* According to WBEZ, just 1200 Chicagoans have applied for handgun permits since the city’s gun ban was repealed.
* Want a government job? Run against Aaron Schock…
In 2008, Democrat Colleen Callahan ran against the Peoria Republican. She lost, but was then named to a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The pattern continued last week when Sheila Simon, the state’s next lieutenant governor, announced she was hiring Deirdre “DK” Hirner to be her chief of staff.
You guessed it: Hirner recently lost her race for Congress against Schock.
* The state’s chief tort reform cheerleader has been sued…
Ed Murnane, who has weighed in on his share of court cases as president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, has been sued by a woman who says he crashed into her car after running a red light. He denies any wrongdoing.
In a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Dorothy Hardy says the Feb. 18 crash injured her head, limbs and nervous system and has prevented her from “attending to her usual and customary affairs and duties.”
Mr. Murnane said he was disappointed to learn of the lawsuit, which also names his employer, because police determined he was not at fault after considering statements by him and his doctors.
“This is rather surprising,” he says, adding that “the Illinois Civil Justice League has nothing to do with the incident in my hometown, in my personal vehicle. I’ll seek guidance from legal counsel.”
Quinn totally vetoed four bills that were before lawmakers this fall. The Legislature sustained Quinn on only one of those — a bill Quinn vetoed because it duplicated another bill that he signed.
Quinn also used his amendatory veto powers over the summer to rewrite several pieces of legislation. Lawmakers rejected most of those changes, too. Of 14 bills before the Legislature on which Quinn used his amendatory veto powers, lawmakers agreed with Quinn on only one. That amendatory veto changed the effective date of the law.
(T)he best line during the sunshine bill debate came from Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.
“We need a see-through government,” Righter said, urging his colleagues to save the bill by scrapping Quinn’s changes.
It’s a great line because, about 12 hours earlier, Righter voted with 47 other senators to shield the performance evaluations of public employees from the state’s open records laws.
Guess you want see-through government but with certain parts blacked out for family viewing.
The newly appointed state representative from Champaign – who will take office in early January – got stuck in an elevator on his way up to the House chambers on the third floor of the Capitol.
And then he got lobbied.
“I get in an elevator with 12 women. The elevator starts to go up and then it stops. We’re stranded,” he said. “One of the women looks around says, ‘This is not good. It’s too bad we don’t have a representative or a senator in here who we could lobby.’
“I just kinda put my head down. Then she goes, ‘who are you?’ I explained my situation and we all had a good laugh. They were suburban women for education. So they gave it to me. They said that ‘these are our issues and our positions.’”
* The Freeport Journal-Standard believes that Gov. Quinn’s hesitancy is a sign of doom…
Any thoughts that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn had changed his stripes after a narrow victory at the ballot box on Nov. 2 were quickly put to rest last week.
Quinn is back to his familiar role as a crusader for public unions, regardless of the state’s financial predicament.
After both the Illinois House and Senate approved a two-tier pension system for police and firefighters hired after Jan. 1, 2011, the governor refused to answer direct questions on whether he would sign the legislation.
Think about that, just for a second.
Yeah, think about that for a second. The governor wasn’t involved in the negotiations, his staff hasn’t had time to analyze the bill, and the newspaper wants him to jump on board right away?
Still, there’s that nagging issue. It’s called the law.
The state residency law has cost other deserving candidates, including former Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas. He wanted to run for governor in 2006 and challenge soon-to-be-indicted incumbent Rod Blagojevich. Vallas was denied because he didn’t live in Illinois at the time but rather in Pennsylvania.
That’s a truly silly comparison. Sherman, turn on the Wayback Machine…
Thomas Ioppolo, an assistant attorney general representing the State Board of Elections, maintained that Vallas’ decision to sell his home in the Beverly neighborhood, obtain Pennsylvania license plates and vote in the 2004 presidential election in Pennsylvania effectively made him a Pennsylvania resident.
Unlike Rahm Emanuel, Vallas registered to vote in Philadelphia. Also, the municipal code is different than the state law governing gubernatorial candidates. Candidates for governor must reside here for three years, not the one year that the municipal code requires. It’s apples to horses.
* And, finally, have a look at how Pete Giangreco threw Gov. Pat Quinn under the bus during an interview about Rahm Emanuel’s residency. Ouch…
* Twenty Eight Percent: With Illinois’s passage of the civil unions bill, more than a quarter of the population of the United States – to be precise, a bit over 28% - now lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or its functional equivalent.
* Taxpayers expect more than ‘no’ votes on pension reform bill: Bost’s explanation for his minority vote (the bill passed 95-18) doesn’t entirely hold water. As we reported Wednesday, Bost said the bill is not a real compromise but is “being promulgated by people who will just be back to change it in the next session.” He believes the bill will be amended by the Senate “and we’ll get a second bite at that apple.”
* When Corrections Don’t Count - In a time-honored but sorely outdated tradition, the Tribune buries a couple of real boners about Rahm and Ron Huberman.
* VIDEO: CapitolView, hosted by Amanda Vinicky and featuring panelists Charlie Wheeler, Mike Lawrence and Scott Reeder
* Why Should We? A closer look at the Cubs’ plea for public money
* Officials warn of conflicts in picking DuPage state’s attorney - Schillerstrom, Birkett at odds over selection process
The businessman renting Rahm Emanuel’s house withdrew from the Chicago mayor’s race today just hours before a hearing to decide whether he could be on the ballot.
Rob Halpin issued a statement saying “the realities of entering the race at this relatively late stage, including the financial and legal hurdles I’d have to leap in order to win, have forced me to reassess my intention to run at this time.”
Halpin’s impromptu candidacy had been in doubt all along and became more questionable after disclosures about the legitimacy of his candidacy petitions. Election law requires 12,500 valid signatures of Chicago voters to get on the ballot.
Halpin submitted about 17,000, but the Tribune reported last week that a number of people allegedly involved in the signature-gathering process said their names were used without their knowledge.
This sounds familiar: Two of the Chicago voters challenging Rahm Emanuel’s right to run for mayor of Chicago are demanding, among other documents, his birth certificate.
Emanuel says he was born in Chicago, but …
(No, wait: There’s no restriction on where the mayor of Chicago can be born.)
Mayoral candidate Jay Stone, son of alderman Berny Stone, was escorted from the hearing after calling for the ouster of Chicago Board of Elections chariman Langdon Neale.
“I challenge you Langdon Neale,” screamed Stone. “You make millions of dollars [through your private law practice],” he said, suggesting some impropriety. Stone has filed only about 250 signatures for his mayoral bid. 12,500 are needed.
M. Tricia Lee and Ryan Graves were also removed from the ballot.
Stone’s father appeared at a recent WBEZ candidates’ forum and attempted to prove that he still has all his faculties. The elder alderman didn’t do so well. Listen…
Attorney Burt Odelson says Emanuel should be disqualified because he didn’t have a city sticker on his car when he claims to have been a Chicago resident.
“If you’re in debt to the city at the time you sign your statement of candidacy, you are disqualified as a candidate. We could find no record of city stickers being purchased from that address in ‘07, ‘08, and ‘09,” Odelson said.
The Emanuel campaign says he didn’t need a sticker on his car when it was with him in Washington, but since he’s been back he does have a sticker on his car.
Hearing officer Joseph Morris said he will try to keep out extraneous issues. For instance, he would not entertain a subpoena to make president Obama come Chicago, raise his right hand and testify what dates Emanuel has been serving him as chief of staff.
“That would be a waste of the president’s time and a waste of my time,” Morris said.
