* Gov. Pat Quinn celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of Dairy Queen today. During the presentation, Quinn reminisced about how he had stopped at “every single Dairy Queen” when he walked across the state several years ago. That activity earned him a certain nickname from his doctor, Quinn said. Watch…
So, I guess he’s no longer “Soy Boy“? Maybe “Soy Dairy Boy” or something?
Rod Blagojevich’s defense lawyers filed a bid for a mistrial, saying that Judge James Zagel’s repeated rulings against them have kept them from telling their side of the story.
“Defense counsel has been systematically prevented from engaging in meaningful cross-examination by unwarranted sustaining of objections,” Blagojevich’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “The result is the deprivation of a fair trial and a mistrial is warranted.”
They also complained about Zagel’s comments in front of jurors, citing one remark from Zagel: “Don’t do that, now we‟re getting into the mind-reading of the prosecution.”
“Moreover, by ruling on these “mind reading” objections orally in front of the jury, it sends an inappropriate message to the jury (when only the defense is sustained on these questions).”
Defense counsel has been systematically prevented from engaging in meaningful cross-examination by unwarranted sustaining of objections. The result is the deprivation of a fair trial and a mistrial is warranted. […]
The court has ruled that questioning by the defense has gone beyond the scope of direct. In numerous instances, this finding has been erroneous, where indeed the government opened the door to that line of questioning. […]
Defendant moves this court for a mistrial. In the alternative, defense counsel urges this Court to order the government to state the basis upon which it objects, and urges the court to limit the distracting manner in which prosecutors signal to witnesses by persistently standing to object (many times prior to defense counsel even asking a question). It is a distraction for the jury and serves no legitimate purpose.
A barely audible Judge James Zagel is explaining his repeated upholding of prosecution’s objections after Rod Blagojevich’s defense team asked for a mistrial today.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a motion for a mistrial based on objections,” Zagel says. […]
Zagel said he believes lawyers are asking the questions the wrong way — beginning the questions in such a manner that the witness would have to guess what someone was thinking. Zagel noted the defense hasn’t objected much (indeed, today, just one even though the government’s most significant witness has been on the stand all day).
But the bottom line: Zagel said the defense can hand him a list of questions they think he should have allowed and he’d consider them.
Zagel said he saved Sam Adam Jr. and his client a level of resentment from the jury because he kept him from asking of the same questions time and again.
“I’d do it again, because I believe it is in the interest of justice to do so,” Zagel said.
As a commenter said earlier, the defense was probably just trying to “work the refs” a bit here. Others have suggested they’re setting up an appeal. There would always be an appeal. That doesn’t mean, however, that RRB is not doomed. He is.
* Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign manager Mike Rendina just sent out a mass text…
Friends,
Meredith and I excited to announce the arrival of our new boy, Benjamin Nathan. Ben was born at 3:50 am and weighed in at six pounds eight ounces. Both Ben and Meredith are in good health and resting comfortably… Thank you all for your love and well wishes.
Way to go, Mike!
* Former top-notch SJ-R reporter and now Vice President of Public Affairs for Mac Strategies Group Ryan Keith just posted this on his Facebook page…
Baby girl Emersyn Gabrielle is here and healthy, along with mom!
Hooray!
* And, while we’re at it, tomorrow is Secretary of State Jesse White’s 76th birthday. Hope it’s a great one.
Heralded since its 1900 completion as the city’s greatest engineering feat, the reversal of the [Chicago River] kept sewage out of Lake Michigan, providing clean drinking water for Chicago to grow.
Republican Kirk wants to keep the river flowing backward. But Democrat Giannoulias wants a massive federal project to re-reverse it to its natural course.
“We lose about 500 million gallons of purified water because of the way the river flows,” Giannoulias said at the Metropolitan Planning Council’s annual luncheon downtown Monday.
“Long-term, it’s smart to try to re-direct that water, to clean it up first and redirect it into Lake Michigan.”
The project would split the Chicago River from its link to the Mississippi River, blocking the route of Asian carp, which threaten Lake Michigan’s $7 billion fishing industry, supporters say.
But Kirk — also speaking at the luncheon — said “we should not reverse the direction of the Chicago River so that it dumps into the source of our water supply.”
* The Question: Which side has the better argument here? Explain.
AT&T today unveiled its Illinois wired and wireless network investment plans for 2010, which include plans for more than 80 new cell sites and the upgrade of nearly 300 additional cell sites to 3G throughout the state.
The announcement comes on the heels of Gov. Pat Quinn’s signing of the state’s new modern telecommunications law designed to attract private sector investment in broadband and wireless to meet consumer demands and attract jobs across all sectors of the Illinois economy.
“With the stroke of a pen, Governor Quinn made Illinois an attractive place for AT&T to invest in broadband, wireless and emerging technologies,” said Paul La Schiazza, president, AT&T Illinois. “His leadership in broadband coverage and job creation cannot be understated.”
But this is really not new…
From 2007 through 2009, AT&T’s total capital investment in its Illinois wireless and wireline networks was nearly $3.6 billion. From 2007 through 2009, AT&T’s wireless network investment in Illinois was nearly $975 million.
They added 70 cell sites in 2009 and upgraded 220 existing towers. That’s before the law was passed. What’s driving this newly announced expansion is network pressure created by iPhone and iPad owners, not state law. On the other hand, the company can now get out of much of its state legal mandate to expand and maintain its wired service. So, expect AT&T’s actual capital investment to decline overall, not increase.
* The last time the state passed a payday loan law, the industry just worked around it. And even though its supporters say this new law is significantly tougher, the financial services industry has some of the brightest minds in the world on payroll, so I’ll wait and see if this really works. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today signed a bill into law that will increase protections for Illinois residents obtaining consumer installment loans. The new law caps interest rates charged by consumer finance companies, which can sometimes be as high as 1,000 percent.
“Many consumers who take out short-term loans are doing so as a last resort to pay their bills and provide for their families. It is all too easy for lenders to take advantage of them by raising interest rates and setting very short repayment periods,” said Governor Quinn. “It is important that we do everything we can to protect these consumers who are already hurting, by helping to make these loans more affordable.”
There was no new estimate on how many jobs might go along with a Thomson prison filled with federal prisoners. The administration’s original estimate said 1,200 jobs, both direct and indirect, would be created by the third year of operation, based on 1,600 federal prisoners.
Nearly 900 of those jobs would be positions at the prison.
Overall, the administration had said, 3,200 to 3,800 jobs could be created in the region, both direct and indirect.
Those “indirect” jobs are very hard to quantify.
* Last month, the Peoria County/City Board of Health laid off 31 employees and cut way back on its state-supported health programs. Last week was the Woodford County Health Department Board of Health’s turn…
The Woodford County Health Department Board of Health voted last week not to renew several state-supported programs after Illinois informed the board it would not pay for services rendered until December instead of July.
“We knew they were behind (in paying bills), and we decided we could make it until July,” said Laurie Schierer, public health administrator. “But then they told us it would come in December.”
The last time the department received a payment from the state was in December 2009, meaning it would have to go 12 months without a payment for services already rendered, and that wasn’t a viable option. Before last year, the state paid for the programs by the month.
Over the weekend, 52 people were shot in Chicago, a stunning tally that the police blame in large part on gangs.
The police will also tell you that the lifeblood of the gangs is the sale of illegal drugs. The gangs are the Al Capones of our day, peddling an illegal product for which the demand is enormous.
We can disrupt the gangs’ operations — as Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart did last week when his officers seized 5,525 pounds of pot worth $20 million — but we will never put them out of business, no more than we could put the bootleggers out of business.
We fill our prisons with young men who have committed drug-related crimes — a shameful waste of human potential and the taxpayers’ money — but nothing changes. For thousands of high school dropouts who might otherwise be washing dishes for minimum wage, the money in drugs is just too good.
The sheriff’s plan is to burn all that confiscated pot, a further reminder of how irrational our drug policies are. We agree with those who say the pot should be used for medical purposes by people living in great physical pain.
Why not just legalize it and put the gangs out of business? Create some new jobs in the process.
* Related and a roundup…
* Quinn expected in Marion Wednesday: There is no word on what the nature of Quinn’s visit will be, but many have been anticipating his signature on a bill that would green light a major development project in Marion.
* Our View: Wrong to punish independent thought in Springfield; Cross was elected to his position seven years ago on a promise of allowing greater independence for members. Even after this vote, he told reporters that while he was disappointed, “I’m not a guy who’s going to force people to vote a certain way.” Really? Incidentally, Democrat Jack Franks of Woodstock broke with his party and still holds his committee chairmanship.
*** UPDATE 1 - 1:52 pm *** Former chief of staff John Harris destroys Rod Blagojevich’s alibi that he wanted to appoint Lisa Madigan to the vacant US Senate seat in order to pass the long-stalled capital bill and his healthcare reforms…
Harris and Rod are heard discussing leaking a potential Lisa Madigan appointment to Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
John Harris explains from the stand: “Michael Sneed is a woman who writes a political gossip column for a local paper — a page that a lot of politicians read before the sports.”
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked, then, if Harris and Rod were talking about leaking “false information” to Sneed.
Prosecutors play yet another tape, this one happened the morning of the presidential election — Nov. 4, 2008.
The senate seat is discussed at length and Rod Blagojevich can be heard talking about making a “tactical play,” involving Lisa Madigan. The play at one point involved pretending he would appoint the Illinois Attorney General to the Senate seat, but really, he’d appoint himself.
The discussion was a strategy session. Blagojevich and Harris were trying to navigate talks with the Obama camp over the senate seat appointment. But they believed Rahm Emanuel and others were acting “cryptic.” They discussed floating other options as real possibilities to force Obama’s camp to talk straight, according to Harris.
Blagojevich on tape: “We need to think about a tactical play…we gotta figure out a Madigan play.”
Blagojevich said they had Illinois Senate President Emil Jones as a “fallback” for an appointment, but “the best he can do for me is raise money.”
Blagojevich also is heard telling Harris maybe they should work the Madigan angle and then: “I end up using my ace in the hole and I send myself.”
[ *** End of Updates *** ]
* They’re doing him in but good. As we learned yesterday, former deputy governor Bradley Tusk helped seal Rod Blagojevich’s coffin…
Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.
Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.
Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”
Emanuel wanted to know where the money was; Tusk told Harris that the governor would not approve the release of funds. So, Harris testified, he spoke to the governor.
“He seemed to be familiar with it and told me not to approve the release of funds, that he had not approved the release of funds,” Harris said. […]
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked if this was the way grant money was usually doled out.
“No, the process was not typical and quite involved,” Harris said. “I didn’t experience that process again.”
Rod Blagojevich told his top aide to cut off two firms, including CitiBank, from state business as retaliation for not giving his wife a job, former chief of staff John Harris has testified. […]
When Harris later learned CitiBank was in line to win a major state deal, he said he purposely kept Blagojevich in the dark.
Former Blago chief of staff John Harris has just given testimony that backs up what Lon Monk told the court earlier this month — that in 2008, Blagojevich was in cahoots with then-state senate Pres. Emil Jones to kill an ethics bill that would have seriously hindered the governor’s fund-raising efforts. […]
“[Blagojevich] thought Emil would hold because he knew something we didn’t,” Harris testified. “He told us that Emil Jones wanted (Barack Obama’s) senate seat” and wouldn’t go back on his “pledge.”
Jones, though, did succumb to political and public pressure and called the bill.
“No way he’s getting the seat now,” Harris said Blagojevich told him.
Sam Adam Sr., the storied trial lawyer, ran aground as he asked Johnston about his relationship with deceased fundraiser Chris Kelly.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Zagel said after sustaining another objection from the prosecution.
Adam apologized to the judge and moved on, but Zagel’s impatience with the defense team’s tactics did not let up.
Defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky encountered more than 20 objections during his cross examination of Tusk.
* And I really doubt that this defense tactic will work…
Answering questions from prosecutor Reid Schar, Tusk said that at the start of Blagojevich’s first term, the governor came into the office regularly. But his attendance dropped off within a few months. So when the constitutional deadline for acting on legislation drew near, Tusk said, he sometimes had to track Blagojevich down to get an answer, one time meeting the governor at his tailor’s. Other times, Tusk said, he just couldn’t get a hold of his boss, and had to personally decide whether to sign a bill or veto it.
Seeming to respond to this testimony, Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky described Blagojevich as a “big picture guy and not a nitty-gritty detail guy,” an observation Tusk agreed with. This makes the point to the jury that Blagojevich left these “detail[s]” (like which bills to sign, apparently) to his aide. That, in turn, furthers a defense that Sorosky acknowledged in open court earlier Monday: that bad acts may have been committed by some people in the governor’s office, but not by the governor himself. “That undoubtedly is a substantial potion of the defense,” Sorosky told Judge James Zagel.
The reason it won’t work is simple. Rod wasn’t much of a governor, but the tapes clearly show that he was intimately involved with all sorts of nefarious details and was actually leading the parade.
Millionaire Mortgage Banker Mike Niecestro, the west suburban conservative who talked for months about running as an independent against Republican Kirk, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and the Green Party’s LeAlan Jones, did not file petitions for a position on the November ballot. Niecestro–who needed 25,000 signatures of registered voters–told me that his petition drive fell way short of its goal because a “certain republican politician” did not make good on his promise to get 45,000 signatures. In fact, according to Niecestro, the politician known as a “flake” in GOP circles, delivered a goose egg.
Retired U.S. Marine Randy Stufflebeam of downstate Belleville did file for the U.S. Senate as part of the Constitution Party slate. But the ultra conservative Stufflebeam, a Tea Party favorite, told me the Constitutions filed only 34,000 signatures. The conventional wisdom among election lawyers and politicians is that you need at least twice the required number to come up with 25,000 valid names.
So self-described moderate Kirk is likely not to have conservatives on the ballot to take away right wing republican votes.
Who the heck was Niecestro relying on and why would he rely on a “flake” to get his signatures? Weird, that.
Asked then his view of the federal Civil Rights Act, the legality of which has been questioned by Paul’s son, Kentucky GOP U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul, [Lex Green of Bloomington, Libertarian candidate for governor] pulled out a copy of the Constitution and said the document provides “no justification” for the law.
“The Libertarian Party stands for civil rights,” Green said. “We are the party of civil rights. But there is no permission given in the Constitution to pass civil rights law.”
Asked if that means a local business would be able to deny service to black customers, Green said, “I guess I would have to say yes.”
* Still, the Democrats are the ones with problems on their hands. Nobody reported it, but former East St. Louis Mayor Carl Officer filed to run for US Senate, as I told subscribers several days ago. Also, Dock Walls filed for governor. Both men are African-American. And then there’s Scott-Lee Cohen…
“I am extremely confident that a majority of the people of Illinois have forgiven some of my behaviors,” he said.
Cohen spokesman John Davis acknowledged that the campaign paid petition circulators $1.50 a signature and that the ballot drive was coordinated by former Gangster Disciples leader Wallace “Gator” Bradley.
Cohen paid people to help gather the immense number of signatures in just five weeks and addressed reports that some of his helpers were drug users and homeless.
“They have just as much right to earn an honest living as anyone else,” Cohen said.
Davis acknowledged that some of the petition circulators have not been paid, and said Cohen planned to deposit money in his campaign immediately after finishing the task of filing in Springfield, and he promised that unpaid workers would received what they’re owed over the next two or three days.
“As we have said all along, we will be doing our due diligence,” said Mica Matsoff, spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign. “You have to meet certain requirements to get on the ballot, and it’s important to voters that those requirements are met.”
* Related…
* ADDED: What was unexpected, however, at least to this observer, was that petitions would also be filed by attorney Roger Zamparo, seeking to challenge Ann Finley Collins, the Democratic nominee for the Riley vacancy in Cook County’s 11th Judicial Subcircuit, and by attorney Keith Thiel, challenging Judge Daniel A. Pierce, the Democratic nominee for the “A” vacancy in the 14th Judicial Subcircuit.
* Claypool, Cohen ready for change as filing deadline passes today
* Claypool files paperwork to get in Cook County assessor race
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced today that the Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center by the end of the year and fully utilize the entire facility.
In a letter (attached) to Durbin, Quinn and Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL), a DOJ official explained that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) plans to make modifications to the prison and hire and train a full complement of staff while the Defense Department and Congress continue to work on authorizing and funding a portion of the Thomson facility for housing Guantanamo detainees.
Durbin and Governor Quinn issued the following statement:
“With this letter today, the Bureau of Prisons has reaffirmed the commitment it made earlier this year to fully utilize Thomson Correction Center and upgrade the facility to make it the safest prison in the nation.
The agency has already begun the process of recruiting for positions at the prison, so having the facility operating at full capacity could result in more jobs for residents of Thomson and surrounding areas.
As we have said many times, this move will have an enormous impact on our state –generating thousands of good paying jobs and potentially injecting more than $1 billion into the regional economy. This is an opportunity to dramatically reduce unemployment, create thousands of good-paying jobs and breathe new economic life into a part of Illinois that desperately needs this.”
The purchase, activation and operation of Thomson Correctional Center is expected to generate more than 3,000 jobs – roughly half of which are expected to be given to local applicants – and inject more than $1 billion into the regional economy. Currently, there is a critical need for a facility to address federal prison overcrowding problems nationwide and a particularly urgent need for supermax-type bed space. More than 209,000 inmates are in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, up sharply from 202,000 last year.
The Thomson facility was built in 2001 by the State of Illinois as a state-of-the-art, maximum-security prison to house the most severe criminal offenders. The facility was never occupied, however, and is sitting vacant. The facility was constructed on a 146-acre reservation has 1,600 beds with eight compartmentalized units designed for maximum inmate supervision and control. Security features include:
* Dual-sided electrical stun fencing capable of carrying 7,000 volts;
* 312 Cameras on a fiber optic surveillance network with motion detection/remote monitoring capabilities;
* Armed outer and inner perimeter towers.
Bottom line: The Dept. of Justice will run the entire facility. No Gitmo prisoners unless Congress decides to act, which will probably be never.
* Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias spoke separately to a Metropolitan Planning Council gathering today. Giannoulias hung out afterwards before and answered media questions, but Kirk beat it outta there in a hurry…
As soon as that was done — with a swarm of TV cameras and reporters moving toward the front of the ballroom– Mr. Kirk bolted for a back door.
With media in hot pursuit, he raced through a Hyatt kitchen and into the back set of a black SUV — I believe it was a Cadillac Escalade — which instantly pealed out.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has dodged reporters for a week after acknowledging he embellished stories about his military service. Today, Kirk ran from a pack of reporters today after speaking for about 20 minutes at a forum held by the Metropolitan Planning Council where Giannoulias had spoken earlier. Kirk ran through a back door through a kitchen prep area and onto a loading dock where a car waited for him.
The rapid departure came after Kirk offered his answers on a series of pre-arranged questions dealing with planning and urban growth issues such as public transit to Lake Michigan’s water levels.
IL GOP’s Executive Curt Conrad said IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the new Finance Committee has raised more funds in the first four months of 2010 than was raised in 2009 altogether.
And its cash on hand was a startlingly puny $55,200.35.
Yikes.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Chairman Brady just called to say they actually raised “close to $750,000″ so far this year through about six accounts and has about $360K on hand in those accounts.
We applaud the policies that our fellow constitutional officers have already instituted for GLBT employees such as insurance coverage, sick time or bereavement leave.
However, we do not believe any others have a similar policy for unpaid FMLA leave, which was the basis of our Executive Order. FMLA allows an employee to take unpaid time off to care for a sick spouse, child or parent. What the State Treasurer’s Office did was to make “domestic partner” the equivalent of “spouse.”
As a result, in practice FMLA-like benefits were extended to GLBT employees so they could take unpaid leave to care for a sick domestic partner, just like a married employee could do to care for a sick spouse. Taking unpaid leave to care for a state employee’s domestic partner is not currently covered by the FMLA. We believe we are the only office to have done this and have it as a written policy –as opposed to leaving it open to interpretation.
Additionally, while FLMA can presently be used for maternity/paternity issues like the birth or adoption of a child, we do not believe that the state employee would qualify for leave to care for a newborn child related to the employee’s domestic partner. Similarly, if the employee’s domestic partner adopts a child but the state employee does not, under most maternity/paternity leave policies, the employee would not qualify for leave. Our policy now extends these benefits to cover such instances and do not believe it is covered in other state offices.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Another day, another embellishment claim in the US Senate race. But this one’s on Alexi Giannoulias. Last week, the state treasurer made a big announcement…
Gay and lesbian employees of the Illinois Treasurer’s office with domestic partners will have the same benefits as married employees under an executive order signed by state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias Sunday.
They’ll get the same family and medical leave benefits, be able to take time off to have or adopt children and take bereavement time on par with married workers. That is in addition to health care benefits that same-sex partners already received.
The order makes the office the first constitutional Illinois state office or state agency to adopt such a policy and one of only nine states and the District of Columbia to implement leave-related benefits for domestic partners, Giannoulias said.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has had benefits in place for same-sex couples since July 2006. Spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said the change was made after CMS extended benefits to include domestic partners working for the governor’s office a couple of months earlier. […]
Ziegler said Madigan changed her office’s employee insurance coverage to include same-sex couples and bereavement leave. She said the maternity and paternity leave did not need updating because it covered people regardless of their sexual orientation.
Ziegler said she is unaware of any employees that have been denied rights under the Family Medical Leave Act because of their sexual orientation.
The Illinois Republican Party pounced with a press release detailing nine false claims. Here are a few. Click to read them all…
1. Falsely claimed to serve on the Board of Directors for a distinguished banking group. “Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias corrected a claim on his website that he served on the board of a banking group when he didn’t…‘Alexi was not that intimately involved to be candid,’ Wingert said.” (Associated Press, “Giannoulias Fixes Bankers Association Board Claim,” 6/9/2010)
2. Falsely claimed to chair a defunct charity. “Giannoulias is currently the state treasurer of Illinois. And, according to his official website, ‘He founded and chairs the AG Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations.’ The problem is, the charity no longer exists. According to the AG Foundation’s tax return, ‘The organization was in existence only for the two-year period from 2005 to 2006.’ So, why is Giannoulias still claiming to be the ‘chair’ of this defunct organization? According to the same tax return, Giannoulias’s formal position with the foundation was ‘president.’ In this capacity, the ‘average hours per week devoted to position’ was 0.15, which amounts to 9 minutes per week and an average of 39 minutes per month.” (Weekly Standard, “Giannoulias’s Embellishment,” 6/3/2010)
3. Falsely claimed Bright Start only lost $85 million. “The losses in a mutual fund that was part of the Illinois Bright Start college savings plan totaled about $150 million in 2008, more than double what the state had previously disclosed. As a result, families will recoup about half of what they lost, where six months ago some expected to recover a higher percentage of their losses.” (Chicago Tribune, “Illinois Bright Start college fund settlement less than expected,” 12/23/2009)
* Meanwhile, do you remember that story last week about how a Republican tracker got manhandled a bit at a Giannoulias fundraiser? Marathon Pundit has identified the person who most vociferously insisted that the tracker leave as Washington, DC lobbyist Michael Kosmas. Here’s his video…
But there’s a catch. Another conservative Internet guy, Doug Ibendahl, looked into Kosmas and saw that he may lean Republican…
But before joining his current law firm, Michael worked for nearly a decade for former U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley – a Republican from Maryland.
However it’s Michael Kosmas’ political contributions that are really interesting. Kosmas has given to Democrats – including his mother. But check out some of his contributions to Republicans:
$500 to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) (6/20/08)
$250 to U.S. Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) (9/28/04)
$3,200 in total contributions to U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California) (2003-2005)
$1,000 to Rudy Giuliani for Presidential Committee Inc. (11/29/07)
$500 to Elizabeth Dole Committee Inc. (7/15/02)
$4,000 in total contributions to former Republican Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich (2003-2006)
$500 to U.S. Senate Campaign of Republican Rob Portman of Ohio (12/16/09)
$75 to Harford County Republican Central Committee (4/25/03)
$200 to Republican State Central Committee of Maryland (10/2/03)
If someone from Illinois had that kind of contribution history – he or she would be considered a generous Republican.
Actually, that person would be called a “lobbyist who works both sides” here in Illinois.
In one of the first major provisions of federal health-care reform, states were supposed to establish temporary high-risk insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions by July 1.
But Illinois won’t make that deadline. It probably won’t start enrolling people in its pool until mid- to late August because legislators in Springfield failed to pass legislation necessary to set up the new program, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
It wasn’t just the GA’s fault. There was no immediate fallback position by the administration. What we have is yet another embarassment.
According to state records, Illinois had set aside more than $3.3 billion in money for public works projects this year. From that $3.3 billion, almost $464 million already has been spent on projects, while another $585 million is reserved under contract.
That leaves $2.3 billion still on the table for dozens of projects around the state.
Quinn said state agencies and public bodies have to go through detailed procedures before releasing the money and starting work.
“You’ve got to have bidding and you’ve got to have competitive bidding and you’ve got to do all the policies right,” he said. “The bottom line is we have more construction going right now in Illinois that any other time in our state history.”
It doesn’t take a political expert to figure that Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, would be a focus of this arm-twisting [to pass the pension borrowing bill]. He obviously represents large numbers of state employees. He’s in a better position than his GOP colleagues to vote for borrowing as something that’s good for his constituents and to argue that it’s the best of a bunch of bad alternatives.
However, Bomke said last week he hasn’t heard from the governor since the end of May, when the two talked about the pension borrowing and Bomke said he’d keep an open mind.
Every month, the state pays out about $2 billion in bills. The biggest chunk of that money doesn’t go to state services, salaries or to help bring down the backlog.
Rather, every month, the state spends about $500 million simply to pay back loans it took out in an earlier round of borrowing.
* Our chart of the day is from Voices for Illinois Children. Click the pic for a better view…
OK, here’s another one showing some details of the hits within the Department of Human Services budget…
* It’s been an article of faith among conservatives and quite a few moderates that states which hiked taxes on the rich suffered a mass exodus. Ezra Klein points to a roundup of some studies that suggest otherwise…
1) Economist Andrew Leigh did a national study (PDF) looking for effects of state income tax rates on migration patterns. He could not find a statistically significant relationship.
2) After Maryland instituted higher tax rates on wealthy individuals in 2007 and 2008, tax returns from millionaires dropped. But the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found (PDF) that the drop was not due to millionaires leaving, but to the recession making them no longer millionaires.
3) The California Budget Project notes (PDF) that California imposed a temporary tax increase on high earners from 1991 to 1995, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 33.4 percent. Another high-income tax hike was implemented in 2005, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 37.8 percent.
4) New Jersey increased taxes on high earners in 2004, and Princeton researchers did find (PDF) that New Jersey lost $37.7 million in tax revenue after migration by wealthy tax payers. However, that number was dwarfed by the more than $1 billion overall revenue gain from the tax increase, and the number of high-income filers still increased between 2004 and 2006.
* Author shows why closing book on libraries is a bad idea: Legislators didn’t vote to shut down the regional [library] systems; they just didn’t act as the state stopped paying the money it had appropriated. The North Suburban Library System was the first to run out of money, shrinking to a skeleton operation, and others are facing the same budgetary squeeze.
*** UPDATE - 3:24 pm *** From Illinois Review, there are now eight filers for US Senate…
Joliet’s Christopher Pedersen submitted petitions last Monday for the Independent Conservative Party’s nomination and this morning Oak Brook’s Mike Labno submitted petitions for the Libertarian Party, in addition to the Independent Party candidates Will “Willie” Boyd from Greenville and Shon-Tiyon “Santiago” Horton from Alton.
Also joining the pack of U.S. Senate hopefuls is former Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Andy Martin, running on the Illinois Reform party ticket.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Keep in mind that even if he did manage to gather enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, there are still some serious legal challenges ahead for Scott Lee Cohen’s candidacy…
The would-be independent candidate for governor has had teams of signature collectors out of the streets for weeks, trying to gather the required 25,000 by Monday’s deadline.
Just before a Sunday afternoon news conference at his campaign headquarters, Cohen spokesman John Davis said they have the 25,000 — plus more than 100,000 to spare. In total, the campaign says they have 133,170 signatures — more than 5 times the required number.
The lawyers will definitely earn their paydays sifting through all of those signatures.
Considering that Cohen was caught using winos and junkies as petition passers, there is probably a lot of, um, junk in that stack. George Ryan demanded that his highly well-oiled machine gather 100,000 signatures for his 1998 gubernatorial bid. One of his top lieutenants back then told me that the petition drive was the most difficult, grueling experience of his political life.
Forrest Claypool says he has more than the necessary 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Claypool’s a Democratic Cook County commissioner hoping to run for county assessor.
CLAYPOOL: The only way we will not be on the ballot, I believe, is if there’s something wrong with the system.
From a press release…
In a resounding statement of support for independent reformer Forrest Claypool, over 90,000 Cook County voters signed his nomination petitions for Cook County Assessor in just 77 days.
The effort involved 912 volunteer circulators, all of whom signed forms stating that they did not pass petitions for Democrats, Republicans, or the Green Party in advance of the February primary. Many had never volunteered for a political campaign before.
“I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support from Cook County taxpayers who are fed up with politics as usual,” said Claypool.
The filing comprises more than 6,500 pages, stands over 2 ½ feet tall, is bound by metal rounds to ensure a uniform, solitary filing, and weighs approximately 75 pounds.
The Claypool campaign claims they collected an additional 4,200 signatures, but threw them out because they didn’t meet their standards.
Video…
* Related…
* Our View: Tired of laughable candidates’ election wins? Start paying attention: As with Cohen, the wealthy Chicago pawnbroker who briefly held the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in the Land of Lincoln before word spread about a previous arrest for allegedly threatening his prostitute girlfriend with a knife, among other embarrassments, South Carolina’s Alvin Greene brings some hefty political baggage with him.
The big question heading into this morning’s session of the Blagojevich corruption trial was whether Blagojevich’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., and U.S. District Judge James Zagel would again butt heads.
But that was overshadowed by an even bigger development: Former first lady Patti Blagojevich apparently cut her long brown hair over the weekend and showed up in court with a short bobbed hairdo.
Bradley Tusk, a onetime aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is testifying about an alleged shakedown scheme contained in the government’s indictment.
Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.
Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.
Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”
I keep waiting for the big crime to show up in the testimony– and maybe it will, some obvious quid-pro-quo for Obama’s old Senate seat, the “OK, you give me $10 million and you’re a senator” moment. But I haven’t heard it yet. My gut tells me that Blago’s crime is going to boil down to the same crime Miriam Santos was convicted of — the crime of saying on tape what many others say unrecorded.
Neil should listen to the tapes. From my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Back in 2003, Rod Blagojevich’s former congressional chief of staff Dave Stricklin was asked by Chicago Magazine to recall an example of his former boss’s “goal-oriented approach to his congressional work.”
“Having X amount of dollars raised by X date,” was Stricklin’s response.
The U.S. attorney’s office has posted several audio recordings online related to Lon Monk’s testimony against Rod Blagojevich. I listened to them all last week, some of them twice, and it was beyond obvious that nothing changed for Blagojevich from the time he was a congressman right up until he was arrested.
We mostly knew that already, of course. Blagojevich broke every state fundraising record in the book. And the recordings show he crossed a very big line.
Blagojevich’s voice sounds almost desperate at times on the recordings as he tries to make sure he has $4 million in his campaign bank account by the end of 2008. Dec. 31 of that year was the last day that most state contractors could contribute to his campaign because of a new law, so the push was on.
“(H)ere’s the thing,” brother Rob said during a phone call two days before the dramatic Dec. 8 FBI arrest. “Four million dollars is the target. Right now, when I do my math, we come up short by a quarter of a million, two-fifty, but it, but there’s enough there, like a Pritzker, like a Zell, like a …”
“Oh, this is no good, forget that,” a clearly peeved governor interjected. Blagojevich berated his brother for not making the goal. “This is not good, I mean your, your numbers keep coming down! Your numbers keep coming down! You were safely at … 4 million, now we’re down to 250,000 short of that?”
In the end, they ended up $1.3 million short of that $4 million target. The big money never came in because of that early morning visit by the feds.
There are definitely some “smoking guns” on the tapes. For instance, five days before he was arrested, Blagojevich and Monk talked for the umpteenth time about how best to convince racetrack owner John Johnston to kick in a huge contribution by the end of the year. At the time, Johnston was also hoping that Blagojevich would sign a bill that greatly helped the horse racing industry.
Blagojevich advises that Monk tell Johnston that he will wait to sign the bill until right after the first of the year, suggesting he say that the governor will sign a whole bunch of bills at once and Johnston’s will be included in that stack in order to bury the story.
Monk asks Blagojevich how many bills are still waiting to be signed. Blagojevich guesstimates a hundred and reiterates that Monk relay to Johnston how important it is that December is a “key month” for contributions and that his campaign had been waiting a year for the cash. Blagojevich then says that he needs to speak to his government chief of staff right away.
A call is placed and the governor asks how many bills are awaiting his signature. He’s told there are 30.
“Thirty bills?” Blagojevich asks on the recording. “And they’re all the same timing?… Yeah, so don’t do any of ‘em,” he orders his chief of staff. “I wanna do ‘em all together. OK. In toto. OK. All 30.”
After the phone call Blagojevich asks Monk to rehearse what he plans to say to Johnston and advises “Be careful.” Monk says he’ll tell Johnston to “stop screwin’ around,” and will inform him of the governor’s plan to “group all these bills together.”
Blagojevich suggests that Monk tell Johnston that the governor would “like some separation between (the contribution) and signing the bill.”
“Define separation,” Monk says.
“A week,” Blagojevich replies.
You can’t hardly get busted more clearly than that.
Stricklin, the former congressional chief of staff who so accurately described Blagojevich’s “work ethic” back in 2003, was mentioned on the FBI recordings as well. Blagojevich and Monk talked four days before the arrest about people who should be loyal and pony up but were refusing.
* A little Humble Pie for all you “Greater Chicagoland Area” folks caught in that wicked storm that’s blowing through. Stay safe, stay dry and, for crying out loud, stay inside. Then turn it up…
* It turns out that Mark Kirk wasn’t a nursery school teacher, as he and his campaign have both claimed. Instead, he apparently assisted a woman who ran a “play group” for kids in a church basement and just played with the kids…
A leader of the church where Representative Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, claimed he worked as a nursery school teacher said on Friday that he had overstated his role there. […]
“He was never, ever considered a teacher,” Ms. Grubb said in an interview after researching the history of Mr. Kirk’s association with the nursery school for two days. “He was just an additional pair of hands to help a primary teaching person.”
The Methodist church in Ithaca, N.Y. has been trying to determine whether Mr. Kirk worked there after The New York Times reported on Thursday about the brevity of Mr. Kirk’s teaching experience. Eight longtime members of the church, including two former pastors, said in interviews this week that they did not recall having a male nursery school teacher in 1981 when Mr. Kirk said he worked there. […]
In an interview on Friday, Ms. Grubb said that she told a representative of the Kirk campaign of her concerns when they reached out to her on Thursday to try to verify Mr. Kirk’s time at the nursery.
Ms. Grubb said she spoke to the teacher who led what was then a “play group” organized by parents that met in the church basement. The teacher had a “vague recollection” of having Mr. Kirk as a work study student, but she did not remember his name. She added that Mr. Kirk did not have any major responsibilities at the play group, such as creating lesson plans, and he was only an assistant who played with the children.
This is what Kirk’s campaign spokesperson was quoted as saying yesterday…
“One of his jobs was a nursery school teacher with the responsibilities one would expect.”
I “expect” a teacher to, you know, teach. Not play with kids.
It just gets weirder and weirder with this guy.
…Adding… I’ve moved this here from a previous post. I do agree with the Giannoulias campaign about this point…
The Kirk campaign did take issue with a portion of The New York Times story that quotes a 2006 speech by Kirk on the House floor about school safety where he recalled “the kids who were the brightest lights of our country’s future” and “those who bore scrutiny as people who might bring a gun to class.”
The New York Times reported that a Kirk campaign spokeswoman said the congressman was referring to his nursery school students - not his students at the London private school. However, campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Tuesday, the clause “brightest lights of our country’s future” referred to nursery school students while the “bore scrutiny” clause referred to a few students at the prep school in London.
[Giannoulias campaign spokesman Matt McGrath] countered, “That’s even more absurd. They’ve gone from bizarre to absurd.”
That was a high-class private school in a hoity-toity London neighborhood. There’s just no fathomable way that people were concerned about kids bringing guns to that English prep school in the early 1980s.
Also, will the Sun-Times now retract today’s goofy editorial?
* Alexi Giannoulias needs to remember that just because Mark Kirk is in some hot water these days, that doesn’t mean he is somehow absolved. Statements like this are bound to be attacked…
Giannoulias, who was joined Thursday by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on a tour of a Chicago community center and at private fundraisers, countered that “the other side” is trying to politicize the economic downturn’s effect on community banks.
There was more to his family bank’s collapse and FDIC seizure than simply ” the economic downturn’s effect on community banks.”
The spokesman said Giannoulias, who also sought an extension for his personal income taxes, wants to have a “more accurate picture of his personal finances, which have changed considerably since the sale of Broadway Bank.”
Sale? Yeah, the bank was sold, but first it failed and was then seized…
DuPage County state’s attorney Joe Birkett claims Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is deceiving voters by calling the takeover of his family’s bank a sale and criticized him for not releasing financial information. Birkett said Thursday that he was speaking on behalf of Republican Mark Kirk’s U.S. Senate campaign.
Um, Joe, how about practicing those lines before you talk? You rendered those gems useless for the teevee and radio.
And even though the Sun-Times editorial today was based on incomplete information and was, therefore, ludicrous, I still agree with this part…
It comes down to this:
Mark Kirk gets carried away when talking about his accomplishments, but he does have accomplishments to get carried away with. He was in fact a teacher, even if not for long. He is in fact a respected officer in the Navy Reserve.
Giannoulias, in contrast, worked for his dad for four years at the family bank. Then he was elected state treasurer. And this spring, the bank went bust.
[Section deleted and moved to a different post for clarity.]
Giannoulias and Quinn are getting a lower level of support from people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 than any other Democratic candidates across the country we’ve polled on since the beginning of April, and it’s not even close. Only 50% of Obama supporters are currently committed to voting for Giannoulias and just 48% say they’ll cast their votes for Quinn.
No other Democrat we’ve polled on recently has been getting less than 60% of the Obama vote- the one at that level is Roxanne Conlin, running what has to be seen as an incredibly uphill battle against Chuck Grassley in Iowa. Even politicians with sub 30 approval ratings (Chet Culver at 68%) or who are pretty much completely unknown (Vincent Sheheen at 70%, Rodney Glassman at 65%) are doing a far better job of locking up the Democratic base vote.
There is a partial explanation…
Obama did way better in 2008 here than any Democratic presidential candidate in many a year. He scored a higher percentage than Lyndon Johnson did in 1964, which is pretty darned amazing.
So, as politics returns to a bit more normal level here and voters return to their more traditional behaviors, it’s understandable that Democratic candidates wouldn’t be doing nearly as well with Obama voters as Obama did.
Even so, those numbers are just horrible for both Quinn and Giannoulias. Horrible.
PPP’s most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33% of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48% said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That’s because only 64% of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91% who disapprove say Obama’s support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.
To put into perspective the perils of having Obama out on the campaign trail, consider the numbers in his home state of Illinois. Even there just 26% of voters say they’d be more inclined to back an Obama endorsed candidate while 40% say his support would be more likely to turn them against a candidate. It’s another example where the intensity of feeling about Obama is much stronger on the GOP side- 80% of Republicans say they’re less likely to vote for someone with the President’s support while only 49% of Democrats say they’re more likely to. If Obama’s support isn’t a net positive in Illinois it’s hard to know where he should be deployed.
The Illinois results with the national results in parentheses…
* Do you approve or disapprove of Barack
Obama’s job performance?
53% Approve (48%)
41% Disapprove (47%)
6% Not Sure (5%)
* Are you more or less likely to vote for a
candidate endorsed by President Obama, or
does it not make a difference either way?
26% More likely (33%)
40% Less likely (48%)
34% Doesn’t make a difference either way (17%)
* Are you more or less likely to vote for a
candidate endorsed by Bill Clinton, or does it
not make a difference either way?
25% More likely
38% Less likely
37% Doesn’t make a difference either way
* Do you have a higher opinion of Bill Clinton or
Barack Obama?
32% Bill Clinton
39% Barack Obama
30% Not sure
* Related…
* Whitley adds more praise for Quinn — ‘Breath of fresh air’
* Senator’s e-mail directs donors to call district office: State Sen. Michael Noland of Elgin asked supporters recently to chip in “$25, $50, $75 or $100″ to his campaign via a blast e-mail, then he told them to call his taxpayer-funded district office with any questions.
* Forbes has a new interactive map that shows 2008 population movement by county. Outbound movement is in red, inbound is in black. Here’s Cook County…
* Illinois Debt-Default Insurance Climbs to Record High: “If the spread is the widest, it says the problem is bigger than it’s ever been before,” said Peter Hayes, who oversees $106 billion of municipal bonds for New York-based BlackRock Inc. “It’s a reaction to the inability to pass a budget. We’ve seen a greater unwillingness from Illinois and the market is reacting to that.”
* McCormick Place revitalization plan seems to be working
* Sen. Collins to probe debt broker’s pitch: State Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) is launching an inquiry into a new business that wants to make loans to social social service agencies owed money by the state of Illinois.
* Judge Zagel to Sam Jr.: “Why do you do this?”: With spectators sitting on the edge of their seats, Zagel gave Adam a tongue-lashing for the judicial equivalent of running his mouth off.
* Judge, defense attorney clash at Blagojevich trial: Sam Adam Jr., whose theatrical courtroom presence is at odds with standard federal court decorum, finally got all the way under Zagel’s skin. And the judge responded by lecturing him in front of the jury and once even ordering jurors from the room so he could make a point with the lawyer outside jurors’ presence.
* Blago trial sideshows: Witness decked, sandwiches yanked: [Prosecution witness Joseph] Cari landed on his back and then rolled onto his stomach, according to a WGN-Channel 9 video. He was helped up about 40 seconds later.
The Democratic candidate for the 10th Congressional District seat has been called out for using an old endorsement.
Dan Seals was misleading voters by including a portion of a Daily Herald endorsement as part of a rotating gallery of information on his campaign home page, according to a blogger who follows the action in the 10th.
The endorsement came during the Democratic primary, as Seals dueled two other candidates. He edged state Rep. Julie Hamos for the nomination to face Republican Bob Dold in the November general election. The seat is currently held by Republican Mark Kirk, who is running for U.S. Senate.
“It doesn’t apply today,” said Larry Falbe, a Mettawa trustee and creator of Team America’s 10th District blog.
“This isn’t buried somewhere on an endorsement list. It’s front and center,” added Falbe, a Kirk supporter and volunteer for Dold who has been critical of Seals in the past.
Props to Larry for pushing that story into the mainstream, but the Daily Herald reporter and Larry should’ve both looked at Republican Bob Dold’s website before they launched into their attack on Dan Seals. If they had, they would’ve seen this…
In case you’re a little slow this morning, that would be the exact same “problem” as Seals’ website had. Dold is prominently displaying a Tribune endorsement from the primary.
Oops.
Rob thinks this is an example of media bias. If the reporter knew about the Dold site and didn’t include it in the story, then, yes, it’s bias. But we don’t know yet whether the reporter knew, so that’s why I’ve just labeled this as journalistic laziness. If it’s worse, I’ll get back to you.
* What is it about people these days who see a video camera and don’t immediately think “My stupid overreaction could be seen by thousands of people on YouTube”? Sheesh…
More rough tactics were on display last night in Washington DC as a hotheaded campaign worker for the Alexi Giannoulias campaign for Senator of Illinois confronted a man with a video camera at a fundraising event.
The event took place on the rooftop of an apartment building in Washington DC which is a public space for residents of the building and their guests. The unidentified camera man has stated that he was, in fact, the guest of a friend of his who lives in the building. Even if one stipulates that the campaign had the right to the section of the roof that was set aside for the event, the way in which the situation was handled certainly calls into question the judgement and temperment of the people candidate Giannoulias surrounds himself with.
As seen earlier this week in the outrageous response by Rep. Bob Etheridge to two college students with cameras who asked him if he supported “The Obama Agenda”, Democrats seem more and more reactionary when they see a person with a video camera near by. In the words of a seasoned DC insider: ”The heat is on.”
It’s not nearly as bad as the Etheridge incident, but it’s not good, either. The video…
* The NRSC did a nice job of pushing the video into the public domain by issuing a memo advising campaigns on how to deal with trackers…
After the second clip in a week hit the web showing a confrontation between a Democratic political campaign and a person shooting video, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a memo to its campaigns Thursday reminding them to be sure staffers don’t become “verbally abusive” or “make physical contact” with videographers.
The memo, penned by NRSC Counsel Sean Cairncross and obtained by POLITICO, warns GOP Senate campaigns how to handle video trackers, stating that “this physical confrontation took place less than 72 hours after Democrat Congressman Bob Ethridge was recorded grabbing and placing a chokehold on another videographer.” […]
The NRSC’s memo states that as long as the videographer is “on public property and not actively disrupting” the event, he or she can continue filming. The NRSC recommends that campaigns tell staffers not to insult or threaten or physically touch a videographer, and to “always be polite” with them because “your interaction is likely being recorded.”
“The video attached to the e-mail containing this memorandum is an example of precisely how not to handle a videographer – and has created potential legal liability for both the individuals involved and the Giannoulias campaign,” Cairncross wrote. “Instituting these policies will help your campaign avoid both the political embarrassment and legal exposure that accompany inappropriate responses to videographers.”
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** The Giannoulias campaign called to say that they had just one paid staffer at that fundraiser and that nobody in the video was a campaign staffer or a volunteer. They were event attendees, according to the campaign.
Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, also dismissed as Blagojevich-like criticism from his Democratic rival, Gov. Pat Quinn, that an appearance with a member of the Bush family was a sign that Brady would return to the fiscal policies of President George W. Bush.
“It seems to me that this current governor’s hallucinating the same way that the governor on trial is,” Brady said at the Chicago Club.
“He’s talking about raising tax rates on a recessionary economy that’s losing jobs faster than almost every state in the nation. He’s talking about borrowing on the backs of human service providers, educational institutions, colleges, cities and county government. He’s ignored dealing with the budget while he’s gallivanted around the state when we’re in a fiscal crisis,” Brady said.
“He’s a professional naysayer, we know that,” Quinn said of Brady. “All he does is preach doom and gloom, that’s not going to get Illinois out of the economic turmoil that George Bush created. You know, Sen. Brady was a George Bush delegate, he was a cheerleader for George Bush, George W. Bush, and all these policies that ran the American economy into the ditch.”
Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush beat up the Democrats with Jimmy Carter for 12 years, and it worked for about 9 of those 12 (they’ve used it again against Barack Obama with little success). The Democrats successfully used Herbert Hoover against the Republicans for almost two decades.
“W” was horribly unpopular in Illinois pretty much throughout his two terms, but particularly in that second term, when Blagojevich successfully whacked Judy Baar Topinka with a TV ad linking her to the president.
Whether this sort of thing will work in Illinois this year is up for debate, but I would like to see some polling data before making any firm pronouncements.
…Adding… One oppo dump deserves another in the US Senate campaign. From Matt Lewis, a “writer, blogger and commentator based in Alexandria, VA” and via the Kirk campaign…
According to his website, Alexi has taken a hard-line stand against BP, noting “the unreasonably low liability cap could enable BP to evade paying for long-term damages. Alexi supports raising the liability limit under the Oil Spill Prevention Act from $75 million to at least $10 billion.”
Zemenides appears to be working as an unpaid adviser to the campaign, but he is clearly a top counselor to Giannoulias, and is frequently identified as a “top aide” or “political director.”
A groundbreaking partnership which will enable BP to extend and improve its service station network across Europe in a more cost-effective manner has been formalised with Bovis.
Under the partnership agreement - which will run for five years - Bovis will build and maintain BP’s retail sites in Europe and will derive its profit solely from the savings it achieves. By the end of 1997 at least 150 service stations will be built under the new arrangement.
BP is beyond radioactive at the moment, of course, so we’ll see if this former lobbying contract takes hold.
* Related…
* God Apologizes To BP For Putting The Gulf Of Mexico In The Way Of All That Oil
State budget records, however, reveal that 70 percent of the money allocated for the first year [of the capital bill] is still unused, surprising even the Illinois budget director.
“That’s my attitude exactly, what’s the hold up?” said David Vaught, Illinois budget director. […]
“We sold $4 billion in bonds to get the program moving. The money is available, the projects are authorized, as soon as the agencies, the non profits, you know, the hospitals, as soon as they get their grant applications in and get the paperwork done, or as soon as the bids go out, and people bid on the projects, the cash is flowing,” said Vaught.
According to state records, there is almost $3 billion available for approved Illinois projects and the jobs that go with them; $2.61 billion is currently unclaimed by offices and agencies that include:
# Stateville Prison in Joliet: $4.5 for construction of a new prisoner housing unit
# shoreline stabilization at a state park in Lake County: $1 million
# a new heating and air condition system at the Thompson Center: $4 million
# a back up generator at Reed Mental Health Center: $1.4 million
Vaught isn’t just the budget director. He’s the director of Management and Budget. Vaught needs to find out what the “hold up” is today.
And while the unemployment picture improved ever so slightly last month, those capital bill jobs are still desperately needed. From a press release…
The Illinois seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped -0.4 point to 10.8 percent in May, according to data released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The over-the-month decline is the largest since October 1983. The three-month moving average decreased -0.2 point to 11.2 percent in May, its first decline since November 2006. Illinois has added 70,000 jobs so far this year.
Closing in on 60 votes, Senate Democrats trimmed billions more from their once ambitious jobs and economic relief bill Wednesday in hopes of winning over swing Republicans and breaking the stalemate this week.
The spending reductions — estimated near $20 billion — are accompanied by tax changes tailored to the small-business concerns of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) as well as venture capital and real estate interests with influence in both parties.
In the bargaining now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, up for reelection in cash-strapped Nevada, is still holding onto a $24 billion, six-month extension of federal Medicaid assistance from January to June next year.
The money is vital to the finances of states like Reid’s, hit hard by the economic downturn, and he has the support of President Barack Obama. But the cost of the Medicaid funding makes the program an easy target, and the dollars may still have to be scaled back to win the swing vote of Snowe’s fellow Maine Republican, Sen. Susan Collins.
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, who’s been featured in GQ magazine and whose six-pack abs were featured in a photograph that made the rounds on the Internet, got another dash of pictorial publicity this month — to which he has reacted.
Gawker.com posted a picture of the congressman at a White House picnic last week in which Schock was wearing bright white pants, a tight red-and-white shirt with cuffs neatly rolled up, and a teal belt.
Schock responded this week on his Twitter account, twitter.com/repaaronschock: “Never thought a pic of me w/ my shirt on would go viral. Learned my lesson and burned the belt.”
The pic…
* The Question: Caption?
And make extra sure that you keep it clean. Violators will be banned for eternity. That’s a very long time, in case you were wondering.
* As we already know, Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign was in Bloomington yesterday for a counter-rally during Jeb Bush’s fundraiser for state Sen. Bill Brady. The Quinnsters were decked out in buttons displaying a message that will surely be a theme for the rest of the campaign…
“Bill will have a big challenge in front of him, but leadership matters and I have confidence he has some big ideas and can restore growth to Illinois,” he said.
Brady said that in order to get Illinois finances back in order, the state must change its philosophy.
“We have to start living within our means,” Brady said. “We have to live up to our obligations, but we don’t have enough funding for schools, human resource providers and county governments.”
The economy also was the focus of Simon’s speech, and she wasn’t shy about taking shots at Brady’s featured guest. Brady’s private event featuring Bush required $500 per ticket.
“Our event was free and open to the public, and we drew a huge crowd,” Simon said. “This is Bill Brady’s hometown and yet it’s obvious that people want to hear our message and want to support our cause.”
* In a long, torturous opinion, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decided yesterday that Illinois is supposed to hold a special election to fill the US Senate seat vacancy created when Barack Obama was elected president…
As the case now stands, the plaintiffs take the position that the Seventeenth Amendment requires Governor Quinn to issue a writ of election calling an election to fill President Obama’s vacancy in the Senate, and the state is arguing that he is under no such obligation. Our analysis of the Seventeenth Amendment convinces us that the plaintiffs have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits. The governor has a duty to issue a writ of election to fill the Obama vacancy. That writ must include a date, but it appears that the Illinois legislature has provided only one date from which Governor Quinn may choose: November 2, 2010.
But the court also ruled that the plaintiffs did not make their case that they would be irreparably harmed if an injunction ordering the governor to call a special election is denied…
The fact that the plaintiffs leave us essentially in the dark about the irreparable harm that they confront makes it impossible for us to conclude that the district court abused its discretion when it denied the preliminary injunction.
The conclusion…
There is still time for the governor to issue a writ of election that will call for an election on the date established by Illinois law and that will make it clear to the voters that they are selecting a replacement for Senator Obama. The district court can easily reach and resolve the merits of this request before any of the harm that the plaintiffs forecast comes to pass. Moreover, circumstances change: Governor Quinn might issue a writ of election tomorrow, or next week.
Go figure.
*** UPDATE *** I couldn’t access NBC5’s site for a while this morning, so I didn’t see this one until now. Mary Ann Ahern looks at the Scott Lee Cohen race…
Election lawyer Burt Odelson says he’s not a betting man, but he doesn’t think Scott Lee Cohen will have enough valid signatures to get on the ballot for governor in November.
Furthermore, Odelson says established case law effectively negates Cohen from even running.
“This is a case of what we call a case of ‘first impression,’” he said. “If you partook in the primary, you couldn’t change parties during the election cycle and switch over to another party.” […]
But Odelson contends that anyone who voted or took part in the last primary will also be knocked off. And he said that limitation extends to those collecting signatures: prove the collector is ineligible and all the signatures they’ve acquired are also deemed invalid.
“I would like to know what his reasoning is,” Cohen later questioned. “I took the time to research the candidate’s handbook for 2010. There was nothing in there stating that. In fact, it clearly, in black and white says that if you signed a position in the primary for a candidate, whether it’s Democrat or Republican, you are still able to sign the ballot of an Independent during the General.”
I’ve heard these arguments as well and I suspect Cohen will be tied up in court for a while if he has enough valid signatures to make the ballot, which isn’t exactly guaranteed, either.
* Related…
* ADDED: State Sen. Michael Noland has come under fire for an e-mail that his private campaign sent out that asks for donations and also lists his taxpayer-funded Springfield and Elgin offices… “One would think that the federal corruption trial of former Gov. Blagojevich would remind Sen. Noland to show some regard for ethical standards,” Cudney said. “Instead, Sen. Noland seems to have an ongoing problem making the important distinction between his state duties and his political activities.”
* ADDED: Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Wednesday that is set to assist Illinois workers during economic recessions. The new law declares that all state-funded public works projects must employ Illinois workers to make up 90 percent of the project’s workforce during periods of high unemployment, defined as a jobless rate of 5 percent or more for two consecutive months. Projects receiving state funds or funds that are administered by the state also must adhere to the new law.
* Compromised Care: Nursing home part-owned by state lawmaker may lose its license: State health authorities have moved to revoke the license of a southwest suburban nursing home part-owned by state Sen. Heather Steans because of repeated citations for serious patient neglect. Steans does not have any operational role in the facility, Evergreen Health Care Center in Evergreen Park, and the Chicago Democrat said she has drawn little or no income from what she described as her small ownership stake in companies that manage the home.
* Bernard Schoenburg: Rutherford rolls out unconventional Facebook page: I’m writing about the Facebook page of Pongee — Rutherford’s car, a Pontiac G6.
*** UPDATE *** As pretty much everybody suspected, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush today flat-out denied that a very goofy Blagojevich-circle plot ever reached him. The plot involved having former football star Bernie Kosar contact Jeb Bush about a presidential pardon for Chris Kelly. From NBC5…
Bush denied the claim.
“It would be humorous if it wasn’t so tragic,” Bush said. “Only in Chicago.”
Zagel fell short of slapping a muzzle on the blabby Blagojevich, calling a gag order a last resort. But he took issue with the defendant’s comments in a news conference Tuesday about the testimony of a key government witness. Blagojevich called former aide Lon Monk a liar and said Monk brought shame to his family.
“It is an appeal to sympathy, which is something you are not permitted to do with the jury,” Zagel said. “I do have significant concerns.”
Zagel told the defense and the prosecution to come up with agreed guidelines by Monday on what can be said outside of court.
The prosecution’s motion is here. More from Zagel…
Judge James Zagel told lawyers the issue concerns him. He said news shows include “fairly quick cuts” that are hard for jurors to avoid when they turn on the TV. Zagel says Blagojevich’s comments were “essentially a kind of backhanded plea for sympathy,” and the judge says that kind of defense is not allowed by law.
Moments after Zagel’s decision to hold off for now on a gag order, Blagojevich was back outside the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse glad-handing and posing for cell-phone pictures with passers-by who appeared stunned to be running into a celebrity on Dearborn Street. Blagojevich thanked each one and stopped to give his autograph before stepping toward a waiting car.
The controversy over recent statements of Blagojevich and his lawyers was the latest culture clash between federal prosecutors, who want the trial to proceed with machine-like precision, and Blagojevich’s defense team, schooled in the razzle-dazzle legal style of Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building.
At “26th and Cal,” showmanship is the norm. Murder defendants there have been known to pass around a single pair of reading glasses to wear at trial in the belief it would make them appear less threatening to a jury.
In potentially crucial testimony Wednesday, prosecution witnesses described a mechanism of multiple transfers and deposits that allegedly involved Blagojevich’s inner circle. Prosecutors put up a colorful chart with arrows, dates and cash figures that purported to show a trail of money.
Blagojevich’s name did not appear, though former fundraisers Chris Kelly and Tony Rezko did. Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to scheming to sell President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.
The name of President Obama came into play this afternoon at the political corruption trial of former governor Rod Blagojevich as an associate of political fund-raiser Tony Rezko testified that Rezko asked him to write a $10,000 check to Friends of Obama.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 2008 that Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, who is testifying today, made the donation as part of a scheme orchestrated by Rezko.
Aramanda gave $10,000 in campaign cash to Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign on March 5, 2004, according to records. The money came from part of a finder’s fee Aramanda received, but did no work for, thanks to Rezko.
The allegation is the first time Obama has been linked to Rezko through first-hand sworn testimony at the corruption trial.
Former Democratic national fund-raiser Joseph Cari — who once was presidential candidate Al Gore’s top fund-raiser — is back on the witness stand this morning. He’s discussing a New York fund-raising trip he helped arrange for then-Gov.-Blagojevich in 2003, as well as the alleged shakedown of an East Coast investment-banking firm, JER Partners, in 2004.
Prosecutors are using Cari’s testimony to try to show jurors how Blagojevich and his top fund-raisers were trying to control consulting fees tied to state teacher-pension investments in exchange for campaign contributions and kickbacks.
In a speech on the House floor on Sept. 19, 2006, as he talked about school safety, Mr. Kirk spoke about “the kids who were the brightest lights of our country’s future, and I also remember those who bore scrutiny as people who might bring a gun to class.”
Perhaps even worse, nobody from Kirk’s staff could provide documentation that he actually worked at the nursery…
The campaign did not provide verification, and it could not be independently confirmed. A longtime member of the church who had a son in the nursery around the same time said she did not recall any male teachers.
The conservatives are gonna love this one. The chapel appears to be a very liberal house of worship. From its “Who we are” page…
We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage and the family.
We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; the improvement of the quality of life; and the rights and dignity of racial, ethnic and religious minorities.
We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others, and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; the rights to property as a trust from God; collective bargaining and responsible consumption; and the elimination of economic and social distress.
In a House Budget Committee hearing five years earlier, shortly after Mr. Kirk arrived in Congress, he talked about his time as “a teacher, both nursery and middle school.” He added, “I did leave the teaching profession, but if we had addressed some of the teacher development issues, which I want to raise with you, I might have stayed.”
Mr. Kirk left Milestone College in 1983 and began working on the staff of an Illinois congressman, John Porter, the following year and did not return to teaching.
Milestone College, a prep school, was in London, England. Not in the United States. He worked there a year after he finished his master’s degree.
* We are now in some very bizarre, dark territory in this US Senate campaign.
Mark Kirk is an accomplished, decorated Naval veteran who blew that reputation out of the water with unfathomable exaggerations about his military record. He’s an intellectual graduate of the London School of Economics who lied about his experience with liberal nursery school students carrying guns.
These accusations against Mark Kirk are no longer about mere “embellishments” or “exaggerations.” This campaign is now about whether anything he says is true, and why.
* By the way, the NYT article was perfectly timed. The Illinois Education Association is holding endorsement meetings with both Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias this week. The IEA endorsed Kirk in the primary, but not Giannoulias. If this latest NYT story kills the IEA nod for Kirk, it’ll be yet another headache for that embattled campaign.
…Adding… From a morning press release…
After one month of waiting for Alexi Giannoulias to file his Personal Financial Disclosure with the Senate Ethics Committee, the Kirk for Senate campaign today called on Alexi Giannoulias to tell voters the truth about what happened to Broadway Bank and end his “Blagojevich-style” concealment tactics with regard to his personal finances.
In a statement to the Chicago Tribune yesterday explaining why Mr. Giannoulias failed to file his ethics disclosure on May 17th, the Giannoulias campaign said the candidate wants to have a “more accurate picture of his personal finances, which have changed considerably since the sale of Broadway Bank.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** From an Illinois GOP press release…
The New York Times rebutted accusations by Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign that Congressman Mark Kirk had not been a teacher. The Times’ London Bureau confirmed reports that Mark Kirk did serve as a full-time teacher at the Milestone School in London for the academic year 1982-1983. In addition, Kirk worked as a nursery school teacher in Ithaca, New York as part of his senior-year work-study program at Cornell University.
“While Mark Kirk has worked as a teacher and backed education reforms in Congress, Alexi Giannoulias wiped out $70 million in Bright Start college savings,” Kirk campaign spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski said. “When it comes to education, Illinois voters have an easy choice in this election.”
This release is nonsensical. The Giannoulias campaign didn’t say that Kirk had not been a teacher. But notice that they still have not provided any confirmation about that nursery school gig.
*** UPDATE 2 *** This is what passes for “analysis” at NBC5’s blog…
In his effort to catch Kirk in another lie, Giannoulias overreached and exposed a piece of Kirk’s biography that adds to the breadth of his experience. Teaching — especially nursery school — is not a pursuit normally associated with conservatives. It also shows a side of Kirk quite opposed to the he-man Naval officer he’s been trying to portray himself as.
Yeah. That’s the “real” take-away here. Kirk was a nursery school teacher.
The only reason I even mention that goofy piece is because the Kirk campaign sent it over a few minutes ago.
