SEIU just released its endorsement list which didn’t even mention the Democratic state treasurer’s race between party-backed candidate Paul Mangieri and liberal Alexi Giannoulias. A quick call confirmed they’re staying out of the race.
As expected, the union endorsed Gov. Blagojevich for re-election, but made a very strong endorsement of John Stroger for Cook County Board President. From the press release:
The Cook County board president race is top priority for the area’s working people, SEIU members say. […]
Nearly 100,000 of the union’s members live in Cook County. These members saw city services curtailed under Stroger’s opponent, County Commissioner Forrest Claypool. When he directed the city’s parks and recreation department, Claypool slashed 1,100 jobs, according to a University of Illinois study. These cuts resulted in decreased services, particularly in non-lakefront neighborhood parks.
The union also endorsed Tammy Duckworth in the 6th Congressional District.
Consider this an Illinois politics open thread. Have at it.
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Question of the day
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Rate Edwin Eisendrath’s new Internet ad.
UPDATE: This just in from the Eisendrath campaign.
The following ad is running in the classified section of the Benton Evening News and on the Internet classified ads site “craigslist” (http://chicago.craigslist.org/rfs/127755080.html):
Historic Governor’s mansion in Springfield for sale. Until 2003, the Illinois Executive Mansion was the third-oldest, continuously occupied Governor’s home in the nation. Seven Presidents, including Lincoln, have been received here. Current Governor too busy raising money to live in it. Within walking distance of the Capitol. Generous state contractors and fine restaurants nearby. Mansion also boasts brand new heated driveway, worth more than $1 million (even though it could have been built for less than $30,000). Asking price: Shhh. Just hire the right lobbyist and he’ll work out the details. For more information, please visit www.eisendrath2006.com.
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Post-Dispatch poll results
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Blagojevich, Topinka, Ryan trial here.
Bush, Cheney, Obama, national issues here.
I don’t think the poll is nearly as bad for the governor as this story makes it out to be, but that’s just me.
While you’re at it, you might want to take a look at this Tribune story, which makes some fairly decent points (but not about the poll).
Ron Gidwitz’s campaign had this to say (via press release):
The campaign mantra of Judy Baar Topinka ran headlong into reality this weekend.
For months, Topinka and her allies among Springfield’s political class have been touting her as the candidate that can beat Rod Blagojevich.
This weekend, the St. Louis Post Dispatch in conjunction with KMOV-TV in St. Louis released an independent poll that showed Topinka trailing Blagojevich by a 45-37 margin, were the election to be held today.
For years, Blagojevich has been rightfully taken to task by media outlets statewide over allegations of rampant corruption within his administration, reckless borrowing schemes that have mortgaged the future of Illinois families, and the absence of meaningful education reform to ensure every child has the opportunity to earn a quality education in Illinois.
Against that backdrop, Topinka has gotten a free pass and has been anointed the frontrunner because of her statewide name identification.
For months Topinka’s handlers and supporters have hyped her as the GOP’s best hope as they liberally tout her competitive name identification numbers with the Governor. But now eight weeks before the primary, the poll numbers are starting to bear out what many Republicans have observed since she began contemplating her candidacy - that, in fact, she may be the one Republican who cannot beat Blagojevich.
Frankly, I’d like to see Gidwitz release his own internal head-to-heads with Blagojevich before making such a bold statement, but what do you think of all this?
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This just in… Topinka gets AFSCME endorsement
Saturday, Jan 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I missed Henry Bayer’s call earlier. Then I found out why he phoned.
Illinois’s largest state employee union endorsed Judy Baar Topinka in the Republican primary for governor Saturday, but made no endorsement in the Democratic primary, signaling the union’s disappointment in Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
In 2002, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 100,000 active and retired state workers, endorsed Blagojevich in both the primary and general elections.
“There’s no question many of our members all across the state have been extremely disappointed in this administration,” said union spokesman Anders Lindall. “He’s allowed important state services to deteriorate due to lack of funding and lack of appropriate staffing. He’s failed to reform our states’ broken tax system.”
UPDATE: From the press release:
Among other notable endorsements, the union backed Paul Mangieri in the Democratic primary for treasurer and Democrat Tammy Duckworth for U.S. House of Representatives from the 6th District in Chicago’s western suburbs.
UPDATE: The State Journal-Register has more.
And OneMan makes a good point.
I think this might actually help Blagojevich in the general election. He can show that he is in fact no friend of government and government employees and he is being careful with state funds. He can rail against bureaucrats and the like and talk about how he has shrunk government.
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COMMENTS CLOSED
Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Talk at you Monday.
If you want to comment somewhere this weekend, the Illinoize folks will be busy.
Meanwhile….
This is my newphew, Nicholas George Miller. Nicholas was just accepted into Stanford University’s highly prestigious All Star Baseball Camp.
Nicholas is not just a spectacular athlete. He’s an “A” student and, as I’ve written here before, one of the finest young men I know. Congratulations, Nicholas!
UPDATE: On another baseball-related note, congrats to Ozzie Guillen on becoming a citizen this week.
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SurveyUSA - Updated x3
Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I forgot to post the SurveyUSA tracker for January. Sorry about that.
Blagojevich job approval is 42 percent, disapproval is 53 percent. The crosstabs are here and the trendlines are here.
Read and discuss.
UPDATE: For a little balance, Eric Krol has an interesting column today about Topinka.
In a year when ethics will be the dominant issue in politics, Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka might have left her flank a little exposed with her choice of campaign manager.
The magenta-haired state treasurer, after a long search, settled on Terry Barnich to run her show. He’s a former Illinois Commerce Commission chairman under Govs. Thompson and Edgar. He also agreed last year to resign from the Chicago Athletic Association board amid conflict-of-interest allegations by feuding members.
The financially troubled club, one of those rarified, old-boy-network-type places downtown, reached an agreement to part ways with Barnich and his business partner at a telecommunications consulting firm.
Some club board members accused Barnich of setting up a favorable office lease deal for himself inside the club building and profiting from a takeover of the building’s telephone system. […]
Critics point to the Barnich hire as one of the several signs Topinka’s campaign isn’t firing on all cylinders yet, despite her nominal front-runner status as a three-term statewide officeholder. She could be leaving the door open for her three opponents in the March 21 Republican primary…
Barnich was run out of the ICC on a rail. Second worst ICC chairman ever, in my opinion (hard to top Ed Hurley for that dubious distinction).
UPDATE 2: Josh Goodman makes a very good point:
SurveyUSA’s newest approval rating polls reveal the secret to being a popular governor: Don’t be a former member of Congress.
Ten current governors who once served in Congress average 46% approval and 47% disapproval in their home states. (The polls were conducted before an eleventh, New Jersey’s Jon Corzine, took office.) If that doesn’t sound too bad, consider that among the other 40 governors the average is 56%-37%.
There are a few similarities between these troubled congressmen-turned-governors that might explain the phenomenon:
* At least to some degree, four of them (Illinois’ Rod Blagojevich, Kentucky’s Ernie Fletcher, Maryland’s Robert Ehrlich and Alaska’s Frank Murkowski) have been accused of hiring improprieties involving selecting partisan supporters, financial backers or family members for government posts. While it would probably be too simplistic to say they were corrupted by Washington, D.C., and some of these accusations haven’t been proven, no one ever became more ethical by serving in Congress.
I think I may have made the same point either here or in the Fax, but I’m too busy right now to look it up. Read the whole thing.
UPDATE 3: An internet ad? From a press release:
Democratic challenger Eisendrath will release first Internet commercial of this year’s Democratic primary race for Governor of Illinois.
Where’s the TV?
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From a press release:
Identifying such abuse as “privacy theft,†Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against a Florida company that for roughly $100 and a cell phone number will use allegedly illegal means to access an individual’s cell phone or land line records.
Madigan filed the complaint today in Sangamon County Circuit Court against Kenneth Gorman, director; Steven Schwartz, secretary; and 1st Source Information Specialists, Inc., d/b/a locatecell.com, celltolls.com, datafind.org and peoplesearchamerica.com. The company is located in Tamarac, Florida.
Madigan, who subpoenaed locatecell.com approximately two weeks ago, sued the defendants under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
“This entire enterprise is an outrageous invasion of personal privacy that could put lives in danger,†Madigan said. “The possibility of harm from this ‘service’ to victims of domestic violence and law enforcement is enormous. As Attorney General, I will do everything in my power to stop this abuse.â€
Madigan’s complaint alleges that 1st Source made misrepresentations to telecommunications companies to obtain phone records by calling companies and posing as the customers, agents or employees of the company; made misrepresentations to telecommunication companies online by posing as consumers to gain unauthorized access to online accounts; sold phone records illegally obtained; and misrepresented to consumers via the Web sites that they had legally obtained the call records.
Madigan said the defendants only need to be provided with a third party’s cell phone or land line telephone number to achieve their goal of obtaining the cell phone records. In fact, some of the sites offer a discount if the customer includes the consumer’s name and address along with the cell or land line number.
UPDATE: From Crain’s:
A Cook County Circuit Court Judge Friday denied Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s petition to stop state utility regulators from approving Commonwealth Edison Co.’s plan for an auction among power generators that is expected to sharply increase electricity rates next year.
The decision by Judge Nancy Arnold, which originally was expected next week but instead was issued Friday afternoon, clears the way for the Illinois Commerce Commission’s scheduled vote next Tuesday on the plan. Commission staff and an administrative law judge have recommended approval. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has urged commissioners to vote against.
Judge Arnold ruled that the attorney general has alternative avenues to appeal the commission’s decision if it approves the auction. Foremost among those is appeal directly to the Illinois Appellate Court, which the law allows, she wrote.
“The court sees no reason to interject itself into what has been, and will no doubt continue to be, an orderly process,†she wrote.
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Question of the day
Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
If you had a chance to sit down and have a private chat with the underdogs in the governor’s race - Edwin Eisendrath, Jim Oberweis, Bill Brady and Ron Gidwitz - what would you tell each of them?
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Chamber wants more
Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform doesn’t want Illinois to stop at medical malpractice insurance reform. From a press release issued earlier this week:
Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, issued the following statement tonight:
“It is disconcerting that Governor Blagojevich failed to address Illinois’ reputation as one of the worst states in the country for lawsuit abuse. That reputation is contributing to Illinois’ jobs crisis, and is one reason why the state continues to lag behind the rest of the country in terms of economic growth.
“The medical liability reforms enacted last year are a good step forward, but Governor Blagojevich and the state legislature need to finish the job by passing more lawsuit reforms. This will help Illinois employers escape the onslaught of opportunistic trial lawyers getting rich at the expense of Illinois employers and working families.â€
A Harris Survey of corporate executives ranked Illinois 46th out of 50 states in legal fairness, having dropped 12 spots in three years. An astounding 81 percent of respondents in that survey said a state’s legal climate affects important decisions, such as where to locate or invest.
This is exactly what the trial lawyers predicted would happen when the GA passed med-mal reform last year. I highly doubt that any bills will move this year, but it appears the issue won’t go away.
Your feelings?
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Odds and ends
Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
A futile attempt to clear out my “in” box.
Not to take anything away from the Sun-Times’ very good series on cellphone privacy, but Macleans had a story about this very disturbing subject last year.
You can find AFSCME’s prison report that I wrote about yesterday here.
The Kentucky legislature won’t accredit bloggers. I went through much the same thing that a lot of bloggers are going through now back when I first started covering the General Assembly. Maybe I’ll tell that story one day.
Failed Supreme Court candidate Gordon Maag’s defamation suit was dismissed for the second time.
Here’s a nice piece on Joel Brunsvold’s retirement as IDNR director. This happened during my Christmas vacation and I never wrote how much I have enjoyed knowing Joel over the years.
Andy Plonka has a photo of Governor Blagojevich jogging in his neighborhood during the day. Check Andy’s comments after I asked what time that photo was snapped.
I’d like to make this a local news update thread. What’s going on in your town, ward, county, etc?
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