State Rep. Tom Morrison on Thursday retracted his earlier letter of support for a Christian teacher and pastor convicted of aggravated assault for severely spanking children in Arizona.
The letter from Morrison, a Palatine Republican seeking re-election to the 54th House District seat, was among 16 provided to a judge ahead of Thomas Chantry’s sentencing last week.
Chantry, 48, was found guilty in August by a Yavapai County, Arizona, jury of two counts of aggravated assault. He was sentenced Oct. 19 to three years of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service. He’s also barred from interacting with children other than his own.
* His opponent Maggie Trevor (D-Rolling Meadows) has a new TV ad about the case…
* From southern Illinois near the Trump rally location…
Where out politics stand in IL…someone has placed "bought and paid for by Mike Madigan" signs next to local county clerk and treasurer candidates….What? @capitolfax@WSILNews#Vote2018
UPDATE: Signs I referenced earlier. Looks like wind blew them flat. "Bought and Paid for by Mike Madigan" signs next to Jackson Co. Dem. Clerk candidate. @WSILNews@capitolfaxpic.twitter.com/85yTP2Irxl
JB Pritzker transfers $2 million to the Democratic Majority, which is chaired by Speaker Michael Madigan. Pritzker has now pumped a total of $5 million into the committee this election cycle. #twillhttps://t.co/jXB4fpZL28
One of the [JB Pritzker campaign] employees, Carolyn Mehta, said that the [blackface] photo was “taken completely out of context.
“The screen shot was submitted by a member of our staff who follows me on Instagram and is suing the campaign for $7.5 million,” she said. “It was taken completely out of context. This is extortion in the purest form. In 2012, I worked on President Obama’s re-election campaign. I worked on a team to register 10,000 new voters on the South Side of Chicago. I have been a tireless advocate for racial equality my entire life and anyone who knows me knows that.”
The campaign worker who posted the image on Instagram was identified as Carolyn Mehta, the campaign’s deputy Get Out The Vote director. She was also a field organizer for President Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign in Virginia, according to LinkedIn.
So she should really ought to know that a photograph posted anywhere of a Pritzker campaign worker in anything resembling blackface would be criticized as racist.
But instead of the campaign directly acknowledging the racial insensitivity on display when a white person smears a black substance on his or her face and grins for the camera, it insisted the incident was not racial in nature.
That’s adding insult to injury.
* Today’s front page…
Oof.
* Other stuff…
* Long files defamation suit against Yednock: “Rep. Long is living in an alternate reality where his own party did not call on him to resign over a harassment allegation. In fact, rep. Long even admitted to the Ottawa Times on Sept. 20 that Republicans told him he was under investigation for sexual harassment. If Rep. Long has a problem with the contents of this ad, he should take it up with his own party,” Yednock stated this morning.
* Dispatch-Argus Editorial: For Illinois governor: Pritzker: We backed Republican Bruce Rauner for governor four years ago because we believed he was the change agent needed to turn Illinois around. The state did see changes under the rookie governor. Unfortunately, too many things went from bad to worse.
* Costa Howard questions Breen’s votes on gun-control bills: “Even though it passed, the governor did veto that piece of legislation,” Costa Howard said during the forum. “So that was a nice political vote during a time when you were running against a candidate who has a Moms Demand Action gun sense candidate distinction, which I have received since before the primary.”
After days of questions over whether he’d make the trip, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign said he will indeed attend a rally being held by President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon in downstate Murphysboro.
About five hours before the planned 4:30 p.m. “Make America Great Again” rally at the Southern Illinois Airport, a Rauner campaign spokesman confirmed the governor would be there, though it wasn’t clear if he would appear with Trump, or what the extent of their interaction would be — if any. […]
“In the height of political desperation, Bruce Rauner will join Donald Trump in Southern Illinois just 10 days before Election Day,” Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin said. “It’s nothing more than a Hail Mary in the last second of the game that Rauner is losing — badly.”
…Adding… My niece, Isabel Miller, interviewed a Trump supporter ahead of the rally today for the Daily Egyptian newspaper.
Isabel asked Kevin Sauls from Ridgway (who was wearing an American flag as a cape) if the president could bring something new and unique to southern Illinois. Sauls said he thinks President Trump “can help the coal, I think he can help all the industries, he can help the working man, the white people that stand up for him”…
Kevin Sauls from Ridgway, Illinois, speaks at the Trump rally in Murphysboro.
President Trump told reporters on Air Force One they are considering canceling the rally later today in Murphysboro, Illinois. He says he spoke to Gov. Wolf, the mayor of Pittsburgh, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Trump will go to Murphysboro. In Indy: "We can't let evil change our life, change our schedule," he said. "You go with a heavy heart, but you go. … So I'll go. Not that I want to go. But in reverse, I think I actually have an obligation to go." … "I will go to Illinois."
What: First Family hosts Trick-or-Treaters at the Governor’s Mansion
Where: Governor’s Mansion, 410 E. Jackson St., Springfield
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2018
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Note: No additional media availability
As Tina rightly points out, President Trump’s southern Illinois event begins at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon…
But the governor's public schedule shows he'll be hosting "Trick-or-Treaters at the Governor’s Mansion" at 4 p.m. in Springfield. The rally is at 4:30 p.m. in Murphysboro. https://t.co/jUsiwuVeGj
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has sought to avoid any involvement with President Trump for most of his first term, said Friday he expects to be in Murphysboro IL when the president makes a campaign visit Saturday. Rauner has sought to unify a core GOP base that backs Trump.
* Meanwhile, a dark money groupassociated with Local 150 of the Operating Engineers is running this ad opposing Republican AG candidate Erika Harold on “Chicagoland broadcast and cable markets [in] the last eight days of the election cycle.”
* JB Pritzker’s Deputy Get Out The Vote Director recently posted this photo on Instagram of a fellow Pritzker campaign worker…
What a stupid thing to do. Your campaign is being sued for racial discrimination and you pose for this photo and a top official posts it online? I don’t care if it was a charcoal face mask. Nobody thinks over there? What’s the opposite of “woke”?
A campaign worker for Democrat J.B. Pritzker was captured earlier this week wearing a charcoal face mask that resembles blackface in an Instagram post by another campaign employee. But the campaign insists the incident was not racial in nature and that the employees in question will be suspended without pay for exercising poor judgment. […]
The post was part of an Instagram story put up October 21. Instagram stories feature photos or videos and last just 24 hours but can be preserved or copied. The Sun-Times obtained the image Thursday night. […]
Asked about the picture, Mehta told the Sun-Times in a Facebook message: “It was a charcoal face mask.” […]
“The individual in the photo had applied and was wearing a charcoal face mask after work hours on the weekend. A fellow employee took a video and posted it on Instagram,” Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Galia Slayen said in a statement. “While it showed poor judgment, neither employee intended to take part in offensive behavior. However, given the poor judgment exercised here, both the individual in the photo and the individual who posted the photo will be suspended without pay.”
In their response, the Pritzker campaign provided a video of the man putting on the face mask, with others nearby laughing. The video was provided on the condition that it not be published.
The reckless ignorance of some white people just boggles my mind.
…Adding… Somebody made a good point in comments about how it wasn’t just these two staffers. Other campaign staffers watched and laughed as this whole thing unfolded. Not one of them said anything? Nobody in that group thought to say, hey, maybe people could think this is racist and we should stop right now?
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration knew in December that toxic air pollution from the Sterigenics plant in west suburban Willowbrook likely was responsible for some of the highest cancer risks in the nation, according to a letter obtained by the Tribune. […]
In the Dec. 22 letter, sent to a Sterigenics executive, a top official in the U.S. EPA’s Chicago office outlines the results of a preliminary federal analysis linking unusually high cancer risks in the Willowbrook area to the company’s emissions of ethylene oxide, a potent gas used to sterilize medical instruments, pharmaceutical drugs and food.
Copied on the letter is Julie Armitage, chief of the Illinois EPA air bureau.
“EPA has calculated a cancer risk of approximately 1,000 in a million at the nearest residence, exceeding our typical upper limit of cancer risk acceptability,” wrote Ed Nam, director of the regional U.S. EPA air and radiation division. “EPA would like to provide Sterigenics with the opportunity to review our modeling and to suggest improvements for accuracy.” […]
The Illinois EPA responded to the report by quietly giving Sterigenics a permit to voluntarily install new pollution-control equipment, making it more difficult for authorities to pursue legal action against the company unless it can be shown the fix has failed to eliminate health risks from ethylene oxide pollution.
Sterigenics remains committed to the safe use of EO for the sterilization of life-saving medical products at our Willowbrook facility. We work every day to improve patients’ lives. We understand that the materials we use in our processes require diligent stewardship and we take our responsibility very seriously. Our mission, Safeguarding Global HealthTM, begins and ends with the safety of people in mind. We have always worked with the USEPA, ILEPA, OSHA, and the FDA with a commitment to the safety of our employees, the communities and environment in which we operate, and the patients we help to protect. Our employees and their families live in Willowbrook and the surrounding communities and the health and wellbeing of the residents in those communities is very important to us. We outperform the standards set for the safe operation of our facilities and commit to continue to take a leadership role in evolving regulations to reassure residents that they are safe.
*** UPDATE *** State Sen. John Curran…
“It is unacceptable, and beyond comprehension, that the United State Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency failed to inform residents in a timely manner about the elevated cancer risks associated with the emission of ethylene oxide from the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook. From the moment this issue first came to light in late August, I demanded that Sterigenics cease operations immediately, and I reiterate that call today. As elected officials, our number one priority is to the health and well-being of our residents. In light of today’s discovery, I am calling on these two agencies to provide me with a detailed, written explanation on why they waited so long to inform my constituents about this health risk. Time is of the essence, and their joint delay has done a great disservice to my constituents.”
* US Sen. Dick Durbin…
This is a downright disgrace. Once again, the Rauner and Trump Administrations prioritized public relations over a serious public health hazard. Now, the U.S. EPA and Illinois EPA must finally step up its monitoring of this facility and be fully transparent with the public about the information they have about Sterigenics. Additionally, we need more emissions testing at this plant - something I’ve asked the EPA for repeatedly - a timeline for the EPA to set new health-based standards, and a public meeting for Willowbrook residents. Illinoisans deserve better than this.
* The Republicans have spent basically nothing on Seth McMillan’s campaign against Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill). Manar even pulled his ads off of St. Louis broadcast television. And cable isn’t the best way to quickly hammer in a message unless it’s a really big buy, so I have my doubts, but maybe they’re seeing something in the president’s numbers in that area, or maybe they’re just trolling Manar…
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) today launched a cable television ad campaign against liberal Democrat Andy Manar in Illinois Senate District 48, spotlighting his support of a 32% tax increase and support of sanctuary status for illegal immigrants.
“Working families have it hard enough without being concerned about a massive tax increase to fund the protection of illegal immigrants and special interests allied with Speaker Mike Madigan,” said Matt Walter, President of the Republican State Leadership Committee.
Manar votes with Mike Madigan and stands for the Chicago special interests.
It’s no wonder the Chicago Tribune says Manar voted for a thirty-two percent income tax hike, hurting middle class families, and even voted for a bill that protects those who are here illegally.
That’s Andy Manar, just another politician working for Madigan, not us.
Vote no on Mike Madigan puppet, Andy Manar.
…Adding… Such a class act, that one…
When I walked into their half empty, stale smelling building for my Ed. Board interview, I expected nothing less. The liberal leaning @SJRbreaking has had a love affair with @AndyManar since the beginning. https://t.co/GD68OMGIZg
Harold said Thursday she won’t meet up with the president.
“We have previously scheduled activities in the suburbs — campaign activities — and so that’s what I’ll be doing,” she said.
Reporters also asked Harold if she would share with the public the presidential candidates she voted for in the past three elections.
“I will not share all of those votes because, as a private citizen, I think I believe in secret ballot,” she said.
…Adding… She was also asked again why she isn’t going to the Trump event by Mary Ann Ahern…
My focus is on some of the suburban campaign activities that I had previously scheduled, and my choice to maintain those commitments doesn’t send a signal of anything other than wanting to keep those commitments.
* Meanwhile…
Today, in a 🌈 rally, many pro-equality, pro-reproductive healthcare, pro-environment advocates said “hate is not an Illinois value!” before #AttorneyGeneral candidate Erika Harold’s City Club speech! Harold has a record of opposing LGBTQ equality. pic.twitter.com/ddLPyf8JwA
“It’s no secret that I’m pro-life,” Harold said. “But I’ve made very clear that the job of the attorney general is to enforce Illinois law and uphold that.
“I would never discriminate against any same-sex couple as it relates to adoption, as it relates to anything,” she added. “The job of the attorney general is to protect all Illinoisans against discrimination, and that’s what I would do.”
Protesters, however, worried that she was just paying lip service to their issues on the campaign trail.
“I can’t trust that she would protect the laws that exist already in Illinois,” [Julie Lynn of Planned Parenthood Illinois] said.
“She says she won’t seek to change marriage, because it’s settled law. The Supreme Court has decided that,” [Michael Ziri of Equality Illinois] added. “But we know court decisions aren’t set in stone. Illinois marriage equality was settled in law when she advocated a constitutional amendment” against it.
* Peoria Journal Star Endorsement: Illinois attorney general: There is a strong chance Democrats could win all the major statewide races, starting with the governor’s office. In the case of the attorney general’s seat today, Illinois needs an attorney general who isn’t part of the clique. That is why Republican Erika Harold gets the Journal Star’s endorsement.
Attorneys with the Illinois attorney general’s office went before an Adams County grand jury Thursday regarding Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home.
After exiting the grand jury, the three attorneys confirmed they were with the attorney general’s office but said that was all they could say when approached by a Herald-Whig reporter.
Attorney general spokeswoman Maura Possley said the office had no comment on the investigation.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office said Oct. 3 that it was investigating to see if Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration broke any laws in the way it handled the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Veterans Home.
* From Patty Schuh in the governor’s office…
As the elected chief legal officer of the state, the Illinois Attorney General is charged with fairly and impartially representing the state and providing sound legal advice.
The Attorney General has represented the state and Department of Veterans Affairs in multiple lawsuits that were filed after the tragic deaths of our veterans during the 2015 outbreak of Legionnaires Disease at the Quincy Veterans Home.
After a review of the facts in each of the 11 cases stemming from this outbreak, the Attorney General denied the state has any liability in the deaths.
In the documents filed with the Court by the Illinois Attorney General in each of the cases — the Attorney General denied any state negligence or wrongdoing. The Attorney General also denied the claimants are due damages. The Attorney General’s first court filing stemming from the 2015 outbreak came on June 27, 2016 and the most recent on October 25, 2017.
The Attorney General continues to represent the state and Department of Veterans Affairs in the pending Court of Claims cases.
Unlike a court of claims case where the plaintiff alleges that the negligence of the State or State agency caused injury, a criminal investigation does not look at the liability of the State or a State agency. It looks at whether individuals acted outside the scope of their authority and committed crimes. Every state employee involved in overseeing the care provided by the Quincy Veterans’ Home, including the Governor’s staff, should want to get to the bottom of whether crimes were committed in events that lead to the deaths of more than a dozen people.
I just got called by a Capitol staffer and told that the Illinois State Capitol is on lockdown. While on the phone with my source, I heard the message playing out to shelter in place. #twill
…Adding… I’m told a “substance” was found in a second-floor bathroom. A Hazmat team has been called.
Fire department and police are on the scene.
Fire command has arrived…
* Hmm…
Illinois Secretary of State's office says an "unknown substance in a clear bag" was found just after 1 p.m. on the floor of a second-floor men's state Capitol restroom. Springfield Fire Department hazmat unit is investigating. Lockdown continues.
Rev. Thomas J. Chantry, charged with child molestation, will begin a 13-day trial at the Yavapai County Superior Court in Camp Verde Tuesday, July 24.
Chantry, 47, was indicted in Yavapai County Superior Court on eight counts – five counts of child molestation and three of aggravated assault – for offenses committed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he worked at the Miller Valley Baptist Church.
After two days of deliberations, a jury has found a former pastor accused of multiple counts of child molestation and assault guilty on two of the aggravated assault charges. Jurors determined Thomas Chantry, 47, was not guilty of one child molestation charge and one aggravated assault charge. […]
Yavapai County Deputy Attorney Susan Eazer called Chantry a “sick, twisted pedophile” last week in her closing rebuttal.
Eazer requested the court to change Chantry’s release conditions, citing the hung jury and new evidence she tried to introduce late into the trial.
The evidence concerned a 2004 Illinois police report detailing an incident where Chantry allegedly spanked a child at a school he was teaching at so hard he left bruises. The parents did not end up pursuing charges.
A former Prescott pastor who stood trial less than a month ago on multiple charges of child molestation and abuse faces nine new charges as of Tuesday.
Thomas Chantry, 47, surrendered himself to the Yavapai County Superior Court this week and is being held in the County Jail on a $1 million bond. […]
Charges include four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of child molestation and one count of child abuse. All of these charges occurred between 1998 and 2000, according to the indictment issued by a Yavapai County grand jury Sept. 11.
A Christian teacher and pastor convicted of aggravated assault for severely spanking children in Arizona was accused of doing the same at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights in 2004, though charges were never filed, authorities said.
Republican state Rep. Tom Morrison vouched recently for a teacher/pastor convicted of assault and accused of “unspeakable” abuse of children in Arizona. Morrison was a teacher at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights in the early 2000s at the time Thomas Chantry also taught there.
“I found Mr. Chantry to be a man who was professional, courteous, and caring to students, parents, and fellow staff,” Morrison wrote in a letter to court authorities asking for leniency in Chantry’s sentencing. “In the time we worked together, in a variety of settings, he had his students (sic) best interests at heart.” Morrison signed the letter by name and identified himself as the state legislator representing Illinois’ 54th District.
Christian Liberty Academy plays an important role in Morrison’s life. Along with being a 5th grade teacher there for six years, his parents had helped found the school in 1969. Chantry taught there from 2002 to 2006.
Reached by phone, Morrison said, “I stand by what I wrote. I’m not going to talk about anything beyond the brief time we taught together.” He dismissed the media attention to his letter, saying voters have bigger concerns. “They want to talk about property taxes and the fact that they’re making plans to leave the state. Those are the real issues.”
Voters may be talking about something else now, though.
*** UPDATE *** Rep. Morrison…
To clarify, my statement was reflective of a person I worked with, for a brief period of time over 15 years ago. We have not seen nor spoken to each other since then. At no time did I ask for leniency.
What I learned this morning is not reflective of the person that I once knew. These are the most serious allegations and at the time I was unaware of them - and I wholeheartedly condemn them.
Therefore, I am seeking to withdraw my testimony in the letter, so there is no confusion regarding my position in this issue, after learning of these new allegations.
-
He sent a letter on behalf of someone who was facing sentencing for assaulting a child and… he didn’t know?
…Adding… So, let’s think about this for a moment. Rep. Morrison worked at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights until 2005. The paddling incident at that school, which resulted in a battery report filed with local police, happened in 2004, two years before Morrison left. And the superintendent of the school said the 2004 incident “prompted him to end the school’s long-standing practice of corporal punishment,” according to the Daily Herald.
Seems like he should’ve known something was up long before he wrote that letter to the judge.
Courtney: I have been living with endometriosis for 20 years.
Linda: I was healthy, except for the MS. Scared to death with the MS.
Courtney: I was having to make choices between groceries or the medication I needed. When people like Erika Harold threaten Obamacare, I can’t believe how little she values people like me with preexisting conditions.
Linda: The threat of Obamacare being taken away is one of those sort of bad dreams. So when I hear that politicians like Erika Harold wanting to repeal Obamacare, I get angry, and honestly get scared.
Courtney: I can’t vote for Erika Harold.
Linda: Absolutely not.
* The Champaign News-Gazette editorial board, which endorsed area resident Erika Harold, is spitting mad…
If politics wasn’t such a sleazy business, this advertisement would set a new low for being misleading.
Harold, like Raoul, is running for attorney general of Illinois, not for federal office.
Obamacare — aka the Affordable Care Act — is federal legislation passed during former President Barack Obama’s first two years in office.
Court challenges have been filed against Obamacare and been rejected. There is nothing that Harold could do about repealing Obamacare, even if she wanted to do so.
This is classic scaremongering engaged in by a loser candidate who fears he’ll lose an election if he can’t drive his opponent’s negatives sky high.
* I asked the Raoul campaign for a response…
That’s false. Donald Trump and Republican state attorneys general are in Texas district court trying, yet again, to destroy the ACA and take healthcare away from people with preexisting conditions. Democratic AGs, including Lisa Madigan, have intervened to vigorously defend it. In 2014, Republican Erika Harold said she wanted to “repeal it all,” regarding the ACA. Not only could she do something to destroy Obamacare — we have every reason to believe she would.
The campaign is right about the court case and the News-Gazette is wrong.
* From the Champaign News-Gazette in 2014, when Harold was running for Congress…
Harold said she wanted to “repeal it all and start all over again with consumer-driven” reforms.
“Specifically on the issue of the Affordable Care Act, I don’t think it’s a bill that can be reformed. When we look at the consequence throughout the district, with people losing plans they liked, having to pay increased premiums and I think we’re going to see the full effect of it when the employer mandate goes in effect … I think it’s fundamentally flawed.”
Kwame Raoul is lying about Erika’s record because he can’t run on his own fourteen-year record of failure in Springfield. The truth is Erika supports the Illinois law barring insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions, and Erika would not have joined the lawsuit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional.
I’m Erika Harold. If JB Pritzker is elected governor, he and Mike Madigan will have total control over state government. That much power in the hands of any one political party isn’t good for Illiniois. I’ll be a check on the Pritzker-Madigan agenda and work for you, not them.
Can Harold win? The “wave” environment would suggest not, but if voters are looking for a check on JB Pritzker and Speaker Madigan and they can’t bring themselves to vote for Gov. Rauner, she might be a realistic option. At least, that’s what the Republicans are hoping for. It’s probably too bad she can’t just come right out and say that in an ad, but much of her money is coming from Rauner, so it’s unlikely that she can or will.
