Harold said Thursday she won’t meet up with the president.
“We have previously scheduled activities in the suburbs — campaign activities — and so that’s what I’ll be doing,” she said.
Reporters also asked Harold if she would share with the public the presidential candidates she voted for in the past three elections.
“I will not share all of those votes because, as a private citizen, I think I believe in secret ballot,” she said.
…Adding… She was also asked again why she isn’t going to the Trump event by Mary Ann Ahern…
My focus is on some of the suburban campaign activities that I had previously scheduled, and my choice to maintain those commitments doesn’t send a signal of anything other than wanting to keep those commitments.
* Meanwhile…
Today, in a 🌈 rally, many pro-equality, pro-reproductive healthcare, pro-environment advocates said “hate is not an Illinois value!” before #AttorneyGeneral candidate Erika Harold’s City Club speech! Harold has a record of opposing LGBTQ equality. pic.twitter.com/ddLPyf8JwA
“It’s no secret that I’m pro-life,” Harold said. “But I’ve made very clear that the job of the attorney general is to enforce Illinois law and uphold that.
“I would never discriminate against any same-sex couple as it relates to adoption, as it relates to anything,” she added. “The job of the attorney general is to protect all Illinoisans against discrimination, and that’s what I would do.”
Protesters, however, worried that she was just paying lip service to their issues on the campaign trail.
“I can’t trust that she would protect the laws that exist already in Illinois,” [Julie Lynn of Planned Parenthood Illinois] said.
“She says she won’t seek to change marriage, because it’s settled law. The Supreme Court has decided that,” [Michael Ziri of Equality Illinois] added. “But we know court decisions aren’t set in stone. Illinois marriage equality was settled in law when she advocated a constitutional amendment” against it.
* Peoria Journal Star Endorsement: Illinois attorney general: There is a strong chance Democrats could win all the major statewide races, starting with the governor’s office. In the case of the attorney general’s seat today, Illinois needs an attorney general who isn’t part of the clique. That is why Republican Erika Harold gets the Journal Star’s endorsement.
* For as long as I can remember, the Tribune has often put fun little tidbits at the tail end of their political stories. Here’s one…
Hultgren said he’d like to be with Trump for his southern Illinois visit on Saturday but might not make it because he’ll be marching in the Sycamore Pumpkin Fest parade on Sunday.
“The absurdity of two office holders, running for two jobs at the same time and basically raising and spending money for them, is like cheating the public and treating their sacred jobs as a joke,” Daley said. “It’s not like we don’t have problems in the state, the county or the city. C’mon. I’ve been around this business my whole life, OK? And the amount of time people spend on fundraising is ridiculous. And when you’re running for two offices, holding a public job, it’s kind of crazy.”
Part of that family political business Daley didn’t mention: that brother Richard M. Daley launched his successful 1989 bid for mayor just 27 days after safely winning re-election to a third term as Cook County state’s attorney. The chief strategist of that mayoral campaign: Bill Daley.
Attorneys with the Illinois attorney general’s office went before an Adams County grand jury Thursday regarding Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home.
After exiting the grand jury, the three attorneys confirmed they were with the attorney general’s office but said that was all they could say when approached by a Herald-Whig reporter.
Attorney general spokeswoman Maura Possley said the office had no comment on the investigation.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office said Oct. 3 that it was investigating to see if Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration broke any laws in the way it handled the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Veterans Home.
* From Patty Schuh in the governor’s office…
As the elected chief legal officer of the state, the Illinois Attorney General is charged with fairly and impartially representing the state and providing sound legal advice.
The Attorney General has represented the state and Department of Veterans Affairs in multiple lawsuits that were filed after the tragic deaths of our veterans during the 2015 outbreak of Legionnaires Disease at the Quincy Veterans Home.
After a review of the facts in each of the 11 cases stemming from this outbreak, the Attorney General denied the state has any liability in the deaths.
In the documents filed with the Court by the Illinois Attorney General in each of the cases — the Attorney General denied any state negligence or wrongdoing. The Attorney General also denied the claimants are due damages. The Attorney General’s first court filing stemming from the 2015 outbreak came on June 27, 2016 and the most recent on October 25, 2017.
The Attorney General continues to represent the state and Department of Veterans Affairs in the pending Court of Claims cases.
Unlike a court of claims case where the plaintiff alleges that the negligence of the State or State agency caused injury, a criminal investigation does not look at the liability of the State or a State agency. It looks at whether individuals acted outside the scope of their authority and committed crimes. Every state employee involved in overseeing the care provided by the Quincy Veterans’ Home, including the Governor’s staff, should want to get to the bottom of whether crimes were committed in events that lead to the deaths of more than a dozen people.
“One of the founding reasons I got in this race is because we need to select a new speaker of the House,” Caffrey said. “The speaker has been there for 33 of the last 35 years. And we need to be asking if we’re seeing the results we should be seeing and the answer is no. We’re not, so we need to make that change.”
Mazzochi then accused Caffrey of “perpetuating the Madigan machine.”
“When (Caffrey) says ‘I think I’m going to vote for a Democrat, just not Mike Madigan,’ well the fact of the matter is if you cast that vote, you’re still going to get more Mike Madigan,” Mazzochi said. “Even if you say you won’t vote for Madigan for speaker, if you ultimately wind up voting for all the things Mike Madigan is interested in, such as the graduated income tax, you’re going to wind up in the same problematic position we’ve been in.”
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) President and Illinois State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D) and NCSL President-elect Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos (R) said:
“The recent news regarding explosive devices being sent to various persons across the country is an outright act of domestic terrorism. Now more than ever, those of us who have dedicated our lives to public service must take a stand against violence intended to damage the very foundations of our great nation. Let us come together–not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans–to reflect on the core values of our nation that include the peaceful and respectful resolution of our differences through debate, discussion, and elections–never violence.”
I just got called by a Capitol staffer and told that the Illinois State Capitol is on lockdown. While on the phone with my source, I heard the message playing out to shelter in place. #twill
…Adding… I’m told a “substance” was found in a second-floor bathroom. A Hazmat team has been called.
Fire department and police are on the scene.
Fire command has arrived…
* Hmm…
Illinois Secretary of State's office says an "unknown substance in a clear bag" was found just after 1 p.m. on the floor of a second-floor men's state Capitol restroom. Springfield Fire Department hazmat unit is investigating. Lockdown continues.
Anna McKinley has already done phone banks and canvassed for candidates, walked in parades, and most recently, was named as a Precinct Committee Chairman in Okawville Township. That is not a bad record for someone who has yet to cast a vote.
A senior at Okawville High School, McKinley was appointed to the role of Precinct Committeeman for Okawville #2 by Washington County Democrat Central Committee Chairman Len Piasecki earlier this month.
“For me, this is a hobby and a passion,” McKinley said of her political engagement. “It’s not hard to do something when you love it.”
* The Question: What was your earliest political involvement?
Our campaign has thousands of yard signs throughout the 55th District. We enjoy giving them to supporters so they can show their support. Really, yard signs are more important to my supporters than they are to our campaign.
Today we received countless calls from our supporters saying their yard signs are being stolen. One such call from a voter included a video of the illegal act caught on camera.
Our campaign does not expend resources to engage in sign wars and instead will continue to talk to voters directly about key issues our opponent continues to remain silent on, like her opposition to a ban on AR-15’s and wish to defund Planned Parenthood.
If these acts are being committed with knowledge of the Smolenski campaign, it is sadly not the least bit surprising.
On top of Terra Costa Howard’s repeated lies, her team of 6+ paid “Madigoons” regularly steal yard signs. Now, this video from yesterday proves they’re stealing literature off your front door. Say NO to Terra Costa Howard and her Dirty Politics (paid for by Madigan’s Dirty Money)!
If you had any doubt that there’s been enough campaigning and it’s time to vote, the race for 6th District congressman in the western suburbs now is focusing on who swiped whose yard signs.
From a statement from incumbent Republican Peter Roskam: “Every day, local residents are calling the Roskam campaign office reporting yard signs stolen from their property or destroyed . . . To date, 350 Roskam for Congress yard signs have been reported stolen or lost. The sign theft dramatically increased since Roskam first called on (Democratic nominee Sean) Casten to stop his supporters’ shameful tricks. Casten’s response? Crickets.”
In 30 years of covering politics, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a sitting member of Congress send out a press release talking about yard signs. But back to that breathless release, which continues that an offending sign snatcher actually was caught on tape mumbling about moving the sign 20 miles away. It concludes, what else could be expected from a campaign like Casten’s that seeks not “bipartisanship and engaging constructively” but employs “hateful rhetoric.”
Responds the Casten camp, “We don’t steal signs. Period. And we don’t condone those who do, including those who have been stealing our signs—which have been disappearing as well. Peter Roskam is losing, and these kinds of wild accusations prove it.”
Chicagoans in minority neighborhoods on the West Side and South Side have the greatest exposure to toxic air pollution and other environmental health hazards in the city, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis that community groups are using to fight Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s industrial planning practices.
The findings were compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group that plans to use the document to try to persuade city officials to end the common practice of steering scrap yards, distribution warehouses and other polluting businesses to neighborhoods with large concentrations of Latino and African-American residents.
Among the most dramatically affected communities, the group found, are Little Village, Pilsen and the far Southeast Side.
Activists in those communities say Emanuel’s city planners are pushing dirty industries to majority Latino and black communities, while neighborhoods like Lincoln Park on the more well-to-do North Side are shedding their industrial past for new condo buildings and high-end amenities.
* Meanwhile, you may recall this TV ad last summer from the American Chemistry Council touting US Rep. Peter Roskam…
That $209,000 TV ad buy and $185,050 in chemical industry contributions are coming back to haunt Roskam.
But the ad takes on new meaning now that the Sterigenics sterilization facility just outside Roskam’s west suburban district is under fire for emitting ethylene oxide, a highly potent, cancer-causing gas made by Dow Chemical, Union Carbide, Shell and several other members of the trade group.
Two months after the chemical industry’s pro-Roskam ad began airing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report revealing that communities surrounding the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook are among just a few dozen in the country facing alarmingly high cancer risks from toxic air pollution, most notably ethylene oxide emissions. […]
Roskam’s supporters in the chemical industry have a dramatically different view.
Soon after the EPA released its report, the industry trade group quietly urged President Donald Trump’s administration to scuttle a stringent safety limit for ethylene oxide adopted in 2016 after more than a decade of debate. The agency relied heavily on the safety limit when it calculated its worrisome estimates of cancer risks in communities surrounding Sterigenics and other facilities across the nation that either manufacture or use the chemical.
Chemical companies are pushing the Trump EPA to declare that ethylene oxide is far less dangerous than the agency’s career staff and three separate panels of independent scientists determined. Industry-supported scientists have repeatedly downplayed animal research showing the chemical mutates DNA and studies of medical sterilization workers who suffered high rates of breast cancer, leukemia and lymphomas.
Note to Illinois voters: If you think voting for the guy who has Conservative Party next to his name is a vote for conservative values, you’re badly mistaken. You’re being played. Let us tell you the truth about Sam McCann. […]
Why would Local 150 put so much muscle behind McCann? Rauner’s support for allowing right-to-work zones and curbing prevailing wage mandates — issues that would diminish the influence of trade and public employee unions — created a fierce adversary in union halls statewide. So the operating engineers are putting up a candidate who could strip votes from Rauner’s Republican base. Local 150 is in this for revenge.
But McCann is taking it a step further. He’s also helping Madigan by targeting conservative Republicans with misleading mailers in districts Madigan wants to win. Reps. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, and Lindsay Parkhurst, R-Kankakee, both have been hit with McCann-sponsored campaign mailers that describe them as Republicans “in name only.”
Except that’s not true. Morrison and Parkhurst have solid records of voting against tax hikes, against big government, and with fellow conservatives on social issues.
What these dishonest mailer’s don’t mention is McCann’s own voting record in the Senate. He’s running under a conservative banner — yet he votes in lockstep with the state’s largest public employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. McCann has voted against every version of cost-saving pension reform except one, making his record one of the most liberal in the General Assembly. He voted against streamlining government. He voted against allowing voters to consolidate layers of government.
Is McCann a stalking horse to draw votes away from Rauner and Republican legislators? Of course he is. Nobody is gonna drop that much cash on a candidate who is polling at somewhere around 5 percent unless something else is up.
* But the mailers do not describe those legislators as “Republicans ‘in name only’” as the Tribune claims. The mailers describe the legislators as “Rauner Rinos.” Rauner is called a “fake conservative” because he signed HB40. McCann calls the legislators “fake conservatives” because, after screaming bloody murder about HB40, they have since endorsed Rauner and take contributions from him (laundered through other committees first, of course). McCann told Dan Proft he will send mailers into their districts supporting them if they rescind their Rauner endorsements.
Also, who says conservative Republican legislators have to vote against AFSCME? Plenty voted with public employee unions before Rauner came along, and they may resume doing so whenever Rauner leaves. Heck, lots of AFSCME members are conservative, pro-life Republicans and many reside in Republican-held districts, so why wouldn’t their legislators pay attention to them?
Whatever the case, this isn’t even about the public employee unions. I mean, Local 150 of the Operating Engineers Union was pushing hard for pension reform back when the public worker unions were working their tails off against it. This is, as the Tribune notes, about Rauner’s war on trade unions and the GOP legislators’ complicity with and even active support for that war. They’re just holding Rauner accountable, albeit in a very, let’s say, “unusual” way.
* Meanwhile, the second round of Conservative Party mailers has hit…
Another McCann assault on Morrison arrived in the mail Wednesday, this one accusing Morrison of “betraying” taxpayers in connection with the recent state income tax increase. Morrison actually voted against the tax hike. […]
Not only are the Republican legislative candidates being attacked from the left by their liberal Democratic opponents, they are being attacked from the right by a candidate who is urging conservative voters to vote either for liberals or not vote at all.
It’s a terrific mess, exactly the kind of thing Democratic leaders like House Speaker Michael Madigan would like to see on the GOP side.
Ives speculated that Madigan is trying to tie Republican legislators to the unpopular Rauner in the same way Rauner and Republicans have tried, with some success, to tie Madigan to Democratic legislative candidates.
“I can’t help but think that this is Madigan giving Rauner a taste of his own medicine,” Ives said.
Yep. And some folks are also chuckling that Rauner is just getting back what he dished out to Madigan’s alleged best buddy Ives during the primary.
Thursday, Oct 25, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
It’s simple. Credit unions are member-owned, so any earnings are simply returned in the form of lower loan rates, higher interest on deposits and lower fees. Credit unions create a fair financial alternative for the taxpayers of Illinois. Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that don’t focus on increasing revenue or paying dividends to outside stockholders. Illinois credit unions are focused on the member-owners we serve. Visit www.asmarterchoice.org to learn more about the benefits of credit union membership.
The ad started airing earlier this week. On Wednesday, Rauner’s campaign team released a new version with the cussing character’s mouth blurred after complaints from TV stations
“The use, or implied use of foul language - was that the right choice to make?” we asked.
“Well, it certainly gets everyone’s attention. I don’t condone the use of foul language but it was deleted or beeped out or whatever the word is. I will use the word screwed. I’ll say, we as a state are screwed if Pritzker and Madigan get in,” Rauner said.
The ad that aired Wednesday evening is actually a toned down version. Originally, the ad clearly showed the mouth of the person using the F-word. A revised version was later sent to WPSD with the person’s mouth blurred. Rauner’s campaign says some stations asked for an edited version, however WPSD never asked for a revised version of the ad.
* That station also sent a reporter to Metropolis to do some person in the street interviews about the ad…
“That’s fine with me,” says Guy Wilcox. “That gives the viewer, they can put whatever they want to in that space.”
Paula Shelton says it’s a low point in a race that was already pretty low.
“Someone with some morals would be nice, but you’re not going to find it in Illinois,” says Shelton.
But what will viewers be talking about — the merits of Rauner as compared to Pritzker or the regrettable use of an incendiary expletive that is only thinly disguised in front of God and everybody.
This is what the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was talking about when he cited the steady decline in social mores or, as he put it, “defining deviance down.”
Rauner’s advertisement represents another tasteless — and easily avoidable — step down the ladder on the social-deviance scale.
Rauner’s motivation is easily understandable — desperate candidates say and do desperate things. But that does not make it socially acceptable, even if it is deemed by some as necessary for a victory.
In her latest campaign ad, Susana Mendoza calls herself a fearless fighter for the little guy.
That’s partially true. Which means its also partially false. As Chicago City Clerk, Mendoza did fight Mayor Rahm Emanuel on hiking city sticker fees, was a cheerleader for the impeachment of former governor Rod Blagojevich and has been a vocal opponent of current Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. […]
But Mendoza hasn’t done much standing up to powerful Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, who she has called her mentor. By all accounts, Madigan helped squeeze state senator Daniel Biss out of a 2016 comptroller’s primary, clearing the way for Mendoza.
And even now, out of the 1.7 million dollars Mendoza has in her campaign fund, more than a third, $650,000, is from the Illinois Democratic Party.
Madigan did, indeed, help push Biss out of that primary to benefit Mendoza. But the money stuff is really misleading. A simple search of the Board of Elections shows Mendoza received that Democratic Party of Illinois money in October of 2016 for her first statewide run.
She raised $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, spent $2.7 million and had $279K left in the bank. Since that time, she hasn’t reported receiving any DPI cash. So to claim that the 2016 money currently makes up a third of what she has in the bank is just false.
Rev. Thomas J. Chantry, charged with child molestation, will begin a 13-day trial at the Yavapai County Superior Court in Camp Verde Tuesday, July 24.
Chantry, 47, was indicted in Yavapai County Superior Court on eight counts – five counts of child molestation and three of aggravated assault – for offenses committed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he worked at the Miller Valley Baptist Church.
After two days of deliberations, a jury has found a former pastor accused of multiple counts of child molestation and assault guilty on two of the aggravated assault charges. Jurors determined Thomas Chantry, 47, was not guilty of one child molestation charge and one aggravated assault charge. […]
Yavapai County Deputy Attorney Susan Eazer called Chantry a “sick, twisted pedophile” last week in her closing rebuttal.
Eazer requested the court to change Chantry’s release conditions, citing the hung jury and new evidence she tried to introduce late into the trial.
The evidence concerned a 2004 Illinois police report detailing an incident where Chantry allegedly spanked a child at a school he was teaching at so hard he left bruises. The parents did not end up pursuing charges.
A former Prescott pastor who stood trial less than a month ago on multiple charges of child molestation and abuse faces nine new charges as of Tuesday.
Thomas Chantry, 47, surrendered himself to the Yavapai County Superior Court this week and is being held in the County Jail on a $1 million bond. […]
Charges include four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of child molestation and one count of child abuse. All of these charges occurred between 1998 and 2000, according to the indictment issued by a Yavapai County grand jury Sept. 11.
A Christian teacher and pastor convicted of aggravated assault for severely spanking children in Arizona was accused of doing the same at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights in 2004, though charges were never filed, authorities said.
Republican state Rep. Tom Morrison vouched recently for a teacher/pastor convicted of assault and accused of “unspeakable” abuse of children in Arizona. Morrison was a teacher at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights in the early 2000s at the time Thomas Chantry also taught there.
“I found Mr. Chantry to be a man who was professional, courteous, and caring to students, parents, and fellow staff,” Morrison wrote in a letter to court authorities asking for leniency in Chantry’s sentencing. “In the time we worked together, in a variety of settings, he had his students (sic) best interests at heart.” Morrison signed the letter by name and identified himself as the state legislator representing Illinois’ 54th District.
Christian Liberty Academy plays an important role in Morrison’s life. Along with being a 5th grade teacher there for six years, his parents had helped found the school in 1969. Chantry taught there from 2002 to 2006.
Reached by phone, Morrison said, “I stand by what I wrote. I’m not going to talk about anything beyond the brief time we taught together.” He dismissed the media attention to his letter, saying voters have bigger concerns. “They want to talk about property taxes and the fact that they’re making plans to leave the state. Those are the real issues.”
Voters may be talking about something else now, though.
*** UPDATE *** Rep. Morrison…
To clarify, my statement was reflective of a person I worked with, for a brief period of time over 15 years ago. We have not seen nor spoken to each other since then. At no time did I ask for leniency.
What I learned this morning is not reflective of the person that I once knew. These are the most serious allegations and at the time I was unaware of them - and I wholeheartedly condemn them.
Therefore, I am seeking to withdraw my testimony in the letter, so there is no confusion regarding my position in this issue, after learning of these new allegations.
-
He sent a letter on behalf of someone who was facing sentencing for assaulting a child and… he didn’t know?
…Adding… So, let’s think about this for a moment. Rep. Morrison worked at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights until 2005. The paddling incident at that school, which resulted in a battery report filed with local police, happened in 2004, two years before Morrison left. And the superintendent of the school said the 2004 incident “prompted him to end the school’s long-standing practice of corporal punishment,” according to the Daily Herald.
Seems like he should’ve known something was up long before he wrote that letter to the judge.
A former political rival accusing Mike Madigan of placing “sham” candidates on the ballot wants to “inspect, measure” and photograph the powerful speaker and state Democratic Party chairman’s political offices — a demand Madigan’s lawyers are fighting as a violation of the First Amendment and “a political fishing expedition.”
Lawyers for Jason Gonzales, an unsuccessful primary challenger who is suing Madigan in federal court, are asking to “inspect, measure, survey, and/or photograph the premises” at two of the speaker’s Southwest Side offices — the political offices of Friends of Michael J. Madigan and the 13th Ward Democratic Organization offices.
Madigan’s attorneys are arguing the request violates the U.S. Constitution.
“Defendants have clear First Amendment rights to associate in their offices that would be infringed by Plaintiff being granted court-ordered access to photograph, measure and inspect,” the filing says. “This Court should not permit Plaintiff to engage in a political fishing expedition in the political committees’ offices.”
Today, the Rauner campaign is launching the latest “Back Bruce” testimonial video featuring Kwasi Amoah.
In the video, Kwasi reflects on why he thinks Governor Rauner is the best choice for governor. He knows that Governor Rauner is standing up for taxpayers, fighting to reduce taxes, and working to grow the Illinois economy to create a better future for the state.
Kwasi Amoah, you may recall, appears in another Rauner digital ad saying he was “offended” by what JB Pritzker said on those FBI surveillance tapes.
My name is Kwasi Amoah. I’m from Romeoville, Illinois. I am a safety professional, and I support Governor Rauner. Governor Rauner knows what Illinois needs. People who work in this state work so hard, and to be punished for working so hard, for taking money out of their pockets doesn’t make any sense. People are leaving this state in droves. I think a better future for Illinois is we’ve got to fix the deficit. We’ve got to get a better budget. We’ve got to stop spending. We can’t have social services if we don’t have revenue, if we are a broke state. Governor Rauner is the right choice for the next for years.
