* ABC7 has a report from the racially charged press conference today…
“If there were any African-Americans considering voting for Dan Hynes as a result of this ad, I think they are going to be turning away from him and turn to Pat Quinn as a result of this ad,” said U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, (D) Chicago & South Suburbs.
Rush and his colleagues also noted that Hynes’ father, former county assessor and state senator Tom Hynes, was one of Washington’s most bitter political enemies who abandoned the democratic party in 1987 to run against the city’s first black mayor. “I was 18 years old when my father ran for mayor. But he is running against me, not my father,” said Hynes.
“Are you trying to suggest that there is no link between Dan Hynes today and who his daddy was?” said Gutierrez.
The congressmen demanded that Hynes the remove the ad. As of Friday afternoon it was still running on all the Chicago television stations.
Congressman Rush warned of what he called a blacklash in which wised-up African-American voters would turn against Hynes.
Although he would not say that he felt betrayed by the mayor, Quinn said: “When I was appointed, the mayor said, ‘Remember, Quinn, no one speaks for Harold Washington but Harold Washington. You have got to clean this place up, and don’t let any of these political things interfere.’ ”
Quinn said, “People would come to me, so-called friends of the administration, asking, ‘Can you do this or that?’ and I would send them on their way firmly but politely.”
Quinn said he was made aware of possible problems by Alton Miller, Washington’s press secretary, in a conversation Wednesday night.
“I had been at the park with my kids, and as I was pushing them on the swing, I thought to myself that I had better start looking for health insurance because I might not be with the program Friday,” he said. “I know the job I did at the board of appeals and also here and when I go home at night, my conscience won’t kick me in the shins.”
“It’s almost kind of paternal disappointment,” said Alton Millter, speechwriter and press secretary for the late mayor, to the Chicago Current. “Harold Washington thought he had another team player … and became alarmed when he noticed that Quinn was talking to the media without … sufficient coordination from the mayor’s standpoint.”
All this is so much clutter when Washington, himself, is on tape speaking so forcefully against Pat Quinn. As I wrote in the Sun-Times today, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”
* We’re all expecting Tribune poll numbers soon, but GOP gubernatorial candidate Andy McKenna is releasing his own results ahead of time. This is from McKenna’s pollsters, John McLaughlin and Stuart Polk dated today…
With 2-weeks to go, the survey results from last night clearly illustrate that Andy McKenna has been building momentum and is making a charge at the end to win the Republican primary for Governor. It is evident that Andy McKenna has used his resources effectively to communicate a strong message and put him in a position to win. With the right amount of resources, Andy McKenna can continue his momentum and win the Republican primary for Governor.
Half (49%) of the Republican primary electorate recalls seeing a television ad about Andy McKenna within the past couple of weeks. Those voters who have seen the McKenna TV ads are significantly more favorable to him and more likely to vote for him.
Since October, Andy McKenna has made the biggest gains among all of the candidates and is now tied for first place. Jim Ryan’s numbers have actually started to erode while Andy McKenna’s efforts have made him a top contender with traction in this crowded primary field. He is maintaining momentum with his effective media campaign and voter outreach. Among those who have seen his television ad, he is the frontrunner.
More from the poll…
Which candidate for Governor is best described by the following statement… “will cut spending and will not raise taxes”?
* Meanwhile, Jim Ryan has a new video of the Bob Schillerstrom endorsement. Have a look…
* Also, SEIU has made a belated endorsement of Toni Preckwinkle for county board president. SEIU has concentrated most of its resources on Gov. Quinn’s campaign - kicking in well more than $1 million since July of last year.
* Quinn’s presser blasting Hynes for the Harold Washington ad is now on YouTube. It’s in four parts. Have a look…
* Thanks to a commenter, I checked the latest campaign finance report from Gov. Quinn and saw this…
At exactly the same time that the governor is trying to restart “Council Wars” with his counter-attacks on Tom and Dan Hynes and worshipful words about Harold Washington, Quinn’s taking $100,000 from one of the war’s chief architects, Ald. Ed Burke.
I love political irony, and this one is rich on all sides.
* From a press release…
WHO: U.S. Rep. Danny Davis
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Jacky Grimshaw, former top aide to Mayor Harold Washington
WHAT: NEWS CONFERENCE TO DENOUNCE CYNICAL HYNES AD
* Toni Preckwinkle leads the race for Cook County Board President, according to a new Tribune poll. The poll has it 36 for Preckwinkle (up from 20), 24 percent for Dorothy Brown (down from 29), 16 percent for Terry O’Brien (up from 11) and 11 for Todd Stroger (down from 14). 14 percent are still undecided. Keep in mind that polling Democratic primary races in Cook County is very difficult. More…
Democratic voters with a favorable impression of Preckwinkle have doubled from 23 percent last month to 45 percent now. Her favorable impression among white voters also doubled to 54 percent. Those factors help explain why she has the support of 46 percent of white voters in the contest.
O’Brien, the lone white candidate, has the backing of 25 percent of white voters.
Among black voters, Brown scored 36 percent support, Preckwinkle had 24 percent, Stroger had 23 percent and O’Brien 4 percent. […]
The poll showed Brown losing support among suburban county voters as her opponents in recent weeks publicly questioned her practice of accepting gifts, including cash, from employees.
Her office promises a “full accounting” of money is spent from the program that allows circuit court clerk employees to pay $2 or $3 to wear jeans in the office.
For years, employees have complained about the practice.
Brown recently told the Tribune that all the money collected either goes to charities or into a fund that pays for an annual employee appreciation awards ceremony.
“It’s a voluntary thing,” said Brown, noting the jeans practice is not held every Friday. “If they want to do it, fine, because blue jeans is not our attire, and you have to have on a tag saying I’m wearing blue jeans because…But they want to wear blue jeans and not pay — is that what it is?”
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* Pat Quinn and Dan Hynes debated again last night, but it doesn’t appear that much new ground was broken…
“We need someone who can’t be tied to Rod Blagojevich,” Hynes said during the debate, which was moderated by Jak Tichenor of WSIU-TV and featured questioning by David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and Jennifer Fuller of WSIU Public Radio.
But Quinn said he’s made more budget cuts than any governor in state history and that the comptroller presented him with a budget plan that was unbalanced by about $4.5 billion.
Hynes said though SIUC will be receiving financial help soon, the governor lacks a plan to help SIUC and other state universities achieve financial stability.
“It’s not a real solution. We need a comprehensive plan to address the budget crisis,” he said.
One of my interns, Barton Lorimor, was at the event and videotaped the after-debate pressers. The Quinn video isn’t available right now, but here’s Dan Hynes…
Quinn said he took particular offense to Hynes’ use of Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor. Calling Washington a friend, Quinn said Hynes and his father, Tom, a veteran of Chicago politics, fought against Washington “every step of the way.”
“It’s downright sacrilegious for two hypocrites who never supported him (Washington) to invoke him,” he said.
Quinn left the revenue department in June 1987. Washington says Quinn was “dismissed” for refusing to do what he was told and for using the department to further his own agenda.
But Quinn said Thursday that he resigned because he insisted on handling his duties ethically despite pressure to cut corners from others in Washington’s administration.
To tamp down the ad’s possible damage, Quinn’s campaign reached out to Chicago media outlets with large black audiences and dispatched former Washington political advisor Jacky Grimshaw, a Quinn campaign supporter who also headed Washington’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Grimshaw said despite the harsh rhetoric, the two remained friends.
“Harold could be angry with you in public and still be friends with you behind closed doors. As far as I know, that was definitely the case with Quinn,” said Grimshaw, a Quinn appointee to the CTA board.
But Washington’s former press secretary, Alton Miller, who has not endorsed either Hynes or Quinn, predicted the ad could carry a catastrophic effect against the governor in the black community.
“This is truly what Harold Washington felt. I’m sorry to say, it’s absolutely the Harold Washington I remember, and it’s the mood and the level of disappointment I remember,” said Miller, who likewise noted the irony of the son of a Washington enemy invoking the late mayor in a campaign ad.
At the same time, Miller said, “I don’t know how in the hell you rebut it. I honestly don’t. If I’m Quinn’s people, I better have a strategy that doesn’t depend on a strong vigorous turnout from the black community. If Hynes has the money to get this out, and I’m sure he does, it’s going to be absolutely devastating.”
“Who are you gonna believe, me, or your lying eyes?”
Richard Pryor coined that phrase, but it has become Gov. Quinn’s stock reaction to his opponent’s campaign ads.
After being hammered by Comptroller Dan Hynes for secretly releasing hundreds of dangerous felons from prison early, Quinn ran a response TV ad claiming that Hynes had “grossly” distorted his record.
The “truth,” Quinn’s ad claimed, was that Quinn wanted to move nonviolent offenders into halfway homes — as if the widely condemned early release program never even existed.
“Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”
You may not have seen Hynes’ latest TV ad, but you will. It will soon be the most talked-about spot of the entire campaign.
The ad features an interview with the late Mayor Harold Washington talking about why he fired Pat Quinn as his revenue director.
“I was nuts to do it,” Washington says about hiring Quinn. “I must have been blind or staggering, I would never appoint Pat Quinn to do anything.”
It gets better.
“Pat Quinn is a totally and completely undisciplined individual,” Washington says.
That’s gotta sting.
Washington complains in the video that Quinn wouldn’t do what he was supposed to do. Instead, Quinn used the office as a public relations “plantation.”
“He was dismissed. He should’ve been dismissed. My only regret is that we hired him and kept him too long. That was perhaps my greatest mistake in government.”
While those look like supreme- ly harsh words on paper, watching Washington actually say them on video is truly striking. The ad practically reaches out of your TV screen and grabs you by the throat. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
The same basic principle was behind running an ad featuring the already dead Paul Simon endorsing Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate. A beloved figure, sainted in the political culture, Simon advised us how to vote from beyond the grave.
Twenty-two years after his death, Harold Washington is still revered in Chicago, particularly by white liberals and African Americans.
Using him is a no-brainer, particularly after softening Quinn up with millions of dollars of TV ads questioning the governor’s competency.
The Quinn people say there’s no way that Washington would want to help out a member of the Hynes family. Dan Hynes’ father ran against Washington in 1987, when the future state comptroller was still in high school.
They have a point about the father, but the Quinn folks can yell all they want and it won’t do much good because we can’t ask a dead man what he thinks now about the grown-up Dan Hynes. We know, thanks to this videotape, what Harold Washington thought of Pat Quinn.
The Quinn campaign is pushing back so hard not because Hynes has somehow defiled Washington’s hallowed memory (although they’d love to somehow create a backlash), but because the late mayor’s comments could’ve been uttered last week.
They are an eerily perfect prelude to Quinn’s meltdown as governor and Hynes’ effective campaign to point out the governor’s mismanagement and administrative incompetence. Washington’s long-ago words match Hynes’ current message — and the image that more and more voters now have of their governor.
True to form, Quinn denied Thursday that he was ever fired by the late mayor. “That didn’t happen,” Quinn said. “I resigned.”
On the one hand, we’ve got Washington saying on videotape Quinn was “dismissed” for good reason.
On the other, Quinn says he resigned and always supported his dear friend Harold.
“Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”
* Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom will announce at 11 o’clock today that he’s dropping out of the race and is endorsing Jim Ryan.
Discuss.
I’ll be updating this post with more on the GOP candidates in a bit.
*** UPDATE *** From a press release…
Statement from McKenna for Illinois Spokesman Lance Trover on the Tax and Spenders Teaming Up:
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone since Jim Ryan and Bob Schillerstrom teamed with Kirk Dillard to raise taxes on suburban families – it appears now they want to team up and take their tax and spend ways from the suburbs to all Illinois families.”
On the Republican side, McKenna is far ahead of the six other primary candidates in fundraising, thanks in part to putting up $1.6 million of his own wealth… McKenna also raised more than $2 million from individuals, companies and groups, giving him a $3.6 million war chest.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard has raised about $800,000 in his bid. The veteran Hinsdale lawmaker also took more than $600,000 in loans.
DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom has raised just more than $700,000, including a $100,000 personal loan to his campaign. Former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan has raised just over half a million dollars.
Downstate candidate state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington also has raised just over half a million dollars since June. Chicago conservative commentator Dan Proft has raised about a quarter of a million dollars in cash and donated goods and services.
Added campaign cash could be flowing into contested area congressional primaries in a matter of days, thanks to Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Illinois political observers predicted.
“I would imagine, based on the ruling today, you may see some corporate play within a week and a half,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin, a Westchester Republican, and a former candidate for U.S. Senate. “Clearly this is going to have a major impact on midterm elections next November. I can’t even fathom how much money is going to go into these elections.”
I wrote “maybe” because, at least with the unions, they’re so committed right now to funding the Democratic governor’s race that they won’t have the cash to get too involved with federal races. As for corporations, well, that could be a different story, although many companies are having tough times these days. Things will change by the fall campaign, however.
But it doesn’t appear that there will be any impact on Illinois’ state races…
The court’s ruling is predicted to similarly end corporate and union restrictions in 24 states. However, Illinois has no existing restrictions. Limits on such spending also were not part of a campaign finance overhaul that legislative Democrats and Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn approved last year.
Those laws, which begin with the 2012 campaign season, for the first time here limit how much individuals and businesses can give to candidates, but don’t restrict how much a company or union can spend on its own to support candidates.
Alexi Giannoulias on the ruling via press release…
“I profoundly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling. The very corporate special interests that got us into this economic mess should be given less power to influence elections, not more. I am proud to be the first U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois history to refuse money from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists because I believe that to get our economy back on track and create the next generation of good-paying jobs, we have to break the grip of corporate interests in Washington.
“My likely Republican opponent Mark Kirk doesn’t believe there is a problem. In his decade in Washington, he has taken more corporate PAC money than just about any other politician. He then voted their way on one reckless Bush economic policy after another. That is why he refused to disclose how he would have voted on the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor and that’s why he still won’t speak about it even today. He cannot be trusted to be an advocate for working families or the middle class.”
“According to state and federal records, Alexi Giannoulias took $504,700 from corporate and union Political Action Committeesas state treasurer and already accepted another $63,500 from special interest, business and union PACs in his bid for Senate,” Kirk spokesman Eric Elk said. “In the wake of Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris, Illinois voters deserve better.”
* Illinois Dem. Senate Debate Shaped by Massachusetts
* Scott Brown makes rounds in Senate: Moments before Brown walked into McCain’s second floor Russell office, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) — the GOP front-runner for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat — came through the crowd of reporters booming, “Illinois is next!” and entered the Arizona senator’s reception room.
* Poll: Blunt leading Carnahan as Demo candidates sink: In Illinois, Sabato said, Democrats would have had a better chance in November had state Attorney General Lisa Madigan chosen to run. As for the GOP’s likely candidate, Rep. Mark Kirk, “He’s the perfect profile of a Republican who can win in a good year,” Sabato said.
* Finally, the long-awaited cemetery attack ad from Pat Quinn. Rate it…
Quinn is obviously trying to staunch the bleeding of his support in the African-American community lately, so Hynes fires back using Harold Washington’s own words. Effective? You tell me…
Oof. As someone just told me, that ad will work for everybody, not just black people. He’s right. It’s all about the theme that Quinn is incompetent.
There is obviously some chutzpah here since Hynes’ father ran against Washington. I didn’t remember this, but the Quinn people tell me an 18-year-old Dan Hynes appears in one of his dad’s ads. Wanna bet we’ll see that footage?
I have a couple of more ads, but I wanted to get these up since everything is so delayed today. Check back in a few.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Apparently, Gov. Quinn didn’t know that Hynes was using actual video of Harold Washington, because the governor today denied he was fired by the late mayor…
Quinn denies Washington fired him.
“That didn’t happen — I resigned. I supported Harold Washington in every election. He told me sometime Quinn, someday we’ll have a drink together.”
He resigned? That’s not what Washington said. Oops. Pretty stupid prevarication by Quinn.
Quinn’s campaign shot back that the ad is in poor taste coming from Hynes, alleging that the comptroller’s father, 19th Ward power broker Tom Hynes undermined Washington. The elder Hynes ran as a third-party candidate against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign at a time when racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics
“Harold Washington is spinning in his grave,” said Quinn spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin. “Dan Hynes was featured in ads for his father against Harold Washington.”
I asked the Hynes campaign about that last point, and they said the then 18-year-old appeared in a positive ad for his dad.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The IFT and the IEA are running a new radio ad for Hynes. Listen.
* Speech ran long and I am running late for the funeral, so here’s a big list of campaign stories. I’ll do something with some of this when I get back, but have at it for now campers…
* Ill. Senate candidate alleging anti-gay discrimination in debate fight
Businessman Bob Dold looked next door after a rival candidate in the Feb. 2 primary locked up endorsements from the Illinois Republicans he hopes to join in Congress.
Dold — who’s going after the seat being vacated by Rep. Mark Kirk — announced the endorsement of Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar.
* I have to give a speech this morning, so there isn’t much time to post until around 10 o’clock. After that, I am going to the Carlos Hernandez Gomez funeral. I hope to get a couple of posts up in between.
In his rise to the pinnacle of Illinois politics, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan built a reputation for wielding control over every bill, every budget line and every Democratic representative elected to oversee them.
Away from the public eye, the state’s ultimate power player enjoyed a similar rise in his private career: rainmaker for one of Chicago’s most successful property tax law firms.
In a first-of-its-kind examination, the Tribune found these two careers repeatedly intersect, and in some cases Madigan took public actions that benefited his private clients.
As a public official, he got a private road behind a shopping mall repaved, helped secure state funding for an expanded tollway interchange and intervened for a developer looking for state cash. In each case, Madigan was a private lawyer for businesspeople who stood to benefit.
His list of clients multiplied as Madigan consolidated political muscle over the last two decades. Now, many of his decisions as speaker have the potential to affect someone who has hired Madigan & Getzendanner in hopes of having a tax bill lowered. The Chicago firm represents banks the state regulates, investment houses that have overseen billions of dollars in public pensions, developers who want roads — all subject to decisions made by a state House in the firm control of their tax lawyer.
In 2005, while serving as the executive director of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, Jon Bauman says he was surprised one day when his secretary announced a call from the speaker of the House.
“He talked about these gentlemen from a Chicago-focused fund who were trying to start something,” Bauman said of Madigan. “He understood minority-owned and/or Illinois-based funds may be of special interest to us, and he asked that we give the guy and his fund a look.
“I told him he was correct, we were working with particular emphasis on those kinds of funds and I appreciated his call and would be in touch,” Bauman said. Records show pension fund managers did have a meeting with the broker, John Cooke, who represented the Arches at Oakwood Shores, a low-income housing project developed by Granite Development Corp. and The Community Builders. Both firms have been tax clients of Madigan & Getzendanner. […]
Bauman cooperated with federal agents building a corruption case against members of the Blagojevich administration for, among other things, corrupting pension contracts. After Blagojevich’s indictment and impeachment last year, Madigan introduced legislation to fire Bauman, saying he cooperated only to save himself.
Bauman said he now wonders whether his ouster was retaliation for not hiring Madigan’s client. He said Madigan did not disclose his professional relationship with the developers and he did not know about it.
Madigan press secretary Steve Brown responds…
For about 11 months, a team of at least four Chicago Tribune reporters have been pouring over documents, conducting interviews and studying files. In many instances their question was “tell us how Mike Madigan used his public office to enrich his law practice.”
The following document speaks for itself. It was provided to the Tribune reporters in response to their questions and revised based on additional conversations.
The mass at Chicago’s St. John Cantius Catholic Church, 825 North Carpenter St., is set for 11 a.m. and will be in Latin. A priest will assist with CLTV’s coverage.
The core problem is money. Most CTA subsidies come from taxes on retail sales and real-estate transfers, and the worst recession in many decades has knocked that take way, way down.
The agency has agreed to borrow more than $100 million to close the funding gap, but had to pay a big price. To sign the needed legislation, Gov. Pat Quinn demanded a two-year freeze on fares — not even a little hike, not even on well-heeled Loop office workers who might prefer to pay an extra quarter rather than wait an extra quarter-hour in the cold for a bus.
If something isn’t worked out by Feb. 7, the CTA plans to cut 9 express bus routes, cut hours on 41 bus routes, and reduce service on 119 bus and 7 rail lines. The agency also plans to lay off 1,067 workers.
The transportation board is sending questionnaires to the Illinois and Indiana communities affected by Canadian National’s acquisition of the 198-mile rail line, which runs in an arc around Chicago from Waukegan to Joliet to Gary.
Next month, Mrs. Obama officially launches her anti-obesity initiative, and during a speech before the U.S. Conference of Mayors, she told them, “We’re looking to you to be leaders on the front lines of this effort across the country.”
Unspent money stays in an alderman’s account for future use — but is certain to become campaign fodder for challengers charging the ward’s needs aren’t being met.
Chicago area suburbs saw a 47 percent spike in the number of poor, and the nation’s suburbs were home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the country from 2000 to 2008.
Take Northwestern University, with building after building lining the lakefront in Evanston. A world class institution with a world class endowment, or investments of nearly $6 billion.
Or the University of Chicago which stretches for blocks on both sides of the Midway in fashionable Hyde Park. Its endowment: also $6 billion.
But like all not-for-profit schools, hospitals and churches, they pay no property taxes.
According to the Cook County Assessor, all this costs the rest of us anywhere from $200 to $400 milliofn.
People like Refund Anticipation Loans, or RALs, because it lets them get their expected tax refunds a couple of days after filing. Lenders like them because the fees in Illinois alone total $114 million a year.
* Athletic department waiting to hear about furloughs
Illini coaches could take after similar behavior this semester, when the University implements furloughs to help combat the institution’s rising financial problems.
Superintendent Rick Schmitt told the school board this week that the district should have been paid $4,534,862 by the state by now, but the district has only received $3,565,615.
* Unit 5, terminated contractor reach agreement for work on junior high school
The January issue of Discover magazine, which focuses on “science, technology and the future,” listed science’s Top 100 Stories of 2009, ranking FutureGen as No. 9.
But Rolling Stone magazine also mentioned FutureGen in its January magazine when it called FutureGen lobbyist Dick Gephardt one of the 17 “polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.”
* Legislator’s book to outline how Southern Illinois can help the green economy
State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, will join Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard and John Mead, director of the SIUC Coal Research Center, for an announcement about the release of the book, “Hope for the Heartland.”
[Mike] Schafer and entrepreneurs like him advocate aggressive fishing of Asian carp as a way to make money and save the Great Lakes, where environmentalists fear the voracious fish would starve native species by consuming their food. But several of them say such efforts can’t get going without government help, and that’s been in short supply as states face budget problems.
[City Clerk Cecilia] Tumulty told aldermen this week she didn’t want to present a budget based on the assumption that unions would accept contractual concessions of 12 unpaid days off or smaller pay increases, as Mayor Tim Davlin has proposed.
Springfield Police Chief Rob Williams is counting on personal connections and word of mouth — what he calls “informal recruiting” — to help the mostly white department diversify, a goal that has been elusive for more than a decade.
* Some support for Decatur parking plan, but it’s not unanimous
The proposed plan calls for instituting employee parking permits at the 10-hour parking meters that line the outlying streets downtown, setting all city parking garages at equal pricing, and putting in place measures to allow the city to boot and tow cars and suspend the driver’s licenses of those with high amounts of unpaid parking tickets.
* Mattoon officials defend use of TIF districts, approve two grants
