* I hope to see some of you at this evening’s forum. I’ll buy the first couple of rounds afterwards for all Capitol Fax subscribers and Capitol Fax Blog readers who attend…
Phil Ponce, host of WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight,” and a journalism professor at Loyola University Chicago, will examine the role of political bloggers at a forum starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16, at the university’s Water Tower Campus.
Ponce will moderate a panel of bloggers featuring: Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, Rich Miller of capitolfax, Georgia Logothetis of dailykos, Fran Eaton of illinoisreview, and Blake Dvorak of realclearpolitics.
Please join us for this event at Kasbeer Hall, 15th Floor at 25 E. Pearson Street, at the corner of Pearson Street and Wabash Avenue.
Before we begin, I just want to warn you not to float any names on this question. Today’s question isn’t specifically about this or that candidate who may be on your mind, but it is a question I’ve wondered about for a while. Clear? Good, because you wouldn’t want to be banned for life, would you? I didn’t think so.
When is it acceptable to discuss or even question a political candidate’s “sexual orientation”? Or is it never appropriate? Explain.
* Scott Reeder’s latest column makes an excellent point about the new contract that was just agreed to by Gov. Blagojevich and AFSCME….
The 37,000 state employees who belong to the AFSCME will take $175 million in health care benefit concessions – for just the first two years of the four-year contract. […]
The governor also agreed to give workers pay raises — with the largest raises coming in the second two years of the contract. The pay raises will cost Illinois taxpayers $83 million during the first two years, but almost twice as much during the second two years — $162 million […]
AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall would only say, “It was very important to the administration that all of the concessions be in the first two years of the contract.”
In other words, he’s taking all the financial benefits in the first two years and putting off much of the financial pain in the second two years.
Much of the burden for those second two years will be the next governor’s problem.
* And this isn’t the first time he’s done this…
In 2003, Blagojevich sold $10 billion in pension bonds — with a repayment schedule that included interest-only payments for the first five years. There is a term for many homeowners who took out loans like this — foreclosed.
The governor used $7.3 billion of the bond sale to “refinance” pension debt and the remainder — $2.7 billion — to pay for ongoing programs.
That’s the equivalent of an 85-year-old man getting his kids and grandkids to co-sign a $200,000 mortgage for a $150,000 house. The foolish octogenarian could take the remaining $50,000 to Las Vegas.
* The governor stuck to his guns yesterday regarding his proclaimed reasoning behind his ethics bill amendatory veto…
The governor also was unapologetic about his ethics bill re-write, which already has been overridden by the Illinois House. State Comptroller Dan Hynes, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn — all potential rivals to Blagojevich during the 2010 Democratic primary — joined a bi-partisan group of Illinois senators and good-government activists in calling on the Senate to do the same.
Blagojevich said he rewrote the ethics bill to strengthen it, but lawmakers questioned his motives during a Thompson Center press conference.
“The governor amendatorily vetoed this bill in an attempt, I believe, to scuttle the legislation and undermine three years of hard work,” said Hynes, who organized the event about the ethics bill, which runs the risk of dying if Blagojevich’s ally, Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), doesn’t call his chamber back into session by month’s end for an override vote.
Madigan, the state’s chief law enforcement officer, said Jones’ refusal to bring the Senate back before Nov. 12 imperils the legislation.
“There is a real chance that a lawsuit will be filed that potentially will further delay this very important legislation. There is a clear way to avoid any risk, to avoid a lawsuit … and that is for President Jones to call the Senate back into session and to vote on the override,” she said.
* I asked Obama’s Senate office to comment on recent calls for our freshman US Senator to intervene in this mess and pressure Senate President Jones to call the Senate back into session, but I’m still waiting on a response. I don’t ever expect one, either.
* Gov. Blagojevich had kind of a busy day yesterday. First, he toured flooded areas in the Chicago region. The governor was asked whether the state could have done anything more to help. Here’s his priceless response…
“I can’t imagine - nothing short of pass a joint resolution by two chambers praying to God that it doesn’t rain.”
The meeting came after pressure from State Sen. James Meeks to talk about education funding, improvements and accountability. Meeks recently staged a two-day walkout of Chicago Public Schools to protest a school funding formula that relies on property taxes and gives the money advantage to well-to-do districts.
Ministers and the governor are expected to meet again in a couple of weeks to further discuss education funding.
But how to fix the school funding formula is likely to be a prickly issue. Blagojevich has been resistant to raising the income tax to do it, something Meeks said the General Assembly might want to do anyway.
“If the governor doesn’t put any other ideas on the table that can fix this problem without raising the income taxes, then the General Assembly will have to go to raising the income taxes,” Meeks said.
But the two Chicago Democrats seemed to reach at least a temporary political truce after Monday’s meeting with dozens of ministers, even if they didn’t agree on what to do next.
Blagojevich said they talked about ways to fund Meeks’ proposal to test a comprehensive approach for fixing underperforming schools. More discussions are needed, Blagojevich said, before deciding “if this is the sort of thing we can all get behind.”
Meeks said he will continue to seek legislative support for his plan in coming weeks while also pushing for long-elusive changes to how the state funds education. He sidestepped his past comments about challenging the governor.
MEEKS: It’s our community that’s bearing the scars. It’s our community that’s that’s paying the price. It’s our community that for 25 to 30 years now has waited on broken promises from Springfield and we can’t wait anymore.
* If you want to hear how Mayor Daley said “cuckoo” yesterday when asked about Gov. Blagojevich’s contention that his free rides for seniors program was not primarily responsible for the CTA’s budget woes, just click here. The video is here.
The mayor’s one-word dismissal of Blagojevich’s allegations set the tone for what would be a rough day for the governor, who also was publicly attacked for his recent rewrite of a state ethics bill and his failure to come up with a long-term solution for funding public education.
But, late Monday afternoon, the governor came back swinging on the CTA and ethics questions. And he seemed to soothe state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), a South Side pastor who earlier in the day railed at Blagojevich for failing to deliver on education-funding promises.
“I don’t think I’m cuckoo, but I will tell you what drives me crazy,” Blagojevich said after a school-funding meeting with Meeks and other ministers. “And what drives me crazy is the CTA blaming years of mismanagement on senior citizens taking the bus for free.”
Daley’s “cuckoo” comment came earlier in the day when a reporter asked the mayor about remarks Blagojevich made last week charging that the mayor and CTA chief Ron Huberman were overstating the CTA’s financial problems, caused in part by the governor’s free rides for seniors initiative.
After the meeting with Meeks, Blagojevich reiterated his disbelief that the CTA is threatening fare increases less than a year after the General Assembly approved a sales-tax increase to bail out mass transit. “The CTA got the Legislature to raise taxes on people, and, as a result of that, the CTA was able to get another $250 million they didn’t have before that,” the governor said. “When I decided to write in free rides for seniors, the net result for the CTA is still $220 million.”
“I don’t think I’m cuckoo” has forced a song into my head which has the same “beat” as the refrain to this little gem.
Ha! Now you have the same awful problem that I do. I haven’t been able to get that tune outta my head since last night. Maybe now I can just pass it along and it will somehow disappear.
Soaring diesel fuel prices will cost the transit agencies $50 million more next year than expected, while increased maintenance costs resulting from the lack of a statewide public works measure will drain another $50 million, officials said.
The transit agencies have not speculated on the amount of any fare increase.
Providing free rides to senior citizens—Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s surprise add-on to the mass-transit sales-tax increase approved in January—will cost the CTA, Metra and Pace $30 million next year, officials estimated.
Um, weren’t we told before that the cost of free rides to just the CTA would be $34.5 million next year? Now it’s $30 mil for everyone?
Whatever. When the mayor of the state’s largest city essentially calls the governor “cuckoo” you know we’ve crossed into entirely new territory no matter what the merits of the arguments happen to be.
In 2004, the governor announced he wanted to close Vandalia Correctional Center. He ended his quest amidst heavy political pressure from lawmakers.
Also in 2004, the Chicago Democrat said he wanted to close the maximum-security prison in Pontiac, but again dropped that plan. Earlier this year, he said Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet should close, but then backed off that plan and set his sites on Pontiac again.
In April, the governor also threatened to cut funding for 4-H programs, but relented as lawmakers worked to revamp the state budget.
Blagojevich also said he would cut funding for Amtrak service in Illinois, but put the brakes on that plan too.
Now, in addition to his plan [to close the Pontiac state prison], the governor says 14 state historic sites will be closed Oct. 1 because of the impasse between himself and the Legislature. He’s targeted 11 state parks for closure on Nov. 1.
I just don’t think he’ll follow through with these threats, for various reasons, including history and the impact on the November elections. What do you think?
Nearly 4,000 Illinois government employees will lose four days of pay because of state budget cuts, Secretary of State Jesse White announced Monday.
Facing $26 million in cuts, White ordered all 3,900 of his employees to take four unpaid days off. […]
White is not the only statewide official forced to take action by the governor’s cuts.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked older employees to retire and made nonunion workers pay an additional 1 percent to their pensions. Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias cut six of his office’s 190 jobs and ordered others to take one or two furlough days, depending on their salary, GateHouse News Service reported.
Senate President Emil Jones began a meeting of his Democratic members not long ago with a playful announcement that despite what everyone had read and heard, he had no intention of retiring from office.
He was joking, of course, but while the joke may have temporarily relieved a bit of tension in the room, there’s still plenty of infighting ahead.
Forget about getting the required majority of 30 votes in January to replace Jones as president. The big problem now is just finding 19 votes - a majority of the Democratic caucus. There are almost that many Democratic senators floating their names right now, whether they are really serious or not, so this will take some time.
To give you an example, Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), who flirted with John McCain’s Republican campaign not that long ago, told reporters recently that colleagues had urged him to consider running. It’s doubtful that Sandoval would receive more than one or two votes, but this gives you a good idea of how many people are holding back their votes from the alleged “frontrunners” right now because they have their own dreams of grandeur.
This is probably going to take a while. There is no shortage of egos in the General Assembly, and the Senate Democratic caucus has an overabundance. It will be some time before many are ready to set aside their own fantasies and start actively engaging in the process.
Those egos were at least partly on display during a recent, sometimes stormy meeting of the Senate Black Caucus.
In the end, all caucus members vowed to vote together when it comes time to select a new Senate president, but it took a bit of doing.
On its face, that decision might seem to benefit Sen. James Clayborne (D-East St. Louis), who is supported at the moment by most downstate Democrats and several Black Caucus members. But there is quite a bit of animosity in the Black Caucus towards Clayborne, so this thing isn’t over yet.
Some Black Caucus members refused to talk on or off the record about the meeting, but enough spoke on the condition they not be identified to get a general idea of how things went. And it was apparently pretty rough going for a while.
There are those in the caucus who are reaching out to others in the hopes that a deal can be made which precludes Clayborne, but the Metro East legislator’s fundraising record and the fact that he has totally locked up a significant number of Black Caucus votes, not to mention a likely push to keep the Senate presidency in the hands of an African-American, means that he is in a strong position.
Some members have mentioned the possibility of a deal with Sen. Don Harmon, a white legislator from Oak Park whose district is half Republican and half African-American. Harmon also apparently has at least some support from some suburban legislators. But there are also reports that at least a couple of Black Caucus members have recently reached out to Sen. John Cullerton, a white Chicagoan with decades of experience who has always been considered one of the frontrunners for the top job. Harmon’s original strategy had him laying back until later rounds of voting and emerging as a compromise candidate. Cullerton, one of the early frontrunners, is hoping to wrap things up much sooner than that, as are other candidates, including Sen. Terry Link, of Lake County.
But, if the Black Caucus can somehow stay united, and if Clayborne can tie down unanimous support of downstate members (not guaranteed by any means as of yet), he’ll have 18 votes, which is pretty darned close to a majority of the Democratic Caucus’ 37 seats, unless, of course, the Democrats gain or lose seats in the coming election.
Something else to keep in mind is that Gov. Rod Blagojevich will hold the gavel when the official Senate election is held next year. Jim Thompson used that power many years ago to temporarily steer the president’s election to a Republican, even though the Democrats held the majority. Whether our current governor is above those sorts of shenanigans is anyone’s guess at the moment, but it probably has to be taken into account if a potential deadlock continues into the fall and winter.
The governor’s office says the state disaster declaration means more state assets and personnel will be available to flooded communities. So far, the state has already provided 130,000 sandbags, along with several water pumps and boats to help with evacuations.
Young said a new report from the association found that since 1984, the parole rate for long-serving inmates has averaged 3.5 percent. The report focuses on inmates sentenced before 1978, because they weren’t given specific prison terms. Under laws then in effect, they were sentence in ranges, for instance 25 to 40 years.
Over the past few weeks there has been some unfortunate misconceptions reported regarding the state-of-the-art Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center. In order to shed some light on this important project, which will bring cutting-edge medical treatment not only DuPage County but the region as a whole, we felt it was important to set the record straight.
The board’s rejection of the union’s proposal can’t be written off as an effort to retain their seats during the election next spring. The school board employs teachers, but is answerable to taxpayers as a whole for prudent use of their money.
* I’ve said before and I’ll repeat it again that I strongly believe Gov. Blagojevich is right that the CTA’s claims about the cause of its current budget deficit are bogus. But, this is just too funny to pass up…
Mayor Richard Daley said Monday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s claim the mayor and the CTA are misleading the public about transit funding problems is “cuckoo.”
Daley quickly followed up his one-word response by saying he was “not getting into an argument” with Blagojevich.
“He’s arguing with everybody in America,” Daley said of the governor.
Well, not quite everybody, even though it seems like it sometimes.
Have at it.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The Sun-Times has the crowd react…
The crowd of educators Daley was addressing broke into loud laughter.
*** UPDATE 2 *** A group of legislators and most statewides (sans Jesse White, who was preoccupied, and Gov. Blagojevich) held a press conference today about the perennially stalled ethics bill…
At a Chicago press conference, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan called on Senate President Emil Jones Jr. to reverse course and call the Senate back into session within the next few days, rather than waiting until after the November elections, as Mr. Jones has said he’s inclined to do. […]
Waiting quite likely will invite a lawsuit over whether the legislation has been unduly delayed, Ms. Madigan said, and the courts could reject any bill as improperly approved.
“There is a risk of that,” said Ms. Madigan, flanked by a bipartisan gathering of Democratic and Republican political leaders. The only way to avoid that risk is for the Senate to meet soon, she added. “The (proposed) law is in jeopardy and we know why.”
Also, reporters wanted to know if the press conference attendees thought Barack Obama might be of help. The Republicans were eager to reply…
[Sen. Kirk Dillard] suggested that what would really move Mr. Jones to fast action would be a call from his favorite protégé: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Mr. Obama’s campaign had no response.
Yep.
But he won’t. Still, it’s a good idea.
If John McCain would just insert one sentence into a speech about this topic, it would be front-page headlines all over Illinois.
“Look, I have a great deal of respect for Mayor Daley, I don’t think I’m cuckoo, but I will tell you what drives me crazy and what drives me crazy is the CTA blaming years of mismanagement on senior citizens taking the bus for free,” Blagojevich told reporters after meeting with state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) to discuss school funding.
“I just think again blaming the seniors and blaming a good thing like that for the mismanagement of the CTA to lay a foundation for a fare increase is unfortunate,” Blagojevich said. “And I don’t consider myself cuckoo but that kind of stuff drives me crazy.
* Mark Kirk’s campaign is floating some new poll results. Keep in mind that this has a margin of error of +/- 5.6 percent. From the executive summary…
In a September 10-11 poll by McLaughlin & Associates, Rep. Kirk maintains a 22-point lead (51/29) in a rematch against Dan Seals. In IL-10, Senator Obama’s favorability rating has dropped from 67/26 in June to 59/32 in September. Kirk continues to be more popular than Obama with a fav/unfav rating of 63/20 while Dan Seals struggles at 40/22. A number of key Democratic-leaning groups endorsed Kirk including Planned Parenthood, the National Education Association, the National Wildlife Federation and the Human Rights Campaign. […]
Additionally, with the conviction of Tony Rezko and a possible indictment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich looming, Seals must fight a strong local anti-Democratic headwind with Blagojevich’s fav/unfav sinking to a record low of 13/68.
If you’re above 50, you’re in decent shape. 51 isn’t completely safe, however. Negative attacks are flying (see below).
Also, I’m not convinced yet that Rod Blagojevich brings down Democrats all that much because RRB is not seen as a “normal” Democrat. He fights with his party so much and is so, well, bizarre at times that other Dems may not pay the price, along the lines of how Republicans didn’t really suffer from Alan Keyes’ presence in 2004. I could be wrong, but that’s my take so far. Argue this in comments and I’ll make sure to listen.
Since our last poll three months ago, Dan Seals gained no ground on popular incumbent Mark Kirk in the general election for US Congress in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, still trailing by a daunting 22 points. Kirk’s favorability rating (63%) is still very strong. Independent and Ticket Splitters who vote for the person not the party are in control of the race. The majority of voters in the district are very thoughtful and independent and demonstrate that by supporting both Senator Barack Obama and Congressman Mark Kirk.
Congressional Ballot: If the election for US Congress were held today and the candidates were Mark Kirk, the Republican candidate, and Dan Seals, the Democrat candidate, for whom would you vote?
This Illinois 10th Congressional District survey was conducted among 300 likely general election voters between September 10 and 11, 2008. All interviews were conducted via telephone by professional interviewers. Interview selection was random within predetermined election units. These units were structured to correlate with actual voter turnout in a statewide general election. This survey of 300 likely voters has an accuracy of +/- 5.6% at a 95% confidence interval.
* Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the DCCC has released an ad blasting “rubber stamp Congressman” Mark Kirk…
Explain your predictions as fully as possible. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** The DCCC has uploaded its new TV ad blasting “Millionaire Marty Ozinga” who has “problems paying taxes” and is “dumping on the middle class”…
Monday, Sep 15, 2008 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Are you happy with the current mess in Springfield? If you’re like most Illinoisans, your answer is, “absolutely not.” Is our state constitution to blame? Absolutely not. While some would tell you that it is, they have their own agendas.
Frankly, many of us in the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution share your frustration and there’s plenty of blame to go around, but we strongly feel that the Illinois constitution is neither the cause of our state’s problems, nor a solution to them. We believe that opening up our constitution to the same folks that have created the mess in Springfield is not the way to fix our troubles. In very real ways, it could make them worse.
If the gridlock and political theater in Springfield makes you mad, do you believe it makes sense to add yet another forum for more drama? If you’re tired of the constant electioneering and bickering that never seems to stop, does doubling the number of elections in the next three years make sense? From my standpoint, asking taxpayers to spend $80 million to give the keys to our constitution to the current political class just doesn’t make sense.
Learn more about the why you should Vote No on a constitutional convention by visiting http://www.protectillinoisconstitution.org
-Jeff Mays, President, Illinois Business RoundTable
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today will take an aerial tour of the flooded regions of Northeastern Illinois today. Following the aerial tour, Governor Blagojevich will hold a press conference to address state efforts on the recent flooding.
* The Albany Park and Mayfield neighborhoods of Chicago were particularly hard hit by the weekend flooding of the Chicago River…
About 12 to 15 city blocks in the Albany neighborhood are still under water.
City workers have been putting up walls of sandbags. Unfortunately the sandbagging efforts have not made much of a difference in parts of the neighborhood.
This weekend the rain dumped about 90 billion gallons of water on the Chicago area — which caused the Chicago River to spill over its banks.
* Mayor Daley is on yet another European tour, so he was a no-show at the sandbag lines.
I didn’t see any press reports about Gov. Blagojevich checking out the prevention efforts, even though the flooded areas are just a hop, skip and a jump from his house. North Park College is the location of the Red Cross shelter for flood victims, and that’s about 3.2 miles from the governor’s house.
But today he’s doing an aerial tour. Wonderful.
Let that be a lesson to you Downstaters who were so frustrated with the governor’s slow response to recent flooding. He’s apparently not an early responder, no matter where it is.
Do you have any weekend flood stories to share with us?
* Ozinga companty to back off from support of a big railway expansion…
Congressional candidate Marty Ozinga said he is not opposed to the Canadian National Railroad taking over the Elgin Joliet & Eastern tracks that roll through the southwest suburbs.
“It has a lot of positive effects for the Chicago area,” he said. “But they should not run roughshod over our communities.”
Ozinga said Friday he would be “amending” a statement his concrete company made last fall in which it went on record supporting the CN deal. Many community leaders and residents in the 11th Congressional District, where he is the Republican candidate, have staunchly opposed the CN transaction, saying it would quadruple the freight trains and create safety and traffic concerns.
* Meanwhile, Ozinga’s Democratic opponent, Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, tells a whopper has also done a bit of back and forth…
Halvorson said she has opposed the CN transaction “since I first heard about it.”
“Why take the gridlock from the city and dump it in the suburbs? We will fight as a community for the people of the community,” she said. “My opponent wants to grow his own business. It’s about his bottom line.”
“I will work with Senator Durbin and Mayor Holland to ensure that any plan that moves forward serves the best interests of local residents.”
To me, at least, that looks like the exact same position as Ozinga’s.
Oops.
…Adding… A week before that article appeared, Halvorson introduced a resolution calling on the US Surface Transportation Board to “not approve the sale of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company to the Canadian National Railroad.”
So, she opposed the sale since early March, but she was apparently willing to discuss the details of any final plan.
* Meanwhile, Steve Sauerberg and a Senate Republican come out swinging on congressional earmarks, sorta…
A chief opponent of so-called pork barrel spending, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, came to candidate Steve Sauerberg’s aid Friday and blasted Sen. Dick Durbin on earmarks.
“If we have many more Dick Durbins, my grandkids will have no more future in this country,” Coburn said of Durbin, tying his colleagues’ earmarking to the nation’s deficit.
Sauerberg has long hammered Durbin on earmarks, the often-criticized process by which lawmakers can land federal funds for local projects by attaching them to various pieces of legislation.
But there’s a “but”…
But if elected, the Willowbrook physician has not pledged he won’t seek earmarks himself. He promised Friday to only seek them if they have a direct federal interest. He also supports legislation to make the earmarking process more transparent.
* The Tribune editorializes again on the urgent need to bring the Senate back into session…
How many days between now and Nov. 12? Illinois Senate President Emil Jones says the answer is zero, if what you’re worried about is the ethics bill that has 15 days to live or die now that the House has rejected Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s changes.
Jones’ reasoning is that the Senate’s 15-day window for taking action doesn’t open until the House report has been entered into the Senate record, which will happen when the Senate reconvenes Nov. 12. There’s no reason to call his members to Springfield sooner to second the House action.
Roughly half of the gazillion legal experts who were asked to weigh in on the matter Friday agreed with Jones’ interpretation of the state constitution. The other half didn’t. The General Assembly’s Legislative Research Unit came down squarely on the side of ambiguity, pointing out that delegates who drew up the constitution “probably did not imagine every scenario.”
Then notes…
If Jones is wrong about the deadline, the ethics bill is dead. If he’s right, it might as well be dead, because it will be tied up in court for years while lawyers argue over whether 15 days means 15 days or something else. It’s a win for Jones and Blagojevich. The rest of us are the losers.
That may be the most valid point in the debate. This move to reinterpret the constitutional meaning of when the Senate is notified of the House’s action may be right, or it may be wrong, but either way this is likely to end up in court, and that could give the governor time to continue raising money from state contractors.
Also…
Here’s who should care: every one of the Democrats who has aspirations to succeed him as president of the Senate. And others who have political aspirations, such as Sen. Debbie Halvorson, who is running for a seat in Congress. Do they really want to answer every day through Election Day for why the Senate is sitting on ethics reform? Do they really think voters will believe them when they say, “Trust us, we’ll do this . . . right after the election”
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones brought Democrats together in Chicago Friday, but he wasn’t there to focus on the fate of a high-profile campaign finance reform bill.
He wanted to talk about campaign cash.
More than a dozen Senate Democrats attended a two hour lunchtime meeting at a Loop office to talk about on how to build up campaign accounts to ensure Jones’ members are re-elected.
The meeting convened amid concerns that Jones’ pending departure—he announced last month he would step down and engineered his son as his successor—is making it difficult for Senate Democrats to raise campaign cash.
“We certainly feel as though we’re going to have a harder time raising money than before now that Emil’s a lame duck,” said Sen. Louis Viverito (D-Burbank). “When you’re trying to retain incumbents, you’re faced with the reality that it takes a lot of money to keep their names out there.”
llinois Senate President Emil Jones is adamant about not reconvening the Senate until after the November election, despite pressure from interest groups and his own members to return earlier to deal with an ethics bill and budget cuts.
A two-hour meeting among Senate Democrats in Chicago Friday failed to budge the Chicago Democrat, even though his timetable for returning to Springfield means about two dozen state parks and historic sites will close, about 80 state employees will lose their jobs, and a hard-won ethics bill could be in jeopardy. […]
Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, said Jones also promised to deal with reversing some cuts Blagojevich made to the state budget. The House voted last week to take $221 million out of restricted state accounts and use it to restore funding for substance abuse programs, historic sites and parks and state human service agencies.
Sullivan said the promise by Jones should persuade the Blagojevich administration to back off any layoffs or facility closures.
For the rest of the story, you’ll have to subscribe.
Pumping gasoline into his leased taxicab in Chicago’s Loop, Joe Owusu, 63, said he paid 70 cents more for a gallon of gas in the afternoon than he did in the morning. Owusu said he filled his cab before beginning his shift Saturday near his home in suburban Romeoville. Normally, the price difference is about 40 or 50 cents because Chicago has a higher gasoline tax.
The Illinois secretary of state’s office has begun distributing a pamphlet concerning a proposal on the November ballot calling for a state constitutional convention.
The district’s composite score—which includes reading, math, and science—increased 1.3 percentage points from the year before, with 65.4 percent of all students meeting or exceeding state requirements. It’s the seventh consecutive year composite scores have increased.
The funding will come in the form of Stafford loans. They typically range from $3,500 to $20,500, at a 6.8 percent interest rate. The program will be run by the Illinois State Student Assistance Commission (ISAC). Baxter Credit Union of Vernon Hills, Corporate America Family Credit Union of Elgin and Motorola Credit Union of Schaumburg are among the credit unions that have agreed to participate.
Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought — at least 46 million.
That’s up from 41 million people cited in a story last March that led officials in Chicago and other cities to analyze their drinking water.
Is Peraica independent? Yes. Is he a reformer? Yes. There’s no question his voice on the Cook County Board, joined by other like-minded commissioners, has infused more accountability into county government.
But Alvarez, a Pilsen native who never ran for office before, doesn’t fit the mold into which he tries to ply her.
“There needs to be more input from elected officials regarding CTA initiatives,” Allen said. “They need to tell us about it before we read about it in the paper.
“Are we adding cars, taking seats out, raising fares, laying off people? What’s our plan? Is the Circle Line alive? Are we building the Block 37 superstation? Are we doing double-deckers? Are we gonna start flying cars over people?”
A change in state law earlier this year raised the minimum number of candidates needed to require a primary election, which has been a staple of Aurora politics for years. It now takes five names on the ballot to make a primary necessary. That has prompted some questions about when or how often someone needs to circulate petitions.
“Integrity was something absolutely critical to him,” said his daughter, Leah Bailey. “He was very concerned about doing everything the right way, and he was somebody who really loved if he could possibly help people along the way.”
