A little help
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Governing.com blogger and magazine reporter Christopher Swope writes that he is having a little trouble finding Republican-leaning state-focused blogs.
Help him out in comments.
Also, I should thank Christopher for the kind words in the above entry.
While I’m at it, Small Newspapers had a pretty good story about blogs this week.
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State of the State drinking game
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The governor’s State of the State address is today. I’ll be doing public television’s pregame show, if you’re interested (and, yeah, I’m totally sunburned - quick weekend in Miami).
Let’s devise a drinking game, although drinking during lunch is NOT a good thing.
The way this goes is, every time the governor says “X” you take a drink. If he says “Y” you take another drink. Fill in the blanks.
UPDATE: Notice that a certain word is missing from this speech? Can you say “keno”?
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
First, read this.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich wouldn’t say Tuesday whether he will agree to debate his opponent in the Democratic primary.
“First of all, I haven’t even formally announced yet, and there’s time for politics,” the first-term governor said. “I am going to keep doing my job every day as governor, and we’ll keep you posted.”
Challenger Edwin Eisendrath said he has accepted several debate invitations and would love to face the governor in a discussion of the issues. […]
Eisendrath burst out laughing at Blagojevich saying there will be time for politics later. “He’s been politicking for a long time,” Eisendrath said.
If you were able to ask one question of each candidate during the debate, what would it be?
Also, as a bonus item, do you think the two will ever face each other in a formal debate setting?
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Gun stuff
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Tribune gives us the broad picture.
After several failed attempts to pass a statewide ban on assault weapons, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday they will make the initiative a top priority in the current session of the state legislature.
In a joint news conference, the two Chicago Democrats called on the General Assembly to support their proposal to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of semi-automatic and .50-caliber weapons. […]
The governor will make a pitch directly to the General Assembly when it convenes for his annual State of the State Address on Wednesday. That speech comes two years after the expiration of the federal ban on assault weapons, after Congress failed to re-enact it. […]
Gun-rights groups say the legislation is unfair, because the description covers guns commonly used by law-abiding hunters and sport shooters.
“There’s no making these people happy,” said NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde. “They just want to ban as much stuff as they can … They will never be happy until they have eradicated firearm ownership.”
The Daily Herald covered the suburban angle.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich put the political bull’s-eye on suburban lawmakers Tuesday, challenging them to support an assault-weapons ban they helped defeat last year.
“The one area where crime is up is in suburban communities around the city,†Blagojevich said during a Chicago news conference. “And we are calling upon particularly those suburban legislators who last time around couldn’t vote for this, but now are in a position to vote for it.â€
But several suburban lawmakers Blagojevich could appeal to said they’re holding firm in their opposition.
“When you read the Second Amendment, it’s pretty clear. … It says the right to bear arms shouldn’t be infringed upon,†said state Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican.
Your turn.
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The hits keep on coming
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’m not sure how long the governor’s keno plan will be sucking wind.
The Tribune’s latest editorial, entitled “Keno and business as usual” certainly didn’t help,
This is getting to be a tired old story with Blagojevich, who campaigned as a swashbuckling reformer dedicated to cleaning up Springfield’s insider dealings.
Yet there has been a long stream of revelations about the governor’s friends’ links to state contracts and jobs–the same kind of insider favoritism and pay-to-play politics that he complained about when he was a candidate.
Blagojevich estimates that keno would net about $80 million annually, with the proceeds used to pay debt service on $500 million in bonds for the school construction portion of a broader public works initiative. Gambling revenues can be notoriously unsteady, though, making them a shaky foundation for a bond debt revenue stream. Adding keno to the mix of legal games of chance also runs the risk of cannibalizing revenue the state already gets from the lottery, casinos and horse racing.
All reasons to think this is a bad bet for everyone, except the governor’s friends.
Ouch. I contend in my column that some of this stuff is overblown, but I fully admit that this is a political nightmare for the governor.
The Tribune’s Rick Pearson made many of the same points in a recent analysis that I did last week.
By introducing keno wagering at thousands of bars and restaurants into the funding mix, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has turned an already fractious legislative discussion about his multibillion-dollar plan to build and repair roads and schools into a debate about more gambling in the state.
“People aren’t calling me saying they heard the governor’s got some capital construction bill and that they hope we can get this and that done,” Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) said. “They’re saying they don’t want the keno machines in their local restaurants.” […]
But it’s not only Republicans who are balking at Blagojevich’s plan.
Last week, four Democratic Latino state senators from Chicago told the governor in a letter that his proposal was “unacceptable,” in part because “our residents already spend too much of their hard-earned dollars on games of chance.”
Meanwhile, the House Republicans want Attorney General Lisa Madigan to step into the debate.
House Republicans moved Tuesday to draw Attorney General Lisa Madigan into the debate over whether Gov. Blagojevich can authorize keno wagering in bars and restaurants without legislative approval. […]
“This action of trying to unilaterally bring keno to the public is improper,” said Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda), who was among those seeking Madigan’s intervention. “This is a matter for the Legislature to debate and not for the governor to do on his own.”
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AFSCME and the governor
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Daily Southtown’s Kristen McQueary makes a good point in her latest column.
During a recent endorsement session, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees voted “present” on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s re-election campaign, according to Capitol Fax.
AFSCME’s leaders are unhappy with the reduced state workforce in place under the Blagojevich administration. They also didn’t appreciate Blagojevich’s push last year to reduce pension benefits, the Fax reported.
But keep in mind that Blagojevich — guided by recommendations from a bipartisan panel of lawmakers — introduced several reforms that didn’t even touch the pensions of current state workers.
Blagojevich wanted to trim perks for future workers — perks that even union-loving Democrats admit are too generous and which the state can no longer afford.
Furthermore, Blagojevich pulled the plug, agreeing to a wimpy task force to keep studying the problem.
AFSCME got off easy.
She didn’t mention that AFSCME also got one of the sweetest contract deals in the nation last year.
The trouble is, the union’s rank and file mostly despises the guv. It doesn’t matter what he’s done for them (or what he might throw at them during supplemental appropriations negotiations), there’s just no way that the leadership could vote to endorse Blagojevich and retain their positions.
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Best wishes
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I want to personally extend my best wishes to Corinne Wood.
More than 81/2 years after she had a mastectomy, former Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood is undergoing treatment for a recurrence of breast cancer that a former aide called “a little more aggressive than last time.”
But former deputy chief of staff Chris Hensley and Wood’s husband, Paul, said they are optimistic she will recover.
“She’s a pretty tough lady, and she beat the last one for almost nine years,” Paul Wood said. “And we are hopeful she will beat this as well.”
I may not have always written the greatest things about her, but I always greatly admired her tenacity in the face of extreme odds. She is, indeed, one tough woman.
Get well soon.
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COMMENTS CLOSED
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
See you Tuesday Wednesday!
If you want someplace to comment, then by all means go here.
There will also be no Capitol Fax until Wednesday.
UPDATE: I’ve restored a couple of news feeds to the list (Illinoize and the Southern Illinoisan) since Thursday’s little problem, but I’ve left off the Google News feed. Not sure we needed two of the same sorts of meta news-search feeds here, and IceRocket was the far superior of the two mainly because Google has way too many duplicate items.
UPDATE 2: Comments are now open.
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This just in… Laski charged
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
From the AP:
Chicago City Clerk James Laski was charged Friday with soliciting payoffs and obstructing justice. Laski, 52, appeared in court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier and was released on $10,000 bond after agreeing to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet so that federal officials can keep track of his whereabouts.
More in a minute.
Hauser wrote that Laski began taking bribes from the owner in 1997, when the owner asked for Laski’s help in getting one of his trucks on a city contract.
“If I get this truck on, I want $500 a month,” Laski said, according the affidavit.
The arrangement took effect in 1998 and continued until 2001 when the owner asked to bring a second truck under contract, the affidavit said.
The second truck was brought on, and Laski began receiving $1,000 a month, Hauser wrote.
The payments typically were made in cash, sometimes at Laski’s home and on two occasions at the City Clerk’s satellite office on South Cicero Avenue, Hauser wrote.
The arrangement continued until 2003, when scrutiny surrounding the Hired Truck program led Laski to halt the payments, according to the affidavit.
Man, that was fast wasn’t it? From investigation to arraignment in just a few months.
Who do you think replaces him?
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Quick links
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’ll add more as the day goes on, but GO WATCH THIS VIDEO CLIP NOW!!! Governor Blagojevich singing.
Don’t quit your day job, dude.
(Hat tip: Chicagoist)
UPDATE: Huge throwdown at the Inside Dope. I wonder if this will make it into the article that a certain newspaper is planning on Quad Cities blogging and Sen. Mike Jacobs.
UPDATE 2: Glad to see that the Chicago Reader is finally planning to revamp its immensely sucky website.
UPDATE 3: Congrats!
UPDATE 4: Don’t forget all the fun stuff at Illinoize!
UPDATE 5: Oy.
UPDATE 6: Sen. Mattie Hunter’s Democratic primary opponent has been removed from the ballot. Also, one of Rep. David Miller’s primary opponents, Thaddeus Jones, has withdrawn.
UPDATE 7: A campaign consultant to Chicago city clerk Jim Laski has been charged with pressuring a witness to lie to a grand jury.
UPDATE 8: A few days belated, but welcome back Kristen McQueary!
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Congrats, Boro!
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
My old buddy Boro Reljic is leaving the Illinois Manufacturers Association for a bigtime job with Abbott Labs. He’ll be replaced as legislative director by Mark Denzler.
While we’re at it, Bernie Schoenburg had this in his latest column.
TIM BRAMLET, longtime head of the Springfield-based Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois, began his own consulting business with the new year, and one of his new roles will be as executive director of the Illinois Beverage Association.
Bramlet, 47, whose new business is called Timothy S. Bramlet Consulting, estimated that three-fourths of his time will be spent on the business of the beverage group, which includes manufacturers of bottled water, juice, juice drinks, sports drinks, soft drinks, teas and dairy-based beverages.
Best of luck to all.
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Question of the day
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
We occasionally switch gears on Friday, so let’s do it again today.
What’s your favorite local band? It doesn’t have to be nationally known, but it has to be local. Provide info and any helpful links.
UPDATE: My favorite Springfield band (Tom Irwin Trio) is detailed in comments.
My favorite Chicago bandleader is Pinetop Perkins. Pinetop plays at Rosa’s a lot, but it’s best not to go on Saturday night because he never plays on Sunday (so he stops at midnight, but the band plays on).
If you’re lucky, you’ll see the former Muddy Waters sideman appear with Willie “Big Eye” Smith, who played drums for Waters.
And if you’re really lucky, Sugar Blue will be sitting in. Sugar Blue may be best known for playing harmonica on the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls” album. His haunting, gutteral harp playing on “Miss You” was unreal great.
I once asked Sugar Blue if the legend about him was correct.
The story goes that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards heard Sugar Blue playing on the street and immediately invited him to appear on their next record. True?
Sugar paused for a moment and said, “Did you ever see that movie ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’?”
I said I had. Many times.
“There’s a line in there at the end: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’”
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Duckworth stuff
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Two things about today’s Lynn Sweet column.
This afternoon, in a room in the Chicago office of a law firm with a big federal practice in Washington, a “meet and greet'’ will be held for Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth. Fresh from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of Duckworth’s main sponsors, will attend the reception at Holland & Knight, as he gets increasingly involved in her race. […]
Wednesday, Duckworth won the endorsement of the Illinois AFL-CIO, which backed Cegelis two years ago. Illinois AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshere told me Thursday that calls from Durbin to union activists helped Duckworth clinch the endorsement.
I’m told that the DC people are putting Durbin out front on this because of all the backlash from Christine Cegelis’ supporters against Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who they claim is really behind the Duckworth campaign.
Duckworth’s first formal fund-raiser will take place Feb. 16 with former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.), a Vietnam vet who lost both legs and an arm in the war, as the keynoter.
Cleland was a hero to those who were upset at the way the Republicans used the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against John Kerry last year. Many of those same people are Cegelis supporters.
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More keno revelations
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The State Journal-Register kicks off our review:
Potential cronyism regarding the Illinois Lottery contract for the governor’s keno proposal forced the administration to change course Thursday, while fending off similar concerns of another lottery agreement.
News that John Wyma, a former congressional aide to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was acting as a lobbyist for lottery contractor GTECH Corp. apparently sparked the administration to seek competitive bids for the potential keno contract.
“The governor’s office felt it was important for due diligence,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. […]
Still more favoritism fodder arose Thursday. The Illinois Lottery’s contractor for its instant, scratch-off games - Scientific Games International - has ties to a Blagojevich fundraiser. Milan Petrovic is president of Advanced Practical Solutions, which serves as the lobbyist for Scientific Games International.
From the Sun-Times:
A $76,000 campaign donor to Gov. Blagojevich could reap a windfall if the state authorizes keno wagering in bars and restaurants by expanding the Illinois Lottery.
IGOR the Watchdog Corp. — whose Springfield lobbyist is a former Blagojevich staffer and fund-raiser — is the lone subcontractor used by GTECH Corp., a Rhode Island firm that holds the lottery’s most valuable contract covering Lotto and similar games. IGOR is responsible for installing and maintaining GTECH’s instant ticket machines.
GTECH has been pitching the idea of adding keno to the lottery’s offerings for several years and even submitted keno revenue projections to the governor’s office. Though Blagojevich plans to put the keno contract out for bid, GTECH is considered a front-runner because of its existing deal with the lottery and its track record operating 10 of the 12 lottery keno games in place nationwide. […]
A potential GTECH rival could surface in the bidding if Blagojevich’s plan takes flight.
The company is called Scientific Games, which provides the scratch-off lottery games in Illinois. Scientific Games is represented in Springfield by Milan Petrovic, a Blagojevich fund-raiser, and donated $10,000 to the governor’s campaign in 2004.
And the Tribune:
On Thursday, Wyma insisted he has never had a conversation with the governor or the administration about keno or GTECH, saying, “No, absolutely not.”
But an administration spokeswoman on Thursday acknowledged that Wyma in December had hosted a Washington reception for Blagojevich.
A co-host of that reception for Blagojevich was a controversial former GTECH lobbyist named Ben Barnes. A former Texas lieutenant governor, Barnes was caught up in a political storm in the mid-1990s in which critics complained about how he used his clout with that state’s lottery officials on behalf of the company.
Barnes also was in the news in 2004, when he claimed in an interview with former CBS anchor Dan Rather that he had used his influence in 1968 to get George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.
The company says it has had no connection to Barnes for years.
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Plug-ins and extensions
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
This isn’t Illinois-related, but I thought it might be interesting.
On my Firefox browser, I use DownThemAll, PDF Download, and Tabbrowser Preferences extensions, among others.
On my Treo 650, I use LED-Off, Scroll-Jump, Switch5, Guitar Tuner, OneKey, and several other plug-ins.
What are your favorite plug-ins and extensions?
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Trib likes Box
Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Tribune’s editorial board endorses Charles Box for ICC chairman after helping block Marty Cohen’s appointment.
So the governor appears to have gotten it right on the third try. He booted out his own first choice to run the ICC, Ed Hurley. His choice to succeed Hurley, Martin Cohen, was rejected by the Illinois Senate. Cohen is quite knowledgeable on utility issues, but the longtime head of the Citizens Utility Board could not be expected to be an impartial arbiter.
So we have choice No. 3: Charles Box.
This is, by the way, getting expensive. Blagojevich pushed Hurley to resign, then gave Hurley a consolation prize: a job in the administration at the same pay, $113,836 a year, he earned as ICC chairman. After the Senate turned down Cohen, Blagojevich created a $112,000-a-year job for him as the administration’s first-ever consumer affairs director. So taxpayers are footing the bill, $339,672 a year plus benefits, for ICC chairmen past, present and almost.
Some of that money could have been saved if the Tribune edit board hadn’t been so far in ComEd’s hip pocket during the Cohen debate.
For the Tribune to editorialize that it was a mistake for Blagojevich to push out that disaster of a chairman Hurley shows just how far the Tribune will go for the utility interests in this state.
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