* Alderman Ted Matlak’s 32nd Ward opponent has gone negative…
* Ald. Burt Natarus has also gone negative…
* But SEIU has gone negative in a big way on Natarus…
* And more from SEIU on Natarus…
* I’m told that Natarus had five mailers hit on the same day. Probably not a smart move. I have many of the mailers, but I’m too busy today to upload them. Hopefully I’ll post them tomorrow.
* 50th Ward candidate Naisy Dolar talks about her campaign…
Under the proposed legislation sponsored by 27th District state Sen. Matt Murphy, all public libraries and schools in Illinois would have to prohibit access to sites such as My Space, Facebook and personal blogs from computers.
The proposal, which Murphy’s office says is the only one in the nation that calls for a complete ban on these sites, has been a hot topic since it was introduced Feb. 9. It has since been referred to the rules committee.
Murphy’s live online discussion will be held 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at his blog, senmattmurphy.blogspot.com. The freshman senator will answer questions people have on his bill.
Be there or be square.
* Environmentalists are near a meltdown over plans to recycle nuclear fuel an hour southwest of Chicago
* ArchPundit thinks the story on Daley paying $100 to students for election day work was seriously flawed.
* “Today, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released a new report finding that Illinois’s campaign finance system is broken and badly in need of reform.” [From a press release]
* Alone among major Midwestern states, Illinois places no restrictions on campaign contributions, allowing unlimited donations from any source.
* Disclosure laws, supposedly the bulwark against corruption instead of contribution limits, are easily evaded.
* The State Board of Elections has been hamstrung by partisan gridlock and has failed to enforce the law. Wary of conducting investigations and resolving cases that could have political ramifications, the Board has signaled that campaign finance laws can be evaded without repercussion.
* The report also finds that Illinois is the only state in the Midwest that has no public campaign finance system of any kind. Under a public financing system candidates agree to limit campaign spending in exchange for campaign financing provided by the state – either through matching funds or an outright grant.
A Chicago Democrat wants Illinois to be the second state to legalize gay marriages.
State Rep. Greg Harris plans to introduce legislation today that will permit same-sex couples to get married. Although four states recognize civil unions among gays, only Massachusetts provides for gay marriages.
“It would extend the same rights and obligations of marriage to same-sex couples in Illinois as are previously enjoyed, or not enjoyed, by heterosexual couples,” Harris said. “If you look at recent polls … people of Illinois very thoroughly understand that same-sex couples deserve the same rights and benefits” as heterosexual couples.
David Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute, disagreed.
Smith’s group collected over 300,000 signatures to put an anti gay marriage question on the November ballot. The group didn’t have enough valid signatures, however.
Anyway, to the question: Could you support this idea? Could you support a variation on this proposal, like civil unions? Why or why not?
And, please, keep it civil. Over the top stuff will be dealt with harshly.
I’ve been telling subscribers lately that Ameren’s gigantic electric rate increase last month is causing political heartburn all over downstate Illinois.
After paying an average bill of $223 a month for the past two years, Huckelberry still is having a hard time believing his latest Ameren electric bill after the rate freeze was lifted was for $870 - a hike of nearly 300 percent.
Convinced that Illinois is in the midst of an “electric rate crisis,” a group of Republican state lawmakers on Wednesday said Gov. Rod Blagojevich ought to schedule a summit to help consumers with their dramatically higher power bills.
Some electricity bills - especially for all-electric households - have more than doubled since a 10-year rate freeze expired at the beginning of 2007.
At a state Capitol news conference with more than a dozen fellow Republicans, Rep. Bill Black of Danville accused the Democratic governor of failing to show leadership on the electricity issue.
Black said the proposed “electric rate relief summit” should include Blagojevich, the four legislative leaders and the chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is the state’s utility regulator.
That’s the usual Springfield game. Punt the hot potato to someone else.
Meanwhile, down in Carbondale, the Southern Illinoisan has been hot and heavy on the rate hike beat, with columnist Jim Muir penning three columns in the past ten days or so about the issue. His latest takes Senate President Emil Jones to task…
A few days after the Nov. 7, 2006, election the Illinois House passed a measure to extend the rate freeze but Senate President Emil Jones refused to call the legislation for a vote. The Senate then passed some bogus legislation calling for a 42 percent rate hike scattered over three years. The legislation passed by the Senate looked like it was written by Ameren and ComEd and it was never called for a vote in the House. In the end, as we all found out when we received our electric bill this month, the General Assembly did nothing and the freeze was lifted.
As I was poring over the various campaign contributions I found it interesting that during a three-week period before Senate President Jones sat on his hands and did nothing to help Illinois residents, Ameren contributed $25,000 to “Citizens for Emil Jones” and another $10,000 to the “Illinois Senate Democrat Fund.”
Am I saying that Jones took a kickback? Certainly not. But, I am saying that those contributions combined with a do-nothing General Assembly created an appearance of impropriety. I challenge anybody, including Sen. Jones, to debate me that it didn’t. In my view this single issue has exposed Illinois politics for what it is - a land where “pay-to-play” has taken precedence over common sense, logic, decency and simply doing the right thing.
[Emphasis added]
One of the hottest spots of opposition to Ameren’s rate hikes is the St. Louis Metro East area. Ameren is beginning to respond to the crisis by hiring a longtime St. Louis TV anchor as its VP for public relations. That won’t be enough, however.
As if being hit with skyrocketing utility prices was not enough, more than 20,000 Illinois residents may also become unemployed due to electric rate hikes by Ameren and ComEd, says a study released Monday by the Citizens Utility Board.
But individual households aren’t the only ones suffering electric bill sticker shock. Illinois’ 93rd District Rep. Jil Tracy says that a number of communities in her district got big bills.
“Likewise I’ve heard from many municipalities–towns, very small towns, which have very small budgets. And they certainly did not anticipate these kinds of increases,'’ said Tracy. “I mean, some of them are looking at more than 300 percent increases for the streets lights and the like. And it’s an ongoing expense that’s vital to public safety.”
Right now, this is the biggest story in Downstate, and it’s political dynamite for all state legislators.
In light of the 2000 electoral debacle, some state lawmakers want Illinois and Missouri to join a movement in which states would agree to give all their electoral votes to the nation’s popular vote-getter in the presidential race.
The idea is to make sure the candidate who gets the most popular votes nationally also wins the election. […]
“It’s one man, one vote,” [the IL House sponsor of a similar bill last year Rep. Tom Holbrook said.] “You can muddy the water all you want. If you think every voter is equal, then you support this.”
Supporters of popular-vote measures point to the 2000 presidential victory of George W. Bush over popular-vote winner Al Gore. After a messy election dispute in Florida that went to the Supreme Court, Bush won a majority in the U.S. Electoral College. That group of electors, set up by the Constitution, cast ballots based on the popular vote within individual states. Their vote trumps the popular vote, and in 2000 it gave the election to Bush.
However, the new system being proposed would come with its own potential pitfall: A state could be forced to give all its electoral votes to a candidate who lost in that state.
Today one of Alderman Berny Stone’s supporters called and told me that he was going to “firebomb” our office. When I asked him if he was threatening us, he said that he’ll “do whatever it takes to keep Bernard Stone in office” and reiterated his intention to “firebomb” the office. I hung up and called the police.
The bomb squad came and checked out the place and took a police report. While it was probably just some idiot running his mouth with no intention to do much more than that, I was not about to take any chances.
This is the same person who called on Feb. 16th after repeatedly sending us emails saying that Greg Brewer “had a lot of nerve to run against Bernard Stone”.
Arenda Troutman (20th) and Howard Brookins (21st) are believed to be the only aldermen taking sides against Daley, the favorite in Tuesday’s election. The fact that Troutman and Brookins chose Walls over Dorothy Brown makes the endorsement even more surprising.
* Alderman complains of spliced youtube video showing drinking & driving
* Daley to pay college students $100 for election day help
* Ex Daley foe, Del Valle, now an integral part of mayor’s ticket:
“Given the changing political dynamics in the city, this was a good time for the mayor to reach out to me,” del Valle said. “I’ve evolved too. I’m more of a policy person than when I started. One thing you need to learn is to be a consensus builder.”
* No fines issued against Villa Park president’s party
* Pradel And Krause Endorsed By Daily Herald In Naperville Mayoral Primary
[I’ll post Mayor Daley’s newest TV ad later this morning.]
On the eve of his biggest day as Cook County Board president, Todd Stroger took to name-calling of elected officials he says have whined too much about having to cut their budgets. State’s Attorney Richard Devine and Sheriff Tom Dart are “prima donnas” who have complained about cuts on “just about every talk show,” Stroger said Wednesday.
* Daley’s Crosstown Expressway vision includes only trucks and a CTS lane: One day after House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago) put the Crosstown chip on the table in the game of legislative poker, Daley piled on with a more costly and elaborate proposal.
Today is the last day for U of I sports mascot “Chief Illiniwek,” overshadowing the last home game for the Illini’s senior class. Media hordes are preparing to descend upon Assembly Hall, but they probably won’t find any protests by the anti-Chief crowd, and there’s still debate about what to do with the logo.
But I don’t care about any of that.
Question: Let’s come up with a new “mascot” for the U of I. Snark is heavily encouraged, debating the Chief’s demise is strongly discouraged. We’ve already been there, done that. It’s over. Let’s move on…
I remember the first time I met Dick Kay. I had watched him on TV for much of my life so when I saw him at the Rathskellar (the cafeteria in the Statehouse basement) I cautiously approached him and told him how much I always enjoyed his hard-hitting political reports. He was gracious and kind, and after that we developed a pretty good relationship.
You may have heard that Kay has signed on as a spokesperson to help Gov. Blagojevich pass his health care proposals. Carol Marin, who knows everybody (she has George Clooney’s private number programmed on her cell phone, for crying out loud), replaced Kay as Channel 5’s political editor after Dick retired last year. Her Sun-Times column today (Marin has about fifty different jobs) is about Kay’s surprising move…
I am struggling to imagine Dick Kay on the other side, standing in front of a bank of microphones, facing a crush of cameras at a news conference, answering questions instead of bellowing them out.
It gives me a headache.
“Doogie,” as he is called by everyone who really knows him, has just left the retirement he only months ago entered, at age 70, to be hired this week by Gov. Blagojevich as his special advocate for health care.
Yes, that’s right: The guy who was a fixture on WMAQ-Channel 5 News for almost four decades reporting on politics in Chicago has gone over, as we who are still in the business like to say, to the “dark side.” The same Dick Kay who in 1985 won a prestigious Peabody Award for his investigation of government boards and commissions that served no public purpose other than loading the state payroll with the wives, girlfriends, husbands and kids of legislators, is now on the state payroll himself.
Cindi Canary was an outspoken proponent of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s reform ideas early in his first term. She has since come to realize that Blagojevich is all talk, little action (I hate to say I told her so, but…).
Canary, who runs the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, penned a column for Crain’s the other day which was headlined “As other governors tackle corruption, what is ours doing?” As Canary details, he’s not doing much. This is how her column ends, but go read the whole thing…
Instead of asking government contractors for campaign contributions, Gov. Blagojevich could spend his time persuading legislators to vote for the comprehensive package of reforms he proposed more than a year ago.
Like Gov. Spitzer, Gov. Blagojevich could voluntarily live by the limits he has suggested: $2,000 per individual, $5,000 from political action committees and zero from corporations or labor unions.
Gov. Spitzer understands why action like this is important. “We are not going to play by the same old rules, because they are corrosive,” he has said.
Becoming a corruption-buster like Gov. Spitzer may be too much to expect from Gov. Blagojevich. But he should be able to follow Mr. Spitzer’s lead and stop playing by the same old rules of campaign finance in Illinois.
* Unsurprisingly, Michigan’s free-spending Republican nominee, Dick DeVos, spent the most at almost $26 per vote. But if I’d been looking at primaries too, California’s Steve Westly would have far surpassed him at $40.6 per vote. Both lost.
* Maryland was the most expensive state, with Republican Bob Ehrlich ($21.7 per vote) and Democrat Martin O’Malley ($15.9) both spending freely. Other top spenders included Nevada’s Jim Gibbons ($20.4) and Massachusetts’ Kerry Healey ($16.0).
* In contrast, Minnesota was the land of frugal candidates. Even though Governor Tim Pawlenty decided to decline public funding so he could break the state spending cap, he did so rather sheepishly, spending only $3.9 million or $3.8 per vote. His Democratic opponent, Mike Hatch, went even lower at $2.7 per vote.
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* Vi Daley announces her endorsements [press release]
* Roud’em up: In a sea of angry commuters Tuesday morning, one aldermanic hopeful couldn’t help but grin.
Scott Waguespack, a 32nd Ward challenger, was passing out campaign fliers alleging poor CTA service when the Blue Line’s inbound trains stopped running during the morning rush.
* Troutman in trouble with loss of support from Bishop Arthur Brazier
She may survive getting charged with bribery by the feds, and she may not need Brazier’s endorsement to win reelection against a couple of previously unknown candidates, but now that both have happened, I’ve got to think she’s a long shot to hold onto her seat.
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* Surprise push to bring first Mayor Daley’s expressway dream to life:
House Speaker Michael Madigan breathed new life Tuesday into Mayor Richard J. Daley’s unfulfilled dream of building a cross-town superhighway to ease traffic gridlock.
Sending former Gov. George Ryan to prison would be “one of the great injustices in the history of the American legal system,” his attorney said Tuesday.
* Stroger, board near compromise: Todd Stroger and the commissioners who have just seven days left to pass a $3 billion budget.
The question now is who’ll take the biggest hit from the county’s 2007 budget reductions: either frontline workers in such areas as health care and law enforcement, or layers of Democratic patronage lackeys in administrative jobs.
* Commissioner goes without office to voluntarily cut own budget by 17%
* County breaks talks with hospital billing firm: Cook County has reversed course again and ended negotiations with a controversial consulting firm because it wouldn’t cut a nice enough deal for the cash-strapped county.
* Three alderman push for airline passenger’s bill of rights
* Illinois, other states Bush administration over mercury emissions
Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said the proposal calls for $3 tolls, even at rush hour. “We’ve said all along we’re opposed to a toll bridge,” Claffey said.
* Blagojevich calls IL a national leader in child support collection [press release]
The new program will provide one-time grants of up to $400 and is expected to help 3,000 to 5,000 households. About 19,000 ComEd residential customers in Chicago have had their service cut for non-payment, although some might no longer live at the listed addresses, officials said.
* Springfield to expand public Wi-Fi, learns from California example
Stung by the deaths of two teenagers in a drunken homecoming night car crash last fall, north suburban lawmakers proposed legislation on Monday that would toughen the penalties for parents who condone underage drinking in their homes.
It already is illegal for parents to knowingly allow minors to drink in their homes and to provide them with alcohol or fail to control access to it, but the stiffest penalty is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and up to 364 days in jail.
Under the bill proposed by state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest), if bodily harm occurs, parents could be charged with a felony punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison or probation and up to a $25,000 fine.
“[This] is not designed to put unwitting or unknowing parents in jail,” Garrett said at a news conference with other state lawmakers, police officials and activists at the Lake County Building in Waukegan. “We are attempting to heighten awareness of and increase sensitivity to the dangers of underage drinking.
Now, the question: Would you favor this concept? Why or why not?
Bonus question: Do you think we should have more laws that hold parents accountable for their knowing approval of illegal behavior by their children? Offer examples.
Also, there are more details in the story, so if you have more questions, go read the whole thing. Don’t just ask other commenters to clarify something for you. Thanks.
I’ve kept this issue confined to subscriber-only blog posts because it’s a legislative issue and I felt that the debate has been so distasteful, but now that the mainstream press has picked up on it, we might as well get it out in the open here.
Legislation to vaccinate pre-teen girls against a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer has sparked a heated debate at the Illinois Statehouse.
The discussion has even moved to the point where one opponent of the legislation has publicly called on a sponsor to reveal her sexual history.
At issue is the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the primary cause of cervical cancer in females. A new vaccine, Gardasil, has been shown to protect against HPV strains that cause 70 percent of the cancer cases. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended vaccinations for 11- and 12-year-old girls - before they are likely to become sexually active.
An Illinois House bill would require girls to be vaccinated before they enter sixth grade beginning in 2008-09 unless their parents formally opt out. A similar Senate bill would have schools provide information about HPV and cervical cancer to 11- and 12-year-old girls beginning this fall and then would require immunizations - again, unless parents decide against them - in 2009.
As the New York Times notes, the manufacture of the vaccine, Merck, is making a national state-by-state push to require the shots, adding…
And in Illinois, a bill introduced by a legislator who had the virus the vaccine is intended to prevent prompted a conservative group’s blog to speculate that she had been promiscuous.
“I’m offended by their ignorance, but if I have to take a hit to educate people, I’m willing to do it,†said the bill’s sponsor, Debbie Halvorson, the Democratic majority leader in the Illinois Senate.
Ms. Halvorson is also a director of Women in Government, a national association of state legislators that has embraced the fight against cervical cancer and has received funding from Merck. The group has posted model mandatory vaccination legislation on its Web site, www.womeningovernment.org. The rush for mandatory inoculation — most of the state proposals have been introduced since the beginning of the year — is unusual. It was only last June that federal regulators approved the vaccine, called Gardasil.
Jill Stanek has taken the lead among the conservative Right in opposing the bill. One of her first posts on the legislation was a doozy…
…So when state Sen. Debbie Halvorson admitted she had HPV and worried others might get it, you would think she’d focus on her behavior that caused her to contract that sexually transmitted disease.
Halvorson would be most helpful by discussing the health consequences of pre- or extra-marital sex. […]
But no, Halvorson does not advocate avoiding a risky behavior that leads not only to HPV but to 20+ other STDs and their strains, along with unplanned pregnancy. Halvorson merely advocates trying to avoid the consequences of risky behavior. Shame on her.
I left out some very pointed, very personal even weird “questions” that Stanek demanded answers for. Read it yourself if you want.
Stanek’s reaction has overshadowed the legislation itself. Here’s a recent column from Kristen McQueary, who notes that she would oppose the Halvorson bill if she were in the General Assembly…
For someone with a well-worn barometer for political mean-spiritedness, I was stunned by an online diatribe hurled at state Sen. Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete) from a fellow Southlander. […]
Stanek demanded that Halvorson disclose “whether it was her husband who passed HPV on to her after sleeping with other women” or how, exactly, the Senate majority leader believes she contracted the virus. […]
Stanek’s vitriol does nothing to further her cause. In fact, her shark mentality often hurts the very issues for which she so desperately crusades. Even those in her small circle of flag-wavers cringed at her remarks.
I’ve always liked Jill, but her remarks crossed the line of decency and could backfire. The legislation could pass just because of the tactics used against it. This slash and burn stuff might work in the national media (although its influence seems to be fading fast), but people here are a bit more reasonable than the DC gasbags.
As I wrote in this morning’s Capitol Fax, I don’t think that this is a particularly huge deal…
Gov. Blagojevich and his wife, Patti, upgraded their Northwest Side bungalow in 2003 by renovating their family room and building a deck.
What makes the home improvement project noteworthy is who Illinois’ first family put in charge of it: a company owned by now-indicted political fund-raiser and real estate developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
Even this part doesn’t really trouble me…
Chicago Construction Services began overseeing the Blagojevich work in July 2003, six months after Rezko began pushing the governor to place friends and associates in key state posts. The project took place during a 16-month period in which Patti Blagojevich, a real estate broker, netted about $86,000 from Rezko-orchestrated real estate deals.
I do have a problem with this, however…
Despite repeated inquiries, the Blagojeviches declined to provide bills or canceled checks for the work or a list of subcontractors.
Normally, it might be unseemly to demand that a governor “prove” his innocence. But Rezko raised a lot of money for the guv, “recommended” a whole lot of high-level appointees (some who contributed big bucks to the guv’s campaign fund around the same time), did a bunch of work with the First Lady (some of which looks like she was added to the list of realtors at the last minute) and has been indicted by the feds.
The governor has also refused to divulge how much cash he and his family have received as “gifts” from other inner circle members. That leaves me with no alternative except to ask…
Here’s what should be at the top of that list: ending the culture of corruption at City Hall. We endorse Richard M. Daley’s re-election as mayor with the hope that he’ll spend the next four years doing just that.
“If you spend too much time . . . on tangential issues and trying to micromanage our personal lives, you lose sight of larger priorities,” said Reilly, a former aide to state House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). Madigan, whose law firm files property tax appeals on behalf of many downtown businesses, has issued a glowing letter in support of Natarus.
* Mundelein Trustee’s re-election campaign will continue
* A look at the long shot challengers:
Dorothy Brown and Dock Walls
* Mark Brown: What do teenage voters think of Chicago candidates?
* Oak Brook trustee bounced from ballot for “major flaw” in paperwork
And Mayor Richard Daley’s swelling re-election campaign fund now has received money that originally was donated for the political account of Democratic powerbroker George Dunne. The late George Dunne.
* Obama’s liberalism to draw heat as campaign progresses
During his eight-year stint in the Illinois Senate, Obama carried the reputation of a liberal Democrat, a standing gleaned from his votes on abortion, guns and other key or controversial issues.
The delays mean schools will have to administer another round of tests next month without having a chance to learn from last year’s results. The state tests are used to judge schools under No Child Left Behind federal standards, and schools face sanctions if too many children fail.
* Layoffs announced in Cook Co. State’s Attorney’s office: In the first wide-scale job cuts resulting from Cook County’s budget problems, State’s Atty. Richard Devine announced Friday that he was laying off 43 prosecutors and 10 investigators.
From 2000 to 2003 Hastings earned $1,250 per month to review the college’s safety procedures and collected another $2,304 for teaching two classes. In total he received $46,679 from South Suburban College, financial documents reveal. All the while, he held down a full-time job as a “business liaison” with the Illinois secretary of state’s office.
* Tribune: Let the llinois Health Facilities Planning Board fade away
* Editorial: We don’t need a law to tell us what to eat
