According to Federal Election Committee reports, Congressional candidate Jason Plummer is evading payroll taxes and shifting Medicare and Social Security tax burden onto his employees. Plummer is intentionally misclassifying his campaign employees as independent contractors to skirt payroll taxes – a loophole forbidden by the IRS.
Major General (retired) Bill Enyart and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 649 Official Alan Rubenstein today slammed Plummer for evading payroll taxes in his campaign and for looking out for himself at the expense of Southern Illinois workers and middle class families.
Enyart shared his background as a UAW member working the line at Caterpillar with his father as a young man. He criticized Plummer for trying to cheat workers by evading payroll taxes in his campaign and running on a platform that rewards millionaires, but puts good jobs and the future of Southern Illinois for regular working people at risk.
Enyart said: “In direct violation of the law, my millionaire opponent is paying no payroll taxes on his campaign. Instead he’s misclassifying his workers, forcing them to pay the full tax burden while he pays nothing at all in payroll taxes. This is only a preview of what Mr. Plummer would do in Washington. He will shift the burden onto the middle class by raising taxes on regular working people, but giving himself a new tax break.”
* There has been some dispute in other races about whether this is legal. But others have done it. For instance, this is from 2010…
Almost across the board in major races for governor, U.S. senator and Congress, Democratic candidates have put their campaign workers — at least some of them — on the payroll and have been paying FICA and other taxes on them.
But not Republicans. Though some now say they’re changing, they’ve followed a different approach, treating all of their campaign managers, press aides and the like as independent contractors, which makes the individual and not the “employer” responsible for any tax liability. […]
In the race for Illinois governor, during the last six months of 2009 — the latest for which figures are available — Mr. Quinn’s campaign reported paying $52,000 to the IRS and another $5,200 to the Illinois Department of Revenue for payroll taxes. That’s money Mr. Quinn surely could have used for other purposes, like TV ads.
The GOP nominee, state Sen. Bill Brady, reported no such payments. Which means that folks who made as much as $12,500 in the last half of the year worked for his campaign on “consulting” or “contractual services,” as Mr. Brady’s state disclosure put it.
* By the way, Enyart’s press release contains another “revelation”…
[International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 649 Official Alan Rubenstein] was part of a group of local workers who questioned Plummer’s business practice of personally profiting by undercutting a living wage for his employees. He also slammed Plummer for refusing to listen to Southern Illinois workers without an endorsement.
“Jason Plummer is a millionaire who has been taking advantage of the tough economy by undercutting labor and middle class and working people. Mr. Plummer personally profits by keeping wages low and if he had his way, they’d be so low no one could support their families and earn a decent, honest living.
“Mr. Plummer had the nerve to tell me that he’d only listen to Southern Illinois workers if we endorsed him. Well that’s not how honest people do business.”
Democratic and Republican volunteers spent the day passing out pamphlets and putting up signs. With less than two weeks until Election Day, the Champaign County Republicans and Democrats are doing what they can to get voters to the polls, even if it means a lot of walking.
“You can call, you can email, but it’s still not as effective as someone coming up to you and giving you that literature,” said Shana Harrison. She’s president of College Democrats.
“There’s a lot of walking involved. That’s the greatest way that you have a chance to connect with voters and get them to actually go,” said Harrison.
* The Question: What’s your favorite precinct walking story?
* This week, Congresswoman Judy Biggert was asked about her vote for the Paul Ryan budget plan, which Democrats have decried as a radical proposal that would “end Medicare as we know it.” Biggert has always campaigned as a moderate, so this Ryan vote was somewhat out of character for her. Her explanation…
“The Ryan budget is right because it’s a plan. It’s on the table. And let’s, let’s, we have to move ahead, we can’t just sit there and keep on the spending.”
Pro Same-Sex-Marriage PAC Backs Candidate Who Equates Gay Marriage With Bigamy, Polygamy
American Unity PAC, a Republican super PAC aimed at expanding support for same-sex marriage, was announced with great fanfare in June. But it may not be living up to the hype: one of the congressional candidates it’s supporting with hundreds of thousands in TV ads is not only publicly opposed to same-sex marriage, she also just equated the practice with polygamy and bigamy.
Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) may not be what the establishment who fawned over American Unity PAC had in mind when the group was announced.
At a press conference after a debate Wednesday night, Biggert explained that she’s “close” to supporting same-sex marriage rights, but is “not there yet.” Then she said the issue is best left to the states, equating same-sex marriage laws with the universally-accepted illegal acts of bigamy and polygamy.
“It is a state issue,” Biggert said. “We don’t have polygamy and bigamy and all of these things in the federal government. It’s the states that take care of that.”
Biggert didn’t “equate” the two issues. Marriage, in all its forms, has historically been regulated by the states. Moderate Republicans have in the past several years opposed federal bans on gay marriage. This isn’t exactly new stuff. It’s only in relatively recent history that a push has been made for a federal law to allow gay marriage at the state level. Biggert says she’s moving in that direction, but is not there yet.
* In other news, Charlie Cook has moved this race from “Tossup” to “Lean Democrat.”
Friday, Oct 26, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Although all energy development comes with risks, Americaís natural gas producers are committed to protecting America’s air, land, and water. Across the country, advance in technology:
* Protect air, by reducing emissions and monitoring air quality near drilling sites;
* Protect land, by reducing our production footprint and helping to create thousands of acres of wildlife preserves; and
* Protect water, through conservation and recycling technologies, and the use of reinforced cement and steel-encased drilling systems that go thousands of feet below fresh-water tables.
That’s smarter power today. Go to ANGA.US to learn more about our safe and responsible development practices.
* The FreedomWorks super PAC is reportedly spending $1.5 million on TV ads against Tammy Duckworth starting Monday, so this poll has to give the Duckworth campaign some peace of mind…
With less than two weeks until the election, Duckworth had the backing of 50 percent to 40 percent for Walsh, the controversial tea party-backed incumbent. An additional 9 percent were undecided, which is significant this close to the Nov. 6 balloting, particularly for a highly visible contest that has been combative for months. […]
Independents are a key swing bloc of voters who often decide elections, and the poll found they make up more than a third of people casting ballots in the new district, which takes in northwest suburban Cook and eastern DuPage counties. Duckworth, a disabled Iraq War veteran making her second try for Congress, holds a 48 percent to 37 percent advantage over Walsh among independent voters. […]
Then there’s that gender gap. Among women, Duckworth scored 54 percent support to Walsh’s 34 percent. At the same time, the bravado Walsh often displays in decrying political correctness hasn’t earned him any advantage among men. While the Republican has a 46 percent to 45 percent advantage over Duckworth among male voters, it is statistically insignificant.
Another obstacle for Walsh is widespread discontent with federal lawmakers, particularly Republicans. Only 12 percent of the district’s voters approve of the job Congress is doing; 77 percent disapprove. Moreover, 69 percent of the district’s voters disapprove of how Republicans in Congress are handling their jobs. When asked whether Republicans or Democrats in Washington, including President Barack Obama, were to blame for gridlock, 41 percent cited the GOP compared with 26 percent who cited Democrats.
That’s two recent polls with big Duckworth leads. It’s a trend and she’s likely stopped the bleeding.
* This Halloween themed spot is said to be the final ad of American Action Network’s $1.5 million ad campaign against Democratic congressional candidate David Gill…
Welcome to Dr. Gill’s laboratory
Home to many frightening experiments.
Like Gill’s support for the Obama Pelosi agenda:
The 800 billion dollar failed stimulus sending billions to foreign firms and jobs to China.
Raising taxes on middle class families.
Radical environmental policies that would drive up utility rates,
The largest state pension system said it made less than 1 percent on its investments during the budget year that ended June 30.
The Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System said Thursday it made just .76 percent on its more than $36 billion in assets during the state’s 2012 fiscal year.
The return was sharply lower than the 23.6 percent the system earned in 2011.
As an example, [TRS spokesman Dave Urbanek] said, if the state’s fiscal year had ended Sept. 30 rather than June 30, TRS would have posted a gain of 16.4 percent.
So, yeah, it’s bad, but they’re not complete failures.
Friday, Oct 26, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The cable industry is asking lawmakers to place a NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. HB 5440 is not about fairness, equity or parity – it’s a tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV. They cannot afford another NEW tax – not now and not in this economy!
HB 5440 Will Hurt Illinois Families and Small Businesses
• Satellite TV subscribers will see their monthly bills go up 5%.
• This tax will impact every bar, restaurant and hotel that subscribes to satellite TV service, which will translate into higher prices, decreased revenues, and fewer jobs.
• Rural Illinois has no choice: In many parts of Illinois, cable refuses to provide TV service to rural communities. Satellite TV is their only option.
HB 5440 Is Not About Parity or Fairness
• Cable’s claim that this discriminatory tax is justified because satellite TV doesn’t pay local franchise fees could not be further from the truth. Cable pays those fees to local towns and cities in exchange for the right to bury cables in the public rights of way—a right that Comcast and Charter value in the tens of billions of dollars in their SEC filings.
• Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: We use satellites—unlike cable, we don’t need to dig up streets and sidewalks to deliver our TV service.
• Making satellite subscribers pay franchise fees—or, in this case, an equivalent amount in taxes—would be like taxing the air It’s no different than making airline passengers pay a fee for laying railroad tracks.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, independent expenditures on federal campaigns by so-called “superPACs” and others have just about reached the half-billion dollars mark. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.”
About three-quarters of that money has been spent on negative attack ads. And about $14 million of that has been spent in just three Chicago-area congressional races. So now you know why you’ve been so inundated.
Some people look at all this moolah and shake their heads and worry about its impact on our democracy.
Others see all the cash and want in.
Two buddies of mine are thinking about starting their own superPACs.
They’re no fools. The standard fee for “placing” a TV ad is up to 15 percent. Place a few million bucks and you don’t have to work for a while. All you gotta do is find a few angry people who have more money than they know what to do with and help them direct their rage.
Chicago’s Schadenfreude comedy group has caught on to this new gold rush. They’re running a series,” Poor Judgement,” on YouTube about the fictional “Integrity Independent Film Company.” The liberal company is dead broke and desperate for work. During Episode 1, they debate whether to sell their souls and make ads for superPACs.
“One word. Sometimes two. SuperPACs,” says “Justin,” who in real life is WBEZ executive producer Justin Kaufmann.
“Oh, like the Lunchables,” says his partner “Jim,” who is Jim Bennett, a recent winner of the Grand Slam for The Moth storytelling competition.
“Not the Lunchables!” says Justin. “The thing where the trillionaires give politicians a ton of cash for campaigns and issues. They have a film company that shoots the ad. It’s the film company that shoots the ad.”
“Yeah, but what if we don’t agree with what they stand for?” asks “Kate,” played by Kate James of Second City and Schadenfreude.
“F*** ideals!” rages Justin. “Why do you care what anybody thinks?”
“Because what brought us together was integrity,” says Jim.
“What brought us together was ‘My Own Private Idaho.’ We all liked that movie,” cracks Justin.
“C’mon, Jim, don’t you want to make bank?” he demands. Justin eventually wins out.
In Episode 2, they change their company’s name to “N.Tegrity Political Films” and take a meeting with some wealthy right-wingers who run the “Committee for a More Beautiful America.”
After some false starts, Justin makes their pitch. “Colonial times. Ship off in the distance. And it docks. And all these people get off the ship. It’s the beginning of the country. It’s the beginning of hope.”
One of the superPAC’s leaders interrupts. “And the people getting off the Mayflower have some sort of tongue disease and syphillis and smallpox because of ObamaCare in 2012, right? I like it. Yes to that.”
The superPAC guys eventually give the N.Tegrity folks their own idea for a TV ad. It features a baby in its crib. “It’s 3 a.m.,” says the announcer, “and while you sleep, your infant daughter stirs as she realizes that the following groups will either try to kill her or tax her to death: Mexicans, the gays, solar power advocates, Latinos, liberals, fact checkers, Chicagoans, youth, near-sighted independents,” and on and on.
Episode 3 involves a meeting with two potential clients, the Council On American Marriage and the American Council For Marriage. One is anti-gay and the other is pro-gay. But the hapless film company folks don’t know who is who and which is which and hilarity ensues.
I hope my buddies don’t have these problems. Selling one’s soul and destroying the country shouldn’t be so difficult.
* ABC7’s Ben Bradley scored a rare interview with House Speaker Michael Madigan yesterday. Madigan spoke mainly about pensions. And it’s becoming ever more clear that MJM is zeroing in on the cost-shifting plan. Madigan focused on the fact that 75 percent of the state’s pension costs cover teachers and universities.
“There’s just too many people in the legislature that don’t want to do the heavy lifting of legislating,” said Madigan. “They want to go there and talk among themselves. They want to talk to people you and say the right things for your consumption; but then when it comes time to cast a difficult vote they’re in the bathroom somewhere.”
House Speaker Mike Madigan, like almost every other state official, admits there is a real need for pension reform.
What they don’t agree on is how to do it.
Democrats think the state’s universities, community colleges and local school districts should pay for the pensions of their own employees. Currently, the state does, and Madigan says it account for 75 percent of the state’s annual pension payments.
“People are spending the money and sending the bill to someone else. It’s not a good policy anywhere, especially in government,” said Madigan.
President Barack Obama will briefly visit Chicago today to cast his ballot early — the first sitting president to do so.
Democrats have been aggressively trying to gain an advantage over Republicans in states that allow early voting. When Obama announced that he would be voting early, he said on Twitter, “If your state has early voting, join me,” and directed followers to a link with more information about early voting.
Obama dominated early voting in 2008, giving him an edge over Republican John McCain well before Election Day.
In Colorado, Florida, Iowa and North Carolina, for example, Obama banked so many votes early in the process that he won each state even though he lost the Election Day vote, according to voting data compiled by The Associated Press.
* From the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners…
Just under 16,000 Chicago ballots were cast in Early Voting [yesterday] (Oct. 23), in addition to the 15,700 cast [Tuesday].
That’s two record-setting days, whether measured against the first days of Early Voting in 2008 or whether measured against the same portion of the election schedule (the15th and 14th days before the election in 2008).
On Oct. 21, 2008 (the 14th day before the 2008 election), Chicago had 14,740 ballots cast in Early Voting.
* The Question: Have you/are you voting early? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
David Gill has a 9 percentage point lead among likely voters in the 13th Congressional District race, according to a poll paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
But the campaign of Republican Rodney Davis said Tuesday that its polling gives Davis a 43 percent to 39 percent lead over Gill. The Davis poll, taken by the Virginia firm Public Opinion Strategies, was of 400 likely voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent, putting Davis’ lead within the margin of error.
The Republican poll gives independent John Hartman of Edwardsville a 10 percent share of the vote, and says that 8 percent are undecided. […]
An earlier Anzalone Liszt poll of the race, taken in September but never released publicly, reportedly showed the race a tie at 41 percent. And an earlier Public Opinion Strategies poll, taken in early October, also showed the race a tie. An August poll for the Gill campaign by Victoria Research gave the Democrat a 6-point lead, but all polls since have showed a narrower margin. A We Ask America poll of 1,253 likely voters earlier this month gave Davis a small lead.
* The candidates debated in Springfield last night, but neither man broke anything close to new ground. Roundup…
* Will Caskey has an insightful post about “earned” vs. “paid” media. He doesn’t think much about media coverage of campaigns and uses the Cook County Assessor’s race between Joe Berrios and Forrest Claypool as an example…
Now it would not be accurate to say the Chicago press does not like Berrios very much, because it doesn’t really do justice to their intense, singular hatred of the man. They were really, really [angry] that Berrios was running for anything at all and super duper jazzed that he had a credible, well-funded challenger. The details are mundane and boring, as details tend to be. Suffice to say Berrios for Assessor did not face a very pleasant earned media environment. […]
Going into election day if there was one thing any remotely interested Chicago pundit agreed on it was that we [the Berrios campaign] were toast, gone, finished.
Except that didn’t happen. We won, and not by a little. And of course, this is just an anecdote, and the jokes write themselves about the two-party system or Chicago-style politics, but that doesn’t change the facts: The narrative was downright apocalyptic, and it didn’t change the election. It didn’t even make it close. Because newspapers don’t vote, and actual people who do vote don’t make up their minds based on what some goof on tv says will happen. That’s just another version of crying about press bias.
The truth is that from a campaign perspective the press is just earned media, and you get what you pay for.
If you get your preferred, poll-tested message into print, great! Whatever else that’s said on top of that is a distraction. If it’s flatly impossible to get your message into earned media, c’est la vie; buy more paid media and move on.
For the most part, he’s right.
Media coverage can have an impact on very close races. The Tribune’s endorsement of the hapless Andy McKenna in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary probably cost Sen. Kirk Dillard the 200 or so votes he needed to beat Sen. Bill Brady. But there were other reasons for Dillard’s loss.
What reporters cannot usually do is elect a candidate against long odds, or even impact a race separated by more than a point or so.
There are caveats, of course. Sometimes, big revelations are reported by the media which sink candidates. But, usually, the other side has to put those revelations into TV/radio ads and/or direct mail and robocalls to burn that message in. So, even then, earned media is only part of the game. Moving real numbers is almost always accomplished via advertising. [Adding: Earned media is important, however, to paid media attacks or praise because it adds a level of authority to the attacks/praise.]
* Joe Walsh, Jr. attended a press conference this week to blast Tammy Duckworth for using his father’s child support case in a TV ad. Now the son is appearing in a hard-hitting ad for his dad…
* The House Majority PAC has a new TV ad for Democrat congressional candidate Bill Enyart…
* But I can’t help but wonder something: It’s less than two weeks before the election and Enyart has yet to run an ad featuring retiring Congressman Jerry Costello.
What the heck?
The polls have this race super tight. Where’s Costello?
He’s apparently doing some robocalls. He’s in some mailers and the walk pieces. He’s done public appearances with Enyart, including an East St. Louis rally yesterday. He’s raised money and done other things for the campaign, but no TV ads.
I’m hearing that the Enyart campaign had a “very short window” to introduce Enyart and just didn’t have the resources.
There are lots of rumors about how Costello would rather see Enyart lose so he could put his own son in there two years from now. I’ve never really bought into that, but his absence from Enyart’s ads is certainly causing some tongues to wag.
“We are proud to support Jason Plummer for his unwavering support of the Second Amendment and the freedoms that the United States Constitution grants,” Richard Pearson, executive director of the ISRA, said in a news release.
That’s a very big deal down ‘yonder, in case you hadn’t already guessed. In a super-close race, that could be the difference right there.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s corrections chief is reconsidering requests from The Associated Press and other media outlets for tours of state prisons.
Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said in an email Wednesday night that prison director Tony Godinez is working to determine “a manageable and appropriate way” to conduct media visits.
It was not immediately clear whether Godinez could still decide against allowing tours.
* Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget spokesman was asked this week when Quinn was going to launch his plan to “activate the grassroots,” which he announced in August and has kept putting off since then…
Pallasch said Quinn’s plans to wage a grass-roots campaign to get voters on board with pension cuts will start after the election and before lawmakers are set to return to Springfield at the end of November.
* The governor was asked in Champaign-Urbana yesterday about the grassroots campaign. He had initially put it off until after the presidential conventions, then came up with more excuses for why it hadn’t yet launched. Check out his very Quinnesque response…
“Well, we’ll be talking about that very shortly. I think we’ll let the election take place on November 6th. That’s got everyone’s attention, obviously, and it’s very, very important to our country and our democracy.
“Right after that, our Illinois legislature and government will be coming together to deal with the issue of pension reform and we’ve got to get it done in the best traditions of Lincoln’s democracy.”
The “best traditions of Lincoln’s democracy”? OK. I can’t wait to see that.
Thursday, Oct 25, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois is facing a crisis in education funding and the currently proposed state budget would leave a $200 million shortfall for Illinois schools, exacerbating an ongoing trend of school underfunding in our state. In fact, a 2010 research report conducted by the National Education Association found that Illinois ranks last among U.S. states in percentage of revenue for public K-12 schools from state governments. Further, the Education Law Center gave Illinois a “D” on its 2010 School Funding Fairness National Report Card.
Fortunately, the Illinois Senate identified a solution to bring more funding to our schools and protect Illinois students. In June, the Senate passed an amendment to HB 5440 that generates $75 million in revenue for the state’s education fund. This new revenue would directly support students by providing general state aid for local schools, early childhood education, and the Monetary Assistance Program for Illinois college students.
HB 5440 will fill a significant portion of the education gap, helping avert large budget cuts that would impact Illinois students and educators.
We urge members of the House to vote YES on HB 5440 and close the education gap for Illinois students.
