* 2:11 pm - We’re beginning to see several challenges filed to nominating petitions today. You can watch them come in by clicking here. Post new challenges in comments if you’d like.
…Adding… You can watch the Cook County withdrawals and challenges come in by clicking here.
The petitions of Democratic lt. governor candidates Sen. Terry Link, Rep. Mike Boland and Tom Castillo have all been hit by the same person, who I believe is connected to LG candidate Scott Lee Cohen. A few legislative candidates have also been challenged so far. Keep in mind that a challenge doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody will be kicked off the ballot.
Democratic state Rep. Julie Hamos has personally filed a petition challenge against a Green Party candidate for the 10th Congressional District. This is no normal Greenie, as Hamos’ press release makes clear…
Richard Mayers, an admitted Nazi, filed for candidacy for Congress in the 10th District under the Green Party. Hamos will challenge signatures and other discrepancies on his petition.
It is clear that Mayers wants to bring his message of hate and intolerance to a significantly Jewish district. Julie Hamos is not going to let that happen.
Mayers has a history of anti-Semitic activity throughout the Chicago area. He is a member of the Creative Movement, a known hate group formerly known as the World Church of the Creator. Mayers is an associate of white supremacist Matthew Hale, founder of the World Church. Hale is currently serving a federal prison sentence for threatening a federal judge.
In 2005, Mayers attempted to organize a rally for white supremacists in Berwyn. Also that year, he was charged with destroying Holocaust-related materials at a public library in Riverside.
Hamos is the daughter of Auschwitz survivors.
* Also, a few candidates have withdrawn today, including state Rep. Annazette Collins, who bowed out of the 7th Congressional District race after incumbent Danny Davis decided to run for reelection. As expected, Ald. Ed Smith dropped out of the Collins House district contest. Collins also filed for reelection, and she’ll apparently stay in that race. Click here to watch the withdrawals and post new ones in comments if you’d like.
Attorney Patrick Hughes already has withdrawn his bid for the Republican nomination in the crowded race.
That line has now been corrected online…
Attorney Patrick Hughes withdrew his bid for the Republican nomination in the crowded race on a technicality issue; however, he refiled his petitions for U.S. Senate.
This happens a lot. Candidates withdraw petitions then refile other petitions. But if you don’t know what you’re doing you can easily make the mistake of thinking that a candidate has withdrawn because it says so at the State Board of Elections website. Here’s the easy way to figure it out: Just search for “active” candidates by name if you have any doubts. Hughes is still listed as an active candidate.
Northwest Side State Rep. Deb Mell may have screwed up her nominating petitions, with a real risk that she’ll be knocked off the February Democratic primary ballot.
A challenge filed Monday afternoon by an attorney for Joseph Laiacona, the only other remaining candidate in the 40th District race, contends that Ms. Mell is not registered to vote at her apparently new address. By law, all candidates are supposed to be registered at the address they use for their nominating petitions.
Ms. Mell — the sister-in-law of ousted Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the daughter of Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) — was not immediately available for comment. But the challenge was filed by Richard K. Means, one of the best election-law lawyers in the business.
“While Deborah L. Mell may reside at said address (on West Melrose Avenue), she was not on the day she swore to and signed” the official statement of candidacy that is filed with nominating petitions, the challenge states. “Because Deborah L. Mell is not a duly registered voter at the address from which she seeks to be a candidate, the nominating petitions are invalid in their entirety.”
* Mike Lawrence vents about the lack of competitive legislative politics and state gridlock in general…
Three dozen of the 118 House members have no foe, and scores have only token opposition. On the Senate side, eight of the 21 seats on the ballot apparently are uncontested, and few races loom as truly competitive.
All of which would be less difficult to abide if the fortification of incumbents led to fortitude in policymaking. But the vast majority have ducked the hard decisions on taxes and spending essential to fiscal stability.
The absence of courage, the contempt for responsible governance, the lack of fiscal integrity, the surrender to political expediency and self-preservation severely test the resolve of those who have resisted term limits as a pseudo-solution that empowers unelected bureaucrats and legislative staff. Yet, we need to get past the frustration and redouble our efforts to force later primaries, a constituent-oriented method of drawing legislative districts and more accountability from rank-and-file lawmakers as well as their leaders.
* The Question: Do you support term limits for legislators and statewide officials? Explain thoroughly, please.
Dan Proft secured the endorsement of Schaumburg Township GOP precinct captains in his Republican primary bid for governor. The Chicago resident with suburban ties called Thursday night’s endorsement a “big win” for his campaign.
The Schaumburg Township Republicans have obviously moved far to the right of where they were back in the “good ol’ days” of that organization. Interesting development, to say the least.
* ABC7’s Charles Thomas took a look at petition checkers over the weekend…
Petition checkers at Chicago Election Board might be working overtime this weekend as campaign workers look for reasons to knock candidates off the ballot for races in the 2010 election.
The [checkers are] reviewing petitions, hoping to find reasons to challenge signatures gathered by opposing candidates.
Petition checkers are the secret soldiers of so many political armies. Dozens of people–most of whom would not reveal their names– were using every available computer terminal on three different floors Friday at the Chicago Board of Elections.
When asked what he was looking for, one checker told ABC7 Chicago, “I’d rather not go into the discussion. I’m just following my instructions.”
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kirk Dillard politely chided primary opponent Andy McKenna on his “new hair expertise” prior to the GOP gubernatorial candidates debate at the Hilton Chicago Thursday. “I’m amazed he didn’t show up in the ‘Blago wig’ he uses in his commercials,” quipped Dillard.
• $$$$: Dillard and McKenna have heavyweights helping fill their campaign coffers: Dillard has business titans Fred Krehbiel and Ron Gidwitz; McKenna has Craig Duchossois and his wealthy father, Andy McKenna Sr.
SCENARIO: Donations are coming in quickly to candidates in the final weeks before the election. Candidate A receives more than 20 donations worth $1,000 or more apiece, and another 10 worth between $500 and $1,000. How would those be disclosed?
Reform advocates did make some disclosure concessions.
Right now, in the 30 days leading up to elections, candidates have to disclose any donations they receive of $500 or more within two days of getting those donations. The new law would bump that threshold up to $1,000 or more.
Why? Morrison said it was a calculated move. They traded the higher threshold for year-round reporting in hopes of getting faster information about large donations, which raise more questions about influence peddling.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column covers much of the same ground that we talked about here all last week…
“Tea party fever” is to the Republican Party what the H1N1 virus is to the general populace. It’s spreading fast and it’s potentially dangerous.
Establishment Republican politicians all over the country are becoming more freaked out by the angry, anti-tax, anti-illegal immigration, anti-Obama, anti-whatever tea party protestors and are mimicking their rhetoric. Even in Illinois, where top GOP politicians mostly took a pass on the harsher aspects of the “Reagan Revolution” rhetoric of the past 30 years - not wanting to alienate the general electorate - the trend is becoming obvious.
At a recent Republican gubernatorial forum sponsored by a tea party group, the normally staid and ever-mainstream conservative state Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) actually called President Barack Obama a “socialist.” Dillard, you may recall, appeared in a TV ad for Obama during the presidential campaign. Dillard revealed last week that he knew Obama was a socialist all along because Obama’s health care proposals in the Illinois Senate were so far to the left. That one left me scratching my head. Why would Dillard knowingly push an obvious commie for president of the United States?
During that same tea party debate, and at another forum two days later, state Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) vowed to stop the federal government from dragging Illinoisans into any federal health care reform plans no matter what. Brady also said the tragic shooting at Fort Hood last week might have been prevented with concealed carry laws, even though the military base is in Texas, a state which allows concealed carry. The very next day, another lone gunman shot up an office building in Florida, killing one and injuring several others. Florida also allows trained citizens to carry concealed weapons.
Also at the tea party debate, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who is the only pro-choice candidate in an otherwise staunchly pro-life group of candidates, denied that humans have anything to do with global warming. The other candidates agreed.
Former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna, who hobnobs with more insiders than just about anybody, continued to insist last week beyond all available evidence that he is a true political “outsider.”
Former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan declared that if elected he would roll back the minimum wage by 75 cents per hour.
And then there was Republican Congressman and current U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk practically begging for kind words from the far right’s darling, Sarah Palin. Kirk had said some nice things about Palin when she was first named as John McCain’s running mate last year, then flip-flopped and said harsh things, but there he was last week once again cozying up to her.
The politics of this aren’t too hard to figure out, particularly for the gubernatorial candidates. The GOP’s right wing is angry and energized and will vote in comparatively large numbers in the February primary. Alienate them and off the island you go.
Even so, the candidates all need to take a deep breath and try to realize how silly they’ll look to general election voters if they keep this up and do manage to win that primary race. They’re so fearful of being attacked from the right that they’re in danger of making themselves unelectable when the rest of the voting public enters the picture.
On paper, at least, the Republicans have a good chance of winning next year. Disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich goes on trial in the summer. Both Democratic candidates for governor - Comptroller Dan Hynes and Gov. Pat Quinn - are fighting over who has the “better” tax increase. Every Democratic U.S. Senate candidate has flaws that the GOP can easily exploit.
Also, last week’s national off-year results showed horrific turnout among Democrats and African-Americans in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections. The African-American vote was almost 30 percent lower in Virginia compared with four years ago.
But if the Republicans aren’t careful, they’re going to spout one too many far-right talking points and demonstrate to Illinois general election voters that they can’t be trusted. I know they gotta do what they gotta do to get past the primary, but they need to keep their eyes on the big prize.
* As I told subscribers this morning, Congressman Danny Davis has decided to run for reelection. Davis had filed for both county board president and congress. The AP talked to Davis…
Davis tells The Associated Press that he decided to seek re-election because he and three other black candidates running in the Cook County race would have competed for the same base of voters. He says he’ll give further details at a news conference later in the morning.
“I always said that if there were four candidates coming from the same political base, that it mitigated against one of those individuals being successful,” Davis told The Associated Press.
He said he may endorse another candidate, but he had not made up his mind.
That endorsement could be important. The field might be further winnowed if Todd Stroger’s petitions are as bad as rumored. We’ll just have to wait and see.
* This isn’t the first time that David Hoffman’s campaign has made this claim. It’s apparently false. Oops…
Former Chicago city inspector general David Hoffman today proposed reforms of the financial industry, including creation of a consumer watchdog agency and curbs on interest rates. But he misfired when he used that message to take a shot at a Feb. 2 rival for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. […]
“Mr. Giannoulias made a campaign promise that he would not accept corporate PAC money. But he’s a banker and apparently made an exception to take PAC money from the banking industry. That is something I won’t do,” Hoffman said in a statement.
Hoffman’s campaign cited the Federal Election Commission Web site which shows that Giannoulias’ Senate campaign in June got a $500 donation from the Community Bankers of Illinois federal PAC.
Trouble is, the Giannoulias campaign returned the check…
“David is flat-out wrong. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, Alexi Giannoulias has never accepted any campaign contributions from the Community Bankers Association,” Giannoulias spokeswoman Kati Phillips said in a statement. “He owes the public an explanation as to why he would make this irresponsible accusation, and he owes Alexi an apology.”
*** UPDATE *** The Hoffman campaign has apologized, which is something you almost never see…
“It was an honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless,” Powell wrote. “For that, we apologize to the Giannoulias campaign. We believe there should be a vigorous debate in this campaign, but it should always be based on an honest discussion of the facts and an accurate airing of our differences.”
At the same time, Powell said Giannoulias should agree to five debates.
“Just as you deserve our apology, the citizens of Illinois deserve a full and robust debate on the major issues in this campaign,” Powell wrote.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, Giannoulias contines to rack up the endorsements…
llinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is set to receive the endorsement today of Illinois’ highest-ranking Hispanic elected official, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, in the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate. […]
Gutierrez, who is Puerto Rican, endorsed Giannoulias even though another candidate in the race, former city of Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman, has a Puerto Rican grandmother.
Giannoulias has the endorsement of 10 Hispanic state legislators and Chicago aldermen. This makes four congressional endorsements for Giannoulias. Rival Cheryle Jackson has two.
* If this is what Cheryle Jackson’s campaign is gonna be like, then she’s in for a very rough little trip…
She used to be known as Cheryle Jackson. That’s the name she used as a spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and as president of the Chicago Urban League. But after she launched her Senate campaign, she decided to use the name Cheryle Robinson Jackson.
She uses her maiden name on her Web site and press releases — but not on the ballot. There, she’ll be listed simply as Cheryle Jackson.
That’s a really stupid mistake. I’m guessing that Jackson changed the name she uses after her petitions went out.
* The DCCC goes off-message on GOP US Senate candidate Mark Kirk…
DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen said during a C-SPAN interview Sunday that Kirk is a “moderate,” contradicting his own organizations efforts to paint him as the opposite and undermining attempts by Senate Democratic opponents to do the same.
The US Senate Democrats have actually been all over the place, sending reporters links from conservative media attacking Kirk as a liberal and blasting Kirk as Bush lapdog. But they rarely if ever use the “moderate” moniker.
Of course, to be fair, Kirk has been all over the map as well.
* Related…
* Hughes: “I’m the Real Republican in the U-S Senate Race”
* Press release: Kirk defies Pelosi’s claim her bill “puts you and your doctor in charge”
* Chicago Minutemen Project endorses Zadek for U.S. Senate
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday he is “extremely nervous” that a wave of police retirements next year — after an arbitrator rules on the new police contract — will stretch a burgeoning manpower shortage beyond levels he considers safe.
Roughly 1,000 officers are eligible to retire now that Mayor Daley has promised to extend premium health benefits to officers who call it quits at 55. But many are waiting until the contract is settled in hopes that a raise will lock in a higher rate of retirement pay.
The Police Department has 600 sworn vacancies and is 2,000 officers short of authorized strength.
After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Daley’s 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.
A Skokie lawyer’s challenge of a speeding ticket that also led to his client being charged with DUI may finally provide the test case that will restore some sanity to how accused speeders are treated in Chicago’s Traffic Court.[…]
Livas has asked a Traffic Court judge to hold what in legal circles is known as a “Frye hearing” — during which the burden will be on prosecutors to prove that LIDAR technology is scientifically proven to be reliable.
Cheering him on — but only to a point — are both the Cook County state’s attorney and Chicago corporation counsel’s offices, which have been seeking exactly such a test case for the local court to establish the presumed validity of LIDAR speed calculations.
The city’s 160 tax increment financing districts, or TIFs, have generated more than half a billion dollars in property taxes in each of the last two years — money that’s off-limits when it comes to balancing the budget. The average taxpayer isn’t particularly sympathetic to the legal explanation for that, especially in hard times. Our property taxes are going into a mayoral slush fund while the city can’t afford to pick up the trash?
It ranks among the strangest-sounding lawsuits ever. The City of Chicago is suing the City of Chicago to reveal what advice the City of Chicago gave to city employees over a questionable city contract.[…]
The inspector general hasn’t publicly identified the contract it’s investigating, but the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that it involved former city employee and Cook County Commissioner Charles Bowen, who was awarded a $100,000 no-bid contract to recruit and retain minority police officers.
Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university and the journalism community by issuing subpoenas to professor David Protess seeking his students’ grades, his syllabus and their private e-mails. Prosecutors claim since the team was made up of students, they may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.
It’s a first for Protess and his investigative reporting students, who have helped free 11 innocent men from prison, including death row, since 1996. Their work also is credited with prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to empty the state’s death row in 2003, re-igniting a national debate on the death penalty.
With the arrest of a 14-year-old, Chicago Police say they now have charged the four “main offenders who struck the critical blows” that killed Fenger High School honors student Derrion Albert, but they’re still looking for three others.
* Gov. Pat Quinn will sign legislation today rolling back the veto override threshold on the Cook County Board. The legislation moves the minimum required vote down from an insane four-fifths to a far more reasonable three-fifths.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is opposed to the legislation, but as I told you last week, he was in favor of the proposal during the 2006 campaign.
Carol Marin’s Sun-Times column today talks about Carlos…
Carlos Hernandez Gomez is a reporter with attitude. Streetwise and smart, punky yet sweet. When Carlos walks into a news conference, he brings his own electricity.
Thick black glasses, trimmed black beard, and fedora whenever possible — these are the accessories of a young man whose questions to politicians and prosecutors will not be ignored.
Carlos began his political reporting career at WBEZ radio in Chicago, but in 2005, CLTV hired him away to cover the corruption trial of former Gov. George Ryan.
But you won’t be seeing him on TV for a little while. Carlos, 36, is off the air working on the most challenging story yet to cross his path. It’s the ongoing medical effort to save his life. Diagnosed and operated on for colon cancer on New Year’s Eve of 2008, he has recently had another surgery to scrub the lining of his stomach of malignant cells. His stomach was then pumped with boiling hot chemotherapy to nuke whatever microscopic bits of cancer remained.
“His doctors compare it to getting third-degree burns to your stomach,” said Carlos’ wife, Randi Belisomo, who also is a reporter for CLTV. […]
Since word of his illness was first posted on Rich Miller’s CapitolFaxBlog, get-well wishes have poured in from political enemies Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka. Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy McKenna offered prayers. Democratic Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan arrived with jokes. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald quietly popped in, and former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson took Carlos out for a good-luck dinner before the last surgery.
Carlos has people from both sides of the aisle in his corner.
* Many thanks to all of you who posted best wishes to Carlos Hernandez Gomez. I’m certain that it helped both him and Randi get through a very difficult time. I love you all for that.
* We’ll know Monday morning which office Congressman Danny Davis will seek - reelection or Cook County Board President. From the Davis campaign…
Cong. Davis will announce his election decision at a press conference on Monday, November 9, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., at 3333 W. Arthington, Chicago.
* Democrat Alexi Giannoulias has a new Internet ad blasting Mark Kirk over Sarah Palin. The tagline is pretty good…
* Rep. Julie Hamos begins airing a new cable TV ad tomorrow. I think that makes her the first congressional candidate to go up. Anyway, rate it…
This is an initial cable buy of about $20K. Here are some details from a top source which were confirmed by the campaign…
$14,450 total for Comcast zones of Glenview, Highland Park and Mt Prospect; these zones encompass other towns as well and give good coverage in D10.
Additionally about $6,000 to WOW! Cable for their North zone that also has coverage in D10.
Bought CNN, Food, HGTV, MSNBC, TBS and USA Networks; all dayparts bought Flight is Sat 11/7 thru Mon 11/16
Script…
I’m Julie Hamos. The time has come for every American to have quality, affordable health care.
We finally have a chance to make that happen with a comprehensive package that includes a public option so that everyone has an affordable choice for health insurance, no matter what. We have to let Congress know that real health care reform demands a public option.
Let’s not let this moment in history pass us by.
I’m Julie Hamos and I approve this message because our fight for change is just beginning.
* Most unfortunate Tribune headline of the afternoon: “Quinn gets backing from former Blagojevich allies.” The story…
Gov. Pat Quinn got the endorsement today of several North Side Democratic leaders who once hailed and later feuded with his running mate and predecessor, Rod Blagojevich.
Among those supporting Quinn’s bid for the Democratic nomination in the Feb. 2 primary was Chicago Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), Blagojevich’s estranged father-in-law.
Others endorsing the governor today were Sen. Ira Silverstein and Reps. John Fritchey and Lou Lang. Fritchey is running for county board commissioner against former Ald. Ted Matlak.
*** UPDATE 1 *** And Dan Hynes has pounced. From a press release…
BLAGOJEVICH’S NUMBER 2 EARNS BLESSING OF BLAGOJEVICH’S NUMBER 1 PATRON The political muscle that gave IL Rod Blagojevich lines up behind Pat Quinn as questions persist about top aide’s resignation
CHICAGO – Pat Quinn, once a self-styled reformer, continued his gravitation toward ultimate political insider-dom today by accepting the endorsement of Alderman Dick Mell, the father-in-law and political patron of Rod Blagojevich, and a man synonymous with Chicago Machine politics. This comes on the heels of news that Quinn’s deputy chief of staff resigned abruptly last week, reportedly amid an investigation for doing political work on state time. Quinn has been mum on the affair. Dan Hynes for Governor campaign communications director Matt McGrath issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement, coupled with the deafening silence surrounding Carolyn Brown Hodge’s abrupt resignation, further cements what has become increasingly clear: Pat Quinn will say or do anything to cling to power, including embracing the Machine he once railed against. It would never even occur to us to seek the endorsement of the single individual most responsible for inflicting this state with Rod Blagojevich, let alone hold a press conference, but for Pat Quinn, it’s all in a day’s work. The rest of us are once again left to wonder about Pat Quinn’s true convictions and commitment to anything beyond his own election.”
Considering Hynes’ family ties, that’s quite a breathless press release, but whatever. At least he didn’t accuse Quinn of actually doing his job and twisting it into something bizarre, a la Quinn’s TV ad.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Quinn spokesperson Elizabeth Austin responds…
“Dan Hynes’ hypocrisy knows no bounds. He is a child of the old-time Chicago Machine and owes his entire career to his ward boss father. Without Machine backing and his father’s political muscle, how could he have won statewide office at the age of 28? Certainly not on the basis of his grassroots advocacy for ethical reform, consumer rights, and tax fairness.
“In September, when Comptroller Hynes appeared at the endorsement session of the Cook County Democrats, he spoke movingly of his pride in seeking — and accepting — their endorsements over the many years he has spent sitting behind the Comptroller’s desk. At that time, he shared his warm recollections of growing up in a ward office, learning about Machine politics at his father’s knee. Yet now, when the Democratic Party is embracing reform and putting state government back on track, he’s now Dan Hynes, the independent maverick?
“Just as they did in 2004, we expect Illinois Democratic voters to understand the difference between a second-generation ward politician and a true reformer who has devoted his entire life to standing up for everyday people against corrupt politicians, greedy utility companies, and corporate polluters. We know that the people of Illinois can tell a poll-driven career politician from someone who is, and has always been, the genuine article. “
[ *** End of Updates *** ]
* Last night, all but one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates said Illinois should opt out of national healthcare if it’s passed by Congress. Unsurprisingly, Gov. Pat Quinn would be against opting out…
Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois should not try to opt out of a national health care plan if one passes in Washington.
The Chicago Democrat says that would be the wrong way to go. […]
Quinn also said Friday that he disagrees with Republican Jim Ryan’s call to lower the minimum wage in Illinois by 75 cents. Ryan says that would help make Illinois more competitive economically.
* Democratic US Senate candidate David Hoffman has a new banking plan. From a press release…
Hoffman’s plan will protect consumers by creating a separate, independent Federal Consumer Protection Agency, which will enforce consumer protection laws to prevent abuse by lenders; putting a stop to predatory lending practices by establishing a standard national usury rate for consumer credit transactions; using federal stimulus funds to provide affordable small business loans, and allowing judicial modification of home mortgages to protect principle residences during bankruptcy.
You’ve done the research and bought the best direct mail list for your campaign. But do you really know if the receiver has any interest at all in your message? Are they truly engaged in reading your information? Or are you hoping your “targeted” mailer interrupts their busy life just long enough to get their attention and not get tossed into the circular file?
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The Illinois comptroller says he hasn’t formed an opinion yet on the governor’s plan to borrow $900 million, because he hasn’t seen the details yet.
Comptroller Dan Hynes says the state does need the cash, because it has a stack of bills worth $3.5 billion that it lacks the money to pay. But he says the governor has not yet communicated with the comptroller’s office regarding specifics of the plan, such as when and how it would be repaid, and what the cost of borrowing would be, so Hynes says he cannot have an opinion or sign off on it.
The comptroller and treasurer must sign off on this type of borrowing; approval from the General Assembly is not needed.
* The Question: Keeping in mind that the borrowed money has to be paid back by the end of the fiscal year, do you think Hynes ought to sign off on this proposal? Explain.
President Obama’s former colleagues in the Illinois state Senate used him as a punching bag Thursday in the first debate among all seven Republicans running for governor.
“Just as I worked to defeat Obamamcare when he was a state senator in Illinois, we will defeat it, hopefully, at the federal level,” said state Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington).
“But if we fail to do that, I will impose the [states’ rights] 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution, and tell the federal government they have no right to take our tax dollars and redirect them to provide a national health care program … It’s time someone slapped the hand of the federal government and said ‘enough is enough.’”
All seven candidates, to varying degrees, competed to be the most conservatove, the biggest “outsider,” the most opposed to tax hikes, and the most opposed to increased government spending on health care.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard, of Hinsdale, a former DuPage County GOP chairman who has been criticized for appearing in a 2007 Iowa caucus ad for Obama, appeared to use the health care issue to try to distance himself from the president.
“If I wanted to be part of socialized medicine, I would have moved to Europe,” Dillard said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a socialistic Washington shove a new mandate down the (Illinois) taxpayers’ throats, especially if it’s health care.”
As the candidates expressed sympathy over the deadly shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas, state Sen. Bill Brady, of Bloomington, vowed to push the legalization of concealed weapons as a potential solution to defending against criminal or terrorist activity.
…an early question about how they would ensure Illinois residents can be safe in light of Thursday’s shootings at Texas’ Fort Hood brought out a range of responses.
Hinsdale businessman Adam Andrzejewski used the question to underscore his plan to keep illegal immigrants out of Illinois.
“One of the security issues we face is our immigration policy in Illinois,” he said. “We can take steps to defend the border right here in Illinois.”
Meanwhile, Brady said that violence, along with last year’s shootings at Northern Illinois University, illustrate the need to allow the concealed carry of guns in the state. He said the law would “help to respond to incidents like this.”
[Jim] Ryan also said the Illinois minimum wage is too high. After the debate, he said the Illinois minimum of $8 an hour should be cut to $7.25, the federal level.
Yet WBBM Radio’s headline is: “Quiet debate for GOP candidates for Ill. governor.”
* By the way, Progress Illinois has video of Sen. Kirk Dillard calling Obama a “Socialist” earlier this week…
Rep. Mark Kirk has long been a voice of reason in Illinois. A moderate Republican with an independent streak, Kirk isn’t known for pandering.
In our endorsement of Kirk for re-election last fall, we noted the North Shore congressman’s efforts at bipartisanship, his knack for doing his homework and his penchant for speaking his mind.
But the edit board is dismayed by this Sarah Palin thing…
Whose endorsement is Kirk seeking in his bid to win a U.S. Senate seat? None other than Sarah Palin.
The same Sarah Palin he dismissed.
The same Sarah Palin who is so fiercely partisan it’s hard to imagine her uttering the phrase bipartisan.
The same Sarah Palin whose history of failing to do her homework has earned her well-deserved ridicule.
And concludes…
For Kirk, courting conservatives may help him solidify a primary win; he is the presumed front-runner. But it also could easily cost him a general election win in Democrat-leaning Illinois.
Kirk built a successful political career by staying true to his values and beliefs.
Republican Rep. Mark Kirk created a stir by asking for help from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in his bid for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination on Feb. 2. Now that quest for help has become fundraising fodder for one of the Democrats seeking the seat.
In an e-mail to supporters sent out today, the campaign manager for Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias said Kirk’s request for Palin’s help was an example of how “Republicans will do anything to get their hands on President Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate.”
Here’s the entire fundraising e-mail, with all emphasis in the original…
We knew from the beginning of this campaign that Republicans will do anything to get their hands on President Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate, but now we find out that the GOP wants Sarah Palin’s help to win this race.
Yesterday, news broke that Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican front-runner, penned a secret memo to Sarah Palin’s camp asking that Palin help out Kirk in a “quick and decisive” way.
Palin has made no secret that she’s willing to help out conservatives in their quest to damage the President. She was the leader in false rumors about the President’s health care proposals, and she’s made it clear she’s willing to throw her support around to get conservatives elected from coast to coast.
Well, not here in Illinois.
We can’t let Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin take us back to the failed, Republican policies that got us into this economic mess.
Donate $10, $20, or $50 today to help us keep the President’s seat.
If Mark Kirk thinks bringing Sarah Palin to town will help distract from his record of consistently voting for big business and against Illinois families, he’s wrong.
Donate $10, $20, or $50 and help us send a message to Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin Republicans that this seat will stay in Democratic hands.
Alexi is a progressive Democrat who will move our state and our nation forward.
And thanks to supporters like you, this campaign will be ready to take on Mark Kirk, Sarah Palin, and whomever else the GOP sends to this fight for the President’s seat.
A new Wilson Research analysis of polling data from the U.S. Senate campaigns of Mark Kirk and Patrick Hughes, respectively, indicates bad news for the Kirk campaign. This comes on the heels of news from Kirk’s Senate campaign that he is seeking the endorsement of former Gov. Sarah Palin. […]
* The ideological background of the primary electorate appears to favor a candidate such as Patrick Hughes. Seven in ten respondents (69%) described themselves as ideologically conservative, compared to only a quarter (25%) of respondents describing themselves as ideologically moderate.
* The findings of the images and ballot of the Market Research Insight survey demonstrate that the race is competitive.
* In the survey, Congressman Kirk has a favorable to unfavorable ratio of 2.7:1. Patrick Hughes’ favorable rating is much higher, at 9:1, but has far less name ID than the Congressman (64% for Kirk versus 24% for Hughes).
“By openly soliciting Sarah Palin’s blessing, Mark Kirk is showing Illinois his true colors,” Jackson said in a statement. “Although he claims to be a moderate, Kirk is pandering to the extreme right wing of his party, and in so doing turning his back on the hard-working Illinois families who hope to change the way our government works and don’t want to go back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration.”
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is trying its best to squeeze every ounce out of the Mark Kirk-Sarah Palin story. […]
Now the DSCC has fired off this “memo” to Palin and Malek, which digs up unfavorable things Kirk had said about Palin:
To: Governor Sarah Palin
Cc: Congressman Mark Kirk
Cc: Fred Malek
From: Kathleen Strand, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Dear Governor Palin,
Yesterday, following the purge of a moderate Republican in upstate New York and the devastating special election in NY-23, it was revealed that Congressman Mark Kirk is actively seeking your endorsement of his candidacy in the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. However, Mark Kirk has not had kind words to say about you in the past. Faced with a difficult re-election race in 2008, Kirk told reporters he “would have picked someone else” for Vice-President and that frankly he “didn’t know whether you are qualified to be President.” Now that Kirk is facing a tough primary challenge from the anti-Washington, anti-establishment candidate Patrick Hughes, he is suddenly racing to embrace you. I’m not sure how familiar you are with Mark Kirk but he is a politician who has a history of putting politics above principals, something you surely look down upon. Whether the issue is cap and trade, extending unemployment benefits, or health care reform, Kirk has either flip-flopped, been AWOL, or motivated purely by politics. On the other hand, Patrick Hughes is comfortable in his own skin as an extreme right-winger. Unlike the pro-abortion Kirk, Hughes is firmly pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and pro-gun…sounds like your type of Republican. I know you are in Milwaukee tomorrow and will be in our great state of Illinois later this month, both would be a perfect setting to give your blessing to one of these two candidates. With so much at stake in the next election, everyone wants to know — who will you endorse in our Senate race?
My good friend Carlos Hernandez Gomez is back in the hospital. Carlos, a top-notch reporter for CLTV, has cancer.
I talked to Carlos last night and he was in a bad place. He had some sort of reaction to his recent treatment and I’d say it was making him miserable, but that word is used so often that it doesn’t even come close to how he sounded on the phone.
As I’ve told you before, Carlos is an avid reader of this blog, so let’s all chip in today and wish him well. He badly needs to be cheered up, so let’s please do our best.
Get well, buddy. I’ll see you tomorrow. Remember, more people love you than you’ll probably ever know. And we’re gonna prove it to you today.
Get to it, people. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** From Carlos’ wife, Randi…
Your blog post and the comments amaze us. Thanks so much for your friendship. To see how many people are rooting for him certainly gives him strength in a weak hour.
He doesn’t feel much like talking, but it’s certainly drawn a smile and a thumbs-up!
Keep it coming, folks. You’re doing some good here today.
* Naperville businessman charged with bribing ‘city agent’
With both video and audio rolling, the businessman, Wafeek “Wally” Aiyash, allegedly offered Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers a $100,000 cash bribe — $10,000 of it up front — if Carothers would secure concessions contracts for him, a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday says.
As many as 40,000 jobless Illinois residents, who would have exhausted their unemployment benefits by the end of the year, will benefit from a bill President Obama is expected to sign today extending those benefits up to 20 weeks.
The extension will help 28,000 unemployed in the state whose benefits already have been exhausted and 12,000 more individuals here whose benefits will run out by the end of the year. That is according to the Illinois Employment Security Department.
Commissioner Mario Moreno is pushing a tax on hospitals that don’t devote at least 4.5 percent of their spending on charity care. If they come up short of that target for free health care, they would pay the difference to the county. (Hospitals that handle a high number of Medicaid patients would have a lower target, but could still be snared by the tax.) […]
The tax would raise about $340 million a year, according to the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, which represents 94 Chicago-area hospitals.
It would impose $105 million in taxes on at least 14 hospitals that already lose money.
Four hospitals that now turn a profit would be plunged into a loss.
A $100,000 no-bid Chicago Police Department contract with Charles Bowen — the former Cook County commissioner who spent more than 15 years as Mayor Daley’s chief liaison to black ministers — is at the center of an unprecedented legal battle between City Hall and the inspector general’s office.
In 2006, Bowen was asked to assist the Police Department with the recruitment and retention of minority officers. He was also charged with reviewing the process of disciplining wayward officers, evaluating community policing and developing “crime-fighting initiatives that involve community participation.”[…]
Earlier this week, the inspector general’s office filed a lawsuit demanding that Corporation Counsel Mara Georges turn over documents and records vital to the inspector general’s investigation of “how a former city employee was awarded a sole-source contract in apparent violation of the city’s ethics and contracting rules.”
The inspector general’s office wants the court to require Georges to reveal who hired that individual and why, saying it “has been unable to determine who bears responsibility for the critical decision to contract with the former employee.”
The once vibrant market is becoming “a dead zone” as vendors take their operations to friendlier operations in the city and suburbs, Fioretti said after the City Council budget hearing for the special events office, which took over running the historic market this year.
McDonald said officials heard from vendors who said they were being harassed by representatives of Jam Productions, which has the contract to manage Maxwell Street.
Spokespeople for Jam could not be reached for comment this evening.
* Overhaul would bring Maxwell Street Market back to glory
Chicago residents are lazy and therefore in need of special treatment. That’s what Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) seemed to say Wednesday at a Chicago City Council budget hearing. He called for preferential seating of Chicago residents at free concerts in Millennium Park.
“You have people from the suburbs who get there earlier and glom on to all the seats. … They’re putting their blankets across rows and rows of chairs,” the Northwest Side alderman whined, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Are Chicago residents prohibited from arriving early and reserving seats for their friends and family members?
The argument goes that city taxpayers paid for the park, so they should reap the benefit. And as more concerts are held at the park, to save the city money, seats will be at a premium. The only problem is that Schulter’s solution runs counter to the spirit of Millennium Park.
It’s a symbol of the city, one that welcomes folks from down the block or from across the globe.
It says, “Come and share in the beauty of our great city.”
Knuckling under to the Daley administration, the city’s landmarks commission Thursday rejected a recommendation that the former Michael Reese Hospital campus on the Near South Side be designated a historic property.
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted 5-3 to withhold support for listing it on the National Register of Historic Places. City Hall has been demolishing buildings on the property, rejecting pleas from preservationists to save some buildings on the 37-acre site. The city bought the property for use in its futile bid for the 2016 Olympics.
My good friend Carlos Hernandez Gomez is back in the hospital. Carlos, a top-notch reporter for CLTV, has cancer.
