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Thursday, Mar 12, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Drip, drip, drip…

Tribune Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Zell hired well-known defense lawyer Anton Valukas and was interviewed in January by federal prosecutors as a “potential witness” in the criminal investigation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the company acknowledged Wednesday.

Some unanswered questions are finally addressed…

In their subpoena to Tribune Co., federal authorities sought information about potential staff cuts or changes to the newspaper’s editorial board. The company has said Tribune Co. executives did nothing inappropriate.

Tribune Co. also acknowledged state records, recently obtained by the Chicago Tribune, that show Zell making a phone call and giving a gift to Blagojevich. According to records of Blagojevich’s telephone logs, Zell placed a call to the governor Dec. 8, the day before the arrest.

Zell placed “courtesy calls” to several elected officials, including Mayor Richard Daley, that day to notify them the company had just filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the statement from Liebentritt. “Mr. Zell’s call to Mr. Blagojevich was not returned,” the statement said.

A bit of background on that December 8th phone call from Zell…

In an exchange of e-mails between [Tribune Co. adviser Marc Ganis] and [Rod Blagojevich’s chief of staff John Harris] on the day prior to the arrests of the governor and his chief of staff, Ganis provided Harris with a copy of a news story noting Tribune Co. had filed for bankruptcy. Harris responded, “Lousy product. Inevitable.” […]

Ganis also noted the Cubs were not part of the firm’s bankruptcy filing and said “Nils is going to call you and Sam is going to call the Gov.”

Zell and the Tribune Co. were attempting to work out a deal to get state help with selling Wrigley Field.

* Meanwhile, in other corruption news…

A city driver disciplined after five work accidents — including one that seriously injured a co-worker — told a federal jury Wednesday “yes, I am” a good driver.

Denise Garcia Cortez’s remarks came during the corruption trial of Al Sanchez. She testified that she first got her job after doing political work for the Hispanic Democratic Organization. She said she was trained but had little experience.

Last week, a witness testified that Cortez, whose name was Alcantar, won the job after Sanchez chose her from a political hiring list. Her test scores were doctored, former personnel director Jack Drumgould said.

Cortez admitted on the stand she applied for her job, not at City Hall, but at a club where HDO met. She said she left it on the table and was later called in, and eventually hired in 2002.

More…

Other witnesses in the trial, which began last week, have discussed how HDO was an important part of Mayor Richard Daley’s political organization.

But in putting Alcantar on the stand to talk about her checkered driving history, prosecutors clearly hoped to personalize what otherwise might be a relatively dry tale of rigged hiring processes and election campaigns.

* More reform and renewal…

* Woman claims Blagojevich firing for talking to FBI

* Hynes won’t release records of pre-need funeral trust

* Burris mum on pre-need funeral trust matter

* Burris Added to Special Election Lawsuit

* Sanchez Attorney: The Mayor Told Him To

* Let inspector general investigate aldermen

* Illinois man indicted on alleged Wis. kickback scheme

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Thursday, Mar 12, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Monday, Mar 9, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

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The Burris beat - FBI probe appears to widen

Monday, Mar 9, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It just never ends. The Sun-Times reports today that Ald. Dick Mell was paid $100,000 to work for Democrat Blair Hull’s ill-fated 2004 US Senate primary campaign. This is news partly because Mell was paid through Fred Lebed’s consulting group. Lebed, of course, is US Sen. Roland Burris’ longtime advisor, who recently severed his ties to Burris…

There appears to be nothing illegal about that [Mell] arrangement. But — apparently in the wake of Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest — federal authorities have asked questions about it, according to John Ruff, a Lebed and Burris associate who recently broke ties with both men because of the furor over Burris’ Senate appointment by Blagojevich.

Ruff said that, in conversations with Lebed in late January, Lebed told him he’d been asked to provide documents to a federal grand jury to explain payments his company made to Mell.

The feds sure are spreading the net wide, aren’t they? Perhaps this is why…

…Lebed or Hull might have had dealings with Blagojevich in October 2008. The ex-governor’s daily log for Oct. 17 includes an entry: “Blair Hull in Chicago October 28-31. Requesting follow-up mtg. Contact: . . . Fred Lebed.”

Mell got $100K for his Hull work, according to the story, and that was just about all of the money that Lebed’s consulting firm received from the Hull campaign…

Federal election records show [Lebed’s] Prairie Group was paid $120,000 by Hull’s campaign and that Lebed got another $13,102 on top of that.

Weird, that.

* Meanwhile, the Politico offers up one reason why Bill Daley is considering a US Senate bid…

More important, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is already connecting Giannoulias to Blagojevich, alleging that his family’s bank made numerous loans to indicted Blagojevich fundraiser Tony Rezko and to individuals connected to organized crime. The NRSC also alleges that Rezko urged Blagojevich to appoint Giannoulias’ brother to the Illinois Finance Authority Board.

Those vulnerabilities have emboldened Daley to take a serious look at running. Supporters of Daley, who currently serves as Midwest director for JPMorgan Chase, say he would offer a clean break from the era of Blagojevich and Burris.

On the other hand…

Daley’s detractors argue that his family connections to the Chicago political machine — his father was the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley — would put him at a disadvantage when Illinois voters are looking for distance from the machine mentality that has long defined the state’s politics.

They point to Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley’s primary victory in last Tuesday’s special election to succeed Rahm Emanuel. Quigley, an outspoken critic of patronage and waste in county government, won the special election touting a message of reform.

“The machine’s old, and the machine’s rusty. Maybe because he’s a Daley, he does this differently. It’s a different world now,” said one Illinois-based Democratic operative.

Not to mention that Daley’s bank got $25 billion in TARP funds, a program which is hugely unpopular with the public and doesn’t appear to have worked as advertised by the Bush administration.

* Related…

* Ex-Illinois Governor Blagojevich Loses Bid to Oust Prosecutor

* Move primary election back to March — or leave it alone

* Bad news for country cousins?

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The Burris beat

Friday, Mar 6, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Democrats are clearly hoping the heat dies down on the Roland Burris appointment…

Hopes for a U.S. Senate special election grew dimmer Thursday as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed proposal to create an election for Roland Burris’ seat and future vacancies.

A Senate subcommittee on ethics voted 3-2 along party lines against Senate Bill 285. The measure calls for a special election within about six months after becoming law, opening Burris’ seat and possible future openings for election.

Republicans say the state should have a special election because of the clouded Burris appointment by now ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Democrats cited soaring costs in blocking the measure.

Both sides accused the other of playing political games.

More…

While many legislators and state elected officials have called for a special election, this is the first plan to get any kind of vote at the Capitol. Last week Attorney General Lisa Madigan said lawmakers could legally replace Burris by ordering a special election.

But the estimated cost of a special election factored strongly in Chicago Democratic state Sen. Ira Silverstein’s decision to vote against the plan, Silverstein said. The three Democrats on the subcommittee voted to stop the plan while the two Republicans voted for it.

Republicans and Democrats went back and forth over the possible costs of a special election.

Murphy said a special election would cost $62 million and proposed using $15.4 million in unspent Senate funds to pay a quarter of the cost. Hendon countered with an estimate that the real cost of the special election would be between $71 million and $101 million. Murphy replied that cost shouldn’t be an overriding factor. […]

House Republicans have also introduced several special election plans but Democratic leader Barbara Flynn Currie, of Chicago, has stopped them from being assigned to a committee, much to the chagrin of Republicans who fume daily about it.

* But a choice could be forced on them if this lawsuit prevails…

Quinn is the defendant and Madigan is his lawyer in a suit brought by attorneys Tom Geoghegan, Marty Oberman and others based on the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It seeks to force the governor to call a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and now held by Roland Burris in what the plaintiffs view as a temporary appointment. […]

The suit says an election is mandated by the amendment, which states: “When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.”

Ratified in 1913, the amendment ordered popular elections of U.S. senators, in order to end the corrupted process of state legislatures appointing them.

In sum, it says elections are absolutely required—as they are for congressional seats. It makes a gubernatorial appointment temporary, aimed only at filling the gap between the date of the vacancy and completion of a special election, rather than for years until the next general election.

* And the story isn’t going away yet…

A Downstate prosecutor investigating whether Sen. Roland Burris perjured himself before a House impeachment panel has asked federal authorities for any recordings involving Burris for use in the probe, sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times. […]

The Republican prosecutor, Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Schmidt, has zeroed in on conversations between Burris and the governor’s brother Robert Blagojevich, who chaired the ex-governor’s campaign fund.

Those particular conversations have been a significant issue for Burris since the Sun-Times first reported last month that Burris failed to disclose, both under oath and in public statements, that Robert Blagojevich hit him up for money on the ex-governor’s behalf.

* The thing just festers…

On the same December day then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich named Roland Burris to fill President Obama’s U.S. Senate vacancy, Burris’ right-hand political man, Fred Lebed, phoned an associate and told him, “We’ll have to do some things for the governor.”

That’s the recollection of the associate, a health-care and political consultant named John Ruff, who went on to become one of Burris’ co-plaintiffs on a January lawsuit that sought to help Burris claim his Senate seat. […]

Lebed has a phone record of his own, which he said demonstrates Ruff is “a very scary guy.” Lebed saved a profanity-laced voicemail from Ruff from Feb. 17 — the same day Sangamon County’s top prosecutor announced the perjury probe of Burris and the Senate launched its Burris ethics inquiry. […]

“He is lying through his teeth,” said Lebed, who has no formal role with Burris’ Senate office. “He’s playing you guys.”

* Meanwhile…

Former Commerce Secretary William Daley is leaning toward running for the Senate seat President Obama once held, sources close to Daley tell The Hill. They characterize the decision as all but finalized. […]

Daley has already held discussions about the race with two top political professionals in advance of making a bid official. They include Larry Grisolano, who played a central role in 2008 as Obama’s director of paid media and opinion research during the campaign. In January, Grisolano signed up with AKPD Message and Media, the firm founded by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod and home of Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.

Veteran pollster John Anzalone, who has seen his profile rise in recent years after handling surveys for Democratic candidates around the country as well as for Obama’s campaign, will also join the Daley team, if and when a run becomes official.

More…

Among those considering a Senate campaign in 2010 are former Commerce Secretary William Daley, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and the Chicago Urban League’s Cheryl Jackson, a one-time press secretary to Blagojevich.

* Related…

* Senate Democrats deal likely fatal blow to special election to replace Sen. Roland Burris

* Democrats end GOP’s hopes for special election to replace Burris

* Illinois Republicans appear to be losing special-election battle

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