Rishi Shah, a 31-year-old college dropout, who co-founded a healthcare media company, became the richest Indian in America with a personal worth of $3.6 billion, for all of a few weeks. His fortune evaporated almost overnight amidst allegations that his company had fudged data and misled advertisers.
Shah’s Chicago-based Outcome Health delivers pharmaceutical advertising to patients on tablets and screens placed in physician’s offices. He became the 206th richest American in the Forbes 400 list after his company raised $500 million based on a valuation of $5 billion in May from Goldman Sachs, Google’s parent Alphabet and the Pritzker Group Venture Capital. […]
The Wall Street Journal alleged that the company exaggerated the number of screens installed in physician offices, inflated data on ad performance and manipulated third-party analyses showing the effectiveness of its ads.
Shah and Outcome Health are now being sued by investors, most of its premium advertisers have fled, the company has laid off a third of its workforce and abandoned its lease of a premium downtown Chicago building for its new headquarters.
* And the alleged scam apparently took the local venture capital world by surprise…
When asked about what surprised them this year, VCs pointed to Outcome Health’s difficulties. After raising more than $500 million in May, the company now faces allegations reported in a Wall Street Journal story this fall that they misled advertisers by manipulating data and inflating the performance of ads. As a result, some of Outcome’s investors are now suing the company for fraud, and in November, the company cut its staff by more than a third.
The state has suspended a tax credit agreement with Outcome Health — worth an estimated $6.1 million over a decade — in the wake of allegations that the tech company misled investors and advertisers.
The agreement was part of the EDGE program, short for Economic Development for a Growing Economy, which provides tax breaks for companies that promise to create jobs in Illinois. Outcome Health entered into its EDGE agreement in November 2016, when it was still known as ContextMedia, with a requirement to add at least 175 new full-time jobs in 2017 and 2018. […]
In November, big-name investors sued the company, CEO Rishi Shah and President Shradha Agarwal, alleging fraud as the company secured $487.5 million in funding and rose to a valuation of about $5.5 billion.
The investors — including units of Goldman Sachs and Google and a fund co-founded by Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker — have filed court documents indicating they have received subpoenas from the Justice Department.
“Anytime that a company gets into legal trouble, almost always when the Department of Justice opens an investigation, we just suspend them for safety precautions, simply protecting taxpayer money,” said Jacquelyn Reineke, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Outcome Health has not collected any of its credits yet, Reineke said.
What a complete mess.
…Adding… From a flack…
Hi, Rich.
I’m reaching out to request an important correction to your post “Illinois pulls EDGE credit for spiraling company after investors (including Pritzker) are subpoenaed.” My firm works with Outcome Health and there are a couple of issues I’m hoping we can clear up. Please let me know ASAP when these issues can be fixed.
This section is incorrect: “Most of its premium advertisers have fled”
Most of the company’s advertisers (including the largest) remain active. In addition, the provider network has been fully retained. Outcome Health is still the largest content network with over 95% of all content partners. Please delete this from the article.
Please also include Outcome Health’s statement, attributed to an Outcome Health spokesperson, that was included in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Business Journal articles on the subject of the EDGE Tax Credit story:
“Outcome Health remains committed to improving healthcare outcomes for patients, creating technologies, and driving innovation in Chicago. The company is well-positioned for success with its customers, is signing-up new customers, and is committed to the ongoing expansion of its network of more than 145,000 devices at medical offices around the country.”
For decades Illinois used a lousy formula to fund public schools, leaving districts with a lot of poor and special-needs kids with a lot less money to educate students than districts in wealthier areas. Finally, in 2017, the Legislature adopted a formula that one day could bridge the gap. But until Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Legislature come up with billions of more dollars for schools — at least $3.5 billion — the poorest children in our state will continue to be held back. Stop letting down kids, lawmakers.
3. Invest in Illinois universities
Illinois is no longer the fifth most populous state. It fell to sixth, and Pennsylvania moved up to fifth, after our state lost 33,703 more people in 2017. To stop some of the bleeding, Illinois should recommit to building up its universities, which fell into rapid decline during the budget crisis for which Gov. Rauner was largely responsible. Making our universities more economically stable will help to stem the exodus of young people leaving Illinois for schools in other states.
4. Raise the minimum wage
Chicago and some suburbs in Cook County are on their way to raising the hourly minimum wage to $13. The rest of the state lags far behind at $8.25, though that’s higher than the national hourly minimum wage of $7.25 that was set in 2009. The costs of health care, groceries and transportation keep going up, but most people in Illinois aren’t seeing their wages rise. An election year, when politicians really want to score points with working people, is the right time for Democrats and Rauner to compromise on a minimum-wage increase.
5. Fix broken property tax system
Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios must fix the secretive, complicated property tax assessment system that benefits the politically connected at the expense of other property owners. Wealthy commercial property owners and lawyers who specialize in appealing property taxes, including some who donate campaign money to Berrios and his allies, want the status quo. This system is downright awful for regular folks who own homes.
6. Repair roads and bridges
Across Illinois, bridges are decaying. Roads need work. A capital bill to improve infrastructure would put people to work and make the state more appealing to businesses. We heard rumblings about a capital bill in the fall. We’re all for it, but hold the pork please. No one needs fancy chandeliers, like the four purchased for nearly $81,000 each in an improvement project at the Capitol in 2013.
* The Question: Your own New Year’s wishes for Illinois?
Americans are moving westward, flocking to the Mountain and Pacific West, while the Northeast and Midwest continue to lose residents. In 2017, more residents moved out of Illinois than any other state with 63 percent of moves being outbound. Vermont had the highest percentage of inbound migration in 2017 with nearly 68 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound. Those are the results of the United Van Lines’ 41st Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns over the past year.
* Top inbound moving states…
1. Vermont
2. Oregon
3. Idaho
4. Nevada
5. South Dakota
6. Washington
7. South Carolina
8. North Carolina
9. Colorado
10. Alabama
New to the 2017 top inbound list are Colorado at No. 9 and Alabama at No. 10 with 56 and 55 percent inbound moves, respectively.
1. Illinois
2. New Jersey
3. New York
4. Connecticut
5. Kansas
6. Massachusetts
7. Ohio
8. Kentucky
9. Utah
10. Wisconsin
Illinois (63 percent) moved up one spot on the outbound list to No. 1, ranking in the top five for the past nine years. New Jersey previously held the top spot for 5 consecutive years. New additions to the 2017 top outbound list include Massachusetts (56 percent) and Wisconsin (55 percent).
People follow jobs. But billions in debts scare present and prospective residents who know that eventually, they’ll be stuck with the bill — if they’re here.
This population plummet can be halted and reversed. A collapse into used-to-be-great status isn’t preordained. Illinois leaders should be signaling to Amazon and other employers (and employees) that they’re finally ready to address Illinois’ soaring taxes, runaway public pensions, overreaching regulations, high workers’ compensation costs — this state’s increasingly toxic climate for employers.
If Illinois leaders keep pretending all’s well enough on their watch, you’ll keep hearing that the Land of Lincoln is losing population. And you’ll see more forlorn parents watching their children leave.
The new year brings a chance for voters to factor this accelerating decline into their choices come Election Day. The people of Illinois should elect leaders who’ll recognize the crisis, restore the state’s squandered reputation for opportunity, and halt this exodus. The alternative: Return to office pols who’ll rule as they have for decades — while more For Sale signs sprout on lawns and more young people depart for college, many never to return.
New figures released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security indicate the total number of private-sector, unemployment-insurance-covered jobs in the city grew 168,000, or 16.6 percent, in the seven years ended in March. The expansion was concentrated in the Loop and the Near North, West and South Side areas adjoining it, where the total number of jobs leapt nearly a quarter. But the action also is showing signs of spreading into outlying neighborhoods.
In comparison, private-sector employment rose 13.5 percent in the six-county Chicago metropolitan area as a whole in that period—and just 11.2 percent if you don’t count Chicago. That’s just two-thirds of the city-only expansion rate.
Municipal officials and independent experts are hailing the city turnaround, which after seven years of steady growth appears unprecedented in the post-World War II period, and which continued unabated in the past year.
One other notable tidbit: In 2017, for the first time ever, a majority of jobs in Chicago as a whole were located in the central area of the city.
Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier recently covered multiple fatalities resulting from Legionnaires’ disease of a veterans’ home in Quincy, Illinois. State Representative Jeanne Ives, an Army veteran and Republican Candidate for Governor, issued the following statement:
“As a veteran, and the daughter and granddaughter of soldiers, I find the conditions in the Illinois Veterans Home, as well as the delayed response from the Rauner Administration, to be a disgrace,” said State Representative Jeanne Ives, a Republican Candidate for Governor.
“Governor Rauner’s failure to take charge in the wake of a three year outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run veterans’ home became a national story last week. State services have declined to a such degree under his leadership that the maintenance of clean facilities to prevent outbreaks of bacterial maladies, like Legionnaires, has become grossly inadequate. As noted in the Fox News report, Governor Rauner promised in July 2016, ‘We’re really on top of the situation.’ But 5 more people in the home got sick that year.
“Managing state agencies is one of the critical jobs of the Executive Office. Bruce Rauner promised to turn Illinois around. But on his watch, state services have deteriorated. If he can’t manage a 200-acre veterans home with 250 residents, how can he manage the state? And 13 veterans, or spouses of veterans, are now dead because of it.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner has again vetoed plans to prevent changes his administration want to make to in-home services aimed at keeping elderly Illinois residents out of nursing homes.
The Republican issued a veto message on Friday, saying the bill would reduce the ability “to assess and serve Illinois’ elderly and persons with disabilities.”
However, advocates of the proposal say changing in-home services could result in more expensive nursing home care. The plan would’ve put eligibility standards Rauner wants changed into law.
The bill received 36 Senate votes (enough for an override if everyone shows up), but just 68 House votes (three shy of an override).
* Veto message…
December 29, 2017
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois House of Representatives,
100th General Assembly:
Today I veto House Bill 1424 from the 100th General Assembly, which would reduce the ability of the State to assess and serve Illinois’ elderly and persons with disabilities. This bill is similar to several pieces of legislation that have been discussed and debated over the last few years. This debate comes at a critical time, as Illinois’ aging population, ages 60 and over, is expected to increase by 57% from 2000 - 2030.
This bill prohibits the Department on Aging from implementing a new program, the Community Reinvestment Program (CRP), which aims to provide the non-Medicaid population of the Community Care Program (CCP) with federally mandated person-centered planning and community-based options. By limiting current services in statute, this bill prevents individual care coordinators from working with their clients on a case-by-case basis to meet the needs necessary for them to remain in their homes. Instead, they will receive only the services which have been available since the program’s inception, well over 30 years ago. While our current service delivery model is crucial to maintaining seniors in their homes and communities, this bill prohibits the department from implementing a more flexible array of service options.
The Department on Aging’s Community Care Program Services Task Force is currently working with advocates, providers, and legislators on a bipartisan plan to develop proactive solutions to serve this rapidly growing vulnerable population. They are tasked with reviewing current CCP services, and recommending solutions to reduce costs while simultaneously retaining our high quality of care. If HB 1424 were to become law, the work of this task force could be negatively impacted.
The bill also sets subjective restrictions on the implementation of the new Universal Assessment Tool (UAT) that is set to replace the outdated Determination of Need (DON) eligibility tool. Created to be objective and truly evaluate the needs of an elderly resident, this bill restricts the Department’s ability to implement the Universal Assessment Tool by guaranteeing eligibility for community-based services for current CCP participants regardless of whether they qualify for services under the UAT. This will limit our ability to receive federal matching funds and potentially put our federal waiver at risk.
Therefore, pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return House Bill 1424, entitled AN ACT concerning public aid”, with the foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
With today’s veto of House Bill 1424, Gov. Rauner has once again demonstrated his complete lack of empathy, compassion and concern for some of the most vulnerable in our communities. His veto of the bill continues the path of destruction to human services for children, seniors and people with disabilities launched when he first took office.
HB 1424 protected the 80,000 seniors in the Community Care Program from massive cuts, reductions in care, and a full-scale dismantling of the program by the governor. Instead of a successful program that has existed for years, the governor has proposed herding this group of seniors into an unproven and untested patchwork system that included subjecting seniors to Uber vouchers, food coupons and maid services.
Even more revealing of the governor’s contempt is his choice to veto the bill during the holiday season when citizens are celebrating and counting their blessing over the year. We, along with our allies who fight to protect seniors and the legislators who passed HB 1424, hoped that Rauner would see the light after the outcry from seniors over the proposed changes to the Community Care Program.
Unfortunately, Rauner is hellbent on moving an agenda that has done nothing but proven his failure as a leader.
* Pritzker campaign…
This past Friday, Bruce Rauner quietly vetoed a bill that protected 80,000 Illinoisans receiving in-home care through the Community Care Program.
Rauner’s veto of HB 1424 follows multiple attempts by the failed governor to dismantle the Community Care Program. This latest effort was carried out on the Friday between Christmas and New Year’s, as Rauner once again tried to hide his failure to protect Illinois seniors.
“While seniors were enjoying the holidays with family, Bruce Rauner tried to dismantle their ability to live with dignity and receive care in their homes,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Rauner closed out the year doing what he does best: undercutting the tools Illinoisans need to build better lives and avoiding transparency at all costs.”
“Gov. Rauner’s platform relies on attacking Middle Class and working families and his latest attempts to dismantle the Community Care Program remind us that even seniors aren’t immune from his right-wing ideological agenda. Unlike Gov. Rauner, I believe every Illinoisan deserves to age with dignity and security. That’s why I organized my Senate colleagues against Gov. Rauner’s proposed budget cuts and reductions in care and why I’m urging him to change course and sign HB 1424 today.”
…Adding… Chris Kennedy…
It’s no surprise that Governor Rauner vetoed HB 1424. He failed to appoint AARP or SEIU Healthcare members to the Community Care Program Services Task Force in an effort to silence advocates for our senior community so he could get away with starving the programs our seniors rely on to stay in their homes and access health care. Well, we cannot be silenced. We need our Democratic-controlled legislature to mobilize and lead an override of this veto. We cannot let Rauner continue to destroy government services and programs that ensure our most basic needs.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy held a rally at historic Quinn Chapel AME Church at 24th and Wabash along with supporters congressmen Danny Davis (D-Chicago) and Bobby Rush (D-Chicago) on Sunday, December 17. Kennedy, son of former Senator Robert Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, labels himself as the outsider of the governor’s race, pointing to Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan’s endorsement of his opponent, J.B Pritzker.
“He’s spent $42 million, he’s the establishment candidate,” Kennedy said. “And the speaker [Madigan] was able to use his role to compel unions to endorse Pritzker. He’s donated to Scott Walker in Wisconsin, this is a man who’s clearly been anti-union his entire life.”
He donated to Scott Walker? Really? That would be a bombshell if true.
* It’s not…
Hey @KennedyforIL, it’s just not true that @JBPritzker donated to Scott Walker. Can we please keep the focus on beating @BruceRauner and getting our economy back on track? Illinoisans want solutions, not false attacks. https://t.co/7ETJfmWQZ8
It turns out that JB’s Republican cousin Jennifer Pritzker (formerly James) is the Scott Walker contributor. Click here and here.
* But, either way, are we really supposed to think that Speaker Madigan is so powerful that he could force the IFT, Local 150, the AFL-CIO, etc. to endorse a “clearly” anti-union Democrat who backed Scott Walker?
* Politifact Illinois looks at a claim being made by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios’ campaign…
In a recent cable TV ad, Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios accused his Democratic primary opponent, Fritz Kaegi, of profiting from the private prison industry during his tenure as an investment analyst at Columbia Wanger Asset Management.
“Kaegi personally managed a fund that invested nearly $30 million in private prisons,” the ad stated. “Prisons where women refused food to protest abusive guards, immigrant children as young as 5 were held and detainees died suspiciously. But Kaegi only saw profits.” Berrios also aired a similarly worded radio ad. […]
Kaegi spent 13 years as an investment manager at Columbia Wanger Asset Management, where he oversaw the Columbia Acorn Fund with two other analysts. He gave up management duties of the fund and left Columbia Wanger on March 13 to begin his campaign. […]
Columbia Acorn Fund, of which Fritz Kaegi was one of three managers, reported $29.1 million in stock of the private prison operator CoreCivic on its March 31, 2017, quarterly report.
But Kaegi’s active management of the fund ended March 13, as documented in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Kaegi said the CoreCivic investment came after he was gone, and points to two years of quarterly reports and a Feb. 28 holdings summary to back his point.
We were unable to confirm from Kaegi’s co-managers, but a scenario in which Kaegi during his final two weeks as a fund manager decides to invest in a controversial private prison stock as a last act before challenging an opponent in a Democratic primary in Cook County borders on absurd.
Berrios’ statement contains an element of truth — the quarterly report on March 31 shows a $29.1 million investment in CoreCivic. But it ignores the critical fact that Kaegi didn’t manage the fund as of March 14 and that as recently Feb. 28 CoreCivic was not part of the portfolio. We rate it Mostly False.
…Adding… ILGOP…
2018 brings a new year, and J.B. Pritzker is hoping that taxpayers will forget about his corrupt ally, Cook County Assessor and Democratic party boss Joe Berrios.
For years, Berrios has faced accusations of nepotism, patronage, and corruption in his assessor’s office, costing homeowners dearly, particularly those in low-income minority communities.
Just last year, the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois released a multi-part report shedding light on the corrupt practices of Berrios and how he has rigged the Cook County property tax system to benefit his political cronies at everyone else’s expense. And weeks ago, Berrios faced renewed questions of patronage in his office.
But J.B. Pritzker doesn’t want to talk about his ally Joe Berrios because Pritzker is an integral part of Berrios’ and Madigan’s corrupt property tax racket.
A new law allowing public funding of abortion in Illinois will take effect as scheduled on January 1. That’s after a judge on Thursday ruled against anti-abortion groups who’d sued to block it.
The law would, for the first time in Illinois, allow tax money to be spent on abortions for state employees and women in the Medicaid program.
The groups suing over the law were not making a moral argument. Rather they say it shouldn’t take effect in part because General Assembly’s budget process violated the Illinois Constitution.
They said because the legislation was signed after the budget was passed, there’s no legal authority to use state money for abortions. They also argue that because a senator used a parliamentary hold to block the bill until after the legislature’s constitutional adjournment date on May 31, it cannot take effect until next summer.
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
Pro-life groups wanted to block the Jan. 1 implementation of taxpayer-funded abortions for those on Medicaid or state employee health insurance. But Sangamon County Associate Judge Jennifer Ascher sided with the Illinois Attorney General’s office to dismiss the case Thursday in Springfield.
Ascher ruled the budget issue “is a political question for which I lack jurisdiction,” and said if she granted an emergency injunction it “would result in a violation of the separation of powers. … Legislative disputes must be resolved in the legislative arena. It is inherently a political question and I cannot mandate the process on the estimate of revenues or the appropriation of those revenues.”
She also dismissed the argument that plaintiffs, represented by pro-life groups and some Republican state lawmakers, made that the legislative process was abused by Democrats holding the bill from the governor for four months. […]
The Thomas More Society and other opponents of taxpayer-funded abortions filed two claims in their lawsuit. First, the plaintiffs said the state does not having the funds to pay for what they estimate is $15 million to $30 million of additional costs annually. They said the legislature never passed an official revenue estimate.
“The constitution does not say what form this revenue estimate must take,” Harpreet K. Khera, deputy chief of special litigation at the Illinois Attorney General’s office, countered in court Thursday. “The constitution does not say that this estimate needs to be formally adopted by resolution or adopted in any other way.” […]
The state constitution mandates that, “Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.”
“After today’s argument, I’m more confident than ever in the truth and the correctness of our position,” Breen said. “I heard nothing today … that caused me to think that somehow, the General Assembly has done its job any more than it had a few days ago.”
John Wolfsmith, an assistant attorney general representing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and other defendants, claimed Breen’s clients are simply trying to buy time by delaying the law’s implementation to June 1.
The law, signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in September, expands Medicaid and state group health insurance plans to cover abortions .
Breen contends that taxpayers will be billed for 30,000 elective abortions annually in Illinois. They will cost $1.8 million, according to the state health care agency.
* Personal PAC…
Peter Breen is an anti-choice leader in the Illinois House whose entire legal career is devoted to denying Illinois women access to reproductive health care, including birth control and abortion care. The sole purpose of this lawsuit is to keep outdated and harmful laws in place that put the health and lives of women at risk. HB 40 corrected these dangerous laws and protects women who are victims of rape and incest and whose health and lives are at risk if they do get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term. But none of this matters to anti-choice leaders like Peter Breen. All they want to do is deny the 90% + of Illinois women who use birth control and the 35%+ Illinois women who will have an abortion, access to this vital medical care.
73% of ALL Illinois voters in an April 2017 PPP poll (58% of Republicans, 85% of Democrats, 70% Independents) agreed with the statement: “abortion should remain legal in Illinois as a private decision between a woman and her doctor, not politicians.” In that same poll, 64% of all voters, including 47% of Republicans, agreed with the statement: “Governor Rauner should act to protect the reproductive health care of all women in Illinois.”
Peter Breen’s lawsuit seeking to prevent enforcement of HB 40 is nothing more than playing to most radical fringe right-wing of Illinois voters. HB 40 should remain the law of the land in our great state.
* Thomas More Society…
The Thomas More Society is beginning the process of appealing today’s court decision allowing Illinois officials to implement a law that will put state taxpayers on the hook for paying for tens of thousands of abortions in the New Year. Associate Judge Jennifer M. Ascher of Sangamon County’s Seventh Judicial Circuit Court denied the request for an emergency injunction and temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the controversial HB 40 in the lawsuit, Springfield Right to Life et al v. Felicia Norwood et al.
The taxpayer lawsuit, filed at the end of November in the Sangamon County Circuit Court and heard in court today, is brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Illinois taxpayers, represented by county and statewide pro-life organizations, the Springfield Catholic Diocese, and a group of Illinois legislators from across the state.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and will seek an immediate appeal,” stated Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Special Counsel. “The Illinois Constitution was clearly violated here.”
Here is an overview of fundraising in the governor’s race as 2018 kicks off. Keep in mind the numbers reflect substantial self-donations from Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner and total self-funding from Democrat J.B. Pritzker. Democrat Chris Kennedy has donated $500,000 to his own account.
JB Pritzker: Cash on hand: $21.1 million Total Raised $42.2 million
Daniel Biss: Cash on hand: $2.9 million Total Raised $3.7 million
Chris Kennedy: Cash on hand: $1.8 million Total Raised $3.3 million
Robert A Daiber: Cash on hand: $33,021.91 Total Raised $108,877
Tio Hardiman: Cash on hand: $3,892.93 Total Raised $5,445
ICPR came up with its “cash on hand” numbers by adding filed fourth quarter A-1s to the campaigns’ third quarter bank balances.
But we can’t depend on those numbers for two reasons. First, we don’t know how many contributions haven’t been reported yet. Candidates don’t have to report their contributions until after they deposit the checks. Second, we don’t know how much the candidates spent during the fourth quarter.
So, while Sen. Biss reported raising about $263K in the fourth quarter, he spent $509K in the third quarter. Will he wind up with $2.9 million in the bank? Too early to tell, but that’s just about where he wants to be. Another million or so in the bank and he could do a decent four-week TV buy.
Kennedy has so far reported raising $488K in the fourth quarter. But he spent about $665K in the third quarter. Kennedy has held checks back until the last minute in previous quarters and may write himself another late check like he did in the third quarter, so we’ll see where he really is in a couple of weeks.
* Meanwhile…
Here is a list of everyone who has reported at least $100K on A-1's this quarter, including 23 House Democrats. pic.twitter.com/5TqlP756zC
Last week, Democratic candidate for attorney general state Rep. Scott Drury reported giving his campaign $170,000, a move that eliminates contribution limits for all candidates. Another candidate, Aaron Goldstein, put in $135,000 of his own money.
*** UPDATE *** ICPR…
Rich,
Thanks for your email today. It got us thinking about Cash on Hand numbers on our site. In order to avoid confusion and clarify this information, we are adding the following notice to every committee page:
*This figure represents a committee’s total available funds to spend this quarter. While committees are able to spend money continuously, they are only required to report spending figures once every three months. As soon as spending figures are available, they are reflected in the “Cash on Hand” amount for each candidate.
I also saw one of your commenters bring up the fact that the State Board of Elections does not retract A1s that are mistakenly filed by committees until quarterly reports come out. This is true, meaning that these A1s can remain in the dataset for some time.
I wanted to let you know that starting January 1st, we have actually implemented a manual review process that will catch these mistaken A1s for major races, when they constitute a significant amount. While it would be cost prohibitive for us to manually remove every mistakenly filed A1, we will be working to make sure major mistakes are removed on contested races for 2018.
As always, we appreciate when users and members of the media bring issues like this to our attention. Thanks again - just wanted to let you know that you sparked a good conversation for us!
Best,
Sarah Brune
Executive Director
Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
I’m glad they changed that because what they were claiming was “cash on hand” was not, in fact, cash on hand.
* Rep. Chad Hays (R-Catlin) was one of the leaders of the House GOP revolt last summer…
The more interesting question, though, is whether legislators will rebel against Rauner and Madigan again this year and push for a budget resolution, rather than letting a stalemate persist.
“That’ll be a very interesting dynamic,” said Hays. “All of the ingredients for a budget impasse will be there, but I am one who suspects that the budget situation, if all else fails, will be not dissimilar to last spring where the rank and file provided the pressure necessary to get a budget done. That may be the pathway. We’ll have to see.”
In Springfield, Hays said he’d be surprised if any major legislation gets passed in an election year like this one.
“The Democrats had supermajorities and still didn’t pass a minimum wage increase before, which really is indicative that the Speaker (Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan) isn’t interested in passing those things. He’s really more interested in keeping them alive as political issues,” said Hays, who will retire from the Legislature after this year.
He’s right about Madigan’s motives. But one sure-fire way to keep the minimum wage alive as a political issue is to pass it in an election year and make the governor veto it. So, I think Chad may turn out to be half right on this particular point.
* WIU President: Western’s Situation Getting Better: “Add that to the growing call for higher education reform in the state and the uncertainty of whether a state budget will actually be passed, and I believe we could be in for a very bumpy ride in Springfield,” [Jeanette Malafa, WIU’s Assistant to the President for Governmental Relations] said.
State Sen. Ira Silverstein was notified Friday by election officials that he does not have the required signatures for his name to appear on the March primary ballot.
He is 45 signatures short of the required 1,000 needed. This setback is quite unusual for a veteran lawmaker.
It’s the latest trouble for Silverstein who was accused this past October of sexual harassment by a woman lobbying for a crime bill. […]
While Silverstein delivered 1,999 signatures, his petitions were challenged and a report issued Friday noted he was left with 955 signatures.
One way to remain on the ballot is Silverstein would need to verify 45 signatures, by reaching back to those who signed his petitions, getting affidavits from them stating they did in fact sign his petition and have them notarized.
* Meanwhile…
Tregg Duerson, son of legendary Chicago Bear Dave Duerson, has withdrawn from the 5th House Democratic primary to replace Juliana Stratton.https://t.co/ArhxlyCX6L
Q: Particularly in the last couple of months, you’ve emphasized while campaigning that you’re definitely not the choice of the Democratic establishment in Illinois. Some people might hear the Kennedy name and think “underdog?” Why is that a valid notion?
A: I think the most shocking thing for people to hear is a Kennedy being critical of the Democratic Party. The truth is, when President Kennedy ran for president, his greatest opposition wasn’t Richard Nixon in the general election, it was the Democratic Party in the primaries that said, “We don’t want you to be our standardbearer because you’re Catholic and you’ll lose in the general. We don’t want you to be our leader because you’re too young and you’ll lose in the general. We don’t want you to be our leader because you’re not one of us and we don’t want somebody who we can’t control.” He overcame all that.
My father, Bobby Kennedy, runs for Senate in 1964 from the state of New York and they say you’re not from here, even though his parents raised him there. They call him a carpetbagger and they say we don’t need you here. He overcomes the Democrats in the primary and wins the general election. He runs in 1968 against the head of the Democratic Party, the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, because too many people of color or who were poor disproportionately were fighting in the Vietnam War. Teddy, my uncle, runs against Jimmy Carter in 1980, the sitting president, because Carter oversaw a federal reserve that jacked interest rates to 19, 20 percent and drove tens of millions of people out of jobs, and Teddy said that’s not the Democratic Party we want.
And I have to say the same in Illinois. This is not the Democratic Party that represents Kennedy values. These are people who are making money off the system as property tax appeals lawyers that’s destroying our ability to educate the next generation of kids in our state. You want economic development? Jobs go to where the highly educated high school and college kids are. You can’t produce highly educated high school kids when you rely on property taxes. Everybody knows that, yet we cling to that system because our leadership is property tax appeals lawyers, and they’re destroying our state.
A St. Clair County circuit judge’s ruling in a lawsuit could determine the financial health of Democratic-leaning labor unions that represent government workers.
Judge Chris Kolker issued the ruling Wednesday, vacating Gov. Bruce Rauner’s executive order to halt collection of union fees for nonunion members who work in state jobs but benefit from collective bargaining.
Kolker found that Rauner’s executive order violated state law, collective bargaining agreements and the Illinois Constitution. Kolker ruled that the governor was trying “to rewrite 26 collective bargaining agreements. This is expressly prohibited by state law.” […]
But the whole thing may be moot, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in another case.
That second case involves Mark Janus, a state employee who says Illinois law violates his free speech rights by requiring him to pay fees subsidizing a union he doesn’t support, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. About half the states have similar laws covering so-called “fair share” fees that cover bargaining costs for nonmembers. […]
Patty Schuh, a Rauner spokeswoman, said the governor had issued the executive order in the St. Clair County case “to protect the First Amendment rights of government workers and initiated what became the Janus vs. AFSCME case. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Janus case because of the First Amendment rights at stake. We look forward to the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Schuh added, “The governor supports the freedom for all government workers to choose what political speech to support and whether or not to take money out of their paychecks to pay dues to a union.”
Public service workers know that Bruce Rauner is fiercely hostile to working people, wants to take away their freedom to join together in strong unions, and is determined to drive down their wages. That was the motivation for his illegal executive order and for the suit he initiated that’s now before the US Supreme Court.
Members of AFSCME and all public service unions are organizing to make sure their co-workers and their communities understand Rauner’s scheme to rig the system, silence working people and take more power and control for himself.
The last time Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, had a serious primary opponent, in 2010, the longtime Southwest Side legislator won by just 579 votes over activist Rudy Lozano.
And it could’ve been a closer race had two Latino “candidates” not been put on the ballot to siphon away almost 400 votes from the progressive activist Lozano.
At the moment, the age-old Chicago machine practice of running fake primary candidates designed to draw votes away from opponents is on hold while a federal judge takes a look at a lawsuit filed by Speaker Michael Madigan’s vanquished 2016 primary opponent. Madigan is alleged to have put two do-nothing candidates with Latino surnames on the ballot to draw votes away from Jason Gonzales.
That never used to be considered a crime. Unfair and maybe unethical, but not illegal. Whatever it is, it’s now under judicial scrutiny.
This time around, Rep. Burke is going one-on-one with Aaron Ortiz, a teacher and head soccer coach at Back of the Yards High School.
What makes this race one to watch is that Ortiz has been endorsed by Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a 2015 Chicago mayoral candidate and Bernie Sanders’ top guy in the city in 2016 who is now running for Congress with the support of the retiring incumbent, Congressman Luis Gutierrez.
Rep. Burke is a member of Speaker Madigan’s leadership team and his brother Ed is a powerful Chicago alderman. Those guys take care of their own. If Rep. Burke is willing to wage an all-out street fight, then that’s what will happen.
So, two rival Chicago political factions – the regulars and the progressives — are gearing up for battle on several fronts while some are attempting to cut a deal that clears a path for people on both sides.
Commissioner Garcia and his allies are supporting Alma Anaya for Garcia’s county board seat. Anaya has run Garcia’s district office. Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) is supporting his daughter, Angeles Sandoval, for that same county board spot. Sen. Sandoval, who has one of the strongest remaining political organizations in the city, and Sen. Tony Muñoz (D-Chicago) have each contributed $55,000 to Angeles Sandoval’s campaign.
Sen. Muñoz is a top contender for Illinois Senate president whenever incumbent John Cullerton decides to retire. Ms. Sandoval should therefore have little trouble raising money from special interests.
Sens. Sandoval and Muñoz and Rep. Burke and their allies want Chuy Garcia to pull his support from Ortiz and Anaya, clearing the path for Rep. Burke and Ms. Sandoval.
In exchange, the “regular Democrats” will stay out of the Garcia’s “progressive” campaign for Congress. If not, they may back someone like Sol Flores, the only woman in the race to replace Congressman Gutierrez. Flores was just endorsed by EMILY’s List.
So, that may be why a Public Policy Polling survey was released last week showing Garcia getting 53 percent in the Democratic primary. Everybody else was in single digits, including Flores, who was at 3 percent. Garcia could wind up cruising to victory, so why not stick to his guns on the other campaigns?
Well, few people like to work more than they absolutely have to, and nothing is ever a 100 percent bet in politics. So, we’ll see where this one goes. A lot of maneuvering appears to be ahead.
A couple of small pieces already have fallen into place.
Lourdez Laura Ramos, who was backed by Gutierrez, withdrew from the 3rd Illinois House District Democratic primary against Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago). Rep. Arroyo had been supporting Richard Gonzales in the 4th Congressional District primary against Gutierrez, but Arroyo will now reportedly withdraw his backing and word is Gonzales may get out of the race. Gutierrez and Arroyo have been waging a bitter battle over the future status of Puerto Rico.
Alex Acevedo, the son of former Rep. Eddie Acevedo, recently dropped out of the Cook County commissioner race to replace Garcia and endorsed Angie Sandoval. Acevedo and Sen. Sandoval are longtime allies.
However, state Rep. Theresa Mah (D-Chicago) told me last week she is backing Alma Anaya for county board, which puts her at odds with her state Senator, Tony Muñoz. But, she said, she is not supporting the Chuy Garcia-backed candidate against Rep. Burke, Aaron Ortiz.
Rep. Mah has her own primary opponent, Francisco Rodriguez, who is apparently backed by former Rep. Acevedo, who is now running for county sheriff. So, there may be another knot to untangle before this is all done.
* I’ll be back in the new year. By popular demand, the 2017 Wordslinger Golden Horseshoe Award for Best CapitolFax.com Commenter goes to its namesake: Wordslinger. Here’s commenter Arthur Andersen…
I’m on Team Wordslinger this year. Word has been on top of his game all year, with incisive, focused, and sometimes superbly snarky comments on all of our events of the day. The guy doesn’t miss a trick. He can distill an issue into fewer words than AA usually takes just to get going.
Honorable mention to my CMS homie RNUG and to the inimitable, irreplaceable Oswego Willy.
Agreed on all counts, including the honorable mentions, although I would add MrJM to that list.
* As is our tradition, we end the year with my mom’s three favorite holiday videos. Suzy Snowflake…
Democratic candidate for governor Chris Kennedy stood outside Stroger Hospital Friday to call for change to deal with the violence that has once again pushed Chicago’s homicides over 600 for 2017.
“It’s not just the wounded who come here to Stroger Hospital, but it’s the brother and sisters, the family members, entire communities that suffer from urban post traumatic stress disorder,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy blamed state and local leaders for failing people.
“Here in Illinos in 2017, we should already have bump stock legislation signed into law. Here in Illinois in 2017 we should already have a gun dealer licensing bill signed into law,” said Ra Joy, Kennedy’s running mate.
A top contender for the Democratic nomination for governor of Illinois said that state elected officials, including members of his own party, haven’t done nearly enough to combat gun violence.
In an interview with The Trace in his campaign office in downtown Chicago, Chris Kennedy, a son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, questioned the commitment of lawmakers after measures intended to fight gun crime failed earlier this year in the state Legislature. One of the bills would have banned bump stocks, the gun accessories that mimic machine-gun fire which were used by the killer in the Las Vegas massacre in October. It was defeated in the House after lawmakers, including Democrats, criticized it for being too broad.
“I don’t know how you could have that many Democrats in the House and Senate and not get something done,” Kennedy said. “I think the party has lost its way.”
Kennedy also called for a reform of the state’s property tax system, which he said shortchanges public schools, underfunds police, and has led to drastic cuts in social services — all of which he said have contributed to persistent gun violence.
That bump stock bill was intentionally drafted by the House Democrats to lose. They could’ve easily passed a clean bump stock ban, but the HDems wanted a political issue.
The population at the Cook County Jail has fallen below 6,000 inmates, its lowest point in decades, sheriff’s officials said Thursday.
Cara Smith, chief policy officer for Sheriff Tom Dart, said the number has been declining for some time in part because of a drop in arrests, but the biggest change came some three months ago when criminal court judges were ordered to set bail only in amounts that defendants could afford to pay.
Since the order took effect Sept. 18, the jail population has dropped to 5,909 inmates as of Thursday, down by more than 1,500, Smith said.
Authorities credited the recent drop in the jail’s population largely to an order by Chief Judge Timothy Evans requiring judges to set affordable bail amounts for defendants charged with nonviolent felonies. […]
Of the approximately 2,000 felony defendants released in the two months after the order took effect, about 93 percent had not committed a new offense by Nov. 30, Milhizer said. Nine out of 10 had appeared for all their scheduled court dates, he said, though he noted that the numbers involve a short time frame.
Gov. Rauner’s campaign on Thursday reported a $2.5 million political contribution from Illinois’ wealthiest person, records show.
The donation from billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin adds to the $20 million he gave the governor in May.
Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, has been Rauner’s largest donor outside of the governor himself. It was almost exactly one year ago that the governor reported putting $50 million into his campaign fund.
* So, yep, it seems almost tiny now…
Remember the days when a $2.5 million campaign donation was, like, news?#ilgov#twill
The Comptroller has been tireless since taking office last December, both in her official work and in her public outreach. She not only successfully managed the impossible task of handling the state’s bills, she also fought and won decisively a battle with the governor over important reform legislation for her office.
The voting was nearly unanimous.
* The 2017 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Statehouse Insider goes to Dave Sullivan…
Yeah, he wins these awards all the time. But he wins because he’s the best. Deep relationships on both sides of the aisle, really has his pulse on what is going on, but, more importantly, maintains his integrity and ethics. Great guy, great lobbyist, great insider.
Dave received a bunch of very strong nominations, and deservedly so.
* Let’s move on to our final category…
* The Wordslinger Golden Horseshoe Award for Best CapitolFax.com Commenter
This is always our most popular award, but explain your nomination fully or it won’t count. I’m shutting down the blog for the holidays around 4:30 or so today and will announce the winner at that time.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has posted two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports addressing the Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy (IVHQ). CDC generated the reports after two visits by environmental health and infectious disease specialists to IVHQ. IDPH requested Epidemiologic Assistance (Epi-Aid) from the CDC after confirming an increase in Legionella cases in August 2015, and again in 2016. The CDC also visited IVHQ earlier this month and a summary of that visit is pending. These reports address the complexities of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak and how the State of Illinois has taken appropriate action.
The CDC describes the State’s diligent response and efforts to help protect the health and safety of veterans and IVHQ staff and visitors, noting:
• IVHQ has a well-established clinical infection surveillance and prevention program in place.
• From the identification of the outbreak, IVHQ clinical staff performed checks on all residents in skilled care every four hours, andtwice daily for all residents in independent living. Per established IVHQ protocol, any resident developing symptoms consistent with a lower respiratory infection had a chest x-ray performed immediately for pneumonia diagnosis.
• Since the 2015 outbreak, significant remediation efforts undertaken by the Quincy Veteran’s Home have substantially reduced the presence of Legionella in the potable water system.
• Based on observations during the Epi-Aid investigation, the water management program was fully implemented, followed, and continuously reviewed by the water management team to optimize the water systems.
Dolores French, a native Chicagoan and lifelong Cubs fan who was 79, had only one health malady: deafness. Otherwise, she was in good health and was allowed to move into the veterans’ home with her husband of 57 years, Richard French Sr., because he was a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Korean War.
She was assigned to an independent living unit at the facility, Steve French said, while her husband was placed in another residential building at Quincy because he needed care for his worsening Parkinson’s disease. Typically, French said, his mother would walk to her husband’s room and spend eight hours a day with him.
When the phone call about Legionnaires’ at Quincy arrived, Steve French said he immediately wanted to check on his parents’ well-being and tried calling his mother, who had a device that translates phone calls into text. He got no response. He tried the desk in her building and also got nothing. The next call went to the facility’s administrative offices.
“I said, ‘This is Steve French. I heard the news. I’m just checking on my dad and mom,’” he recalled. “And she just said that they’re OK, that if something happens, we’ll get a call.”
That was Friday, Aug. 28, 2015.
But it wasn’t until the next morning, as French was contemplating making the drive to Quincy from Springfield to check on her, that he was notified by the home that his mother’s neighbors had reported her missing, and staff wanted permission to enter her room, he said.
Within 10 minutes, as the Frenches sat in their basement, another call came from Quincy to report his mother had been found on the floor in her apartment, dead.
As the news began to sink in, yet another call arrived, this time from the Adams County Coroner’s Office. French’s wife, Deann, took the phone.
“He said, ‘We found Mrs. French, and this is going to be difficult for me to tell you, but she has been dead for a significant amount of time,’” Deann French remembered. “So I’m processing that, and I said, ‘Do we know what happened to her? What happened?’ At this point, I’m not thinking Legionnaires’. I just wasn’t. And he said, ‘No, she was found on the floor in front of her recliner, pretty badly decomposed.’”
Within another hour or two, the coroner called back with confirmation that he suspected Legionnaires’, and that state law required an autopsy because an outbreak had been declared at the home.
According to the CDC’s report referenced by IDPH, the identification of the outbreak occurred on August 21, 2015. Mrs. French was found dead on August 29th in a state of decomposition. Yet, the state told the CDC they were checking on independent living residents twice a day starting August 21st.
I asked IDPH for comment yesterday and haven’t heard back.
August 21: Illinois Veterans’ Home resident Melvin Tucker develops a fever. He is given Tylenol.
August 26: Gerald Kuhn, 90, is given Tylenol for a fever that reaches 104 degrees. Kuhn asks to go to the hospital and tests positive there for Legionella.
August 27: After six days with a fever, Melvin Tucker is still not on any kind of antibiotic and hasn’t yet been tested for Legionnaires’, despite the CDC being notified four days earlier of an outbreak and the state announcing eight confirmed cases that same day.
August 31: Melvin Tucker and Gerald Kuhn die, bringing the death total to four.
But, according to the CDC’s report, the state claimed to the CDC that Legionella urine antigen test samples “were collected from any resident with an elevated temperature.”
*** UPDATE *** From the Kennedy campaign…
This applies to the multiple stories out today about Bruce Rauner neglecting our most vulnerable — and lying about it:
Examples of neglect and deceit continue to mount under Bruce Rauner’s administration. He’s overseeing a system that lies, that manipulates data, that destroys the health of our seniors, our veterans, and the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill. It’s a horrifying display of mismanagement and, even worse, it’s inhumane. Not only do we need a new governor, but we need leaders in both parties to stop protecting a system that’s crushing the most vulnerable communities in Illinois.
Allegations of abuse and neglect of developmentally disabled and mentally ill residents under the care of the Illinois Department of Human Services have increased by half since 2010 and the time it takes to investigate them has grown, too, an audit released Thursday found.
The report by Auditor General Frank Mautino discovered that abuse and neglect complaints jumped to 3,698 in the year that ended June 30, compared with 2,468 seven years earlier.
The audit also found that the agency’s Office of the Inspector General did not complete investigations into the complaints within the 60 working days agency rules require. Cases were closed in a timely manner 50 percent of the time in the year ending in June. In 2010, 85 percent of the cases were closed on time. […]
The increase is sharper among community agencies. During the period, the state moved swiftly away from large institutions to community-living settings. Mautino’s audit determined that abuse and neglect claims at community agencies overseen by Human Services jumped 81 percent during the seven-year period, to 2,714 last year. […]
The report indicates that nearly 13,000 residents lived in centralized developmental and mental health centers in 2010, compared with 7,000 this year. Human Services also has oversight over 421 community agencies operating 4,500 program sites, such as group homes or day programs. That’s a 31 percent increase from 2010
These are some of our most vulnerable people and we as a state are obviously failing them. Merry Christmas.
*** UPDATE *** From IDHS…
Each and every allegation of abuse or neglect reported to IDHS OIG is taken seriously. It is our goal to dedicate the appropriate amount of time and resources to each investigation. We are committed to ensuring safe and therapeutic care for individuals with disabilities and mental illnesses in both the community and at our state developmental and mental health centers.
2,295 more people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are now living in community integrated living arrangements (CILAs) compared to 2010, which is a 19% increase. The increase of individuals living in CILAs has increased the amount of allegations of abuse and neglect in these facilities. Since fiscal year 2011, the rate at which these allegations are substantiated has remained around 16%.
In the past two years, we have more than doubled staff and streamlined many previously manual processes. The larger workforce and new processes are already having a positive effect on investigation thoroughness and timeliness. Since fiscal year 2016, the number of days to complete an investigation has decreased by 15%. IDHS will continue to examine our investigation processes and staffing levels to determine any additional improvements that we can make.
Two years of a budget impasse in Springfield that included cuts to state universities made the state’s graduating high school seniors a tempting target for out-of-state universities.
In that time, Northern Illinois University saw a decline in undergrad enrollment of 5 percent, and most state universities have suffered similar or greater declines in enrollment. At the same time, a network of recruiters in Chicago works to recruit Illinois’ best and brightest to other schools.
Tiffany Dallas, a Colorado State University admissions recruiter based in DeKalb, said a lot of the students she recruits from Illinois – specifically the area around Chicago – leave because it’s Colorado, although the uncertainty in state higher education plays a factor.
“Colorado is absolutely amazing and blows the state of Illinois out of the water,” Dallas said. “But the next step is the students don’t feel like their education is necessarily stable here. They’re just sick of hearing, ‘Yeah, there’s no budget; we don’t know if we have money; we have to cut programs.’ ” […]
The Chicago Area Regional Representatives, a professional group for college recruiters in the Chicago area, has more than 90 member schools and more than 100 recruiters in its ranks, and includes schools from across the country and Illinois.
I am publicly announcing my decision not to pursue my candidacy for State Representative of District 62. Since testifying at the hearing on SB402 to prohibit sexual harassment in the Ethics Act I have been overwhelmed with re-living the experience I suffered while working with senator Silverstein and figuring out how to participate in the process of going forward on my complaint. Had this issue not come up, I would have been 100% committed to my campaign–but, there were several consequences from testifying that I could not foresee at that time. I have done my best to get through this process which I feel progress has been made because of the efforts the legislative inspector general made to accommodate my participation and my request to present a victim impact statement to the legislative ethics commission. I do hope that this case and all the attention that it has received, including the progress that I have made by providing the complainant with some level of having a voice in this process will be of benefit to others. At this point, I want to focus on other aspects of my life, particularly on areas where I can do good and meaningful work that not only improves the quality of life for others but also for myself. With this being said, I wish the other two candidates good luck and again, please do not forget to vote in the primary election on March 20, 2018.
She was running against two other Republicans for the right to take on Rep. Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake). She never set up a campaign committee and she filed 517 petition signatures, just barely above the required 500 and her petitions were challenged. She told me she couldn’t make herself gather signatures after her public testimony against Silverstein. She essentially got out before she was kicked off.
* Meanwhile, Sen. Silverstein’s campaign committee has reported just three contributions since he was accused of sexual harassment. The Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC gave him $7,000 in mid-November. The Realtors gave him $1,200 and the Trial Lawyers gave him $1,000 in late November. He has reported nothing since then.
The Ford County Republican Central Committee met last Saturday and erupted when the legalization of marijuana came up for discussion.
Noting that state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, put out a memo earlier in the week in support of legislation to legalize recreational marijuana, many comments and questions arose among precinct committeemen and the public.
Many voiced their objection to Barickman’s position, stating that marijuana is an addictive gateway drug that will lead to using other illicit drugs. Since its use for medical purposes, many factions have been pushing for legalizing the drug for recreational use.
That caused one participant to ask what such use would do to DUI violations, or the use by teens.
“How accessible will it become for younger people?” the person said.
Already, there is no significant penalty for possession or use of small amounts of marijuana in Illinois. And the court system has not worked well in preventing use.
Barickman postulated that its legalization would raise money for the state.
“Addictive gateway drug.” It’s like we’ve stepped back in time.
Also, it’s easier for a teenager to buy weed than beer and has been for decades. Criminal drug dealers don’t check ID cards.
Sen. Barickman voted for gay marriage. He survived. He’ll survive this, too. The world will not end when we stop putting people in prison for inventing, growing, selling and consuming marijuana products.
“We have people running for governor who won’t criticize the most important issue — the rigged property tax system — and that itself is disqualifying,” Chris Kennedy, also running in the Democratic Party primary, told me Thursday.
Kennedy has long made the property tax system, and the corruption in it, a feature of his campaign. He has called on Berrios to resign. Pritzker and his ally Mayor Rahm Emanuel would rather change the subject and talk about the guy in the White House.
“Pritzker talks about things that aren’t really the issue. He talks about Donald Trump, but he skirts the issue of using Joe Berrios’ office to call political supporters. Pritzker’s locked in with those guys.” […]
“As J.B. has made clear throughout the campaign, he believes we need to reform our flawed and inequitable property tax system, and it will be a top priority for him as governor,” said Slayen.
“Like (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) Daniel Biss, J.B. believes that voters should have the ultimate say on if Mr. Berrios deserves another term, and J.B. remains focused on beating Bruce Rauner and repairing the damage he has done to Illinois,” Slayen said.
Fair enough. But Pritzker isn’t running against Rauner now. He’s not running against Donald Trump either.
He’s running for the Democratic nomination against Chris Kennedy, and property taxes will be the issue. And they will be the issue in the general election.
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Good questions…
.@JBPritzker said we have the same position on the rigged Cook County property tax system. So does he support my HOME Act legislation? And will he return the $250K appeal he got for ripping out toilets in his Gold Coast mansion? https://t.co/TAxtXMEt7L
A Republican running to become the top law enforcement officer in the state took tens of thousands in campaign contributions from companies in the Cayman Islands, a restaurant whose owners are named in FBI mafia investigations and another group whose owners were jailed on federal fraud charges.
DuPage County Board Member and former Burr Ridge mayor Gary Grasso admits he has made some “first time mistakes” in his fledgling campaign for Attorney General. Twice, the State Board of Elections has rebuked him for accepting donations above the individual and corporate contribution caps.
Grasso reported a $25,000 campaign donation from Yorkville Investment I, LLC, on October 27th, which not only exceeds the corporate limit of $11,100, but state records show the business was registered as a foreign entity and is no longer open for business. Asked about the illegal donation, Grasso said he planned to give back $14,900 to bring the contribution within compliance.
“Contributions over the limit are not appropriate and those rules should not be circumvented,” said Sarah Brune, the Executive Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
State records show Yorkville Investment I uses the same Wheaton address as 60 Degrees Group Ltd, another foreign firm based in the Cayman Islands. 60 Degrees Group gave Grasso’s campaign $2,800 on December 7th. JR Marital Trust is also registered at the same address in the Caymans, and sent Grasso $11,100 on the same date.
In the 2014 campaign, Bruce Rauner issued a searing indictment of his opponent, saying he was responsible for failings at a state agency, leading to tragic deaths on his opponent’s watch:
“Yes,” Rauner said when asked by reporters if the deaths of 95 children with past contact with the Department of Children and Family Services from 2011-2013 were attributable to Quinn.
“Pat Quinn is, in the end, responsible for the failings at the Department of Children and Family Services. If it was a one-year problem or a temporary problem you could say, ‘OK, maybe, there was, it’s not really his responsibility.’ But he’s been governor for six years. He’s had a revolving door of failure at Department of Children and Family Services for years and years,” Rauner said.
Fast forward to today, and Bruce Rauner has refused to take any responsibility for his own mismanagement of Veterans Affairs, leading to a Legionnaires crisis in Quincy that has taken the lives of 13 people.
“Bruce Rauner’s gross mismanagement and neglect led to 13 deaths at the Quincy Veterans’ Home, devastating countless Illinois families,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Like Rauner said in 2014, the governor needs to take responsibility for the state agencies he runs and the tragedy that has resulted from his mismanagement.”
…Adding… I told the Rauner campaign after their guy slammed Quinn on DCFS that Rauner would live to regret those words. The same thing will happen to Pritzker if he wins. A short-term hit that guarantees long-term pain.
…Adding… There’s a video now…
Like @BruceRauner said in 2014, the governor needs to take responsibility for the state agencies he runs and the tragedy that has resulted from his mismanagement #ilgov#twillpic.twitter.com/VULs6nxIAK
* Leader Durkin dropped another $48K on cable TV to fend off his Dan Proft-backed GOP primary opponent through Christmas…
* The ILGOP also has a holiday themed mailer blasting Durkin’s rival Mickey Straub…
Heh.
* On to the other side. In the 53rd House District Republican primary to replace retiring GOP Rep. David Harris, Dan Proft is backing Katie Miller over Eddie Corrigan. The Democrats have a strong candidate (one of our active commenters, former Rep. Mark Walker) and the Republican powers that be are worried that Miller could lose the seat…
* And in the 110th House District open seat race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Reggie Phillips, Proft is backing Chris Miller against Terry Davis in the Republican primary…
* Election Data Services took a look at the new US Census Bureau numbers yesterday (click here) and came up with some bad news for Illinois…
The Bureau’s 2017 total population estimates shows that now 12 states will be impacted by changes in their congressional delegation if these new numbers were used for apportionment to- day. The state of Colorado joins the previously indicated states of Florida, North Carolina, and Oregon to each gain a single seat while the state of Texas is now shown to gain a second seat with the new data. The states of New York and West Virginia joins the states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania to lose a seat in Congress using the new data.
The new numbers, however, reflect subtle changes taking place across the nation in birth and death rates and resulting total population numbers that become magnified when the information is projected forward to coincide with the taking of the 2020 Census on April 1 that year. A short-term projection method, utilizing the change in population in just the past year (2016- 2017), would trigger a second seat lost to Illinois [Emphasis added]
So, if Illinois keeps losing population at this clip we wind up losing two seats…
2016-2017 – Lost 33,703
2015-2016 – Lost 26,325
2014-2015 – Lost 20,387
2013-2014 – Lost 7,965
2012-2013 – Gained 11,909
* And check out where the big losses are…
Ouch about Illinois falling behind Pennsylvania. Note that downstate drives Illinois decline. Outside of metro Philadelphia, rest of Pennsylvania is stable. pic.twitter.com/L6yBLToxqk
According to the Census Bureau, Chicago has added only about 10,000 people since 2010. If Gov. Rauner wins reelection and the GOP wins the Abe’s hat drawing for the right to draw the new maps, Chicago could lose a seat as well.
March for Life, the world’s largest annual pro-life demonstration, is proud to announce their initial list of speakers for the 45th annual March for Life held in Washington, D.C. on January 19th, 2018. This year’s impressive lineup will include NFL/MLB star Tim Tebow’s mother Pam Tebow, former NFL player Matt Birk and his wife Adrianna, U.S. Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-IL)…
* From NARAL…
The anti-choice group March for Life has announced that Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski, a Democrat, will headline their annual march on Washington D.C. in January of 2018. Lipinski has made no secret of his right-wing agenda, which includes more than a decade of voting to curtail the rights of women, immigrants, and LGBT Americans. Billed as the world’s largest anti-abortion gathering, the annual March for Life supports banning abortion nationwide.
“Lipinski is doubling-down on his bid to ban abortion and subjugate women to second class citizens. Despite the ‘D’ next to his name, Lipinski consistently pushes an extreme right-wing agenda that couldn’t be more out-of-touch with the needs of hardworking Illinois families,” said NARAL Pro-Choice America’s States Campaigns Director, James Owens. “Luckily, Illinois voters can choose a true pro-choice champion to represent their values in Congress. Marie Newman will fight to ensure that women and families always have equal opportunities and equal representation.”
NARAL endorsed Marie Newman in November and has been a powerful force to help elect a true progressive to represent women and families across the 3rd district. NARAL launched a Let’s #DumpDan campaign including a website and TV ad as part of their larger plan to unseat the anti-choice incumbent.
As Co-chair of the Democrats for Life and co-sponsor of over 50 bills in Congress that restrict a woman’s right to choose, Lipinski has made restricting a woman’s right to control their own bodies and futures a hallmark of his political career.
…Adding… As a commenter points out, this is certainly an “interesting” Democratic primary strategy…
“Dan Lipinski is no Democrat — just this past Monday, he was hamming it up with Paul Ryan and Donald Trump in the White House as they celebrated raising taxes on working families and giving a giant tax cut to big corporations and the rich. It’s yet another line in his long record of siding with Republicans against working families and consistently undermining the rights of women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. That’s not what the voters of Illinois’s 3rd district want or need — they need a progressive champion like Marie Newman who will fight for them in Congress. The people of Illinois deserve a real Democrat and progressive leader who will side with them — not with Wall Street.” — Marissa Barrow, spokesperson, Progressive Change Campaign Committee
* Meanwhile, in a different Democratic congressional primary…
Today, Sol Flores announced that she has received the endorsement of EMILY’s List.
Flores said, “I am honored to receive the endorsement of EMILY’s List. Women around the country are stepping up demanding a seat at the table. We must have more women in Congress who will fight for a livable wage, affordable health care, reproductive rights and fair taxes for the middle class. I have spent my life helping the most vulnerable families and youth of our community. We need their voices, their stories, and their ideas in Washington now more than ever. They want and need to be heard.”
Flores is up against Chuy Garcia and several others. She’s the only woman in the race.
* Some background is here. CBS 2 has a story about Sen. Kwame Raoul’s AG campaign taking $100,000 in $10K increments from companies owned by local tobacco mogul Don Levin…
“It’s improper because there’s a case pending before the attorney general, and it’s seeking to influence someone who would be attorney general,” said Jesse Ruiz, an attorney general candidate. “I think you have to stand up and show ethical behavior now, even before you ask voters to elect you to that office.”
Illinois’ attorney general is seeking millions from Levin’s company, in a dispute over payments to the state from tobacco settlements. Raoul insists Levin’s donation isn’t a conflict.
“I’ve known him for years. He’s contributed to me before, and all my votes have been anti-tobacco. I’m not for sale,” Raoul said.
I often tell the story of when I lobbied in Springfield, about the time heroin was changed from a crime to a sickness. I also talk about that being the turning point for me because at the same time we passed that law, we also passed a bill to ban flavored blunt wraps specifically, which was owned by a pair of Black businessmen.
I thought it was extremely odd that the the bill’s sponsor Senator Kwame Raoul attacked flavored blunts (which contained no tobacco and were essentially wrapping papers) but made a specific carve out to protect menthol flavored wraps. I will never forget the after the bill passed, the two Black men asking me why their business was targeted specifically.
Fast forward a few years and it all comes to light that Raoul was operating in the interests of Don Levin (a billionaire tobacco magnate) who makes his money selling tobacco products in the Black Community, essentially killing us. Additionally, I thought the Attorney General was supposed to fight Big Tobacco not work FOR them. So for ten contributions of $10,000 our potential AG candidate is willing to support Big Tobacco?
Well, at least he didn’t go cheap…
Ouch.
* I remembered when the flavored wraps language was added to the heroin bill, so I Googled it and found this story…
An Illinois House committee Tuesday approved a ban on flavored cigar wraps despite concern from lawmakers that it unfairly favors one company over another. […]
Tony Abboud, a lobbyist for National Tobacco, said the two provisions were combined for political convenience, because similar bans on flavored cigar wraps have failed twice already.
Abboud said the bill is anti-competitive. National Tobacco makes chocolate chip and cotton candy flavored cigar wraps, while other flavors, such as menthol and tobacco, are specifically exempted. National Tobacco’s competitor, Republic Tobacco, makes those flavors.
“If you believe it is drug paraphernalia, why in the world would you leave unflavored wraps on the market?” Abboud said. “It is entirely and inherently inconsistent.” […]
Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said the menthol and tobacco-flavor exemptions were requested by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, which pointed out that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ban on flavored cigarettes specifically exempts menthol and tobacco flavors.
Emphasis added, because as Greg Hinz reported this week, all ten of the Don Levin contributions to Raoul were companies with the same address as Levin’s holding company, Republic Group. Republic Group owns Republic Tobacco.
* On a side note, when I used the Google, this came up…
Obviously, I’m not running ads attacking Raoul, but somebody sure is. And that somebody is doing it in a way that avoids disclosing who is paying for it. Google shouldn’t allow that to happen, but somebody out there is violating state law.
Whoever it is, please leave me out of your little dirty trick. Thanks.
* The Legislative Ethics Commission has just sent a letter to all Illinois legislators summarizing a report the commission received from interim Legislative Inspector General Julie Porter about the 27 requests for investigations over the past few years. Click here or on the pic for the full letter…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent in November and nonfarm payrolls decreased by -1,100 jobs over-the-month, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. October job growth was revised up to show a larger gain (+9,300 jobs) than initially reported (+3,400 jobs).
November’s monthly payroll drop kept over-the-year job growth well below the national average. While Illinois job growth has had its ups and downs since the beginning of the year, the 3-month trend shows average gains of +100 jobs per month from September to November, while the six-month trend shows an increase of +800 average monthly job gains from June to November. The 3-month was better than reported last month, though the 6-month change showed less strength.
“Illinois employment growth saw a lot of over-the-month ups and downs this past year.” said IDES Director Jeff Mays. “But payrolls overall have increased by about a half-percent over the year to date, which is an additional 23,900 jobs.”
“Our focus remains on creating a business-friendly environment that is conducive to opportunity,” said Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Sean McCarthy. “While we are still growing slower than the nation, Illinois is seeing the benefits of a pro-business administration that is committed to fostering innovation, attracting investment and creating jobs.”
In November, the three industry sectors with the largest gains in employment were: Professional and Business Services (+6,300); Manufacturing (+2,200); and Construction (+2,100). The three industry sectors with the largest payroll declines were: Government (-2,800); Financial Activities (-2,200) and Other Services (-2,100).
Over-the-year, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +25,900 jobs with the largest gains in these industry sectors in November: Financial Activities (+13,600); Professional and Business Services (+9,500); and Education and Health Services (+7,400). The industry sectors with the largest over-the-year declines include: Government (-8,000); Leisure and Hospitality (-1,800); and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (-1,400). Illinois nonfarm payrolls were up +0.4 percent over-the-year in sharp contrast to the nation’s +1.4 percent over-the-year gain in November.
The state’s unemployment rate is +0.8 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for November 2017, which held at 4.1 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate is down -0.9 percentage points from a year ago when it was 5.8 percent. At 4.9 percent, the Illinois jobless rate is -0.8 percentage points lower than January 2017.
The number of unemployed workers dipped -1.0 percent from the prior month to 313,800, down -16.2 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force increased 0.3 percent over-the-month and declined by -0.9 percent in November over the prior year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and are seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work.
…Adding… Illinois Working Together…
Today, the Illinois Department of Employment Security announced the state lost over 1,000 non-farm payroll jobs last month while the job growth rate was just 0.4% over-the-year, far below the national job growth rate of 1.4%. This news comes a day after the U.S. Census announced Illinois has lost nearly 34,000 people since mid-2016, the worst outmigration for any U.S. state.
In his 2014 inaugural address, Gov. Bruce Rauner said, “People are leavin’ to find jobs, or because they run companies, and they’re takin’ their jobs with `em.” Nearly three years into his term as governor, Rauner not only has failed to reverse Illinois’ economic stagnation leading to population loss, he’s made things much, much worse.
“Bruce Rauner promised to ‘bring back Illinois,’ but instead, we’ve gotten the Rauner two-step: stagnant job growth and record-high outmigration,” said Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis. “Instead of providing the economic stability needed to grow new jobs and attract new residents, Rauner’s failed leadership continues to drag Illinois’ economy down and push Illinoisans out.”
* The story referenced below is here. From the ILGOP…
“There’s a reason why J.B. Pritzker is silent on his allies’ use of patronage - Pritzker has been on the receiving end of Blagojevich patronage himself. If elected, J.B. Pritzker would use state government to dole out patronage jobs to his allies and cronies of Madigan’s Chicago Machine. Illinois taxpayers can’t afford J.B. Pritzker’s tacit approval of patronage and corruption.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
Two weeks ago, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune published their latest installment in a bombshell report exposing the incompetence and corruption of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. The report said Berrios “failed” at his job and allowed political allies like Mike Madigan to profit from faulty assessments.
Now, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune are out with yet another extensive investigation into Joe Berrios’ office. This time, it’s exposing his use of patronage, favoritism, and nepotism. From the investigation:
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios has never made any secret of his affinity for old-school politics that put a premium on loyalty and favors.
… The monitors’ reports, reviewed by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois, reveal a persistent pattern in Berrios’ office of improper hiring and firing, arbitrary staffing decisions and resistance to change. The pace of reform has been slow and the assessor’s commitment often tepid, records and interviews show.
Berrios, who is backing J.B. Pritzker for governor, isn’t the only Pritzker supporter who has a problem with patronage. Pritzker supporters Jesse White and Mike Madigan both have been accused of a “pattern of patronage” in their offices and using state agencies to put loyal precinct captains in plum state jobs.
But why is J.B. Pritzker silent on his allies’ use of patronage?
Because he’s dabbled in their same corrupt system himself. Pritzker was on the receiving end of Blagojevich’s patronage, receiving a state appointment and attempting to get another. If elected, J.B. Pritzker would use state government to dole out patronage jobs just like his crooked allies - Blagojevich, Madigan, White, Berrios, and more.
* Kaegi campaign…
Following is a statement from Fritz Kaegi, the progressive Democrat running against embattled incumbent Assessor Joe Berrios in the March 2018 primary election, in response to the latest Chicago Tribune and ProPublica investigative report on nepotism and political patronage in the Cook County Assessor’s Office.
“Reports that Joe Berrios continues to operate in flagrant violation of the Shakman Decree confirms what many have known for years–that the current Assessor is only concerned with lining the pockets of his family and connected political allies while the taxpayers of Cook County continue to pick up the tab.
“When we began our campaign, I committed to fully implementing all Shakman requirements– and going beyond them to give the taxpayers of Cook County the confidence they deserve in a property tax assessment system that is fair, equitable and transparent for all. Cook County’s is the largest assessor’s office in the country, and needs staffers that are qualified and committed to reforming the assessment process. Cook County has the diverse talent needed to fix this problem and we are committed to building a diverse, qualified workforce that reflects our communities and protects our values. Berrios’ corruption, nepotism and patronage places an unbearable economic burden on working families already struggling under the Trump and Rauner administrations’ backward economic policies.”
*** UPDATE *** From the assessor’s office…
The writers of this Tribune story selectively omitted many key facts. These facts were given to one of the writers as part of approximately 27 emails and 11 phone calls over seven weeks.
The important information the Tribune did not present to readers includes that the court-appointed Monitor for Shakman accepting the Assessor’s Office Employment Plan four years ago (11/22/13). A new Monitor later decided to change that acceptance and start virtually from scratch.
The result was another year-and-a-half before implementation of the plan. Clearly, that lengthy delay was not due to the Assessor’s Office being “slow” to comply.
This story also states that the Assessor’s Chief of Staff was “rarely involved” in Shakman compliance efforts but it fails to note we hired a new Chief of Staff nearly three years ago. Three years. This new Chief of Staff has ordered complete compliance with Shakman.
Further, a new human resources chief was hired nearly three years ago. The current HR chief has also been aggressive and thorough with the goal of complete Skakman compliance and we are now at the point of full material compliance; only technical points remain. Most of what the Tribune wrote about is years-old.
Numerous references were made to the firing of the Director of Compliance (DOC), Deborah Ellis, but the Tribune failed to mention that the Shakman Monitor agreed to that change. It would not have happened without Shakman’s consent. A new DOC was hired nearly two years ago.
The Tribune’s choice to include none of these facts made the story extremely unbalanced and, typically, unfair to Assessor Berrios. It is also unfair to the Assessor’s Office HR Director, HR personnel and Shakman-specializing attorney who have brought us to near-completion of our goal of full Shakman compliance.
Tom Shaer, Deputy Assessor for Communications
Cook County Assessor’s Office
* The 2017 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Legislative Liaison goes to Mike Mahoney…
He served as the governor’s top legislative liaison for the first seven months of this year. His determination, affability and old-school grit held the House and Senate GOP caucuses together longer than anyone ever imagined. Mike was the glue that held the caucus together and kept Jim Durkin sane all the way to the end. Rauner never understood and never appreciated how much Mahoney did to keep him in the game for additional months. Along the way, he helped broker major criminal justice reforms and a laundry list of agency initiatives that Rauner now takes credit for. Mahoney also should win this year hands down for the integrity and class he demonstrated during the Great Purge - walking out in solidarity with people he respected and doing so with grace. And even after all of that, Mahoney saved Rauner’s behind during veto session, devoting his every minute to keeping GOP members off the right to work bill. Effective, determined, creative, loyal and courageous. He is someone we should celebrate during this holiday season - a bright spot in an otherwise depressing year.
Agreed.
Honorable mention goes to Eric Lane with the Comptroller’s office. I’ve generally been looking for nominees who had discernible accomplishments this year, so both fit that bill.
Straight-forward, honest, and always has an answer. This year he successfully navigated (well, almost there right now) the telecom rewrite, 911 issue, and the small cell bill. Some big lifts indeed.
Yep.
* OK, on to today’s categories…
* Best Statewide Officeholder
* Best Statehouse Insider
As always, please explain your votes or they won’t count and do your very best to nominate in both categories. Thanks.
What’s frustrating to me and many people around the state is how biased a lot of the media is around Chicago, around the state. Biased for the status quo. Biased for, you know, against the changes that we’re recommending. The bias is, is hard to overcome.
We stake our livelihood, as journalists, on the notion that facts matter, but an awful lot of people don’t seem to agree. The president’s constant harangue about “fake news” — when the news is anything but — has gotten serious traction. It’s even become an American export, used by brutal strongmen around the world to deflect any honest criticism.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, among others, have all in recent months complained of “fake news.”
Does Gov. Rauner really want to go down that low road?
There is a reason the charge of “fake news” sells in countries where democracy goes to die.
Seems a bit dramatic.
Either way, the governor really needs to stop whining and deflecting blame about almost everything under the sun. It’s just so tiresome.
1. Republicans break with Rauner as Madigan leads major income tax hike, ends budget impasse. The effects of this blockbuster development that unfolded over Independence Day weekend are still reverberating, an event that reframed Illinois politics both for the rest of the year and likely for 2018 as well. […]
2. Lisa Madigan won’t run again, sets off crowded race to succeed her. Once considered a lock to run for governor, Madigan surprised the Illinois political world by announcing she wouldn’t seek a fifth term, a month after she said she’d go again at the state fair. The pent-up political ambition on the Democratic side was evident, as eight Democrats filed to run the March 20 primary election.
3. J.B. Pritzker enters governor race, quickly consolidates support, sets Democratic self-funding record with $42.2 million. The billionaire Gold Coast Democrat has been on TV all year introducing himself to voters and attacking Rauner. Kenilworth businessman Chris Kennedy held the early lead in public opinion polls, but Pritzker has overtaken him.
4. State school funding formula revised for first time in decades. School districts missed state aid payments as the budget lawmakers passed was contingent on a rewrite of the state funding formula also becoming law. Rauner spent months criticizing versions of the bill as a CPS “bailout,” and he even vetoed one that lawmakers put on his desk. But desperately needing a win as he mapped a re-election bid and needing to avoid taking blame if schools started shutting down without state funding, Rauner cut a deal with Democratic legislative leaders. He listed it as his No. 1 accomplishment this week.
Ives insisted that she could win a general election with her fiscally and socially conservative agenda.
“Yes, I can absolutely win the general election,” she said. “Look, the Democrats have destroyed the state and the people know that. And what are all the Democratic candidates selling you? Recreational marijuana, higher taxes, more spending.
“Is anybody buying that shtick? Anybody? No, and that’s the entire agenda of those folks.”
The inmate was mumbling. Shaking. Clearly in a psychotic state and whispering about a black hole.
The black hole had already demanded, and received, his blood once, the inmate told Dr. Pablo Stewart, a psychiatrist who visited Pontiac Correctional Center last fall to determine whether the state was abiding by a settlement agreement crafted to improve care for mentally ill inmates. Now, the inmate told Stewart, the hole wanted more blood. Stewart says that he turned from court-appointed monitor to clinician, attempting convince the inmate that the black hole wasn’t real.
After a few minutes, the inmate was returned to his segregation cell, where mentally ill inmates who misbehave spend as many as 23 hours a day locked up alone, Stewart testified this week in U.S. District Court in Peoria. It could be worse. Inmates deemed seriously suicidal are sent to crisis cells where they are restrained to beds without mattresses, legs spread and shackled down, Stewart testified, their arms shackled and extended above their heads, as if stretched out on medieval torture racks.
“You get cramps and charley horses,” said Corrie Singleton, a Pontiac inmate who testified that he’s been so restrained seven or eight times for as long as 72 hours at a stretch since September. Once every two hours, guards loosen restraints, one limb at time, for eight minutes, Singleton said. He always picks his left arm. His right arm, Singleton explained, is dislocated, and so it is strapped down near his side instead of pinned down over his head, next to his left arm.
Testifying telephonically and fresh from a straitjacket, Singleton said Tuesday that he has been on suicide watch for six days after swallowing batteries. He had been allowed a shower and a chance to brush his teeth just once during that time, he testified in a flat voice, blinking little as he stared into the camera. He said he last had a one-on-one session with a mental health counselor in September. […]
Singleton is the face of a mental health disaster in Illinois prisons, according to attorneys for inmates who’ve been battling in court since 2007, attempting to force improvements. Inmates in 2015 agreed to abandon a consent decree, hoping that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s offer to settle the case without a decree would result in faster change. That, according to the plaintiffs, hasn’t happened, and so they’re back in court hoping for a judicial order to enforce the settlement agreement.
An inmate identified only as Tyler committed suicide in October after unsuccessful attempts in April and July that resulted in no significant change to his written treatment plans, which contained no mention that he had attempted to take his own life, according to Stewart’s testimony and court exhibits. Entire pages of the treatment plan form describing Tyler’s condition and what should be done to help him were left blank, and that’s typical, Stewart testified.
“This isn’t an outlier,” testified the doctor, who told the court that treatment plans routinely contain boilerplate language that doesn’t change from inmate to inmate.
Approximately 900 of the 1,100 inmates in segregation in state prisons are mentally ill, according to court records. Mental health professionals who check on mentally ill inmates must shout at them through small openings in cell doors that preclude inmates and those who are supposed to help them from seeing each other, Stewart testified. It’s a vicious cycle, with segregation cells making sick inmates even sicker, which prompts more misbehavior, which results in more segregation time. They cut themselves and smear their bodies with feces. The state last spring began giving mentally ill inmates more time out of segregation cells by shackling them to chairs in front of big-screen televisions that show movies, which Stewart acknowledged is progress.
The Illinois Department of Corrections has taken considerable steps to enhance the delivery of care for offenders who are on the mental health caseload. The Department remains focused on fully complying with the terms of the Rasho v Baldwin settlement agreement. It should be pointed out that, at a recent hearing, Dr. Melvin Hinton was called as an adverse witness. The vast majority of the questions he was asked required “Yes” or “No” answers. In other words, there were very few opportunities for him to explain the many accomplishments the Department has made in the 18 months since the Agreement was signed. It is important for the public to know the following:
· While recruiting qualified mental health professionals has been a challenge, the Department has added hundreds of new staff members since 2015 to address the mental health needs of its offenders.
· Department staff continues to receive ongoing training, including National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) training and Verbal Judo, which equips them with the knowledge to deescalate situations and meet the unique needs of its mentally ill population.
· The Department has reduced segregation time by 44% since 2015 and has drastically increased out of cell time for offenders who are housed in segregation.
· The Department has implemented additional programming for offenders who are on the mental health caseload.
· Currently, there are seriously mentally ill residents receiving residential treatment level services at Joliet Treatment Center and the residential treatment units at Logan and Dixon Correctional Centers.
· Additionally, the IDOC enlisted the services of an engineering firm to develop a state-of-the-art, 200 bed mental health and general medicine treatment unit for seriously mentally ill offenders.
The safety of our staff, the offenders in our custody, and the public are our top priority. The Department continues to make adjustments in its day to day operations that balance safety, security, and the needs of our mentally ill population. The Department remains committed to ensuring that mentally ill men and women receive the treatment that is essential to their wellbeing, rehabilitation and reentry into society.
Proponents argue that having the mayor appoint the board increases accountability—if you don’t like the board’s actions, elect a new mayor. But this is sort of like blaming Toyota if your Uber is late. There are no checks and balances on the board’s tax decisions. Neither the mayor nor the City Council can veto those votes.
Just to put a fine point on how insane this is: We elect members of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board, but not the school board. We vote on something like 30,000 judges every election, but not the people responsible for the stewardship of, among other things, special education dollars for the kids who need it most.
And an elected school board isn’t exactly a fringe idea. According to education advocacy group Illinois Raise Your Hand, 94 percent of school boards around the country are elected, and Chicago’s is the only one in Illinois appointed by law. Several nonbinding referenda over the last few years have shown again and again that Chicagoans want to elect their boards. So what’s the argument for having the board appointed by the mayor?
Supporters of an appointed board say it removes politics from the board’s composition. If you ignore for a second that Chicago has run on patronage since its inception, this still makes very little sense. An elected school board would represent the diverse viewpoints of members’ constituencies the same way any legislative body does. But an appointed board only represents one point of view: the mayor’s. What the politics-free argument truly is after is a board that will oppose the Chicago Teachers Union.
* There are two parts to the latest WBEZ story on Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy. One is the six-day period between August 21 of 2015, when Illinois Public Health Director Nirav Shah claimed the administration “realized that the situation was the beginning of an epidemic,” and August 27 of 2015 when the Rauner administration issued its first public notice about that epidemic…
In the email, Shah underlined “six days” for added emphasis, but it is not clear why. His reference to a “typical reporting protocol” also is not fully explained, with a spokeswoman on Wednesday saying there is no “hard and fast rule” about when the public must be notified about an infectious disease outbreak. […]
One of the nation’s top infectious disease experts said it’s “mind boggling” that the state would wait six days to notify the public about the initial outbreak at the Illinois Veterans Home.
“I think it’s really inexcusable,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Center for Health Security in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. “It takes you six days from seeing an epidemic to tell people that you’re seeing an epidemic? That’s six days that you’ve allowed that disease to spread in a manner that probably wouldn’t have happened if you would have known earlier because people would have been taking action. People would have been asking questions.
“If you know there is an epidemic, you need to tell people immediately,” Adalja said.
Keep in mind that Legionnaires’ is not typically passed from person to person. So, it wasn’t an “epidemic” in the way, say, measles can be. But by not informing the public, facility residents and their families couldn’t take precautions against the epidemic - like getting tested if they showed symptoms, or even temporarily moving out.
What’s worse to me is that top government officials knew what was going on and apparently didn’t order testing of everyone showing symptoms and then people died as a result.
Meanwhile, Illinois public health officials are now telling WBEZ that five residents and one employee at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy were sickened by Legionnaires’ in 2017. That outbreak included one fatality, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran from west suburban Lisle in early November.
As recently as two weeks ago, the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which manages the Quincy home, had confirmed just three cases to WBEZ and disputed that Legionnaires’ caused the veterans’ death last month. But the coroner in Adams County confirmed Legionnaires’ as a cause of death on the resident’s death certificate.
In late October, when the state confirmed two cases of Legionnaires’, including the fatality, WBEZ explicitly asked a state Veterans’ Affairs spokesman whether there had been any additional cases. The spokesman responded by email saying there had not been. In a Dec. 6 interview with WBEZ, Jeffries also cited three cases.
But this week, after learning more cases did exist in 2017 beyond those two — and a later case in November that the state disclosed — WBEZ was told by state public health authorities that, in fact, six Legionnaires’ cases have been logged this year at the Quincy facility.
Arnold, the state Public Health spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that one case occurred in March, another in May, another in September, two in October, and one in November. She did not provide any other details about those cases.
Rauner defended his administration’s handling of the problem of Legionnaires in the water at Quincy Veterans’ Home in downstate Illinois which has led to 13 deaths since a major outbreak in 2015.
However, are demanding details and accountability.
“If he’s in charge he definitely bears responsibility, but you have to ask him if he’s in charge,” said state Sen. Tom Cullerton, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
Cullerton said he hopes to get answers during a hearing next month. The joint Senate and House hearing on the Quincy situation is set for Jan. 9 in Chicago.
“Who knew what, when they knew it, why the families weren’t there, what the long term goal is, what the CDC’s going to do going forward,” Cullerton said.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
“Bruce Rauner’s willful negligence is coming into focus as reports expose significant delays in releasing information and a failure to report all confirmed Legionnaires’ cases,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This administration hid information from Veterans, their families, and the public as Rauner let a health crisis spiral out of control and our nation’s heroes died on his watch.”
…Adding… Ives campaign…
“The Governor has a moral responsibility to those who are served by the state. He must ensure that services are delivered efficiently, meet the highest standards possible, and that they are, ultimately sustainable. When it becomes clear that the state is not living up to those responsibilities, the Executive Officer must then respond with urgency.
“Since his election in 2014, it become clear that Governor Rauner is very cavalier with other people’s lives. While Rauner plays his blame-shifting game with other IL ruling class pols, veterans died. Preventable deaths aren’t prevented when no one is in charge. Sweeping issues under the rug and breaking promises has become a common theme. This is another inexcusable betrayal of our veterans and the benefits they earned protecting our freedoms. Wasn’t Bruce Rauner the guy with business savvy who was going to make state government more efficient and responsive? He is AWOL and Illinois veterans are being short-changed as a result.”
…Adding… DGA…
“Bruce Rauner failed Illinois veterans and now he’s failing the public by not being honest,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “So far, there’s been no accountability from Rauner’s administration for its bungled response to the Quincy outbreak. Rauner needs to stop hiding information, and start being open and transparent about what his administration knew and how it failed the veterans at Quincy.”
* Related…
* Drink water at vets’ home linked to deaths? ‘Absolutely,’ Rauner says: Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday defended his administration’s response to a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at a state veterans’ home, saying he’d “absolutely” drink the water there. “Absolutely, absolutely,” Rauner said when asked by a reporter about drinking the tap water at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, where 13 residents have died from Legionnaires’ disease since July 2015.
* CDC: How It Spreads: After Legionella grows and multiplies in a building water system, that contaminated water then has to spread in droplets small enough for people to breathe in. People can get Legionnaires’ disease when they breathe in small droplets of water in the air that contain the bacteria. Less commonly, people can get Legionnaires’ disease by aspiration of drinking water. This happens when water “goes down the wrong pipe,” into the trachea (windpipe) and lungs instead of the digestive tract. People at increased risk of aspiration include those with swallowing difficulties.
