* 6:00 pm - Rahm Emanuel’s attorneys have filed an emergency motion with the Illinois Supreme Court for a stay pending appeal. Read it by clicking here.
It begins…
The Appellate Court’s decision involves one of the most far-reaching election law rulings ever to be issued by an Illinois court, not only because of its implications for the current Chicago mayoral election but also for its unprecedented restriction on the ability of individual to
participate in every future municipal election in this State.
More…
the Appellate court’s decision that Emanuel abandoned his Chicago residence when he lived temporarily in Washington, D.C. while serving as the President’s Chief of Staff is directly contrary to this Court’s long-standing precedents. As the dissenting Justice stated, without mincing words, the majority below created a “completely new standard” that shows “a careless disregard for the law shortly before an election for the office of mayor in a major city.”
In a conference call with reporters this afternoon,[Board of Election Chairman Langdon Neal] said it will cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to print the 2 million paper ballots the the Board of Elections Commissioners is ordering from Lake County Press in Waukegan. He said plates and being made this evening, and the “ink will hit the paper” tomorrow morning.
Early voting begins a week from today but will use electronic voting machines that can still be reprogrammed. He declined to speculate exactly what would happen if the Illinois Supreme Court reinstates Emanuel on the ballot other than to say “we’ll make adjustments…we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
He said there is no precedent in Illinois for delaying the date of an election due to uncertainties such as this.
[Election law attorney Andy Raucci] said it is quite possible, maybe even likely, that the high court will agree with the Appellate Court.
“There are all sorts of court precedents that say you can impose higher standards,” Mr. Raucci said. “I have felt from the beginning that the odds of him losing increased as the case went higher up in the courts, farther away from the newspaper editorial boards.”
Burt Odelson, the attorney who brought the successful challenge to Mr. Emanuel’s residency, thinks there’s a real possibility the high court won’t even take the case.
The Supreme Court generally steps in when lower courts have conflicting rulings, he said. That’s not true here, he continued. “The law is the law.”
* Could Emanuel run as a write-in? Yes. Could he serve? Maybe not…
On the one hand, there is no legal process to stop Emanuel from running a write-in campaign, according Ken Menzel, a legal counsel with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
“We don’t have a challenge process for write-in candidates in Illinois,” he explained. “You can’t prevent a person from being a write-in candidate.” […]
On the other hand — and more importantly — the state residency statute in question in the case decided today governs eligibility to hold public office, not eligibility to be on a ballot.
“The basis of the challenge is the allegation he’s not eligible for office,” Menzel said.
The finding that Emanuel failed to meet the state’s strict residency requirement, if not reversed, means a write-in campaign would begin in environment of uncertainty as to whether Emanuel could assume office, were he to win.
But Chico has even more to gain from today’s ruling in the immediate future, said Chicago political consultant Eric Adelstein. Chico finished third overall in the Tribune poll and is the leading Hispanic candidate in the race. But Emanuel was carrying a plurality of the Hispanic vote in the survey with 30 percent, with the rest of that bloc divided between Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, who most experts give little chance in the race.
“It’s likely to be Braun and Chico,” said Dick Simpson, a former alderman and the head of the political science department at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Under that scenario, the key question would be who wins the support of white voters, among whom Emanuel had enjoyed a commanding lead. If the Tribune poll is any guide, Chico has a huge advantage over Braun in this demographic. He finished second to Emanuel among whites with 25 percent, while Braun received just 7 percent of support among that group. Perhaps even more troubling for Braun, half of white voters view her unfavorably, according to the poll.
And Chico has other factors working in his favor. “He has more money and a heavier ad campaign,” Simpson said.
* And the Sun-Times has already published an editorial…
The truest words issued by an Illinois Appellate Court Justice on Monday were these:
Striking Rahm Emanuel’s name from the ballot for mayor of Chicago unfairly “disenfranchises … every voter in Chicago who would consider voting for him.”
Unfortunately, Justice Bertina E. Lampkin wrote those words in a dissent of the court’s majority opinion, which did indeed rule Emanuel off the ballot. […]
Inexplicably, however, the Appellate Court majority also declined Monday to certify this case for immediate review by the Supreme Court, apparently not deeming it a matter of great enough importance.
Now Emanuel’s lawyers must petition the high court themselves, a time-consuming process, while the clock ticks.
* Did Jimmy John’s founder James Liautaud really make an abrupt decision to pull his family out of Illinois and move to Florida after the income tax hike passed? Maybe not…
A check of public records indicates that an LLC with Jimmy John Liautaud’s last name bought a $4 million home at Key Largo’s Ocean Reef Club in June. […]
[A] check of property records in Monroe County found the $4 million purchase by Liautaud Development Group LLC of Champaign at Ocean Reef on June 1. In September, a permit was issued to allow some demolition work on the house.
The Ocean Reef Club club is mighty swanky, with its own private airport, two golf courses, and a private school. I looked at a vacation rental last year for about two seconds online before I figured I couldn’t afford it.
Treasurer Dan Rutherford is a friend of Liautaud’s and told WLS last week that the businessman was upset at Illinois for a variety of reasons, including our minimum wage. Liautaud has been a major contributor to Republicans here, nationally and in Arizona, where a $10,000 Liautaud Development Group check got involved in a court case involving the always controversial Maricopa County Sheriff.
* The Question: Should Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke recuse herself from any appeal by Rahm Emanuel since her husband is (albeit unofficially) supporting Gery Chico for mayor? Explain.
*** UPDATE - 3:27 pm *** Emanuel attorney Mike Kasper just called to chat. Among other things, Kasper said he will definitely not ask Justice Burke to recuse herself.
“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement.”
Appellate judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot.
Based on the foregoing analysis, we conclude that, under subsection 3.1-10-5(a) of the Municipal Code, a candidate must meet not only the Election Code’s voter residency standard, but also must have actually resided within the municipality for one year prior to the election, a qualification that the candidate unquestionably does not satisfy. Because the candidate does not satisfy that standard, he may be eligible for inclusion on the ballot only if he is somehow exempt from the Municipal Code’s “reside in” requirement.
More…
We agree with the candidate that his service constituted “business of the United States” and thus that this exception applies to him. We disagree, however, with his position that the exception saves his candidacy. In our view, the exception embodied by section 3-2 of the Election Code applies only to voter residency requirements, not to candidate residency requirements.
And more…
…our supreme court has explained unequivocally that “it is elemental that domicile and residence are not synonymous.”
* From Justice Lampkin’s dissent…
To the extent the majority addresses the long-held principle that a party’s intention when he leaves or acquires his residence largely controls the determination of whether he has abandoned the residence, the majority distorts this principle (see discussion of Smith below). Then, the majority simply reads the principle out of its analysis, choosing instead to adopt a completely new standard.
More from the stinging dissent…
Since the majority could not meddle with the Board’s fact findings or its ruling based on the proper application of the manifest weight and clearly erroneous standards, the majority attacks the Board’s ruling from another angle. Specifically, the majority promulgates a new and undefined standard for determining candidate residency requirements despite the plethora of clear, relevant and well-established precedent that has been used by our circuit courts and election boards for decades.
Oof…
Nothing in the text or context of these statutes distinguishes “has resided in” as used to define a “qualified elector” from “has resided in” as used to define the length of time a candidate must have been resident in order to run for office. Moreover, if the legislature had intended the phrase “has resided in” to mean actually lived in, as the majority proposes, then the legislature surely would have chosen to use the more innocuous word live rather than the verb reside and the noun residence, which are charged with legal implications. […]
The majority attempts to support its creation of a completely new candidate residency standard with an exhaustive (or, rather, exhausting) discussion of section 3.1-10-5(d) of the Municipal Code regarding the military exception. The candidate here was not in the military and did not attempt to claim an exemption under section 3.1-10-5(d). Nevertheless, while the majority spends five pages of its opinion on a subsection of the Municipal Code that has no applicability to the present case, the majority does not write a single sentence explaining how it defines “actually resided in.” It is patently clear that the majority fails to even attempt to define its newly discovered standard because it is a figment of the majority’s imagination.
How many days may a person stay away from his home before the majority would decide he no longer “actually resides” in it? Would the majority have us pick a number out of a hat? A standard which cannot be defined cannot be applied. If the majority had picked even an rbitrary number of days that voters need not sleep in their own beds before they violated this new arbitrary standard, then at least we would be able to apply this new standard. Should a court consider just the number of days a voter or candidate is absent or are there other relevant factors under the new standard?
Apparently, only the majority knows but, for some reason, fails to share it with those charged to abide by it if they want to be a candidate for municipal office.
The majority’s promulgation of a new undefined standard cuts off the various boards of elections and circuit courts of this State from over 100 years of precedent. […]
The majority’s decision disenfranchises not just this particular candidate, but every voter in Chicago who would consider voting for him. Well-settled law does not countenance such a result. […]
An opinion of such wide-ranging import and not based on established law but, rather, on the whims of two judges, should not be allowed to stand.
“From day one, Gery Chico’s campaign has been about putting Chicagoans back to work, making our neighborhoods safer and giving our children the education they deserve.
“Today’s news is a surprise but it will not impact how we run our campaign. Gery will continue to work for every vote and lay out his plans to take Chicago in a whole new direction.”
Emanuel will make a public statement at 1:30 this afternoon.
Today at 5: meet at the Chicago BOE to rally for Rahm’s right 2 b on the ballot and let Chicagoans choose. Dearborn/Washington, 5 pm
* Officially, he’s off the ballot right now, but Emanuel’s attorneys will likely ask for a stay…
The Board of Elections has not yet printed up the ballot.
Odelson said Board of Elections attorney Jim Scanlon told him that as of this moment, Emanuel’s name would stay off the ballot.
Emanuel’s attorneys will likely ask for a “stay” of the order today or Tuesday. If that is granted, Emanuel’s name could go back on the ballot.
Early voting starts a week from today.
* 1:22 pm - The Huffington Post breathlessly reports that Emanuel’s campaign website is down. Well, it works for me.
* 1:32pm - CBS2 is covering the Rahm Emanuel announcement live right now.Click here.
“Fundamentally, when the president asked me to serve the country as his chief of staff, that counts as serving your country. I have no doubt that we will, in the end prevail at this effort… Nothing’s ever easy. This is just one turn in the road.”
Emanuel said the “dissent opinion is pretty strong.” Said the circuit court and the city elections board back him up. Said his attorneys would ask for a stay to get his name back on the ballot.
Asked if he thought politics was involved in this decision, Emanuel deflected.
* The tax hike is having a positive effect on the state’s bond ratings…
The tax increase approved by Democrats in Springfield has had one positive effect; Fitch Ratings has raised the rating on state bonds from negative to stable. […]
The service said the increase will help stabilize the state’s finances.
The ratings agency said following several years during which the state was unwilling to take action to restructure its budget, the tax increase and enacted spending limits close “a significant portion of the structural gap in the state’s budget through fiscal 2014.”
Fitch added that because the tax increases are temporary, Illinois would need to find a more permanent solution to the mismatch between spending and revenues. Further, despite the significant increase in tax revenues, Illinois is expected to continue to rely on one-time revenues, including the expected use of debt financing for operations, in fiscal 2012.
Fitch said the state’s debt burden is “above average” and rising. Additional borrowing, meanwhile, is expected under the $31 billion capital plan.
The state’s general obligation bonds are currently rated at A, which is five notches into investment-grade territory. Illinois benefits from a large, diverse economy centered on the Chicago metropolitan area, which is the nation’s third largest and is a nationally important business and transportation center, according to Fitch.
Expect others to follow.
* The tax hike may have also brought some needed sanity to muni bond markets in general. If nothing else, a backlash is starting to play out over dire predictions of meltdown…
Lyle Fitterer, the top manager of U.S. municipal-bond funds in the past decade, sides with Bill Gross and against Meredith Whitney in his view that fiscally strained states and cities will avoid widespread defaults.
“The baby has been thrown out with the bathwater,” said Fitterer, who runs the $2.3 billion Wells Fargo Advantage Municipal Bond Fund from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “For every bad story there are hundreds of good ones.”
Investors have pulled money from mutual funds that buy municipal bonds for 10 straight weeks, spooked by rising interest rates and warnings that defaults will escalate. Fitterer used the selloff to buy what he sees as bargains, including debt from Illinois and California, which have the lowest state credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service.
Smart move by Fitterer on buying Illinois.
* Meanwhile, the General Assembly slipped a little-noticed provision into a bill last week…
In the same legislation that raised the debt ceiling, lawmakers included a provision that requires underwriters working with the state to disclose what bets they have made through credit default swaps against a potential state default. State House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, modeled the requirements after action taken by California Treasurer Bill Lockyer.
Illinois has had the highest CDS rate among states. It has ranged in recent months from just under 300 basis points to more than 340 basis points.
Under the legislation that has been signed by Quinn, underwriters must disclose their cumulative notional volume of the state’s CDS positions and trades and their outstanding gross and net notional amount of Illinois CDS over the last three months.
Firms must disclose whether their “net position is short or long.” They must also disclose whether they have released any publicly available research or marketing reports that reference state CDS and submit the reports.
In other words, the state wants to know if its underwriters are also betting against it. They have until Friday to disclose their CDS bets.
An out-of-state education reform group raised a whopping $2.8 million in the days leading up to historic state caps on campaign contributions.
All of the money raised by Stand for Children’s Illinois PAC came in five- or six-figure contributions from some very major Chicago-area business types. Members of the famed billionaire Pritzker family kicked in a total of $250,000 on Dec. 29, two days before the end of the old campaign finance system, which allowed for unlimited contributions to groups like Stand for Children’s PAC.
Ken Griffin, CEO of the Citadel Group, contributed $500,000 on Dec. 15. Griffin gave hundreds of thousands of dollars last year to Illinois House Republicans and GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady’s campaign. Sam Zell, owner of Tribune Co., contributed $100,000 on Dec. 20. Members of the Henry Crown family kicked in $400,000. And Paul Finnegan, co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, contributed $500,000.
The group’s political action committee made history last year with the single largest non-leadership contribution in modern Illinois times — a $175,000 check to Republican state House candidate Ryan Higgins, who ended up losing his race. The PAC contributed a total of $610,000 during the fall campaign to legislative candidates in both parties.
That money did not go unnoticed at the Statehouse. During the post-election legislative session, House Speaker Michael Madigan tried to push through education reforms supported by Stand for Children which were deemed overtly hostile by the teachers unions. Among the reforms was an all-but-total ban on strikes by Chicago teachers. The teachers unions refused to contribute to Madigan and many of his candidates last year after Madigan pushed through public employee pension reforms.
The group’s December fundraising push left it with almost $2.9 million in the bank as of the end of 2010, when contributions to state PACs were capped at $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for corporations per calendar year. None of the group’s $2.8 million in December contributions would have fallen under those caps.
To put this in perspective, the Illinois State Medical Society, which is one of the most powerful lobbying forces at the Statehouse, had $1.8 million in its political action committee account by the end of the year. The Illinois Hospital Association and the pro-choice juggernaut Personal PAC ended the year with about $1.4 million each. Stand for Children beat them all by a lot.
Jonah Edelman, Stand for Children’s national founder, said last week that the December contributions represented the “significant generosity of Illinoisans.” Edelman refused to say whether the group planned to spend the war chest in the coming campaign or use it as a long-term fund.
He did say his organization was now focused on passing the education reform bill that was backed by Madigan, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel and others during the lame-duck session. Emanuel took in hundreds of thousands of dollars from Stand for Children’s contributors.
The group’s legislation ran into a brick wall in the Senate, where Sen. Kimberly Lightford, chairman of the Education Reform Committee, resisted a move to rush through any reforms and insisted that the teachers unions play a role in the negotiations.
Lightford has received high marks from both Stand for Children and the teachers unions for running fair-minded, well-organized meetings. One longtime teachers union lobbyist said this month that Lightford’s meetings were some of the best-run he’s attended during his entire career. Stand for Children’s legislative person comes from the Senate Democratic staff, so she has a long relationship with Lightford and offered up her own high praise. Another Lightford meeting is scheduled for this week.
It’s not that legislators and their leaders slavishly bow deeply to anybody with a fat wallet. But they most certainly take lots of notice when somebody comes out of nowhere and antes up with $2.9 million.
And Stand for Children’s lobbying stable includes some of the biggest contract lobbyists at the Statehouse. They’ve basically run the board, with heavy-hitting lobbyists tied to both parties and the Black and Latino caucuses.
Stand for Children has gone from nowhere to one of the biggest and potentially one of the more successful players in the building within just a few short months, all without attracting significant media attention. It’s truly an amazing story.
Taking advantage of what they perceive as a loophole in the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws, organizers of For a Better Chicago say they don’t have to tell us who donated the $855,000 that the group transferred into its newly formed political action committee on Dec. 29 and 30.
The money came in just under the deadline before a new state law took effect Jan. 1 that the group concedes will require it to disclose any future donors.
* Mayoral candidates raced to raise funds before new state limits kicked in - About $1.2 million of contributions to Emanuel in late December would have violated law in January
* I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, most of the bluster from surrounding state governors since Illinois raised its income tax is just that. Bluster.
Their trash talk is mostly about domestic politics. Before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was even sworn in he had turned down hundreds of millions in federal transportation aid and, as a consequence, lost a rail car manufacturer. For that, he was whacked hard by Gov. Pat Quinn, who vowed to recruit the manufacturer. Since bashing Illinois is a favorite pastime up in CheeseHeadLand, Walker is taking full advantage to help restore his reputation. Payback time.
Jim Rozell owns a hotel analytics company and plans to relocate from Glendale, Wisc., to Chicago by the end of the year. Hotel Compete currently has five employees, but Rozell said he will likely hire 10 more people once he comes to Illinois.
Rozell said he started planning the move before taxes went up Illinois, but hearing about it didn’t deter him.
“Initially one of my big deciding factors was that taxes were much lower (in Illinois). Even with your tax increase, it’s still lower than Wisconsin,” Rozell said.
Who would want to headquarter their company in the super boonies when they could put it where the real money is in Chicago?
* The same basic political formula is playing out in Indiana. Hoosier Gov. Mitch Daniels believes he’s running for president. For whatever reason, anything bad that happens in Illinois or Chicago is automatically seen by the Right as reflecting poorly on President Obama, even though he’s not responsible for 99.9 percent of it. It’s just another silly national politics game, and Daniels is quite understandably using it to his full advantage. And, of course, the Hoosiers hate us as much or more as the Cheeseheads. So, he’s also playing to the home fans.
* Will we lose businesses to Wisconsin and Indiana in the coming months? I’m sure we will, and they’ll make a big huge deal out of it. But not everyone who threatens to leave will do so…
Troy Freeman, owner of design and marketing firm Dig-It-All Designs, said the possibility of leaving the state has “absolutely” crossed his mind.
“The tax (increase) hasn’t really hit us yet. We’re looking to see what the impact is,” Freeman said. “The tax thing isn’t as big an issue so much as the work climate.”
While he hasn’t made any serious movements toward relocation, Freeman said when he does business with out-of-state clients, he always asks them about the atmosphere in their states.
Dig-It-All Designs relies mostly on central Illinois clients. If they leave, they will be abandoning their client base. Don’t bet on it happening soon.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s website bluntly declares: “(We’re) looking at ways to position Missouri to take advantage of our neighboring state’s economic misfortune.”
Scrap metal recycler Becker Iron & Metal Inc. plans to move its headquarters from St. Louis to Venice, Ill.
The company’s move will help create at least 42 permanent Illinois jobs and support another 198 construction jobs as part of an overall $4 million investment in Madison County, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said Friday.
* Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune headlined its post tax hike editorial “Goodbye Jobs,” but it supports what some say is a job-killing Amazon tax…
Amazon has vowed to fight these measures, in part by cutting off its affiliates, which collect a share of the sales they send to the retailer. At least one, CouponCabin.com, has threatened to leave Illinois if Quinn signs the bill.
Quinn should sign anyway. That will encourage California and other states on the fence to follow through with similar legislation, which in turn will force online retailers to reconsider their scorched-earth threats. Pressure will mount for the federal solution we need.
No one here relishes the idea of a new business tax. On the surface, it sends the wrong message, especially from a state legislature with such a horrendous record of thwarting job creation.
But many Illinois businesses, including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, want this law for simple fairness. They’re right. Amazon and its kin rack up hundreds of millions in sales from Illinois residents. Why should e-tailers get a price advantage over competing stores that are compelled by law to collect sales tax?
* Related…
* Plan would charge state retirees more for health care: The retirees are responsible for co-payments, even if nine out of 10 of them don’t pay premiums. The state’s costs rose more than 10 percent to hit $488.2 million in the last budget year, and that doesn’t even include dental and vision expenses. Some of the increase is attributed to workers who have left Illinois for warmer climates. The cost for their care can be higher because they can’t always get the group rate discounts of a managed-care plan when they move to another state.
* Worker’s compensation reform could delay borrowing
* State Bankruptcy Is a Bad Idea - Politicians already have the power to tame public unions without roiling municipal bond markets. They merely have to use it.
* All this talk about Cutler’s poor performance and early exit misses the real point: It’s pretty tough to win when your entire team (including coaches) sleep-stumbles through the first third of the game.
Play calling? Horrifyingly unimaginative.
Defense? Nonexistent.
Receivers? Not open.
Offensive line? Pathetic.
Special teams? Stopped.
Frankly, I would rather just forget yesterday even happened and go on with my life.
Before the game, the governor hosted six veterans and military service members for lunch on the near South Side at Connie’s Pizza.
The service members praised Quinn for his work on behalf of veterans, and he responded in kind.
“I think the family of Illinois is united behind the Bears today, but I think it’s also important that we remember those who can’t be at this game. They can’t even be at home watching the game; they’re deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world,” Quinn said.
The governor said the Bears allowed him to buy two tickets for the game and he donated those to two service members at the luncheon.
* 8:35 am - From state Rep. Greg Harris’ Facebook page…
Governor Pat Quinn will sign the Civil Union Law on Monday, January 31. The signing ceremony will be in the afternoon in the Chicago Loop, and open to the public. Details will be announced early next week.
Harris, of course, was the House sponsor, so he should know what he’s talking about. [Hat tip: NowInGayChicago]
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
MEDIA ADVISORY
**Monday, January 24, 2011**
CHICAGO – Next Monday, Governor Pat Quinn will sign the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (SB1716) with guests and members of the public. With this law, Illinois joins the handful of U.S. states that have expanded recognition and rights to all families. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the signing of this historic legislation.
WHEN: January 31, 2011 at 4 p.m.
WHERE: Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street
Chicago, 60601
ADDITIONAL: Members of the public are invited to witness this historic occasion.
As space is limited, RSVPs to gov.civilunionsrsvp@illinois.gov are encouraged.
Guests without an RSVP will be seated as space is available.
Event is open press.
* 3:27 pm - Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle finally released his mayoral campaign finance report, which was due last night at midnight. His total cash raised? $59,440.
Yes, you read that right.
Cash on hand as of December 31st: $2,115.33.
Oy.
Money isn’t everything in politics, but it is a very important means of gauging a candidate’s support. Del Valle formed his committee on October 1st. That gave him three full months to raise money.
Miguel del Valle was always one of my favorite state Senators. He’s a decent, kind man who fought the good fight and won. But that was then and this is now, and I just hate to see him go out this way.
On Sunday the Green Bay Packers take on the Chicago Bears for the NFC Championship.
The rivalry is so intense that one Green Bay, Wisc., radio station - WOGB-FM -(103.1) has pulled the band Chicago from its playlist.
“Every single song,” says the oldies station’s program director, Dan Markus. He tells Lifeline Live, “They named themselves after the city whose team is blocking our way to the Super Bowl.”
It’s kinda difficult to retaliate in kind since no Chicago radio stations regularly play German marching band music. But I’m with Otter on this one…
Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!
Suggestions?
…Adding… The best so far…
In a well-intentioned gesture, Governor Quinn retaliated by calling on all Chicago radio stations to ban Green Day from their playlists.
Fur will fly tomorrow at Tiffany’s Sports Lounge when fans gather to watch the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears face off in the NFC Championship. The fuss won’t just be about which team goes to the Super Bowl.
The St. Paul Packer’s bar is hosting an impromptu bear roast — a 180-pound black bear cooked in a pig-roaster over hickory and charcoal. Tiffany’s co-owner Blake Montpetit said he had to scramble to find a whole unprocessed bear.
Roasting a meat-packer probably wouldn’t be as tasty, unfortunately.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Duct-taping a Packers fan to a Stop sign might be a bit much, but it looks like they had a good time…
The sidewalks on both sides of Walnut Street beside the Brown County courthouse were a sea of green and gold and blaze orange Friday afternoon.
The fans braved below-zero wind chills to cheer on their team ahead of Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Bears.
Mayor Jim Schmitt announced his wager with Chicago’s mayor for wine and cheese.
In a skit, a Chicago Bears fan was arrested in front of the crowd by a Brown County sheriff’s deputy and brought in front of a judge who ordered him to change his ways.
Well, that’s different. Usually, Bears fans are arrested for speeding in Wisconsin because they’re so anxious to get outta that dump.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Now, that’s what I call a Bears fan…
Brad Buell called giving his tickets to the Bears-Packers game to wounded veterans a “no brainer.”
A season ticket holder for the last 10 years, the Libertyville man said veterans have sacrificed more than enough. So he can sit out on the biggest game in Chicago history: Bears-Packers in the NFC Championship.
“These veterans are doing something that I think 99 percent of people out there won’t do,” Buell said. “They run into harm’s way when everyone else is running away.”
* We had a lot of fun with Gov. Pat Quinn’s rambling ways during the campaign. He’s the jam band governor, this guy. He ought to tour with The String Cheese Incident. Sheila Simon could play banjo. Maybe she could do even better than the $500 she made last year picking and grinning.
Anyway, in our latest edition chronicling the governor’s meandering ways, Gov. Quinn extols the virtues (and the long Illinois history) of the “miracle” soybean. From there, he segues into the University of Illinois and then to China, back to the U of I, then back to China.
He even has mic problems at one point, but keeps right on going. Have a listen…
* Meanwhile, you should also take a look at Rahm Emanuel defending himself for not appearing at community forums with the other mayoral candidates. It’s no big deal, he says, because, among other things, he’s been to 30 grocery stores…
* Gov. Pat Quinn picked the Bears to win 27-17 this Sunday. President Obama said the Bears would defeat the Packers 20-17.
* The Question: What will be the final score in Sunday’s big game?
* Bonus Question: What’s the best trash talk you’ve heard about the Cheesehead team or its home state this week? Make sure to keep it clean, people. But have fun and, of course, Go Bears!
Braun polled at 6 percent last month but made major inroads among African-American voters. Emanuel was at 32 percent in the previous poll, but he, too, gained black voters. Chico was at 9 percent in the December survey and has picked up white and Latino support since then. […]
Braun, meanwhile, is viewed unfavorably by 30 percent of the city’s electorate — the highest negative score for any mayoral candidate. But Braun also is viewed favorably by 39 percent and continues to enjoy strong support in the black community, where 55 percent viewed her favorably and only 11 percent unfavorably. Emanuel’s scores are similar in that community. […]
As the only major female candidate in the race, Braun also may be counting on the support of women. But Emanuel was doubling up Braun among female voters, 47 percent to 23 percent. And 61 percent of women viewed Emanuel favorably, compared with 37 percent for Braun.
Chico, who is Daley’s former chief of staff, scored a 10 percent gain among white voters since the last Tribune poll.
* As we saw yesterday, Emanuel raised $10.6 million last year, plus another $1.1 million transferred from his congressional account for a total of $11.7 million. There were some big names on his contributor list…
Emanuel received $2.6 million in $100,000 chunks, the bulk of which - $1.2 million - came from Chicago private equity investment houses including Citadel Investment Group, Aragon Global Management, Grovesnor Capital Management, and others.
Emanuel also collected $100,000 checks from some Hollywood heavyweights like producer David Geffen, Fox Family Network CEO Haim Saban and William Morris Endeavor agent John Fogelman. Ari Emanuel, the candidate’s brother, is the CEO of William Morris, one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange gave Emanuel $200,000, records released Thursday show. He also took in $100,000 apiece from wealthy Chicago businessmen James Crown and Fred Eychaner, plus another $100,000 from Hollywood mogul David Geffen, $75,000 from film director Steven Spielberg and $50,000 from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. […]
Emanuel spent nearly $3.5 million, including $2.2 million to AKPD Message and Media LLC, a publicity firm once run by David Axelrod, now an Obama senior adviser. That left Emanuel with more than $8.3 million to spend on the mayor’s race as of the start of this year.
Though he’s been criticized by his opponents for raising big bucks from outside Chicago, Emanuel’s campaign said 74 percent of his 2,494 contributors live in Cook County and more than half gave him $250 or less.
Demonstrating his expected money advantage over his competitors, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel is shelling out big bucks to run a campaign ad during Sunday’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC Championship game.
The cost of Emanuel’s ad is $5,000 a second, or $150,000 for the 30-second commercial, according to an industry source familiar with political TV advertising who was not authorized to speak publicly about ad buys. No other mayoral candidate has purchased time during the game so far.
* Carol Moseley Braun filed her campaign finance report at 9:25 this morning. The deadline was midnight. Her report is here. She raised just $446K and had just $164K on hand at the end of December.
Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, a community activist, raised $500,367 as of Dec 31. More than half of that money, $296,754, came from Joseph Stanford, pastor of Ambassadors for Christ Ministries.
Watkins spent $138,868, leaving her with $361,499 to spend as of Jan. 1.
* At least Braun filed. As of 9:32 this morning, Miguel del Valle had not filed his required disclosure report.
Gery Chico raised $2.3 million through Dec. 31, according to reports filed today. He has since reported another $98,000 in contributions over $1,000 – for a total of $2.39 million raised. He had $2 million on hand to start the year.
Among Chico’s largest contributors were Bo Zhang, the chairman of American Electronic Products, who gave the candidate $30,000 and Patrick Ryan, the former chairman of Aon, who wrote Chico a $25,000 check.
Chico also received $25,000 from Symon Garber, the president and CEO of Chicago Carriage Cab Co. But the candidate gave the money back to Garber, who is facing millions of dollars in city fines for illegally putting salvaged cars on the street as cabs.
* Whatever happens in Sunday’s big football game, there’s no way a major international business conference like this would’ve been held in Green Bay, or Indianapolis for that matter…
Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and other dignitaries’ participation in a signing ceremony Thursday of business deals between Illinois and Chinese companies signaled how China’s growing middle class is opening potentially explosive revenue-growth opportunities.
Midwestern agricultural giants Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Cargill, Bunge, soybean and renewable-energy company Louis Dreyfus and farmers represented by the Illinois Soybean Association and other advocacy groups will benefit from the deals, worth a total of $1.8 billion. The deals signed Thursday at the Chicago Hilton represented eight U.S. and 24 Chinese companies. One-fourth of the total, or $450 million, will go to purchase Illinois soy this year, according to state government statistics. Indeed, one of every four rows of soybeans planted in Illinois is exported to China each year, helping make Illinois the sixth-largest state exporter to China, according to Quinn and the Illinois Soybean Association.
The event was tied to China President Hu Jintao’s historic visit to the United States and Chicago but took place a few hours before his arrival.
From karaoke equipment makers to wind turbine manufacturers, Chicago area companies and business groups are looking for ways to capitalize on the burgeoning market in China and welcome the Chinese president’s visit here.
President Hu Jintao’s two-day stop here includes a trade and economic cooperation forum at the Hilton Chicago today at which some 350 Chinese executives and more than 500 U.S. executives will gather.
The economic downturn has been one with many twists and turns and no one is totally immune, even where things are going well.
Last fall, Japanese firm Nippon Sharyo held a ground breaking ceremony for its newest railcar manufacturing facility to be located just west of Rochelle. It was a highly-attended event, including Gov. Pat Quinn and other politicians, with extensive media coverage.
On Wednesday, Rochelle City Manager Ken Alberts confirmed that the Black Earth Development Resources, LLC., which is developing the property, is having difficulty securing financing for the project.
“I can confirm that there is an issue, and the issue relates to the financing of the infrastructure above and beyond what is being paid for by grants,” Alberts said.
The state grants still left the locals about $2 million short. They’ve been applying for other grants, but you’d think DCEO would step in with at least some paperwork assistance, since Gov. Quinn made such a big deal about this facility last year.
*** UPDATE *** Just this week, Gov. Quinn used the Rochelle manufacturer as an example of how Illinois one-upped Wisconsin by taking Nippon Sharyo away from the Cheesehead State. Check it out…
Sam Beelman has dealt with taxing issues as an Illinois-based business before, but the recent round of income tax hikes may force him to move more of his trucking business out of the state, he says.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Beelman, who owns and operates Beelman Truck Co. in Alorton. “We will try to move whatever business we can out of this state.”
* And a thank you note and a promise to do better to this businessperson might also be in order…
The leaders at Allsup Inc., a Belleville-based business that helps clients maximize their access to Social Security disability insurance and Medicare, are also dismayed with the increasingly cost of doing business in Illinois. However, company spokeswoman Mary Dale Walters said there are no plans to move.
“Like every other business in the state of Illinois, we’re disappointed that this has occurred,” Walters said. “We really haven’t completed any analysis of what the impact will be in the end. We’re not going anywhere. Jim (Allsup) built the business here, and it continues to grow here. We will add (90) more jobs here, and we had our best year ever last year.”
“Today’s message is brought to you by the Illinois Labor Union Mafia: We would like to thank the Democratic Socialist Party of Illinois for doing just what we bought them to do, continue to pump us billions of dollars at taxpayer expense. We know that the union system is unsustainable without extorting money from the general public, so thank you for a job well done.”
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Illinois’ pension problem is quite large. Scary large. But there was that tax hike last week which took care of most of the state’s structural deficit. Perhaps Texas or New Jersey, which are skipping pension payments yet again, would’ve been a better example. That would require an alteration in the media meme, so don’t bet on it.
The state’s stack of unpaid bills will soon double despite an income tax increase, according to state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
The four year, temporary personal income tax hike of 67 percent was approved on the final day of the previous Legislature and recently signed by Gov. Pat Quinn. In part, the income tax hike is designed to help Illinois catch up on past-due bills and stop being delinquent on its payments.
“Our current backlog of bills stands at $6 billion, and the increased revenues will help address this backlog,” said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
Not quite, according to Topinka, who is in charge of Illinois’ checkbook.
“By the time we get through four years from now and all of this and what they’re able to spend, we will probably have a debt of $12 billion of unpaid bills that have yet to be dealt with,” the Riverside Republican said.
Then again, the borrowing bill which stalled last week (and would pay off the overdue debt) isn’t factored into her estimate. And Topinka’s $34 billion revenue estimate for the coming fiscal year is about $2.6 billion below what I’m told will be the governor’s new FY 2012 estimate, which should be released today.
* Related…
* ADDED: Study: States don’t need bankruptcy option
* ADDED: Impact of higher taxes unclear on real estate market
