* Newsweek took a look at Gov. Rauner’s anti-union moves and concluded its story with this quote…
…Roberta Lynch, executive director of AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois, says Rauner’s efforts are supplemented by “unprecedented resources” and “an incredible level of coordination” involving anonymous donors funding a network of self-described “policy institutes” now operating in every state.
She also says the Illinois governor harbors “pure, unalloyed hatred and [a] Darth Vader destruction fantasy” toward the state’s unions, and predicts Rauner’s “dangerous obsession” will backfire with Illinois voters. “We have a $4 billion deficit in this state, and he has no plans to address it. He spends his time running around the state every day launching attacks on unions. That’s how he spends his time.”
Um, wow.
Those contract negotiations are going swimmingly, I presume
* Actually, I told subscribers last week about a rare behind the scenes look provided by AFSCME itself…
Negotiations show governor’s real agenda – Negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement for state employees got off to a late start. Then they got thrown dramatically off course when, on the very first day of bargaining, the Rauner Administration flagrantly violated the current agreement by issuing an Executive Order (EO) to bar Fair Share fees.
That EO’s stated aim is “preventing Illinois state employee unions from using…fair share fees to influence wages, pensions, and benefits that are….subjects of collective bargaining under the Illinois Labor Act.” In other words: trying to hamper unions’ ability to negotiate strong, fair contracts. And now that negotiations have gotten underway, it’s clear that Rauner’s effort to weaken unions in state government is the Number One goal of his representatives at the bargaining table.
As is normally the case, negotiations are first addressing only non-economic issues, such as health and safety, grievance procedure, hours of work, layoff protections, seniority, subcontracting, or discipline. Management is proposing dozens of changes to key sections of the contract, all with one overriding aim: to undo decades of progress in shaping working conditions for state employees that are safe, humane and fair. To achieve that goal, they are also seeking contractual changes that would drastically undermine the union’s ability to safeguard employee rights.
Gov. Rauner has said his goal is to eliminate all union membership in Illinois within the next four years. He’s also pushing privatization of public services. No doubt state employees are at the very top of his hit list on both counts. He’s putting out misleading information about state employee wages and benefits (which AFSCME has already discredited!). And the proposals he’s making at the bargaining table, even before discussions of economic issues begin, make all too clear his hostility toward state employees and the vital work we do.
Your AFSCME Bargaining Committee – more than 200 democratically elected rank-and-file members – is determined to stand fast against this onslaught. But this is not a fight that can be won solely at the bargaining table. It will require the involvement of every union member in every corner of this state – standing up and standing together. It will also involve reaching out to your friends and family to let them know what the governor is trying to do and to enlist their support. Your local Bargaining Committee members and your local’s Member Action Team will keep you informed about the progress of negotiations and how you can join in the critical battle to defend your union contract.
Oof.
* Meanwhile, the governor’s office added to its “Coalition of the Willing” today…
Hi, Rich –
Another update:
Heyworth passed the governor’s Turnaround Agenda Resolution. It is attached.
Best,
If you didn’t know, Heyworth is in McLean County and has a population of 2,841.
* And the National Review looks at the latest developments in Kentucky…
Now a dozen counties in Kentucky — including three of the ten largest in the state — allow workers to choose for themselves whether to pay union dues. Local laws now protect half a million Kentuckians from forced union dues. Unions have filed suit in federal district court.
Hardin County (the county the unions sued) just filed their motion for summary judgment. Final arguments are due in to the court in early May; the judge will rule sometime thereafter.
The Marshall County Board wants former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock to pay the $76,000 in unbudgeted county costs for special elections to fill the 18th Congressional District seat he abandoned.
The board voted unanimously Thursday to send the Peoria Republican a letter requesting the reimbursement. Schock resigned last month following controversy over his use of taxpayer and campaign funds.
The costs for the special primary and general election have been estimated at $38,000 each, officials said. In a vein somewhat similar to a collection letter, the board offers Schock options of sending either the full amount or an agreement stating that he will pay later. […]
“Schock has more money (in that fund) than the county has in its reserves,” [State’s Attorney Paul Bauer] said.
According to the Comptroller’s website, Marshall County had $3.6 million in general reserves at the end of Fiscal Year 2014, up from $3.5 million the year before. Not a bad little pile of cash for a county of 12,000 people. It was sitting on another $2.9 million in “special revenue” reserves, about the same as the year before.
So, while this is a fun little publicity pop, the county can clearly afford to pay for the special elections. Reserves are supposed to be for unintended expenses. These specials certainly qualify.
The number of inmates from local jails transferred into the state prison system and sent home the same day — referred to as a “turnaround” — has tripled in the past five years. The number increased from about 330 in 2010 to about 1,000 in 2014, according to state prison figures prepared Feb. 13 for the maximum-security Northern Reception and Classification Center outside of Joliet.
Turnarounds last year accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 17,181 prisoners processed through the center. It cost about $800,000 to process those 1,000 individuals, including expenses for staff, DNA tests, meals, clothing, and train or bus money for transportation home, according to a Tribune analysis.
So, they’re sending mainly Cook County prisoners all the way to Joliet for a DNA sample and paperwork only to be released the same day? The state couldn’t just pay the county to do that, or station some DOC employees at the jail?
A Tribune analysis shows that from October through January, 331 prisoners from Cook County spent a combined total of about 23,000 extra days beyond their sentences unnecessarily locked up at the jail. Delays in the court system occur for many reasons, including judges and lawyers not moving cases, and because of legal maneuvering.
Smith said it costs $143 a day to house an inmate in the jail, meaning the extended stays cost county taxpayers about $3.3 million.
It doesn’t actually cost the county $3.3 million because of fixed costs. But the judicial/prosecutorial/defense delays in dealing with mostly minor offenders is just ridiculous in Cook.
America’s relationship with its mentally ill population continues to suffer as a result of inadequacies in the country’s mental health care system.
For the mentally ill in Chicago, the effects of this inadequacy are felt on a magnified scale, as budget cuts and a lack of community-based mental health resources have left these individuals with minimal support. More often than not, this means being repeatedly swept up into the criminal justice system for low-level, non-violent crimes
VICE News takes an immersive look at this issue by going inside the Cook County Jail and speaking with community members on Chicago’s south side.
Hey Rich, I wanted to get this to you on the record, concerning the turnaround figures out of Cook County.
The IDOC is required by law to take offenders into its custody and process their discharge or release to MSR. The IDOC must take the offender’s picture, take a DNA sample, assign an IDOC number, process parole paperwork, assign a parole agent, verify parole host site, send an offender to medical to see if he needs a prescription, if he does, we provide a two weeks supply of medication. The IDOC will incur the costs of releasing a person on the same day whether he or she is processed at the NRC or at the Cook County Jail. There are an average of four turnarounds per day out of Cook County. We would have to pay for the staff at Cook County and backfill the positions at the NRC for processing offenders who come from other counties. There is insufficient justification for hiring additional staff to handle an average of four turnarounds a day. When you remove the staffing costs, we’re looking at a hard number of $56 per turnaround, which includes gate money, transportation money, shoes, clothing, and meals.
The bigger issue is how long it’s taking the court system to take an individual from arrest to conviction and sentencing. A change in statute might prove efficient if it mandates judges to order time served for offenders who have completed their sentence in the county jail.
* Adriana Cardona-Maguigad has written a fascinating story about Puerto Rico municipalities giving heroin addicts one-way airline tickets to Chicago, where the addicts often end up in unlicensed, unregulated “treatment” centers, and then, eventually, on the streets. Read it all.
* Gov. Rauner invited Oscar the Puppy to the mansion yesterday afternoon for a play date with his two dogs, Pumpkin and Stella. The dogs had a great time, playing and running throughout the Executive Mansion grounds for well over 2 hours. Pumpkin, who is 15 and somewhat disabled, did the best she could to keep up and Oscar seemed to respect her age. That was a relief to me because Oscar has, in the past, aggravated some older dogs with his boundless desire for play. Having Stella around helped, I think.
I was also relieved that Oscar avoided the chicken coop. Yes, Pat Quinn’s coop is still there. Stella and Pumpkin are highly trained bird dogs, so they’ve mostly stayed away from the chickens. Oscar ain’t exactly highly trained to do much of anything.
* The governor and I agreed that our entire conversation (which I’d describe as often brutally frank, yet mostly quite pleasant) would be off the record, but he said he’d be happy to take a photo with Oscar that I could post.
Unfortunately, we both forgot about the pic until after I left.
Oops.
* So, here’s one of Oscar from Saturday. The little guy was curled up in one of his favorite nooks in our house, where he can sit and watch the squirrels play outside…
A proposal to extend the temporary medical marijuana program doesn’t have Gov. Bruce Rauner’s support.
“The governor believes there is a lot of time left to evaluate a pilot program, and we should not extend the program until it has been fully evaluated,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in an email.
Rep. Lou Lang, the Skokie Democrat who championed the medical marijuana law and is now working to keep the temporary and delayed program in place for more time, said he was asked by officials in Rauner’s administration to hold off on filing a bill seeking more time for the program.
But the bill was filed and it’s making progress, clearing committee and now scheduled to be heard by the House. All of the Republicans on the committee voted against the bill last month, with one not voting. […]
The pilot program has been in effect for nearly a year and a half, but no marijuana has been sold to patients. Permits to grow marijuana were handed out last month.
The current four-year pilot program expires in 2017. Lang’s bill would extend the pilot program four years from when the first dispensary opens.
* The Question: Should the state’s medical marijuana pilot program be extended during this spring’s session, or should the GA wait a while longer to see how things work out? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Republican Mark Zalcman formally withdrew his candidacy from the upcoming special election for the 18th District Congressional vacancy today.
With only 19 days granted to gather slightly more than 1000 valid voter signatures in order to gain ballot access, Zalcman stated that he was forced to withdra because he could not have reached the required number in the 19 days granted by the Governor Bruce Rauner. […]
He states that this was “done purposely by the Governor to insure that Darin LaHood would not have to face any grassroots opposition in the campaign.”
* But there is one loose end still out there. From an oppo dump and a subsequent Google search comes the case of Kendrick Weatherspoon…
Weatherspoon was convicted in 2003 of being a felon in possession of a gun. On appeal, the court said Assistant U.S. Attorney Darin LaHood made improper statements during closing arguments. The court decided there was prosecutorial misconduct because LaHood vouched for the credibility of witnesses and encouraged the jury to convict in order to alleviate social problems.
The 32-page opinion said LaHood engaged in the same kind of vouching in two other cases in which convictions were overturned. (The U.S. attorney’s office later persuaded the appellate court to delete references to LaHood’s name and lose the term “recidivist conduct,” replacing it with “repeat-offender conduct,” which still sounds more like a criminal than a prosecutor.) […]
The court kicked the Weatherspoon case back for a new trial based on LaHood’s misconduct, and Weatherspoon pleaded guilty. […]
LaHood was “overworked and overwhelmed,” another prosecutor said. LaHood had four years of experience as a state prosecutor in Illinois, but both prosecutors said he needed better supervision in the federal system and didn’t get it, just as Bogden had admitted.
Kendrick Weatherspoon was convicted in 2003 in U.S. District Court in Nevada of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial in 2005 because prosecutor Darin LaHood had made improper arguments at trial. LaHood told jurors they should believe the police officers who testified against Weatherspoon and should convict him because it would “make you comfortable knowing there’s not convicted felons carrying around semiautomatics.” The case was the third in two years in which the Appeals Court said improper statements by LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, required it to overturn a conviction. […]
Weatherspoon had been sentenced originally to 10 years in federal prison. After the court overturned his conviction, the government entered a plea agreement with Weatherspoon, and he was sentenced to three years instead. Weatherspoon, who had been remanded in October 2003, was released in June 2006 on time served. Just two months after being freed, he tested positive for marijuana, a violation of his supervised release. Weatherspoon was subsequently returned to prison for 15 months. At the request of the U.S. attorney’s office, the Appeals Court deleted the name of LaHood, the prosecutor, from its opinion.
When invalidating LaHood’s work on the case, Circuit Judge Stephen Trott—himself a former federal prosecutor—said LaHood crossed the line by arguing that jurors convict the accused in order to protect the community from an armed convicted felon.
“Trott’s politely brutal opinion,” the Las Vegas Review reported in 2009, “said Bogden recognized LaHood’s mistakes and ascribed them to lack of supervision on the part of Bogden’s office and LaHood’s lack of training and experience. Bogden told the court LaHood’s errors were because of a management failure in his office.”
Even though LaHood had four years of experience as a state prosecutor in Illinois, “he needed better supervision in the federal system and didn’t get it,” Nevada U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden said.
LaHood’s discredited tactic seems to denote an anti-gun sentiment behind his arguments.
* This was also an issue when LaHood unsuccessfully ran for Peoria County State’s Attorney. From a 2007 interview…
Toward the end of our lunch, LaHood volunteered some criticism he expects to get from his opponent. There was a case he tried in Las Vegas that was overturned on appeal because of “prosecutorial misconduct.” The case was called United States v. Weatherspoon, and you can read the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion here. It was a 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel.
The “misconduct” to which the ruling refers is something called “vouching.” It’s where the prosecutor vouches for the credibility of the witnesses (in this case, police officers) in the case. To a layman like me, this sounds like no big deal, but apparently in legal circles it’s a no-no. Such an action “plac[es] the prestige of the government behind a witness,” and thus prejudices the jury against the defendant. It “invites the jury ‘to trust the Government’s judgment rather than its own view of the evidence.’”
In his defense to me, LaHood stated that he “makes no apologies” for being “aggressive” in his prosecutions. He said he had prosecuted over 1,000 cases and had only been reversed three times. The Ninth Circuit, he explained, is one of the most liberal appeals courts in the country (they were the ones who famously said that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional), and other courts have found that statements like the ones he made were not considered vouching. He encouraged me and anyone else concerned about this issue to read the ruling for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
In today’s Indiana, 27 percent of jobs are in occupations that pay below poverty, a national organization, the Working Poor Families Project, has reported.
Largely as a result of such forces, median incomes in Indiana have fallen 12 percent since 2007, U.S. Census figures show. And low-income workers were hit hardest. A Brookings Institute analysis found an earnings decline of more than 25 percent in lower-income Indianapolis households.
Replace Bruce Rauner as Keynote Speaker for SIU Graduation 2015
SIUC President Randy Dunn stated the impact of Rauner’s proposed budget cuts would slash $62 million from the SIU system, $44 million of which would be cut from SIU Carbondale specifically. Rauner’s budget proposal would set SIU back to funding levels comparable to the 1985-86 school year, and potentially cause up to a 6% increase in tuition. Choosing him as a keynote speaker is a slap in the face to SIU students and faculty who already deal with underfunded programs and facilities.
Graduation should celebrate not only the achievements of students as individuals, but the institution of SIU as a whole. How can anyone be expected to celebrate progress when our keynote speaker is someone who only intends to set us back?
Despite the petition, university officials and some students say the appearance could end up being a good thing.
“The petition is just one more reason why we should welcome the governor in may.” said SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith on Saturday, “Hopefully we can make an impression on him during his visit, reflecting what the cuts mean to our campus.” […]
“Governor Rauner got put into a tough spot coming in” said SIU student and SIU College of Engineering student government rep. Matt Schmidlin, “it’s a double edged sword, meaning that, I think he does have good intentions coming down and actually wanting to see what’s going on in the university. I really hope when he comes down, he makes the most of his time - if he still decides to still be the commencement speaker for us - and actually take a look at what might be cut here.”
Political analyst David Yepsen has said the Illinois budget has been in need of drastic action since before the governor took office, and even University president Randy Dunn agrees that some cuts will be needed for the benefit of the whole state.
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Students organize statewide rally: Friday, 11 ISU students will lead groups from colleges across Illinois in a protest in Springfield against the proposed additional budget cuts
Rep. Bill Foster, of Naperville, announced Friday that he will not challenge Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in 2016 and instead is backing another Democrat, Rep. Tammy Duckworth.
Foster, a physicist, said in a statement he wanted to avoid a “costly and, ultimately unnecessary, primary” election.
He said he will serve as co-chairman of Duckworth’s finance committee to help her raise cash for her race.
The Democratic establishment is rapidly coalescing behind Duckworth and Foster didn’t bring much to the table except his personal wealth, which wasn’t enough to compete at that level anyway.
* Meanwhile, from a press release…
Tom Cullerton, a first term state Senator from Villa Park, announced that he is starting his exploratory campaign to represent middle-class families of Illinois’ 8th Congressional District.
“I am exploring a run for Congress because I want to make sure working families like mine have a voice in Washington,” Cullerton said. “I know what it’s like to wake up at 3 a.m., punch a time clock at 4:30a.m. and put in a hard days work. From the crippling cost of college to the shrinking opportunities for our next generation, I will use my blue collar work ethic to fix the problems the middle class faces. It’s a common experience that many people in the 8th district share but a unique experience in Congress. That is something that needs to change.”
Cullerton beat a 24-year Republican incumbent in 2012, making him the first Democrat ever elected to the state Senate from DuPage County. Before serving in the Illinois Senate, Cullerton served as Village President of Villa Park while working as a route salesman for Hostess Brands. Cullerton believes that his experience as a card carrying union member will be a unique perspective in Congress.
Cullerton’s candidacy sparked early endorsements from local labor and elected officials, including Assistant Majority Leader Senator Tony Munoz and Carol Stream Mayor Frank Saverino.
“I have seen Tom grow into an effective legislator, who can work across party lines while preserving his Democratic values,” said Munoz. “Tom’s skillset will be missed in the state Senate, but I am confident that he will help break the gridlock in Washington and move our country forward.”
“Tom has been a champion of the Western Suburbs for more than a decade. He clearly understands the issues our families and businesses face.” Saverino said. “His leadership made the Elgin-O’Hare Western Access project a reality, bringing economic growth to the region that was desperately need. We need people like him leading in Washington.”
Cullerton is a Veteran of the United States Army serving as an 11H TOW Gunner and combat medic until being honorably discharged in 1993. After moving to DuPage County, Cullerton decided to become active in the community. He formed and served as a captain a local neighborhood watch. He also became a member of the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion, and coaches little league.
* Last week, however, one of Cullerton’s Senate colleagues backed another candidate…
State Senator Dan Kotowski (D-28th District) and dozens of local Democratic leaders and activists today announced their support of Raja Krishnamoorthi’s candidacy to replace Rep. Tammy Duckworth in Congress.
“Raja offers meaningful solutions to protect working families and shares my commitment to help people in our community achieve the American Dream,” said Kotowski, a Democrat whose state legislative district includes parts of the 8th Congressional District of Illinois.
Kotowski’s district includes Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Roselle and Schaumburg.
* Phil Kadner writes about local reaction to the governor’s “Turnaround Agenda,” which includes several anti-union provisions, including so-called “right to work zones.” As you already know, the governor wants local governments to pass resolutions in support of his agenda…
Like all of the [Republican] mayors I have spoken with, [Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland] is under the impression that the governor’s turnaround agenda is a “take it or leave it” proposition.
“My understanding is that the language is non-negotiable,” he said. “The governor didn’t use those exact words, but that’s definitely the impression we’ve all gotten.”
Einhorn has not met personally with the governor, but he said the executive committee of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, which did meet with Rauner, also communicated to him that the governor’s turnaround resolution was to be adopted as written by his office staff.
“That’s simply not realistic and I doubt the governor meant it that way,” Einhorn said. “You can’t dictate to other government entities. No one does that. Everything is negotiable. And I would think that if the governor wants our support, if he wants a letter he can take to legislators to Springfield that says we support his goals, he would be happy to accept whatever we pass that demonstrates that sort of support.” […]
[New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann], who met with the governor along with other Will County mayors, said he also was under the impression that the items in the turnaround agenda were non-negotiable.
“We have no plan to vote on this right now,” Baldermann said.
* But things may be changing. Last week, for example, the Republican-dominated Winnebago County Board passed a heavily edited Rauner resolution…
(T)he board’s resolution excluded Rauner’s anti-union items, such as “fair share” dues for workers who don’t join a government union, and ending prevailing wage provisions for construction projects.
“We just felt that items like fair share and prevailing wage have to be settled on a higher level. We don’t feel it’s realistic to expect much is going to be done on those items,” Christiansen said.
[Rauner] said he would pitch the “huge, huge” savings cities could get if they could push and benefit from the turnaround agenda, including “local control of collective bargaining and unionization, local control of prevailing wage and project labor agreements.”
“A number of mayors have said to me, ‘Bruce, you deliver those two things for me, I’m not that worried,’ ” he said, adding, “Now, not every mayor has said that, but many have.”
The administration is expecting lots more municipalities will climb on board in the next few weeks. We’ll see.
The obvious idea here is to try and leverage the powers of local officials to prod legislators to do the governor’s bidding and gives him some PR backing. That’s a good plan in and of itself, but this is such a huge mountain to climb that even if he and his staff manages to convince lots of municipalities to sign on (and that’s still a big if), it won’t necessarily pass a bill.
* Rick Pearson has a pretty good take on what newly reelected Mayor Rahm Emanuel needs from the state to help balance his budget, including a discussion of the city’s looming pension costs. Go read the whole thing, but here’s a little nugget that didn’t get much play last week…
.
In a new development last week, the Illinois Department of Transportation warned cities across the state that they would see a $27.5 million cut in their share of state motor fuel tax payments, equal to about $1 per resident. It’s part of a deal struck by Rauner and lawmakers to use road construction money to plug other gaps in the current year’s state budget.
* Greg Hinz also takes a look at what Emanuel may want…
Emanuel can forget about getting the state to chip in more for Chicago teachers’ pensions. Not going to happen. But Rauner seems open to a new casino that could provide the city $100 million a year. And he and Emanuel both have talked about “modernizing,” “expanding” or otherwise widening the state’s sales tax to cover more services, with the city receiving a healthy cut of the take.
Of course, Rauner will exact a price. It likely will include tacit acceptance of some of the budget cuts he’s been proposing. More recently, he seems to be signaling that he also will require support for some of his anti-union initiatives. Could Emanuel see his way to put some Democratic votes toward, say, further reforms in the workers’ compensation system? Maybe.
Regardless, Emanuel almost certainly must raise property taxes, as I suggested in my last column. And there, too, he will need Rauner. Not to raise taxes per se but to implement something Emanuel’s campaign floated a few weeks ago and then abruptly pulled off the table: a big boost in the homestead exemption so that low- and moderate-income homeowners are pretty much exempted from any property tax hike that comes down. Such a bill could end up being good politics for both men.
“There is going to be substantial movement in Springfield one way or another,” [City Treasurer Kurt Summers] said. “Some of the ideas, we’re not going to see this session. Period. Some of them we are but they are going to be a part of a larger structural change.”
Summers says there’s a bill nearing passage in Springfield that that would give Teachers Pension Funds their own tax levy. No, says Summers, that doesn’t mean higher property taxes.
What it does mean, he says, is that school systems couldn’t delay payments to their pension funds to pay for other things.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is scaling back his legislative agenda, but only in terms of the number of bills in which it’s contained. He once said it would take six to eight bills to advance his so-called “turnaround agenda.” That’s now down to four pieces of legislation, but Rauner says that doesn’t mean he’s dropping any of his proposed reforms. “Right now we’ve got it in four buckets—pension reform, economic growth pro-job creation reform, government reform and ethics and conflict of interest reform,” Rauner said.
“We’ve got it in four buckets. We can divide those into eight bills, 10 bills, or three bills, it’s really a function of what the legislature prefers. The key is we get this legislation done now. It’s a four-month agenda, not just a four-year agenda. It’s right now. We need the votes taken this spring.”
Rauner has been touring the state promoting his “turnaround agenda.” He wants changes to workers’ compensation and civil liability laws, right-to-work zones for communities that choose them, changes to project labor agreements for public works projects, and limits on property tax increases.
Rauner said the various proposals have been drafted into legislation, but they are not yet ready to go before lawmakers for consideration.
“We will introduce those when the leaders say we should introduce them,” Rauner said. “I don’t know when that’s going to be.”
state court restores fair share fees while union case is pending
A Circuit Court judge has issued an Agreed Order requiring state agencies to immediately reinstate the transmission of ‘fair share’ fees deducted from employee paychecks.
On March 5, the Illinois AFL-CIO and 26 unions representing more than 40,000 Illinois state employees filed suit in St. Clair County Circuit Court to invalidate an executive order issued by Governor Bruce Rauner that bars state agencies from collecting the fees, which are authorized under state law and multiple collective bargaining agreements. The fees cover the proportional cost to the union of providing representation to those employees.
The court order, issued by Associate Judge Christopher Kolker, is based on an agreement reached between the Rauner Administration and the affected labor unions. It requires the Administration to “remit fair share fees…pending the resolution of the case” and to transmit “the correct payroll information” regarding gross pay for affected employees to the Comptroller.
“We continue to believe that the governor’s executive order is meant to weaken the right of state employees to have effective union representation,” said Illinois AFL-CIO president Michael T. Carrigan. “We’re pleased that all fair share agreements will now be honored while our legal challenge is proceeding.”
Some of you old timers might remember Judge Kolker from his House staff days.
…Adding… From the governor’s office…
The Administration and the unions have reached an agreement that will speed up the case and remove legal obstacles to resolving the underlying First Amendment issues as efficiently as possible. As part of this deal, the unions agree to an expedited timeline for the case and to forego the possibility of compelled arbitration. In exchange, we resume paying fair share fees, but obviously we will still assist nonmembers in recovering those fees from the unions when we ultimately prevail. There are two tracks – one in federal court and the other in state court — to get this case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is where it must be conclusively decided, as soon as possible.
* If Mike Flynn is really running to succeed Aaron Schock, he should do two things right away: 1) Put that mandatory FEC disclaimer on his website; and 2) Add a “contribute” button. Sheesh…
Conservative activist Mike Flynn has joined the race for Congress in the 18th Congressional District of Illinois.
For more than two decades, Mike has been a national leader in moving the conservative agenda forward. In 2009, as Editor in Chief of Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment website, Mike published the ACORN videos, ushering in the demise of this government funded liberal advocacy group.
But Mike hasn’t reserved his attacks to liberals. Just last year, he took on the Republican leadership for passing the omnibus spending bill that funded the government until September of this year, including full funding for Obamacare and Executive Amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Mike will lead the charge for change in DC. He’ll vote against John Boehner for Speaker of the House. He’ll sponsor and work for term limits. He’ll lead the fight against executive overreach. Mike will take on big special interests, both labor and business, that set the agenda in DC through political contributions and back room deals.
Mike believes that deal making shouldn’t decide who is our next Congressman from the 18th District. Mike doesn’t believe that we should hand our voice in Washington to someone whose principal accomplishment is having a father who worked for Barack Obama and was instrumental in passing the stimulus bill.
I suppose in some minds the attack on Sen. LaHood’s dad is fair game. But anybody who has ever talked with Darin LaHood for more than 30 seconds knows that Darin’s politics and Ray’s politics are light-years apart. What Darin does have is his dad’s last name, and that’ll play well.
Still, it’s gonna be a very low-turnout race. And the far Right tends to dominate those sorts of primary races.
Flynn has no name ID, hasn’t lived in the district in 20 years, hasn’t yet raised any money, but he’s a hardcore conservative with bigtime tea party connections and some campaign chops, so let’s see what he can do.
Then again, this could very well turn out to be a vanity campaign.
* I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad idea. It could be a good idea. But the timing is horrible…
After months of indecision, the Rauner administration is lifting a freeze it put on $100 million in business tax-incentive deals that had been approved in principle by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn but not yet executed.
The Rauner administration and business sources confirm that an internal review of such spending was conducted and a decision reached to fulfill “commitments made by the Quinn administration” to companies including eBay, CapitalOne, CDW and SAC Wireless. Some deals reportedly were finalized in the past 10 days or so, others are still in process.
But the decision to go ahead with deals under the state’s Economic Development for a Growing Economy program may be controversial — both because Rauner and others have criticized the EDGE program, and because he has suspended $26 million in social services grants and $180 million in park grants that had been approved by Quinn but not yet been disbursed.
Rauner has cited the state’s financial woes in freezing those monies. A spokeswoman said the EDGE credit will proceed “because they have no impact on the current fiscal year.”
That part about the impact on this fiscal year is probably true because it takes a while to get these things going. But, man, they nitpick $26 million for indigent burials, autism programs, etc. and then give some huge corporations EDGE credits?
Whew.
* The Question: The Rauner administration’s new slogan?
…Adding… From the IFT…
“If anyone is still unclear about Governor Rauner’s priorities, look no further,” said Aviva Bowen, IFT Director of Communications. “Giving tax breaks to big corporations while slashing millions from the services our most vulnerable citizens rely upon is beyond the pale.
“Cutting funding for autism, homelessness, parks, and after-school programs before asking the most wealthy to chip in a dime is completely out of touch with what Illinois wants or deserves.”
Acting a couple of weeks after Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote about a dozen Indiana firms inviting them to move here, World Business Chicago chief Jeff Malehorn drove to Indianapolis on April 6 to meet with companies that could set up shop here in the Windy City.
Malehorn declined to disclose who he talked with. But he does say he met with officials from three companies and is confident that at least one and probably two of them will open some operations here in the near future.
“I am quite confident we will get jobs,” said Malehorn, whose group also mailed CEOs of 80 Indiana companies offering to assist in moving some or part of the business here.
One company is a digital mobile-phone outfit that is seriously considering setting up a Chicago office because of the larger number of young tech workers here. The second is a rapidly expanding health care company and the third is in transportation logistics—all sectors that WBC has targeted.
I am writing you today on behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of World Business Chicago, which is the economic development agency for Chicago. Together we would like to urge you to consider Chicago’s considerable advantages as a location for your company.
Chicago will provide your business with unparalleled opportunity at the epicenter of North American business. Both start-ups and established companies alike, including Google, Motorola Mobility, GrubHub, Yelp, Microsoft, Uber, Groupon, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and many more, all have recently announced major expansions and relocations here, employing thousands in Chicago - and for good reason. Our city provides the top-notch talent, and the creative, vibrant environment that enables them to grow and thrive here.
I am positive that you would find Chicago a truly global city with a world class business environment, a vast and diverse talent pool of millions, and a central location with easy global air access to clients and operations. Our diverse economy rivals nations and we are consistently ranked in the top ten global cities and economies in the world.
As an economic development agency driving growth and job creation, we are collectively focused on making Chicago the most business-friendly city in the nation, and hope to have the opportunity to welcome your firm to Chicago as the newest members of our vibrant and engaged business community.
We are proud Chicago is ranked the number one city for corporate relocations in the United States for two years running, and are confident that Chicago will provide you with exceptional opportunities for continued growth and talent attraction. I am eager to assist you with such an effort.
* Gov. Rauner, however, would rather wait until after his “Turnaround Agenda” is completed before chasing after Indiana companies…
Rauner also waved away the controversy over an Indiana religious freedom law, that some opinion writers viewed as a chance for Illinois to poach jobs from the neighboring state, calling it a “headline opportunity,” not a real one.
“Believe me, I am going to rip — try to rip the economic guts out of Indiana,” Rauner said. “I am one of the baddest, you know, enemies anybody can have. And when I set a goal, we do it. I don’t care what the headline is. I want the results. And we’re coming after Indiana big time. But you know what, we’re going to do it on our terms, the right way.”
What he means by “the right way” is that he’ll weaken unions, lower benefits for workers, lower taxes and then and only then will he go after those jobs.
But what happens if his plan isn’t implemented?
And shouldn’t he be working with the mayor on this poaching operation right now?
* If you saw the update below, you know that the governor’s office claims a handful of municipalities have passed Gov. Bruce Rauner’s draft “Turnaround Agenda” resolution, which includes the local “right to work zone” language…
The following towns have passed the resolution.
East Dundee
Clinton
Cambridge
Makanda
Charleston
I have the PDFs coming.
Thanks
* This morning, Rauner got his biggest win…
McHenry County Board passes resolution supporting @GovRauner "Turnaround Agenda" on 16-5 vote.
Thursday, Apr 9, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Rauner spoke with concerned taxpayers at Two Men and A Truck on North Alpine. Part of his Illinois turnaround tour. Rauner focused on empowering Rockford saying we need to get rid of unfunded mandates, consolidate government agencies and have local control of collective bargaining. Rauner also addressed Sportscore 2 funding.
“We’re very concerned about local economy and growth and we don’t want to have to make cuts unnecessarily. So what we’re going to try to do is get our agenda of the turnaround done now in the next few months. That will free up resources so some of the cuts don’t have to be as big and some of the other cuts don’t even have to happen at all. So by July we’ll really know. My goal is that by July we’ll know kind of where we’re at,” says Rauner.
Emphasis added for obvious reasons. Yesterday, Rauner told Steve Cochrane that he hoped to wrap things up in June.
* Rauner’s not the only one making this prediction, though…
Lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner may be jawboning well into July to forge a budget compromise that Democrats and Republicans can live with. That’s the word from Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, and Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, who stopped by the Editorial Board on Monday.
“House Speaker Michael Madigan has told his caucus not to make vacation plans through July 15,” Cabello told us.
[Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet] and Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, championed reforming worker’s compensation and eliminating unfunded mandates in order to offset proposed cuts.
Across the board, officials said worker’s compensation reform would be a welcome change.
“It’s outrageously ridiculous in the state of Illinois. We all suffer from that,” Jensen said. “It is eating up a lot of money, but I don’t think it’s the solution to the entire state problem.”
Sen. Heather Stearns, a democrat from Chicago and the committee’s chairwoman, agreed. Worker’s compensation reform would only begin to mitigate the “devastating cuts” being proposed, she said.
There is no doubt that workers’ comp needs to be addressed here. Costs are too high. Period. And unfunded mandates are also a problem - although most of those mandates passed both chambers with huge majorities.
But most of this “Turnaround” agenda is pie in the sky stuff. And even if it all passed (and it won’t because “pie in the sky”) it wouldn’t free up the money the governor and his legislative pals say it would.
It’s being used as some sort of magical talisman that can solve all of our problems. Most likely, it’s setting the stage for blaming somebody else when other solutions need to be found.
* Then again, let’s revisit something from the Tribune’s earlier coverage…
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner, borrowing from a political philosophy famously coined by his friend Rahm Emanuel that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” […]
Asked how he intended to get a ban on union campaign contributions through a legislature that is heavily backed by organized labor, Rauner pointed to the binders his staff had prepared.
“Read it,” he said. “Change the law … that’s what our proposal is.”
Pressed to explain, Rauner simply said: “Crisis. Crisis creates leverage.”
Dragging this session into July would most definitely create several crises.
State Rep. Dan Brady, a Bloomington funeral home director, was among a majority of Republican lawmakers who last month voted for a fix to the current state budget. […]
“I was under the impression that action would stabilize things through the end of the fiscal year,” Brady said Tuesday.
On Friday, however, Rauner froze $26 million in funding for a variety of social service programs, including about $6.9 million that pays funeral expenses for poor people.
“I was not anticipating having this type of situation. I’m confused over it,” Brady said Tuesday. “I’m confused and surprised.”
*** UPDATE *** The Rauner folks say this approp committee exchange between Rep. Frank Mautino and budget director Tim Nuding shows legislators like Brady shouldn’t have been surprised. Emphasis in the original…
Mautino: And a final question to Rich or Tim. In the course of preparing for this year, the number of accounts at the Bureau of the Budget, Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, going back to through the years.
Nuding: No problem, I’m nostalgic about it too.
Mautino: Well you have the right attitude for this year. A number of items that have been suspended and another number of accounts. In the course of passing this fix for this year, what will become the status of the suspended dollars? Cities have been notified that they maybe have a process or program in process over at DNR, EPA, that has been suspended, so those accounts are under suspended status. You may not have this handy here, but I’d like to know what the dollar value of the suspended account statewide is, and what the interaction is with the bill we’re passing today is. Will the status of those accounts be lifted? And may those project resume for those dollars.
Nuding: I would say, representative, that what we have done through the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget to try to address the FY15 problem… This bill works in concert with what we are already doing in terms of establishing reserves and looking at grants that are already out there. So that process will continue. I cannot report to you today how much we have frozen up. We are still actually working through that process with your agencies. As you know there are literally hundreds and thousands of grants out there that our agencies are evaluating, trying to figure out what needs to be frozen, what’s essential, what’s non-essential. We will continue to work through that process. Having said that, I would acknowledge that I do not that believe everything that is currently under review or frozen will ultimately be terminated. I think there will be some things that move forward. I don’t have specifics on that. Conversely, Representative, not all of them will. We need some of those savings to make that $1.6 billion hole balance in concert the bills that are in front of you today.
However, legislators I’ve talked to said they’d made it clear that those programs shouldn’t be cut. They also fully funded things like the autism program for a reason.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said he probably didn’t choose his words carefully enough when he said the state Supreme Court is part of a “corrupt” judicial system.
In a meeting Wednesday night with the Quad-City Times editorial board, Rauner said he wasn’t singling out the high court, nor did he use the word “corrupt” again.
“I probably didn’t use words carefully enough,” he said. “I believe our judicial system is full of conflicts of interests. And the Supreme Court is part of the judicial system. It’s not the Supreme Court, per se, it’s the system.” […]
“My comments about the Supreme Court, one of the issues I raised is, you know, they’re opining on things that impact them, when they talk about pensions and health care and what not,” he said. “I’m just troubled by the conflict. I don’t criticize them. They’re doing the best they can. They’re good people. I don’t criticize individual judges or a particular court. The system, I think, has conflicts.”
* First of all, that’s not a walk-back, it’s a double-down.
* Secondly, he did indeed “criticize” the Supreme Court on stuff besides the “corrupt” angle…
“I don’t trust the Supreme Court to be rational in their decisions,” Rauner said. “I think they’re activist judges who want to be legislators.”
The justices on the high court signaled devotion to that language when they ruled in favor of retirees in a separate case last summer involving an attempt to make retirees pay more for their state-subsidized health care. The court ruled 6-1 that the language in the constitution was “aimed at protecting the right to receive the promised retirement benefits, not the adequacy of the funding to pay for them.”
Rauner told the Tribune on Monday he thought the court’s ruling in that case was “off base.” He said he wants to use a constitutional amendment to “end-run the years of lawsuits” that would come from his plan to reduce pension benefits.
“We can’t just let the Supreme Court decide these issues just with the vague language we’ve got now,” Rauner said. “I have no confidence.”
* Our commenter “walker” offered up a succinct critique yesterday…
Rauner really seems confused.
He calls a strict constructionist stance on Constitutional language “judicial activism.”
He then says the court is corrupted by politics, but then agrees with them by stating that we need changes to the Constitution to move forward with his versions of pension “reform.”
Really, folks — do those statements hang together?
* And as far as the “conflict of interest” regarding the courts ruling on the constitutionality of pension and health insurance laws, who the heck does he think should rule on those statutes? I mean, should all judges just step aside and let the other two branches do whatever they want?
That’s either a completely disingenuous argument or just plain juvenile logic.
“I’m open to tax reform. The critical thing is that we get structure change inside the state. If we just raise income taxes, which is what many people are encouraging me to do, they say put in a graduated income tax that will fix the problems,” said Rauner.
But, Rauner said raising taxes doesn’t always work. He points to similar problems in New Jersey that he said Illinois can’t repeat.
“New Jersey has high property taxes like us, high sales taxes like us. They’ve already put in a graduated income tax. They have very high taxes where they can’t afford to pay their pensions.”
That last graf contains a nonsensical comment, but more important is the fact that the governor is a wealthy man and he got a ton of campaign money from fantastically wealthy people during and after the campaign and he opposes a graduated income tax, which would most definitely hurt himself and his main campaign contributors.
That’s not a conflict of interest?
Of course it is. The world is full of conflicts. There is no possible world where conflicts of interest do not exist, except maybe in some freshman college classes.
* I’m sure all of this polls well. “He’s shaking things up and attacking the status quo just like he promised!” But, dealing with this governor is kinda like dealing with newbie commenters here who believe all solutions are simple and everything is black and white. Experienced adults know better.
* Union members and allies packed a Woodstock City Council hearing earlier this week to the point where it had to be moved to a much larger venue. The turnout worked, at least for now…
Woodstock City Council members balked on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” resolution aimed at organized labor, after a large contingent of labor unions addressed the council and criticized the measure.
Rauner has asked cities and villages throughout the state to join his push against unions and pass the resolution. It urges state lawmakers to grant local governments and voters the choice to create right-to-work zones and details changes to prevailing wage and workers’ compensation laws.
On Tuesday, hundreds of area union members came to Woodstock to address the council before members were set to discuss and vote on Rauner’s resolution. The large turnout forced city officials to relocate the meeting to the larger Woodstock High School.
The council ultimately voted 5-2 to table the resolution – a request initiated by Mayor Brian Sager.
“I’m a part of Woodstock. If you vote for this resolution, this is what it does. You then give permission to Gov. Rauner to go around the state of Illinois and say Woodstock wants this,” Acosta said. “Well you know what? I’m a part of Woodstock and I don’t want this.”
But not everyone who addressed the council was part of a union.
“I’m a millionaire,” Woodstock’s Craig Hallenstein told the council. “I’m part of the 1 percent. I’m not a member of a union, and I agree with every comment made here. The biggest problem with this country is the declining middle class.”
A resolution to support several policies proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner did not gain much traction with the Mount Zion Board of Trustees on Monday.
The board was presented with a resolution encompassing Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” which ranges from changes to prevailing wage and workers compensation laws to the establishment of what are commonly called right to work zones, in which voters could decide if workers should be required to join labor unions.
Shelby County Board Chairman Dave Cruitt said Monday that the proposal backing right-to-work won’t be voted on when board members meet Wednesday.
“Too many of our board members don’t know enough about it,” Cruitt said. “We’re not going to act on it.” […]
[Iroquois] County Board Chairman Kyle Anderson said he hopes to bring the matter before a board committee Thursday with the goal of getting it on the full board’s agenda next week.
He said despite all members of the board being Republicans like Rauner, he’s unsure whether the resolution will be approved.
Moultrie County Board Chairman Dave McCabe said the issue has been put on hold until at least next month.
Iroquois County’s committee meeting on the issue earlier this week was also flooded with anti-resolution folks. I grew up in Iroquois County. A liberal bastion it ain’t.
* And…
GovRauner's "turnaround agenda" voted down 7-0 in Pingree Grove #twill#workers4il
At Gov. Bruce Rauner’s behest, the Kane County Board will approve a resolution supporting at least some parts of Rauner’s reform agenda. Deciding which parts may involve a discussion about the future ability of county employees to unionize.
Rauner met with county officials Tuesday to ask for the endorsement. County board Chairman Chris Lauzen said Rauner was explicit in saying the county should customize the endorsement to reflect only aspects where county officials agreed with the governor.
In a written statement, Lauzen indicated support of Rauner’s views about public employee unions. That view involves passing legislation giving local governments, such as Kane County, the ability to exclude several topics from union negotiations, such as wage negotiations, use of paid work time to conduct union negotiations, and the use of third-party contractors.
The debate on what to include in the resolution will begin in the board’s Legislative Committee, headed up by Aurora Democrat Brian Pollock. Pollock said the full board will debate the possible elements of the resolution and come to a consensus on what to say about unions.
“The chairman has said it’s up to the board to set the policy,” Pollock said. “And we’re looking forward to that discussion.”
So, it doesn’t look like the anti-union stuff has much of a chance there.
* It’s been a bit slow on the blog today because I’m still kinda on spring break. Also, Gatehouse’s websites have been crashing my browsers all day and I’m about to lose my mind, which isn’t helpful for getting things done. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, either.
In addition to celebrating their 1971 masterpiece Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones will release a concert film of a London club gig they played the year that record came out. The release, From the Vault: The Marquee – Live in 1971, will be available on DVD, Blu-ray and digitally June 23rd, with some configurations featuring numerous Stones rarities.
The band performed the gig a few months before the release of Sticky Fingers and used the show to preview nearly half the album, including “Brown Sugar,” “Dead Flowers”… It also served as the first and only time the group played “I Got the Blues” live until dusting it off a handful of times for concerts in 1999.
* And from that new release, watch Mick Taylor wail through “Dead Flowers”…
A former top aide to now-resigned U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said Tuesday that he will have to return to Springfield next month to testify at a grand jury investigating Schock.
Ben Cole, former communications director for the former congressman, was in Springfield because he had been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.
However, Cole said upon leaving the federal building Tuesday afternoon that a prior commitment limited the amount of time he had available to testify, so federal prosecutors allowed him to return to another grand jury session next month.
“The grand jury has been continued until next month,” Cole said. “Because of my tight travel schedule, the U.S. attorney has graciously allowed me to continue my testimony for another date.
The three staffers in Springfield were Mark Roman, Schock’s chief of staff; Ben Cole, Schock’s former communications director, and Bryan Rudolph, the manager of Schock’s district office in Peoria. […]
Cole said he was handed a subpoena March 19 by Springfield-based FBI agents who were in Washington to talk to potential witnesses.
The agents talked to him about his “work for the congressman” as well as asking questions about “the policies of the office.”
The speed with which the federal government has forged ahead with the grand jury has surprised insiders in Schock’s circle as well as onlookers in Washington. And the probe appears to be at full throttle. According to several people familiar with the matter, the government is homing in on his office’s finance and reimbursement practices.
Yeah, man. This is going really fast.
* Meanwhile, I’m told by US Sen. Mark Kirk’s people that Kirk has endorsed state Sen. Darin LaHood in the special election.
Springfield School Board member Adam Lopez says he wants to be the Democratic nominee in the coming special election to take the seat of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, in the 18th Congressional District.
“Some of my close friends have always known I want to run for Congress,” Lopez said Wednesday. He said he had planned on running for Illinois House against new state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, but his focus is on Congress now that Schock resigned.
Lopez, 32, a financial representative with County Financial — selling insurance and investment products — also said he has hoped to be able to keep that job and not take the $174,000 annual congressional salary, if that is allowed by Congress and his employer.
However, House ethics rules put a cap on outside income of House members, to $27,255 in 2015. And even if a member of the House were to return their salary, the cap would apparently still apply.
* As I told you before, Brian Hopkins is a friend of mine going back to our college days. We were actually roommates for a while. Brian won his 2nd Ward aldermanic race yesterday by a wide 56-44 margin.
Hopkins has always wanted to be in public service. He’s also an entrepreneur at heart (he’s owned a couple of restaurants), so that, in my opinion, gives him a good life balance.
Brian served as the executive director of the Illinois Coalition to End Homelessness and eventually went on to win the presidency of the highly influential Chicago community group SOAR, Streeterville Organization of Active Residents. He has both a sound philosophical grounding and an eagerness and ability to solve problems for his people.
But the political game is a lot about luck. Are you in the right district, in the right year, against the right opponent? Heck, people sometimes wait decades for an opportunity to present itself. Sometimes, it never does. Hopkins patiently bided his time, and when the new ward boundaries were drawn, he recognized the opportunity and carefully pieced together a battle plan and a core team, including a very capable fundraiser, Mia Phifer, who proved invaluable down the stretch when Hopkins’ opponent Alyx Pattison was raking in large union contributions.
* One of the issues that Pattison used against Hopkins was the involvement of Victor Reyes and Mike Noonan in Hopkins’ campaign. Hopkins’ benchmark polling, I’m told, showed that it wouldn’t move more than a handful of voters. Hopkins did retaliate, though, by dredging up the imprisonment of Congresscritter Jan Schakowsky’s husband Bob Creamer in a mailer. Schakowsky was one of Pattison’s most prominent backers. It was basically just a little “love tap” to show they were paying attention.
Pattison’s attacks actually backfired because, as the earlier polling had showed, voters didn’t care. Reyes was “Public Enemy Number One” for years among a certain crowd, but he hasn’t been in the news for ages. The attacks energized Reyes and Noonan, who ended up leaving nothing on the field. They put everything they physically had into that race.
* Reyes called me last night to sing the praises of two people. The first was 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly, an old friend of mine whom I endorsed during his first aldermanic race in my Sun-Times column.
Reyes said he’d run a lot of aldermanic races in his day, but he’d never seen any alderman work as hard to elect somebody else to the city council as Reilly did. Indeed, Ald. Reilly was an early Hopkins backer and pumped in a ton of money ($75K). The guy was absolutely relentless. He wrote the direct mail and produced the TV ads (something he did when he was on House Speaker Madigan’s staff).
Reilly also supplied Hopkins with a campaign manager, Matt Cain. Reilly and Cain were all-in. And not to take anything away from Hopkins, but there would probably not have been such a victory last night without those two very skilled men.
* Reyes said another hero was Kevin Fanning. You may remember Kevin because he was my intern several years ago.
After Kevin got his master’s degree from UIUC, he signed on with Reyes and Noonan. I had some trepidation about that. The Reyes stuff was still kinda fresh. I also wanted him to keep his promise to me that he’d go to law school. But I also knew that most of the attacks on Reyes were just plain goofy (and despite all the confident predictions from his detractors, Reyes emerged without a legal mark on him). And Kevin wanted to do it, so whatever. It’s his life, and he swore to me that he’d complete his law degree. Kevin ran the Jeffrey Tobolski campaign on behalf of Reyes and Noonan against Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, who most thought couldn’t be beat. As you may recall, Peraica lost and ended up being convicted for damaging a Tobolski campaign sign.
* Commissioner Tobolski hired Kevin after the campaign and it turned out that Brian Hopkins’ office was right next door. Brian was Cook County Commissioner John Daley’s chief of staff back then. So, I reached out to Hopkins and asked him if he’d please keep an eye out for my former intern. He went far beyond that, however, and became Kevin’s mentor. And when Brian left Commissioner Daley’s office to run for alderman, he recommended Kevin for the job.
Kevin was Hopkins’ original campaign treasurer, and he pushed hard to convince Reyes and Noonan to bring their considerable field operation to the Hopkins race. He eventually took a brief leave of absence from his county gig to work for Hopkins and helped finish the campaign, keeping the candidate motivated and focused on the specific tasks at hand 24/7.
Last week, Kevin was notified that he’d passed his state bar exam. This week, one of his most important mentors was elected to the Chicago City Council. Not a bad few days, if you ask me.
* I’ve known Mike Noonan since former state Rep. Clem Balanoff brought him to Springfield many, many moons ago. He rose through the House Democratic staff ranks and became a star.
Brendan Reilly was also on staff back then, and the two developed a strong rivalry. They seemed at times to be brothers fighting to be the favorite Madigan son. They were constantly griping about each other, while doing their best to outwork and out-succeed the other guy. It worked out great for Madigan, but some very hard feelings built up over the years.
Because of that, the two never worked together after they left the House, until the Hopkins race. From what I gathered, they worked quite well together and reestablished their old friendship. Both Reilly and Noonan sent me this photo of the two of them at the Hopkins victory party last night…
I don’t know if they’ll ever work together again, but if they do, watch out.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner expanded on yesterday’s remarks to the Daily Herald about how the Illinois Supreme Court was “corrupt,” too “activist” and biased…
Rauner, too, has pushed cutting pension benefits to help pull the state out of the red. But in a sign of his distrust of the court, he is talking about seeking a constitutional amendment in an attempt to get around language in the state constitution that holds public pension benefits cannot “be diminished or impaired.”
The justices on the high court signaled devotion to that language when they ruled in favor of retirees in a separate case last summer involving an attempt to make retirees pay more for their state-subsidized health care. The court ruled 6-1 that the language in the constitution was “aimed at protecting the right to receive the promised retirement benefits, not the adequacy of the funding to pay for them.”
Rauner told the Tribune on Monday he thought the court’s ruling in that case was “off base.” He said he wants to use a constitutional amendment to “end-run the years of lawsuits” that would come from his plan to reduce pension benefits.
“We can’t just let the Supreme Court decide these issues just with the vague language we’ve got now,” Rauner said. “I have no confidence.”
Rauner previously said he wanted to wait for the Supreme Court ruling on the 2013 law so that justices could provide guidance on whether pensions could be altered. Rauner has discussed a plan to grant current workers the benefits they are owed until July 1, then shift them all into a pension plan for newer employees with vastly reduced benefits.
“Vague language”? Is he kidding?
That language is perfectly clear and for a very good reason: The drafters specifically wanted to prevent bills like SB1 from passage. Period. End of story.
His problem isn’t with the Supreme Court, his problem is with the Illinois Constitution. OK, fine. But changing the Constitution can’t be done with a flick of a wrist. That’s a bigtime ask.
And, as a commenter pointed out yesterday, his previous talk about wanting to wait for the Supreme Court to give the other two branches some sort of direction forward was essentially asking the Supremes to be activist legislators and not simply justices ruling narrowly on the case directly in front of them.
But this guy just has to create strawman enemies. It’s his schtick. It ain’t gonna end. Ever.
* On WGN Radio this morning, Rauner said the Daily Herald took his comments out of context. He’s not just talking about the Supremes, Rauner said, he’s talking about the entire judicial branch, which can take campaign cash from lawyers who then argue cases in front of them.
That is a common critique of the judicial branch, but it’s also a a critique of the legislative and executive branches. Rauner, for instance, signed the Ameren/ComEd bill into law last week. Those companies give tons of campaign money to legislators and he just enabled and reinforced that entire process, regardless of the bill’s actual merits.
Only ideological amateurs and corrupt hucksters claim to be purists in this business. Let’s hope it’s the former with this governor and not the latter.
* Radar Online, a celebrity gossip site, claims to have obtained exclusive photos of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich…
The publication also claims that Blagojevich has suffered some sort of “breakdown” in prison, constantly mutters about President Obama, mostly keeps to himself and is somehow being protected by a Texas gang.
Weird stuff. Take it all with a grain of salt, but that pic sure does look like him.
