Rep. Lou Jones dies
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Tribune:
State Rep. Lovana S. “Lou” Jones, an assistant majority leader of the Illinois House, died Monday, ending a distinguished career as a forceful advocate for the largely African American population of her South Side legislative district.
Known for being heavily involved in her 26th legislative district, Jones joined the legislature in 1987, held the leadership post for six of her 10 terms and served as chair of the House Public Safety Appropriations Committee.
Steve Brown, the spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), confirmed Jones’ death.
For years, Jones, 68, a Democrat, stood out as a strong voice for children’s and women’s issues as well as for reform of prisons and the state’s sentencing system.
Always with a ready smile and well liked by colleagues throughout the General Assembly, her philosophy was summed up in a statement on her Web site: “I am happy to serve the working people of my district, and I will continue to fight for legislation that benefits the vulnerable members of our community.”
Statement from Gov. Rod Blagojevich:
“On behalf of the people of Illinois, I want to express my deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and many friends of Representative Lovana “Lou†Jones.
“I served with Lou Jones in the Illinois House of Representatives, and know that she was respected by her colleagues and advocates across the state for her unbending commitment to helping people reach their full potential and overcome obstacles associated with race and poverty. She was a strong presence in the legislature, always pushing for equality and never hesitating to expose the sometimes-harsh truths about people left behind by a government that is supposed to uphold justice and provide opportunity.
“In her personal life, Lou was just as strong and compassionate. After the loss of her daughter, she raised her own grandchildren and made sure they had a secure and loving home. That commitment inspired me, and I had her in mind when we pushed for a new program to make college tuition more affordable for parents and grandparents trying to help their kids succeed — I even mentioned her as an example in this year’s State of the State speech.
“Lou Jones left a clear mark on the hearts and minds of those who had the opportunity to know her and work with her. I speak for many when I say she will be greatly missed.â€
UPDATE: Statement from House Speaker Michael Madigan:
“ Lou Jones was a valued member of our leadership team for the past decade. She had a life long commitment to her community and her family.
“ She always showed great concern about public safety issues. She certainly believed those who broke law should be punished, but she was just as determined to ensure that those who had served their penalty were not put behind a permanent 8 ball.
“I will greatly miss her counsel and advice. The people of Illinois have benefited from her service.â€
According to the statement, final arrangements probably won’t be available until tomorrow. I’ll post them here.
UPDATE: Statement from Judy Baar Topinka:
It’s often said that you only make allies, not friends, in politics. Lou Jones was the exception to that rule. I was blessed to have her as a friend.
Lou Jones was one of the most dedicated and principled public servants ever to serve in the Illinois General Assembly. Strong-willed and relentless, she was a tireless advocate for her district and a true champion for the working poor, who couldn’t afford a lobbyist. They never needed one when Lou was around, she fought their fights and won many of their battles.
I had the great pleasure of getting to know Lou while I served in the House. Together we fought for our agendas. Many times we worked with each other, and sometimes working against each other (she almost always won).
We went through personal triumphs and tragedies, including the loss of close family members. I grew to have the utmost respect and personal admiration for her. We will all miss her dearly.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Rather than do like others and engage in another long argument over Chief Illiniwek, I’m curious what makes this issue so volatile. Why do alumni get so worked up over a cheerleader? Why do opponents get so worked up over a cheerleader? Vent your anger below if you must, but try to explain to me why the heck you even care.
UPDATE: To throw a little more gas on the fire, I thought this was a very interesting comment today and (unlike almost everything else I’ve seen so far today) one I hadn’t heard before:
The Chief is Illinois’ Confederate flag.
Like the Confederate flag, the Chief represents tradition, pride, and honor to those who support it. And like the Confederate flag, it is a symbol of racial insensitivity to those who oppose it.
Chief supporters might not like that analogy, but ask any Confederate flag supporter in Mississippi or South Carolina why they support this obviously divisive symbol, and you’ll get a lot of the same answers you get from Chief supporters here.
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The guv touts his education spending, but there’s a catch.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich boasted of record spending increases for public schools Monday, while critics said the extra money doesn’t go far enough, leaving districts struggling and long-standing school finance problems unresolved.
Schools will receive an extra $170 per pupil next year in basic state aid, pushing the amount guaranteed per student to $5,334. […]
The $5,334 per-pupil spending for the next school year is more than $1,000 short of what the state’s own school finance advisers said it would take to ensure that students perform at grade level.
Coupled with previous increases, basic state aid per student will have risen by $774 since Blagojevich took office—a figure short of the governor’s own goal of increasing state aid by $1,000 over four years.
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The political fallout is calculated.
A gay marriage ban advisory referendum likely headed for the November ballot could boost turnout among conservatives in suburban congressional and downstate legislative races, but its impact on the governor’s race might only be marginal, political observers say.
Protect Marriage Illinois organizers turned in more than 345,000 signatures to state elections officials Monday, exceeding the 283,000 required to place a nonbinding statewide referendum on the fall ballot asking voters whether marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman. […]
“The accepted wisdom is that it’s the one thing that energizes the right wing,” said Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “They’re turned off by both of the candidates. The referendum gets (conservatives) excited. It also gets the other side excited, but the other side aren’t as numerous.” […]
Where the gay marriage referendum could have impact is in the 6th and 8th District congressional races. In the 6th, Republican Peter Roskam of Wheaton supports the proposal while Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates opposes it. In the 8th District, Republican David McSweeney of Barrington Hills supports it. Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington could not be reached Monday to say where she stands.
“It seriously could hurt (Democrats),” said Rick Garcia, executive director of Equality Illinois, a gay rights group. “It clearly helps Roskam, because he’s one of the (conservative movement’s) drum majors.”
What do you think of all this? If the referendum survives the challenge, will it impact the statewide and down-ballot races? Is this the sort of thing that Mehlman was talking about?
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Failure is always news, success is for TV ads
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
On average, this is a little over 1,000 prescription orders a month - less than a small town druggist would do. Not great.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich once characterized his state program to import cheaper medicines from Canada and Europe as a “prairie fire simmering here in the Midwest.”
But 19 months after its highly publicized launch, I-SaveRx has not sparked a revolution. To date, the program has generated only a little more than 20,000 orders from Illinois and four participating states, which together have a potential customer base of 27 million. Most prescriptions are believed to have come from Illinois.
With such a relatively small response, some observers consider I-SaveRx a failure, particularly given the early hype from Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat now running for re-election.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the market landscape has changed with the federal government’s rollout this year of a Medicare drug benefit for seniors.
“We recognize that now seniors have access to more assistance than they did when we introduced the program,†she said.
There’s no mention in the article about how much the administration has spent hyping the program.
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Gutierrez sounding more like a candidate?
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The congressman is very close to Gov. Blagojevich, so I wonder what this kind of talk will do to hizzoner’s relationship with the guv.
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez insisted Monday he hasn’t decided about running for mayor, but he sounded a lot more like a candidate than a Washington lawmaker as he laid out his ideas for improving the city and took shots at some of Mayor Richard Daley’s pet projects.
“It would be awfully hard for me to say no to a campaign for mayor if that campaign can help Chicago,” Gutierrez said at a luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago, a nonpartisan civic group.
Earlier Monday, Gutierrez told The Associated Press he won’t decide until the fall about running for mayor in 2007. […]
“Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many … schools were built,” he said to applause at the City Club.
Do you think he’ll do it?
More here.
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This may be a national story, but it has serious local implications. From the Hotline blog:
RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, generally one of the party’s premiere strategic optimists, warned GOP state chairs that the party would lose seats at every level of government.
Not “if” they didn’t do X,Y, or GOTV. But “would lose,” period. The task for state chairs: use lessons learned from ‘04 to flush out the Republican base as much as possible.
The corollary: the more Republicans confront Pres. Bush, the more they localize national sentiment, which in turn could provoke a higher turnout among independents, which in turn could cost the party even more House, Senate and GOV seats.
What Mehlman and WH pol dir Sara Taylor didn’t say — but what all state chairs know — is that the politics of nastiness generally turns off persuadable voters. So expect the marginal races this year to be quite nasty.
The upshot: the more the national landscape is framed as 435 local elections, the better it looks for Republicans. The GOP will stay on track by focusing on good defense by leveraging their state-by-state fundamentals, which Mehlman, Taylor and many state chairs asserted were strong.
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Peraica hits the radio waves
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Cook County Commissioner and Republican nominee for County Board President Tony Peraica today launched the first in a series of radio advertisements designed to both educate Cook County families as to his compelling and uniquely American personal story and to take on the status quo in county government. […]
RADIO AD SCRIPT: The Tony Peraica Reform story
VO: At age of 13, Tony Peraica was orphaned in Croatia and immigrated impoverished and alone to America. Now Peraica is 47 and this great American success story wants to reform the mess in Cook County Government. There’s a long list of Cook County reforms that Peraica has scheduled and one of the most important is to provide decent care for the thousands who rely on Stroger Hospital.
“I’m Tony Peraica. I want to make Stroger Hospital so good that even John Stroger will use it.”
VO: Now we can have a Cook County Board President who knows how to get rid of corrupt patronage and help the poor at the same time. The Tony Peraica reform story says that democracy can heal itself when reform is taken seriously. The Peraica reform movement unites Democrats, Republicans and Independents against the incompetent and the corrupt.
VO: A political reform promise paid for by Citizens for Tony Peraica.
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Guv extends domestic partner benefits
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
From an Equality Illinois press release:
With no fanfare, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has extended domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees of the State of Illinois. The action was hailed as a great step in protecting all Illinois families by the state’s leading gay rights organization. Illinois becomes the 13th State to offer such benefits.
“The extension of domestic partner benefits is not only the fair and just thing to do it also strengthens Illinois families,” said Rick Garcia, public policy director of Equality Illinois. “We commend the governor for making Illinois a beacon for fairness and equality.”
“Gay and lesbian employees are entitled to have equal benefits for equal work and our families need the same protections as other Illinoisans,” Garcia stated.
Such benefits are commonplace in the private sector with most Fortune 500 companies offering domestic partner benefits to their employees. In Illinois the County of Cook, the Village of Oak Park, and the cities of Chicago and Urbana are among the municipalities that offer such benefits to their gay employees.
In 2005 Illinois became the 15th state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and only the fifth state to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Other states that offer domestic partner benefits are California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
“This is all about fairness and treating our families equally” Garcia said. “We commend the governor for looking out for all Illinois families including gay and lesbian one.”
And from the governor’s press office:
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today filed an administrative order extending health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of all state
employees in the agencies directly within the Governor’s jurisdiction. Effective July 1st, 2006, same-sex domestic partners will be afforded the same health benefits as those married employees and their dependants receive. These benefits, to be extended to all state employees serving in agencies under the Governor’s control, include health insurance, dental and
vision coverage.
Today’s order means that merit compensation employees will join members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), who will also become eligible for these benefits on July 1st, 2006. Same-sex domestic partnership health benefits were extended to AFSCME members as part of the four-year contract negotiated between the Governorand the union in spring of 2004 and ratified by union members in July of 2004. AFSCME represents approximately 37,000 state government workers.
Protect Marriage Illinois is filing its signatures today:
olunteers from across the state will be in the capital today to hand-deliver 345,199 signatures to the Board of Elections–to place a referendum on the November ballot asking if the General Assembly should amend the Illinois constitution to declare that “marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”
(The PMI effort collected more than 421,000 signatures in total, but due to the state’s draconian rules regarding collecting notarized signatures, many petitions could not be submitted.)
If it survives a promised challenge by homosexual activists, the Protect Marriage Illinois (PMI) effort will be the first citizen advisory referendum to make it on the Illinois ballot in Illinois in 28 years. A total of 283,111 signatures of registered voters is required to get the referendum on the ballot, but PMI volunteers will deliver tens of thousands more than that.
YDD has more.
Rep. Larry McKeon has also now issued a release:
State Representative Larry McKeon (D-Chicago) extended his appreciation and strong support of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s executive order extending partner and family benefits, including bereavement and healthcare benefits, to all state of Illinois Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) employees. This follows the leadership of collective bargaining by major unions representing state workers.
“Many people have worked for this for many years. I am proud of Governor Blagojevich for making this happen,” said Rep. Larry McKeon (D-Chicago), House sponsor of the amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act.
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Question of the day
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Here are some stories about the budget’s winners and losers.
· Daily Herald: Gov. Rod Blagojevich got just about everything he wanted in this year’s state budget, sending the Chicago Democrat into his re-election race with a strong political tailwind… “He was willing to compromise, which I always say is a good sign of a maturing governor,†said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan…
· Lee Newspapers: The governor, who faces Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka in the November election, emerged from the spring session with a handful of high-profile victories, including his preschool plan and a pared-down college tuition assistance plan.
· Finke: There seems to be one clear winner from this year’s budget mess. Gov. Rod Blagojevich got most of the things he wanted in the budget…
What do you think? Who were this spring session’s biggest winners and losers?
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Like a drunken sailor?
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I wonder whether he can keep up this spending pace. Subscribers saw how I laid it out this morning. Now it’s your turn to guess.
In the month after winning his party’s renomination, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich used his massive campaign war chest to fill TV screens with $1.7 million worth of commercials for a general election half a year away, according to a firm that tracks political ads.
Since January, Blagojevich has spent $6.2 million on nearly 7,500 television commercials that have aired across the state. That includes $4.5 million worth of ads he bought during the March Democratic primary campaign in which he faced only nominal opposition from former Chicago Ald. Edwin Eisendrath, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group.
And the firm’s officials say Blagojevich is now spending an astounding $800,000 a week on commercials for a general election that won’t be held until Nov. 7. […]
Doug Scofield, a top campaign adviser to Blagojevich, said the campaign’s decision to air TV ads so early did not reflect potential problems for the governor’s re-election. Instead, it is aimed at countering any lasting effects of a primary campaign in which every candidate running for governor, “at regular and expensive intervals,” criticized the incumbent, Scofield said.
Scofield said the campaign believes its TV spending has been $5.5 million, rather than the $6.2 million reported by CMAG. He defended the use of early attack ads against Topinka as necessary to communicate issues “important to people in the state” and “to give voters the facts on things that people mislead them on.”
Topinka has come under some criticism in Republican circles for failing to take to the airwaves to counteract Blagojevich’s attack ads. Instead of responding with TV commercials, Topinka has relied on free media appearances to criticize Blagojevich for a lack of credibility. Her campaign contends that any boost Blagojevich might get from the early TV ads would be short-lived.
As I pointed out in this morning’s Capitol Fax, the same thing is happening in Pennsylvania.
Aided by a $1-million-plus TV advertising blitz, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell has opened a 14-point lead in his re-election campaign against Republican challenger Lynn Swann, according to the latest Pittsburgh Tribune-Review/WTAE-Channel 4 Keystone poll.
And as I noted Saturday, Blagojevich’s TV spending doesn’t include nightly tracking polls, the placement fees to his ad consultant, the production costs of the ads, the direct mail, the basic campaign infrastructure costs, etc.
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More trouble for Alexi
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Krol lays out the problems ahead.
 Democratic state treasurer candidate Alexi Giannoulias must overcome a fundamental flaw as well as a Catch-22 as he fights to keep his wounded campaign alive.
Boiled down, the flaw is that the guy asking voters to put him in charge of the treasury is vice president of a bank that has loaned millions to convicted bookies, a prostitution boss and a fellow facing a money laundering charge.
Which leads to Alexi’s Catch-22: either his banking experience is relevant — meaning he has to answer for why the banked loaned money to shady characters — or he wasn’t very involved in the bank’s operations, which undercuts his claim to run for the office.
At this point, even the ill-informed members of the George Ryan jury could see this isn’t exactly the best recipe for victory come November. It’s led to whispers in some Democratic circles that Giannoulias might want to bow out before his campaign circles the drain. […]
“He really has no opinion on that,†said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown when asked if Giannoulias should drop out. “It’s a question his supporters have to start answering.â€
I think that last sentence sums up Madigan’s real opinion.
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Where’s Stu?
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
 I did a Google News search of “Umholtz” last night and got just 13 hits since April 17th. Two of those results aren’t even for Republican attorney general candidate Stu Umholtz, they’re for someone named Clair Umholtz.
It also appears that just one of those 13 hits is actually a campaign story about Stu Umholtz, and it was covered only by his near-hometown newspaper, the Peoria Journal-Star.
The Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general held a news conference the day after the General Assembly went home for summer, urging the body to amend the Open Meetings Act.
Meetings between a majority of a quorum of members in each chamber would have to hold meetings publicly, under Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz’s proposal. As it is now, the legislature is the only public body exempt from rules set forth by the open meetings law.
That’s a good idea, but it’s more than just a little goofy that he held the press conference on a Friday and on the day after the General Assembly adjourned for the summer.
So far, Umholtz has been a stealth candidate. I’m told he’s been traveling to tiny little meetings in tiny little counties and is generally clueless about how to run a campaign. We’ll see how it progresses, but the guy really needs to kick it into gear.
Also, I didn’t realize until I did my Google search that Umholtz was the reason why Congressman Ray LaHood turned so heavily against former US Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.
As background, this selection process was much different than under [Peter] Fitzgerald, who basically told House Republicans, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, that he would be selecting the attorneys and they wouldn’t be anyone’s pals.
This irked Congressman LaHood, who was gunning to get Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz the job (note today that LaHood is singing the praises of Patrick Fitzgerald). Then, Peter Fitzgerald would not budge, Umholtz quietly removed his name from the running for “personal” reasons, and LaHood later declared he would find a primary challenger to Fitzgerald should he try to run for another term.
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There was a lot more to this huge loss than just his support of Indiana’s lease of its tollway system, but this story should serve as a warning to those in Illinois who might want to do the same thing here.
Senate President Pro Tempore Robert D. Garton, one of the most powerful men in the state, has lost the seat he’s held for 36 years.
On Tuesday, Columbus accountant Greg Walker, in his first run for public office, upset the longest-serving leader in the Statehouse. […]
In the Statehouse, Republican incumbent lawmakers faced the toughest elections as they squared off against opponents who seized on unpopular votes cast on daylight-saving time and a proposal to lease the Indiana Toll Road. Rep. Mary Kay Budak of LaPorte lost, and Reps. Richard McClain of Logansport and Don Lehe of Brookston won close races.
[Hat tip: Vock]
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Morning shorts
Monday, May 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
· Protect Marriage Illinois supporters plan to deliver “easily†more than the 283,111 signatures needed to get a question on the Nov. 7 ballot asking voters if marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman, one of the drive’s chief organizers said.
· Blagojevich celebrates preschool initiative, Topinka says it shows poor fiscal planning
· Stung by a legislative loss to the horse racing industry, Illinois’ casinos are contemplating legal action to block a plan to shift $36 million annually from four Chicago area casinos to racetracks and horsemen.
· In a confidential, sworn statement to federal investigators, Mayor Daley said his Office of Intergovernmental Affairs recommended people for city jobs but did not order their hiring, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
· Very interesting post: Maldistribution of Chicago School Resources
· Pay hike politics just won’t go away
· Hynes: Not enough cash for lawmaker raises
· Groups: State Budget Leaves Medical Bills Unpaid
· Whether state budget is balanced depends on who’s looking at it
· CTA pension crisis looms
· Hey, Steve, before writing about another politician’s blog, why not check out Fritchey’s as a model for a good one?
· What the heck is going on in DuPage?
· We should get a few of these for the Statehouse.
· Simply Magnificent?
· Senate President Emil Jones said Friday he is not optimistic the state will fund more stem cell research, but school finance reform remains one of his top priorities.
· Editorial: Let the sun shine on Illinois’ budge
· State government employees who are not represented by a labor union will not receive pay raises in the new budget lawmakers approved this week.
· “A 312-word resolution approved by the state Senate last week may have been the best distillation of Illinois’ political process.”
· Income Growth A Matter of Debate For Topinka, Blagojevich
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