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Maybe Thompson will become a Republican again
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller [Bumped to the top and updated The fundraising totals are covered in another post. This “mystery debt” to Winston & Strawn needs its own space. …the Democratic incumbent has headaches of his own, specifically a whopping $687,839 in legal fees that his spokeswoman declined to detail beyond saying that the “vast majority” goes toward “making sure we do everything right.” […] Excuse me, but that’s complete bull. Winston & Strawn charges a lot of money, but you don’t run up $722,000 in bills since December of 2005 just for “double-checking and triple-checking” fund-raising. Turns out, the campaign had a different story for the Tribune. A campaign spokeswoman said the debt represented charges the campaign is questioning, but she declined to say if any of the law firm’s work was related to state and federal investigations into hiring, contracting and fundraising in the administration. […] Like I said in today’s Capitol Fax, a dispute over a few thousand dollars is one thing, but I cannot believe that there’s a disagreement over half million dollars in charges. UPDATE: The plot thickens. The governor’s campaign originally reported a $687,839.59 debt to Winston & Strawn, then revised the report 14 minutes later to a $536,022 debt. UPDATE 2: Topinka press release: …State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and running mate Joe Birkett, the DuPage County State’s Attorney said Blagojevich owes the people of Illinois a straight answer about the nature of the legal bills and scope of the state and federal investigations his administration is engulfed in. […] I think it’s reasonable to know how much the state has spent to defend the governor and his top staff. This story deserves much more play than it’s getting. The governor’s campaign spent a fortune on legal bills and he won’t say what it was for. It’s time for a little truth. UPDATE 3: AP finally has a story up. Spokeswoman Sheila Nix says the legal work includes compliance with election law, defending the campaign against nuisance lawsuits and reviewing state hiring procedures. All reasonable explanations, except that last part. They can’t have it both ways. You can’t explain what some of the expenses are for, but refuse to say what the rest is for. Also, the reason for the discrepancy in Update 1 could be a simple math error on the part of the campaign. That’s the way it was described and it seems rational.
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Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Both Chicago newspapers editorialized today in favor of a mayoral veto of the “big box” ordinance. Sun-Times: In his 17 years on the job, Mayor Daley has never vetoed anything. For most of his tenure, of course, compliant aldermen simply did what he told them to do. But Daley’s power is waning, and the City Council has begun to show an independent streak. Unfortunately, aldermen have used their new-found independence unwisely, passing a living wage law for big-box retailers last week over the mayor’s objections. It received what appears to be a veto-proof majority, but we still think he should veto it. The law is bad public policy and almost certainly violates equal protection grounds because of its discriminatory nature. It applies only to retailers with stores that are larger than 90,000 square feet and that do more than $1 billion in annual sales. Such stores generate $51 million in sales taxes for the city each year. […] Your turn.
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Money
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller First, the AP gives us the raw numbers. The governor brought in about $6.5 million in the first six months of 2006 and spent nearly $10 million, much of that on television advertisements promoting his re-election bid after easily winning the March Democratic primary, a campaign spokeswoman said Monday. The Sun-Times adds this: Since at least 1986, the gubernatorial candidate with the money edge at the mid-point of the election year won in November. And this: Like Topinka, all the other GOP candidates for statewide office were trailing their Democratic counterparts. But the Trib has this: Since June 30, Topinka has been the beneficiary of high-profile fundraisers headlined by President Bush and two prospective Republican presidential contenders, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Those fundraisers and others are expected to generate an additional $2 million for Topinka.
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The Stroger beat
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Todd Stroger takes a small hit today. Ald. Todd Stroger, the Democratic nominee for Cook County Board president, and the 8th Ward organization he represents have given almost $8,000 to a group that believes blacks should not be taxed and should not be involved in interracial relationships, and which supports the creation of a separate state for blacks. Blagojevich was barely criticized for putting the popular Munir Muhammad on that commission, and Mayor Daley and plenty of others have given to that group, so we’ll see if Stroger gets equal treatment. Meanwhile, the Tribune reports… In the contest for the Cook County Board presidency, reports showed Todd Stroger had $36,000 in cash at the end of June, only weeks before he was chosen to replace his ailing father, John Stroger, as the Democratic candidate. A spokesman for Todd Stroger said the campaign would not try to access hundreds of thousands of dollars in political funds controlled by his father.
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Morning shorts
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Instead of our regular “Morning shorts” feature, here’s the news feed for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s excellent blog roundup of yesterday’s campaign filings. · UPDATE: OK, here’s one short I couldn’ pass up: A close confidante of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. reveals Jackson will only run for mayor if Mayor Richard Daley does not seek re-election. […]
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Best wishes to Christina Hynes
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Comptroller Dan Hynes asked that I tell you about this. This is from his office:: Comptroller Dan Hynes’ wife, Christina, was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital last week after experiencing pre-term labor and remains there on bed rest. All the best to Christina. (I don’t usually open comments on things like this, and I see no reason to change that policy now. )
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Campaign finance open thread
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Today is campaign finance day in Illinois. Candidates and political committees have to file their campaign disclosure statements for January 1 through June 30 by midnight tonight. Here’s the link. You can go here to search by a candidate’s name. Tell us what you’ve found in comments. (This thread wisely suggested by a commenter.) UPDATE:I’ll put the feed back up if and or when ICPR starts posting to its blog. For now, however, the AP story is up: The governor brought in about $6.5 million in the first six months of 2006 and spent nearly $10 million, much of that on television advertisements promoting his re-election bid after easily winning the March Democratic primary, a campaign spokeswoman said Monday. And for a little history, recall that Jim Ryan had $690,000 in cash at this point four years ago. UPDATE: Oops. ICPR was posting. Sorry.
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Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Question of the day
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller My syndicated newspaper column this week is about a new poll in the race for state treasurer. The poll had Giannoulias leading Radogno 46-35. The survey of 600 likely voters was taken July 10-16 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. It had a margin of error of 4 percent. The question may not be what you expect. Do you think people are filtering out the corruption stories about poll leaders Giannoulias and Blagojevich, or are they not hearing them in the first place, or do you think they just don’t believe the stories, or is it just too early to expect them to focus even a little on these races?
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Late to the party
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Four Tribune reporters labored for who knows how long to produce this 1500-word story yesterday. Mayor Richard Daley’s administration has for years steered city services–new garbage carts, tree trimming, graffiti removal–to key neighborhoods to help allies win tight elections, a Tribune investigation has found. Really? Say it isn’t so. I’m glad the Trib is finally noticing this stuff, since it’s been right under their noses forever. Between 1999 and 2003, allies of Rep. Cynthia Soto collected material for a book called “It Happened Four Years Ago.” The book was about Soto’s 1999 1st Ward aldermanic race against pretty much the entire Chicago Machine. The book was horribly written, filled with some pretty wild and silly conjecture and is mostly a missed opportunity (considering the source material they had to work with), but it had a few great instances of how services were traded for votes. More interestingly, though, was a passage buried deep in the book about how sidewalk repairs were allegedly timed to hold down turnout. According to the book, the sidewalks directly in front of several polling places in both the 1st and 5th Wards were torn up by the city the week of the runoff election. It’s one of my favorite stories about how the Machine really operates. You can read the book for free here (pdf file). It’s a low-resolution copy, so the photos and graphics aren’t visible. For more on how the Machine used absentee ballots to their advantage in the same race, check out this very informative Chicago Reporter article from December, 2000. Back to the Tribune article. Using city data, the Tribune detected a particularly dramatic increase in service requests from one ward in the weeks before a heated election for alderman there. Captains typically walk precincts with a stack of service request forms. It’s one way that the House Democrats took back several southern Cook County districts in 1996. They literally flooded the districts with services. The city has regular ward cleanup days, and often those just happen to be right before a particularly important election day. Again, the Trib article. But records and interviews indicate that dispensing services in the 12th Ward was part of a political strategy that included dispatching hundreds of HDO-affiliated city workers to campaign for Cardenas. “They were using taxpayer money to beat us,” Frias said. “There was nothing that I could do.” I wrote about this race a little back then and I knew what was going on before the election was over. It’s standard stuff and I’ve written about it time and time again, particularly with Latino legislative districts. The Tribune, all these years later, is only now catching on. Let’s hope the paper is a bit more proactive in next year’s contests. UPDATE: A high resolution version of the book can be downloaded here. [pdf file]
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More on IDOT’s stonewalling
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller A judge has allowed Jenner & Block to extricate itself from representing IDOT officials in a lawsuit filed by 18 former IDOT workers who alleged they were wrongfully terminated. As you already know, IDOT has ordered J&B to not turn over its files to Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who appointed the law firm and who is also the state’s chief attorney. IDOT’s publicly offered reason for asking J&B not to turn over the files was that it wanted the firm to continue representing the officials. But now that Jenner & Block have been removed, they don’t really have a good explanation. Jenner & Block has been representing defendants in Rutan patronage matters all the way back to the beginning of the Rutan case. According to a motion it filed last month, it claims it has been “unable to reach terms for reappointment that are mutually agreeable to Jenner & Block and the Office of the Attorney General.” The AG’s office declined comment.
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Morning shorts
Monday, Jul 31, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller · If this really happened, the debate’s sponsors shouldn’t ever be allowed to host another one. [Emphasis added] Republican state treasurer candidate Christine Radogno on Friday questioned the experience level and judgment of her Democratic opponent, Alexi Giannoulias, whose family bank has made loans to convicted felons…. Both candidates appeared at a political forum sponsored by the National Association of Women Business Owners but saved their most biting comments until after the tame event… Radogno, a 53-year-old Lemont resident, said she pulled her punches onstage because organizers asked her not to be confrontational. · Birkett says governor hides behind inspector general. More here. · Editorial: How your tax money is spent deserves public scrutiny, something the governor seems to have forsaken and forgotten. · Governor signs law expanding college grant program · Green Party supporters under fire · “There’s been a clear violation of state law, according to the inspector general, but there’s been no criminal referral. If a criminal referral comes, it’s only going to be because it was brought to light by the Sun-Times, not because the administration is saying this is something we need to do,” said [state Sen. Peter] Roskam, who is running for Congress in the 6th District. · UPDATE: Responding to the above story, Topinka’s campaign issued this release today: …Just a day after his campaign spokeswoman said that Governor Rod Blagojevich refers all Inspector General allegations of corruption to law enforcement agencies, the Sun-Times reported that serious allegations against an Illinois Tollway official never were referred to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office, Illinois Attorney General, or U.S. Attorney.
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