Illinois could see up to $699 million in new revenue by legalizing cannabis use among adults through a measure that would spur economic development while protecting public safety. Lawmakers heard from advocates today during a combined Senate and House hearing.
Among those testifying was nationally-known travel writer and television host Rick Steves, an active proponent for ending America’s prohibition of marijuana.
“I’m not pro-drugs – I’m pro-civil liberties and anti-prohibition,” Steves said. “Marijuana is here to stay. We can either keep building more prisons or figure out a better solution. I think it’s obvious what the solution is, and it’s happening around the country as it did in my home state of Washington. We need to legalize the responsible use of marijuana by adults.”
“It is clear that prohibition doesn’t work and that by lifting cannabis restrictions we can encourage economic development in Illinois,” State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) said. “We are carefully considering all aspects and potential impacts of legalizing adult-use cannabis, including job growth.”
In addition to increased tax revenue, legalized cannabis could provide a boost for job growth in Illinois. According to a report from New Frontier Data earlier this year, the legal marijuana market could create more than 250,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2020. Legalizing adult-use marijuana creates a variety of jobs including scientists, dispensary employees, growers, among others.
“Legalizing cannabis will spur the creation of new small businesses and much-needed jobs,” State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) said. “We are leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity on the table by continuing the outdated status quo of prohibition.”
Tax revenue from the proposed legislation would support the State Board of Education; treatment and education programs for responsible marijuana, alcohol and tobacco use; and the state’s General Revenue Fund.
“In Washington, we have a track record and we know it works,” Steves said. “States like mine that have legalized marijuana have learned that use doesn’t go up, crime doesn’t go up, DUIs do not go up. The only thing that goes up is tax revenue, as we take the thriving illicit market and transform it into a highly regulated and highly taxed system.”
Today’s hearing was part of a series of hearings on the various aspects of legalizing cannabis use among adults. Changes to the legislation may be proposed in the new year based on these findings.
Black market marijuana has the effect of “empowering organized crime and gangs,” he said.
Steves testified before a joint House-Senate committee hearing at the Bilandic Building in the Loop, where he also warned against focusing too much on filling government coffers by taxing marijuana.
“The beauty of this, economically, is getting rid of the crime,” he said.
Over-taxation can lead marijuana users back to cheaper weed on the black market, he said.
Agreed on the over-taxation warning and about how doing nothing means we’re empowering the criminal element.
* One Republican state Senator wasn’t impressed…
After @RickSteves ridiculous testimony and sweeping data generalizations on why Illinois should legalize pot, I can only surmise that he's out of legitimate book ideas. Keep buying @lonelyplanet folks.
State Sen. Dan McConchie, a Republican from Hawthorn Woods, challenged Steves’ assertion that legalization has caused no problems elsewhere. McConchie cited studies suggesting increased adult use of marijuana in places that have legalized it, and called for better data on the question before acting.
“There’s been a number of broad-brush statements that you have made … but the data does not bear that out,” McConchie said. “Just because you legalize it doesn’t necessitate that all of these problems are going to go away. … I think we would be jumping the gun to legalize this in the absence of robust data.”
People will smoke pot whether it’s legal or not, Steves maintained, arguing that it’s much better to tax and regulate it rather than creating a criminal class of users. He testified that the marijuana industry is generating $300 million a year in tax revenue and 26,000 jobs in Washington, while reducing law enforcement and prison costs.
“Nothing has changed except there’s not people selling marijuana illegally on the streets. They’re selling it in the shops,” he said.
* Gov. Rauner was asked about this DGA press release today…
Yesterday, the Daily Beast reported Illinois businessman and mega-donor Richard Uihlein is the “chief financier” of a pro-Roy Moore Super PAC. Uihlein’s $100,000 donation is reportedly going to ads propping up Roy Moore, who has been accused by numerous women of sexual assault and harassment when they were underage. In light of this revelation, the Democratic Governors Association calls on Bruce Rauner to return all donations from Richard Uihlein.
“Bruce Rauner must disavow the support of Richard Uihlein and return all donations received from him,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “The accusations of child predation against Roy Moore are abhorrent, and Rauner must disavow his relationship with anyone who supports Moore, including his mega donor allies. It’s no secret that Bruce Rauner has benefited greatly from Richard Uihlein’s backing, but his bankrolling of a Roy Moore Super PAC must be unacceptable.”
In the 2014 cycle, Richard Uihlein donated $2.6 Million to Citizens for Rauner and another $350,000 to a “Rauner-allied group seeking to turn out the vote for Rauner by pushing a term-limits drive.” Uihlein has also propped up Rauner’s Illinois allies by sending millions to the Liberty Principles PAC and thousands to the Illinois Republican Party.
* So, will Gov. Rauner return those Uihlein contributions? His response…
As I have stated publicly, I agree with those who have called for Roy Moore to step aside and not run for Senate. I urge him to step aside and let another candidate emerge.
As I’ve said, I have urged Roy Moore to step aside as the candidate for US Senate.
…Adding… It should be noted that the ILGOP has now demanded three times that Sens. Durbin and Duckworth give back their relatively small contributions from Sen. Al Franken.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Sam Salustro at the DGA…
“Today is just another example of Bruce Rauner’s failure to lead. Rauner could have sent a strong message that what Roy Moore is accused of is reprehensible. Instead, he’s decided to stick by his mega-donor ally who just happens to be Roy Moore’s biggest financial backer. When push comes to shove, Rauner always puts his own political future first.”
Bill Broydrick, a Uihlein representative in Washington, declined to comment.
Uihlein gave $2.6 million to Rauner’s first campaign for governor in the 2014 election cycle, records filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show.
Nicholson Supporter
Uihlein has also been a major donor to super PACs supporting the Republican Senate candidacy of businessman and Marine veteran Kevin Nicholson, who is seeking to challenge Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin.
“The same out-of-state billionaire who’s funneling money into alleged serial sexual predator Roy Moore’s candidacy in Alabama is also pouring millions into buying Kevin Nicholson a U.S. Senate seat here in Wisconsin,” Brad Bainum, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said in a statement. “Wisconsinites should be concerned that Nicholson is in joint company with Roy Moore.”
Congressman Luis Gutiérrez announced he will give up the seat he has held since 1993 after the current term and endorsed Cook County Commissioner and Chicago’s progressive standard bearer Jesús “Chuy” Garcia to be his successor at a press conference on Tuesday.
The announcements came at a news conference where the two leaders, who both got their political starts as part of the Harold Washington administration in the 1980s, emphasized the importance of maintaining the district’s role of giving immigrants a voice on a national platform.
“My candidacy builds on the legacy of Mayor Harold Washington, the foresight and energy that brought young people together for Sen. Bernie Sanders and the work of Rep. Gutiérrez,” Garcia said. “Luis has fought tirelessly in Congress for our undocumented brothers and sisters, and for people everywhere, to keep our hearts and minds open to the free-flowing movement of ideas and democracy. We must never allow fear and oppression to guide our nation.”
Gutiérrez, who has been a champion throughout his career for immigrant rights, veterans’ access to health care, reproductive rights, civil rights of the Puerto Rican people, and workers’ rights, made it clear that he believes Garcia will pick up where he left off and be a force for progressive policies and a clear voice in Congress on behalf of immigrants.
“It has never been more important for the future of America to have an immigrant voice at the table when national policies are being made,” Gutiérrez said. “Chuy is the kind of leader our district needs to carry us into this uncertain future.”
By electing a Mexican-American immigrant to represent them, Garcia said, 4
th District voters will be sending a message to the forces who would divide the nation that they support Gutiérrez’s persistent efforts to weave unity and progressive policies inextricably into the American fabric.
“We are grateful for the congressman’s bold leadership on immigration reform,” Garcia said. “We will build on his dynamic legacy that, with his signature firebrand oratory, has kept the issues front and center - whether it’s advocating for undocumented people and other immigrants, or exposing the folly of building a multi-billion dollar boondoggle of a wall.”
Garcia said he was looking forward to joining the new wave of progressive, national Democratic Party leaders, in the spirit of Bernie Sanders, for whom he worked during the 2016 primary election.
“Luis Gutiérrez and I share a common bond, as we carry forward the work of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington,” Garcia said. “I believe in opportunity for all, including affordable health care, strong schools, protection for workers and support for our troops and veterans. I will be a relentless advocate in moving Puerto Rico’s recovery efforts forward.”
NOTE: CAMPAIGN RALLY TONIGHT, 5:30 P.M. TUESDAY, NOV. 28
MIA TIERRA, 2528 S. KEDZIE AVE., CHICAGO, IL
* From the event…
Giant poster of Chuy Garcia and Harold Washington at Gutierrez press conference. pic.twitter.com/7PimQ2PgfE
I have heard the rumor that Congressman Luis Gutierrez will not seek re-election. Congressman Gutierrez is a principled progressive, who has fought tirelessly for the 4th Congressional District’s working families; and I am proud to have fought alongside him as one of his former congressional staffers.
Since the rumor began circulating Monday night, I have heard from so many supporters in the 4th District asking me to run for Congress. I’m humbled by their encouragement to seek the Democratic nomination. If Congressman Gutierrez is retiring, I will begin circulating nominating petitions tonight.
I am ready to bring bold progressive leadership to DC and take our fight for working families to President Trump’s doorstep. As your Congressman, I will vigorously oppose President Trump’s regime, and fight for the progressive policies that will uplift the 4th District’s working families, including medicare for all, free college tuition, stopping deportations, and a $15 living wage.
If I decide to seek the Democratic nomination, there will be a spirited primary campaign, no doubt involving candidates for whom I have enormous respect. I look forward to a great dialogue and the voters making a decision on March 20th.
The deadline to submit signatures is December 4. Please help me get on the ballot by clicking here to volunteer.
Warm regards,
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
…Adding… Press release…
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement following U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez’s (D-IL-04) announcement that he will not seek re-election:
Luis Gutierrez has been my strongest partner in working for the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform. His voice will be critical in the remainder of his term and sorely missed thereafter.
…Adding… Another one…
STATEMENT FROM MAYOR EMANUEL ON LUIS GUTIERREZ
“Luis Gutierrez represented Chicagoans in the Chicago City Council and US Congress for more than three decades, serving his constituents, his city and his country with honor. One thing I know is Luis Gutierrez will not stop fighting for what he believes in until the last vote is cast, and even then will continue working for the causes he has championed throughout his life because he believes in them with his heart. Luis Gutierrez’s journey from a taxi driver to a US Congressman is a testament to the power of the American Dream. I have been proud to call him a dear friend and trusted colleague, and stand with Chicagoans and Americans everywhere in expressing my appreciation for his service and wishing him well in his next chapter.”
[US Rep. Rodney Davis], whose congressional district includes the University of Illinois, three other public universities, four private universities or colleges and several community college districts, said he was “cautiously optimistic” the tax break would be retained.
I think the total number of universities and colleges in Davis’ district is 13.
* DCCC…
Rep. Rodney Davis knew that the GOP tax scam was going to hammer students in his district and increase the cost of college, but he voted for it anyway to deliver a tax break to millionaires and big corporations.
Here are just a few ways the GOP tax scam is going to hurt students, graduates, and their families:
* Eliminates the tax benefit that helps graduates and their families pay off student loan interest – a deduction used by nearly 28,000 of Davis’ constituents in 2014.
* Abolishes a program that incentivizes employers to help graduates pursue higher education – the very program that Davis said he wanted to see expanded as part of the bill.
These cuts to education assistance will cost students and families more than $71 billion over the next decade according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
And it’s not like Davis didn’t know how harmful this bill was – students madetheirvoicesheard loud and clear, a local editorial spelled it out, and Davis himself wrote a last-minute letter acknowledging that eliminating tuition waivers would hurt grad students. Then when Washington Republicans ignored his letter, he voted for the GOP tax scam anyway.
“Rep. Rodney Davis’ many promises to help students ring hollow with his vote to raise their taxes and make it harder for them to pay off their loans,” said DCCC spokesperson Jacob Peters. “By voting for this GOP tax scam, Rodney Davis has made it clear he cares more about giving tax cuts to millionaires and big corporations than he does about reducing the cost of college and easing the burden of student loan debt on students and their families.”
State and local government pension plans would be confronted with new costs and complications under the Republican tax bill the U.S. House approved last week.
Some, but not all, public pension investments would become subject to what’s known as the Unrelated Business Income Tax, or UBIT, if the current version of the House bill were to be enacted. The proposed change to how the tax is applied would make it so state and local government pension plans are treated in a way that is similar to private sector pensions, or nonprofit organizations.
Hank Kim, executive director of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, said that if the House proposal were to go into effect, it would be the first time that state and local pension systems would have to pay federal tax on their investments.
“It’s a huge burden,” Kim added by phone this week.
Retired police, firefighters and teachers are a few examples of people covered by the state and local government pension plans that could be affected by the House proposal. Legislation the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has passed does not include similar UBIT provisions.
* Related…
* GOP tax plan rattles higher education: Congressional Republicans’ plans to slap unprecedented new taxes on higher education have left college leaders shocked and scrambling — the latest salvo in what some observers say is a growing culture war on a higher education system seen as elitist and out of touch.
* Tax bill reflects rift between many Republicans and higher education: In July, the Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the way things are going in the country. That was up from 37 percent two years earlier. By contrast, a large majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — 72 percent — said this year that colleges have a positive effect.
* Republican Tax Plan for Colleges Is a Self-Inflicted Wound: The U.S. university system is one of the country’s most important remaining economic advantages. Even as manufacturing industries have moved to China, the U.S. has retained its dominance in higher education. The research and technology output of American universities, and the skilled postgraduate workers they produce, are an important anchor keeping knowledge industries — Silicon Valley, the pharmaceutical industry and the oil services industry, to name just three — clustered in the country, instead of fleeing to places with lower labor costs. Degrade higher education, and the U.S. will become a much less attractive place for cutting-edge industries, and less important to the global economy.
You might remember when we emailed you a little over two months ago to share the news that Lisa Madigan dropped out of the race against Erika Harold for Attorney General.
Well…the Madigan Machine is at it again.
No – Lisa is not running for office. But yesterday career politician and Madigan ally, former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, officially filed his petition signatures to get his name on the ballot against Erika.
We wanted to make sure you knew this because the last thing Illinois needs is a Madigan ally running for Attorney General.
Erika joined this race because she knows that Illinois deserves better. Challenge the Madigan Way by chipping in $5, $10, $20, or whatever you can afford to Erika’s campaign here.
JOIN US TODAY to challenge business as usual and get rid of career politicians.
* Meanwhile, from a press release…
Today, Daniel Biss announced that he has received the endorsement of renowned legal expert, campaign finance reform activist, and former presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig.
“Is it about money or people?” Lessig asked. “That’s the question that Illinois gets to answer. We must end big money politics. And Daniel’s fight here is the same fight everywhere — a fight by the people for a government that represents more than the billionaires.”
“Daniel is the only candidate we can trust to take on this broken system once in office. Backed by a statewide coalition of voters and experienced in organizing the legislature around his progressive vision, Daniel has the background necessary to implement long-term reforms to change the way campaigns are funded. I am honored to stand with a reformer, and I would urge every American committed to achieving democracy in America again to stand with him too.”
“I am honored to receive Lawrence’s endorsement,” said Daniel. “In the wake of Citizens United and amidst the chaos of the Trump presidency, our nation is at a crossroads: we can continue to sell our country, piece by piece and state by state, to out-of-touch billionaires, or we can take back our democracy for middle-and working class families. On Team Biss, we know where we stand — and we’re proud to have Lawrence Lessig alongside us.”
Standing near the front door, Democratic Rep. Theresa Mah of Chicago marveled at the difference a few years make, noting that she was at the back of the line when she first ran for office in 2015. Back then she didn’t have the backing of the Democratic Party, which is run by longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“I am taking advantage of the benefits of incumbency. I was way in the back of the line two years ago, I didn’t have the party support, and now I do,” Mah said. “I get to hop to the front of the line.
Mah is currently unopposed. Francisco Rodriguez has, however, filed a D-1.
A Republican lawmaker also near the front of the line Monday, Rep. Dan Brady of Bloomington, said he arrived just before 5 a.m., but like the Democrats, Republicans had staffers keeping a place. Jeff Clarke, a member of the GOP staff and village president of Pawnee, said the GOP team had been in line since 7 a.m. Sunday.
Brady, who’s been in the House since 2001, said he also checked on the line Sunday night.
“I think it’s important to make sure that everything goes through, and if there is a problem, I’m the one responsible … to make sure it gets resolved,” Brady said of his practice of filing his own petitions each election cycle, even though candidates can have others file for them.
Under federal and state law, anyone convicted of domestic violence loses their right to legally own a gun, but there’s a push to also see that penalty extended to anyone convicted of animal abuse.
The Illinois State Crime Commission is behind the proposal. They say it would be an irrevocable, lifetime penalty for all offenders who would lose their ability to receive a Firearm Owner Identification card, eliminating their ability to purchase or own a gun in Illinois.
Jerry Elsner, executive director for the commission, is urging lawmakers to go along. He says people who injure animals, regardless of age, don’t deserve a second chance. “An animal abuser is similar to a pedophile. There really is not cure for it. It just gets worse. They pose a risk to our society.”
Some studies suggest that cruelty to animals is a precursor to other violent crime, specifically involving people. Elsner cited the Sutherland Springs Texas shooter who claimed to buy animals online to use as “target practice” before his shooting rampage that killed 26 churchgoers.
IL 10 Republican candidate Jeremy Wynes today strongly condemned comments made by Brad Schneider yesterday giving cover to serial sexual harasser John Conyers.
“Brad Schneider ought to be ashamed of himself. Sexual harassment should be condemned regardless of party affiliation,” Wynes said. “John Conyers has no business being in Congress. It’s disgusting to see Brad Schneider playing politics with this issue.”
In other news, Schneider—who held his seat for one term, lost it in 2014 and regained it in 2016—says Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., may eventually have to give up his seat. But not yet.
Conyers did the right thing in stepping aside as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee after allegations of sexual harassment, but further action should await completion of an Ethics Committee probe, he said.
The investigation should be “expeditious,” lasting no longer than 30 to 60 days, Schneider said. “If the allegations are true . . . he should step down.” Asked how that’s different than the situation involving Alabama GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore, who some want to end his race, Schneider said Moore faces “a number of allegations” over some years, often involving teenagers. “I’m aware of one” with Conyers, though “it is serious,” Schneider said.
In fact, Conyers faces allegations from at least two women. There are also multiple accusations against Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, who has admitted misconduct and whose case is being considered by the Senate Ethics Committee.
THIRD CONYERS ACCUSER COMES FORWARD — Another former staffer of Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has come forward to accuse him of sexual harassment, making the woman the third former aide to levy such accusations against the lawmaker. “Deanna Maher, Conyers’ former deputy chief of staff who ran his downriver office from 1997 to 2005, told The Detroit News that the Detroit Democrat made unwanted advances toward her three times,” George Hunter reports. “Conyers’ status as a leading Democrat deterred her from going public at the time, Maher said, adding she doesn’t have anything to lose now. ‘I didn’t report the harassment because it was clear nobody wanted to take it seriously,’ she said.” Maher had previously discussed the allegations with Detroit reporters years ago but didn’t want to go on the record.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** I think this is the third ILGOP press release on this topic…
It’s been nearly two weeks since Democrats “scrambled to contain the fallout” from the sexual assault allegations against Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken. The Minnesota Democrat was accused of groping and kissing a reporter without her consent.
In response, some Democratic lawmakers quickly distanced themselves by donating campaign contributions from Al Franken to charity. Senator Claire McCaskill donated her $30,000 in Franken cash to Missouri food banks while Senator Tammy Baldwin donated $20,000 to a group benefiting women veterans in Wisconsin.
But what are Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth doing with their campaign contributions from Al Franken? They’re keeping his dirty money. Both have received $5,000 and $21,000, respectively, but they’ve been silent on whether or not they will return the money or give it away to Illinois charities.
Durbin and Duckworth didn’t hesitate to call Franken’s actions “wrong” and “unacceptable,’ but they stopped short of putting their money where their mouth is. Dick Durbin even dodged questions on whether Al Franken should resign and hasn’t said a word about what he will do with his campaign cash from Franken.
For Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, it’s all about the money, regardless of who gets hurt.
#ILGive is Illinois’ official Giving Tuesday campaign. We’re connecting Illinois residents with causes they care about.
#ILGive (pronounced ‘I’ll Give’) is an initiative of Forefront, Illinois’ statewide membership association for nonprofits, grantmakers, public agencies, advisors, and sector allies. Forefront works to build a vibrant social impact sector for all Illinois. Through #ILGive, Forefront mobilizes Illinois nonprofits and foundations to increase individual giving across the state. Last year, #ILGive for Giving Tuesday raised $11.3 million for Illinois social good organizations, and our most recent campaign, #ILGiveCommunity, raised $127,795.33 across the state.
#ILGive is a 24-hour digital fundraising event that connects individuals with the causes that matter to them, and empowers donors to give to the local nonprofits that tackle our communities’ most critical issues. #ILGive raises money for our communities, brings new donors, and increases awareness about local nonprofits while leveraging the national marketing of #GivingTuesday.
Click here to browse through or search for organizations that are part of the “Giving Tuesday” push, which started early this morning and lasts through midnight tonight. You can see the “underdogs” (groups that haven’t raised much money yet) by clicking here. A list of groups which have the most donors and/or have raised the most money is here.
.@waterststudios strives to make the arts accessible to their community and beyond. How? By providing free classes art education classes to those who wouldn't have access to the arts otherwise! Support Water Street & art for all today during #ILGive! https://t.co/6oPZxrFaGjpic.twitter.com/x2hYVy3Doq
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, says he hasn’t decided who to back for governor in the March 20 primary.
“I’m watching it,” he said.
Bost said he doesn’t always agree with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s positions.
“But he and I have a good working relationship,” Bost said. “It’s a rough time right now in the state of Illinois, and there’s some rough situations to be straightened out.”
“I try to advise where I can,” Bost added, “and other than that, I’ve got a whole lot of other problems I’m dealing with.” […]
“I was in leadership when Jeanne Ives came in, and so, I wish her well,” Bost said. “I think that she’s got some very strong ideas and she is real passionate about those ideas.”
Amanda Vinicky: What are you doing to smooth over relations there? Is that concerning?…
Gov. Rauner: I work for everyone in Illinois. Every day.
Vinicky: Are you smoothing over relations with them?
Rauner: Any other questions? Thanks, everybody.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…
“Bruce Rauner is so toxic that a majority of his own party’s Congressional delegation refuses to support him,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “After lying to people right, left, and center and causing irreparable harm to the state, this failed governor is all on his own.”
* Related…
* Roskam rethinks supporting Rauner: U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., is rethinking his support for Gov. Bruce Rauner given the governor’s recent signature on a bill that expands the public funding of abortion… Roskam, the Ways & Means Tax Policy chairman who is taking a lead role in an effort to overhaul the U.S. tax code, is the highest-ranking elected official in Illinois to potentially pull back from Rauner after the governor signed HB40. The new abortion law — which Rauner had promised to veto — has so infuriated conservatives, they are now talking about drafting a potential primary opponent to challenge Rauner. Roskam said Rauner’s move to sign the bill was “fundamentally out of step” with his congressional district. “I’ve got to reevaluate that and I’ll reevaluate that in the right time,” Roskam said Thursday when asked if he still supported Rauner. “Signing HB40 was a huge mistake on the policy and it was a huge mistake on the politics. The policy, this is the home of Henry Hyde, the author of the Hyde Amendment and I am his successor.”
* Illinois Congressman Shimkus on taxes, Trump and Rauner’s re-election: Shimkus said he is staying out of next year’s Republican gubernatorial primary, and has no plans to endorse any of the likely contenders. Incumbent GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to face more conservative Republican challengers. Many social conservatives were upset that Rauner signed a bill allowing Medicaid and state-based insurance to cover abortions in some cases. “We thought that he would stay out of some of the socially-divisive issues,” Shimkus said. “He did not.” But the congressman added that he will support the GOP victor in the 2018 general election.
* U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood unsure who he’ll support for governor: “I was and continue to be very disappointed that Governor (Bruce) Rauner signed HB40 allowing taxpayer funded abortions throughout the state of Illinois,” LaHood said in a written response to a question from The State Journal-Register. “I am currently focused on my own re-election to the 18th Congressional District. I plan to wait and see who ends up filing to run for governor before making any decision on an endorsement.” LaHood added in an interview that Rauner has not asked for an endorsement. “I would be happy to meet with him and give him every consideration,” LaHood said. “I believe it was a mistake to sign HB40, and I want assurances moving forward that he’s not going to make this kind of mistake again … because I think that’s going to hurt him.”
Uber Technologies is being sued by the city of Chicago and Cook County on claims the ride-hailing company’s 2016 data breach harmed “tens, if not hundreds, of thousands” of area residents.
Last week, Uber revealed hackers were able to steal data for 57 million riders and drivers. With the announcement, San Francisco-based Uber said it concealed the breach for a year after paying $100,000 in ransom for the stolen information to be destroyed.
The lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court contends Uber’s failure to protect consumers’ personal information violated city and state laws.
The city and county are seeking a $10,000 fine “for each violation involving a Chicago resident.”
A voting machine company exposed 1.8 million Chicago voter records after misconfiguring a security setting on the server that stored them.
Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the Nebraska-based voting software and election management company, confirmed the leak on Thursday.
In a blog post, the company said the voter data leak contained names, addresses, birthdates, partial social security numbers and some driver’s license and state ID numbers stored in backup files on a server. Authorities alerted ES&S to the leak on Aug. 12, and the data was secured. […]
Amazon buckets — where data is stored — are private by default. This means someone at ES&S misconfigured a security setting and exposed the data online.
“This data would be an identity thief’s dream to find,” Vickery told CNN Tech. He also said the leaked files contained some voting system administration credentials.
* Background is here. From an e-mail sent to me late yesterday afternoon…
Dear Rich,
I appreciate you posting my letters today. I did speak with the Ethics officer of the House Republican caucus (who mentioned my letter to Ms. Porter on Capitol Fax) to ask if Leader Durkin would be able to provide leadership on a legislative effort to implement reforms that establish a fair and balanced process for complainants. I told the EO that had I known the process would exclude me from having a voice or not being provided with information about the [Legislative Inspector General’s] report on what I said and the information I provided to her that I would never have filed a complaint.
I said that it is a reasonable request of mine to at least be informed of what the LIG has to say about me in her report and how I am being presented to the [Legislative Ethics Commission]. I also said that it is a reasonable request that I am heard by the LEC. I told the EO that I want to walk away from this process and say I felt heard and that I was treated fairly–regardless of the outcome. I understand now more clearly than before why I am the only one who named a name and if these reforms are made I don’t know why anyone else would come forward and find themselves in the situation that I am in–a situation where you don’t even get to read any portion of the report that is solely written about you, I don’t care about what Silverstein has to say or anyone else, I just want to know what is being said about me. I should at least be entitled to that. According to the rules I do not see anything that mentions me as a named party or as having any standing in this process. Below are some excerpts from the rules I copied with the link pasted below for your full review.
OPERATIONAL RULES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ETHICS COMMISSION
(as amended and effective 4-16-08)
(ARTICLE 17. INVESTIGATIONS
(i) A statement that the Legislative Inspector General’s investigatory files and reports are confidential and exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (see 5 ILCS 430/25-90(b) and 430/25-95(d)).
If there is a hearing then the AG represents the LIG who is named as the petitioner:
ARTICLE 20. HEARINGS.
Rule 20-10. Filing requirements.
(b) The Legislative Inspector General shall be designated as “the petitioner” and the person who is alleged to have violated the Act shall be designated as “the respondent”.
The respondent is named but not me. The respondent is represented by an attorney but not me because I merely become a “witness.”
In essence if this complaint does go to a hearing then I am treated as a witness, similar to that in a criminal case because I am not named as the plaintiff, the LIG is named as the plaintiff and is represented by the AG.
As a witness there is nothing in these Rules that provides for any rights or remedies that I have throughout this entire process, including the hearing. Therefore these procedures are not fair or balanced and only favor the respondent. Why else would the accuser or complainant be completely excluded from having any entitlements (rights, due process, remedies or relief) throughout this entire process.
I do not see anything in the rules that provides me as the complainant with a voice–the right to be heard or the right to information, notification or participation in this process. The LIG becomes my voice and is named as the petitioner if a violation is found and a hearing is initiated.
Rule 20-55. Hearings.
(b) All hearings shall be closed to the public.
At this point I have no choice than to go through this process, but I at least hope that our leaders in Springfield will address some of my concerns and enact reforms that makes this process more fair and balanced for complainants because as of now we are completely excluded from the Operational Rules as having any standing or being a named party and we are not given any rights whatsoever. This will have to change.
J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy proved Monday that rich Illinois Democrats are no more inclined to be forthcoming about their personal finances than rich Illinois Republicans.
I know better than to be surprised, but I’m still extremely disappointed.
By making public only the front two pages of their income tax returns, Pritzker and Kennedy fell far short of the ethical standards we should be demanding of an Illinois governor.
They both chose to keep secret the accompanying schedules and statements from their returns that explain where they made their money, as well as the deductions used to lower their tax bills.
Their only real defense for this approach is that’s the way Gov. Bruce Rauner does it.
Sorry, Republican Rauner should not be the standard of good government for Democrats, even for the rich ones.
For some reason, rich people think their taxes are just too complicated for the rest of us to understand.
Pritzker’s income grew prominently the past three years largely through money from partnerships and trusts, which totaled $13.2 million last year compared with $5.9 million the year before. In 2014 the Pritzkers reported $2.7 million in business income as their primary source of money.
Pritzker spokeswoman Galia Slayen said the rise was based on investments and disbursements from trusts. “Some trusts are required to give distributions every year and in some years they did better, some years they did worse,” she said.
The returns also showed that in 2014, the couple paid no state income taxes after taking nearly $150,000 in tax credits for research and development, as well as for property taxes and educational expenses. Last year, the Pritzkers reported paying more than $456,000 in Illinois income taxes and in 2015 paid $180,000 to the state treasury, the documents show.
Asked why Pritzker paid no Illinois income tax in 2014, Slayen said the candidate “made personal venture capital investments in Illinois companies, which qualified him for angel investment tax credits.” […]
Kennedy, an heir of the iconic Massachusetts political family, and wife Sheila paid $174,000 in federal income taxes and $43,127 in state income taxes last year. The campaign did not make available tax records from previous years or schedules showing deductions. Records for last year show the couple had $810,000 in itemized deductions to reduce their federal taxable income to $433,644. A campaign spokeswoman said the large deduction figure was the result of a donation to Top Box, the nonprofit food company Kennedy and his wife run.
A Chicago tax attorney warns that it’s hard to extrapolate much information from just the tax cover sheets released by Pritkzer and Kennedy.
“You’re short on detail and long on conjecture,” said the attorney, who works for a top Chicago firm and asked for his name to be withheld for lack of specifics on the candidates’ financial situations. “There’s nothing about an income tax return really that tells about (an individuals’) net worth.” […]
Cook County Clerk David Orr, who is not running for re-election, says the vast amount of money spent on campaigning is the single most important issue in politics today.
Orr says that while Illinois has done a commendable job of passing laws that make it easier for citizens to vote, including automatic voter registration, Election Day voter registration and extended early voting windows, “we’re losing people because of the money in politics.”
“If our speech is really determined by the amount of money you have, which it is now unfortunately, and then the campaigns get longer, and the harder the campaigns air distrustful, negative ads, that is having an enormous impact on think on the democracy.” […]
“The billionaires, no offense to either one of them, can start campaigning 15 months ahead, 18 months ahead and that is very undemocratic. It also ties people to big funders, discourages good candidates, turns off the public,” Orr said, as he warned that the feel-good, “fuzzy” ads will undoubtedly turn negative after the start of the new year. He says it’s hard for the public to discern the truth of those ads, and that wreaks havoc on democracy.
I get some of what he’s saying, but, c’mon. It ain’t just super-rich people running misleading ads.
NBC 5 has learned Congressman Luis Gutierrez will announce Tuesday he is not running for re-election after 24 years on Capitol Hill, sources say. Gutierrez telephoned key democratic leaders late this afternoon to let them know of his plans. Calls to Gutierrez tonight have not been returned.
Already printing petitions Monday night– to begin the process of getting signatures before next Monday’s deadline — is Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia. Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa is considering a congressional race. This will also leave an opening on the county board should Garcia opt for Gutierrez’s seat.
…Adding… This is confirmed, as is the Chuy angle.
…Adding… More…
Confirmation that Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, Joe Moreno and Cook County Comish Chuy Garcia to circulate petitions to run for Congress in wake of expected @RepGutierrez retirement announcement
But sources said that Gutierrez was planning to endorse Garcia, who in 2015 forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff election. Garcia lost, but in recent weeks told the Tribune he was contemplating a mayoral bid in 2019.
Winning a spot in Congress likely would remove him as a potential opponent to Emanuel. Two years ago, Gutierrez backed Emanuel for mayor over Garcia and others in the field.
Gutierrez informed Emanuel of his decision Monday afternoon when the two recorded a joint radio interview in the mayor’s office, said a source with knowledge of their meeting. Emanuel also joined Gutierrez for a tour of the Humboldt Park Welcome Center for Puerto Rican evacuees who departed the U.S. territory in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Gutierrez and Garcia are scheduled to appear at a campaign kickoff event for Garcia at Mi Tierra restaurant in Little Village — Garcia’s neighborhood — at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Reporters – Attached are the state and federal tax return summaries for JB Pritzker from 2014 to 2016.
In 2014, JB Pritzker paid federal taxes at a rate of 37.3%, in 2015 he paid federal taxes at a rate of 24.3% and in 2016 he paid federal taxes at a rate of 27.7%.
Between 2014 and 2016, trusts benefitting JB Pritzker paid an additional $24.95 million in Illinois taxes and $128.97 million in federal taxes.
JB Pritzker has made $15.3 million in personal charitable donations and his Foundation has made charitable donations of $53.8 million over the same period of time.
Pritzker reported an adjusted gross income last year of $14.95 million. He spent that on his campaign in just a few months this year. You’ll recall that Sen. Daniel Biss had demanded that Pritzker release his full returns. That obviously didn’t happen today and he didn’t disclose much of anything related to his trust income. Considering that Pritzker’s income was so low compared to his alleged net worth of $3.4 billion, you can probably expect an uproar in 3… 2…
* Meanwhile, from the Chris Kennedy campaign…
After filing his petitions and statement of financial disclosure today, Chris Kennedy, Democratic candidate for Governor, took the additional step of public disclosure by releasing federal and state tax return information.
His spokeswoman, Rebecca O’Halloran Evans, released the following statement:
“As promised, Chris Kennedy has gone above and beyond the disclosure requirements in this race for governor by providing his state and federal tax return information for review. The people of Illinois deserve openness and integrity in their government.”
Click here and here. Kennedy also just released the top pages and, unlike Pritzker, he only disclosed his 2016 return. Kennedy reported an adjusted gross income of $1.2 million. He paid $174K in federal taxes on that, giving him an effective federal tax rate of 15 percent because Kennedy took $809K in itemized deductions. He didn’t disclose what those deductions were, however.
*** UPDATE *** Biss campaign…
Today, Daniel Biss released the following statement in response to JB Pritzker and Chris Kennedy’s failure to fulfill their pledge to fully release their tax returns:
“Nearly eight months ago, JB Pritzker and Chris Kennedy pledged to release their tax returns, acknowledging that voters have a right to know how candidates make their money, what financial entanglements they may have, and how much they pay in taxes. After months of hiding their releases, using the same excuses we hear from Donald Trump, today both failed to live up to their promise. A short summary from only a year or two doesn’t give a full picture - it only raises more questions. Voters deserve an explanation of why it took so long to release so little, and what Pritzker and Kennedy are hiding from the people whose trust they are asking for.”
…Adding… One other thing to note is Kennedy’s family has a trust fund, but Kennedy’s disclosures don’t say if he received any money from them or paid any taxes on that cash.
* The House Democrats get a big kick out of being first in line every two years. It’s seen as a rite of passage for young staffers to wait for days outside the State Board of Elections office. It’s also meant as a message to everyone else about how tough their organization is. But this is a bit much…
Democratic Party of Illinois at the head of the line. Told they had staff here holding spots on Thanksgiving Day. pic.twitter.com/bTr8YcEAGD
Filed petitions today to run for a second term. Thank you to the thousands of Illinoisans who want to stop the Madigan tax hike agenda. #twill#ilgovpic.twitter.com/jwbXFIN4Og
Today we took a big step in our campaign for governor and filed our petitions to be on the ballot in the March 2018 Democratic Primary. We collected more than 10,000 signatures from all 102 counties, & we are grateful to the dedicated volunteers who helped get us to this moment. pic.twitter.com/b7XJchoRnP
* I had dinner with Sen. Biss and a couple of his staffers last night and we talked about how nerve-wracking it must be to shepherd that big stack of petitions to Springfield. A car accident, a theft, a fire in the hotel (I suggested they might want to check the locations of the room’s fire sprinklers) could absolutely ruin weeks of work with just one week for a do-over. Hoo, man, they hated me for saying that stuff. I didn’t mean to jinx them, and I’m glad they made it to the Board today…
This article reports that the largest Roy Moore PAC funder is Richard Uihlein, prominent funder of the Illinois Policy Institute and of Illinois GOP candidates https://t.co/WlJTAHk1PA
The chief financier of a leading pro-Roy Moore super PAC is a deep-pocketed Republican businessman who dropped eight figures on 2016 races alone and is looking to continue propping up the party’s most conservative candidates.
Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein provided $100,000 to the group, Proven Conservatives PAC, since September, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission, making him by far the group’s top donor. That money, which hadn’t been previously disclosed, has financed a host of ads boosting Moore’s candidacy in the face of widespread sexual assault and harassment allegations. The group has also run ads attacking Moore’s primary opponent, Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), and his Democratic general election rival Doug Jones. […]
Uihlein is a far bigger name in GOP politics. The shipping and office supply mogul and his wife donated a combined $26.4 million to federal campaigns, party organs, super PACs, and interest groups during the 2016 election cycle, according to FEC data.
That spending has kept up this year. Uihlein is single-handedly bankrolling a pair of super PACs supporting the Wisconsin Senate campaign of businessman and Marine veteran Kevin Nicholson. That spending has led Democrats in the state to accuse Uihlein of trying to buy the Senate seat for his preferred candidate.
Scott Drury, Renato Mariotti, Pat Quinn, Kwame Raoul and Nancy Rotering
That doesn’t mean all those candidates have enough valid signatures, it just means that they filed their petitions this morning.
Democrats Jesse Ruiz, Sharon Fairley and Aaron Goldstein did not file today. Not a good reflection on them, but they have until December 4th to get their signatures to the Board of Elections.
* Nobody in either party filed to run for comptroller or treasurer today. Officials with the two incumbent Democrats, Susana Mendoza and Michael Frerichs, say they have enough signatures on hand now, but will wait to file until the last day to give Team Rauner less time to examine their sheets. However, they insist their petitions are “pristine.”
The two Republican candidates, Darlene Senger (comptroller) and Jim Dodge (treasurer), were still gathering signatures as of yesterday, according to Erika Harold.
Preckwinkle is trying for a third term despite a public backlash against her pop tax, which the County Board has voted to repeal. Seeking to capitalize on Preckwinkle’s weakened political standing are Stroger and Bob Fioretti, a former Chicago alderman.
Fioretti told the Tribune he’s still collecting the 8,236 signatures needed to run for countywide office and “will be submitting soon,” while Stroger could not be reached for comment on when he’s planning to file to get on the ballot.
Preckwinkle said she is planning to challenge the validity of her opponents’ signatures, a tactic that sometimes results in candidates being removed from the ballot because they didn’t get enough legitimate names.
Five Democrats filed to run in the uphill battle against GOP Congressman Randy Hultgren (click here).
Three Democrats filed to run against Republican incumbent Rodney Davis (click here).
And three Republicans filed to run against Democratic incumbent Brad Schneider (click here).
* There are a couple of interesting matchups in Democratic state central committeeperson races. For instance, Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin is up against US Rep. Robin Kelly. Sen. Don Harmon is running against US Rep. Danny Davis. More here.
Here’s proposed rule 1: If you give money to Smith, Smith cannot, in turn, give the money to Jones. This happens all the time. Our feeling is that if you donate to Smith, it does not and should not imply that you support everyone else Smith likes. You can donate, or not donate, to Jones on your own.
Rule 2: Campaign funds donated in 2018 must be spent solely on that election. You are supporting Smith now. Smith cannot “bank” money and build up a war chest so deep that no one ever thinks of challenging him or her. Money not spent must be donated to a registered 501(c)(3) charity.
* The Question: Your thoughts on these two ideas? Make sure to explain your answer, please.
I have mentioned that I want to publicize the process that I am going through on my [sexual harassment] complaint against [Sen. Ira Silverstein]. Therefore, I have forwarded you the email I sent the legislative inspector general, Julie Porter addressing my concerns about the process as she explained it to me during our 2-1/2 hour meeting on Tuesday, November 21, 2017. I am requesting a meeting with the 4 leaders who appointed her and the 8 members on the legislative ethics commission to meet my request for full participation and transparency in this process.
I hope that you can expose the process in order to achieve the necessary reforms that will give others some sense of confidence to file their complaints. As you know, not one of the 300 has yet to come forward with a name even after the legislators filled the vacancy, established a hotline, created a task force and prohibited sexual harassment. My letter to Ms. Porter addresses the real issues that I believe are keeping the others silent and continues to silence me in this process.
All my best, Denise Rotheimer
* Rotheimer’s letter to the interim Legislative Inspector General…
Dear Ms. Porter,
I want to make a few observations about my experience with the process that entails my complaint that I filed one year ago and how it compares to my experience in other situations including the criminal legal system and the EEOC.
After my daughter reported the rape to law enforcement which was one year after the incident occurred the detective who interviewed her separate from me, met with me afterward and said, Michael could get at least 15 years then he explained the definition of legal penetration concerning minors under 13 years old. The detective also told me that the reason why he thought the rapist could get a longer sentence than the other sentences that are handed down for this offense is because of how well my daughter articulated the details of the incident. She had no other “evidence” than her testimony and no “witnesses” to offer the detective during her interview. And she was not faulted for reporting a year later.
When we met with the prosecutor she informed me of the sentence she felt the rapist should get and asked me if I believed in second chances that’s when she said he could get 3 years no jail time so he could get therapy. I refused and said the detective said he could get 15 years and asked if I could hire a lawyer for Jasmine. The prosecutor failed to inform me of our rights as crime victims and mislead me about hiring an attorney and said I could only hire a lawyer if I wanted to sue the rapist for money. So I never hired a lawyer but later learned I could hire a lawyer to represent my daughter in the criminal case as though she was a named party which had nothing to do with suing the rapist for money. I was mislead! That is why I made a law to provide crime victims with information on their rights and compensation at the onset of the criminal legal process within 48 hours of notifying law enforcement of a crime. So they would not be uniformed and misled.
The point I am making about this process and the comparison I want to make with the ethics violation process is that:
1) I knew what the charges were and what the penalties were regarding those violations.
2) I also knew when the court date was and was prepared to hear what the rapist had to say in front of the judge as well as hear what my daughter would have to say. Both would have a voice–so I believed.
The judge ended up sentencing the rapist to 7-1/2 years even though my daughter was not present in court and I did have the opportunity to speak and object to the 6 year plea deal that the prosecutor offered but the judge agreed with me and gave him a year and one half longer sentence in prison.
With the EEOC I received a Right to Sue letter after I filed my complaint about the manager at MetLife who mocked a rape victim on a rape date drug. I offered to hold off on pursuing litigation if the managing director who was over the offending manager was removed because he did not take the sexual harassment seriously by setting the example for the other employees in the office who continued to make sex jokes and treat the training as nuisance. When the managing director was removed I held my end of the agreement and never acted on litigation. I was fired shortly thereafter because I did not make my quota within the six months I was required and even though I was unable to focus on my sales due to the emotional strain of dealing with the sexual harassment culture in the office I maintained my end of the agreement by not suing MetLife. After my experience with MetLife I didn’t care about the job, my goal was to rid the culture that I had experience within the short time I was there as an insurance agent. And because corporate removed the head manager I felt I had accomplished my goal and moved on.
With this ethics process I am not satisfied that I will not know what specific violations will be looked at or that I have no expectation of having a voice beyond my interview with you. In other words, the legislative ethics commission only hears from you, not me–and I won’t know anything beyond what I tell you which is not how it works in any other process that I am aware of when someone files a complaint. This process completely shuts out the complainant and silences the complainant and does not inform or notify the complainant of what violations are considered, potential punishment or consequences of said violations or a process to have a hearing on the accusation in front of the deciding body–the decision makers. I don’t get to hear “his” side, what is presented in an open forum such as a court about his defenses and I don’t get to rebut his defenses.
My understanding of how this process works is that A) I file a complaint and B) if by chance the office is not vacant the legislative inspector general investigates. Then C) I may or may never hear from the LIG, there are no procedures in place that provides complainants notification or information on the status of the complaint. D) If I do meet the LIG which I have done, then the LIG explains to me that I will not be informed of which witnesses of mine will be contacted, if any, what was said and how the conversations with the witnesses including my self is aiding the investigation to move forward and on what terms. E) what is the LIG looking for? F) What ethics violations are being questioned for an investigation? These questions are not going to be answered for me. Instead they will become part of the report and recommendations of the LIG that is presented to the LEC at which time I am completely absent. I never get to speak with the commissioners, or get to answer any of the questions that they might have, I never get to hear the report or recommendations that will be presented to the commissioners–so I am completely forgotten and excluded in this process and shut out from knowing anything or from having an ability to state facts as I did with the judge when I objected to the plea deal in the rapist’s case because the prosecutor offered a plea deal that was not appropriate which the judge agreed with me.
Why does this process completely deny me a voice? This is my complaint and I should have an ability to know which of my witnesses are contacted and the outcome of those conversations. I should also know the position of the accused when presented with the “charges” and evidence and how he pleads. If we were in open court I would hear how his attorney defends him against the evidence that is presented and any allegations he makes against me, if any. But most importantly I would have a voice in front of the judge–the determining body, decision maker and hear her reasons for the outcome after becoming informed of both sides and knowing that all the evidence was presented and witnesses were interviewed. What reason do I have to believe or trust that the four democrats and four republicans who sit on the LEC will base their decision on the merits of my complaint when I don’t even know what information you are going to summarize and extract from our conversations and the documents I provide you will be? Why don’t I get to know any of this? And why am I not privy to participate in the full process?
I would like this letter sent to the four leaders of both houses who appointed you and the eight commissioners to set a meeting with me so I can get the answers to these questions.
All my best, Denise Rotheimer
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s radio network…
Employment lawyer Paula Brantner, senior adviser with the nonprofit Workplace Fairness, wouldn’t suggest a victim of harassment use the process lawmakers put in place to report misconduct, even in light of Madigan’s new law.
“This is not a process that I would recommend going through unless they had no other choice,” Brantner said. “I don’t think anyone could look at this system and feel like this was a system that would protect them if they made a complaint.”
Both Brantner and Rotheimer point to the involvement of the Legislative Ethics Commission, a committee of four Republican and four Democrat lawmakers, as the biggest reason for skepticism of the General Assembly’s changes.
The commission has the final say on whether a complaint investigated by the inspector general should be made public. A four-four split on party lines means the complaint never sees the light of day.
“It puts the fox in charge of the henhouse,” Brantner said. “What incentive would any legislator have for these complaints to move forward when they could be on the chopping block next?”
* I love his books and his show, so this is interesting to me…
Travel guru Rick Steves will visit Illinois on Tuesday to advocate for legislation to make marijuana legal for adults and regulate it similarly to alcohol. Steves will join Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and House Committee on Public Safety and Appropriations Chairwoman Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) for a news conference on Tuesday morning to discuss why Illinois lawmakers should support regulating and taxing marijuana. The event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CT in the James R. Thompson Center Blue Room on the 15th floor.
Directly following the news conference, Steves will testify across the street at a joint hearing of several committees of the Illinois General Assembly regarding economic opportunities following cannabis legalization. This hearing will take place at 10 a.m. in the Michael A. Bilandic Building on the 6th floor in Room C600. […]
SB 316 and HB 2353, introduced by Chairwomen Steans and Cassidy, would make it legal for adults 21 and older to possess, grow, and purchase limited amounts of marijuana. The state would license and regulate businesses to cultivate, process, test, and sell marijuana to adults, and it would create and enforce strict health and safety regulations, such as testing and labeling requirements and restrictions on marketing.
Today, the Illinois Republican Party released a new digital ad, Tax Hike. The ad highlights the undeniable link between J.B. Pritzker and Mike Madigan and their support for even more tax hikes in Illinois.
In a recent interview, Pritzker made his view on taxes clear: “Illinois may need another tax hike to balance the books and pay for needed public investments, even if the progressive income tax eventually comes about. That was the fiscal bottom line from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker…”
Pritzker and Madigan have long been advocates for increased taxes. When asked by a reporter if his plan is “just for tax increases,” Madigan laughs and dodges the question, while J.B. Pritzker refuses to admit that people are leaving Illinois because of Madigan’s track record of tax hikes.
Despite a 32% tax hike earlier this year with no reforms to state government, Pritzker and Madigan continue to push for higher taxes on Illinois families. Our state cannot afford more taxes on our citizens.
Now is the time to stop Pritzker and Madigan. No more tax hikes.
Illinoisans are already reeling from a 32% across-the-board tax hike forced on them by the Democratic majority. Now, one of their leading candidates for governor – billionaire J.B. Pritzker – is reportedly preparing another damaging tax hike if elected.
Over the weekend, The News-Gazette broke down Pritzker’s confusing, contradictory statements at a Crain’s Chicago Business editorial board interview in which he “raised the possibility” of hiking Illinois’ flat income tax yet again.
The News-Gazette writes that Pritzker is “leaving the door open” for the tax hike, and that Pritzker’s big-spending campaign promises mean that Illinoisans will have to pay higher taxes.
“So if a Pritzker administration wants more revenue to spend in 2019 and thereafter, it’s almost a political necessity to use a one-two punch — flat tax hike immediately and progressive income tax constitutional amendment later.”
The News-Gazette is even warning that Illinois Democrats are waiting for a Democrat Governor to sign the tax hike they hope to pass.
“Gov. Rauner certainly isn’t going to suppose an income tax increase. So the Democratic legislature won’t raise the state income tax until a Democratic governor assumes office in January 2019.”
J.B. Pritzker is offering Illinois more of the broken policies that caused it’s fiscal mess – reckless spending and tax hikes that drive families and businesses out of the state.
*** UPDATE *** Galia Slayen at the Pritzker campaign…
The RGA and the ILGOP are going to need to do a little better than recycled lies to save the most vulnerable governor in the country. As we made clear last week, JB does not want to raise taxes on middle class families. What remains unclear is where Bruce Rauner stands on Donald Trump’s devastating tax plan. Does Rauner support Donald Trump’s attack on middle class families?
Mere days after the state paid down roughly forty percent of its backlog of overdue bills, the Rauner administration finalized the largest vendor contract in state history.
The $63 billion contract is significantly larger than preliminary estimates, and is roughly fifty percent greater than the estimates the Rauner administration gave out earlier this week.
“These numbers are far, far higher than any previous number I have heard,” Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) told WCIA on Wednesday. “This adds more questions to this unaccountable process done with no independent oversight.”
House Republican David McSweeney chimed in too. “I’m very concerned that the Rauner administration’s cost estimates keep increasing,” he said, adding, “There should be an immediate full review of the MCO contracts, including with public hearings, by the House Human Services Appropriations Committee.”
A public hearing is already scheduled for next Thursday, November 30th, in Chicago.
In May, Department of Healthcare and Family Services Director Felicia Norwood testified before the House Human Services Committee that the restructuring deal would cost between $30 billion and $40 billion dollars.
“Bruce Rauner closed this historically massive deal under a shroud of secrecy and has now sent costs skyrocketing overnight,” said Pritzker communications director Galia Slayen. “This is money that will come from the same hardworking taxpayers that had no input on this deal. Bruce Rauner is either purposefully deceiving Illinois families or once again forcing this state to pay billions to cover the cost of his incompetence. Either way, Illinoisans deserve immediate answers from this failed governor.”
* This post will be updated as new press releases are received. Pritzker campaign…
Today, after collecting almost 35,000 signatures from voters in 90 counties across the state, JB Pritzker and Juliana Stratton formally filed petitions to run for governor and lieutenant governor of Illinois.
The campaign enters its next phase with a grassroots, statewide operation that includes opening 15 field offices and counting, endorsements from the statewide AFL-CIO, over 20 individual unions, and statewide leaders like Secretary of State Jesse White, Comptroller Susana Mendoza, and Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs.
“I am proud to file my petitions to be the next governor of Illinois and humbled that we collected nearly 35,000 signatures from every region across the state,” said JB Pritzker. “Since announcing in April, our campaign has built a grassroots movement, earned support from leaders and working families across the state, and released detailed policy plans to get this state back on track. After three years of Bruce Rauner creating crisis after crisis, it’s clear that his damage is done. Working families are ready for a governor who listens and fights every day to put Springfield back on their side. That’s exactly the type of leader I will be and I’m excited as we take this next step together.”
“I am honored to join JB Pritzker in filing petitions to be the next lieutenant governor of Illinois,” said State Representative Juliana Stratton. “Since joining the campaign in August, I’ve been humbled by the outpouring of support from working families throughout the state as we build our grassroots movement. Together, I’m confident JB and I can beat Bruce Rauner and put this state back on track by expanding healthcare, investing in quality education, and creating jobs. I am thrilled to take the next step as we work to put Springfield back on the side of working families.”
* Excerpt…
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering officially filed in Springfield, IL as a candidate for Attorney General with 10,000 petition signatures circulated by nearly 200 volunteers from across the state. Candidates for this office may file a minimum of 5,000 and a maximum of 10,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot for the March 2018 primary election. Today is the first day to file petitions.
* Erika Harold excerpt…
Erika Harold filed the maximum 10,000 petition signatures to qualify for the Republican nomination for Attorney General. However, volunteers from across the state gathered more than 16,000 signatures for her candidacy. Candidates need to submit a minimum of 5,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
* Hmm…
Progressive Democrat Fritz Kaegi, an Oak Park resident challenging incumbent Assessor Joe Berrios, delivered more than 22,000 petition signatures on the first day of submissions, far surpassing the nearly 8,000 needed to secure a spot on the ballot for the March 2018 primary. The number of petitions submitted, a strong showing for a first time candidate, comes on the heels of a steady increase in public support for Kaegi and his quest to unseat Berrios, who has held the Assessor’s role since 2010.
Flanked by his family, well wishers and campaign staffers, Kaegi stood proud of the progress made in his campaign since tossing his hat in the ring back in May.
“Today is a tremendous day for truth, honesty and transparency for the residents of Cook County,” remarked Kaegi as he greeted supporters after submitting the petition documentation for verification. “We have made great strides since starting our campaign in the spring. We have a great team and we’ve worked hard to get to this point, but we have a long road ahead of us. We need to make sure that the residents of Cook County know that there is someone fighting for them, someone who is not beholden to deep pockets and conflicts of interest.”
* Kennedy…
Democrats Chris Kennedy and Ra Joy took a big step today in the race for governor today by filing nominating petitions to get on the ballot for the March 20, 2018 primary.
About 200 volunteers collected more than 10,000 signatures from all 102 counties in Illinois to secure a spot on the ballot for Kennedy-Joy.
“Today, we take a big step forward in our campaign to change the status quo in Illinois,” Kennedy said. “Ra Joy and I are running to restore opportunity and fairness in our state.”
Joy, Kennedy’s lieutenant governor running mate, traveled to Springfield today to help file the petitions.
“Our state government is rigged for political insiders at the expense of everyone else,” Joy said. “This election is about change or more of the same. We’re the ticket for change.”
* Biss…
Today, Daniel Biss’ campaign submitted the maximum number of verified signatures allowed to the State Board of Elections.
“I’m grateful for the hundreds of volunteers across our state who made today possible,” said Daniel Biss. “Every day for the last three months, our volunteers have inspired me with their dedication to organizing their communities, rain or shine, to get Litesa and me, two middle-class candidates with strong progressive records in government on the ballot.”
* Raoul…
Over 10 thousand signatures were filed in support of IL Sen. Kwame Raoul’s candidacy for attorney general at the IL State Board of Elections today.
Despite a narrow window, Raoul’s campaign collected the petitions from areas across the state in support of his candidacy.
“The petition process allowed our campaign to directly engage voters about their vision for the attorney general’s office. I’m proud to have the support of so many voters who want an attorney general to not just advocate to improve their lives but fight for them against Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump. We’ve been able to build this movement because of my history of getting things done, and I’ll be telling that record to more and more Illinoisans in the months ahead.”
Does that Paterakis dude even have a running mate?
* Sen. Ira Silverstein’s primary…
Alison Leipsiger, Democratic candidate for the 8th State Senate district, announces today that she will not file her petitions to run in the 2018 primary election. Leipsiger, a social worker and the executive director of a new nonprofit, Reimagine Illinois, decided to run for the legislature in early November. Leipsiger endorses Caroline McAteer-Fournier, a progressive health care advocate.
“Today I am proud to step aside and unite behind another strong woman,” Leipsiger said. “If we want to change the culture in Springfield, we need to put more smart women in office. Caroline has been a tireless, progressive advocate for women and families, fighting for affordable health care, access to social services and high-quality schools. I know she will work to create a culture that supports and empowers all women in Springfield.”
* We now have a complete list…
It appears the @illinoissbe has finished logging all the 8am filers, the latest filed report now lists the first filer after 8am. It appears 469 candidates filed at 8am. Busy morning.https://t.co/qHkuTwSV65
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today filed for re-election to represent Illinois’ 13th Congressional District and his campaign launched its first web ad for the 2018 election cycle.
The ad titled “Solutions” focuses on Davis’ work to cut through the political rhetoric and noise in Washington and instead, fight for solutions to the issues working families in Central and Southwest Illinois care about. The ad highlights Davis’ work to deliver solutions on tax reform, government overreach, health care, VA reform, and more.
A sexual harassment lawsuit that tanked the political career of former state Treasurer Dan Rutherford was dismissed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago.
Court records show both sides agreed to end the 3½-year-old action. U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow dismissed the case “without prejudice” — meaning the plaintiff, former Rutherford employee Edmund Michalowski, can return to court with a fresh complaint.
Filed just weeks before the 2014 Republican primary for governor, the lawsuit sent Rutherford spiraling from leading contender against the independently wealthy Bruce Rauner — now governor — to an also-ran in a field of four. […]
In May 2016, Rutherford’s successor, Democrat Michael Frerichs, released to The Associated Press a previously confidential investigation into the allegations. The report by Ron Braver & Associates, hired by Rutherford when he was made aware of Michalowski’s allegations, found no evidence of harassment or retaliation.
The Braver report contended that “rumors that Mr. Michalowski may be let go from the treasurer’s office after the primary elections play a role in coming forward with these serious allegations and the allegations appear to be released to influence his current election.”
Michalowski’s attorney, Dana Kurtz, condemned the review, saying it “leaves out substantial information.” She said her client sued because he and other young men were being harassed by Rutherford, and he wanted it to stop.
Three other former Rutherford employees sued him in 2015 in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging they were fired because they backed up Michalowski’s story. That suit was dismissed in Rutherford’s favor last August.
The Chicago Sun-Times previously reported that the two lawsuits against Rutherford had cost Illinois taxpayers more than $500,000.
* Today is the first day candidates can file nominating petitions. Rep. Jeanne Ives will wait, however…
With nearly 13,000 in hand, we will file with the maximum number of signatures allowed in the coming week. We will be doing our due diligence this week as remaining petitions come in. I am enormously grateful to the hundreds of people who circulated petitions. #twill#ilgovpic.twitter.com/7eK7G9Vprq
* Ives calls Southern Poverty Law Center a ‘hate group’: “The Illinois Family Institute is a remarkable institute and they serve families well in the state of Illinois,” Ives said. “But if you think I’m going to stand here and come up with a defense against something that the Southern Poverty Law Center put out, which themselves should be deemed a hate group, is just nonsense. I thought we came here to talk about economics, because that’s what we should be talking about.”
* Ives wouldn’t commit more to higher education in Illinois: “No, I’m not willing to devote more money to higher education at this time,” Ives said. “There’s been administrative bloat from the get-go. … Not even teachers so much, but administrative bloat. … We have a lot of work to do in higher ed, but it’s not any more money there.”
* Kent Redfield: “Will Bruce Rauner get a credible challenger?”
* Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) became the first sitting state legislator to endorse Chris Kennedy this week. Here’s a video that includes her…
* Press release…
Today Daniel Biss announced the endorsement of Chicago Alderman Roberto Maldonado.
“Daniel Biss is the candidate I trust to fight for my community,” said Roberto Maldonado. “Working families, immigrants, and people of color in my ward face profound threats from the Trump administration, and Rauner has failed to bring the opportunity and security we need. This election is an opportunity to elect a progressive who is grounded in the needs of our families and who has the experience and drive necessary to build a state that works for all of us.
“Daniel offers a clear, bold, and inclusive vision bolstered by a record of progressive accomplishments including organizing around the TRUST Act, preventing insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, and passing the Student Loan Bill of Rights to protect students and families from predatory lenders. I’m proud to endorse Daniel, and to organize my community to join in as well.”
“It’s an honor to receive Roberto Maldonado’s endorsement” said Daniel Biss. “Roberto understands the role of local government in supporting our communities and protecting our most vulnerable residents from crises at the state and federal level. Whether he’s fighting for fair education funding, defending affordable housing, or finding creative ways to support Puerto Ricans in need of assistance after the hurricane, Roberto’s leadership is an inspiration and a roadmap for our city and state in years ahead.”
* Back to the Kennedy campaign. From a fundraising e-mail…
Exciting news! We more than doubled the 5,000 valid signatures to get on the March ballot.
We did this all thanks to more than 200 volunteers from across Illinois who collected signatures representing almost every county in our state.
Volunteers across the state stepped up to make sure that Team Kennedy/Joy is on the ballot this March, now it’s time for us to step up again to make sure that we have a winning campaign.
* Speaking of petitions…
Ron drove from Bourbonnais to drop 4 sheets of petitions off at my door!! The support our campaign receives is remarkable! We can do this! pic.twitter.com/JlyGaDDk7N
Now, check out the roll call on the ISBE motion yesterday to leave the highly controversial Crosscheck program…
4:4 vote from IL State Board of Elections on motion to withdraw from #Crosscheck:
Andrew K. Carruthers: N Ian K. Linnabary: N William M. McGuffage: Y Katherine S. O’Brien: N Charles W. Scholz : Y Casandra B. Watson: Y John R. Keith: Y William J. Cadigan: N https://t.co/VRJEHCDpKb
William McGuffage, a Democrat from Chicago who has served on the board for 18 years, called Crosscheck “suspect for a lot of reasons.” He contended there was a “symbiotic relationship” between Kobach’s role in Kansas overseeing the multistate database and his role on “what I called the bogus Trump commission.”
Republican Board Chairman William Cadigan of Winnetka called it “a shame that this whole issue of voting list maintenance has gotten entangled” with Washington politics. But he said Illinois is required by federal law to have accurate voter registration lists and noted the state has received notice expressing concerns from the U.S. Department of Justice that could lead to litigation.
Republican board member Ian Linnabary of Rockford told board members he had spoken with Kansas election officials and had “good news” that a meeting of all member Crosscheck states about security concerns would be held within the next two weeks.
While Linnabary said that no board members feel “voter fraud is rampant,” he urged the panel to “take a step back” and not withdraw from Crosscheck while efforts are made to secure the system.
* Pritzker campaign…
Bruce Rauner’s handpicked members of the State Board of Elections voted yesterday to keep Illinois in the Crosscheck program, a key priority of Donald Trump in the “GOP’s stealth war against voters.”
While there’s no evidence of voter fraud in Illinois, the Trump administration is still pushing states to opt into the program that needlessly exposes personal information and could disenfranchise voters. Instead of standing up to protect Illinoisans, Rauner’s appointees sided with Donald Trump.
“All four members that Bruce Rauner appointed to the State Board of Elections chose fear over facts and stood firmly by Donald Trump’s side,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Illinois needs a governor who will protect voting rights and stand up to Trump’s relentless attacks on this state.”
…Adding… Press release…
In response to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ decision to continue to participate in the discriminatory, deeply flawed Interstate Voter Registration Data Crosscheck Program (Crosscheck), U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement:
“No American voter should ever be improperly disenfranchised because of inaccurate information, which makes the decision by the Illinois State Board of Elections to continue its use of Kris Kobach’s secretive Crosscheck system so disheartening,” said Senators Duckworth and Durbin. “This system could purge as many as 300 legitimate voter registrations for each registration it eliminates—it has no place in our state or our nation’s electoral system. Illinois can and must withdraw from Crosscheck to restore the integrity of our state’s elections and ensure all eligible voters are able to exercise their fundamental Constitutional rights at the ballot box.”
Duckworth and Durbin wrote to IL SBE last month asking the board to stop using the program to help maintain the accuracy of its voter registration system and to instead participate in a far more precise alternative, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) multistate partnership, which has resulted in higher voter registration rates and increased voter turnout.
…Adding More… Press release…
State Senator Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago 13th) and State Senator Bill Cunningham plan to introduce legislation ending Illinois’ participation in the controversial Interstate Crosscheck system.
Despite calls from state and national legislators to withdraw from the program, the State Board of Elections voted Monday to remain in the national voter registration database.
“If the Board of Elections will not act to protect Illinois voters, then it is our duty as legislators to do so,” Raoul said. “The right to vote is sacred, and citizens in our state should know that their information is secure when they cast their ballot.”
At a joint hearing of the House Elections Committee and the Senate Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee last week, legislators heard testimony on security concerns with the system.
Shawn Davis, a faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education testified that the Crosscheck system uses an unsecured network system. Most websites handling sensitive information use secure file transmission networks called SFTPs.
“The risk of exposing the personal information of millions of Illinois voters to an Equifax-style data breach is not worth the small benefit of remaining in the Crosscheck system,” Cunningham said. “This should not be a partisan issue — it is a data protection issue and it must be addressed immediately.”
Additionally, many voting rights activists say that Crosscheck is a vehicle for discrimination at the voting booth. This is because Crosscheck compares first and last names of state voter databases, ignoring middle names and designations like Jr. or Sr. This is viewed as problematic by experts because communities of color are more likely to share last names, making them easy targets for voter suppression.
The Illinois Board of Elections currently subscribes to two national voter database systems designed to help election authorities identify voters who may be registered in more than one state: Crosscheck and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). This legislation will remove Illinois from the Crosscheck system but allow the state to remain in ERIC, widely viewed as the better system.
When a small nonprofit called the Judicial Crisis Network poured millions into a campaign to stop the Senate from confirming Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick last year, and then spent millions more supporting President Donald Trump’s choice for the same seat, political observers assumed conservatives from around the country were showering the group with donations.
Not so.
Newly obtained tax documents show that JCN’s money came almost entirely from yet another secretive nonprofit, the Wellspring Committee, which flooded JCN with nearly $23.5 million in 2016.
Most of Wellspring’s funds, in turn, came from a single mysterious donor who gave the organization almost $28.5 million — nearly 90 percent of its $32.2 million in revenues.
Like JCN, Wellspring — at one time tied to the donor network spearheaded by conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch — is a nonprofit that is supposed to be dedicated to social welfare functions and doesn’t have to disclose the names of its benefactors. Since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision loosened certain constraints on political spending, these and other 501(c)(4) groups have become increasingly politically active while providing anonymity to their donors. Often one group, like Wellspring, will act as a conduit, giving most of its funds to other, similar groups with political agendas.
“It sounds like Wellspring Committee acted as a dark money conduit to provide an extra layer of secrecy to whomever was bankrolling the Judicial Crisis Network ads,” Brendan Fischer of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington said in an email interview. “This has the effect of layering secrecy on top of secrecy, and almost entirely insulating donors from any form of public accountability.” […]
Illinois Policy Action was another organization that benefited from Wellspring’s grants in 2016, receiving $2.5 million; it’s the lobbying arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative Chicago think tank in Chicago that has ties to the state’s billionaire governor, Republican Bruce Rauner, according to the Chicago Tribune. In 2016, the institute released a documentary critical of Rauner’s political opponent, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Democrat.
A couple of weeks ago, we met some friends of friends who’d recently moved back to Chicago after living in Springfield. They were excited to talk about the food scene when I mentioned I was writing a travel piece for the Tribune.
They suggested a new coffee joint and a sandwich shop that are at the top of our list for our next visit.
Custom Cup (321 E. Monroe St., 217-652-7279) roasts all of its beans on-site and offers individual pour-over brews and slow-brewed cold coffee. It’s also a “micro roaster,” where customers who want to buy beans by the bag can select the roast level (light, medium or dark), and a small batch is roasted to order. The inviting cafe serves baked goods from — wait for it — Incredibly Delicious.
Not too far away from Custom Cup is Long Nine Junction (5 W. Old State Capitol Plaza, 217-210-2400), which opened earlier this year. The chef-driven sandwich joint took over an old Quiznos space and is getting rave reviews for its crafty flavor combinations, like French country sausage with apple butter and goat cheese, and one concoction I simply can’t wait to try: a garlic-bread grilled cheese with cheddar, provolone and pub cheese.
Springfield has two new downtown restaurants and I went to both last week.
* Loukinen’s on 4th is right across the street from the Executive Mansion. The building has been empty for years, but was a big Statehouse hangout back in the day. We had the Manchurian Style Cauliflower as an appetizer and it was the best cauliflower dish I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously. Bar none. Service was very good. More here.
* Vele was also a treat. The restaurant, which specializes in southern Italian coastal cuisine, is in the old Café Brio building. They have a delicious raw bar, and while everyone else at the table shared their entrees, I selfishly kept my Lamb Shank Pappardelle to myself. It was that awesome. Service was high quality. The restaurant has the same executive chef as The Garden, which used to be the best kept secret within 100 miles, but booking a table there these days requires either super-human patience or a willingness to eat in the afternoon. Avoid the wait and head to Vele.
Anyway, I predict both Loukinen’s and Vele will wind up being Golden Horseshoe Award winners in the coming years. Go check ‘em out.
Today, JB Pritzker with the support of State Representative Deb Conroy unveiled his plan to combat Illinois’ opioid crisis as governor. With Illinois experiencing an over 44 percent increase in drug-related overdoses from 2013 to 2016, JB’s plan is a multi-faceted approach to reduce the rate of addiction through education, remove barriers to treatment, and encourage treatment instead of incarceration.
The key components of JB’s plan to combat the opioid crisis in Illinois include:
Focus on Youth Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Education.
Reduce the Risks of Prescription Opioids.
Remove Barriers to Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery.
Work with the Criminal Justice System to Prioritize Treatment Over Incarceration.
Ensure Health Insurance Companies Cover Addiction Treatment Fairly.
Leverage Federal Funding Opportunities to Fight the Opioid Epidemic Locally.
“The opioid crisis in Illinois is ending too many lives and devastating too many families,” said JB Pritzker. “While this crisis is only getting worse, Bruce Rauner is once again failing to lead. From vetoing the Heroin Crisis Act to proposing funding cuts for addiction treatment, Rauner has failed as Illinois’ opioid crisis spirals out of control. It’s time for a governor ready to lead and I know that by working together and investing in prevention and treatment, we can combat the opioid epidemic in Illinois and create real, lasting change. We can and we will break the cycle of addiction today and for future generations.”
“Opioids have ravaged our communities and taken far too many lives, and it’s time Illinois had a governor ready to take concrete action to combat this epidemic,” said State Representative Deb Conroy. “While Bruce Rauner has turned a blind eye to this growing crisis, I was proud to work with JB Pritzker on this plan that will make a real difference for Illinoisans struggling with addiction. JB’s plan centers around mental health and makes both the prevention and treatment of addiction top priorities. We cannot ignore this epidemic, and it is clear that JB cares and has a plan to tackle the opioid crisis head on.”
* A few excerpts. Reducing the risks of prescriptions…
To combat prescription opioid abuse, I will work with physicians to put in place measures that help keep people safe. I will fight to strengthen Illinois’ prescription monitoring program so that physicians and pharmacies have access to accurate information about the quantity of opioids their patients receive. I will also work to ensure that physicians are better trained in the dangers of opioid addiction and treatment options as part of continuing medical education.
Finally, as called for in the updated prescribing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I will support legislation to implement comprehensive prescribing guidelines that further limit the number of days of an initial opioid prescription, which can reduce the risk for addiction.
As governor, I will use a multi-pronged approach to remove barriers to addiction and mental health treatment and recovery. I will restore the treatment, housing, and workforce development supports that were decimated under Bruce Rauner and look for ways to expand capacity across the state for treatment services.
Additionally, I will facilitate coordination between hospitals and social service agencies to ensure that individuals who receive emergency treatment for drug use are directed to treatment programs when they’re discharged. We also need to expand jail and prison substance use disorder case management systems to connect individuals to community treatment upon release. This coordination will give those suffering from drug addiction the tools they need to transition into recovery.
As governor, I will work to increase access to problem-solving drug courts, ensure that judges understand the available treatment options, and ensure those options are more readily available. That means having enough space to meet demand in rehabilitation programs, including both inpatient or medication-assisted treatment programs. Providing access to this treatment will help formerly incarcerated people ease back in to the community, increasing their chances to rehabilitate their lives and reducing the likelihood of recidivism.
However, a recent report found that 75 percent of Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) denied coverage for a range of treatments. This is in addition to almost half of commercial insurance companies that deny coverage for inpatient treatment and nearly one-third that deny coverage for partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and medication-assisted treatment. The report also found that both Medicaid MCOs and commercial insurance companies regularly use other barriers to care for mental health and substance use disorder treatment short of outright denial.
As governor, I will work to ensure that insurance companies provide the coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatment that they are lawfully required to cover. I will strengthen enforcement of the state’s parity laws and close loopholes that still allow insurance companies and MCOs to partially deny coverage based on a range of non-quantitative treatment limitations. I will also work to expand healthcare across our state, through my first-in-the-nation public option health insurance program, IllinoisCares.
* All emphasis added. From the Rauner administration’s presentation to potential buyers of its $750 million bond offering…
INVESTMENT CONSIDERATIONS RELATING TO THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE STATE
Budget Passage
The State operated without fully enacted General Funds Budgets for Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017. The Fiscal Year 2018 General Funds Budget was vetoed by the Governor, and was enacted by the General Assembly after overriding the Governor’s vetoes of the Fiscal Year 2018 budget package. There can be no assurance that a budget will be enacted in future fiscal years.
The Fiscal Year 2018 General Funds Budget was balanced after the inclusion of several items including the budgetary impact of the issuance of the Section 7.6 Bonds and authorized fund reallocations and interfund borrowing. The Fiscal Year 2018 General Funds budget has an estimated underlying structural deficit of $1.5 billion… To avoid future structural deficits, the Governor and the General Assembly would, among other potential solutions, need to reduce expenditures, adjust revenue collections or approve a combination of revenue adjustments and reductions in expenditures. The State can provide no assurances as to how, when or in what form this might be addressed.
*Sigh*
* Remember the governor’s 2013 campaign vow: “They won’t stop me if I want to dramatically spend less. You need the legislature if you want to spend more. If you want to spend less, they can’t stop me”? Well…
The State estimates that the General Funds financial commitment in Fiscal Year 2017, beyond the amounts sent to the Comptroller in Fiscal Year 2017 described under “Fiscal Year 2017 Spending in the Absence of a Budget,” totaled $1.6 billion for State employee health insurance providers and $1.2 billion for other State operational costs and grants. […]
Total General Funds expenditures with the revised definition of funds for Fiscal Year 2018 are estimated to be $37.4 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion or 4.8 percent from estimated Fiscal Year 2017 results for the revised definition of General Funds. This reflects approximately $150 million in deficit reduction actions directed by the Governor.
So, instead of “dramatically” spending less, the governor spent $1.2 billion without an appropriation last fiscal year and has identified just $150 million in cuts this fiscal year.
*** UPDATE *** Comptroller Mendoza…
The Governor has now signaled that he plans to head into yet another budget cycle without talking, negotiating or compromising with legislators – leaving the state once again without a budget. That demonstrates the height of irresponsibility and the failed leadership that has come to define Governor Rauner. The good news is that legislators of both parties proved this year they are up to the task of working around an obstructionist, out-of-touch, and frankly, irrelevant governor to pass a budget for the good of Illinois.
The message that I continue to send investors, because it is true, is that Illinois is a sound investment and will continue to meet its debt service obligations under my watch. I implore the Governor to learn from his past mistakes and to follow through on his Constitutional responsibility to submit a balanced and responsible budget. He should do his job and begin good-faith negotiations with legislators.
Jim Durkin and Mike Madigan like Illinois state government just as it is.
Madigan makes millions as a property tax appeals attorney. Your property taxes go up to finance the relief Madigan gets his friends.
Durkin gets rich as a municipal attorney by getting local governments to borrow money. Your property taxes go up to finance the debt Durkin gets local governments to pile up.
Madigan and Durkin play the same game so they’re financed by the same insiders.
They work together against you.
Madigan and Durkin get rich. You get gamed.
It isn’t a pretty picture.
If you’re tired of looking at it, Vote no on Jim Durkin.
Illinois is at the edge of disaster, that is why this election is so important. I am committed to getting corrupt leadership out of the Legislature and protecting Illinoisans from bad government. #twill#ilgovhttps://t.co/UUFhO2Zc7L
* But the Bond Buyer’s reporter makes a good point…
….and my first thought when saw tweet, was what perfect timing since working on a little something about the $750M issue next week…..believe gov or his finance team in roadshow……"state credit fundamentals improving" https://t.co/vlOvGGEK0F
And as Illinois heading back into the bond market next week, his finance team highlights "improving credit fundamentals" in investor presentation. https://t.co/emAZ7g0GOKhttps://t.co/eqm1pvPP8a
Shimkus said he is staying out of next year’s Republican gubernatorial primary, and has no plans to endorse any of the likely contenders. Incumbent GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to face more conservative Republican challengers. Many social conservatives were upset that Rauner signed a bill allowing Medicaid and state-based insurance to cover abortions in some cases. “We thought that he would stay out of some of the socially-divisive issues,” Shimkus said. “He did not.” But the congressman added that he will support the GOP victor in the 2018 general election.
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, says he’s not sure who he will support for governor in 2018.
“I was and continue to be very disappointed that Governor (Bruce) Rauner signed HB40 allowing taxpayer funded abortions throughout the state of Illinois,” LaHood said in a written response to a question from The State Journal-Register. “I am currently focused on my own re-election to the 18th Congressional District. I plan to wait and see who ends up filing to run for governor before making any decision on an endorsement.”
LaHood added in an interview that Rauner has not asked for an endorsement.
“I would be happy to meet with him and give him every consideration,” LaHood said. “I believe it was a mistake to sign HB40, and I want assurances moving forward that he’s not going to make this kind of mistake again … because I think that’s going to hurt him.”
LaHood has some very active tea party chapters in his district.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., is rethinking his support for Gov. Bruce Rauner given the governor’s recent signature on a bill that expands the public funding of abortion, the congressman told POLITICO.
Roskam, the Ways & Means Tax Policy chairman who is taking a lead role in an effort to overhaul the U.S. tax code, is the highest-ranking elected official in Illinois to potentially pull back from Rauner after the governor signed HB40. The new abortion law — which Rauner had promised to veto — has so infuriated conservatives, they are now talking about drafting a potential primary opponent to challenge Rauner.
Roskam said Rauner’s move to sign the bill was “fundamentally out of step” with his congressional district.
“I’ve got to reevaluate that and I’ll reevaluate that in the right time,” Roskam said Thursday when asked if he still supported Rauner. “Signing HB40 was a huge mistake on the policy and it was a huge mistake on the politics. The policy, this is the home of Henry Hyde, the author of the Hyde Amendment and I am his successor.”
Roskam helped elect Rep. Jeanne Ives and she represents his home town.
On Speaker Madigan, who also serves as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, Pritzker surprised me when he repeatedly went out of his way to declare that the party, unlike its siblings in other states, has atrophied under Madigan’s nearly two decades of leadership.
“There really is no Illinois Democratic Party,” Pritzker said, referring in part to the lack of a unified field organization, but also to the fact that the party’s central committee doesn’t even bother to meet to consider endorsing candidates anymore. “The Democratic Party doesn’t exist. . . .I believe we need to build a real Democratic Party in Illinois when it comes to field.”
Pritzker said he’s doing just that with his own campaign, setting up a structure of workers in every corner of the state—and he indicated that structure might continue later. He ducked when asked if that would work if the structure was turned over to Madigan, who usually is mostly concerned about retaining control of the House: “I don’t know,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker is doing what Bruce Rauner did in 2013 and 2014. The ILGOP basically existed only on paper back then. Rauner opened a ton of field offices during the primary (Pritzker just opened his 15th field office) and hired a ton of field staff. Rauner’s press releases back then were also similar to Pritzker’s today. Pritzker doesn’t just do specific candidate-based releases, he sends out lots of releases that you’d normally see from state parties in other states.
The difference is that Rauner completely took over the ILGOP after the primary, injecting tens of millions of dollars in the process. Pritzker won’t be able to do that unless Speaker Madigan steps aside, and that doesn’t seem likely.
But he seemed to bend over backward to rebut charges from Rauner and some Democratic rivals that he has the speaker’s private backing.
“I don’t owe my election to anybody. I’m getting elected on my own,” he said. And if he hasn’t called for Madigan to step down—”As governor of a state, you don’t get to choose” who you work with—Pritzker did note that he favors the adoption of term limits on legislative leadership positions, something that, if implemented, would affect Madigan sometime in the next decade.
Today, Daniel Biss released a video, “A Guide for Billionaires Releasing Tax Returns,” highlighting what information to look for in a candidate’s tax return releases, as J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy finally bow to voters’ pressure to release their income tax returns after promising to do so over seven months ago.
That’s a big deal, because tax returns let voters know how a candidate makes their money, and who they’re in business with. That’s important information when we’re deciding who will run the fifth largest economy in the country.
It isn’t enough for candidates to release only some of their tax forms - the voters of Illinois deserve honest, transparent, and full disclosure of tax history.
We should see the standard tax return. Candidates should disclose their sources of income, the deductions they claim, and any businesses they have a stake in.
Bruce Rauner, like Donald Trump, has hidden documents that previous candidates have disclosed for decades. Will Pritzker and Kennedy hide those documents as well, or will they come clean with the voters of Illinois? We’ll find out.
Illinois may need another tax hike to balance the books and pay for needed public investments, even if the progressive income tax eventually comes about. […]
“If you want to add revenue, the first focus is on accelerating growth and not raising taxes,” he said. […]
However, even if waste is cut, some new money will be needed to pay bills and meet tomorrow’s needs, Pritzker said.
Some will come from amending the Illinois Constitution to allow a progressive income tax, something that would require a referendum vote, likely in 2020. Pritzker said he could not estimate how much that would pull in, but he projected the state would net another $300 million to $700 million by legalizing and taxing marijuana.
Would that be enough to meet all the needs while growth accelerates?
“No. But it depends on how you prioritize,” Pritzker replied.
Would boosted income from a progressive income tax suffice?
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I haven’t proposed a budget. . . .(But) it’s clear that we are underfunding schools.”
Pritzker later suggested that some spending cuts would be on the table, but did not get specific.
Illinois Democrat gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker openly admitted in an editorial board interview with Crain’s Chicago Business yesterday that he would seek massive tax hikes if elected Governor – even more than previously disclosed by his campaign.
Pritzker’s openness about raising taxes if elected poses challenges for his nascent campaign, since Illinois voters already face some of the highest tax burdens in the nation. Pritzker’s position in favor of tax increases is in stark contrast to that of Governor Bruce Rauner, who has consistently advocated for structural reforms and lower taxes as the solution to Illinois’ fiscal challenges.
This is not the first time Pritzker has detailed his openness to tax hikes. He began his campaign amidst audio recordings documenting that he favored a large increase in the state income tax, and has opposed a property tax freeze.
Pritzker has also come under fire for not paying his fair share of taxes on his second gold-coast Chicago mansion, getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in politically connected tax breaks. Now, he’s running on raising taxes for others.
* Greg updated his piece with this statement from the Pritzker campaign…
“J.B. does not believe we should raise taxes on middle class families, period. As J.B. has said since he entered the race, passing a progressive income tax will be his top priority as governor and he is committed to finding budget solutions, like legalizing and taxing marijuana, to help address the damage Bruce Rauner has done.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** ILGOP…
“Illinois may need another tax hike to balance the books and pay for needed public investments, even if the progressive income tax eventually comes about.
“That was the fiscal bottom line from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker today as the Chicago entrepreneur and investor, who’s moved ahead in some recent polls, met with Crain’s Editorial Board for a wide-ranging interview.”
That is how Greg Hinz’s Monday column on J.B. Pritzker column begins. Pritzker continues to mirror his patron Mike Madigan when it comes to taxes, promoting even higher taxes despite Madigan’s 32% tax hike on Illinois families earlier this year.
Madigan muscled through the increase this summer, and if he has his way, will continue to raise taxes.
This comes as no surprise, as Madigan has stated a tax increase to 5% is a “good place to begin.”
This all while Pritzker continues to dodge releasing his own tax returns. It has been 221 days since Pritzker pledged to release his taxes, but he continues to hide behind empty promises of ’soon.’
When it comes to raising taxes, Pritzker is lock step with Madigan: more taxes, no reform.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Rauner campaign…
Yesterday, JB Pritzker stated his support for yet another tax increase on working families all across Illinois. This would mean even more tax hikes after Pritzker’s ally, Speaker Mike Madigan, rammed through a 32% tax hike earlier this year. Governor Bruce Rauner knows that more tax hikes will only force more jobs to leave the state. That’s why he’s fighting to reform Madigan’s corrupt system in Springfield.
From Greg Hinz’s Monday column: “Illinois may need another tax hike to balance the books and pay for needed public investments, even if the progressive income tax eventually comes about. That was the fiscal bottom line from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker today as the Chicago entrepreneur and investor, who’s moved ahead in some recent polls, met with Crain’s Editorial Board for a wide-ranging interview.”
Following Pritzker’s comments, Rauner spokesman Justin Giorgio issued the following statement:
“The contrast is clear in Illinois. Governor Rauner is fighting for every single Illinoisian by working to fix a broken and corrupt system. He wants everyone to be able to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. But JB Pritzker doesn’t want to do the difficult work of making real reforms. JB Pritzker just wants to raise taxes to avoid showing any leadership and staying in the good graces of Mike Madigan.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** Pritzker campaign…
“The idea that Bruce Rauner is fighting for every Illinoisan is as laughable as his team’s spelling and tired talking points. Bruce Rauner decimated schools, social services, and working families across this state and refuses to take a stand on Donald Trump’s tax plan that will raise taxes on many middle-class families. The truth is, the best thing Rauner can do for every Illinoisan is hop back on his motorcycle and ride off before destroying anything else in this state.”
*** UPDATE 4 *** ILGOP…
So J.B. Pritzker does not deny his plan to raise income taxes on every Illinoisan. Our suspicions have been confirmed. Illinois, hold onto your wallets. Pritzker and Madigan are coming.
Um, didn’t he say he didn’t want to raise taxes on the middle class at all?
*** UPDATE 5 *** Pritzker campaign…
A. Please refer to previous statement: “J.B. does not believe we should raise taxes on middle class families, period.”
B. Does Rauner support Donald Trump’s destructive tax plan? Yes or no?
With four Democrats now formally filing to challenge state Sen. Ira Silverstein, the first to receive an endorsement from one of Silverstein’s Senate colleagues is Ram Villivalam. Democratic State Sen. Laura Murphy tells NBC 5 “I’ve known Ram for 10 to 12 years and I’ve watched him work campaign, after campaign, after campaign.”
Villivalam, is the former political director for Rep. Brad Schneider and has worked for SEIU. Murphy adds “I believe it’s possible for Ram to win the seat.”
She’s also calling for Silverstein to step down because of the allegations from a victims rights advocate who says Silverstein sexually harassed her. Murphy says “elected officials are held to a higher standard, we all know that.”
This is becoming a very crowded race, which will benefit the incumbent. The latest to jump into the contest is Chicago attorney David Zulkey, who serves on the board of the Sauganash Community Association. Alison Leipsiger and Caroline McAteer-Fournier are also running.
Villivalam, however, is the only challenger to report any contributions so far (a bit over $40K). Silverstein had about $75K in the bank at the end of the last quarter and has reported raising $12K since then.
Following the sexual assault allegations against Minnesota Senator Al Franken, many Democrats who have received money from Franken’s PAC, Midwest Values, have donated the money to charity.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, who has received $30,000 in donations from Franken since 2006, has given that money to Missouri Food banks.
Sen. Jon Tester donated his $25,000 of Franken money to a Montana organization against sexual violence and harassment.
Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign has vowed to donate the $28,100 received from Franken to various charities.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who received $20,000 from Franken, is donating it to a group for women veterans in Wisconsin.
Congressional candidate and State Rep. Abby Finkenauer has vowed to return the $1,500 she received from the Franken PAC.
Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have both received $21,000 and $5,000, respectively, from the Franken PAC, yet neither of them have returned the money or announced any plans to.
Why are Durbin and Duckworth keeping Franken’s dirty money? Both should put their money where their mouth is and either return or donate all campaign cash received from Franken. Actions speak louder than words.
Illinois election officials have decided the state will remain in a multi-state voter registration database that critics claim is inaccurate and could lead to security breaches.
The motion to withdraw from the Kansas-run Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program failed on Monday after the State Board of Elections voted 4-4. Five votes were needed for it to pass.
However, the issue could come before the Illinois board again or through the Legislature, as some advocates have promised.
Groups including the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights have raised concerns about the program run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who’s also a vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s election fraud commission.
* It looks like the vote was along party lines…
4:4 vote from IL State Board of Elections on motion to withdraw from #Crosscheck:
Andrew K. Carruthers: N Ian K. Linnabary: N William M. McGuffage: Y Katherine S. O’Brien: N Charles W. Scholz : Y Casandra B. Watson: Y John R. Keith: Y William J. Cadigan: N https://t.co/VRJEHCDpKb
State Senator Michael E. Hastings (D-Tinley Park) is disappointed in the Illinois Board of Elections’ decision to continue participating in the intrusive and controversial Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.
The Board of Elections voted 4-4 this morning against a motion to withdraw from Crosscheck, meaning that Illinois will continue participating in the program despite substantial security and disenfranchisement risks.
“Voting is a fundamental component of our nation’s democratic values,” Hastings said. “Illinois residents deserve to have the peace of mind that the Illinois State Board of Elections is taking every necessary precaution to protect their sensitive personal information.”
The state of Illinois is also a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which is considered to be more reliable in determining the accuracy of voter registration.
“I’m disappointed the Illinois State Board of Elections refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past,” Hastings said.
Last week, Hastings raised some security concerns and urged the State Board of Elections to abandon Crosscheck, during a joint House and Senate hearing.
Since 2010, approximately 8.6 million Illinois voter registration records have been submitted to the Arkansas and Kansas Secretaries of State, including names, birth dates and partial social security numbers.
During the hearing, members heard from advocates and experts that Crosscheck does not use secure networks and that passwords used to access information on the database have been sent through unsecure emails.
“We live in an online world,” Hastings said. “We have already seen the effects of using unsecure voter systems with the cybersecurity breaches during the 2016 presidential election. However, it seems like the lessons of the last election are lost on some members of the Illinois State Board of Elections board.”
Critics also argue the unsecure Crosscheck system is designed to suppress minority voters. Communities of color are more likely to have the same last names, which the program flags as a potential double voter. Additionally, the program does not check middle names or suffixes such as Junior or Senior.
The result is that voters with similar names can often be mistaken by the program as double-registered voters, which could have them potentially thrown off the voter rolls.
“I refuse to sit by and watch policies that promote voter suppression persist,” Hastings said. “Our nation’s heroes have gone to war and too many have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our democratic values. Taking away qualified voters’ ability to participate in the democratic process is an extreme injustice and disservice to the men and women who have fought to protect our freedoms.”
Hastings has continued to advocate and call for stronger cybersecurity protocols at the state and local levels to prevent further attacks on Illinois’ voter registration databases. He will explore additional action to secure the sensitive voter information.
* Meanwhile…
The Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) held a hearing Monday - to a full room - to receive public comments on the implementation of the new automatic voter registration law (Public Act 100-46).
Illinois will be the 10th state (plus Washington, D.C.) to implement automatic voter registration (AVR) into law, and is the first midwestern state to do so.
The law modernizes and reforms current registration laws so that whenever an eligible Illinois citizen applies for, updates, or renews a driver’s license or state ID, they will be automatically registered to vote at their new address, unless they choose to opt out. AVR creates a similar program for other social service and public assistance agencies, making Illinois’ law the farthest reaching AVR law in the country.
Members of the Just Democracy Illinois coalition testified in Springfield and in Chicago this morning to offer assistance and expertise in urging the SBE to work with other state agencies to implement the AVR law on time. Several coalition members expressed specific community needs to ensure the new process would maximize efforts to register voters of color, non-native English speakers, and young voters encouraging the Board to get additional community input throughout their implementation planning. “There’s value in a broad stakeholder process,” said Abraham Scarr, Director of Illinois PIRG.
“Illinois lags behind the country when it comes to voter participation by young people and voters of color,” said Ami Gandhi of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. “If we implement AVR correctly, we have the potential to close these disparities and reach communities that have historically been excluded from our elections.”
Jay Young, the Political Director of Common Cause Illinois, encouraged the SBE to “think of the enthusiastic support for Automatic Voter Registration as a resource” to be called upon to overcome obstacles in the implementation process.
In submitted written testimony, Just Democracy Illinois reinforced with the SBE the goals of the new law:
For Illinois to have a more complete and accurate voter list,
To keep our elections secure by preventing the potential for the inadvertent registration of non-citizens,
To lower barriers for young voters, communities of color, and other under-registered demographics to register to vote and expand ballot access to encourage more participation at the polls,
And to maximize new voter registrations and voter registration updates.
The law has a mandatory implementation date of July 1, 2018 for the Secretary of State’s Department of Drivers’ Services. Other state agencies responsible for implementing AVR, including the Departments of Employment Security, Natural Resources, Financial & Professional Regulation, and Human Services, have an additional year (July 1, 2019) to comply with implementation.
“The 2018 elections will be a huge motivation for new voter registrations and registration updates,” said Andy Kang, Legal Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago and Chair of the Just Democracy Illinois coalition. “It is imperative that the State Board uses every tool in its toolbox — including assistance from the Just Democracy Illinois coalition — to obtain the necessary resources to implement this law on-time and not keep voters from voting in November because of a preventable delay.”
AVR has a major positive impact on under-registered communities. After instituting AVR, Oregon saw a six percent increase in turnout among young voters and had registration rates among voters of color increase by 26 points, from 53 percent in 2012 to 79 percent in 2016, according to the Alliance for Youth Action.
In response to Just Democracy Illinois’ oral comments and testimony, Chairman William J. Cadigan called for a round of applause for the AVR’s unanimous, bipartisan passage in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly (passing the House 115-0 and the Senate 55-0). Chairman Cadigan also noted that they would hold another public hearing after the March 20th primary elections next year. To close out the topic, Cadigan stated that the SBE was currently working to submit a supplemental appropriations request to the General Assembly to ensure the effective implementation of AVR. Lance Gough, Executive Director of Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners, also urged the State Board of Elections to advocate for proper funding for AVR.
In recent years, Illinois has passed additional laws to improve registration rates and increase ballot access by extending early voting time periods, as well as implementing online and same-day registration. AVR is just the latest step Illinois has taken to be a national leader on voting rights.
For social service and public assistance agencies implementation, the Just Democracy Illinois gave the following recommendations in submitted written testimony in preparation for today’s hearing:
Regularly soliciting and incorporating input from community members who interface with these agencies, including communities of color, about topics such as service applications, interactions with agency personnel, and other issues critical to the success of successful AVR implementation at agencies;
Assigning a voter registration coordinator for each agency and a coordinator for each local office;
Ensuring that proper training is taking place; and
Requiring a comprehensive oversight system for compliance.
And while Rauner’s corruption talk is often aimed at House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, Ives said in general, she would take a different approach in dealing with Madigan.
“First of all, you don’t pick (a) personal feud with him,” Ives said. “You recognize him for who he is, which is the most powerful House speaker in the United States. … And then you work with his membership to build alliances and effect the change that they all know needs to happen, too.”
Reacting to Ives, JUSTIN GIORGIO of the Rauner campaign said: “The fight for the future of Illinois begins by taking down the Madigan machine. Governor Rauner is leading the fight against Madigan’s corrupt system with a reform plan that includes term limits, rolling back the Madigan income tax hike, and (providing) real and lasting property tax relief. Madigan has built a corrupt system over 40 years, and Governor Rauner is fighting to give power back to the people.”
Madigan spokesman STEVE BROWN noted that Rauner has cited accomplishments, like education funding and criminal justice reform, that “all happened with the speaker’s support.” Brown also said Rauner “may want to reflect” on his “classy” use of issues such as the opioid death problem and sexual harassment to raise funds. A “Team Rauner” email including a “donate” button was sent out this week, highlighting action on those and other issues.
Whether it’s Irish stubbornness, blind ambition, or a descent into madness, Madigan is using all of his (considerable) political might to protect a political machine that was carefully constructed by politicians and powerful special interests. And, the machine doesn’t reform itself. The machine grows itself by distracting voters with glossy mail pieces and idiotic bills in public, so it can continue handing out favors in private.
Speaker Madigan doesn’t care that you are being taxed out of your homes, or are struggling with unemployment. He has spent years ignoring these problems, passing wildly unbalanced budgets, refusing to address the need for reform, and – ultimately – hollowing out Illinois’ middle class.
* The New York Times ran a story over the weekend entitled “When Unpaid Student Loan Bills Mean You Can No Longer Work.” The paper found that “Twenty states suspend people’s professional or driver’s licenses if they fall behind on loan payments.” Illinois is one of them…
Fall behind on your student loan payments, lose your job.
Few people realize that the loans they take out to pay for their education could eventually derail their careers. But in 19 states, government agencies can seize state-issued professional licenses from residents who default on their educational debts. Another state, South Dakota, suspends driver’s licenses, making it nearly impossible for people to get to work.
As debt levels rise, creditors are taking increasingly tough actions to chase people who fall behind on student loans. Going after professional licenses stands out as especially punitive.
Firefighters, nurses, teachers, lawyers, massage therapists, barbers, psychologists and real estate brokers have all had their credentials suspended or revoked.
Determining the number of people who have lost their licenses is impossible because many state agencies and licensing boards don’t track the information. Public records requests by The New York Times identified at least 8,700 cases in which licenses were taken away or put at risk of suspension in recent years, although that tally almost certainly understates the true number. […]
Proponents of the little-known state licensing laws say they are in taxpayers’ interest. Many student loans are backed by guarantees by the state or federal government, which foot the bills if borrowers default. Faced with losing their licenses, the reasoning goes, debtors will find the money.
But critics from both parties say the laws shove some borrowers off a financial cliff.
Illinois’ revocation law was passed in the 1980s, according to the NYT.
* JB Pritzker is out with a response…
“The disturbing practice of revoking professional licenses of residents who fall behind on student loans must come to an end,” said JB Pritzker. “State agencies stripping Illinoisans of their licenses is morally repulsive and runs counter to our obligation to help families thrive. It’s time to put our government back on the side of working families, and that means fighting to protect their futures. As governor, I will bring an end to this practice.”
* The Question: Should Illinois continue revoking professional licenses for falling behind on student loan debt, or should the practice be stopped? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
We also noted the NY Times article this weekend regarding revocation of professional licenses for non-payment of student loan debt, as well as your related Question of the Day. We wanted to let you know that, at least with respect to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, since 2015 the agency has no longer reported information on student loan defaults to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to request that a license be blocked or suspended.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Lynne Baker
Managing Director of Communications
Illinois Student Assistance Commission
* The Kankakee Daily Journal has been an avowed foe of House Speaker Michael Madigan since I was a wee lad. But check out today’s editorial…
The election for Illinois governor is a little less than a year away.
But one thing already is clear. Republican Bruce Rauner is running against Democratic Speaker of the House Michael Madigan. […]
If you view the history of Illinois governorships, it is possible to win by campaigning against the machine. Dan Walker did it. Rod Blagojevich did it. Dipping back into history, Henry Horner did it. Walker’s autobiography is “The Maverick and the Machine.” People will vote — sometimes — for reform.
But it is almost impossible to govern the state without some of those Democratic votes from Cook County. Indeed, savvy Republican governors, from William Stratton to Richard Ogilvie to Jim Thompson to George Ryan knew how to reach across the aisle and make an accommodation to get things done — whether it was keeping the White Sox in Chicago, creating the income tax or passing Illinois First bonds. It was a working alliance of Republicans downstate and Cook County Democrats.
Rauner might not like Madigan. He also is not alone is this feeling. You don’t have to agree with Madigan on everything. But the time has come to, perhaps, accept reality and work with him.
The editors of Crain’s Chicago Business are pulling the plug on our website’s comments section.
Since we launched ChicagoBusiness.com more than 20 years ago, we have employed a variety of tools—most recently a discussion platform called Disqus—to facilitate reader commentary. Inevitably, however, the trolls leave their trails of slime before we know it. Simply put, we do not have the personnel to manage this commentary, to keep it civil and fair and to halt the back and forth before it devolves into invective, name-calling and, in too many cases, outright hate speech. We’d rather not play host to these often anonymous commenters. They drive out more civil readers and potential commenters. They sully our content, our brand and our sponsors.
So, to borrow a phrase, we’re draining the swamp.
That said, we’re delighted to hear from you, our readers, via other means—namely, social media and email. Given the huge audiences Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms continue to build, we hope you’ll find them a useful alternative for airing their views. You also will be speaking to the world at large, rather than inside the echo chamber that our comments section generally has become. Yes, people hide behind aliases on social media, too, but more often their identities are disclosed. If they’re spewing hate, at least you know who they are.
They do have a whole lot of profanity-loving mouth-breathers in their comment section. And since they won’t spend the money to ride herd on the commenters, it’s easy to see why they’d shut them down.
* I just received this press release from Local 150 of the Operating Engineers Union…
Updated Release: Democrat Lance Redneck Announces Run Against Jerry Long for State Representative
Lance Redneck? What an interesting name for a Downstate candidate.
Trouble is, the candidate’s name is actually Lance Yednock.
Now, I normally don’t make a deal out of auto-correct typos, but that one was just too hilarious to pass up.
* Here’s the release…
Lifelong Ottawa resident Lance Yednock, D-Ottawa, announced his candidacy for the Illinois House of Representatives in the 76th District today. Yednock, 45, a business representative with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, felt compelled to run after Jerry Long lied to union families and failed to support a measure that would have protected middle-class workers from Bruce Rauner’s dangerous agenda.
“I have spent my adult life building and cultivating relationships across our communities,” said Yednock. “I was driven to run for office by my passion to serve the working people of the Illinois Valley. I want to ensure that working families get a fair shake, something Jerry Long has failed to do since he took office.”
Before being hired on as a business representative by Local 150 in 2012, Yednock was an equipment operator for nearly 20 years. He also previously served on Local 150’s Executive Board for 7 years before being brought on staff. Yednock has a degree in political science and he lives in Ottawa with his wife.
“Lance is a hard worker, a committed husband and a trusted member of this community,” said Local 150 President-Business Manager James M. Sweeney. “Jerry Long sent working families up the creek without a paddle when he stood with Bruce Rauner and his anti-worker agenda. A line in the sand has been drawn, and I know Lance will fight every day in Springfield to ensure our voices are being heard.”
Long is a life-long member of the Teamsters, and has often used his union credentials as a way to curry favor in the district with voters. Leading up to a vote in Springfield earlier this month that would have protected middle-class families from Rauner’s anti-worker agenda, Long promised local community members he would stand up to the governor and vote for the measure. On the day of the vote, Long caved to Rauner’s demands and broke his promise to his union brothers and sisters.
Teamsters Joint Council 25 has also stepped up to support Yednock’s race against Long. After Long voted in favor of allowing local “right to work” laws, the Teamsters Joint Council 25 President Terrence J. Hancock embraced Yednock as a candidate who will represent working families in the Illinois Valley.
“After the disappointment Long has personally delivered to working people by breaking campaign promises and supporting Governor Rauner, Long should turn in his union membership card and stop touting himself as a friend of labor,” Hancock said. “We will be supporting every effort to secure Lance Yednock’s place on the ballot in the upcoming primary election, and we will work hard to ensure that he is successful in November.”
“Jerry Long turned his back on working families when he chose to support Governor Rauner’s reckless agenda instead of standing up for the rights of middle-class workers,” said Laborers International Union of North America Vice President John Penn. “Jerry Long cannot be trusted and the families in the 76th district deserve better. That is why we are fully supporting Lance Yednock, a labor representative who has a proven record of standing up for working men and women.”
The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 is a labor union representing 23,000 working men and women in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. Local 150 represents workers in various industries, including construction, construction material development, public works, concrete pumping, steel mill service, slag processing and others.
Suggested campaign slogans?
…Adding… That’s Redneck… um, I mean Yednock wearing the yellow vest…
Dr. Mary Meengs remembers the days, a couple of decades ago, when pharmaceutical salespeople would drop into her family practice in Chicago, eager to catch a moment between patients so they could pitch her a new drug.
Now living in Humboldt County, Calif., Meengs is taking a page from the pharmaceutical industry’s playbook with an opposite goal in mind: to reduce the use of prescription painkillers.
Meengs, medical director at the Humboldt Independent Practice Association, is one of 10 California doctors and pharmacists funded by Obama-era federal grants to persuade medical colleagues in Northern California to help curb opioid addiction by altering their prescribing habits.
Jenni Grover, an ambassador for the U.S. Pain Foundation and a chronic pain advocate, said the stories of desperation she hears are heartbreaking. She said patients tell her they’re being treated as if they are criminal drug addicts, and doctors are abandoning them because of new regulations and possible scrutiny by the medical community and federal regulators. […]
State and federal leaders, as well as medical practitioners and other providers, are using multiple strategies to address the opioid crisis; curtailing the opioid supply is one of them. Drug abuse experts say between 2001 and 2011 there was a huge increase in prescriptions for drugs such as morphine, codeine and hydrocodone. They say these pills flowed too freely to the wrong kind of patient, causing unnecessary and deadly addictions and helping fuel the drug epidemic. […]
Most of the legislation limits first-time prescriptions to seven days. Some states are also setting dosage limits. As of right now, Illinois has no mandated restrictions.
The president of the Illinois State Medical Society said the group will continue to lobby against regulation.
But, Dr. Kern Singh, a spinal surgeon with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush University Medical Center, said the reality is it’s very difficult to get insurance coverage for the non-narcotic, safer alternative treatments because they are so expensive.
Working with other pain specialists at Rush, he said they have created an effective approach to surgical pain that uses fewer opioids, but is frustrated because most insurance companies refuse to cover the safer, more expensive medication.
While the nation’s opioid epidemic has been portrayed primarily as an issue for white suburbanites, African Americans in Chicago and other cities in the Midwest are also significantly affected by opioid use but receive little attention, according to a new report by the Chicago Urban League’s Research and Policy Center.
The report, titled “Whitewashed: The African American Opioid Crisis,” notes that the African American death rate from opioid overdose in 2015 was higher than the general population in five states, including four in the Midwest: Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The African American death rate from opioid overdose was also higher in West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
In Chicago in 2016, the African American death rate involving fentanyl, heroin and other opioids was 56% higher than the white death rate (39.3% vs 25.1%). While Black people make up approximately 32% of the city’s population, they accounted for nearly half (48.5%) of all opioid deaths. Death rates were highest in Black communities on the South and West sides, with Austin suffering the highest death rate of all community areas.
The report also highlights that African Americans are disproportionately arrested for drugs, at nearly three times the rate of whites, while approaches to the opioid epidemic have focused more on treatment. […]
* Chicago ranks lowest in the Midwest for medication-assisted treatment capacity and third worse among major cities.
* Despite making up just 15% of Illinois’ population, African Americans account for nearly a quarter of opioid overdose deaths in the state.
* In 2016, the overdose death rate for African Americans in Illinois more than doubled, climbing 132% and growing faster than any other racial group over a three-year period.
* African Americans accounted for nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths in Chicago in 2016.
(T)he $35 billion rehab industry is increasingly being exploited by individuals who are taking advantage of those who need help the most. (For an excellent glimpse into these issues, the 2015 documentary The Business of Recovery lays out a chilling case for a broken, ailing, desperately in-need-of-its-own-rehab rehab system.)
Illinois’ medical community has been somewhat reluctant to publicly embrace medical marijuana in the two years since the state’s first dispensaries opened.
But some physicians say the matter has taken on added urgency as the nation sinks deeper into an opioid crisis involving both prescription drugs, and heroin and its synthetic analogs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there are 40 prescription opioid deaths a day, Illinois health officials have warned it’s the most dangerous public health issue facing the state and President Donald Trump has declared opioid addiction a public health emergency. […]
Though Bush-Joseph speaks for himself — not for Rush University Medical Center where he is a professor, and not for the Chicago White Sox or Bulls, with whom he has worked — his word as a leading arthroscopic surgeon carries some weight. After severe injury or surgery, he concedes patients typically need opioids like Percocet and Vicodin for a month or two. But after that, he believes patients should have potential access to marijuana as another longer-term alternative. […]
The doctors support a new bill before the Illinois General Assembly that would expand the state medical marijuana program to allow cannabis to be used by any patient who qualifies for use of opioids. Such a change could vastly expand the program, which now has only about 27,000 participants. Currently there are about 40 specific conditions, including cancer and AIDS, that qualify sufferers to apply to use medical marijuana.
If passed into law, the new bill would allow those who qualify to receive a one-year marijuana card, without the fingerprinting and criminal background check now required. Approval would be expedited to 14 days, rather than the two to three months it can now take.
* Related…
* ‘It never really leaves you.’ Opioids haunt users’ recovery: It’s hard to say whether businessman Kyle Graves hit rock bottom when he shot himself in the ankle so emergency room doctors would feed his opioid habit or when he broke into a safe to steal his father’s cancer pain medicine. For straight-talking ex-trucker Jeff McCoy, it was when he grabbed a gun and threatened to blow his brains out if his mother didn’t hand over his fentanyl patches.
* Opioid addiction treatments face off in US trial: Both drugs had high relapse rates and there were overdoses, including fatal ones, in the experiment in 570 adults. The study , published Tuesday in the journal Lancet, is the first to compare the two drugs in the United States, where an opioid addiction epidemic has doctors and policymakers deeply divided over treatment strategies.
* The Champaign News-Gazette is not impressed with the anti-sexual harassment legislation just signed into law…
The fact is that individuals, no matter their status, cannot police themselves because they don’t wish to police themselves.
They appoint the inspector general. The inspector general answers to a committee made up of the individuals she’s supposed to police and operates under the rules the people she’s supposed to police write. Even by Illinois standards, that makes no sense.
That’s why Rauner called for “meaningful reform” to ensure the legislative inspector general “has robust and independent investigatory and enforcement power.”
That should include clear prohibitions, not vague guidelines. Further, the penalties must have teeth, particularly in terms of public disclosure of alleged wrongdoing confirmed by an impartial investigation.
It’s a tricky business to penalize elected officials for misconduct that might fall short of that required for criminal prosecution. That’s why the public needs to be made aware of sleazy, unethical conduct so they can take it into consideration at the next election.
An additional problem that has yet to be fixed is the makeup of the legislative ethics commission. It has eight members, four Democrats and four Republicans, all of whom are sitting members of the General Assembly. See any potential problems with that? Me, too.
And so does state Sen. Tim Bivins, R-Dixon, a former member of the ethics commission when it was headed by Tom Homer, the last legislative inspector general. Homer resigned in December 2014. He wasn’t replaced until last week. Bivins says that at least 26 ethics complaints were not heard in the interim. One of those unheard complaints involved a sexual harassment allegation by a lobbyist against state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago.
“Tom Homer was frustrated because he said the job lacked teeth,” Bivins said. Part of that lack of teeth could be due to the fact that four members of the commission can stop any action against a member of their party. There’s no neutral tiebreaker.
Bivins’ bill would reform the commission’s makeup so that sitting lawmakers cannot investigate their colleagues. It says that legislators and lobbyists cannot serve on the ethics commission for 10 years after they have left office or stopped lobbying. (Some ex-legislators become lobbyists.)
Bivins says his bill is “gaining some steam” in Springfield in the race to deal seriously not only with sexual harassment complaints but also with ethics complaints in general.
The legislative inspector general can’t suspend a lawmaker. She or he at least needs the power to both impose fines and censure lawmakers, Homer said.
More thorough statements of economic interest need to be created that detail how lawmakers make money from their other jobs and from investments so the public can judge whether they have conflicts when they vote or speak out about something.
Restrictions on IGs need to be lifted on what can be forwarded to a prosecutor for potential criminal action, along with how quickly it must be forwarded.
“I do not believe this statute was written with the accuser in mind,” McConnaughay said of the legislative inspector general laws. “To me, it’s written to protect the accused. It’s absurd.”
* Related…
* Sen. Jason Barickman: I am concerned, however, that there are still many areas where our state ethics act falls woefully short and may, in fact, inhibit the ability of the Legislative Inspector General from being an effective investigator. The people of Illinois need to be able to have faith in their government and to be able to trust their elected officials. After reviewing the statute and the Legislative Ethics Commission (LEC) Rules, I have come up with a non-exclusive list of problems that should be considered by the General Assembly. I welcome your feedback on the issues I’ve outlined below, as well as any recommendations which you have for the Legislature to consider which will strengthen our ethical standards and practices.
* Rauner both signs and critiques sexual harassment legislation: Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday signed into law two measures targeting sexual harassment in Illinois politics, while also saying there’s far more work to do and dubbing one “hurried” and “very flawed.”
* Fritz Kaegi isn’t getting anywhere near the publicity he ought to be receiving, but that may change soon…
Politicians are stepping up to buck Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, who is under heightened scrutiny for his business and campaign practices.
Today, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and the 22nd Ward organization are expected to endorse Fritz Kaegi for assessor. Already, state Sen. Heather Steans and clerk David Orr have backed Kaegi.
This summer, Garcia said Berrios’ relationship with attorneys and law firms was problematic because he accepts campaign donations from those who file property tax assessment appeals. Garcia moved to ban the practice. Berrios has been under fire for years, but scrutiny intensified after the Chicago Tribune this summer exposed rampant inequality with how properties are assessed with poor and minority property owners bearing the biggest burden, and wealthy owners winning “unsanctioned tax breaks.” Will others follow? Stay tuned.
…Adding… ILGOP…
“J.B. Pritzker’s silence on Joe Berrios is stunning, but not surprising. The Berrios-led Cook County Democrats were one of Pritzker’s early backers. Even worse, Pritzker received a $230,000 property tax break from Berrios on his Chicago mansion after ripping out the toilets. It’s clear - J.B. Pritzker will do anything to line his pockets and win an election, even if it means supporting corrupt politicians like Joe Berrios.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is the latest Cook County Democrat to oppose Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios’ re-election.
Berrios has been under fire for running what is essentially a property tax racket and Democrats like “Chuy” Garcia, Heather Steans, David Orr, and Chris Kennedy want nothing to do with him.
But there’s been one notable Democrat who has been silent on Joe Berrios - J.B. Pritzker - and it’s no surprise. Pritzker owes a lot to Berrios.
The Cook County Democratic Party, an organization chaired by Berrios, endorsed J.B. Pritzker’s campaign for governor in what some Democrats called a” backroom deal”.
Even worse, Pritzker was embroiled in a property tax scandal of his own where he ripped the toilets out of his multi-million dollar Chicago mansion to get a $230,000 property tax break from Berrios. Pritzker’s property tax appeals attorneys have given over $100,000 in campaign cash to Joe Berrios’ various political organizations.
J.B. Pritzker will do anything to line his pockets and win the Democratic nomination for governor, even if it means getting in bed with Madigan’s Chicago Machine and turning a blind eye to corrupt politicians like Joe Berrios.
* Meanwhile, Chris Kennedy has never been comfortable talking about the death of his father. For instance…
Chicago Magazine: You were 4 when your father, Bobby Kennedy, was killed. Do you have memories of him?
CK: Let’s keep moving.
* But he seems to be moving past that…
My father, Robert Kennedy, gave his life to civil rights. He was taken away from us but he gave a gift to our country. I used to find comfort in that. But that's no longer the case as we watch civil rights being rolled back. I won’t stop fighting for justice and equality. #twillpic.twitter.com/2jNMIW0X1Q
Republican attorney general candidate Erika Harold was at a forum in California last week where she was asked about being a woman running as a Republican in a party headed by President Donald Trump.
Harold gave a lengthy response at the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit. But that response didn’t include a mention of Trump’s name. Instead, she also appeared to take a shot at the Democrats running for attorney general who have made attacking the president a top priority.
“As attorney general, my job is neither to support nor oppose whoever is the president because my job is to enforce the rule of law. And I take that very seriously. So, I’m not running for attorney general as a platform to denounce whoever may be in office, whether it’s a person of my party or not. It’s to stay focused on what my state’s interests are, to stay focused on what it is that the law says and to make sure I champion the interests of my state,” she said. […]
Apparently reminded by the questioner of the original question, Harold responded: “As attorney general, it’s my job to stay focused on what are the interests of the people of my state. It’s not my job to support or oppose any person who’s in power.”
State Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, who has been critical of Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, is backing a primary challenger in the gubernatorial race.
McCarter has endorsed state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, as the two have criticized Rauner’s decisions to sign legislation that allows state health insurance and Medicaid money to go towards abortions, sign an education funding bill that included extra money for Chicago Public Schools, and sign legislation that protects people who are in the country illegally from being detained solely because of their immigration status. […]
“We have a real choice in Jeanne Ives. Someone who can lead Illinois in the right direction,” McCarter said. “We need someone who will stand up for us and fight for us; not just tell us he supports us, throws around a lot of money and says ‘Be my friend because I have a lot of money.’ This election is about morals not millions. It’s about telling the truth and standing up for the people of this state.”
* Press release…
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-4), a national leader on issues of crucial importance to Latino and immigrant communities, on Monday endorsed Jesse Ruiz in the Democratic race for Illinois Attorney General.
“For decades, Jesse has been a leader in the fight to improve public education, to protect immigrants, and to promote civil rights,” Gutierrez, the senior member of the Illinois Congressional delegation, told a crowd of supporters at a news conference held in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. “As Illinois Attorney General, I know that Jesse will stand tough when Donald Trump attacks our fundamental rights.”
Todd Stroger — the former Cook County board president who was easily unseated by Toni Preckwinkle amid furor over a county sales-tax increase — told WFLD-Channel 32 on Monday morning that he plans to run against Preckwinkle in the next county board president’s race.
Stroger cited the outcry over the since-repealed penny-an-ounce soda tax that Preckwinkle pushed as a primary reason for his political comeback attempt.
“I felt vindicated when they had to bring the whole tax back,” Stroger said of the soda tax. “There’s a lot of people who are not happy with the current administration, and I think there’s a lot of people who had felt I did a good job.”
Stroger said Preckwinkle’s decision to raise sales taxes in 2015 proves he was right when he did so in 2008.
“I believe what that showed was that tax was needed. What we’ve seen in the last seven years is the budget has gone from $3.2 billion to $4.8 billion. The question is where is all that money going? Why do we need such a large increase?” he said. “I won’t be able to tell you that until I’m able to get in the books.”
Stroger also said he opposed the idea of a sweetened beverage tax when he was county board president.
“I thought it was a bad idea back then. So we’re not looking at the same race that was happening in 2010,” he said. “This isn’t 2010. This is 2017. So this is a different age.”
“After inheriting a broken system as Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle closed budget deficits of more than two billion dollars, cut wasteful spending, and improved the County’s bond ratings. She remains focused on protecting essential services, reforming our criminal justice system, and strengthening access to medical care for Cook County families.”
“Cook County voters know what Toni Preckwinkle has accomplished and we are confident that she will be successful in both the Democratic primary and general election in 2018,” said Preckwinkle for President’s Political Director Scott Kastrup.
Operating Engineers Union Local 150 is making good on its threat to back a Republican primary opponent against House Republican Leader Jim Durkin.
The union local’s president, Jim Sweeney, told me he had about a dozen members in Durkin’s district passing nominating petitions for Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub a couple of weekends ago. Straub is running against Durkin as a Republican. Sweeney said he expected to double that number the following weekend.
Challenging a legislative leader in a primary is just not done. But these are not normal times.
Local 150 led the fight against Bruce Rauner in the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary and then backed a Libertarian Party candidate against him that fall.
The union’s leadership has fumed as Rauner has pushed his anti-union agenda, and now wants some payback on Durkin for helping to kill their bill to ban the creation of “right to work” zones by local governments. The governor vetoed the bill and the union tried twice to override Rauner without success, mainly because Durkin was able to keep his caucus together.
Since the union blames Durkin, they’ll ally themselves with anybody, including Republican activist Dan Proft, if they have to. Proft is backing Straub against Durkin, who he claims isn’t fit to be Leader. But Proft is not exactly known for being a big union supporter.
In fact, according to the Daily Law Bulletin, Proft co-founded the Liberty Justice Center, which, irony of ironies, is representing Lincolnshire against a lawsuit backed by Local 150 over the village’s creation of a local right to work zone – the very event that Local 150’s vetoed bill tried to outlaw. Don’t even try to wrap your mind around all that. You’ll go nuts. This fight is beyond ideology. Sweeney and Proft have a common cause — messing with Durkin — and they’re sticking with that.
Leader Durkin, for his part, took the diplomatic high road, releasing a statement saying: “Our caucus has worked with Local 150 in the past and will continue to work with them, where we can, in the future.”
And, indeed, Local 150 recently sent a mailer praising Rep. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) for her vote to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the union’s right to work zone ban.
But you gotta figure Leader Durkin had to be gritting his teeth when he approved that statement. A primary race is a lot like a family fight. And even though Local 150 has a ton of Republican members and has supported Republican candidates in the past, its involvement is undoubtedly seen as outside meddling. The fact that Sweeney lives in Speaker Mike Madigan’s district probably doesn’t help matters much.
The race is already starting to heat up. One of Proft’s newspapers, the West Cook News, published a story a few days ago about Durkin’s law practice, connecting the Leader’s bond work for the City of Berwyn to legislation allowing local governments to tie bond payments directly to revenue they receive from the state. Durkin voted for the securitization legislation, which just recently helped the City of Chicago obtain a “AAA” credit rating on a bond sale. Critics contend the law will allow municipal governments to more easily go into ever-deeper debt, and the paper ran a quote from someone calling Durkin’s vote a “horrible conflict of interest.”
The same publication ran another story about a Republican congressional candidate making fun of Durkin’s bill to set up a statewide sexual harassment hotline. “What does it say about Rep. Durkin and his colleagues whom he supposedly leads when he all but admits that an anonymous hotline is required?” said Jeffrey Leef, a River Forest radiologist who is running against U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and has supported a universal annual base salary of $30,000 to $40,000 (yes, you read that right). “The only submission that Jim Durkin should be making is my order of french fries when he takes his more-appropriate job of cashier at McDonald’s.” Classy.
I’m thinking we’ll see more stuff like that, and not just in obscure publications, but in mailers and other advertising. A fundraising e-mail from September claims the Illinois Policy Institute’s John Tillman, along with the Illinois Opportunity Project’s Proft, Pat Hughes and Matt Besler, had already raised $25 million toward a $30 million goal to elect “a ‘Reform Slate’ of candidates to run in House elections across the state to pick up the nine seats Republicans need to gain control of the House and depose Madigan once and for all.” They haven’t yet reported receiving that cash, however.
Gov. Bruce Rauner made a cameo appearance Wednesday in Southern Illinois, appearing at a hastily-called, bizarre press availability at Sahara Woods State Fish and Wildlife Area near Carrier Mills.
Rauner appeared with Wayne Rosenthal, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and Sen. Dale Fowler, R-Harrisburg, to announce the construction of an all-terrain vehicle track at the park. The proposed 26-mile track is something that no one has been clamoring for.
Assembled media members fired questions at Rauner after the announcement. His response, or lack thereof, was reminiscent of an absentee father bringing elaborately wrapped gifts to his child’s birthday party, but having absolutely no idea what was inside the packages.
It wouldn’t have taken much thought to anticipate the first two questions — how many jobs will be created by this project and when will ground be broken. Yet, Rauner didn’t have these most basic answers.
Instead, he looked to Rosenthal for assistance. Come on. That’s like punting on first down.
Ouch.
The paper recently published a story about how the governor hadn’t been to deep southern Illinois in several months. It appears the governor got the message, but the editorial board obviously isn’t buying it.
Radioactive waste continues to pour from Exelon’s Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after the discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, an investigation by a government watchdog group found.
Since 2007, there have been at least 35 reported leaks, spills or other accidental releases in Illinois of water contaminated with radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear power production and a carcinogen at high levels, a Better Government Association review of federal and state records shows.
No fines were issued for the accidents, all of which were self-reported by the company.
The most recent leak of 35,000 gallons (132,000 liters) occurred over two weeks in May and June at Exelon’s Braidwood plant, southwest of Chicago. The same facility was the focus of a community panic in the mid-2000s after a series of accidents stirred debate over the safety of aging nuclear plants.
A 2014 incident at Exelon’s Dresden facility in Grundy County involved the release of about 500,000 gallons (1,900,000 liters) of highly radioactive water. Contamination was later found in the plant’s sewer lines and miles away in the Morris, Illinois, sewage treatment plant.
Another leak was discovered in 2007 at the Quad Cities plant in Cordova. It took eight months to plug and led to groundwater radiation readings up to 375 times of that allowed under federal safe drinking water standards.
* Editorial: Toxic leak into Lake Michigan should not have been a secret: The critical importance of leveling with the public in such matters also is illustrated by a new Better Government Association review and Associated Press investigative report of leaks from local nuclear power plants. The BGA and AP learned that radioactive material continues to leak from Exelon’s Illinois nuclear power plants. The leaks were properly reported, but we now are confronted by an EPA boss, Scott Pruitt, who takes a skeptical view of environment protections. We have less confidence that Pruitt’s EPA will partner with the public, and not with the despoilers of the environment, when such leaks occur.
* AP Exclusive: 4 in 5 Illinois debris sites high in toxins
Hmmm. Gillibrand endorses Marie Newman in #IL-03, who's running against *incumbent* Democrat Dan Lipinski. (Lipinski, btw, opposes abortion rights.) pic.twitter.com/Dq6WFOF40E
* Will pop-tax anger unseat Preckwinkle, or fizzle out?: In a poll paid for by what Preckwinkle calls “Big Soda” interests, she was less popular than Donald Trump. Preckwinkle scored an abysmal approval rating of 33 percent, while 50 percent disapproved of the job she was doing, according to the poll conducted by David Binder Research of San Francisco from Oct. 28 through Halloween — a couple weeks after county commissioners went against Preckwinkle’s wishes and repealed the pop tax.
* Kennedy lands endorsement from Danny K. Davis: “He said to me, ‘Your father and your uncle, they were willing to send in federal troops to improve the educational opportunities for people of color in the United States. How far will you go?’” Kennedy said. “I said, ‘I’ll go that far.’” … On Sunday, Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin and former Chicago Ald. Bob Shaw endorsed Kennedy alongside Davis.
* Tom Kacich: It’s still early, but danger could await Davis in ‘18
