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Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Assuming that the statewide advisory referendum against gay marriage makes it onto the ballot (perhaps a big assumption, but stay with me anyway), how will you vote? Explain.

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Antics

Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Tribune finally gets around to reporting a story that it held last week.

Some supporters of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week embarked on a last-ditch effort to try to help Stufflebeam by soliciting people to pass petitions for his Constitution Party. The move was viewed as an effort to try to take away votes from Blagojevich’s main challenger, Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

“I heard that some people were doing that,” Blagojevich said of efforts to help Stufflebeam. He said that last week he `instructed my campaign that our people should play no role in that and that we should discourage our people from having anything to do with it.”

Those “supporters” were reportedly state employees who were ordered to the Springfield headquarters to pick up petitions.

Meanwhile, Stufflebeam, as expected, came up way short.

Among the third-party candidates to file with the State Board of Elections was Randy Stufflebeam of Belleville and his Constitution Party. Stufflebeam, a conservative candidate for governor, filed only 4,300 signatures, far below the 25,000 needed to appear on the ballot.

“We sucked wind,” Stufflebeam said. “As long as we’re under the radar and somebody doesn’t challenge us, we’ll have ballot access.”

I wouldn’t bet on that.

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Politics and the state

Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Governor Blagojevich claims he has walled off politics from the state. He wouldn’t even take a political question at the Statehouse during the final week of spring session. He also says fundraising has nothing to do with government operations.

So, I can’t help but wonder why the governor’s chief of staff accompanied Blagojevich to a Washington, DC fundraiser this week. On the governor’s other arm was John Wyma, who has parlayed his 2002 campaign work into a big bucks lobbying career, despite the fact that he is rarely in Springfield.

Meanwhile, the AP has discovered that a qualified pilot who is also a veteran wasn’t even called for a job interview for an opening to fly state planes. Instead, the job went to a congressman’s son-in-law after the governor’s office contacted CMS.

CMS spokesman Justin DeJong said there are sometimes gaps between the time a job applicant’s test is graded and the time it is officially entered into the pool of candidates. He said information must be manually entered into what he called an “antiquated system.”

“Unfortunately there was a lag time between when this gentleman got a grade and when the information was entered into the system,” DeJong said.

The pilot who did get the job, Brian Keen, screwed up his paperwork and wasn’t initially rated as qualified until, apparently, after the guv’s office intervened.

Keen got the job because he was the most qualified military veteran living in the state who was on the list of applicants, DeJong said.

Um, right.

Famed test pilot Chuck Yeager was also on the list, but he was not rated as qualified, DeJong said.

“He flies too fast,” DeJong explained.

OK, I made up that last part.

The pilot who wasn’t hired is a relative of a Topinka ally, so this isn’t as cut and dried as it looks, but these administration explanations are getting weaker by the day.

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Morning shorts

Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· My most sincere condolences: “Alexis Giannoulias, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Broadway Bank, died suddenly while traveling in his native Greece over the weekend. Mr. Giannoulias, 69, suffered an apparent heart attack, according to a spokesman for his son, Alexi Giannoulias, who is the Democratic nominee for state treasurer.”

Â· Krol thinks Bill Scheurer would’ve received 1 or 2 percent, citing his anti-war beliefs. I think his union backing could have bumped him up substantially higher and cost Bean the election. But it appears to be a moot point now.

Â· Editorial: Way above average in clout stats

Â· “Chief Illiniwek likely has not danced his last dance at University of Illinois home football games and could perform at basketball games this winter because the schoolâ€™s board of trustees has not settled on a solution to the long-simmering debate.”

Â· More Illinois children are living in poverty, but fewer newborns and young children are dying, according to a national study that rates how well states are caring for their youngest residents.

Â· James â€œPateâ€ Philip State Park is no longer on the endangered species list â€” at least for this year.

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Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

My syndicated newspaper column this week is about the Green Party’s success at gathering candidate petition signatures and the possibility they might be on the ballot this fall.

My own opinion is that if any party has enough organizational strength to survive a ballot challenge in a state with literally the toughest third-party ballot access laws in the world, then they ought to be considered legitimate.

That means they should be included in all the debates, no matter what their poll numbers might be. And it means that people like myself should include them in our regular campaign coverage.

QUESTION: I know we may be getting ahead of ourselves here, but if the Greens do make it onto the ballot, should they be included in the debates, regardless of what the polls may show?

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Hiring is news again

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

First up, the governor claims his office doesn’t involve itself in civil service hiring, but the AP found a memo that shows otherwise.

Gov. Rod Blagojevichâ€™s office took a personal interest in the hiring of a congressmanâ€™s son-in-law to fly state planes, even though the pilot wasnâ€™t properly licensed and the job was supposed to be free of political influence, internal e-mails show.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show an aide to Blagojevichâ€™s personnel director contacted the Department of Central Management Services in July 2003 to check on the status of Brian Keen, U.S. Rep. Jerry Costelloâ€™s son-in-law.

Blagojevich has repeatedly said that his office does not get involved in filling positions that are supposed to be free of politics. A Blagojevich spokeswoman said Keen was hired based on qualifications, not politics.

In the e-mails, CMS, the stateâ€™s hiring agency, said that Keen had two opportunities to submit applications to be a state pilot but couldnâ€™t show he was qualified for the job. The e-mails said the rejected paperwork was returned to the governorâ€™s office with a note about necessary qualifications.

And the governor has apparently made peace with a group of workers who he once accused of fraud.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich apparently has made peace with a group of state employees he tried to fire in 2003 after he accused them of engaging in hiring fraud.

The first-term Democratic governor last year won the right to terminate the nine individuals - holdovers from the administration of Republican Gov. George Ryan - after pursuing a lengthy legal battle that cost taxpayers an estimated $650,000.

But for the past several months, Blagojevich’s office has allowed the employees to continue working at senior posts where they earn monthly salaries ranging from $5,100 to $9,470, state comptroller records show.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said agency supervisors have evaluated the employees and believe they are worth keeping on, regardless of the earlier dispute. […]

“These are people who worked the system, essentially committed a fraud on the public,” Blagojevich said in fall 2003 as a court battle unfolded. “These people knew what they were doing. They were part and parcel of a conspiracy.”

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“Negative but rarely heavy-handed”

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This AP story has some fairly good insights into the governor’s advertising blitz.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is hitting his Republican opponent with a barrage of campaign ads, but the goal isn’t an early knockout. Instead, the ads amount to a series of jabs designed to leave Judy Baar Topinka bruised and bloodied in the minds of voters.

They’re short â€“ generally just 15 seconds. Most use Topinka’s own words against her, pointing out that she said raising the minimum wage would be a government “giveaway” or that she has praised unpopular politicians.

They are negative but rarely heavy-handed. The tone almost was one of regret that any politician could be so misguided, summed up by the frequent closing line: “Judy Baar Topinka â€“ what’s she thinking?” […]

Another political strategist, Don Rose, said Blagojevich’s unusually short ads might minimize the backlash that usually comes with negative ads. They don’t really give viewers a chance to identify them as Blagojevich ads and get angry, he said.

Their message can also come and go so quickly that viewers miss the details, but Rose said that’s OK as long as they get the message that Topinka is being accused of something bad.

“If you see them enough times, it becomes something close to subliminal: Topinka no good, Topinka no good,” he said.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A summary of the governor’s ads is here.

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More trouble for Alexi

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I must’ve been out of town when AG Madigan had this to say about Alexi Giannoulias’ treasurer’s campaign.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan told reporters in early June she wasn’t sure whether she would sign onto his campaign.

“There have certainly been concerns that were raised during his campaign,” Lisa Madigan said then.

The southern Illinois swing of his ethanol tour went well, but not so much in Peoria, evidently.

Last week, Giannoulias made his first trip back to Peoria since the primary in a statewide tour marking his first news conference since the primary. And just to be sure, top-dog local Democrats came out to support him. Sen. George Shadid was there, as were state candidates Dave Koehler and Bill Spears. Unfortunately for Giannoulias, the TV news crews did not show, and his supporters simply mingled in the distance while he talked to the newspaper and a radio station. Giannoulias said he doesn’t know how rumors got started that the Dems weren’t supporting him wholeheartedly.

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Morning shorts

Monday, Jun 26, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Rezko in the news again: “Restaurant companies linked to political insider Antoin “Tony” Rezko that shut down three eateries at O’Hare Airport after being accused of minority-business fraud now have another problem: A lawsuit alleges they didn’t pay their property taxes.”

Â· Goldman-Sach and the state-level push for privatization

Â· This would not be a good thing: “In what may be a bid for tax breaks, United Airlines is exploring relocation of its corporate headquarters from suburban Chicago to Denver or San Francisco.” However, the Loop is also a possibility.

Â· Watchdog barks at schools tax hike

Â· Illinois’ thirst for underground water is increasing, and some officials are beginning to worry that the supply won’t be able to meet the demand in years to come.

Â· Poshard putting his mark on SIUC as president, and learns from mistakes.

Â· Strangest headline of the day: Newspaper questions man executed in 1983 slaying

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