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Pritzker addresses racism in unions that endorsed him

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As we discussed earlier, JB Pritzker appeared on WVON yesterday with Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas.

During the interview, Maze broached the issue of the building trades…

Maze Jackson: You got the endorsement of the… building trades. The building trades council. Now, we know that in the black community there has been systemic racism…

JBP: That’s right

MJ: …within. Wait. What? Within the building trades.

* Jackson seemed stunned by Pritzker’s possible candor (or just an admission that he was endorsed by them), but didn’t follow up directly. Instead he asked how he was going to fix the systemic racial problems within the building trades. Charles Thomas cut Pritzker off to ask how he expected black peoples’ support when Pritzker was being backed by unions that many blacks consider racist…

JBP: Here’s what I would say. Building trades certainly are completely, there are not enough African-Americans in the building trades, in the apprenticeships…

CT: [Cross-talk] So, why would you accept their endorsement?

JBP: …or in pre-apprenticeship programs. Hold on. There are good people who are in the building trades who are not racists, who are trying to, yes, who are skilled labor, who want to make the building trades more diverse. But, here’s the problem. The state of Illinois, when it contracts, when it has a capital bill, when it does any kind of construction, it actually doesn’t live up to the obligation to make sure that there are [Thomas tries to interject], to make sure that there are African-American building trades working on these projects. [Cross talk as Thomas asks what he’s going to do.] Listen, I have consistently said, all of them that are endorsing me, I have consistently raised this issue. By the way, some of them have raised it with me, their effort to make changes. But it’s not good enough. The state of Illinois needs to require that the building trades, when they’re doing business with the state, that they increase the number of African-Americans that are… [Cross talk] …

CT: Did you even consider not accepting their endorsement as an act of good faith to the black community?

JBP: Better I think to have a dialogue that increases their awareness, making sure that they’re adhering to it. I think you have a governor who cares about it, who is influencing them at the state level, that is a better way to go.

Gov. Rauner has made an issue of this since the beginning of his administration. But without a capital bill, it’s somewhat difficult to do anything about it.

* Watch the clip…

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Caption contest!

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Back in 2014, it seemed like everybody was posting videos doing an “ice bucket challenge.” You’ll recall it was a big fad back then and it raised a ton of money for the ALS Association. Candidate Bruce Rauner posted a video featuring three helpers dumping ice water on his head. Gov. Pat Quinn did a video as well.

JB Pritzker’s ice bucket challenge video is no longer online. A reporter pal brought up the subject last night. He said he saw the video back in the day, but he can’t find it now. So, I reached out to a trusted opposition researcher last night. He told me he’d also heard about it, but, sadly, has come up empty time and time again. I asked the Pritzker campaign what happened to the video this morning and am still awaiting a reply.

* Pritzker is dressed as the Dr. Evil character from the “Austin Powers” movies in his video, stroking a toy cat and wearing one of those bald wigs. The reporter who watched the video says Pritzker talked in a Dr. Evil accent while cheesy, 70s style sound effects played in the background. From a story done at the time by Shia Kapos…

He appears in his video, above, dressed as Dr. Evil, the fictional character played by actor Mike Myers in the “Austin Powers” films — bald head, tipped pinky and all.

Seated in a chair “deep below the Merchandise Mart,” he says he was nominated “by the techno geeks at 1871.”

“Little do they know, I’ll be turning the tables on them with ‘operation ice bucket,’” he says with a sinister laugh. “I’ll pour one million bajillion gallons of water over Chicago!”

The buckets drop with the help of two assistants, and a drenched Mr. Pritzker then peels off his mask to say he’s giving $26,000 to the ALS Association — $100 for each of the 260 companies in 1871. He also challenged his “evil brother” Tony Pritzker, Graff CEO Henri Barguirdjian and professional poker player Phil Hellmuth.

Man, somebody really needs to find this thing.

* A person who hates the Pritzker family posted a screen capture, which is all we have to work with. Click the pic for a larger image…

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Pritzker makes eerily familiar pledge to black banks

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas interviewed JB Pritzker on WVON yesterday. Click here for the full video.

A caller who said he owns a small company in the building industry asked whether Pritzker would consider making a commitment to putting a million dollars into a black-owned bank “so we can have loans and hire people.” Pritzker’s reply…

“As a matter of fact, I have made a commitment to do that. And we’ve met with a number of African-American faith leaders who were very encouraging about that and felt that’s a very important way for us to help create employment in the African-American community. So, it’s something I’ve already done.”

* Um, remember when candidate Bruce Rauner deposited a million dollars into a black credit union? The Democratic Governor’s Association was not amused…

Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner made good on a promise to deposit $1 million in a South Side credit union for small business loans.

Rauner arrived in his 20-year-old Volkswagen van. At the teller’s window he made a $200,000 donation and an $800,000 deposit to help the African American-owned credit union make small business loans. […]

“Is he the kind of person who would rather buy votes in the community as opposed to being here all along?” said Rikeesha Phelon of the Democratic Governor’s Association.

* Back to yesterday’s interview…

Charles Thomas: I have talked to so many black people over the last several weeks, who say JB’s my guy. Man, they got JB’s personal cell phone number. Everybody’s trying to get paid. These politicians and political operatives, it seems to me, by JB Pritzker because they know he’s got three and a half billion dollars…

JBP: That’s not happening in my campaign. Listen, we have gained a lot of support in the African-American community which I think is a direct consequence of my spending a lot of time in the black community.

CT: Not money.

JBP: No, no. I am spending time in the black community. You ask, people have seen me everywhere. I am going West Side, South Side, everywhere. I’ve spent time and I have a lot of friends in the black community for some time. So, I’ve been successful I think because I’m working hard.

CT: So, you’re not being that guy who’s buying, you say you’re not buying…

Maze Jackson: Hold on. Look. In the interest of what’s in it for black folks, and there’s a half billion dollars being spent, find some black people to hire, because we need to participate in the economic part of this election process too.

So, on the one hand he’s going to make a large deposit into a black bank. But on the other, he’s spending time not money, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.

* Watch a clip…

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Kennedy talks again about “insiders,” slips past Madigan question

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* We talked yesterday about Chris Kennedy’s latest fundraising e-mail. Kennedy decried “party insiders” who want him out of the race.

Kennedy talked to reporters yesterday and expounded a bit…

Asked Monday if he believed Democratic leadership was working against him and aligning behind Pritzker, Kennedy warned against creating a political party that won’t allow dissent.

“I think there are elements within the Democratic Party that would like to have someone fight their battle for them. I’m not among them. I believe you look back at the great history of the United States and the progress that’s been made, it always occurred when people fought for themselves,” Kennedy told reporters. “I think we’re at an impasse like that now in our state. And if people think that they can get somebody else to fight their battle for them and have a good outcome, they’re wrong.”

Kennedy pointed to Rauner’s influence on the Republican Party, which the governor heavily funds, and the reluctance of GOP lawmakers and officeholders to break ranks.

“One of the worst things that Gov. Rauner has done is to silence his own party. None of the state reps, none of the state senators, none of the constitutional officers have spoken up against him. None have spoken out. And we don’t want to replicate that system in the Democratic Party as well.”

* I asked Kennedy about his e-mailed claim that the state has “a property tax system that can’t be abused by the wealthy and insiders.” Was he referring to people like Speaker Madigan? His reply…

“I don’t think this is about individuals. I think this is about a whole network that makes it nearly impossible to see integrity in the system for the average voter, the average taxpayer. Having faith in government, understanding that government can be an ally, understanding that government can function at a higher level is something that occurs in other states. We don’t have that here because people don’t believe that the system is just or rid of corruption. We need to rid it of corruption by changing the system.”

* Raw audio…

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Attacks continue on Pritzker over property tax breaks

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the ILGOP…

J.B. Pritzker is under fire this week for abusing vacancy laws to get massive property tax breaks on his two Gold Coast mansions totaling nearly a quarter million dollars.

And Pritzker is slated to get the same tax breaks this year.

But questions remain – such as why the Pritzkers felt it necessary to disconnect all the toilets in the home – allowing them to claim the home as uninhabitable.

Pritzker is taking money from Chicago Public Schools and other City services, and even liberals are taking note.

Mark Brown from the Chicago Sun-Times penned a column yesterday saying that Pritzker “is not paying his fair share of taxes”.

* Mark Brown…

This is not about the commonplace practice of appealing property taxes on someone’s principal place of residence. This is about a very unique situation of a homeowner buying an expensive property next door and being rewarded for being a lousy owner.

As explained by the assessor’s office, this tax break is intended for someone buying a property to rehab it, the idea being they shouldn’t be required to pay full price on their taxes if nobody can live there.

I can’t speak to the exact condition of the home when Pritzker bought it, but I can tell you it was definitely habitable.

At some point afterward, however, all the toilets in the home were disconnected. The Pritzkers haven’t explained when this happened or why it was necessary.

* Pritzker told reporters yesterday in Springfield that the photos shared yesterday by the Republicans didn’t show the house’s problems. He claimed, for instance, that the staircase was falling off the wall…

“It was in terrible disrepair. Actually, the stairs were coming off the wall, the basement is unfinished and has a dirt floor, and so there was nothing in good shape in that house at all, and there was nothing that we did other than we asked that our taxes be reassessed because it wasn’t worth what we paid for it,” Pritzker said. “The truth is we probably over paid for the house, and lots of people have done that, especially in the environment of falling home prices.”

He also said he plans to rehab the house sometime in the future.

* Greg Hinz…

Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the building, below the original list price of $6 million. According to a Chicago magazine story by my colleague Dennis Rodkin, he became only the third owner in 118 years of a building designed by Holabird & Root with unique features. […]

It’s unclear if the building declined with age or if there was internal demolition prior to a possible rehab, but in an appeal filed with Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the assessed value of the property dropped from $6.3 million to $1.1 million, saving Pritzker $230,000 in property taxes so far.

OK, so read between the lines a bit. Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the house, but it’s assessed value remained at or above its original $6 million list price. Usually, you’d file for a reassessment right away if you bought a house for much lower than its assessed valuation, but Pritzker didn’t, which cost him some bucks he didn’t need to be paying.

Not defending him or anything, but on that point some of this isn’t totally out of the realm of reasonableness.

Greg also reports that Pritzker claims to have used the mansion next door “as a staging area for the complete renovation of his home next door.

Still, this is all kinda weird to me.

* Meanwhile, Mark Maxwell reports that Pritzker’s property tax appeals attorneys contributed $25,000 to Assessor Joe Berrios (no surprise in that county). He also has Chris Kennedy’s reaction…

“It’s an inherently corruptible system. We ought to reject it. Nobody is confident that the system yields a fair outcome either for individuals - but most importantly - for the kids who depend on the income to fund their schools.”

And from Pritzker himself…

“This is an attack by Bruce Rauner and by the GOP because they really have nothing else to talk about, no accomplishments to tout, and so they’re taking any shot they can take. Obviously they are taking a shot at me because they think I’m a threat to them.”

* Sen. Daniel Biss gets the last word…

Right now, two billionaires running for #ilgov are fighting each other over who did the better job of getting out of paying their taxes.

— Daniel Biss (@danielbiss) May 15, 2017

…Adding… OK, one more. This ILGOP video compiles some of the TV coverage, which isn’t flattering for Pritzker…

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