* Tara Davlin, the daughter of the late mayor, posted this on her Facebook page today…
For all of those that asked what they can do for us: Hug your loved ones tighter tonight for me. When we were down, my father always spoke the words, “This too shall pass.” Please remember that it will. Life is too short.
Words to live by.
* Timmy was a great Irishman, and many of us will never forget our good times with him at some tavern or another. So the Pogues will play us out. Raise your glasses and turn it up…
I am going, I am going
Any which way the wind may be blowing
I am going, I am going
Where streams of whiskey are flowing
* This week’s WVON mayoral debate appearance by Sen. James Meeks is something of a racially charged goldmine.
For instance, Meeks claimed during the debate that mayoral opponent Rahm Emanuel kept African-American leaders “out of the White House,” and said of Emanuel, “He’s never done anything for African-Americans.”
I asked the Meeks campaign twice yesterday to explain the White House allegation, but did not hear back.
* Also, early in the debate, WVON went to a commercial break and left the video microphones on. It’s a bit tough to hear at first, but Meeks privately explains to Carol Moseley Braun about how “When white people were in the [school] system, resources, you name them. Art, music, all of that stuff was going on. When black and brown people are just in the system, they took out everything.” Watch…
It’s not that he’s necessarily wrong. It’s just that the clip may show how much he sees things as a racial issue.
* And a day after saying that women, Asians and Hispanics are “not people who have been discriminated against,” and aren’t “people of color” and therefore should not receive affirmative action benefits, Rev. Sen. James Meeks tried to calm things down a bit yesterday. It didn’t really work.
His first attempt at backtracking was to say that only white women should be excluded from affirmative action programs. But his comment just fanned the flames…
Hedy Ratner, co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center, was already “furious” at Meeks. She argued Thursday that, if anything, the 5 percent set-aside for women “should be higher.”
“Is he saying that this should be an African-American city with policies only for African Americans? I’m surprised that a candidate for mayor who wants to represent the entire city would exclude a majority of its citizens,” she said.
Paul Cerpa, executive director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA), said the federal government has made it clear that the “presumptive group” of those historically discriminated against includes blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and “women, regardless of ethnicity.”
“To draw the line in the sand and say, ‘This is only mine — not yours’ doesn’t allow everyone to play in the sandbox,” Cerpa said.
In a somewhat ambiguous statement issued Thursday afternoon, he said “all minority- and women-owned businesses deserve their fair share of city contract opportunities.”
However, it immediately adds, “Chicago has a history of systemic corruption in its minority- and women-owned business program and (a history that) that African-American-owned businesses are the most underrepresented among city contractors.”
* Meeks then attempted an apology of sorts on ABC7…
“People are making much ado about nothing,” said Senator Meeks.
Meeks apologized for–as he put it–”a bad choice of words”. The point he says is that African Americans receive only 70 percent of city contracts and have been criminally shortchanged by minority front companies.
“The federal government has deemed that this program is a corrupt one and we need to fix this program,” said Sen. Meeks.
Whatever you think about affirmative action programs and the very real problems with fraud, you can’t argue with the fact that Sen. Meeks has done a terrible job of communicating.
A couple of years ago, Meeks and I sat down to talk after he’d said something or another about some racial thing. I scolded him pretty good, saying he’d been a black preacher for so long and a black legislator for so long that he apparently never bothered to learn how to talk to white people (and, I should’ve added, “everyone else”). I told him that he needed to learn some basic communication skills. Obviously, he never did.
And that’ll about do it, folks, for the mayoral aspirations of Mr. Meeks, which were already a bit of a long-shot due to his social conservatism and the presence on the ballot of three other prominent African American candidates (two if you don’t count Roland Burris, which, come to think of it, you probably shouldn’t).
The question now is whether he’ll drop his increasingly unlikely bid before the election on Feb. 22 and try to gain some political leverage by offering his support to another candidate, or whether he’ll carry on to the bitter end.
My prediction is he’ll drop out.
On the other hand, Meeks could be hoping for a black backlash. We’ll see.
* I have a meeting with State Police Acting Director Jonathon Monken later today to ask him about yesterday’s worthless and perhaps even harmful press conference….
Illinois State Police refused Tuesday to release any details about the death of Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin, whose body was found Tuesday morning in his home on Apple Creek Drive.
Sources told The State Journal-Register that Davlin, 53, died from a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted, but State Police Director Jonathon Monken refused Tuesday afternoon to confirm that or say even whether the mayor had been shot. […]
Monken did not rule out foul play.
“It’s always considered when you’re looking at a death investigation,” Monken said.
Asked during a Tuesday afternoon news conference whether residents in the area should be concerned about the possibility of homicide, Monken did not give a direct answer. […]
Monken would not say why he would not tell reporters whether the mayor had been shot. He also refused to be specific when asked whether anyone else was in Davlin’s home. […]
Speaking more than six hours after the mayor’s death, Monken said police also had not yet determined who called 911 or what telephone number the call came from.
Not good at all. There’s really no excuse for withholding all information from the public. Last I checked, this was still a democracy. But we’ll see what Monken says.
* Todd Renfrow just said on the radio that Mayor Davlin’s wake will be at Blessed Sacrament tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The funeral will be at 10 o’clock on Friday.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Strike those times and dates. Renfrow may have made a mistake. Checking.
Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin died Tuesday of a gunshot wound to the chest, apparently self-inflicted, according to Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone’s office, which conducted an autopsy Wednesday morning.
* More and more people are saying privately that they believe Danny Davis will do what he usually does and pull the plug on his mayoral race, even though he was picked as the so-called “consensus” candidate by a large group of African-American leaders. ABC7’s Charles Thomas is so far unimpressed…
Pols began whispering doubts about Davis’ mayoral ambitions as long ago as his mid-November announcement. Many of the prominent Coalition members who named him their “consensus” candidate did not bother to show up.
And Davis’ Congressional colleague Rep. Bobby Rush–who was one of the original movers in the effort to rally financial and political backing around a single black candidate–announced his support for Carol Moseley Braun.
There is also whispered concern that Davis has not been able to raise enough cash for a campaign.
What Danny Davis does have is great name recognition, an admirable record serving Chicago in Washington and a voter base that stretches from the lakefront to the city limits on the west side.
What I’m sure he does not have is a lot of time between now and the February 22nd city election.
If he’s serious about running for mayor…he’d be advised to begin acting like it.
When Rahm Emanuel originally filed his 2009 Illinois tax return, he indicated he was only a “part-year resident’’ of the state that year, since he had moved to Washington D.C. to serve as President Obama’s chief of staff.
But after he decided to return to Chicago to run for mayor this fall — and after several people challenged whether he was eligible to run based on the fact that he hadn’t lived in the city for a full-year prior to the Feb. 2 election — he filed an amended return.
“The original return’s statements regarding part-year residency were not accurate and were inconsistent with our continued payments of Illinois estimated tax, both in the original 2009 return and subsequently,” the form reads. “The amended return makes clear that we were full year residents of Illinois in 2009 and it reports all of our income.”
Washington D.C. law requires payment of local income tax by individuals present in Washington for 183 or more days even if they are residents of another state, according to a statement from Emanuel spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Rahm’s tax return makes clear that he always remained a Chicago resident and continued to pay income taxes in Chicago in 2010, in addition to property taxes, maintaining car and voter registration in Chicago and being clear that he intended to return to Chicago once his service to President Obama was complete,” the statement said.
* Emanuel submitted hundreds of pages of documents for Tuesday’s hearing. I have a few of them. You can click here to browse through them. An e-mail exchange between Emanuel’s wife and the couple’s realtor makes it pretty darned clear that the two fully intended to return to Chicago to live.
* Speaking of his wife, the objectors want to call Amy Rule, Emanuel’s wife. Emanuel’s attorney objected, but it wasn’t his finest moment, to say the least…
We object strenuously, she is a mother of three young children,” said Michael Kasper, one of Emanuel’s attorneys. “It’s no secret they are in Washington D. C.”
That response brought catcalls from the room. “Where she lives!” one man shouted.
Objector Alice Coffey said it’s pertinent that Rule would have to fly from Washington to testify the family lives in Chicago. “Am I missing something?” Coffey said.
Morris warned Emanuel’s lawyers that the stipulation needs to cover all issues that might relate to Rule’s testimony.
“You’re going to have to comprehensively pursuade me” that Rule doesn’t need to be called, Morris said.
Morris said he would hold another status hearing at 9 a.m. Monday to address the stipulations.
Odelson responded Sunday with his own exhibits, including electric and gas bills for the house, which are in the name of the tenant, Robert Halpin, who briefly joined the race for mayor himself.
* Using video trackers is standard procedure in campaigns. But Rahm Emanuel’s trackers are going too far. For instance, one showed up at a private meeting between not-for-profit groups and rival candidate Gery Chico. When asked who he was, the tracker said he was just a private citizen interested in learning about Chico’s positions. Others, when confronted, denied at first that they were with Emanuel’s campaign. These are apparently college kids, so they’re really not at fault here. The Emanuel campaign is training them to deceive, and that’s just wrong…
Chico spokesperson Brooke Anderson responded to the Emanuel campaign’s claim that it was merely “attending a public event to see what is said about the campaign.”
“We would welcome Team Rahm to attend our public events,” Anderson said, “but they shouldn’t lie about who they are. And I would also point out that one of those was not a public event. It was a private meeting with nonprofit leaders. They [Rahm’s campaign] were not invited. They came anyway, and they misrepresented themselves.”
* I attended Hanover High School for a year back in the 1970s. The school, located in the northwestern corner of the state, had an unofficial fight song which we’d sing at every basketball game (the school killed off football right after I got there because of budget cuts). The ditty was sung to the Notre Dame fight song and when a class’ name was uttered, all those in attendance from that class would stand up and shout “Freshmen!” or “Seniors!” or whatever. Even the teachers got into the act…
Beer, beer for Hanover High
You bring the whiskey, I’ll bring the rye
Send the freshmen out for gin
And don’t let a sober sophomore in
Juniors never stagger
Seniors never fall
Teachers sober up on wood alcohol
Send the royal faculty right back to the bar for more
[Repeat]
The high school band even played it when they were at the games.
Times sure have changed. Kids would probably get expelled for singing that song today, and no way would any teachers join in.
* Anyway, I told you that story as a prelude to sharing this must-watch video made by students at Oak Park and River Forest High School. The kids have produced what can only be described as the best high school booster video ever…
In my opinion, it’s better than the original, but I do have to wonder what Gov. Pat Quinn would think of the repeated disses of his cherished alma mater Fenwick High.
* Gov. Pat Quinn went all Popeye on the General Assembly yesterday over tax hikes…
“Sometimes politicians of both parties want to wait ’til after the election. I’m not one of those. I wanted to do it before the election. But now it is after the election … you gotta eat your spinach. You gotta eat your spinach to grow-up big and strong.”
Gov. Pat Quinn has a reputation as a spendthrift, so he’s promising a “frugal” but not “chintzy” inauguration next month.
Quinn says the celebrations will be meaningful, yet “thrifty,” when he and the other state constitutional officers are sworn in to office Jan. 10 in Springfield.
The full Q&A is below. At the end, reporters asked if he would be dancing at the ball, and also asked if he could dance. Listen…
Isn’t it time to dump the entire idea of inaugural festivities at all levels of government? Take your oath, go out to dinner with friends, then get the heck to work. Ask those “private donors” to fund a few inaugural commemorative reading tutors or buy a few thousand inaugural commemorative library books.
As lawmakers talk about big plans to expand gambling, the man charged with regulating the industry in Illinois called the proposal “overloaded” Wednesday. […]
Jaffe criticized the legislation as having “everything for everyone” because it calls for casinos in Park City, Ford Heights, Chicago, Rockford and Danville, along with 1,200 slot machines at Arlington Park.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made it clear Thursday that she and Assessor Joseph Berrios remain political allies, even if she’s not keen about him putting relatives on the public payroll.
“Joseph Berrios is my friend,” Preckwinkle said. “He is the chairman of the (Cook County) Democratic party, and I’m a Democratic committeeman.”
Preckwinkle was reacting to the news that Berrios hired his sister and son within days of being sworn in Monday. The family members had long worked at the county property tax appeals board, where Berrios was a commissioner.
“I never hired any family members,” Preckwinkle said at a news conference to introduce top aides. “And I think it’s inappropriate.”
* Now, to the city, where Carol Moseley Braun just announced that she’s heading to New York for a fundraiser. There’s a bit of a problem, however…
Last month, Moseley Braun criticized mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel for “hanging out with bankers and billionaires” at a Hollywood fundraiser.
“Moseley Braun is going where necessary to raise money in order to compete in the race for mayor,” said spokeswoman Renee Ferguson. “As a senator, she built a national constituency and there are many who would like to continue to support her policies of fighting for working people.”
“I’ll generally be here [in Champaign County]. I will go to Washington quite often, but I’m going to be working out of Champaign-Urbana and making some trips to D.C.,” he said. “I think early on there will be more of them than later. I will definitely spend the vast majority of my time here.
“I think this will work out pretty well because one of the big changes the Republicans are making is to reduce the number of days Congress is in Washington, D.C.”
Shelden, who makes about $87,000 a year as county clerk, will get what he called “a substantial raise.”
“Chiefs of staff out there make in the 150s and 160s,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to make, but it’s going to be a substantial raise.”
A chief of staff who doesn’t live in DC?
Shelden, by the way, is replacing Jerry Clarke, who is moving over to freshman Congressman Randy Hultgren’s staff. Jerry ran Bill Brady’s campaign. Our old friend and former Illini Pundit blogger extraordinaire Gordy Hulten is in the running to replace Clerk Shelden. Good luck, Gordy.
* Fewer people gambling in Illinois; numbers challenge expansion plans
* Jackson urges action on south suburban airport: “I fear if this is held up until after the Chicago (mayoral) election, it’ll be put off,” Jackson said. “Our state is almost insolvent. It’s a unique opportunity to spread economic growth. Let’s take this project to its logical conclusion.”
* City could save on pension reform - New Police, firefighters could retire at 55 instead of 50
