* 3:42 pm - Subscribers have known about this since September 15th. From a press release…
On the eve of the first public gubernatorial campaign debate, former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar today endorsed Bill Brady for Governor, saying Brady will restore fiscal discipline to manage the state budget, reverse out-of-control spending that threatens the state’s financial solvency, and will support economic policies designed to bring greater promise and prosperity back to Illinois.
“Bill Brady is the candidate most qualified to change the reckless fiscal attitudes we’ve seen for too long in Springfield,” said Edgar, the state’s 38th Governor. “From discussing this with him, I know he will stop spending more money than the state takes in and bring fiscal responsibility back to state government. As a businessman, he understands the impact of state budget policy on job creation and will put in place policies that once again encourage business investment in our state.”
“We need a change in Illinois government, and Bill Brady will bring that change. I strongly endorse Bill Brady for Governor,” he said.
Brady said he’s honored to have Edgar’s endorsement, and pledged the same fortitude as the former Governor in addressing severe budget challenges. Edgar served two terms as Governor from 1991-1999 before retiring from elected office. He inherited a $1 billion state budget deficit and when he left office, the state had a checkbook balance of $1.5 billion.
“If I am fortunate enough to be elected Governor, I will follow the example set by Governor Edgar,” Brady said. “He prioritized and cut state spending, curbed programs that were not producing the needed results, and returned fiscal discipline to Illinois government.”
Edgar is the latest in a series of recent Brady endorsements. Others include the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, ABATE, and former Governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.
Neither man is running for mayor, so we’ll see if the Chicago media covers it. Maybe they’ll ask Edgar if he’s endorsing Rahm, too.
Interesting that there was no big public event, however.
She’s done lots of good stuff. It’s just that nobody’s gonna get through that gigantic list.
…Adding more… My favorite part is the end…
So! I hope you can appreciate the work that one can do as your attorney general, and believe that I have done a good job serving as your attorney general.
She sounded just like her father there.
…Adding still more… I think this is one of those five-minute “candidate talking to the people” videos for ABC7. They’re popping up all over the place lately. This one was the most “fun,” however.
…Adding still more… Well, they took the darned video down. Too bad. It was a classic. Wish I had saved it.
* Pulse Opinion Research just did a statewide survey of 1,000 likely voters on September 25th for Fox News. Governor…
Bill Brady 46%
Pat Quinn 36%
Rich Whitney 8%
Some other candidate 1%
Not sure 9%
US Senate…
Mark Kirk 42%
Alexi Giannoulias 40%
LeAlan Jones 7%
Some other candidate 2%
Not sure 9%
Just like Rasmussen, they didn’t include the Libertarian Party candidates and millionaire Scott Lee Cohen. These people are goofballs. There’s just no other way to say it.
Those xtabs show Alexi Giannoulias beating Mark Kirk with women 42-38, while Bill Brady is leading Pat Quinn with women 44-36. There’s just no excuse for that poor showing by Quinn. He simply doesn’t know what he’s doing. And this is from TPM…
The internals of the poll show both Obama and McCain voters from 2008 supporting [Green Party US Senate nominee LeAlan Jones] in the same proportions, suggesting that support for him could be more a matter of pure protest vote as opposed to support being siphoned from Democrats.
The same is not true with the governor’s race. Green Party nominee Rich Whitney is getting 9 percent of Obama’s voters, but just 5 percent of McCain’s voters. He is, however, taking 6 percent from both Republicans and Democrats. He’s also getting 10 percent from those making more than $60K and 11 percent of people who say they are moderates.
* More toplines…
* Regardless of how you plan to vote, is Alexi Giannoulias honest and
trustworthy?
25% Yes
34% No
41% Not sure
* Regardless of how you plan to vote, is Mark Kirk honest and trustworthy?
18% Yes
41% No
42% Not sure
That’s a big reason why Kirk hasn’t yet put this away.
* As you already know, Rasmussen released its US Senate poll last week. In the past, they have always polled the governor’s race whenever they’ve polled the Senate race. This time, though, they say they didn’t do it. Odd. Anyway, we won’t have new gubernatorial numbers from them until next week.
Also, we successfully Freeped PPP’s site last week and their new Illinois poll numbers will start rolling out tomorrow I’m told.
* Meanwhile, the gubernatorial candidates will debate tomorrow at the Union League Club. We probably won’t have live video unless I can rig up a quickie mirror site, but we will have raw video right after the debate ends.
* Meanwhile, Illinois continues to drown in red ink. From the Tribune…
All the providers want is what the state owes them, but as Illinois faces a $4.6 billion backlog in bills and no money to pay them, most often what they get is just enough to survive. Enough to meet the next payroll, keep the doors open for one more month and make payments on loans keeping them afloat as they wait for the state to make good.
“Every day is a triage situation,” said comptroller spokeswoman Carol Knowles. “There is a limited pot of money.”
And the situation isn’t getting any better. Knowles said the state has bills dating as far back as seven months and the backlog is likely to “worsen during the next several months.” Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director, David Vaught, has acknowledged the state will end the year where it started — owing nearly $6 billion in unpaid bills.
And it’s having a ripple effect on employment…
The Chicago-based nonprofit [A Safe Haven] has had to cut services and lay off workers
* Rep. David Miller, the Democrats’ comptroller nominee, outlined his proposal to deal with the problem if he’s elected…
Miller, a dentist from Lynwood, told the Tribune editorial board he would examine the backlog and move those owed money up in the line if they were about to go out of business and provide a unique service in the region, such as the only health clinic in a Chicago neighborhood or downstate Illinois county.
But Judy Baar Topinka didn’t approve of the plan…
“You can’t just group them into little sections of the state. That is social engineering, and that is unfair,” said Topinka, who lost a bid for governor against Democrat Rod Blagojevich in 2006.
Her idea…
Topinka said she would aim to provide more consistency in how the bills are paid so providers could count on them, even if they are months late. She said she would target human service providers to be up first after the state’s payroll and loan repayments are made under state law.
“You start with getting at those who are dealing with our most vulnerable citizens and try and give them something — if nothing else — predictability,” Topinka said.
Frankly, I think Miller’s idea is superior. And not just because he’s my cousin.
Newly released U.S. Census Bureau figures show the percentage of Illinois children with health insurance grew between 2008 and 2009. But about 5 percent of Illinois children were still uninsured last year.
The national average is 9 percent. But if the Republicans win control and make good on their promise to severely roll back Medicaid coverage, we could see that number creep up.
* Bill Brady made a promise to Rockton voters this week that he can’t possibly keep…
“At one point in time this was the tool and dye capital of the world practically and we have an opportunity to move back to that,” says Brady
Yes, all will be flowers and butterflies if Bill Brady is elected. China, Mexico and India will no longer exist and we’ll be just peachy. Keep in mind, however, that the plant he was speaking at moved into Illinois last year.
* Brady also made the same argument that many make about Indiana…
But other states are snatching our companies; Brady said Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s governor, comes to Chicago four times a year to recruit businesses to the Hoosier state.
Indiana’s pool of workers shrank at a faster rate than did those of other states during the national recession, an expert told a committee of legislators and economic development officials Monday.
Graham Toft, of Growth Economics Inc., said this statistic is hurting Indiana’s recovery efforts. […]
Tuft said Indiana’s workforce peaked in January 2009 and since has dropped 140,000 workers – even briefly falling below levels from the 1990s.
“For some reason or another, experienced Hoosier workers are choosing not to stay in the workforce,” Tuft said, noting similar reductions haven’t been seen in other states.
As surrounding states are seeing their unemployment rates drop, Indiana’s remains unchanged at 10.2% — the same as it was a year ago.
Plus, we just beat them out on the Navistar deal.
* Illinois Statehouse News has a piece today about Pat Quinn’s Downstate troubles and his recent state excursions throughout the region cutting ribbons on new construction programs. David Yepsen of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale comments…
Yepsen said it is going to be “a tough year for Democrats,” especially downstate. He says Quinn’s visits indicate the Democrat’s commitment to that region.
“He could either write off the area or redouble his efforts here,” Yepsen said. “And it looks like he is doubling down.”
If Quinn’s “campaign through governance” is effective, it could spell trouble for Brady.
“Brady needs a good margin,” Yepsen said. “In traditional Illinois elections, the Republican needs to do well downstate and in the suburbs.”
Brady is so far ahead in the region and has so outworked Quinn Downstate that it’ll take a miracle to run the governor’s fortunes around in that region. And I do mean a miracle. A few ribbon cutting ceremonies won’t, um, cut it. And if the governor truly was “doubling down,” he’d be spending campaign money in the region and developing a Downstate message. Right now, his Downstate message is the same as his Chicago message, and that isn’t going to work.
* For some reason or another, the Peoria Journal-Star thinks this election could be more like 1990 than 1994. To prove their point, they re-ran one of their 1990 editorials today, which predicted, among other things, that Democratic US Sen. Paul Simon could be unseated by anti-incumbent fever.
Perhaps they should be clued in a bit…
* President George HW Bush’s average approval rating in October of 1990: 57%
* President Barack Obama’s current average approval rating: 45%
* Number of US House seats lost by the president’s party in 1990: 8
* Number of US Senate seats lost by the president’s party in 1990: 1
Unless literally everybody in the world is wrong, then, no, this isn’t another 1990. Far from it.
* Related…
* Bill Brady Could Lift Death Penalty Moratorium If Elected
* Cohen Asks Voters for Chance to Prove He Can Improve State
* Candidates for Illinois Governor and Lieutenant Governor stop in Rockford
* We have a new TV ad in the US Senate race. Rate it…
Script…
Two candidates.
Mark Kirk: born in Champaign, attended college in Carlinville with mainstream Illinois values.
Kirk is a “deficit hawk” who’s voted to cut taxes 40 times.
Chicago politician Alexi Giannoulias pushes for more spending…bigger government…promises to raise taxes to pay for it.
I’m Mark Kirk and I approved this message because I will spend less, tax less, and borrow less to put Illinois back to work.
Sweet is right that Kirk is attempting to build his lead among Downstate voters with this ad, among other things.
* Alexi Giannoulias’ ad spending has caught some folks by surprise. He ended the last quarter with about a million dollars on hand, but he’s spending money like he has a lot of it. And the national Dems have jumped in big…
POLITICO has learned that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has placed a $400,000 ad buy for the second week in a row in Illinois to boost Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias’s bid against Republican Mark Kirk.
The two consecutive media buys, coupled with President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he will make a second fundraising stop for Giannoulias in October, indicate the party’s continuing faith that it can keep hold of the seat that Obama vacated in his move to the White House. With almost a dozen Democrat-held seats in play this November, the party has to choose which races will get its financial assistance for the remainder of the campaign.
Nonetheless, national Democrats’ latest investment on Giannoulias’s behalf is less than some of the other ad buys for the Illinois Senate race so far – especially in the pricey Windy City media market. The DSCC has bought $250,000 worth of ad time in Chicago this week, compared to the Kirk campaign’s $470,000 ad buy in the same market last week. Giannoulias’ campaign put up about $450,000 worth of ads in the Chicago market last week.
A spokesman for American Crossroads, the cash-flush independent expenditure supportive of GOP candidates, confirmed it purchased a weeklong ad buy totaling $482,000 statewide last week.
You’d never know it from the avalanche of TV ads, direct-mail pieces and phone calls that voters will receive in October, but most campaigns have only another week or two to change the likely outcome of their contests.
Sure, the midterm elections are still five weeks away, but the combination of early voting in many states and the difficulty of cutting through the coming clutter means that the best opportunity for campaigns to change voter attitudes is quickly coming to an end. […]
Moreover, after weeks of advertising, voters already know the fundamental messages of the campaigns. A campaign trailing on Oct. 1 better have some killer new information in its October advertising if it is going to get attention from increasingly cynical voters. […]
A few elections will likely turn on late campaign developments, possibly an ad, a weak debate performance or an issue introduced at the last minute. And a big national news story can obviously have a significant effect on November’s results.
But for most races, the die will be cast around the beginning of October. Either the early ads changed opinion or they didn’t. And that is why the last month of most campaigns is actually less decisive than you may think it is.
My consulting firm participated in a study several years ago that showed that one door to door contact within 72 hours of Election Day increased the propensity to vote by 12.5%. A second one in the same period increased turnout almost as much.
* The Tribune has posted its US Senate candidate questionnaires online…
Is this sort of blast e-mail to reporters really all that helpful?
Good morning –
In reporting on failed mob banker Alexi Giannoulias’ fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden in New York City today, please consider the following response from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC):
“Help from Washington won’t save Alexi Giannoulias from his own record as a failed mob banker, and it won’t change the fact that his risky behavior led to the loss of millions of dollars in the state’s college savings program and the downfall of his own family’s business. Illinois voters deserve a U.S. Senator who will restore accountability, transparency, and respect to this office – not another Blagojevich crony who wants to raise taxes for families and small businesses, increase spending, and loaned millions of dollars to known criminals.” – Amber Marchand, NRSC Press Secretary
Sheesh.
* Related…
* Kirk and Giannoulias’ Moms Involved in Their Campaigns
* The Chicago media is bound and determined to cover every rumor, every possible angle, every twist and microscopic turn of the Great Rahm Emanuel’s triumphant return to Chicago…
* Sweet: Rahm might quit on Friday to launch mayoral bid
Meanwhile, there are no articles on the governor’s campaign in the city’s news media today. No articles on the US Senate campaign. Nocolumns. Noeditorials. The general election is five weeks from today.
They are amusing themselves to death with this media frenzy of theirs. It really is unseemly.
* The frenzy is so bad they’re even recycling month-old stories about Emil Jones, for crying out loud…
Emil Jones Jr., the Chicago Democrat who retired more than a year ago as Illinois Senate president, said today that supporters and friends have begun collecting signatures on his behalf for a possible mayoral run.
In an interview with the Tribune, Jones said he is still “just looking” at getting into the contest to succeed Mayor Richard Daley, who is not running for re-election.
“A lot of my supporters want me to run,” Jones said. “I enjoy my retirement, but I will only run if conditions are right.”
When asked what those conditions are, Jones said, “I’m not going to tell you right now.”
Everybody who believes that Emil Jones will actually run for mayor, please, raise your hands. Anybody? Hello? Bueller?
* And while few think that state Sen. Rickey Hendon is a “serious” mayoral candidate, he said yesterday that he’s in the race to stay.
Hendon won every black Chicago ward in the lt. governor’s primary, despite running against Art Turner, who was endorsed by both Chicago newspapers, some bigtime labor unions and Personal PAC. Now, I might agree that Hendon ain’t exactly mayoral material, but he has long championed issues that truly resonate out there. Parking meters, red light cameras, free rides for seniors, the foreclosure crisis, etc. Remember his radio ad? Again, not exactly mayoral material, but he hit the, um, right notes for his community…
Love them or not, Hendon and Sen. James Meeks are the only two candidates out there with definable public policy stands. If anyone thinks that Rahm Emanuel’s campaign will be anything more than safe, poll-tested bromides they’re fooling themselves. But he’s the superstar, so his every tiny move is somehow news. Kinda like when the Beatles used to get the girls screaming at their concerts when they’d just shake their legs a little bit…
For those not old enough to appreciate that clip, watch how these two little girls react to getting Justin Bieber concert tix from their parents for a more up to date example.
The overall vacancy rate fell to 17.0% from 17.3% in the second quarter, which was the highest in more than four years, according to data from CB Richard Ellis Inc.
The rate could edge higher again, but is expected to slowly start moving landlords’ way after a staggering upward run when rates climbed more than 5 percentage points in a two-year window after hitting 11.9% in the third quarter of 2008. New construction has since halted, easing supply concerns, and many companies have already made their big recession headcount cuts and are no longer shedding office space.
* ‘Burnham Plan II’ up for final vote — and may be just as big as original
At its core, the plan represents one gigantic bet that a region often fractured with rivalries has grown up, that it is willing to put aside internal wars and unite behind some sensible goals to help metropolitan Chicago compete against other global centers that lately have been literally eating our lunch.
In that vein, it calls for keeping zoning power local but consolidating local governments and government functions to keep costs down. It urges fewer big-lot homes but more public park space — “People are willing to give up part of their backyard, but only in exchange for parks,” CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn says — and less raiding of jobs and tax revenue by town against town.
“I think they are very interested — China, Korea, Japan, the Middle East — yes,” Daley said today when asked if business people he met in China and South Korea might fund the effort. “There are many, many interests. You have to have a high-speed train from the international airport downtown. What that would do is that would rebuild our commercial market and our hospitality industry.”
With the release of a new film called “Waiting for Superman,” an extended school year with more core instruction for students has jumped to the forefront for many educators, reformers and policymakers. The documentary on the state of America’s public schools was done by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed “An Inconvenient Truth.”
America’s top policymaker, President Barack Obama, addressed the issue in an interview broadcast nationally Monday, during discussion of America’s decreasing educational competitiveness around the world.
In Illinois, and even locally, there are those who would agree with Obama’s assessment that the idea of a longer school year “makes sense.”
State Rep. Rich Myers, R-Colchester, announced Monday he is beginning the next phase of his treatment for prostate cancer.
He said he will continue to provide constituent services, as well as attend meetings and events within the district. His treatment schedule may interfere with these activities from time to time, but he is “confident his constituents will understand.”
As news broke of Quaal’s death, it also was learned that 1970s and ’80s overnight WGN-AM host Jay Andres had died Monday morning of heart failure, surrounded by his wife, Virginia, and other family at his home in Sebastopol, Calif. Andres (born Joseph Hilbert Andres) was 86, just weeks shy of his next birthday.
For example, Schillerstrom said the board has approved a $70 million long-term infrastructure program that will create thousands of jobs, ease traffic congestion, reduce flooding and improve services to county residents.
Meanwhile, the county has unveiled a proposed spending plan for next year “that continues our commitment to sound long-term financial planning,” Schillerstrom said. The nearly $460 million budget is $5.4 million below last year’s spending plan.
“Unlike the state, our fiscal year 2011 budget reflects the belt-tightening but maintains established programs and services,” Schillerstrom said. “It is balanced and it does not ask the taxpayers for more money.”
Cook County Circuit Judge Mark Ballard on Monday issued an order stating that each time Price accepted a new position he “ipso facto” resigned from the previously held post.
That means Price, who was sworn in as a member of the Harvey School District 152 Board on May 9, 2007, vacated that position when he assumed the post of Harvey alderman on May 14, 2007.
The Village Board will consider Tuesday a 4.4 percent reduction to the 2010 property tax levy. In a double dip of potentially good news, residents could also see their garbage fees and vehicle stickers eliminated if the proposal is approved.
Village officials are following through on promises made to residents when they established a property tax last year for the first time in the village’s history. Because sales and hotel taxes are higher than expected, officials said Monday that they believe they can make ends meet with less revenue.
Information in the ITEF press release included a “Top 50” list of public school salaries and pensions. The top salary listed is Dr. Peter Flynn, the Freeport School District 145 superintendent, who is paid an annual salary of $187,973. The top annual pension was another District 145 administrator, totaling $115,508.76.
Powell, 25, a 2003 graduate of Pleasant Plains High School, was among nine service members who died Sept. 21 in a helicopter crash during combat operations in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias held a conference call [Friday] to take a couple shots at Mark Kirk for his vote on a small business loan bill. While the conference was happening, an AP reporter asked why Giannoulias was doing this on a conference call, not in person at a press conference. His answer? Bad hair day.
Go here to listen to the full quote. He got into a bit of a tiff with the AP reporter. And here’s the AP’s subsequent take…
Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias wanted to rap his opponent over a vote in Congress, so he arranged a teleconference for reporters. Why not hold an actual news conference?
“I’m having a bad hair day,” Giannoulias joked before explaining that he thought the last-minute conference call was more convenient for everyone.
Republicans used the quip to link Giannoulias to a certain ex-governor known for obsessing over his hair.
“Alexi and Rod: More in common than we thought,” was the headline on a statement from the Illinois Republican Party.
Oops.
* Meanwhile, the Daily Herald appears to be catching on to the game that Bob Dold’s been playing with them. The paper just called him out on a rating by a tea party group that appeared in a conservative magazine. Notes next to the rating claimed that Dold’s campaign indicated “that he wishes to be viewed as a moderate.”
We told them Bob is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, and that he is pro-choice.
On Friday, Dold denied to the Daily Herald that his campaign asked to be ranked lower. But the paper was able to reach a member of the tea party group who was involved with its voter guide…
On Monday, Patriots member Joan Seifert, who spoke with Folino about the guide, confirmed Folino didn’t want Dold to be rated highly by the group.
“They wanted to be sure he wasn’t perceived as a conservative, and I was more than happy to oblige that,” said Seifert, of Grayslake. […]
The group’s director, Lake Villa resident Tony Raymond, admitted no one in the Dold campaign specifically said he wants to be “viewed as a moderate,” as stated parenthetically in the voter’s guide.
“That’s our interpretation of why he wished not to be ranked highly,” Raymond said.
So, he didn’t ask to be viewed as a moderate, but his campaign did ask that he not be ranked highly.
The paper now appears to be getting more aggressive with Dold. The original hed on its story posted this afternoon was: “Dold, Seals at odds over tea party guide.” It’s now: “Dold: Campaign worker asked for low rating from tea party.” ADDING: The hed now reads: “Tea party group: Dold campaign worker asked for low rating.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee has already run an ad in the district, hitting Seals for his support of the recently-enacted healthcare law. “Pelosi’s plan didn’t go far enough for Dan Seals,” the NRCC’s attack ad said. “Oh no. Dan Seals said he supports the even more expensive public option.”
Meanwhile, President Obama sent out an email appeal for Seals, who will also benefit from an upcoming Democratic fundraiser set to be hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Seals is part of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program and the committee has reserved TV time in the district ahead of the fall. A Seals internal poll from earlier this month boasted a lead over Dold–49-36 percent.
The AFL-CIO also sent a mailer for Seals as part of a 2.5 million piece direct mail blitz for Democratic candidates across the country.
* But the Hotline says that national Republican support is light at the moment…
The NRCC is also spending a little bit on the seat vacated by Rep. Mark Kirk (R), who is running for the Senate. The NRCC is spending $56K on an ad targeting Democratic nominee Dan Seals (D). But that’s hardly a drop in the bucket, given that broadcast TV in the Chicago media market costs millions.
* Related and a campaign roundup…
* President Obama, like wife, will headline Giannoulias fund-raiser
* Wave Of Third-Party Ads Adding to Dems’ Woes: In Illinois, Treas. Alexi Giannoulias (D) has been attacked on TV with more than $1M worth of ads from the Chamber of Commerce, American Crossroads and the Committee for Truth in Politics. In addition, his opponent Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) had more than $2.8M more in the bank at the end of the 2nd quarter, and the NRSC has not yet begun to spend the $3.4M they pledged to the Kirk campaign.
* Illinois GOP Tar Giannoulias With Anti-Petraeus Label
* Politicians’ money woes strike a chord with voters - Candidates who’ve faced bankruptcy or foreclosure are finding that many people sympathize with their problems. And their opponents refrain from attacking on the financial front.
* Giannoulias-Kirk race pitches curveballs to voters
Gov. Pat Quinn seems like an unwanted man when it comes to campaigning on behalf of some Democrats involved in tight legislative races.
The governor, who is locked in his own tough battle against Republican Bill Brady, is viewed by some Democratic candidates as more of a liability than an asset on the stump because of his low poll numbers and his support for an income tax hike.
Take state Rep. Bob Flider, a Mount Zion Democrat, for example.
Flider, who is being challenged by Republican Adam Brown of Decatur, has repeatedly said he’s against Quinn’s plan to raise income taxes to help pull the state out of its financial mess.
There’s no way Flider wants to stand on a stage with the governor, waiting for some Brown operative to snap a picture that, of course, later appears in a nasty campaign mailer.
“(State Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria) would be a great choice whether it’s a Republican or Democratic governor. He’s well-thought of on both sides of the political aisle. People rely on him a great deal when it comes to transportation issues important to the state of Illinois,” said Brad McMillan, executive director of Bradley’s Institute for Principled Leadership.
* And legislative Democrats are being forced to resort to some extremely hard-hitting ads to hold on to power. The Democrats’ job is made easier because the Republicans are backing some pretty strange candidates this year…
The more biting ad [by Democratic state Sen. Deanna Demuzio] shows veterans attacking [Republican opponent Sam McCann] as a “fraud” who “lies about his military career.”
McCann has claimed in literature that he was a member of the Marines and got an “honorable discharge.” He explained later that he signed up and took the oath, but was injured in an accident before going to boot camp. McCann previously promised to try to get a copy of his exact discharge papers, but said this week he has not received them.
He’s clearly touchy about the subject.
“Why is it that the president doesn’t have to display his birth certificate?” McCann said when asked about his discharge papers.
* Like just about every other political story these days, the retention race by Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Kilbride is receiving scant media attention. Quinn’s Downstate troubles certainly aren’t helping Kilbride.
In Illinois, business interests are campaigning against the chief justice after a case that removed a cap on malpractice liability, prompting him to run a television ad that opens with the declaration, “I am not a politician.”
The opposition has posted some videos and press releases attacking Kilbride for wanting to retry a convicted murderer more than nine years ago. Kilbride, however, points to his support from police and prosecutors. No opposition ads have yet been spotted.
* Despite all my complaints about the news business today, the Decatur Herald & Review is doing a bang-up job covering the 101st House District race between Rep. Bob Flider (D-Mt. Zion) and Adam Brown (R-Decatur). This is from a recent editorial about that campaign…
At issue is a $250 contribution Brown’s campaign accepted in June from Dunn Co., a local construction contractor. Before being named to run for Flider’s seat, Brown voted on a couple of street reconstruction contracts that were awarded to Dunn Co. Another vote in favor of another Dunn Co. contact came a week after his campaign contribution.
All projects were bid out by city staff, and many of the votes appeared on the council’s “consent agenda,” which means they are considered a routine item. None of the votes by Brown swayed the decision in Dunn Co.’s favor.
Flider said that Brown is “misleading voters. The fact is, Adam Brown claims to be a fresh face, but he is just more of the same. Adam Brown’s actions stink of pay-to-play politics, and that’s something we need to leave behind in Illinois.”
Brown’s record as a city council member is fair game as he tries to move to the state legislature. But it’s a stretch to call this anything like “pay to play” politics.
I agreed with this editorial in my subscriber-only publication last week. A $250 contribution is hardly serious graft. More importantly, though, this was a routine, perfunctory roll call. Brown played no role in who got what.
With all the real corruption this state has faced, it’s probably expected that everybody will try to paint their opponent as being on the take this year. But this sort of false claim needlessly poisons an already toxic atmosphere and will only make things worse.
But he also asked a question. What really is pay to play?
* The Tribune ran a pretty convoluted piece about Speaker Madigan involving himself in the choice of a village attorney for a town in his district and about Madigan representing and investing in a company that wants to develop some land near a planned tollway exit. Madigan’s spokesman responded to my subscriber-only story with this e-mail today…
— Madigan’s law firm does not represent developers at the stage that precedes development (in this case one firm has option on some land while another has asked the village about property, etc)
— and in more case does not represent a property until the real estate phase of the process, which of course has nothing to do with the host community.
— and Madigan’s firm is not the exclusive property tax firm for either company
— and current practice has property tax law firms BIDDING for the work.
* The Question: What’s your definition of “pay to play”?
* Thirty-six days before the election and Mike Riopell was just laid off by Lee Enterprises.
Lee owns the Post-Dispatch, Bloomington Pantagraph, Decatur Herald & Review, Quad City Times, the Southern Illinoisan, the Mattoon Journal-Gazette and the Charleston Times-Courier. Mike was a hard-working Statehouse reporter who really knew his stuff. His ejection will create yet another gaping hole in the press room.
Many people running newspapers say they still want to cover state government. But as the news industry contracts, they say they feel forced to abdicate that role due to economic pressures.
“It’s definitely a loss,” says John Beck, executive editor of Illinois’ Champaign News-Gazette, which eliminated its sole statehouse reporter position in January 2008. “It was not an easy decision to make, but we had to make it for economic reasons.”
That’s a decision shared by many of his counterparts across the country. More than 140 newspapers have cut back on their coverage since 2003, and more than 50 have stopped providing staff coverage of state government altogether.
Beck’s coverage area is dominated by the University of Illinois. If there’s a newspaper in Illinois which really ought to have a Statehouse reporter, it’s that one. But, no. Instead, they rewrite press releases and reprint AP stories.
*The Illinois Times ran an article on this topic last month…
Rich Miller – an [Illinois Legislative Correspondents Association] member, the author of a syndicated column that runs in Illinois Times, and owner of Capitol Fax, an insider’s newsletter and blog detailing Illinois politics – says his business has grown “exponentially” since he started it in the early 1990s but says Capitol Fax was never intended for a general audience but to supplement regular news coverage for the benefit of “political junkies.”
“For them [traditional news outlets] to be cutting coverage is not only shortsighted but greed-based and moronic,” Miller says, pointing to the state’s budget deficit, imprisoned Gov. George Ryan and impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich. “On a citizen level and a journalistic level, I’m just appalled by it.”
[ILCA president Ray Long, the Chicago Tribune’s Statehouse bureau chief] remains optimistic. “I think that we’re just probably hitting the nadir and are about to climb back up,” he says. “I believe that journalism is in the recovery mode and that will translate into more Statehouse reporters. … Every news organization understands that there has to be keen observance of a major legislative body like the Illinois General Assembly.”
[Charlie Wheeler, former Statehouse reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times and now the director of a Statehouse reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield] says that, going forward, news organizations must recognize that covering Statehouse action is a duty. “I would hope that the people who are in charge of these media properties would think about …some of the responsibilities that come with the First Amendment, freedom of the press privilege and realize that there is a certain responsibility they have to serve as the eyes and ears of their readers … and keep track of what’s going on in state government. And you really can’t do it from a distance.”
Unfortunately, Ray and Charlie were wrong and I was right. I truly hate being right about stuff like this. But I long ago stopped underestimating the extreme stupidity and boundless greed of editors and newspaper owners in this state. They don’t care about state news, and we can plainly see the results.
Quinn’s political circle is small and lately, unstable. Quinn recently parted ways with his longtime political consulting firm, AKPD Message & Media. Last week, Quinn dropped pollster Anzalone Liszt Research Inc.
Actually, Quinn’s campaign didn’t say that it “dropped” the polling firm. It quit. Imagine having to start all over with a new pollster this close to an election. Unreal.
One-in-five Illinois voters (22%) consider themselves to be a part of the Tea Party movement. This is slightly lower than involvement nationally.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that 63% do not associate themselves with the Tea Party, and 15% are not sure whether their views are in line with the movement.
Forty-five percent (45%) of voters in the state think the Tea Party is good for the country, which is right in line with national sentiments. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and say it is bad for the country, while 14% feel it is neither good nor bad. Another 12% are not sure what kind of impact the Tea Party movement has on the country. […]
Forty-one percent (41%) of Republicans consider themselves Tea Party members, while 10% of Democrats and 21% of voters not affiliated with either major political party do the same.
Similarly, a solid majority of GOP voters and unaffiliateds feel the Tea Party movement is good for the country, while a plurality of Democrats disagree.
* Carol Marin is a friend and colleague, so I’m not trying to pick on her today, but I wanted to use something in her column to make a point.
Her Sunday column is about how Rahm Emanuel may have trouble with black voters in a mayoral bid and how multiple black and Latino candidates could divide the field. Then there’s this…
All of this could bode well on Feb. 22 for someone as strategic as Emanuel who, like Daley, is heavily favored by the business community and certain to be extremely well funded.
What it doesn’t bode well for is the election in November, which is practically on a respirator as the mayor’s race sucks away its oxygen.
It presents an enormous challenge for Democratic ward committeemen trying to focus voters on all the other races that matter: for governor, U.S. Senate and the wild-card battle for Cook County assessor.
“To be frank, I’m not sure that people are really engaged in this election period,” said 3rd Ward committeeman and Ald. Pat Dowell.
“What I see out there, we’ll have low voter turnout because issues are so complex . . . and nobody is talking about a real change,” lamented 2nd Ward committeeman and Ald. Bob Fioretti.
A good part of the reason that the February mayoral primary has sucked all the oxygen from the Chicago-area political scene is the Chicago media’s continued obsession with the topic. Yes, there’s no doubt this is an extraordinarily unique occurrence and a big election with huge consequences.
But the general election is just 36 days away. Every story, every column, every editorial about the micro-turns and twists of Rahm Emanuel, et al is space and time that cannot be used to inform voters of the very real and very critical choices they face on November 2nd.
Illinois is ensnared in one of the worst crises in its history. We have two major party gubernatorial candidates who differ starkly on how to approach our future. We also have a wealthy candidate with a violent and murky past. The nation is mired in its worst economic period since the Great Depression and we have two US Senate candidates and several congressional candidates who need to be more closely examined. The General Assembly is broken and there are several candidates who claim they know how to fix it.
* Illinois Issues reports that the state is facing a $250 million interest payment on loans to keep its unemployment insurance fund afloat. You won’t see much about that in Chicago, but there were at least ten different stories about Hoffman not running for mayor.
* When they do publish or broadcast stories about state issues, they’re too often fluff pieces. Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s striking magazine cover commands precious ink. The fact that if Bill Brady is elected he will rescind the capital punishment moratorium is all but ignored.
* Yes, they’ll jump on juicy stories like the AFSCME negotiation allegations, but apart from that, we don’t see much else. In its place, we get endless thumb-sucking pieces about Rahmbo and Jesse and Meeks and what it all “means.” The Chicago News Cooperative believes there’s enough interest in those tiny twists and turns to start its own paid newsletter. I wish them nothing but success, but I hope they use some of that newfound cash to help fund some stories about stuff that’s actually important right now.
There is plenty of time to write about Rahm Emanuel’s every burp. But time is fast running out to write about the campaign in front of our very noses…
“Would you please stop focusing on the mayor’s race and focus on the Nov. 2 election,” former State Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch pleaded with reporters at a fund-raiser for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart Monday.
They haven’t listened yet, and I doubt they ever will. But you can bet a hundred dollars that after this campaign is over they will publish stories and columns about how they regret not covering this race better. Wouldn’t it be preferable if they just started doing their jobs now instead of constantly playing with their shiny new toy?
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is about the coming wave…
If you talk to Democrats in the Illinois Legislature, they’ll tell you their latest round of polling is showing improvement in most of their races since the summer. The Republicans, however, believe they have history on their side.
The House Democrats say their candidates are sticking to a strict and intense precinct-walking program. That, plus the end of the Rod Blagojevich trial allowed them to stabilize their campaigns. They see polls showing their candidates doing better than they were and believe they’ve turned the corner.
The Democrats have a lot of things going for them that they didn’t have during the big 1994 national Republican landslide. They’re running in districts on a map that Democrats drew; there’s no more straight-party voting; they have a tried-and-true incumbent protection program; and their gubernatorial candidate isn’t doing as badly as their ‘94 candidate, Dawn Clark Netsch (although Gov. Pat Quinn is getting completely and totally blown out downstate). Democrats also have at least two statewide officials - Lisa Madigan and Jesse White - who will serve as “stoppers” for the party. And they have a president from this state who has managed to keep Illinois in his corner more than just about anywhere else.
But House Republicans point to recent history as a guide. About this point in the campaign two years ago, they thought they were doing OK against the Barack Obama Democratic tide. They believed their losses would be manageable. By mid-October, the Obama wave was in full force and there wasn’t anything Illinois Republicans could do about it.
Pretty much the same thing happened in 1994. September polling showed problems, but the Democrats thought it could be contained and they derided the House Republicans for jumping into several new races where nobody gave them a chance. By the middle of October, the bottom fell out. And it was even worse come Election Day when Democratic voters failed to show up. The Republicans won just about every one of those contested races.
It’s no coincidence that House Republicans say they’re planning a move into new races in the coming days. They’re following their own playbook.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats say they continually adjust and monitor their likely voter polling screens to make sure they’re not unduly surprised. And, so far, they like what they see. But one Democratic operative joked last week that his caucus rarely asks whether respondents approve of the General Assembly’s job performance. The results were just too depressing.
A solid Democratic source who has seen two complete House Democratic polls of collar county districts says one showed a 14 percent legislative approval rating, the other came up as 12.
“The scary part,” the Democratic source said, “is if (party leaders) blame all these losses on this wave, that means they think they haven’t done anything wrong to cause this.” Instead, the source argued, his party needs to come to terms with the fact that they’re exacerbating the national party problem with their own mismanagement. “Illinois has created its own wave,” he insisted.
A top state Republican who monitors just about every GOP poll taken in this state privately predicted last week that the wave could very well be bigger than 1994’s. He has a point.
The populist anger seems more vicious and is far more organized via the tea partiers and the Internet. The 24/7 news media is more uniformly outraged and is aiming its anger right at Democratic leaders. Reform groups of all shapes, sizes and causes are far more bitter because of their legislative losses.
Downstate independents have completely abandoned Quinn. The usually pro-Democratic network of human service groups and their supporters are despondent over budget cuts and late state payments. And the state’s economic problems under total Democratic control are infinitely more severe than they were 16 years ago, when the Republicans held the governor’s mansion and all but one statewide office. The state’s current unemployment rate is almost double what it was in 1994, and vast swaths of the Democratic base are the hardest hit. And then, of course, there’s that monstrous state deficit, the mismanagement and the whole Blagojevich disaster.
Any Democrat who isn’t ahead by double digits right now had better work like their very lives depended on it. And all Republicans who are losing by anywhere near that margin should do the same.
This has been the most fascinating state campaign season I’ve ever seen. And it’s only going to get better.
September 24, 2010. Illinois Republicans are crowing that an electoral “wave” is going to sweep State Rep. Tom Cross (R-Owego) into the Speaker’s chair in the Illinois House of Representatives–and it will be crow which the GOP will be eating on November 3, 2010.
Both national and local trends will keep House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) in his post when the legislature reconvenes in January, 2011.
The negative national political headwinds have been blowing across the prairie state for months as the national economy continues to sputter and as the extremist Illinois Tea Party and national tea party movements have engaged in racially-tinged fear-mongering, outright distortions of facts, and character assassination of Democratic officials, scaring democratic and independent voters alike in the U.S. and in Illinois.
But the winds are shifting. […]
A stalling GOP momentum and hard-working Democratic legislative candidates reaching out to voters door-to-door will help Speaker Madigan (D-Chicago) hold on to majority in the Illinois legislature.
In January, we will have full plate of hot, steaming crow on which the Republicans can munch.
Using bureau figures for personal income for all 50 states through the second quarter of 2010, USA Today calculated which states have done best and worst during the 12 months after the recession ended.
Illinois ranked 43rd, with a 0.4 percent decline in personal income since the recession ended.
During the recession — defined as beginning in December 2007 — personal income in Illinois dropped 2.6 percent.
The recession has left consumers in its wake. In the metro Chicago area, 48,510 individuals filed for bankruptcy protection last year — 39 percent more than filed in 2008, which saw a 46 percent increase from 2007. The increases were even sharper than the rise in bankruptcies nationwide (which jumped 31 percent in 2008 and 32 percent last year.)
Beside being on the RTA board, the Rev. Tyrone Crider also publishes the Christian-oriented newspaper the Gospel Tribune, which is distributed to black churches in the Chicago area and claims a readership of 50,000 people.
Most of the money that the transit agencies under the RTA’s purview have paid to the Gospel Tribune has been for advertising. Metra also has paid the Gospel Tribune to hold conferences to help minority contractors learn “how to do business with Metra.”
Crider acknowledges that he’s making money off the agencies he helps regulate.
He says he sees nothing wrong with that. And he says he asked a now-former attorney for the RTA about the arrangement and was told it posed no problem.
“You have to look at the world. They’ve never been in India, they’ve never been in Africa and they haven’t been in the Middle East,” Daley said while speaking at the annual Chicago Gourmet food event in Millennium Park. “So those three parts of the world will come first, before any bid.”
* Great entries today on our caption contest. Anon sequitor is fourth runner-up…
Brady and Quinn congratulate each other for saying nothing of substance during campaign nor taking any hard issue stands. Meanwhile an aide demonstrates to the media the preferred campaign stance for straddling the fence.
gadfly’s was very funny…
that’s it!!! i’m done with eharmony FOREVER. 29 Dimensions® of Compatibility for lasting and fulfilling relationships my foot. and i bet everyone else in this folder is just as bad or worse.
dave’s was great…
Pat Quinn: “So that’s what Bill Brady looks like. I never looked at the back row of the Senate.”
Bill Brady: “Look… a long-time state worker. Lets lay him off. Or pay him minimum wage. Or, at least, pay him minimum wage after we lower it.”
Oswego Willy continues his streak of being a bridesmaid but not quite a bride…
Brady, “I was expecting Dan Hynes.”
Quinn, “That’s funny, I was expecting Kirk Dillard.”
Brady, “Funny how things work out, isn’t it?”
Quinn, “Yeah … funny…”
But Cuban Pilot wins it with this gem…
BB: “Pat, from the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to come over here and thank you personally for being the worst statewide candidate ever and thus allowing this right-wing, puppy gassing, porsche driving, empty suit the opportunity to be governor.”
Congratulations to all. CP should send me an e-mail so we can work out our night of drinking.
* Jim Torricelli died this week. I’d often run into him in a certain Statehouse back office. Always a good guy. His many friends are pretty broken up about it, and my heart goes out to them all. From his obituary…
Jim was well rooted in his Italian heritage and was known as a colorful, unique man who was devoted to his family. His word was his life. He was a member of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He was also very involved in local and state politics and was a member of the Sangamo Club, Past Member of the Roman Cultural Society and founding member of the Bulldog Baseball Dugout Club. He loved to travel, read, fish, hunt, cook Italian food and dance.
* Another noted Italian-American will play us out…
Like painted kites, those days and nights
They went flying by
* Democrat Debbie Halvorson’s new TV ad has the same tenor and feel as her last ad. But this one is about Social Security. Watch it…
[Oops. Posted the wrong one. Fixed. Sorry. Too many tabs open at once, I guess.]
* From the Halvorson campaign…
FACT: Adam Kinzinger has proposed capping Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age, and ending the cost of living increase for Social Security recipients.
“…Social Security will need to be capped at the rate of inflation. You can’t raise the retirement age right now, but at some point, you will have to look at it.” -Adam Kinzinger, Kankakee Daily Journal, January 25, 2010
“If we were to cap the growth above inflation for the upper-income households while leaving the households at the bottom under the current system we could fix over half of the current projected shortfall, according to CBO. If we also think about indexing the normal retirement age to take into account increases in longevity every decade we can eliminate most of the rest of the shortfall.” -Adam Kinzinger, Chicago Tribune Primary Election Questionnaire, January 2010
“As it currently stands the initial Social Security benefits of new retirees, after adjusting for inflation, increase at about one percent a year. We cannot afford such largesse…”
-Adam Kinzinger, Chicago Tribune Primary Election Questionnaire, January 2010
* From the Kinzinger campaign…
ATTACK: Social Security benefits need to be capped.
FACT: Adam Kinzinger stated capping Social Security benefits is “a recipe for disaster”.
“…while tinkering with the Social Security cap max, as the Democrats have pursued, together is a recipe for disaster” (Chicago Tribune Primary Questionnaire).
ATTACK: Adam Kinzinger plans to raise the retirement age.
FACT: Adam Kinzinger has consistently stated that promises made should be promises kept and does not support raising the retirement age.
“We need to ensure that promises made are promises kept to our seniors. I do not support privatizing Social Security. I do not support increasing the payroll tax nor the retirement age. It is absolutely wrong to change the rules on seniors when many are living paycheck to paycheck.” (Source: Kinzinger for Congress Website)
“We need to ensure that promises made will be promises kept to our seniors and to those nearing retirement” (Source: Chicago Tribune Primary Questionnaire).
“And I don’t support raising the retirement age,” Kinzinger said. (Source: Ottawa Delivered, 9/22/10).
* Actually, Kinzinger didn’t say that capping benefits was a recipe for disaster. He was talking about the payroll tax. And he did not swear off raising the retirement age. From his Tribune questionnaire…
I’m not sure what the top tax rate ought to be, but I do know that repealing the federal tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, imposing surtaxes on upper-income taxpayers, and boosting the Medicaid tax while tinkering with the Social Security cap max, as the Democrats have pursued, together is a recipe for disaster. […]
If we also think about indexing the normal retirement age to take into account increases in longevity every decade we can eliminate most of the rest of the shortfall.
* Meanwhile, Republican congressional candidate Randy Hultgren claims that Democratic Congressman Bill Foster lied in his recent TV ad. He has a new YouTube video out explaining his side…
* Other stuff…
* Kirk, Giannoulias differ on ‘Daley factor’ in November election: “Would you please stop focusing on the mayor’s race and focus on the Nov. 2 election, former State Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch pleaded with reporters at a fund-raiser for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart Monday. “The future of Chicago may all be decided Nov. 2 — it will determine how much money and resources keep flowing to cities like Chicago.”
* 538: The Bias of the Generic Ballot: It’s Complicated
* NBC5: Del Valle First to Air Mayoral Campaign Ad
There were other stories, but you get the idea. Here’s Miguel del Valle’s much-covered ad…
I checked and del Valle is spending just $10,000 to run this ad. The city-wide cable TV buy started yesterday and runs until Tuesday. Only ABC7 [ADDING: and the Sun-Times] noticed this little factoid.
By comparison, the Senate Democrats are spending $36,582 a week, every week, on cable in appointed state Sen. John Mulroe’s campaign. And that’s just in one Comcast zone out of the company’s five zones. The Republicans are spending $8,350 per week in the same zone.
I’ve been gamed this way myself, but I try to update you when that happens. We’ll see if anybody else does that now.
* I haven’t spent much time on Daleypalooza the past few days, but I did want to point something out from earlier this week. The Associated Press claimed a major scoop on Wednesday…
Tom Dart, the Cook County sheriff who made national headlines when he sued Craigslist, halted court-ordered evictions and headed a probe into the alleged resale of a historic cemetery’s burial plots, will run for mayor of Chicago, two people close to Dart said Wednesday.
“He’s all the way in,” said one person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk publicly about Dart’s plans. “He’s decided to run.”
But now that Daley is out, Dart, an Irish-American son of Beverly, whose father was a confidant of the mayor’s father, “is all in” the race, a top source said.
Not much of a scoop. Heck, it was basically the same quote recycled two weeks later.
* Considering that Terry Peterson has been seen as a potential mayoral candidate, this is an interesting little development…
Sneed hears rumbles CTA board Chairman Terry Peterson, who was Mayor Daley’s campaign manager four years ago — and was considered a possible mayoral contender — has reportedly signed on to manage Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid.
Since the rest of her story was about her interview with David Axelrod, we might infer that’s where her little nugget came from.
* From our friends at WBEZ comes your weekly advance copy of their fine politics show…
Best Game in Town 9/24/10 – Daley, Nixon and the mad dash for cash
As the race for mayor becomes the race to raise dollars, a quirk in the new fundraising law may make holiday parties an expensive proposition.
Also, we talk with an author who is finishing up work on a forthcoming biography of Richard M. Daley.
And Frost/Nixon makes its Chicago debut at the Timeline Theater. We talk with actor Terry Hamilton about what he learned playing President Richard M. Nixon.
* While I completely agree that elected members of Congress ought to hold town hall meetings, I’m not surprised some of them choose not to considering the new breed of angry, opportunistic paparazzi that have sprung up in this country. Everybody wants to get into Breitbart’s act, apparently. Consider this, for instance…
I’m of two minds on this. Constituents have an absolute right to be angry with their elected representatives and to voice that anger. And citizen journalism is something I support with all my heart. But essentially heckling somebody while hoping for the best gotcha response so they can get lots of YouTube views is starting to really grate on my nerves. Maybe I was just raised differently than that. I don’t know.
I’m quite interested in what you think about this development.
And I’m not trying to pick on the tea party or Republicans, by the way. This video is recent and TPP sent me an e-mail about it yesterday, so I’m using it. I’ve seen a large number of videos in the last months of protests at offices, and other stuff by Dems and GOPs alike.
…Adding… From comments…
I am just waiting for the candidates to start filming these events themselves so they can post counter videos of the conduct
That’s a very good idea. If they’re really being that mean, tape ‘em yourself.
Thoughts?
…Adding More… Another very good point from comments…
But here’s a quick question — why are we talking about these people as if they’re just ordinary constituents with a disinterested desire to speak to their representative? Aren’t they avowed partisans? Aren’t they, as part of a group that has explicitly backed and endorsed this lady’s opponent, part of the campaign? Does an elected official have a responsibility to stop and answer all the questions of a rival campaign whenever they show up? I thought that was why terms for debates were negotiated and planned out.
* CHANGE Illinois has sent out a questionnaire to all statewide and legislative candidates. You can see the answers at their website. To see a list of legislative candidates who have and have not responded, click here. Those highlighted have responded. The SJ-R editorialized on the questionnaire today.
Here’s one of the group’s questions…
Should there be limitations on the number of terms for anyone elected:
a. To statewide office?
b. To the General Assembly?
c. As Speaker of the House and President of the Senate?
* The Question: How would you answer those questions? Explain if you want.
* Democratic US Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias is out with a new TV ad. Rate it…
* The ad is being publicized as Giannoulias holds a conference call with reporters to talk about Mark Kirk’s vote yesterday in the US House. From a press release…
U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias will discuss Congressman Mark Kirk’s latest vote against providing much needed tax relief and access to capital for small businesses during a conference call with reporters TODAY, September 24, at 10:15 A.M. CT
Kirk’s vote comes after he vowed repeatedly to help Illinois small businesses struggling in these difficult times. The legislation, which is deficit-neutral and won’t cost taxpayers a penny, will provide much-needed tax breaks to help hire new employees and gain access to capital through a new loan fund.
Giannoulias will call on Kirk to explain his vote and why he continues to say one thing in Illinois and then vote differently when he’s in Washington, D.C.
* But Kirk is also holding a teleconference at 11 o’clock with the NFIB…
The National Federation of Independent Business will host a conference call this morning to highlight why Mark Kirk is the best U.S. Senate Candidate for small business employers in Illinois.
“Mark Kirk is the proven, pro-small business candidate for Senate,” NFIB Vice President of Public Policy Brad Close said. “He has been a long time supporter of small business, and is promoting a pro-growth agenda that small business owners need to remove uncertainty and help get our economy working again.”
* Being a state government/politics person, I honestly don’t know enough about that bill to comment. So here’s a news roundup…
* Congress sends small-business bill to Obama: It provides new tax breaks to small businesses, increases Small Business Administration lending limits, waives SBA loans fees and provides banks with $30 billion in new capital to increase lending to small businesses. Republicans criticized that lending fund as “TARP Jr.,” a reference to the Troubled Asset Relied Program initiated by the Bush administration in 2008 to help failing financial institutions and keep credit markets from drying up.
* House approves small-business bill: Business organizations that have backed the measure say the loan fund could spur $300 billion in lending.
* Small-business aid package likely to become law: A so-called “carryback” provision, which lets small business owners collect a tax refund if their business suffers a loss, will be extended to five years - so owners can claim a refund on profits that they booked as many as five years ago. Also in the act is an expansion of a part of the tax code called Section 179. The section lets small companies immediately write off capital expenditures of up to half a million dollars.
* House Democrats OK small-business bill: Republicans warned the bill would open the door for banks to use taxpayer-funded bailout money to lend to small businesses, which the GOP feared would give the federal government added influence over those businesses.
* Democrats Slam GOP for “Pledge to America,” Small Biz Bill Vote: Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman Brendan Daly put out a memo to reporters today pointing out that Republican leaders claim to be pro-small business, and met with a group of them this morning, but that they almost unanimously voted against the small business lending bill on the House Floor today. “Their hypocrisy is breathtaking,” Daly said.
* National Restaurant Association Welcomes Passage of Small Business Jobs Act: “This bill will help restaurants and small businesses with tax relief and assistance in gaining access to capital that is critical to economic and financial recovery,” said National Restaurant Association Executive Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Scott DeFife. “Our industry, employing nearly 13 million Americans at 945,000 restaurants locations nationwide, is comprised mainly of small, independent businesses.”
* Congress sends small business bill to Obama: The GOP-tilting National Federation of Independent Business is only tepidly backing the legislation. The group is pushing both a full extension of Bush-era tax cuts and repeal of a requirement in the new health care law that requires that businesses file tax forms called 1099s with the Internal Revenue Service for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods. “There’s some OK stuff in it, but the impact’s going to be minimal,” NFIB tax counsel Bill Rys said of the bill.
* Small-Business Bill Advances: Mr. Obama said in a statement that he would sign the small-business bill on Monday, calling it “a common-sense plan to put Americans back to work.”
Apparently, according to the House Republicans, the budget can be balanced without any negative impact on people whatsoever. That’s a complete, total, irresponsible, idiotic lie. One way or another, somebody is gonna get hit, whether it’s tax hikes or budget cuts or both. That’s actually what Rep. Lisa Dugan was talking about, if you watch the unedited video. This painless magical fairy dust idea of theirs just turns my stomach.
* Speaking of visits from magical fairies, Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday reiterated his claim that Bill Brady has some secret tax hike planned…
Quinn accused Brady of having a “secret set” of budget proposals that he doesn’t want to share with voters until after the November election, something Quinn called “the Republican way” because some GOP governors have worked to raise taxes after getting elected.
“That’s what Sen. Brady is all about and we shouldn’t let him get away with it, especially after 10 years of problems with governors who weren’t straightforward with the people,” Quinn said after appearing separately from Brady at a Chicago candidate forum that was closed to the press. “I try to be as honest and direct about everything, including the budget, including revenue.”
* But Jim Edgar didn’t help matters much when he said yesterday that Brady’s cuts aren’t enough and tax hikes may be in the cards…
Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar says a 10 percent spending cut may not solve the state’s budget problems and Illinois residents eventually might support higher taxes.
Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor, backs a 10 percent cut coupled with tax reductions to balance the Illinois budget. That amounts to less than $2 billion in cuts, compared to a deficit of roughly $13 billion.
Edgar told reporters Thursday there may come a time when Illinoisans oppose more spending cuts and would be ready for a tax increase.
Edgar says he does not think Brady is planning any tax surprises if he wins the November election. But he counsels Brady to be flexible.
Does Bill Brady want to hike taxes? No. Does he have a secret plan to hike taxes? No. Will he wake up to a very stark reality once he puts his budget together? Yes. Does that mean he will hike taxes? I really doubt it, but the problem is so bad that he may do something along those lines.
* And while the candidates and parties “debate” their little fantasies, we got more bad news yesterday…
Moody’s Investors Service Inc. on Thursday lowered its rating outlook for Illinois’ general obligation debt, citing the state’s continuing problems funding is pension program and a fiscal shortfall.
The state’s rating now stands at A1 with a negative outlook. It previously stood at A1 with a stable outlook.
The change will affect roughly $25 billion in general obligation bonds. […]
Moody’s said that the state does have the ability to raise revenue and reduce spending, both of which could help improve its rating and outlook.
“We see risks that could trigger a downgrade in the next 18 months to two years,” Ted Hampton, an analyst with Moody’s, said in an interview from New York. “In June these risks were less apparent.” […]
The yield of taxable Build America Bonds issued by Illinois in June has risen to almost 2.5 percentage points above benchmark 30-year Treasury bonds from just over 2 percentage points on June 24.
A good friend of mine will soon be unemployed. Grant’s factory is moving to Mexico and he’ll be out of a job by Election Day. Grant is 50 years old. No college degree.
If misery loves company, then Grant will soon have plenty. Twenty thousand Illinoisans lost their jobs last month.
Those are 20,000 real, live people with rent or mortgage payments, credit card and utility bills, car payments, groceries to buy, kids to educate. Almost all of us know somebody in the same situation. These are our friends and families, neighbors, fellow church members.
Yet, they seem to be invisible. If you read the media’s coverage of the unemployment numbers released last week, you probably only saw that Illinois lost a net 4,200 jobs in August. The revised numbers showed that our state’s unemployment rate actually dropped below 10 percent for the first time since May of last year.
One reason for the “good” news was state and federal spending on a massive infrastructure program. More than 14,000 new jobs were created last month in construction, and most of those jobs were created by the repairs being done to our roads, bridges and schools.
I’m happy for those people and hesitantly encouraged by the overall trend. But I still fear for those who’ve suddenly found themselves out of work, and those, like my friend Grant, who are about to be jettisoned into the abyss. He’s not a bulldozer driver.
Meanwhile, the only candidate for governor who is showing any concern for the real people who’ve lost their jobs is Scott Lee Cohen, who is conducting some well-attended employment fairs. But he was once arrested for allegedly holding a knife to his hooker girlfriend’s throat. I can’t exactly vote for him. Then again, he might be just the sort of vicious character we need to keep the General Assembly’s sultans in line. I kid. That’s not going to happen. Plus, he hasn’t said if he has actually found jobs for those desperate folks he says he’s helping.
They look like cynical props to me.
Republican Bill Brady talks a lot about what’s wrong, but his solutions are mostly platitudes. Our workers compensation system is too expensive, he rightly notes. But all he says he will do is lower the cost without actually saying how. Most of his proposals involve a two-step process: Create a blue-ribbon commission and then implement its results.
This allows Brady to avoid specifics, and because he’s leading Gov. Quinn in all the polls, that’s politically smart. Unfortunately, it leaves the rest of us in the dark.
Gov. Quinn talks a lot about what he has already done with the state’s huge infrastructure program and his efforts to help big companies such as Ford and Navistar expand here. But his administration has been so preoccupied with crisis management that he really doesn’t have any definable vision. It’s all too ad hoc. And the infrastructure program was passed with large bipartisan majorities. The only thing stopping it before was the fear by the House speaker that Rod Blagojevich would try to steal all the money.
A governor cannot control a national economic crisis. But there is still plenty of room for improvement here. If anybody running for governor can convince my friend Grant that he has reason for hope, then he will get my vote. I’m not holding my breath.
I will probably end up skipping that office or voting for Green Party nominee Rich Whitney. He’s for legalized marijuana. Maybe then everybody will be too stoned to care.
Cordell Glover, 19, of the 7100 block of South Wood Street, was charged Thursday night with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting Christopher Travis, a 12-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man Sept. 14 at the intersection of 65th Street and Drexel Avenue, according to police.
In the nine-county Chicago region, sales of single-family homes and condominiums decreased nearly 20% last month, to 5,633, compared to 7,008 sales in August 2009, according to a release Thursday from the Illinois Assn. of Realtors.
Chicago-area sales fell 25.1% in July compared with July 2009, ending a streak of 12 consecutive months of increases.
In the city of Chicago, sales of homes and condos in August dropped roughly 23%, to 1,486, compared with August 2009.
Jose Hernandez, 47, is the 15th city inspector convicted of pocketing payoffs in the Operation Crooked Code probe of bribery. Four other people in the case have also been found guilty, and eight individuals still face trial, said Jon Davey of the city inspector general’s office, which teamed up with federal authorities in the investigation.
* Another City Inspector Convicted for Taking Bribes
The University of Illinois on Thursday denied 1960s radical William Ayers emeritus faculty status after trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy noted Ayers dedicated a book to, among others, the man who killed Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy.
All nine voting trustees either opposed granting Ayers, a recently retired University of Illinois-Chicago professor, the largely honorary status or abstained from the vote.
The investment will target 25 city schools — and an estimated 1,125 teachers who work in them — where educators who improve student performance would be eligible to receive bonuses. […]
The participating schools have not been selected yet, said district spokeswoman Monique Bond. But sources said they plan to focus on elementary and middle schools where at least half of the students are low-income and where an average of 18 percent of teachers leave at the end of every school year.
To participate, schools likely will need to show the support of their classroom teachers. When Chicago launched its first teacher incentive program in 2006, schools were considered only if three-fourths of their staff endorsed the plan.
“The last couple of years the economy had a big impact on us,” said Oswego Village Manager Gary Adams. “We had to cut our budget significantly, we cut staff and cut expenses. We had to deal with it as everybody else had.”
But the pain could have been a lot worse. And there now are glimmers of better days ahead.
Through the recent 18-month national economic downturn, Oswego’s growth slowed but never stopped. Retail and commercial space that was added during the good times continued to reliably churn out tax revenue.
The panel discussion, hosted by the Southern Illinois Mayors Association, covered topics such as income and gas taxes, the cost for local governments to file or fill Freedom of Information Act requests, revenue from video gaming in fraternal organizations and bars and pension funding for firemen and police.
State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, joined state Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, and Reps. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg and John Cavaletto, R-Salem, on the panel.
Collins, 49, was convicted of income tax evasion for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Collins also was convicted of two counts of election fraud for providing false residency information. Prosecutors said he voted from an address at 22 Loisel Drive in East St. Louis during two federal elections in March 2006 and February 2008, but really resided at a home in Swansea.
As with a couple of weeks ago, the winner gets one hour of cocktails (or soft drinks) with yours truly. That last night out with the winner went so well and I had so much fun that I figured I’d do it again. Have at it.
* Jim Torricelli died this week. I’d often run into him in a certain Statehouse back office. Always a good guy. His many friends are pretty broken up about it, and my heart goes out to them all. From his 
