* I thought I had a good idea for the new website, but I may have changed my mind. Not sure yet. Anyway, you could help me out by answering this question…
What Illinois campaign websites have you found out there? Post ‘em in the comments, please. Thanks.
* Curt Mercadante believes he’s seeing the beginning of the end of the traditional press release. He makes some good points…
* Earlier this year, we helped a candidate launch a statewide political campaign — and garnered statewide media attention without issuing a single press release. We relied on a short online video and a brief email to supporters. Most news outlets based their stories off of the video and email — and some simply called us directly for comment. No press release needed.
* When we helped a think-tank release a policy study last March, we knew we wouldn’t get much coverage from our press release. That’s why the centerpiece of our media strategy was the microsite we built for the study’s release. We were correct — while most of the immediate coverage came from blogs we pitched through social media outlets, other “mainstream media” outlets (such as National Public Radio) have found our study and contact information from the microsite.
* Social media tools are quickly replacing the press release as the main source of story ideas for members of the media. Many journalists are not only effectively getting pitched on Twitter — some news outlets are reporting their stories based on the Twitter updates of politicians and celebrities. Public relations strategist Sarah Evans created #journchat as a weekly Twitter discussion that connects journalists with communications professionals. And Peter Shankman’s “Help a Reporter Out” program is providing a great way for journalists to direct queries to PR professionals and get story ideas quickly, effectively and, yes, for free.
Those are all good ideas, but I see a few problems with declaring press releases dead.
In my own case, I have almost 2,000 Facebook “friends.” I can scroll down for half an hour and barely see the last ten minutes of what they’ve been doing. Yeah, and I need to somehow weed this crud out, but if you post something that you want noticed on Facebook, you’d better make sure you point it out to me.
Same goes for Twitter. I’m following over 550 people. Usually, I can keep up with that, since many of those people don’t Tweet too often. But those posts go by so fast that I surely miss a lot of them.
Frankly, I barely have time to read my e-mail. And a lot of that is because of press releases. So, there’s my quandary.
* From new media to old, Eric Zorn says corporate greed has little to do with the decline of newspapers.
Not all, but quite a lot of the papers in the worst trouble borrowed way too much money at the height of the bubble and paid top dollar for underperforming assets. Oops. That may not be greed, but it is bad business.
* And speaking of terrifying, I’m frightened that the Sun-Times will close and leave us with one Chicago paper. If you think Mother Tribune is high and mighty now, just wait until there’s nobody else around.
Prospective owner James Tyree’s plan to essentially gut the union of all power and toss the contract out the window is not going to do much for quality journalism, which is what he says he wants. They’re down to about 100 reporters at the Sun-Times right now as it is. Not too many more layoffs and you may as well forget it.
I’m hoping this was just a bluff and he and the union can work out a deal. But they’d better do something soon. The clock is ticking.
The political lesson that I’ll take away from these last few months is that until nominating petitions are filed at the Illinois State Board of Elections, there are no official candidates. […]
We got another example of this with Matt Murphy deciding he wasn’t running for governor but will now pursue lieutenant governor. […]
At the moment, anyone can be an unofficial candidate for anything.
Somebody asked me yesterday to help her figure out which Chicago legislative races would be the most intense. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that many people who are now circulating petitions won’t be on the ballot, and some of the big players have yet to make a decision on where they’re going.
And other than the fact that few people care, one reason why I haven’t written much about the lieutenant governor candidates is that I doubt all of them will successfully file.
We don’t know what it’s gonna look like yet.
* Having said that, Cheryle Robinson Jackson kicked off her US Senate campaign yesterday. Jackson was not a popular person with reporters when she worked for Blagojevich. Some found it difficult to get her on the phone. I rarely ever had that problem. Still, keep an eye out for a bit of payback in upcoming stories.
Stressing her focus on economic development and supporting entrepreneurs like her late father, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson today formally launched her candidacy for U.S. Senate.
The contrast with her main rivals couldn’t be clearer in the venue Jackson chose: a neighborhood restaurant at 87th and Stony Island.
B.J.’s Bakery owner John Meyer said Jackson’s Urban League helped him grow his business. Democratic front-runner Alexis Giannoulias launched his candidacy from the Hilton Hotel downtown, and Republican front-runner Mark Kirk launched his from his boyhood home in Kenilworth.
State Sen. James Meeks said “I think Cheryle Jackson is the only person who can beat Mark Kirk.”
Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson launched a campaign Wednesday that could make her the only black member of the U.S. Senate if she manages to overcome concerns about her former boss, disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The first thing Democratic party voters will notice about Cheryl Robinson Jackson is that she’s the only woman in the race. Her campaign signage has a definite feminine color and look about it and she’s going all out to make herself the favorite of female voters who make up 53 percent of the statewide electorate.
“If it takes a woman to be in Washington to fight for parity and make certain that we don’t lose ground and speak up boldly on behalf of that, then I’m happy to be that woman,” said Jackson.
* Meanwhile, Democratic US Senate hopeful David Hoffman was on Chicago Tonight yesterday. Go have a look. It was a relatively brief interview and he came off pretty well.
* Delmarie Cobb, Roland Burris’ chief media strategist, wins our rarely bestowed Quote of the Month award. Cobb was interviewed for an ABC7 story about Cheryle Robinson Jackson’s US Senate campaign. Have a listen…
In case you can’t watch videos where you are, this is the text from that ABC7 story…
“When you dig one grave be careful you don’t fall in. And the Democrats dug a grave in terms of Roland and now we have fallen in as the Democratic party because the Republicans are going to take this race. It has nothing to do anymore with black or white,” said Delmarie Cobb, political consultant.
Now she tells us that race shouldn’t matter and that the Roland Burris disaster dug a “grave” for the Democratic Party?
I really don’t know what to say.
Should we take a walk down memory lane? Let’s do it…
Now, Cobb says, Burris’ enemies are trying to bloody him up and weaken him with mounting legal bills.
Veteran political consultant Delmarie Cobb is a top adviser to Exhibit No. 1 of the old strain, Sen. Roland Burris. I visited her Bronzeville office last week during a pause in her winning battle to keep Burris in office.
“All of a sudden, we’re into this young thing, and anybody who’s been out here needs to be put out to pasture,” she vented. Cobb resents “that somebody would take this kind of knowledge and put it out to pasture.”
“They keep trotting out these marquee names to scare Roland,” said Delmarie Cobb, the senator’s media and political adviser, adding that some Democrats are out to “lynch” Burris and turn him into a “whipping boy.”
I could go on for a long time, but I’d rather not.
* Ms. Cobb is very good at what she does. She fights like the devil for her clients. She kept Sen. Burris in place and untouched by the Illinois powers that be. And even though I think she may have been saying that it was the Democratic Party’s fault that the Burris thing got out of hand, I hope she’s finally realizing that there are limits when doing one’s job.
This state was needlessly divided over the Rod Blagojevich’s Burris appointment and the resulting racial morass. There were wrong people on all sides, but the record is clear that Ms. Cobb did her very best to fan tiny embers into massive flames.
* Now, a warning to commenters. Do not use her past quotes as an excuse to go all racist on us in comments. I’m in no mood.
The appeals court in Chicago will hear arguments today on why there should still be an election to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. Roland Burris has Obama’s old seat but that could change if Marty Oberman has his way. He’s suing the Governor because Pat Quinn hasn’t called for a special election. Oberman says the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires Quinn to call a special election despite an Illinois state law that allows the governor to appoint people to the Senate
Through July 31 of this year alone, there were $23.3 million worth of outstanding fines on citations written by 11 city departments. Last year’s deadbeat total was $38 million.
Once again, the Chicago Police Department tops the list, with $20.2 million in outstanding fines since Jan. 1, 2008. That’s followed by the departments of Streets and Sanitation ($14.2 million), Buildings ($13 million), Business Affairs and Consumer Protection ($10.2 million) and Health ($1.4 million).
The amount of money in defaults and uncollected citations dwarfed the amount of money collected by the Police Department by a nearly 4-to-1 margin.
The report, released Monday, said Stroger and the board have adopted protections against illegal patronage hiring, then detailed allegations that the system is still being subverted for political reasons by decision makers who work for Stroger.
“While some county policy makers and their agents are busy drafting and adopting and implementing appropriate policies, others are busy evading and frustrating and defying policies,” the report stated.
During Wednesday’s discussion, Stroger asked if all of the allegations of illegal patronage relate to a time before he was in office.
“No,” Robinson said. She added that her job is not to prove such allegations but rather to work toward eliminating the hiring, firing, promotion and transfer of most workers based on political considerations.
* Some Cook County bosses still hire patronage workers for ‘non-exempt’ jobs: court-appoited monitor
A Chicago Heights Park District Board member who voted to give district Supt. Alex Lopez a hefty raise was appointed to a city job that same month by Lopez, who also is mayor of Chicago Heights.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to draw up an ordinance proposal for opting out of the Illinois’ Video Gaming Act, which was approved by state legislators as a way to fund a large capital bill. The council will vote on the proposal Oct. 6.
The Evanston City Council voted Monday to ban video gambling, joining Rosemont and Country Club Hills. DuPage County has enacted a ban in unincorporated areas.
About 125 establishments in Naperville would have been eligible for the video gambling machines.[…]
Under the Video Gaming Act, the state will receive 25 percent of video gambling revenues, while towns will receive 5 percent. An econometrics firm calculated Naperville could have reaped $11,250 a year for each business with five machines.
The Daley administration will make cash payments totaling $600,000 to 162 Chicago Police officers denied their requests for compensatory time in a move denounced as a “blatant violation” of the police contract.
The Fraternal Order of Police on Wednesday filed an unfair labor practices complaint and a class-action grievance on behalf of officers who accumulated comp time that falls under under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The act requires the city to grant comp time requests made with sufficient notice, even if it means calling other officers in on their days off to fill the void. It applies to time earned above 11 overtime hours during a four-week period.
The incident is being investigated by Area 3 detectives and the Independent Police Review Authority. At the time of the incident, the officer already had been relieved of his police powers for an “unrelated matter,” a Chicago Police spokesman said, without elaborating.
The alleged beating occurred Saturday night in the Loop. At the time, the officer was riding a bicycle, and then allegedly boarded the bus, accusing the driver of trying to cut him off.
Jefferson said video surveillance shows the police officer repeatedly punching the driver, leaving the bus, and then returning to punch the driver some more.
The principal of a school that’s part of a federal probe into admissions practices at the city’s elite public high schools said Wednesday that she has testified before a grand jury.
Whitney Young Principal Joyce Kenner declined to provide details of her two-hour testimony last week before the federal panel.
* Gov. Pat Quinn says compromise possible on Payton statue ahttp://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/gov-pat-quinn-says-compromise-possible-on-payton-statue-at-soldier-field.html
* I’ve now confirmed the “rumor” below about Andy McKenna running for governor with Sen. Matt Murphy as lt. governor. Several others have as well. The two men met today and it’s final.
A month after stepping down as head of the Illinois Republican Party, Andy McKenna is set to throw his hat into the ring in the race for governor. […]
Sources also said McKenna has chosen State Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) – who had declared his own candidacy for governor – as his de facto running mate to run for lieutenant governor. State law does not allow official linkage of candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, but it is not uncommon for such candidates to run unofficially as a team.
Convinced that a team of two will break through the pack of Republican candidates running for Illinois governor, former GOP chairman Andy McKenna and Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine are teaming up for a gubernatorial run, sources tell NBC Chicago.
In doing so, Murphy abandons his own bid for governor and instead becomes McKenna’s de facto running mate for lieutenant governor.
The committee acted at the behest of federal prosecutors who already are investigating former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The panel normally defers investigations when requested by law enforcement, to avoid interference with prosecutors.
Yikes.
The ethics committee is also looking into something that this blog has repeatedly pointed out about Jackson’s government operation…
The referral, made public by the ethics committee, stated, “In the course of conducting this review, the [Office of Congressional Ethics] learned that staff resources of the representative’s Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Illinois offices were used to mount a ‘public campaign’ to secure the representative’s appointment to the U.S. Senate.
“In doing so, Representative Jackson may have violated federal law and House rules concerning the proper use of the Member’s Representational Allowance.” The allowance is a monetary amount allotted to each congressional office for official operations.
Their quest for the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President Barack Obama has landed Sen. Roland Burris and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. on a watchdog group’s annual list of the “15 most corrupt members of Congress.”
“It’s all about the Blagojevich matter,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The group named the Illinois Democrats to its “most corrupt” list for the first time, based on disclosures stemming from the wiretap investigation and arrest of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich last year for his alleged attempts to sell the Senate seat.
* Other congressional stuff…
* ADDED:Greg Hinz: Kirk stumbles in cap-and-trade flip-flop: Third, blaming his district for his vote raises the obvious question of which other of his moderate views the gentleman from Highland Park is preparing to jettison. Guns, abortion and gay rights, tax policy, pharmaceutical aid, whatever? Who knows what the man now really believes. And, on that last point, I have to add the business community. Though Mr. Kirk now is saying what they want to hear on cap-and-trade, will he be saying — and voting — the same thing if he gets elected to the Senate?
* Kirk’s flip-flop on cap and trade draws national attention
* EMILY’s List Backs Hamos For Illinois Rep. Kirk’s Seat
* Rep. Bill Foster votes ‘present‘ in heckling debate
* Do Women Legislators Benefit From An Underdog Effect?
* No surprise: Schock, Hare at odds over health care
* Washington Post: Now This Is a Photo Op: In a divided political climate, the nation can agree on one thing: The camera loves Rep. Aaron Schock! The Republican wunderkind from Illinois got the star treatment from Details magazine last spring; now GQ is featuring the 28-year-old freshman in a four-page fashion spread — its first such spread featuring a politician… “It’s in keeping with my strategy to reach out to new demographics and new media forms,” he told us. GQ readers “are probably people who aren’t regular donors to the RNC.”
* Politico: DC’s Most Eligible Singles: Any Washingtonian who hasn’t heard of Aaron Schock has been living in a cave. Thanks to his good looks and six-pack abs (brought to you by TMZ), Schock has earned an enormous amount of press as Congress’ new hottie. Surely, his legislative work will live up to his hype. But the real question is: how will he keep that very un-politician-like physique during his time on Capitol Hill?
* For good reason, I know a lot of you probably despise Scott Fawell. But Fox Chicago interviewed him last night and he made a couple of interesting points about Chris Kelly’s death. Go watch the whole thing, but here’s the relevant excerpt…
LEAD-IN: Fawell accepts responsibility for his crimes, but [Fawell says Kelly’s three indictments show that] federal prosecutors stop at nothing to compel you to cooperate with their investigation.
FAWELL: “I think there are some issues that are brought up in this [Kelly suicide] that ought to be addressed by the public… When is enough enough?… Is that what the government’s role is is to just never take ‘No’ for an answer and beat you into submission until a guy commits, takes his own life? That’s pretty severe.”
Q: But on the flip-side, should the prosecution be going soft on suspected white-collar criminals?
FAWELL: “No. I don’t say that at all. I think when they indicted me - I got 52 months in prison. That’s a long time… I don’t think that’s going soft on them.”
Keep in mind that Chris Kelly was indicted twice after he pled guilty to the first federal charge this past January. He pled guilty to the second charge last week and was due to report to prison this Friday. He was scheduled to go on trial with Rod Blagojevich and several others next summer.
* The Question: Do you think federal prosecutors went too far with their pursuit of Chris Kelly? As always, fully explain your answer, please.
Cemetery oversight should be seized from Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes’ office and placed under the governor’s control, recommended a panel set up by Gov. Pat Quinn to investigate the burial industry after the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal.
The governor’s Cemetery Oversight Task Force found that “a systematic failure of oversight and regulation of the for-profit cemetery industry” in Illinois was probably “a contributing factor to the criminal scheme that allegedly unfolded” at Burr Oak.
But it stopped short of saying Hynes — who audits cemetery finances and is Quinn’s rival in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary — could have prevented up to 300 bodies allegedly being dug up so their burial plots could be resold at the historic African-American cemetery near Alsip.
The Trib mercifully buried Rep. Ken Dunkin’s intemperate remarks. Not so with Chicago Public Radio, which has given Dunkin a lot of prominence in its coverage.
* Hynes’ full response…
“While it is unfortunate that it required the tragic events that occurred at Burr Oak Cemetery to bring to light the serious lack of regulation in the death care industry, we must seize this opportunity to finally bring much-needed oversight for which I have been fighting for many years. I appreciate that the task force is recommending many of the reforms that I’ve long advocated. The task force has put forth some new proposals which I intend to carefully review in the coming days. I look forward to working with the task force members in the upcoming veto session of the General Assembly to finally bring about additional consumer protections and strong oversight of the death care industry in Illinois. We owe it to the memory of those buried at Burr Oak and their loved ones to see this through to the very end.”
* Meanwhile, Gov. Quinn has accused Comptroller Hynes of “grandstanding” on the bill payment issue. Hynes, you already know, is refusing to pay some state bills for advertising and consulting contracts. Tribune…
“I don’t think it’s good to inject your political campaign into something as important as complying with the law of Illinois,” Quinn said. “If you want to have political stunts, don’t do it with the law of our state.” […]
Quinn said Hynes could be opening the state to lawsuits from vendors who aren’t receiving payments, but refused to say if he would take action to force payments.
“Frankly, I don’t take the matter seriously, from this standpoint I think it’s pure politics,” Quinn said at a morning press conference regarding cemetery regulation. “It’s unfortunate that he has to engage in that kind of approach, but, you know, he knows what the law is.”
“I would hope upon reflection they would stop the antics and carry out their legal responsibilities.”
The Hynes office sent me this yesterday…
Also, regarding the contracts, Rich, as you are aware, the Comptroller has a long track record of sending contracts back under many governors. He refused to pay for flu shots the state never received and he’s frozen pork spending – those are just two examples. Contracts can be canceled. They can be reduced. What the Comptroller is saying is, in light of the state’s fiscal situation, does the Governor really want to make these contracts a priority? Pat Quinn has a decision to make. Does he want to spend $53 million on consultant and marketing contracts, or does he want to spend it on health care. It is his choice. We will honor his choice.
So, now he’ll honor Quinn’s choice after saying he won’t honor Quinn’s choice?
* Related…
* Quinn wants to reverse some of his probation cuts: “The Governor feels that supplemental funds must be provided for probation services in every county of the state,” Jentz said in a statement. “He will make an announcement soon regarding the use of discretionary dollars to support these vital programs.”
* Illinois’ 2010 gubernatorial hopefuls hop on the social media train
It appears that Andy McKenna who has long dreamed of a successful elective political career will shortly announce that he will be a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. But McKenna has a lot of wood to chop since as state Republican chairman, he didn’t win many adherents given the low estate of the state GOP under his tenure.
Be that as it may, the view is current that he has chosen young, vigorous State Sen. Matt Murphy, Palatine, to run for lieutenant governor. Although the primary does not allow linkage there is no problem with the two of them running unofficially as a team. Up to now Murphy has been a declared candidate for governor but will drop that bid. Murphy is a hugely popular candidate with conservatives. True, the two of them are Irish Catholics from the suburbs but geography may not mean much anymore in Illinois. Look at the Democrats: Quinn, Hynes, Lisa Madigan, Alexi Giannoulias, White-all from the Chicago area.
Murphy’s campaign is playing very coy. “We’re not responding to rumors,” was the standard line yesterday. Murphy did not return two phone messages left for him.
Today’s e-mail from the Murphy campaign read simply: “Sneed is wrong.”…
Sneed hears rumbles former GOP state party chief Andy McKenna will announce his bid for governor this week.
If Murphy was planning to stay in the governor’s race, you’d think he would be more forceful about knocking down these rumors.
Also it appears that State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) will run with the same kind of unofficial linkage with a fresh, young face from downstate Edwardsville: Jason Plummer, 27, former Republican chairman of Madison county, the scion of Robert Plummer, a multi-millionaire CEO of R. P. Lumber, who owns a string of lumber retail stores throughout southern Illinois. Both Plummers are strong conservatives, Robert having been a mainstay financial backer of the Illinois Civil Justice League which has successfully supported tort reform. Jason Plummer will announce his formal campaign for lieutenant governor shortly.
Interesting combo. Moderate and conservative.
…Adding… I’m not so sure, though, that Dillard has actually signed on Plummer or even asked him yet.
For much of this year, Democrats in Washington have been looking for a white knight in the Illinois Senate race, a chaste candidate who represents a dramatic break from the status quo after the debacle surrounding the appointment of Barack Obama’s successor.
Now, they have one whose reform credentials seem to fit the profile — former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman — but he’s been greeted with a yawn.
Despite a record of taking on some of the most powerful politicians in Illinois, Hoffman has been virtually ignored by the Democratic establishment. Party officials are skeptical he can raise enough money in the compressed period of time before the February primary to compete or that there’s enough time for him to introduce himself to voters across the state.
It’s mostly a good piece, so go read the whole thing.
* I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Here’s Mary Schmich in today’s Chicago Tribune…
It’s not surprising that out on the Internet, conspiracy theorists have been convening with relish, reluctant to accept [Chris] Kelly’s death Saturday simply as the suicide of a 51-year-old man on the brink of prison.
Schmich’s column was published the day after her own newspaper printed an editorial full of dark and incorrect gun-jumping theories artlessly disguised as “questions.”
“And now the mysterious deaths will start,” wrote one comment-board Sherlock Holmes.
“The plot thickens,” wrote another.
“Blago/Kelly,” wrote another, “this will become the story of the year! It doesn’t get any better than this.”
It turns out that all three of those comments came from a post on Chicago Now, which is a site run by… yeah, you guessed it, the Chicago Tribune.
The “blogger” whose post got all mucked up with oddball comments is actually a cable news show host who works for CLTV, which is part of Mother Tribune’s empire. This person did two CLTV talk show segments entitled “Christopher Kelly: Murder or Suicide?”
But, “the Internet” is to blame. Sheesh.
* Look, there’s a lot of goofy stuff out there on the Internet. But, frankly, some of the vilest things I’ve ever seen posted were on newspaper-owned websites. Try scanning through some of these reader comments posted on yesterday’s Tribune editorial, including…
this sounds like another vince foster-type cover-up.
And…
Was Kelly about to expose a “quid pro quo” deal offered to him by Fitzgerald ? Why are the feds not investigating this suspicious deaths of one of its key witnesses for the prosecution ? Is Witness Tampering and Obstruction of Justice by the feds involved ?
And…
Cause of death? Blago.
Heckuva job, Tribbies.
I don’t necessarily mean to just pick on newspaper site commenters. Some of the weirdest conspiracy theories out there are regularly published under bylines in Schmich’s own newspaper.
So, instead of blaming the amorphous “Internet,” it would be nice if those in the print trade would occasionally try looking at where the real problem is: Within.
* Related…
* Christopher Kelly death: He tried suicide days before he died, police say - Friend of Blagojevich faced prison and led chaotic life in his last days, officials say
* Police chief says Kelly tried to kill self earlier
* Kelly failed first suicide attempt - Timeline of events before death revealed
* Carol Marin: Memo to Blago: It’s not always about you
* Yes, aspirin can kill you: “I have great respect for it as a medication. I have great respect for it as a poison,” says Dr. Edward Krenzelok, director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center.
