Arrangements for Rep. Lou Jones
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
From Speaker Madigan’s office:
Wake: Monday, May 15
4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church
Church Sanctuary
4100 South Martin Luther King Drive
Chicago
Repast: Tuesday, May 16
9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church
Gymnasium - Second Floor
Funeral: Tuesday, May 16
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church
Church Sanctuary
May she rest in peace.
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I can’t believe he did this
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Obviously he’s a great sport, but, wow.
 Governor Rod Blagojevich could have been snippy. He could have been terse. Instead, he had some fun with a group of College Republicans who came out to his appearance at the University of Illinois yesterday.
The group wore blue T-shirts emblazoned with an anti-Blagojevich slogan (”Blagojevich sucks”) to protest a decision that could put some of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s student loan portfolio up for sale.
The governor announced the program and touted its potential to provide student aid to more students. Then he looked at the College Republicans and said he wanted a T-shirt. In Blagojevich’s words, “I promise you if I get a blue one like that, I’ll wear it when I go out jogging.”
The College Republicans quickly handed up a blue T-shirt and posed for pictures with the governor.
This could be what people mean when they talk about Blagojevich as a great campaigner.
UPDATE: The Next Frontier has a lot more. Keep scrolling.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’m probably going on vacation starting tomorrow, so this could be the last question of the day for a while.
Let’s take a crack at the hot congressional races around the state. How do you think these races (Bean, Roskam, etc.) will play out? Are there any sleeper races? Who is the most likely to lose? To win?
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The Meeks beat
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
My syndicated newspaper column this week talks about a poll conducted by Sen. James Meeks, a potential third-party candidate for governor. Details about MoE, survey size, etc. can be found in the full piece.
 According to the survey, Gov. Blagojevich’s “generic” re-election numbers are not that great. When asked whether he deserves re-election, just 36 percent agree, compared to 55 percent who want someone else. Nine percent didn’t know. Blagojevich’s job approval is 35 percent, with 45 percent disapproving and 20 percent not knowing. But even with those lousy numbers, for the first time since the primary Blagojevich is leading Judy Baar Topinka, 47-40.
When Meeks is tossed into the equation, Blagojevich leads with 41, Topinka has 34, Meeks has 12, and 13 percent are undecided. After several “push questions,” which were designed to test Meeks’ message of his religious affiliation, his opposition to gay marriage and abortion and his support of billions more in school funding, Blagojevich drops to 37 percent while Meeks and Topinka are tied at 25 percent each. Undecideds remain at 13 percent.
This last result, with Blagojevich still leading after the “push” questions and Meeks hurting Topinka much more, could help Meeks ward off critics, especially in the black community, who claim that his candidacy would destroy the Democratic governor’s chances.
This is also pretty much exactly where Meeks said he needed to be to even consider a run. Meeks said shortly before the poll was taken that he wanted, at a minimum, to be at 10 percent in the pre-push horse race question, and then have that doubled after the push. He exceeded both of those goals.
Meeks also included a question about the arguments for and against his run. Just 27 percent agreed with the statement that Meeks should not run because “an Independent African-American candidate from Chicago could doom Governor Blagojevich’s chances of winning re-election.” But 56 percent agreed with the statement that Meeks should run “because the Democrats have taken blacks and others for granted and it’s time for a change.”
Meanwhile, a Sun-Times story this week discussed Meeks and the anti gay marriage referendum.
Redfield said the same-sex marriage issue may boost the number of social conservatives at the polls in November, thus helping Downstate conservative candidates, Republicans vying for seats in the Legislature and state Sen. James Meeks if he decides to make a third-party run for governor.
About 4,300 signatures for the referendum were collected at Salem Baptist Church, where Meeks is pastor.
“If Sen. Meeks runs and wants to emphasize the social conservatism as kind of his hook, then it may turn out that Sen. Meeks would help the proposition and the proposition would help Sen. Meeks,” Redfield said.
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Not sure if this means anything yet
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The grand jury is starting to leak like a sieve.
After the state took aggressive — and some say unnecessary — steps to shut down a Joliet landfill, a hefty campaign contributor to Gov. Blagojevich looked into buying the business.
The revelation comes as a grand jury investigates whether politics influenced the closing.
Indiana waste hauler Anthony Portone, who either personally or through his companies has given $93,500 to Blagojevich, acknowledged meeting Landfill Reclamation Services owner Frank Schmidt in late spring or early summer last year.
Portone said his interest in Schmidt’s landfill “was from a business perspective, not a political perspective” and denied ever talking to anyone in the Blagojevich administration about it. He said he knew of the landfill’s problems through an engineering firm both men employed, as well as the news media, which had been focusing on Schmidt’s landfill because of its ties to a feud between Blagojevich and his father-in-law, Chicago Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).
But Schmidt, a distant relative of Mell’s, recalls that Portone “name-dropped the governor” during their encounter at Commander Restaurant in Munster, Ind., and remembers Portone telling him he “was going to talk to the governor” about the landfill. “You don’t think Anthony Portone is coming to meet with me without talking to his clout first?” Schmidt said.
Blagojevich was “absolutely not” aware of a meeting between Portone and Schmidt, nor has the governor ever had a formal meeting with Portone, said Abby Ottenhoff, a Blagojevich spokeswoman.
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Looks like it’s Todd
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
After a lot of careful ground-laying, the first, big step has been taken.
Yonnie Stroger will have a lot to say about whether her husband remains on the Democratic ticket after suffering a serious stroke — and she has her mind made up: She wants Cook County Board President John Stroger to retire.
That’s according to her son, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), the front-runner to replace his father. He described his mom as “the caretaker” and said she has “more pull than she had before,” when John Stroger reportedly overruled his wife and decided to seek another term.
This time, Yonnie Stroger is likely to prevail over her determined husband. And she is pushing hard for retirement, the alderman said.
“She thinks he’s served his time well. He’s done a lot of things and that it’s probably time to rest,” Todd Stroger said Tuesday. […]
Once again, Todd Stroger stressed that he and his father have not discussed the all-important succession issue. But the alderman said he has little doubt how his father would feel about the idea of being replaced by his son.
“He’ll think it’s the nature of anyone in any business to want to move up. He would think that I’ve been through a lot of things and that this wouldn’t be a bad move,” he said.
Pressed on whether his dad would think he deserved to be County Board president, Todd Stroger said, “I would hope so after the work that I’ve done and working with him, working in the state, the city, the ward organization and, in a way, working with the county through the state process.”
It’s looking very much like there will be a Stroger running for county board president this fall. But his first name probably won’t be John.
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Repubs targeting… suburbs?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
This is a national issue, but it directly impacts Illinois. If they don’t do something fast, the Repubican hold on near-in suburbs could be broken. It’s already happened in Cook, happening in Lake and Will, and DuPage could be next.
For months, [Rep. Mark] Kirk and other Republicans in the 50-member Suburban Agenda Caucus have studied the concerns of voters in 22 counties across the country. They are scheduled to disclose their findings Wednesday and announce a series of poll-driven policy ideas, including the promotion of tax-free college accounts, the expansion of background checks on teachers and coaches and the creation of a state-by-state database for sex offenders.
“This agenda doesn’t particularly come out of Republican or Democratic thinking,” Kirk said in an interview. “It comes out of suburban thinking. But it needs to happen.” […]
While Bush won the vast majority of outlying “exurban” communities across the nation, Democratic performance has improved considerably in the inner-ring of suburbs, which concerns Kirk. His emphasis on suburban issues is aimed at winning back seats traditionally held by the GOP, particularly Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), who two years ago knocked off veteran Republican Congressman Phil Crane. […]
“The outlook for Republicans is grim, unless they are able to connect directly to local constituent concerns, quality-of-life issues and solving problems that seem apolitical,” said Lang, who this fall is publishing “Boomburbs: The Rise of American’s Accidental Cities.” “You have a grumpy country looking to point fingers.”
These are probably good polling issues, but I wonder if they’re too micro and local in an age of some serious macro/national/global problems. Your thoughts?
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Daley shoots back
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
He sounds a little defensive to me.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley defended himself Tuesday, one day after U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez criticized some of the mayor’s pet projects but stopped short of declaring himself a candidate for Daley’s job.
“Everybody wants to run for mayor,” Daley said when asked about a potential challenge in the 2007 election. […]
Gutierrez claims Daley has been distracted by less important priorities, including the $475 million Millennium Park, which Daley called “a great asset” to the city.
Daley shot back Tuesday that he spends an “enormous amount of time” on education and he trumpeted his move 11 years ago to take over responsibility for the schools.
“I had the vision, I had the will and I had the character to do it and the courage to do it,” he said.
Daley also declared himself “very proud” of his administration.
OK, but his patronage director goes on trial today.
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Yet another Lane Evans open thread
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
UPDATE: Via the Passing Parade blog, here’s the text of the Lefstein opinion. (pdf file)
WQAD has the scoop.
A legal opinion is in on who can vote to replace Congressman Lane Evans on the Democratic ballot.
The ten page opinion says only elected precinct committeeman should vote in the selection process, and not those recently appointed.
It also says county chairmen ‘’have no legal authority to appoint'’ committee people who don’t live in the precinct. Since April 20, in Rock Island County, 31 of the 44 precinct committeemen appointed to posts by county chair John Gianulius do not live in the precinct.
The opinion was issued late this afternoon by Rock Island attorney Stuart Lefstein, who has been advising the State Central Committee, in charge of holding the election to replace Evans on the Democratic ballot before the November general election.
Lefstein was asked to research the unprecedented dilema facing Democrats after Congressman Evans announced he’s resigning because of his Parkinson’s disease.
The Illinois State Board of Elections and the Attorney Generals office declined to rule on the case.
Lefstein also believes that committeemen can split thier votes. He says precinct comittemeen, through a weighted vote process, may ‘’cast thier ballots for as few or as many candidates as they desire'’. Lefstein says since the selection process will be ‘’a substitute for a party primary'’, votes may be split ‘’in any manner that a precinct committeeman sees fit'’.
The ISBE and AG declined to rule? What the heck? You wanna bet this winds up in court?
What else have you heard?
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AG Madigan won’t give back cash
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
This is kind of a lame excuse for not returning money or giving it to charity. But I can understand why Madigan wouldn’t want to prejudice the case by taking an action like that.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has no plans to return campaign contributions from a suburban consulting firm that her office is investigating for deceptive marketing practices, her spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Records show Madigan received $19,300 in donations from Buffalo Grove-based International Profit Associates or owner John Burgess during her campaign for attorney general in 2002, before the investigation began.
“Since taking office she has repeatedly refused to take money from IPA or Mr. Burgess because of the investigation,” Madigan spokeswoman Melissa Merz said. “As a candidate, she did not know they would someday be under investigation. She doesn’t have a crystal ball.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., said Monday that she would donate to charity $4,000 in contributions she received in 2003 and 2004 from Burgess. Her decision came after reading a story Sunday in The New York Times detailing various allegations against IPA — including a sexual harassment lawsuit it faces from 113 former female employees. […]
Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2002 returned $125,000 in campaign contributions from IPA, campaign spokeswoman Sheila Nix said.
Other Illinois elected officials whose campaigns have accepted donations from IPA or its executives include U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. ($2,750); state Rep. Sidney Mathias, R-Arlington Heights ($27,500); state Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora ($55,050); and Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine ($18,500).
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
· Carol Marin takes a huge whack at Gov. Blagojevich. Must read. Background here.
· Can you imagine what would happen if Daley or Blagojevich had said something like this? The feds would swoop down with every SWAT team available and whisk them away to Gitmo in a hearbeat.
· Hinz: Topinka looks like Blagojevich in helping contributors get state biz
· Rosemont drops casino, eyes family friendly project
· Gov approves bill that paves way for private takeover of Midway
· Illinois to expand Amtrak service
· Tribe won’t say if casino is in the cards
· Congrats: Mike Lawrence to receive Paul Simon award from Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
· Blagojevich To Sign Nursing Home Background Checks Bill
· U of I defends move to become more elite
· Teamsters Endorse Peter Roskam.
· Roskam distances self from speech
· Roskam, Duckworth go after middle ground
· State signs off on watered-down I-PASS penalties
· How preschool program affects you
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Rep. Lou Jones dies
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Tribune:
State Rep. Lovana S. “Lou” Jones, an assistant majority leader of the Illinois House, died Monday, ending a distinguished career as a forceful advocate for the largely African American population of her South Side legislative district.
Known for being heavily involved in her 26th legislative district, Jones joined the legislature in 1987, held the leadership post for six of her 10 terms and served as chair of the House Public Safety Appropriations Committee.
Steve Brown, the spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), confirmed Jones’ death.
For years, Jones, 68, a Democrat, stood out as a strong voice for children’s and women’s issues as well as for reform of prisons and the state’s sentencing system.
Always with a ready smile and well liked by colleagues throughout the General Assembly, her philosophy was summed up in a statement on her Web site: “I am happy to serve the working people of my district, and I will continue to fight for legislation that benefits the vulnerable members of our community.”
Statement from Gov. Rod Blagojevich:
“On behalf of the people of Illinois, I want to express my deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and many friends of Representative Lovana “Lou†Jones.
“I served with Lou Jones in the Illinois House of Representatives, and know that she was respected by her colleagues and advocates across the state for her unbending commitment to helping people reach their full potential and overcome obstacles associated with race and poverty. She was a strong presence in the legislature, always pushing for equality and never hesitating to expose the sometimes-harsh truths about people left behind by a government that is supposed to uphold justice and provide opportunity.
“In her personal life, Lou was just as strong and compassionate. After the loss of her daughter, she raised her own grandchildren and made sure they had a secure and loving home. That commitment inspired me, and I had her in mind when we pushed for a new program to make college tuition more affordable for parents and grandparents trying to help their kids succeed — I even mentioned her as an example in this year’s State of the State speech.
“Lou Jones left a clear mark on the hearts and minds of those who had the opportunity to know her and work with her. I speak for many when I say she will be greatly missed.â€
UPDATE: Statement from House Speaker Michael Madigan:
“ Lou Jones was a valued member of our leadership team for the past decade. She had a life long commitment to her community and her family.
“ She always showed great concern about public safety issues. She certainly believed those who broke law should be punished, but she was just as determined to ensure that those who had served their penalty were not put behind a permanent 8 ball.
“I will greatly miss her counsel and advice. The people of Illinois have benefited from her service.â€
According to the statement, final arrangements probably won’t be available until tomorrow. I’ll post them here.
UPDATE: Statement from Judy Baar Topinka:
It’s often said that you only make allies, not friends, in politics. Lou Jones was the exception to that rule. I was blessed to have her as a friend.
Lou Jones was one of the most dedicated and principled public servants ever to serve in the Illinois General Assembly. Strong-willed and relentless, she was a tireless advocate for her district and a true champion for the working poor, who couldn’t afford a lobbyist. They never needed one when Lou was around, she fought their fights and won many of their battles.
I had the great pleasure of getting to know Lou while I served in the House. Together we fought for our agendas. Many times we worked with each other, and sometimes working against each other (she almost always won).
We went through personal triumphs and tragedies, including the loss of close family members. I grew to have the utmost respect and personal admiration for her. We will all miss her dearly.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Rather than do like others and engage in another long argument over Chief Illiniwek, I’m curious what makes this issue so volatile. Why do alumni get so worked up over a cheerleader? Why do opponents get so worked up over a cheerleader? Vent your anger below if you must, but try to explain to me why the heck you even care.
UPDATE: To throw a little more gas on the fire, I thought this was a very interesting comment today and (unlike almost everything else I’ve seen so far today) one I hadn’t heard before:
The Chief is Illinois’ Confederate flag.
Like the Confederate flag, the Chief represents tradition, pride, and honor to those who support it. And like the Confederate flag, it is a symbol of racial insensitivity to those who oppose it.
Chief supporters might not like that analogy, but ask any Confederate flag supporter in Mississippi or South Carolina why they support this obviously divisive symbol, and you’ll get a lot of the same answers you get from Chief supporters here.
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The guv touts his education spending, but there’s a catch.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich boasted of record spending increases for public schools Monday, while critics said the extra money doesn’t go far enough, leaving districts struggling and long-standing school finance problems unresolved.
Schools will receive an extra $170 per pupil next year in basic state aid, pushing the amount guaranteed per student to $5,334. […]
The $5,334 per-pupil spending for the next school year is more than $1,000 short of what the state’s own school finance advisers said it would take to ensure that students perform at grade level.
Coupled with previous increases, basic state aid per student will have risen by $774 since Blagojevich took office—a figure short of the governor’s own goal of increasing state aid by $1,000 over four years.
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The political fallout is calculated.
A gay marriage ban advisory referendum likely headed for the November ballot could boost turnout among conservatives in suburban congressional and downstate legislative races, but its impact on the governor’s race might only be marginal, political observers say.
Protect Marriage Illinois organizers turned in more than 345,000 signatures to state elections officials Monday, exceeding the 283,000 required to place a nonbinding statewide referendum on the fall ballot asking voters whether marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman. […]
“The accepted wisdom is that it’s the one thing that energizes the right wing,” said Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “They’re turned off by both of the candidates. The referendum gets (conservatives) excited. It also gets the other side excited, but the other side aren’t as numerous.” […]
Where the gay marriage referendum could have impact is in the 6th and 8th District congressional races. In the 6th, Republican Peter Roskam of Wheaton supports the proposal while Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates opposes it. In the 8th District, Republican David McSweeney of Barrington Hills supports it. Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington could not be reached Monday to say where she stands.
“It seriously could hurt (Democrats),” said Rick Garcia, executive director of Equality Illinois, a gay rights group. “It clearly helps Roskam, because he’s one of the (conservative movement’s) drum majors.”
What do you think of all this? If the referendum survives the challenge, will it impact the statewide and down-ballot races? Is this the sort of thing that Mehlman was talking about?
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Failure is always news, success is for TV ads
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
On average, this is a little over 1,000 prescription orders a month - less than a small town druggist would do. Not great.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich once characterized his state program to import cheaper medicines from Canada and Europe as a “prairie fire simmering here in the Midwest.”
But 19 months after its highly publicized launch, I-SaveRx has not sparked a revolution. To date, the program has generated only a little more than 20,000 orders from Illinois and four participating states, which together have a potential customer base of 27 million. Most prescriptions are believed to have come from Illinois.
With such a relatively small response, some observers consider I-SaveRx a failure, particularly given the early hype from Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat now running for re-election.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the market landscape has changed with the federal government’s rollout this year of a Medicare drug benefit for seniors.
“We recognize that now seniors have access to more assistance than they did when we introduced the program,†she said.
There’s no mention in the article about how much the administration has spent hyping the program.
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Gutierrez sounding more like a candidate?
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The congressman is very close to Gov. Blagojevich, so I wonder what this kind of talk will do to hizzoner’s relationship with the guv.
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez insisted Monday he hasn’t decided about running for mayor, but he sounded a lot more like a candidate than a Washington lawmaker as he laid out his ideas for improving the city and took shots at some of Mayor Richard Daley’s pet projects.
“It would be awfully hard for me to say no to a campaign for mayor if that campaign can help Chicago,” Gutierrez said at a luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago, a nonpartisan civic group.
Earlier Monday, Gutierrez told The Associated Press he won’t decide until the fall about running for mayor in 2007. […]
“Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many … schools were built,” he said to applause at the City Club.
Do you think he’ll do it?
More here.
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