After 15 years as pundit and political operative, Dan Proft has a quick-on-the-draw verbal style that thrills the Republican base and ought to make rivals envious.
“People who play by the rules, who aren’t Mike Madigan’s third cousin, get hammered and hammered and hammered,” he quips over lunch, referring to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, one of those evil Chicago Democrats whom Mr. Proft loves to zing.
In a huge, and still growing, GOP field for governor, that talent — combined with hard-line conservatism — is his hope. But it’s only a hope in what appears to be very much a long-shot campaign for Mr. Proft.
“He’s not afraid to go after Democrats. Republicans like to see that,” said GOP consultant and Family PAC chief Paul Caprio. “But I don’t think Republican voters are going to nominate a political consultant. I think they want someone with stronger management credentials.”
* The Question: Who is your favorite longshot 2010 candidate at the moment? Explain.
And if the comment link doesn’t work, try clicking here. [By the way, I’ve added this sort of link to most of the posts below.]
* Speaker Madigan talks to the media after this morning’s hearing of the Executive Committee, which approved Madigan’s campaign reform proposals on a partisan roll call. The reporters pressed him pretty hard and Madigan did his best to remain on message and avoid answering whatever he could. Check it out…
* Earlier, the Speaker and GOP Rep. Ed Sullivan went head to head over Madigan’s decision to remove the caps in the originally approved bill on leader committees. Watch it…
Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein, asked Madigan “is there a reason we went backwards” from the earlier measure that limited leadership contributions to $90,000 per year. Sullivan said the current situation makes it appear that leaders who donate large amounts to lawmakers’ campaigns control how those lawmakers vote.
Madigan responded “if you want to deal on appearances, go ahead, do what you want to do. That’s what you’ll do anyhow.”
Madigan then suggested to Sullivan that he make that argument directly to individual lawmakers who receive party funds. “Are you controlled by somebody else?” was the question suggested by the Speaker. It’s worth a watch.
It just couldn’t handle the type of traffic we generate here. There was really no way of knowing that until we started it up and experienced some traffic spikes, but it’s my fault because the thing was slow from the start and I thought the problems could be overcome.
Hope is not a plan.
So, I’m gonna start all over again. This time, though, I’ll just hire somebody to do the whole thing, which is what I should’ve done to begin with.
I used to fax the Capitol Fax to subscribers myself with banks of computers in Chicago and Springfield. Occasionally, I’d have to dash out of town to fix a broken ‘puter, and that always seemed to happen at the most inopportune moments. A friend finally sat me down and told me: “Dude, you’re not a faxing company, you’re an information company. Hire somebody else to do the faxing and spend the freaking money.”
Well, I’m not a web designer, either. So, I’m gonna spend the freaking money.
*** IMPORTANT UPDATE *** The DNS settings were changed, so we have to wait for DNS to propagate throughout the Intertubes. That means, in plain English, clicking on a link to get into comments will work for some people right away, but not for most of you. The propagation process should be complete within 24 hours, so be patient. But, you can see the entire posts here so you won’t miss anything except comments.
Sorry about that, but it’s the reality of the Internet.
* The Chicago Tribune had a pretty good story yesterday about the questionable legality of some state capital project money being funneled to churches and other religious groups.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger formally kicked off his re-election campaign Tuesday with the backing of nearly 90 African-American ministers who say they favor him over three other black candidates in the contest.
Though some of his opponents in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary sought to discount the endorsements, Stroger entered the historic Quinn Chapel AME Church to thunderous applause and thanked the ministers.
No offense to the ministers, but that’s a pretty blatant use of a church for campaign purposes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the IRS comes calling.
Only one white candidate, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terry O’Brien, is in the race, and these ministers say he will win if all four African-American candidates stay in the race.
If Todd Stroger is the only black candidate in the race, O’Brien wins. Period. Those ministers are, frankly, delusional.
Congressman Danny Davis’ recent poll had Stroger’s favorability among black voters at 37 percent. Just 8 percent of African-American voters backed Stroger in a five-way race. This is gonna be a tough sell for those ministers back in their churches - which, by the way, is also something the IRS may be curious about.
“This is not an African American primary, it’s a Democratic primary,” [Preckwinkle] told AP.
* Meanwhile, Mayor Daley has been under fire for all sorts of problems - the Stroger stuff is starting to rub off on him - and to avoid blame on the proposed CTA fare hike he said yesterday that he wants the General Assembly to consider getting rid of free mass transit rides for seniors…
Daley urged lawmakers to consider rescinding the free rides for senior citizens tacked on to the 2008 CTA bailout by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The freebie was later extended to low-income riders with disabilities, disabled veterans and uniformed military personnel.
“My mom comes downtown. Sorry, mom, but she probably ought to pay. They’re doing okay. And I don’t think, quite frankly, that they’d resent that. And I think that in this economic time, and really for that matter in any time, I don’t think it’s fair for those that can pay in a situation like that to get a free ride.”
CTA leaders are heading to Springfield this week to ask to use 2009 state construction dollars to fill the 2010 operating deficit.
Normally, siphoning money set aside to replace buses and upgrade trains is a bad idea, but these are extraordinary times. It is crucial, though, that legislators make it clear this is a one-time deal.
* Daley is also trying to put a softer face on the privatized parking meter fiasco…
Chicago will spend $20 million in proceeds from the parking meter lease to create its very own “Tech Corps” — by offering technology training and temporary city jobs to 10,500 laid-off professionals.
“There are a lot of people unemployed or who [have] lost their jobs — not just laid off. How do you get ‘em back to the work force as quickly as possible?” Mayor Daley said Tuesday, after a “Technology Summit” at Microsoft’s Chicago headquarters.
[I’ve updated this post and moved it to the top so I can add some context and related stories]
* 7:31 am - House Speaker Michael Madigan’s proposed campaign finance reform bill has now been filed. I’m still leafing through it, but you can read it for yourself by clicking here.
Madigan will run this amendment through his Executive Committee today at 9 o’clock.
* 9:00 am - The House Executive Committee is preparing to begin its meeting. Mike decided he wanted to come back to town for a couple of days, so he’s covering the hearing for us. Here are some related stories about this particular bill.
Limiting campaign contributions from individuals, corporations and unions without limiting such support from political parties and legislative leaders is worse than leaving the state’s weak campaign finance laws unchanged.
Approving such a change would be a step backward - not forward - because it would increase the power and influence of legislative and political leaders.
Look, even the reformers say that the leaders could continue making those gigantic contributions via independent expenditures if the reformers’ version of campaign finance reform passed. Would that version make it slightly more difficult for leaders to fund campaigns? Yes. Would it really reform the process? Nope.
Limiting contributions from legislative leaders to their candidates is one way to loosen the choke chain leaders have on members. Another way is to institute reforms in the legislative rules suggested by the Illinois Reform Commission.
The commission suggested that bills with 16 sponsors in the House or eight in the Senate automatically get a full committee vote. We’d settle for a higher threshold — perhaps 45 percent of the members in each chamber — to prevent the minority party from hijacking a chamber.
The commission’s idea was insane and the best example of its cluelessness about the real life legislative process. I’d go for a 50 percent threshold, because, frankly, majority members have trouble getting their bills out of Rules as well, and half would prevent this from being used as a partisan gridlock tool.
The Tribune’s editorial was so yellow and hyper as to be unreadable.
[ *** End of Updates *** ]
* Here’s the campaign limits section. Sorry for the formatting, but I’m in a hurry…
(b) During an election cycle, a candidate political committee may not accept contributions with an aggregate value over the following: (i) $5,000 from any individual, (ii) $10,000 from any corporation, labor organization, or association, or (iii) $50,000 from a candidate political committee or political action committee. A candidate political committee may accept contributions in any amount from a political party committee; except a candidate political committee may accept contributions from only one political party committee established for the purpose of electing candidates to the General Assembly.
(c) During an election cycle, a political party committee may not accept contributions with an aggregate value over the following: (i) $10,000 from any individual, (ii) $20,000 from any corporation, labor organization, or association, or (iii) $50,000 from a political action committee. A political party committee may accept contributions in any amount from another political party committee or a candidate political committee. Nothing in this Section shall limit the amounts that may be transferred between a State committee and federal committee of a State central committee of a political party.
(d) During an election cycle, a political action committee may not accept contributions with an aggregate value over the following: (i) $10,000 from any individual, (ii) $20,000 from any corporation, labor organization, or association, or (iii) $50,000 from a political action committee or candidate political committee.
* Self funders…
(h) Self-funding candidates. If a public official, a candidate, or the public official’s or candidate’s immediate family contributes or loans to the public official’s or candidate’s political committee or to other political committees that transfer funds to the public official’s or candidate’s political committee or makes independent expenditures for the benefit of the public official’s or candidate’s campaign during the 12 months prior to an election in an aggregate amount of more than (i) $250,000 for statewide office or (ii) $100,000 for all other elective offices, then the public official or candidate shall file with the State Board of Elections, within one day, a Notification of Self-funding that shall detail each contribution or loan made by the public official, the candidate, or the public official’s or candidate’s immediate family. Within 2 business days after the filing of a Notification of Self-funding, the notification shall be posted on the Board’s website and the Board shall give official notice of the filing to each candidate for the same office as the public official or candidate making the filing, including the public official or candidate filing the Notification of Self-funding. Upon receiving notice from the Board, all candidates for that office, including the public official or candidate who filed a Notification of Self-funding, shall be permitted to accept contributions in excess of any contribution limits imposed by subsection (b). For the purposes of this subsection, “immediate family” means the spouse, parent, or child of a public official or candidate.
A reputed high-level Chicago mobster complaining of chronic migraines got another reason for a headache Tuesday as he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion, which could send him to prison for one year to 18 months.
Rudolph C. “Rudy” Fratto, 65, of Darien, who comes from a family of alleged mobsters, admitted to failing to pay more than $140,000 in federal taxes on more than $800,000 in income from 2001 to 2007, according to his plea agreement in a case investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.
With deep aquifer water supplies dropping, some suburban cities — including Aurora — could start feeling the pinch as soon as 2015, Chicago-area planners say.
Within the next 15 years, getting water from those aquifers could start costing cities more money, said Josh Ellis, who studies water issues for the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council.
It’s about a state’s rank when it comes to investment in food and agriculture research.
In its latest annual poll, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says Illinois is 25th in the nation. It’s gone down in the ranking for five straight years. Among ten Midwestern states this year, Illinois comes in dead last.
Sangamon County Board members Tuesday were told Tuesday that public safety will suffer if they follow through with proposed budget cuts to the sheriff’s office.
* Swine flu: Chicago to set up free clinics at six City Colleges campuses
A 93-year-old woman who had more than $200,000 removed from her bank accounts by Adams County Board member John Hibbert last November has testified that she did not give him permission to take the money, and does not remember signing power of attorney documents.
One in 228 Illinois drivers is likely to hit a deer with their vehicle, according to a State Farm analysis.
Illinois deer-vehicle collisions are up 3 percent from five years ago, a slight uptick compared to the 18 percent increase in collisions around the country in that same time period, State Farm reports.
* Yesterday’s test launch of our new website crashed the servers. The good folks over at MCS have been working on a fix and they’ve asked that we try another test.
* Our Tweet of the Day award goes to the Illinois Radio Network’s Dave Dahl…
I’m told that b/c the state is so late paying its bills, that starting Mon, the Capitol news stand will no longer be selling … newspapers.
Yikes.
* Former Senate appropriations director Elgie Sims is running for Cook County Board against that goofy Bill Beavers. The Sims campaign has a Twitter and FaceBook page.
I tend to make shallow character judgments of bands based on whether or not I like their name.
* Echo chamber…
* Joe Calomino: Cap Fax talks about turning the heat on ACORN & SEIU today http://ping.fm/EGfFS
* Amy Sue Mertens: important to understand both sides… @CapitolFax: US Supreme Co to review chicago handgun ban http://bit.ly/EP5zR
* Matt Murphy: Check out my op-ed in Capitol Fax on why I joined the gubernatorial ticket with Andy McKenna: http://tinyurl.com/ybts9oq
* Andy McKenna: Sen. Murphy is going to be a great Lt. Gov. - together we’re going to put our house in order: http://tinyurl.com/ybts9oq
* Markos Moulitsas: RT @glogothetis: RT @capitolfax: Ditka endorses Hughes for Senate:. http://bit.ly/8LLpc || Further evidence of base problems for @MarkKirk
* William Kelly: Hey everone [sic], this is my response to Rich Miller’s attacks on Capitol Fax. Feel free to weigh in… “Since Tuesday, Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax blog has been attacking me and my campaign for Illinois Comptroller without the opportunity for counterpoint.”
* William Kelly: Hey Rich, let’s have a beer summit. How ’bout tomorrow?
* This video of 32nd House District candidate Syron Smith got me to thinking…
* The Question: Are there any legislative or local candidates in your area who are using any “new media” - YouTube, blogging, etc.? If so, what are they doing?
* Patti Blagojevich is suing her former employer the Chicago Christian Industrial League for defamation. You can read the lawsuit by clicking here.
Blagojevich claims in her suit that a top official at the CCIL accused her of “stealing” the group’s donor list. Blagojevich has said in the past that CCIL didn’t have an e-mail donor list, so she used her own e-mail list when she was hired…
In her post as director of development with the charity last year, she created a list for outreach and fund-raising, she said.
There was no such database before she arrived, Illinois’ former first lady said, so, starting from scratch, she placed 600 of personal contacts she had accumulated over the years into the index.
“The galling thing about this is before I got to CCIL — there was no e-mail list. They had no e-mail outreach at all,” she said. “I dumped all my contacts of all my friends. . . . Their list is my list.”
The controversy came to light when Michael Sneed reported that the CCIL was upset that Blagojevich was using the donor list to promote her husband’s book. That Sneed column is no longer online, but here’s the money quote…
“Patti is using the list to e-mail and mail letters to people suggesting they buy her husband’s book, and it’s very, very bad form and unethical,” [Rick Roberts, director of strategy for CCIL] said.
I don’t believe Roberts ever used the words “steal” or “stole” or “stealing,” so I’m not sure whether this suit has any merit because right up front she claims that Roberts outright said one of those words…
Roberts has falsely accused the former First Lady of stealing CCIL’s donor list - something Roberts claims is proprietary - upon her termination from CCIL.
“What we want Mr. Roberts to do right now is retract the statement and offer an apology,” Blagojevich’s attorney Jay Edelson said. “If he’s willing to do that, we’re 80 percent there.”
Roberts could not be reached for immediate comment.
One can only wonder what that other 20 percent might be.
* Former Bears coach Mike Ditka has endorsed conservative Republican US Senate candidate Patrick Hughes. Hughes is up against Congressman Mark Kirk, among others, in the Senate primary. From a press release…
Speaking to a gathering of Hughes supporters at Ditka’s Restaurant last night, Da Coach said, “I pledge all my support to Patrick Hughes and I will help him in any way I can. Patrick Hughes stands for the same mainstream values that Mike Ditka stands for. Patrick Hughes knows who he is and what he believes. He knows that Washington is not the answer to all of our problems today.” […]
Hughes continued, “I said that my campaign would seek the support of grassroots Illinois residents, not the Washington lobbyists and politicians who my major challenger Mark Kirk has courted for endorsements and money. Mike Ditka represents the values of real grassroots voters of Illinois in the finest sense.”
Maybe now Hughes will get some mainstream media coverage. The MSM has almost completely ignored the guy, although ABC7 did run a recent report that quoted Hughes whacking Kirk for missing a congressional vote to extend unemployment insurance benefits…
One of Kirk’s opponents in the Republican primary, conservative businessman Patrick Hughes opposes the unemployment benefit extension, calling it too expensive and suggested the moderate Kirk intentionally avoided the vote for political reasons.
“My sense is that this is someone who acts like a politician, who does things based on political aspirations and not in what he truly believes in,” said Hughes.
[The top item was deleted because I am apparently too stupid to realize that today is the first day of October, so the federal campaign reporting deadline has passed. Sheesh, what a week this has been. Sorry.]
* Republican State Sen. Matt Murphy hasn’t really talked about why he dropped out of the governor’s race to be Andy McKenna’s running mate. He breaks his silence today. Click here for his entire statement, but here are some excerpts…
For more than six years, I have considered Andy McKenna a good friend. He is a decent man of impeccable personal integrity who puts others first time and again. His soft-spoken nature is not one of a career politician - that is a good thing - but a steady confidence and quiet strength that resulted in taking his family business to record heights. As the founding co-chairman of the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center, he lifted budding entrepreneurs by giving them the support and expertise they needed to create jobs throughout the Chicagoland area. Unlike Springfield, Andy has actually created jobs, balanced a budget and improved the quality of life for the people around him. I have always said this campaign isn’t about me, but the need for someone with the experience, credibility and desire to put our state on the right track. For these reasons and many others, I have chosen to suspend my campaign for Governor and proudly endorse and join Andy McKenna as his running mate.
The bi-partisan culture of corruption, mindless irresponsibility toward taxes and spending and a hostile climate toward the creation of new jobs illustrate just how far Springfield has strayed. This will all end under a McKenna/Murphy Administration. It won’t be easy, but through leadership and ideas we will bring economic prosperity back to you. Illinois faces serious problems, but they can only be solved by leading a sea change in ethics, confronting some hard choices on behalf of Illinois taxpayers, setting aside the needs of special interests and career politicians, and creating a laser focus on the interests of Illinois families. Only then will we be able to provide you with the opportunities you need to succeed.
* The Cook County GOP released a new video at its recent convention. Take a look at Why we Fight…
On Monday, a downstate judge blocked Quinn’s plan to lay off the workers. The ruling, in response to an AFSCME suit, says the state can’t proceed with the cuts until it resolves union grievances. We don’t know how many months that will take. But we have a hunch that AFSCME — which spent a nice chunk of the summer stalling Quinn’s effort to lower taxpayers’ obligations — won’t volunteer for expedited talks.
We do hope Democratic lawmakers, some of them wholly owned by state employee unions, take note of just how cooperative AFSCME has been in helping Illinois slash expenditures. Throughout 2009, many of the legislators have been assuming they didn’t need to significantly trim state spending or lean on their pals in the unions to accept even mild cutbacks. The easier solution: Raise the state income tax! Expect Quinn and legislative leaders from his party to push for that revenue gusher in 2010.
Where to begin?
First, AFSCME has submitted budget-cutting ideas worth millions of dollars. They’ve been ignored by the governor’s office and the Tribune. AFSCME was also trying to protect its contract. Hardly surprising, except for the grumpy old men types at the Trib.
Second, the vast majority of Democratic legislators knew there would have to be budget cuts. They aren’t totally stupid. What they disagreed on for so long was where to cut. And only a few of those with big facilities in their districts were hugely concerned with AFSCME. Still, if even those members were wholly owned by AFSCME then why did they vote for a budget which doesn’t fully fund state worker/retiree health care and which essentially required state employee layoffs?
Third, raising taxes was the “easier solution”? Really? That’s why income taxes were increased so high last spring? Oh, wait. Taxes weren’t increased. A tax hike bill failed miserably in the House. And passing a tax hike during an election season next year will be easy? Only in the Trib’s warped collective brain.
Fourth, every tax hike proposal - including the House proposal, the larger Senate Democratic plan and the governor’s various ideas - required budget cuts. Nobody ever put forth serious legislation which would’ve fully funded government at last fiscal year’s original appropriations levels. Nobody.
The Tribune editorial board has always had a wide streak of yellow journalism to it, going back to its founding. But, lately, that wide streak has engulfed the entire page. By regularly embracing wild, unsubstantiated charges and rejecting actual thought, the Trib has denigrated itself almost beyond repair.
As always, the Tribune’s behavior is having an impact throughout Illinois.
* Today, the Peoria Journal-Star follows the Tribune’s lead with an editorial entitled: Who’s the boss at Illinois, Inc.? The Trib edit hed was: AFSCME, running Illinois. That’s how things work in this state. Mother Tribune fires the first volley and then its little buddies follow suit.
From the PJ-Star editorial…
Who’s going to run state government, the governor and the Legislature, or AFSCME, its largest union?
OK, so a union files a lawsuit to protect its contract and its members and now all of a sudden it’s running the government? The reality is that AFSCME has fewer political allies today than it’s had in my entire career.
* Conservative activists in this state, along with a tiny handful of allies in Chicago’s opinion media, have stressed their “anti corruption” and “pro reform” positions above just about all else. Some cynics have claimed that the Right has done this in order to play down its “real” social issues agenda to become more politically acceptable.
But, if the cynics are right, isn’t that a smart move? By calling out corruption and pushing reform, the messengers can build credibility over time. That, in turn, can help when the same messengers push their other agenda items.
Plus, “hot button” issues often aggravate me (and many others) to no end, so I, for one, am glad to see them de-emphasized. Compromise are rendered nearly impossible because positions are so hard on both sides. And both sides usually declare as an apostate anybody who would try to walk down the middle - and are well-funded and well-organized enough to make it stick. Think Judy Baar Topinka on abortion, for instance. She considered herself pro-choice, but the pro-choice groups believed she was pro-life because she was against them on a few issues. And the pro-life groups derided her as a pro-choice extremist.
* I won’t blame the Right. Blagojevich’s arrest is most certainly behind this latest craze, but it certainly seems to me that over the past several months “reform” has replaced the usual suspects as the mindless, emotional hot button in Illinois. Nobody wants to debate the actual issues, they just want to scream at each other. Anybody who dares offer up a compromise or criticism of the reformers’ proposals is derided as a tool of the entrenched, corrupt establishment.
In the meantime, actual hot button issues are beginning to fade away. Gay marriage, for instance. That issue was once so extreme that only a tiny handful would touch it. But with Iowa, of all places, legalizing gay marriage right next door and still managing to exist, arguments against the issue are, so far, quite muted here.
As you already know, two Democratic US Senate candidates - Giannoulias and Hoffman - support gay marriage. Another Dem candidate supports civil unions, which was also a formerly untouchable position. And Mark Brown writes today about a bill that will be introduced to legalize gay marriage in Illinois…
A state senator from Edgewater said she plans today to introduce a measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois, the first time such a bill would have been up for consideration in the Senate.
Sen. Heather Steans, a first-term Democrat whose district encompasses the state’s largest concentration of gay and lesbian residents, said her “Equal Marriage Act” will open a new front in the effort to provide full legal rights to same-sex couples.
Until now, gay-rights activists in Illinois have focused their efforts on gaining approval in the Illinois House for a “civil unions” bill that essentially would provide same-sex couples with most of the basic rights that accrue from marriage — without some of the controversy of calling it that.
One major reason behind this legislation is that Steans has a Democratic primary opponent who is also a gay rights activist. Here’s part of his press release…
But today’s ill-timed press conference by State Senator Steans demonstrates that she is more interested in pandering and politics than in doing the hard work of crafting a strategy and passing legislation. Today’s press conference will allow Senator Steans to tout her new bill on the campaign trail, but it will not bring much-needed rights and benefits to same-sex couples.
That’s probably correct. But, it’s also how things get moved forward over time in the General Assembly. Legislators feel political pressure, introduce a bill to ameliorate that pressure, and then eventually it may actually pass, if the pressure is strong enough. Maybe not next year, but maybe in the future. This is true on both the Left and the Right.
The press release continues…
Not once, but twice State Representatives have introduced a marriage equality bill in the Illinois House. Senator Steans did not sign on as a Senate sponsor of those marriage equality bills since she was appointed in February 2008.
Today’s out-of-the-blue press conference is a sign that Springfield won’t get the job done… again. Instead of spending her time securing the last few needed votes for the civil union bill, Senator Steans is injecting a new bill at the last minute.
Again, Steans is a Senator, not a House member. And both of her House members are solidly in the civil unions camp since they’re both sponsoring the bill. Nearby House members are also with the program. I doubt the freshman Steans would have much influence with the remaining holdouts.
And, Steans’ marriage bill may eventually help push the civil unions bill forward, or eventually force a compromise. The Statehouse argument so far has been between civil unions and the status quo. Toss gay marriage into the mix and maybe that pushes civil unions more into the center. We’ll see. But I don’t think they’ll do anything much in an election year. I could be wrong, but that’s usually a sure-fire way to heat things back up again.
* Back to reform. After pushing several positive steps towards reform, the Right is now trying to fuse their social stances with reform issues, and that position is moving into the mainstream of their party. The most obvious example is this SEIU/ACORN kerfluffle, which liberal-moderate Republican Congressman Mark Kirk has so eagerly embraced in his US Senate bid.
And they’re planning to increase the heat. From a press release posted at Illinois Review…
Despite what the left-wing media has claimed, Illinois has an ACORN problem. The corruption that has plagued our state for decades is due to corrupt groups like ACORN and its affiliates like SEIU. These groups are wasting millions of our hard earned tax dollars and our leaders in Springfield, including our Governor Pat Quinn, have strong ties to ACORN. This continuing plague of corruption seems difficult to fight but here’s how you can take the first step in ending corruption in Illinois.
Join us on Thursday Night as we launch our Illinois based grassroots movement called Say NO to ACORN. Here are the details:
Join us on Thursday Night!
When: 7:00pm CDT on Thursday, October 1st
Where: Dial by Phone (724)-444-7444, Call ID: 65215
Who: Joe Calomino, State Director of AFP-Illinois, Fran Eaton, Editor of IllinoisReview.com and Warner Todd Huston, Editor of PubliusForum.com
For a Republican primary, this is a very politically astute move - if somewhat dishonest. ACORN Illinois doesn’t get “millions” of dollars from the state government. It’s been shut down for two years.
Anyway, just a few trends I’ve been noticing and I thought I’d share my admittedly somewhat random thoughts. Yours?
The number of people living in poverty in Illinois grew by more than 240,000 in the past decade, a research group said.
There were more than 1.5 million people living in poverty last year, a poverty rate of 12.2 percent. That’s up from a 10.7 percent rate in 2000, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Chicago-based Social Impact Research Center at the Heartland Alliance.
Nearly 526,000 children lived in poverty last year, a 16.8 percent rate — up from 14 percent in 2000.
Nationally, the poverty rate was 13.2 percent — 39 million people — up from 12.4 percent. The child poverty rate rose to 17.8 percent from 16.1 percent.
Mixed-income housing is the crown jewel of the Chicago Housing Authority. Ten years ago the agency began its billion-dollar public housing overhaul. The idea behind mixed income is to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and unite different economic classes of people. The Plan for Transformation is behind schedule, at the mercy of a tough economy and subject to ideological debate.
“It’s just one of the deals, you sign it. Whether it’s an enforceable agreement is a much more interesting question for someone in my business,” said Pound, an attorney.
“Who can enforce that contract?” He said. “Frankly, as an international organization to come to the courts of Chicago and try and enforce that contract — lots of luck.”
But even as Chicago’s bid organizing committee “counts noses” — as one Chicago 2016 official referred to lobbying and locking in IOC votes — there can still be question marks.
That’s because the IOC votes by secret ballot, so there’s no way to really know who kept their promise.
The sale of the Old Chicago Main Post Office remained a muddled affair Wednesday after the buyer who won it at auction missed a deadline to close the deal. Bill Davies, a globe-trotting investor who pledged $40 million at the Aug. 27 auction for the vacant hulk that spans the Eisenhower Expy., did not close the sale despite having the available funds, said a person representing him.
Since last year, doctors in the state’s Health Connect program for people on Medicaid have been getting bonuses of $25 per patient if they meet national benchmarks for prevention and management of asthma, diabetes, breast cancer and other chronic conditions.
About 90 percent of doctors from 4,100 sites involved in the program qualified for payments in 2008, and so far, $2.9 million in bonuses has been paid out, the department said Wednesday. The payments give doctors an extra incentive to get patients to do such things as fill prescriptions or get their kids vaccinated, officials said.
To get a bonus, doctors have to perform better than 50 percent of Medicaid doctors nationally.
