* She flatly denied last year when she announced her retirement that she would run for mayor in 2019, so she’s sticking with that same response now…
Statement from AG Lisa Madigan ruling out bid for mayor: “I am a lifelong resident of Chicago. I care deeply for the city. There are a lot of challenges facing Chicago, and I plan to continue helping as a resident and not as mayor.”
Don't want people showing up at your door telling you to drop your union membership? IEA members can sign up for free window clings and stop the anti-union groups in their tracks. #Imstickingwithmyunion#IEAstronger
* Has the Illinois Policy Institute started knocking on union members’ doors to convince them to drop their memberships? I asked the IEA’s spokesperson to explain…
So far we have no confirmed reports from our members, but we are expecting they’ll be hearing from IPI soon. We know that some of our locals have been hit with not one but two mailers from IPI encouraging them to drop their union memberships. We are arming our members with window clings to deter door knockers from IPI and other anti-union organizations.
* I asked the Illinois Policy Institute if it had any plans for a door-to-door canvass. A spokesperson issued a one-word response: “No.”
That makes sense. Teachers aren’t confined to one precinct, after all. It would be very difficult to canvass them one-by-one.
* I assume the IEA is just ginning up the base. It’s tweeted out some responses by members to Policy Institute mailers…
CTU has responded by urging its teachers to Tweet pictures of their IPI mailers in defiance with the hashtag #solidarity. Erika Wozniak, a CTU member and a candidate for 46th Ward alderman in Chicago, tweeted that the IPI flier had actually prompted her and her husband to increase their contribution to the union’s Political Action Committee.
The union’s Acting President Jesse Sharkey added a statement Thursday, saying, “Bruce Rauner’s front group is asking CTU members to walk away from our power, and our members have an answer: no way, not now, not ever.”
Charging that the IPI “serves the union-busting agenda of this failed governor,” Sharkey said, “It won’t work. Our members are too smart, organized, and committed to fall for this toxic ploy to undermine our rights and our dignity.”
*** UPDATE *** Bridget Shanahan with the IEA…
Our state affiliates out west have been targeted by anti-union, State Policy Network affiliate groups going door to door. Those groups have also said they’ve hired additional staff just for the purpose of going to door to door.
Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that millions of public sector workers can stop paying union fees, a group tied to Republican billionaires long opposed to organized labor and its support of the Democratic Party has pledged to build on the landmark ruling to further marginalize employee representation.
The conservative nonprofit Freedom Foundation said that starting Wednesday, it will deploy 80 people to a trio of West Coast union bastions: California, Oregon and its home state of Washington. The canvassers were hired in March and trained this month, according to internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. The goal of the multi-pronged campaign is to shrink union ranks in the three states by 127,000 members—and to offer an example for similar efforts targeting unions around the country.
As for the millions of dollars in his campaign war chest, the mayor said he would return it to donors. Emanuel said he’d stay out of the political race to succeed him but would be a “keen observer.”
A day after pulling the plug on his bid for a third term, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said Chicago’s next mayor hasn’t yet entered the race to succeed him.
Emanuel told WGN radio host Steve Cochran he doesn’t think any of the 12 announced candidates for the fifth floor office at City Hall has the skill set to do the job, while getting in plugs for some of his own work.
The announcement also raises more immediate questions over whether the Emanuel administration will move forward with a $10 billion pension obligation bond issue that could prove a harder sell with the buyside now that uncertainty looms over the city’s future leadership. The city’s finance department could not immediately be reached to comment. A decision had been expected as soon as this week.
The city’s decision, market participants say, will hinge on rating agency analysis because the city wants to preserve its general obligation rating and higher-grade securitization credits under a structure that would likely tap the securitization.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel drops a political bombshell on Chicago, announcing he won’t run for re-election, and just like that the race for mayor has been transformed: It’s Lord of the Flies on LaSalle Street. […]
But institutional Chicago — the banks and others of the financial sector, the foundations and so on — and those who write the big campaign checks, may now see Vallas as the only announced candidate who can run Chicago from day one.
* And, finally, this revised meme is from a pal who is bored today because he focuses on state politics and everybody is talking about the mayor’s race…
I’d change “entire city of Chicago” to “every Chicago-based political reporter/pundit,” but why quibble with near-greatness?
* In Rahm Emanuel’s tenure, a global vision bogged down by local issues: Although some of Emanuel’s accomplishments helped critics label him as “Mayor 1 percent,” he will leave his mark on a Chicago that now, perhaps more than ever, looks the part of a titan in American business, culture and tourism. He may be remembered as the mayor who brought a Whole Foods to Englewood, but not the one that ended decades of disenfranchisement there and in other neighborhoods like it.
* Zorn: Surprised yet grateful that Emanuel is passing the torch: I’m also glad that, with Emanuel out of the race, the campaign will be less about the past and more about the future. The prospect of an endless relitigation of Emanuel’s most regrettable decisions in office would have made for a harsher and more backward-looking campaign than we need or deserve.
Four women running for the Illinois State Senate released new television ads Tuesday - in which three of them took the unusual step of calling on term limits for powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The Democratic candidates - Laura Ellman, Suzy Glowiak, Ann Gillespie and Bridget Fitzgerald - are each running for Republican-held districts in Chicago’s suburbs that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, leading many to believe they may be among the most likely to turn blue in November.
Though Madigan is leader of the Illinois House, Democratic insiders admit that his power impacts the Senate as well.
Last year, the Senate agreed to a 10-year term limit for its leaders. Senate President John Cullerton has been Senate President since 2009, but the new guidelines apply to him beginning in January 2017 when the Senate agreed to the new term limits.
Also take note of the “no budget, no pay” lines in these spots.
* I’m told this will run on broadcast and cable TV…
New ad: @The_RGA chimes in with an attack on @JBPritzker’s mileage tax proposal, but pulls back slightly on @BruceRauner’s empty assertion that it would include a tracking device in your car. RGA says it “might” do that. Today, Rauner doubled down on it. https://t.co/C1tYRhXJ4l
Buying a car, you pay a sales tax. Fill it up, you pay a gas tax. But how would you feel about paying a tax just to drive?
That’s the plan JB Pritzker is considering.
Charge a new tax per mile you drive in Illinois. Charging 1.5 cents per mile.
Not only would they charge you just for driving, but they might even install a state GPS in your car to keep track of it.
Call your legislators. Tell them to oppose the mileage tax.
I’m kinda wondering how Pritzker is gonna respond to this now two-pronged attack. He’s never allowed any negatives to stand unchallenged before. Suggestions?
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
This is yet another lie from a desperate, failed governor. JB never proposed a vehicle mileage tax. JB has proposed a fair tax and unlike Bruce Rauner, he will maximize available federal dollars when he’s governor. As JB has said, any proposal to pay for infrastructure updates should be studied with stakeholders across the state and should work for working families.
Of course, a real response is delivered in the same format as the original attack. And this is not a TV ad.
* I’m told that every two years for the last ten or so years, at least one Democratic lawyer has called the Kendall County Clerk to object to this notice to voters to “be prepared to present identification to the election judge”…
Whether you agree or disagree, Illinois voters are not required to show identification at the polling place. You show ID when you register and your signature is essentially your ID when you vote. Identification requirements have often been used to suppress the votes of poor people.
* I called Clerk Gillette (a Republican) and asked her why she warned voters about being prepared to present ID. “We always say that just in case the [election] judge has a problem or an issue, can’t find a name,” she said. “It’s not that they’re required to show it. Just have it on you just in case something comes up.”
That’s apparently the same response she has given the Dem lawyers in the past (with the same very pleasant demeanor). I asked the state party’s new executive director for comment…
“Kendall County’s misleading flier on voter identification requirements is troubling and is the first step on the road to voter suppression in Illinois,” said DPI Executive Director Christian Mitchell. “Free and fair access to the polls is a fundamental right across the country and we need public officials who recognize that and encourage voter activity. The Democratic Party of Illinois will work across the aisle to ensure voters have the information they need to exercise their rights and will always stand firmly against voter suppression.”
* I also checked in with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Spokesperson Matt Dietrich chose his words carefully. Election judges “can’t systematically require everyone to show ID,” he said. Voters can use ID to prove who they are if they’re challenged, so the clerk’s recommendation to bring identification was within the law.
“But it’s a little bit questionable about, for the reason you’re calling me, because of the signal it sends,” Dietrich said. “It’s a little surprising that it’s on there.”
* The Question: Did the county clerk make a legitimate suggestion or was it a subtle form of voter suppression? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Today, Governor Rauner will be joined by elected officials and candidates for office to promote The People’s Pledge, a commitment to put term limits on state elected officials and to vote for anyone other than Mike Madigan for House Speaker.
See below for details on today’s event.
All media interested in attending, please RSVP to xxx
WHO
Governor Bruce Rauner
State Representative Tim Butler for the 87th District
Steve McClure, candidate for State Senate for the 50th District
Mike Murphy, candidate for State Representative for the 99th District
Herman Senor, candidate for State Representative for the 96th District
WHERE
Selvaggio Steel, Inc.
1119 W. Dorlan Ave.
Springfield, IL
WHEN
Today - September 5th, 2018
Press Check-in at 9:45 AM
Event will begin at 10:00 AM
* The governor was asked an interesting question…
Rauner has 4 GOP candidates post their signed pledge on a bulletin board. They say they want 10 year term limits to stop Speaker Madigan from controlling the House BUT Rauner wouldn’t commit to holding Minority Leader Durkin to same standards. He’s held office for nearly 20yrs. pic.twitter.com/H2a22dxPR3
This fall marks a first in a decade for Eastern Illinois University: Enrollment numbers are up from the previous year.
Tenth day enrollment numbers, the nationally accepted standard for tracking university and college enrollments, are in. According to Eastern’s fall report, 7,526 students are enrolled at EIU this fall, an increase of 7.1 percent from last fall.
Undergraduate student totals are up from 5,568 last year to 6,012 students, and graduate numbers slightly up from 1,462 last year to 1,514 students.
The freshman class has seen some of the biggest strides. According to EIU officials, the university’s fall-to-fall first-time freshmen enrollment has increased by 24.5 percent, an addition of 155 students.
Fall enrollment at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has decreased by nearly 12 percent from the fall 2017 semester, according to university officials.
The campus reached peak enrollment in 1991 with 24,869 students, but enrollment has been decreasing ever since.
This year, the university’s total student enrollment has hit a new low of 12,817 students, surpassing the low set by previous year’s campus fall enrollment of 14,554.
The largest decrease was in the freshman class, which has 410 fewer students than in 2017 — a 23.86 percent drop. The sophomore class saw 232 fewer students, a 12.7 percent drop, and the junior class went down by 395 students, a 15.48 percent lower from 2016.
Total undergraduate enrollment faced a 13.30 percent decline, with 1,449 fewer students than in fall 2017. Total graduate enrollment faced an 8.39 percent decline with 248 fewer students over last fall.
Bill Daley 1.8%
Chuy Garcia 3.9%
Valerie Jarrett 6.6%
Jerry Joyce 3.2%
Lori Lightfoot 9.6%
Garry McCarthy 16.8%
Susana Mendoza 1.4%
Rick Munoz 1.4%
Toni Preckwinkle 4.6%
Paul Vallas 10.1%
Willie Wilson 15.1%
Voters are showing preferences, although our educated guess is that few are locked in to their choices.
Garry McCarthy had the strongest showing, albeit at a 17 percent clip—followed closely by Willie Wilson and Paul Vallas.
Candidates not listed in the results were lumped together in the OTHER CANDIDATE option.
Mayor Emanuel’s job approval rating was a split decision—a phenomenon probably attributable to his announcement that he would not seek re-election. A more significant finding can be found in the question pertaining to the possibility of him backing a ‘hand-picked’ successor. Nearly 79 percent said he would either have no effect or a negative effect on whether or not voters would support him or her.
The big names added to the mix (Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza, Bill Daley) barely blipped the radar screen.
I’m told the landline/mobile phone split was right about 50/50.
MORRIS – Fresh off his endorsement interview with the Chicago Tribune, Grundy County States Attorney and Illinois Secretary of State Republican candidate Jason Helland criticized the media for not taking his candidacy seriously.
The Mazon resident held the meet and greet Thursday, with former gubernatorial candidate State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) as special guest, at Montage Wine Bar and Spirits in downtown Morris.
“The Chicago media loves Jesse White,” Helland told the crowd of about 40 people in attendance. […]
In a post at his Capitol Fax blog on Aug. 16, Rich Miller wrote that Helland should lay off the ageism.
“You’re likely not gonna win this year, dude,” Miller wrote. “Don’t be remembered like this.”
Helland responded at Thursday’s meeting, saying that Miller was “a joke.”
The race for state Senate in the 48th District is getting kind of creepy — or at least crawly.
“Career politicians are like cockroaches; shine a light on them and they scurry,” says a deep-voiced narrator of a radio ad for GOP candidate SETH McMILLAN of Taylorville, the Christian County Republican chairman taking on state Sen. ANDY MANAR, D-Bunker Hill.
He says such politicians have “scurried around the halls of the state Capitol” for decades, doing things including giving “more control to corrupt Chicago politicians.”
The narrator says the solution is “firing career politicians and hiring an outsider.”
McMillan also tweeted a short video of a cockroach.
Republican state senate candidate Seth McMillan failed to disclose a series of small, no-bid contracts his landscaping company secured with the Taylorville school district during a period of time when he sat on the district’s school board, according to documents obtained by WCIA.
“At the time, I did not view that as a conflict,” McMillan said on Tuesday. Without providing any evidence, he claimed that he only charged the school district for materials and labor and did not collect a profit. He did admit, however, that “It was an oversight and it was a mistake on my part.”
State law requires public officials to disclose such business relationships to the public each year. Penalties for willfully failing to disclose an arrangement can be as high as a $1,000 fine or jail time.
McMillan served on the Taylorville School Board from 2009 to 2017. During that period, his company, McMillan’s Landscape Company, invoiced the school district for charges totaling at least $7,196.34. At no time did McMillan report that income to the county clerk. […]
While he admits the error and says he has hired an attorney to file an amended return, McMillan says it was “inadvertent” and that “my company doing a yearly contract of a thousand dollars in some cases to fertilize the grass at a football field is not something to be blown out of proportion.”
Insurance giant State Farm on Tuesday reached a $250 million preliminary settlement in a federal class-action lawsuit claiming the company funneled money to the campaign of an Illinois Supreme Court candidate.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis alleged Bloomington-based State Farm secretly funneled money to the campaign of Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier while he was a candidate for the high court in 2004.
In the 2005 case of Avery v. State Farm, Karmeier cast the deciding vote to reverse a $1.06 billion judgment in 1999 against State Farm for its use of aftermarket car parts in repairs. The court ruled the nationwide plaintiff class was improperly certified by a Williamson County trial judge. It also contended using aftermarket parts was not a breach of State Farm policyholders’ contracts.
The class-action lawsuit sought nearly $10 billion from State Farm in a trial that was scheduled to begin Tuesday. The plaintiffs alleged State Farm covertly supported Karmeier’s campaign in order to secure his win and reversal of the Avery lawsuit decision.
In a statement released late Tuesday by State Farm and Clifford Law Offices, the Chicago-based law firm representing policyholders in the litigation, the two sides said they reached the agreement “because they believe it is in the best interest of all the parties and to avoid protracted litigation and appeals that could continue for several more years.” […]
State Farm denies liability and maintains its position that the company “considers the claims to be without merit,” according to the settlement. […]
The millions in so-called “dark money” were channeled through donations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which then sent the money onto a political action committee and the Illinois Republican Party for use in Karmeier’s 2004 campaign, according to the lawsuit.
Karmeier, who is now chief justice of the Supreme Court, cast the deciding vote in favor of overturning the appellate court ruling that upheld the billion-dollar Avery verdict, policyholders noted in their lawsuit.
State Farm “has consistently denied participating in a RICO scheme and to this day denies any role in electing Judge Karmeier,” Bob Clifford, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview Tuesday. “Now they agree to pay a quarter of a billion dollars, and I think that speaks for itself.”
The settlement came after the jury was selected last week and just before opening statements were set to begin. That probably shows State Farm was spooked by the risk of an adverse verdict, said law professor David Logan, of Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.
“Corporations generally don’t part with that kind of money just before the opening statement of a trial unless they got a really negative vibe from the jury that was impaneled,” Logan said. The settlement for far less than what plaintiffs were seeking isn’t unusual, he added. “Two hundred and fifty million dollars in hand may be worth declining a shot at a billion, that only would come after many appeals.”
The plaintiffs were seeking $1 billion in damages based on the original verdict and $1.8 billion in interest, plus tripling under the RICO law.. The jury would have determined damages and the judge would have decided on the interest.
The settlement ends more than 20 years of litigation over by State Farm customers who alleged they were given generic car parts of lower quality than original equipment for more than a decade, violating the terms of their insurance policies.
In 1999, an Illinois state court jury awarded the customers $456 million for breach of contract, and the trial judge added $730 million in damages on a fraud claim. An appellate court reduced the verdict to $1.056 billion, but it was one of the largest class-action awards in U.S. legal history.
In 2004, Karmeier, a Republican who had been a circuit judge in rural Washington County for almost two decades, was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court. A year later, that court threw out the award, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case, seemingly ending the litigation.
* And check out the headline on this Clifford Law Offices press release…
State Farm Pays $250 Million to Keep Illinois Chief Justice Off the Witness Stand
*They’re calling around or considering bids: Emanuel’s surprise announcement didn’t give would-be candidates much time to act. Some did anyway. Among those not ruling out bids or making phone calls looking for support Tuesday were Bill Daley, the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, GCM Grosvenor CEO Michael Sacks, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, 2011 mayoral candidate Gery Chico, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, city Treasurer Kurt Summers, City Clerk Anna Valencia and Alds. Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st; Ricardo Munoz, 22nd; Ameya Pawar, 47th; and Tom Tunney, 44th.
*They’re on people’s minds: A few high-profile political names emerged, but they didn’t comment publicly. On that list: former CPS CEO Arne Duncan, former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, 2015 Emanuel foe Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Democratic U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
*They’re already in: Emanuel faced a diverse army of challengers before his Tuesday decision: former Chicago Police Board leader Lori Lightfoot, Paul Vallas, former Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, Chicago principals association President Troy LaRaviere, millionaire businessman Willie Wilson, activist Ja’Mal Green, tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin, attorney John Kozlar, pharmaceutical technician and DePaul student Matthew Roney, policy consultant Amara Enyia and Southwest Side attorney Jerry Joyce.
They’ve said no: Both former Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Kwame Raoul said they’re not running.
Hearing @ToniPreckwinkle is polling about possible #ChiMayor19 race, others on the maybe list: Mendoza, Quigley, Guttierez, Bill Daley, Arne Duncan, Valerie Jarrett, Summers, Valencia, Pawar, Munoz, Sawyer, Moreno, Lisa Madigan (and …. fill in the blank) #ChiMayor19
