Businessman Jim Oberweis said Friday he will run for the Republican nomination for the 25th State Senate District seat currently held by Chris Lauzen. […]
“I think we have a wonderful country and we used to have a great state,” Oberweis said Friday. “I have 16 grandchildren. I’m worried about their future and the future for other people’s grandchildren.”
Oberweis, a Republican from Sugar Grove, said his top priority if elected would be to create an economic environment that would attract people looking to create businesses in Illinois or move them to Illinois.
Translation: If he wins this race, watch for a 2014 gubernatorial bid.
U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson doesn’t get to choose his Democratic opponent in next year’s general election. But if he did, it would be former state Rep. Jay Hoffman. […]
Hoffman’s close association with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was used against him last year in his unsuccessful campaign for re-election against Republican Dwight Kay of Edwardsville. Hoffman also came in for criticism earlier this year when, as a lame-duck legislator, he voted for a 67 percent state income tax increase in the closing days of the old 96th General Assembly.
“I guess given the fact that there’s a long history of votes that I would say are safely out of the mainstream of the people of this district, for example nearly doubling the income tax in a lame duck session of the Legislature, I’d rather run against somebody who’s been a part of the problem,” Johnson said Friday.
Johnson pledged that he “won’t run a negative campaign in any way against either one of them.”
Translation: “He’s the devil in disguise, but I’m gonna take the high road.”
* Congressman Randy Hultgren previewed his likely primary bid against fellow Republican freshman Joe Walsh…
Hultgren has begun working away quietly, emphasizing his strengths in background and experience against the charismatic tea partyer, who is battling allegations of late child support payments and a potential backlash from controversial statements that have irked top-ranking members of the GOP.
“I think some people are always confrontational. Others, there’s an ability to talk, listen, work with each other without compromising core values,” Hultgren said. […]
Hultgren said he won’t “make things personal” but admits, at the same time, “campaigns are where that’s the hardest. Especially when there’s not that much difference on the issues.”
Translation: “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?”
* A proposed change in the Illinois GOP’s delegate selection process has been picking up some steam online…
At issue are proposed new rules for allotting delegates to next year’s GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.—rules that state GOP Chairman Pat Brady says will make nominating a presidential candidate easier and fairer, but which critics call a power grab by the party’s old guard. […]
As originally drafted, the rules would have required a presidential candidate to get a stiff 20% [since changed to 10%] of the vote in the state primary to receive any delegates—likely a big impediment to contenders like Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann, who have a staunch but not particularly large following.
The Aug. 18 draft also would have abolished the current system, in which delegates mostly are elected in congressional district votes while a separate, non-binding “beauty contest” is held for the presidential candidates. Instead, the central committee would select all delegates, apportioning them based on “beauty contest” results, with the candidates for president restricted to “consultation” in picking their own delegates [”revised language makes it clear that the presidential campaigns will select their own delegates, with the central committee in a pro forma role”].
having delegate candidates on the ballot “adds more people vested in the process, to be advocates at our Lincoln Day Dinners, party rallies and forums on behalf of their ‘preference’ for President. Having hundreds and hundreds of party faithful on the ballot, committed and engaged, is only good.” As for the challenge of collecting signatures, he said, “if one wants to be the President of the United States and leader of the free world,” such organization “is not too high a threshold to meet.”
Rutherford is heading the Illinois effort for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, but told me via email (from Hong Kong, part of an Asian trip) that his support for Romney has nothing to do with his opinion that delegates should still be elected from congressional districts in the primary.
Translation: Finding delegate candidates and gathering all those petition signatures are a tuneup for Rutherford’s 2014 statewide campaign.
A group of nearly 40 young people and their parents from the south side of Chicago visited the McLean County Fair Thursday as guests of the McLean County Farm Bureau through the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Adopt-A-Legislator program. The program pairs McLean County Farm Bureau with Illinois State Representative Thaddeus Jones in the 29th District.
“We are teamed up with them in their area just to try to learn about each other, and what we have in common and the differences that we have,” said Fred Grieder, a member of the government affairs committee and a county director with the McLean County Farm Bureau.
At the Farm Bureau’s invitation, Jones brought a group of nearly 40 children and adults from his district to tour the McLean County Fair as a part of his Y29 program. Y29 stands for “Youth 29th District” and the goal is to educate young people in the district about programs throughout the state of Illinois. Jones said this is the first time they’ve come to the McLean County Fair and worked with Farm Bureau members, but he hopes to do it every year.
* The Question: What other groups ought to start an “Adopt-A-Legislator” program? Explain how that might work.
The higher corporate tax rate has been strongly criticized by the business community as the last thing Illinois needed in trying to remain competitive in jobs with surrounding states. Illinois Chamber of Commerce president Doug Whitley said Illinois’ economy is increasingly intertwined with those of its neighbors and regional cooperation must be the goal rather than states raiding each other for jobs.
“Illinois should never have a higher corporate tax rate than our neighboring states,” Whitley said.
We agree. Illinois political leaders’ fiscal irresponsibility has created great pressure to raise revenue and cut costs to address that massive budget hole. But with the state still waiting for an economic recovery, jobs must be Priority No. 1 — especially keeping and adding well-paying manufacturing jobs.
More needs to be done than simply lowering the corporate tax rate, but lawmakers seem to be getting the message, holding hearings on the increase.
Will they reverse field and lower it? We think they should, but it’s probably unlikely — until a major company leaves the state along with several hundred or even thousands of jobs.
The average state allows its sales tax to be applied to 56 different categories of services, according to the Washington-based Federation of Tax Administrators. In Illinois, the number is 17, most involving utilities.
That sets up curious anomalies. A key reason sales tax rates are so high here is because so little is taxed compared with elsewhere. And despite all the furor about lofty rates, Illinois residents pay less in sales taxes than neighbors in surrounding states where the rates are lower but more is taxed.
Per capita, Illinoisans shelled out $727 in state and local sales taxes in 2008, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in the nation’s capital. The corresponding number in Indiana was $901, in Wisconsin and Iowa it was $814, and in Missouri, $852.
It’s pretty simple, really. Our rate is so high because we tax so few things, and we bring in less per capita because of it.
We have no doubt that smart infrastructure investments pay off for the public. But keep in mind that as of July, fewer than 6 million people held jobs in Illinois. So the Tollway plan will expand total employment significantly — if the estimates prove accurate. A few more government projects like that and Illinois risks a labor shortage!
Denying the reality of a state in dire need of job creation won’t change the fact of it. Illinois pols need to get their fiscal affairs in order and make it competitive again. Then, go ahead: Put on a hard hat, and spout off about all the jobs, jobs, jobs supposedly being created over the next 15 years, the next 30, whatever.
If the rest of Illinois is back to work when the politicians preen for the cameras at their news conferences, no one will pay attention anyway.
* And despite all the legitimate uproar about our tax rates, Illinois manufacturers appear comparitively upbeat…
Manufacturers in Illinois were feeling more optimistic than their counterparts across the country at mid-year, according to a survey by tax consulting firm RSM McGladrey Inc.
More than half of Illinois companies, or 52%, were thriving or growing, compared with 44% nationwide, according to the McGladrey Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor survey. Some 64% of local companies plan to increase their workforce in the next year, and 54% will increase inventory, vs. 58% and 46% nationally, respectively.
That’s an improvement over last year, when 48% nationally said they would bolster their workforce.
Still, 60% of the Illinois manufacturers fear that the weakening economy will hinder their business, nearly half are concerned about higher commodity prices and more than a third worry about federal regulation.
* Related…
* Senate Dems seek veto-proof ComEd measure: Ideas on the table include having the utility set up a $50 million fund to help elderly and poor consumers pay their electricity bills, devote $150 million to better insulate its power grid from weather-related outages and cap ComEd’s annual profits to less than 10 percent during the next three years. The provisions have emerged from Senate President John Cullerton’s caucus in a bid to salvage legislation that ComEd pushed through last spring that would enable the utility, in modernizing its power grid, to sidestep the Illinois Commerce Commission on certain rate-hike decisions and lock in double-digit returns on equity.
* Health care expansion to cost Illinois, study finds: Expanding Illinois’ Medicaid program under the federal health-care reform law will cost the state $1.3 billion a year in 2020 and beyond, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Rand Corp.
* Hospitals fear loss of tax exemption in Illinois: [D]aring to seek an exemption on any buildings could land the health center squarely where no Illinois hospital wants to be right now, under the microscope of the state Department of Revenue and possibly subject to losing the tax exemption on Sarah Bush Lincoln’s hospital buildings, Sheagren said.
* ‘Unemployed need not apply‘ a disturbing trend - Companies that bar unemployed job candidates are shortsighted – and wrong
* U.S. lottery sales surge: Is economy the reason?: In Illinois, lottery sales were $2.27 billion in the last fiscal year — July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011 — up abut 3 percent from the previous year.
* Editorial: Squabbling over sales taxes: The law shouldn’t make it difficult for businesses to vote with their feet. But a company shouldn’t be able to duck sales taxes in Cook County by pretending it’s located downstate.
* Black contractors plan next Friday to disrupt work on new Mississippi River Bridge
* Millington (pop. 549) fights for its post office: One person who could speak on behalf of Millington is State Rep. Kay Hatcher, R-Yorkville, who talked to Smith Thursday. “I certainly intend to plead for any community that needs the help,” she says. “I worry because sometimes a big organization doesn’t recognize that in a small community, the post office is truly the gathering spot.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gov. Pat Quinn is once again using the “subject to appropriations” clause to justify breaking yet another agreement with AFSCME. Quinn told reporters today that he will, indeed, propose to slash state jobs and close facilities despite his agreement last year with the union and said he has no choice because there is no appropriated money. From his remarks…
“Clearly, the budget of the General Assembly that they appropriated is going to require significant changes… All agreements are subject to the clause in Illinois law that says ’subject to appropriations’… I have to abide by the will of the General Assembly that passed a budget that requires reductions and, therefore,, we’ll have to carry those reductions out. It will be done in an orderly way according to law… The bottom line is the money isn’t there to pay for a full fiscal year unless reductions are made.”
Quinn also said he’d be open to proposals to redo the budget using increased revenues.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sen. Bill Brady wonders if the cuts will be focused on Republican areas…
“I assume it will be a political document. It will be interesting to see how many of these facilities are in areas where Democrats are running. He’s turning into a blowhard that has no credibility in the General Assembly.”
On a personal note, thanks to Brady for pointing out that the Tribune did not break this story today. Raw audio is here.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Via press release, AFSCME claims there’s a “crisis of will”…
“AFSCME has not received any notification from the Quinn Administration regarding facility closures or employee layoffs. However, we take very seriously the persistent and widespread rumors that the governor is giving serious consideration to announcing such closures and layoffs this week.
“This course of action would be in direct violation of negotiated agreements with our union. Moreover, it would have a dire impact on the maintenance of public safety and the delivery of services of vital importance to the people of Illinois.
“Illinois state government is already an extremely lean operation. Staffing levels have been cut to the bone over the past decade—and Illinois now has the lowest per capita number of employees of any state in the country. Nearly every state agency is struggling to meet its mandates. Prisons are understaffed and severely overcrowded, operating at almost 150 percent of inmate capacity. Human service caseloads have soared past any reasonable standard. Veterans homes have long waiting lists for care.
“Closures and layoffs at such a time will plunge state government into chaos.
“The Governor is apparently concerned that there is not sufficient appropriations authority to maintain services at their current level until the fiscal year ends next June. We agree that a supplemental appropriation is needed. But there is certainly not a funding crisis at this point in time. There is merely a crisis of will.
“Our state urgently needs leadership. Rather than disrupt vital services and add to Illinois’ already alarmingly high unemployment rate, the governor should work with the General Assembly to forestall service cuts and layoffs. The necessary funding is available if the legislature takes action when it returns for the veto session. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reports that revenue is coming in this year at higher than projected levels.
“We call on the governor and the legislative leaders to work together for the good of our state. This is not a time for partisanship or finger-pointing. It’s a time to work together to ensure that essential services to maintain public safety and meet human needs can continue to be provided. AFSCME stands ready to be part of that effort.”
*** UPDATE 4 *** If the governor thought he would stampede state legislators, he may have another thing coming, at least in the House…
The rumor that Gov. Pat Quinn will issue layoff notices this week to thousands of state workers and possibly close some state facilities was met with a quick note of reassurance from state Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley.
“We understood that cuts would have to be made,” she said today. “We approved a budget that was at least $2 billion less than he asked for.'’
Then again, we’ll see what she says if Kankakee’s state hospital is put on the closure list.
Quinn blamed the cuts on the General Assembly, saying lawmakers hadn’t appropriated enough money to cover Illinois’ expenses for the rest of the fiscal year. But Quinn says he’s willing to work with lawmakers to avoid the cuts, and he says talks will happen this week.
Neither the House Democrats nor the Senate Democrats have any meetings scheduled with the governor this week. However, I listened to the raw audio file twice and I think the governor said that he’d be rolling out his proposal this week, not that he’d be talking to legislators. Listen for yourself…
I asked the governor’s office for a comment and got this…
The Governor believes in the democratic process and will continue to work with and listen to legislators in regards to implementation of an incomplete budget. If legislators want to make adjustments to the budget they passed in May, the Governor, as always, is willing to listen.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* I told subscribers about this late Friday morning…
Gov. Pat Quinn plans to issue layoff notices to thousands of state workers this week as he deals with a budget shortfall he pegs in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a state government source with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune.
The governor also intends to announce the closing of several state facilities, including a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, sources confirmed. Without action, Quinn’s budget office says, several agencies would run out of money by the spring.
Quinn is responding to the Democratic-controlled Legislature’s decision at the end of May to dictate this year’s budget with little input from his office. The Democratic governor maintains that lawmakers didn’t provide enough money to keep the state operating for a full year. Quinn, who asked for $2.2 billion more, already has made partial vetoes to the budget and blocked raises for thousands of state workers, a decision that’s being challenged in court by the state’s largest government employee union. The union also is expected to fight the pink slips, citing a no-layoff agreement it struck with Quinn last year. […]
Unless lawmakers step in, the prisons system won’t have enough money to pay guards, let alone feed and clothe inmates or provide proper drug addiction counseling and medical care, according to Quinn budget office estimates. There also won’t be enough cash to cover checks for workers who care for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, or keep the doors open for a full year at state-operated residential facilities and psychiatric hospitals. The state also is struggling to cover the cost of the food stamp program and cover travel costs for workers investigating allegations of abuse or neglect. […]
Some lawmakers warn that Quinn will find little relief as state coffers remain bare despite the major income tax increase. Republican Sen. Matt Murphy, of Palatine, says the state already spends too much and needs to cut further. He said moves like shutting facilities need to happen, but that Quinn should have known that before making a campaign pledge to keep them all open.
During the campaign last year, Quinn forged an agreement with AFSCME that precluded layoffs and facility closures in return for the union to come up with budget-balancing ideas. Word is that Quinn will say that the union hasn’t held up its end of the agreement, a claim the union flatly denies.
The General Assembly has been forced to deal with less income from taxpayers and, as a result, has trimmed the number of public employees. But those still working in public-sector jobs are earning more, according to an Illinois Statehouse News, or ISN, analysis.
Between 2009 and 2010, lawmakers increased the paychecks of those still on the job with the state by $83 million, the ISN analysis found.
Overall, the $3.93 billion in payroll accounted for about 12 percent of the state’s operating budget for fiscal 2010, and was 2 percent higher than in fiscal 2009. Employee pay usually hovers around 10 percent of the state’s operating budget. But that does not include public university employees, whose salary data were not included in the analysis.
“That’s a problem when your revenues are not increasing, (and) we’ve got all this past-due debt that is owed by the state. There needs to be an effort to contain costs,” Tom Johnson, president of the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois, a government watchdog organization, and chairman of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Taxpayer Action Board.
Last year, the state Senate Republicans tested anti-tax messages in their campaigns without much success. While almost all Senate Democrats had voted for a large income tax hike along with an expansion of the sales tax to services, the Republican message just didn’t work because the tax bill the Democrats backed never became the law of the land.
But now that a tax increase has actually been approved, with all the resulting hype surrounding it, there could very well be a different outcome next year. The tax increase has become a part of the public consciousness, and not in a good way, either.
The tax hike vote itself has received a ton of publicity, but the circus ever since has further burned into voters’ minds a highly negative and toxic message. There was Gov. Pat Quinn’s infamous flip-flop, first claiming he’d veto anything over a one percentage point increase and then signing a two-percent hike. Then came the flood of high-profile bashing of our tax hike by Republican governors throughout the country — all of whom pledged to poach our corporations and our jobs. We had the widely reported but false stories about Caterpillar considering leaving and the statewide nervous breakdown which resulted. On top of all that, the state still has severe budget problems despite the cut in everybody’s take-home pay. Then, obviously, there’s the problem of rising Illinois unemployment since the tax hike took effect.
This was also the first purely partisan tax increase since the state’s new Constitution was adopted two generations ago. In the past, tax hike roll calls were carefully structured in a bipartisan manner and the two parties generally avoided dealing with the issue during the following campaign cycle. Republicans and Democrats worked closely together two years ago to raise taxes to fund the state’s infrastructure program, for instance. Nobody heard a peep about that vote on the campaign trail last year. But the income tax is an entirely different matter. No Republican votes were on that bill.
To make matters worse for the ruling Democrats, 2012 is a redistricting election year. Most legislators have lots of new constituents who don’t know who they are and won’t be prepared to cut them any slack.
And, on top of everything else, a large number of state House Democrats ran last year on anti-tax platforms. House Speaker Michael Madigan even refused to recruit candidates who barely hinted that they’d vote for a tax hike. In the Quad Cities, for example, Madigan rejected his former staffer Porter McNeil in the primary when McNeil tried to stake out a middle ground between the more aggressively pro-tax Democrat Jerry Lack and the anti-tax Dennis Ahern. Madigan injected himself into the primary and backed Ahern, who turned out to be a total dud of a candidate whom Madigan eventually dumped. McNeil might’ve been able to hold former Rep. Mike Boland’s seat, but Madigan was so anti-tax at the time that McNeil wasn’t considered viable.
Two months after the election, of course, Madigan completely switched gears and muscled through a 67 percent income tax hike. Democrats who followed his lead in both directions now find themselves in a serious pickle. They promised (or came right up to the line of promising) not to vote for a tax hike and then did it anyway before they were even sworn in for another term.
The Republicans are now preparing to move in for the kill. And at this point their battlefield is quite large. President Barack Obama’s presence on the ticket will be a problem for the Republicans in some areas, but the president is now quite unpopular in many of the districts he won three years ago. If the economy doesn’t improve and if the national Republicans nominate a sane presidential candidate, then the House and Senate Democrats will have to find a way to win downstate and suburban and exurban areas without his coattails.
And the same thing goes for Democratic state legislators trying to move up the political ladder. At least two former legislators and one current legislator are running for Congress right now. All three voted for the tax hike. If they think that the national Republicans are going to give them a pass on that, then they’re dreaming. Heck, their Democratic primary opponents would probably be wise to use the issue as well.
* But one of those three Democratic legislators has the surprising support of a major Peoria bigshot…
State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, is gearing up for another fundraiser in the Peoria area to bolster his campaign coffers as he makes a run for Congress in the newly drawn 17th District. […]
Perhaps most eye-catching among the names is Doug Oberhelman, the CEO of Caterpillar Inc. He and his wife, Diane, the chief of Cullinan Properties, are included. […]
It was the Caterpillar CEO’s letter to Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this year that launched a debate over the impact of the corporate and personal income tax increases on the business climate in Illinois. Koehler voted for that tax hike.
Both individually and as a couple, the Oberhelmans have been frequent political donors. However, campaign records indicate that the lion’s share of the money they’ve given has gone to those running on the GOP side of the aisle. And it was just last year that they hosted a fundraiser at their home for U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s re-election bid that boasted former first lady Laura Bush as the marquee guest.
Nevertheless, Koehler has described himself as close to the Oberhelmans, calling Doug Oberhelman “a longtime friend” and “one of my first donors.” He’s said that he’s “very proud of the fact that I have a bipartisan group of donors” in the primary campaign.
* The Associated Press is infamous for shortening stories to the point where they lose all meaning. Here’s a prime example for Labor Day…
A northern Illinois city has paid tribute to former factory employees who worked under dangerous conditions.
The Radium Girls memorial honors the women who worked at watch-painting plants for Radium Dial and Luminous Processes in the early 20th century. The women painted glow-in-the-dark watch dials using radium-laced paint. Many died of radium exposure from using their lips to hone their paintbrushes.
* So, why would the women workers be singled out for this honor? Because, as the LaSalle News-Tribune tells us, the company essentially ordered the workers to kill themselves…
Women who worked at Radium Dial applied glow-in-the-dark paint to watch and clock hands and were instructed to lick the brushes to keep the ends pointed for precise painting. It was an instruction that sickened and killed many of Fuller and Mennie’s co-workers.
The female workers were told that licking the brushes would be good for their complexions, even after company officials knew the radium was poisonous…
The Radium Dial and Processes factories were started in 1922. Within three years, company officials learned that radium paint was toxic and threatened the workers — but wouldn’t disclose this.
The women were told that the paint—a mixture of glue, water, and radium powder—was harmless. An instructor once made a show of swallowing some just to prove the point. The girls entertained themselves by playing with the “harmless” paint, decorating their nails and teeth with the luminous mixture.
The radium they were using emits low-energy radiation, which bounces harmlessly off the skin. However, if the material is swallowed, it permanently insinuates itself into the skeleton, where it continues to emit radiation for the rest of the victim’s life, and indeed long after she is dead. Investigators would later measure the radioactivity in the bones of long-dead dial painters to prove that they had been poisoned.
As the dial painters ingested more and more paint, their skeletons crumbled from within. Their teeth fell out, their jaws shattered. They suffered from excruciating bone pain from fractures, crippling anemia as the radiation killed blood-forming cells in their bone marrow, and various cancers.
When women started becoming sick, company doctors said they had syphilis, typhus and pneumonia.
* Yet, this practice continued for many, many years. After the local media took notice, the company shut down, then reopened under a different name…
The Ottawa Radium Dial Studio was shut down amid lawsuits in the 1930s, but it re-opened under a new name, Luminous Processes, with some of the same management. Luminous Processes continued to make watch dials with radioactive materials until the 1970s, when it was shut down by nuclear regulators for mishandling tritium.
Even after the Radium Dial Co. building was demolished, people took bricks from the site to reuse and desks from the factory were donated to area schools, Sack said, spreading the contamination. [Emphasis added]
A contaminated site on the outskirts of town still needs to be remediated, a process that could take up to five years at a cost estimated over $80 million dollars.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study outlining areas where contamination by radium-226 (Ra-226) as well as emissions of radon-222 (Rn-222) are at above normal levels. These areas include homes, public areas, schools, and even a car sales lot that is housed directly over the old Radium Dial Company site.
* The “Radium Girls” case sparked a rise in worker safety and compensation laws throughout the country. It also led to several environmental law changes, both here in Illinois and nationally. It takes a few minutes to get going, but check out a 1987 documentary made about the case…
* I asked a friend of mine this week if he ever went to the Soul Train TV studio back when the show was broadcast every day from Chicago. “Of course,” he said. The show was absolutely the place to be on the South Side, so he was a regular.
Soul Train eventually switched to a weekly format and host Don Cornelius then moved it to Los Angeles. But Big Don is coming back to the city on Labor Day for an anniversary concert…
Pay homage to 40 years of Soul Train – the Chicago-based, longest-running, nationally syndicated television show – with a spectacular Labor Day concert at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The evening’s honored guest is none other than Don Cornelius, Soul Train’s founder and host. Legendary R&B and soul artists, including Jerry “The Iceman” Butler, The Impressions, the Chi-Lites, the Emotions and Gene Chandler, take the stage with an orchestra of veteran musical collaborators led by the acclaimed conductor/arranger Tom Tom Washington.
* Everybody was doing the “Soul Train Line” back in the 70s…
* She hasn’t made up her mind yet, but, oh, man, if this primary happens it is gonna be brutal…
Former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson said Friday she has filed a statement of candidacy with the the Federal Election Commission in the 2nd congressional district of Illinois, a seat held by fellow Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr.
Halvorson, unseated in the 11th congressional district last year by Republican Adam Kinzinger, emphasized she has not yet decided to run.
“I’ve been asked to run by constituents who feel they are not represented,” said Halvorson, who lives in Crete, which would become part of Jackson’s congressional district under a new remap. “I’ve told them I would consider it and I have to keep my options open if I’m going to do that and that means filing my paperwork.”
However, Halvorson sounded very much like a candidate when she said, “He (Jackson) lives in D.C.. He doesn’t come home on weekends. His kids go to school in D.C. […]
“I just want to emphasize I haven’t made a decison yet,” she said. “This is a tough one. The new (2nd) district includes a lot of the areas I represent, so I am very familiar with it.”
She’s already bringing up the guy’s kids? Yikes.
* These two have been fighting for years, mainly over the third airport. Here’s a story from the first time she ran for Congress in 2008…
Jackson is concerned that if Halvorson were elected to Congress, his airport plan—which he has worked on or advocated for more than a decade as an economic boon for residents in his district to the north—would be dead.
“That is our specific fear, that if she’s put in charge, our developers will leave,” said Rick Bryant, a spokesman for Jackson, who declined to speak to a reporter directly.
“They should be fearing me becoming a congresswoman,” Halvorson said in response. “I represent the people who live in the 11th Congressional District. . . . He’s just nervous that I’m going to become a congresswoman because then his control is over.”
Jackson got a little payback earlier this year when he adamantly opposed Halvorson’s attempt to get herself appointed to be the state’s Transportation Secretary…
“Any consideration of her for that post would be an outrageous slap in the face to voters in the south suburbs who overwhelmingly supported Gov. Quinn for re-election because of his promise to build a third airport,” said Jackson […]
Jackson added that Halvorson would doom other regional projects, including the proposed Metra Southeast Service, CTA Red Line extension and the Metra extension to the airport,
“She has no record of success for promoting any transportation project in her district or in the State of Illinois,” Jackson concluded.
* The redrawn 2nd District is less than 54 percent African-American, but that percentage will be far higher in a Democratic primary. Jackson has loads of baggage that she can use against him, which is a big reason why this contest would be so intense, but the demographics are not her friend here.
Still, one can hope, right?
* Other stuff…
* Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh to Skip Obama Speech to Congress
* Rep. Walsh draws crowd: President Barack Obama got both a snub and a sorry Thursday from Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh… “I sincerely apologize for what I said last night. That’s not what I meant to say, but that’s what I said,” Walsh, R-McHenry, said, citing the Northwest Herald story in which the remark appeared.
* Area Dems To Collect Congressional Signatures - Reps. Peter Roskam and Judy Biggert will wait to see how a lawsuit challenging new district maps will play out in the courts.
* ‘I am disgusted with Congress’s failure’: Former state Rep. Jay Hoffman will run for seat in 13th District
From silk plants to pant suits, costume jewelry to collectible clowns, the very things often identified with former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese are up for sale.
The ex-convict says she will wheel and deal at a garage sale at a friend’s house in west suburban Forest View the next three days as she sells off decades of stuff she had in her home or her Cicero office. Included are make-up mirrors, a singing bass plaque and more costume earrings than Imelda Marcos had shoes–at just $1.50 a pair.
* The Question: What else might you expect to find at Betty’s garage sale?
* Last year, the National Right to Work Foundation backed a federal lawsuit against the state over the unionization of personal care assistants. Assistants in the state’s rehab program voted to unionize in 2003 after a gubernatorial executive order mandating an election. Personal care assistants in the state’s disabilities program rejected union membership in 2009 after another executive order.
The disabilities assistant union election became a cause célèbre on the Right. Michelle Malkin was particularly involved.
* The lawsuit claimed the First Amendment rights of rehab assistants were violated because they were being forced to pay union dues. The disabilities assistants said their 1st Amendment rights were harmed by the possibility that the union might win a future representation election.
The plaintiffs lost the first round and they appealed. Yesterday, the appellate court ruled against them as well…
[B]ecause of the significant control the state exercises over all aspects of the personal assistants’ jobs, we conclude that personal assistants are employees of the State and reject the plaintiffs’ arguments that the State’s interests in collective bargaining do not apply to the unique circumstances of personal assistants. As such, the fair share fees in this case withstand First Amendment scrutiny—at least against a facial challenge to the imposition of the fees itself. […]
The [disability assistant] plaintiffs feel burdened fighting to prevent what they view as an unconstitutional collective bargaining agreement. But many individuals and organizations spend considerable resources fighting to prevent Congress or the state legislatures from adopting legislation that might violate the Constitution. The courts cannot judge a hypothetical future violation in this case any more than they can judge the validity of a not-yet-enacted law, no matter how likely its passage. To do so would be to render an advisory opinion, which is precisely what the doctrine of ripeness helps to prevent.
* In other labor news, the Congress Plaza Hotel strike hit its 3,000th day this week…
The union still hopes to reach an agreement with the hotel and has proposed wages just below industry standards. Congress Hotel’s lawyer and negotiator, Peter Andjelkovich referred all questions to the legal proceedings against the union and said negotiations do not take place in the press.
Holding the picket line for more than eight years, many of the union members actively campaigned companies and expos to choose other venues. The union boasts of costing the hotel at least $700,000 over the last few years. The figure could actually be closer to $1 million, but the hotel refuses to acknowledge it. At least a dozen companies or events changed locations because of the strike. As a result, the hotel has filed suit alleging secondary activities, an illegal maneuver, by the union.
Everyone involved is declining to comment, but sources who would know say that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign is wooing a top Illinois Republican to support him for president: state House GOP Leader Tom Cross.
Mr. Cross, like much of the state’s Republican establishment, so far is neutral in the presidential derby. The candidate who had built significant support here, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, dropped out a couple of weeks ago.
But Mr. Perry has caught a bit of a tail wind in the last month, and insiders say fascination with him is growing.
Mr. Cross, who backed Rudy Giuliani four years ago, is said to be interested in an alliance, which could be politically beneficial to both men. But no deal yet has been struck, though Mr. Perry quietly slipped into town a few days ago to meet with potential funders and backers.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard went as far to say he was leaning heavily toward Perry, but he stopped there.
* However, Karl Rove, who is said to despise Perry, just picked up a bigtime backer from Illinois…
The Karl Rove-affiliated Super PAC American Crossroads raised $2.7 million between July 1 and August 24, according to a new report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Notably, Kenneth Griffin, the founder and CEO of the massive hedge fund Citadel, donated $300,000 to the group. In 2008, Griffin backed Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency, raising between $50,000 and $100,000 as a donation ‘bundler’ and contributing the maximum $4,600 to the then-Illinois senator’s presidential bid.
Griffin and his wife were hugely important Tom Cross contributors last year.
Perry leads by nine among men but trails by five among women. Among voters under 30, the president leads while Perry has the edge among those over 30. The president leads Perry by 16 percentage points among union members while Perry leads among those who do not belong to a union.
Of all the Republican candidates, I’m most intrigued by Perry, as I know many Americans are. We’d all love for somebody to bring this country out of its economic funk, and many of us want to know if there’s anything in the Texas example that could help the rest of us and whether he’s the guy to do it.
Economic issues may very well trump social issues in the next election, and President Barack Obama certainly hasn’t been any profile in courage on gay marriage either with his own ever-evolving views.
But I’ve never been convinced any president of the United States can do a whole lot to turn around the economy, while I’m absolutely certain the right president can move this country forward on social issues and the wrong one can set it back for decades. I don’t intend to go back quietly.
* Speaking of the economy, Illinois was just ranked sixth in the nation for gaining businesses…
To determine which states truly seem to be luring businesses, I used data provided by economic consulting firm EMSI of Moscow, Idaho, showing business establishments per capita. Since the data control for population, the method allows for comparisons between populous states like California and Texas and less populated ones like Rhode Island and Nevada. I was interested in each state’s performance over the last few years, to account for the recent recession, so I measured the change in business establishments per capita from the beginning of 2008 through the end of 2010. I also included each state’s unemployment rate in my data set, to help identify outliers.
The gain wasn’t much, from 0.97 businesses per person in 2008 to 1.01 businesses per person in 2010, but, hey, we can take everything we can get.
That same person also looked at Texas job creation since 2008. Some highlights…
Federal government jobs. Texas: Up 7 percent. U.S.: Up 4.3 percent.
State government jobs. Texas: Up 8.4 percent. U.S.: Down 0.1 percent.
Local government jobs. Texas: Up 6.1 percent. U.S.: Down 1.7 percent.
Private-sector jobs. Texas: Down 0.5 percent. U.S.: Down 6.6 percent.
Healthcare jobs. Texas: up 12.6 percent. U.S.: Up 6.2 percent.
Retail jobs. Texas: Up 1.9 percent. U.S.: Down 7.2 percent.
Manufacturing jobs. Texas: Down 11.6 percent. U.S.: Down 15.8 percent.
* As always, before you comment on a national issue like this, take a very deep breath. No bumper sticker slogans, no goofy DC talking points. Take the high road, or you’ll be shown the door. Forever.
* Apparently, Gov. Pat Quinn is dithering on purpose when it comes to state boards…
Nearly a quarter of the state’s more than 300 boards and commissions have been inactive in recent years, according to an audit released Thursday, and the Quinn administration said it is looking at how to eliminate ones that are no longer needed.
The inactive boards listed ranged from the Governor’s Council on Health and Physical Fitness to the Steel Development Board to the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Task Group, according to Auditor General William Holland’s examination. The findings were part of an overall audit that also found many of the boards and commissions violate open meetings laws and fail to do basics like keep attendance at meetings.
Quinn’s office is in favor of looking for ways to cut down the number of boards and commissions but still keep in place the essential ones, ranging from the Illinois Commerce Commission to the Illinois Liquor Control Board, said Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson. The governor is seeking help from the legislature to move forward, Anderson said.
Quinn also has sought to merge to labor relations boards, one dealing with educational matters and another dealing with business and labor issues, Anderson said. Part of the reason some of the boards were inactive was because they’ve completed their duties, Holland said.
* But Will County Executive Larry Walsh blasted his fellow Democrat for dithering on a solution to the regional superintendents’ fiasco…
Walsh wrote, “… many of us are astonished that a resolution to this issue has not been reached given the important role these superintendents play in the Illinois public education system.”
Walsh pointed out that the State should not abdicate its responsibility to pay the superintendents when it is the state which mandates the positions exist to handle specific functions within the education system. Nor should the governor have eliminated the salaries with no prior conversations with local officials.
“School districts and local governments, of which the State of Illinois owes millions of dollars in aid to, also should not be expected to pick up the tab to pay superintendents for work mandated by the State of Illinois. If there was a feeling within your administration that local assistance was needed for Regional Offices of Education in these difficult times there should have been an upfront discussion, not a last-minute line-item veto of superintendent salaries.” […]
“We, however, cannot ask them or expect them to continue this work when the same level of responsibility, sense of community and principle is not being bestowed upon them for the work that they do. The severity of this situation calls for nothing short of an immediate resolution,” he wrote.
Nearly half of the inaugural money raised came from money managers. Emanuel has longstanding ties to that industry, where he built his personal wealth as an investment banker prior to his 2002 run for Congress.
“I think what you will find is that the ratios of contributions pretty much match his campaign funds,” said Tom Bowen, the spokesman for the Emanuel campaign who put together the list.
Money managers also accounted for nearly $5 million of Emanuel’s nearly $15 million mayoral campaign fund.
* And the Sun-Times wants the prosecutorial dithering to end in the Drew Peterson case…
We believe it’s time to free Peterson from the Will County Jail, where he has been held without trial for two years and three months, and put him under less restrictive house arrest. To keep him in jail while prosecutors plod through yet another round of pretrial motions is to deny him his constitutional right to be free, in the words of the Eighth Amendment, of “cruel and unusual punishments.”
This is a sacred phrase in American jurisprudence, first to be found in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
Peterson’s lawyers, in a motion filed with the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday, argue that their client should be freed altogether while awaiting trial, and we’re sympathetic to that view. Much of the evidence presented at a hearing 14 months ago that resulted in Peterson’s continued jailing was of the hearsay variety — what one person allegedly said to another person — and, as we have argued before, we doubt the constitutionality of such evidence.
Every month, Thomas Villanova gets a $9,000 reminder of how lucrative it can be to serve as a union leader in Chicago.
The sum is part of a city pension that comes on top of the $198,000 annual salary he is paid to represent the interests of thousands of city workers.
Villanova last worked for the city in 1989 as an electrical mechanic with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, making about $40,000 a year. Yet in 2008 he was allowed to retire at age 56 with a $108,000 city pension. That’s because, under a little-known state law, his pension was based not on his city paycheck but on his much higher union salary.
This kind of deal is available only to union officials who meet certain requirements, but a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has uncovered documents that show Villanova violated state law when he applied for the pension and cast doubt on whether he truly qualifies for all that money.
Oops.
And it gets “better”…
Villanova gets another $12,000 a year from the State University Retirement System of Illinois, based on his work for the community college. Although he held that job for only three years, state law allows him to receive reciprocal pension benefits from SURS when he retired from the city.
That pension is also based on his union salary, not the $41,000 he made working for the community college.
Thomas Villanova isn’t the only official from Local 134 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who participated in a city pension and a union pension at the same time, in violation of state law.
Three other local leaders who did so stand to collect more than $6 million from the municipal pension fund in their lifetimes, according to an analysis by the Tribune and WGN-TV.
Like Villanova, all three retired from the city before the age of 60. Like Villanova, each signed an application saying he wasn’t participating in his union’s pension fund, and Local 134 officials wrote letters for all of them saying they weren’t getting any union pension benefits.
