Campaign notebook
Monday, Aug 29, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* KSDK…
Duckworth said Salvi opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and if the mother’s life is threatened.
When asked about her stance on these cases, Salvi said she would not get into hypotheticals.
“I don’t know [about] the 6,000 rape cases a year…if those folks would consider rape to be hypotheticals,” Duckworth said.
* Public radio story on Republican CD17 nominee Esther Joy King…
King said she’s for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning the nearly half-century old Roe v. Wade precedent that shielded abortion access rights on a national scale.
“I do support what the Supreme Court did and returning the decision back to the states, to the people, really,” she said. “It’s closer to us, the people. So our voice matters more in this conversation.”
King said she believes Illinois has some of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, citing the Illinois General Assembly’s decision to scrap a law requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion.
She said she is “pro-life,” but does support exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother. She said abortion access should ultimately be left up to individual states to decide.
* Pioneer Press story entitled “Sex-Ed bill, ‘progressive’ school curriculum the focus of DuPage County Republicans ahead of midterm elections”…
On Wednesday, [Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst] was joined on stage by representative Amy Grant of District 42 and Republican House candidates E. Dale Litney and Paul Leong, who reiterated the need for full curriculum transparency and parental involvement in what children are being taught.
Leong, Naperville councilman, former school board member, and candidate for House District 81, said the “role of family in academic success cannot be underestimated.”
“We have allowed bureaucrats, not educators, nor parents, to structure educational programs and issue mandates and standards that have no bearing on academic success,” he said. Leong, along with Mazzochi, recommended school districts create parent committees to conduct in-depth reviews of controversial classes or pieces of curriculum.
Mazzochi touched on a couple of other issues during her 30-minute speech, including “left-wing political ideologies” that she said are one of the root causes of Illinois’ teacher shortage.
A 30-minute speech?
* ILGOP…
Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs’ office failed to provide proper accounting for more than $1.6 billion in state fund deposits according to a report by the Office of the Illinois Auditor General.
On page 142 the report states:
“The Office of the Treasurer (the Office) had inadequate internal controls over the Office’s Fiscal Officer Responsibilities financial statement adjustment process. During testing of the Statements of Assets and Other Debits, Liabilities and Accountabilities (financial statements), it was determined the Clearing Account Deposits and Deposits in Transit as well as the Agencies’ Deposits Outside the State Treasury accounts were each understated by $1,635,711,097.”
Rather than taking responsibility and addressing the mistake head on, Frerichs’ office said the finding was because of ‘incomplete information given to our office,’ according to Center Square.
“Treasurer Frerichs continues to blame other people for his offices’ mistakes proving that he is not the leader we need to bring financial accountability to Illinois’ reckless tax-and-spend government,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “Frerichs has proven that not only is he a reliable lapdog for J.B. Pritzker’s tax-and-spend agenda, but that he can’t be trusted to manage public tax dollars. Republican Candidate for Treasurer Rep. Tom Demmer is the true financial watchdog Illinois families need and deserve.”
This is not the office’s first financial mishap under Treasurer Frerichs’ watch. As families face rampant inflation and record gas prices, they’ve also been hit hard from Frerichs’ mismanagement of the State’s college savings programs - which have lost millions of dollars in student college savings this year.
…Adding… He has since reported raising a bit over $31K…
…Adding… Sun-Times…
Mayoral challenger Willie Wilson on Monday asked a federal judge to block a $2 million precinct consolidation plan tied to redistricting that will eliminate 779 of Chicago’s 2,069 precincts.
In a lawsuit filed in federal district court, Wilson argues that the cost-saving plan to create 1,290 new precincts — down from 2,069 — will confuse Chicago voters, depress turnout in the Nov. 28 general and Feb. 28 mayoral and aldermanic elections and “disparately impact racial and/or ethnic voting blocs.”
If precinct consolidation is needed, it should not be done in “mid-election cycle” without public hearings, the lawsuit states. To do so and to require voters to “travel much further distances to reach a polling location” and face “longer lines and wait times to vote” violates First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit states.
* More…
* Pritzker and Democratic candidates rally in Rock Island ahead of midterms
* Pritzker touts work on bill backlog, infrastructure during Whiteside County campaign stop
* Pritzker in Macomb: ‘Hate has no home in Illinois’
* Gov. Pritzker rallies supporters in Macomb
* Led by Pritzker’s millions, Democrats dominate political funding
* Is the Funding Gap Between Pritzker and Bailey’s Campaigns Insurmountable?
* Tom DeVore: Progressive Policies Turning Chicago’s Magnificent Mile Into Murderous Mile
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* Sun-Times…
Stunt drivers and spectators flooded Chicago streets for a second straight weekend night, disturbing residents, attacking cops and damaging police cars during some of the unsanctioned events that allegedly drew participants from across the country.
Chicago police officials couldn’t immediately provide details about the latest round of so-called street takeovers early Sunday. But in a statement, the department said some officers “were assaulted with bricks and bottles.” […]
A mayoral candidate and vocal critic of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Lopez claimed she and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown are “failing completely” in addressing the street takeovers and have effectively allowed participants to target officers and destroy police vehicles “without consequence.”
Lopez said members of the National Guard should be called in to cover for officers being pulled away from places like “the Bean” and the Magnificent Mile to respond to the drag racing events.“They can do the babysitting there,” he said of the National Guard.
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Batinick on pensions
Monday, Aug 29, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rep. Mark Batinick on that goofy Chicago Tribune pension editorial last week…
Here’s an additional point about pensions that has been missed. In terms of % of our budget our total pension payment is past the hump and decreasing. We peaked at 29.4% in 2017. We are at 23.2% this year and scheduled to be at 22.9% next year.
Also switching employees to Social Security and a 401K style retirement plan would be MORE expensive than what Tier 2 costs the state. Why would we do that? It’s popular dogma where the actual numbers do not make sense.
There is more work to be done on local pensions I’ll admit. But it’s best to work with real data not talking points.
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* Chicago Tribune…
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act into law in August 2021, making Illinois the first state in the U.S. to formally pass legislation codifying new national sex education standards developed by SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change. […]
Now, as students return to classrooms where most pandemic virus restrictions including masking have been lifted, the revival of a so-called normal school year is riven with dissent at some districts over the new sex ed standards, which have prompted both pushback and praise. […]
In some cases, the dissent is mingled with upset over efforts to add literature to school libraries that some parents feel is inappropriate for children. In Barrington, police were called to investigate after a recent dust-up over the addition of the book “Gender Queer” to a school library prompted threats against school board members. […]
In Illinois, passage of the new law does not override local decision-making granted to school districts, which are not mandated to teach sex education. Parents can also opt their children out of sex education lessons and review the curriculum before it is taught in the classroom. […]
The majority of school districts in Illinois are unaffected by the new law, which only applies to those teaching comprehensive health and sex education. A recent ISBE survey found that during the 2021-2022 school year, 218 Illinois school districts offered such instruction and 480 districts did not.
Tweets about that Barrington Board of Education meeting…
* Center Square…
Democratic lawmakers passed a bill that aligned the state’s standards with a national model. School districts were given the option to opt-out, and they have in droves.
According to the website Awake-Illinois, only 20 school districts have decided to fully follow the standards, with 534 opting out.
Rockford, Mundelein and East. St. Louis are three of the largest school districts to adopt the standards, while Normal schools in McLean County did so for 8th and 9th grades only.
In accordance with the National Sex Education Standards, the Illinois State Board of Education said elementary students, including kindergartners, will learn about consent, gender identity, hormone blockers and healthy relationships. Middle schoolers will learn about dating violence prevention, different types of sex and sexual harassment. High schoolers will learn more about their bodies, pregnancy and sexual health.
Another 298 school districts apparently did not respond to Awake Illinois’ survey. More about the group from the Tribune…
On one day last week, Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey of Xenia spoke at an event sponsored by Awake Illinois, an organization rooted in the suburbs and born from the anti-mask, anti-vaccine fervor of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group, which gathered in front of the Abraham Lincoln statue at the statehouse, has in the past year shifted some of its focus to oppose school sex education standards and has used inflammatory rhetoric in opposing LGBTQ+ rights, in particular those involving the transgender community.
* Hinsdale’s superintendent said lessons won’t be “instruction on lifestyle.” Patch…
A top Hinsdale High School District 86 official on Thursday explained the district’s plans for sex education, with some parents and at least one board member expressing disapproval.
Earlier this year, the board voted unanimously to go with the latest update of the national sex education standards. Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said the district has been doing so for nearly a decade.
“Many K-through-8 (school districts) are choosing to opt out, but that’s a different conversation and that is their business,” Prentiss told the school board. “High school is different. As always, there is a process. The parent can reach out to any department when they would like to opt out of curriculum materials. That has not changed in District 86.”
The district, Prentiss said, is making no substantial changes to its sex education curriculum. One change is for students to understand the definition of different terms, she said.
* From Rep. Adam Niemerg’s op-ed to the Sun Times…
Meanwhile, parents are asking how schools can justify teaching a radical sex education curriculum when so many of our students, across the state, are not meeting basic standards of learning in core subjects.
According to the most recent Illinois Assessment of Readiness text scores, fewer than one in five Chicago third-graders met or exceeded state standards in reading and math. And it is not just Chicago — school districts across the state have similar problems with low scores.
The focus in our schools should be on giving children the building blocks they need to learn — how to read, write, add, subtract and have a basic understanding of science and history. It is not the job of schools to teach graphic sexual content, especially when our kids are not meeting our state’s basic academic standards of learning.
My colleagues and I worked to stop the National Sex Education Standards from becoming a part of our state’s school curriculum, but we fell just short of defeating the legislation. The battleground now moves to parents and local school boards to opt out of teaching these standards. It is a battle we can and will win, as long as parents stay engaged.
* Education Week…
[Nora Gelperin, the director of sex education and training at Advocates for Youth] was one of the writers of the National Sex Education Standards, which Illinois has adopted. The national standards also influenced New Jersey’s guidelines. […]
Sex education advocates linked this resistance to the anti-LGBTQ legislation that at least 15 states have considered or passed this legislative session. The most well-known of these laws, Florida’s, prevents teachers from instructing K-3 students about gender or sexuality. Other proposed legislation would limit how teachers can use students’ pronouns, restrict use of materials featuring LGBTQ characters or themes, or regulate clubs for LGBTQ students.
And the outrage about sex education has once again put a spotlight on schools’ instructional choices, a situation that some advocates fear could make educators hesitant to address certain topics altogether.
“I have no problem with someone deciding for their own child, but when you get out there and start hijacking the narrative for everyone else’s kid, that’s dangerous,” said LoBianco.
* Hannah Meisel earlier this month…
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey on Tuesday said he’d prioritize eliminating “critical race theory” and “egregious” sex education standards from Illinois schools if elected to replace Gov. JB Pritzker in November, courting a relatively new coalition of voters radicalized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bailey made those comments to a small rally outside the state Capitol building in Springfield organized by activist group Awake IL, which in recent weeks has come under fire for its social media posts, including a tweet in June that called Pritzker a “groomer” for signing new sex education standards into law. […]
Bailey, however, leaned into the group’s messaging on Tuesday, telling a crowd of about 40 that Pritzker has “stripped away” decision-making powers from Illinois parents. Bailey referenced last fall’s repeal of Illinois’ Parental Notice of Abortion Act, but also alluded to state-mandated curriculum standards, which in recent years have grown to include the history and contributions of Asian Americans, LGBT individuals and an overhaul for sex education.
“Children are our most valuable asset,” Bailey told the few dozen gathered for the lengthy program that began more than an hour late. “But our children and our rights as parents are being stripped from us.”
* WTTW…
State Sen. Ram Villivalam, a Democrat from Chicago and one of the law’s sponsors, says the new standards are “age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, and inclusive.”
“There’s been a rise in child sex abuse scandals, sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual assault on college campuses, and bullying of LGBTQ students and people of color,” Villivalam said. “Our youth … need medically and factually accurate information, as well as a safe environment to develop the skills they need to navigate our modern world.” […]
But Villivalam says the focus for younger grades, for example, is topics like “personal safety, what it means to be a good friend, good touch and bad touch, being able to talk to parents and trusted adults.”
Parents can still opt their children out of sex education, and districts that don’t teach it won’t have to follow the new standards.
[Note from Rich Miller: Proponents of the original bill fought against the governor’s ultimately successful efforts to allow school districts to opt-out, predicting that doing so would spark hot-tempered local culture wars. They turned out to be right. Whether their alternative proposal would’ve been better can probably never be known, however.]
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* Friday press release…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul today issued the following statement in response to an opinion by the 4th District Appellate Court in Sarah Sachen v. Illinois State Board of Elections. The opinion affirmed a lower court’s decision rejecting a lawsuit that sought to remove a proposed constitutional amendment from the November 2022 ballot.
“I am pleased with the 4th District’s decision, which will allow voters to decide whether Illinois’ constitution should be amended to include a ‘Workers’ Rights Amendment.’ We argued that the plaintiffs’ claims failed because the decision of whether to amend the constitution should be made by the voters, not the courts. I am happy the court agreed.
“Voters should decide whether workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain should be enshrined in our constitution. This opinion means that, in a few short months, voters will have the ultimate say.”
That lawsuit, backed by the Liberty Justice Center and the Illinois Policy Institute, was iffy from the get-go, to say the least.
* From the opinion…
Petitioners asked the trial court to find that there was a reasonable ground for the filing of their complaint and to order it filed. They attached a copy of their complaint to their petition, alleging Amendment 1 was preempted by the [National Labor Relations Act] and in violation of the supremacy clause and seeking both declaratory relief and injunctive relief. Specifically, petitioners asked the court to (1) declare that Amendment 1 was preempted by the NLRA and in violation of the supremacy clause and (2) preliminarily and permanently enjoin respondents from disbursing or using public funds to place Amendment 1 on the November 2022 general election ballot. […]
Following a hearing the same month, the trial court entered a written order denying petitioners leave to file their complaint and agreeing with respondents that reasonable grounds did not exist for the filing of their proposed action. […]
On appeal, petitioners challenge the trial court’s denial of their petition for leave to file a taxpayer action. They argue that as taxpayers, they have standing to seek to enjoin the use of public funds for any unconstitutional purpose, including the placement of a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot when the amendment itself is unconstitutional. Further, they contend that, even if they are not entitled to injunctive relief, they still have standing to obtain declaratory relief with respect to the constitutionality of the proposed amendment. Finally, petitioners maintain the court erred in finding their constitutional claim—that Amendment 1 violates the supremacy clause because it is preempted by the NLRA—lacked merit. […]
Here, because petitioners do not claim a violation of article XIV, their proposed action would seek judicial interference with a legislative process that is constitutionally authorized. Such interference is improper as expressed in Fletcher, and ultimately, there is no waste of public funds caused by the carrying out of an election that conforms to constitutional requirements. Further, petitioners’ challenge to the validity of Amendment 1 is premature until such time as it becomes effective. We note petitioners argue on appeal that even if their claim for injunctive relief may not be maintained, they could still successfully pursue declaratory relief. However, as respondents point out, Slack specifically applied its holding to a request for a declaratory judgment. Thus, like petitioners’ claim for injunctive relief, their request for declaratory relief is also premature.
For the reasons stated, we find the trial court was correct in finding petitioners’ claims failed as a matter of law. The court’s determination that reasonable grounds did not exist for the filing of petitioners’ taxpayer action was not an abuse of discretion.
C. Preemption
As stated, the trial court further found that no reasonable grounds existed for the proposed taxpayer action because (1) Amendment 1 could have some valid applications that would not be subject to preemption and (2) preemption could only render Amendment 1 “dormant, not invalid.” Given our holding above, we find it unnecessary to address this additional basis for denying petitioners leave to file their action.
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* Craig Dellimore interviewed Rep. Dan Brady about his GOP campaign for secretary of state…
Dellimore: The top of the GOP ticket is state senator Darren Bailey, who has sometimes been a bit of a lightning rod with his comments about abortion and the Holocaust and calling Chicago a hellhole. How does that kind of rhetoric play out? Does it excite the base and help you, or can it be a distraction to your race?
Brady: Well, I think that on both sides, Democrats and Republicans, you have that, unfortunately. But I believe that the conservative Republican policies are better than the Democrat tax and spending policies that we presently have. But I think more so than anything, laying out the foundation of what you’re going to do for an office or not. I’m a Republican. I’m supporting a Republican ticket. But I also wish that some of the rhetoric would be toned down, and the focus would simply be what are we going to do for the people of Illinois? Because in my travels, Craig, that’s what people [are talking about]
Dellimore: But sometimes it seems that for whatever reason, bipartisanship and talking about working together is a sign of weakness to some. How do you overcome that kind of an attitude in this atmosphere of politics?
Brady: I think you do and I’ve done it. You work hard. You win the Republican nomination and you show people that I’m Republican enough. Or if Democrats think I’m too Republican, Republicans think I’m not Republican enough, you have to prove that, you have to show that. And the Secretary of State’s office is a unique situation to be in. And that is that people want services. They don’t come in asking where I stand in the Republican line, that Democrat line or any other line. They just want the services and so I can control one thing in my campaign: my message, what I say, what I do. And certainly some of the other rhetoric, rhetoric that’s out there, I wish that would not be the case and it should be toned down. I think it could hurt people statewide. But both sides have a problem. And I think that it’s just a matter of convincing the electorate, he’s somebody I had that faith in, he’s somebody I trust, and he’s somebody I think would do a good job. That’s my charge.
I’m not sure who on the statewide Democratic ticket regularly resorts to Darren Bailey-style rhetoric, but whatevs.
Also, please pardon all transcription errors.
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* OK, let’s go back to Darren Bailey’s Q&A at the Farm Bureau’s candidate forum last week…
Q: In the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, there was a provision that would allow the use of eminent domain to take private property for a project that is not a public utility. Do you support giving private companies that are not a public utility the right to use or to take private property?
Bailey: I do not. I have two counties in my Senate district that are affected by that. And I stood on the Senate floor and I said there was a lot of things wrong with this bill. Number one, it forces coal out too early. And number two, it forces natural gas out too early. And number four, it makes our dependency on wind and solar too soon. But I said all that aside, if there’s one reason and one reason alone why I would vote no on this bill, it would be because of the eminent domain clause.
* From Gov. JB Pritzker’s remarks later that day…
Darren Bailey is lying to you about a few things. There’s nothing in the [Climate and Equitable Jobs Act] that makes it easier to impose eminent domain. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
* As we all know by now, Pritzker was wrong…
Democratic lawmakers at the time said the language, included on page 673 of the public act, applies to the Grain Belt Express, a transmission line owned by the private company Invenergy. The language in the bill states that a project of Grain Belt’s magnitude “shall be deemed” a public use line, giving the company the ability to invoke eminent domain if needed.
* My associate Isabel Miller asked Pritzker Friday evening if he regretted saying Bailey lied. The governor’s response…
Darren Bailey did not tell the truth about eminent domain. Darren Bailey said that there is a massive change in statewide ability of the state to declare eminent domain. That’s just false.
Bailey said no such thing.
I mean, the governor’s likely gonna win. There’s no need for this stuff.
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Special session not looking likely
Monday, Aug 29, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Back in early July, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the two Democratic legislative leaders, House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, issued a joint statement, which in part said: “We plan to work closely together for the remainder of the summer to assess every possibility of what we can do and convene a special session in the coming months.”
But the fine print of the rest of that statement has slowed things down: “As we build on Illinois’ nation-leading abortion protections and access, it is essential to bring lawmakers and advocates into the room to continue to work together. In the coming weeks, as the ripples of the decision to overturn Roe are felt throughout the nation, we expect to get an acute sense of our needs and how Illinois can play an even more vital role in standing up for reproductive freedom.”
Lawmakers and advocates have been brought together for talks ever since that special session statement was issued, but, as always, the devil is in the details.
Advocates and several legislators appear to only want to pass bills with immediate effective dates. And that means each chamber would have to come up with three-fifths super majorities if anything is passed before the end of this calendar year. The voting threshold for immediate effective dates drops to simple majorities starting Jan. 1. Until then, per the state constitution, the earliest a bill passed with a simple majority can become law is next June 1.
And it almost seems like every few days brings a new legal twist from another anti-abortion state legislature. Just the other day, for instance, a federal judge temporarily blocked part of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban because it appears to violate a federal law mandating the provision of emergency health care. The suit was brought by the U.S. Attorney General. Indiana’s sweeping new anti-abortion law takes effect in September. Iowa’s supreme court flip-flopped in June and ruled that the state’s constitution does not protect abortion rights after all. And new bans took effect last week in Tennessee, Texas and North Dakota, according to NPR.
Also, new ideas are popping up with frequency as laws from other states are being analyzed. An idea from Democratic secretary of state candidate Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign to block anti-abortion states from using Illinois traffic camera images to track their residents who travel here for abortions is just one of them.
Giannoulias’ proposal would prohibit data gathered by automatic license plate readers from being used to assist other states track their residents while they’re in Illinois for possible violations of abortion laws in their home states. “Illinois must enact protections to ensure that data is not used to target women seeking access to abortion services or employing it as any type of surveillance system to track them,” Giannoulias told WBBM Radio.
His Republican opponent Rep. Dan Brady has responded by saying he’ll stick to improving services and cutting wait times and not involve himself in policy. Giannoulias replied that he could “walk and chew gum” at the same time.
It was a clever move to tie the mostly ministerial secretary of state office to actual public policy that’s in the headlines every day and driving the nation’s political dialogue. And that’s clearly a sign of a strong campaign.
Along those lines, one of the measures that the legislative leaders and the governor hoped to pass in a special session was an advisory referendum on this November’s ballot asking if voters wanted a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights.
These sorts of referenda were a favored tool of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who would use issues like a tax surcharge on millionaires to drive up Democratic election-day turnout and, to a lesser extent, provide a boost to future legislative initiatives on the topic, or provide an excuse for not doing anything further.
A referendum has been rejected by many advocates and pro-choice legislators alike, who want to see actual results, not symbolism for obvious political gain.
The bottom line here is that a special session on abortion rights is not looking all that likely any longer.
And the same thing goes for gun law reforms. There are a lot of moving parts to this issue and some legislators, particularly Downstaters, would rather not poke the gun lobby before Election Day.
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Live coverage
Monday, Aug 29, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
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