Duckworth said Salvi opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and if the mother’s life is threatened.
When asked about her stance on these cases, Salvi said she would not get into hypotheticals.
“I don’t know [about] the 6,000 rape cases a year…if those folks would consider rape to be hypotheticals,” Duckworth said.
* Public radio story on Republican CD17 nominee Esther Joy King…
King said she’s for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning the nearly half-century old Roe v. Wade precedent that shielded abortion access rights on a national scale.
“I do support what the Supreme Court did and returning the decision back to the states, to the people, really,” she said. “It’s closer to us, the people. So our voice matters more in this conversation.”
King said she believes Illinois has some of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, citing the Illinois General Assembly’s decision to scrap a law requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion.
She said she is “pro-life,” but does support exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother. She said abortion access should ultimately be left up to individual states to decide.
* Pioneer Press story entitled “Sex-Ed bill, ‘progressive’ school curriculum the focus of DuPage County Republicans ahead of midterm elections”…
On Wednesday, [Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst] was joined on stage by representative Amy Grant of District 42 and Republican House candidates E. Dale Litney and Paul Leong, who reiterated the need for full curriculum transparency and parental involvement in what children are being taught.
Leong, Naperville councilman, former school board member, and candidate for House District 81, said the “role of family in academic success cannot be underestimated.”
“We have allowed bureaucrats, not educators, nor parents, to structure educational programs and issue mandates and standards that have no bearing on academic success,” he said. Leong, along with Mazzochi, recommended school districts create parent committees to conduct in-depth reviews of controversial classes or pieces of curriculum.
Mazzochi touched on a couple of other issues during her 30-minute speech, including “left-wing political ideologies” that she said are one of the root causes of Illinois’ teacher shortage.
A 30-minute speech?
* ILGOP…
Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs’ office failed to provide proper accounting for more than $1.6 billion in state fund deposits according to a report by the Office of the Illinois Auditor General.
On page 142 the report states:
“The Office of the Treasurer (the Office) had inadequate internal controls over the Office’s Fiscal Officer Responsibilities financial statement adjustment process. During testing of the Statements of Assets and Other Debits, Liabilities and Accountabilities (financial statements), it was determined the Clearing Account Deposits and Deposits in Transit as well as the Agencies’ Deposits Outside the State Treasury accounts were each understated by $1,635,711,097.”
Rather than taking responsibility and addressing the mistake head on, Frerichs’ office said the finding was because of ‘incomplete information given to our office,’ according to Center Square.
“Treasurer Frerichs continues to blame other people for his offices’ mistakes proving that he is not the leader we need to bring financial accountability to Illinois’ reckless tax-and-spend government,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “Frerichs has proven that not only is he a reliable lapdog for J.B. Pritzker’s tax-and-spend agenda, but that he can’t be trusted to manage public tax dollars. Republican Candidate for Treasurer Rep. Tom Demmer is the true financial watchdog Illinois families need and deserve.”
This is not the office’s first financial mishap under Treasurer Frerichs’ watch. As families face rampant inflation and record gas prices, they’ve also been hit hard from Frerichs’ mismanagement of the State’s college savings programs - which have lost millions of dollars in student college savings this year.
Mayoral challenger Willie Wilson on Monday asked a federal judge to block a $2 million precinct consolidation plan tied to redistricting that will eliminate 779 of Chicago’s 2,069 precincts.
In a lawsuit filed in federal district court, Wilson argues that the cost-saving plan to create 1,290 new precincts — down from 2,069 — will confuse Chicago voters, depress turnout in the Nov. 28 general and Feb. 28 mayoral and aldermanic elections and “disparately impact racial and/or ethnic voting blocs.”
If precinct consolidation is needed, it should not be done in “mid-election cycle” without public hearings, the lawsuit states. To do so and to require voters to “travel much further distances to reach a polling location” and face “longer lines and wait times to vote” violates First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit states.
* Last week, Darren Bailey reported raising just $1,000. This week, he’s reported $26,000 in contributions, including $1K from state GOP Chair Don Tracy and his spouse. If Bailey keeps up that blistering pace, he’ll raise another $300,000 by election day. By contrast, state House Democratic candidate Sharon Chung reported $119,800 in cash receipts this week.
Republican Mark Curran faces Democratic Judge Elizabeth Rochford in the race. As you know, a lawsuit has been filed to strike down the Illinois statute barring out of state and dark money contributions to judicial races. But it’s always possible, I guess, that Leonard Leo could take some of that $1.6 billion from Chicago businessperson Barre Seid and spend it on independent expenditures here. Leo has displayed a keen interest in state court races.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker visited Charleston on Thursday at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library on his way down to the DuQuoin State Fair.
While Pritzker was at the library, an event hosted by the Coles County Democrats, Pritzker urged Democrats in Coles County to vote in the upcoming general election because of what the future may look like for Democrats following the election.
“I’m so excited for this election because I know we can win, but it’s going to be a fight,” Pritzker said. “… Hate is on the ballot in Illinois this year. Hate has no place in Illinois.”
Charleston native Kim Miller, who was among the Bailey supporters, said she was motivated to turn out in protest by several concerns, including her opposition to abortion and to school sex education programs that promote gender transition medical measures to students. She added, “Those young people are vulnerable at that stage in life.”
Miller said she also has safety concerns about the criminal justice reform SAFE-T Act, particularly a provision that limits officers responding to criminal trespass incidents to issuing citations instead of being able to remove the trespasser. In addition, Miller said she disagrees with Pritzker’s COVID-19 closures of schools and the subsequent masking requirements for returning students.
“If we don’t stand up for our kids, what kind of nation are we leaving them,” Miller said.
Frustration with the state’s COVID-19 response was also voiced by The Body Club owner James Di Naso from Charleston when he stood up from his chair inside the banquet hall and shouted, “You shut down my gym during COVID,” as Pritzker began his remarks at the Coles County Democrats gathering. Di Naso was then removed from the banquet hall by some of the attendees around him.
* From Dan Proft’s PAC…
IL State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D) joined Dan & Amy’s Chicago radio show this morning with an interesting perspective on the People Who Play By The Rules PAC “Summer Of Joy” ad controversy: the most offensive thing of all was Lightfoot’s comments on the ad, specifically regarding “darker” skin being somehow “bad.”
..
Transcript beginning at ~8:43AM CST 8/25/2022 on AM 560 WIND Chicago:
Proft: “So what about that, what about the assertion that Lightfoot made?”
Ford: “Well I mean of course we live in America, people can make assertions all they want. I’ve been in politics for over 15 years and it’s the job of the opponent to put out ads that they see and as a candidate, I mean, you have to have tough skin if you’re in politics especially if you’re playing at the level of mayor. And I really really think that you have to pick your battles and this is not the battle that I think we need to be focusing on as a negative. I don’t need anybody saying the darker you look, the more dangerous you are. That’s bad. And so I find it offensive that we focus on saying that that’s an ugly vision of a person because that person is darker.
Proft: That’s what Lori Lightfoot said.
Ford: ”Yeah, that’s what I mean. I find…it takes us back. You know, in America where you have images of black people that have, you know…people have been discriminated because of darker skin, and so even if you had intentions on whatever, you pick your battles, and to say that because you made me [Lightfoot] darker, that means ‘I’m scary to white people.’ That’s not right. And so what we need to do is embrace all colors.
“You can’t expect your opponent to put you in the best light when they’re trying to defeat you. I know this. You know, so you’re not going to give her best image for ads that you’re trying to convey a message. Now, if you’re trying to convey a message that she’s darker than she is, and that makes her bad, then that’s your prerogative, but I don’t see how being darker makes the Mayor of the city of Chicago threatening to white suburbia.”
Proft: “It’s also so ridiculous because it’s like, everybody knows who she is and what her skin color is, this is not like a controversy, it’s not the topic of discussion which is why I can never even conceive of this allegation being made. This is like JB Pritzker arguing about being presented as ‘fat’ on screen, like ‘Oh no you know you got me from the wrong angle, you made me look fat’ I mean it’s just…everybody knows the physical characteristics of people who have been omnipresent in our lives particularly because of the every other day press conferences we had for two years during the pandemic, so it’s just silliness to suggest that I’m now I’m introducing a figure that people don’t know anything about in order to ’scare’ people.”
Ford: “Right. Let me tell you, and this is the truth, whether you’re a white person or black person, when you go into your Secretary of State office, go take a passport picture, and go do anything, everyone wants their picture to look pretty accurate and even in hands to make them look better. But you don’t come out against the color of your skin when it could really make a person that color be offended. I mean, the color you had her in, is just a little shade darker than me, and so we cannot play…even if you are offended you have to have thicker skin to avoid that issue, I mean, you just can’t do it.”
Amy: “Do you think the black community is upset at all with this ad?”
Ford: “You know, I don’t think so. So I don’t think the black community is upset, I mean we’ve seen, when I think about ads that have been put forth, I’ve seen ads of white people darkened too…I’ve seen it happen. Now, we know that there is such thing as racism, and there’s such thing as you know in society that you want to make people look scary…you know I mean just gotta have tough skin and pick your battles and this is not one that you go into to highlight, to make it you [Lightfoot] as a person confirming that ‘because I’m darker, I’m scarier’…that’s her confirming that because she’s darker, she’s scarier. She validated…even if you had intentions on making that assumption, she validated it. And that’s offensive.”
…
They went on to debate the merits of the highly controversial SAFE-T Act through the top of the hour.
* The Daily Herald looks at campaign contributions made by Richard Uihlein this cycle…
• State Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods, whose campaign received $277,137.
• Kane County treasurer candidate Chris Lauzen of Aurora, who received $15,000.
• DuPage County Board candidate Annette Corrigan of Wheaton, whose campaign received $2,500.
• Lake County sheriff candidate Mark Vice II of Round Lake, who got $3,000.
A recent audit of the Illinois Treasurer’s office shows several accounts understated $1.6 billion.
The report from the Auditor General for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021, said testing of financial statements show uncorrected duplicate deposits between the treasurer’s office and the office of the Illinois Comptroller.
“It was determined only the duplicate deposit portion of the reconciling items would have been double counted in the available cash balance reported by the [comptroller],” the report said.
The report was released in June and said state law requires financial reporting to be “properly recorded and accounted for to permit the preparation of accounts and reliable financial and statistical reports to maintain accountability over the State’s resources.” […]
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, who is challenging Frerichs in the November election, advocates to combine the treasurer and comptroller offices.
“But one thing that’s concerning with this I think is that after the auditor general has laid out, again, a repeat audit finding, repeated from last year, we only get a cursory explanation,” Demmer told The Center Square.
* Ma’am, it’s Du Quoin, not DeQuoin….
Illinois Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kathy Salvi will attend the following upcoming public events as she campaigns throughout Illinois. […]
Tuesday, August 30:
12:00pm CT: Kathy Salvi will participate in Republican Day at the DeQuoin State Fair.
Location:
DeQuoin State Fairgrounds
655 Executive Drive
DeQuoin, IL
…Adding… MISO says there have been no brownouts anywhere in its territory this summer, contrary to Darren Bailey’s claims of a brownout in his district…
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, is the federally-regulated regional transmission organization that serves 15 states including most of Illinois outside of the Chicago area.
The grid operator told me they had no knowledge of any “brownouts,” which is a term it does not use.
“As of Friday, August 26, MISO has been in normal operating conditions for the entire month,” a spokesperson said. “None of our emergency operating conditions this summer have resulted in power interruptions.”
* More…
* Pritzker preaches policy priorities to packed UI crowd: “They want to distract us into believing that gay marriage, and Black history, Disney World, and library books are somehow more of a threat to our lives than AR-15s and ghost guns,” Pritzker said. “We are not going to let anyone put the LGBTQ+ community back into a closet. We won’t let anyone take away the civil rights and economic rights owed to our Black and Brown citizens. And we are never, ever going back on a woman’s right to choose.”
Billionaire Ken Griffin revealed in these pages that he pitched Pritzker with a plan to move public employees into the federal Social Security system (they currently don’t participate).
Teachers and university employees don’t participate in Social Security, but most other public employees do, including state employees. We covered this a couple weeks ago.
We’ll have more on this goofy editorial later today.
…Adding… Frank Manzo III in comments…
Problems with the Editorial:
1. Only certain public employees in Illinois don’t receive Social Security, as Rich mentioned.
2. The Editorial Board says the state’s five pension funds “have just 42.4% of the needed funds” but, as the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability notes, “a more realistic valuation of the true financial position of the State retirement systems would be based upon the market value of the assets” and that was at 46.5%. Not a huge difference, but still a more accurate number which an Editorial Board may be better off using.
https://cgfa.ilga.gov/Upload/1121%20SPECIAL%20PENSION%20BRIEFING.pdf
3. It’s a little shortsighted. The Editorial acknowledges that pensions produced a 7.8% annualized gain from 2011 through 2021. Do they think the market was positive every single year in there? Because the stock market declined in calendar year 2018. It also fell very far in 2020, as we may remember. Then something crazy happened both times: it rebounded. The Editorial’s doom-and-gloom almost acts as if this year’s dip is here to stay forever. But the market will rebound. (If it doesn’t, we have far bigger problems than just public pensions.) And there is no real reason to assume that the long-term annualized rate of return from 2022-2032 will be dramatically lower than the 2011-2021 rate of 7.8%.
4. The Editorial doesn’t mention the $500 million in supplemental contributions that the State is making to pensions. Why? Maybe mention it as a good example of paying down debt and encourage more of it every year after.
5. The point that a “federal bailout” would be “unfair to the rest of the country”… First, there’s no serious proposal to do this as far as I am aware, so it is a canard. Second, our neighbor Kentucky (as an example) has a similar pension problem too, so it’s not like Illinois would be the only state to gain if something like that ever did happen. Third, smaller states like Virginia, Maryland, and Arizona get billions more in Department of Defense spending annually than Illinois. Illinois is the 5th largest economy but gets the 19th most military spending. Does the Tribune think that is “unfair” to its home state? Obviously, that’s just one example, but the “unfair” claim can be made about a lot (but not all) federal policies from which Illinois benefits far less.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2819472/dod-releases-report-on-defense-spending-by-state-in-fiscal-year-2020/
Look, the median age of an Illinois resident is about 38 years old. That means the typical person living in the state was 10 years old when the Pension Ramp was passed in 1994. The majority of people living in the state (and a huge chunk of voters) were either not alive or not old enough to vote back then. We didn’t create the Ramp or the underfunded pensions, but we are the ones who are going to make full pension payments and solve this problem so it doesn’t carry on to our children.
