Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley is opting off a political fast track.

• • To wit: Daley, the brother of Mayor Daley, told Sneed in February he planned to enter the U.S. Senate sweepstakes for the seat once held by President Obama, now held by the embattled Roland Burris.

• • It’s over: “I was gung-ho, and hired pollsters and talked to fund-raisers and planned to make an announcement in mid-April,” Daley told Sneed yesterday. “But I’m getting remarried in June and decided I want to take a new tack in my life. I just don’t want to live a commuter life back and forth from Washington.”

• • The China connection: Sneed also tipped March 25 that Daley may be getting his chopsticks ready — becoming the next U.S. ambassador to China, but has nixed that idea. “It’s true, there were serious discussions about China, but I recently decided, ‘No.’”

* Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch looks at the Bright Start loss which might possibly haunt Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ race for US Senate…

Imagine your shock when, on opening your statement, you learn that your conservative, state-sponsored fund lost 38 percent of its value last year. If you’re astute enough to dig deeper, you learn the fund was using derivatives to increase its exposure to mortgage-backed securities.

Yes, even as the housing market was tanking, someone thought it was a good idea to make a risky, leveraged bet on mortgage bonds. And they did it with your kid’s college fund. […]

Illinois was the first state to react to the problems. On Dec. 4, it began directing new money into other investments instead of Oppenheimer Core Bond.

However, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias announced that existing balances would remain in the Oppenheimer fund “to avoid locking in past performance declines.” That looks like a mistake: Core Bond has lost 3.2 percent since early December, compared with a positive return of 4.7 percent for a Bloomberg bond-fund index.

The piece concludes with a generally positive view of the Bright Start program, however.

* Incumbent US Sen. Roland Burris was recently endorsed by, um, this guy…

Scott Baier, a 28-year-old former Mercer County [New Jersey] Republican Committeeman who was a Socialist Party candidate for State Assembly in 2005. His platform includes putting George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld on trial for war crimes, abolishing the U.S. Department of Defense, the nationalization of the media, legalization of all drugs, a constitutional amendment banning all guns, and a “total ban” on pornography.

* More campaign stuff…

* Democrats getting ready for 10th District run

* Dems looking at alternatives to Sen. Burris

* Burris Grills Hearing on Funds for Minority Businesses

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Burris in a bubble and Cobb spins out

Monday, Apr 20, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* US Sen. Roland Burris apparently resides in a bubble…

The latest poll numbers do not look good for Roland Burris. A new poll just came out, showing a 19 percent approval [sic*] rating for Burris.

The senator was speechless in response to the news about the poll, but then he went on, like many politicians do, to say that polls don’t matter.

What’s next? Will he follow every political loser in the last 60 years and invoke Harry Truman’s grand comeback?

With less than ten months before the primary, a mere four months before petitions hit the streets, $850 in the bank and only 50 people showing up for his first major fundraiser, Burris’ media adviser thinks she still has enough time to rehabilitate his image? Please…

Delmarie Cobb, Burris’ media adviser and strategist, said one major factor in making a decision on election was the status of “the rehabilitation of his reputation.” […]

“I actually feel very comfortable with where we are,” Cobb said of Burris’ reputation.

She’s “comfortable” with where Burris is now? Let’s jog her memory…

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Illinois voters say Roland Burris, the man the disgraced governor named to Barack Obama’s Senate seat, should resign. Just 24% believe Burris should remain in the Senate, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey of voters in the state.

Fifty-four percent (54%) say they will definitely vote against Burris if he chooses to run for a full six-year term in the Senate in 2010. Only four percent (4%) say they will definitely vote for him. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say it depends upon who he is running against.

Only 19% have a favorable opinion of Burris. Seventy-three percent (73%) view him unfavorably, including 44% whose view is Very Unfavorable.

* And this is a super-brilliant strategy in Obama’s home state…

Cobb, who backed former New York senator and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee over Obama, also appeared to take a shot at the president in describing the job Burris is doing.

“We should be happy as Illinois citizens, because now we actually do have a senator who wants to be there,” she said.

Yeah. OK. Obama had a 67 percent job approval rating in that Rasmussen poll of likely Illinois voters. 90 percent of Illinois African-Americans “strongly approved” of Obama’s job performance. Democrats gave him an overall 89 percent approval rating.

Keep taking swings at Obama in Illinois. I’m so sure that’ll work for a Democrat.

* We’ll close with this…

Aides at U.S. Senator Roland Burris’ first fundraiser since being appointed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich wore new blue buttons that said “Run Roland Run.”

Except, in his case, he should run “from,” not “for.”

[*The Rasmussen poll tested Burris’ favorable rating, not his job approval rating.]

* Related…

* Burris: Fundraiser not geared to possible campaign in 2010

* Roland Burris fundraising: Senator says he will decide on 2010 election soon, but he raises funds now

* Burris has 19% approval rating, but 2010 bid a ‘possibility’

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