Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Wednesday’s Capitol Fax will be chock full of interesting stuff from today’s candidate filings.

Two teasers. Former Cook County Board of Review Commissioner and former Alderman Robert Shaw filed against Rep. David Miller. And former Rep. and former Chicago Alderman Ray Frias filed against Sen. Tony Munoz a few minutes ago.

This is a primary election open thread.

UPDATE: It appears that Pat Quinn feels comfortable slamming the guv now that the nominating petition deadline has expired.

Politicians and veterans groups say Gov. Rod Blagojevich should reopen a state job the administration concedes was improperly filled so military veterans have a chance at it.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and others have called on Blagojevich to reverse the hiring of an Illinois Department of Employment Security administrator because it effectively bypassed a law giving veterans preference in state hiring.

“If there’s any question with the way the hiring was done, if there’s a taint, then I think you have to unwind it from a legal perspective and begin again, and do it right,” Quinn said.

30 Comments

This just in… Quigley out, to back Claypool

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Actually, it came through an hour ago. I missed it until now.

Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley announced today that he is dropping out of the race for County Board president and is throwing his support behind fellow Commissioner Forrest Claypool to unseat incumbent John Stroger.

Rather than run for the County Board presidency himself, Quigley said he would be chairman of Claypool’s campaign.

Barring a last-minute filing by somebody else, today’s announcement leaves a one-on-one matchup in the March Democratic primary between Claypool, former head of the Chicago Park District and twice chief of staff to Mayor Richard Daley, and three-term President Stroger.

Quigley announced his decision to remove his name from the board presidency campaign and instead seek a third term as a county commissioner at an afternoon news conference at the Hotel Allegro in downtown Chicago.

17 Comments

Uh-Oh

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Anti-Christ rolls.

Former Illinois House Speaker Lee Daniels’ one-time top aide is cooperating with the federal government in a political corruption investigation, a prosecutor said today.

But more time is necessary to work out an agreement between prosecutors and attorneys for Michael Tristano, Assistant U.S. Attorney Manish Shah said.

“Mr. Tristano is cooperating with the government,” Shah told U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle. But he said no agreement was likely before mid-February.

Attorneys for the two sides already had said they were trying to work out such an agreement but had not specifically said that Tristano was already cooperating with the government.

Tristano, 49, is charged with fraud, theft and extortion conspiracy.

2 Comments

Question of the day

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Handicap the Republican lieutenant governor’s primary battle.

Rauschenberger, Birkett, Wegman, Kathuria, Cole and this guy, who I’ve never heard of.

38 Comments

Low turnout a sign of things to come?

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Only about a hundred people showed up for Edwin Eisendrath’s announcement yesterday.

In a 10-minute speech, Eisendrath promised to end “the era of scandals and investigations and embarrassment.”

Word of Eisendrath’s candidacy surfaced a month ago, but so far no fellow Democrats have endorsed him publicly.

Still, “I expect there will be plenty of support,” Eisendrath said.

Eisendrath is up against the governor’s $14 million campaign war chest. Eisendrath, who comes from a wealthy family, has said he hopes to raise $3 million to $6 million.

And since our current governor has a reputation of not responding to reporters’ inquiries, this is not a good sign.

Democrat Edwin Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman who said he planned to challenge Blagojevich in the March primary election, also did not return a phone call for comment.

Everybody eventually learns the same lesson in Springfield: Keep Aaron Chambers happy or else. I was his roommate for a while. Very pleasant, easy-going guy. Best roommate I ever had, in fact. Never want to be on his bad side, however.

And what’s with the “Edwin” stuff? It’s all over his website. Sounds a little too snooty to my ears. Doesn’t anyone ever call him “Ed”?

UPDATE: Pool report from today’s Springfield press conference.

…just awful. He pretty much refused to speak in specificity about anything from his political support to his personal financial commitment to his positions on any number of policy issues. He came off as much, much more arrogant than I pictured him. He didn’t do himself any favors with a press corps that would be more than happy to run with stories unfavorable to Blagojevich.

51 Comments

Good stuff

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Laura Washington’s column today is very good.

‘Every morning, I am not awakened by a phone call from my father telling me what to do today.” — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan

“I just don’t trust the boys. Like anything else, they will promise you anything. … It’s the same damn thing in politics.” — Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka

“I put love and loyalty over my career.” — Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun

These are just a few savory tidbits from an elegant afternoon tea held last Wednesday at the Drake Hotel. The scones and watercress were delicate, but the ladies minced no words.

The tea, sponsored by the Chicago Network, featured eight veteran women pols reflecting on how women make a difference in politics.

Read the whole thing.

4 Comments

How ’bout them Bears?

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Man, there was some magic on that field last night.

This is a Chicago Bears open thread. Have fun.

11 Comments

Duckworth interview

Monday, Dec 19, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Things got busy and a little crazy here this weekend and I didn’t have time to transcribe the 6th Congressional District Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth interview. Sorry about that.

I’ll hit a couple of high points and try to get to the rest of it later, but I can’t make any promises at the moment.

Also, I’ll post some of those poll results I had in this morning’s Capitol Fax later today.

On O’Hare expansion: “The decision has already been made,” so she wants to take full advantage of it for her district, including the western access route. Duckworth also noted that she is a pilot and has flown into O’Hare. “I understand noise mitigation,” she said, “Nobody can pull the wool over my eyes.”

Duckworth complained about the lack of funding behind the president’s No Child Left Behind law, and said it was too “one size fits all.” She said there should be some “localized standards” but said “some testing is beneficial to teachers,” because it’s a “diagnostic tool.”

“The commute time is horrible,” on the tollways, she said, and supported more funding for the system, as well as widening some other roads in the district and more support for Metra. “Common sense stuff,” she claimed.

She has a plan for a “high-tech corridor” in the district. Her husband is an IT guy, who, she said, “worked a couple of IT jobs that were transferred to India.” This will likely be the centerpiece of her campaign, so watch for a lot more on this issue.

Train whistles are a big problem in the district, according to people I know there. The whistles blow all night. Duckworth didn’t miss a beat when asked about the issue, even though it was obvious that it was a surprise question. “Safety balanced with quality of life issues,” was how she fleshed it out while we were on the phone. “Maybe more funding for better crossings,” was one suggestion she came up with.

On illegal immigration, she said we “definitely need to strengthen our borders,” but “illegal immigrants are in this country… We need to come up with a way to help them achieve legal status… (including) affordable fines… It’s a balancing act.”

Sorry, again, for not posting the transcript.

UPDATE: I’ll post the Cegelis poll numbers tomorrow.

29 Comments

Ouch

Saturday, Dec 17, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Edwin Eisendrath’s campaign apparently won’t be pulling any punches. From his announcement advisory:

Democrat will offer a roadmap to (finally) clean up the Ryan-Blagojevich pay-to-play politics and to responsibly lead state government.

Ryan-Blagojevich? Could be a good hook.

UPDATE: From today’s announcement:

Eisendrath, 47, laid out a series of questions he wants answered by Governor Blagojevich.

â€œTell us why you raided nearly $2.3 billions from the already under funded pensions of teachers and state workers. Tell us how you plan on paying for the election year giveaways you are announcing daily. Tell us if you will refrain from using contributions raised by appointees to boards and commissions that dole out lucrative contracts and investments. Tell us why you opened the door for Republicans to run against corruption while George Ryan is on trial,â€ he said.

46 Comments

This just in…

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Tammy Duckworth says we should support the troops, but “Going to Iraq was a mistake.”

Interviewing her now.

UPDATE: Duckworth claims she and her husband made the decision to run back in August/September. “I know the speculation out there is that the DCCC reached out to me, and that’s not the case.”

UPDATE 2: On the speculation that she was asked to run: “Nobody’s drafted me for anything I’ve done in my life.”

UPDATE 3: “We need an aggressive plan based on benchmarks for bringing our troops home. There’s one out there now that for every Iraqi battalion that stands up we bring an American battalion home” […]

“I think the administration has failed to come up with a plan to aggressively train the Iraqi troops.” […]

On reading blogs, and the vitriol in comment sections directed at her: “It’s been kind of interesting to sit there and read and not be able to get back on there and say anything. It’s been very frustrating for me to sit on my hands…

“The negative attacks and stuff, that’s not me, that’s not who I am. I think it’s great people are expressing their opinions, that’s why I became a soldier… Ultimately we’ll let the voters decide…

“I would never ask anybody to drop out of the race just because I was in it, and I certainly wouldn’t want anybody to ask me that I should drop out of the race.”

(She said she regularly reads three blogs, mine, Daily Kos and DuPage blogger Wurfwhile.)

On her residency: “I think that I can certainly adequately represent the district without living in it. Voters are going to decide who shares… their value system… I think I’m that person… My identity is with the 6th District. I live in the Village of Hoffman Estates. Part of Hoffman Estates is in the 6th, part is in the 8th.”

I’ll have more later this weekend, but I need to go Christmas shopping now.

UPDATE 4: I intentionall tossed in several local issues questions to see how she’d respond. She did pretty well. I’ll post those answers Sunday afternoon/evening.

I’ve interviewed a lot of political novices in my day, and she did better than most. Her talking points were evident, but they didn’t overwhelm the conversation. You can’t coach that or create it out of whole cloth. It’s an innate talent and she’s obviously got it.

Meanwhile, the Daily Herald has a pretty good Q&A on their site. Not much in the way of local stuff, though, so this blog may be the only place to find it tomorrow.

63 Comments

State split on immigration

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A new SurveyUSA poll shows that a slight majority of Illinoisans think that immigrants do jobs that Americans don’t want.

“Which of these 2 statements do you agree with more:
One: Immigrants take jobs away from Americans.
Two: Immigrants do jobs that Americans don’t want.”

43 percent of Illinoisans chose “one,” while 52 percent said “two.” That’s almost the same as the nationally weighted average of 42/53.

Notice, though, that the question didn’t ask about illegal immigrants. Just immigrants in general. Also, SurveyUSA didn’t ask whether people believed that access to cheap immigrant labor keeps wages down.

22 Comments

A bit much

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Kinda over the top if you ask me.

Tollway officials are quietly attempting to add a laundry list of penalties for I-PASS users, including revoking transponders for traffic tickets and charging $25 for drivers whose accounts run dry or who forget the device.

The proposals, of which even some tollway directors were unaware, are drawing criticism from a watchdog group, which called them â€œridiculous,â€ and a tollway reform leader, who says they â€œgo too far.â€

Under the proposed rules:

â€¢Get a traffic violation and you could lose your I-PASS

â€¢Fail to properly use your I-PASS, and it may be cut off

â€¢Let your I-PASS account go into debt and pay a $25 fine

â€¢Forget your I-PASS and pay $25

â€¢If you drop change near a toll basket, it belongs to the tollway, and you could face a $75 fine for picking it up.

The new penalties were found in a 46-page document of rule changes submitted to a lawmaker panel charged with overseeing state agency rules.

There was no debate on these new rules at the tollway board in October, and members told reporters they were merely voting on minor changes.

Not.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules has three months to approve or disapprove the proposals.

29 Comments

Question of the day

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I thought this was a nifty bit of spin.

Topinka, who favors abortion rights, and Birkett also said they agree on one aspect of the abortion debate: the need for a state law that requires parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion.

“This is an invasive procedure and parents should be involved,” Topinka said, adding that any law should allow for minors to ask a judge for an exception.

Both criticized Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the issue, saying he supports parental consent for minors getting tattoos but not for abortion.

Blagojevich’s spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the governor does not support such a notification law because he believes minors who become pregnant after they were raped by a stepfather or other relative should not be forced to tell a parent or a judge.

Further, she said, “To compare rape and incest to tattoos shows a complete lack of understanding and sensitivity of the issue.”

Even though bringing rape and incest into the equation avoids talking about well over 95 percent of the parental consent issue, I thought it was a pretty good pivot.

What do you think about the comparison between the two parental consent issues? Can it be an effective attack on the governor? What do you think about the governor’s response?

29 Comments

Veterans’ preference skirted

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Two short stories from the AP were up last night.

Illinois officials in Governor Rod Blagojevich’s (bluh-GOY’-uh-vitchz) administration hired a man to work in Cook County for a job located in another part of the state.

The Department of Employment Security put George Rada (RAY’-dah) in the administrative post that had been transferred to Freeport just three weeks before his March 2003 hiring. But Rada has always worked in Chicago.

Transferring the job to Stephenson County meant I-D-E-S could hire Rada without having to confront state laws that give veterans preference in state hiring. Federal prosecutors already are scrutinizing Blagojevich’s hiring practices.

I-D-E-S had no plans to reverse what it acknowledged was a “flawed” hiring process until The Associated Press asked about it. A spokeswoman says the agency began the paperwork today to return the position to Cook County.

The second quotes a governor’s spokesman saying they would not reopen the job after it was discovered that the hire was improperly executed.

What appears to have happened here is they moved a Cook County job out to Freeport so that no veteran in that region would likely qualify. Then they gave the job to Rada and moved it back to Cook County, thereby skirting the veterans’ preference hiring mandate.

33 Comments

Thompson in legal trouble?

Friday, Dec 16, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Oy.

The scandal swirling around the Hollinger company hit close to home with word Thursday that former Illinois governor Jim Thompson is the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

Thompson was on the audit committee of the company which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and several suburban newspapers. Bloomberg News reports Thompson was served with papers warning him that SEC investigators may be close to seeking civil charges against the former governor.

Governor Thompson said by e-mail Thursday that he can’t talk about the on-going investigation. This comes on a day when the federal government lodged new charges against Conrad Black, the one-time head of Hollinger, charges that include obstruction of justice. […]

Former governor Jim Thompson and two other members of Hollinger’s audit committee are reportedly under SEC investigation for supposedly turning a blind eye to widespread fraud at the company.

David Ruder headed the Securities and Exchange Commission in the late ’80’s. He says it almost unheard of to see a corporate board member face this kind of scrutiny.

11 Comments

« NEWER POSTS