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Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is a huge blow to Kirk Dillard’s campaign. Ron Gidwitz was fully behind Dillard in 2010, helped him raise money and is still owed almost $200,000 by Dillard’s campaign.

Gidwitz wasn’t a great gubernatorial candidate, but he’s a far better behind the scenes guy.

From a press release…

Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner announced today that Ron Gidwitz will join the campaign as Finance Chairman and Co-Chair of the campaign.

“I’ve said from the beginning that I believe Republicans should unite behind one candidate. We have an extraordinary opportunity to win the Governor’s race and transform the state. I know all the candidates extremely well and believe there’s a clear choice: Bruce Rauner,” Gidwitz said. “Bruce will energize Republicans and appeal to reform-minded Independents and Democrats because he knows we can cut government spending, create jobs, and take on a broken system in Springfield currently dominated by special interests.”

Gidwitz has long been one of the Illinois Republican Party’s top supporters and has deep ties in state GOP circles. He has spent the year working to unite Republicans around a gubernatorial candidate.

“Ron is tremendously respected in our Party and has been a long time leader. I am honored to have his support,” said Bruce Rauner. “Ron’s backing is a great boost to our efforts and will help grow our campaign’s momentum. Illinoisans are ready to shake up Springfield, and there is no doubt we can win.”

Gidwitz joins Elizabeth Christie and Jim Schultz as Co-Chairs of a campaign that already includes supporters like Anne and Ken Griffin, Mike Keiser, Jack Roeser, John Rowe, Dick Uihlein, and dozens of other important community and business leaders.

Dillard said earlier this week that he was upset that the business community was refusing to coalesce behind a single candidate. Well, it sure is beginning to. And that candidate ain’t Dillard.

…Adding… Bernie…

Dillard’s campaign filings show he still owes $250,000 from his 2010 effort, mostly to Ron Gidwitz. Gidwitz, himself a 2006 candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, was Dillard’s campaign chairman in 2010 and is former CEO of Helene Curtis.

Dillard said he does not have to pay back Gidwitz.

Maybe he will now.

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*** UPDATED x2 - Video *** Today’s quote

Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the Twitters…

Lisa Madigan at foreclosure event "I may entertain off topic questions…depending on what mood I'm in" #whatsnext

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) July 17, 2013

AGLisa Madigan surrounds herself with praise on home foreclosure, what about investigating Metra? What does think of cutting lawmakers pay?

— Mary Ann Ahern July 17, 2013

Lisa Madigan to reporter "you've been reading too much John Kass" then defends her record

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) July 17, 2013

*** UPDATE *** Video of the exchange is here…

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

Off-topic begins at about the 5 minute mark.

It’s pretty obvious that the Kass comment was a joke. Everybody laughed.

*** UPDATE 2 *** From WLS’ Bill Cameron…

When asked why it’s acceptible for the speaker and the attorney general to come from the same family, but not the speaker and the governor, Madigan said, “It sounds to me like you’ve been reading too much John Kass. Do you have an original question?”

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*** LIVE COVERAGE *** Metra allegations hearing

Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* ABC7 has live coverage of today’s RTA hearing over allegations made by Metra’s former CEO that he was dismissed because he had “not acceded to requests for unlawful politically-motivated employment actions.” Click here for the live feed. WGN also has a live feed here.

* Sun-Times…

Former Metra CEO Alex Clifford testified Wednesday that after he wrote a memo saying House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office asked him to raise the pay of a Madigan campaign worker and hire another friend, Metra officials worked to oust him.

The memo “sparked a desire…to have me leave sooner rather than later,” Clifford told the RTA board, which has financial oversight over Metra.Clifford said that in February this year Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran told him O’Halloran was going to have to get a meeting with Madigan to see what damage Clifford’s rebuffing of Madigan’s wishes would have on the agency’s funding.

“I wanted to stay working at Metra,” Clifford said earlier in the hearing. “This has been a long, difficult process.”

Clifford said he was “really steaming” when he heard he may not have the votes from the Metra board to stay on the job after he refused to go along with requests from powerful politicians.

* Tribune…

Shortly before Metra CEO Alex Clifford’s patronage complaints against House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed the agency into severance negotiations, Madigan asked Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration to hire the supporter at the heart of Clifford’s allegation.

The Quinn administration — which has sharply criticized Metra’s handling of Clifford’s departure — granted the speaker’s request for Patrick Ward, a labor relations specialist and longtime foot soldier in Madigan’s political army. Officials said Ward now is working in a newly tailored Chicago-based job that took over the duties of a state worker whose job had been based in Winnebago County.

The state revealed that Ward was the only person interviewed for the $70,000-a-year job.

The Quinn administration said the governor did not know about the hiring until Friday.

* And here’s a ScribbleLive feed…

48 Comments

Question of the day

Friday, Jul 12, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) won by a little over 300 votes last year against an unknown, underfunded Democratic opponent who had no leadership backing.

Yet, now, he wants to run for House Republican Leader. As you already know, HGOP Leader Tom Cross wants to run for attorney general in case Lisa Madigan doesn’t stand for reelection. Several House Republicans are interested.

This Kay campaign is highly unusual because chamber leaders often have to take some pretty bad votes to help a member out here and there or to follow through on a deal with the other leaders. So, you just don’t usually see people from swing districts running for the top job anywhere in the country. There’s just too much danger that they’d be a one-termer and that it would cost the caucus even more money to defend them because they are the leader.

* Anyway, Kay recently sent out a glossy brochure touting his candidacy. The piece was posted on Jack Roeser’s Champion News site.

Click here to read it.

Some of the ideas aren’t bad at all, some of them are retreads. It’s a good-looking piece, but I did notice some avoidable typos, which prolly ain’t a great thing.

…Adding… Just in case you missed it when you were looking at Kay’s brochure…

NEW IDEAS: Dwight Kay wants the House Repubicans to be a laboratory of creativity, known for their innovative solutions. […]

JOB CREATOR: With our state facing record unemployment, the House Repubican Caucus would be well-served by having their leader also have real-world business experience.

Emphasis added to point out that maybe I’m wrong. Apparently, he’s running for something besides the House Republican Leader post.

* From Rep. Kay’s brochure…

* The Question: Caption?

66 Comments

Protected: *** UPDATED x1 *** SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - This just in…

Friday, Jul 12, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

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*** UPDATED x1 *** Today’s quote

Friday, Jul 12, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From Aviva Bowen’s Facebook page…

Lemmegetthisstraight. And I’m not commenting on pro/con of Quinn’s move.

But when it comes to the promised compensation of our state legislators, we are focused urgently on the constitutionality of cutting it.

But when it comes to slashing the promised compensation of a half-million teachers, emergency responders, and public service workers with their life savings in a state pension system some say, “Meh. who knows. Let’s just do it and worry about constitutionality later.”

Aviva works for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, so she’s a bit biased, but I don’t disagree at all.

* Also, Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced within hours that she’d be looking into the constitutionality of the governor’s line-item veto. But AG Madigan has yet to publicly voice an opinion on any of the proposed pension reform plans.

That seems rather duplicitous. Madigan’s office has said that she won’t comment on an issue that could be litigated. But Quinn’s veto could very well be challenged in court.

I’m not sure I quite understand this, other than the fact that she may run for governor and wants to stay out of the pension fight.

*** UPDATE *** From the attorney general’s office…

Rich, regarding Aviva’s Facebook comment and your post, we have not publicly weighed in on the governor’s actions on the legislative pay. We simply said we were looking at issue based on questions brought to our office and raised by our lawyers.

As you noted, we have not publicly weighed in on the pension matter given the anticipated litigation once a reform measure is passed. We anticipate possibly litigation involving the governor’s actions as well, which explains why we have simply indicated we are doing a legal analysis.

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