Senate President John Cullerton stepped to the microphone Wednesday at the Thompson Center in the Loop and tried to play statesman in the Springfield stalemate, calling for a do-over on negotiations and suggesting that approving a budget is the most important task at the Capitol.
Before Cullerton had even finished, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s aides had fired off an email to reporters ripping the Northwest Side Democrat as a politician who wants to raise taxes and take Illinois backward. A visibly frustrated Cullerton, in turn, blasted Rauner, saying the first-year governor has missed the “nuanced” nature of governing and is stuck on campaign talking points.
“This is a supermajority of Democrats and a bunch of pro-union Republicans in this state,” Cullerton said. “This isn’t, you know, Oklahoma or Kansas. And so he’s got to understand, he ran for governor of Illinois.” […]
The continued bickering is another sign of how far apart Rauner and Democrats are, even as the new governor has tried to isolate Madigan as the only person standing in the way of a compromise. On Tuesday, Rauner told reporters that if he and Cullerton could negotiate a deal on their own, “we would have this done.”
Asked about that Wednesday, Cullerton said: “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Rauner wants business-related reforms before a budget and largely blames Madigan for the impasse, saying he could negotiate better if only dealing with Cullerton.
But Cullerton dismissed that notion at a Chicago news conference Wednesday, saying Rauner isn’t negotiating with him.
Referring to the governor’s anti-union agenda, Cullerton declared that his state “is not Oklahoma. He’s got to understand, he was elected in Illinois.”
Another example: the president’s comment that the governor “has spent his time in office prioritizing a corporate agenda that will make his corporate supporters happy.”
Rauner has insisted that the legislature adopt his “reform” measures before he will discuss higher taxes to help balance the budget. They include workers compensation reform, limits on civil lawsuits, a property tax freeze, term limits and redistricting changes. Rauner has said lawmakers only need to pass a handful of bills to break the logjam.
“The handful of bills are pretty radical bills,” Cullerton said. “This anti-union agenda is just not supported not only by (Democrats), but by a number of (Republicans). He seems to be unaware of the fact we passed a major workers compensation bill four years ago.”
Cullerton said he is still willing to work with Rauner on components of his reform agenda. He said he last met with the governor two weeks ago.
Senate President John Cullerton, who would like to be seen as the reasonable man in the state budget battles, suggested Wednesday that Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators go back to square one and start over.
“His plan is dead. Our plan is dead. Let’s acknowledge that and start moving forward,” Cullerton said.
Cullerton’s overture was promptly rejected by the governor’s office as more of the same from Democrats, so promptly in fact that Cullerton had yet to finish speaking before Rauner’s dismissive response landed in the inboxes of reporters covering the event.
Cullerton appeared surprised but undeterred by the rapid rebuff of his suggestion that Rauner submit a new budget — with the proviso the governor actually make sure it is a balanced budget this time.
Admittedly, this wasn’t a particularly helpful approach, because Rauner has always pretended his budget WAS balanced. Starting over would require the governor to be truthful, which isn’t his strong suit.
* Some Heritage Foundation folks insist in a Sun-Times op-ed that there is rampant vote fraud in the US. Some of their examples…
1. Kentucky
In eastern Kentucky, Ross Harris and Loren Glenn Turner funneled $41,000 to the 2002 county judgeship campaign of Doug Hays for what the defendants claimed was a lawful operation to pay more than 1,200 people $50 each to drive voters to the polls.
But a jury determined that this alleged vote-hauling program was just a disguise for what was in reality a vote-buying scheme. The punishment reflected the severity of the fraud: Hays was sentenced to six months behind bars, and Harris was hit with a $100,000 fine.
2. Mississippi
Not to be outdone, William Greg Eason of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi bribed voters with beer and money to cast fraudulent absentee ballots for a district supervisor candidate in a 2003 run-off election. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to two years in prison. […]
5. Iowa
Martia Yvonne Phillips and eight others in Iowa pleaded guilty to voting in the 2008 election despite being convicted felons who had not had their voting rights restored. She was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison, a sentence that was suspended to two years’ probation.
That is why it is important for state legislatures to enact commonsense legislation designed to combat voter fraud before it can distort an electoral result. Voter ID laws — which many liberals love to criticize, but which a majority of Americans across ideological lines support — are an answer to many types of voter fraud, including fraudulent use of absentee ballots.
But other measures are also needed, such as requiring proof of citizenship to register and verification of the accuracy of voter registration information.
I don’t know how the vote-buying cases listed above would’ve been prevented by any of these so-called reforms.
The absentee fraud in the Mississippi case, for instance, was about how duly registered voters were told to lie about being out of town on election day and then were given a few beers for their troubles. An ID is gonna prevent that? C’mon, man.
And are governments supposed to do a criminal background check before issuing all voter ID cards? Any idea what that could cost?
Plus, they’ve documented less than 250 cases going back 15 years. And most of those cases had zero to do with their proposed reforms.
Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (ruh-DOHN’-yoh) says the budget stalemate could be easily resolved with Democratic engagement on reform issues, not another document.
She spoke to reporters Wednesday after Senate President John Cullerton called on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to submit a new budget for the July 1 fiscal year after he rejected most of what legislative Democrats sent him. Cullerton says it’s time to press the “reset button.”
But Radogno says Democrats haven’t been willing to negotiate. She says there can’t be a “reset” on the budget if Democrats haven’t “moved an inch.”
* Also, the governor himself just said this yesterday…
At a Springfield press conference, the governor said the budget would have been done by now if he were working solely with Senate President John Cullerton and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
* Rep. David Harris (R-Arlington Heights) on the House floor yesterday…
“We ought to slap (Donald Trump’s) ass in a fighter jet, send him up over enemy territory, have him get shot down, spend five and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton (while) suffering deprivation, suffering torture and let him find out what it is to be a hero.”
* Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) on the House floor yesterday…
“I just want people to know that I hate Donald Trump.”
It’s clear that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his legal team believed that after an 18-month wait, an appellate court ruling on his case would not only bring good news — but could even bring Blagojevich home.
Instead, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a decision that on the one hand threw out Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence, but on the other, suggested that if he’s sentenced to that term again, they’d uphold it.
The 23-page ruling at one point even suggested that prosecutors had the right to ask for more prison time for the former governor. […]
“He’s going to get a sentence reduction in my opinion,” said Chicago defense attorney Ed Genson. “It’s just logical. He’s been in a long time. The braggadocio isn’t there, he’s very humble from what I see. . . . If they really wanted to give him the same time, they should retry him. Therefore, I think there’s a justification in reducing the sentence.”
* The Question: Should time be knocked off Blagojevich’s sentence? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please, including what amount of reduction, if any, should happen.
$23.5 billion of state spending is already in motion. That leaves $15 billion in anticipated costs left to budget. That responsibility, however, is balanced against revenue projections that give the governor only $10 billion to spend.
“President Cullerton made clear today that his view of a balanced budget is a budget that makes no spending reforms, no pension reform and only raises taxes. Rather than moving our state backward to the failed tax-and-spend policies of the past, we urge President Cullerton to work with us to pass meaningful structural reforms to change the fiscal trajectory of our state.”
And Cullerton did say that he would work with the governor on structural reforms. What he suggested was that the governor finally introduce a balanced budget so they could get moving. Perhaps disingenuous, I agree, but this statement was truly unhelpful.
…Adding… “We’re not calling for a tax increase,” Cullerton said when told that the governor had sent out a statement while he was talking with the media, adding that he simply wanted the governor to send them a balanced budget. He repeated that he wants to work with the governor on the property tax freeze, workers’ comp, etc.
…Adding More… Cullerton said Rauner was “totally unaware” of the workers’ comp bills that had been passed. He also claimed the governor didn’t know about the report released by his own workers’ comp commission which showed progress was being made on costs.
Weeks into the budget impasse, Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday said the whole mess would be solved if not for one powerful man: Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
At a Springfield press conference, the governor said the budget would have been done by now if he were working solely with Senate President John Cullerton and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“We would have this done,” Rauner said, adding: “The speaker doesn’t want to deal with it right now.”
So, either the governor was flat wrong yesterday about Cullerton, or he went out of his way today to sabotage whatever relationship he had with Cullerton.
…Adding Still Still More… Cullerton’s spokesperson Rikeesha Phelon reacts to Gov. Rauner’s apparent flip-flop from yesterday…
Oh. Now I’m sad. I thought we were friends. Bummer.
In my mind, this was a big mistake by Rauner because it totally undercuts a message he’s been trying to build for weeks. We’ll see if the Chicago media can actually comprehend this.
Senate President John J. Cullerton today called on Gov. Bruce Rauner to reset the budget process by submitting a new balanced budget plan that can end the state’s immediate fiscal crisis.
Three weeks into the new fiscal year, neither the governor’s original plan nor the budget passed by the General Assembly is law. Cullerton called on the governor and members of his party to acknowledge that both plans are dead and that it’s time to reset and move toward a real resolution.
“The budget process traditionally starts with the governor submitting a balanced plan that allows the legislature to review and respond appropriately – something that Governor Rauner never did,” President Cullerton said. “He now has an opportunity to restart negotiations by submitting a new plan to the General Assembly. That balanced plan should reflect the budgetary lessons we’ve learned the past few months.”
Rauner’s budget balancing task may be simpler this time around given the fact that $23.5 billion of state spending is already in motion. That leaves $15 billion in anticipated costs left to budget. That responsibility, however, is balanced against revenue projections that give the governor only $10 billion to spend.
President Cullerton encouraged the governor to focus on priorities outlined by credit rating agencies rather than a corporate class agenda that doesn’t address the current budget crisis and hurts the middle class. Credit rating agencies have made it clear that we must address our structural deficit, pass constitutional pension reform and lower the backlog of bills to change Illinois’ status as the state with the lowest credit ratings in the country.
“The governor has spent all of his time in office prioritizing an agenda that will satisfy the corporate class. While some of those ideas are worthy of debate, he has been unable to provide one shred of evidence that his agenda adds one cent to the ledger for our budget crisis in the short term or elevates our credit rankings in the long term,” Cullerton said.
President Cullerton remains hopeful that the governor will accept this challenge and that a budget resolution can be reached before Aug. 4, when the Senate is scheduled to return to Springfield.
* If you’ve ever wondered what former state and US Senator Peter Fitzgerald is up to these days, well, now you know…
Chain Bridge Bank’s single location is next to a wine store and a café on the ground floor of a luxury condo building in suburban McLean, Va., about a half-hour outside downtown Washington. It looks like any small-town bank. Tellers keep bowls of candy at their windows, and staff members talk to customers about no-fee checking accounts. But right now, Chain Bridge, which has about 40 employees, is responsible for more of the hundreds of millions of dollars flooding into the 2016 presidential race than any other bank in the country.
According to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, Chain Bridge is the sole bank serving Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign, which reported raising $11.4 million as of June 30, and his allied super-PAC, Right to Rise, which says it’s raised $103 million so far. Donald Trump’s campaign banks at Chain Bridge, and it’s listed as the primary financial institution for the campaigns of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and former Texas Governor Rick Perry. It’s also the only bank used by super-PACs supporting neurosurgeon and author Ben Carson, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, former technology executive Carly Fiorina, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, all Republicans.
Founded in 2007, Chain Bridge served John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008 and Mitt Romney’s in 2012. House Speaker John Boehner keeps fundraising accounts there; so does the Republican National Committee. It’s also served political action committees for Altria Group, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. “The largest issue that we would always have with people is that they’d be like, ‘Why would we use this Podunk little bank in McLean, Virginia?’ ” says Bradley Crate, Romney’s 2012 chief financial officer. He routinely refers clients of his consulting firm Red Curve Solutions to the bank, including both Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Trump. Chain Bridge offers services tailored to the idiosyncrasies of campaigns, which deposit and then spend enormous sums quickly, with no credit history to lean on. “I know I can call my contacts at Chain Bridge Bank and have an account open in like 15 minutes,” Crate says. “If you go to a much larger bank, you have a bureaucracy you have to deal with.”
The bank requires employees to list cell phone numbers on their business cards so clients can reach them after hours. It will greenlight credit cards immediately for campaign staffers scattered across the country without waiting for credit checks, and it will let campaigns make large wire transfers as soon as their accounts are open. It will also send and receive wire transfers until the Federal Reserve window closes, usually around 5 p.m.—more than two hours later than most banks. That extra time can make a difference. “If you’re a presidential campaign and you need to be up on the air in Iowa tonight, then you need your wire to go to television stations in Des Moines this afternoon,” says Peter Fitzgerald, the bank’s founder and chairman. “That’s a big deal for campaigns.”
Rauner on Tuesday again complained that lawmakers are in line for a pay raise while the budget impasse continues. Lawmakers are entitled to an automatic cost of living adjustment, although they have voted to reject it in recent years.
The raise this year is 2 percent, which will increase their annual pay by $1,300 at least. Lawmakers make a base salary of $67,836, although most earn more because they hold top committee or leadership posts.
“If they are going to take a $1,300 pay hike for themselves, they should start earning that pay,” Rauner said. […]
“The governor is attempting to divert attention away from solutions to the problem of the budget,” Madigan said, noting that the budget sent to the governor did not include money for the raises.
Madigan says the spending plan approved by the General Assembly that Rauner vetoed in June did not appropriate money for the raises.
He said he couldn’t answer whether the raises will take effect even though there was no action to nix them.
OK, well this shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.
I checked with the comptroller’s office this morning and was told that Comptroller Munger “regrettably” will be including the raises in upcoming legislative paychecks because of the law passed last year that makes legislative salaries a continuing appropriation.
The good news for Blagojevich—and, frankly, for politicians everywhere—is that horse-trading, the exchange of one government favor for another, not only is not illegal but is at the core of how democratic government works.
“A proposal to trade one public act for another, a form of log-rolling, is fundamentally unlike the swap of an official act for a private placement,” the three-judge panel ruled. “Political log-rolling has never before been condemned as extortion.” […]
“A proposal to appoint a particular person to one office (say, the cabinet) in exchange for some else’s promise to appoint a different office (say, the Senate) is a common exercise in log-rolling,” the decision states. “We asked the prosecutor at oral argument if, before this case, log-rolling had been the basis of a criminal conviction in the history of the United States. Counsel was unaware of any earlier conviction for an exchange of political favors.” […]
Adds the decision, “Suppose that Blagojevich had asked, instead, that Sen. Obama commit himself to supporting a program to build new bridges and highways in Illinois as soon as he became president. Many politicians believe that public-works projects promote their re-election.”
Under the prosecution’s argument, the court reasoned, “If a governor appoints someone to a public commission and proclaims that appointee ‘the best person for the job,’ while the real reason is that some state legislator had asked for a friend’s appointment as a favor, then the governor has committed wire fraud. That’s not a plausible understanding” of the law.
* From Common Cause Illinois…
“Logrolling may not be illegal but it certainly is unethical. In a state that has been mired with corruption and back room deals, we need to aspire to a political culture that breaks down voter disenfranchisement and special interest control.”
”For too long the people of Illinois have been victims of ineffective and inefficient government that has resulted in crumbling schools, poor healthcare, and high unemployment.”
“I hope that the ruling today is a reminder to everyone that we need ethical elected officials that work for the people to solve our state’s important problems. And we need this now more than ever as we are in the midst of a grave fiscal crisis in Springfield and in communities across our state.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner has called for a 30 percent cut to state funding for higher education. The state does not a have a budget for the current fiscal year. As long as lawmakers and the governor fail to come to terms on a spending plan, all we have to work with are estimates of what our final budget might look like.
We are modeling a 20 percent cut in our state support, which is passed through the University of Illinois Springfield. This results in a $120,000 projected deficit for Illinois Issues and a $70,000 projected deficit for WUIS.
We cannot wait to see what will happen. We must make contract decision for the new fiscal year, which is already upon us. And we must make tough choices now to avoid what could be potentially deeper cuts later in the fiscal year, depending on the level of funding we eventually receive.
After much evaluation, we have decided to go digital only. This will be the final print edition of Illinois Issues. When this reality first became apparent, it was difficult for us to accept. Those who have been with the magazine for years are proud of its history and where it stands today. But we have also watched subscription numbers steadily decline in the recent past. We had to ask ourselves: What are the best ways to use our resources and keep the mission of Illinois Issues alive? After consulting with the advisory board and others with longstanding ties to the magazine, the answer became obvious. While it may be difficult to let go of the print edition, it allows us to focus our efforts online, where we have the potential to bring important stories to more people. It also allows us to offer those stories for free — with the support of donors who believe that good public policy journalism is for everyone.
Eliminating print will not close our budget gap, but the choice protects us from having to consider staff cuts. It will also hopefully position us to eventually expand our online offerings to an app that would include news and a version of our Roster of State Government Officials.
Backers of keeping the Illinois State Museum open rallied outside the Statehouse Tuesday, attacking the potential closure of the facility by Gov. Bruce Rauner during the ongoing state budget impasse.
About 300 people, most wearing “Save the Illinois State Museum” T-shirts, heard some strong statements, including from Jonathan Reyman, retired curator of anthropology at the museum.
“There is a right side and a wrong side to history,” Reyman said. “The Taliban and ISIS are bent on the destruction of the cultural heritage of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. … Governor Rauner, do you want your legacy to be … akin to that of the Taliban and ISIS?”
Look, I get that emotions can run high at times. But if this guy is representative of the sort of staff that the museum has been hiring over the years, then maybe it ought to close.
Bottom line: Several counts were tossed, but the judges decreed that Blagojevich’s sentence was more than fair and still justifiable even with fewer counts against him.
Blagojevich now asks us to hold that the evidence is insufficient to convict him on any count. The argument is frivolous. The evidence, much of it from Blagojevich’s own mouth, is overwhelming. To the extent there are factual disputes, the jury was entitled to credit the prosecution’s evidence and to find that Blagojevich acted with the knowledge required for conviction.
But a problem in the way the instructions told the jury to consider the evidence requires us to vacate the convictions on counts that concern Blagojevich’s proposal to appoint Valerie Jarrett to the Senate in exchange for an appointment to the Cabinet. A jury could have found that Blagojevich asked the President-‐elect for a private-sector job, or for funds that he could control, but the instructions permitted the jury to convict even if it found that his only request of Sen. Obama was for a position in the Cabinet. The instructions treated all proposals alike. We conclude, however, that they are legally different: a proposal to trade one public act for another, a form of logrolling, is fundamentally unlike the swap of an official act for a private payment.
Because the instructions do not enable us to be sure that the jury found that Blagojevich offered to trade the appointment for a private salary after leaving the Governorship, these convictions cannot stand. […]
A proposal to appoint a particular person to one office (say, the Cabinet) in exchange for someone else’s promise to appoint a different person to a different office (say, the Senate), is a common exercise in logrolling. We asked the prosecutor at oral argument if, before this case, logrolling had been the basis of a criminal conviction in the history of the United States. Counsel was unaware of any earlier conviction for an exchange of political favors. Our own research did not turn one up. […]
The indictment also charged Blagojevich with wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1343. That the negotiations used the phone system is indisputable, but where’s the fraud? Blagojevich did not try to deceive Sen. Obama. The prosecutor contended that Blagojevich deprived the public of its intangible right to his honest services, which 18 U.S.C. §1346 defines as a form of fraud. To call this an honest-‐‑services fraud supposes an extreme version of truth in politics, in which a politician commits a felony unless the ostensible reason for an official act also is the real one. So if a Governor appoints someone to a public commission and proclaims the appointee “the best person for the job,” while the real reason is that some state legislator had asked for a friend’s appointment as a favor, then the Governor has committed wire fraud because the Governor does not actually believe that the appointee is the best person for the job. That’s not a plausible understanding of §1346, even if (as is unlikely) it would be valid under the First Amendment as a criminal penalty for misleading political speech. And no matter what one makes of the subject, the holding of Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358 (2010), prevents resort to §1346 to penalize political horse-trading. Skilling holds that only bribery and kickbacks violate §1346. So unless political logrolling is a form of bribery, which it is not, §1346 drops out. […]
What we have said so far requires the reversal of the convictions on Counts 5, 6, 21, 22, and 23, though the prosecutor is free to try again without reliance on Blagojevich’s quest for a position in the Cabinet. (The evidence that Blagojevich sought money in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett to the Senate is sufficient to convict, so there is no double-jeopardy obstacle to retrial. See Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1 (1978).) Because many other convictions remain and the district judge imposed concurrent sentences, the prosecutor may think retrial unnecessary—but the judge may have considered the sought-after Cabinet appointment in determining the length of the sentence, so we remand for re-sentencing across the board. (The concluding part of this opinion discusses some other sentencing issues.) […]
The district judge concluded that the Sentencing Guidelines recommend a range of 360 months to life imprisonment for Blagojevich’s offenses, and the actual sentence is 168 months. Instead of expressing relief, Blagojevich maintains that the sentence is too high because the range was too high. […]
Any error in the Guidelines calculation went in Blagojevich’s favor. After calculating the 360-to-life range, the judge concluded that it is too high and began making reductions, producing a range of 151 to 188 months. […]
The prosecutor has not filed a cross-appeal in quest of a higher sentence but is entitled to defend the actual sentence of 168 months (and to ask for its re-imposition on remand) without needing to file an appeal. Removing the convictions on the Cabinet counts does not affect the range calculated under the Guidelines. It is not possible to call 168 months unlawfully high for Blagojevich’s crimes, but the district judge should consider on remand whether it is the most appropriate sentence. […]
If the prosecutor elects to drop these charges, then the district court should proceed directly to resentencing. Because we have affirmed the convictions on most counts and concluded that the advisory sentencing range lies above 168 months, Blagojevich is not entitled to be released pending these further proceedings. [Emphasis added.]
“Chicago Med,” a medical drama and follow-up to “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.” that already film at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios complex on the West Side, had been in some potential jeopardy. Gov. Bruce Rauner in early June announced the state would defer action on any film tax credits for new projects that were not already under way. A strict interpretation of that standard would have been quite harmful to the city’s burgeoning TV and film industry.
But instead of letting the Chicago scene fade to black, Team Rauner, in the Illinois tradition, found a loophole.
After what I’m told were some rather high-level phone calls, “Chicago Med” got the tax credit green light.
“It’s considered an episodic follow on ‘P.D.’ and ‘Fire,’ ” says a knowledgeable source. “This is considered a follow-on.”
Advocates want Gov. Bruce Rauner to restore a $60 monthly allowance for adults with developmental disabilities, but his administration insists there’s no way to stop an automatic reduction to the allowance, especially given Illinois’ finances. […]
In the first increase in two decades, lawmakers temporarily raised the allowance last year to $60, up from $50 for people in group homes and from $30 for residents of intermediate care facilities. Now, it’s returning to the lower levels in place before the law, which granted the increase for fiscal year 2015 only. […]
Advocates cite administrative rules written by the state’s Medicaid agency that increased the allowance. Those rules took effect March 11 and included no expiration date. The Rauner administration’s interpretation of the rules is wrong, said Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities CEO Janet Stover.
“As we pushed and provided information to them about the intent of the original legislation, we were told that it ultimately was a budgetary decision and they would not rescind the policy,” Stover said.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner was asked this week about why he gave all Republican legislators a total of $400,000 before the “right to work” floor vote…
“It had no tie to any particular vote.
“You know, I’m the head of the Republican Party. Madigan has been sendin’ campaign cash to members of the Democratic Party and the General Assembly for 35 years, OK?
“I just became governor six months ago. And I am supportin’ members of my caucus, members of my party. It has no tie to any particular vote. It’s I’m supportin’ them this year, I’ll support them every six months for as long as I’m governor. That’s my job and I’ll always do that.”
As the state budget impasse wears on, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner today said he thinks Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan wants the ongoing pressure of a partial government shutdown to eventually spark some action.
The governor pointed to the spring, when the state ran out of money to pay for a program that helps low-income families pay for day care before doing something.
“The reality is the speaker wanted pressure to build,” Rauner said today. “He wanted child care services to be cut and impacted and pressure folks to feel that before he would take action, as sort of a cover for taking action.
“I think that’s wrong,” Rauner said. “I think the speaker wants pressure, wants impact now before he’ll do the right thing.”
I’m not saying the governor is wrong about Madigan. He’s most likely right.
I’m just saying that Rauner’s hands ain’t exactly clean, either.
He refused to use his reduction and line-item veto powers on the budget that the Democrats sent him. Why? Likely because he would then own the cuts, and he wants the blame to fall solely on the Democrats. Also, probably because he eventually wants a tax hike and doesn’t really want huge cuts. Also, to use the veto as leverage.
* Let’s mosey down memory lane. From an August, 2014 CNN story about a video that had surfaced of a speech by gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner…
“I apologize but we may have to go through a little rough times and we have to do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers,” Rauner said referencing Reagan’s decision in 1981 to fire 11,000 striking air traffic controllers.
“We sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while, that’s what we’re going to do,” Rauner said. […]
In response to the outcry, Rauner’s campaign said their candidate “has put forth a detailed plan for reviving Illinois, and shutting down state government is not among those plans.”
“But if the choice is between that and four more years of failed leadership, higher taxes, and high unemployment from Quinn and Madigan, a whole lot of Illinoisans might think less government is a pretty good idea,” spokesman Mike Schrimpf told CNN.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked off a campaign-style statewide tour Monday by indicating he’ll try to “leverage” the state’s money woes into securing a series of pro-business changes from a General Assembly controlled by Democrats likely to fiercely oppose them.
The first stop was at Tribune Tower, where the governor sought to frame up the last seven scheduled weeks of the spring session during an appearance before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. The governor and legislative leaders will try to craft a new budget before the May 31 adjournment deadline against the backdrop of a projected deficit of $6 billion and Rauner calling for major cuts.
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner, borrowing from a political philosophy famously coined by his friend Rahm Emanuel that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
* Gov. Rauner told WJBC Radio yesterday that he wants voters to call their Democratic legislators and ask them to tell Speaker Madigan to support his agenda. And the governor thinks it’s starting to work…
“[Speaker Madigan] pays attention to what his members say. Now, he’s got a lot of control over them, he controls the spigot of campaign cash to the members, that’s the reason they live in fear of him and he controls them.
“But you know what? If people around the state, the people of Illinois, call their state Representative, call their members of the General Assembly and say, ‘Look, we don’t like taxes, but Rauner’s willing to compromise. We don’t want an unbalanced budget and we do need reforms, term limits, redistricting reforms property tax reforms and pro-growth job creation reforms. We need those. Please, tell the Speaker to support it.’
“They’ll do it. They’ll go to the Speaker and do it. I’ve already heard that some are starting to do it and more of your listeners need to call in.”
The governor said much the same thing about how his ideas have “bipartisan support” during his press conference today.
* What all legislators most want from their leader is, mainly, protection from people like, well, Gov. Rauner…
Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old country, except they were doing it here in America.
And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And that’s what it’s all about. That’s what the FBI could never understand.
That what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who can’t go to the cops. That’s it. That’s all it is. They’re like the police department for wiseguys.
A leader’s main political role is to protect his or her members from the other side’s attacks. This is done partially by carrying out attacks against the other side (offense is the best defense).
Regardless of whatever else you think of him, Madigan has done this so well for so many years (even under a Republican district map) that he has earned their loyalty.
* Do they fear Madigan? Yes, of course. But, mainly, they fear that he’ll withdraw his so far all but impenetrable cloak of protection.
He does lose some incumbents here and there. But nobody can say with a straight face that he didn’t give it his very best shot.
So, as long as they’re convinced that he’ll do everything he possibly can for them, and - just as importantly - as long as the governor’s economic “reform” demands continue to strike at the heart of the Democratic Party’s very existence, I doubt that there is or will be significant pressure from below.
* But that, too, is part of the problem here. Madigan’s steadfast refusal to engage much at all on Rauner’s “non-budget issues” is simply wrong-headed.
Let’s return to my Crain’s Chicago Business column for a moment…
(T)he Democrats need to realize that when state income taxes were relatively low, businesses could grudgingly overlook Illinois’ faults, such as over-regulation and “generosity” to favored groups.
That tolerance ended with the 2011 tax hike, which mostly expired in January.
If the Democrats want to restore some of that tax hike, they have to offset it with some real reforms.
Madigan and the Democrats need to wake up to this reality. The days when Democrats can over-regulate and over-reward their friends are, um, over. The tax hike, which was absolutely needed, broke the dam.
To return to my favorite genre, it’s like that NSFW scene in “Donnie Brasco” when the wiseguys are reduced to breaking open parking meters.
We need some growth in this state, man, and the Democratic Party right now isn’t proposing nearly enough (if any) ideas to help create that climate.
During past showdowns between Illinois governors and legislative leaders, the problem usually wasn’t a short supply of solutions, but a lack of political will to reach an agreement. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Once again, I’ve seen little willingness this summer by either side to engage in truly fruitful negotiations to end the Statehouse stalemate.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner continues to say he won’t talk about the budget until Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly kill off some things near and dear to their hearts: no-fault workers’ compensation, union collective bargaining, prevailing wage, etc.
Part of the problem this year is that neither side appears to see a way out of this mess. Both sides have entrenched themselves so deeply that they are not considering new ideas. Here are three suggestions to get them going.
On Friday we learned of another Madigan shenanigan. The Tribune’s Ray Long reported that, even as other grants from Springfield have been frozen, a $35 million grant will help build a new school in Madigan’s Chicago district. The online headline: “Money flows to Madigan district while state dollars tight.”
The biggest slice of the $35 million grant — $13 million — will help fund a $48 million middle school under construction in Madigan’s district to relieve overcrowding as the Hispanic population grows in his Southwest Side power base. The school will feature computer labs, music rooms, gymnasium space and athletic fields with synthetic turf, according to plans with the Chicago Public Building Commission, the project’s overseer.
An elementary school in the neighboring district of Rep. Dan Burke will get $6.5 million for roofing, masonry and other work, and $5.5 million will go to two schools in House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie’s South Side district. The remaining $10 million is slated for air conditioning — an expansion of which Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing — in 35 schools elsewhere in Chicago. […]
The new middle school in Madigan’s district will be for grades five through eight when it opens in 2017 at 6018 S. Karlov Ave., according to CPS. The new school will give relief to Peck and Pasteur elementary schools, long identified as two of the district’s most severely overcrowded, where students sometimes learn in a cafeteria and meet with counselors in a projection room, the school district said.
At Edwards Elementary in Burke’s district, money will go toward a new roof and masonry stabilization to go with a new annex to ease crowding. The school district said the school has held 1,452 students in a space designed for 900 — 161 percent of capacity.
In Currie’s district, Kenwood Academy High School has grown significantly. The changes would shift an academic center for seventh- and eighth-graders to the nearby, previously closed Canter Middle School and open more seats at Kenwood for freshmen through seniors.
The Senate campaign of Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Monday is launching its first attack on Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., taking aim in a video at a series of verbal gaffes that has landed Kirk in hot water.
The video, intended to move on social media, marks a new phase in the Duckworth campaign, with the timing coming after Kirk in a WRKO interview last week called President Barack Obama ”Barack Hussein Obama.” Kirk also said in that interview Obama “wants to get nukes to Iran,” which is not true.
Kirk made the comment after the announcement last week of a deal to curb the ability of Iran to make a nuclear weapon, an agreement that Kirk has been highly critical of while it was being negotiated. Use of Obama’s middle name in this context is seen by some as a coded way to suggest Obama is a Muslim.
The video is titled “Mark Kirk’s Outrageous Statements” and also includes clips of Kirk calling a single Senate colleague a “bro with no ho,” and his comment about people being scared to drive through a black neighborhood.
For well over two centuries, U.S. senators have gleefully pressured, berated, interrupted and otherwise verbally abused witnesses who appear before them. Perhaps that’s all that Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was up to in an extraordinary grilling of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray at a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week.
But after a series of jaw-dropping comments by Kirk in recent weeks, some may see something else in the hearing, during which Kirk suggested that Cordray’s agency is at least complicit in spying on members of Congress and U.S. Supreme Court justices.
* This Chicago Tribune editorial uses the word “reforms” four separate times…
“Speaker Madigan and the legislators he controls will leave town without a responsible, balanced budget and without any reforms while taking a pay raise for themselves,” began the communique from Rauner’s office. […]
Madigan, frantic to thwart Rauner’s reforms, instead retreats to shopworn theatrics about the dangers of the delay in passing a budget. […]
We do, though, hear from Illinoisans who don’t want to pay higher taxes until legislators accept reforms that Rauner and the voters who elected him demand. […]
Illinois is mired in slow growth in large part because other states boast reforms that Madigan stubbornly rejects.
* Why? Well, I dunno, but perhaps it’s because all but eliminating collective bargaining rights for teachers, killing off the prevailing wage and thereby drastically driving down the take-home pay of thousands of highly trained construction workers, and making it more difficult for the injured to qualify for workers’ compensation and sue corporations probably aren’t the most popular things wafting about the land.
I could be wrong.
But it’s odd that the editorial board spent all its time, energy and effort attacking a hugely unpopular politician instead of defending their own guy’s radical ideas. One is super-easy, the other ain’t.
* Yes, there’s undoubtedly an array of partisan and tinkling contest politics at play in this here shutdown showdown.
But there’s a reason why basically all Democratic (and quite a few Republican) legislators have balked at cutting a deal with the governor: Gov. Rauner’s “reforms,” in current form, are simply anathema to them.
* As I’ve said time and time again, this has been an historic year in Illinois for criminal justice reform. This is a smallish bill because it merely puts state law in compliance with a US Supreme Court case, but it’s a step…
llinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation to end mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles. […]
The legislature approved the bill in response to a 2012 U. S. Supreme Court ruling that sentencing people under 18 to mandatory life without parole is unconstitutional.
The law doesn’t prevent minors from being sentenced to life in prison for serious crimes. But it allows judges to take into account certain factors when issuing a sentence. They include the juvenile’s age and maturity, any past abuse and the potential for the minor to be rehabilitated.
(T)he governor’s criminal justice reform commission quietly issued its first report earlier this month. It states that the commission is exploring a number of proposals that would have been unthinkable even a short time ago. Among them: reducing penalties for the possession of less than an ounce of hard drugs, including cocaine and heroin; increasing the number of offenses punishable with probation instead of prison; and offering tax breaks to businesses that employ ex-offenders.
House Speaker Michael Madigan told reporters earlier this month that he’d had a “frank discussion” with Gov. Bruce Rauner, “and I gave him good, solid advice.”
Word is, that advice had two parts.
First, the governor needs to find a way to get himself out of this long overtime session and state budget mess.
Second, if the governor thinks he can get himself out of this mess by somehow breaking the speaker’s will, he’s mistaken.
But the governor isn’t giving up. In fact, he has doubled down.
Rauner has made it clear that there will be no budget talks until the Democrats give in on his “Turnaround Agenda,” including his anti-union demands.
And several days after receiving Madigan’s “advice,” the governor started sending some very negative direct-mail pieces into some Democratic-controlled legislative districts.
The Rauner folks say almost 20 legislative districts were targeted last week. Both House and Senate districts were targeted. “More to come,” a Rauner guy told me.
The mailer I obtained from one of my former interns features an ominous photo of Speaker Madigan above and behind a picture of a smiling Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg, who won her race by 3 percentage points last year, despite optimism by Republicans that they had her on the run.
“Chicago political boss Mike Madigan wants your Rep. Michelle Mussman to kill the reforms you voted for,” claims the mailer, which displays her district office number and asks recipients to “Call Michelle Mussman now and tell her to side with taxpayers, not with Mike Madigan’s Chicago political machine.”
“Michelle Mussman should work for you, not Mike Madigan,” claims the other side of the mailer. “Tell Madigan & Mussman: No property tax hikes!” the mailer exhorts.
“Illinoisans already pay the second highest property taxes in the country, but Mike Madigan wants to use his powerful political machine and State Rep. Michelle Mussman to help him block Governor Rauner’s tax freeze reforms which benefit Illinois’ working families,” the somewhat wordy mailer claims, without, of course, noting that Rauner also wants to essentially eliminate collective bargaining rights for many heads of “working families” in that reform (see below).
“Tell Madigan & Mussman you demand term limits!” the mailer continues. “Political puppetmaster Mike Madigan has blocked reform for 44 years, protecting the status quo that put him in power. Illinois needs Michelle Mussman to stand up to Madigan to break the cycle of corruption and restore the integrity to the legislature by supporting term limits.”
“Call Michelle Mussman Right Now” the mailer commands, displaying her phone number in large letters at the bottom of the page.
The idea here is probably twofold.
First, put so much heat on Madigan’s members that they beg him to cut a deal with Rauner.
I don’t see that happening as long as the governor sticks by his anti-union demands. Madigan isn’t going to abandon the literal backbone of the Democratic Party because a few members are skittish.
The second part is likely to soften these members up for next year’s campaign, when they’ll be attacked again with the same sort of message.
That may work, but pretty much all political science studies have shown that when ad campaigns end, they tend to lose almost all of their punch. If Rauner is going to mail straight through Election Day next year, that’s a different story. But I doubt that will happen.
And there’s a real downside to this as well.
Once you attack legislators like this, they tend to “go political” right away. And since no other avenue is likely other than standing and fighting, these mailers could just entrench legislators ever deeper.
But, if nothing else, the mailers are a stark reminder that Rauner has a huge financial advantage over the Democrats.
Madigan’s three campaign committees reported raising a grand total of $618,000 in the second quarter, according to filings with the State Board of Elections. Madigan’s committees had $1.99 million sitting in the bank at the end of June 30, according to the filings.
Democratic Senate President John Cullerton’s two committees raised $592,000 and had just shy of $1.3 million on hand at the end of the quarter.
That wouldn’t be bad at all for the second quarter of an off year, but Rauner’s main campaign fund was sitting on $19.7 million at the end of the quarter. Rauner’s Turnaround Illinois PAC had an additional $2.7 million. The governor also has a “dark money” fund, but we don’t know how much is in it.
* A commenter posted this last week and I believe it’s something we should all keep in mind during the coming days, weeks, months and years…
We, the People of the State of Illinois - grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He has permitted us to enjoy and seeking His blessing upon our endeavors - in order to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people; maintain a representative and orderly government; eliminate poverty and inequality; assure legal, social and economic justice; provide opportunity for the fullest development of the individual; insure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; and secure the blessings of freedom and liberty to ourselves and our posterity - do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State of Illinois.
