfectly good cash to send young people to a National Rifle Association summer gun camp to teach them about the safe and effective use of firearms.” The Police Department can accept all guns during the event, Guglielmi said. They collected more than 420 guns during the June 2 trade-in.
* Chicago taps Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build high-speed transit tunnels that would tie Loop with O’Hare: Emanuel and Boring officials said it’s too early to provide a timeline for the project’s completion or its estimated cost, but they said Boring would pay for the entire project. That would include the construction of a new station at O’Hare and the completion of the mothballed superstation built at Block 37 under previous Mayor Richard M. Daley, who like Emanuel pushed for high-speed rail access to O’Hare.
* Suburban school districts pay penalties for giving raises over 6 percent: The penalties essentially shift some of the pension burden back to the schools that created it, proponents said. But others argue such a shift has little effect on decreasing the pension fund’s debt, which is about $73 billion, according to TRS officials. “Go ahead and do it, it’s not bad government, but it’s not going to solve the real problem,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a bipartisan government finance think tank based in Chicago.
* Emanuel responds to Quinn’s term-limits petition — with a one-liner: “Right now, I think Amy would like to sign the petition. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
* Indicted Ald. Cochran telling colleagues he’s changed his mind, intends to run
* EDITORIAL: Ken Dunkin, sexual harassment and proportionate justice: Dunkin insists he never made the remark, but given what we know about the sorry culture of harassment in Illinois state government, we’re inclined to believe his accuser. That’s Springfield for you, sad to say, and the political leaders who have been there longest, beginning with House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, have to answer for it.
* Decomposed bodies’ odors prompt new calls for new Kane County morgue: Russell first called for a new morgue soon after taking office in 2012. That’s a vision not shared by county board Chairman Chris Lauzen, and the two have waged political battles ranging from Russell’s purchase of promotional items for his office to the number of autopsies performed. Lauzen has even backed candidates seeking to unseat Russell.
* Ex-treasurer of Illinois town gets 4-year sentence for theft: Ryan Thorpe was indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud and embezzlement from a local government charges.
* William Shatner’s new enterprise: A solar-powered bitcoin mining farm in Illinois: He said Illinois’ policy of requiring utility companies to buy renewable energy made the project economically feasible. It also didn’t hurt that the mayor of Murphysboro, Will Stephens, offered the company a 165,000-square-foot former label-making factory that has been vacant since 2004…the project will involve the creation of a huge solar array on the factory’s 14-acre parcel. The space inside the building will be leased to bitcoin mining companies, he said, with some reserved for a training center that will teach solar panel installation.
