* The New York Times takes a look at the alleged cover-up by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation over the provenance of what it claimed was a hat once owned by the former president…
In 2015, the foundation took further steps to gain evidence that Lincoln owned the hat, said Nick Kalm, a vice chairman of the foundation’s board of directors. It arranged for the F.B.I. to take DNA samples from the hat, one of three of Lincoln’s believed to have survived, to see if it matched. […]
[Alan Lowe, the executive director of the museum] said he had no knowledge of this analysis until the chief executive of the foundation, Carla Knorowski, told him about it in January, when the nonprofit was seeking state funding to alleviate its debt. […]
Mr. Kalm disputed that the foundation had been secretive about the reports and said Mr. Lowe and previous leaders were kept informed. […]
“Did we keep it from the public? Sure,” he said. “But this isn’t a public issue.”
The private foundation, Mr. Kalm said, had no “duty to disclose.” He said if the reports had offered conclusive evidence one way or another, the foundation would have communicated that to the public.
It’s a “public issue” because the foundation’s hat was being displayed to the public as a bona fide item by a publicly funded museum. And it’s a “public issue” because they’re now asking the public for a bailout.
But they had no “duty to disclose.” Sheesh.
* Here’s something that hasn’t been played up nearly enough…
In the world of Lincolniana, it’s hard to fathom a more valuable artifact than Lincoln’s stovepipe hat. In 2007, an appraiser valued the hat now in Springfield at $6.5 million and used adjectives like “transcendent” to describe its apparent majesty.
It once belonged to Louise Taper, a wealthy West Coast collector who sat on the Lincoln foundation board when the purchase occurred but is no longer a member. […]
Taper purchased the hat from that previous owner for an undisclosed price in 1990.
In 1988, [former state historian Thomas Schwartz] valued the hat at $15,000, a far cry from its $6.5 million appraisal in 2007, Lowe told WBEZ. […]
In 2007, prior to the foundation’s purchase of the hat and other artifacts from Taper, an appraiser acknowledged he did not investigate the provenance of the hat. Instead, he based his evaluation on “prior in-depth research” by the museum.
In their 2013 report, Rubenstein and Lewis said they couldn’t find any evidence of that research.
So, Louise Taper buys the hat two years after a former state historian appraised it at $15,000. The foundation then buys the hat from Ms. Taper 17 years later for $6.5 million, while Taper sits on the foundation’s board. And the foundation’s purchase was based on research that can’t now be found.
How convenient.
* Press release…
The Illinois House Committee on Tourism will hold a hearing at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 12 at the Michael A. Bilandic Building to review allegations of financial mismanagement on the part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation (ALPLF), the nonprofit entity tasked with raising money for the taxpayer-supported Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, State Representative Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, announced today.
Ives made the announcement after speaking with Representative Ann Williams, D-Chicago, Chairperson of the Tourism Committee. The Committee will also schedule a follow-up hearing in Springfield during the Fall Veto Session of the General Assembly in November.
Recent media reports have highlighted the Foundation’s massive debt and controversy surrounding the authenticity of a stovepipe hat purported to have belonged to Lincoln, which is part of the collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.
They ought to seek subpoena power.
…Adding… From Rep. Ann Williams…
Hey Rich, the date/time for the hearing was posted today before we had the opportunity to firm up the date, details and witnesses. I am working closely with Rep. Barbara Wheeler (she’s minority spokesperson) for the committee and we decided it’s best to have the initial hearing in Springfield, to better accommodate the stakeholders and maximize attendance and participation in the hearing. I’ll keep you posted - in the meantime we continue to gather information and do our due diligence in preparation for the hearings.
Rauner signed an executive order on Friday banning nepotism in state government hiring and blamed mistrust by residents as a reason for people moving out of Illinois.
As a rationale for Rauner’s action, the executive order said “with the problem of outmigration growing in Illinois, it is imperative to strengthen the ethical practices of state government to ensure residents of Illinois trust that the state is promoting their interests.”
“Public trust historically has been diminished by a belief that the work of state government is done by the backroom dealings of a few focused on personal gain, while the people of Illinois are left wondering who has their interest in mind,” the order said.
Rauner has frequently used the word “corrupt” to attack his political opponents, namely Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Outmigration is a real problem. Everybody watching last night’s football game in Arizona got a depressing lesson in outmigration when the cameras continually focused on the huge number of Bears fans in the stands. I kinda doubt that most of those folks flew out for the game.
Rauner connecting his EO to the problem is a bit odd, but not totally unjustifiable. More reforms are clearly needed and Rauner’s talked about nepotism and outmigration for years. I guess my only question is: “Why did this take so long?” At first I thought he might be trying to get in front of a weekend story, but nothing broke. Maybe I’m just too cynical these days.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued executive orders eliminating 53 boards and commissions his administration said serve no public purpose and have been inactive for years, some for as long as two full decades. […]
One of the organizations that Rauner eliminated — the State Government Accountability Council — was formed in 1999 and there isn’t any recorded activity since that time. Another, the Illinois Board of Athletic Trainers, last met a decade ago in 2008.
The EO listed the Commission on Police Professionalism as a defunct board citing an internal statutory repeal date in 50 ILCS 725/8.
However, the GA passed this year and the governor signed SB3263, which extended the deadline for the commission to issue it’s report and transferred staff responsibility for the commission from the Law Enforcement Training Standards Board to the State Police.
My understanding is that the bill was introduced because LETSB had never done any work to convene the commission so it could begin it’s work.
So if my reading is right, the governor has abolished the commission before it has met and just a few weeks after extending it’s deadline. Kinda goofy.
The bill is here. I asked the governor’s office for a response hours ago and never heard back.
…,Adding… I was just shown evidence that my e-mail inquiry was sent to spam. They’re checking on it now.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
Your subscriber is flat out wrong.
The commission that SB3263 refers to is not one of the 53 boards or commissions that we abolished. Our executive orders also clarified that 44 boards and commissions no longer have legal authority to function, and one of those 44 was an old version of the commission.
The old version of the commission had statutory authority from 50 ILCS 725/8, which we referred to in Exhibit B of EO 2018-11. That section of the statute had a sunset date of April 1, 2016. When that date came and went, the previous version of the commission became defunct.
More than a year later, Public Act 100-319 (eff. 8-24-17) created a new version of the commission in a different section of the statute, 50 ILCS 725/7.5. The new commission has slightly different membership and slightly broader functions, compared to the old commission. The new statute added the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, as a member, and adds “review [of] officer-involved shooting investigation policies, review policies and practices concerning the use of force and misconduct by law enforcement officers” to the functions.
Our executive order doesn’t affect this new version of the commission at all.
Chicago political prognosticators, instigators, spectators and voters are already besotted with the Feb. 26 mayoral election.
The election scheduled just six weeks away? Not so much.
Voters could be complacent about November and distracted by February. For Democrats, that’s a dangerous combination. […]
In recent weeks, voters have been hearing a lot about lopsided polls at the top of the Nov. 6 ticket. […]
Pritzker has bagged this race, they might conclude. Why bother to vote?
It’s a fact that the city’s political reporters and their editors are so heavily focused on the mayor’s race that they’re ignoring the statewide and legislative contests, other than horse-race stuff.
However, Mayor Richard M. Daley set off a huge media bomb when he announced his retirement eight years ago and the incumbent Democratic governor still managed to win despite a national GOP wave.
What’s really dominating coverage, though, is the stuff out of Washington, DC. Lots of folks are up in arms about the national political situation and November is their first general election opportunity to express that anger. As long as the election is nationalized, turnout should be pretty good.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
Today, the Pritzker campaign released a new digital ad, “Day In The Life,” highlighting the gloomy news cycles Illinoisans are living through with a failed governor in office.
Turns out, it’s unpopular when a governor fails to do his job and pass a budget for over two years. Bruce Rauner’s approval rating has tanked, he’s been named both the Worst Republican Governor in America, and the nation’s most vulnerable incumbent running for re-election.
Secretary of State Jesse White’s plan to implement automatic voter registration falls short and fails to comply with the clear requirements of the law, Illinois’ leading voting rights coalition said at a press conference on Monday.
The automatic voter registration bill, which passed the legislature unanimously and which Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law in August 2017, required the Office of the Secretary of State to implement automatic voter registration by July 1st of this year. The Secretary of State has already missed that deadline, meaning that the landmark law will not be in place before the November election.
Advocates stated they were exploring all legal options, including litigation.
Automatic voter registration would change the process to register to vote at state agencies from an opt-in system, where eligible voters must to take multiple additional steps to be registered, to an opt-out system that registers all eligible voters unless they request to be left off the voter rolls. It would also shift agency registration from a paper-based to electronic system. As has been demonstrated in other states, a well-designed automatic voter registration system registers more eligible voters, saves taxpayer money, and results in a more accurate and secure voter list.
This July, working in coordination with the State Board of Elections, the Secretary of State implemented one portion of the law, modernizing the current opt-in voter registration system. This system, where eligible voters must take multiple steps to register to vote or update their registration, changed in July from a paper-based to an entirely electronic process. However, the Secretary of State failed to implement the cornerstone of the law, opt-out registration, where eligible voters are registered to vote automatically unless they take action to opt out, by the July statutory deadline.
The Office of the Secretary of State’s initial plan for the opt-out process would have no tangible difference from the opt-in process. Their planned process would require eligible voters to take all the same steps register to vote as the opt-in process, including additional signatures and duplicative verifications in order to complete the process. Through a series of negotiations, the Office of the Secretary of State has agreed to make some changes to their plan, but not until July or August 2019, more than a year late, and past both the November state and February Chicago local elections.
Advocates asserted their attempts to help the Office of Secretary of State were not welcomed.
“Over the past year, our coalition has offered assistance to help the Secretary of State’s office with implementation - whether it was calling for more resources, providing community feedback, or connecting them with national experts, and with one minor exception, they rebuffed our offers,” said Stevie Valles, Executive Director of Chicago Votes, another Just Democracy Illinois Steering Committee member.
“Illinois was a leader when it passed automatic voter registration with unanimous bipartisan support,” said Hannah Kim, Public Interest Advocate with Illinois PIRG, a Steering Committee member of the Just Democracy coalition who has lead coalition implementation efforts. “Unfortunately, the Secretary of State’s plan fails to achieve the fundamental objectives of the law.”
“The Illinois legislature passed the bill and the governor signed it into law because it was good for Illinois citizens,” said Natalie E. Tennant, Manager of State Advocacy for the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and former West Virginia Secretary of State. “We should not lose that momentum or the spirit of bipartisanship. Other states are watching Illinois to see that it is on track for implementation.”
“It’s disappointing to see how the implementation of automatic voter registration has been rolled out. When we passed this law unanimously, there was no indication that deadlines weren’t going to be met and that community interests weren’t going to be kept in mind,” stated House sponsor Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston). “I sincerely hope these problem can be resolved swiftly so that Illinois voters can begin to benefit from this landmark legislation in the spirit it was intended.”
“As an advocate at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, I spent the last several years fighting for automatic voter registration. We met with community partners and key stakeholders to craft this landmark legislation in a way that could get everyone on board,” added Rep. Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago). “Now as a State Representative, I’m calling on the Secretary of State to implement AVR in compliance with the law without further delay.”
Just Democracy Illinois strongly recommends that all eligible voters make sure their voter registration is accurate and up to date by using the state’s online voter registration system before the October deadline.
I’ve asked White’s spokesman for comment.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Secretary White…
My number one priority in implementing the Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) program is to ensure the integrity of the election process. The system we have designed and implemented does this.
The fact is the AVR program is up and running. It is going very well. The system is completely automated and the information provided to the Secretary of State’s office is being sent electronically to the Illinois State Board of Elections each night. Anyone who wishes to register to vote may do so.
In fact, the Illinois State Board of Elections says the registration numbers are close to double since the program went into effect July 2, 2018. According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, registration figures before AVR averaged around 31,500 a month. But since the implementation of AVR on July 2 of this year, more than 145,300 have been registered in less than three months.
We understand there are people on both sides of the political spectrum that may have issues with this new law. But my number one priority is to ensure we are protecting the integrity of the election process. I will not be intimidated by threats as we continue to move forward with this new system.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Hannah Kim, Illinois PIRG Advocate, on behalf of Just Democracy Illinois…
Despite Secretary of State White’s claim, automatic voter registration is not up and running in Illinois.
In July, the existing voter registration process at Driver Services facilities–which requires individuals to affirmatively opt-in to register–transitioned from a paper process to a fully electronic process.
This is just one change that the automatic voter registration law requires, and we celebrate its initial success.
However, modernizing opt-in voter registration is different than implementing automatic, or opt-out, registration. Secretary White failed to implement opt-out registration, the cornerstone of the law, by the July 2018 statutory deadline.
We call on Secretary White to comply with the law we fought passionately to enact by fully implementing opt-out registration by January 2019.
* It’s not yet running on Facebook, and the ad is currently unlisted on YouTube [Update: It’s now listed], but commenters have said in the past that the Rauner campaign has been all over Hulu…
Today, the Rauner Campaign is launching a new digital ad titled “JBahamas Bank.”
Working with its sister company, “Pritzker Plumbing Inc.,” JBahamas Bank serves people who want to dodge taxes by keeping their money in offshore accounts, just like JB Pritzker.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Pritzker set up several shell companies between 2008 and 2011, some of which are based in the Bahamas. Despite Pritzker’s claims that his offshore dealings are “only providing charitable contributions,” JBahamas Bank is hard at work behind the scenes managing Pritzker’s business dealings and helping him dodge taxes in the beautiful sunshine of the tropics.
You work hard to provide for your family. Saving for a house in a good neighborhood. Budgeting for a summer vacation, or maybe a new car. But just think what your budget would be if you avoided paying taxes!
Well, at JBahamas Bank, we can help Illinois families like yours! We’ll hide your money offshore, far from the IRS, on the sandy beaches of the Bahamas, just like JB Pritzker did. And considering our man JB’s plan to raise taxes on every family in Illinois, there’s no better time to open an account than today
