Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Illinois Chamber and the NFIB are hosting tonight’s GOP governor’s debate, but if you’re not in Springfield or Champaign you’re out of luck.

The debate will be broadcast this afternoon from 5-6pm on WICS-20 (Spfld) and WICD-15 (Champaign). It won’t be on the Internet and is not being made available for rebroadcast to other stations.

ABC-7 in Chicago will air another debate tomorrow night at 10:30 pm.

Use this as a debate open thread.

UPDATE: WHOA! Isn’t it illegal to record a private phone conversation in Illinois without consent? Oby says he has tapes of Kovarik-Topinka calls. Bombshell… and backfire?

UPDATE 2: Oberweis may have misspoken. He clearly said recordings or tapes of conversations (plural), but I think they only have one voicemail, which isn’t much. He sure looked sleazy when he said it, though. And he was booed by the audience.

UPDATE 3: The AP story is up.

Jim Oberweis drew boos and jeers twice during a Republican gubernatorial debate Tuesday when he accused rival Judy Baar Topinka of unethical conduct.

One of their opponents warned that the attacks and counterattacks are weakening the Republican Party.

Coverage always follows conflict.

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If the glove doesn’t fit….

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ve thought for a few weeks now that George Ryan’s trial was taking a familiar turn. Prosecutors spending way too much time making a very complicated case in fear or at least in anticipation of the defendant’s “dream team” of lawyers. Defense putting on a fairly straight-forward, relatively quick rebuttal. This is from defense attorney Dan Webb’s statement to jurors today.

George Ryan’s lead attorney told jurors today that federal prosecutors “realize this case is in trouble” because they simply cannot prove the former governor ever took a bribe or a kickback.

The widely anticipated argument opened with attorney Dan Webb telling jurors that Ryan has endured “seven years of hell” as his life was ripped apart by federal investigators.

Despite hundreds of interviews and the presentation of 83 witnesses in the trial, the government never turned up one person who saw Ryan take money to influence his decisions, Webb said.

“(Prosecutor Joel) Levin said whether he was getting any money or not was just the icing on the cake. I say that it is the cake,” Webb said, his voice filling the courtroom as he spoke.

Not quite the brilliant poetry of Johnnie Cochran’s summation, but I can sure hear an echo.

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Question of the day

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Do you belong to any group, union, association, business, etc. that lobbies the General Assembly? How well do they perform? Details, please.

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Not going away yet

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Governor Blagojevich refused yesterday to take detailed questions about his hugely controversial hate crime commission appointment.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich wouldn’t discuss details Monday of how he appointed a Nation of Islam official to a state hate crimes commission or whether the two have talked about her views on race and tolerance.

Four members of the Gov.’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes have resigned rather than serve with Claudette Marie Muhammad, chief of protocol for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Asked about the controversy, Blagojevich said Muhammad is not responsible for any racist remarks Farrakhan has made. “I do not believe in guilt by association,” the Democratic governor said.

But Blagojevich turned and walked away when reporters asked whether he has spoken to Muhammad or whether he regrets appointing her to the commission. Earlier in the day, he left an event without answering any questions at all.

Blagojevich said last week that he didn’t realize he had appointed a Nation of Islam official until learning about it from news reports.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League reports an increase in hate crimes against local Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League of Chicago is reporting a rise in anti-semitism.

The group says it has received numerous complaints about harassment and vandalism within the last two months.

In one case, vandals painted swastikas and gang symbols on the walls of one of the city’s oldest synagogues.

In west suburban Hinsdale, three high school students are facing hate crime charges for painting anti-semitic messages on a wall near the Hinsdale Central High School’s athletic field.

UPDATE: Muhammad understandably chose a sympathetic venue for her first major interview since the story began, WVON radio.

Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad spoke publicly for the first time since four members of the Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes resigned last week rather than serve with Muhammad.

“For those who try to condemn me because of the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s remarks … which were perceived by some as anti-Semitic, it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,'’ Muhammad said on WVON-AM.

“Perceived by some as anti-Semitic”? Um, wow. Doesn’t sound like she distanced herself much there.

Whatever the case, I’m glad she’s finally talking. Now, if she would just talk to the rest of the media maybe we could all put this thing behind us, one way or the other.

Oh, and the governor needs to answer some questions as well.

UPDATE: Forgot to link to my newspaper column on this subject. Here’s the conclusion:

The result of all of this is inflamed tension between black and Jewish legislators, who are usually natural legislative allies, and deeply hurt feelings within the Jewish delegation itself, which is now divided between ideological foes of Farrakhan and ultra-partisan supporters of the governor.

All of this over a backwater commission that was so unimportant that the governor didn’t even bother to activate it for almost three years, and which nobody ever heard of until last month, and whose only purpose is to write a report that nobody will ever read.

Thanks, governor. Great job.

Not.

UPDATE: Kadner has more.

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Tribune’s take on Kovarik allegations

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

We’ll skip the preliminaries that you already know and get right to the meat of the story.

In several instances, however, Kovarik’s sworn statement taken last Thursday is at odds with news reports and public comments he made while serving as deputy treasurer in Topinka’s tumultuous first year in the treasurer’s office. […]

Kovarik said in his sworn statement the [hotel loan deal] settlement was “structured in my absence” and he “was not in on part of the deal.”

But in news reports at that time, Kovarik was cited as Topinka’s lead negotiator in the settlement with the hotels’ investors. In a May 14, 1995, Associated Press story, Kovarik recalled discussing the deal with the hotels’ attorneys while he sat smoking a miniature cigar at a conference table in the treasurer’s Chicago office. […]

In his sworn statement, Kovarik also contended that Topinka ordered him to tell her press secretary to shred a list of the hotels’ investors, including Downstate GOP powerbroker Bill Cellini, that she had promised to make public. Kovarik said the order was made in a phone call from Topinka’s home to Jim Howard, who was one of her press aides.

“What do you want him to do with it?” Kovarik said he asked Topinka. In his sworn statement, he said she replied, “I don’t care. Shred the damn thing.”

But in news reports at the time, Howard said he and Kovarik alone discussed the list of investors in a meeting in Kovarik’s office. Howard did not return telephone calls on Monday.

And on, and on, and on, and on. Read the whole thing, even though they left out a lot of problems with this statement that I had in today’s Capitol Fax, wherein I referred to Kovarik’s statement as having more holes in it than Dick Cheney’s hunting buddy.

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Protected: For Capitol Fax subscribers only - full Kovarik statement and other campaign updates

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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6th District open thread

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

We haven’t had a good knock-down, drag-out here for several days over the 6th Congressional District race. Let’s start it off with a recent Lynn Sweet column on the low turnout at a recent Duckworth event.

It was snowing Sunday afternoon, and cold in north suburban Roselle, so I concede upfront that the weather impacted the turnout at a “family fun festival” campaign event for Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth.

There is a saying in politics: If you want a big crowd, book a small room. The classroom in the basement of a Roselle Park District building at 555 Byrn Mawr had space to spare.

During the course of more than an hour, no more than 20 adults showed up, not counting Duckworth staff and children, and I may be overestimating the size of the crowd.

It’s not that the Duckworth campaign did not try to round up folks; I was hanging around her storefront headquarters in a Lombard strip mall Saturday afternoon, and I listened as about six volunteers spent hours making calls to drum up a Sunday audience.

This is a 6th District open thread. What’s going on lately?

(Updated to add the name “Lynn Sweet” because somebody in comments actually claimed that I had lifted her column and used it as my own without attribution, even though I never even hinted that it was mine and there was a link to her column in the original post. Ridiculous.)

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Oberweis talks about ending FOID card system

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m surprised it took him this long.

Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis sought to bolster his 2nd Amendment credentials on Sunday, telling visitors to a gun shop near Rockford that he would explore a repeal of the state’s firearm owner’s identification card law. […]

“I’m not sure what real purpose it serves,” Oberweis said of the FOID cards, which are required to buy a firearm in Illinois and require a card holder to undergo an initial state police background check.

“Why do we need them?” Oberweis asked later. “Most states don’t have them. You can use your driver’s license.”

He also said background checks of gun purchasers were “reasonable” but said he felt “satisfied” with current gun laws. Oberweis’ fellow conservative in the race, Brady, has already called for a repeal of the FOID card law.

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Guv hasn’t met with GOP leaders in weeks

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Republicans are complaining that the governor is cutting them out.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich will need Republican support for his $3.3 billion school and road construction plan, but he hasn’t been seeing GOP lawmakers personally to work things out. […]

Patty Schuh, Senate Republican spokeswoman, said it has been over a month since the governor met with Senate Republicans.

It has been six weeks since he met with House Minority Leader Tom Cross, said spokesman David Dring.

At the same time, Blagojevich has held a number of press conferences promoting his plan, including one Monday in Rochester, where local school officials have been waiting for state funding to build additions on to the elementary school and high school, replace the junior high school and build a performing arts center. […]

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said staff members have been meeting with various Republicans to work out the details.

That rally in Rochester resulted in this news report.

Governor Rod Blagojevich asks high school students to urge lawmakers to pass his capital improvements bill. Blagojevich says his $3.2 billion dollar capital bill includes money for school construction. In 2002, the state promised Rochester schools more than ten million dollars to build new schools, but the district has yet to receive the money. Even if lawmakers don’t fully fund the governor’s capital bill, Rochester is first on the list to get whatever money the legislature appropriates.

UPDATE:The rally also produced this priceless Doug Finke lede:

Unable to get enough grown-ups in the General Assembly to approve his construction bond program, Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked for help Monday from people too young to vote.

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Morning shorts

Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Ron Gidwitz has a new TV ad, and it’s pretty good (wvx file). The ad touts his strong Tribune endorsement.

Â· Is a compromise brewing between the CTA and Citgo? The CTA turned down an offer of millions of dollars worth of free diesel from the Venezuelan-owned company, but there may be progress, according to CTA Tattler. “Essentially, CTA staff is suggesting that the CTA give Citgo 200,000 30-day passes — $15,000,000 worth — in exchange for $15,000,000 in cash.”

Â· Safe for work nakedness (mov file). Tim Davlin is just one of those featured in this funny short film from Grace Uncensored.

Â· OneMan comes up with a spiffy new TV ad concept.

Â· Aurora to lazy residents: Tear down those Christmas decorations! (Hat tip: Governing.com blog)

Â· Here’s one I missed from the other day, “Driver card for illegal immigrants rejected.”

Â· 8th Congressional District Repubs split on how to handle immigration.

Â· Churchill plays up his experience in 8th District race.

Â· Internet political donations are soaring.

Â· Ryan trial roundup.

Â· Republican lieutenant governor candidate Sandy Wegman has a new radio ad in which she attacks not her opponents but gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka. It’s a must-listen. (Hat tip: Family Taxpayers Network)

Â· Life in the Tribune’s DC “superbureau.” (Hat tip: fishbowlDC)

Â· I agree. This is pretty cool.

Â· The Decatur Herald & Review’s Letters to the Editor Blog is still going well. Very well. Go check it out. More newspapers should be doing this while they continue trying to figure out how to convert their old media staff to new media. It makes sense.

Â· CTA workers authorize strike.

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Afternoon shorts

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· The Daily Herald has an afternoon update from the George Ryan trial.

Former Gov. George Ryan is a corrupt politician who repeatedly lied about trading state contracts to cronies in return for gifts and condoned illegal licenses-for-campaign contributions schemes to live large and protect the â€œpot of goldâ€ that was his campaign fund, a federal prosecutor alleged today during the first day of closing arguments in Ryan’s five-month corruption trial.

Read the whole thing. It’s very good.

Â· Edwin Eisendrath just reported a $500,000 contribution from his mom.

Â· Eisendrath compares Blagojevich to Bush.

Â· Jim Oberweis has posted several documents that he claims back up his TV ads. More on this in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.

Â· Supremes reject judicial ethics case.

Â· From a Bill Brady press release:

Sen. Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, today called for a debate on ethics with the contenders for the Republican gubernatorial nomination to clear the air on allegations, half-truths and innuendo.

Â· From a David McSweeney press release:

David McSweeney, candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, will be joined on the campaign trail by former US Senator Peter Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald will be the headliner at a fundraising event in the early afternoon and then a “meet and greet” in Palatine on Wednesday March 8th.

Â· Jack Roeser claims he “knew Marty Kovarik only casually while he was employed by Topinka but have not seen or spoken to him since.”

Â· Chicagoist has a funny post up. Read the whole thing.

Best Performance by a Robot: Edwin Eisendrath. Eisendrathâ€™s unnatural hand movements, stilted speaking style, fake smile, and way of looking just to the side of the camera kept us from listening to anything he actually said.

Dumbest Reason to Vote for a Candidate: Rod Blagojevich. Blago gets the nod because he wants us to vote for him for having another kid. Oh yeah, and he’s a little bit wiser now.

Best Use of Truthiness: Jim Oberweis. Oberweisâ€™ March commercials attacking Topinka feature made-up newspaper headlines. His campaign manager said the â€œtext is excerptedâ€ from stories in the papers, but that isnâ€™t really the case. […]

Best Performance by a Politician in a Supporting Role: Forrest Claypool. His mere two words of â€œBE SPECIFIC!â€ played over and over again in a commercial for John Stroger still haunt us.

Â· Bill Baar has sparked a lively discussion over at Illinoize about the 6th Congressional District and what it means for the Democratic Party. And Pat Hickey has a good one going about the 3rd District primary race.

Â· AFSCME press release:

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 will release a report on service quality in the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services at 11:00 a.m.
tomorrow (Tuesday, March 7) in the State Capitol blue room. AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer will be joined by a group of frontline child protection workers to present the report and discuss its findings.

The report follows last Thursday’s overwhelming bipartisan vote in the Senate to approve the State Services Assurance Act. That bill, SB 2674, would set minimum staffing standards for state prisons and mental health centers and create oversight groups to determine standards for other key agencies, including DCFS.

Â· Jack Roeser has just dumped $80,000 into the Family Taxpayers Network. The group is backing a handful of legislative candidates as well as Oberweis.

Â· Here’s something funny. The Oberweis campaign gave out the wrong contact number for Marty Kovairk. Some poor guy in Wisconsin has been getting tons of calls today. Oops. He seems to be taking it in good humor, however.

Â· Andy Shaw has a report up about the Topinka thing.

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Question of the day

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Rate your own state legislators, both House and Senate. Details please, both praise and criticism. And please write only about your own state legislators, not someone else’s.

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Protected: Campaign roundup for Capitol Fax subscribers only - Check today’s edition for the password

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Hard to defend

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is yet another story in a long line of stories that illustrate just how difficult it is to defend Gov. Blagojevich’s decision to divert millions of dollars from special funds.

The state plans to divert 16% of the funding for new railroad crossing gates to administrative expenses to help prop up the state’s cash-strapped general fund. Illinois Railroad Assn. President Joseph Ciaccio called said the diversion would jeopardize highway safety. A spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Management and Budget said the crossing gate fund has “plenty of reoccurring revenue and can continue to do what they’ve always done.”

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Poshard gets more

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Hard to argue with success.

Two months after taking the reins of Southern Illinois University, clout-heavy Glenn Poshard has the school in position for the greatest increase in state funding for 2007.

That puts Northern Illinois University and the stateâ€™s seven other public universities at a financial disadvantage in a year when the state is prepared to give them relatively few dollars.

Lawmakers who have NIU in their district are crying foul, alleging that all the university presidents agreed to a flat 1.5 percent increase in general funding for all schools. They say it was politics that put SIU ahead of everybody with a 1.9 percent bump..

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Morning shorts - flashback edition

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

For those of you who didn’t visit the blog over the weekend (we’re a 7-day per week thing until primary day), here’s some of what you missed.

FRIDAY EVENING:

I heard a few hours ago that Edwin Eisendrathâ€™s campaign was calling around to TV stations today asking about broadcast ad rates. With everything else going on, I couldnâ€™t follow up.

Now comes word that Eisendrath was talking earlier this week about spending a million dollars on a late buy.

SATURDAY:

Â· Sunday edition of the Tribune has a Gidwitz endorsemnt and the Sunday Sun-Times endorses Topinka. Steve Rauschenberger was endorsed by both papers.

Â· Bill Brady just took out a bank loan for $250,000.

Â· Post-Dispatch story points out that a verdict decision for George Ryan could happen right before primary day, and wonders how that might impact the race.

SUNDAY:

Â· Check out this at the bottom of todayâ€™s Sun-Times endorsement of Judy Baar Topinka:

This endorsement represents the view of the Sun-Times News Group of 100 newspapers in the Chicago metro area.

Thatâ€™s a lot of papers. The Southtown, all of the Star papers and the Pioneer Press papers, as well as the Joliet Herald News, Aurora Beacon News, Elgin Courier News, Waukegan News Sun and the Naperville Sun.

Â· Daily Herald endorses Blagojevich, Giannoulias, Champaign News-Gazette endorses Bill Brady and Edwin Eisendrath.

Â· Kristen McQueary discovers whom the governor really blames for not knowing that The Daily Show is a comedy thing.

â€œIâ€™m not so sure I would have done the interview. The deputy governor (Bradley Tusk) takes responsibility, as well he should, because heâ€™s the one who didnâ€™t tell me.â€

Â· Meeks report, from a longtime reader:

â€¦by the way reading your meeks stuff, [redacted] and I watched his service this morning which is broadcast on local cable, I tell you from his sermon that guy is running, it was quite a bashing of both GOP and DEMs, he really had the place rocking [â€¦]

He said by his calculations the black man would not have parity with the white man until something like 3086 and he wasnâ€™t going to wait, he wanted to bring the black community with him to fight for what they deserve and bashed the War in Iraq and the money spent, bashed Springfield

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This Topinka thing

Monday, Mar 6, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Eleven years ago, Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s press spokesman, Jim Howard, claimed that Deputy Treasurer Marty Kovarik ordered him to shred an important document. This is from a Jun 27, 1995 Post-Dispatch story that’s behind the archives firewall:

When Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka unveiled a plan to forgive $30 million in bad loans to two state-financed hotels, she promised to make public a list of all the investors if she could find their names.

But when a list of those names surfaced, Topinka’s second-in-command had different plans for it, according to Jim Howard, a former spokesman for the treasurer’s office.

Howard claims that Deputy Treasurer Martin Kovarik and another of Topinka’s top aides ordered him to destroy the document relating to the controversial loan-forgiveness deal that funded construction of hotels in Collinsville and Springfield.

“He said . . . `I’ve never seen it; shred it,’ ” Howard said in an interview Monday with the Post-Dispatch.

Later Monday, Kovarik denied giving the shredding order, and he suggested that Howard was merely trying to drum up publicity for his possible run for a congressional seat. […]

[Howard continued] “I went down to Marty’s office . . . closed the door, and I said, `There’s something we need to talk about; the list was found.’ . . . He looked at me at that point and said, `I’ve never seen it; shred it.’

“I walked straight out of the building, realizing at the instant he told me to shred it that I probably would have to leave,” Howard said.

Last week, Kovarik went to the Oberweis campaign (Kovarik has had a long personal relationship with Jack Roeser) with a new version of the story.

Kovarik also alleged publicly for the first time that in April 1995 Topinka instructed him during a phone call to order her then-spokesman Jim Howard to â€œget rid ofâ€ a list of politically connected investors in a controversial hotel loan.

â€œI donâ€™t want to see it. I donâ€™t want to have anything to do with it,â€ Kovarik quoted Topinka as saying. â€œI told everybody that it wasnâ€™t around. Get rid of it.â€

â€œWhat do you want him to do with it,â€ Kovarik said he asked Topinka.

â€œI donâ€™t care. Shred the damn thing,â€ Kovarik said Topinka responded.

Topinka said the idea to shred the list was Kovarikâ€™s, not hers and denied she ever ordered Kovarik to tell Howard to shred the list.

This thing with Kovarik isn’t pretty. He claims the two were lovers, which greatly complicates matters. He eventually resigned after it became known that he owed lots of back taxes and Topinka took out a mortgage on her home to pay it off. Basically, she wanted him out of the office and out of her life.

Topinka claims that Kovarik later sent her an e-mail threatening to destroy her political career, a charge he denied to one news outlet. Stay tuned on that one.

Kovarik has also leveled some other claims about political work on state time, discussed in today’s Capitol Fax, that his targets will flatly deny today.

I went through all that stuff back in ‘95 (Topinka wouldn’t talk to me for years after what I wrote), and my advice to all is take a deep breath and remove the tinfoil hats. There’s plenty more to come, including Jim Howard’s comments.

UPDATE: One of the women whom Kovarik accused of doing campaign work on state time was apparently an employee of the Topinka campaign, and not the state. All have sent a letter from their attorney to Kovarik. More in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.

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