* The whole idea behind the GOP effort to investigate Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2010 anti-violence program was because it somehow helped Quinn win the 2010 campaign, even though no money was handed out until after the campaign was over.
So, while this could be an important development, keep in mind that the contract was handed out sometime during Fiscal Year 2013…
A church closely connected to former top gubernatorial aide Billy Ocasio was awarded a contract for up to $100,000 from Gov. Pat Quinn’s embattled Neighborhood Recovery Initiative — even though Mr. Ocasio had helped supervise NRI grant-making as Mr. Quinn’s senior adviser.
New Life Covenant Church, where Mr. Ocasio’s wife, Veronica Ocasio, works as chief of staff, received the contract and ultimately was paid just under $43,000 for developing a youth employment program, according to records compiled by the Illinois Auditor General’s office and information obtained from state records by Crain’s. […]
“I don’t think it was just a coincidence,” says state Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, who serves on the commission and may be able to question Mr. Ocasio, who has been subpoenaed to appear at Wednesday’s session. “What’s available now doesn’t tell enough to reach a firm conclusion, but it would be incredibly naïve to conclude that (Mr. Ocasio’s) influence had no impact on who got the money.” […]
Mr. Ocasio left the governor’s office in May of 2011, assuming a new post at the Illinois Housing Development Authority. While still in the office, he had strongly lobbied in emails for NRI funds for Hispanic groups and arranged a meeting with Mr. Quinn to which New Life had been invited. For instance, in a Sept. 23 [2010] email, to Barbara Shaw, then ICJIA head. Referring to the Neighborhood Recovery program, he wrote, “Barbara, can you please get us a list of the lead agencies for NRP…I want to make sure that the Latino communities are taken care of [and provide meaningful suggestions based on your outline].” […]
In 2009, when Mr. Ocasio resigned as a Chicago alderman to go to work for Mr. Quinn, he pushed for New Life’s pastor, Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus, to be appointed to succeed him and, later, put forward his wife as his replacement. Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley instead chose someone else. In 2011, when Mr. De Jesus briefly ran for mayor, Veronica Ocasio was chairman of his campaign committee.
Expect this to come up during the hearing this week. But, again, we’re talking about a grant that took place two years (at least) after the election. Ocasio showed up to testify during a summer LAC hearing, but was never called. We’ll see what happens this time around.
* Meanwhile, from the Tribune’s front page story today…
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn spent nearly $5 million on special job training grants as part of a sweeping anti-violence program he quickly launched during his 2010 campaign, but about a third of the community groups that received money had to give some of it back.
A Humboldt Park group returned nearly $115,000 earmarked for computer training, a Near West Side group owes nearly $50,000 designated for teaching ex-offenders culinary and maintenance skills, and another group refunded more than $20,000 set aside to prepare Chicago’s disabled population for food service and hospitality jobs.
In all, eight of 25 community groups getting Quinn’s Training for Tomorrow grants fell short of the program’s goals and have returned money or plan to reimburse the state about $220,000. Most of the repayments came in after the Tribune inquired about the grants in early August.
You have to read down to the 12th paragraph to learn that the grant recipients weren’t named until Thanksgiving, which was a few weeks after the election. A few grafs later it’s explained that grant money wasn’t distributed until well into 2011. Also, many of the problems were discovered by audits done by UIUC. And the program overall performed up to expectations…
Some groups had better success than others, and the program ended up with 1,650 people enrolled, more than the 1,462 the state anticipated. The number of people who finished the program, got work and met the benchmark of holding a job for at least 90 days was 798 — only one less than projected, according to state officials.
…Adding… With a hat tip to Wordslinger, Kass’ latest…
Quinn’s administration is under federal investigation for spending $55 million of public money on a gang violence reduction program before his last election.
They must’ve laid off more editors over there.
46 Comments  
|
* Gov. Quinn has been campaigning with Martin Sheen for a couple of days. Sun-Times…
The dazzle of celebrity prompted grins — and a few eye rolls — from grim-faced Loop commuters Monday morning, as a campaigning Gov. Pat Quinn showed up with his actor pal Martin Sheen.
Quinn and Sheen shook hands and posed for photographs with commuters streaming out of Millennium Station downtown.
Asked whether a Hollywood actor would help or hurt Quinn, who is in a close race with Republican hopeful Bruce Rauner, Sheen said: “You can’t confuse celebrity with credibility. But it’s not like I showed up yesterday. I’ve been involved with social justice and with the Democrats most of my adult life.”
* But that’s not all he’s been involved with. The Illinois Republican Party has twice tried to interest the media in a rather bizarre Sheen story without any luck. Here’s today’s version…
Pat Quinn continues campaigning alongside actor Martin Sheen today, but he has yet to answer for Sheen’s radical views on a range of issues, including whether the September 11th attacks were actually a U.S. government conspiracy.
That’s right, our governor is proudly campaigning with a 9/11 “truther” who questions whether our government – not Al Qaeda – murdered 3,000 Americans.
Sounds too crazy to be true, right? Check out the YouTube evidence:
On October 27, 2007, Martin Sheen suggested the U.S. government had a hand in pre-rigging Building 7 to come down on 9/11 (Watch the Video): “I did not want to believe that my government could possibly be involved in such a thing…then however there’s been so many revelations that now I have my doubts. And chief among them is building seven. How did they rig that building so that it came down on the evening of the day?…How convenient. When did they rig that building? That’s the most curious question and I have not received an answer.”
Later, Sheen supported his son Charlie’s 9/11 truther statements (Watch the Video): “…I think all of us should be inquisitive about that. We should know what really happened. I don’t know, but there are some very troubling, unanswered questions and I think that’s all [my son] Charlie’s trying to explore. So I support that.”
Governor Quinn must address these offensive radical views today. Does Pat Quinn agree with Martin Sheen that there are unanswered questions about the 9/11 attacks? Will he denounce Martin Sheen’s radical and offensive views? If not, why is he continuing to campaign alongside someone who holds them?
* So, I asked the Quinn campaign for comment. The response…
Rather than attacking those who advocate for the working poor, billionaire Bruce Rauner should explain his own backward and offensive view that he expressed just this year of wanting to eliminate the minimum wage.
I’m pretty sure that if Bruce Rauner campaigned with a “birther,” the Quinnsters would try to make something out of that, so this appears to be a fair enough hit that probably deserves more attention.
…Adding… From a commenter…
Quinnsters-as long you don’t shake hands with a guy in a jacket with a Confederate flag it’s OK, right? Maybe that guy was an advocate for the working poor too since that makes it better. Fair hit on Quinn by Rauner.
Yep. I’d somehow forgotten about that one. Click here if you did as well.
…Adding More… The IL GOP responds to the Quinn campaign’s non-response…
Rather than rejecting Sheen’s 9/11 views, Quinn’s campaign refused to comment and instead claimed the ILGOP’s questioning of the matter was “attacking those who advocate for the working poor.” Gov. Quinn is responsible for the people he chooses to campaign with, whether he likes it or not.
The ILGOP is stunned and outraged by Pat Quinn’s refusal to condemn Sheen’s 9/11 conspiracy theories. The people of Illinois deserve better than this.
…Adding Even More… From the RGA…
Who does Illinois Dem Gov. Pat Quinn think makes a great campaign partner? A 9/11 truther who has suggested multiple times that the U.S. government may have secretly had a hand in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. If that wasn’t bad enough, news comes today that the Quinn campaign refuses to comment about his campaign surrogate’s 9/11 truther background and if Governor Quinn agrees with his statements. These moves by the Quinn campaign are outrageous, offensive and another major example of Quinn’s out-of-touch behavior.
…And More… Via the IL GOP…
Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon) today issued the following statement in response to Gov. Pat Quinn’s refusal to condemn 9/11 conspiracy theories:
“I joined the Air National Guard because of September 11th. Many have sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom since that horrible day. I am deeply concerned by Gov. Quinn’s refusal to condemn those who would suggest the United States Government perpetrated these attacks that murdered more than 3,000 Americans. He owes us an explanation - now.”
35 Comments
|
* You know the drill. Here’s the press release…
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching a new television ad in Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, highlighting how former Congressman Bobby Schilling voted to protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. The ad comes just over two years after Bobby Schilling turned his back on the 170 Sensata workers who had their jobs outsourced. The ad starts running today.
* The TV ad…
* The script…
[Narrator] Thousands of Illinois jobs…gone.
(News Audio) “the plant is shutting down”
(News Audio) “170 jobs to China”
[Narrator] While in Congress, Bobby Schilling voted to protect tax breaks for corporations that send jobs overseas and let them keep their government contracts.
(News Audio) “losing these jobs would devastate this community”
[Narrator] The policies Schilling supports devastated Illinois. We can’t afford any more politicians like Bobby Schilling.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.
* Meanwhile, Roll Call blogged about some potential problems for the Schilling campaign because it appeared to violate some technical advertising requirements…
On Sept. 16, former Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill., aired a 30-second ad titled, “How Could You?” that accused Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos of cutting benefits for military veterans. Democrats promptly sent a letter to television stations in Illinois’ 17th District, taking issue with the disclaimer on Schilling’s ad and arguing the Republican forfeited his right to the lowest unit charge for the remainder of the race. […]
“The bottom line is that, at the time of the complaint, the ad was going off the air anyway,” said Rex Elsass, whose firm, The Strategy Group for Media, produced the spot. In the middle of last week, the Schilling campaign “switched traffic,” the campaign term for changing ads, and the disclaimer on the new ad, “Spin,” was slightly different. The written disclaimer at the end is accompanied by a “postage stamp” photo of the candidate.
So what’s the big deal? This particular disclaimer issue has the potential for serious financial consequences for Schilling because it occurred within the 60-day window before the election.
“[B]obby Schilling has forfeited his entitlement to the lowest unit charge for the duration of the campaign,” attorney Mike Halpin wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to station managers on behalf of the Bustos campaign. “From now through the day of the general election, your station must charge Bobby Schilling and Bobby Schilling for Congress the same rate for broadcast time that it charges non-political advertisers for comparable use.”
The local paper put the story on its front page today…
* If Schilling is forced to pay the higher amount, that could hurt him even more because he’s being outraised by Bustos…
Today, Cheri Bustos for Congress announced it raised $683,000 in the third fundraising quarter of 2014, a new record for Illinois’ 17th Congressional District. The campaign has raised just under $2.7 million during this election cycle, another record for Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, and enters the final month of the campaign with $987,000 cash-on-hand.
“Our campaign is humbled to have the strong support of so many across our region who know that Cheri Bustos is the candidate with the right priorities for Illinois,” said Bustos’ Campaign Manager Jeremy Jansen. “Cheri is running to continue her fight to bring middle class values and common sense back to Washington. That means putting job-creation and our economy first, reducing the deficit in a balanced way, while protecting Medicare and Social Security, and standing up for America’s veterans.”
This record-breaking quarter follows Cheri out-raising ex-Congressman Bobby Schilling every fundraising quarter of this election cycle.
…Adding… From the Schilling campaign…
“Congresswoman Bustos is a trade denier, and that’s a problem in a trade-dependent district like Illinois 17. Her thinking is completely backwards, it’s anti-worker, and it shows that Congresswoman Bustos doesn’t fully understand how the 21st century American economy works.
“It’s time for some evidence from Congresswoman Bustos to back up these silly claims based on flawed logic and misinformation. Trade creates jobs. It benefits the American worker. It’s absolutely vital to our district’s economy.
“If Congresswoman Bustos had it her way, there would be no trade with foreign nations. She would tell our manufacturers to close up and go home. Our farmers would be done—it would end American agriculture as we know it. We would stop putting our crops, our products, and our innovative ideas on the global market.
“Millions of jobs exist in this country solely because of trade. If Congresswoman Bustos had it her way, we would lose all of them. Our economy would come to a screeching halt, and the middle class would be caught in the crossfire.
“Congresswoman Bustos has no right to talk about shipping jobs overseas. Her policies are directly responsible for us losing American jobs to China. She supports the bring-back tax, which is preventing more than $2 trillion sitting overseas from being re-shored back to the United States. She supports keeping the highest corporate tax rate in the world. She supports further penalizing small businesses and preventing them from expanding into global markets.
“And what has Congresswoman Bustos done for our economy in this district? We’re losing Robertshaw in Hanover. We’re losing All Feed in Woodhull. We’re losing MetLife in Freeport. Where was Congresswoman Bustos?
“Maybe while she was spending millions on air talking about imaginary ‘tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas,’ she should have been doing her job and fighting to protect our jobs. Now, for far too many workers in Hanover, Woodhull, and Freeport, it’s too late.”
7 Comments
|
|
Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...
...............
...............
...............
|
   
|
Hosted by MCS |
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax |
Advertise Here |
Mobile Version |
Contact Rich Miller
|
![Sept. 23 [2010] email](http://www.chicagobusiness.com/Assets/jpg/news/20141003-03.jpg){kind=link}