The recorded debates from the state’s 1970 Constitutional Convention and previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings could not be clearer – the Illinois Supreme Court should reverse a recent Cook County Circuit Court ruling and order the Independent Map Amendment be put before voters in the upcoming November election, according to the coalition’s opening brief filed Friday with the Court.
“The language of the Illinois Constitution and legislative history of the convention debates are indisputable,” said Dennis FitzSimons, Chair of Independent Maps. “Redistricting reform is clearly a topic that can be addressed by a citizen initiated amendment, and the Independent Map Amendment is exactly what the men and women who wrote the constitution had in mind when they granted Illinoisans this power.”
The brief argues that the Cook County Circuit Court ruling is an erroneous interpretation of the Illinois Constitution and is contrary to both the plain language of the constitution and the legislative debates of the constitutional convention. “Indeed, if allowed to stand, the circuit court’s ruling would effectively nullify the constitutional right of Illinois citizens to amend the legislative article through the initiative process, making it virtually impossible to craft a redistricting proposal that offers any meaningful change,” the brief states.
Quoting extensively from the debates by the members of the convention, the brief demonstrates that the framers of the constitution identified redistricting as one of the “critical” areas that voters could address in a citizen-initiated amendment. While citizen-initiated amendments are limited to structural and procedural subjects contained in the legislative article, the constitution’s “limited to” language was designed to prevent initiatives on substantive issues like taxes, abortion or the death penalty, but the language was not intended to stifle creativity of initiatives related to the legislature.
“The circuit court reached the wrong conclusion because it refused to interpret the Redistricting Initiative in a common sense manner, recognizing that each and every aspect of it is directly related to (and only to) redistricting,” the brief states.
“Under these circumstances, denying Illinois voters the right to vote on the Redistricting Initiative would deprive all of the citizens of Illinois of an important constitutional right reserved to the people by the 1970 constitution,” according to the brief, which points out that the circuit court ruling incorrectly rejected a “straight-forward, common sense interpretation” of the constitution, isolated various aspects of the amendment and re-characterized them as pertaining to something other than redistricting. “All of the provisions of the Redistricting Initiative are limited to the subject of redistricting: each and every one of them seeks to improve the redistricting process, by establishing better and more objective standards and by adopting new procedures to minimize self-interest and partisanship.”
A majority of the delegates agreed, however, that a more limited initiative process should be adopted “as a way to suggest constitutional change that a legislature . . . by its very nature might be unable to accomplish,” such as “reapportionment.” As one delegate noted, “we could hardly expect the legislature ever to propose a Constitutional amendment to reduce the size of its membership, to establish a reapportionment commission comprised entirely of nonlegislative members, or perhaps even to establish single - member districts.”
* From the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s website…
Illinois offers unparalleled opportunity at the epicenter of North America. Companies can thrive in a world class business environment with the most diverse economy in the nation, a central location with easy access to your operations, a well-educated and experienced workforce of millions, and an opportunity to be an integral part of the second most economically powerful region in America.
We have one of the world’s most culturally vibrant states that has become a magnet for the country’s brightest minds. And Illinois businesses enjoy low corporate taxes and tax-free personal property that help make us one of the most business-friendly place in the nation. [Emphasis added.]
The typo is in the original.
* The Question: Where’s Bruce “Illinois is in a death spiral” Rauner and what have they done to him?
Since February, Sunlight has pored over hundreds of names and affiliations of DNC superdelegates from all over the country. Our methodology included going state by state to the respective lobbying registration database, as well as using data from OpenSecrets.org, to see if an individual was ever registered as a federal or state lobbyist.
At least 64 superdelegates have registered as a lobbyist at the federal level or state level at some point.
Today I veto House Bill 4351 from the 99th General Assembly, which would amend the Illinois Act on Aging to restrict the State’s flexibility in how we assess and serve Illinois’s elderly and physically disabled residents.
This bill is very similar to House Bill 2482, passed by the General Assembly last year, and which I returned with an amendatory veto for many of the same concerns I raise today. Although well intentioned, this bill would lead to serious unintended consequences.
First, this bill would lock into statute that an individual with a particular threshold score on the Determination of Need (DON) assessment tool would be eligible for both institutional and home and community-based long term care services. Instead, an individual with the threshold score should be entitled to institutional or home and community-based care. Many members of the General Assembly have long worked to transition the state from a reliance on institutional-based care to a focus on community care options that improve patient quality and cost efficiency. However, House Bill 4351 inhibits this transformation in the way the State delivers services for the elderly and disabled.
Second, to the extent that a motivating factor behind this legislation is to preclude a raise in the minimum DON score used to determine eligibility—as originally contemplated under the SMART Act (Public Act 97-0689)—I have no intention of raising the DON score. In light of this commitment, there can be no good reason to unnecessarily restrict the State’s ability to move from institutional-based care to community-based care through this legislation.
Finally, this bill would inhibit the Illinois Department on Aging from creating a new program, the Community Reinvestment Program (CRP). This program is designed to provide a multitude of flexible services for non-Medicaid individuals currently being served under the Community Care Program (CCP), and it furthers the State’s commitment to serving individuals in their own home and community rather than in nursing homes. CRP is also projected to produce savings of nearly $200 million during the next fiscal year. By precluding the launch of CRP, this bill would prevent the State from managing ever-rising costs and jeopardize our ability to ensure that essential community services remain available for the approximately 44,000 non-Medicaid persons now served by CCP.
…Adding… SEIU press release…
House Bill 4351, sponsored by Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) and Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) would have prevented Rauner from manipulating the Determination of Need (DON) Score and limiting eligibility to seniors, which Rauner attempted last year. This is in addition to a proposed $200 million cut to CCP, which, in early talks, Rauner is proposing to replace with for-profit ride sharing vouchers, food vouchers and dry-cleaning services as an untried, unproven way to eliminate the in-home caregivers represented by SEIU Healthcare Illinois.
As a result of Rauner’s risky proposals, some 44,000 seniors are at risk of forced institutionalization.
Following is the response of Rep. Greg Harris:
“Sadly this veto by Gov. Rauner is another in his ongoing campaign targeting childcare, people with disabilities and senior citizens. We should be encouraging seniors to remain in their own homes and low-cost community settings instead of driving them into more costly institutions and nursing homes.”
* Other bills were also vetoed today…
Today I return Senate Bill 1059. This bill would allow retired state university employees who return to work after receiving a lump-sum retirement distribution to receive additional health benefits without making additional contributions to the retirement system.
Under current law, state university employees have the option to receive a one-time, lump-sum payout from the State University Retirement System upon retirement. A retired employee who elects to accept the lump-sum payout is not eligible to participate in the State’s health care program. If a retired employee later returns to work for the State after accepting a lump-sum payout, he or she no longer contributes to the State Retirement Systems and, therefore, is ineligible to receive additional future retirement benefits.
Senate Bill 1059 would allow a retired employee who accepts a lump-sum payout and then returns to work to participate in the State’s employee health care program, even though he or she would not be required to contribute to the State’s retirement systems going forward. The bill would establish an unequal benefit distribution and expose the State to unforeseen, unfunded costs to the historically underfunded State Employee Group Insurance Program. Rather than increasing retirement-related costs to the State, I urge the General Assembly to work with me on comprehensive pension reform.
* And…
Today I veto Senate Bill 2439, which amends the Illinois Pension Code to impose additional pension liability for police and firefighters on local governments, despite a local referendum rejecting such an expansion. It is identical to Senate Bill 763, which I vetoed last year.
Public safety workers deserve the right to earn good pension benefits. However, current law already provides a mechanism by which a municipality can provide pension benefits to police officers and firefighters. Benefits are mandatory in municipalities with the population of at least 5,000 people and can be created by referendum in those with fewer than 5,000 residents. Thus, in smaller municipalities, the decision rests directly with the people who will have to pay for additional benefits through higher property and other taxes.
This veto is necessary because Senate Bill 2439 would allow municipalities an end-run around local referendum results. If this legislation becomes law, a municipality could impose new pension obligations by a resolution of its governing body even if residents overwhelmingly reject the same by referendum. At a time when local governments in Illinois are struggling to make ends meet, we should not stifle direct democracy by permitting local governing bodies to ignore taxpayer’s wishes.
* And…
Today I veto Senate Bill 2531 from the 99th General Assembly to prevent yet another hindrance to economic development in Illinois.
The bill requires an economic development council that receives public money to include members of a labor council and persons from minority groups on its corporate board. Diverse representation, particularly minority representation, on corporate boards is an admirable goal and one every corporation should seek to attain. However, corporate boards should also be representative of the constituencies they serve and need flexibility to ensure that representation. Mandating certain representation on every economic development corporation that receives public monies is a one size fits all approach that ignores that many of these local and regional councils may be best served with different representation that reflects their specific mission.
Further, the vague drafting of this legislation is likely to have unintended consequences. For example, “economic development corporation” is defined as “an organization that receives public money that promotes the development, establishment or expansion of industries.” This broad definition will likely lead to the inclusion of corporations whose works bears no relationship to traditional economic development. In addition, many corporations that would fall within this definition are dedicated to representing the interests of the management side of business. Forcing the inclusion of the labor representatives on such a board is in direct conflict with such a corporation’s interest.
This bill is one of three pieces of legislation passed by the General Assembly this year that impose arbitrary mandates on groups trying to further economic development in Illinois. Last year Illinois lost thousands of jobs, and I continue to hear that businesses are leaving our State. Rather than imposing inflexible requirements on entities trying to bring jobs to the Illinois, I encourage the General Assembly to focus on passing legislation designed to further economic development.
Friday, Jul 29, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Independent Maps, a non-partisan statewide coalition of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, has appealed a circuit court judge’s ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court. If left intact, the lower court judge’s ruling would rob Illinois voters of the right make a meaningful change in the way legislative districts are drawn.
The framers of the Illinois Constitution knew that legislators would not advance amendments that impacted their offices — no matter how popular the ideas might be with Illinoisans. That’s why the Illinois Constitution gave voters the right to propose legislative reform amendments.
This important right is now endangered.
The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on a citizen initiative since 1994, but they will now have the opportunity to preserve this important constitutional right of Illinois voters.
More than 563,000 Illinois voters signed a petition to for a transparent, fair and impartial way to draw legislative maps. Reversing this lower court ruling will restore the democratic rights of voters in our state.
* Gov. Rauner just announced that he has signed three bills which have stirred some controversy. The first is the marijuana decriminalization bill. Rauner used an amendatory veto on a similar bill last year and proponents drafted another one to comply with his instructions. From a press release…
On Friday, July 29th Governor Rauner signed both SB 2228 and HB 4360. The passage of these bills represents an outstanding example of cooperation on reforming our criminal justice system.
“In the midst of a session where cooperation and compromise has been lacking, I am proud to have worked out our differences on this legislation and move our state in a very positive direction” said Representative Cassidy. “The governor and I both recognize the urgent need for criminal justice reform, reduction in prison population and the removal of barriers to reentry”
SB 2228 provides a statewide standard for cannabis possession, with a maximum $200 fine for possession of 10 grams or less and automatic expungement upon fine payment. The bill also implements scientifically proven standards for driving under the influence of cannabis and strengthens penalties for the dangerous production process of butane extracts. Representative Cassidy worked with a widespread coalition, gaining support from the Cook County State’s Attorney, Sheriff’s Office and Public Defender, in addition to numerous organizations across the state.
HB 4360 would eliminate the lifetime bar on employment and reduce time frames of prohibited hiring for various non-violent offenses for those seeking work in schools. It allows qualified individuals a schance to make their case and be considered for open positions. A thorough negotiation process secured the support of the Illinois State Board of Education.
* Two other bills signed today have been opposed by pro-life groups. Here’s part of the ACLU’s analysis on HB 5576…
The Illinois Contraceptive Coverage Act will [prevent] insurance companies from imposing utilization controls that make it difficult for women to access the birth control they need, and by allowing coverage for 12 months of contraception at a time. As 99% of sexually active women use (or have used) at least one type of birth control in their lifetime, the potential impact of this legislation is widespread.
* And here’s the Illinois Family Institute’s action alert on the other bill, SB 1564…
SB 1564 will radically alter the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act — an Act that allows medical personnel and health care facilities to avoid participating in morally dubious medical procedures such as abortion, sterilization, and certain end-of-life care. Doctors, pharmacists, and other medical personnel have been protected from having to violate their beliefs and values for almost twenty years under this Act. […]
Under SB 1564, a doctor’s conscience and religious beliefs are irrelevant and it’s possible that a doctor refusing to assist in a procedure he/she morally objects to could result in a lawsuit.
Senate Bill 1564, now on its way to the Governor, carefully balances the needs of patients to get complete information about their medical condition with the ability of health care providers to refuse health care services to which they have a religious or conscience objection. In the course of the debate around this legislation, we have seen a campaign of false claims hurled by a handful of opponents. The debate in the House helped pierce these claims, making clear that the bill does not force anyone to participate in or refer for abortion or any other care.
Rather, Senate Bill 1564 ensures that each patient in Illinois now can be assured that they will have complete information, so that they can make the best medical decision for themselves and their families. These medical decisions, we expect, will be guided by a patient¹s individual condition and his or her personal beliefs. Senate Bill 1564 means that when Illinois patients go into an exam room, they do not need to worry that they are being denied medical information based on their health care provider¹s religious beliefs. In short, this bill protects patients when health care providers exercise religious refusals.
* When thinking about these two bills, keep this New York Times Magazine quote in mind…
And as the Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Rich Miller recently wrote, in Illinois “independent suburban women have been the deciding factor in just about every statewide race since 1990.”
State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) has an established reputation among conservatives as being gutsy and speaking her mind on the Illinois House floor. Thursday, she signed a petition promising her first vote in her third House term will not be for Michael Madigan as speaker.
“I almost never sign pledges, but this one is a no-brainer,” Ives wrote alongside a photo of her pledge.
Gutsy, indeed.
* The “pledge” is being sent around by a House Republican candidate named Mike Strick…
I, _______________ a candidate for the office of State Representative for the District of _____ Illinois, pledge to the citizens of the ____ District of the state of Illinois that I will, upon my election and being sworn into office to the Illinois House of Representatives, refuse to vote for the incumbent Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael J. Madigan. I am free to vote for any other elected member, Democrat or Republican as I see fit.
Name____________________________
Candidate for State Representative for the _______ District.
Strick is up against Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego). He raised $1175 in the second quarter, spent $100 and filed his report on paper.
* The gaming stuff is old news, and we talked a little about the Lottery stuff yesterday, but let’s flesh it out…
A new private company or perhaps a new governmental agency could run the Illinois Lottery, and Gov. Bruce Rauner said Thursday he would be open to talk about expanding casino gambling.
Rauner, who long has complained about the revenue the state lottery has generated under a deal his Democratic predecessor, Pat Quinn, brokered in 2010, announced Thursday that the state was formally requesting bidders to take over the lottery program. […]
Rauner said the state would move within a few months to hire a new firm to run the lottery, and that the state was looking for a contractor that can boost revenue by expanding the lottery’s online presence and better market games.
Rauner noted there are few companies that specialize in running state lotteries, and said his administration was willing to look at companies that don’t specialize in running games. If private companies don’t come up with proposals that win over the governor, he said he would go to the Legislature to create a quasi-government agency to oversee
Northstar got the 10-year deal because it made the biggest promises of profits for the state. The firm then never met those original profit targets. It blamed the state for supposedly doing things that hurt its ability to make its profit numbers, while the state fought to penalize Northstar for failing to meet the targets.
In an effort to oust Northstar, the Quinn administration cut a deal with Northstar for it to leave, and Rauner’s administration renegotiated the deal. […]
In the meantime, the Rauner administration said it was studying what metrics mattered for state lotteries to better structure the deal the second time. It unveiled those basics Thursday, which include allowing smaller firms to compete for the management job while prohibiting vendors who do the grunt work from also bidding on the management job.
Rauner said he also wants the new manager to better push internet sales. Illinois was a U.S. pioneer in introducing online lottery ticket sales, but it has struggled to capitalize on it. He said he hopes a deal can be reached with a firm in the next six months.
Rauner said it would take around six months to hire a new manager following the process set in state law. But he said if a suitable replacement can’t be found through bids, he’d consider trying to change the management model. The Republican floated the potential of a “public benefit corporation” similar to how some states, including Georgia and Tennessee, run lotteries.
Any changes would require approval from the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Rauner’s general counsel Jason Barclay described the potential for a corporation set up within state government that wouldn’t be subject to all state requirements, like procurement rules. He said the ideas “intrigued” the governor, though no details had been decided. In 2003, Tennessee created a quasi-government entity to run games and generate money for schools.
Private manager, quasi-government entity, I don’t really care as long as it’s managed well.
Political contributions and transfers in Illinois for 2016 have now surpassed $100 million, nearing total amounts contributed in previous Presidential Election years.
In 2012 and 2008, there were $171 million and $151 million in contributions and transfers respectively. Years with Gubernatorial Elections tend to see more state level contributions, with over $340 million in 2014 and over $277 million in 2010.
The Illinois Republican Party spent over $130,000 on independent expenditures during the last two weeks. The money went towards advertisements for 11 challengers of Democratic incumbents in the House and Senate. No independent expenditures have been made on behalf of the Democrats in those races.
The Citizens to Protect Transportation Funding, a ballot initiative committee,
continued an upward fundraising trend this week. On Monday, the committee received $300,000 donation from Excavators, Inc and a $50,000 donation from Southern Illinois Construction Advancement Program. Those donations alone doubled the committee’s total funds from two weeks ago when there was a pick up in their fundraising. The group, which was founded in late June, already has $827,000 in available funds. They support an amendment that would create a lockbox for transportation funds.
The key word here is “transfers.” Transfers are just what they sound like: One campaign committee transfers money to another campaign committee. So, most transfers aren’t really “new” money. It’s money already in the system being moved around.
* So, I asked for the breakdown and here’s their response…
Since January 1st of 2016, there has been just over $54 million in contributions, $38 million in transfers, $6 million in loans to committees, and $4 million in in-kind contributions. That’s how we arrive at the total of roughly $102 million as of today - an updated number from yesterday’s $1.7 million.
So, the “new” money total is more like $64 million, including contributions, loans, and in-kinds.
* But look at how this year - so far - compares to previous presidential election years…
2012
- $38 million in individual contributions
- $17 million in transfers
- $4.7 million in loans
- $3.5 million in in-kinds
Total of $63.2 million
2008
- $36 million in contributions
- $16.8 million in transfers
- $5 million in loans
- $3 milion in in-kinds
The House Republican Organization got another $500,000 from the Illinois GOP — money from a $5 million contribution from Gov. Bruce Rauner back in May.
The HRO has now received $3.5 million from the state Republican Party since May 10 as it continues a concerted cable TV advertising campaign targeting potential Democratic incumbents. House Republican leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, is trying to cut into Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan’s supermajority.
In addition to the HRO campaign operations, the state Republican Party last week also reported spending an additional $132,526 on legislative campaign mailings supporting 11 candidates against many of the same targeted Democrats.
The Democrats being challenged by Republicans in the mailings are Reps. Michelle Mussman, of Schaumburg; Sam Yingling, of Grayslake; Kate Cloonen, of Kankakee; Andy Skoog, of LaSalle; Mike Smiddy, of Hillsdale; Daniel Beiser, of Alton; John Bradley, of Marion; Brandon Phelps, of Harrisburg; and Sens. Tom Cullerton, of Villa Park; Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, of Shorewood; and Gary Forby, of Benton.
Faculty groups that oppose the appointment of a Champaign cybersecurity expert as the sole faculty member on the Illinois Board of Higher Education have suggested a compromise.
Let John Bambenek be one of the IBHE’s nine public members rather than the faculty representative.
The suggestion was raised last month at meetings among Bambenek, a University of Illinois lecturer, and faculty from the UI and the IBHE’s Faculty Advisory Council.
“I met with them and listened to their concerns and forwarded them to the governor,” Bambenek told The News-Gazette on Thursday. “At this point, no decision has been made.”
The IBHE has one vacancy for a public member, a term that would expire in January 2019, according to agency spokeswoman Candace Mueller.
DePaul University Professor Marie Donovan, who chairs the Faculty Advisory Council, said she heard Bambenek phone Rauner to relay the group’s recommendation after its meeting with him.
That arrangement assumes they’d be much happier with whomever Rauner chooses as the alternative faculty representative.
Somehow, I kinda doubt they’ll be overjoyed with the governor’s choice.
* She spoke at 4:45 yesterday afternoon, so most people will have only read or heard about it, if at all…
Rep. Tammy Duckworth addressed the delegation at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, slamming Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“In Donald Trump’s America, if you get knocked down, you stay down,” Duckworth said to applause. “By the way, Donald Trump, I didn’t put my life on the line to defend our democracy so you could invite Russia to interfere in it. You are not fit to be Commander-in-Chief.”
And she never once mentioned her opponent by name.
A super political action committee allied with Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s re-election campaign is going on the air with TV and radio ads critical of Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth’s stance on national security.
The Independent Voice for Illinois Super PAC is headed by former Kirk chief of staff Eric Elk, and it reported more than $1.3 million on hand to start the month after raising $845,000 in the first half of this year, federal election records showed.
The ads backing Kirk and criticizing Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, are airing in the Peoria, Champaign and Rockford markets. A spot check showed the super PAC spending about $27,000 alone to air 115 half-minute TV ads on WCIA Ch. 3 in Champaign.
The ads are critical of a statement Duckworth made last year about Syrian refugees that are in dispute by the two campaigns. The Kirk camp argues Duckworth indicated she wants 200,000 Syrian refugees to enter the United States — 20 times the number authorized by President Barack Obama. Duckworth’s campaign has said the candidate supports resettling 200,000 refugees overall in the United States, not just from Syria.
There’s a simple reason why legalization may not be having much of an effect on teen marijuana use — adolescents already report that marijuana is widely available. Nationally, roughly 80 percent of 12th-graders say that pot is easy to get. The kids who want to smoke weed are probably already doing so — and legalization would do little to change that.
Drying up the black market would certainly limit pot’s availability to children. Kids can’t easily find a street-corner booze dealer like they can with pot dealers. And pot dealers don’t check ID cards. Yeah, the most determined ones will always find a way, but Walgreen’s managers don’t engage in bullet-riddled turf wars with CVS managers.
Let’s legalize it so we can stamp out the rampant criminal involvement the way we did with alcohol and video poker machines.
Women continue to be underrepresented in elected offices across the U.S., but the situation in Illinois is among the bright spots, and area voters have helped shine the light.
The state ranks sixth in the country for the percentage of female lawmakers serving in the state Legislature. Women make up about 32 percent of the Illinois General Assembly, holding 57 of the 177 seats.
There’s obviously still a long way to go, but as the editorial goes on to note, Kankakee has a female state Representative (Kate Cloonen), a female mayor (Nina Epstein) and a female US Rep. (Robin Kelly). Sen. Toi Hutchinson also represents the city. Rep. Cloonen’s Republican opponent is a female, so the GA’s gender balance won’t change if the incumbent loses.
* This is by no means the first time Senate President John Cullerton has said this about a potential tax hike, but it’s still worth noting…
In June, Illinois legislators approved a stopgap budget that will get the state through the November election and into the lame duck fall session.
Cullerton said he’s willing to work with the governor on a budget “as long as he doesn’t have radical ideas.”
“We look forward to finishing up our budget negotiations, getting a grand bargain and any kind of an agreement has to be with Gov. Rauner’s blessings. We’re not going to have any tax increase unless Gov. Rauner wants it,” Cullerton said.
“And if he wants a tax increase, he’ll determine how much that tax increase will be. But we’ll work with him. But it’s not going to happen unilaterally. It has to be two parties sitting down and willing to compromise and that’s certainly where I am.”
Many delegates at both the Republican and Democratic conventions expressed dissatisfaction with their parties’ presidential nominees, and that discord could have an effect on Illinois’ 2018 election.
Voters upset with the choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could turn to Libertarian Gary Johnson or the Green Party’s Jill Stein for president on their Illinois ballots. And if either — or both — gets more than 5 percent of the vote, it’ll be much easier for those parties to get a candidate for governor on the 2018 ballot.
That’s because crossing the 5 percent threshold in Illinois means a party’s statewide contenders would only need 5,000 petition signatures to get on the ballot instead of 25,000.
Ten years ago, Green Party candidate for governor Rich Whitney got nearly 10 percent of the vote, making it easier for his party to get ballot access, at least temporarily.
We’ll have to see how all this plays out. This portends to be a hugely negative election, between two candidates who, so far, aren’t widely liked (we’ll have to see what this week did for Clinton, but Trump’s convention bounce was not that big). That could very well force voters to flee to the sidelines or to third party candidates.
* But the Donald should probably avoid saying stuff like this…
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday afternoon he wanted to “hit” some of the Democratic National Convention speakers “so hard” while watching them last night, including a “little guy…so hard his head would spin.”
“You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard,” Trump said. “I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor.”
Trump didn’t immediately clarify what he meant, but he said he was made particularly upset by an unspecified person he called a “little guy.”
“I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy,” he said. “I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”
If you watch the video, it’s pretty clear he was talking about former NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who I thought gave one of the best “disqualifying” speeches of the week.
* We talked about this yesterday, but here’s the AP…
A settlement in the workplace retaliation lawsuit against Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth is final and the plaintiffs can’t back out even if no paperwork was signed, the Illinois attorney general’s office said Thursday.
One of two women who sued Duckworth said Wednesday they wanted out of the agreement because they felt the congresswoman was tarnishing their reputations by still calling their allegations false. They said they also were upset that Duckworth’s campaign referred to their lawsuit as frivolous shortly after the agreement was announced last month. […]
Butler did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday. The attorney for her and Goins, Matthew Ferrell, did not respond to a message relayed to him by his office.
Randall Schmidt, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said the general rule is settlement agreements are enforceable even if they’re not put in writing.
“The fact that it’s not reduced to writing isn’t in and of itself enough to back out,” he said.
Goins and Butler, speaking with the Daily Herald again on Thursday, said that throughout settlement conferences this spring, they had been assured by their attorney that until the paperwork was signed, they had not committed to anything.
The women met again with their attorney Tuesday night. “We told him we wanted to continue to trial. He never said that wasn’t possible. He said we would still be proceeding to trial unless an agreement was signed.”
The attorney general’s office said Thursday that while it views the agreement as final, that no settlement agreement had yet been submitted to the courts.
A spokeswoman at the Union County courthouse confirmed an Aug. 15 trial date for the case remains on Judge Mark Boie’s docket.
Still, Kirk’s campaign on Thursday called the settlement news a “Duckworth implosion.” Campaign manager Kevin Artl said information given by the attorney general’s office about the settlement last month was “clearly misleading.”
The plaintiffs told the Daily Herald the settlement was about $40,000, with $21,000 of that amount paying for attorney fees and another $9,000 for each plaintiff.
The attorney general’s office, however, disputes that claim, saying the $26,000 settlement covered all costs, including damages paid to each client.
Bottom line: The judge in this case is going to have to decide what the heck to do.
“We’ve obviously seen the stories, but that doesn’t change that we have a settlement agreement,” Attorney General’s office communications Director Maura Possley told Ward Room. […]
Possley told Ward Room that there is no scheduled trial.
But, according to the Union County Clerk’s office, the case is still on the docket because a settlement order to remove it hasn’t been received. Possley claimed the case is simply still on the docket from May.
Questions about whether U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin would run for governor in 2018 bubbled up at the Democratic Party convention this week.
“It’s a question about where I can best spend my life. Where can I achieve the goals that I want in public life? If I can do it in Washington and I feel I can be more effective there, of course that’s where I’ll stay,” Durbin told the Daily Herald about a potential run for governor — back in 2000.
He would go on to win re-election in 2002.
“I won’t make the final decision for some time now,” he said at the 2000 convention in comments that reflect what he’s said this week. “I want to focus on this election campaign first.”
* As Tony Arnold reports, and as you’ve undoubtedly seen if you’ve been watching our live convention coverage posts, a long parade of union leaders has denounced Gov. Rauner at the daily Illinois delegation breakfasts this week, sometimes in a profane manner. The governor’s office responded…
These comments demonstrate the lack of judgment and reasonableness of the leaders who are marching our state workers toward a September 1 strike.
National union leaders could care less about Illinois’s state employees or our worst-in-the-nation economic situation.
These national union leaders want to stir up unrest in Illinois so they can use our workers to fundraise for their national organizations.
Apparently local labor leaders are willing to let their own members be used in that way and that is wrong.
* I was just talking to Anders Lindall at AFSCME about a story that wasn’t panning out and he asked me if I’d heard that Jamey Johnson was playing at the Du Quoin State Fair this year. I hadn’t, but it’s true. He’s playing Friday, September 2nd at the grandstand.
Looks like I’m gonna be hauling the camper down ‘yonder this year.
* Love me some Jamey, man. As he sings in one of his songs, his music and attitude is somewhere between Waylon Jennings and George Jones. Let’s take a little break from the weirdness and have a listen…
Started burning our candles
Both ends and the middle
A bunch of roaring outlaws at high speed
* Also, you may know that Anders used to be a music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. He wrote a piece not long ago about a rising country star from an AFSCME family from the same town where one of my brothers used to live. It’s definitely worth a read…
One of the brightest new country music stars in Nashville comes from an AFSCME union family right here in Illinois.
With her debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Margo Price has landed a guest spot on “Saturday Night Live”, a video on CMT, and a rave review in Rolling Stone, which called her “undeniable” and compared her to Loretta Lynn.
But what looks like a rocket ride to stardom is really the latest twist in a long road that started in Aledo, Ill., southwest of the Quad Cities, where Margo and her sisters were raised by mom Candace and dad Duane. He worked for 25 years in Illinois prisons, first as a correctional officer at East Moline, where he was a member of AFSCME Local 46, and then as a lieutenant at Hill Correctional Center (Local 1274). Duane was a PEOPLE contributor and after his retirement in 2010 joined AFSCME Retirees.
* Here’s an e-mail exchange I’ve been having with Maura Possley at the attorney general’s office about whether the two women who settled their lawsuit with the state over alleged workplace retaliation by Tammy Duckworth can now withdraw from the settlement…
Me: was that settlement binding?
Maura Possley: Yes. We worked with a judge on June 24 and reached a final settlement.
Me: so, they can’t back out?
MP: It’s typical practice that after finalizing a settlement, the parties sign our standard form. If a plaintiff declines to sign the form, that does not change whether the agreement is final.
Me: did these plaintiffs sign the form?
MP: No, they haven’t signed it yet, but that happens occasionally. It’s just a form. We’ve seen the stories in the press, but that doesn’t change that we have a final settlement agreement.
Me: but can they back out of it?
MP: No.
* Meanwhile, this is from the Kirk campaign…
This seems to be a rather large discrepancy. Why would they say it only covered legal fees when clearly payment for damages were offered. Did McGrath and AG office discuss how to communicate the settlement? AG have a statement on this?
The AG Said The Settlement Was Only To Cover Attorney Fees And Was Worth $26,000. After a trial judge initiated a settlement conference, the case on Friday was settled for $26,000 to cover attorney fees and all costs, according to the Illinois Attorney General’s office, which represents state officials sued in their official capacities. (Tina Sfondeles And Lynn Sweet, “Lawsuit against Duckworth settled—but Kirk not letting it go,” Chicago Sun-Times, 6/24/16)
The Plaintiff’s Say The AG Failed To Mention The Settlement Covered Attorney’s Fees And $9,000 To Go To Each Plaintiff For A Total Of $40,000.The original settlement offer was reported to be around $26,000, with the attorney general’s office paying for the employees’ attorney fees and other court costs. But Butler and Goins said the offer really was more like $40,000, with $21,000 of that sum paying for attorney’s fees and another $9,000 provided to each plaintiff. (Kerry Lester, “Women reject settlement in Duckworth workplace retaliation lawsuit,” Daily Herald, 7/27/16)
The attorney general’s office reached out to me after I posted that initial settlement story to tell me that the settlement involved more than just attorney fees and costs. But, as I recall, it was late in the day and I was swamped with something or another and didn’t get around to posting it. My bad.
* A Democratic state Representative attends a Republican governor’s event in her own district, applauds politely at the end of his speech and then this happens…
A Confused Kate Cloonen Stumbles into Governor Rauner’s Term Limits Event
Yet Cloonen continues to back Mike Madigan’s rigged system
Yesterday, Governor Bruce Rauner held an event in Kankakee advocating for term limits on elected officials in Springfield – a cumulative 10 years for State Representatives and Senators and 8 years for statewide elected officials, including Governor Rauner himself.
Democrat State Rep. Kate Cloonen, a vocal opponent of term limits, attended the event and applauded Governor Rauner as he concluded his remarks, but has remained silent on his term limits initiative. Why did Cloonen attend the Governor’s event?
Has Cloonen changed her mind on term limits?
Does she support Governor Rauner’s term limits initiative?
Does she still back Mike Madigan’s rigged system?
Was she playing Candy Crush and her attendance was by pure happenstance?
Is she politically calculating?
Is she just confused?
And what is she telling her constituents?…
“Kate Cloonen continues to support Mike Madigan’s rigged system,” said Aaron DeGroot, spokesman for the Illinois Republican Party. “For years, she has opposed term limits, but her attendance at the Governor’s event is a bit perplexing. Could it be that she tells her constituents one thing while doing another in Springfield? Cloonen has remained silent on the initiative, but her constituents deserve an answer. Does Kate Cloonen support Governor Rauner’s term limits initiative or not?”
Rauner will be meeting with Democrats from the Legislature in Chicago on Thursday to talk about what is needed in the upcoming budget.
Interesting, especially since many Democratic legislators are either in Philadelphia or out walking precincts today. But, hey, it’s a good thing if true.
* I asked reporter Doug Wilson if Gov. Rauner disclosed who he was meeting with…
No. The question was about whether there have been ongoing negotiations about what will follow the stopgap budget. Rauner started by saying that most lawmakers are more focused on their own elections, but then he said he was returning to Chicago on Wednesday night and would be meeting Thursday with some legislators to talk about the budget.
No word yet from the governor’s office about who he’s seeing today. I’ll let you know if they ever respond.
Daily Public Schedule: Thursday, July 28, 2016
What: Governor Makes Announcement Regarding Transformation at Illinois Lottery
Where: James R. Thompson Center – Blue Room
100 W. Randolph, Chicago
Date: Thursday, July 28, 2016
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Live video from our good pals at BlueRoomStream.com is here.
Sneed hears rumbles Diana Rauner, wife of Gov. Bruce Rauner — who has been hammered on all sides for his conservative reins on the state’s finances — wants out.
• Translation: Sneed is told Diana, who has been ramrodding privately funded reconstruction of the state’s ancient pile known as the governor’s mansion — as well as managing a large family and successful marriage — has told close friends she hopes her husband doesn’t run again.
• Explanation: The state’s first lady is tired of the nasty spotlight since the inauguration of her hugely wealthy husband in January 2015. […]
“The Rauners have a good marriage and six kids, but all the criticism being lobbed at her husband — as well as a job which doesn’t leave a lot of time for family time — has to be very difficult,” a Sneed source said.
Sneed is told the governor spends more time at the Springfield mansion than his wife.
He does, indeed, spend a lot more time in Springfield than Mrs. Rauner, but a top Rauner source says the story is “garbage.”
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Rauner was asked about the story at his press conference this morning…
* This is the third time a judge has done something like this in just the past month…
A Cook County judge today ordered the head of the state health department to reconsider adding irritable bowel syndrome to the list of conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana.
Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos ruled that Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav D. Shah violated procedural due process rights when he used his own review standard to deny the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board’s recommendation to add IBS to the list.
Beyond that, Demacopoulos ruled, the controlling statute and guidelines that govern Illinois’ medical marijuana program are silent regarding what kind of standard the director can use when issuing final decisions based on board recommendations.
“There is no IDPH rule, nor is there any language in the [Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program] Act, empowering the [d]irector to conduct his own investigation or add materials to the record that were not considered at the hearing,” Demacopoulos wrote in her nine-page memorandum and order.
While it appears Shah employed a standard to consider evidence from “adequate, well controlled clinical trials,” Demacopoulos ruled, it’s a standard the plaintiff did not have a chance to challenge before a decision was made.
“The [d]irector’s supplying of evidence post-hearing indicates demonstrable prejudice to the plaintiff and therefore serves as a basis for reversal,” she wrote.
* Illinois Issues has a new story on the stopgap budget. Most of it has already been covered here, but this is new…
“It’s not even close to being balanced,” says Richard Dye, co-director of the Fiscal Futures Project at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs. “What was passed was with either optimism or ignorance of what revenues were actually flowing in. So it’s not clear that everything that was approved in the stopgap budget can be funded because the cash flow through the state through the comptroller’s office is just not sufficient.” […]
“I come at this somewhat pessimistically. … It’s hard to be optimistic. Even if there were new revenue sources, are they sufficient to pay down the backlog? Are they sufficient to catch up … the extent to which different agencies have not been funded for a year and a half?”
Dye says he expects that if a budget deal is reached after November, it will rely on accounting gimmicks and push some costs into future years because trying to completely tackle the deficit would be virtually politically impossible. “We really are in a position where things have gotten so bad that we can’t have expectations of taxing and spending levels kind of what they were like in recent years. Things have to change in terms of the nature of government and what people expect to have to pay or expect to get. “
Two women suing Representative Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Illinois, rejected an agreed upon settlement offer on Wednesday, forcing the case to go to trial next month, according to the Daily Herald.
The timing is unfortunate for Duckworth, who is running to unseat Senator Mark Kirk, one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection this year. The formal rejection of the settlement comes the day before Duckworth is set to take the stage at the Democratic National Convention. And per the Herald, the trial will take place on August 15, in the heat of campaign season. […]
Some Democrats suggested the timing of the two women rejecting the lawsuit was suspect, coming the day before Duckworth’s address in Philadelphia.
[Mark Kirk campaign manager Kevin Artl] says the campaign had no discussions with the two plaintiffs about their decision, and says they were under the impression that the whole case had been settled, noting that they had already begun running an ad attacking her for settling. Artl adds that he spoke with the two women by phone in their capacity as whistleblowers, saying they reached out to the campaign after the settlement was announced to tell their story.
Hmm.
* I followed up with Artl…
They reached out to us the week following the announcement of the settlement. They wanted to tell their story. We have talked to many whistleblowers who have felt bullied and ignored by Duckworth.
* Rahm Emanuel: The president’s first chief of staff and the now-mayor of Chicago was a key cog in Obama’s first term. But the celebratory video that led into the president’s speech barely made mention of Rahm — and, when it did, it cast him as the guy saying that the Affordable Care Act couldn’t pass. Not great.
Among the White House achievements championed in the video was the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. However, one of the voices in the video relays that Emanuel, as Chief of Staff during the first two years of Obama’s administration, tried to get him to kill the bill because it would cost him re-election in 2012.
“A lot of people argued the politics were too costly,” former adviser David Axelrod said.
“Rahm Emanuel came to him and said you’re going to have to pull the bill, because if you push this legislation, you will lose in 2012,” another voice said.
However, the video depicts Obama as soldiering on to get it passed, no matter the politics. Obamacare would wind up passing Congress without a single Republican vote before Obama signed it into law.
* Oof…
Dumping on Rahm Emanuel in the authorized Obama video? They must be really convinced Rahm's career is toast.
* Mark Brown: White House not only race on some Chicago delegates’ radar: Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a late arrival Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, but many of those regarded as possible successors have been on the scene all week.
* ADDED: Democratic National Convention video leaves Emanuel ‘under the bus’
The day before congresswoman Tammy Duckworth is scheduled to deliver a major speech on the main stage at the Democratic National Convention, two women who filed a workplace retaliation suit against her have announced they’re refusing to accept a settlement offer that seemed a done deal just weeks ago.
Now, a trial set to begin Aug. 15 in downstate Jonesboro could serve as an obstacle at an inopportune time for Duckworth as she enters the home stretch of her campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk in a nationally-watched race.
Plaintiffs Denise Goins and Christine Butler told the Daily Herald Wednesday that they were insulted by the Duckworth campaign’s June 24 response to the settlement, with deputy campaign manager Matt McGrath releasing a statement describing the suit as “a frivolous workplace case” that dragged on for more than eight years.
“Within an hour of leaving the courthouse, her campaign decided to swing us through the mud again,” Butler said. “So we emailed our attorney to let him know we want to proceed to trial.”
The women say they received no pressure from the Kirk campaign to reject the settlement offer.
“We are both nonpolitical people. When we initiated the very first formal complaint, we had no idea she had political aspirations,” Butler said. “We would have been happy to be done with it years ago.”
The Duckworth campaign shoulda just kept their mouths closed. They were handed a gift. Oh, well.
On Monday, July 25, Moody’s Managing Director Naomi Richman delivered a speech to the City Club of Chicago concerning that city’s credit rating, which is Ba1 with a negative outlook. We have taken her remarks and presented it here as an FAQ document. The questions and answers are divided into four sections:
Why is Chicago rated so low? Of virtually all the 8,500 local governments across the country that we rate, Chicago has by far the highest unfunded pensions, and its debt load is also very high. The sum of Chicago’s debt and pensions is 9.4 times the city’s operating revenue, versus 2.4 times for the average US city.
What would it take to upgrade Chicago to investment grade? The city’s unfunded pension liability would need to begin to stabilize and decline. The actions the city has taken to date have only enabled their pension problem to get worse at a slower pace.
Why isn’t Chicago rated even lower? Chicago has a very different credit profile than governments that have defaulted on their debt. Chicago’s economy is healthy and growing, unlike other cities that have defaulted where the economies went through a long, steep decline, and where finances were in much worse shape than Chicago’s.
What are we watching? Three key credit questions are on the horizon: how will the city propose to reform the municipal pension plan and how will that affect the pension trajectory; how will pension plan investment earnings compare to the plans’ assumed returns; and how will Chicago Public Schools (CPS - rated B2/negative) resolve its own financial problems.
* Related…
* Moody’s official: Chicago’s still got time to fix pension problem: Moody’s rates Chicago Ba1, one step below investment grade, and has a negative outlook. Right now, a downgrade is “much more likely” than an upgrade, Richman said. To get on track for an upgrade, the city needs to reverse “the trajectory of the pension problem,” Richman said. Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through a record property tax increase that will shore up public-safety pensions. Investors applauded the move and rallied the bonds. Still, it’s not enough, according to Moody’s. “It’s letting the problem get worse at a slower pace,” Richman said. It would cost Chicago about a $1 billion a year to make the pension smaller the following year, she said. Moody’s recognizes that Emanuel and the City Council inherited fiscal problems, and they are showing a willingness to take on those issues. Plus there are positive signs. Governments that defaulted on their debt like Detroit and Puerto Rico have real differences with Chicago, like the economy, Richman said. “While Chicago’s challenges are very real, very serious, and if pension problem is never addressed you could ultimately get to that brink, we’re not there quite now,” Richman said.
* AUDIO: City Club of Chicago: City of Chicago Finances: Are We on the Brink?
* Last Friday, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a couple of bipartisan good-government bills into law aimed at cutting local government costs…
One new law was sparked by the reporting of Daily Herald columnist Jake Griffin and would limit spending on travel for local officials and prohibit using taxpayer money for entertainment costs.
“Illinois has the highest property taxes in the nation,” state Rep. David McSweeney, a Barrington Hills Republican, said of the plan he sponsored. “We need to make sure our tax dollars are being used wisely and we need to reduce property taxes.”
Another new law signed Friday would require counties to write a report for state lawmakers about what local governments they make appointments for. The idea is to try to identify unnecessary local agencies.
“Through our bipartisan work, we have made DuPage County a leader in government consolidation,” state Sen. Tom Cullerton, a Villa Park Democrat, said of his plan. “We know the government needs to evolve with the needs of the people.”
“Illinois has the highest property taxes in the nation,” state Rep. David McSweeney, a Barrington Hills Republican, said of the legislation he sponsored in the House and that Democrat Tom Cullerton of Villa Park sponsored in the Senate. “We need to make sure our tax dollars are being used wisely and we need to reduce property taxes.”
Oftentimes, investigations that reveal frivolous spending, malfeasance or out-and-out criminal ventures start out with the little things, such as restaurant receipts (meals and booze at the Waterleaf restaurant at College of DuPage), or a simple burglary (such as the one at the Watergate Hotel).
In the process, they provide a big help for the public to better manage its money.
Duckworth has clearly decided the reform vote is not in her target universe. She defended Blago while he was under investigation and now is sticking with Madigan and his 13% approval rating.
I’m assuming that part of the accompanying video clip might make it into a TV ad…
The organization that issues workers compensation advisory rates just released their recommendations for 2017. The NCCI says that Illinois employers should see a 12.9% cut in their WC rates next year - the 3rd largest cut in the nation - totaling more than all of our neighboring states combined.
* The Illinois Manufacturers Association disagrees…
“Nothing in the NCCI filing suggests that Illinois is actually closing the gap when it comes to the high cost of workers’ compensation relative to other states. It is abundantly clear that states like Illinois and West Virginia experiencing significant job loss in manufacturing, construction or mining jobs have also witnessed a reduction in indemnity and medical severity costs. However, the actual cost of workers’ compensation in Illinois remains among the highest in the nation.” - Greg Baise
· Largely as the result of the continued loss of good, high-paying jobs in manufacturing and enhanced workplace safety programs, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) offered an advisory recommendation in Illinois with a reduction.
· It is important to recognize that the advisory 12.9 percent reduction in the overall voluntary rate is separate and distinct from insurance company premiums.
· In 2016, only four states including Illinois, Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia have received their NCCI recommendations at this time. Last year, NCCI reviewed 38 states and recommended advisory decreases in 27 states (71 percent). In Illinois, NCCI recommended no change in 2015. This year’s recommended decrease follows the national trend.
· The advisory recommendation does not include self-insured companies and excludes 40 percent of the competitive insurance market that have large deductible policies.
A top Sneed source says the site of President Barack Obama’s Presidential Library will be Jackson Park, rather than Washington Park, which was considered the favored site months ago.
Among the reasons for the selection of Jackson Park?
The site’s great beauty, including its closeness to the water. Also, putting the library there will help build up the museum campus nearby.
It also has a pretty good golf course. I ran into the avid golfer Obama on that course years ago, back when I was still trying to play that crazy game and he was running for US Senate.
Located near the Museum of Science and Industry, the lakefront and the eastern edge of the University of Chicago campus, the site allows for the creation of a museum campus in the heart of the park, accented by an existing lagoon, lush woods and greenery. The winding 543-acre park is an oasis on the South Side. The center would be a short hop to either Lake Shore Drive or to two Metra train stations, strong pulls for visitors.
Jackson Park’s western edge along Stony Island Avenue connects with Woodlawn, an impoverished African-American neighborhood but one that is beginning to gentrify. And the Hyde Park neighborhood, just north of Woodlawn and surrounding the university, already is booming. […]
The hurdles would have been higher in the neighborhood near Washington Park, where one-third of the land is vacant. Decades ago the area was central to Chicago’s Black Belt, a robust cluster of neighborhoods that drew African-Americans from the South during the Great Migration. During the past half-century the population has plummeted, and nearly half the remaining residents live in poverty in an area plagued by crime.
Washington Park had been the centerpiece of the city’s 2016 Olympic bid — the site for a massive temporary stadium and swimming venue — and many residents believed that endeavor would help turn around their impoverished neighborhood just west of the park. The bid failed in 2009, and now residents of this struggling area must live with a second major disappointment.
Illinois Democrats cast 98 votes for Hillary Clinton and 74 votes for Sanders, with Democratic Party chairman Michael Madigan leading the delegation’s floor announcement.
Illinois is one of only a few states to be seated on the convention floor rather than in the stands. The prime real estate is a nod to Clinton’s Illinois roots, having been born in Chicago and raised in the suburbs.
The votes for Clinton were cast by Betsy Ebeling, an old friend of Clinton’s dating to their school days in Park Ridge. “I know you’re watching, this one’s for you, Hill,” Ebeling said.
House Speaker Madigan handed the mic to Ebeling and the two appeared to be friendly toward each other as Sen. Dick Durbin looked on and smiled.
* But it wasn’t always so. Clinton’s State Department e-mails included several from Ebeling, including this one…
The reliably upbeat friend was dejected in writing to the then-secretary of state on the eve of the 2010 midterm elections, which proved disastrous for Democrats.
Ebeling described an Oct. 26, 2010, get-out-the-vote rally in Chicago headlined by former President Bill Clinton, who is referred to as “WJC” in the emails, for William Jefferson Clinton. Ebeling observed the Democratic campaign in Illinois “is ghostlike.”
The event, she writes, was attended by Sen. Dick Durbin, House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton, among other elected officials.
Tuesday will be such a telling day. On paper there is a co-ordinated Democratic campaign in Illinois–however, it is ghostlike—sort of shimmering in the distance. When WJC was here the other day, they all turned out: Dubrin and “the other guy”, Speaker Madigan, President Cullerton, many electeds and all gathered to have their photos taken with him. What an assembly of power going nowhere—just finger pointing and hiding. Of course, they all smiled for WJC and said they were working hard for the party Is WJC the only one trying? Must be exhausting for him,„and you. Safe
* I missed most of the convention last night because I was having dinner with a friend and got home half way through Bill Clinton’s speech. But others tell me things were pretty quiet in the audience, without all the booing and heckling that happened Monday. The Daily Beast ran a story yesterday afternoon which probably gives us much of the reason…
[Dave Barnhart, a consultant to the Clinton campaign] also described the “ramped up whip operation” that Clinton campaign will run on the floor of the convention hall. In addition to asking the pro-Clinton delegates to physically be on the floor to support her during the roll call and televised prime time speeches, the campaign is also planning to add additional people around the California section to supplement the delegates already there.
“We’re providing more support in the form of extra bodies and supporters to cheer, bring energy, wave signs, and show positive support both within and around the California delegation section,” Barnhart wrote.
He also said that the campaign will more actively manage anyone who disrupts the proceedings.
“We’re going to be stricter tonight about unruly individuals—anyone who is physical with delegates, rips up their signs, or outright disrespectful with other delegates,” he warned. “Protest is certainly okay, but unruliness is not—and we’re instructing whips and convention staff to tow a stricter line tonight.”
Barnhart thanked the delegates in advance and added, “Your presence would be greatly appreciated and noted.”
That California delegation was a huge problem Monday. They never should’ve been so near the stage.
* It also helped that, after Bernie Sanders moved to nominate Clinton by acclamation, he walked out of the convention hall and several of his more committed (and loudest) supporters followed suit…
Bernie Sanders delegates say that he led the walkout that took place after he moved to nominate Hillary Clinton by acclamation.
“We followed Bernie’s lead and we followed him out. I was so enveloped in hope, and there doesn’t appear to be much of that and I am heartbroken as I am sure the Senator is. I have been working for him for over a year. I am tired. I am out of hope right now,” one Wisconsin delegate told RT.com. of Sanders walking out of the convention hall after he nominated Clinton was widely seen in the arena and on television.
* And then there were the three early speeches about 9/11. “It’s hard to boo people talking about the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil,” said one Democratic operative today.
* This aggressive Wisconsin recruitment has been going on for several years now, but the Illinois budget crisis certainly doesn’t help matters…
Three state universities in southeastern Wisconsin are aggressively turning their attention south to pull more students — and tuition revenue — from the Land of Lincoln.
Whitewater, Parkside and Milwaukee campuses in the University of Wisconsin System for years have drawn students from northern Illinois because of their close proximity to the border.
Working in their favor is the fact tuition for Illinois students to attend a UW campus is remarkably close to, or even less, than what they would pay at their own state schools. Illinois also is in the midst of a state budget crisis with lawmakers failing to approve an annual budget beyond a stopgap that only partially funds higher education.
It’s a perfect storm for recruiting Illinois students to Wisconsin, as Wisconsin campuses look to offset their own state budget cuts and enrollment stagnation. Illinois in recent years has seen a dramatic rise in students leaving the state for college elsewhere.
Students from Illinois pay less tuition at [the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee] than they pay to attend many of their own public universities, Maldonado said. Tuition and fees last year at Illinois State University was about $14,500, and $15,630 to $20,624 at University of Illinois, depending on the campus. At UWM it was about $13,500.
That’s just crazy.
The governor and the GA need to address this situation pronto.
“I was very pleased and overjoyed to be there,” Madigan said [of Hillary Clinton’s formal nomination].
Madigan described Clinton’s nomination as a “wonderful occasion” because the Democratic Party of America has nominated the first African-American president and now, the first female presidential nominee.
“The democrats are coming together,” he said. “They are coming together against the extremism of Trump and Governor Rauner.”
Madigan discussed the need for a democratic governor in Illinois.
“Democrats are like most Illinoisans, they are not happy with the extremism of Bruce Rauner.”
Standing atop a hay wagon on the property, Rauner asked an assembled crowd of citizens and local public officials to demand members of the Legislature vote during their fall veto session on putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to impose term limits on state officials.
The Rauner plan would limit statewide officeholders to eight years in a position — two terms — and no more than 10 years in the General Assembly, either five House terms or three Senate terms. […]
“Be a regular person. … Serve for a few years, do what’s right for the people and then go back to the real world,” Rauner said.
His tour on Tuesday took him to four regions of the state — near Rockford, Springfield and the Quad Cities, and between Peoria and Bloomington — though the districts he stopped in were primarily represented by Republicans, who have been friendlier to his plans. All are represented by a Republican in the state Senate, and three out of the four stops were in districts with a Republican in the state House.
The issue polls extremely well, and he’s been firmly on-message everywhere he’s spoken so far. Also, he doesn’t need to actually be in a targeted district to make his point about the ruling party, as long as he’s in the same media market as one.
State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, differs with Gov. Bruce Rauner when it comes to term limits. […]
Brady told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin voters should be able to remove lawmakers if they want, but for the legislative leadership positions, such as the one House Speaker Mike Madigan has held for three decades, that’s another story.
“Those types of changes should be looked at when it comes to something where you have the speaker as long as he has (been in office),” Brady said. “If you want real reform, I think you ought to be talking about within the caucuses.”
Rauner said in a visit to El Paso on Tuesday wants the General Assembly to pass term limits and redistricting reform since citizen-led efforts have failed in the courts. Brady suggests with Madigan in power, that will never happen.
Chris Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, said [the failure of more than a dozen legislative term limit proposals in Illinois since 2015] shouldn’t come as a surprise. […]
Two state legislatures that did approve term limits — Louisiana and Utah — did so only because more restrictive measures were coming down the pike through voter initiatives, he said.
Mooney said research has shown that many claims from proponents and opponents of term limits aren’t supported by the facts. For examples, they don’t seem to increase electoral competition as proponents argue, he said, nor do they appear to concentrate more power in the hands of lobbyists as opponents claim.
The most significant impact of term limits is that they’ve resulted in an “increase in power of the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch,” Mooney said.
“It’s excellent politics,” he said. “It’s questionable for governance.”
Auditor General Frank Mautino did not file amended campaign disclosure reports with the state Board of Elections, setting the stage for a public hearing into his use of campaign money while serving in the Illinois House.
Board of Elections executive director Steve Sandvoss said Mautino did not file the amended reports by Monday’s deadline.
“If they did not produce documents by the time they were required to, the matter would be set for a public hearing,” Sandvoss said. “It’s hard to say at this point when the actual hearing would take place.”
Sandvoss said he hoped something could be scheduled within a month or two, but the actual timing depended on a number of variables. They include selecting a hearing officer, trying to accommodate the participants’ varying schedules and whether any preliminary motions are filed that have to be disposed of first.
Yesterday, on July 26, 2016, We Ask America Polls™ conducted a statewide hybrid poll (part automated/part live interview) measuring Democratic voters’ views on which potential candidates for Illinois governor would most likely receive their vote. The respondents were asked one primary question plus a short series of demographic-related questions. The primary question was this:
“There are a number of Democratic candidates rumored to be interested in running for Illinois governor in two years. We’d like to know which—if any—of the following possible candidates you would most likely vote for if they do run for Illinois governor. “
Cheri Bustos………4.88%
Dick Durbin……….48.87%
Robin Kelly………..3.63%
Chris Kennedy……4.50%
Pat Quinn…………..9.91%
Kwame Raoul……..1.46%
Heather Steans……0.63%
Someone else…….7.21%
Undecided…………18.90%
I’m told that Lisa Madigan wasn’t included because she said a couple years back she wouldn’t run for governor unless her father stepped aside as House Speaker.
…Adding… More from the pollster…
Findings
1. As expected, those with the best name recognition stood out, with a U.S. Senator dwarfing the field: Sen. Dick Durbin scored nearly 50 percent–significant especially with at least one other recent statewide office holder on the list.
2. Former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s numbers paled compared to Durbin, and were within the margin of error of the generic “someone else” option: Quinn certainly enjoyed the benefit of better name recognition than most of the others, but simply couldn’t muster enough support to climb into a double-digit range of results. His extremely weak numbers downstate (5.29%) kept him below that threshold.
3. Should Durbin decide against a run for governor, the field must be considered wide open. Former Gov. Quinn’s numbers cannot be considered a deterrent to any potential candidate. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) is a close family friend of Sen. Durbin’s and won a hotly contested race against Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling four years ago. Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-2) is a former state representative who also served as chief of staff for the State Treasurer. Chris Kennedy is a business executive who was the former Chair of the University of Illinois Board…as well as the Illinois anchor for the Kennedy clan; State Senator Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) filled Barack Obama’s state senate seat when Obama left the Statehouse for the U.S. Senate and has been an active leader in Springfield; and State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) is a Princeton and Harvard-educated reformer who has championed a number of causes including nursing home and environmental reforms.
Notes & Comments
A poll this early in the process cannot be viewed as a predictor of any kind for the fall of 2018. While the list of candidates mentioned in this poll was merited by direct mention of possible candidacy in published reports, some will not run and others not listed undoubtedly will test the waters. Some candidates that many feel may possibly run were left off if they had expressed a strong enough denial. For example, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has repeatedly stated that she will not run as long as her father remains Speaker of the Illinois House–and was therefore not offered as an option.
Note that a short job related description was read about each potential candidate during the polling process. For example: “Congresswoman Cheri Bustos” - “State Senator Kwame Raoul.”
We Ask America Polls paid for this poll and was not asked to conduct it by any candidate, individual or political committee. The poll was purposely conducted during the Democratic National Convention in an effort to discuss the issue with Illinois Democrats during a time where they may be paying more attention to political issues.
Methodology
This poll was conducted July 26, 2016 using both automated (recorded) and live operator-initiated calls. In all, 1,128 registered voters completed all questions on the poll. About 30% (338) of the responses came from cell phones. The voters dialed were randomly selected from a proprietary registered-voter database to assure the greatest chance of providing an accurate cross-section of opinion from the statewide sample. Weighting formulas were applied to correct any over- and under-sampling. Each respondent was asked to verify that he/she was a Democrat who planned to vote in the next Democratic Primary Election.
Our sampling methodology ensures that We Ask America poll results are “projectable,” meaning that if every resident in a given geography were dialed, the results would not differ from the reported poll results by more than the stated margin of error at a 95% confidence level (the industry standard), if the same survey was repeated. For this case, results with a margin of error of ±3.0 % at the 95% confidence level means that if the same survey were conducted 100 times, 95 times out of 100 the results would not vary in either direction by more than 3.0% in either direction.
[US Sen. Dick Durbin] has some priorities and they go in this sequence. He wants to first win re-election as whip.
About a week after the November election, senators vote for their leaders, including whip. Last March, Reid announced he would not seek another term. Reid anointed Sen. Chuck Schumer D-NY as his heir. Things got a bit messy for a bit when Durbin had to scramble to make sure he locked in the support from his fellow senators to retain his No. 2 spot.
Looks like Durbin is in good shape in his whip race. But it’s never a good idea to run for more than one office at a time. [Emphasis added.]
In other words, we’ll know more about this topic sometime after that whip election is complete. It’s a big decision with huge consequences, so it won’t be taken lightly.
Keep in mind, however, that Durbin will be almost 74 come election day, 2018. He hasn’t had a tough race since his first US Senate bid 20 years ago. And he’s never seen anything like the unlimited-funding Rauner attacks.
And even if he wins, he still has to deal with cleaning up the post-Rauner mess (which could be gargantuan if Madigan never cuts a budget deal). And he’ll have to find a way to get along with Speaker Madigan - who is not generally a “helpful” guy when it comes to running government and has not exactly been Durbin’s greatest fan, no matter what he says about Durbin these days.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin declined Wednesday to rule out a run for Illinois governor in 2018, saying whether his colleagues will reelect him as the Democrat’s No. 2 will factor into his decision. […]
Speculation in Illinois political circles has mounted over the past several weeks about Durbin, who is not up for reelection in the Senate until 2020, and as Democrats look for a challenger against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner next cycle. If the influential Democrat left the Senate, it would reorder Illinois politics and create an opening in the party leadership hierarchy in the chamber.
Durbin acknowledged that whether he stays as the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat after November could weigh on his decision.
“Of course,” Durbin said when asked if the outcome of leadership elections would impact his choice. “I want to continue to serve as whip of the caucus. I think I have support within the caucus. But I am not even campaigning for whip at this point…. I have to focus on this election.”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that long-term investment returns for public pension plans are poised to drop to the lowest rate of return since measuring began 16 years ago —something that could cause additional heartburn in Illinois, which has the largest unfunded state worker pension program in the nation.
The Journal reported the 20-year annualized return on investment of public pensions are expected to be 7.47 percent — a far cry from the 12.3 percent annualized return in 2001, when Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service began tracking pension returns.
Illinois has an $111 billion unfunded pension liability as of June 2015, based on the latest state reports available. But the lower investment returns have been factored in slightly.
The largest pension fund, the Teachers Retirement System, acted two years ago to reduce its expected investment rate of return from 8 percent to 7.5 percent. The State Employees Retirement System and the State University Retirement System acted to reduce the rate of investment returns for its funds from 7.75 percent to 7.25 percent.
* Related…
* Illinois diverts federal funds from teachers to pensions: Unlike their counterparts in other states, Illinois school districts pay a steep premium to the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, if they use Title I federal money to hire teachers. Districts are assessed 36.06 percent of salaries paid with federal Title I funds, and that is set to increase to 38.54 percent for the 2016-2017 school year. By comparison, the rate for a district not using Title I money is and will remain 0.58 percent. So a district using Title I money to hire a teacher at $50,000 a year would fork over $19,270 to TRS, but the tab for a district paying a teacher the same salary out of state and local funds would be $290. To paraphrase U.S. Rep. Robert Dold, taxpayers from across the nation are pouring vast sums into Illinois’ teacher pension-debt quagmire. And the biggest losers? The very ones the Title I money is intended to aid – low-income students.
Republican state Rep. Ronald L. Sandack, a top of ally of Gov. Bruce Rauner, went to police in his hometown earlier this month to report an “Internet scam” — but a report about the incident reveals little about what led Sandack to abruptly resign his seat in the Illinois House over the weekend.
Sandack issued a statement to the Capitol Fax political blog on Sunday saying that “cyber security issues” forced him to re-evaluate his “continued public service” and that he was resigning immediately. But the three-page police report released Tuesday afternoon by the Downers Grove Police Department offers no details about what might have happened to Sandack, as virtually the entire narrative is blacked out.
Disclosing the information “would obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation,” the police said in their response to a Chicago Sun-Times Freedom of Information Act request, also noting that supplemental case reports “have not been completed as of the date of this response.”
Sandack, 52, a former Downers Grove mayor, met with an officer on July 14, 2016, a Tuesday evening, “in reference to a walk-in report of an Internet scam.” The narrative in the police report notes that the incident began on July 7, but the rest of that page and the next are almost completely redacted.
Asked about Sandack’s resignation, Rauner told reporters he didn’t have much to add.
“I really can’t comment much on Mr. Sandack’s situation. I heard about it yesterday morning, the same time most of you did. I am not sure what all is going on there, so I can’t comment,” Rauner said.
Asked if it was difficult to lose a top ally, Rauner repeated that he could not comment, adding that he has not talked to Sandack.
To be clear here, Sandack was Rauner’s top floor leader and one of his most persistent defenders in the House chamber and in social media.
The claim that some online mischief maker using tired and predictable tricks drove one of the state’s most prominent lawmakers back into private life sounds more like pretext than explanation.
But explanations are things that Citizen Sandack no longer owes us.
That’s true, but others still might owe us something.
Asked Wednesday morning at a Democratic National Convention breakfast whether Democrats had any role in the cyber attacks that Sandack had cited in resigning, the Southwest Side Democrat replied “No. . . . I’ll let Sandack speak to what his problem is. I don’t know anything about it.”
Sandack had been facing a challenge from Democrat Greg Hose in the November election — a race that might now be more winnable for Democrats with the much better-known Sandack off the ballot.
“Again, I’d leave it up to Sandack to explain his problems,” Madigan said.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is scheduled to visit the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy a day after state officials reported two residents have new cases of Legionnaires’ disease.
Last year, Legionnaires’ disease sickened 53 people and led to 12 deaths at the home. The cases the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs disclosed Tuesday come less than a month after a nearly $5 million water treatment plant and delivery system was unveiled at the facility. The bacteria that cause the disease can be inhaled in water vapor.
Rauner’s schedule says the governor was to visit the western Illinois facility Wednesday morning and receive an update on water treatment there.
Less than a month after unveiling a nearly $5 million state-of-the-art water treatment plant and delivery system at the Illinois Veterans Home, the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday announced two Veterans Home residents had been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.
Dave MacDonna, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said there have been no deaths. He would not disclose the condition of the two residents who had contracted the disease, citing health privacy laws. […]
MacDonna said water at the home will continue to be treated the same it has since the new treatment plant came online. It will continue to test for and flush any harmful bacteria from the system, something that MacDonna said happens twice per day. Hot water temperatures will be at 150 degrees.
From what I was told by the administration last night, national and state experts are dumbfounded about this recurring outbreak. There was clear evidence of the bacteria in last year’s testing. Not so this year.
* From the twitters…
.@GovRauner on Legionnaires' at Vets Home: We have taken all steps CDC has recommended.
* To refresh your memory, this is what Chris Kennedy did after his speech to the convention delegate breakfast yesterday…
Kennedy then walked toward a waiting elevator, but a crush of Chicago reporters followed him in, not satisfied with the nonanswer.
“This is sort of ridiculous, please,” Kennedy pleaded.
“What’s ridiculous is you don’t answer questions,” WFLD-Ch. 32 reporter Mike Flannery shot back. “You’ve run four or five campaigns in the gossip column. Are you running for governor or not?”
“I don’t have to address you. Please leave the elevator and let me go to my meeting. Please do that. Have some decency,” Kennedy responded. “What have you become? Please, please.”
A furious Kennedy then left the elevator and headed to a nearby stairwell. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet then chased him into the stairwell doorway requesting to take a photograph of the businessman, who obliged with an awkwardly forced smile.
Flannery was right about Kennedy teasing us with selected leaks about possible runs that never materialized. You may not like his aggressiveness (reporting is sometimes like legislating, the sausage-making process ain’t always pretty), but somebody had to ask the guy that question.
Besides, Kennedy asked to speak. And it’s customary to talk to reporters after one of those speeches. If he didn’t know that, well, too bad. He should get better advance people.
Kennedy said he thought his message to the delegation spoke for itself and that he refuses to participate in media scrums that are the regular stuff of politics and public office.
“People turn into animals in that environment, and they are asking ridiculous questions, acting like bullies. … It’s a b——- way to conduct each other’s business,” he said.
Kennedy said he would rather do one-on-one interviews with every reporter than one hallway press conference.
“If you don’t like that, I mean, sorry,” he said.
That might be a reason not to run.
Even Speaker Madigan, of all people, speaks to these convention “media scrums.” If Madigan can do it, so can Chris Kennedy. Brown has good advice.
You don’t want to talk to the average folks through this TV lens. Apparently, talking to the Mike Madigans of the world is good enough at this point for Chris Kennedy.
