Gov. Pat Quinn says he decided to spend his day remembering fallen Chicago firefighters and honoring veterans rather than listen to public testimony about a plan to bring terrorism suspects to an Illinois prison.
Quinn says his top staff is at Tuesday’s hearing before the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability in Sterling.
Look, it’s hugely admirable that the governor concerns himself with these ceremonial things. I, for one, appreciate it. But there’s also that governing aspect that he’s missing here. This Thomson sale is his baby. He should be at that hearing.
A federal judge today ordered a new trial for former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, the highest-ranking Daley administration official convicted in the hiring investigation of City Hall.
Sanchez, convicted by a jury in March for his role in rigging city hiring, had sought a new trial on grounds that authorities failed to disclose one of the prosecution witnesses was a high-ranking gang leader and drug dealer.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ruled the government was obligated to disclose their witness’ prior gang activity and arrest record. Prosecutors and FBI agents have acknowledged that defense lawyers were not made aware of the extent of the witness’ criminal ties but said that wasn’t a sufficient reason for a new trial.
Not sure what I think of that one. I’m sure there will be more than a little gnashing of teeth.
* And a surprise that I probably should’ve expected: The absolutely horrid 3G reception at O’Hare Airport today. I suppose there’s lots of snow-stranded travelers checking their e-mail, etc., but I really thought I could get a connection faster than dial-up. Nope. Heck, at times I can’t even get that.
Consequently, there will be no holiday video today. Post links to your favorite video in comments, but please keep it holiday related and clean. Thanks much.
Democratic Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson said Friday she wasn’t sure if she would be called to testify in the upcoming corruption trial of her former boss, ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. […]
When asked if she thought there was a possibility of being called to testify in the trial, which could occur before the general election, she said, “I don’t know.”
“I have had no role in any of the issues or political decisions,” she said of her work with Blagojevich. “I didn’t work with the campaign.”
As a former top-level employee in the governor’s office for four years, however, it stands to reason there is a possibility she could be called to testify by either defense attorneys or prosecutors.
Jackson made clear she had no knowledge of any criminal activity in the governor’s office.
In a Daily Herald editorial board interview Monday, Ryan said he never was aware of Levine’s corruption or secret drug use, which surfaced in Rezko’s trial. Levine has not been accused of wrongdoing on behalf of Jim Ryan.
“Stu Levine gave me a lot of money over my entire career,” said Ryan, who also was DuPage County State’s Attorney for three terms. “I thought he did it because he believed in me. He did a lot for me, I didn’t do anything for him except to be his friend.” […]
When asked if he learned anything from having a close friend like Levine turn out to be corrupt, Ryan said, “I guess the answer is Reagan: trust but verify.”
President Ronald Reagan made the phrase famous in describing his diplomacy with the Soviet Union.
“You can completely trust someone and find out you are wrong,” Ryan said. “You think you know someone and you don’t.”
State Rep. Julie Hamos told a debate audience [Sunday] that she’s the best Democrat to win the 10th Congressional District seat because of her experience and ability to woo voters who’ve backed Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for a decade.
But her two opponents in the Feb. 2 primary scoffed at that notion, suggesting that experience in Springfield might not be so valuable, given state government’s dire straits.
“There are lots of things that are wrong with Washington,” said Dan Seals of Wilmette. “Not being enough like Springfield is not one of them.”
“I’m a nice guy who hasn’t been in Springfield for the past 10 years,” said Elliot Richardson, a Highland Park attorney. “I think that’s a good thing.”
* I’m speechless. The Ron Magers segments with Roe Conn are the one major highlight of daily Chicago commercial radio. And now, Citadel, in all its wisdom, has canceled Magers’ contract…
Citadel Broadcasting’s bankruptcy filing claimed its first Chicago casualty Monday: Ron Magers, No. 1 news anchor at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, has been dropped as a daily contributor to Roe Conn’s afternoon show on news/talk WLS-AM (890).
Today will be Magers’ last day after almost 12 years as a commentator and raconteur on Conn’s program. Magers’ in-studio presence (heard from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday) consistently was a highlight of the show — and often was the best half-hour of conversation in all of Chicago radio. Yes, he really was that good.
* NBC5 asked me to post a few items every day on the company’s revamped web site last year, but I turned them down for various reasons. First, the money was a joke. But, second, I don’t like working for somebody else. Steve Rhodes found that last part out the hard way…
I am no longer contributing to NBCChicago.com and I feel obliged to tell readers why. It’s also a tale that needs to be told in any case.
I was going to start this column this way:
“Tribune Company never interfered with my work after they bought Chicago magazine when I was working in part as an online media critic there. I had to work for NBC Universal for that to happen.”
But to bend over backwards to be fair to Tribune Company, I’m still not certain whether that happened - despite being told so on two occasions by two people.
Rhodes left after the station removed this post from its website about Tribune Company’s new CEO. Go read the whole thing to see what happened to Rhodes, but it looks like Mother Tribune might have flexed some muscle with Rhodes’ former boss. There’s more at WBEZ’s site.
* This isn’t really about the media, but it involves a web site, so I guess it kinda qualifies, and I wanted to post it anyway…
A group of Chicago Bear fans mad at the team’s dismal season isn’t waiting for the head office to review the job of head coach Lovie Smith. Instead they are publicly demanding the coach be fired along with the rest of the Bears staff.
The founder of the new Web site www.bearfansunited.org wants the voice of unhappy Bear fans heard and is collecting donations to erect a billboard urging the McCaskey family to “do the right thing and clean house, and hire an entirely new coaching staff.”
Shouldn’t they just hire a new team while they’re at it? And maybe fire the owners as well? Let’s start over. Nuke the whole operation, top to bottom.
* Related…
* A Very Short List: Publishers That Have Actually Told Google to Take a Hike
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have finally signed off on a $77.25 million settlement for losses in the state’s Bright Start 529 college savings plan.
Families with money in the affected Core Plus bond fund in the period between Jan. 1, 2008, and Jan. 25, 2009, will recoup a substantial portion –but not all — of their losses from OppenheimerFunds, Inc. […]
Overall losses for the plan’s Core Bond fund during that one-year period are estimated at about $150 million. A subsequent market rebound recouped some value. But the settlement restores slightly more than half of the losses shareholders suffered in the mismanaged fund.
I’d still like to see AG Madigan’s report on how this was allowed to happen.
An initiative by Gov. Quinn to save taxpayers about $5 million annually by letting 1,000 inmates out of prison early is off to a rocky start — with dozens of burglars, repeat drunken drivers and financial criminals all being sent home for the holidays.
When the state Department of Corrections announced the program in September, it said that only “low-level, non-violent” criminals were to be let out and placed on home confinement ahead of their planned parole dates.
This is not the secret “Meritorious Good Time Push” plan that is now being investigated by Quinn’s administration after being enacted by Quinn’s administration. This is the very public early release for nonviolent offenders plan. More…
A Sun-Times analysis of the early-release list showed that, as of last week, there were 40 burglars, 18 felony DUI drivers, 28 financial criminals — including forgers and thieves — and one attempted robber among the inmates sent home early. Most of the other early-release inmates were incarcerated for drug crimes. Some had as much as one year shaved off their prison time.
And here are a few of the released prisoners…
VICTOR MORENO, 37
Crime: Financial exploitation of the elderly, disabled in Cook County
Case: Moreno promised to help a disabled person sell a house in the 1900 block of North Natoma in Chicago. The victim gave Moreno $15,000 in earnest money, but no closing date was set, prosecutors said. The victim learned Moreno was not a licensed agent and called police.
Sentence: Seven years
Original release date from prison: Sept. 12, 2010
LEO GUZMAN-RIVERA, 46
Crime: Driving under the influence, fourth offense, in Cook County
Sentence: Three years
Original release date from prison: May 20, 2010
JAMES AUGUSTA, 35
Crime: DUI, fourth offense, in Cook County
Sentence: Three years
Original release date from prison: July 22, 2010
That’s a whole lot of political damage to save $5 million.
* Meanwhile, remember WBEZ’s failed attempt to get the Quinn administration to open up the controversy-plagued Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles to reporters? Well, there was a demonstration at the site yesterday…
A small group of protesters on Monday vowed to keep pressuring the state to investigate and clean up the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles, where a 16-year-old detainee committed suicide in September.
About 20 people from Chicago gathered outside the medium-security male juvenile facility. The group demanded to go inside the center to examine the conditions, and wants Gov. Pat Quinn investigate the facility.
The group ultimately was turned away, but not before airing their concerns.
Protesters said they heard from former inmates that rodents often ate the prisoners’ food and left droppings in shower stalls and other areas.
They said the state needs to improve conditions at the facility, which houses many of the juveniles who enter the state’s justice system, according to its Web site.
Sneed is told the State Police Merit Board, which decides if a bad state cop needs to be fired, is financially impotent.
• To wit: The budget of the five-member board, which is appointed by the governor, “is so far down it’s impossible to conduct the amount of hearings that are needed,” a top source said.
• Translation: So a few state cops, including a handful busted for DUIs — who might otherwise be looking for a new job — are still working.
• The irony: A fully funded merit board, which is paid on a per diem basis, could ultimately save the state money by terminating officers.
Now Quinn forecasts a rebirth of responsible governance after the Feb. 2 primary. However, he will emerge from his battle with Dan Hynes as either the Democratic nominee facing Republican assaults for advocating significant tax hikes or a defeated, debilitated chief executive. That means his resolve to press for potent deficit antidotes could well wither in the heat of a general election contest, or lame-duck status could strip him of the influence he needs to muster sufficient support for them.
Meanwhile, we certainly cannot rely on the legislative branch to bear fiscally healthy fruit. Senate President John Cullerton rallied his Democratic troops to support tax increases in May without bringing Republicans to the table — a move that might have produced a bipartisan solution addressing spending issues as well. For his part, House Speaker Michael Madigan flexed his legendary discipline to suppress any good-government instincts that could stall his drive to build an even more muscular Democratic majority in his chamber. For their part, most Republican lawmakers have refused to help solve a problem that reached epic proportions under Democratic reign — never mind the future gets bleaker by the day for the young and old they claim to serve.
* Related…
* State can no longer leave colleges in ‘crisis mode’ : After seven years of steadily cutting the higher education budget, the state on July 1 stopped regular payments altogether. And while there used to be a capital bill every year to pay for new facilities, this year’s was the first capital bill for university facilities in about 10 years, and much of that money has not been released to the universities. Here are some of the numbers: The state is in arrears $445 million to the University of Illinois system, $125 million to Southern Illinois University, $37 million to Northern Illinois University and $28 million to Western Illinois University. The state’s other universities are in similar straits.
* Fight to keep Asian carp out of Great Lakes reaches Supreme Court - Michigan’s attorney general files a lawsuit that seeks to close two shipping locks near Chicago, sealing off the fish’s most direct route to the Great Lakes.
* Time for answers to the prison mess: No blue ribbon commissions or panels or thorough reviews. No more hemming and hawing. This can only be seen as a serious mistake and a breach of trust that jeopardizes our safety. It’s time to own it, Governor.
* If you’re heading for the hearing today on the Thomson prison sale, expect to be subjected to Illinois State Police “security” precautions…
* Backpacks or extra large hand bags will not be allowed into the auditorium.
* All purses and hand bags will be searched before entering the auditorium.
* Every person entering the auditorium will pass through a metal detector.
* No posters, signs or visual aids will be allowed into the auditorium.
* No type of voice amplification device will be allowed into the auditorium.
State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) has been occupying a rent-free Chicago Board of Education building for seven years and owes more than $500,000 in rent, leaseholder taxes and penalties on it, a new report by the schools inspector general indicated Monday. […]
The Board of Ed sent Davis a letter in 2002 saying it expected her to vacate the building by July 1, 2002, Sullivan said Monday. It followed up with more correspondence in August 2006, September 2007, and April and September of 2008, he said. On Nov. 18, it finally filed a legal claim for back rent and eviction.
After her lease expired in 2002, Davis said, she asked then-School Board President Michael Scott to sign a new lease and he said, ” ‘I’ll get back to you.’ . . . The indication was ‘I’ll get this done for you.’ ‘’ Davis said she needed a signed lease so she could submit it to the state and get reimbursed for the cost of operating a district office.
Finally, Davis said, board officials produced a lease this year, but in it they wanted Davis to be responsible for all repairs to the building, as well as property taxes.
Jim Madigan is running for state senate, and about 40 supporters were attending a fundraiser at a North Side gay bar when Leo Smith made a surprise appearance.
“And as I looked, ‘I thought God, that looks like my opponent’s husband,’” Madigan said. “He looked a little disheveled. He took awhile to put sentences together, so that was a little bizarre.”
Madigan said Smith sat quietly at the bar for about an hour… went into the men’s room… and then charged out with fire in his eyes and began bullying him.
“And he said, ‘Well I’m Heather’s husband.’ And I said, ‘I know, thanks for coming to my event.’ And he said, ‘I’m not here to support your event. I know you think you’re going to get famous with all your bull____,’” Madigan recalled.
Oof.
* Cook County President candidate Dorothy Brown has denied Sneed’s report about a grand jury investigation into her campaign operation…
Dorothy Brown took to the airwaves [last night] to rebut reports of a grand jury investigation into the petitions she filed to run for Cook County Board president.
Appearing on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight”, Brown said information received by her campaign [yesterday] indicated there was no grand jury probe. She called the rumored investigation a “political placement.”
Stay tuned.
* An endorsement from the pro-choice Personal PAC will bring a few bucks, and it may get some media attention, since the Republican Schillerstrom trumpeted the nod in a press release…
Republican Bob Schillerstrom on Monday welcomed the endorsement of Personal PAC, a bi-partisan organization dedicated to electing pro-choice state and local leaders in Illinois.
Schillerstrom noted the support distinguishes him as the only moderate Republican running for Governor, and positions him as a centrist with the best chance of winning the General Election.
“My top priorities as Governor will be to end runaway spending, create an environment for good jobs, and make government more transparent and accountable,” Schillerstrom said. “Those are the most pressing matters facing our state and should be the primary focus of this campaign.”
Apparently, Schillerstrom was the only Republican candidate to return Personal PAC’s questionnaire.
Personal PAC backed Republican George Ryan in 1998. Republican Jim Edgar was endorsed by NARAL in his first bid for governor in 1990. Schillerstrom is just so unknown and so far behind the pack that this probably won’t make much of a difference.
The oddity here is that the campaign sent the press release to the very conservative Illinois Review site, which published it. Oops.
Terry Cosgrove, the president and CEO of the group, said Quinn got the backing over Democratic primary rival Dan Hynes because the organization has a policy of “sticking with the incumbent when he’s been 100 percent pro-choice.”
“Had this been an open race,” Cosgrove said, “the results could have been different.” In 2002, the organization endorsed all three Democrats in the open-seat race for governor. Quinn became the unelected incumbent governor last January when the Senate ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
* Twice in the past week, state legislators have accidentally published single character posts to their Facebook accounts. Rep. David Miller, a candidate for state comptroller, pocket-posted “$” the other day. Sen. Emil Jones, III posted “p.” Both claimed later on their FB pages that their smart phones were in their pockets at the time. I’ve heard of pocket dialing, but this pocket FB posting is a new one on me.
Let’s be careful out there. And lock your smart phones, for crying out loud.
* As you already know, Dock Walls has dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary after his petitions were challenged by allies of Gov. Pat Quinn. Illinois Public Radio reports that Walls is now considering a run as an independent…
Walls said he [dropped out] so he could run as an independent instead.
“I realized I’m not going after the ward organizations, and the Democratic party organizations, because I represent a clean break from the past,” Walls said. “And I can’t align myself with people who are part and parcel of the problem: people who are taking money from special interest groups and big business.”
Yeah, that’s why he dropped out. It had nothing to do with his petitions at all.
* Andy McKenna’s Republican gubernatorial campaign is running Google ads on videos. That can be a pretty random thing. A reader noticed yesterday that a “Very important message from Lady Gaga” was preceded by a McKenna ad. Have a look for yourself.
* Last year, Speaker Madigan provided some late financing to House GOP Leader Tom Cross’ Democratic opponent. Madigan isn’t taking any chances that Cross might fight back in next year’s campaign. Madigan has apparently found his own Republican opponent…
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Illinois GOP has launched a public hunt for one Patrick John Ryan, who has filed as a Republican to run against Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan next year.
In a press release Monday entitled “Has anyone seen Patrick John Ryan?” the GOP notes that though Mr. Ryan filed as a Republican, he lives in Mr. Madigan’s home 13th Ward and pulled a Democratic ballot in the past three primary elections.
Yet, the release adds, Mr. Ryan “is now a Republican who believes in less government, lower taxes, true ethics reform and the need to end business as usual” in Illinois.
Given all of that, “Will Patrick John Ryan call (312) 201-9000 to discuss this historic opportunity?” the GOP asks. “We look forward to providing him the necessary support to win this election.”
* A candidate for the Illinois House is continuing a personal tradition that’s now landed him in a spot of trouble…
Politician Will McGaughy says he’s been mailing envelopes to voters in his precinct at Christmastime for 30 years, wishing them holiday cheer and including a crisp $2 bill as a “keepsake.”
The 76-year-old said it’s a political style he has developed since the 1960s, when he marched with Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggles in Alabama. […]
McGaughy’s own campaign manager, Matt Hawkins, 42, said he advised his candidate not to send the $2 bills, but he doesn’t believe any law has been broken.
“He has skirted most of, if not all of the legal issues,” Hawkins said. “I questioned it myself, but it’s the battle of old (political style) versus new.”
* Related…
* Legislators must tinker with recently changed window tinting law
Mayor Daley on Monday abruptly changed horses in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at the center of the city hiring scandal.
John Dunn, IGA director since 2005, resigned his $158,364-a-year job to take an unidentified “position in the private sector.” He will be replaced by Joan Coogan, an 11-year veteran IGA employee who has worked to advance the mayor’s agenda in the City Council.
Complaints about misconduct, waste and fraud in Chicago Public Schools rose 20 percent last year, to a record high 1,210, the latest annual report by Schools Inspector General James Sullivan indicates.
* Terrence J. O’Brien: Little-known official running for Cook County Board president
A Tribune analysis of data from 14 suburban intersections found fewer crashes at five of them, little change at two and increases at seven. In Chicago, collisions increased or held steady at nearly 60 percent of camera-equipped intersections, according to figures from the Illinois Department of Transportation. The city’s own figures say crashes were down, but nobody can explain why the numbers don’t match.[…]
As local governments scramble to install more and more cameras, the people paying those fines have begun to question whether this trend is about safety or revenue, especially when cameras are installed at intersections where few crashes have occurred. There have even been scattered reports of towns that were busted for shortening the yellow-light cycle to increase the number of violations.
* Lawsuit contends Illinois inmates get too much soy
* School officials: This year is no worse than previous years
Can you imagine if the state’s leaders showed the same creativity toward job creation here?
Sure, a few candidates have offered plans that include some form of “green” initiative. But mostly we’re seeing the same pitch for lower business taxes and new tax incentives to spur job creation - nothing as out-of-the-box as the project under way by our very own Southland students.
* Last week, I wondered aloud why Rasmussen Reports didn’t bother to match the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates against Republican frontrunner Jim Ryan. Well, RR has now conducted another poll, and the results aren’t encouraging for Gov. Quinn’s backers…
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Illinois voters finds former state Attorney General Jim Ryan leading incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn 46% to 39%. Nine percent (9%) of Illinois voters like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Ryan’s is within two points of Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes, who hopes to wrest the Democratic nomination from Quinn. In that match-up, Hynes attracts 42% of the vote while Ryan gets 40%. Seven percent (7%) opt for another candidate. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.
Quinn and Hynes both polled ahead of the other major Republican contenders last week, although Hynes polled marginally better than Quinn.
Good point from Rasmussen…
It’s important to note that at this stage, the close contest between Quinn and Hynes may be depressing the Democratic vote in match-ups with the Republicans. Once the party selects a gubernatorial candidate in its February 2 primary, supporters of the losing candidate can be expected to begin moving into the winner’s column.
That theory bears fruit in the crosstabs, which I’ll discuss with subscribers tomorrow.
Ryan carries male voters over both Quinn and Hynes. He has a nine-point advantage among female voters against Quinn but loses women by 10 points to Hynes.
Voters not affiliated with either party strongly prefer the Republican over either of the Democrats. […]
In a generic Illinois gubernatorial ballot match-up in October, a Democratic candidate held a 43% to 37% edge over a Republican.
Ryan is viewed more favorably than any other GOP candidate and his favorables are in roughly the same territory as the two Democrats.
“Stu Levine gave me a lot of money over my entire career,” said Ryan, who also was DuPage County State’s Attorney for three terms. “I thought he did it because he believed in me. He did a lot for me, I didn’t do anything for him except to be his friend.” […]
Ryan went on to say he is anticipating a barrage of attacks in the final weeks of the campaign about Levine from others in the seven-candidate primary race.
“I’m not going to cower,” he said. “If people think I’m going to back down because of that, they are wrong.” […]
Ryan also talked his health Monday. The 63-year-old battled non-Hodgkin’s large cell lymphoma cancer three times, most recently during his first campaign for governor eight years ago.
“I think I’m healthy or I wouldn’t do this,” Ryan said. “If that changes, you will know because I will probably won’t stay in the race.”
* Democratic lt. governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen has said he’ll spend as much as $3 million to win the office. He begins his first TV ad buy today, solely on cable. The campaign claims the ad cost $10,000 to make, start to finish, so he apparently hasn’t cut the big check yet. Have a look…
* Are the Quinn and Obama administrations getting ahead of themselves on this prison sale thing? It sure looks that way.
One of the things lost in this entire debate is that Congress will have to approve the move of Guantanamo detainees to US soil before they can be transferred to the Thomson prison. And that legislation isn’t assured…
Durbin hasn’t yet polled colleagues to find out what objections they might have, he said. But as the health-care bill has shown, getting controversial legislation through the Senate — even with Democrats holding a sizeable majority — has been difficult. And, Durbin said, getting the needed changes to close Guantanamo Bay will almost certainly require 60 votes.
“My concern is that it has become a national Republican issue, that they’re going to oppose Thomson, with rare exception,” Durbin said Thursday.
Political boosters of the Illinois budget bailout masquerading as a national security program can’t wait to roll out the jihadi welcome mat
No inflammatory partisan rhetoric there. Move along. Nothing to see. Everything is just fine.
By the way, if this prison move really was a “budget bailout” then I might feel better about it. Right now, the cash is barely a drop in the bucket.
* The next question that should be asked is whether the feds will still want to buy Thomson even if the Gitmo prisoner move is nixed or delayed indefinitely by Congress.
After being forced into a state of limbo when the state refused to fully open the prison, the residents of Thomson might be once again left dangling on a string while the feds dither as well. In other words, they shouldn’t get their hopes up, despite the rhetoric from people like Ray LaHood…
The decision to house both federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay Detention Center at a largely unused prison in northwestern Illinois should be viewed as a “billion-dollar Christmas gift for the people” there, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said Friday.
“There were people who had a hard time adapting to our first stoplight,” said Larry Stebbins, the mayor of Savanna, about five minutes up the road from Thomson. “It’s impossible for me to tell you what this is going to look like, but I do know that we need some kind of change.”
I lived briefly in Savanna, back in 1982 when unemployment hovered somewhere around 20 percent. I think I was able to get the only available part-time job in town - two hours a day cleaning up after the local butcher. That job was about as fun as it sounds. Not at all.
Savanna used to be a railroad boom town, but those days are long gone. The Savanna Army Depot was the one remaining economic engine, but that’s long gone. The nearest prosperity is either Galena to the north or the Quad Cities downriver. And the benefits from this prison may not be huge for the immediate area…
Even after Florence, Colo., landed the “supermax” prison 15 years ago, a ballyhooed building boom was confined to a Super 8 motel, credit unions and antiques shops.
Because the town didn’t have much available housing, most workers moved elsewhere, up to an hour away in Colorado Springs, said Dori Williams, city clerk.
Even so, if that’s all the Thomson-area folks get, they’ll probably still be overjoyed. What they have right now is nothing.
For years, reporters and pundits have said that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan preferred Republican governors because Madigan wanted to be the state’s most powerful Democrat.
There is some truth to that. Madigan hasn’t played well at all with the two Democratic governors he’s served under as speaker. He battled constantly with Rod Blagojevich, and he’s made Pat Quinn squirm time and time again, including holding a news conference during which he repeatedly castigated Quinn for “flip-flopping.”
But there always was much more going on than just Madigan’s desire to be the absolute top dog. As we’ve seen time and time again over the decades, Madigan prefers to share the pain of governing with the other party in order to deflect blame from his own party. It’s one way he’s held on to power for so long. And it’s tough to do that without a Republican governor.
A Republican governor usually can bring Republican legislative votes on to a bill that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Every income tax hike that’s ever passed was done under a Republican governor. Some of the biggest ever goodies for Chicago were nabbed because a Republican governor helped the Democrats bring GOP legislators onto the roll calls.
That all ended when Rod Blagojevich became the first Democratic governor elected in 26 years. Since then, we’ve had almost seven solid years of grinding gridlock.
This past year, for instance, Madigan said over and over that he wouldn’t advance important legislation without significant Republican votes, including tax increases and reforms to the pension systems to balance the state’s outrageous $11 billion budget deficit. The Senate Democrats passed a tax hike all by themselves, but Madigan refused to touch the issue without Republican votes even though he had more than enough Democratic votes to pass a bill on his own.
Madigan is so politically cautious because he is so power-hungry. By sharing the pain in a bipartisan manner, voters can’t totally blame Madigan’s majority party. So it’s highly doubtful that Madigan ever will budge on a hugely unpopular but desperately needed tax hike without GOP votes. Voters don’t care much about the deficit, but they would care - a lot - about any drastic measures to erase that deficit.
And right now, anyway, there’s really not much benefit for the Republican Party to cooperate. Why should it “share the pain” by helping the Democrats solve a problem for which the Democrats are universally deemed responsible?
Perhaps the only way this will change is if a Republican governor is elected and decides that a tax hike is necessary. Then, some Republican legislators will feel an obligation to support their governor. A Republican governor also will have all the usual bags of goodies to cajole and pressure the party’s members.
We actually saw a little bit of that during the spring session when two former Republican governors, Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar, made calls to GOP members on the income tax hike plan. It didn’t work, mainly because neither of them has the power to do much of anything. But what we essentially witnessed back then was an admission that these major issues won’t be advanced in the House without a big-time Republican pulling strings behind the scenes.
A few years ago, I asked Madigan why he didn’t just find somebody to run against Blagojevich in the 2006 Democratic primary. Madigan replied the last time he did that (when he was a point person against the anti-Machine Democrat Dan Walker) it led to 26 years of uninterrupted Republican rule, more than just implying that he’d rather have a “bad” Democrat as governor than a “good” Republican.
Some wonder whether Madigan will quietly lie down next fall if the governor’s race looks winnable by the GOP and if the Republicans nominate a candidate who can “do business.”
I was, however, recently reminded by one of Madigan’s guys that the new legislative district maps have to be drawn during the next governor’s term. Madigan will want total control of that process in order to hold on to power, and he’ll need a cooperative, partisan governor to guarantee his control.
In other words, if a Democrat wins the governor’s race next year and Madigan doesn’t radically alter his governing style by actually doing something constructive with his majority no matter what the Republicans say, this horrific gridlock will continue unabated for another four disastrous years.
Sneed has learned that a Cook County grand jury is probing allegations that state public aid recipients were forced to circulate Cook County Board presidential candidate Dorothy Brown’s nominating petitions under threat of losing their welfare benefits.
* The kicker: Several public aid recipients, who have been called before the grand jury twice, complained they feared they’d be dropped from the job-training program (which is administered by the state Human Services Department) if they didn’t circulate Brown’s petitions as part of their training.
* The firing squad: The recipients were receiving job training at Mother’s House, a South Side social service agency managed by Hassan Muhammad, who, until recently, was a field director of Dorothy Brown’s campaign. […]
When complaints were first disclosed by Fox News Chicago in October, Brown said she had no knowledge of the practice and did not condone what was going on.
Keep in mind that a grand jury investigation doesn’t automatically mean guilt, despite the saying that “In this town you’re innocent until investigated.” Also, keep in mind that Brown may not have known anything about this. Yes, the probe could be big political trouble, but don’t jump to too many conclusions just yet.
Stroger isn’t pleased that Madigan has withheld his backing, county insiders say. He took political revenge first by firing longtime Madigan loyalist Richard Bono, a $99,187 county Forest Preserve District maintenance superintendent who also collects a $30,353 city pension.
“They called [Bono] in and said he was out,” a top county source said. “No mention of a reason. No feds. No grabbing computers. He was just out, and that’s it.”
On Wednesday, Cook County medical examiner’s office worker David Foley was fired from his $110,354 executive officer post. During his employment at the medical examiner’s office, Foley bragged that he was Madigan’s “No. 1 precinct captain,” sources said.
* And the Sun-Times continues to look at whether Rahm Emanuel wanted Gov. Blagojevich to find a way to appoint a replacement, a move which would’ve been blatantly unconstitutional…
On the day last year that Emanuel was named White House chief of staff, John Harris, the top aide to then-Gov. Blagojevich, began researching whether Blagojevich had the authority to appoint someone to temporarily fill Emanuel’s Northwest Side congressional seat, according to records that show the Web browser history on Harris’ state government computer.
The records show that Harris, who was Blagojevich’s chief of staff, Googled this exact search term on his state computer on Nov. 6, 2008: “temporary appointment to fill vacancies in the house of representatives.”
The confirmation of Harris’ Google search — which, by the way, yielded 308,000 hits — lends credence to previous Sun-Times reports that Blagojevich’s office was working with Emanuel at that time on a strategy that would enable Emanuel to one day reclaim his old House seat and vie for the powerful post of speaker of the House.
The Constitution thus requires that all House vacancies be filled by special election.
There is no constitutional provision for the appointment of interim Representatives.
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Surfing the Net, the records show, another Web site Harris visited was www.kingmadigan.com — which depicts Blagojevich’s arch political enemy, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, as a greedy “king” decked out in a jewel-studded gold crown.
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