* I just sent this e-mail to Bill Brady’s campaign spokesperson…
What does Sen. Brady intend to do with his business interests if he’s elected governor? Will he dispose of them, put them into a blind trust, continue to actively engage in the day-to-day operations?
* The Question: What do you think Brady should do with his various businesses if he’s elected governor? Explain.
* I suppose you could think that Democratic legislators are taking a gigantic risk by planning to adjourn this week without completely “solving” the state’s budget mess. The Tribune certainly does…
If legislators adjourn after doing so little, they’ll be asking citizens to oust them from office
Then again, if legislators cut $13 billion from the budget, or cut half of that and fill the rest of the hole with tax hikes, they’d actually be begging - not asking, begging - voters to oust them from office come November. That’s just reality. Look at the polls if you don’t believe me. The voters clearly do not want their taxes raised and they don’t want services cut. Period.
Last year, I wrote countless columns and blog posts favoring a tax hike and measured budget cuts. I stopped doing that when something happened during the primary campaign that made me rethink my position. Pat Quinn kept saying that if he won the nomination he would have a “mandate” to move his tax hike forward.
Quinn just barely won that primary but it made me stop and think. The last gubernatorial election was won by ten points by a guy who swore up and down to “never raise taxes on people.” Therefore, no public mandate exists to do that now. Period. And since the Democrats won, there is no mandate to cut services, either.
This election represents the clearest choice voters have had in decades. Tax hikes with smallish cuts or major cuts with no tax hikes? It’s not ideal, but I think we can probably muddle through another six or so months until election day to figure out which way the public wants to go.
On the other hand, this is obviously an emergency situation and allowing problems to fester any longer isn’t exactly ideal. Leaders are supposed to lead, after all.
But the Tribune so thoroughly botched its own attempt at coming up with solutions to close the budget hole that it has zero credibility now on this entire topic.
First, the Legislature gave all the new revenues to localities, keeping none for services provided directly by the state, then increased the level of those services anyway. To do this, it spent more than it took in … because the previous year’s treasury had provided a nifty $266 million surplus. This time around, there is no surplus, and that puts state budget-making $266 million behind at the starting gate.
Secondly, the Legislature declared the new tax to be temporary, thrusting the issue of its renewal into the fires of an election year while rendering the schools and communities it was supposed to help powerless to plan sensible budgets.
Foresight tells us that Illinois is on the verge of making things worse. … While those who would succeed him preach about keeping taxes low, or cutting them, outgoing Gov. Jim Thompson proposes a budget which will be balanced only if (a) taxes go up and sports betting, which is still illegal, manages somehow to bring the state $30 million and (b) the state doesn’t pay its bills on time. Chances of the former are minimal, which just about ensures that the latter will occur on a grand scale.
The governor wants to postpone or ignore $349 million worth of due bills in fiscal 1991. He would “save” the state $246 million on paper by paying only 10 1/2 months of Medicaid and group insurance bills during the fiscal year and by delaying circuit-breaker refund payments by six weeks …
The tactics amount to deficit spending, technically forbidden in Illinois, but easy to get around in the short term. … Remember when corporations and citizens waited months to get their state tax refunds? When pharmacists, nursing homes and hospitals which cared for Medicaid patients were forced to borrow money to pay their own bills because the state wasn’t paying its? Do we want government to become the state’s biggest scofflaw again, and so soon?
* Related and a roundup…
* Makeshift Illinois budget could include pension IOUs: The state doesn’t have the $3.7 billion it owes to retirement systems in the upcoming fiscal year, so top Democrats are discussing a plan to make good by giving the systems bonds that pay off over eight years, documents and interviews show.< * Erickson: Election Day blocks any action on fiscal mess
* The wheels keep falling off Republican 8th Congressional District nominee Joe Walsh’s campaign. The latest began with an open letter from two top staffers who resigned…
We had to go public and announce our resignation from the campaign shortly following his choice to stay in the race. We came to this conclusion after doing some intense investigations into the lies that Joe had told us since October. Again we would like to apologize for unintentionally misleading supporters and voters throughout the primary process. If we would have known who the true Joe Walsh was, we never would have supported him. Don’t make the same mistake we made. Make sure you always question your candidate thoroughly.
They also posed a series of questions…
Ask about his drivers license and insurance ( If it has ever been suspended )
Ask him about his taxes ( If he owes the IRS )
Ask him about his questionable fundraising and accounting ( If he ever bounced checks )
Ask him if he ever inflated his donations in his FEC filings to make himself appear to have more money then he actually raised.
Ask him if he ever handled a firearm in his life ( Why he was anti gun in his past races )
Ask him what his opinion is of Obama and then why he would hire an ex Obama intern to be his Press Secretary.
Ask him if he has ever been evicted from his residency.
Ask him if he has ever had any court judgements or leans against him.
Ask him where the $28,000 he loaned his campaign came from after only making $41,000 last year and $25,000 the year before.( And ask him about his taxes again )
“We’re basically just done,” Walsh field director Richard Cape said. “Everyone is walking. We’ve just had it.”
Cape, Walsh’s former campaign manager, said he and fellow field director Ted Livengood are among the 200 volunteers who have left the campaign in recent weeks.
At 6 p.m. Sunday, Cape said, volunteers will “shut down” the 218 Barron Blvd. office, which opened just weeks ago. Cape has termed the event a “campaign kick out” party.
But the cops were called and the resigned staffers were foiled…
Police were called to Walsh’s Graylake campaign office Sunday afternoon after Cape and others went there to retrieve office equipment and other property they claim is theirs. They were not allowed in the campaign office, and officers told them it was a civil matter and they would have to go to court to settle their dispute.
The Lake County GOP Chairman didn’t ask for Walsh’s resignation, but they didn’t exactly give him a ringing vote of confidence, either…
But the Republican leadership in Lake County was concerned enough to meet for two hours Sunday behind closed doors to discuss Walsh’s future. They declined to ask him to step down.
“Joe Walsh is still our candidate, we’re not gonna get involved in a campaign dispute,” said Lake County Republican Party Chairman Bob Cook.
But when pressed on Walsh’s future, and how recent issues might affect the general election in November Cook said “We’re always concerned when there’s something that could hurt our chances of beating Melissa Bean in the General election.” He said it’s up to the voters to decide if those chances will be hurt if Walsh stays in the race.
The man who voluntarily gave up his spot as Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor is expected to announce today that he will run for governor as an independent.
Scott Lee Cohen will be making an announcement on Monday at 10:30 in front of the State of Illinois Building on the Randolph Street side. I would love to see you there and have your support!
The closest thing to a politician I can find who commented on or “liked” that post was Wanda Majcher, a Democrat who lost the 10th Senate nomination this past February. A yard sign maker also weighed in for him.
Quinn says it’s a free country and Cohen is welcome to try to collect the necessary signatures to get on the ballot. The Chicago Democrat says he’s not worried Cohen could siphon away some of his support.
“I am running for governor because like the rest of the citizens of Illinois, I am tired of waste and mismanagement, which has led our state to the current financial instability,” Cohen said in a news conference outside Chicago’s Thompson Center this morning. “The people of this great state are suffering every day.”
Cohen reiterated that he would not advocate for a tax increase, and would organize a committee of small and large business owners to assist with fiscal policy.
* A host of Republicans are planning to skip the state party’s $500 per person fundraiser featuring Sarah Palin next week, including GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady…
Brady’s campaign won’t say why the candidate isn’t attending, only that he has no plans to be there.
GOP congressional candidates Randy Hultgren and Bob Dold aren’t gonna show, and neither will state Senators John Millner and Dan Duffy…
A photo with Palin could prove damaging to some Republicans running in suburban districts that have been trending more and more Democratic in recent elections, [Roosevelt University’s Paul Green] says.
And even for steadfast conservatives like Brady of Bloomington, there is little upside in publicly aligning himself with Palin even though he has been quietly making the rounds with suburban tea party groups for months.
His reluctance to release his tax records, however, was a poor decision, and the peek-a-boo nature of their release was an inadequate gesture for someone seeking the state’s highest office.
Brady wants to become the first elected Illinois governor in more than a decade who is not either in jail or under indictment. Secrecy is not a good way to start.
The more transparent the better. And besides, we just might learn something along the way.
It’s not that he did anything illegal. He just apparently took every advantage he could of the tax code written by the bad big government to reduce his tax obligation to zero.
Anyone who files a tax return does everything he or she can to minimize the tax hit. Most people, though, still end up paying something to the government. Even if you get a refund, it’s probably only for a small portion of the money withheld from your paycheck.
Quinn’s a populist from way back. It seems like he’s forever carped about giant corporations and fat cats and what have you. He shouldn’t have to break a sweat working Brady’s unique tax status into his campaign rhetoric
I was out with some political buddies the other night and the subject of Bill Brady’s taxes came up.
Just about everybody agreed that Brady should never have released his tax returns. All he did was make a bad situation worse, they said.
The Republican gubernatorial nominee released his returns four years ago when he ran for governor the first time. The returns showed he earned well into six figures and had lots of successful businesses. Nobody paid much attention at the time because Brady was an unknown state senator with little chance of winning the GOP nomination.
But when “tax day” came around this year, reporters asked the new nominee if he’d release his returns again. He said he wouldn’t, claiming that the last time his business suffered. Brady’s refusal sparked a few stories, but things really heated up when Gov. Pat Quinn stepped into the fray.
Quinn asked what Brady was hiding and demanded that Brady put the public interest before his private business interests. Brady eventually relented, but only to a point. He said he’d allow reporters to look at his returns for three hours that Friday afternoon in his Springfield campaign office. No copies would be distributed. Look only.
Chicago reporters were not amused. Not only would the returns be released 200 miles from their home base, but Brady had scheduled the unveiling around the same time that the family bank of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias was going to be seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Brady was obviously trying to bury the story on a busy Friday, when it would get lost over the weekend.
Springfield-based reporters weren’t all that happy either. A glimpse of several years of complicated tax returns didn’t seem adequate.
But what we found was fascinating. Brady had declared so many losses on his businesses that he paid no state or federal income taxes at all for 2008 and no federal income taxes for 2009.
Also, the conservative Republican had used a tax break from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law to avoid paying federal taxes last year.
So, Brady was triple-troubled. He had most political reporters peeved at him and he handed them a story about not paying taxes on his state senate salary of about $75,000 a year. He had money to loan his campaign tens of thousands of dollars during that same time, but he chose instead to use a provision in the much-hated (by his Republican “base”) stimulus law to pay zero income tax.
So, instead of fading away into the weekend, the story kept going strong. Editorial boards and columnists weighed in. Reporters started combing through what they had for more tidbits, and in the meantime they wrote stories about Brady’s refusal to provide them with copies of his returns as Gov. Quinn had done. Something they haven’t written about yet is that Brady actually got a state income tax refund of more than $1,600 on what appears to be his withholding taxes on his Senate paychecks. Not good.
Brady told me last week that when his businesses started to wane as the economy tanked, he and his partners decided to go into the red rather than lay people off or shut down the companies. That’s honorable. If you have the cash to keep the businesses open, you should do what you can.
But Brady probably should’ve kicked a few bucks into the tax till for that legislative gig of his. At the very least, he should not have asked for a refund to bring his total tax bill down to zero. He had a right to the tax breaks he got, but he wasn’t required to do it.
Maybe my buddies were correct. Maybe Brady should’ve just mummed up and took the heat for not disclosing his returns. That story might’ve gone away in a few days. The resulting attack TV ad wouldn’t have been pleasant, but they would’ve been better than what we’ll see now: “Bill Brady funneled tens of thousands of dollars into his own campaign fund while he paid no income taxes on his legislative salary.” Oof.
Then again, I have to respect Brady for opening himself up to this hit, regardless of whether I agree with the rest of what he did. There’s no law (yet) requiring candidates to disclose their tax returns, but Brady swallowed hard and took his lumps. Now, if he’d just send us some actual copies of those returns …
State regulators have notified Stephens that his arrest, coupled with a prior disciplinary action, are grounds not to renew his pharmacy license when it expires next year.
Stephens was put on probation in 2001 for “habitually using controlled substances.”
* Records: Congressman put daughter up for her state job
Before he lent her $140,000 to buy an “affordable home,” U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez helped his daughter get a government job, according to records kept by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration.
Omaira Figueroa became a consumer counselor for the Illinois Commerce Commission in June 2004, after Blagojevich aides included her in the then-secret hiring database under a spreadsheet labeled “Gutierrez, Luis (CONG-D-4th Dist.)”
The U.S. Constitution doesn’t require congressmen to live in the districts they represent. The only residency requirement is this: They have to live somewhere in the state from which they are elected.
The charges range from $30 to $400 and include a hotel stay in the West Loop as well as an “emergency” run to a clothing store to get a new dress shirt after he spilled food on another, sources said.
Though Stroger has reimbursed the county for the personal charges, some county commissioners say his use of the card should be investigated.
Sneed hears rumbles Cook County Commissioner John Daley, who is flummoxed by rumors Stroger may have given pay increases to top aides despite a board resolution forbidding him to do so, plans to ask the Cook County comptroller and the director of human resources to rescind them.
James Reilly, who is advising lawmakers on how to reduce costs at McCormick Place, said he proposed putting the property under temporary control of a trustee. The trustee would legally have 18 months to find a private management firm to take over, he said.
Also, Reilly said he urged that the General Assembly approve work rule changes designed to lower the cost of staging conventions in Chicago. The proposal calls for eliminating the exclusive electrical service franchise at McCormick Place, called Focus One.
The city paid $18.5 million in police overtime in 2005, $33.8 million in 2006 and $37.1 million in 2009 — its highest in eight years, according to figures obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Police officials attribute the enormous rise from 2005 to 2006 to officers landing a new contract with the city. Their 2006 paychecks included three years of retroactive pay increases.
The big jump in 2009 was partly because of a legal settlement that required $3.5 million in overtime payments to officers.
The changes are needed because there is only $10.9 billion in the city’s four pension funds — a shortfall of nearly $14.6 billion, states the report by the Commission to Strengthen Chicago’s Pension Funds.
Without changes, closing all but 10 percent of the gap would require that the city pay $710 million more a year into the funds starting in 2012. The city’s current budget is $6.1 billion, and in recent years Daley has tapped reserves to balance it.
A Tribune review of 2006 to 2009 cases found that Jordan ranks as the most forgiving judge in Cook, DuPage and Lake counties for drivers cited by state police for going 100 mph or faster….Jordan isn’t the only judge who has repeatedly given supervision to speeders cited for driving 100 mph or higher. Cook County Circuit Judge Jill Cerone-Marisie, based in Rolling Meadows, gave 52 supervisions. Her colleague, Cook County Associate Judge Larry Axelrood, handed out 36 in Skokie.
Ms. Madigan, along with the staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission, says the charge for Nicor’s ComfortGuard service, which covers the cost of repairing gas pipes within customers’ homes, far exceeds its benefits….More than 440,000, or 20%, of Nicor’s 2.2 million suburban customers pay $4.95 per month for ComfortGuard, according to the ICC staff filings. Nicor reaped a total of $26 million from the product last year while paying out only $600,000 in benefits, the filings allege.
Residents in Kane County will feel, on average, about a 3 percent increase in their property taxes payable June 1 and Sept. 1.
How can this be, you say? The answer mostly goes back to the fact that even though most everything from the thickness of wallets to the waiting times at your local restaurant is down, the cost of taxing bodies providing their services is up.
After dealing with multiple false alarms, including three in less than 24 hours, at a Washington business this winter, Vaughn discovered there are no penalties in the city’s fire prevention ordinance for several false alarms caused by maintenance issues at the same location.
So he’s proposing adding fines to the ordinance. The fines range from $75 for the third false alarm to $750 for the 10th and additional false alarms at the same location over a 12-month period.
The proposed ordinance would ban the building of wind farms in Pontiac, as well as within a 1.5 mile radius around the city limits. City Attorney Alan Schrock said the change would make sure the turbines did not hinder any potential growth.
* I could not figure out why I was in a Stevie Ray Vaughan mood all week. But then I came home and realized we kicked off the weekend with all sorts of storm warnings. Perhaps this video is appropriate.
Rich will be back on Monday. Thanks for putting up with the interns today!
Like a train that stops at every station
We all deal with trials and tribulations
Fear hangs the fellow that ties up his years
* Most Senate Democrats were mum on the talking points of this afternoon’s caucus meeting. However, Sen. Louis Viverito said an unspecified amount or type of borrowing is being discussed. Take a look…
* Speaking with Christopher Wills of the Associated Press, Sen. Donne Trotter talked about issuing pension obligation notes. The challenge there, he said, is getting other Democrats on board with the idea…
* Both chambers canceled their weekend sessions and plan to reconvene at noon on Monday.
* The latest Rasmussen poll puts Republican Sen. Bill Brady ahead of Gov. Pat Quinn by seven percentage points. Five percent of the respondents favor another candidate and 11 percent have yet to decide. From Rasmussen…
Brady posted a 47% to 37% lead over Quinn in early March just after the former was officially declared the GOP nominee by a 193-vote margin out of 750,000 cast.
The two are battling most notably these days over an income tax hike the governor has proposed as an alternative to a $1.3 billion cut in education funding.
Forty percent (40%) of voters in the state now approve of Quinn’s handling of the governorship, down three points from the previous survey. Fifty-eight percent (58%) disapprove. This includes seven percent (7%) who Strongly Approve and 28% who Strongly Disapprove.
* Rasmussen also showed Republican Congressman Mark Kirk leading state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in the U.S. Senate race…
Kirk now attracts 46% support in Illinois’ race for the U.S. Senate, up from 41% in early April. Support for Giannoulias is at 38%, virtually unchanged from the previous survey but down from March, when he earned 44% of the vote. Five percent (5%) currently support some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.
Kirk picked up 46% to Giannoulias’ 40% in the first survey after the two won their party primaries in February. But the race was a virtual toss-up by March. Still, despite the Broadway Bank controversy, Kirk has been unable to push past his previous high. Giannoulias got a much-sought-after boost of support from President Obama after the survey was taken, so it’s unclear at this point whether the bank issue has caused the candidate any long-term damage in a state that has trended Democratic in recent years.
Forty-seven percent said their house was worth more than they owe on the mortgage, but 44 percent believed they owed more than their house was worth.
And…
Other polls conducted by Rasmussen included a poll that questioned how the violence in some Illinois neighborhoods should or should not be handled.
It was determined that 37 percent were in favor of using the National Guard to fight crime in violent neighborhoods, while 48 percent were not. Sixteen percent were not sure.
Since the poll was conducted statewide, it was unclear whether those polled actually lived in the violent neighborhoods mentioned.
You may recall earlier this week state Reps. Fritchey and Ford suggested Gov. Quinn deploy the National Guard to Chicago to control violence. The governor said he would only send troops with Mayor Daley’s approval.
*** UPDATE 2 p.m. *** A day after the redistricting plan introduced by Senate Democrats was defeated in the House by two votes, Sen. Kwame Raoul had some harsh words for Gov. Pat Quinn. Raoul, who became chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee last fall, spoke against Quinn for not falling behind the plan. Here’s Raoul speaking with CapFax intern Dan Weber on the Senate floor earlier today….
* Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former chief of staff Alonzo Monk entered a new guilty plea in federal court this morning. The Sun-Times reports…
Monk, 51, admitted to attempting to extort a horse-racing businessman for a campaign contribution in exchange for getting a bill signed.
Monk is cooperating with investigators and pleaded guilty again after prosecutors filed new charges, crafted to deal with a possible future ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that experts say could strike down of the federal “honest services” fraud statute.
Monk has agreed to serve 24 months in prison.
Monk is reportedly going to testify against his former employer. The Tribune has more…
Monk is expected to testify that Blagojevich and three of his closest friends - including Monk - schemed from the outset of his administration to enrich themselves by leveraging the powers of Blagojevich’s office.
Monk is expected to tell the jury how the four — a group that also included key fundraisers Christopher Kelly and Antoin “Tony” Rezko — planned to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions they could split up when Blagojevich left office.
The judge overseeing the corruption case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has denied a defense motion to issue a subpoena for the testimony of President Barack Obama.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel said he does not believe Obama’s testimony would be material to the charges.
Zagel said the defense motion fell “very short” of demonstrating a need to subpoena the president.
* STAR Bonds plan for Glen Carbon retail development is dead
“On Thursday, in a final attempt to reach consensus, we met with several mayors who told us there is nothing more we can do to secure their support for the project.”
In Tinley Park, overall costs are down by 20 percent to 25 percent, said Public Works Director Dale Schepers. One bid was 48 percent below the town engineer’s estimate.
A bid for landscaping in Naperville’s Riverwalk reconstruction project came in at $702,000, 46 percent lower than the engineer’s estimate, because of intense competition among eight bidders. Carey Plazak, purchasing manager for Schaumburg, recently accepted two roadwork bids considerably under budget.
In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley recently challenged all city vendors to negotiate a 10 percent cut in spending on their contracts.
Instead, the commission on Thursday approved a rate increase of just $4.7 million, or about 97 percent less than what the utility giant had requested.
What this means for you: The rates that Ameren’s 1.1 million Illinois customers pay for the delivery of electricity and gas will remain unchanged at least for another year.
Almost a year ago, the company asked to increase what it charges for delivering electricity and natural gas by a total of $226 million. The utility had since changed that request to $162 million and was awarded only $5 million.
Chicago Public Schools says it will now involve the community in figuring out what to do about its worst performing schools.
It’s become an annual ritual: officials announce a list of schools they want to shut down for low performance. And parents, teachers and students protest to keep them open.
Ron Huberman says the district’s new school closings plan hinges on parents being told EARLY their child’s school needs help. Letters will go out soon to that effect.
The company housed ex-cons in two homes in Aurora, one at 14 S. Lancaster Ave. and the other at 838 N. View St., and the Department of Corrections paid TA Reentry to take parolees once they were released from prison.
* Officials said red-light cameras should be a go, but some in public not so sure
Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin on Thursday morning announced the results of a friendly bet made with Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis over whose city would have a higher percentage of its residents mail in their 2010 U.S. Bureau of the Census forms.
Springfield won, with 77 percent of residents participating to Peoria’s 75 percent.
According to the terms of their competition, Ardis will have to travel to Springfield and buy Davlin dinner. He also has to wear the city’s lapel pin for a week and issue a proclamation acknowledging - in writing - that Springfield is better than Peoria. (Springfield doesn’t have a city pin, so they’re going to find something else for Ardis to wear.)
A few hours after Washington Park Mayor John Thornton was shot to death on April 1, police had his suspected killer in custody.
Then they had to let him go 48 hours later because the overly cautious St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office wasn’t ready to file charges. The police couldn’t legally hold him any longer without charges.
Now a few weeks later, prosecutors have concluded that yes indeed, the police arrested the right guy. On Wednesday, they filed first-degree murder charges against Aaron B. Jackson.
But surprise, Jackson is nowhere to be found. He apparently decided not to sit home and wait for the police to pull up and lead him away in handcuffs.
* Here is Sen. Bill Brady’s reason for telling reporters that they had to travel to Springfield to view his tax returns last Friday afternoon…
“I think we’ve often criticized governors for not living in Springfield, not being in the state capital,” Brady said, referring to complaints raised about disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s avoidance of Springfield. “We picked a location–the state of Illinois’ capital.”
That’s not gonna endear him to Chicago reporters, who are accustomed to getting their way and who often bite back hard, as we’ve seen time and time again.
Frankly, I don’t think the Springfield decision is a big deal. Just about every paper, TV and radio station in the Chicago area belongs to the AP. They could’ve set up something with the wire service in advance to make sure they got as much detail as they could ever want. The huffing from the TV stations is a bit strange, considering this isn’t exactly a “visual” story.
But this is an easy story to write, so we keep getting it over and over again. The much tougher story is figuring out what to do with all the data we’ve collected. I’m still in the planning stages myself. It’s time-consuming and will probably include lots of blind alleys, but there may be a nugget or two therein. The Peoria Journal Star editorial page hinted at one possibility…
Meanwhile, others have noted that the federal income taxes he did pay over the last five years were considerably less than the tax bracket he occupied would suggest.
“I love Springfield,” she said. “I could never understand how that Looney Tune Rod Blagojevich always felt, why he didn’t want to live here — the greatest place in the world.”
* A Republican refusal to vote for a budget they’ve been shut out of was expected, but GOP Rep. Mark Beaubien’s statement is ominous for the Democrats, who will need three-fifths majorities in both chambers to borrow money to make billions in pension payments…
“They (Democrats) haven’t come to us, they haven’t asked us for anything, they haven’t informed us of anything,” Beaubien said. “Since we haven’t been included, you’re not going to see any Republican support.”
That budget is gonna be ugly, man. Just ugly. Democratic Rep. Frank Mautino fills in a few blanks…
Democrats are being asked about a series of potential revenue generators, although Mautino said the budget being formulated does not include the income tax hike sought by Quinn. The options do include higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products and eliminating some business tax breaks.
For 26 years, the Holy Angels Shelter in East St. Louis has been there to help homeless moms, women and families get off the streets and into their own homes.
But if the state doesn’t come through with an $80,000 grant by the end June, the shelter will have to close.
“We run it bare bones,” said Joe Hubbard, director of Catholic Urban Programs. “We’ve run it that way for 26 years. They can give us a grant, but if they don’t pay us in a timely manner, we can’t pay our bills, and if we can’t pay our bills, we have to close. We need to come up with other funding.”
If the shelter doesn’t find enough money to fill the hole the state is expected to leave, the homeless shelter will be forced to close its doors.
“And that will be a disaster,” said shelter director Pat Lewis. “They’ll be under the bridge with the tent people, and pretty soon, there won’t be room for them, either.”
* Related and a roundup…
* Vouchers for CPS students advances to House floor: The action would give vouchers not only to the schools where students are poorest and lowest performing. But it also would extend vouchers to students from poor families in the most-overcrowded schools, a change from the bill when Meeks won Senate approval.
* Obama and Quinn Discuss Money for Illinois Education, No Promises: Quinn reportedly said he would ask President Barack Obama for federal money to help pay for education. When asked if the president had obliged, the governor changed the subject… QUINN: We talked about that in general, but I can’t say that he had a pot of gold.
* Back in 2008, the Illinois League of Women Voters decided to oppose a state constitutional convention. This was one of the big reasons…
The serious problems suggested as a reason for a Con-Con can actually be addressed by legislation or constitutional amendment. Kaszak noted that there have been ten successful amendments since the 1970 Constitution, and the current Lt. Governor has successfully amended the Constitution (the Cutback Amendment of 1980 which reduced the number of members of the House of Representative by 59 and abolished cumulative voting) and could guide individuals through the process;
This year, the League has joined with Republicans and others to support a constitutional amendment on redistricting. They’ve discovered it ain’t as easy to amend our constitution as they thought two years ago. Their proposal went nowhere in the General Assembly and they announced yesterday they were abandoning their petition drive…
In a letter sent Thursday evening to The State Journal-Register’s editorial staff, however, the Illinois League of Women Voters — which coordinated the Fair Map effort — said that coalition had fallen short of the nearly 300,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot.
“We simply did not have enough time to finish the kind of statewide campaign necessary to meet the constitutional requirements of a citizen initiative,” League executive director Jan Czarnik wrote.
Well, look on the bright side. Maybe the League will favor a con-con the next time it comes around on the ballot, in 2028.
Sheesh.
* We have some video of yesterday’s redistricting debate. Rep. Jim Watson gave a passionate speech opposed to the Democratic plan, which fell two votes short of the required three-fifths majority (Democratic Rep. Jack Franks voted with the Republicans). It’s a must-view…
* Rep. Eddie Washington accused the Republicans of excluding minorities in his controversial speech…
* Majority Leader Barbara Currie took questions afterwards…
* Related…
* Remap fails in the House: “It gives an edge to the majority party. That’s not the way redistricting should be. It should be a level playing field … and it should not be about us taking care of our own districts. These are not ‘our’ districts,” House Minority Leader Tom Cross said after the vote.
* We’ve talked about the subject of my Sun-Times column most of the week. The silliness of the media as they engage in a feeding frenzy on the Giannoulias campaign. But you might want to read it anyway…
Political reporters, columnists and pundits don’t always band together as one, but when they do, watch out, especially when they’ve decided somebody is a bad guy and they’re going to “do something” about it.
Sometimes, it’s justified. The alleged hooker-knifing, wife-abusing Scott Lee Cohen is a case in point. Once we figured out that we had really goofed by not looking into the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee’s background more carefully, we pounced and tore him to shreds. But it was the right thing to do. Our mistake was not doing it earlier.
But it’s almost as if Cohen’s political blood tasted so good that members of the media wolf pack have decided that they just gotta have another kill. The bloodlust is leading some of them to resort to distortions and outright fabrications to achieve their goal.
The Cohen story practically wrote itself. It had just about all the elements of the perfect political scandal: sex, lies, drugs, lawsuits and violence. There was no need to embellish it.
But far too many of the stories being written about U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias are taking embellishment to a whole new level.
The Chicago Tribune published a story earlier this month revealing that Giannoulias’ family bank had loaned two apparently mob-connected criminals $20 million. A banking consultant from Texas handed the Trib this ready-made quote: “Banks are not supposed to be doing business with criminals.”
But I searched Cook County Chancery Court records and found no less than 27 lawsuits, foreclosures, etc. filed by banks, financial service companies and a couple others against the two men over the years. Of those 27, just five were filed by Broadway Bank, which was owned by Giannoulias’ family before it was shut down a week ago by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Deutsche Bank, First American Bank, CitiMortgage, Austin Bank and more have all filed legal actions. Some were dismissed, some are still pending. The point is those two fellows did business with a bunch of different banks and had trouble with quite a few. But you’ll never read about that in the Tribune. The paper’s story was designed to look like Broadway was the exclusive go-to haven for mobsters. Turns out, there was nothing exclusive about it.
Seemingly seconds after the announcement that President Obama had planned a visit to Downstate Quincy, the chattering class speculated whether Obama would invite Giannoulias or throw his old friend and protege under the bus.
When asked last week if he had been invited, Giannoulias said he hadn’t, so the commentariat instantly leapt to the conclusion that “death by Trailways” was in Giannoulias’ immediate future.
Trouble is, no reporters bothered to see if any other Illinois VIPs had been invited. Nobody had been. The official invites didn’t go out until Monday.
That didn’t deter the feeding frenzy. The subject even came up at a White House press conference. Hours before the visit, Giannoulias was taunted by a Chicago reporter who wanted to know whether Giannoulias’ campaign needed “a presidential hug.”
All of the breathless anticipation was for nothing. Obama gave Giannoulias a shout-out from the podium and hugged him after the speech, and his top political adviser, David Axelrod, brought Giannoulias backstage for a friendly meeting.
I recently obtained a letter written by a Chicago reporter begging one of those two above-mentioned alleged mob guys to spill his guts about his dealings with Broadway Bank. He was lured with the promise that he could “change history.”
Instead of trying to “change history,” how about just focusing on telling a full and accurate story once in a while?
Admitting he had no evidence, Sen. John Cornyn, who runs the Senate GOP political operation, suggested Thursday that the White House may try to force Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias out of the race — speculation that was flatly denied by the White House.
When I asked Cornyn, who’s from Texas, why he thought the White House would do that, he said: “I don’t know. Giannoulias is a flawed candidate and they are realizing it and I think they are worried. . . . I hope they respect the choices of Democratic primary voters and don’t engage in some sort of back-room shenanigans.”
A Giannoulias campaign spokeswoman said Cornyn’s comments were “ridiculous.”
Cornyn’s comment came a day after President Obama, in Downstate Quincy, gave a shout-out to Giannoulias, calling him the “soon-to-be senator” in a remark I think was calculated to quiet talk about distancing himself from Giannoulias.
“No one here is trying to ‘muscle’ him from the race. That should have been clear from the president’s comment yesterday,” White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday. “Kind of ironic that on the day that Gov. [Charlie] Crist was forced out of the Florida Republican primary that Sen. Cornyn would be suggesting we would muscle someone out of a Senate race.”
One intriguing idea being considered: Force Mr. Giannoulias out of the race and replace him with . . . Rahm Emanuel. Mr. Emanuel is still popular in Illinois and there was a big push to get him handpicked as the Obama successor back in late 2008. Democrats have used the shaft-and-shift strategy before, as in New Jersey in 2002 when they dumped a walking wounded Bob Torricelli as their Senate candidate a few weeks before Election Day.
The first person to publicly suggest this was Rod Blagojevich, so that gives you an idea of how wonderful it is.
* Related…
* Chris Kennedy to Don & Roma: “Lexi got in and I didn’t, and he deserves credit”
