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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Vote-counting updates: Connelly; Morrison; Lake County; Walsh; Nybo

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Reader comments closed for the holiday weekend

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Rep. Litesa Wallace has written a book and it’ll be available in December. Click here to pre-order.

Turn it up…

Don’t let it all get you down

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Ives puts faith in Madigan to hold the line on tax hikes

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Daily Herald…

Moving the needle on a progressive tax will be Pritzker’s first test of wills with Democrat Speaker Michael Madigan and the Republican caucus.

“There can be no new taxes in this state,” said Republican state Rep. Jeanne Ives, an influential conservative from Wheaton who nearly defeated Rauner in the primary.

“I think Mike Madigan will still run the state,” predicted Ives, adding the speaker “is savvy and knows the state can’t withstand another tax increase.”

Thoughts?

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Campaign update

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

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5 tips to understand your natural gas plan

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

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A look ahead at what Pritzker wants to do

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Greg Hinz…

The Chicago Democrat said he’s also “looking seriously” at an idea from the Center for Tax & Budget Accountability to issue a large pension obligation bond issue and use it to pay down billions of dollars of pension debt more quickly than the state now is scheduled to do, hopefully saving money in the long run by paring interest costs.

Pritzker said many details will be resolved by his transition financial team, which includes former Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, former Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno and CTBA chief Ralph Martire.

Other early priorities will include raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour after a transition period, “lowering the cost of health care”—Pritzker has proposed allowing anyone to buy into the [Medicaid] system—and expanded aid for college students. Pritzker said the minimum-wage hike would include a feature designed to “relieve the burden on small business.”

Also on the list for “early in our administration”: a big capital program for roads, bridges, transit and related work. The new governor is under some pressure to raise gasoline taxes to pay for such work, but did not indicate where he would end up.

Pritzker floated the CTBA’s idea during the campaign, then backed away from it and is now floating it again. The CTBA’s plan proposes borrowing $11.2 billion over eight years. I guesstimated the average annual cost of that plan at $1.7 billion, but that can be altered to ease the first-year cost.

Raising the minimum wage over time will also drive up state government costs to pay for caregivers, university student workers, etc. It’ll be interesting to see how he intends to shield small businesses.

And, of course, a capital plan pretty much requires a new revenue source. Pritzker has talked about using marijuana tax money to pay for that, but he told Greg that, with the “artificial progressive income tax” off the table, pot money would likely be used to help balance the overall state budget. I figure a gas tax hike is probably the better bet for funding a capital plan, but one never knows.

…Adding… Our resident pension expert RNUG explains the CTBA proposal in comments…

Think a number of you are misunderstanding the plan. Here’s a homeowner example to put it in perspective.

Right now, we have an adjustable mortgage with steadily increasing payments and some balloon payments at the end. Because it started as a teaser rate, we aren’t even paying the full principal and interest payment; heck, we aren’t even covering the full interest payment.

What is being proposed is switching to a standard flat mortgage payment schedule. That will stop the debt from growing, which means the needed payments will stop increasing every year. But, and it is a BIG but, we need to start paying a lot more right now. So, to minimize the impact of the higher immediate payments, what is being proposed is to borrow the difference between the current payments and the new payments. This makes it possible to shift to the flat mortgage payment without a huge tax increase. You will still need a bit of money to switch, but that will be repaying the bonds over 20 (or whatever) years.

In the long run, it will save the State money. In the short term, it frees up NO existing money; all it does is stop future pension payments from taking cash away from other programs.

It’s not a bad thing, but all it really is is the first step on a 20 year journey.

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Our two states

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Ben Yount…

Professor John Jackson with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University said on Tuesday that change flipped the state’s political balance.

Jackson said that southern Illinois cemented itself as a Republican stronghold, while the Chicago suburbs became the new power base for Democrats.

“DuPage County was the real heart of the Republican Party,” Jackson said. “The suburbs now are where elections are won and lost statewide, and they’ve been increasing trending toward the blue. I would rate them as purple.” […]

“I think there was a red wave in southern Illinois,” Jackson said. “It swept away almost all standing Democrats. With the exemption of [state Rep.] Jerry Costello Jr., everything south of I-64 is going to be represented by Republicans.”

* Daily Herald…

Seven new members were elected Tuesday to the Kane County Board, putting new representatives in place for more than one-third of the county.

Democrats also gained a 12-12 split on the board, but recent history indicates the even number won’t foretell a blue wave for county policy in the near future.

The new Democrats on the board are Anita Lewis, Matt Hanson, Chris Kious and Mo Iqbal.

Lewis was courted to run for the seat by county board Chairman Chris Lauzen, who is a Republican. Iqbal ran an unsuccessful campaign for Elgin City Council in 2015, but he defeated incumbent Republican Kurt Kojzarek by nearly 700 votes. […]

“By my projections, all I needed was the amount of votes I had,” Kojzarek said. “I got my people out. It’s just there were 2,000 extra people that didn’t vote or didn’t register that changes from four years ago. The changing demographics swept me in.”

* Macon County also had a huge voter turnout on Tuesday, but things didn’t go well for the Democrats…

Tuesday’s election was the largest midterm turnout Steve Bean has seen since the 1998 election when Glenn Poshard ran for governor.

“We had 39,453″ this year, said Bean, outgoing Macon County Clerk, who will retire and hand over the reins to Josh Tanner, the winner of the race to fill the job. “We had 39,541 in 1998.”

Bean is a Democrat, so that office flipped to the Republicans. Tanner won 54-46.

* Herald & Review…

Macon County sheriff’s Lt. Tony Brown on Wednesday said he’s moving forward with asking for a recount of Tuesday’s election. Brown, a Democrat, finished 99 votes behind sheriff’s Lt. Jim Root, the GOP candidate.

Brown said he hopes that a recount, along with provisional and outstanding absentee ballots the county clerk’s office is still tallying, ultimately leads to him being declared the winner of the election.

Not looking great for him.

* The Democrats also lost control of the county board…

The Macon County Board saw Republicans take a slight edge in the contested races on Tuesday night.

In District 1, Democratic incumbent Laura Zimmerman held onto her seat with 40 percent of the vote, and Republican challenger Linda Little captured 33 percent of the vote to unseat Democratic incumbent Kevin Meachum.

Republican challenger Jim Gresham unseated Democrat Jerry Potts in District 3 with 53 percent of the vote.

* Related…

* ADDED: After years of Democratic control, is the 12th District firmly in Republican hands?

* ADDED: Rauner wins only 1 Galesburg precinct

* Patrick Windhorst Gets Ready to Join Illinois House: Republican Patrick Windhorst defeated democrat Natalie Phelps-Finnie in the mid-term election winning 58-percent of the vote.

* Lance Yednock won in Ottawa, La Salle, Peru; Jerry Long won in Streator in 76th District tally

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The hollowing-out of state government

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Les Winkler at the Southern Illinoisan says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources needs Governor-elect JB Pritzker’s attention…

Finally, the primary reason the IDNR is still afloat is the amazingly dedicated staff you are inheriting. Site superintendents are burning wood in their offices and maintenance buildings to save on fuel costs. They’ve become savants at saving dimes and nickels.

Granted, the ongoing financial issues complicate running the state, but at some point Illinois is going to have to re-staff the DNR.

When boiled down to its simplest level, man’s role on this planet isn’t that complicated.

Wildlife and fisheries biologists are covering five or six counties. They cannot be effective when they are spread that thin. Conservation police officers each cover several counties. When you consider they are working in some of the most remote places in the state, it’s easy to see their job is nearly impossible.

And, the site superintendents …

Some of these dedicated public servants are administering 10 to 12 sites. That’s beyond ridiculous — it’s irresponsible. Some state parks in our region don’t have a single full-time employee.

IDNR has been steadily hollowed out since Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office. It’s the most extreme example of what’s been happening just about everywhere else in state government.

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Question of the day

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Public Radio…

Pritzker also told The 21st he hopes to sit down with Rauner — a man his campaign relentlessly attacked as a failure.

“Well of course I want to hear about where he thinks the hills are that we may need to climb,” Pritzker said. “Of course we may disagree on policy, but I think he probably wants the best for Illinois, and I do too certainly, and so I think we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

* The Question: What do you think will happen at that meeting?

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Legal pot is on the way

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Fox Chicago…

Governor-elect JB Pritzker said Wednesday he wants to legalize recreational marijuana in Illinois almost immediately after being sworn in next year.

“That’s something we can work on nearly right away,” Pritzker told FOX 32’s Mike Flannery.

He also said he will look at vacating arrest records for those who have been convicted of crimes involving marijuana.
photo

“I definitely want to look at all those arrest records. If we’re going to legalize recreational marijuana, then we shouldn’t have all the, what I think are, challenges in our criminal justice system, you know, still existing, people sitting in prison for things that are currently legal,” Pritzker said.

* Tribune…

Sponsors plan to introduce a new legalization bill in January, and hope to get it passed before the session ends in May. The proposed measure would allow the commercial sale and regulation of marijuana, similar to alcohol, for adults 21 and over. There would probably be a six-month waiting period for officials to draw up rules before issuing licenses for growing and selling it. Sponsors say existing medical marijuana companies would likely get the first crack at sales.

Until the legislature convenes, sponsors say they’ll continue to meet with stakeholders, including Pritzker, to revise final details on a wide range of issues; among the most important is the rate at which the drug will be taxed.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy and state Sen. Heather Steans, both Democrats from Chicago, would not specify what the rate will be, saying they will negotiate with Pritzker and others to craft legislation that will pass. But they cautioned against setting the tax rate too high, because that would hinder one of the main goals: to cut out the black market and related violent crime. […]

House Republican leader Jim Durkin said lawmakers should stop their rush toward legalization.

“I will never support legalization,” he said. “I don’t like how quickly we are moving. Illinois should not be part of this lab experiment. I see no societal value.”

* New study…

This report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign finds that high taxpayer costs for law enforcement and cannabis-related incarceration would be reduced by legalizing recreational marijuana. In total, Illinois taxpayers would save $18.4 million annually in reduced incarceration costs, law enforcement spending, and legal fees from marijuana legalization. This revenue could be redirected to solve other crimes– such as homicides, robberies, and assaults.

The economy would also grow if Illinois were to legalize recreational marijuana. If marijuana were legalized, regulated, and taxed in Illinois, an estimated $1.6 billion would be sold in the state, in part due to regional tourism. At a 26.25 percent state excise tax on retail marijuana in addition to the 6.25 percent general sales tax, Illinois would:

• generate $525 million in new tax revenues, including $505 million for the state and $20 million for local governments– a move that credit rating agencies have called “credit positive;”
• create over 23,600 new jobs at more than 2,600 businesses in Illinois;
• boost the Illinois economy by $1 billion annually; and
• allow the state to make additional pension payments and vital public investments in infrastructure, K-12 public schools, college tuition assistance programs, and drug treatment and prevention programs

The benefits of legalization outweigh the social costs. While some legislators and constituents are concerned that legalizing recreational marijuana would increase consumption of other illicit drugs, increase motor vehicle crashes, and reduce workplace productivity, there is no evidence to support these claims. In fact, legalized cannabis has been found to reduce opioid use by as much as 33 percent, reduce traffic fatalities by as much as 11 percent, and have no effect on occupational accidents or rates of employee absenteeism. This is because marijuana consumption has not been found to increase after legalization.

.

108 Comments

McCann claims established political party status in over 80 counties

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

Today, Conservative Party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann thanked nearly 190,000 voters across Illinois for their support and celebrated the Conservative Party qualifying as an “established political party” in over 80 Illinois counties by securing more than five percent of the vote.

As an established political party, Conservative Party candidates will require far fewer signatures than third party candidates, making it far easier for candidates to secure a position on the ballot in 2020. For Congressional races, the threshold for minor party candidates is five percent of the total votes cast in the last election for that race, while established party candidates need only half of one percent. In State Senate and House races, established party candidates need only 1,000 and 500 signatures, respectively. Minor party candidates require five percent of the electorate. However, because party status is conferred with respect to districts and political subdivisions and not geographic areas that exist independently of districts and political subdivisions, it will not be until precinct level data is available to determine which Congressional, House and Senate districts confer party status to the Conservative Party.

Additionally, McCann announced that he’d received more votes than any other third-party gubernatorial candidate in the nation. In Pike County, McCann received 38.8 of the vote.

McCann issued the following statement:

Bruce Rauner’s colossal failure as Governor sent voters running into tax-happy JB Pritzker’s waiting arms.

My campaign could not compete with the hundreds of millions of dollars that Pritzker and Rauner poured in, but I am proud of what we were able to accomplish across our great state. Conservative voters who want better options will have them in 2020, as our party has now been established across most of Illinois.

Pseudo conservatives like Jeanne Ives, and other so-called Conservative groups ran back into Rauner’s arms this fall in a sad display of “if you can’t beat him, join him.” I have no desire to fall in line with a party that doesn’t represent my values. I will help identify candidates to run across Illinois in 2020, and I will ensure that they find their way onto the ballot, where voters looking for a change will find them.

This election was only the start. My supporters can count on me to continue building the movement we started together. Everybody loves a comeback story, and candidates who protect conservative principles are coming back to Illinois.

* The State Board of Elections’ spokesman told me yesterday that the Conservative Party’s established political party designation will only apply to counties, not legislative and congressional districts, but a McCann guy pointed me to the decision in Vestrup v DuPage County Election Commission to back up McCann’s claim…

[Libertarian Party] Candidate sought review of county electoral board’s decision to exclude him from ballot as candidate for state representative. The Circuit Court, Du Page County, Edward R. Duncan, Jr., J., affirmed. Candidate appealed. The Appellate Court, O’Malley, J., held that: (1) candidate’s political party was not entitled to “established political party” status in newly created legislative district, and (2) candidate’s alleged reliance on State Board of Elections’ interpretation of election code would not estop challenge to candidate’s nomination. […]

Under the establishment provision of election code, the status of “established political party” is contingent on a political subdivision or district, not a political party, having voted as a unit in the last election.

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*** LIVE COVERAGE ***

Friday, Nov 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Follow along with ScribbleLive…

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RIP JBT

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The above headline is what I tweeted out the night Judy Baar Topinka passed away almost four years ago. I think about Judy almost every day. She would’ve been finishing up what was expected to be her final term as comptroller right about now.

I bring her up because of this…

On this date in 1994, Judy Baar Topinka was elected Illinois State Treasurer, the first woman to hold that post.https://t.co/gHIdy0EoMx pic.twitter.com/xP4PLFo2fZ

— Illinois History (@ILhistory) November 8, 2018

* Never has the death of a comptroller changed state history more than when Topinka died a month after her election four years ago. The staunchly pro-union, penny-pinching, sharp-tongued Republican would’ve been a check on the excesses of Gov. Bruce Rauner. She wouldn’t have stood idly by during the impasse or while the governor attempted to undermine union member rights. And she was about the only person he was afraid of in politics. Heck, we were all at least a little afraid of her.

Judy Baar was truly one of a kind. And she was my friend. And I’m getting a little emotional now probably because I’m tired from the election. I think I’ll go take a nap, but I just wanted to write a little something about Judy today.

Man, I miss that woman.

51 Comments

Preckwinkle refused resignation of chief of staff she later fired over sexual harassment allegations

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has repeatedly denied that she knew about sexual harassment allegations against her chief of staff before she fired him in September on the eve of her announcement for mayor. Not true…

Scott Cisek, a key political adviser, said he told Preckwinkle days after the March 20 primary election that he’d “heard some very disturbing rumors” that Keller “had been behaving badly towards women.” And he warned Preckwinkle that someday “one of these women is going to come forward.”

Keller told the Tribune that Preckwinkle then met with him to let him know there was an allegation stemming from his brief work on a Democratic congressional campaign.

Keller actually offered to resign at that meeting, but Preckwinkle rejected the offer.

* And now we may know why that blatantly false item was planted with Sneed today about Emily Miller working for potential mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza…

Preckwinkle also noted that she has referred the Keller matter to the Cook County inspector general for a full investigation. Preckwinkle did so after Emily Miller, a Democratic political consultant who had brought the Keller allegations to Cisek back in March, followed up with Preckwinkle last month to tell her she was concerned about the way the matter was handled.

Miller, a friend of a Keller accuser, then documented parts of her talk with Preckwinkle in an email to Preckwinkle’s new chief of staff, a copy of which the Tribune obtained through an open records request. […]

Miller recounted for the Tribune her interactions with Preckwinkle and Cisek. She said she came away disappointed with how they handled the accusations and called it a “cop-out” that the Preckwinkle administration did not pursue the matter sooner and more aggressively.

“There was obviously another way to take care of the problem than just filing that formal written complaint,” said Miller, who indicated that she is not aligned with any mayoral candidate. “And that other way played out two days before (Preckwinkle) announced for mayor. And it could have just as easily played out … when she first became aware of the problem.”

Reporters are obviously going to have to be careful with any “leaks” coming out of Preckwinkle’s campaign from here on out if that’s how they’re gonna play.

There is a whole lot more to this Tribune story, so click here to read the rest.

…Adding… Lori Lightfoot…

“This is bigger than Toni Preckwinkle’s shielding of John Keller,” said Lightfoot. “It’s bigger than her campaign’s dishonest efforts to discredit Emily Miller or her failure to hold anyone accountable for the abandoned SUV until the media took notice. It’s about a toxic culture that starts at the top, and that puts women at risk. We need leaders who will reject this culture and instead build a transparent and accountable City Hall that serves the people, not the broken political machine.”

* Related…

* Preckwinkle’s head of security fired: The head of security for mayoral hopeful and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was fired last week, two years after a county-owned SUV was found abandoned in a ditch in southwest suburban Lemont Township.

46 Comments

Will and Lake County boards flip from “red” to “blue”

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Local Democrats weren’t just successful this year in Champaign County. The Will County Board flipped…

Riding the wave that thrust many Democrats and women to victory throughout the state Tuesday night, were Will County Democrats who appear to have won just enough seats on the county board to gain a 14-12 majority.

They also apparently claimed all county-wide seats and two judgeships, according to unofficial results.

It is the first time that Democrats controlled all county-wide seats, board leadership said.

Going into Tuesday’s election, Republicans held a 16-10 majority on the board, and had Nancy Schultz Voots as clerk, and Steve Weber as treasurer.

* From Bill Morgan…

Hi Rich,

Just wanted to send you a few details about Will County’s election night results. I’m a Democratic PC and on the county party executive board here. Our new chair, Bill Thoman, is working hard to rebuild the county party, focusing on winning races rather than petty squabbles, and it paid out dividends this cycle.

On Tuesday night, the Democrats swept the countywide seats. That includes electing Lauren Staley-Ferry to the county clerk spot, a position that hasn’t been held by a Democrat in 80 years.

The Democrats also took the county board from the Republicans (now 14-12), including a win by Amanda Koch, a hardworking and thoughtful veteran of the armed forces, in a very Republican district.

The Democrats also swept the two judicial races, making the court an even split between the parties for the first time in decades.

A lot of the credit goes to Thoman, who had a collaborative mindset and was committed to working with labor, progressive groups, and state legislators, especially Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, Natalie Manley, and Larry Walsh Jr, who were intensely focused on building the party and creating a “rising tide lifts all boats” mindset.

Hope things are going well with you and you might take a nap one of these days. On to the transition!

* The Lake County Board also flipped…

blue wave swept Lake County on Election Day, but Wednesday found some races still too close to call, including those for sheriff and some County Board seats — though if Tuesday’s unofficial results hold up, Democrats would have a majority on the board, with 11 members to 10 Republican members.

With provisional and late-arriving mail-in votes still to be counted, the election results won’t be official for 14 days, according to County Clerk Carla Wyckoff.

She added there were about 1,000 provisional ballots to be reviewed, and those, along with any mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, will be added to Tuesday’s totals all at once at the end of the 14-day period.

This year, according to the clerk’s office, 46,000 mail-in ballots were sent to voters and 34,000 have been returned. During the midterm election in 2014, 34,460 ballots were sent out and 26,733 were returned in time to be counted, Wyckoff said.

Republican Sheriff Mark Curran is currently ahead by 754 votes and his Democratic opponent isn’t conceding.

* More…

Aside from individual candidates’ messages, the Democrats’ success appears to be a combination of several factors: trickle-down from higher-level races where the party succeeded, crossover voters, state party support, voters’ disenchantment with the status quo, and Republican board candidates being lumped in as part of a “corrupt” system because of an ethics probe involving former board Chairman Aaron Lawlor.

“There were people who said, ‘This is the first time I voted for a Democrat in my life,’” said Holly Kim, a former Mundelein village trustee who defeated incumbent Treasurer David Stolman. “Everyone has a different reason.”

* Things were more complicated in the Metro East’s Madison County…

The GOP managed to keep a slim hold of their majority on the board with 15 seats versus 14 Democratic seats. The Republicans previously held 15 seats with one Independent seat and 13 Democratic seats. […]

(I)ncumbent Republican James Futrell of Alton lost his District 13 seat to Democrat Matthew King, who won with 51 percent of the vote.

Democrats also gained a seat when Robert Pollard, formerly an Independent, ran uncontested as a Democrat in Tuesday’s elections. […]

In a change for the mostly Democratic Granite City area, longtime Democratic board member Arthur Asadorian lost his seat to Republican newcomer John “Eric” Foster. […]

It was a mixed bag in countywide elections with incumbent Democratic County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza defeating Stephen Adler with 53 percent of the vote. Republican incumbent Treasurer Chris Slusser kept his seat, too, with 55 percent of the vote.

That county was once a Democratic bastion.

* Related…

* In Cook County Board races, Republican strongholds lose grip to blue wave — and a lot of green

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Edgar and Pritzker heap praise on each other

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Sneed…

“He (J.B.) knows what he doesn’t know,” said Edgar, who had been critical of incumbent GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s leadership style.

“That’s quality is huge. It’s the trait or characteristic of someone who is a success at what he does . . . and is very savvy,” added Edgar, a popular governor who served two terms in the ’90s. […]

“I know we will have our differences, but J.B. knows how important it is to reach out to both sides and work on the art of compromise.

“This guy listens. Really listens. And is willing to compromise.”

* Herald & Review…

Pritzker also named Republican former Gov. Jim Edgar as one of the co-chairs of his transition team.

“Although I have some disagreements with him, I think he’s somebody who’s highly capable and had a lot to offer to a new governor,” Pritzker said.

* It’s also apparent that Pritzker is holding up Edgar as an example of his own bipartisan intentions…

In an interview scheduled for broadcast Thursday (Nov. on The 21st, Pritzker said he hopes Edgar’s presence will demonstrate his bipartisan intentions.

“After all the rancor and the unwillingness to work together I think it’s time that we actually started talking across the aisle — Republicans and Democrats — because we’ve got some real challenges in this state and we can only get things done for working families if we work together,” he said.

This love fest is gonna drive the Raunerites up a wall.

46 Comments

Question of the day

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Illinois Public Radio…

“Campaigning is easy. Governing is a lot harder. So, any person becoming Governor of Illinois has to really kind of come to that job with that understanding. Being the governor is a hard job. (You’ve) got to work at it every day.” […]

“We definitely have to raise the minimum wage in Illinois, it’s far too low,’’ [former Gov. Pat Quinn] says, “The current governor has failed to do that. That should be job one for the new governor.” […]

“Honor and respect the process, as well as honor and respect those people who make up the process,” [former GOP Sen. Pam Althoff] says. […]

“Many governors of both parties lost sight of the fact that Illinois is an extremely diverse state, and it’s very important for us to continue to carry on dialogues; to learn what we do have in common and what our concerns are,” she says. […]

“The governor’s job is to come in with his own agenda and collaborate, and say, ‘This is what I would like to see. How is it we work together to achieve this?’”

* The Question: Your own advice for the next governor?

…Adding… In case your advice is “live at the mansion”…

“I intend to live at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield, but I will of course be commuting as often as possible.” [Pritzker] said the children would continue schooling in Chicago, but “there will be a lot of travel back and forth by all of us.”

“I am looking forward to spending time in Springfield, as I have during the course of the campaign,” Pritzker said. “I think it allows me not just to get to know people in Sangamon County better, but also to get around Central and Southern Illinois easier. That’s something that’s been really important to me during the course of the campaign — just listening to people who live in different areas of the state than where I live.”

…Adding… And if you want him to “listen” he says he’s already heard you…

He was asked about what tax rates he would propose, as he often had been during the campaign. Pritzker said his administration will have to work with lawmakers on specifics.

“We need to make sure that we’re listening,” Pritzker told reporters. “I know that you all don’t want to accept that, but in order to get something done, we need to listen to all parties. It is a difficult process to get a constitutional amendment passed.”

66 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 - Problem found, fixed *** As many as 24,000 votes may be missing in McHenry County

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* NW Herald…

More than 116,000 McHenry County residents voted in Tuesday’s midterm election – but unofficial election results showed about 21 percent of them did not pick candidates in statewide races. […]

Issues with the county’s election reporting software may be the culprit, according to McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan.

“We are looking at election reporting software,” McClellan told the Northwest Herald. “It is not showing all the numbers for some reason.” […]

That’s 20 points lower than the 99 percent of Will County ballots that included a gubernatorial vote. In Kane County, it was 98.6 percent. In Lake County, 98.6 percent. Cook County? 98.3 percent.

In a phone interview Thursday morning, McClellan said the gap isn’t that unusual.

“People just didn’t want to vote for governor,” she said.

Oh, please, that is just not true. The county clerk needs to look at her own vote totals.

That undervote was in way more than just the governor’s race. It’s literally everywhere in McHenry County.

* For instance, go to the clerk’s elections page and you’ll see that only 92,559 out of a total of 116,703 voted in the secretary of state’s race, so that’s about the same undervote as the governor’s race. Same goes for the 92,287 who voted in the attorney general’s race and the 92,427 who voted in the county’s two congressional races.

You can’t tell me that as many as 24,000 voters cast totally blank ballots. Those votes are either missing or the total vote count is way off. I called the clerk and she hasn’t gotten back to me.

It’s even worse down-ballot, by the way. Only 81,533 voted in the sheriff’s race and just 80,503 voted in the county auditor’s race. I can see that drop-off happening between statewide and local, but I cannot possibly see 24,000 completely blank ballots. No way.

[Hat tip: Cal Skinner.]

*** UPDATE *** The county clerk has now fixed the problem. Turns out, the early votes were counted but not tabulated online. As a result, the Democrats have apparently picked up another seat on the county board and Democratic US Rep.-elect Lauren Underwood has narrowly won the county, boosting her final count in the race.

25 Comments

What Is The Credit Union Difference?

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

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More from that Fox/AP analysis

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Let’s return to the Fox News/AP Illinois election analysis. Here are most of the responses which had at least 779 respondents (some were much lower)…

* Trump job approval

Approve 40%
Approve strongly 23%

Disapprove 60%
Disapprove strongly 49%

* Direction of the country

Right direction 34%
Wrong direction 66%

* Impact of Trump admin’s trade policies on national economy

Help 32%
Hurt 55%
No difference 12%

* Impact of Trump admin’s trade policies on local economy

Help 26%
Hurt 48%
No difference 26%

* Views of the Affordable Care Act

Repeal the law entirely 17%
Repeal parts of the law 25%
Leave the law as is 17%
Expand the law 41%

* Immigration policy - immigrants living in the U.S. illegally

Offered a chance to apply for legal status 68%
Deported to the country they came from 31%

* Do you think the way Democrats talk about politics these days is leading to an increase in acts of violence, or don’t you think so?

Yes, it is 42%
No, it is not 57%

* Do you think the way Republican talk about politics these days is leading to an increase in acts of violence, or don’t you think so?

Yes, it is 62%
No, it is not 38%

* Do you think the way Democrats/Republicans talk about politics these days is leading to an increase in acts of violence, or don’t you think so?

Yes, both 20%
Democrats but not Republicans 23%
Republicans but not Democrats 42%
No, neither 16%

Discuss.

16 Comments

Sorry, but you wanted this and you voted for it

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It will never cease to amaze me that the people who were most worked up by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios and the Tribune’s property tax assessment series ended up demanding the changes that lead directly to this result, while the folks who most strongly supported Berrios in the primary are receiving the greatest benefit from all the public pressure and his impending departure…

With all residential property reassessments now mailed out in Chicago, homeowners across the city are seeing dramatic changes in the estimated value that will be used to determine their property tax bill next year.

Improved methods of valuing single-family homes, compounded by rapidly shifting housing prices in some areas, have triggered “sticker shock” in affluent or gentrifying neighborhoods like North Center and Logan Square, where the median assessed value of residential properties was boosted by as much as 50 percent and many individual assessments rose even more.

At the same time, a number of areas with less expensive housing — such as Englewood and New City — saw nearly equal declines in the assessor’s median value estimates.

The new assessment methods were developed to address long-standing problems exposed last year by the Tribune, which found that the Cook County assessor’s office under Joseph Berrios tended to overestimate the value of single-family homes in poor or working-class neighborhoods while underestimating the value of homes in wealthier areas. Those problems put a disproportionate share of the county’s property tax burden on less affluent homeowners, whose tax bills often were inflated while others got an undeserved break.

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*** UPDATED x1 - Nybo denies he conceded *** Nybo, Breen concede

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** UPDATE *** Sen. Nybo just told me that he has not conceded.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* This means the SDems have picked up two seats so far, with one still in the balance

BREAKING: State Senator Chris Nybo concedes the race to Suzy Glowiak in Illinois’s 24th Senate District, bringing the Democratic majority in the Senate to 39 seats! Congrats Senator-elect @SuzyGlowiak! #twill #Election2018

— Elect IL Senate Dems (@ISDVF) November 8, 2018

Sen. Mike Connelly (R-Lisle) is leading Democrat Laura Ellman by just 12 votes, with more to be counted or determined (uncounted mail-in, provisionals, challenged mail-in).

* Rep. Peter Breen’s (R-Lombard) fate has been sealed since election night, and he conceded via Facebook yesterday. It’s quite something…

Dear Friend,

In life, there are some things that you can’t really understand unless you have experienced them first-hand. I’ve reached such an understanding.

I can’t fully convey to you the feeling of cradling our newly adopted baby son, whom Margie and I brought home a little over a week ago. And I can’t fully convey the feeling of viewing ads on television trying to connect you to rapists and child molesters, while cradling that same baby. Or the feeling of having over $2 million in Madigan money used to smear your character to your family and neighbors, in a small targeted area of three lovely suburban towns.

If you want to see why capable and qualified people don’t run for office, this is why. The opposing effort against us was a vile, filthy campaign of character assassination. It was a campaign straight from the Madigan Machine playbook, which has no ethical constraints. I had hoped and prayed that the people of the 48th District would reject this brand of politics, but it simply didn’t turn out that way.

Providentially for me, our family now has a beautiful new baby, a fragile little life. His cries in the middle of the night put partisan politics in their appropriate perspective. Margie and I are truly blessed, and that’s what we’re focusing on today.

Reflecting on my four years in the Illinois House, I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish: passing 32 bills into law, more than any other two-term legislator; leading debate on many hundreds of Madigan agenda bills as Minority Floor Leader; and helping many individuals, families, nonprofits, and businesses in our district with a variety of issues.

I am very proud of how I did it: I never lied, I never cheated, and I never stole. I endeavored in every circumstance to act as a gentleman, in accord with my faith, my training, and how my parents raised me. And I hope that’s how folks remember me in the Illinois House: as a fierce advocate, and as a leader, but always as a gentleman.

As tough as today is for Margie and me, we feel most for the many, many hundreds of people who volunteered for and contributed to my campaign, going back to that first run in 2011 for the Lombard Village Board. We’re grateful for the 22,724 people who voted for me yesterday. Those folks rejected the Madigan Machine, his out-of-control spending, and his tax hikes. They deserve better.

You should feel as proud of this campaign as we do. We went toe-to-toe with Madigan on a variety of fronts, both in the mailboxes of our persuadable voters and on cable television. I’m told we talked to more voters on their doorsteps than any other GOP State House campaign in the Chicago metro area. We won the lone debate, and we secured the top newspaper endorsements, from the Tribune and Sun-Times.

We did everything within the rules that could be done to win, against incredible political headwinds, on a night when Illinois Democrats took the overwhelming majority of DuPage seats in the General Assembly, along with two suburban congressional seats.

One thing certain about politics is that the winds change. You’re up one day and down another. We will get through this.

It has truly been my honor and privilege to serve so many fine people as their Representative in the Illinois House.

Please know of Margie’s and my prayers for you and your family, and we appreciate your prayers for our family.

Yours faithfully,
Peter

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Pritzker strives for bipartisanship while doomsayers warn of hopelessness

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Bernie…

Pritzker told The State Journal-Register that on Election Night, he spoke with Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady and House GOP Leader Jim Durkin “to say that I look forward to working with them to solve the big problems, the big challenges we’ve got in the state, and I hope they’d be open-minded in working with me, and they both agreed that they would be.”

I confirmed those calls with both leaders, to make extra special sure these weren’t phantom election night conversations like the ones Gov. Rauner claimed he had with Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton four years ago.

* But not everyone is hopeful about the future. Wirepoints…

How much closer to Detroit or Puerto Rico must Illinois go before it reforms?

That’s now the central question, and tonight we’ve learned we have much further to go. The primary culprits in Illinois’s collapse ran the field — Chicago machine Democrats retained firm control of both houses of the General Assembly and won every statewide office. Congressional election results were just as dismal. […]

In almost all other races, Illinois voters effectively chose to believe they can “vote themselves money,” as Benjamin Franklin put it, which, he said will “herald the end of the Republic.” Their lesson will come, though when remains unclear.

They chose, more precisely than ever, the malfeasance and corruption that long ago set the state’s trajectory into the abyss, and offered no indication of what or when would be enough to convince them they’ve reached the bottom. A bottom will come, but when? Something then will arise, but what?

Personally, it’s one of my favorite, historical pictures that haunts the short term but inspires hope for a later day. It shows the first business to reopen in Chicago after the Great Fire, marking the start of a hundred rip roaring years when Chicago was among the most dynamic cities on the planet.

A similar day, far, far off, is all we can hope for.

I think that may have topped the infamous Hurricane Katrina column.

* Illinois News Network…

Pritzker inherits fiscal mess while groups warn of disaster

The incoming administration inherits a fiscal mess that some experts have said is beyond repair.

“One metaphor that comes to mind is some people have the best seats on the Titanic,” said Bill Bergman, research director at Truth in Accounting.

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Pritzker says no “artificial progressive income tax” on horizon

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Frankly, this ain’t a bad headline if you’re the incoming governor…

Gov.-Elect J.B. Pritzker Backs Off Temporary Tax Plan

* And this ain’t a bad lede, either…

A day after a decisive win over Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Democratic Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker pulled back on a campaign proposal that he’d temporarily raise the state flat income tax rate as he works to enact a progressive income tax structure.

* Let’s get into the two stories…

Pritzker previous said Illinois could “do what other states have done with a flat income tax and that is to put exemptions in place, to raise the overall rate, but protect the middle class and those striving to get there with those exemptions and then increase the earned income tax credit.”

“That has the effect of a progressive income tax, but frankly it’s very temporary, so that’s why we have to go after immediately,” Pritkzer said on “Chicago Tonight” in January.

But he appeared to reverse course in a one-on-one interview Wednesday.

“That’s not something I’m looking at currently,” he said.

OK, but if you watch the video clip he said this during the primary…

…But frankly it’s very temporary, so that’s why we have to go after immediately and I have put a plan forward for doing that, go after immediately for getting a constitutional amendment in place.

So he didn’t actually say that he would go after a tax hike with lots of exemptions immediately. He said he’d try immediately to get a constitutional amendment in place to allow for a graduated income tax system.

* From the other story…

In April, Pritzker admitted his progressive income tax would take “a little time” — about two years — to get passed through the Legislature.

In the interim, he said he’d seek a Massachusetts model, “an artificial progressive income tax, in which we would raise the exemptions for those striving to get to the middle class … and raise the overall rate and then raise the earned income tax credit at the same time. All of which would create a kind of artificial gradual income tax in the state.”

* His full quote…

“It would take us about two years in total to get it all done and said, that we would have a progressive income tax,” Pritzker said at a Loop news conference.

“So in the meantime, you could have what I would describe as … an artificial progressive income tax in which we would raise the exemptions for those striving to get to the middle class, those in the middle class too, and raise the overall rate and raise the earned income tax credit at the same time — all of which would create a kind of artificial graduated income tax in the state,” he said.

Sounds more like spitballing than an actual promise to do it, but whatevs. Upper-income earners aren’t facing an immediate tax hike so they can breathe a little easier.

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Pritzker announces “budget and innovation” transition committee

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I have my nitpicks with this, but overall this is a pretty darned strong budget transition team. It’s also a nice touch to include former Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno…

Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton announced the formation and members of the Budget and Innovation Committee of their gubernatorial transition.

The committee is the first of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts that will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Budget and Innovation Committee will be chaired by former state Comptroller Dan Hynes and consist of 17 members.

“JB and I are committed to hitting the ground running on day one, and we’re bringing experts with decades of experience to the table to help shape what will be a transformative administration for the state of Illinois,” said Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton. “The Budget and Innovation Committee will mold the guiding moral document that is our state budget and develop inventive solutions to move Illinois forward.”

BUDGET AND INNOVATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Former Comptroller Dan Hynes is a senior advisor on the Transition Committee and chairs the Budget and Innovation Committee. Hynes currently serves as a senior executive at UBS Asset Management in Chicago, after a distinguished 12-year career in public service as the Comptroller for the State of Illinois. Hynes was elected Comptroller in 1998 as the youngest state constitutional officer since World War II. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2006 by wide margins.

State Representative Greg Harris is the Assistant Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, serving the 13th House District and chairing the Appropriations-Human Services Committee and Violence Prevention Task Force. Harris is the first openly LGBTQ person in the Illinois legislative leadership.

State Senator Toi Hutchinson serves the 40th Senate District and chairs the Senate Revenue Committee. Hutchinson is the former Olympia Fields Village Clerk and has worked in governmental relations and legislative affairs. Hutchinson served as the Chief Professional Officer of the Southwest Suburban United Way and is a 2012 Edgar Fellow.

State Senator Andy Manar serves the 48th Senate District after years of service as city councilman and mayor of Bunker Hill and chair of the Macoupin County Board. Manar led the charge to overhaul our state’s outdated school funding formula, sponsoring bipartisan legislation to make sure every child has access to a quality education regardless of their ZIP code. He also reformed the state’s lead economic development agency to make it more accountable.

Mayor Tom McNamara represents the City of Rockford, elected in 2017 after serving as alderman of the city’s 3rd Ward. McNamara is an insurance agent with Eckburg Insurance Group and previously worked as Career Development Specialist for Goodwill of Northern Illinois.

Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe represents the City of Decatur, becoming the city’s first female mayor in 2015. Moore Wolfe previously served on the Decatur City Council for six years and as Director of Community and Government Relations for Decatur Memorial Hospital, a regional manager of the Governor’s Opportunity Returns program and President of the Decatur Chamber of Commerce.

Treasurer Kurt Summers currently serves the City of Chicago and manages city’s $8 billion investment portfolio. He previously served as Chief of Staff to the Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and as Trustee for the $9 billion Cook County Pension Fund. Summers most recently was a Senior Vice President at Grosvenor Capital Management where he was a leader of the Emerging and Diverse Manager business, which invested over $2 billion with minority- and women-owned firms.

Jessica Basham is the Chief of Staff to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. She previously served a revenue analyst for the state’s appropriations staff before becoming director of the research group.

Carole L. Brown is the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Chicago. Brown served on the State of Illinois Budget for Results Commission since 2011, chaired the Chicago Transit Authority Board and was a member of Mayor Emanuel’s first term Transition Team. She was previously the managing director at Barclays and was with Siebert Brandford Shank & Co LLC and Mesirow Financial. Brown serves on the boards of Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Metropolitan Planning Council and oneFund Chicago.

Pat Devaney is the President of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois. Devaney first started his career with the Champaign Fire Department in 1995 and he served as lieutenant since 2006. He is a member of AFFI Local 1260 and served as the treasurer, vice president and president.

Ralph Martire is the Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Martire also serves as president of the River Forest District 90 School Board and on the West Cook Division Governing Board of the Illinois Association of School Boards. He previously chaired the State Revenue Committee on the Budget Advisory Board of Governor Blagojevich’s transition team and served as the Deputy Issues Director on Dawn Clark Netsch’s gubernatorial campaign and Issues Director for David Wilhelm’s U.S. Senate run.

Dan Montgomery is the President of 103,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers, a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and a vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Montgomery has worked on behalf of public education and the rights of working men and women for more than two decades. He taught English for 18 years at Niles North High School in Skokie and also taught in the City Colleges of Chicago and at Northwestern University. A proud union activist, he has been an IFT member since his first day of teaching in 1993.

Laurence Msall is the President of the Civic Federation. Msall previously served as a Senior Advisor for Economic Development for Governor Ryan, the Assistant to the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, and vice president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Christine Radogno is the former Republican Leader in the Illinois State Senate who left office in 2017 following two decades of service. Radogno was the first woman to lead a legislative caucus in Springfield. She previously served a village trustee in LaGrange and ran as her party’s nominee for state treasurer in 2006.

Kristin Richards is the Chief of Staff to Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton. Richards previously served as Policy and Budget Director for the Senate President and as policy adviser and liaison to various state agencies in the Office of the Governor.

Michael Sacks is a senior advisor on the Transition Committee and the Chairman and CEO of GCM Grosvenor. Prior to joining Grosvenor in 1990 he was an Associate with Harris Associates, L.P. He serves as the Vice Chairman of the World Business Chicago Board of Director and is active in various philanthropic and community activities.

Leslie Sgro is currently serving her seventh term as the elected President of the Springfield Park District. During her tenure, she has overseen the transformation of the District by building fully accessible parks and bringing its technology into the 21st century. Sgro served as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget from 2011-2015, where she oversaw the $26 Billion Illinois Jobs Now program and assisted in passing a transportation capital bill. Bringing together legislative and government partners, Sgro spearheaded an overhaul of the State’s procurement program. She also served as Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources for eight years.

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Non-college whites, white men, independent women, evangelicals and seniors were Rauner’s constituencies

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From Fox News…

Fox News has launched an improved approach for analyzing Americans’ priorities and vote preferences on Election Day. The Fox News Voter Analysis combines survey data from NORC at the University of Chicago with voting results from The Associated Press. As more people vote early or by mail, the new method overcomes the limitations of in-person exit polls and captures the views of all Americans by integrating probability-based, state-by-state surveys with a massive online poll.

Full methodology is here.

* According to this analysis, JB Pritzker defeated Gov. Rauner among men 48-45, among women 59-33 and scored in the high 50s in all age groups except 65+, which Rauner won 50-40.

Rauner won white men 55-37, but Pritzker won white women 49-43. Pritzker won among African-Americans 91-6 and among Latinx 69-23.

Pritzker won all of the broad education categories, but Rauner won among whites who aren’t college educated 50-39. The two split college-educated whites 47-47.

Eight percent of Republicans and 12 percent of Republican women (you will recall they were targeted heavily by the Conservative Party) went for Sam McCann, and Rauner took 83 percent of GOP voters. Pritzker won 90 percent of Democratic voters.

According to the research, Pritzker won independent men 40-34, but lost independent women to Rauner 57-34. Not sure what’s up there.

Pritzker won moderates 52-39, while Sam McCann took 11 percent of conservatives to Rauner’s 73 percent.

Rauner won white evangelical/born again Christians 61-35 with no recorded support for McCann (very small sample size there, though).

Of those who voted to express support for President Trump, McCann took 9 percent to Rauner’s 78.

We’ll get to other results in a bit.

67 Comments

Mendoza’s next move

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Tribune on Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s mayoral ambitions…

Part of Mendoza’s mayoral consideration has included tapping the services of an Emanuel ally to help her navigate the decision — political strategist Becky Carroll, who served as chief Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman in the mayor’s administration and ran an Emanuel-aligned Super PAC as part of his successful bid for a second term in 2015.

In a brief statement, Carroll said she and Mendoza have been “lifelong friends.” If Mendoza were to run for mayor, Carroll said, she “would gladly serve as one of her advisers,” but she stopped short of confirming any role in helping the comptroller prepare for a mayoral bid.

Carroll’s involvement and some of Emanuel’s allies pointing to Mendoza’s Chicago numbers Tuesday night are the most noticeable tea leaves yet that some of the top policy and political aides in the mayor’s orbit are starting to gravitate toward a Mendoza candidacy.

Many in Emanuel’s reliable network of big-money donors, however, largely have kept their powder dry and made no financial commitments, sources said, while a few have started to break for onetime U.S. Commerce Secretary and former Obama White House chief of staff Bill Daley, the brother and son of two former mayors. Some of Emanuel’s contributors and top labor supporters, however, still could end up aligned with Mendoza, who has been a favorite among the city’s major trade unions that were instrumental in Emanuel’s re-election bid four years ago.

* Fran Spielman…

Former Hispanic Democratic Organization chieftain Victor Reyes is a political operative who has spoken to several of the top-tier mayoral candidates but is “leaning toward” joining the Preckwinkle campaign.

Reyes argued that Mendoza is Preckwinkle’s “strongest challenger” — but has weaknesses. Chief among them, Reyes said, is a voting record in Springfield that includes “a lot” of tax increases and hard-line votes on criminal justice issues that earned her the nickname, “Electric Suzy.”

“Preckwinkle is a criminal justice progressive. The voting record would show that Mendoza voted for harsher penalties and does not have a progressive criminal justice record,” Reyes said.

Mendoza’s political consultant, Eric Adelstein, countered that Mendoza was the “deciding vote in Illinois in getting rid of the death penalty.”

* Pearson…

So, as one of the top leaders in the Democratic Party hierarchy, will Pritzker get involved in the contest to pick a successor to outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel?

“No,” Pritzker said, providing perhaps his most succinct answer to a question after a long governor campaign season.

Of course, there’s little reason for Pritzker to weigh in on a choice for mayor. His election represented a coalition of interests and activists within the Democratic Party. Choosing a mayoral candidate could be viewed as backing one group and alienating the others.

* Paris Schutz…

“My job is to work with whoever the new mayor of the city of Chicago is,” Gov.-elect Pritzker said. “That isn’t something that happened in the last administration, and I really think it’s important for the governor to work with the largest city in our state and one of the big economic engines of our state.”

* Sneed…

Watch for women — particularly consultants Emily Miller and Becky Carroll — to play big roles in Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s mayoral campaign.

• To wit: Because of the #MeToo movement and Mendoza’s strategy to wage generational war against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and mayoral hopeful Bill Daley, there’s enormous pressure to put women under age 50 in top campaign positions.

Emily Miller called this morning to tell me Sneed’s story is not true and sent me this written statement…

That is false. I will not be joining any mayoral campaign, and will not be playing any role—big or otherwise—in any race. I have never had any conversations with anyone about playing a role in a Mendoza mayoral campaign.

I’m not sure why or by whom that was planted, but it was the first anyone had heard of it.

…Adding… The passage about Emily has now been removed.

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