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This just in… Illinois Supreme Court accepts direct appeal of remap case

Friday, Jul 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 3:34 pm - That was fast…

The complete document is here.

* 3:53 pm - From Dave Mellet at Independent Maps…

“We’re very excited that the Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to immediately review our case on an expedited schedule. The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on a citizen initiative since 1994, but they will now have the opportunity to preserve this important constitutional right of Illinois voters. The lower court ruling - which agreed that redistricting reform is an acceptable subject for citizen initiative - left Illinois voters with no opportunity to make the changes needed to stop politicians from drawing their own legislative maps.”

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GOP poll: Kirk and Duckworth essentially tied, Clinton leads by 14

Friday, Jul 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Super PAC helping Mark Kirk’s Senate bid has released a poll to Greg Hinz. It was taken by GOP pollster Basswood Research…

The poll has Kirk edging ahead of Democratic nominee Tammy Duckworth 41.9 percent to 40.4 percent, within the poll’s plus or minus 3.5 percent margin of error, but better than the narrow 42.5 percent to 42 percent lead Duckworth held when Basswood last surveyed in April. […]

Normally I’d say an incumbent with only 41.9 percent backing is in some trouble. But this is a strange leader, and it’s hard to say without knowing more about the roughly one in five voters who is undecided.

In comparison to the Senate contest, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a wide lead in her home state over the GOP’s Trump.

Specifically 46.4 percent of likely voters surveyed by telephone said they favor Clinton, 32.5 percent are for Trump, 5.2 percent for Libertarian Gary Johnson and 2.6 percent for the Green Party’s Jill Stein. Just over 13 percent were undecided.

Back on the Senate race, Basswood says Kirk is doing 22 points better than Trump among moderates, and 24 points better among women. Basswood’s research memo didn’t say what the relative margin is among Republicans and men, but it obviously is much smaller.

There are other Senate incumbents polling around 42 percent, so it’s not completely unusual, but he really ought to be doing better than that.

…Adding… I was just reminded by a “helpful” Democrat that the poll was taken when Kirk was the only Senate candidate on the airwaves with ads. Duckworth went up the next day.

* Eric Elk, who commissioned the poll, told me that the poll’s partisan makeup was Dem+10. The survey size was 800 and it was conducted July 12-13. No word yet on what percentage of respondents were mobile phone users, which is an important thing to know these days.

…Adding… Mobile phone users were 25 percent of respondents. Could be higher, but better than nothing.

The pollster’s memo is here.

…Adding More… Kirk is actually doing much better vis-à-vis Trump than some of his GOP colleagues…

“We’re not running presidential races,” said Ward Baker, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “We’re running sheriff races.”
So far, the divide is holding. Sen. Marco Rubio polls about 5 percentage points ahead of Trump in Florida, Sen. Rob Portman is 4 points up on him in Ohio, and Sen. Pat Toomey has a 6-point edge over the nominee in Pennsylvania, according to RealClearPolitics rolling averages.

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*** LIVE COVERAGE *** Rauner education press conference

Friday, Jul 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* BlueRoomStream.com’s live coverage is here. Watch it all with ScribbleLive…

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Oh, this ought to be good

Friday, Jul 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* After it was reported that Bruce Rauner wrote an e-mail five years ago saying about Chicago Public Schools, “50% of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate,” check out what he’s gonna do today…

Daily Public Schedule: Friday, July 22, 2016

What: Governor Rauner Signs Legislation to Increase Transparency for School Testing and Honor Training for Teachers
Where: James R. Thompson Center – Blue Room
100 W. Randolph, Chicago
Date: Friday, July 22, 2016
Time: 11:00 a.m.

You gotta figure this will be a well-attended press conference with some sharp questions. He’ll get his own chance to apologize in public while likely enduring some grilling.

* And he will likely be called upon to respond to this…

IFT President Responds to Governor Rauner’s Trump-esque Affront to Educators
Rauner Revealed: “Half of [Chicago] teachers are virtually illiterate”

CHICAGO – As GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump prepares to take the convention stage in Cleveland, Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) President Dan Montgomery responded to revealing emails written by one of Trump’s supporters, Governor Bruce Rauner.

“Governor Bruce Rauner’s statement that half of Chicago teachers are ‘virtually illiterate’ is a grotesque affront to the thousands of dedicated, hardworking, and talented educators and, indeed, the children who learn from them and love them,” said Montgomery, a high school English teacher.

“Perhaps the Governor is trying to one-up Donald Trump, whom he said he would support, in the level of hate and impropriety in civic deliberations.

“While Rauner publicly claims to love Illinois teachers, his private emails reveal the appalling truth: he holds them in contempt. No public servant, let alone a governor, is fit to oversee the education of our children when he or she has so little regard for those who teach.”

* And this…

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis described Rauner’s comments as “ridiculous” and “silly.”

“That’s on him, that has nothing to do with reality,” said Lewis, who like Rauner graduated from Dartmouth College. “Am I virtually illiterate? I have the same degree he has. Guess what? They didn’t just pass that out to me. … And if he threw everybody out who he claims is virtually illiterate, who would want to come into this system?”

* And…

CTU president Karen Lewis took offense, saying she has yet to meet an illiterate teacher.

“Doesn’t that speak to his elitism and his attitude toward who we are?” she said by telephone of the governor she has long sparred with. “If he said that and put in an email, think about what he really says when he feels comfortable.”

Hopefully, the Rauner presser will be livestreamed. Either way, we’ll have a ScribbleLive feed set up by then.

…Adding… BlueRoomStream.com will livestream the event.

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Rauner apologizes for making “unfair, untrue” comments in old e-mail

Friday, Jul 22, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped up for visibility.]

* Uh-oh…

Gov. Bruce Rauner once told some of Chicago’s wealthiest and most influential civic leaders that half of the Chicago Public Schools teachers “are virtually illiterate” and half of the city’s principals are “incompetent,” according to emails Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration released Thursday under a court order.

Rauner made the assertion five years ago when he was a wealthy private equity executive and an active participant in Chicago school reform. His emails were part of a discussion with affluent education reform activists connected to the Chicago Public Education Fund, including Penny Pritzker, now U.S. commerce secretary; billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin; Chicago investment executive Mellody Hobson; and Helen Zell, the wife of billionaire real estate magnate Sam Zell.

“Teacher evaluation is critically important, but in a massive bureaucracy with a hostile union, where 50% of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate, a complete multi-dimensional evaluation system with huge subjectivity in it will be attacked, manipulated and marginalized – the status quo will prevail,” Rauner wrote in a December 2011 email arguing for a strong system of teacher and principal evaluations in the district. “It’s much more critical that we develop a consistent, rigorous, objective, understandable measure and reporting system for student growth upon which all further evaluation of performance will depend.”

* The good news is that Rauner’s spokesman Lance Trover apologized, which is a highly unusual move…

“Significant change can be frustratingly slow; this is especially true in public education. Many of us, at one time or another, have sent hastily crafted emails containing inaccurate or intemperate statements,” Trover’s statement said in part. “This particular email was sent out of frustration at the pace of change in our public school system. The governor regrets writing it and apologizes to CPS educators for making an unfair, untrue comment.”

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