Election officials say early voting is increasingly popular. Illinois has expanded its early voting period.
Daily pre-election early voting totals weren’t available for previous years.
Officials say during 2012’s general election, nearly 16 percent of registered voters voted early at polls, representing 22 percent of the nearly 5.3 million votes.
Newly filed campaign finance paperwork shows Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk raised less than $300,000 during the first 19 days of October, leaving him with $576,279 for his re-election effort’s final push.
That contrasts with the Democratic challenger, two-term U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates. Duckworth’s pre-election report for the same time period showed her raising $860,559, with $2.5 million left ahead of Tuesday’s election.
That comes after the two candidates released third-quarter fundraising numbers last month. Kirk reported raising nearly $1.2 million for his re-election bid from July through September, compared with $4.1 million for Duckworth during the same time period.
Kirk had more than $3.1 million in July but spent almost $3 million during the third quarter, leaving him with nearly $1.4 million to start October. Duckworth had more than three times that amount at $4.3 million.
Ouch.
There are rank and file Illinois state legislators and challengers who raised way more money than Kirk last month. Quite a lot of them, in fact.
* Scott Reeder: Kirk’s comment about Duckworth’s mother all about race: The parents in question weren’t of immediate European descent, leaving Trump, Kirk and others of their ilk free to attack their children’s patriotism. Don’t believe me? Well, how often have you heard anyone attack Trump for having a mother born in Scotland?
New Jersey became the state with the worst-funded public pension system in the U.S. in 2015, followed closely by Kentucky and Illinois.
The Garden State had $135.7 billion less than it needs to cover all the benefits that have been promised, a $22.6 billion increase over the prior year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Illinois’s unfunded pension liabilities rose to $119.1 billion from $111.5 billion.
The two were among states whose retirement systems slipped further behind as rock-bottom bond yields and lackluster stock-market gains caused investment returns to fall short of targets. The median state pension had 74.5 percent of assets needed to meet promised benefits, down from 75.6 percent the prior year. The decline followed two years of gains. The shortfall for states overall was $1.1 trillion in 2015.[…]
While New Jersey only has 37.5 cents available to pay each $1 of benefits, South Dakota, the state with the best-funded pension, had $1.04, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kentucky, the state with the second-worst funded retirement system, had a ratio of assets to liabilities of 37.8 percent, followed by Illinois at 40.2 percent.
So, New Jersey and Illinois together make up about 23 percent of the combined unfunded liability of all states in the nation.
Lovely.
* Related…
* Illinois gets more awful news from its largest pension fund: On Oct. 28, TRS’ board of trustees voted to seek a state contribution in fiscal 2018 of $4.56 billion—up a whopping $561 million, or 14.5 percent, over this year’s $3.99 billion.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown says the speaker “complies with all of the applicable law. If someone wants to change (the law), file a bill and we’ll have a debate.”
But shouldn’t the speaker disclose his taxes voluntarily if the governor is doing so?
No. “There’s a vast difference in the powers” of the offices of speaker and governor, Brown replied. And besides, “the governor has a practice” of releasing his taxes and ought to stick with it. Madigan has a different practice.
* The Question: Should Speaker Madigan release his income tax returns? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* Possible gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy lambasted Gov. Rauner in Crain’s for staying mostly mum on Donald Trump…
In the face of this very partial accounting of Trump’s misdeeds, Rauner’s silence must be called what it is: complicity with Trump’s hate.
Does Rauner remain quiet because he’s not a woman, Latino, African American, Jewish, Muslim, LGTBQ, or a veteran? Does Rauner not understand he is the governor of a state whose citizens are numerously represented among those groups? Does he not appreciate Illinois’ diversity is its strength and a reason businesses locate here? Does he not recognize his duty as his party’s leader to take a stand on behalf of Republicans (and everyone in our state) against Trump’s ugly words? Does he agree with what Trump says?
We are left to wonder. Rauner’s haughty dismissals of questions about his Trump support, as if Illinoisans don’t deserve to know why, is especially unfortunate considering how many Republican officials have spoken out against their nominee.
Whether it’s because he is afraid of the electorate, deliberately malicious, or incompetent, Rauner’s defective moral compass is an embarrassment to the Land of Lincoln, named for our greatest president who gave his life to defend the democratic values Trump would destroy. Illinoisans will not forget Rauner chose to remain mute in the face of Trump’s demagoguery, unwilling to be counted when it mattered by saying what all decent people know is true: Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency and a danger to our republic.
I dunno. People have pretty short memories. We’ll see.
The truth is that the governor is focused on one thing: fixing Illinois. Taking his milquetoast statement supporting the future Republican presidential nominee as proof of Rauner’s true intentions is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate. People subjected to those misguided and inane ads will remember that—both on November 8th and into the future.
I think the “people” Gidwitz is talking about mostly reside in the governor’s orbit. But, maybe not.
* Which threat do you think is more credible? Or is neither threat credible?
Seth Lewis, a Republican who has benefited from Rauner’s generosity, is running for the state Senate in Chicago’s western suburbs, including Villa Park and Bartlett. He has raised $1.7 million in the last three months. […]
Lewis, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, is spending much of this money on sending mailers to voters and airing expensive TV ads.
“Has (the money) had an impact? Absolutely,” Lewis said. “But in my particular case, I think it’s just been able to keep us even with our opponent.”
Lewis claims all that money from Rauner is helping Republicans stay even with the Democrats’ fundraising. Over the last three months, Cullerton raised about $1.5 million from labor unions, attorneys — traditional Democratic funders — along with Democratic leaders.
Cullerton said it’s the Democrats who are trying to keep up with the Republicans. He won the Senate seat four years ago with a fraction of the cash he’s spent this year.
“With the amount of money the governor has put in, I don’t know if anybody can keep up with the kind of money that he’s got and the kind of money he’s moving around the state,” Cullerton said.
* And speaking of money, the Tribune has a much better piece today on spending than you’ll normally find in a mainstream media outlet. Click here to read it. And click here for some very handy charts that show money raised by each legislative candidate.
Unions and trial lawyers largely are funding Madigan’s troops, while Rauner and wealthy allies are bankrolling the Republican efforts. One longtime Illinois campaign finance expert questions whether the influx of all that campaign cash is good for either side or for the state’s politics.
“If having someone who is, or appears to be, a wholly owned subsidiary of the speaker is bad for representative democracy and local control, then replacing them with someone who is, or appears to be, a wholly owned subsidiary of the governor — I don’t think that gets us any closer to democracy and local control,” said Kent Redfield, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
“If we were keeping score and asking if it is now a more balanced fight, that begs the real question of whether this is how we really ought to be electing people and making decisions and representing local legislative districts and communities. That’s the big picture part of it. It’s not healthy for the political system on either side,” he added.
Yeah, well, this is nothing compared to what will likely happen in 2018.
Total spending has topped $2 million in 16 state legislative races this year, including a dozen that have gone above $3 million and six that have surpassed $4 million through Oct. 31, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Two years ago, just one Illinois Senate race topped $4 million while one House contest exceeded $2 million, a sign of how the current battle has intensified between Rauner and Democrats, especially House Speaker Michael Madigan.
* From an October 28th e-mail from Veritone, a company I’d never heard of until last week…
Hi Rich,
I saw your Madigan post and wanted to provide you some insight that you may find helpful.
We track local news talk radio within the state of Illinois. Within the past week “Madigan” was mentioned over 180 times. Here is a brief collection of advertisements from radio in the state of Illinois to include an interview with Jason Gonzales. Can I provide you any additional information that may be helpful for you?
Best regards,
Elisa Henry
The link she provided is here. It even has that new Jim Durkin radio ad paid for by Gov. Rauner’s Turnaround Illinois PAC - the independent expenditure which broke the contribution caps and allowed Durkin to collect unlimited contributions from Rauner and Ken Griffin.
Not every reference will be about Speaker Madigan, but it’s close enough.
* Here’s what Ms. Henry says the data covers…
Local news talk radio information that consists of
What hosts are saying
Interviews
Constituent call-in conversations
Advertisements
Transcription Engines convert spoken audio recordings into readable text. They are built and trained to recognize different languages, dialects, and topics, even in the presence of background music or noise. Veritone utilizes a continuous machine-learning combination of several transcription engines to provide the best possible transcription of audio recordings. For those occasions where 100% accuracy is required, the request can be routed to human transcription professionals as well.
* Anyway, I asked Elisa how far back she could search for “Madigan” in Illinois and she sent me this report…
2015
July - 108
August - 31
September - 19
October - 160
November - 75
December - 149
2016
January - 114
Feb. - 96
March - 105
April - 24
May - 159
June 1 -30 - 225
July - 371
August - 121
September - 34
October - 498
* If you click here you’ll see the latest TV ads for Dan Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC. There’s quite a lot of them. And almost all the recent ones (at least 30 of them) feature a woman speaking to the camera identified as “Kathleen, single mom.” The woman is actually the Illinois Opportunity Project’s Director of Communication Kathleen Murphy. That group was co-founded by Proft.
State and federal authorities are trying to find out why 1,500 absentee ballot applications were left in a Rock Island post office box for three weeks. Michelle O’Neill reports.
Rock Island County Clerk, Karen Kinney, says one of the first tips about a potential problem with absentee ballot applications came from her own mother. Voters also started to call her office asking, “Where’s my ballot?” Kinney called the sheriff, state’s attorney, and the Illinois Attorney General for help. She learned that a Dekalb woman from the Illinois Opportunity Project rented the Post Office box. The project is a Chicago-based non-profit, co-founded by Dan Proft who’s a radio host and former Republican candidate for governor. [Emphasis added]
Co-founder Pat Hughes said his organization has done nothing wrong.
“We’re doing a vote-by-mail program,” Mr. Hughes said. “We’ve delivered thousands of applications in Rock Island County and throughout the state.”
While Ms. Kinney said the 1,500 absentee applications were piled up at the Rock Island Post Office on 11th Street before being delivered last Thursday and Friday by a man, Mr. Hughes refutes there was any voter suppression on behalf of his organization.
“They’re (applications) being picked up and delivered every single day,” Mr. Hughes said. “Any comments on voter suppression are false. If those statements are coming from the Rock Island County clerk or any other Democratic elected official, they are politically motivated.”
Mr. Hughes said the Illinois Attorney General’s Office has made many inquiries and demands over the last week of his organization related to Rock Island County and other counties, but he said it has done nothing wrong.
Hughes said the Illinois Opportunity Project mailed applications to voters on Oct. 11, and picked up the returned applications from the Rock Island Post Office on Oct. 26, after receiving inquiries from law enforcement. Hughes says the group didn’t break any laws by not grabbing the applications sooner. He also says that because the group distributed applications on the 11th and collected them on the 26th, it disproves the Democratic clerk’s claim that the applications languished for three weeks.
Mark Curley, postmaster for the Rock Island Post Office, corroborated Hughes’ timeline.
“There was no three weeks,” Curley said. “They didn’t languish.”
* Ron Gidwitz, chairman of Trump-Pence Victory Illinois, writes in Crain’s…
Two things are guaranteed out of every political campaign season:
• We all get tired of the rhetoric and non-stop campaign ads; and . . .
• Outlandish accusations will describe mole hills as mountains.
That second point may best be illustrated by Illinois Democrats’ piercing shrieks about Governor Bruce Rauner’s support for Donald Trump. Unless you’re wise enough to take an extended vacation off the planet during election season, you’ve undoubtedly seen the breathless accusations splashed across the airwaves that Governor Rauner deeply and profoundly supports Donald Trump—punctuated with one single damning phrase: “I will support the Republican Party’s nominee.”
Be still my heart! A half-hearted phrase muttered demurely and without mentioning He Whose Name Will Not Be Spoken suddenly has become video proof that Rauner will go to the ends of the Earth to get Trump elected so he can steal from the poor and give to the wealthy. Clearly, Rauner’s terse phraseology can be interpreted as a sign of complicity and access to the pots of gold the governor has in his possession!
So, lemme get this straight. The Illinois chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign has now stridently come to the defense of his party’s governor for not explicitly by name endorsing… Donald Trump.
The Illinois Republican Party on Tuesday called on Chicago City Clerk and Illinois State Comptroller candidate Susana Mendoza to explain why she was sued by national electronics retailer Best Buy for unpaid personal bills after months of non-payment.
Cook County Sheriff’s Deputies served Mendoza with a summons to appear before a Cook County Judge to answer allegations that she opened a Best Buy credit account and ran up charges, but then failed to pay her bill. Mendoza later reached a settlement agreement with the retailer.
“It is concerning that anyone running for elected office would have to be sued to pay their bills,” said Nick Klitzing, Illinois Republican Party Executive Director. “But when that candidate is asking to serve as the state’s Chief Fiscal Officer, such an incident is disqualifying. If she can’t take care of her own finances, how can she be trusted to manage the state’s checkbook?”
Mendoza was personally served with papers requiring her to appear in Cook County Circuit Court on the morning of December 28, 2000. In the lawsuit, Best Buy maintained that Mendoza failed to make monthly payments as required in the credit agreement she signed. The retailer asked that Mendoza be required to pay a debt of $1,561.32.
“Susana Mendoza disqualified herself for this office by spending 10 years in Springfield voting at the behest of Mike Madigan for the very unbalanced budgets, tax increases and pension holidays that have landed our state in fiscal crisis, but this revelation is even more alarming,” Klitzing said. “Human services, small businesses, hospitals, schools and others depend on the Comptroller to swiftly process state payments – they simply can’t afford to take chances on someone that doesn’t even pay her own bills.”
Mendoza was 27 at the time of the purchase, and was elected to the Illinois General Assembly as a state representative in November 2000, at the age of 28. […]
Mendoza’s campaign dismissed the allegations, saying Mendoza bought a Best Buy laptop with an agreement that she’d have a year to make a payment, and no interest charges. After a year passed, she didn’t receive a bill. She was later sent a letter from a collection agency demanding the amount owed, plus a fee from the agency. Mendoza took Best Buy to court to prove that she did not receive a bill, and the case was settled with Mendoza paying what she owed for the laptop, her campaign said.
In a statement, Mendoza’s campaign manager Lauren Peters called the information release from the GOP a “desperate attempt to distract voters” from issues Munger wants to “run away from,” including her role in late payments for court-ordered disability payments during the budget impasse.
“The state of Illinois has never been worse off than it has been under the Rauner/Munger team,” Peters said. “And they will say or do anything to distract the voters of Illinois from the truth, including a decades old dispute, in order to avoid explaining how they managed to push the state further into debt while slashing social service.”
