* Some media outlets were predicting they’d be challenged, but I didn’t think they would…
McCann’s operation screened petition circulators to make sure they were eligible, then subjected the end product to fairly rigorous scrutiny and filed 65,000, which was 40,000 more than the minimum. And they filed on the last possible day. Finding enough evidence to suggest almost two-thirds of his signatures were invalid in a week was always gonna be tough, if not impossible.
You can track petition objections by clicking here. The deadline to file an objection is 5 o’clock today.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the ILGOP…
Hey Rich,
Of the 65,000 signatures McCann submitted, his people struck nearly 30,000 invalid signatures. After our own review, McCann had reached the 25,000 valid signature threshold. Our review also shows that McCann received assistance from individuals close to Madigan’s political organization.
Here’s an interesting tidbit:
Robert Handzik and Terrence Goggin both circulated for McCann. Both have run as “Republicans” against Madigan in his House district, but past news reports have highlighted their ties to Madigan’s organization.
The Handzik and Goggin petitions are attached, and linked below are a few news articles about them:
Robert Handzik
Terrence Goggin
Thanks and let me know if you need anything else on this.
Aaron P. DeGroot
*** UPDATE 2 *** I asked Aaron if they’d be challenging the Libertarian Party’s petitions. His texted reply…
Not challenging those either. They also sufficiently reached the 25,000 signature threshold.
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Pre-K funding shocker
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WBEZ…
Dozens of school districts around the state are scrambling to keep preschool programs intact — or to lay off staff — after learning their preschool funding was reduced or zeroed out.
Illinois lawmakers approved $50 million in additional money for preschool this year, so it was a shock to many of the programs to learn their funding was slashed.
“The cuts seem extremely devastating,” said Marcus Alexander, director of teaching and learning at Waukegan public schools, which saw its $3.5 million annual state grant cut to zero. For the past 26 years, Waukegan had received early childhood block grant funds to fund a half-day preschool. Last year, the district served 750 preschoolers who are 3 and 4 years old.
Based on the state’s new K-12 school funding formula, Waukegan is one of the neediest districts in the state. But preschool funding is not channeled through that formula. Instead, preschool block grant funds are given out through a competitive grant application open this year for the first time since 2012. Waukegan scored 42 points out of 100, far below the 60 needed to be funded. […]
In western Illinois, near Monmouth, Regional Superintendent of Education Jodi Scott said she’s preparing to lay off 35 staff members. Her office, which serves a four-county area, received an extra half million dollars in March to expand an infant and toddler program there — now it’s cut completely. […]
Theresa Hawley, senior vice-president of policy and innovation at Illinois Action for Children, a policy and advocacy group, said part of the reason districts were shut out is because public investment in preschool is about $1.3 billion, but need in the state is around $4 billion.
Go read the rest.
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In which I agree with Ted Cruz
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have always hated Illinois Nazis…
It obviously wouldn’t kill Rauner to restate his beliefs, but he did speak out about this months ago.
* From the piece that re-ignited a story which originally broke in February…
Illinois Republicans botched four opportunities to stop an avowed Nazi from representing their party in a Chicago-area congressional district. Now they’re paying the price.
Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier who will appear on the November ballot as the GOP candidate against Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski, has become campaign fodder for Democrats as they seek to defeat Gov. Bruce Rauner. And some Republicans even fear the taint from Jones‘ extremist views poses a threat to the party up and down the ticket.
“First, it’s morally wrong and I think it’s really harmful to the party. The guy’s a complete nutcase. He’s a Nazi,” said conservative GOP state Rep. David McSweeney. “This is an absolute political disaster.”
McSweeney’s comments come just days after the filing deadline passed for qualifying a third-party candidate for the general election — which could have provided a safe harbor for Illinois Republican votes. Prior to that, the party had also failed to recruit a candidate to challenge Jones in the primary election, failed to knock him off the primary ballot and wasn’t able to field a write-in candidate against him in the primary. […]
In the meantime, Republicans have one last chance to save face. They can mount a write-in challenge if that candidate notifies three counties in the district of their intent by Sept. 6.
“They didn’t run anyone against him in the primary. They didn’t file an objection to him, they didn’t find a write-in candidate and they didn’t run an independent candidate,” McSweeney said. “We’ve missed four opportunities. We better not miss the fifth.”
Republican legislator (who I love, btw) who always criticizes Rauner criticizing Rauner again? Check. Chiding the ILGOP for not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of person-hours to find a candidate who is willing to help gather a minimum of 14,559 valid signatures and then run a full-on and completely doomed independent campaign to make sure a Nazi who is going to lose big loses even bigger? Check.
The biggest mistake the party made was not finding a warm body anywhere in Illinois last year to put up against the Nazi in the primary. But they did spend money on robocalls and mailers warning people who the candidate was and GOP primary ballots dropped by about a third compared to four years ago. Do they deserve grief for letting this clown go unopposed? Heck yes they do. But after that mistake, they weren’t left with a whole lot of doable options.
The Democrats are absolutely loving this bind the Republicans have put themselves in…
* And now the ILGOP says they’re looking to run a write-in candidate in the general. That’s probably the easiest way out of this by far (they only have to notify a few county clerks), so I figure they’ll do it and this story will mostly go away (unless there’s something bad in their new candidate’s history - and you’d better believe the Dems will be looking). But if they don’t find anyone, they could just fall in line with this dude…
Ted Cruz Would Rather Illinois Vote for a Democrat Than a Nazi
In other words, recommend to Republicans in the 3rd that they vote for Lipinski. I mean, if you listen to the progressives, he’s practically a Republican anyway. /s
Thoughts?
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Rauner dodges the “Trump question”
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Bruce Rauner on Bill Cameron’s Connected to Chicago…
Bill Cameron: Trump, do you want him to come to Illinois to come and campaign with you?
Rauner: I want every possible support I can. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, Liberals. This election is about the people of Illinois standing up to a corrupt political machine.
Bill Cameron: Maybe Trump at a downstate rally with you before it’s over?
Rauner: Um, you know I was just in Washington, at the White House, this week. I was meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, he’s a good friend of mine. I was there meeting with him to talk about many issues, particularly tariffs and trade. I’m deeply concerned. We do need to change some of the unfair trade deals. America has been taken advantage of by other countries, especially China, and we’ve lost American jobs as a result. So, we do need to change some of those trade deals. That said, trade wars, nobody’s a winner, and tariff wars are devastating. We can’t let a tariff war destroy manufacturing or farmers in Illinois. And I was there to talk about that.
Bill Cameron: What do you think of Trump so far?
Rauner: Well, I’ll say this. What’s, what the White House and the Congress have done to cut and reform our taxes has helped the American economy boom and I applaud them for that. What they’ve done to reduce regulatory burden on businesses around America has mostly, not entirely, but mostly been great and helped the American economy boom. And we’re creating good paying jobs and rising family incomes and I applaud them for that.
Transcript via the DGA.
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Harold tries to turn ad around on Raoul
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A couple of takeaways from Mark Maxwell’s recent interview of Republican attorney general candidate Erika Harold. First, here’s Harold talking about Sen. Kwame Raoul’s online ad which dings her for allegedly saying years ago she’d rather place a foster child with an abusive heterosexual couple than a loving gay couple…
Harold sought to neutralize the attack ad by highlighting a speech Raoul gave in February of 2013.
“I thought it was hypocritical because Senator Raoul, during the course of debating various issues on the floor of the Senate, talked about how his own views had evolved,” she said. “He specifically said that he himself used to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation, but that he had evolved and he was glad to see that. I am glad to see that people evolve. I think it’s disappointing that he would use a different standard to judge me than he would want others to judge himself.
The Raoul campaign responded through a spokesperson, writing in an email, “It’s unconscionable that someone would ever choose to put a child in an abusive home.” […]
“I can confess that, as a boy, I didn’t even believe this was a question of sexual orientation,” [Raoul] said at the time. “I believed it was a question of choice and I was — I discriminated against people based on their sexual orientation.”
The difference here is that Raoul confessed to having these beliefs when he was a boy. Harold was an adult (a young adult, but an adult) when she allegedly made those comments.
* And from the Raoul campaign…
In an interview with WCIA’s Mark Maxwell yesterday, Republican candidate for attorney general Erika Harold reconfirmed her position that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape and incest.
Partial transcript:
Mark Maxwell, WCIA: “Justice Anthony Kennedy is stepping down, the only conservative justice who has voted to uphold Roe v. Wade. We saw Governor Rauner sign HB40 last year which removed the trigger provision, protecting access to abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned. Is this another area of disagreement with the Governor, this area of abortion?”
Erika Harold: “My focus is enforcing the law, whatever it is, as I’m attorney general. And I think it’s important in a position like this that you’re not bringing your own personal views into it.”
MM: “A lot of Republicans in this state have been disheartened by Governor Rauner’s position on this issue of abortion. What are you giving them to vote for, if anything? Is there a pro-life pledge? What do voters need to know about you on the issue of abortion when you’re running for this position?”
EH: “… I’m not going to be running on a host of issues that have nothing to do with the job that I’m seeking … People know that I’m pro-life. That’s not something that’s a secret to anyone.”
MM: “In a previous run for Congress, you mention that even in cases of rape and incest - which most Republicans carve those out - you are still opposed to abortion. Have your views at all evolved or changed on that particular issue?”
EH: “My views are clear. I will uphold Illinois law, and that’s what’s important for voters to know about this.”
“With Roe v. Wade in serious jeopardy, now more than ever we need an attorney general who will be a strong advocate for women and victims of sexual assault, not just a bystander to the attacks,” said Raoul campaign spokeswoman Aviva Bowen. “Erika Harold’s views are shocking and extreme.”
While a candidate for Congress in 2014, Harold detailed her position to the State Journal-Register, saying, “I would not discriminate (against the fetus) based on the circumstance of conception.”
Last year, the General Assembly passed House Bill 40, a measure that allows the state to provide employees and Medicaid recipients insurance coverage for abortions, as well as protect access to abortion in Illinois should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
“HB40 was passed to avoid the very nightmarish scenario we are experiencing with the Trump agenda and the changing composition of the Supreme Court,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, chief sponsor of the bill. “Illinois voters won’t be fooled by Erika Harold’s obtuse answers. Her anti-choice positions are clear and extreme. Prohibiting a woman from making a personal decision about her health after she’s been violently assaulted is heartless and cruel.”
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Not every local result is a national trend
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* One thing you can always count on is that lots of political reporters will too often try to make isolated election results into some sort of a national trend.
After conservative Congressman Dan Lipinski won his Democratic primary in March against a Bernie Sanders supporter, many seemed convinced that the Sanders wing of the party was washed up. For instance…
* Centrist Incumbents Edge Out Rivals in Illinois Primaries: The result was championed by centrist activists who said Mr. Lipinski’s victory showed some voters have an appetite for middle-of-the-road politics in the Trump era
* Illinois election shows Democrats can win by embracing the center
* Lipinski win stings liberals
In reality, Lipinski had far superior name ID (mainly from his father) and an experienced, capable, machine-based field organization that managed to drag him across the finish line. Local politics won out over national politics.
* These days, the national media has flip-flopped and is using another congressional primary to warn centrist Dems they’re in trouble. Like Lipinski’s March victory, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprising primary win in New York over a machine Democrat is somehow evidence of a new national trend. And Sen. Tammy Duckworth has taken some heat on social media over her recent interview with the Guardian, in which she said that Ocasio-Cortez’s brand of Democratic socialism couldn’t win a national race. But I think the critics are missing her main point…
Duckworth said Ocasio-Cortez’s appeal was likely limited to her district, which bridges the Bronx and Queens.
“I think it’s the future of the party in the Bronx, where she is,” Duckworth said. “I think that we, as legislators, need to listen to our constituency and get out there. I think what she did was, she did the hard work. She pounded the pavement, and she was out there talking to every one of her constituents. And I think that was the difference.
“She turned out her voters and reflected the needs of her district.”
Duckworth said the same of Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Democratic senators in states that voted for Trump who are thought likely to support his forthcoming supreme court pick.
The three red-state Democrats “vote in whatever they need to do to take care of the people of their state”, Duckworth said. “They put their constituents first.”
Not to mention that the most liberal Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Illinois (Daniel Biss) had to dump his DSA running-mate because of the guy’s views on Israel.
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Was June a boom or bust?
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The governor has done a couple of tweet storms about his record in June. Here’s one…
June in Review: It has been a great month for the people of Illinois. Passed a bipartisan FY19 budget with #NoNewTaxes! #twill
June in Review: Historic education initiatives. K-12 funding up by $1.4B since we took office. Early childhood up $200M. Invest in Kids vastly expands school choice with $100M in scholarships. #NoNewTaxes #twill
June in Review: $2B Medicaid waiver puts unprecedented focus on behavioral health. #BetterCareIL will pilot delivery of better service for #mentalhealth, substance abuse. Our 5-year program will transform health spending to improve health outcomes. #NoNewTaxes #twill
June in Review: We made it easier to #adopt children in Illinois with the nation’s biggest adoption tax credit – $5,000. The credit will help thousands of children find caring homes and loving parents. #NoNewTaxes #twill
June in Review: A remarkable $474M @USDOT program will fix the worst rail bottleneck in the country. The investment in Chicago’s 75th Street Corridor will be a boon to shippers – 2M freight cars a year – and commuters – 40 trains a day. #NoNewTaxes #twill
June in Review: Look at what the economy is doing for railroads. Now think what could happen when we unblock the congestion and create $3.8 billion in economic benefit! #twill Link: https://trib.in/2NhUuXu
June in Review: $500M for U of I advances economic development initiative to leapfrog Silicon Valley. Discovery Partners Institute links the creative genius that springs from #Champaign and other campuses – one great asset – to the capital genius of Chicago – another great asset.
June in Review: Signed legislation to secure funding for safety net and rural hospitals. Critical bipartisan hospital assessment program ensures health services for the poor and other vulnerable populations. #NoNewTaxes
June in Review: Got bipartisan support for a new veterans’ home in Quincy to ensure the best care for the people whose service keeps us free. $53M of state money gets the project underway. Read more: https://bit.ly/2tWGqtC #NoNewTaxes #twill
…and the list goes on. Stay tuned for more June in Review! #twill
* JB Pritzker’s spokesperson disagrees in her own tweet storm…
June In Review: It hasn’t been a great month for @BruceRauner. Let’s take a look back at a dozen disasters: #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner was sidelined on negotiations and used a pen to sign a veto-proof budget after three years of failure. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: A @ProPublicaIL investigation exposed @BruceRauner’s DCFS for keeping nearly 30% of hospitalized children in its care held beyond medical necessity. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner was confronted by a voter about how he’ll “rectify” the damage he’s done to disability services as governor. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner blamed the weather (and a whole lot more) for his fatal mismanagement in Quincy. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner’s administration lied and said “there has never been any attempt to lay blame” for the Legionnaires’ crisis that took 13 lives. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner failed to retract his commitment to @realDonaldTrump to send troops to the southern border. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner blaming the weather for Legionnaires’ in Quincy was rated FALSE by @PolitifactIL/@BGA and his claims were called “unverified and off-point.” #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @JulianaforLG, @KwameRaoul & Reps. Welch and Davis held @BruceRauner accountable for saying that he’s “not surprised they’re sensitive because the black legislators really have not been serving their community very well.” #ilgov #twill
June In Review: @BruceRauner faced fierce backlash from the Champaign-Urbana community after he badmouthed and insulted the entire region. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: Higher education officials say students are fleeing because of the budget crisis and badmouthing by Illinois leaders. @BruceRauner, of course, manufactured the budget crisis and has been Illinois’ bad-mouther-in-chief. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: Western Illinois University announced layoffs for two dozen teachers because of declining state funding. @BruceRauner starved colleges & universities throughout his budget crisis, making matters worse. #ilgov #twill
June In Review: After @JBPritzker held a three-day Rauner Failed Veterans tour, @BruceRauner’s campaign rewrote history, claiming “when the Quincy Veterans Home needed him, he took action.” Here’s the truth: #ilgov #twill
Links to supporting documentation are in the tweets.
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* Press release…
Gov. Rauner announced today that Patricia R. “Patti” Bellock has been named director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (DHFS). Bellock has served in the General Assembly since 1999 and is recognized as one of the body’s leading advocates for Medicaid, health care and social services, areas she will oversee in her new role.
“Illinois is so fortunate to have an advocate for health and human services as dedicated and talented as Patti Bellock,” said Rauner in announcing the appointment. “She has been instrumental in virtually every health advancement our state has made in the last two decades and I am looking forward to her leadership of the state’s ongoing effort to reform our delivery systems and improve our outcomes.”
Bellock is retiring from the House of Representatives where she became the first woman to serve as Deputy Minority Leader in 2013. She replaces interim DHFS Director Teresa Hursey who stepped in last month when Felicia Norwood left for the private sector. Hursey will remain as Medicaid Director.
Bellock helped to shepherd the recent approval of Better Care Illinois, the state’s landmark 1115 Medicaid waiver approved earlier this year for 10 pilot programs in mental health and substance abuse.
She is known for her bipartisan, collaborative style as a member of two other Medicaid-related groups moving legislation forward to approve the Hospital Assessment and the Omnibus Medicaid bill. She has effectively co-led efforts in the General Assembly in recent years to move Illinois toward managed care. Her extensive work on Medicaid reform in Illinois has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal.
“It is an honor to join the talented and dedicated staff of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services,” Bellock said. “I look forward to working with the Governor and my colleagues in the General Assembly to ensure access to quality health care for Illinois’ most vulnerable population and making our health care delivery systems more efficient and effective.”
Bellock’s distinguished 20-year legislative career had a decided emphasis on health and human services. She was the Minority spokesperson on both the House Human Services Committee and the Human Services – Appropriations Committee. She has also served on committees with three different national organizations working on health care legislation and public policy issues throughout the United States.
Bellock’s signature achievement in the General Assembly was the landmark Save Medicaid Access and Resources Together (SMART) Act reforms of 2012. She served as Chairperson of the Medicaid Reform, Family & Children Committee from 2009-2011 under Speaker Madigan; the group which started the work on improving Illinois’ Medicaid program that culminated with passage of comprehensive reforms in 2012.
Bellock was Chief Co-Sponsor of a 2007 law to protect the health of people in hospitals, nursing homes and mental health facilities against infection by requiring the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to create rules to reduce rates of multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs), and other “super bugs.”
The law requires healthcare facilities regulated or licensed by the state, as well as mental health and developmentally disabled facilities overseen by the state to perform annual facility-wide infection control risk assessments; develop infection control policies for Multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO’s); enforce hand hygiene and contact precaution requirements and incorporate any updated MDRO prevention and control recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A native of River Forest, Bellock graduated from Saint Norbert College in Wisconsin, where she received a bachelor’s degree in History and American Government. She has received dozens of awards over the years from numerous organizations for her work on various health care policy issues, particularly in the areas of mental health, developmental disabilities, and children’s health.
The appointment is effective July 11, 2018.
* From last week…
Gov. Bruce Rauner today named retiring Illinois State Representative Robert W. Pritchard to the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees. Pritchard is a long-time education advocate and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, whose work in the General Assembly was focused on elementary, secondary and higher education.
“Bob is a very strong addition to the NIU Board,” Rauner said. “He has a working knowledge of the challenges that face higher education and he is well equipped to advocate for the university, its students and the public-at-large on issues ranging from affordability to access.”
Pritchard’s appointment takes effect on July 1, 2018, the same day he retires from the Illinois House of Representatives where he served the 70th Legislative District for more than 15 years.
A recognized leader in education policy, Pritchard was a key contributor to the passage of the state’s new K-12 school funding formula, which increased state levels of school funding and made distributions to school districts more equitable.
His work with the bicameral Higher Education Working Group focused on issues of outmigration and affordability in Illinois higher education and resulted in significant legislation this spring. Pritchard was instrumental in forming the bipartisan Legislative Education Caucus in 2005.
A self-employed farm owner, operator and manager, Pritchard is responsible for a DeKalb county farming operation that is in its sixth generation of family ownership. The corn and soybean operation has doubled in size under his leadership.
“I feel strongly that education beyond high school is an essential component in developing Illinois’ workforce and making the state attractive to employers,” Pritchard said. “NIU – in partnership with local community colleges – prepares students to achieve their dreams and be contributing members of our economy.”
“It has been a pleasure to represent NIU and advocate for the interests of students, faculty, and all higher education institutions throughout my tenure in the House of Representatives. I look forward to continued service to the region and Illinois in my new role as a NIU trustee.”
Pritchard’s wife Mary is a lifelong educator who spent most of her career at Northern Illinois University as a teacher, administrator, and Interim Dean.
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Is this thing on?
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I was a bit shocked at the number of bounce-back e-mails from subscribers who were out of the office this morning. Comments have been lagging all morning and, while I no longer track my site’s traffic, my ScribbleLive program indicates visitors are down by well more than a third.
I was wondering the other day what would happen this week because the 4th is on a Wednesday. I suppose lots of folks took Monday and Tuesday off. I was thinking about maybe taking off Wednesday, Thursday and maybe Friday. I still haven’t decided yet. But I do believe I’m gonna take it a bit easy today (unless something big breaks, of course).
Anyway, how are things looking at your office?
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* Illinois is one of these states…
* From the story…
A record number of women won Nevada’s primaries in June. And there is now a possibility for the Legislature to have more women than men, which would be a first in United States history. Of the states that have had primaries so far, at least eight more have a shot at reaching or surpassing the 50 percent mark in November.
To reach this milestone, however, a woman must win the general election in every district where at least one is running, a difficult feat. Some female candidates are running in districts favoring the other party, and many are challenging incumbents, who historically almost always win. […]
Women now make up a quarter of all state legislature seats in the United States.
In Illinois, women hold 36 percent of seats in the state legislature. This percentage is the sixth highest in the country. Voters would need to elect 26 more female lawmakers for at least half of their state legislature to be women.
And yet, on the surface at least, I don’t ever think I’ve seen women legislators more divided than they are now in Illinois. As subscribers know, the bipartisan, bicameral Conference of Women Legislators has been disbanded. The Senate now has a bipartisan group, but Democratic women in the House have formed their own, separate organization which has had a hiccup or two so far.
Maybe these are just growing pains, or a sign of a much more divisive era (both at the state and national levels). And it’s their shops, so they get to call the shots. I’m not trying to be critical here, I’m just kinda lamenting the apparent loss of legislative comity.
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The damage done
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dean Olsen at the SJ-R has an excellent and comprehensive look at how social service agencies are still trying to recover a year after the impasse ended…
In the 12 months since then, providers of human services and health care that endured historic payment delays said they have recovered to varying degrees and tried to restore services. But many said damage to local and statewide social-service “safety nets” has only begun to be repaired.
Even though Rauner and the General Assembly recently approved a fiscal 2019 budget on a bipartisan basis, human-service providers said still-unfilled gaps in payment and payment delays connected with the impasse only added to what they say is the state’s chronic underfunding of human services, a situation lasting a decade or more. […]
The impasse has had a lingering impact on staff morale and hampered long-term planning efforts for Sojourn Shelter and Services, chief executive officer Angela Bertoni said.
Sojourn, which provides a shelter in Springfield for domestic violence victims, went 14 months without state funding, “so that was difficult,” she said.
The agency had to work hard for a time to dispel rumors among potential clients that Sojourn had closed, she said.
Go read the whole thing.
* Doug Finke takes a look at the state of the government’s finances…
During the height of the state’s budget impasse, Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office regularly had to “triage” bills.
It was a process where businesses or organizations facing severe financial problems had their payments moved to the head of the line to stave off disaster.
Now Illinois has its second full-year budget in a row in place, but the triaging of bills goes on.
“We still get that. We get it all of the time,” Mendoza said last week. “We still continue to get people who, they’ve been so decimated. They’ve tapped out every line of credit. They have a very difficult time building their credit back up. Not a tone has changed for us. It’s just perhaps these cases are invisible because we now have budgets.”
* And Brenden Moore looks at the lingering impacts on the capital city…
With about a year having passed since then, many say the Springfield area weathered the storm as well as it could have and is now in recovery. Yet many are taking a wait-and-see approach to determine if this newfound certainty is long-lasting.
“I think it’s going to take really a couple of cycles where the legislature and the governor get their work done on time, the budget is balanced, the time to pay bills continues to go down and get in a more stable place,” Jimenez said.
“Certainty” and “stability” were the buzzwords most often used by business owners and city leaders to describe what has changed in the last year.
“The small businesses where you might stop in and buy a gift or you might buy some clothing or something, that was impacted because there was so much uncertainty with state workers,” said Lisa Stott Clemmons, executive director of Downtown Springfield Inc. “And there’s still a little bit of uncertainty about the AFSCME contract and things like that. But at that time, it was literally at what point is the government going to shut down.” […]
The state still owes the City Water, Light and Power about $1.5 million, according to the comptroller’s office. However, this pales in comparison to 2016 — a year into the budget impasse — when the state racked up as much as $12 million in unpaid utility bills, leading CWLP to threaten to cut off services.
Good work by solid reporters.
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Wisconsin is not the post-Janus model
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The end of my Crain’s Chicago Business column about the Janus decision…
The Chicago Tribune recently published an editorial titled “Bruce Rauner has his Scott Walker moment,” and compared what happened with the Janus case to the Wisconsin governor’s “tussles with public employee unions.” But I don’t think Rauner will realize his dream of killing off public employee unions in this state. At least, not in the foreseeable future.
Public employee union membership in Wisconsin has plummeted since Walker passed what was known as Act 10, which, among other things, allowed state and local government workers to opt out of paying anything to their unions before Janus was decided.
But those “other things” were hugely important to the membership decline.
Unions were forbidden to negotiate on anything except wages, but wage increases were capped. Health insurance, pensions and other fringe benefits were taken off the negotiating table. University employees and government-funded child care and home health care workers were barred from joining unions. Most important, Wisconsin public employers couldn’t deduct union dues from worker paychecks, so workers had to pay themselves for representation that wasn’t worth much.
When Rauner talks about wanting “reforms” to allow the state, schools, universities and local governments to save money, he’s mainly talking about Wisconsin’s Act 10, which has driven down wages and benefits.
This is no secret, by the way. When the governor isn’t trying to be cagey in front of the TV cameras, he’s admitted this is his goal.
Unless Rauner is re-elected and then wins the drawing to decide who creates the new legislative maps in 2021, then picks up solid Republican majorities and enacts those Wisconsin-style “reforms,” I don’t think we’re going to see all that many government workers dumping their unions in Illinois in the near term. Their dues, deducted from their paychecks, will still produce results, unlike in Wisconsin, where dues are hand-collected and unions are toothless.
And Rauner’s anti-union rhetoric and actions have sent nonmembers flocking to unions in droves. AFSCME saw a dramatic increase in workers signing up to pay full dues since Rauner took office, and the same thing has happened with teachers unions.
Ironically, a pro-union governor like J.B. Pritzker might drive down membership over the long term as union members lose their fear and become complacent. We’ll see.
* Tribune…
Union membership has cratered in Wisconsin since Gov. Scott Walker moved to reduce collective bargaining rights and won legislative approval for right-to-work rules. Michigan enacted right-to-work legislation in 2012, and also saw a drop, though not as dramatic. Michigan’s law went through years of court challenges before it was fully applied to public sector unions.
A recent report estimating the fallout of the Janus ruling noted a 5 to 10 percent decline in union membership following the passage of right-to-work laws. Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations from the University of Illinois, and one of the authors of that report, said the steep decline from union ranks in Wisconsin was a reflection of that state’s sweeping anti-union changes, rather than a just a change in right-to-work status.
One reason why the Wisconsin decline was so significant, Bruno said, was there were additional changes to collective bargaining and pension benefits. A better example of what could happen in Illinois could be Michigan, Bruno said, as changes there in 2012 were less far-reaching than revisions in Wisconsin.
Its accompanying graph…
* Related…
* As Supreme Court ruling threatens labor, teacher union leader says it’s been adding members: Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery says the union has been growing statewide and nationally despite last week’s expected Supreme Court ruling that stopped the collection of “fair share” bargaining fees from public workers who don’t want to be union members. “Our union is adding members. The AFT (American Federation of Teachers), our national union, is bigger than it’s ever been. We’re adding members here in Illinois all the time. … The graduate employees at the University of Chicago have just voted to join us,” Montgomery said Sunday on WGN AM-720.
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A closer look at Kwame Raoul’s lead
Monday, Jul 2, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
A political action committee run by top officials of Operating Engineers Local 150 reported a $255,000 contribution last week from a “dark money” organization controlled by the same Local 150 honchos.
Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow PAC and its money-raising Fight Back Fund spent $900,000 during the Democratic primary to oppose Rep. Scott Drury’s bid for attorney general. The groups also spent $685,000 to oppose former Gov. Pat Quinn’s AG run. Both expenditures were ultimately designed to help Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, win the attorney general primary, which he did.
The PAC then filed paperwork to show it had purchased TV ads designed to help Sen. Raoul fend off Republican nominee Erika Harold during the general election. As before, these will be independent expenditures that aren’t coordinated with the Raoul campaign.
The ads won’t begin right away. Instead, the group is reportedly reserving advertising time for later this year. The quarter-million is essentially a down payment on that reservation.
So, how does this race look right now? As I’ve already told you, a recent Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll had Sen. Kwame Raoul leading Erika Harold by nine points, 44-35 with 21 percent undecided. My pollster viewed those results as a sort of generic party matchup. But, let’s take a look at some of the crosstabs today.
Besides her fellow Republican Party members, Ms. Harold led in just a few demographics.
For instance, senior citizens 65 and up preferred Harold over Sen. Raoul 42-38, with 21 percent undecided. Downstaters backed her over Raoul 43-33. And suburban collar county voters narrowly supporter her 42-40. The poll found that Gov. Bruce Rauner led in those demographics with 2 points among seniors and 3 points with Downstaters, but he trailed Democrat JB Pritzker in the collars by 5 points.
The African-American Raoul led the African-American Harold among whites by 1 point, 40-39 (Pritzker led Rauner by 2 among whites). Raoul led Harold with black voters by 53 points, 69-16 (Pritzker’s margin was 50 points).
81 percent of Republicans supported Harold, while 13 percent were undecided and 6 percent said they backed Raoul. 79 percent of Democrats backed Raoul, while 16 percent were undecided and 5 percent backed the Republican Harold. So, the hidden “slack” in the partisan results would seem to show that Raoul will benefit a bit more.
Among independent and third-party voters, Raoul led by 13 points, 38-25, with 37 percent undecided (Pritzker led Rauner by 6 with this group).
Mr. Raoul led Ms. Harold by 2 among male voters, 42-40 (Pritzker led by 6). And he led her by 15 points among women, 46-31 (Pritzker led Rauner by 13).
Chicago resident Raoul led by 57 points in the city, 69-12 (Pritzker led by 40). And Raoul led Harold in suburban Cook County by 15, 45-30 (Pritzker led by 9).
Raoul had a 30-point lead among union households, 56-26 (Pritzker led by 33), and held a 3-point, 42-39 lead among non-union households (Pritzker also led by 3).
Raoul also led among voters aged 18-34 by 21 points, 50-29 (Pritzker led by 19). Raoul’s lead among voters aged 35-49 was 19 points, 48-29 (Pritzker also led by 19). And Raoul led by 5 points with those aged 50-64, 43-38 (Pritzker led by 6).
Also, keep in mind that this poll was taken June 9-11. That’s before President Trump’s numbers precipitously declined during the immigrant family separation crisis at the southern border. The worse he does, the worse his party’s candidates will likely do come November. But then, politics being politics, the president could also do something to help himself before November. The poll of 600 likely voters had a margin of error of +/-3.99 percent.
If Raoul avoids any major controversies, runs a decent campaign and raises enough money to compete, it sure looks like this race is his to lose. But, as always, this is politics. Stuff can change in a hurry.
It should also be interesting to see if the Republicans open up a significant “dark money” spigot to help Ms. Harold. The Republican Attorneys General Association created the Illinois Freedom Fund independent expenditure committee in late March specifically to help Harold, but that group has not yet reported any contributions as of this writing.
Raoul ended March with just under $100,000 in his own campaign bank account and has reported raising about $357K since then. Harold reported having $92K in the bank at the end of March and has reported $208K in contributions since then.
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