Marion Unit 2 school board president Joe Bleyer addressed recent bizarre social-media rumors that the district was adding litter boxes to the restrooms for students who wished to dress up in animal costumes.
“Apparently there is some sensation that we are going to have litter boxes in our bathrooms,” Bleyer said. “I can assure you of two things. One, the Illinois Department of Public Health and two, the Illinois plumbing code do not allow for non-functioning restrooms.
“So regardless of what you see on social media, litter boxes are not coming to Marion Unit 2 schools.”
How goofy do you have to be to believe this nonsense? It’s just so silly and downright stupid…
A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats.
That was in March.
An attempt at an explanation for this phenomenon is here.
The University of Illinois Flash Index for September continued its gradual decline, falling to 104.1 from its previous reading of 104.5 in August.
The lower index reading does not mean the Illinois economy is contracting because any reading above 100 indicates growth.
“The uncertainty that has characterized the U. S. and Illinois economies the last six months shows no signs of resolving although the scales are gradually tipping to the side of a pronounced slowdown if not a recession. Unemployment remains low with jobs appearing to be plentiful. Consumer sentiment is relatively strong after recent fuel price increases have moderated.”
Giertz said that this is balanced against negative GDP growth for the first two quarters of 2022, often but not always a sign of a recession. Even though the rate of inflation has decreased monthly and expectations that it will gradually fall well below the current 8 percent range, it is still unlikely to return to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target without further monetary tightening. This has not escaped investors’ notice, resulting in declines in the equity market.
Illinois’ revenues (the basis of the Flash Index) remain strong with large year-to-year increases. However, the September numbers compared to the same month last year after adjusting for inflation are not as buoyant. Corporate tax receipts continue their strong performance while individual income tax receipts are up slightly, and sales tax receipts are down.
“The Illinois and U. S. unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 3.7 and 4.5 percent respectively, but the readings represent anything but recessionary levels.”
The Flash Index is a weighted average of Illinois growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending, and personal income as estimated from receipts for corporate income, individual income, and retail sales taxes. These revenues are adjusted for inflation before growth rates are calculated. The growth rate for each component is then calculated for the 12-month period using data through September 30, 2022. After more than two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, ad hoc adjustments are still needed because of the timing of the tax receipts resulting from state and Federal changes in payment dates.
With a growing number of patients in states that now prohibit abortion traveling for the procedure, Planned Parenthood says it will soon open its first mobile abortion clinic in the country, in southern Illinois. […]
The mobile clinic will begin offering consultations and dispensing abortion pills later this year. It will operate within Illinois, where abortion remains legal, but will be able to travel closer to neighboring states’ borders, reducing the distance many patients travel for the procedure. […]
The mobile facility – set up inside of an RV – will include a small waiting area, laboratory, and two exam rooms. It initially will provide medication abortion up to 11 weeks gestation, officials said. It eventually will offer surgical abortions, likely beginning sometime next year.
Patients seeing healthcare providers at the mobile clinic will follow the same protocol as those visiting a permanent Planned Parenthood facility, said to Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood in the region. They take mifepristone - the first in a two-drug protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration - on-site. They’re offered counseling about the other drug, misoprostol, which is taken later.
The mobile clinic will be outfitted in an RV and will serve patients along the Illinois border and provide the full slate of services usually provided by a brick-and-mortar Planned Parenthood, per a press release.
- The mobile clinic will help Planned Parenthood reduce wait times and travel distances for patients as well as free up capacity at the Fairview Heights clinic.
- The mobile clinic will have a waiting room, a lab and two exam rooms, and will provide medicated abortions up to 11 weeks gestation. It has plans to offer procedural abortions in the future.
- The mobile clinic will begin seeing patients at the end of October or early November, the spokesperson told Axios.
- Planned Parenthood has other mobile clinics in the past that have offered family planning services, this is the first to provide abortion services, the spokesperson added.
A hundred days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortions for out-of-state patients have surged in Illinois, as many Midwestern and Southern states have banned or severely restricted terminating a pregnancy.
Before the historic reversal of federal reproductive rights, Planned Parenthood of Illinois used to schedule dozens of abortion patients from other states each month. Now hundreds of patients are crossing state lines monthly to terminate a pregnancy in Illinois, the agency said. […]
Before Roe was overturned, Planned Parenthood of Illinois on average scheduled about 100 out-of-state abortion patients every month. The first week after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 landmark case, nearly 750 patients from other states scheduled appointments to terminate a pregnancy, the agency said. […]
In January, two southern Illinois abortion providers opened the Regional Logistics Center, a designated call center where case managers help traveling patients with transportation, lodging, child care and other needs. The center received 648 calls from patients in May, the month before Roe was reversed. In August, the number of calls more than tripled to 1,937, said Julie Lynn, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, which covers southern Illinois.
* Indiana abortion clinics slowly resuming care following injunction. WTHR…
It’s been one week since a judge granted an injunction on the state’s abortion ban.
For clinics, that injunction has allowed them to resume abortion care for patients. Dr. Katie McHugh, an OB-GYN care and abortion care provider in the state, she said they’re back to seeing patients once again. But clinics are now moving at a much slower pace, a lasting impact from the ban that was initially enacted Sept. 15.
“We are up and running at all of the clinics in Indiana, not to the previous capacity, which is OK, we’re doing what we can and making do with the resources and the staff that we have available. But we are up and running and we are able to provide care again and the patients who are coming in needing and requesting abortion care are so grateful,” McHugh said.
McHugh said they’re working to ramp back up to previous levels, but it’s tricky. One challenge facing providers is that they’re unsure on if or when the state or a judge might shut clinics down again. When the ban initially went into place earlier this month, she said, many jobs were cut. Bringing staff back has been tough.
Governor JB Pritzker and challenger Darren Bailey will meet for two televised debates hosted and produced by Nexstar Media Group and our partners at AARP and Illinois State University.
The debates will take place on October 6, on the ISU campus in Normal and then again on October 18, at the WGN-TV studios in Chicago. […]
In addition to taking questions from the panelists, the candidates will respond to questions from Illinois voters. We would like to hear about the issues important to you.
If you could pose a question to the candidates for governor, what would you ask? Fill in the form below, and your question could be featured during the live debate broadcast on Oct 6.
* The Question: If you could pose a question to the candidates for governor, what would you ask?
“During the 2020 election, Jared Kushner tried to artificially ‘inflate’ Donald Trump’s sinking numbers in the polls against Joe Biden, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book. Within Team Trump, Haberman reports, the purpose of Kushner’s request was clear — he just wanted to juke the survey numbers, in the hopes of keeping his father-in-law from flying into a rage,” Rolling Stone reports.
From the book: “Kushner, who oversaw reelection strategy from his post as a White House senior adviser, advised a campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, to inflate Trump’s standing in surveys that would be shown to the candidate by adding percentage points to his position in the horse race.”
Fabrizio is Dan Proft’s pollster. I’m not saying Fabrizio juked the numbers for Proft like he allegedly did may have done for Trump to make the governor’s race here look like it’s a five-point contest, I’m just saying that I’m probably never going to look at another Fabrizio poll the same way again.
* Oppo Dump: Before the primary, Illinois Right To Life Action rated 8th Congressional District Republican primary candidate Chris Dargis a “2,” meaning he was “Not in full support of all Pro-Life issues.” Dargis contributed $400 to IRLA in April. The group has since revised its Dargis rating to a “1,” meaning he’s “Fully Pro-Life.” IRLA also puts a “#” next to candidates who support rape and incest exceptions for abortion. Keith Pekau has one, but Dargis does not. Dargis is up against US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is rated a “4,” which means he is “Totally opposed to Pro-Life issues.”
I have trouble watching Pritzker interviews because I have to pause the video to fact check? Last week he could’ve factually said he raised minimum wage but he added he raised it to a livable wage. Where in JB’s Illinois can you live for $12 an hour? #FirePritker#RestoreIllinoispic.twitter.com/cJ44fXjrCm
Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL) released his first TV ad of the general election. The ad contrasts Casten’s 100% pro-choice stance, and support from major pro-choice organizations, with his opponent’s extreme anti-choice views. The ad will run on TV through Election Day as part of a seven-figure ad buy.
Transcript
Newscaster: Roe vs. Wade is overruled.
Narrator: Keith Pekau wants to go even further. Pekau supports banning abortion here in Illinois, and would allow states to criminalize abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.
Sean Casten: I always have and always will protect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. Including the right to choose an abortion. And I’ll fight any attempt to ban or criminalize abortion access here in Illinois and across the country. I’m Sean Casten and I approve this message.
…Adding… So far, $38,763 has been placed on cable channels ESPN, HGTV, TBSC, TNT and USA. No word yet on broadcast.
— In IL-06, Congressman Sean Casten has a six-figure digital ad featuring the endorsement of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Both Casten and Dart are Democrats. The ad focuses on Casten’s support of funding for law enforcement.
Gov. JB Pritzker has given $350,000 to Democrat Josh Shapiro in his run for Pennsylvania governor. It’s all part of Pritzker’s effort to fund governor candidates who he sees as key to keeping abortion rights legal in their states. Pritzker has given an additional $100,000 to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The Midwestern governors had previously received $250,000 from Pritzker this election cycle.
The Illinois governor also gave $100,000 each to Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Democratic governor challengers Charlie Crist in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas.
* From Mary Ann Ahern’s coverage of the Friday joint candidate interviews…
I did follow up with the Bailey campaign to ask ‘Has the candidate been vaccinated?’ They will not answer that question.
New study of almost 600,000 deaths in Ohio and Florida shows that registered Republicans had far higher excess-death rates than registered Democrats during the pandemic, with almost all of the gap coming after vaccines were available.https://t.co/OG4kVq3SrB
One other thing to note: this study looked at excess deaths, not Covid deaths. So if the vaccines were killing people, you'd see it in this data. You don't see it, because they're not.
Today, Nikki Budzinski announced that her campaign raised over $1,000,000 in the third quarter of 2022. Budzinski entered the general election in June with over $1,000,000 cash on hand, putting her in a strong position to communicate with voters. To date, Budzinski has raised over $3,000,000 since announcing her campaign in August of 2021.
Sean Morrison finds himself in a precarious position. He’s the lone incumbent Republican on the Cook County Board of Commissioners fighting to keep his seat in the November general election. […]
In the last general election in 2018, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is also chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party, targeted three out of four incumbent Republicans on the board — and defeated two of them, including the head of the Illinois Republican Party.
Now Preckwinkle says she plans to topple Morrison, go after Silvestri’s seat and defend the two seats the Democrats flipped to blue four years ago. Buoyed by a new district map that gives Democrats the advantage, Preckwinkle thinks her party has the opportunity to run the entire Cook County Board of Commissioners.
* Illinois treasurer candidates Mike Frerichs, Tom Demmer spar over role of office: “The treasurer should be speaking up and advocating for taxpayers in the big public discussions of the day,” Demmer said. “The state treasurer should be someone who is going to be an outspoken advocate for taxpayers and challenge the status quo.” Demmer, a five-term state representative from Dixon, called Frerichs a “rubber stamp” for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration who has supported various tax hikes over the years. Frerichs argued that Demmer would be an obstructionist rather than an advocate. He said Demmer acted as former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s floor leader on failed budgets that led to a two-year budget impasse during Rauner’s single term in office that “devastated social service agencies and decimated our public universities” due to lack of funding. “For two years he sat there and said nothing about the devastation that was going on. Let it happen,” Frerichs said. “I won’t sit here and be lectured about policies by someone who tried to destroy social service agencies and pursue an anti-worker agenda.”
* Lake County candidates skipping League of Women Voters forums: ‘We consider this a real problem’: Lara Cooper, spokesperson for Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford’s campaign, blasted Curran for not agreeing to the forum. “Mark Curran has refused three times to share a stage with Judge Elizabeth Rochford to hide his extremist anti-abortion positions and ‘not recommended’ rating from the Illinois State Bar Association, thereby backing out of campaign forums by making up lies about reputable, nonpolitical organizations like the Lake County League of Women Voters, which has absolutely no agenda other than to inform voters,” Cooper said.
* In the fight for the US House, one of the most important battles is in northwest Illinois: King said she’s opposed to abortion and she’s glad the Supreme Court returned the decision on abortion rules to the states, “especially here in Illinois, where our extreme laws are out of touch with over 80% of Americans.” But she said she doesn’t think the recent proposal by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to limit abortion rights nationally will go anywhere. “I don’t think too many people are paying attention to Lindsey Graham, especially here in our area,” King said.
We did not foresee this attack on our reputation. We found ourselves in the eye of the political firestorm between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his Republican opponent, Darren Bailey. The Daily Herald had become the story, and that wasn’t fair to Daily Herald reporters, editors and fellow staffers throughout Paddock Publications. We’re sorry this has resulted in challenges to our staff’s integrity.
As a result, the company will no longer accept print jobs from LGIS, but we will defend the reputation of the Daily Herald and our commitment to journalism and to the communities and readers we serve.[…]
We plan to take several steps to strengthen the harmony among Paddock Publications various business objectives.
Among them:
• Formalize a screening process for commercial printing projects and sensitive advertising. We are appointing a team tasked with identifying print job proposals and advertising that may be sensitive or controversial and then reviewing those for acceptance, rejection or modification. The litmus test for these reviews will for the most part be transparency and factualness. Outside of extremism that would conflict with our values and reflect poorly on the company, the point is not to arbitrarily reject points of view. The right to free expression is a central value that our company endorses. But it is to ensure any print jobs and advertising meet certain fundamental standards. Screening team members also will familiarize themselves with ongoing products so we have enough information to challenge them when necessary or defend them when unfairly questioned.
Nancy Wade, who lives in Lincoln Square, said finding the unsolicited publication in her mailbox made her livid.
“The tabloids aren’t as bad as this. It’s all misleading. If you don’t know much about any of these issues, and this is the first information you ever see, naturally I’d be worried, too,” Wade said. “They are like yelling at you from the page.” […]
“I don’t call them newspapers for a very good reason,” said Don Craven, president of the Springfield-based Illinois Press Association. “They’re not.”
Craven said that neither the Chicago City Wire, nor any of the other 34 Local Government Information Services publications across Illinois are members of the press association, or have applied for membership.
It seems that a new phenomenon is taking hold with phony newspapers being sent to homes across Illinois. The goal of these publications is to confuse and fool people into believing they are reading news when in fact they are reading biased reporting that’s politically driven.
An example is Lake County Gazette, one of 34 publications, 11 of which are in print, published by Local Government Information Services (LGIS). The news outlet has seen steady growth since it was established in 2018. Other titles include Chicago City Wire, McHenry Times, North Cook News, and Sangamon Sun.
These publications are not traditional news, but are in fact hyper-partisan ventures engaged in media manipulation to advance the publishers’ agenda.
A Shaw News article recently reported, “They are drawing attention – including from Gov. JB Pritzker – for being politically charged and containing right-wing talking points just a couple months before the November election.”
* The Democratic Party of Illinois is warning voters about the papers…
“Many critics cannot or refuse to differentiate between a commercial printing operation . . . and the Daily Herald’s editorial mission to be unbiased and fair,” the letter states, without addressing the still-unanswered question of whether LGIS mailed these materials on Paddock’s dime. “The perception for some has become that the Daily Herald favors one party over another and by printing for LGIS, it’s somehow promoting its message. That is not true.”
Actually, producing and apparently providing postage for this stuff is pretty much the definition of promoting this message. And, to be clear, the look would be just as bad if Paddock had printed and lent its postal permit to sham newspapers that amounted to unlabeled ads for Pritzker or Lightfoot.
We’re not talking about slick pamphlets, brochures or posters here—the kind of material that voters are accustomed to finding in their mailboxes, stuck into their doorjambs or pressed into their hands as they run for the train during campaign season. We’re talking about deceptively designed mailers that are clearly meant to simulate newspapers—printed and evidently distributed by a company that, however inconveniently in this case, happens to be in the news business.
That juxtaposition is a particularly unhelpful one for the entire profession as journalists try to do what they do against challenging headwinds. Real journalists ask tough questions, hold power to account, correct the record when they get things wrong, and report only what they know—based on honest reporting and clear-eyed analysis—to be true. Journalism is a public trust. And as “The Journalist’s Creed,” a time-honored declaration first published by the Missouri School of Journalism more than a century ago, puts it: “Acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.”
What do you think about the Herald’s continued damage control?
…Adding… Walker’s comment…
What damaged DH credibility was not the political squabble between candidates, but rather association with a perverse undercutting of the expectations the public has of established newspapers.
* This group threatened to sue US Rep. Casten last month. Now they’re going after a Facebook user and a letter to the editor writer. Press release…
Two suburban residents today forcefully rejected threats of lawsuits from the group Awake Illinois if they continue to express their opposition to the organization and its agenda. Maggie Romanovich of Wheaton and Kylie Spahn of Downers Grove received letters from leaders of Awake Illinois in early September suggesting that Awake would file a defamation lawsuit against them if they did not “cease and desist” from such criticism and remove existing online posts.
Among other activities, Awake Illinois has urged school officials to remove LGBTQ-inclusive books and called for the cancellation of drag events in the Chicago suburbs, including a drag brunch at the Uprising Bakery in Lake in the Hills and a drag event at the Downers Grove Public Library. After Awake promoted their opposition to the Uprising event, the bakery was violently vandalized and forced to reschedule the event. Threats of violence against Library officials caused the Downers Grove event to be cancelled.
Awake Illinois officials have repeatedly used hostile epithets against those they disagree with, labeling them “groomers,” “hateful,” and “perverts.” Yet in the instance of the letters to Romanovich and Spahn, Awake seeks to curb the speech of others.
The ACLU of Illinois has authored letters to Awake Illinois on behalf of Romanovich and Spahn, the targets of the group’s actions. The letters reject the threatened lawsuits as groundless, noting that all of the material cited by Awake Illinois is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
“These letters from Awake Illinois are empty threats with zero legal basis,” said Rebecca Glenberg, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Illinois who signed the letters. “Awake Illinois and its members consistently use harsh and often offensive language directed against others to advance their interests, but now feign injury when our clients express strong feelings against them.”
“If they think these letters will stop our clients or others from speaking out against what they see as a dangerous agenda, they are wrong.”
Awake Illinois’ letter to Romanovich referred to her letter to the editor printed in the Daily Herald, which criticized a congressional candidate for his connection to Awake Illinois, opining that the group is appalling, extremist, homophobic, racially insensitive and otherwise objectionable. Such opinions are constitutionally protected and cannot be the basis of a defamation lawsuit, the ACLU of Illinois wrote.
The action comes shortly after a Member of Congress revealed that he had received a similar “cease and desist” letter from Awake Illinois. In mid-September, the Chicago Tribune reported that Awake Illinois sent the letter to Representative Sean Casten, a vocal critic of the group. Like Romanovich and Spahn, Casten rejected the group’s threats of a lawsuit.
“Our Constitution allows groups like Awake Illinois to express their views in the public square like anyone else. But they may not use the courts to suppress the views of others,” Glenberg noted.
You can read the letters to Awake Illinois on behalf of Romanovich and Spahn here and here.
Before they threaten anyone else, somebody might wanna tell these folks about the state’s SLAPP law. Just sayin.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce doesn’t endorse too many Democrats for statewide office, but they’re backing incumbent Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza for a new term.
* Press release…
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce is backing Susana Mendoza for another term as Illinois Comptroller. She is the only Democratic nominee for a constitutional office to receive their endorsement in the 2022 general election cycle. They issued the following statement in support of her campaign:
“The Illinois Chamber is proud to endorse Susana Mendoza for another term as State Comptroller. She approaches her job with a tenacious zeal for fiscal integrity and a bipartisan reach. Illinois is not out of the fiscal woods by a long shot, but voters from both parties should rest assured that Susana is the right person to take on the difficult tasks ahead to protect our State’s finances and taxpayers’ checkbooks.”
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza issued the following statement in response to their endorsement:
“I am so honored to receive the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement. I analyze and care deeply about how every policy we consider at the state level affects Illinois’ businesses. All the hard work I’ve done as Comptroller to eliminate the bill backlog, deliver the fastest vendor payment cycle in decades, lead out state to 6 credit rating upgrades, and replenish the state’s Rainy Day Fund and Pension Stabilization Funds, has been to get Illinois ready for its growth spurt. I take pride in my bi-partisan approach to governing and appreciate that the Illinois Chamber of Commerce recognizes my efforts on behalf of all Illinois residents and businesses.”
The Chamber’s PAC had just $41K in the bank at the end of the last quarter. It’s reported raising just $8K since then. But money isn’t the issue here. It’s the press pop and the fact that Mendoza can tout it in her own paid media.
Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey on Sunday opened a new avenue in his attacks on Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, questioning the patriotism of the first-term governor.
In a video on Facebook as Bailey was preparing for his annual fundraiser at his farm in downstate Xenia, the GOP state senator noted the set up for the event included a stage featuring a large American flag.
“There’s the stage again. Amazing, beautiful American flag back there,” Bailey said. “I want to share something with you. J.B, Pritzker’s rallies and his events, I don’t, I don’t often see the flag flying in a prominent position, just keep that in mind.” […]
He went on to pray for God’s help to “remove evil, wicked and corruption from our government.”
* Response from Pritzker’s campaign manager…
This man will say absolutely anything but the truth.
Bailey Places Allegiance to Trump and Insurrectionists Over Country
Chicago, IL –– After months and ample opportunity to denounce the deadly attack on our nation’s Capitol carried out in the name of Donald Trump and with the intention of overturning democratic election results, Darren Bailey continues to stand with insurrectionists and the twice-impeached former president rather than the Capitol Police officers and patriots who defended our nation that day.
Just last week, when asked whether the House select committee hearings into January 6 show Trump’s culpability in the attack, Bailey declined to answer and instead deflected with a nonanswer, saying: “I’m not educated enough or informed enough to give you an answer on that.”
As an ardent supporter of Trump and his allies, Bailey has spent his entire campaign pushing the Big Lie, understating the January 6 insurrection, promising to “roll the red carpet out” for Trump in 2024 after proudly receiving his endorsement.
Bailey relentlessly pushes the baseless narrative that election fraud is rampant and has vowed to bring in thousands of poll watchers for the November election. His campaign hosts frequent “election integrity” trainings with a man who organized a “Stop The Steal” Bus Tour on January 6.
“A man who surrounds himself with January 6 insurrectionists has no business implying others are unpatriotic,” said JB for Governor Press Secretary Eliza Glezer. “Bailey’s hollow version of patriotism stretches insofar as Donald Trump says so and presents a serious threat to the sanctity of our democratic elections. Darren Bailey’s hypocrisy is showing.”
Bailey perpetuated the Big Lie by telling his supporters to “continue to pray for our President and this election process,” adding: “all this fraudulent activity is absolutely disgusting. It’s wrong—it’s, in my opinion, almost the highest form of treason in our country, so we pray that that will be dealt with. We pray that the truth will be uncovered.”
The new statewide education justice coalition, PEER IL, was created “to ensure the state is fulfilling its promise to provide Illinois public school students fully funded and fully resourced public schools,” PEER IL officials said.
When then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Evidence-Based Funding into law in 2017, the legislation aimed to “comprehensively overhaul the state’s school financing system,” PEER IL officials said.
According to the report, reaching the adequacy benchmarks put forth in the law requires more than $7 billion additional dollars in state funding to properly fund school districts in the state, with a goal of reaching full funding by 2027. […]
CPS is funded at 74% of adequacy, an annual $1.4 billion shortfall, CPS officials said.
* Trouble is, CPS school funding is mainly based on student population, not equity…
Currently, schools get a set amount of money per student, plus a few centrally-funded positions, such as principal and school clerk. This system – implemented in the wake of the 2013 closings – has been criticized by the Chicago Teachers Union because it penalizes schools with fewer students and sets them on a downward spiral of declining enrollment and disinvestment.
Chicago, with 322,106 public school students, should also get its act together.
The labor union and trial lawyer-backed All for Justice independent expenditure committee has so far reported raising $3.5 million, with, I’m told, at least another $5 million in pledges. The committee’s sole purpose is to back the two Democratic candidates running for the Illinois Supreme Court: Appellate Justice Mary K. O’Brien and Judge Elizabeth Rochford. And its spending is finally beginning.
A press release claimed “an initial [advertising] buy of $3 million dollars,” with “plans to spend millions more informing residents of the 2nd and 3rd districts of these extremists on the ballot.”
The ad features a woman emphasizing that just “one seat” on the Illinois Supreme Court could imperil or preserve abortion rights.
“Mark Curran and Michael Burke want to ban abortion in Illinois, even in cases of rape and incest. Women put in jail for making their own medical decisions? That’s not what I want for my kids. That’s not what I want for anyone. Mark Curran and Michael Burke are too extreme and they don’t belong on the Illinois Supreme Court.”
The ad will almost surely face legal opposition. The Illinois Republican Party made a big deal last week about a similar TV ad aired by Supreme Court Justice Burke’s Democratic opponent, Appellate Justice O’Brien.
The Illinois GOP demanded that O’Brien take down the ad, which claims, “Mike Burke says he agreed with the decision to overturn Roe. He’s supported by the extreme groups that want to ban all abortion for Illinois women.”
Burke is backed by anti-abortion groups. The first sentence in that excerpt, however, is hotly disputed by the Republican Party, which claims Justice Burke, “has not expressed any opinion on that issue or any issue that may come before the Illinois Supreme Court.”
Justice O’Brien’s campaign, in reply, pointed to Burke’s attendance at an important Illinois right to life banquet. Burke said this year that, like the U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, he too is a constitutional “originalist,” meaning he refers back to the original drafting of the Constitution rather than subsequent court rulings when making a decision. He also noted that abortion is “not an enumerated right” in either the Illinois or the U.S. constitutions.
It’s very difficult to legally force a TV station to take down a candidate’s advertisement. But, as we’ve seen in the past few weeks with Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC ads for Darren Bailey, it’s not nearly as difficult to force an independent expenditure committee to prove the truthfulness of what it’s saying in its ads or see them yanked.
Time will tell if the new All for Justice ad stays up.
Meanwhile, the opposition research is starting to come out on Curran. My associate Isabel Miller posted some of it on CapitolFax.com last week, but expect more to emerge on topics like Curran’s comments about the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection (the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt should resign, he said) and on gay rights (Curran said at a rally opposing a same-sex marriage bill that the law would “result in the loss of liberty for those opposed to same-sex marriage”).
And, of course, there’s abortion. Curran has attended anti-abortion rallies, donated some of his own campaign funds last year to Illinois Citizens for Life and praised Donald Trump for appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, among other things.
Curran is also the former longtime sheriff of Lake County, which is fully in the 2nd Supreme Court District, and he may still have some residual name recognition from his 2020 race for U.S. Senate, which Curran lost to Dick Durbin 55% to 39%.
Money-wise, the Supreme Court races started about even in July, as far as the candidates were concerned. But that has changed considerably in the past month or so.
Democratic Justice O’Brien has since reported raising almost $1.6 million to Justice Burke’s $13,000. Democratic Judge Rochford has reported raising $742,000 to the Republican Curran’s $137K, much of it from his family.
The Ken Griffin-funded Citizens for Judicial Fairness independent expenditure committee had more than $5.5 million in the bank at last check. It is not expected to help Curran, but is expected to jump in for Justice Burke. The Firewall Project, which is raising money to back Republicans for the Supreme Court and Greg Hart for DuPage County Board Chair, has reported raising $440,000 in the past few weeks.
But the Democrat-affiliated All for Justice independent expenditure committee is hoping to have a budget of as much as $8 million to $10 million by election day. So stay tuned.
Today, the independent expenditure committee All for Justice (AFJ) placed its first buy for the General Election Cycle with the ad “One Seat.”
The ad highlights Republican Supreme Court candidates Justice Michael Burke and Mark Curran’s terrifying records on women’s reproductive rights. All for Justice is placing an initial buy of $3 million dollars and plans to spend millions more informing residents of the 2nd and 3rd districts of these extremists on the ballot.
“If elected, Burke and Curran would be a catastrophe for Illinois. They would follow the anti-choice extremist orthodoxy, that individuals should not have control over their bodies or their future. We cannot let these men strip people of their reproductive rights. The goal of All for Justice is to communicate the truth about Burke and Curran,” said Rianne Hawkins, Director of Campaigns and Advocacy with Planned Parenthood Illinois Action IE PAC who is advising AFJ on strategy.
Justice Michael Burke faces Justice Mary Kay O’Brien in the 3rd District, which includes DuPage, Will, Grundy, LaSalle, Bureau, Livingston, Iroquois, and Kankakee Counties. Mark Curran faces Judge Elizabeth Rochford, in the 2nd District, which includes Lake, McHenry, Kane, Kendall and DeKalb counties.
* Here’s a screenshot of the Associated Press Media Editors’ joint interview of Gov. JB Pritzker and Sen. Darren Bailey. No journalists of color were on the panel. Two women were on the panel, but neither was called upon to ask questions, even though Marni Pyke is an experienced journalist who has been competently covering state politics for years…
