Helene Miller Walsh, the wife of conservative radio host and former GOP U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, has been picked to fill the state House vacancy of a former Republican lawmaker who stepped down after being accused of sending an ex-girlfriend’s nude photos to other men online.
Nick Sauer, of Lake Barrington, resigned from his Illinois House seat this month after the accusations surfaced in a Politico report. Local Republican officials on Saturday chose Walsh to replace Sauer both in the General Assembly and on the November ballot.
Now, Walsh faces the potentially difficult task of building a campaign in the short few months before the election. She will run against Mary Edly-Allen, a teacher from Libertyville, in the race to represent a central and southern Lake County district in the state legislature.
“I’m really angry about what’s going on in this state,” Miller Walsh said. “People are leaving and have already left. I’m tired of what’s going on.”
She also said that, as a legislator, she wants to help the black community. Miller Walsh is a five-year advisory board member at Project H.O.O.D., an inner city nonprofit organization started by Pastor Corey Brooks in 2012 to help people become peacemakers, problem solvers, leaders and entrepreneurs in their communities.
“We all want the same thing, ultimately,” said Miller Walsh, a lifelong Chicago-area resident. “We all want to be able to live our lives with a lot less government interference. And we are responsible for ourselves. We’re no different up here in Mundelein than they are on the South Side (of Chicago).” […]
“When people came to her, she said to me, ‘You know what, I’ve got a chance to do my part to fight for Illinois,’” [Joe Walsh] said. “I think she’ll make a great candidate because she’s the epitome of a citizen legislator. She ain’t a professional politician, that is for sure.”
Today, the Pritzker campaign released a new digital video featuring President Barack Obama on why he’s backing JB Pritzker for governor. In the video, President Obama commends JB’s leadership in creating thousands of jobs at 1871 and expanding the school breakfast program to over 200,000 kids.
“Juliana and I are incredibly honored to have the support of President Barack Obama as we fight for the values that defined his presidency,” said JB Pritzker. “President Obama has done so much to move our country forward: expanding healthcare for millions, leading our country out of the Great Recession, and standing up as a model of leadership and integrity for millions across our great state and nation. I was proud to play a role in his historic presidency when I led the White House Summit on Early Childhood Education, and I’m proud to have his endorsement in this election. I look forward to fighting to preserve and build on his legacy as Illinois’ next governor by putting Springfield back on the side of working families.”
“I am proud to endorse JB Pritzker to be the next governor of my home state of Illinois, and let me tell you why,” said President Barack Obama in the video. “It’s simple. JB gets things done. When folks said Illinois couldn’t be a leader in creating high tech jobs, JB thought we could, and he started a tech incubator that’s helped entrepreneurs create hundreds of new companies and more than 7,000 good jobs. When JB saw that too many of our school kids were going hungry, he made it a personal mission to change that, and working with Illinois non-profits, he helped expand a program we started to make sure more than 200,000 low-income Illinois kids have access to school breakfast.
“I know JB. I trust JB, and that’s who he is — someone who is always thinking about how he can make difference. Someone who identifies the right problems and brings the right people together to solve them. And that’s something we can use in Illinois. JB will be a governor who looks out for all of us — from downstate towns to northern suburbs to the neighborhoods of Chicago. He’ll work as hard as he can to strengthen opportunity for every Illinoisan, today and into the future. So, I’m asking you to join me in supporting and voting for JB Pritzker for the next governor of Illinois.”
Chicago billionaire J.B. Pritzker isn’t sure whether he’ll back President Obama in 2012, Bloomberg TV reported on Friday. “We’ll have to wait and see. We have to see who the nominee will be on the Republican side,” Pritzker said. “I’m a Democrat, and I tend to lean towards voting for the president.”
“As in every election, it’s going to be a choice between two people and two parties that you’re not 100 percent behind,” Pritzker said. “You just have to pick the best of a mediocre set of choices.
Billionaire J.B. Pritzker has pumped another $20 million into his Democratic campaign for governor, bringing his record self-funding total to $126.5 million with 2½ months to go before the Nov. 6 general election.
Campaign finance reports filed late Saturday night showed Pritzker made his latest out-of-pocket contribution Tuesday, two days before he was a featured speaker at Democrat Day at the Illinois State Fair.
At the fair’s Republican day, Gov. Bruce Rauner asked the gathered crowd for financial help, warning that he would be outspent by Pritzker by a 3-1 ratio, though he offered no specifics. […]
Still, the Republican governor has put $95.3 million of his own money into his campaign fund since March 2013, when he announced his first candidacy for governor. In December 2016, Rauner made a record one-time contribution of $50 million to his re-election fund.
* Non-binding state resolution condemns non-binding local resolutions…
State Rep. Kathleen Willis, D-Addison has filed a state resolution to counter the wave of local declarations establishing “gun sanctuary counties.”
“I have been deeply concerned by the actions of several county boards in Illinois that have passed resolutions declaring that they will prohibit the enforcement of new gun laws passed by the General Assembly,” said Willis. “County board members are required to take an oath of office that includes a vow to uphold the Constitution of the State of Illinois. Instead, some are passing resolutions intended to set aside legitimate state law.”
The resolution challenges the legitimacy of county declarations and names each county action as a “shameless political stunt which undermines the rule of law and threatens the safety of all Illinois citizens.”
The full text of HR 1197 is here:
WHEREAS, Gun violence is an epidemic in America and in Illinois, touching all parts of the State; and
WHEREAS, The legislative and executive branches of the State have lawfully regulated guns and gun trafficking; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of reasonable state gun violence prevention regulations; Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stated in the McDonald decision that state “experimentation with reasonable firearms regulations will continue under the Second Amendment”; and
WHEREAS, President Trump’s administration appears to be willfully ignoring the problem of gun violence in America, and at the same time, is attempting to coerce municipal police forces into diverting their resources towards harassing immigrant populations; some municipalities have lawfully opposed having their local law enforcement used for such purposes and have been dubbed “sanctuary cities”; and
WHEREAS, Some counties in Illinois have erroneously tried to liken the cause of a sanctuary city with opposition to gun violence prevention measures by declaring themselves “gun sanctuary counties”, thereby declaring their intention to refuse to enforce any gun safety measures lawfully passed by the State with which they disagree; and
WHEREAS, These counties are trying to use those lawful sanctuary cities as an excuse to unlawfully ignore important, democratically-implemented, state laws; and
WHEREAS, These so-called “gun sanctuary counties” are nothing more than scofflaw counties, usurping the judiciary and role of separation of powers in our government, while openly encouraging criminal behavior; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we condemn these scofflaw counties and declare their attempts to label themselves as “gun sanctuaries” as an unconstitutional and shameless political stunt which undermines the rule of law and threatens the safety of all Illinois citizens.
…Adding… From comments…
Translation: “I will call out your political stunt with my political stunt.”
“(Illinois House Speaker) Mike Madigan just raised your taxes 32 percent over Bruce Rauner’s veto. Now J.B. Pritzker wants to raise your taxes again. Pritzker and Madigan want to raise taxes on every middle class Illinoisan and increase tax rates another 26 percent,” in a [Gov. Rauner] TV ad launched last week. […]
Pritzker has not released a specific tax plan so it’s impossible to say how much he might raise taxes and who might pay more. […]
The additional 26 percent tax increase referenced in Rauner’s ad stems from a failed state bill this year that proposed raising the tax rate again by at least that much for anyone making more than $15,000 a year. When asked, Rauner’s campaign said that figure was used in the ad because it’s the only income tax plan a Democratic lawmaker has presented and Pritzker has not revealed how tax rates will change under his proposal. The Rauner campaign, however, could not provide any examples of Pritzker expressing support for the bill. During a March radio interview, Pritzker called an accusation that his tax plan would be similar to that bill “false.”
“JB does not support the bill referenced in Rauner’s ad,” his campaign said in a statement to the AP this week.
Once again with feeling: Politics abhors a vacuum. Until Pritzker defines what his graduated income tax will look like, the empty space will be filled by others.
…Adding… From Rep. Martwick…
Rich,
I guess I need to address my bill once again. That bill was filed at the height of the budget impasse. It was designed to show that by adopting the Wisconsin rate structure, we could stop the bleeding, provide basic services, properly fund education, and solve our pension problem. Rauner has had four years and has done NONE of that. I’m sorry but this debate over rates is silly, since we only get to decide rates once we have the ability to adopt them, and then you better believe the legislature is going to have a say on what rates are chosen. You could adopt progressive rates that give everyone a tax cut, but you would not solve a single problem. Or you could adopt the income tax rate structure of Wisconsin and solve almost all of your problems. So what’s the difference? With the Wisconsin rates, every single homeowner, renter, and business owner in Illinois would benefit from the largest property tax cut in the history of the state. Funny how Rauner never mentions that, even though he himself would likely save $40,000 per year on his property taxes. Perhaps that’s because his state income taxes would go up by $1.6 million. Oh, and all of those middle income folks that Rauner saying are going to get a tax increase? Well the typical family of four in the Chicago suburbs with an income of $85k, and living in a $300,000 home will see an income tax increase of approximately $1,000 per year and a property tax DECREASE of $3,500. Maybe that’s why Rauner and his trickle-down buddies don’t like it. It certainly will not benefit them.
* Comproller Susana Mendoza was asked by a reporter yesterday to respond to Republican comptroller candidate Darlene Senger calling her a “Mini Madigan with a Mouth” this week and asked whether she viewed Senger as a legitimate opponent…
Regarding those comments, I would just say that alliteration is nice, but a little considerations for those dead veterans in Quincy, their families and the remaining veterans would’ve been nicer.
I have yet to hear her apologize yet for trying to blame Tammy Duckworth - a decorated war hero who left almost half her body on the battlefield fighting for our country - for trying to pin the blame for these deaths, when it was in fact her boss.
You’ll recall that she sent an e-mail suggesting that they should blame this, maybe we can pin this on Duckworth. That is just so unacceptable, so lack of character and this is the woman Gov. Rauner chose to run against me.
Also, most importantly I would say, beyond that just morally corrupt stuff, the fact that she herself is running for the position of comptroller at the same time that she was working against the greatest transparency reform in the history of the comptroller’s office. The Debt Transparency Act. I mean, honest to God, does that make any sense? Again, no, just on Opposite Day, right? This is just par for the course for the Rauner administration, of which she was still a part of, where she was working against the very legislation that would shine a light that’s a critical light for the comptroller’s office to have. The person running for that job believes in less transparency. That just doesn’t make any sense and I think that voters see very clearly through that.
I was looking for a solid hook when transcribing her response, but while she makes some good points, her speaking style doesn’t allow for easy quotations. Almost every sentence includes an aside, or is incomplete or includes extraneous or repeated words.
…Adding… MrJM in comments…
Say what you say, then say the bumper-sticker version. It’s politics. People not only forgive repetition, they expect it.
South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg was brought in last minute as the keynote speaker after former Vice President Joe Biden had to cancel because of illness.
“I can sense a little nervous energy in the room,” Buttigieg said. “I am conscious you did not come here to see me speak about waste water. I’m conscious most of you did not come here to see me speak at all.”
Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said that Rauner, a private equity investor, had promised to bring a business approach to government.
“This governor was handed lemons, and he took those lemons and miraculously turned them into a Dumpster fire,” Buttigieg said. “Who runs a business like that?”
“Now I don’t know if you heard, but Rauner says he plans to move to Italy if he loses in November,” Pritzker added. “So, after four years of failure, of maligning and attacking the very people who make this state great, I have just one thing to say to this governor: ‘Ciao, Bruce!’”
