In Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman Peter Roskam has an approval rating of 34%, and a majority (53%) of voters say they do not approve of the job he is doing. President Trump has an approval rating of 38% and a disapproval rating of 57% in Roskam’s district, while 8% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 85% say they disapprove. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 25% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing, and a majority (66%) responding that they disapprove.
These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Roskam and a “Democratic opponent,” where Roskam has 41% of the vote and his Democratic opponent has 51%, indicate that Roskam is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. The new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a majority of voters (54%) indicated they would be less likely to vote for Roskam if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.
PPP surveyed 599 IL-6 voters from November 9-10, 2017. The margin of error is +/- 4.0%. This poll was conducted by automated telephone interviews.
Hillary Clinton won Roskam’s district by 7 points last year, but Republican Sen. Mark Kirk won it by 6. Roskam won by 18.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions accused Illinois and other governments of adopting “the view that the protection of criminal aliens is more important than the protection of law-abiding citizens and of the rule of law.”
At risk is federal funding from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. That’s the same grant at the center of a legal fight Chicago is waging with Trump’s Justice Department. […]
The Illinois Trust Act would prohibit police in Illinois from detaining or arresting a person based on their immigration status or on federal immigration detainer. The Justice Department letter pointed to that language in its letter.
“The department is concerned that this appears to restrict the sending of information regarding immigration status,” it states. [Emphasis added]
Oh, for crying out loud. Maybe everybody needs to read the law, including the Sun-Times.
Section 15. Prohibition on enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
(a) A law enforcement agency or law enforcement official shall not detain or continue to detain any individual solely on the basis of any immigration detainer or non-judicial immigration warrant or otherwise comply with an immigration detainer or non-judicial immigration warrant.
(b) A law enforcement agency or law enforcement official shall not stop, arrest, search, detain, or continue to detain a person solely based on an individual’s citizenship or immigration status.
(c) This Section 15 does not apply if a law enforcement agency or law enforcement official is presented with a valid, enforceable federal warrant. Nothing in this Section 15 prohibits communication between federal agencies or officials and law enforcement agencies or officials.
(d) A law enforcement agency or law enforcement official acting in good faith in compliance with this Section who releases a person subject to an immigration detainer or non-judicial immigration warrant shall have immunity from any civil or criminal liability that might otherwise occur as a result of making the release, with the exception of willful or wanton misconduct. [Emphasis added.]
Aside from the preamble, definitions and some training language, that’s all the law says.
Recognizing that State law does not currently grant State or local law enforcement the authority to enforce federal civil immigration laws, it is the intent of the General Assembly that nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize any law enforcement agency or law enforcement official to enforce federal civil immigration law. This Act shall not be construed to prohibit or restrict any entity from sending to, or receiving from, the United States Department of Homeland Security or other federal, State, or local government entity information regarding the citizenship or immigration status of any individual under Sections 1373 and 1644 of Title 8 of the United States Code. Further, nothing in this Act shall prevent a law enforcement officer from contacting another law enforcement agency for the purposes of clarifying or confirming the nature and status of possible offenses in a record provided by the National Crime Information Center, or detaining someone based on a notification in the Law Enforcement Agencies Data Administrative System unless it is clear that request is based on a non-judicial immigration warrant. [Emphasis added.]
“Non-judicial immigration warrant” means a Form I-200 or I-205 administrative warrant or any other immigration warrant or request that is not approved or ordered by a judge, including administrative warrants entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center database.
* The governor has had a pretty consistent message during this week’s campaign tour, all held at smallish businesses. As we’ve already discussed, he is recycling his 2014 campaign promises on rolling back the income tax rate to 3 percent, freezing property taxes, etc. But his main focus in on one man. From his stop at Moline’s Parr Instrument Co.…
“This is exactly the type of company we want to help grow in the state of Illinois,” Gov. Rauner said. “Small business is the backbone of the Illinois economy. Most people work for small businesses like Parr. We want to keep the restrictions and regulations off you so you can grow. […]
Gov. Rauner asked voters to contact their local legislators and threaten not to re-elect them unless they promised not to make Mr. Madigan speaker again.
“If your representative is a Democrat, ask them, ‘Will you promise not to make Speaker Madigan the speaker again after 35 years?’ He becomes speaker by the legislators voting for him to be speaker,” Gov. Rauner said. “We need some fresh leadership. It doesn’t matter who they pick in the General Assembly, anybody would be better than the one we’ve had for 35 years.”
Gov. Rauner accused Speaker Madigan of corruption, alleging he has earned millions through his property tax appeal law firm. By keeping property taxes high, Speaker Madigan makes money when businesses hire his firm to lower their property taxes through an appeal process.
“It’s a very corrupt system. We need somebody who has more integrity in his leadership,” Gov. Rauner said. “Everything I’m fighting to do is bipartisan. Everybody wants property taxes down, everybody wants income taxes rolled back, and everybody wants more jobs in this state. Everybody, except Speaker Madigan. Get someone else to be speaker, and then we can change the system.”
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner stopped in Rockford Tuesday to campaign for re-election and took aim at House Speaker Michael Madigan, not challengers for the top state post.
“Speaker Madigan is really the core problem,” the Republican governor said of the Democrat. […]
Rauner said voters should ask legislative candidates this question: “Will they commit to not make Speaker Madigan (the) speaker again?” He said Madigan has created a culture of “self-dealing” and “patronage.”
“Thirty-five years, that is a long time,” Rauner said of Madigan’s tenure in the post. “We have folks in office for 20, 30, 40 years. … You should not stay in one place. You get corrupted. … I don’t think anybody should stay in power, maybe eight, 10 years at the most.”
Rauner also continues to villainize long-time House Speaker Mike Madigan. He’s calling on all voters to only support candidates who support term limits.
He spoke about a lot of his familiar themes during his first term as governor, calling for a property tax freeze, limiting government, rolling back the recent income tax hike, which he tied directly to Speaker Mike Madigan, and calling for a balanced budget by making the state more pro-growth and pro-business. […]
“Small business is the backbone of the economy,” Rauner said. “A majority of the people of Illinois work for a small business. The success of small business is the key to the success of our state.”
As he has previously, Rauner continued to campaign against Madigan. He blamed the speaker for the income tax increase and high property taxes, as well as a range of other problems, and he told workers they ought to get Democratic lawmakers in the area to commit to abandon him in order to get their votes.
“He’s the one holding us back,” Rauner said. “So we must get him out.”
Steve Brown, a spokesman for the speaker, responded that many of the things that Rauner counts as successes, such as the school funding reform law — which the governor initially vetoed — got the speaker’s support, too. “If you look at his criticism, it is not based in real facts,” Brown said.
* Meanwhile, Comptroller Mendoza was recently in LaSalle County…
Rauner has spent millions of dollars seeking to tie Democrats to what he considers Madigan’s Chicago political machine.
“The governor has tried to make this all about Madigan,” Mendoza said. “That’s all he can say for having no accomplishments for the last two years. People will be surprised to see in the next election that this Madigan person is not on the ballot.” […]
Nearly all Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the governor’s veto. Despite the bipartisan backing, Rauner accused Mendoza of trying to micromanage the departments under his control.
“He said it was just me and Speaker Madigan. I don’t know the last time I said ‘hi’ to the speaker. Our paths don’t really collide,” Mendoza said.
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said he was worried that an unfortunate consequence of the increased awareness around sexual harassment is that offices would avoid hiring female staffers so as not to get caught up in any scandals.
“I have a female-led staff, and I asked them their opinion,” he said during the hearing. “They were concerned … that an unintended consequence may be some offices just take a shortcut and not hire women as a way to avoid these issues. Obviously that’s not the right approach.”
We talked about this yesterday. The reporter initially tweeted: “Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) says he’s worried congressional offices will hire fewer women to avoid issue of sexual harassment,” and that caused a general freakout on Twitter.
Davis’ chief of staff is Jennifer Daulby. His district director also is a woman, Helen Albert. And his spokesperson is also female.
But Emily’s List, which has endorsed Betsy Londrigan of Springfield in the March 2018 Democratic primary, cited Terkel’s original tweet and issued a statement that incorrectly called Davis’ statement a “suggestion.”
It said, “In response to Congressman Rodney Davis’ suggestion that congressional offices hire fewer women in order to avoid sexual harassment, Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, released the following statement: ‘Or we can elect more women to replace backwards, out-of-touch Republican lawmakers like Congressman Rodney Davis, and hire more women in senior positions.’”
* EMILY’s List went beyond that statement. From the group’s president…
Seriously?! Excluding women from Congress is NOT how we should address sexual harassment. Let's get this buffoon out and elect @BetsyforIL instead. https://t.co/MiDAqLVuix
* From Davis’ Communications Director Ashley Phelps…
“As someone who has a female-led office that provides female staffers with the same opportunities as male staffers, Congressman Davis is working to ensure the same applies in other congressional offices, which the Office of House Employment confirmed is not always the case,” Phelps said. “I would hope that everyone who has chosen to politicize this, would instead join Congressman Davis in wanting Congress to be a workplace grounded in respect and a place of opportunity for female professionals.
“As Congressman Davis said during the hearing, he asked his female staffers for our opinion and we all shared instances where either ourselves or another female we knew was not hired, promoted, or allowed to do the same job as a male simply because the office wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” Phelps continued. “This is wrong. This is just one of the reasons we have chosen to work for Congressman Davis – we are not treated differently than our male counterparts and have plenty of opportunities for promotions and grow within our jobs.”
* The Question: Should Betsy Londrigan and EMILY’s List publicly apologize to Davis? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Here's a scary chart. Cook County will have more annuitants than active employees starting in 2019. This would only get worse with the expected round of layoffs and vacancy reductions in this upcoming budget. pic.twitter.com/7yRBJsVMyM
Today, Project Six released a two-part investigation showing how Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office stepped in to allow Alderman Marty Quinn (13th Ward) to illegally spend money from his aldermanic expense account. The investigation also shows how Quinn and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan have advertised equipment purchased with city tax dollars as available for use outside of the ward and even city limits and then used city-owned equipment for political advertisements.
The first part of the investigation reveals how Emanuel’s office overrode the city’s rejection of a $25,000 expense request from Quinn to illegally purchase an industrial motor vehicle that violates the city’s aldermanic expense code.
In 2015, Quinn purchased an industrial multipurpose vehicle (Polaris brand Brutus HD PTO Deluxe) and submitted the expense to the city for payment out of his aldermanic expense account. A Brutus vehicle violates the city’s code that prohibits aldermen from purchasing any kind of motor vehicle with their expense accounts. The Chicago Department of Finance initially rejected the expense request for violating the city’s Municipal Code, but—despite having no official role in the voucher process—the Mayor’s Office overrode the city’s rejection, approved the voucher and allowed it to be paid.
The second part of the investigation shows how Quinn purchased a piece of equipment with city tax dollars and, along with Madigan, advertised it for use outside of Quinn’s ward and even outside of city limits and put political signs on the city-owned piece of equipment.
In 2013, Quinn’s office purchased a $52,513 graffiti blaster with his aldermanic expense account. Quinn and Madigan, who share a service office, then advertised it for constituent use in Madigan’s district, which goes outside of Quinn’s ward and even outside of the city limits of Chicago. Quinn and Madigan also put a political sign on the city-owned equipment, which is prohibited by law.
The investigation from Project Six, titled “How Alderman Marty Quinn is abusing his taxpayer-funded aldermanic expense account,” shows the questionable spending of Quinn’s expense account and the roles of the offices of Emanuel and Madigan in the abuses.
“What is troubling about this investigation is not just the illegal spending of tax dollars by the alderman, but the blatant disregard for the law by the Mayor’s Office and the cavalier regard for ethics rules by both Alderman Quinn and Speaker Madigan,” said Faisal Khan, CEO of Project Six. “When the law says an alderman cannot buy a vehicle with taxpayer dollars or put political signs on city property—regardless of their intent—they are required to follow the law. No one, including the mayor or his staff, has veto power over Chicago’s Municipal Code. Chicagoans frustratedly understand government waste and mismanagement, but illegal actions compounded with collaboration by high-ranking political officials is unacceptable. This case shows how far Chicago is from truthful and corruption-free governance.”
The full investigation, with both parts including legal analysis of Chicago’s Municipal Code and evidence showing the expense forms and illegal use, is available here: http://bit.ly/2zCt2zt
But the alderman did not deny any of Khan’s findings. In fact, he defended the spending as a service to his constituents.
“Did I purchase a graffiti blaster when I first started, when it was taking upwards of three weeks to remove graffiti in the 13th Ward, to remove graffiti the same day? Yes — as a way to give that money back to my constituents,” said Quinn, who moonlights as a political consultant for Madigan.
“Did I buy a piece of machinery that has the ability to snowplow sidewalks for 400 of my senior citizens? Yes, I did. … Is that a good use of taxpayer dollars? Yes, it is. I’ve utilized taxpayer dollars to deal with constituent requests.”
Quinn did not respond directly when asked about Khan’s allegation that he used city equipment in a district that was not confined to his ward and that he and Madigan put their names on the equipment in, what amounted to “political advertising.”
“Bruce Rauner. Illinois Policy Institute. Enough said,” the alderman said.
“Utilizing taxpayer dollars to remove graffiti, utilizing taxpayer dollars to remove snow for seniors. Utilizing taxpayer dollars to do extra garbage carts? Yeah. That’s a real good use of taxpayer dollars. Everything else is politics.”
I’m surprised they didn’t mention the towable tree-trimming machine.
“This has become a national referendum on whether you can run for office as a normal person at all,” [Biss] said. “In the era of Trump we have to decide if you can run for office if you’re not a billionaire. If you can’t run unless you are financing yourself, that is terrifying for democracy.” […]
I thought of quibbling at Biss, with his Harvard degree and MIT doctorate, casting himself as a regular joe. But I guess on the Pritzker scale he is.
We do seem to be at a watershed moment when it comes to our nation’s long slide back into the Gilded Age, when the rich crowned themselves in laurel branches and ate banquets on horseback while the poor sold matches in the street. […]
“Does it really have to be this way?” Biss asked. “Are we going to be told by Democrats that the only path forward is to pick our own billionaire?”
Isn’t it?
“I present the public a credible alternative,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll have 17 billionaires having a meeting every four years to decide who will be governor.”
It’s probably a good debate to have. So, have it.
But Biss can instantly make his campaign much more “credible” by securing endorsements from left-leaning groups like the Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU, etc. That’ll give him money and troops. So far, he’s mostly been endorsed by legislative colleagues.
In other words, this Steinberg interview comes off as a bit whiny to me. The reality is what the reality is, and you have to deal with reality in this business.
* Yes, Biss is running against a billionaire. But that billionaire has been endorsed by much of organized labor and three statewide officeholders. He’s not just relying on cash and ads.
And he’s spending his cash well. Pritzker has opened thirteen field offices (Biss, by contrast, has one field office in his hometown of Evanston and one in his running mate’s hometown of Rockford). Pritzker has spelled out positions on a wide range of policies (most of which are just as “progressive” as Biss’ and some of which are more progressive than Biss’ legislative voting record). In other words, Pritzker has been showing everyone for months that he is capable of running a real campaign against Gov. Rauner. Biss? Not yet.
And even if Pritzker wasn’t in the race, Biss would be up against a different sort of inherited wealth. Chris Kennedy’s family has put less money into the race than Biss’ family, but Kennedy’s last name is worth a fortune to his campaign. Would Biss be complaining about that, too, if Pritzker wasn’t around?
So, again, go ahead and push this debate, Daniel. It’s reasonable. But also show people that you are up to the task of defeating a Republican with an unlimited checkbook and can help down-ballot candidates do the same.
* Related…
* Daniel Biss speaks at Town Hall hosted by College Democrats and Political Union: “If we respond to a set of scandals that have arisen around sexual harassment in the capitol building by doing anything other than acknowledging the massive institutions of racism, sexism and privilege that infuses every single corner of American society, if we pretend that there’s some sort of iron-clad wall that separates the causes of sexual harassment from the causes of gender and pay discrimination, from the causes of a situation where women are promoted in workplaces less frequently, from the causes of a situation where no democratic candidate for governor is a woman, but in this moment of all moments, with Donald Trump as the president and a women’s protest movement changing the world, you’ve got a whole bunch of unbearable dudes running for governor on the democratic side. That’s not a coincidence.”
* Governor candidate Sen. Daniel Biss speaks at Western Illinois University: “In my opinion, this election should be about not just how to stop someone who’s horrible at being governor from being governor and then declare victory no matter what we’ve replaced him with. Instead it should be an understanding of how we got to where we were at the end of 2014 with an unfair tax system, universities that weren’t properly funded, schools that were unfairly funded, social service providers that were fraying,” he said.
Today, Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs endorsed JB Pritzker for governor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Illini Union. This marks JB’s third endorsement by a statewide officeholder after Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Secretary of State Jesse White endorsed the campaign.
“There is no one standing taller for Illinois families than Treasurer Mike Frerichs,” said JB Pritzker. “Mike works hard every day to put his office on the side of working families. While Bruce Rauner racks up state debt, Mike is fighting for the investments that will help reduce the debt. And while Bruce Rauner lets businesses leave our state and wastes opportunities, Mike is finding ways to encourage investment in our economy and looking to the future. I think it’s time Mike had a partner in the governor’s office, fighting right beside him. Together, we’re going to make Illinois a place people respect and a place where innovation happens. When I’m governor, we’re going to help small businesses thrive.”
“As the state’s chief investment officer, I’m confident that JB Pritzker will restore fiscal responsibility in Illinois and I’m so proud to endorse his campaign today,” said Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs. “I’ve seen firsthand how Bruce Rauner has wrecked our state finances, putting Illinois through a historic budget impasse and pushing colleges and universities to the brink. We must bring Illinois out of financial ruin and I know JB is ready to get our state back on track. JB has real plans to stand with our entrepreneurs and college students, grow our economy, and create jobs across the state. I look forward to standing with him to invest in our communities and chart a new path forward for Illinois.”
*** UPDATE *** ILGOP…
Mike Frerichs is “Standing Tall” for Mike Madigan’s Handpicked Candidate
With a record of standing in Madigan’s shadow, no surprise Frerichs has lined up with Pritzker
“With yet another Madigan ally lining up behind Pritzker, it is clear that the Madigan Machine will stop at nothing to secure the nomination for Pritzker. Mike Frerichs has repeatedly stood with Madigan to gerrymander legislative maps and hike taxes on Illinois families. Now, Frerichs plans to do the same with J.B. Pritzker, Mike Madigan’s handpicked candidate for governor.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
On Wednesday, Mike Madigan ally and tax-hike supporter Mike Frerichs endorsed J.B. Pritzker for Governor. The announcement comes as no surprise as Frerichs has a record of blocking reform to protect Madigan’s power.
During his time in the Illinois Senate, Frerichs voted in support of Madigan’s gerrymandering of legislative district maps.
Frerichs also voted for the 67% Quinn-Madigan tax hike that put an increased strain on Illinois families already grossly overtaxed by Democrats in Springfield.
Madigan’s Tax Hike Team is back at it, adding one more name to the growing list of Madigan cronies backing his handpicked candidate for governor, J.B. Pritzker.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Press release…
Today, Daniel Biss announced the endorsement of Illinois State Representative Carol Ammons, who represents the 103rd District.
“After three years of working with Daniel on progressive legislation that prioritizes working families and the marginalized members of our state, I was filled with hope when he announced his run for governor,” said Representative Ammons. “Today, I am proud to endorse Daniel Biss for Governor of Illinois.
“The 2018 election will be a defining moment in Illinois’ history. We have the opportunity to change the landscape, direction, and priorities of Illinois politics all across the state by voting in our local elections all the way up to the governor’s race” said Representative Ammons.
“With his decade-long record of grassroots organizing and legislative accomplishments to make our state a better place for middle-class families like his own, Daniel is the progressive leader I trust to lead that change. I look forward to rallying our communities and our state around a hopeful 2018 election cycle.”
“Carol is a progressive champion and it’s an honor to welcome her to Team Biss,” said Daniel Biss. “This campaign is about building a grassroots movement to fight for middle-class and working families in this election cycle and beyond. Recognized in her own community, across our state, and even by Bernie Sanders as a tireless leader of the progressive movement, Carol is an invaluable member of our team. Her passion and dedication have been an inspiration in the legislature and progressive community, and I look forward to working together on the campaign trail and beyond.”
In endorsing Daniel Biss, Carol Ammons joins other progressive leaders and organizations including U.S. Congresswoman Robin Kelly, former Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon, State Representatives Kelly Cassidy and Will Guzzardi, and many more. See the full list of endorsements here.
* Using union contractors on private home construction isn’t exactly common. But I guess stuff like this happens when Rep. Michael McAullife, Chicago’s only Republican state legislator, who has past union support but then repeatedly voted against unions on a bill to ban the creation of local “right to work” zones in Illinois and then hired non-union workers for extensive renovation work on his house…
Operating Engineers Local 150’s truck and IBEW Local 134’s van are pictured above. It’s IBEW’s rat and I’m told the union has established an official picket line.
150 is upset about a non-union excavator operating within the city limits, but they’re just doing “bannering” - meaning its truck drives around.
As you already know, 150 took the lead on the right to work zone ban bill, which could not overcome a Gov. Rauner veto.
I’ve asked the House GOP for a response.
Fair or not?
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Rep. McAuliffe…
I respect that people have a difference of option and the right to peaceful protest. This is the core of our democracy and fabric of our freedom. However, protesting outside of my home and driving a van with disparaging content in front of my children’s school is completely unacceptable. My presumed opponent, Merry Marwig and certain union leaders have demonstrated a new low in politics and while I respect that fact that we have a difference of opinion I would hope that the line can be drawn when it comes to disrupting the lives of my family and our neighbors.
It appears from one of the photos that Marwig was in the crowd at his house.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Merry Marwig…
Michael McAuliffe has taken millions of dollars from Bruce Rauner, and he continually votes with Rauner at the expense of union families from our neighborhood. Just last week, McAuliffe broke a promise when he thought we weren’t looking by refusing to stand up to Rauner’s extreme assault on workers’ rights. After 20 years of Michael McAuliffe pretending to be our buddy when he’s in our neighborhood and then turning his back and selling us out in Springfield, it’s no surprise that hardworking men and women are calling out McAuliffe’s dishonesty.
Mickey Straub, the village president of Burr Ridge, says he’s challenging House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs in the March primary. And when you contemplate a primary bid against a sitting legislative leader, things you wrote in the past can quickly come bubbling back up.
Take Straub’s May 1997 letter to the editor in the suburban Daily Herald. At the time, then-Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Heiple stood accused of abusing his position to get out of traffic stops.
I may not have followed every detail in the Justice James Heiple case, but it sure looks to me like we’ve wasted a lot of time and money, our money, raking somebody over the coals for doing something we’re all probably guilty of to some extent. I just don’t get it. Surely there are more important events the high court can be dealing with, and the media reporting.
Here’s my point. We’ve all been guilty of expecting special treatment because of who or what we know at one time or another, or because of the “bennies” (benefits) of a particular position. I bet if you know the owner of a restaurant, you get better seats, or someone who sells tickets, you get better tickets. Whether you are in the dry cleaning, landscaping or automobile business, selling dishes or doughnuts, “influencing” goes on from cradle to grave.
I bet the owner of a doughnut shop gets the freshest doughnuts. Do you think if a police officer got pulled over for speeding, he/she wouldn’t flash the badge or drop hints for special treatment? Would you? Of course we would, and this is as it should be. To impeach someone because of it is to deny human nature, and the benefits of relationships.
OK, maybe he overdid it. A distorted view of our own self-importance should probably get us in trouble. But censuring, an impeachment hearing, losing your job? Isn’t this going a little bit too far? Let’s not waste our valuable time and money, and instead funnel our efforts into things that can make this world a better place to live.
Mickey Straub
Burr Ridge
* Why is this ancient letter important or relevant? Well, as I’ve been telling subscribers for quite a while now, Straub is gonna be a tougher candidate than the Republicans first expected…
Straub’s candidacy is getting some unlikely support from the political arm of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. Durkin’s camp is a aware of the union’s actions, a result of the House GOP leader keeping his caucus from backing an override of legislation vetoed by Gov. Rauner that would have banned municipalities from enacting local “right-to-work” ordinances.
Though many of Rauner’s vetoes were overridden amid Republican pique with the governor among the GOP’s rank-and-file, Rauner and Durkin had made upholding the “right-to-work” ban a priority.
Straub is being backed by the political operation of talk show host and failed 2010 GOP governor primary candidate Dan Proft.
The gubernatorial race in Illinois is entering a new phase as the presumed Democratic front-runner finds himself under attack, with comparisons to President Donald Trump.
The latest twist is in a new ad launched by Daniel Biss, who goes after billionaire JB Pritzker over his tax returns.
The video shows Trump responding to questions about releasing his tax returns by saying they are complex. It then shows Pritzker using the same reason for not having released his returns.
“As J.B. has said, we’re preparing that information and will be releasing them, along with his financial disclosure form, by the end of the filing period,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Galia Slayen.
She said the filing period she alluded to was the period for turning in petition signatures to get on the March ballot. It begins Nov. 27 and ends Dec. 4. When candidates file, they also must turn in a receipt that the candidate has filed a statement of economic interest with the secretary of state’s office, a largely generic form that provides little guidance to a candidate’s possible worth.
Chris Kennedy has also pledged to follow the same timetable. He’ll release them when he files his statement of economic interest with his petitions.
Wearing a plaid shirt and sweater-like vest, Rauner said his re-election platform includes reducing the individual income tax rate back to 3 percent during a four-year period. Earlier this year, the Legislature increased the rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent.
* For the life of me, I do not know why reporters in this state don’t remember this exact same proposal with the exact same vagueness from the 2014 campaign…
Speaking at Quality Float Works in Schaumburg, Rauner released a plan calling for eliminating over four years the 2011 state tax increase passed by Democrats shortly after Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s election. The 67 percent increase in the personal rate is scheduled to roll back in 2015.
It marked the first time that Rauner offered specifics in calling for a rollback of the income-tax increase while also promising to improve funding for education.
The scheduled 2015 rollback could cost the state $4 billion in annual revenue, according to projections. Rauner’s plan did not offer a schedule of how to reduce the rate over the next four years from 5 percent to 3 percent in the personal rate and 7 percent to 4.8 percent for the corporate rate.
* Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) just filed paperwork to create a new campaign committee called “Ives for Illinois.” She has about $268K in the bank. Her campaign committee chairman is Chicago Republican Party Chairman Chris Cleveland.
* Meanwhile, Mark Maxwell tried to ask Ives last night about this comment…
Gays who seek to marry are “trying to weasel their way into acceptability so that they can then start to push their agenda down into the schools, because this gives them some sort of legitimacy,” she said, adding that a child being raised by a gay couple is “an object of desire.”
Rep. Ives: If you want to talk about the Illinois economy, I am happy to talk about the Illinois economy.
Reporter: I just did. We just talked about the Illinois economy.
Rep. Ives: Okay, great. What’s next?
Reporter: It’s important. You’re running for governor.
Rep. Ives: What about public corruption? Let’s talk about public corruption. Because it is an everyday event in the state of Illinois.
Reporter: Why did you just change the subject? This is a very important subject to thousands of people in Illinois.
Rep. Ives: What’s important?
Reporter: He said AIDS was God’s rightful judgment on the gay community.
Rep. Ives: I’m not going to comment on somebody else’s comment. It’s ridiculous.
Reporter: Okay, then what about your comments on this topic.
Rep. Ives: Why would we… You want to.. you’re like Bruce Rauner. The guy who didn’t have a social ended up only having a social agenda.
Reporter: Excuse me?
Rep. Ives: Well it seems like you’re entire topic is to talk about a social agenda.
Reporter: We just spent ten minutes talking about the economy.
Rep. Ives: And that’s what’s important to families in the state of Illinois.
Reporter: Are you refusing to answer a question to clarify your own comments in the past about the legitimacy of gay marriage?
Rep. Ives: No, I thought you were going to ask about somebody else’s comment.
Reporter: I was going to ask you about David Barton. But if you become governor, there is a large part of the population that cares deeply about this. They will want to know where you stand. Would you protect the rights given to the LGBT community?
Rep. Ives: Okay, so what specific rights do they have that are different than any other American? We all are governed by the same constitution. We all have the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
Reporter: Does that include marriage?
Rep. Ives (continues): …free speech, second amendment, fourth amendment protections…
Reporter: To marriage?
Rep. Ives: There is nothing that I know of that are called rights that are not specific to any individual. The federal government has weighed in on marriage equality. That is federal law. I am a rule follower. So federal law, like I said when it comes to legal immigration, we are going to follow federal law in the state, regardless of what the law is. That’s my position.
* Also, I mentioned to subscribers yesterday that she may be endorsed by the Winfield Township Republicans tonight. That was an error. The group has already endorsed Gov. Rauner.
Three Strikes, You’re Out
After a baseball season’s delay, Pritzker has yet to deliver on his promise to release tax returns
Today is the 214th day since J.B. Pritzker pledged to release his tax returns. 214 days is exactly how long the 2017 Major League Baseball season lasted from Opening Day (April 2) to Game 7 of the World Series (November 1). Let’s take a look at some of the things that happened in that 214 day span:
214 days is 5,136 hours which is enough time to play 1,712 games (assuming the average duration of a baseball game is approximately 3 hours).
In the MLB, each team averages about 146 pitches per game, meaning that in this 214 day span with 1,712 games, there would be approximately 499,904 pitches.
But enough hypotheticals, let’s look at some stats.
In that span, the Chicago Cubs played 172 baseball games, and (not including playoffs) had 5,496 at bats resulting in 1,402 hits and pitched 1,447.1 innings.
The Chicago White Sox played 162 games, had 5,513 at bats and 1,412 hits, with a collective 1,421.2 innings pitched.
A lot of things can happen over the span of 214 days, but J.B. Pritzker can’t get his taxes done?
* Daniel Biss yesterday…
If you read my emails regularly, you probably know that I can’t stop talking about prime numbers — whole numbers greater than 1, divisible only by 1 and themselves.
And, you may have guessed, today’s date (11/13/2017) is special because it is made up of prime numbers. But there’s a different reason why this date is important: it corresponds to another special number — 127.
As everyone knows, 127 is the smallest prime that can be expressed as the sum of the first two or more odd primes: 127 = 3 + 5 + 7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29. But what you may not know is that this number, more importantly, marks how many days are left before the Illinois Democratic primary — we are 127 days out.
That means we have 127 days left to hit our goals — and if we’re going to fight the wave of big money spending, we can’t afford to miss any of them.
Tap here to chip in $3 or whatever you can to help reach our $30,000 November fundraising goal.
* Remember a couple of weeks ago when I had an appointment in the late afternoon and had to shut down the blog early? Well, I got to the appointment and they looked at me funny. What the heck was I doing there? Turns out, we’d canceled that appointment and had rescheduled it for today at 1 o’clock, but I neglected to delete it from my calendar. Oops. So, I wound up taking some “me time” for the rest of that afternoon. But today is now upon us.
It’s nothing major. Having a tooth pulled and then starting the implant process. But it could be awhile.
Keep it Illinois-centric and, please, do your utmost to be nice to each other. Thanks.
Chris Kennedy received the endorsement today of Lori E. Lightfoot, chair of the Police Accountability Task Force and leading advocate for police reform and accountability.
“Lori’s long been a champion of fairness and equality, and the city of Chicago is a better place because of her leadership. Lori fearlessly speaks truth to power and, with a government beholden to political insiders, her courage is critical to the future of Chicago,” Kennedy said. “We are so grateful for her endorsement of our grassroots campaign to bring fundamental change to Illinois.”
The campaign released a video endorsement from Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor and partner at a Chicago law firm, stating the following:
“They’re two men of tremendous integrity. I think their track record; their experiences really show and demonstrate that. They recognize that our state is fundamentally going in the wrong direction. As a resident of Chicago, where we’ve seen our violence escalate to 1990 levels, Chris is the only candidate who is talking about violence, obviously has a personal history with it, and understands the devastating ripple effects that violence can have on individuals, families and communities.
“Chris is really focused on the imbalance in our education funding and I think that’s critically important. When parents send their kids to school, they have a lot of expectations. Of course, they want their kids to learn, they want their kids to be safe, and they have the right to expect that their tax dollars will be used in a way that when their kids matriculate through high school, they’re going to be ready to take on the challenges of adulthood, starting with either going on to college, getting into a trade or having some other kind of job that they can build a life around.
“That’s not what’s happening in Illinois. Chris gets that, he understands it, and he’s willing to take on the fight to change that around for families across the state.
“I’m proud to be support Chris Kennedy and Ra Joy. They have the right vision, the right voice, and I’m an enthusiastic supporter.”
Today, the Northwestern Illinois Building Trades (NWIBT) endorsed JB Pritzker for Governor. NWIBT represents over 15,000 workers in the building trades throughout Northwestern Illinois. JB and Juliana were endorsed with a unanimous vote of the member locals.
“The Northwestern Illinois Building Trades are proud to stand with JB Pritzker and Juliana Stratton,” said Northwestern Illinois Building Trades President Alan Golden. “JB and Juliana stand for working people in Illinois, and they are fighting for every community in our state. Their tireless commitment to growing jobs, protecting the prevailing wage, and fighting for collective bargaining rights best reflect the priorities and values of our membership. We hope Illinois can come together in solidarity with their campaign and make sure JB and Juliana beat Bruce Rauner and win in 2018.”
“I am so proud to receive the endorsement of the Northwestern Illinois Building Trades and the hardworking Illinois families they represent,” said JB Pritzker. “Together, we will grow the economy, guarantee the right to collectively bargain, and fight for project labor agreements in Illinois. Now more than ever, we must stand up for our shared values and the working families under assault by Bruce Rauner’s special interest agenda. I’m humbled to have the endorsement of NWIBT, and the working families it represents will always have a seat at the table when I’m governor.”
* And another colleague recently endorsed Biss…
Illinois State Senator and Democratic candidate for governor Daniel Biss announced today that Senator John Mulroe has endorsed his campaign.
“Daniel is the only candidate with the vision, experience, and grassroots support needed to build a state that supports middle-class and working families,” said John Mulroe. “As we’ve worked together to build a fair tax system and resist Bruce Rauner’s destructive cuts, I’ve seen Daniel’s progressive values in action.
“Whether he’s creating a first-of-its-kind retirement savings program or protecting consumers from misuse of personal data, Daniel is known for examining every facet of the issue at hand, engaging key advocacy groups, and organizing our colleagues to bring about long-term change. It’s been a pleasure to collaborate in the legislature, and I look forward to supporting Daniel on the campaign trail and when he’s governor.”
“It’s an honor to receive John Mulroe’s endorsement,” said Daniel Biss. “Combining a keen understanding of the needs of working families with an unwavering belief in government as a force for good, John has been a steadfast advocate for progressive reforms and a key fighter against Rauner’s destructive agenda. I’m grateful to have such a determined and solution-oriented ally in the Senate and on the campaign trail.”
Today’s announcement about Sen. Mulroe is the latest in a series of endorsements by several elected officials and organizations who have joined Daniel Biss’ campaign in fighting for progressive values in Illinois. See the full list of endorsements here.
* Everybody loves to immediately scream with righteous fury these days. The twitters went bonkers. But, as it turns out, the reporter should’ve been a lot more clear…
For the record, Davis is not saying he will do this. He said he had female staffers who were concerned about this. That's why he asked what to do about it. https://t.co/ToIWoSVKnN
And Davis specifically said: "Obviously that's not the right approach.” Thought it’s smart that he raised it and asked what is being done to prevent this from happening. https://t.co/6dIlz2Fwly
Everyone chill out on Rep. Rodney Davis. He did not say he will hire fewer women to avoid sexual harassment. He asked how to prevent other offices from doing that.
“If [the gubernatorial candidate who wins] is in favor of the idea and would be less likely to veto it, then it’s got a much better chance in the Spring of 2019,” said political expert Jak Tichenor with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
Tichenor said polls show 2/3 of Illinois voters, or 66 percent, are in favor of making it legal if it’s taxed and sold like alcohol. Democratic candidate for governor, J.B Pritzker, feels the same. […]
Estimates show legalization could make Illinois between $350 million to $700 million a year. Tichenor said there’s no dismissing the fact that Illinois is in desperate need of money, but despite that, many lawmakers aren’t yet on board.
“This is still a very difficult sell for downstate lawmakers who tend to be much more conservative,” said Tichenor. […]
“You’re going to see this issue really come to the forefront over the next few months and over the next year,” said Tichenor.
* The Question: How soon could recreational marijuana be legal in Illinois? Make sure to explain your answer, please. Thanks.
“This is the best pizza in the United States and it’s not close,” Eric Phillips tweeted Saturday along with a photo depicting an amorphous pile of pepperoni and sauce that is purportedly a pie from some place called “Pequod’s Pizza.”
That specious assessment did not sit well with Big Apple gourmands, who were quick to pile on the seemingly clueless Midwest native.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, and it’s rare that an opinion can be wrong — but this is one of those rare cases,” New York pizza tour guide Scott Wiener told The Post. “It’s an irresponsible statement to make as a representative of the city itself.”
Phillips deflected: “I don’t think anyone cares what type of pizza the mayor’s press secretary likes. I think they care more about someone not being a phony. Especially about pizza!”
It’s now official: Chicago-style pizza is better than the flimsy, flaccid version they serve in New York
That’s the conclusion from the man whose primary job is to sing the praises of his boss, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and all things Big Apple.
But Eric Phillips, the mayor’s press secretary, didn’t just say he likes Chicago’s Pequod’s Pizza. He gushed about it in a series of tweets over the weekend.
Chicago-style pizza is for tourists. Notice that Phillips is from Wisconsin.
Out-of-towners might be surprised to find a significant number of locals (South Siders in particular) prefer pizza with a wafer-thin crust to that of the deep-dish style otherwise associated with our great city.
Call this South Side-born pizza tavern or pub style. For many, this trumps the deep-dish as the true Chicago pizza. […]
To keep their customers drinking, “the bars got the idea to create a pizza that is a little less breadlike,” Porter said.
“The pizzas had a cracker-style dough and are a little more salty than usual,” Porter said. “The bar owners decided to cut the pizzas up into cocktail squares and give them out for free.
• According to Fahe, an organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty in Appalachia, the average poverty rate of the counties that make up the Appalachian region is 19.7 percent. The average poverty rate for the nine Illinois counties that constitute the Illinois Ohio River Valley region is 19.9 percent, as of the 2015 U.S. Census estimates.
• In four of the nine counties, the poverty rates are above 20 percent. They are Alexander, at 34 percent; Saline County, at 23 percent; Hardin, 21 percent; and Pulaski 20 percent. […]
• Seven school districts had a student population loss of greater than 10 percent between 2013 and 2017: Buncombe (Johnson County), at 22 percent; Meridian (Pulaski County), at 20 percent; Cairo (Alexander County), at 17 percent; Egyptian (Pulaski County) and Shawnee (Union County), at 16 percent each; Cobden (Union County) and Century (Pulaski County), at 13 percent each. […]
• The opioid epidemic is hitting Southern Illinois harder than any other region in the state. Seven of the nine counties — Hardin, Pope, Saline, Gallatin, Massac, Union and Alexander — ranked in the top 10 in terms of Schedule II opioid prescriptions per patient in 2016, according to a recent report by the Belleville News-Democrat, which cited data from the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program. Four of those counties were in the top five: Hardin, at 3.51 prescriptions per patient; Pope, at 3.16; Saline, at 2.99; and Gallatin, at 2.97. […]
• Child abuse and neglect rates are well above the statewide rate in all nine counties, and double or more the statewide rate in the counties of Alexander, Hardin, Massac, Saline and Gallatin, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
• Child sexual abuse rates are triple the statewide rate in Alexander, Hardin, Gallatin and Saline.
The incumbent Republican replayed many of his greatest hits from his 2014 campaign during his two stops in Decatur and Champaign on Monday, but he struggled to defend his own record on job growth since he took office.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Illinois ranked 48th in job growth nationwide between September 2016 and September 2017. Only two states ranked lower during that stretch and they lost jobs.
Rauner acknowledge the state’s economic troubles, but said the problem predates his tenure.
“I could say that we have added 150,000 new jobs since I became governor,” Rauner said of his first three years in office. That figure doesn’t match seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which list new jobs in Illinois at 119,000 since January of 2015.
Rauner’s campaign later replied to our request for clarification via email saying his jobs figure was only meant as a rough estimate, and pointed out that the official federal numbers don’t account for non-seasonally adjusted data.
* Meanwhile, IWT has been giving the governor a lot of grief for this comment…
People say, well, we didn’t have a budget for two years, that caused a problem. That’s not the case.
What’s happened is 35 years of deficits has caused our problems.
And so he fixed that by… doing what, exactly? He took an admittedly bad situation and turned it into a disaster for more than two solid years. You don’t fix a structural budget problem by piling on more debt and close to a billion dollars in interest on backlogged bills.
As Chicago’s innovation scene continues to grow, tech employers should have plenty of fresh talent to choose from, according to a new report, which shows the number of local STEM graduates, and computer science grads specifically, is skyrocketing.
The report, published today by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition and LinkedIn, shows that Illinois is now the second largest producer of computer science graduates in the country, awarding nearly 10 percent of the nation’s computer science degrees. And from 2012 to 2016, Illinois rose from 43rd to ninth when ranked among states who had the highest number of STEM field graduates overall.
In 2016, Illinois institutions produced more than 40,000 STEM degrees, representing 31.8 percent of all of the state’s graduates, outpacing the national average, which is about 28 percent. Among those STEM degrees earned last year, 3,300 were earned in computer science.
“With an increased focus on cloud computing, big data, IoT, and mobile computing, the importance of computer science talent in the economy continues to grow,” according to the report. “Those with computer science skills are some of the most sought-after members of the workforce, with around half a million computer and information technology jobs expected to be added nationally by 2024.” […]
But are there enough tech jobs for all these recent grads? The outlook is better than it has been. STEM jobs in Illinois generally lag behind the national average, but according to the report, the state is taking steps to close the gap. Over the last five years, Illinois has been adding STEM jobs at a rate that is outpacing the national average. Computer-related jobs specifically have increased 5 percent annually, according to the report.
The study also showed software engineers in Chicago often stay at their jobs longer than in other regions. Of course, the city loses some of its talent to other tech hubs like San Francisco and Seattle, but Chicago retains more of its computer science talent than other cities, keeping about half of them
It looks like U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam doesn’t think much of Alabama U.S. Senate hopeful Judge Roy Moore after all.
A few hours after refusing all comment on Moore and his alleged sexual misconduct toward teenage girls, Roskam is calling on Moore to step aside and let someone else fill the Senate seat that was vacated by fellow Republican Jeff Sessions when he became U.S. attorney general.
“The allegations leveled against Roy Moore are disturbing,” Roskam said, according to an NBC News tweet sent after Roskam refused to talk about Moore in a meeting with Crain’s editorial board.
“My office takes allegations of sexual assault and harassment very seriously, and I call on Moore to step aside (as GOP nominee) as a distraction to Senate and House members so they may continue focusing on serving the people,” the statement added.
Roskam’s office confirmed that it issued the statement, but said it was doing so only for media outlets that separately asked about his views. Roskam had told Crain’s that he was meeting with the edit board to talk about tax policy, and not other matters.
That wasn’t so hard, was it?
* In other news, this is from the Pritzker campaign…
Yesterday, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin joined Governor John Kasich of Ohio and countless Republican leaders in calling for disgraced candidate Roy Moore to drop out of the Alabama Senate race, but Bruce Rauner continues to say nothing.
Five women have now bravely come forward alleging Moore pursued sexual relations while they were underage, with a woman yesterday alleging Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16. Nearly the entire Republican party has spoken out, but Bruce Rauner remains characteristically silent.
“This is another clear case of right and wrong, but maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by Bruce Rauner’s silence,” said Pritzker communications director Galia Slayen. “Whether it’s Rauner refusing to speak out about Donald Trump trying to sabotage Obamacare, failing to immediately denounce the anti-Semitism, racism, and violence in Charlottesville, or even acknowledging a racist cartoon printed by his supporters, time and again Bruce Rauner has chosen political expediency instead of standing up to his party and speaking out for what’s right.”
*** UPDATE *** From the ILGOP…
Hi Rich,
I wanted to pass along Mary Ann’s reporting from last night on Roy Moore (video attached). The Pritzker camp falsely stated that Governor Rauner has been silent on Moore, which is not true. The governor believes that Roy Moore should step down immediately.
Speaking of silence, where are J.B. Pritzker’s tax returns? 214 days have elapsed since Pritzker first pledged to release them.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is going on offense as a vote nears on whether to repeal her highly unpopular tax on sweetened beverages, saying doing so could force an 11 percent across-the-board cut in county spending.
In a fiscal note sent to commissioners just before the weekend, Ammar Rizki, the county’s acting chief financial officer, said losing the tax would reduce county income slightly over $200 million in fiscal 2018 without a new revenue source, resulting in “an approximate 11 percent reduction to each of those departments and offices from their base FY2017 appropriated expenditures.”
Included as possible cuts: the closure of some county health clinics, “reduction of services at or closure of Provident Hospital or the Oak Forest Health Center” and possible “downgrading our Level 1 trauma center at Stroger” Hospital.
Also, she warned, a recent cost-saving reduction in the inmate population at the jail, from 10,000 to under 7,500, now could be reversed because of cuts to prosecutors, public defenders and jail-avoidance programs, forcing more suspects to be held in jail pending trial. And equally in jeopardy is “our ability to send out property-tax bills on time.”
Even the security of local elections is on the line, because “cash for new election equipment to protect our voting systems from cyber-attacks would have to be purchased on borrowed money, which ultimately increases our bill dramatically.”
Rebuked on a pop tax, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Monday proposed cutting $200 million through a mix of laying off midlevel managers, holding the line on raises and requiring workers to take unpaid days off. […]
“It seems to be a solid plan,” said Commissioner Sean Morrison, a Palos Park Republican who was the main sponsor on the repeal that was approved 15-2 last month. “I’m certain that there’s going to be something that will be tweaked. That’s just normal. […]
The biggest savings — $96.3 million — would come from a series of moves that includes delaying purchases of equipment; stepped-up enforcement of parking, cigarette and alcohol taxes; cutting justice program funding and a drug-school program for nonviolent offenders; and reduced spending on things like travel, postage, office supplies and printing. That figure also counts on holding the line on salary increases across the board. There would be seven unpaid days off for Circuit Court clerk union employees, and 15 furlough days for nonunion workers in the office. Salaries would have to be negotiated with multiple unions, but commissioners said there’s union buy-in on the furlough days.
Nearly $50 million in savings would come from eliminating 746 currently vacant positions. Preckwinkle had already proposed axing 254 vacancies from the budget, so the total would be 1,000.
An additional $51 million would be saved through hundreds of layoffs to reduce the number of midlevel managers, eliminating some programs and reducing some staffing in noncritical areas. The job cutbacks would have the biggest effect on the offices of Dart and Evans, with the sheriff facing 244 layoffs and the chief judge 222, commissioners said.
Today, the Biss campaign released a new video encouraging voters to hold Democratic candidates to the same standard to which they held Donald Trump and demand that J.B. Pritzker fulfill the pledge he made seven months ago to release his income tax returns.
The video highlights the similar excuses Donald Trump and JB Pritzker have given to reporters and individuals alike who ask about releasing their tax returns. Both billionaire businessmen argue that it is “complex.”
“No Democratic candidate for governor should be in the same sentence as Donald Trump when it comes to accountability and transparency. How can you credibly promise to lead the resistance to Trump when you mimic his billionaire ways,” said Biss campaign manager Abby Witt. “Illinois voters deserve a governor they can trust to fight for the middle class—not another billionaire who can’t keep his promises.”
Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton announced 10 appointments to the Senate Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention.
They are:
Senator Omar Aquino, 2nd District, Chicago
Senator Scott Bennett, 52nd District, Champaign
Senator Melinda Bush, 31st District, Grayslake
Senator Bill Cunningham, 18th District, Chicago
Senator Mattie Hunter, 3rd District, Chicago, Majority Caucus Whip
Senator Toi Hutchinson, 40th District, Chicago Heights
Senator Heather Steans, 7th District, Chicago
Julie Curry, President at Curry & Associates, former deputy chief of staff at Illinois governor’s office, former state lawmaker
Rikeesha Phelon, President and CEO of Phelon Public Strategies
Polly Poskin, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault
The Senate President has a total of 12 appointments to the task force. The other two are being finalized.
“I look forward to this task force producing effective recommendations and offer my support to back up its work,” Cullerton said in making the appointments.
* Press release…
Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) announced on Monday the appointment of five Senate Republicans who will serve on the newly created Senate Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention.
“This is an important first step in changing the culture in the Capitol,” said Brady. “I applaud each of these Senators who are willing to serve on this important Task Force.”
The goal of the new task force will be to conduct a comprehensive review of legal and social consequences of sexual discrimination and harassment in both the public and private sectors. The Task Force will study and make recommendations on combating sexual discrimination and harassment in workplaces, educational institutions, and in State and local government.
A more immediate question: Why is Ira Silverstein still in the General Assembly?
Yes, voters can fire him, and we think they will, if they have to. At least two potential opponents have stepped forward for next year’s Democratic primary, and the party isn’t likely to back Silverstein. He’s toast.
But legislative leaders could nudge Silverstein to make an early exit. They’ve certainly done it when other members engaged in conduct that was inappropriate, unethical, unprofessional and embarrassing.
They’ve already stripped Silverstein of his leadership position and the $20,649 stipend that went with it.
It’s like he’s been kicked to the couch, but not the curb.
As a practical matter, Democrats needed Silverstein’s votes this week in several close override attempts. But they’ll be on the spot once the veto session ends. Rotheimer, a victims’ rights activist who is running for a House seat, says Silverstein made unwanted overtures for 18 months while sponsoring a bill she wanted to pass. She backed up her complaint with a trove of unseemly Facebook correspondence.
OK, first of all, the Tribune editorial board has used millions of barrels of ink to rail against the concentrated powers of legislative leaders, then tells those same leaders they should use their powers to accomplish something it demands. Plus, I think you’d have to go all the way back to 1991 to see a Senator resign under public pressure, and he’d already been convicted of a federal crime.
Secondly, if you click here you’ll see that none of the successful veto override motions last week passed the Senate with fewer than 37 votes - one more than required for passage. The Senate Democrats, in other words, didn’t need Silverstein’s vote.
As immigration matters continue to roil Washington, a new report underlines the economic implications to Illinois if Congress and President Donald Trump make the wrong moves.
According to the study from the American Immigration Council, a left-leaning Washington advocacy group, 1 in 8 state residents, roughly 1.8 million people, are immigrants.
Even more significant, about 1 in 6 workers in the state—17.9 percent—is an immigrant.
The heaviest concentration of immigrant workers is in manufacturing, where 229,000 of the state’s 1.2 million immigrant workers are employed. Health care and social assistance industries come next at 157,000, according to the council, which says it drew its facts from the federal census and other data.
One in seven Illinois residents is an immigrant, while one in eight is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent.
In 2015, 1.8 million immigrants (foreign-born individuals) comprised 14.2 percent of the population.
Illinois was home to 870,770 women, 863,196 men, and 92,190 children who were immigrants.
The top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (38.2 percent of immigrants), India (8.1 percent), Poland (7 percent), the Philippines (5 percent), and China (4.3 percent).
In 2016, 1.6 million people in Illinois (12.6 percent of the state’s population) were native-born Americans who had at least one immigrant parent.
Nearly half of all immigrants in Illinois are naturalized U.S. citizens.
880,242 immigrants (48.2 percent) had naturalized as of 2015, and 326,135 immigrants were eligible to become naturalized U.S. citizens in 2015.
Nearly three-quarters (73.2 percent) of immigrants reported speaking English “well” or “very well.”
Immigrants in Illinois are concentrated at both ends of the educational spectrum.
Almost one in three adult immigrants had a college degree or more education in 2015, while one in four had less than a high school diploma.
More than a quarter-million U.S. citizens in Illinois live with at least one family member who is undocumented.
450,000 undocumented immigrants comprised 24 percent of the immigrant population and 3.5 percent of the total state population in 2014.
817,066 people in Illinois, including 343,532 born in the United States, lived with at least one undocumented family member between 2010 and 2014.
During the same period, 1 in 10 children in the state was a U.S. citizen living with at least one undocumented family member (395,179 children in total).
More than 35,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients live in Illinois.
As of 2016, 73 percent of DACA-eligible immigrants in Illinois, or 45,663 people, had applied for DACA.
An additional 18,000 residents of the state satisfied all but the educational requirements for DACA, and another 9,000 would be eligible as they grew older.
One in six workers in Illinois is an immigrant, together making up an important part of the state’s labor force in a range of industries.
1.2 million immigrant workers comprised 17.9 percent of the labor force in 2015.
Immigrants in Illinois have contributed billions of dollars in taxes.
Immigrant-led households in the state paid $9.8 billion in federal taxes and $5.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2014.
Undocumented immigrants in Illinois paid an estimated $758.9 million in state and local taxes in 2014. Their contribution would rise to over $917.4 million if they could receive legal status.
DACA recipients in Illinois paid an estimated $131 million in state and local taxes in 2016.
As consumers, immigrants add tens of billions of dollars to Illinois’ economy.
Illinois residents in immigrant-led households had $40.1 billion in spending power (after-tax income) in 2014.
Immigrant entrepreneurs in Illinois generate billions of dollars in business revenue.
119,404 immigrant business owners accounted for 21.3 percent of all self-employed Illinois residents in 2015 and generated more than $2.5 billion in business income.
In 2015, immigrants accounted for 20.3 percent of business owners in the Chicago/Naperville/Joliet metropolitan area (which stretches from Wisconsin to Indiana through Illinois) and 6.5 percent of business owners in the St. Louis metro area (which straddles Illinois and Missouri).
Rauner said he would favor a gradual reduction in income taxes — not an immediate repeal — after the Legislature this summer increased the individual income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent.
“What we need to do is roll that income tax hike back over time. It won’t happen day one but if we can reduce it in the future years, bring it down over time — a lot of states have no income tax, I’m not advocating that necessarily — but I’d like to bring it back to 3 percent, where it used to be for a long time,” the governor told reporters.
Asked if his call for reducing the income tax “over time” was an admission that the tax increase was needed, Rauner said it wasn’t.
“No, absolutely not, just the opposite,” he said. “We’ve got to shrink the spending in order to keep a balanced budget. That’s why it takes a couple of years to do.”
OK.
You’ll recall that Rauner made the exact same pledge to roll the rate back to 3 percent during the 2014 campaign.
Washington University School of Medicine doctors who had stopped seeing new patients insured through the state of Illinois changed course November 1 and began accepting them again. That could be seen as progress.
After all, Illinois’ two-year state budget impasse — a political fight between the state’s Republican governor and Democrats who control the General Assembly — left health care providers in and outside the state struggling to serve patients while dealing with payments that were up to two years overdue.
Some of the Washington University doctors, those who practice at outpatient clinics, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, had decided to stop accepting new patients insured through Illinois’ State Employees Group Insurance Program a year ago because of the payment delays.
Even though the state still owes Washington University $14.5 million, the medical school’s decision to rescind any previous restrictions was a recognition that the Illinois General Assembly passed a budget this past summer — over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto — and recently took action to hasten repayment of debts to the school and other vendors waiting on state payments, a university spokeswoman says.
Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate and State Rep. Jeanne Ives won over some hearts Saturday during a brief appearance to drum up support for her primary campaign in Arlington Heights. […]
Ives, a West Point graduate with a degree in economics and a mother of five, criticized Rauner for signing what she calls the “sanctuary state” bill, the new school funding formula which many see as a bailout for Chicago Public Schools, subsidies for Exelon Corp., and a bill Sept. 28 that allows state health insurance and Medicaid funding for abortion.
Candidate Rauner supported increased coverage for abortions in 2014 but changed his mind in April, saying the state’s focus should be the economy, making his latest move a surprise for conservatives.
“This is the agenda of an Ivy League professor and not a conservative reformer,” said the Wheaton resident of her primary reason for challenging the first-term governor in March’s Republican primary.
Of whether residents can expect another state budget impasse — Illinois went two years without a spending plan, wreaking havoc on local social service agencies — Rauner laid the blame on House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who passed budgets for decades under other governors.
* I listened to the raw audio and the reporter, Derek Beigh, specifically asked him about his 2015 statement to the Tribune…
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner
Beigh pointed out that the impasse was a crisis that had been devastating to many in the Bloomington area and asked Rauner if he would pledge not to do something like that again…
Well, you’re supposing that I did it. I didn’t do it. Mike Madigan did it. Mike Madigan has been in charge of the state for 35 years. He’s the one who’s caused the deficits. His control has caused the debt. And all I said was, ‘Let’s have a balanced budget.’ And I proposed a balanced budget my first two months in office. He ignored it. He passed an out of balanced budget, with more deficits and debt and I said, ‘That’s unconstitutional.’ We have a requirement in this state, by constitution, to have a balanced budget and by policy that’s what we should have.
And people say, well, it’s my fault that there’s a budget impasse. All I’m trying to do is say let’s have revenues match expenses. Madigan said ‘No.’ And he forced a tax hike through over my veto, as you know, in June. He forced a new budget through over my veto. And we’re still running a $2 billion deficit. This is unsustainable.
And anyone who says, well, it’s better to have any budget at all than no budget. The reality is we had a budget and we’ve been running deficits for years. Every year we had some sort of a budget. Every year for 35 years under Madigan’s control it’s been a deficit budget. If it was a family, it would’ve had to declare bankruptcy. If it was a business, they would’ve gone out of business.
He often claims he submitted a balanced budget plan in 2015, but that’s just not true. From a story on the Civic Federation’s analysis…
Rauner’s budget assumes $2.2 billion in immediate pension savings from changes that have not yet even been introduced to the General Assembly, much less approved or run through a gantlet of probable legal challenges. “It is unlikely that the governor’s new reform proposal could be implemented in FY 2016, and the state’s fiscal condition would worsen if the savings were budgeted but not achieved,” it says. And passage of a possible constitutional amendment to clear the legal path is “not feasible” next year.
“We’ve got some things done, but now is the time to do transformative things, really large things,” Rauner said during his visit to T/CCI, which manufactures compressors at a facility on North 22nd Street.
The pro-business, anti-establishment theme was similar to Rauner’s past messaging, both as a candidate and as governor. In particular, Rauner targeted his frequent opponent, longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, telling employees that they should not support any candidate who is opposed to term limits or who would not unequivocally oppose voting for Madigan to remain speaker.
Rauner later told reporters that he would push for lawmakers to roll back the recently passed income tax increase, which took the personal income tax to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent. When asked, Rauner was noncommittal about how long that would take, but said he believes it could be lowered to at least 3 percent. To offset the loss of revenue, Rauner said revenue would grow through pension or Medicaid reform, and that more money would flow into the state’s coffers if there was workers’ compensation reform and other policies that would make the state more business-friendly.
Citizens for Rauner today launched OurHomeOurFight.com, a website highlighting Governor Rauner’s achievements and agenda for the future of Illinois. Check out the website here. You can find the Governor’s agenda below.
Our Home. Our Fight.
Illinois is our home. And our home is worth fighting for.
Over the last four years, the corrupt system in Springfield has been shaken to its core, but it’s time to finish the job. It’s time to come together around a movement that sets aside party politics and achieves real solutions that put our people first.
There’s a lot to be done. But there are a number of powerful things we can achieve together to save our state:
1. Limit Property Taxes.
Illinois homeowners face the highest property taxes in the nation, and too many of our elected officials make money off high property taxes. As part of the Governor’s historic school funding reform law, we included significant mandate relief to give schools more flexibility and reduce costs while making it easier for citizens in certain districts to lower their property taxes.
Next Steps:
We must freeze property taxes and put in place a system that allows local governments to better control costs and easily allow referendums, so citizens can lower their local property taxes and consolidate local units of government at the ballot box.
2. Create More Good-Paying Jobs.
Illinois’ unemployment rate is down and tens of thousands of new jobs have been created since the beginning of 2015. We launched a new job creation program, harnessing powerful partnerships with business leaders while eliminating special deals and holding companies accountable for their promises. We directed state agencies to reduce job-killing red tape and made it easier for small businesses to launch and grow in Illinois. We enacted a groundbreaking Future Energy Jobs Act that saved thousands of jobs and will spur thousands more 21st century jobs while making Illinois a nationally recognized leader in clean and renewable energy production. And we launched an historic technology partnership with our state’s leading research universities. It is the kind of transformative job creating engine we need. But there is more work to do.
Next Steps:
We will create more jobs by reducing job-killing regulations and red tape. We will fix the broken workers’ compensation system, which is twice as expensive in Illinois as in neighboring states. We will increase education and job training opportunities for Illinois’ workforce.
3. Enact Term Limits and Clean Government.
In 2014, more than 600,000 people signed the petition to put term limits on the statewide ballot, but Mike Madigan and his attorneys kicked it off. But that didn’t stop us from taking on the corrupt culture in state government. We prohibited administration officials from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving government service. And we ended and rooted out the Rod Blagojevich-Pat Quinn illegal patronage hires.
Next Steps:
It’s time for the people to force their legislators to put term limits on the ballot and demand a statewide up or down vote. To get that done, we’ve introduced a resolution for a constitutional amendment to limit statewide elected officials, including the Governor, to no more than 8 years in office, and to limit state senators and representatives to no more than 10 years in office.
Term limits is an essential step to clean up Springfield, but it’s not the only one. It is past time to clean up Springfield and hold government accountable. We will push legislation to mandate a waiting time for legislators to become lobbyists, prohibit convicted felons from taking a taxpayer-funded pension, mandate public disclosure on legislative earmarks, and require the legislative inspector general position to be filled at all times.
4. Roll Back the Madigan Income Tax Hike and Require a Truly Balanced Budget.
Illinois has been deficit spending for years and hasn’t had a balanced budget in recent memory. Instead, Springfield politicians have used accounting gimmicks to hide the cost of their mismanagement and pass the cost to our children and grandchildren.
In his first three months in office, we eliminated an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, and we’ve reduced wasteful spending by hundreds of millions of dollars.
We’ve insisted on a balanced budget, in spite of the career politicians in Springfield. After we vetoed Mike Madigan’s unbalanced budget in 2015, the legislature refused to pass another complete budget for two years. Then over the summer, Mike Madigan passed another unbalanced budget and an outrageous 32 percent income tax hike over our veto.
Next Steps:
We will introduce a plan to repeal the Madigan tax hike and require the budget to be truly balanced. No balanced budget = no pay for legislators. They need to earn their paycheck before taking more from yours.
5. Keep Families Safe and Rebuilding Lives
From hiring more corrections officers to enacting historic criminal justice reform and ending the dangerous practice of early release, we are keeping families safe and rebuilding lives. Since taking office, Illinois has hired over 600 net more corrections officers, and we signed landmark reform legislation that will reduce recidivism and give new opportunity to ex-offenders who had been captured by the streets. And now we’re taking the scourge of opioid addiction head on.
Next Steps:
Earlier this year, we signed an Executive Order creating the Opioid Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force. The task force is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing the opioid crisis. The Rauner Administration is committed to reducing opioid-related deaths by at least a third over the next three years through safer prescribing and dispensing of opioids, improved data monitoring, reducing the stigma of addiction and improving treatment and access to care, and increasing access and use of naloxone and other life-saving antidotes.
“We sue the city every year,” says a wealthy Chicagoan who lives in an elegant apartment building in Gold Coast, a North side neighbourhood. If his property-tax lawyer manages to knock $100,000 off the bill for the condominium’s owners, as the lawyer has done in past years, he gets to keep $25,000. It is great business for property-tax lawyers—and a great saving for their clients.
The office of Joseph Berrios, the elected value-assessor of Cook County, America’s second-biggest county with 5.2m residents and 1.8m parcels of land, of which Chicago is part, encourages people to challenge their property-tax bills, arguing that it believes “in their importance as the taxpayers’ voice”. According to the Chicago Tribune, which put Jason Grotto, an investigative reporter, on the case for a year, such appeals tripled under Mr Berrios, who took over in 2010. In 2015 appeals concerning 370,000 parcels of land were filed. About 50% were successful (the success rate in New York City is 16%). Property-tax lawyers earned an estimated $133m from tax reductions they battled for between 2009 and 2015. The Tribune also reports that since 2009 Mr Berrios, who is also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, has raised about $5m through three different campaign funds, a record for an assessor in Illinois. More than half of that came from property-tax lawyers. Mr Berrios’s re-election campaign says only that it has $1.6m on hand.
“The system is unfair and corrupt,” claims Fritz Kaegi, a former investment manager who quit his job earlier this year to try to unseat Mr Berrios. Mr Kaegi refuses to take donations from property-tax law firms, especially those employing the state party’s top brass, and promises not to hire any relatives for county jobs if elected. Mr Berrios is an ally of Michael Madigan, the Speaker of Illinois’s House of Representatives, chairman of the state’s Democratic Party—and a partner at Madigan & Getzendanner, which represents dozens of the most valuable buildings in downtown Chicago in property-tax appeals. From 2008 to June 2016 the firm lowered its clients’ bills by at least $70m. Several members of the Berrios family are employed by the county, including one hired under Mr Berrios to work in his own office. […]
The American Civil Liberties Union is preparing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit on behalf of owners of homes in poor neighbourhoods. David Orr, the outspoken Cook County clerk, recently endorsed Mr Kaegi. “No action has been taken to clean up this mess,” says Mr Orr, who thinks that it suits most of his Democratic colleagues to keep things as they are. Still, at least he can count on the support of the party’s machine, including Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County board. A few months ago she ordered yet another review of the system by the Civic Consulting Alliance, a non-profit organisation, which according to Mr Orr is already stalling.
Emphasis added because I hadn’t seen that reported before. I reached out to the ACLU and was told the article may have overstated its position a bit…
We are looking at the issue and have been exploring a range of possible options.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn’s political career may not be over — at least if he gets his way in his bid to become Illinois attorney general — but he’s already donating some of his private papers to his alma mater.
As part of this year’s Veteran’s Day commemoration, Quinn is donating papers connected to the memory of 300-some Illinois servicemen and servicewomen who have lost their lives fighting for their country since 9/11 to Northwestern University, where he attended law school.
“I want people to be able to see how special these men and women were who in their late teens and early 20s answered the call to serve after the horrible events of 9/11,” said Quinn, who collected programs, notes and other mementos from the hundreds of military funerals he attended as governor and lieutenant governor.
A neglected five-story skeleton of a building on the city’s Northwest Side looks almost exactly like it did when I last visited two years ago, except for the weeds being taller and the temporary braces rustier.
By now, this was supposed to be a new Illinois Veterans Home, the first to be located in the Chicago area where the largest concentration of the state’s veterans reside.
Instead, it remains a sad brick-and-concrete symbol of the dysfunction in Illinois government. […]
The new 200-bed facility, which will include a wing for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, is being built on state property alongside the Chicago Read Mental Health Center in the 4200 block of North Oak Park Avenue.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn announced the project in late 2009 but didn’t break ground until September 2014 in the midst of his losing re-election campaign.
November 10, 2009. Governor Pat Quinn today announced the site of the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Chicago, a 200-bed facility that will begin construction in 2010. The $65 million project is part of the Illinois Jobs Now! capital plan, signed into law by Governor Quinn earlier this year. […]
Construction will begin by early October on 7.8 acres of land at the southwest corner of Forest Preserve Drive and Oak Park Avenue… Construction is scheduled for completion in mid 2016.
Is former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn stealing a page from California Gov. Jerry Brown’s playbook?
That’s the question we asked upon hearing that Quinn, a Chicago Democrat, recently announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Illinois attorney general in the March 2018 primary. […]
But a former governor, who served from 2009 to 2015, running for a lower-level statewide job? Seems to us we’ve seen a similar scenario play out before - in California.
That’s where former Gov. Jerry Brown, who first served from 1975 to 1983, ran for attorney general in 2006 and won. He served a 4-year term, in the midst of which he decided to run for governor again.
Successfully using his attorney general post as a stepping stone, Brown amazingly triumphed in the 2010 gubernatorial election and took the oath of office in early 2011 - a post that, at age 79, he continues to hold.
Quinn might be looking to Brown’s example as, at age 68, he ponders his own political future.
The difference being that Jerry Brown has actually been a good and successful governor.
State lawmakers sent a clear message that children and youth service providers have the right to be compensated for the work they do and overrode Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of HB3143 on Wednesday. […]
Before the Senate’s decision to override the governor’s veto on Wednesday by a vote of 37-16-1, some businesses with state contracts were entitled to timely payment while others were denied the same remedies under the law. Those contractors included providers serving abused and neglected children, young people facing incarceration, youth experiencing homelessness, youth and families in crisis, and school-aged youth. “Over the past two years, children and youth service providers have buoyed the state and saved Illinois from the brink of collapse during the politically driven budget crisis,” HB3143 House Sponsor Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) said. “Now providers have a mechanism that will safeguard them from future risk of keeping the state afloat.”
Carrying the state has come at a steep cost. Many providers were forced to suspend services, lay off staff, close programs, and take significant pay decreases in an attempt to salvage the future of their organizations.
Amends the State Prompt Payment Act. In the definition of “goods or services furnished to the State”, includes services concerning prevention, intervention, or treatment services and supports for youth provided by a vendor by virtue of a contractual grant agreement. In the definition of “proper bill or invoice”, includes invoices issued under a contractual grant agreement.
Fiscal Note (Dept. of Human Services)
Based on a conservative definition, the Department of Human Services estimates that the fiscal impact for the applicable appropriations is approximately $0.5 million to $1.0 million.
Former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti announced Monday his intention to run against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the upcoming Democratic primary.
Fioretti announced his candidacy at the Lansing Municipal Airport in the far south suburb Monday morning, choosing that location to highlight the difference in taxes Cook County has faced versus those across the state border in Indiana, he said.
“A penny earned is not a penny saved, it’s a new tax,” said Fioretti, who began circulating petitions to put his name on the ballot once the contentious Cook County sweetened beverage tax fizzled in October. Signatures are due Dec. 4 for the primary election to be held on March 20, 2018.
During the pop tax debate, Fioretti weighed in by setting up a website calling for repeal of the penny-an-ounce tax on sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages. His was just one of many voices pushing for repeal amid a multimillion-dollar Can the Tax campaign funded by the beverage industry. […]
After being zoned out of his ward during the once-a-decade council redistricting, Fioretti was among four challengers to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011. He placed fourth with 7.4 percent of the vote, then endorsed Emanuel in the runoff contest over county Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
Late last month, Fioretti filed the paperwork to establish the “Bob for Cook County” campaign fund. To date, he’s reported no major contributions, and his most recent quarterly report for his mayoral campaign fund shows debts exceeding cash in the bank by $86,000.
Preckwinkle, by contrast, had nearly $361,000 in her campaign fund at the end of September and has received more than $27,000 in large contributions since then.
He was also badly clobbered when he tried to run for the state Senate last year, losing a primary to Sen. Patricia Van Pelt 68-32.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Preckwinkle for President’s Political Director Scott Kastrup Statement on Bob Fioretti’s Announcement to Run For Cook County President
“President Preckwinkle is focused on navigating the county through tough economic circumstances and leading on behalf of the people of Cook County. Her strong record of reforming county government and improving access to healthcare speaks for itself. She has been a national leader in the efforts to reform our criminal justice system; as a result, we have reduced the county jail population by 30 percent. In addition, the President has championed bail reform efforts that have significantly reduced the number of non-violent offenders and poor individuals in the jail.”
“President Preckwinkle has broad support across the county and is in a strong position to win re-election in March,” said Preckwinkle for President’s Political Director Scott Kastrup.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Gov. Rauner Our Home Our Fight Tour - Monday, November 13th
Governor Rauner will be on a tour across Illinois this week discussing his agenda. He will be visiting businesses across the state focusing on the next steps our state needs to overcome the corrupt system in Springfield and enact real reform that gives power back to the people.
See below for Monday’s events […]
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM: Decatur Business Visit and Media Availability
T/CCI Manufacturing
2120 N. 22nd St., Decatur, IL 62526
The governor will tour the facility and take questions from the media
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM: Champaign Business Visit and Media Availability
Pavlov Media
206 N. Randolph St #200, Champaign, IL 61820
The governor will tour the facility and take questions from the media
* Monday Pritzker press release…
Today, Bruce Rauner is kicking off a campaign tour with what should be called his “Home I Fought to Destroy Tour.” Rauner begins his tour with stops in Champaign and Decatur, two cities particularly devastated by his 736-day manufactured budget crisis:
From the Decatur Herald & Review: In Macon County, the budget deadlock threatened a spectrum of social service agencies, causing Baby TALK to lay off much of its staff and jeopardizing the future of the city’s only domestic violence shelter. It halted road projects and construction of Richland Community College’s Student Success Center and left schools holding the bag on tens of thousands of dollars trapped in a payment backlog.
From “Don’t minimize damage done to state already,” a Herald & Review editorial: Yet, after two years without a budget, those who depend on state money have cut programs, cut staff, cut recipients. […] “It will take years of hard work to reverse the damage that has been done,” Illinois State University President Larry Dietz said in a letter to faculty and staff. […] The lack of a budget, and subsequent [social service] agency and school cuts, had immediate repercussions, but more importantly, will have long-term ramifications for individuals, counties and the state.
From the Champaign News-Gazette: The two-year state budget impasse that ended in July took a toll on faculty salaries and undergraduate recruitment… The [University of Illinois] Urbana campus has slipped to 19th in its peer group of 22 universities nationally in faculty salaries, she said. It also saw an increase in faculty departures during the budget impasse. “We’ve lost ground,” [EVP of Academic Affairs Barb] Wilson said. “We’re not competitive.”
From Chicago Tribune: At public universities, officials and workers say some doctors and dentists, particularly those outside an insurance plan’s provider network, increasingly asked patients to pick up the state’s tab during the impasse. […] In downstate Urbana-Champaign and Springfield, where dentists are typically out-of-network providers, most University of Illinois employees are paying their full tabs upfront and waiting for the state to reimburse them, according to Thomas Hardy, a university spokesman.
“Bruce Rauner is kicking off his ‘Home I Fought to Destroy Tour’ with photo ops in cities he decimated across the state,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “For Champaign and Decatur, Rauner’s budget crisis did irreparable harm and the fight now is to defeat this failed governor and clean up the damage he’s done to our state.”
…Adding… DGA…
One month after announcing his reelection, and two months after signing HB40, Bruce Rauner finally comes out of hiding to actually campaign for reelection. Today, Rauner launches his “Our Home, Our Fight” tour with visits to Decatur and Champaign, two cities hit hard by the state’s budget impasse. So far Rauner’s “fighting” has been relegated to campaign ads and desperately staving off disaster during the veto session, but today he’s set to get out there and press some flesh.
Rauner’s been hiding for good reason. With Rauner’s approval rating at 34%, voters clearly have lots of questions they want to ask the failed Governor, like:
Why did Rauner fight against finding compromise, instead of forcing Illinois through a two-year budget impasse?
Why job growth has slowed at home under his watch? “Our home” was the third worst at creating jobs over the past year.
Does Rauner regret that his fights pushed the state further into debt and forced its credit rating fall to the lowest rating ever for a U.S. state?
When he’s not trashing the state at home, why does Rauner thinks he can brag about the state’s higher education system while the budget impasse decimated Illinois colleges and universities?
Why has Rauner been fighting for himself, and not Illinois?
As the nation’s most vulnerable incumbent, Rauner’s got a lot of fighting to do to win back voters’ trust.
“Governor Rauner should call this the Our Home, No Fight tour – because he refuses to fight for Illinois’ economy and families,” DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “The only thing Governor Rauner will fight for is his own political career, and it shows. Under Rauner’s failed record, jobs and people are still moving out, debt is up, and services are decimated. No wonder he’s been avoiding voters.”
Chris Kennedy’s campaign for governor will begin airing its first television ad of the campaign starting tomorrow. The ad features Kennedy discussing the violence that plagues our state. In addition to the TV ad, the campaign will also release a digital ad tomorrow.
The Kennedy campaign isn’t saying how much the ads, which will air in the Chicago media market, will cost. “It’s just the beginning,” says a spokeswoman. But trade sources suggest it’s around $125,000—a modest figure as these things go, particularly compared to the tens of millions of dollars that Democratic rival J.B. Pritzker has spent, but still telling.
* Trade sources…
$$ ALERT @KennedyforIL booked TV from 11/14-11/19. We've seen a total of $125k in Chicago.
One of the most unusual Illinois veto sessions I’ve ever seen wrapped up last week.
The two-week session was supposed to be about whether infuriated legislative Republicans would abandon Gov. Bruce Rauner in droves over his signature of HB40, which provides government funding of abortions for state workers and women on Medicaid. The potential for drama was high, but nobody was prepared for what actually happened.
The veto session kicked off on Oct. 24 under a dark and unexpected cloud of accusations when a group of more than 100 women signed an open letter claiming misogyny is “alive and well” in Illinois politics, particularly at the Statehouse. The women leveled a series of specific accusations against unnamed men who used their power to humiliate, subjugate or prey on women. The uproar was immediate and intense.
Legislative leaders promised quick action, but it soon became apparent that there were other problems besides the widespread allegations of a culture of harassment. Illinois hasn’t had a Legislative Inspector General since 2015, ostensibly because the four leaders couldn’t agree on who that should be.
During the week between the two scheduled veto session weeks, the House held a committee hearing in Chicago designed to highlight Speaker Michael Madigan’s attempt to address the sexual harassment issue. But the hearing’s substance was completely overshadowed by surprise testimony from crime victim advocate Denise Rotheimer, who claimed that Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, had used his position as the chief sponsor of her bill to sexually harass her for months.
Perhaps even worse, Rotheimer claimed that she had tried to report her allegations against Sen. Silverstein almost a year earlier and nothing had been done. Why? Because only an inspector general is empowered by law to investigate such matters and, conveniently enough, the General Assembly didn’t have one. After saying they couldn’t find anybody for over two years who would accept the job or who was acceptable to all four legislative leaders, the powers that be all of a sudden found somebody to accept the post on an interim basis.
Aside from the fact that the people in charge don’t like having anybody around nosing into their business, this is typical Illinois stuff. Nothing ever gets done until an existential crisis finally forces a decision. Unpaid pension liabilities have to be swamping the state before a solution is proposed. A comprehensive alternative energy plan can only be enacted as part of a bailout to prevent a couple of unionized nuclear power plants from closing. Hundreds of thousands of people have to suffer and universities have to be on the brink of closure before we get a state budget.
Too often, nothing becomes a priority until an issue becomes a crisis.
As a result, Gov. Rauner’s attempt to remain relevant was almost completely pushed to the side.
During his first two years in office, the Republican Rauner was remarkably successful at preventing all but a tiny handful overrides of his dozens of vetoes, despite Democratic super majorities in both the House and the Senate.
But then things began to fall apart this past summer, when his vetoes of the budget, a tax hike and more money for local 911 emergency centers were all overridden. And then he signed HB40 and furious Republican legislators vowed to “vote their districts” in the upcoming veto session.
Instead of trying to keep everyone in line on every veto, Gov. Rauner and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin focused almost all their energy on just a few bills. Their number one priority was stopping an override of legislation to ban municipal governments from creating local “right to work” zones. Nothing energizes this governor more than trimming the power and influence of organized labor.
So, Rauner looked the other way while huge numbers of Republicans joined Democrats to override 17 of his vetoes. As long as they stuck with him on “right to work” and a couple of other bills, he didn’t squawk.
But that meant he was clobbered by one of his top political nemeses, Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Rauner had vetoed Mendoza-backed legislation to require monthly reports of how many unpaid bills were at each state agency. The two officials are bitter rivals, so the bill may have been politically motivated, but the veto was even more so.
The override motion passed the House unanimously and just three Republicans voted with the governor in the Senate. Yet, because he stopped a few overrides that he truly cared about, Rauner could proclaim victory, at least in his own mind.
