Gov. Pat Quinn today said he has encouraged Iraq military veteran Tammy Duckworth to pursue the vacant Democratic lieutenant governor nomination.
But the governor said Duckworth told him she has other considerations to weigh, including her job with the Obama administration in Washington. She serves as the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. Veterans Administration.
Here’s my question: How is Duckworth gonna pay her bills for the next 11 months? She’s just a middle class person who needs to have a steady income. She’s not an attorney, so she can’t work on the side while she’s campaigning with Quinn. The governor can’t just give her a state job - that would be a bit much. What’s he gonna do? Get her a job with one of his big campaign supporters? Oh, yeah, that’ll go over well. I guess they could put her on the campaign payroll, but even that might get a bit touchy.
Quinn also said he doesn’t agree with attempts to eliminate the lieutenant governor office. Madigan filed legislation to ask voters this November whether the office should be eliminated in January 2015.
“I told Mike Madigan I don’t think that’s a good way to go,” Quinn said. “I think we should have a lieutenant governor who is capable, who in the case of an emergency can assume the office of governor and do a good job for the people. I think it’s also important to have a lieutenant governor who’s a strong voice for veterans and for service members, for their families, that’s what I have done over the last six years when I was lieutenant governor.”
There are those who think the strident stance against deleting the LG office taken by the African-American members of the central committee was either at the governor’s bidding or the members thought they could score some points by doing so.
One of the proposals is a 10-percent, across-the-board cut in general state aid, which is the primary mechanism for the funding of schools. State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) posited that measure but [Rep. Frank Mautino] said it’s merely a consideration and nothing has been introduced or formalized.
Lawmakers are, however, putting together a list of all programs run by state agencies that would either be eliminated or suspended for two years. Mautino declined to identify any programs considered for elimination but noted suspension would have the same effect.
“Once a program’s been suspended,” he said, “it rarely comes back.”
Not until Quinn’s budget is in hand, however, will the scope of the cuts be known.
* I think Gawker or somebody had a titillating report about this book months ago, but I can’t remember. Anyway, there’s been a shakeup on Dick Durbin’s staff…
There’s a reason people get nervous around writers: You never know what might end up in their books.
Kathleen Rooney, a staffer for Sen. Dick Durbin, was fired earlier this month after the release of her latest book, “For You, for You I Am Trilling These Songs.” The autobiographical essays include three chapters about working in a Senate office: insider gossip, staff secrets and a complicated flirtation between the author and her boss, Durbin’s state director in Illinois. […]
The prose hit the fan after Joe Shoemaker, Durbin’s spokesman, saw a short review of the essay collection last month in The Washington Post and bought the book. […]
Although no one was named, Shoemaker was disturbed that she had written about the office and especially concerned about the relationship between Rooney and her supervisor: “Once upon a time there was a girl in unrequitable (but not unrequited) love with her boss,” she wrote. “He would place his hand at the base of her neck, or flick her earring, or twist a strand of her hair…”
Sen. Dick Durbin has sharply restricted the duties of a longtime aide who was his Illinois chief of staff after an internally conducted sexual harassment investigation that was prompted by the published essays of a woman who worked in his Chicago office.
Even though no evidence of sexual harassment was found, the senator has determined that Michael Daly, a former campaign manager and close aide for a quarter-century, will no longer have supervisory responsibilities, according to Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker.
“The judgments he made were not in keeping with what he wants out of a key employee,” Shoemaker said Thursday.
Daly had been placed on administrative leave during the course of the investigation and eventually was allowed to return to work.
* In other news, the Tribune editorial board and its little “me too” buddies at the Daily Herald both unleashed tirades against the Illinois Senate for holding that secret meeting to discuss an NCSL report. It was the Tribune’s second editorial in two days…
Yes, we wrote about this yesterday. We’re still mad about it.
A development group that wants to build a mammoth entertainment and retail center near the Interstate 270-Illinois Route 157 intersection has hired consultants for a new economic impact analysis of the 900-acre project.
The announcement came less than two weeks after the Illinois Department of Revenue estimated that the development would take up to $525 million in annual sales from businesses in surrounding communities.
That report also said that pending legislation would divert up to $1.3 billion in sales taxes over 20 years to the developers’ use.
Rather, they said, the authority, known as McPier, should take a series of nonlegislative steps to cut exhibitors’ costs for in-house electrical service, food and drink, and booth setup.
That in-house electrical service is a gigantic problem over there. They jack up electrical service costs through the roof to fund McPier staff salaries. The other items are a function of the contractor mark-ups, which I touched on earlier this week.
* Not even one minute after I received an e-mail notice about Tiger Woods’ apology, I got this e-mail from the Illinois Republican Party…
If Tiger Can Do It, Alexi Can Too
“If I’m fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation,” he said. His plan now seems to be to stonewall until November.
– Chicago Tribune Editorial, February 12, 2010
CHICAGO – As Alexi Giannoulias enters his 22nd day of silence since promising reporters he would answer questions surrounding his role in the near-collapse of his family’s Broadway Bank, the Illinois Republican Party today renewed its call for Giannoulias to answer the Chicago Tribune’s demand to come clean.
A suburban Republican lawmaker criticized colleagues Thursday for renewing the appointment of a Democratic lawmaker’s wife to a six-figure state post.
At issue is the reappointment of Lynne Sered to chair the state’s Education Labor Relations Board. Sered, who is paid $104,358 annually, is the wife of state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat and member of Senate Democratic leadership.
“The fact that elected officials’ spouses are receiving jobs in excess of six figures, I think is something the people of Illinois have a problem with,” state Sen. Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington said Thursday. He said the appointments should have been considered individually. […]
“These comments are demeaning and insulting to all women and to me, my wife and my family,” said Schoenberg. “It’s a very sorry state of affairs.”
I can’t wait to see what Duffy does when Mrs. Madigan is reappointed to the Arts Council.
* The Question: Should legislative spouses and family members be forbidden from holding state jobs? Explain.
* The League of Women Voters has set the bar pretty high for reforming the way legislative redistricting is done in Illinois…
Both [Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters] and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno agreed any proposal that would allow the legislature to draw the map would not be a genuine step toward reform.
But the Democratic chairman of a committee overseeing redistricting reform said the push announced Thursday goes around the existing bipartisan efforts to reach a compromise on the controversial topic.
“I was quite frankly offended and taken aback because this was being put forward as reform,” said state Sen. Kwame Raoul, a Chicago Democrat. […]
Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters, disputed Raoul’s contention that he’d somehow been left out of their plans. She said she’d met with Raoul shortly after he’d been put in charge of the redistricting committee and told him the league was considering a public petition drive.
Czarnik said Raoul’s Republican counterpart on the committee contacted her, but Raoul never did. “That is the fact of the matter,” Czarnik said.
Ummm. Raoul is the chairman of the committee, so perhaps a bit more diligence on the League’s part was in order.
* Raoul also pointed out to reporters that the League’s redistricting plan was actually drafted by a couple of lawyers on the Senate Republican staff, but that didn’t make anybody’s coverage. Watch the IL Statehouse News video…
If you watched the video, you know that Raoul also talked about a lack of protection for minority districts. Here’s more on that topic…
[Raoul] said he believes the plan that Czarnik and Republican state senate leaders are pushing does not take minority areas of the state into account.
He said changing the wording of the Illinois Voting Rights Act to prevent lawmakers from drawing boundaries is not enough. He said the legislation should protect areas of Illinois where a boundary change could smother minority influence.
“Instead of putting specific voting rights language into Illinois statute, we would protect communities of interest, we would say you have to be compliant with federal law,” Raoul said. “There would be a certain priority of principles that would have to be observed.”
“I couldn’t get any specific answers as to what minority groups had been consulted for this plan that’s supposedly so protective of diversity. It would seem that, if we are speaking transparency and openness, that such groups would be consulted before the proverbial train had left the proverbial station,” he said.
Czarnik said that Raoul did not follow up with her organization on the issue after the Senate committee hearings. However, Raoul said that when he asked about the plan in December, after hearing about it in news reports, he was told that it was too late to make any changes.
The proposals would remove the map-drawing power from the legislature and put it into the hands of a nine-member advisory commission.
Under the plan, the four legislative leaders would each choose two members to serve on the committee. Those members would choose a ninth member to head the commission.
Lawmakers could approve the commission-drawn map with a two-thirds vote. If that doesn’t happen, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and a justice from a different party would choose a “Special Master” to make a decision by Sept. 30.
That’s flipping around the current system, where lawmakers and the governor take the first shot. It then heads to a special committee and even to a name drawn out of a hat to end the political dispute.
Todd Maisch, a lobbyist for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce said the history of redistricting usually falls in favor of the incumbent. Since the last legislative remapping 10 years ago, less than 3 percent of elections were won by the challenger, Maisch said.
“Under this map, when you look at the fact that tested incumbents have won 536 elections and 11 losses…,” he said. “That is really compelling data.”
The Illinois Supreme Court today rejected a bid by imprisoned former Gov. George H. Ryan to keep part of his lucrative government pension in a 6-1 ruling. The decision will cost Ryan $70,824 per year, a benefit that would have come from his government service prior to his corrupt reign secretary of state and governor.
“As the victims of Ryan’s crimes, the taxpayers of the state of Illinois are under no obligation to now fund his retirement,” wrote Justice Bob Thomas in the court’s majority opinion.
Justice Anne Burke was the lone dissenter.
The state General Assembly Retirement System had moved to strip Ryan of the entire $197,037 pension he was drawing annually up until his 2006 conviction on corruption charges linked to his tenure as governor and secretary of state.
But last year, a state appeals court reversed that decision, saying he should get to keep pension earnings from his time as a Kankakee County official, state legislator and lieutenant governor – posts in which he was not accused of criminal wrongdoing.
A proposed pilot program that would affect about 40,000 elderly and disabled Illinoisans could save the state $200 million over five years, but that’s not reason enough to rush into things, legislators said today.
The program in question is Gov. Pat Quinn’s Integrated Care Pilot Program, which outlines changes to some Medicaid fee-for-service plans for residents in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake and Will counties and suburban Cook County starting as early as October 2010. The program – focused on wellness and prevention – would offer incentives to medical providers based on patient health outcomes.
HB 5086, sponsored by Aurora Democrat Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, would halt the program before it begins and create a task force to analyze its merits.
Heroin dealers would face tougher penalties under legislation the Illinois House approved today.
The minimum sentence for possessing five grams of heroin with the intent to sell would jump from four years to six years under the measure. Right now, heroin dealers face the longer sentence if they’re convicted of having 15 grams or more.
Elgin Area School District U-46 officials Thursday formally asked the state board of education to be reclassified as a Cook County district.
The move, which would help the district seize millions in lost general state aid payments each year, came just days after State Sen. Michael Noland detailed new legislation that would provide a funding fix.
However, since this bill was tied directly to tax revenues, it was more easily killed…
A proposed law to help the Illinois wine industry stalled Thursday because of concerns the cash-strapped state could lose money if it was approved.
State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, is sponsoring legislation that would divert a portion of the sales tax tacked onto purchases of wine to the Illinois wine industry. For every gallon of wine sold, or roughly five bottles, 2 cents would be put into a fund that would help promote wine industry tourism and research grapes that are more disease and weather resistant, among other things.
Without question, there are valid reasons behind all of these ideas. But it just goes to show how removed from reality so many legislators are that they’re still eagerly attempting to spend more money and reduce more state revenues.
We’re in a fiscal crisis, people. Wake the heck up.
Sneed hears rumbles that former Dem U.S. Senate hopeful David Hoffman, who ran a tough campaign against Alexi Giannoulias, is one of five names on state Dem party leader Mike Madigan’s wish list for lieutenant governor.
Steve Brown, party chairman Michael Madigan’s spokesman, said the item was not true, there is no list, added that Sneed had not called to confirm and said he was giving her his “Dumber than a box of rocks award.”
Back to Sneed…
Top Tip: The list also includes Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez as well as Gov. Quinn’s favorite pick: former state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth, who is considering the possibility.
Top Tip II: Sneed also has learned that Quinn personally called Alvarez over the weekend to see if “she would be available for the job . . . should it come to that,” but Alvarez respectfully declined.
* Republican US Senate candidate Mark Kirk criticized Alexi Giannoulias’ poll results this week. The Giannoulias poll showed the Democrat leading Kirk 49-45. But the Kirk campaign refused to release its own numbers, which tended to undermine their otherwise decent argument…
The Kirk camp attempted to refute the Giannoulias poll numbers which showed the Dem leading Kirk by 4%, but they refused to release their own internal numbers, and pollster Greg Strimple said he “thinks this race will be close all year long.”
Strimple argued that Giannoulias’ numbers lacked credibility because of the low number of undecided voters. The Kirk camp sees a high number of undecideds, particularly in the St. Louis media market and western edge of IL. Their polls also include Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones, who is on the Nov. ballot. He argued that Jones may win a significant number of votes this year from disenchanted Dems. […]
[Kirk campaign spokesman Eric Elk] did not deny that Pres. Obama is extremely popular in IL. The Giannoulias poll showed Obama with a 64% favorability, and Strimple said his poll showed a similar level. But Elk said he couldn’t “imagine (Obama) wants to campaign” alongside “Chicago politician” Giannoulias.
Elk might not be able to imagine Obama campaigning with Giannoulias, but I can.
Eric Elk, the Kirk’s campaign manager, indicated the Kirk campaign isn’t concerned about a third party bid, ideologically right of Kirk.
“A third party bid is somewhere between wishful thinking and a pipe dream for Giannoulias,” Richard Goldberg, another Kirk senior staffer said. They feel confident in the ability of Kirk to unite voters around fiscal sobriety, his Republican independence and homeland security issues.
* Meanwhile, incumbents can’t even have a fundraiser these days without being jumped on by the other party. I’ve seen it happen over and over, from both sides, and this is just the latest…
Good morning – Democrat campaign chairman Chris Van Hollen will be in Illinois today fundraising for vulnerable Democrat Representatives Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson. Please see the following comments and research from the Republican National Committee:
“The president and Democrat leaders promised vulnerable Democrats they would be taken care of if they sold out their constituents and voted for unpopular big government policies. After voting for government-run health care and the failed stimulus amid Illinois’ 11.1 percent unemployment, Representatives Foster and Halvorson are welcoming Van Hollen with open arms as they try to line their campaign coffers and stave off competitive Republican challengers who embrace the fiscally responsible policies voters in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia have already demanded. But they should give their constituents more credit – come November voters won’t forget how Foster and Halvorson sold them out during tough times.” – RNC Spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski
* With the one-year federal stimulus anniversary this week, a Republican congressional candidate went on the attack…
State Sen. Randy Hultgren used the anniversary to highlight U.S. Rep. Bill Foster’s support of a stimulus that the GOP challenger views as a failure in creating the job growth or job preservation promised to the country. Hultgren said in a written statement that he’s seen rampant unemployment and hurting families during his travels throughout the 14th District. The only growth Hultgren said he’s seen is in government spending and the national debt as the stimulus, originally estimated at $787 billion, is now projected to be about $862 billion.
And that brings us to our graph of the day. Click the pic for a larger image…
* Bean not worried about tea parties: “There is no question that when there is an economic downturn, that definitely the anxiety levels go up - absolutely - and the passion levels go up,” said the Barrington Democrat during an interview Thursday with the Daily Herald editorial board. “But I get a lot of people saying, ‘I like what you are doing.’”
* The setup is about the news that the House approved a bill that would require legislators to formally approve the sale of Thomson prison to the federal government. The feds, of course, want to use the prison to incarcerate Guantanamo detainees, among others. Anyway, this is from the debate…
The legislation would allow lawmakers to vote on the sale of any state surplus property valued at more than $1 million, but the Thomson prison issue was the main topic of debate Wednesday.
Supporters of the Thomson deal argued loudly against the plan because it could prevent or delay the sale of the mostly unused maximum-security facility to the federal government. Local officials want the jobs that fully staffing the prison could create. […]
But others argued that because lawmakers had to approve the spending to build Thomson years ago, they should get to vote on whether the state sells it.
* The Question: Do you agree or disagree with this proposal? Explain.
We’ve had many, many debates here about the merits of the Thomson sale. Let’s just stick to the bill today, OK? Thanks.
[Shortened because long setups tend to make for fewer answers. Also, this question may not have enough pop, but oh well.]
* The train is close to running off the rails. Literally, in some cases…
In a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn, the RTA complains that the ongoing delay in receiving $250 million due it [from the state] is forcing it to use borrowed money to pay debt service on outstanding bonds.
The RTA is approaching a “crisis point” regarding funds for current expenses, it said in the letter.
“If state funding is not forthcoming in the near future in amounts sufficient to pay our ongoing debt service obligations and resume providing … money to the service boards, disruptions to transit service across the region may be inevitable,” said the letter from Executive Director Steve Schlickman.
A swelling, multibillion dollar deficit has left Illinois months behind in its payments to providers across the state.
For instance, the Williamson County Early Childhood Cooperative in southern Illinois is planning to send layoff notices to its 41 employees in the next few weeks because money from the state has not come through.
Not only is the state totally negligent in terms of their responsibility, but it is effectively privatizing higher education. We’re very close to that now, as it is, but we’re looking at schools that may not be able to keep their doors open to the end of the semester.
What are the prospects that these pols will — out of public view — divine fixes that are fair to people who rely on state services, fair to health and other providers that deliver those services, and fair to taxpayers who bear the burden for it all?
We appreciate the Tribune’s call for transparent action from the General Assembly. But what specific “fixes” do they propose? And what is their definition of “fair”? Without more detail, these editorials are meaningless.
A plan to borrow $250 million to capture matching federal Medicaid funds and start paying medical providers more quickly is now tied to a measure that would allow state universities to borrow money to fund their operating budgets. Both proposals are intended to address the issues of the state’s millions in overdue bills.
The short-term borrowing plan passed the House with Republican support, including approval from Minority Leader Rep. Tom Cross. It went on to stall in the Senate amid rumors that it lacked Republican support in the chamber. […]
Republican senators said [yesterday] that they support the plan to let schools borrow but are opposed to the state taking out another short-term loan because they say no plan has been offered for paying the money back.
They accused the Democrats of playing political games by putting the two proposals up for one vote as SB416. Sen. Dale Righter, a Mattoon Republican, called the meshing of the proposals “an ill-arranged marriage” that “creates concern” for legislators such as Righter, whose districts contain universities.
Illinois was rated the most troubled pension system in the nation, with a 54 percent funding level and a total liability of more than $54 billion, according to a study of state-administered pension funds being released today.
Pew also said that Illinois had set aside less than 1 percent of the funds it need to pay for $40 billion in health care and other benefits promised public sector retirees.
* Illinois public libraries face 16 percent funding cut: The General Assembly had asked that 23 percent be cut, but the decrease was held to 16 percent with the addition of some federal money into the pool, according to Pat McGuckin, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.
* Lawmakers call for study of college affordability: That’s a particularly tough assignment now. State government owes universities hundreds of millions of dollars in overdue payments.
* Senate panel approves borrowing measure for state universities, Quinn
* Group warns that Illinois budget suffering: “What might have been a total package of approximately $9-10 billion over the whole lifetime of (the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act), you’re down to the last third of that, when making decisions for the FY11 budget,” said Michael Bird, senior federal affairs counsel with the organization.
* Senate President John Cullerton was forced to back down yesterday and promise not to hold another closed to the public “joint caucus” with the Republicans…
“You know what? Since everybody seems to be pretty upset about it, it’s not that big a deal. We just won’t do it anymore,” Cullerton told reporters, who were barred from the Wednesday morning session with representatives of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
He shoulda thought of that earlier. The Tribune editorial was predictably harsh…
Cullerton, D-Chicago, and every Democratic and Republican senator who played along, didn’t think you — or the reporters who try to keep an eye on politicians for you — had any place in that room. The open-meetings provision of the Illinois Constitution be damned. And never mind that you pay for the salaries, staffs and offices of every lawmaker in attendance: Sorry, citizens, it’s your money, not your business.
* Speaker Madigan doesn’t usually get much positive press, but his proposal to do away with the lt. governor’s office in four years is earning him at least a few plaudits. Southtown Star…
We don’t often use this space to offer an “attaboy” to Mike Madigan. But finally he’s listening. And making some sense. While the 38-member Democratic State Central Committee tries to dream up an electable, scandal-free running mate for Gov. Pat Quinn’s re-election bid in November, we urge lawmakers to listen to us and House Speaker Madigan and seize the opportunity to abolish the useless office of lieutenant governor once and for all.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan moved quickly after the Cohen problem to propose a state constitutional amendment to abolish the office. Others have spoken up to suggest altering the office to avoid problems similar to those posed by Cohen.
But reform comes hard in Illinois, and Speaker Madigan has been criticized by Chicago politicians who don’t want to lose an office one of their fellow Democrats might someday seek. […]
The committee members were also correct to remind Madigan that he wears two hats – as Speaker of the House and as chair of the Democratic Central Committee – and sometimes they work at opposite interests. If the Speaker is unsure where one begins and one ends, perhaps he ought to step down from one, or the other, so he can be clear.
* The Tribune also blasted Madigan and applauded what it called a “political stunt” by the House Republicans to advance legislation to cap leadership contributions during fall campaigns…
So [House GOP Leader Tom Cross] put them on the spot by asking for a vote. Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan told his members to block it. They did as they were told. They always do. That’s the point.
Sure, it was a political stunt, but an effective one. Cross raised the reform flag and invited the Democrats to salute. At least we know where they stand.
Actually, all we know for sure is that the Democrats voted against an admitted political stunt and that the Tribune despises them for it.
* And Mark Brown rightly bemoaned the fact that Illinois doesn’t keep track of the unofficial vote tally…
As strange as it may seem, Illinois keeps no running statewide tabulation of election results.
The State Board of Elections, which oversees elections in Illinois, collects no results on Election Night or even in the days afterward. The state’s 102 county clerks aren’t required to report any results to the state board before Feb. 23, which most will accomplish by mail. The state board will then have until March 5 to announce its official tally. […]
The only way for news organizations or candidates to compile a statewide total is to individually contact each of the state’s 110 different election jurisdictions and collect the numbers, which those jurisdictions are allowed to update right up until they are transmitted to the state. […]
By the next statewide election cycle two years from now, we should take one more important step toward modernizing our election administration and insist they adapt the electronic reporting system to give us the voting results from Election Night to completion.
The problem, of course, is that there’s no way that the State Board of Elections could possibly cope with this new responsibility without a complete and drastic overhaul of its pathetically outdated and ridiculously inadequate Internet infrastructure.
However, as I wrote yesterday about a different proposal to give the SBE more duties, if average citizens actually started visiting the board’s website and saw how horrible it was, the board might finally have no choice but to change their stupid ways.
* When the state becomes a deadbeat: If it were a typical debtor, the state of Illinois would no doubt be trying to change its phone number right now - if it could even afford the phone.
* In the wake of another attempt for presidential clemency for her husband, Lura Lynn Ryan tells Michael Sneed that she hoped for more help from President Obama than she’s been getting. According to Mrs. Ryan, the wife of imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan, Obama approached her during last year’s Abe Lincoln 200th birthday celebration and inquired about her husband…
.”He was very concerned,” she said. “I asked him to please bring my husband home. . . . And the president, who knows George well because they both served . . . together, was so kind and caring. He assured me not to worry and that everything was going to be OK. But then nothing happened.”
Ryan’s son, George Ryan Jr., said he made a recent written appeal to Obama.
“My mother is now on oxygen 24 hours a day for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,” he said. “We are not asking for a pardon, we are asking for him to come home.”
“I wrote to President Obama [that] mom was incredibly sick and not deserving of being alone now . . . and if nothing else please do this for my mom,” he said. “Mom went to the hospital in November thinking she had pneumonia. Instead, Mom was diagnosed with an incurable disease.
“There has now been a serious change in her condition, and that has resulted in a new push to free Dad to come home and be with her,” he added. “Her doctors feel my father should be home taking care of her.
I ran into George, Jr. a few months ago at a reception in Chicago - not long after Mrs. Ryan was diagnosed. I said I had seen Obama speaking to his mom at the Lincoln birthday event and asked what he had said to her. From what I recall, George said Obama told her to “hang in there.”
I get that Mrs. Ryan is devastated by these turns of events and that her children are very worried about her health. So many people still hate the former governor that it’s almost impossible to defend him. And he didn’t make it any easier with his defiant attitude all the way up to the day he left home for prison. There are also plenty of other women in Illinois who face problems every day because their husbands are behind bars, but they don’t get any publicity because their men weren’t famous or powerful.
In the end, though, it’s very difficult for me to just coldly turn away from Mrs. Ryan because I always had such a soft spot in my heart for her. I told George, Jr. that I would go see her, but I haven’t kept my word - partly because I’ve had to cope with the emotional rollercoaster of the deaths of two friends, partly because I’ve been so busy with the campaign, but also because I truly dread the experience. I know myself well enough to understand that I’d come away feeling incredibly sorry for her. I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with that.
* Carol Marin is also wondering whether another public figure is being unfairly treated…
At the risk of sounding soft on crime and corruption, I’m having a few pangs of sympathy for Betty Loren-Maltese.
That would shock her more than anybody.
But it’s true.
As I watched the former president of the town of Cicero report to the Salvation Army halfway house on Ashland Avenue to finish out the final weeks of her eight-year federal sentence, it seemed as though we in the media might have gone a touch overboard. A gaggle of reporters swarmed her Monday — with video run by virtually every print and television outlet in town including my own — as the 60-year-old Maltese wordlessly made her way from the parking lot to the door.
Public Enemy No. 1? That was Al Capone, also of Cicero.
• The kicker: Sneed is told [former City Water Commissioner Don Tomczak] is staying at the same Salvation Army halfway facility, 105 S. Ashland, as former Cicero President Betty Loren-Maltese, whose homecoming this week netted her headlines and an unwanted headache.
• The irony: “It’s shocking. This guy has come back with no cameras or swarms of media looking to get a grunt or comment,” said a Sneed source. “He ran a political army under two mayors — and when he got caught he flipped. Ironically, Maltese, who is now homeless and penniless, seems to be a better prison release story to the press. Amazing.”
• Backshot: A source who witnessed Tomczak’s corrupt largess once told Sneed: “He [Tomczak] knew how to turn on the city’s water spigot in order to pay his electioneering troops. He would pay you off with overtime money — although you never worked for it. He’d hand new recruits an expensive cigar with the quip: ‘Hey, Babe. You’re on the team.’ ”
• Slingshot: When Tomczak flipped, he told the feds: “Everything in the indictment is true. I did it all.” Maltese always maintained her innocence.
Some of the fascination about the return to the Chicago area of former Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese after her long stint as a guest of the federal government surely relates to a lingering suspicion some of us have that, somehow, someway, she’ll be ba-a-a-a-ack. […]
Illinois law — 65 ILCS 5/3.1‑10‑5 (b) — says “A person is not eligible for an elective municipal office if that person…has been convicted in any court located in the United States of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury, or other felony,” but state and county offices are still possibilities. Something is telling us we haven’t heard or seen the last of Betty Loren-Maltese.
* Before we get all teary-eyed for the infamous, though, here’s something to sober you up…
The Chicago City Council is unlikely to go along with Mayor Richard Daley’s idea to allow the inspector general to investigate aldermen, but they might come up with an alternative to provide some measure of oversight, influential Ald. Ed Burke said today.
The longest serving aldermen, Burke, 14th, said he doesn’t think his colleagues will approve Daley’s proposal without changes.
“I haven’t taken a head count, but from what I’m hearing from comments, I would doubt it,” Burke told WLS-Radio reporter Bill Cameron.
* Here’s something you don’t see every day. The Champaign city council voted to reject a small federal grant to expand underage-drinking enforcement. The reasoning may surprise you…
Prior to the vote, council member Tom Bruno said he would vote against acceptance of the grant because it raises questions about “the morality of accepting federal grant money for local purposes.”
Bruno said he has heard comments questioning the practice of taking dollars from nationwide taxpayers for a project that only benefits the local community.
Even the mayor voted to reject the grant, and hinted that he might also support rejecting a far larger, $30 million federal grant for high-speed Internet infrastructure…
Mayor Jerry Schweighart’s comments prior to Tuesday’s denial foreshadowed an anticipated vote on whether the city should accept a much larger grant to build a high-speed Internet network.
“We should be careful in accepting this grant in a small amount or a large amount like $30 million that’s coming down the pipe,” said Schweighart, who also voted not to accept the grant.
The irony here, of course, is that the area is awash in state and federal money because of the University of Illinois. All the K-12 schools get state and federal money. Champaign gets its portion of local government revenue sharing from the state.
So, if the Champaign city council wants to take this to its logical extreme, they’d start funding everything locally. One wonders what they’ll think about “outside” funding if a natural disaster ever strikes.
On Feb. 26, Lang is set to be the special guest at a job creation luncheon organized by [Aurora Alderman Stephanie Kifowit]. The luncheon is being arranged through the alderman’s office, and Kifowit has asked that the $30 ticket price be made payable to the city of Aurora. The money, she said, will go toward paying for the lunch and for postage for the invitations.
Earlier this week, Kifowit sent an e-mail blast to nearly 1,000 people, inviting them to the event. But when she did so, she used an e-mail program paid for by her campaign committee, Friends of Stephanie Kifowit, and this program automatically appended the committee’s information to her message.
Below the body of the message, in fine print, each e-mail read “Paid for by Friends of Stephanie Kifowit,” followed by her campaign address.
The legal status affords cities greater powers of taxation and other matters of government, such as code enforcement.
State law provides that a community automatically gets home rule status when its population reaches 25,000 or greater.
Belvidere was at 20,820 in 2000. Loves Park had a special census in 2005 that put the city at 22,476, and a year later a special census in Machesney Park found 22,704 living within its borders.
Rockford had home rule taken away by voters in 1983. Various attempts to reinstate it since have failed.
* Related…
* [Rockford], police union say talks have been ‘productive’
* Monmouth [city] council favors tax changes: One would increase the sales tax 1 percent and the other would eliminate the wheel tax sticker. If the council approves the measures, the city also would lower its portion of property taxes by an estimated 20 percent when the tax levy is set in December.
* Peoria councilman: Address middle-class flight: Spears also accused the council and the city’s staff of making decisions over the years that have helped drive away the middle class. He provided an example of a resident within his district who moved out because that person did not have a big enough driveway for a boat or an extra vehicle.
The union proposals would cost the CTA more money by bringing back conductors on trains, replacing some CTA managers with union employees and using union labor for some snow-removal work that the CTA now contracts out, board Chairman Terry Peterson said.
* CTA cuts: no progress, disagreement on call for meeting
The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared with bus union members at the CTA’s 95th Street Red Line L terminal today and said he wanted a meeting with CTA leaders but hasn’t gotten any response.
Crews braved cold weather to use nets and electric prods in an attempt to see if the invasive species has made its way into the chicago Area Waterway System from the Illinois River.
Ms. Madigan says she has received 13 complaints against Glamour Model Talent Inc., 820 N. Orleans St., and its president John Vuolo,and Latte Model & Talent Agency Ltd. and its owner Robert Owczarek.
Deputy Commissioner Tommie Talley has five days to respond to the dismissal, then Water Management Commissioner John Spatz will make a final decision on his employment, department spokesman Tom LaPorte said.
* McHenry Co. OKs $4 mil bond issue for building expansion
* Groundbreaking for Mississippi River bridge attracts big names
With an overall cost of about $685 million, the four-lane bridge project will link St. Clair County to downtown St. Louis, diverting Interstate 70 traffic from the overcongested Poplar Street Bridge two miles to the south. The bridge project also calls for extensive reconstruction of bridge approaches in both Missouri and Illinois, as well as interstate interchanges in Illinois.
* 3:03 pm - The House has just passed HB 4744 by a huge margin of 81-31.
The bill would require a vote by the General Assembly before state property worth more than $1 million is sold. The bill applies to the Thomson prison sale. The Obama administration, of course, has said it wants to use the prison for Guantanamo detainees - although that plan has apparently been sidetracked. The administration could also use the prison for “regular” inmates as well.
Needless to say, if the GA has to vote on the Thomson sale, the deal would probably be toast unless there’s no “danger” of terrorists coming to the prison.
Keep in mind, however, that this bill could always get buried in the Senate.
* Democrats remain more popular than Republicans in Illinois. Despite what we are seeing elsewhere, Democrats are still significantly more popular than Republicans in Illinois. Just 34 percent of Illinois voters have a favorable impression of the GOP, while 46 percent have unfavorable impressions. By comparison, views of Democrats are evenly split (41 – 42 percent favorable-unfavorable).
* President Obama remains very popular in Illinois. President Obama continues to have very solid standing in Illinois. The President’s 59 – 31 percent favorable/unfavorable rating is as high as in any state we’ve seen recently. Even among Independents, Obama has a positive, 51 – 35 percent favorable/unfavorable rating. Sixty-four percent of Illinoisans approve of the job Obama is doing as President.
“Every [Illinois] Democrat I know, every politically knowledgeable and interested Democrat is worried. The combination of factors is potentially pretty lethal,” said John Schmidt, a Chicago attorney who ran unsuccessfully in 1998 for the Democratic nomination for governor.
The $62.4 billion unfunded liability [of all the state’s pension systems] reflects the money the state needs, but doesn’t have currently, to cover all the earned pension credits if they were cashed in all at once. While that’s an unrealistic situation, it is a financial measure used to gauge the health of pension systems. It’s akin to having enough money in your savings account to cover your mortgage if the bank called the entire loan at once.
You can make a lot of trouble with numbers, and that unfunded liability stat is always one of the bigger trouble-makers.
…allowing McPier to audit the books of the two large companies that actually operate conventions for trade groups to make sure cost savings are passed on to their clients.
Until they can get a handle on those two companies, nothing major will change. Trouble is, nobody really thinks that the McPier honchos actually want a “real” audit for fear that the companies, which control a huge percentage of the national convention industry, will turn McCormick Place into a ghost town.
Voters may soon look to the State Board of Elections for information on candidates in primary races.
Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat, said that her bill, which would require the board of elections to create voter guides for the primary, is not a direct response to this month’s election and noted that she filed the legislation in January.
However, she did say the election, with its tight races and low voter turnout, underscored the need for voters to be more informed about the candidates. She said including primary candidates in the voter guides — which contain basic information submitted by each candidate — that the board of elections now provides for general elections would be a good start.
The bright side is that if the public finally sees for itself how woefully decrepit the board’s site is, maybe the resulting outrage will force the board to get its act together. I’m not holding my breath.
Legally - as I tried to point out in comments on an earlier post - the General Assembly is not covered under the Open Meetings Act.
Constitutionally, the SDem view is that Supreme court rulings dating back to the 19th Century essentially only force the GA to abide by what’s in the document itself. If, as is the case here, the Constitution insists that sessions and committees be open to the public, then only sessions and committee hearings are covered. Since the Senate adjourned after announcing a “joint caucus,” the meeting was not technically a session or a hearing. They did agree, however, that they probably ought to revisit the political aspects of these full-chamber secret meetings.
Donald Craven, a longtime attorney for the Illinois Press Association who also has represented the Chicago Tribune on open government issues, said the meeting should have been open no matter how big or small the topic.
“The topic is not important,” Craven said. “If the Senate can go into a joint caucus to talk about this topic, what’s the logical extreme?
“Can they also go into a joint caucus to debate the budget bill? Can they go into a joint caucus to debate the hundreds of other bills that go before the state Senate?” Craven asked.
* I had a pleasant little chat with Gov. Pat Quinn last night. We talked about several things, and then he stunned me by revealing that he was following the Brady/Dillard vote count on the blog yesterday.
Yes, you read that right. The governor is a Capitol Fax Blog reader. He’s not a commenter, however… or so he says.
* The Question: Lobby the governor on one state issue.
Please, keep this respectful. Whether you agree with him or not, he’s still the governor. Also, we’re busy today and we don’t have time to play nanny.
It’s the annual kickoff to the session. Lawmakers file thousands of bills covering all kinds of issues — from spending to sex offenses — that they want considered by the House and Senate.
Only a few hundred will make it all the way through the process to become law. And this year, that number could be down for a couple of reasons.
Lawmakers aim to deal with only “emergency issues” and the budget in even-numbered years. These also are election years, during which politicians have more incentive to avoid controversy. And in this election year, there’s plenty to do on the major budget problems alone.
* Bills often are introduced just for a press pop, or for a nagging constituent or an insistent lobbyist. Often, the sponsor has either no intention nor any real hope of ever moving that bill to the governor’s desk. Sometimes, the bills are introduced just to send a message. Like this one, for instance…
Words like “coercive” and “ridiculous” were used at the Kane County Government Center Tuesday to describe a pair of state bills designed to deny funds for communities that enacted local bans on video gambling.
In a unanimous vote, the County Board’s Legislative Committee moved to oppose two virtually identical measures in the Illinois House and Senate which exclude communities that have the bans from obtaining funding from the state’s $31 billion capital bill. The measures also would require those entities to pay back the revenue lost to the state that the video gambling licenses would have generated.
The county board members are right to be upset, but it’s far more likely that the bills were introduced as a not-so-gentle warning to locals than measures which could actually become law this year.
* Some bills, however, become law without people even really knowing about it, and that can cause serious aggravation. For instance…
School districts and police officials are using e-mails, letters and warnings to publicize a new state law that has taken many parents by surprise because it prohibits the use of a hand-held cell phone while driving in a school zone.
Since the law took effect Jan. 1, officials have scrambled to inform parents who dial away while performing the daily rite of dropping off or picking up their children amid a thicket of cars, buses and darting pedestrians. Many find the law confusing, and even some police officials complain that it will be difficult to enforce.
“Personally, I think the police have better things to do than sit in the parking lot of schools and watch for people talking on the phone,” said Sue Anderson, a parent at Rose Elementary School in South Barrington. “Am I guilty of it? Yes.”
Anderson has not been ticketed but knows that police have cited others for violating a law that largely has fallen under the radar. The law, which does not apply to hands-free devices, also bans the use of hand-held phones in construction zones.
* Some bills ought to become law, but may not make it past the partisan screen. GOP Rep. Ron Stephens has sponsored one such bill…
Amends the Whistleblower Act. Provides that a State agency may not retaliate against an employee of that agency who discloses information about the policies or operations of that State agency in a court, an administrative hearing, or before a legislative commission or committee, or in any other proceeding, where the employee has, at the time of the disclosure, reasonable cause to believe that the information is true. Provides that a State agency may not retaliate against an employee of that agency who discloses information about the policies or operations of that State agency to a government or law enforcement agency or to the media where the employee has reasonable cause to believe, at the time of disclosure, that the disclosed information is true.
The governor’s gag order on Department of Corrections employees after word leaked out about his botched prisoner release program is probably the target here. The DHFS inspector general’s often bizarre pursuit of Tamara Hoffman, including a finding that she broke the rules by talking to me about Rod Blagojevich’s corruption, would fall under this proposal as well.
A move to end the use of red-light cameras in Illinois has been pushed to another day after lawmakers on Tuesday banished two separate proposals to a subcommittee.
State Sen. Dan Duffy, R-Barrington, proposed legislation to eliminate all red-light cameras from Chicago and suburban communities. Members of a Senate Committee sent his legislation, along with a proposal sponsored by State Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, to a subcommittee for more study.
These bills got a lot of publicity lately, but they may never again see the light of day - at least, not in their present forms. Hendon was also upset that the minority party member Duffy had “bill jacked” his idea, which is one reason Duffy’s bill got stuff in subcommittee.
* The Senate really doesn’t have a good reason to keep this session closed to the public…
The Illinois Senate plans to meet behind closed doors this morning to hear a presentation by experts about state budgets and the national economy, a move that open government advocates called baffling.
The unusual secret gathering is being billed as a “joint caucus” of the majority Democrats and the minority Republicans, two groups that represent the entire 59 members of the Illinois Senate. The caucuses routinely meet separately to plot partisan strategy, and the public is not invited. But a joint meeting is very rare.
The spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said the event will be closed because the presentation to be given by the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures will not fall under the state Constitution’s requirements to be open.
It won’t violate the Constitution? Really? From the Constitution…
Sessions of each house of the General Assembly and meetings of committees, joint committees and legislative commissions shall be open to the public. Sessions and committee meetings of a house may be closed to the public if two-thirds of the members elected to that house determine that the public interest so requires
And if you read the Senate’s rules, the term “caucus” is solely used to define political party membership. They don’t really have a leg to stand on here.
“Setting aside the legal issues, I can’t imagine what the NCSL is going to say that’s so top secret that the general public will not be allowed to hear it,” Morrison said.
Exactly.
Heck, I even obtained the PowerPoint presentation that the NCSL person will use at today’s meeting…
The scariest graph is probably in Part 1. Click the pic for a better look…
I think that may be too optimistic. Our own state’s deficit is projected at $13 billion in Fiscal Year 2011, which would be about a quarter of the NCSL’s projected all-states deficit of $55.5 billion - although only 30 states provided data for the year in question, as compared to 35 for the current FY.
* Is Chicago throwing away $40 million?: Chicago is turning its back on $40 million in guaranteed revenue over the next 10 years — and 25,000 free trash/recycling bins — by ignoring an Aurora company’s offer to install “Free Green Cans” bearing advertising across the city.
“I talked to the Senate President of Texas, a Republican, and he told me about this idea of having joint caucuses. I said we have individual caucuses. He said we have a really bipartisan Senate. We have people who really get along. I said we’re trying to improve that. We didn’t have a very good atmosphere in Springfield. So, that’s why we started last year with a dinner, a social gathering with all the Senators, this year the staff, that you guys wanted to come to. It was meant to be like a Christmas party for the office.
“The idea for having a caucus like this, this is a joint caucus, just like a caucus that we have, that we call on the floor. But this is meant to be one where just the senators are there to get information, but where they can also feel like they can ask questions and have a free exchange of ideas without having to be worried about what the press might report.”
“Now you’ve got five people in there running for higher office. Two governors, a county board president, a congressman – they want to have their thoughts and comments about this material without them having to worry about what’s going to be reported or looked at in their campaign. OK? So none of this stuff that’s going to be reported is secret, as a matter of fact I want you all to see it.”
“I know you guys are trying to show that we’re all bad down here and we’re secret and we’re trying to do things in a bad way, I just find it ironic that, yeah, you’re right we’ve never done it before. I’m proud of it, because we’re trying to bring people together socially and in a working atmosphere. We’re not trying to keep the media out of our business. You can ask anybody you want to afterward what they think, what the materials were. We’re going to have a press conference.”
On Tuesday, CBS 2’s informal survey found Dillard reducing Brady’s lead to about 250 votes. Brady’s own McLean County won’t tally its final absentees until later Wednesday so he’ll likely gain some. But there just aren’t many people downstate.
Take two Brady strongholds, for example. In Peoria, Brady added just three votes to his margin and, next door in Tazewell County, just two votes.
Dillard’s total is closer to what commenters came up with yesterday…
Dillard did downplay talk of a costly and legally difficult recount if he remains on the short end of the final vote tally. He said Tuesday his losing margin would have to be “something less” than the roughly 220 he believed he had Tuesday to consider a recount.
Late unofficial vote counts from election authorities in the more-populous six-county Chicago region showed Dillard cutting into Brady’s lead by nearly 200 votes [from the original 420 AP total]. Still, final tallying continues in downstate counties where, despite fewer votes being cast, Brady has held an advantage over Dillard.
* Dillard repeated yesterday that he likely won’t call for a recount unless the margin is within 100 votes. As the Trib rightly points out, this could become a long, involved process if Dillard goes through with any recount…
But a challenge based on provisional votes could become a messy one, and Dillard said he’s unsure he would press for more of them to be counted. Dillard’s low threshold for considering a recount reflects the advances in electronic vote-tabulation technology. Local election officials have until Feb. 23 to re-test their results and send them to the state.
“The local election authorities need to canvass and have time to double-check their math,” Dillard said. “And I’d like to see a preliminary tabulation by the actual election authority, the State Board of Elections…especially when you’re talking about 200 votes out of about three-quarters of a million cast. Mistakes do happen.”
“We’re talking about a five-ten-thousandths of 1 percent difference in a statewide race with three quarters of a million votes cast. I want to make sure every vote is counted,” Dillard said.
* Sen. Brady talked with my intern Barton Lorimor yesterday about the counting process and where it stands. Have a look…
* And Brady got his first gentle (considering its notoriously over the top ways) scolding from the Tribune editorial board over his proposed constitutional amendment to forbid gay marriage and civil unions…
Brady’s idea is faulty on several grounds, starting with the merits. Civil unions are a reasonable compromise between those who think gays should have access to marriage and those who think the state should not redefine an ancient institution that has strong religious connotations. But even if you don’t favor same-sex marriage, there is no reason to change the constitution if public opinion should come to view it more favorably than today.
Brady ought to focus on the precarious position Illinois is in. The answers lie in the realm of fiscal policy, ethics and economic growth. It’s not the prospect of same-sex marriage that is chasing away employers. The option of civil unions has not burdened future taxpayers with draconian financial burdens. […]
The gay marriage/civil union proposal, though, is a big favor to Gov. Pat Quinn. Citizens are divided on that issue — but very few are clamoring for a constitutional fix. Brady, if he is the GOP nominee, will need to convince Democrats and independents that they should give the Republicans another chance in the governor’s office. A campaign that focuses on the state’s financial chaos and the Legislature’s unwillingness to push genuine ethics reform could provide that chance. But Brady suggests he has other things on his mind.
