In a visit Friday to Springfield, Kenilworth resident Kennedy — son of the late ROBERT F. KENNEDY — told me that his family has always been Democratic but has taken on the party when needed.
His uncle, President JOHN F. KENNEDY, had to fight fellow Democrats who didn’t want a Catholic elected president in order to win that office in 1960, he said. His father in 1968 ran to take over from the Democratic administration of President LYNDON JOHNSON because RFK didn’t want more “young Americans” sent to Vietnam. And his uncle, the late Sen. TED KENNEDY, ran against President JIMMY CARTER because he thought Carter “sided with the big banks” against people hurting from high interest rates.
“I don’t think the system that we have in Illinois is representative of the values of the Democratic Party, and if I have to speak out against it, I will,” he said.
Sen. Kennedy ran against President Carter because of the banks? Learn something new every day, I guess.
* Anyway, while Kennedy proudly pointed to his ancestors’ fights against the Democratic machine, he told a woe-is-me story at a Saturday candidates’ forum…
In the Democratic Party all the money really flows at the behest of the Speaker of the House and if you cross swords with him that flow of money will be cut off.
If you look at how I’ll react to that, well you can see, you can see from the history of the primary, what’s happened during this election. I spoke truth to power, I said what Mike Madigan is doing is not illegal but it should be. And that money was cut off. I was threatened by him, I was told not to speak out against him by people associated with the party. And I said ‘No, I’m gonna speak the truth, what’s happening with the property tax racket is destroying our schools, dooming the next generation to a life of economic servitude.’
I spoke out against Rahm Emanuel and what’s happening in the City of Chicago, and my donors dropped.
* Meanwhile,last Friday we discussed Bob Daiber’s call to tax retirement income and Sen. Daniel Biss’ assertion that he’d be open to the tax idea under a progressive tax structure. JB Pritzker opposes the tax, but Chris Kennedy’s campaign didn’t respond.
* Well, WMAY’s Jim Leach had Kennedy on his show later that day…
JIM LEACH: Another issue that’s just arisen in the last couple of days, and we’re going to be talking a lot about taxes at every level, from progressive income tax to the sales taxes I know you’ve talked about in recent days. There’s also a proposal out now to tax retirement income in the State of Illinois. Bob Daiber’s put this forward, Daniel Biss has said it might work in the context of a graduated income tax. Your thoughts on whether Illinois should tax retirement income?
KENNEDY: I mean, in a flat tax environment I, absolutely, I don’t think we should do that. I think the average retiree, pensioner in Illinois makes, I don’t know, under $20,000 a year. Do I think that’s how we should pay for our government? By taxing people who make less than $20,000 a year? Absolutely not.
LEACH: If we move to a graduated income tax at some point would that be on the table then? Retirement income?
KENNEDY: I mean, I don’t know what that looks like. I mean, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a merry Christmas, so I don’t know, what…
LEACH: But you want to move to a progressive income tax?
KENNEDY: Absolutely, absolutely.
LEACH: If we do that, under your plan…
KENNEDY: If we means tested, if we means tested, um, retirement income. If you could say OK, people who have more than $250,000 a year household income and have retirement income, could that be part of progressive income tax? I think it could.
* Hinz: What Kennedy got right about Cook County property taxes: When I’ve talked to Berrios’ staff about this, they’ve said sales often are a lousy basis for a valuation. Instead the primary factor Berrios uses is building income, a somewhat more subjective standard in my view, but one that Berrios says the courts insist upon. Problem is, some tax experts say Berrios is wrong. The preferred factor set by courts in the key cases is the last sales price, not income stream, according to Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, whose group specializes in property taxation. Local officials have the discretion to use other factors, but only if there’s a problem with the sales data, such as no recent sales, he adds. I get a similar story from Berrios predecessor Jim Houlihan, who has endorsed Kennedy but who I’ve always found to be an honorable man. Assessors use three factors: replacement costs, income and sales, he says. And, he says, it’s “b.s.” to insist, as Berrios does, that sales data ought not usually play a major role.
* Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing officer Maurice Sone has recommended that Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) remain on the ballot because he has two more signatures than the minimum 1,000…
City election officials initially determined that Silverstein was about 45 signatures short, prompting a hearing at which lawyers for both sides were able to make their case.
Silverstein’s lawyer initially presented affidavits that were supposed to attest to the veracity of 116 of the signatures in question. Sone, however, compared the signatures on those affidavits to the signatures on the original petitions and was not convinced by the vast majority of them, rehabilitating just 26 of them. By the end of the first day, Silverstein appeared to be still 19 short of the minimum.
On the following hearing day, Silverstein appeared with more than two dozen of his allies, who testified in person that some of the petition signatures in question were theirs. A handwriting expert also gave hours of testimony defending many signatures that had been called into question.
Lawyers for the district resident trying to get Silverstein kicked off presented their own handwriting expert, and they offered several affidavits from people who said they were falsely identified on Silverstein’s petitions. Those attorneys also argued that Silverstein’s campaign had mishandled the process because a watcher from his campaign was not always present to defend the signatures as they were called into question during the board’s initial review.
Despite the recommendation, one of the attorneys contesting the petition says that the fight to rule Silverstein off of the ballot is not over.
“There are insufficient signatures, which we proved,” election attorney Burt Odelson said. “The board or the court will rule him off the ballot. (It’s) almost unbelievable an incumbent senator didn’t have enough signatures.”
Silverstein is in a five-way primary for the 8th District Senate Seat on Chicago’s North Side that he has held for 18 years. […]
While Sunday’s ruling was certainly good news for Silverstein, the decision is not final and the battle is not over yet. The Electoral Board was slated to consider Sone’s recommendation in a meeting Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
Regardless of what happens now, it’s clear an incumbent Senator who is also a ward committeeman with an aldermanic spouse was so damaged by the Rotheimer allegations that he had very real trouble gathering enough petition signatures to safely put him on the ballot. And the incumbent has spent the past several weeks trying to stay on the ballot instead of campaigning.
Does [Sen. Silverstein] want to offer anyone an apology? “I don’t want to answer that,” he said. “I wouldn’t do what I did again, but I’m moving on.”
* However, Rotheimer is planning a press conference today intended to criticize the inspector general. Press release…
I am going to speak on the flaws, inconsistencies, victim-blaming tactics, omissions and contradictions in Julie Porter’s report on her investigation into the Silverstein “Abuse of Power” complaint I filed in 2016 and attached. She promised the public that she would conduct a thorough and complete investigation which she did not.
There were two issues at hand in Porter’s investigation:
1. Allegation Silverstein behaved unethically by using his status as the bill’s sponsor to cultivate a personal relationship with Rotheimer.
2. Allegation Silverstein killed the bill in retaliation for what he believed to be Rotheimer’s relationship with another man. […]
There will be other survivors at the press conference on Monday, January 29, 2017 at 11 a.m. to discuss similar grievances from the way their complaints are being handled.
As he campaigns for the Democratic governor nomination, Downstate schools administrator Bob Daiber is calling for Illinois to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, saying it’s time to guarantee equality for men and women.
“I am proud of the fact that my staff that works for me is 80 percent female, and I have great relationships,” Daiber said at a late October forum in Chicago. “Because I build my office on one word: respect. And I think that’s what all women want, and that’s what I am all about.”
But records show that Madison County taxpayers paid nearly $500,000 to settle a 2010 lawsuit after a federal jury found Daiber retaliated against a woman by laying her off after she complained she wasn’t being paid as much as a male colleague.
Daiber described the case as an “unfortunate situation,” but denied retaliating against the employee. Daiber said he tried to work with her to find a resolution, and added that he has built a reputation as a fair employer who has worked to help women achieve leadership roles in education and government.
Ouch.
…Adding… According to the Daiber campaign, the county’s insurer paid the settlement.
Today, Citizens for Rauner launched a new TV ad entitled “That’s the One I Would Want.”
Despite Pritzker saying that “no one knew the FBI was investigating the man,” it was widely reported that the FBI was looking into Blagojevich’s corruption well before Pritzker’s fateful conversations with the soon-to-be federal inmate. In this ad, Pritzker can be heard asking Blagojevich to appoint him as State Treasurer, very clearly stating “that’s the one I would want.”
JB Pritzker is just another corrupt insider who is part of the problem. The people of Illinois deserve to know the truth.
Today, JB Pritzker and State Representative Juliana Stratton hosted a panel with DACA recipients to discuss the policy changes needed at the state and federal levels to protect immigrant communities and help families thrive. As JB and Juliana moderated the panel, they learned about the obstacles DACA recipients face pursuing a college education, obtaining work permits, and securing healthcare for their families.
“Illinois should be a welcoming state where everyone is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve,” said JB Pritzker. “But right now, immigrant families across our state are under assault by a racist, bigoted president and his partner in Springfield, Bruce Rauner. We can’t remain silent, we need to listen to immigrant communities and stand together to protect the people of our state. There is no doubt DACA recipients deserve every opportunity to thrive in Illinois and when I’m governor, immigrant families will never have to question if they have a partner and an advocate in Springfield.”
* Today…
On Thursday, February 1, Daniel Biss will kick off a seven day tour visiting colleges across Illinois to meet with voters and share his vision for an Illinois that works for all of us. Daniel has fought in the legislature and on the campaign trail to make higher education accessible to every Illinoisan, including advocating for free in-state tuition at public colleges and universities and introducing, passing, and overriding Bruce Rauner’s veto of the Student Loan Bill of Rights.
“Students have so much at stake in this election,” said Daniel Biss. “Under Bruce Rauner’s administration, students have lost their MAP grants and seen academic programs cut while being asked to pay more and more every year. This tour is about acknowledging the challenges of the last three years and charting the road forward for the next thirty. It’s about joining together on our campuses and in our communities to build a state that guarantees every Illinoisan the opportunity to pursue higher education, exercise their right to healthcare, and earn a living wage.”
Over the course of the tour, Biss will visit 13 college and university campuses across Illinois.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and primary challenger state Rep. Jeanne Ives will appear before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board at 11 a.m. Monday for an endorsement session that will be streamed online here.
It’s the first time since Ives announced her campaign that voters will have a chance to see the two candidates together. And it might be the last.
No televised debates between the two are scheduled, and Rauner has been careful not to talk about Ives much, once suggesting she is a “fringe” candidate.
* Meanwhile, the Ives campaign sent this out yesterday…
Yesterday, State Representative Jeanne Ives, a conservative reform Republican for Governor, made several campaign stops in Southern Illinois. Ives spoke to voters and press at Meet & Greets in Newton and Litchfield, Illinois. Later, she delivered the keynote address at the Jersey County Lincoln Day Dinner, during which she defined the choice Republican voters have in the 2018 election. Ives told the audience, “Bruce Rauner doesn’t understand you. He doesn’t respect you. And that is why it was so easy for him to betray you.”
