* The governor hasn’t held a formal presser in a while, but he’ll be talking to the media today at 11:30 at the Thompson Center. Click here for live video from our good friends at BlueRoomStream.com. [That live video link isn’t working because the governor moved the location at the last minute. Click here for WGN’s live stream instead.] I’ll post a ScribbleLive feed in a bit.
* Democratic US Senate candidate Andrea Zopp hasn’t had a great few days in the earned media department. Laura Washington…
Outsider status is in vogue. Just ask Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, marquee disrupters in the GOP presidential primary slugfest. The New York Times recently mentioned Zopp in an article about the rise of “anti-establishment” Democratic candidates.
However, Zopp’s resume includes a decidedly establishment stint as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.
In October 2012, she and the rest of the board voted unanimously to approve Barbara Byrd-Bennett as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools. In June 2013, Zopp voted to approve a $20.5 million contract with SUPES Academy, to train the district’s principals and administrators.
On Thursday, Byrd-Bennett was named in a 23-count indictment, charged with helping SUPES get CPS contracts in exchange for kickbacks. Byrd-Bennett had previously worked for SUPES.
Now Zopp must defend her support of what appears to be a felonious and costly deal at a time when CPS was in financial crisis. Today, the schools may be on the verge of bankruptcy.
The contract does appear to have been felonious, but others say it was still a good deal and the bankruptcy stuff is hyperbole, but that piece was not good at all.
We, the public, did not learn of Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s profiteering relationship with a private education company from CPS. Nor from the mayor. Nor from the Chicago Board of Education, which to this day is afraid to challenge him. No, it was thanks to Catalyst, an independent education newsletter and an intrepid reporter Sarah Karp who, two years ago, asked simple questions. Why did Byrd-Bennett’s former consulting company get a no-bid $20 million contract almost immediately after she was hired? A company most educators knew nothing about? A company the Emanuel administration had worked with in hiring Brizard before firing him and hiring Byrd-Bennett? At a time when the board was so broke it was shuttering 50 schools?
People, Sarah Karp simply started with a Google search!
Did CPS’ army of lawyers, staffers, and pinstripe board members — including Andrea Zopp who is now running for U.S. Senate — ever consider asking those questions? Or were they too afraid to cross the guy on City Hall’s fifth floor?
Former CPS board member Andrea Zopp, who is now running for U.S. Senate, visited the Tribune Editorial Board in August. Asked about the SUPES contract, she said the board was aware Byrd-Bennett had ties with the company and it did not raise red flags.
“That was a plus, not a negative because she had experience with them,” Zopp said. “So being an employee in and of itself would not raise a bell. To me it was (Byrd-Bennett saying), ‘I work there. I know what they do is good. I did it.’ Me, at the time, I had a lot of respect for her and what she had done so that was a plus.”
No alarms? Really? It’s clear from the indictment that Byrd-Bennett sought to improperly leverage her position — and to hide her deal with SUPES from the school board. That doesn’t excuse board members for making it so easy.
* So, as I told you on Friday, Zopp is going over the media’s heads to voters during tonight’s Democratic presidential debate with some ads on CNN. The first one touts her as “the new choice in the race for Senate”…
The ad also focuses on police misbehavior, without actually saying so.
* The second is a bio spot, describing her as a tough prosecutor and foe of corruption as well as a “community leader and mom”…
* The final ad is apparently designed to air just after the debate. Among other things, Zopp touts herself as “the great-granddaughter of a slave”…
As Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez gears up for her first contested Democratic primary in eight years, she is trying to remind voters of her humble background, highlight her long history of prosecuting crimes and paint herself as a reformer concerned as much with justice as notching up convictions.
She plans to release a web video Tuesday that will serve as her formal campaign announcement for the March 15 contest. Preparing to challenge her are Kim Foxx, a former prosecutor backed by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Donna More, also a former prosecutor now in private practice.
“I grew up in Pilsen — neither one of my parents had a high school education,” Alvarez says, as video of her is interspersed amid older photos and background music that sets a dramatic tone. “My dad was a waiter, and my mom worked as a seamstress, after he passed away when I was 12 years old.”
Alvarez goes on to note she’s worked as a prosecutor for 29 years, saying it is “my calling … my passion” to make sure victims “get the justice that they deserve.” Then, addressing criticism that she’s not done enough to reform the criminal justice system and been too slow to probe some alleged wrongful prosecutions, she declares, “The role of a prosecutor is not rackin’ up convictions. It’s about getting to the truth.”
* Yes, this is a web video, not a TV ad. But I don’t know what sort of folks they believe will watch it for two and a half minutes…
