Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Friday, Jul 18, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* GOP US Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg threw out some red meat to his base yesterday.

In the Republican underdog role against two-term veteran Durbin, Sauerberg, a physician from Willowbrook, repeatedly has sought to label his opponent as too liberal. On one of his campaign’s Web sites, Sauerberg noted Durbin’s opposition to a Constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning and said the nation’s founders never included one “because they never had to deal with ultra-liberal Americans who hate their own country.”

Asked whether he was referring to Durbin, Sauerberg said Thursday, “I think he’s an ultra liberal. Whether he hates his own country, I cannot determine for the gentleman.” Sauerberg said voters “wonder a lot” about Durbin’s patriotism.

Because, you know, the second ranking member of the US Senate is probably just a Manchurian Candidate waiting to be activated by his terrorist managers.

* Sauerberg then showed again why he’s not quite ready for prime time…

Labeling the nation’s energy problems a top voter concern, Sauerberg restated his call for a federal gas-tax holiday as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has proposed. Sauerberg said money lost to the federal highway construction fund could be replaced by finding “another wasteful program that government runs.”

Asked to name a specific wasteful government program to cut, Sauerberg said, “I can’t answer that” and apologized, before proposing a freeze on federal hiring or a 2 percent cut in federal agency spending.

* Meanwhile, Progress Illinois has put together a nifty summation of 2nd Quarter congressional fundraising…

* Speaking of money…

While all that anti-lobbyist hoopla from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has caused something of a minor identity crisis on K Street, it turns out that the prospect of an Obama presidency has one firm seeing dollar signs.

Chicago-based Dan Shomon Inc., the shop of former Obama political director and campaign manager Dan Shomon, has been busy pitching potential inside-the-Beltway clients.

“Should ‘CHANGE’ occur in November as polls indicate, we should see a lot of people from Illinois moving to Washington D.C. and taking key spots in an Obama administration,” said an e-mail from Shomon’s colleague, Gerald Galloway, to potential clients.

“Now is the time to anticipate these changes. … We will be in Washington DC August 4, 5, and 6th and were interested in scheduling a meeting with your government affairs team to discuss the changing political landscapes and our services and capabilities,” the e-mail continued.

* Related…

* Greenberg trails Bean in fundraising race

* Foster heads to the border for fact-finding mission

* Ozinga Camp Claims Health Care Quote Taken “Out Of Context”

* Durbin: Speculators Running Up Oil Prices

* Barack Obama’s accidental surrogate

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This just in… *** House adjourns without taking action *** “Worthless” Gatehouse? *** House advances scaled back capital bill ***

Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 12:41 pm - Just 87 members are present in the House today. Listen or watch here.

* 12:45 pm - IL AARP takes a swipe at the guv for eliminating or cutting increases in funding for “programs and services that are essential to the welfare and safety of thousands of older adults in Illinois”…

Caring enough about seniors to offer them free rides should also translate into making sure that older Illinoisans have fully funded programs and services so they can live independently and with dignity in the communities of their own choice.

* 12:51 pm - The House was led in prayer today by Rep. Tim Schmitz, who was sent a prayer used in the Indiana House of Representatives several years ago…

Almighty God, You who created the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, the waters and the dry land, the stars and the moon, the plants and the animals, Adam and Eve in six days, help these hardworking legislators that they might successfully complete their work in sixty-one. Then after You have done that, please enlighten the governor as to the wisdom of their accomplishments so that they might rest securely in the knowledge that he won’t undo all the good they have done.

Amen.

LOL.

* 12:56 pm - The Illinois Federation of Teachers has sent a letter to Senate President Emil Jones…

We urge you to immediately reconvene a regular session of the Senate to act on the overrides.

Read the full letter here. Read the IFT’s letter to Speaker Madigan here.

* 12:57 pm - The House appears to be adjourning until tomorrow.

* 1:01 pm - GOP US Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg trumpets his polling numbers…

The polling, conducted by Southern Outreach, an Atlanta-based firm, shows Durbin struggling to break 50% in the uninformed ballot matchup against Sauerberg. In a head to head with Dr. Sauerberg, Durbin leads 52% to 35%. Outside of the Chicago-metro area, Durbin fails to garner 50% and only leads Sauerberg 47% to 40%.

The independent Rasmussen Reports recently polled the race at 61-27 for Durbin.

*** 1:07 pm *** The House has adjourned and will go to committees at 2 o’clock. The big action will be tomorrow. I doubt I’ll have more updates here for a while, but check back anyway.

*** 1:25 pm *** Uh-oh…

As GateHouse Media Inc. stock sank more than 20% in early trading Tuesday — briefly touching $1 a share — Morningstar released a trenchant report declaring shares of the acquisitive community newspaper publisher “could be worthless.”

“Because of the company’s exposure to a challenging advertising environment, a debt-heavy balance sheet, and declining cash flows, we think the equity shares could be worthless,” stock analyst Tom Corbett wrote. […]

Morningstar also said GateHouse is close to violating one or more of the covenants on its huge debt. “Should that happen, its debt could become due immediately, resulting in a possible liquidation scenario,” Corbett wrote.

GateHouse owns the State Journal-Register, Peoria Journal Star and a bunch of other Illinois papers. It’s trading at $1.05 right now. Oy.

*** 3:02 pm *** The House Executive Committee moved a drastically scaled back capital plan to the floor this afternoon. The proposal would reportedly be worth about ~~$5 billion~~ $1.8 billion - far less than the governor’s $34 billion plan. But the House version will require no new money. ~~The billion dollars in state cash~~ $360 million - to be used to leverage about ~~$4 billion~~ $1.8 billion in federal money - will come out of the state’s Road Fund. More in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.

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