Obama left his house at 11:27 am, and heading to a security briefing at the FBI building (Chicago division). The motorcade drove along Lakeshore Drive, and past Grant Park…
Some of the drivers here in Chicago do not seem to understand that a) the Chicago police car at the end of the president-elect’s motorcade is serious about having traffic pull over when the officers flash their lights and hit their sirens, and b) it’s not a great idea to jump ahead of traffic by trying to cut around the black SUV filled with five heavily-armed secret service CAT members.
When the motorcade pulled onto Van Buren, an African-American couple driving a tan sedan tried to drive around the motorcade. The SUV cut the car off immediately, and the security team aimed their weapons at the car. The driver and passenger in the sedan stopped, and looked stunned — until the male driver appeared to understand what was happening (your pool reporter could see him mouth “Obama”). The motorcade continued on. The sedan remained stopped, near the side of the road.
*** UPDATE *** Apparently, state Representative-elect Deb Mell has been making several phone calls today. From The Hill…
State Rep.-elect Deborah Mell, the sister-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), told The Hill that she would run just hours after Emanuel officially accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to become his chief of staff on Thursday. […]
She said she “would imagine” that the governor would endorse her.
Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley said he is leaning toward running and even took a quick swipe at Mell.
“I waited until the congressman made his decision, which was today,” Quigley said. “You need at least a day to get some questions answered and make some choices. It’s not who decides first to run; it’s who decides that’s best qualified and is most viable.” […]
State Sen. John Cullerton, who is in the middle of a tight race to become the next state Senate president, said Thursday that he has no interest in the congressional race.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* The name-floating has begun for Congressman Rahm Emanuel’s seat. Here’s CBS 2’s take…
Among the names that have been mentioned by political analysts as possible candidates are state Reps. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) and John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Cook County Commissioners Mike Quigley (D-10th) and Forrest Claypool (D-12th), Ald. Thomas Allen (38th), and State Representative-elect Deborah Mell.
Cullerton is not running. At least that’s what he told me yesterday. No way, he said. I talked to Deb Mell today, as well as others (they’re coming outta the woodwork, man), but you’ll have to subscribe to see what they said.
Even Wednesday, a long line of Democrats interested in running for the Emanuel seat took only minutes to form, including Ald. Thomas Allen (38th) and state Rep. John Fritchey. Deborah Mell, daughter of Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) and Blagojevich’s sister-in-law, also expressed interest in replacing Emanuel even though she was just elected to the state House on Tuesday and hasn’t been sworn in yet.
Cook County Commissioners Mike Quigley and Forrest Claypool also are being talked about as potential candidates.
[Sigh. Moved too fast and didn’t read all the way down. Nevermind what I wrote about Claypool and is now deleted. He said he “wouldn’t rule it out.” Sorry.]
Gov. Rod Blagojevich must call a special election at least five days after the vacancy occurs. After that, the election must be held within 115 days.
* Meanwhile, before it gets picked up by Drudge or somebody, you should know that this IR post claiming Emanuel doesn’t pay property taxes is just flat-out incorrect. Emanuel pays property taxes. I figured it was a big story if true, so I checked. They apparently didn’t.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a copy of Emanuel’s tax payment record for this year. The pin number is on that copy, so you can look it up yourself at the treasurer’s website.
Somebody at the IR site also deleted a comment posted by the Cook County Assessor’s office which explained IR’s error. Not sure why. Here’s the deleted comment…
Your posting about Rahm Emanuel’s house being tax exempt is wholly inaccurate. Rep. Emanuel’s house is on the tax rolls, and he and Ms. Rule have paid the taxes on it.
The Emanuel house sits on two lots. For tax purposes, the property is listed as 4232 N. Hermitage Ave. The PIN is 14-18-408-035-0000. As you can see, 4232 N. Hermitage came up as one of the addresses when you searched Emanuel’s block on our web site.
4228 N. Hermitage is listed as the mailing address on the tax records. Had you taken the trouble to contact the Assessor’s office, we could have told you that — and told you that it is not at all uncommon for addresses to be merged for properties on two lots.
According to the Cook County Treasurer’s web site, Emanuel and his wife paid $13,022.60 in property taxes this year.
Awaiting a response.
*** UPDATE 2 *** IR has now posted an incomprehensible update. In case you care, I’ve posted the assessor’s office response to IR’s questions at this link.
*** UPDATE 3 *** There are no words to describe the level of denial at that site. A third post is now online. Oy.
Again, I thought the original post might be a huge story, considering Emanuel’s new job, which is why I checked it out. I was gonna give IR full props. What a scoop that would’ve been. But, alas, it was wholly false and they have yet to issue a retraction. Hey, it’s their site, and they can run it the way they want, but to lash out at others for pointing out their multiple mistakes and their refusal to own up to those egregious errors is the height of buffoonery. Larry has more here and another liberal hit man has some good stuff here.
The erroneous story, by the way, has now spread to the front page of RedState as well as to several other blogs.
* Chicago’s legendary “Gimme what’s coming to me” politics is on full public display…
Asked what she expected an Obama presidency to mean to her West Side ward, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) replied, “One word: money. You’re supposed to take care of home first, aren’t you?”
There is no shame in Illinois politics.
Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) said there should be no shame in a local politician bringing home the proverbial bacon. When a reporter suggested that a sudden flood of federal dollars to Chicago would seem shady, Carothers disagreed, asserting that former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of suburban Plano had favored home-state projects.
“I don’t see why it’s suspicious – [Obama] is from Chicago,” Carothers said. “I think that’s expected … He’s from Illinois — he’s certainly not going to forget about Illinois … A lot of projects people call pork projects are actually good projects … A lot of organizations in the city need help as well.”
Obama won’t forget Illinois, but he might want to forget some of our politicians.
…Adding… I forgot to post these two stories which essentially illustrate the same point…
* The Tribune heds this story about Jim Oberweis: “After 5 election defeats, Oberweis ‘currently has no plans to run for office.’” But read the piece and you’ll see it’s far from clear what the perennial loser’s plans really are…
Oberweis didn’t talk Election Night or Wednesday, but a statement issued Tuesday night could be interpreted as a goodbye to the electorate.
“As a private citizen, I will continue to speak out and advocate for an end to the business-as-usual, special-interest-driven system that plagues our political process in Illinois and Washington,” he said, adding that “standing for political office has been difficult at times for my family and me.”
Campaign manager David From said Oberweis “currently has no plans to run for office” but said he could remain active in the community in other ways such as volunteering or charitable giving.
And check out the story’s kicker…
Former campaign manager Bill Kenyon said perhaps a reason Oberweis has been unsuccessful at campaigns is his tendency to ignore his political advisers. Kenyon also said Oberweis lacks the network of friends that often become the foundation for successful political campaigns.
Friendless. Oof.
The man has spent more than $9 million to lose one race after another. He has destroyed whatever reputation he started with, harmed his dairy company’s brand, and damaged his own party along the way.
“This district is pretty independent,” Foster said. “For years, they were voting for Dennis Hastert because they personally liked him. Then it was time for Dennis to step back. Being represented by a man who is a scientist and a businessman was something they were comfortable with.”
“You’re having more and more people voting for the person, not the party, and the Republican Party just hasn’t caught on, thinking they could get the numbers they got 20, 25 years ago,” Green said.
* Mark Kirk is certainly one of those who has “caught on.” His reelection is explained by the NRCC…
The win was “evidence that the Mark Kirk-brand transcends national politics,” said Ken Spain, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee. An independent record and commitment to the interests of his district contributed to Kirk’s “impressive” victory, he added.
“He was able to successfully distance himself from President Bush in this area,” Allan said.
After he’s seated in the U.S. House in January, Schock said he hopes to get assignments on the agriculture and transportation committees. Those are the same committees on which LaHood served as a freshman legislator in 1994.
Transportation is not an easy “get” in the House. LaHood was already a major DC figure when he got that job, having served as the chief of staff to the former minority leader. If Schock does secure an appointment, his congressional future will be bright.
Once again, Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to fire Attorney General Lisa Madigan as his lawyer in a lawsuit filed against his administration.
The Blagojevich administration is asking a Sangamon County judge to let it hire its own outside legal counsel in the suit aimed at blocking the move of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety from Springfield to southern Illinois.
Castle Rock and four other Chicago-area state parks are scheduled to close on Nov. 30 due to budget cuts. Explore their hiking trails, their fishing ponds, their scenic overlooks—quickly. Unless there is a last-minute reprieve from Gov. Rod Blagojevich, you have a little over three weeks.
She plans to push for a state law to require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 72 hours of when they go missing, an effort to weed out those illegally selling weapons to gang members.
Alvarez also wants the office to renew the fight against domestic violence, and said she wants to retrain 911 dispatchers on how to handle such calls, which can be used in court when prosecuting offenders. She also would like to find a way to automatically transmit tapes from domestic violence 911 calls to the office to aid prosecutors in building a case.
Mayor Daley on Wednesday proposed a six-week amnesty for 3.5 million overdue parking and red-light tickets to soften political opposition to his $40 million plan to drop the Denver boot threshold from three unpaid tickets to two.
The $12 million joins $42.4 million the city already has committed to Block 37 from its Central Loop tax-increment financing district.
The new money would partially compensate the block’s lead developer, Joseph Freed & Associates LLC, for cost overruns in the construction of a CTA station beneath the property.
Peter Scales, spokesman for the city’s planning department, said the money was needed to make the hotel viable. Without it, Freed would have to pass the cost overruns onto Loews Corp., probably causing the hotel operator to quit the deal, Scales said.
Naperville Township GOP Chairman Rachel M. Ossyra said with Obama’s strong win in DuPage, she thinks new voters cast ballots for those whose names appeared on the top line for board seat choices or split their votes between Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats’ campaigns show Republicans are not in serious trouble in DuPage, she said.
Among the Republican casualties Tuesday night was majority leader Wayne McMillan, a board member since 2000, who lost to Bolingbrook businesswoman Jackie Traynere; 16-year veteran Ron Svara, who lost to Joliet banker Diane Seiler; Nella Piccolin, who was unseated by newcomer Katrina Deutsche; and two-time board member Joe Baltz, who trails Sharon May by 12 votes with absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted.
Democrats beat out GOP rivals in two other hotly contested races as Kevin Duffy Blackburn defeated incumbent Steve Weber for county auditor and Karen Stukel outpolled Laurie McPhillips for recorder of deeds.
* 2:44 PM - That blue ribbon commission the governor was supposedly going to use to pick Obama’s replacement? Turns out it’s a bunch of people in his administration. From a press release…
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced today that he will take his time and use a diverse senior staff made up of key members of his administration who will assist him in selecting a suitable replacement for Obama.”
So much for consulting a group of “wise” men and women. These are the same people who have helped build that rock solid 13 percent approval rating.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today he’s “not interested” in appointing himself to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, but did not expressly rule out the option.
* Way down the ballot in Cook County and Chicago was a non-binding referendum question asking whether voters wanted the power to recall elected officials, and which explicitly mentioned the governor…
“Shall the Illinois Constitution be amended to establish a recall process for the office of Governor and other statewide elected officials?”
All eyes are on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich now that he gets to pick who will replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate because the Democrat is headed to the White House.
Blagojevich plans to talk about the newly open Senate seat Wednesday afternoon.
I wonder how that presser is gonna go.
[The section in this post about the constitutional convention referendum was removed because as some commenters rightly pointed out, the AP has mixed up the results. Sorry about that.]
* I think the most surprising thing about most of the state’s congressional races was the victory margins.
I figured Debbie Halvorson would win, but 58-34-7? Wow.
The same goes for Mark Kirk. He looked at the end like he might squeak this one out, but he dominated Democrat Dan Seals 54-46.
Jim Oberweis was obviously a goner. It’s obvious that people are tired of his schtick, but that’s still a pretty strong Republican district so I simply couldn’t fathom a 57-43 loss to Bill Foster.
Congresscritter Peter Roskam, who seemed to be panicking a bit in the home stretch by tying himself to Barack Obama, beat former Blagojevich administration official (which hurt her badly, of course) Jill Morgenthaler 58-42. Obama did well out there, so Roskam apparently knew what he was doing.
Aaron Schock was probably the only candidate who won with about what I privately expected, 59-38-3. With Barack Obama’s ascent, Schock may now be Illinois’ most capable campaigner.
Your thoughts about all this would be appreciated.
* I’m still trying to absorb all of this. There are so many things to contemplate, many of them personal. The fact that I’ve known him for years, even since before he was elected to the Illinois Senate. The private conversation we had long ago when I tried to discourage him from running for the US Senate. Our chance meeting on a public golf course when my then girlfriend swooned and I told her she was nuts. His remarkable primary victory and the whacky season it sparked (Blair, Jack and the Martian). My chuckling at his nickname for my formerly staunch Goldwater Republican and formerly all too white father: “Brother Miller.” My embarrassment at my father’s first words to Obama when I introduced them in January of 2004: “Never change. Never change,” and my concern at how Barack will, eventually change. His call to me during his failed congressional bid wondering why I was being so harsh and his attempt at rapproachment, when I first realized how skillful he could be. The fact that my wife is an Iraqi-American and my concern about what this election will mean for her family and her former nation. On and on. It’s kinda weird “knowing” a president-elect. It makes you think back, as well as look forward.
Obama has proved over and over that he is one of the best candidates of my lifetime. I just hope he’s half as good at being president. Our country desperately needs a capable hand on the wheel of power after years of gross mismanagement and bungling of Shakespearean proportions.
