The Oglala Sioux Tribe today demanded the University of Illinois return the Lakota regalia worn by Chief Illiniwek, the school’s controversial mascot.
In a resolution presented to the U. of I. board of trustees, the university president and the chancellor, the tribe called for the university to “cease use of this mascot.”
The “Oglala regalia is being misused to represent ‘Chief Illiniwek,’” and is a “disrespectful representation” of the people of the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea nations, according to the resolution. “The antics of persons playing ‘Chief Illiniwek’ perpetuates a degrading racial stereotype that reflects negatively on all American Indian people.” […]
The use of the costume by Chief Illiniwek is insulting to the tribe, particularly because the ceremonial dress “was a significant honor to wear,” Young Bear added.
I’ve always thought about getting an intern, but I’m kind of a lone wolf when it comes to things. However, when my old pal Jim Nowlan, who runs the Civic Leadership Program at the University of Illinois, approached me about taking on an intern, I was intrigued.
Paul Richardson will hopefully be a good fit around here. He seems easy-going enough and is most certainly bright enough to handle the challenges.
Paul, who hails from Bradley, Illinois, will be with us throughout the semester. At first, he’ll be handling the Morning Shorts duties (which I find to be a pain and, therefore, perfect intern work), but he’ll also be doing some interviews with freshmen legislators which will be published in the Capitol Fax. He’ll work on some projects I’ve been meaning to get to, and will do various reporting for me at the Statehouse.
This should be fun. I hesitate to do this, since it’s his first day and all, but I’m gonna keep comments open. Try to go easy and welcome him to the fold.
Somehow, I missed this column today by Mark Brown. It’s a fun read, but the really important stuff is kinda buried. The story is about a lawsuit between two lobbyists with very close connections to Gov. Blagojevich. One allegedly stole an associate and business from the other.
Deep in the column is this nugget:
Other messages contain computer files… including a curious legal opinion… asserting that it would not be a violation of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act’s ban on “ex-parte communications†to communicate directly with the governor about pending planning board matters.
As Brown later explains, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board rules on whether hospitals can expand or add new services and is “at the center of a major scandal involving board member Stuart Levine, who allegedly used his position to shake down applicants.”
The hospitals, which need the board’s permission to build new facilities, aren’t supposed to have any contact with the agency’s board or staff except through tightly restricted channels. Nobody is.
Ever since Blagojevich was first elected, lobbyists with close ties to the governor have been signing up hospital clients by the boatload, “even though those firms are prohibited from directly lobbying the board,” as Brown rightly notes.
So what’s up with that legal opinion? Did Blagojevich-allied lobbyists get around the law by lobbying the governor’s office, which in turn may have put pressure on board members or staff for their buddies’ clients?
That board, by the way, was wired by Tony Rezko from the start. Remember the $25,000 contributions from two board members to the governor’s campaign around the time they were appointed?
It was so putrid over there that the governor was eventually forced to clear the place out and start all over, blaming it all on the Republican Levine and his GOP predecessors.
Brown concludes:
It won’t surprise you to learn that none of the litigants were willing to talk to me about that.
Advice of counsel, you understand.
Yep.
It never ceases to amaze me how often these bitter little lawsuits wind up wreaking all sorts of prosecutorial havoc.
* So, where will Obama’s Springfield kick-off be held? As Scott Fornek reports, it may be too cold to have it outside.
“What if it’s five below?” asked one Democratic strategist. “What will it look like if everyone is huddled together like they are at a Green Bay Packers game? Will that look good? . . . You want visuals of people who are happy.”
The Sangamon Auditorium is booked that evening for an Illinois Symphony Orchestra concert and the convention center has no historical significance [corrected sentence]. The Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is off limits to politics. The Old State Capitol is too small. Lincoln’s home was “never discussed.” Did they think this through all the way? Stay tuned for an update later.
* The Tribune has an interesting story about people coming out of the woodwork in droves to help Obama’s campaign, although the headline “Splinter groups line up behind Obama” is a bit strange. Here are some of the relevant local aspects:
In southern Illinois, one gun-rights advocate is recommending Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to his hunting friends and talking about forming a group with the working title “Sportsmen for Obama.”
“I don’t agree with everything he says about guns, but he gets the sportsman’s point of view on it,” said state Rep. Brandon Phelps (D-Norris City), who served with Obama in the state legislature. “He would never do anything to hurt hunters, because he has bothered to get to know us and listen to us.” […]
Friends from the Illinois legislature are offering to work as a truth-squad against attacks on his Statehouse record. In the Quad Cities in western Illinois, local Democrats want to help Obama launch his foray into nearby Iowa, which holds the nation’s first caucuses. A Chicago minister volunteered to take time off from his church to work for the campaign full time. […]
State Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) has offered to put together a team of lawmakers to tout and defend Obama’s record in the General Assembly, where he served in the state Senate for eight years.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is offering to introduce Obama around the House, where many members haven’t had a chance to get to know him.
North Shore Democrats say they are getting calls from volunteers who want to make bus trips to promote Obama in Iowa. In the Quad Cities, local Democrats are offering to set up a base of operation for the Iowa caucuses.
Fritchey said it’s the right time in political history for Obama, that people want “a new type of candidate and a new type of dialogue.”
While it was obvious Obama was a “quality guy,” Fritchey said, he doesn’t think anyone could have predicted that his fame would have grown so quickly.
“Was it clear he was an intelligent, thoughtful legislator? Absolutely,” Fritchey said. “Did you know that he was going to be bigger than the Beatles? No.”
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have a lot of explaining to do.
He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. He supported allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons, but opposed allowing people to use banned handguns to defend against intruders in their homes. And the list of sensitive topics goes on. […]
One vote that especially riled abortion opponents involved restrictions on a type of abortion where the fetus sometimes survives, occasionally for hours. The restrictions, which never became law, included requiring the presence of a second doctor to care for the fetus.
“Everyone’s going to use this and pound him over the head with it,” said Daniel McConchie, vice president and chief of staff for Americans United for Life.
* The AP also has a list of some of the more hot-button bills he voted on and sponsored. Here are a few:
Voted against making permanent the repeal of the state’s 5 percent sales tax on gasoline. (2000) […]
Voted against restrictions on public funding of abortion. (2000) […]
Voted against letting people argue self-defense in court if charged with violating local weapons bans by using a gun in their home. (2004) […]
Unsuccessfully sponsored measure to expunge some criminal records and create an employment grant program for ex-criminals. (2002) […]
Voted against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang. (200
* The Sun-Times’ Mary Mitchell looks at the race angle and makes this interesting observation.
If Obama is indeed counting on the black vote — like all Democrats count on the black vote — that could only become a problem if Sharpton jumps into the race.
“I’m waiting to see if someone raises the issues I want to see raised,” Sharpton told reporters in November when he announced he had formed an exploratory committee.
With Sharpton in the race, we can expect to hear some of the “but is he black enough?” rhetoric that tainted Obama’s unsuccessful run against U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in 1999.
“There is such a compulsion on the part of the political community and political media community to create a steel cage match between Clinton and Obama you can almost see the fight posters.”
* And this isn’t local at all, but is still scurrilous: Limbaugh called “Barack Hussein Obama” a “half-minority”
On Monday, even before he posted the website video announcing that he was forming a presidential exploration committee, Senator Obama had increased the level of security around him. As he toured Martin Luther King Day events in Chicago, Obama seemed better insulated than he had a few weeks ago.
To those closest to Obama, that security is paramount.
“There have always been crazy people in the world. There always will be crazy people in the world. But he’s made the decision that he’s not going to let the threat of that stand in the day way of what he wants to do. That’s a courageous position for him to take. It’s a tough decision to make,” said Valerie Jarrett, Obama adviser.
The Chicago Reader’s new Clout City blog (which is a pretty darned good product, even if they don’t quite understand the theory behind targeted endorsements) has the Kafkaesque details of the effort to keep CTA bus driver Victor Rowans off the 27th Ward aldermanic ballot. Four years ago, Rowans was kicked off the ballot for failing to properly number his petitions…
This year he discovered just in time that he’d been circulating the wrong kind of form. Nevertheless he succeeded in collecting 1,615 signatures (he only needed 147), correctly filled out his petitions, filed on time, and started campaigning against Alderman Walter Burnett.
But Marvin Burnett, the alderman’s brother, challenged Rowans’s nominating petitions, alleging that not enough of his signatures were valid. On January 2 the case came before the Chicago Board of Elections, and hearing officer William Jones looked over several hundred signatures on Rowans’s petitions before deciding that “continuing the record examination would only put the candidate further over the minimum requirement.” He recommended that Rowans be placed on the ballot.
Marvin Burnett appealed, bringing in affidavits from about 40 residents who said they’d never signed the petitions. Rowans countered by arguing that a some of the complainants weren’t the same people who had signed. On January 11 Jones again decided in his favor, ruling that Burnett “has failed to provide a pattern of fraud by clear and convincing evidence.”
Burnett appealed again, and yesterday the case came before the elections board. After hearing Burnett’s lawyer, Michael Kasper the board sent the matter back to Jones for a final review. So for a fourth time Rowans will have to defend his petitions. “Keep in mind, I’m doing this by myself,” he says. “I can’t afford a lawyer.”
Meanwhile, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform bemoans the ways in which technical violations are keeping people from running for office, and points to three instances where candidates were booted for “ailing to file the receipt for their Statement of Economic Interest along with their petitions” (Chicago, Decatur and Forest Park).
These rules seem arbitrary and intended for some purpose other than protecting the integrity of the election, especially since some flaws can be fixed after the petitions are filed while others, like the Statement receipt, cannot. The goal of the election is to give voters a choice among serious, credible candidates to select who is best fit to hold office. The rules should not be used unreasonably to narrow that choice to one between the incumbent and nobody else.
The governor is proposing a new, computerized hiring system This one, unlike the last three, is supposed to guard against fraud.
The Blagojevich administration acknowledged Wednesday that clout could play a role in the hiring of some state workers.
Paul Campbell, director of the state’s main government services agency, said the state’s current hiring system allows for too much human intervention, which could lead to the hiring of people based on political connections.
“It’s not 100 percent blind now,†Campbell told reporters at a press conference in Chicago.
Deputy Gov. Sheila Nix and Paul Campbell, director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, unveiled details about the electronic, Web-based model the administration hopes to have in place by the end of this year. They said it would phase out a largely paper-based state hiring system that has come under fire for alleged abuses.
The proposed system would cover 49,527 jobs within the governor’s administration that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Rutan” decision, cannot be filled for political reasons, CMS spokesman Justin DeJong said. Job-seekers would submit applications via the Internet.
“If a legislator wants to recommend a constituent, all they can do is refer the constituent to a computer,” Nix said at a Chicago news conference. “(Applicants) can go through the process. It really removes any possibility of anyone weighing in on those Rutan-covered positions.”
Notice how they’re trying to pass blame to others, including legislators. The old systems were theirs, and they’re the ones who gamed it for their people. Anyway, the State Journal-Register editorializes in favor of the new program, calling it a “step in the right direction.”
* Daily Herald: “An effort this week by Illinois Republican leaders to halt a conservative Lake County organization from using the party’s name might hinge on whether it’s a generic word or a trademark.”
* Tribune: “A condition of working for one of Illinois’ most politically powerful unions was giving the boss $100 a month, according to union members seeking to fire that boss by defeating him in an upcoming election.” [Oops. Wrong lawsuit.]
A wide-ranging hospital fraud investigation in Nevada has Cook County Board President Todd Stroger reconsidering his plans to help balance the county’s budget on a private firm’s promise to bring up to $125 million a year to the county’s ailing health system. […]
Court documents show that among the companies being investigated is Crystal Communications, with links to Orlando Jones, the influential godson of former board President John Stroger. The company is in the same Loop office as Jones’ firm. Jones said he simply leases the company office space and is not involved in its operations.
A group of Illinoisans says it’s time to end the Legislature’s practice of last-minute deals and votes on the state budget and other important issues.
The Illinois Democracy Project has formed to amend the state Constitution in the November 2008 election. The amendment would require legislation to have a 21-day review period before lawmakers could approve it. Legislation deemed an emergency by top leaders and a special panel could still be approved quickly under the proposed amendment.
This “group” (with a small handful of members and no discernable or disclosed funding source) also assumes that just because there’s a delay that anyone will actually read the legislation. There are thousands of bills each year, and most legislators just don’t read them. Giving them more time probably won’t change things. Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer that they all read the legislation as well. But whether this idea will make it so is another question entirely.
More likely, the people who will benefit most from the constitutionally stalled bills will be bigtime lobbyists, who spend most of their time slowing down or stopping legislation rather than passing them. They do this by nitpicking the bills to death. Lots more time gives them lots more nits to pick. While this may look good on its face, I wonder if it has more to do with another agenda.
Here’s the actual text of the proposed Constitutional Amendment.
(a) Public Review Period: Except bills passed as emergency legislation, the final vote required for any bill to meet the procedural requirements for passage shall not be taken before a public review period of twenty-one calendar days has elapsed since the latter of the date on which the bill was filed or, if the bill has been amended, the date on which the bill was last amended.
(b) Joint Committee on Emergency Legislation: Prior to the election of the presiding officers of either house in odd-numbered years, the Secretary of State shall publicly draw by random selection the names of forty members of the House of Representatives, and the Governor shall publicly draw by random selection the names of twenty members of the Senate, and the members of the General Assembly whose names are drawn shall comprise the Joint Committee on Emergency Legislation. The member with most time served in the General Assembly shall be the chairperson, with ties in service resolved by lot. Any vacancy shall be filled within thirty days by a public random selection of the name of a member of the same house and by the same state authority that selected the member whose departure created the vacancy.
(c) Emergency Legislation: If a bill is declared by the presiding officers of both houses to be emergency legislation, and if the bill describes a state of emergency and explains why a delay would exacerbate or render the bill ineffectual as a response to the emergency, and if at least three-fifths of the members of the Joint Committee on Emergency Legislation cast record votes in favor of a resolution recommending passage of the bill, then the bill may be considered concurrently and immediately in both houses and, if at least three-fifths of the members in each house cast record votes in favor of the bill, the bill shall be declared passed and, notwithstanding the provisions of Section 10 of this Article, shall take effect immediately upon being signed into law by the Governor.
Again, the goal isn’t bad at all. It may have stopped some pretty lousy bills from being passed (the SBC debacle comes to mind).
But if legislators won’t stand up for their rights now, why would this make any difference?
*** UPDATE *** YDD makes an interesting, if a bit harsh, point in comments.
The… moron who drafted this has obviously no legislative experience. Flip it around the other way: no amendments to any bill within 21 days of final passage. I can’t think of any bill of substance that passed without some amendments to atleast fine tune it in the last three days. Once amended, most of those bills pass with landslide majorities.
As I’ve said many, many times before, I hate national politics. And I hate the sort of ugly “discussion” - rife with inane, prepackaged talking points - that national politics provokes in the mainstream media (particularly those idiotic cable TV talking heads who are always wrong, yet still keep their high-paying gigs) and on blogs.
So far, I’ve posted about the Obama thing here because he is, after all, our US Senator and I covered him for years in the Illinois Senate.
Here’s the question: Do you want a daily Obamarama? Would you rather that the posts stick strictly to a local angle (my preference)? Or do you want the whole issue banished?
I will say that I intend to continue this at least through the February announcement, regardless of the comments today. But I’m interested to see what your thinking is.
Also, bonus question: Should I start deleting the gratuitous “Hussein” comments?
We already have a thread to discuss the Obama candidacy today, so let’s keep this one strictly to the questions at hand, please. Thanks.
I originally had this in Morning Shorts, but then thought it deserved more play.
The downtown Springfield hotel deal, replete with politically connected insiders, has rankled government critics for years. The hotel, whose lead investor is GOP powerhouse Bill Cellini, has made just two mortgage payments since 1998, and zero in the past four years.
Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin wanted the local convention center board to buy out the mortgage after the bank filed foreclosure papers, at newly elected state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ behest. Davlin appealed to Giannoulias to stall the foreclosure until details could be worked out. But…
Saying “enough is enough,” state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias said Tuesday he will not halt foreclosure proceedings against the Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield and wants the property placed in receivership until it can be sold.
In a letter to Mayor Tim Davlin and Mike Coffey Jr., chairman of the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority, Giannoulias said he has concerns about their idea of having SMEAA buy the hotel mortgage to avoid foreclosure.
Under such a deal, Giannoulias said, “the state would once again be on the losing end of another bad deal as it would almost certainly receive less money” than if the hotel were sold at foreclosure.
“This financial boondoggle has cost the state and its taxpayers far too much money and has dragged on far too long,” Giannoulias wrote. “Enough is enough.”
Springfield boosters worry that new owners might convert the space to offices or condos, which could hurt the adjoining convention center’s business. Frankly, more condos downtown would be a huge boost to the area, and the convention center ought to live or die on its own. And the current owners apparently haven’t kept the place up. They lost their franchise agreement with Marriott allegedly because of the lack of improvements. I stayed there on New Years’ eve and, while it wasn’t bad, it certainly wasn’t up to standards.
Having the hotel foreclosed upon and placed in receivership is not a rosy situation. But in the long run it is a preferable situation to having the place rot into the ground, leaving Springfield and the state taxpayers on the hook for millions.
Foreclosure and receivership won’t be pleasant, but it does provide a path for restoring the hotel to physical and financial health - and putting it where it belongs, in private, not public, hands. Attempting to again restructure loans for those who have been unwilling to pay them will merely continue the decline of what should be a shining jewel in Springfield’s historic downtown.
You can see the treasurer’s letter here [pdf file].
Drowned out by all the screaming over Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s proposed budget cuts, which will eliminate almost 1,500 positions and cut various budgets, was this little nugget:
Stroger had a $500 million hole to fill in the $3 billion budget and wiped out a good chunk of the deficit by refinancing debt and increasing efforts to collect hospital bills.
The plan released Tuesday proposed eliminating 1,492 full-time positions, but only about 30 percent are currently filled, Budget Director Donna Dunnings said.
As a result, despite the headlines, only about 450 people will lose their jobs. And it’s not even clear if all of those will be out the door, considering union rules, etc.
…But at first glance, the 2007 budget proposed Tuesday by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger tries to do what his father, John, didn’t do when he occupied that chair. Todd Stroger proposes to give county officials far fewer dollars than they want–and then force them to meet those smaller numbers.
You could see how deeply that notion threatens Cook County’s culture of spending entitlement by studying the grimaces of officials listening to Stroger’s budget address. Assessor James Houlihan, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, State’s Atty. Richard Devine–Stroger essentially wants to make them and other managers give taxpayers less costly and better services. […]
Expect the alarmists to sow public panic that less spending will embolden criminals or cripple health care for the poor. On Tuesday, though, Dr. Robert Simon, the county’s top health officer, asserted that some of the scarifying is mistaken. Example: The county intends to close 16 of its 26 clinics–some of which, he said, serve few patients. Simon predicted initially longer lines at remaining clinics as patients and medical resources shift. But he said that those surviving clinics can absorb all of the displaced patients–and offer them longer hours of medical services.
Everybody expects Stroger to continue the old patronage ways, so hiring friends or giving jobs to the wives of pals probably won’t upset too many people outside of the pundit class, whose mostly white members will likely overreact and create another backlash in the black community. If he follows the Rod Blagojevich playbook and doesn’t raise general taxes, he’ll go a long way towards re-election.
Meanwhile, while we’re talking about local politics, this quote by Alderman Burt Natarus has to be our Quote of the Week. Natarus was speaking about the Chicago Federation of Labor’s endorsement of his opponent Brendan Reilly:
“(E)verywhere I am going in my ward, I happen to be well-liked.”
I was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine last week about Obama’s time in the Illinois Senate, and one thing I said was that while he certainly voted like a liberal, he went out of his way to establish friendships and introduce legislation with conservatives and Republicans. From what I can tell, he’s doing the same thing in the US Senate.
As a result of this, one of Obama’s biggest Illinois cheerleaders is Republican state Sen. Kirk Dillard, who is also chairman of the DuPage County GOP, the state’s most powerful Republican organization. Dillard had this to say to the Naperville Sun:
“I believe Obama is one of the smartest people ever to sit in the state Senate,” Dillard said.
And Republican state Sen. Pam Althoff told the Daily Herald that “she’d consider voting for the Chicago Democrat.”
OneMan, a blogger’s blogger, is also a Republican, but he posted an interesting piece last night talking about this phenomenon and warning national Republicans about what they faced.
Like it or not, even large numbers of Illinois Republicans who dealt or knew Sen. Obama back when he was in the state senate describe him a likeable. They may say he is a screaming liberal, but they felt he was likeable. That is something that is going to be hard to overcome. Mocking his last name and his faith is not going to be the way to do it.
As people are exposed to him, they come to like him. It’s a combination of intelligence and speaking ability and friendliness and looks and charisma, the same characteristics that bring most of our leading politicians to the forefront these days.
Lynn Sweet looks at the reasoning for the Springfield announcement:
A kickoff in the Illinois capital will serve to marry the Obama political narrative with that of Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, like Obama, was a member of the Illinois General Assembly, before his election to Congress and then the White House. Like Obama, Lincoln didn’t have much experience before becoming president and leading the nation through a turbulent era. Obama, the son of a Kenyan father, will kick off his quest at or near the home of the man who freed the African slaves.
That Lincoln was a Republican will only underscore one of Obama’s refrains: The great issues facing the U.S., such as the Iraq war, are not Republican or Democratic problems, but American problems.
For all those historians and political naysayers, Sen. Barack Obama’s allies like to point out that Abraham Lincoln served just two years in the House before becoming president.
It’s a comparison certain to be repeated as Obama, with slightly more than two years in the Senate, continues to align himself with the Civil War president. The senator’s expected campaign kickoff is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Ill. where both men served in the state legislature.
One final thing. Yesterday in comments, I had this to say about all those people who think the Clintonistas will eat Obama alive:
Here’s something that really bothers me about some of the comments on Obama. Not just today, but every day we have something about him.
“Just wait until Clinton, Gore, etc. start going after him.â€
This assumes that Obama’s people can’t fight back, or that they have no Oppo team. Who the heck do you think tubed Blair Hull? These same guys.
And do you really think people like Axelrod and Giangreco don’t know how to play with the big boys and girls? Think again.
Political battle is almost never a one-way street. You’re all forgetting that.
Try to come up with something new and original for a change, please.
I’ll reiterate that for today’s discussion. Please, come up with something new and original.
Car buyers long have been protected by lemon laws in case their vehicle turns out to be a bucket of bolts.
But if you’re buying a cat instead of a Cadillac, you don’t have the same protection. That could soon change as one suburban lawmaker wants Illinois to join the growing number of states offering “pet lemon laws.â€
* At least 7 US Attorneys throught the nation are either resigning or have been pushed out.
The Chicago Federation of Labor released its endorsement list in the Chicago municipal elections. No candidate for mayor, including Mayor Daley, was endorsed. Same goes for city treasurer. Daley’s hand-picked candidate for city clerk, Miguel del Valle, did receive the CFL’s nod.
Dennis Gannon, who heads the Chicago Federation of Labor, had this to say in this morning’s Tribune, which was published before the CFL made its decision.
Some labor leaders believe Daley shifted against them decisively when corporations chipped in heavily for the construction of Millennium Park. From his desk in the Prudential Building, Gannon pointed at the park below.
“All you’ve got to do is look out the window here,” he said. “We in the labor community can’t compete with building a park for half a billion dollars.”
The CFL also didn’t endorse anyone in Daley’s 11th Ward.
Non-incumbents endorsed by the CFL include Sandi Jackson (7), Carina Sanchez (12), Toni L. Foulkes (15), Joann Thompson (16), Paul Stewart (18), Leroy J. Jones, Jr. (21), Brendan Reilly (42), Michele Smith (43) and Greg Brewer (50). The CFL didn’t endorse any candidate in several races, including 2, 5, 11, 20, 25, 29, 34, 37 and 44.
Also from the Tribune story, black incumbents and their friends have thrown down the gauntlet.
In black wards, incumbents already are trying to counter the unions by alleging that labor discriminates against African-Americans, particularly in the high-paying building trades.
“They can’t influence voters,” said former 7th Ward Ald. William Beavers, whose daughter and successor faces Sandi Jackson, the congressman’s wife, at the polls next month. “How can you tell blacks how to vote when you are freezing them out of unions?”
Unions should push for more construction jobs for blacks, said Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago). “I told the unions, `Don’t come messing with me and my aldermen, but then you’re silent about breaking down the walls of discrimination’” in the trades, Jones said.
While we’re at it, the Sun-Times’ Stella Foster reports today that the other non-incumbent in the 50th Ward race, Naisy Dolar, will have some big names in for her upcoming fundraiser.
U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, coming to town Jan. 25 to attend the fund-raiser for Naisy Dolar, a former city employee and one of the candidates looking to unseat Ald. Bernard Stone (50th). The event will be held at the Singha Thai restaurant on Clark. Also lending support will be Tammy Duckworth, an Iraqi war vet recently appointed the state Veterans Affairs director.
If Dolar wins, she would be the first Asian American on the Chicago City Council.
The 3rd, 12th, 16th, 25th, 42nd and 50th are viewed as “Tier One†challenges where the Chicago Federation of Labor will devote its heaviest resources. […]
Natarus predicted that labor opposition would have “zero†impact on the 42nd Ward race.
“They have a lot of nerve because I provide more construction jobs and labor jobs than any other area of the city. All they have to do is ask their brothers and sisters in the Carpenters Union. They ought to be ashamed of themselves with all the jobs that I provide and all of the high-rise construction,†Natarus said.
Since the Obama announcement will probably suck all the air out of today’s news coverage, we might as well jump on the bandwagon. So, instead of a Question of the Day today, scroll down a few centimeters meters or click here and tell us your thoughts about Obama’s potential presidential candidacy.
*** UPDATE *** Obama has apparently announced, although the Trib story has no details. More in a bit.
In an announcement weighted with history and moment, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who less than three years ago was serving in Illinois state senate, declared today his intention to run for president.
Sources close to Sen. Barak Obama have told NBC5’s Mary Ann Ahern that the senator will be filing the necessary paperwork Tuesday to begin a presidential campaign.
Ahern said Obama will file papers with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Press release just issued:
U.S. Senator Barack Obama today filed papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing the “Obama Exploratory Committee.” A formal announcement of his decision will occur on February 10th in Illinois.
*** UPDATE 10 *** Lynn Sweet had this post earlier today.
Supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are being told this morning there will be an 11 a.m. Chicago time conference call. Expected to be discussed is Obama filing papers to officially launch his 2008 White House run. Obama is expected to hit the road to travel to early primary states in the coming days.
The call is being organized by Nate Tamarin, who was the political director for Obama’s Washington D.C. based political action committee the Hope Fund. He now works with Pete Giangreco, the founder of the Strategy Group in Evanston, expected to handle Obama’s direct mail in the 2008 campaign.
*** UPDATE 11 *** I’ve created a special news feed on the announcement:
*** UPDATE 12 *** Thanks to Larry, I figured out how to embed the second video I referenced above.
*** UPDATE 14 *** Marc Sandalow at the San Francisco Gate’s blog makes some good points:
For a party which lost consecutive elections to George W. Bush by promoting well-known, well-regarded, and wooden speakers, Obama’s rhetorical skills alone will be hard to resist. […]
Will Americans elect a black man president? It boggles the mind that Obama is only the third African American elected to the Senate since reconstruction. Polls suggest the country is ready, but this is the sort of question where people lie to pollsters.
At 45, Obama is roughly the same age as Bill Clinton when he sought the presidency. But Clinton had served four terms as governor and one as attorney general. George Bush had served just six years as governor. But that was before Sept. 11. Is America ready to entrust its national security to a candidate whose experience amounts to two years service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee?
The widely anticipated showdown between U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries next year is forcing Chicago’s top Democratic donors to choose between an old friend and a favorite son. […]
“It’s overwhelmingly going to be for Barack,” says Rep. [Rahm] Emanuel. “Overwhelmingly!”
*** UPDATE 16 *** There’s been some discussion in comments here and over at The Hotline blog about why Obama chose to announce on Saturday, Feb. 10. An aide to Obama e-mailed me the reason for a Saturday announcment is the “likelihood that US Senate would be voting” on Friday. “We’ve been told they could vote up til noon on Friday.”
I’m still kinda wondering why a Saturday and not, say, a Sunday, the usual day for stuff like this.
*** UPDATE 17 *** The Hotline blog noted that February 10th is two days before Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Rep. John Fritchey participated in this morning’s conference call and fills us in on more details, including that the announcement will be held in Springfield.
He told the group that he and his family are eager for what the future may hold. He spoke of making an announcement February 10 in Springfield, and of the desire to focus on a grassroots campaign fueled by ‘excitement’ and the ’sense of possibility’.
Mayor Daley said Tuesday he’s “excited†Barack Obama has taken the first official step toward the White House and left no doubt about his plan to endorse Illinois’ favorite son.
“He gives a different viewpoint — a different voice…to the Democratic Party. He understands, coming from the General Assembly, the issues, especially in education. That is an issue that America is not doing well with as compared to other nations — the quality of education we’re giving to our children. He looks at it completely different than others,†the mayor said.
But Daley warned that once Obama takes the official plunge, the star treatment he has received in the national media will end and the scrutiny will begin.
“No one has a honeymoon. You think you have a honeymoon, [but] no one has a honeymoon. He understands that,†the mayor said.
*** UPDATE 19 *** More from Fritchey, via e-mail, after I asked what else was discussed during the conference call:
(T)here was nothing else really other than that he would be traveling extensively around the state. More of a feel good, stay connected type thing.
*** UPDATE 20 *** Another friend who participated in this morning’s conference call said Obama gave participants phone numbers to four campaign headquarters in New Hampshire, Iowa, DC and Chicago. He said, according to the friend, that his campaign “will begin in Illinois and end in Illinois.”
*** UPDATE 21 *** Chris Bowers at MyDD totals up the number of news media mentions (via Google News) of the various Democratic candidates during the past month.
Barack Obama: 9,710
Joseph Biden: 6,475
John Edwards: 5,944
Hillary Clinton: 5,226
Chris Dodd: 3,218
Bill Richardson: 3,100
Tom Vilsack: 2,753
Dennis Kucinich: 1,862
Wesley Clark: 497
Mike Gravel: 22
*** UPDATE 22 *** I asked for a quickie quote from Governor Blagojevich’s office. Here it is: “The Governor is excited, hopes to help Sen. Obama in any way he can.”
Apparently, Barack Obama’s people got the message. Embattled Harvey Mayor Eric Kellog was supposed to introduce Obama at a major Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event, but after it was pointed out that having Kellogg around might not do his image any good and might boost Kellogg’s reelection, the mayor was moved into the cheap seats.
Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg sat in the audience while Obama spoke, keeping a respectful distance.
Obama, never mentioning the mayor specifically, said politicians in office for personal gain fail to adhere to King’s message.
“There are a lot things Harvey needs,” Obama said. “Some folks here in city hall think that maybe the office that they possess is because they are so special, it is supposed to be a place where they can help their family and their friends instead of helping the people who elected them.
“We don’t need that kind of leadership,” he warned. “You want to make a lot of money, go start a business. Don’t run for office.”
In the past year, the Daily Southtown has published several dozen stories that call into question Kellogg’s management of city finances and his appointments to the police department.
[Emphasis added.]
Meanwhile, my syndicated newspaper column this week was about Michael Madigan and Obama, and the Speaker’s recent attempts to make nice.
You’d think that Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, who is forever being touted as one of the smartest politicians in Illinois history, would have realized long ago that Barack Obama was immensely popular and needed to be treated differently than others.
[Comments are now closed on this post. Let’s move to a fresh thread.]
As expected, state GOP leaders urged Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander to resign at their Saturday meeting, and, as expected, Kj refused to step down.
Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander was asked to resign Saturday by his party’s 19-member state central committee - a request the Springfield lobbyist immediately refused.
The state GOP leaders approved the non-binding resolution during an executive session in their latest regular meeting, held in suburban Bolingbrook. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna declined to release the vote tally or other details but said the signal that leadership has “lost confidence” in Kjellander follows concerns raised by a group of county GOP chairmen.
“We don’t have the ability to move beyond that,” he said of the measure.
Kjellander said the move was more about the GOP wipeout than anything else.
Kjellander said disgruntled members of the Republican Party were in search of someone to blame after the GOP’s poor performance last fall–though he declined to view himself as a scapegoat.
“They’re entitled to their opinion. I have mine,” Kjellander said, noting that the state central committee had no authority to remove him from his post. “Certainly when a party gets wiped out at every level like we did after the last election, people are going to look for scapegoats.”
But it’s not all about that. And it’s not all about corruption. The right wing has been trying to take over the state GOP for years, and Kjellander is just the latest target. As with the fight over who would replace Lee Daniels, the strategy is to oust Kj and install one of their own. Notice that the self-proclaimed reformers have never gotten behind a squeaky clean compromise candidate that disagreed with them on hot button social issues.
*** UPDATE *** Charlie makes some excellent points at Illinoize, concluding with:
The fact is if you want to get a demolition crew all you have to do is hang around any street corner and you’ll find plenty of qualified people in short order. If you want to find architects and a construction crew you’ll have to spend a little more time and be a lot more picky. We already have more than enough people on Republican demolition crews. The State Party did well in establishing that what we want is a committed construction crew
Last year’s races reinforced the fact that legislative elections come down to who can buy the most votes.
That’s pretty harsh, if you ask me. It basically assumes that voters are corrupt and willing to “sell” their votes. And if that’s the case, no amount of reforms will work. The title of the editorial assumes that campaign money has somehow taken away the “power of the vote” from citizens.
Most of the series’ focus was on the cash that legislative leaders dumped into campaigns.
A bulk of the funding comes from the candidate’s political party. In one local legislative matchup, for example, the Democrat raised $620,000 to support his campaign — $400,000 of that came from accounts controlled by House Speaker Michael Madigan. The Republican candidate in that race received $332,000 of the $452,000 he raised from his party’s leadership.
But the premise is a bit flawed. In many, if not most, cases with hotly contested races, the leaders from each party spent about the same amount of money. And in at least one instance (Mike Boland vs. Steve Haring) the losing leader spent more money than the winning leader.
Back to the editorial for a moment.
In early 2005 Gov. Rod Blagojevich unveiled campaign finance reforms that are similar to the federal regulations. State Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican from Bloomington, also has publicly announced his support for Illinois laws that mirror the federal system.
We think this is the right direction to take. Federal regulations place an approximate $2,000 limit on individual contributions and a $5,000 limit on political action committee contributions. Illinois has no limits.
Well, those federal limits didn’t do much to quell corruption in DC, did they? Conveniently overlooked is that voters told exit pollsters last year that DC corruption was their top issue. DC is probably the last place to look up to as a role model of righteousness and good, and the contention, in my mind at least, completely undermines the point.
Do legislative leaders have too much power? Yep. No doubt about that. But the hyper-cynical attitude that money automatically buys votes ignores all else that happened last year and isn’t gonna move the ball down the field much.
West Side ward boss Isaac Carothers said Monday he will seek to become chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, setting the stage for a power struggle between blacks and Hispanics.
Carothers acknowledged that he pledged his support to Joseph Berrios, the only other candidate in the race for a no-win job that one party elder has likened to becoming “captain of the Titanic.”
It looks as if Mayor Daley doesn’t have to worry about waging a write-in campaign. Any chance the mayor would be knocked off the ballot essentially ended Monday when rival William “Dock” Walls announced he would abandon his challenge of Daley’s nominating petitions.
