Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

…Alan received MULTIPLE endorsements from ministers across Illinois this weekend, including pastors with churches of TWENTY THOUSAND congregants and more! The church community is RISING UP in support of Alan’s godly stance on principles and issues of moral importance. They’re recognizing — it’s THAT important!

Finally, we’re VERY excited about our sign distribution campaign… This weekend alone, our volunteers put up literally
TENS OF THOUSANDS of Alan Keyes signs, all over the state of Illinois! There is NOWHERE the good citizens of this state
can go without seeing bright “Keyes 2004″ signs, reminding them of the RIGHT choice to make tomorrow!

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Too funny

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Just moments before the ABC-7 TV crew arrived to film the story about allegedly lax security at the James R. Thompson Center, security guards magically showed up at their posts.

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More on the security situation

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The governor’s director of homeland security, Carl Hawkinson, e-mailed a few minutes ago:

I am advised that all floors At JRTC are covered by Security

JRTC is the James R. Thompson Center.

But the type of security coverage at the JRTC is unnerving to some, including Secretary of State Jesse White.

“We have some concerns.” said White’s spokesman Dave Druker. “No disrespect to Mr. Hawkinson, but I don’t think we have seen that,” Druker said about security covering all floors.

The security guys aren’t stationed at specific spots checking identification, like they were before, and that may be creating a hole in the system. “The problem,” Druker said, “is that peple can really move around the building unnoticed, without checking in at any location.”

White’s concerns were so great that he, “brought a security guard to cover our area on the 5th floor.”

Other constitutional officers without their own police forces aren’t so lucky. “It is unbelievable,” said a top aide to one CO. “You go up to (the governor’s) office and there is a metal detector and guards and everything. We are completely exposed.”

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Security complaints

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

State workers arrived to the James R. Thompson Center this morning to discover that the security guards were missing. Considering the shooting at the Statehouse last month, the election is tomorrow and Osama bin Laden just cut another videotape, some people were a bit freaked out.

It doesn’t help morale, either, that the governor still has guards standing in front of his office while the other offices are exposed.

Here’s an explanation from within the governor’s office (I just got back from the dentist and cannot talk, so this was via e-mail. More tomorrow):

“The contract with the security company ended last week and ISP (the Illinois State Police) is going to take over. For now, ISP has officers detailed to every floor and others who are roaming the building.”

The coppers aren’t very visible, however, which is what seems to be upsetting so many people. The previous security guards were at their stations (and they’re still at their stations in front of the guv’s office), so people could see them.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s press spokesperson had this to say:

“At a time when most government buildings are evaluating their security and becoming more secure, it concerns us that a level of security in the Thompson Center has been removed. It is critical that the public be able to access our offices, but it is also critical that the state employees who work here feel secure. We expect and want people to be able to come into our offices, but that requires taking some common-sense steps on our part.”

Translation: We’re not happy about this.

UPDATE: A friend of mine who works at the Thompson Center claims she hasn’t seen any state cops today.

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Oops

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Alan Keyes campaign really knows how to target its limited funds.

Over the weekend, Keyes placed inserts in at least two downstate papers that I know of (Peoria and Belleville) which included absentee ballot applications. The application deadline has long past.

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A bit much

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Not content with attempting to defeat Democrat Gordon Maag in the Supreme Court race, the Illinois Civil Justice League now wants him to lose his appellate justice job (as referenced in this morning’s Capitol Fax):

The Illinois Civil Justice League is urging Fifth Judicial voters to vote “no” on Judge Gordon Maag’s effort to be retained to another term on the Appellate Court, in addition to voting against him in the race for the Supreme Court.

The ICJL also is urging Metro East voters to vote “no” on the retention of Circuit Judges A. Andreas Matoesian of Madison County and Robert P. LeChien of St. Clair County.Â Â

“The court system in Southern Illinois is broken,” said ICJL President Edward D. Murnane, “and every resident of this area knows it.Â The way to fix it is to get rid of the bad judges and replace them with fair, honest and independent judges.”

Murnane said Maagâ€™s dishonesty and campaign conduct show that he is unfit to serve as a judge at any level, especially on either the Supreme or Appellate Court, and he should be rejected for both offices by Fifth District voters.Â

â€œThe latest outrages from Judge Maag are the blatantly untrue television commercials his campaign â€“ with his approval â€“ has been using against his Supreme Court opponent,â€ Murnane saidÂ

â€œMaagâ€™s commercials make statements about Judge Lloyd Karmeier that are absolutely untrue, and can be proven untrue by court records,â€ Murnane said.Â â€œAnd these are not television commercials produced without Maagâ€™s approval.Â His name, authorization and photo appear in the commercials.â€

Murnane said JUSTPAC, the ICJL’s political action committee, is using telephone calls, newspaper ads and yard signs as a means of urging voters to vote “no” on the retention ballot.Â Â

Those ICJL guys are so pleasant.

3 Comments

Hotline

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

From a Common Cause IL press release:

Common Cause Illinois (CC/IL) in conjunction with national Common Cause has set up a toll-free “hotline” for Illinois voters to locate their polling place as well as to be able to report problems they may incur on election day while attempting to vote.

The toll free number is: 1-866-MYVOTE1 (or 1-866-698-6831) which offers assistance in Spanish as well as English. The hotline can be utilized now and through election day to locate the polling place and address for voters. On election day–November 2nd, voters can call the hotline to report voter irregularities or problems and, after reporting the problem, an attempt to connect them directly with their local election board or authority will be made. [Snip]

During the course of election day, Common Cause will attempt to monitor and identify particular problem areas or precincts and make that information available to the media and to the public.

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I don’t even want to think about it

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly’s blog reminds us that a lot of states were close during the presidential election four years ago, and then predicts lots of lawyers in the nation’s very near electoral future.

State

Bush

Gore

Vote Margin

% Margin

Florida

2,912,790

2,912,253

537

0.0%

New Mexico

286,417

286,783

366

0.1%

Wisconsin

1,237,279

1,242,987

5,708

0.2%

Iowa

634,373

638,517

4,144

0.3%

And he finishes with this:

The only reason the bottom three states weren’t litigated was because Bush didn’t need them. This year, my guess is that everything will be in play.

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Monday morning wrap-up

Monday, Nov 1, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Rockford Register-Star takes a big whack at Governor Rod Blagojevich today for promoting his prescription drug import plan while the state’s public schools are left to rot:

Across the state, school boards and district administrators are feeling sick. All that red ink they face in their budgets is enough to make them ill. Indeed, some districts are fighting for their lives.

Yes, it’s that serious. Last year, 82 percent of the public school districts in Illinois ran budget deficits. Combined, they overspent their budgets by $2.31 billion.

BUT WAIT! There is Gov. Rod Blagojevich with a cheap pill for whatever ails you. Surely he knows what to do.

That’s a very good point. The governor loves to paint himself as fighting courageous battles while big problems are allowed to burn in the background.

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Everybody seems to run stories about Alan Keyes saying he might just stay in Illinois after the election is over (God forbid). Here’s the Sun-Times version:

Republican Alan Keyes opened up with both barrels Sunday, blasting Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for taking “the wicked and evil position” on issues such as abortion and vowing to stay in Illinois to rebuild the tattered Republican Party — whether he wins or loses Tuesday.

“There is no way on this Earth that I would leave the good people of the Republican Party I’ve met prey to some of the leadership I’ve seen … that is corrupt, that lacks integrity and has betrayed their best values and their best interests,” Keyes said. “They are history.”

No, Alan, you are history. Scat. Here’s a bit from the Tribune’s story:

“Any Roman Catholics who vote for Barack Obama are committing, in the opinion of the pope and the Holy See [Vatican City], a mortal sin,” Keyes told reporters after a Crusaders Ministries service on the South Side. “He stands for the destruction of innocent life. He stands against the respect for the male-female family. On embryonic stem-cell research, on all the key issues of conscience, he stands for the position that has been identified by the Catholic Church as objectively evil.

And the State Journal-Register runs an AP story with this Obama reaction:

“That’s sort of his schtick, and I don’t think it’s playing particularly well here in Illinois, and I suspect that after Tuesday he’ll be taking his show on the road.”

“At least, he didn’t call me the anti-Christ,” Obama added, joking with reporters.

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Meanwhile, the Alton Telegraph has a story about medical malpractice legislation in the upcoming veto session. Crain’s Chicago Business has a (subscription required) story about another possible pension borrowing scheme. And the State Journal-Register has a story about payday loan regulations that could be introduced next spring.

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A busy bee

Sunday, Oct 31, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Barack Obama will try to gin up Democratic turnout tomorrow in a series of Get Out the Vote rallies. He’s in southern Illinois and then Kentucky tonight (for a Democratic US Senate candidate). Here’s tomorrow’s schedule:

9:00 AMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Metro East GOTV Rally
11:30 AMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Quad Cities GOTV RallyÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
1:00 PMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Rockford GOTV Rally
2:30 PMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Peoria GOTV Rally
5:15 PMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Springfield GOTV Rally
7:15 PMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Champaign GOTV Rally
9:50 PMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Chicago GOTV Rally

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Sunday morning wrap-up

Sunday, Oct 31, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

My weekly newspaper column talks about the Beth Coulson and the Ricca Slone races and how women legislators from the two political parties have behaved quite differently in the contests.

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Yesterday, Bob Novak and Al Hunt both predicted on CNN’s Capital Gang that Congressman Phil Crane would lose.

NOVAK: One thing that saddens me, it looks like Phil Crane, the senior Republican in the House of Representatives probably going to lose in Illinois in the carnage of the Republican party in Illinois. Phil Crane was a presidential candidate. He was one of the leaders of the conservative movement, with his (INAUDIBLE) when he was a college professor, the Democrats (INAUDIBLE) I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like he’s going to go down.

HUNT: I think elsewhere, that there will be four or five GOP incumbents, including Phil Crane, who are going to lose.

The Waukegan News Sun has a homestretch article on the Crane race, as does the Chicago Tribune.

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Just in time for Halloween, the Daily Southtown’s Kristen McQueary has an excellent article today about ghost candidates.

In five races â€” most of them concentrated on the Southwest Side â€” Democratic incumbents along with newcomer Dan Lipinski face Republicans who don’t return phone calls, answer doors, raise money, seek publicity or campaign â€” yet all managed to collect hundreds of signatures to get on the ballot.

In some cases, they have not even voted in Republican primaries, instead pulling Democratic ballots.

A Daily Southtown review of the petitions they filed to get on the ballot shows connections between the Democrats and some of their GOP “challengers,” revealing a wink-nod campaign tactic both parties use to protect incumbents.

Read the whole story.

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The Decatur Herald & Review has a piece today on appointed Rep. Bob Flider’s massive outspending of Republican opponent Scot England. I plan to have the real story in the Capitol Fax tomorrow about why the Democrats have spent so much money on this race.

“The amount of money per vote that Bob is spending is obscene,” said England, a former WAND-TV news reporter. “Somebody has lost their mind.”

Flider said he has always felt confident about the race, but because it was his first election contest, he was making an extra effort that would not necessarily be needed if he had been in office for several years.

“My opponent has been a TV personality, and his name recognition is very high,” Flider said. “We’ve had to explain my record of helping schools and creating jobs and also my 12 years of public service” as a village trustee and mayor in Mount Zion.

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The Southern Illinoisan has two interesting stories today. The first is about record spending in state races:

The Illinois U.S. Senate race, the 5th District Supreme Court and State Senate 59th District campaigns have raked in more than a combined $24.5 million.

The second is about the role of religion in local races.

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No link to this, but the Champaign News Gazette has a story about some late dirty tricks in Rep. Naomi Jakobsson’s district. Jakobsson is a sure-fire winner in this district, but someone dredged up an old Human Rights Commission complaint against A Woman’s Fund, which Jakobsson ran.
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And, finally, here’s Doug Finke’s weekly Copley column. As always, he’s got a couple of funny bits.

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Maybe not even worth mentioning

Saturday, Oct 30, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

A Marmion Academy assistant football coach has accused state Sen. Chris Lauzen of committing battery during an altercation after the football team’s final game last weekend.

Authorities have not filed charges against Lauzen, who called the allegation “a lie.” But police are investigating the claims of the 26-year-old McHenry man who said the Aurora Republican grabbed him by the arm, poked him in the chest and swore at him.

Lauzen said he touched the coach with two fingers to hold him at arm’s length after the coach approached him aggressively.

“I had two extended fingers, (as if to say) ‘Just get away from me,’ ” said Lauzen, a state senator since 1993. “He came to me. He was the guy being restrained. He was the guy told by the head coach, ‘Back off, back off. You’re out of line.’ “

Matthew K. Welch, a Marmion graduate who is the team’s offensive coordinator, filed a complaint with Aurora police Thursday, claiming Lauzen confronted him after the team’s season-ending victory against Aurora Central Catholic High School. [Snip]

The school’s headmaster, who did not see the incident, called the complaint “much ado about nothing.”

Head coach Tony Tinerella, a dean at the school, said he saw the argument from across the field and told Welch to stop yelling. Tinerella said he did not know who started the altercation.

Headmaster John Milroy said his understanding of the incident suggests the allegations are unwarranted. [Snip]

“I’m just trying to stand up and do what I think is right,” Welch said.

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Last post for a while

Saturday, Oct 30, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Heading out for a relaxing day, so this will be it for a while.

Before I go, I forgot to add this to the daily roundup (from The Race is On blog):

NEW SENATE RECORD!!!
The Forby-Sommers race in far Southern Illinois’ 59th Senate District (one of Illinois’ poorest districts) reports combined receipts of $1.99 million for the general election, which breaks the record set by Susan Garret and Kathy Parker, who reported a combined $1.98 million in receipts in their 2002 general election race in the North Shore’s 29th Senate District (one of Illinois’ richest districts. While records may be made to be broken, in our book this is not a positive trend.

I love the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, but I hope they aren’t suggesting that it’s somehow acceptable for political parties and candidates to spend lots of money in rich districts but not in poor districts.

3 Comments

Saturday noontime wrap-up

Saturday, Oct 30, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Daily Southtown runs an AP story about increased voter registration. It’s way up:

Illinois voter registration is at an all-time high this year, with more than 7.5 million residents eligible to cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, state officials said Friday. [Snip]

In 2000, the last presidential election, 7.13 million Illinois residents registered to vote in the general election. Statewide voter turnout for that election was 69 percent.

The state’s record registration was set last spring, when nearly 7.14 million people registered to vote in the primary. The state’s voting age population is about 9.1 million, according to the state board.

Requests for absentee ballots have been high for the general election this year, indicating a high voter turnout is likely, though the number of absentee ballots actually returned won’t be known until after the election, White said.

In the Chicago suburbs of Cook County, for example, 38,817 absentee ballot applications were mailed out this year, compared with 24,598 mailed four years ago. Cook County Clerk David Orr expects voter turnout to come close to the county’s record high of 76 percent, set in 1992, when more than 1 million votes were cast.

Cook County has 1.38 million registered voters this fall, up from 1.3 million in the 2000 general election, when voter turnout in the county was 72.9 percent.

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The Southern Illinoisan is very skeptical of yesterday’s $15 million coal project announcement by Governor Rod Blagojevich and targeted Sen. Gary Forby. And there’s a very coincidental ad placement right in the middle of the story:

Is it an economic boon for the dying Southern Illinois coal industry or an 11th hour election ploy? That question played out in Southern Illinois Friday afternoon and was answered strictly along partisan lines.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich rolled into Southern Illinois to announce the release of $5 million in funds to conduct a front-end engineering and design study on a project to build a 500-megawatt coal gasification power plant and mine in Williamson County. [Snip]

Flanked by a host of only Democratic legislators, Blagojevich said all attending the press conference had worked to support the effort, but the governor singled out state Sen. Gary Forby and labeled the Benton Democrat as the “driving force” in securing the project and funding. [Snip]

While the Democratic governor was touting the announcement as the revival of the ailing Southern Illinois coal industry, his Republican counterparts cried foul at the timing of the press conference — held only three days before the election, as Forby is locked in a too-close-to-call race with Republican challenger Ron Summers, also of Benton.

ADVERTISEMENT - STORY CONTINUES BELOW
[This advertiesment, believe it or not, is for Forby’s Republican opponent, Ron Summers]

State Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, said the actual decision to fund the $5 million — $2.5 million from the Illinois Clean Coal Review Board and $2.5 million from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity — was made more than six weeks ago.

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The State Journal-Register runs a piece about a fired Republican state worker.

The former head of internal affairs for the Illinois Department of Revenue said he was fired after complaining about security cutbacks at the agency and because he is a Republican.

Doug Howard, 50, who now lives in Tennessee, also said he was ousted shortly after complaining that Revenue administrators refused to lock down the Willard Ice Building after the fatal shooting of a security guard in the Capitol just four blocks away.

“I made my opinion known to a few people that I spoke with that day, and frankly, I believe that it got back to (the administrators),” Howard said. “I think my termination … was retaliation.”

Revenue spokeswoman Geraldine Conrad said neither politics nor Howard’s complaints about security led to his firing.

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And the Daily Herald has a story about Island Lake limiting the number of political yard signs.

In Island Lake, the village board passed an ordinance Thursday night to ban political signs on public property. That means no signs can be in parks, next to streets or at subdivision entrances. Signs are allowed only in a property owner’s yard with permission.

“I swear there are more signs than dandelions in Island Lake for the April elections,” said Trustee Tom Martin, who admits he had signs for five candidates in his yard this month. “This is basically set up to improve the looks of Island Lake during campaign time.” [Snip[

Martin said the ordinance Island Lake passed Thursday will eliminate hundreds of campaign signs in front of polling places on election day, because land there is village property.

“Signage is one of the key marketing strategies in any campaign,” Martin said. “I would prefer to see candidate performance records established with name recognition to be the key decision at the polling place.”

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