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Two of Pritzker’s most important endorsements so far

Monday, Dec 11, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This happened before Houlihan’s boss US Sen. Richard Durbin joined with US Sen. Tammy Duckworth to formally endorsed Pritzker on Friday…

At a meeting of Sangamon County Democrats last week, BILL HOULIHAN, who is an elected member of the Democratic State Central Committee, said he wanted gubernatorial candidate DANIEL BISS of Evanston to quit giving fodder to Republicans as he criticizes a rival.

“Dan Biss has been sending out some emails that I think are hurtful to the Democratic Party and J.B. PRITZKER, and I think we need to shut that down as soon as possible,” Houlihan said. […]

The day Houlihan spoke, Biss had tweeted about Pritzker, asking what was the billionaire’s “favorite offshore trust fund.” It was retweeted by WILLIAM ALLISON, the Rauner campaign communications director.

Houlihan also said that he contacted Biss weeks earlier, when Biss criticized Pritzker for taking a charter flight to Mount Vernon to attend the NAACP state convention after leaving a Sierra Club event in Chicago.

Houlihan said it’s a big state, and a candidate for governor shouldn’t be criticized for campaigning downstate.

“If he wants to charter a plane to come to Springfield two or three days a week, I want J.B. Pritzker in this town helping Democrats,” Houlihan said, encouraging other Democrats to tell Biss to “take that BS down.”

* From a story about that Friday endorsement…

Durbin who has received $25,000 in contributions from Pritzker addressed concerns that the candidate’s support in the past had influenced his decision to endorse him.

“I value every donation, but we raise a lot of money to run for public office, and any individual isn’t buying my endorsement,” he said.

Durbin isn’t gonna be bought and bring his fellow US Senator along for the ride over a measly $25K. Any Democrat who tries to press that case is gonna look like a fool.

* Mary Ann Ahern called the Durbin/Duckworth endorsements “huge” the other day, and she was absolutely right. These are huge.

The two Senators are pretty darned popular in the Democratic Party, so attacking them for backing Pritzker will be nearly impossible for Kennedy and Biss. The endorsements also give everybody else who has already endorsed Pritzker some political cover.

* Chris Kennedy, for his part, has been saying stuff like this for weeks…

“I think people made commitments early because they were told to, not because they chose to. That’s all the difference right there,” Kennedy told POLITICO after a recent campaign event. “I think there is an attempt to cram down democracy, where the head of the party is choosing the next governor. I think that’s the great parallel of what happened in the last [presidential] election, and it’s bad for the state. I don’t think the primary voter is going to put up with that.”

He can’t credibly say that about Durbin and Duckworth. And, frankly, it would hurt him politically if he tried to do it. Same for Biss.

More importantly, though, Houlihan’s speech suggests that Durbin himself might soon step up to say the same sort of thing to Kennedy and Biss.

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*** UPDATED x1 - Duckworth piles on *** Durbin says Franken should resign, Duckworth still silent

Wednesday, Dec 6, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It won’t be long now…

Senator Franken’s behavior was wrong. He has admitted to what he did. He should resign from the Senate.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) December 6, 2017

Sen. Tammy Duckworth has not yet spoken up.

*** UPDATE *** And there it is…

NEW: Sen. Duckworth calls for @SenFranken to resign #sexualharassment #Congress

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) December 6, 2017

…Adding… Full statement is here.

* Related…

* Another woman says Franken tried to forcibly kiss her - The Minnesota senator is accused of making an unwanted sexual advance after a taping of his radio show in 2006. He denies the allegation.

* Senate Democrats call on Franken to resign amid further allegations of sexual harassment: More than a dozen Senate Democrats called Wednesday for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment, raising the possibility he will become the second lawmaker to step aside over recent accusations of inappropriate behavior. In a campaign started by Democratic women, senators said Franken should leave Capitol Hill. Franken faces multiple accusations of inappropriate touching and unwanted advances. He has denied intentional wrongdoing and has apologized… The other senators urging Franken to resign were Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), the highest-ranking woman among Senate Democrats, along with Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Senate Democratic Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.).

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Duckworth, Durbin demand state exit Crosscheck

Friday, Oct 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote to the Illinois State Board of Elections (IL SBE) today asking them to stop using the deeply flawed Interstate Voter Registration Data Crosscheck Program (Crosscheck) to help the state maintain the accuracy of its voter registration system. Reports have shown that the system is not only ineffective at catching duplicate registrations, but discriminatory as well. Researchers recently found that “one of Crosscheck’s proposed purging strategies would eliminate about 300 registrations used to cast a seemingly legitimate vote for every one registration used to cast a double vote,” often because they had a common first and last name. The Senators encouraged the Board of Elections to instead participate in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) multistate partnership, a far more precise alternative that has resulted in higher voter registration rates and increased voter turnout.

“Maintaining the integrity of our elections is vital to ensuring a fair and equitable democracy. To fulfill this goal, we should use tools that enable us to protect voting rights and ensure that every eligible voter can access the ballot,” the Senators wrote to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ Chairman Cadigan and Vice Chairman Keith. “Voters in Illinois deserve voter lists that are complete and accurate—and no voter should ever be improperly disenfranchised because of inaccurate information produced by a flawed data matching tool. That is why we strongly support the IL SBE completely withdrawing from Crosscheck and becoming a fully active participant in ERIC to improve the accuracy of voter lists and make sure all eligible voters are empowered to freely exercise their right to participate in American democracy.”

The Crosscheck program is run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who currently serves as Vice Chair of President Trump’s voter suppression commission. The large number of inaccurate findings Crosscheck produces has sparked concerns that it could be used to disenfranchise voters, particularly in communities of color. A 2015 Center for American Progress report noted that Crosscheck was much more likely to flag African-American, Hispanic and Asian voters as possibly being registered to vote in multiple states than White voters.

* Dan Mihalopoulos…

Like Durbin and Duckworth, Cook County Clerk David Orr told me this week that he now opposes continuing to participate in Crosscheck and favors Illinois relying on another program that also matches the last four digits of voter Social Security numbers.

Until now, Orr favored participating in Crosscheck, as did the Chicago election board. But Chicago elections spokesman Jim Allen said Friday that a majority of the board now opposes Illinois’ continued involvement in Crosscheck.

Illinois elections officials have defended the program, but they have acknowledged one potentially big problem with it, according to an email obtained by Indivisible Chicago, an anti-Trump activist group.

“We are concerned that other states may have released Illinois voter data pursuant to their own [Freedom of Information Act] laws, and as a result we are currently in the process of determining if this is indeed occurring,” Steven Sandvoss, executive director of the state election board, told county elections officials on Oct. 20.

* The Sun-Times editorialized against remaining in the Crosscheck system…

Illinois also is a member of an alternate system, the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC, which is nonpartisan and widely considered to be significantly more accurate. The downside is that not as many states belong to it because it costs money, unlike Crosscheck, which is free. Crosscheck has 28 member states, though four have quit, citing unreliable data. ERIC has 20.

On top of the other problems, Indivisible Chicago reported Crosscheck administrators have been careless with voter information, emailing passwords and using unencrypted servers. That could expose voters’ names, addresses and, in some states, Social Security numbers to hackers.

Kobach, who is running for governor in Kansas, does not appear to be the kind of individual who should be entrusted with sway over voting. In June, a federal judge fined him $1,000 for “deceptive conduct” in misleading the court about documents he brought into a meeting with President Donald Trump.

No one wants cheating in elections. But that counts for the people who run the system as well as those at the polling place.

* Related…

* Voter rights advocates push Illinois to exit multistate database over accuracy, security

* Experts: Citizen Data at Risk in Hands of Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission

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