The governor was not asked to confirm an otherwise quite odd story about how he reportedly said he was voting for Donald Trump. Instead, Rauner was asked today if he was now supporting Trump…
However, on Tuesday, Rauner responded to questions about the report, denying that he’s endorsing anyone in the presidential race.
“I’m not endorsing in the presidential race, I’m staying out of it,” Rauner said during a press conference in Wheeling. “I’m 100 percent focused on Illinois.”
* Raw audio, with the governor’s response near the end…
* It’s taken most of the mainstream media until only recently to report on Gov. Rauner’s huge contributions to the Illinois Republican Party, so maybe we’ll see some stuff on these developments by October…
Liberty Principles gets $1 million from Ken Griffin, now with an estimated $5 million on hand. https://t.co/qdNO8PlWzw
* The race between appointed Rep. Andy Skoog (D-LaSalle) and Republican Jerry Long ain’t getting any less ugly. After sending a mailer blasting Long for renting a house to a registered sex offender, the Democrats have hit him with a new piece…
Dems continue to attack Long over sex offenders. Its latest mailer features a mat reading, "Welcome predators."
* Fitch Ratings lowered DuPage County’s rating to AA+, down from AAA, the first time in anyone’s memory that this has happened…
In a statement Sept. 2, released as the holiday weekend was beginning, Fitch said roughly $150 million in DuPage debt was a victim of revisions in its criteria for state and local governments.
“The downgrade reflects Fitch’s concern (about) the county’s limited revenue flexibility and slow revenue growth prospects,” the New York firm wrote. “(Fitch’s) revised criteria placed increased focus on Fitch’s expectations for the natural pace of revenue growth without revenue-raising measures and the ability of an entity to independently increase revenue.”
That concern appears to be in part due to extreme reluctance by the county in recent years to raise property taxes. It also reflects that the county now has little undeveloped land, with its population apparently plateaued at a bit under 1 million.
In general, Fitch said it expects revenue from existing taxes to grow “slightly below historical trends” and generally only in line with national inflation. “While sales tax revenue has growth between 4 percent and 5 percent annually over the past several years, it has slowed to only 1 percent growth in fiscal 2016, leading the county to change its growth assumptions going forward to only 2 percent growth.”
In a statement back, DuPage Chief Financial Officer Paul Rafac emphasized that the county still is AAA in the view of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s ratings.
* David Cooke wants some help with his State Board of Elections case against Auditor General Frank Mautino, who has, as we’ve discussed several times so far, filed some questionable campaign finance reports. Cooke’s not getting any assistance, though…
He said he sought legal help from Republicans, with no success.
Ken Menzel, the election board’s general counsel, said the agency hasn’t had an investigator on staff for more than a decade. He said the board takes on the investigative role with “clear-cut” issues, such as late campaign finance reports, but not larger ones like Mautino’s case.
Menzel said he was surprised the Republican Party hasn’t helped Cooke because party members seemed to be “up in arms” about Mautino’s campaign spending issues.
He said the delays in the case are normal.
“At each stage, there is another round of motions. They don’t get resolved necessarily fast,” he said. “That’s due process.”
* I’m not a huge fan of using the state Constitution to permanently lock up money for special uses, but, this Tribune editorial is a bit much, if you ask me…
No, little voter, you cannot term-limit the Illinois lawmakers who’ve ruined this state’s finances; the politicians don’t want that. Nor can you stop legislative leaders from gerrymandering their members’ district maps; the Illinois Supreme Court says that injustice is OK. But if the pols of both parties won’t let you do something good for you, they will let you do something good for them and their friends:
They want you to enshrine in the Illinois Constitution a perpetual payday for their loyal donors in road-building and organized labor. You could say they’ve all got this thing — this proposed amendment — and for them it’s … golden!
The stated aim of the amendment — it’ll be on your Nov. 8 ballot — is to prevent state and local governments from using transportation revenue for non-transportation purposes. Sounds fine, to a point. But the diabolical effect is that contractors, and the unions whose members they employ, would have constitutionally guaranteed dibs on future billions of state and local revenue dollars.
That is, they’d have dibs on tax collections so that some future Illinois — an Illinois where finances are even more disastrous than today’s — couldn’t circumvent this amendment even in a natural catastrophe or other crisis. This amendment would, for example, wall off road dollars from any emergency uses for basic human needs. You’ve seen how rigidly the constitution’s pension protection clause forbids public pension reforms? Well, the pavement protection clause would be just as rigid.
And it goes on and on like that forever.
Look, these aren’t regular ol’ general revenues. Their intended purpose is for transportation infrastructure. Last year, the stopgap agreement dipped heavily into the Road Fund. The move got us out of a crisis, but it’s like eating your seed corn - staves off starvation today, but creates huge problems down the, um, road.
* I think there is more than enough room for argument here. And I even think the Tribune’s warnings about the future have some merit. But, sheesh, man. The road builders and the unions have watched as billions were swept from funds intended for infrastructure. So, of course they’re gonna do their best to stop it. They’re acting rationally.
And this proposal, along with the Supreme Court’s pension decisions, can be seen as a way of finally forcing the General Assembly and the governor to face up to fiscal reality and raise some taxes and cut some programs rather than raiding the future.
Having watched some particularly tough fiscal emergencies (revenues dried up after the 9/11 attack, for instance) I would argue for more flexibility, but I also have to admit that the other side makes some decent points.
A federal lawsuit has raised questions about whether Illinois’ new Election Day voter registration rules are constitutional, a situation that could complicate how polling sites are run this November.
Illinois tested same-day registration in the 2014 governor’s race, with all election authorities required to offer it in at least one location. It was popular, with long lines on Election Night, particularly in Chicago. When lawmakers made same-day registration permanent the next year, they expanded it, ordering highly populated areas to make it available at all polls.
That change is at the heart of a federal lawsuit brought by Republicans, who argue it’s an unfair and unequal system because voters in less populated and GOP-leaning areas don’t have equal access. They’re asking a judge to end all precinct-level Election Day registration, which would impact voters in 21 of 102 counties and five cities: Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, Bloomington and East St. Louis.
“It seemed obviously unfair to skew election results in this way,” said Jacob Huebert, an attorney with an organization representing a north-central Illinois Republican congressional candidate and party committee. “The purpose is obviously to boost Democratic turnout relative to Republican turnout.” […]
Legal and political experts question the timing of the lawsuit, which is so close to the election, as well as its backers. The Illinois Policy Institute’s legal arm, the Liberty Justice Center, is arguing the lawsuit. First-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s foundation has donated to the group and some in his administration previously worked there. Rauner’s spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment.
A pregnant woman and her boyfriend were shot Monday afternoon while on the porch of a home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, relatives said.
Doctors at Stroger Hospital later operated on Crystal Myers, relatives said, and delivered the nearly full-term baby boy, but no details were available about his condition.
Her boyfriend, Albert Moore, 24, was shot in the neck and was in critical condition, police said.
Myers, 23, had been due Sept. 30, relatives said. She had been shot in the stomach and was listed in serious condition at Stroger, where family and friends were awaiting updates outside the hospital on the couple late Monday.
The pair were on the porch of Moore’s grandparent’s home in the 5200 block of Sangamon, where they lived, when a gunman sneaked up the gangway, fired about nine shots, and fled, said a female friend who hit the deck when shots rang out and didn’t want to be identified. […]
Police are looking into whether the shooting is connected to a fatal shooting that happened the previous day less than a block away.
The couple was planning to move to Iowa this month to get away from the crime.
* Three caveats. This is an online survey of registered (instead of likely) voters going all the way back to August 9th…
The new poll was conducted online as part of SurveyMonkey’s 2016 Election Tracking project, which recruits respondents from the large number people who take polls on the company’s do-it-yourself survey platform, roughly three million each day. A subsample of respondents to this range of surveys — which includes formal and informal polls of community groups, companies, churches and other organizations — were invited to participate in a second survey with the prompt, “Where do you stand on current events? Share your opinion.” The survey was not advertised on any website, so individuals could not “click-in” in an effort to influence results. A survey invitation could be used only once.
From Aug. 9 to Sept. 1, the survey asked the sample of 74,886 registered voters about their presidential support, including between 546 and 5,147 respondents in each state. The final sample was weighted to the latest Census Bureau benchmarks for the population of registered voters in each state.
* The Chicago Tribune editorial board published a long screed over the weekend which essentially declared that no remap reform proposal would ever get by the Illinois Supreme Court and called upon Bruce Rauner and the billionaires he controls to spend lots more money on Supreme Court elections.
When former Gov. Pat Quinn produced his own remap plan, it was nitpicked to death by the media. We didn’t see hardly any of that sort of analysis of the remap reformers’ two failed plans. Why? You’d have to ask them, but I’m not the only person who believes that the reformers presented a poorly drafted proposal. And some even believed the reformers’ plan appeared as if it was designed to fail. My weekly syndicated newspaper column looks at the political angle and concludes…
Again, the governor, his party apparatchiks and his legislative candidates are not wrong to blame Madigan or Senate President John Cullerton or rank and file Democrats for the lack of action on redistricting reform this year. Have at it. You use what works in campaigns, and this works.
Indeed, Republican legislative candidates have been doing their very best to kick up as much dust as possible since the redistricting opinion was handed down. The common thread, of course, is Speaker Madigan.
“Mike Madigan and the career politicians in Springfield have made a mess of our state, and it is going to take fair maps and term limits to clean it up,” said Tony McCombie, the GOP challenger to Rep. Mike Smiddy (D-Hillsdale). Hers was one of countless statements I’ve seen from Republican candidates throughout the state, and the governor was in her district’s main media market the same day to amplify his party’s case against the ruling.
But knocking down [Quinn’s] proposal before it even gets out of the gate because of the sponsor is wrong and implies that no idea proposed by any Democrat with the slightest bit of taint on this topic will ever be acceptable in the least. And that more than implies that the governor wants a campaign issue far more than he wants an actual solution — which is exactly what the Democrats have suspected from the very beginning.
* Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago) has his own remap reform plan, which he has filed as legislation, but believes could also pass constitutional muster if presented as a citizen initiative…
It has been said that the fundamental problem with the way Illinois draws its political districts is that it lets the politicians choose their voters, rather than let the voters choose their politicians. This year an attempt to solve that problem by Independent Maps was rejected as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I’d like to offer another solution, one that I have filed as HJRCA 60.
The method for creating an independent commission proved to be one of the stumbling blocks for the Independent Map Amendment in court. I’d keep the formation of the commission the same as it currently is in the constitution, but I would change its function. Instead of drawing a map, the commission would provide data and software for drawing maps to the public. This provides a procedural change as required for a citizen initiative.
A citizen initiative must include both procedural and structural changes and it must stay confined to changes to the legislative article of the constitution. My proposal separates House and Senate districts as was recommended by the Illinois Reform Commission in 2009. This provides a structural change to the legislature as required for a citizen initiative.
Unlike the Independent Map Amendment, my proposal stays confined to changes in the legislative article of the Illinois Constitution. The Secretary of State currently acts to break a deadlock, and I keep the Secretary in substantially the same role. I also leave the roles of the Attorney General and Supreme Court as they are in the current redistricting process.
So how are the maps drawn? I’d let the public draw them. The legislature must first define in law the criteria that will be used and how maps are scored, before the Census data is released. Then by “crowdsourcing” the creation of the map the public can submit maps or improve on previous submissions. The commission acts as the referee, making sure maps meet the law and are scored and submitting the top three maps to each chamber. Each chamber may vote to approve one by a supermajority vote, but the legislature can’t amend any. If a chamber cannot agree on a map, then the Secretary of State certifies the map with the best score.
One state that is often praised for their redistricting process is our neighbor Iowa. Like this proposal Iowa separates the task of drawing the map from the task of approving the map, and the criteria for drawing the map are laws passed by the legislature. Like this proposal the Iowa legislature can only vote up or down on the map.
My proposal is not entirely new. It’s based on a proposal that I filed in 2009. That proposal had a hearing in the Senate and received mention in a few media outlets. The Daily Herald asked its readers to “urge your state representative and state senator to look at this proposal.” (Aug 8, 2009) Maybe it is time to do just that.
That looks a whole lot tighter than the reformers’ plan, which wandered all over the place.
And whether you agree with this idea or not, it puts the lie to the drama queens out there who claim with purist certainty that nothing can ever be done.
The bottom line is that the reformers screwed up badly - again - and almost nobody wants to admit it.
Even though union leaders have branded him the anti-organized labor governor, Bruce Rauner confidently stepped onto the streets of downtown Naperville Monday for the huge suburb’s Labor Day parade.
Jim Caffray, a home remodeler from Oswego, says he likes that the governor is fighting the Democratic machine, and appreciated the fact there weren’t any unions in the parade.
“I think that’s great, actually. Because I think the unions have been destroying this country for 50 years now,” he said. [Emphasis added.]
* And then he said this…
Rauner at Naperville parade; says effort to curb unions really intended to protect nation's hardest workers @WGNNewspic.twitter.com/3DHbAqKdm7
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost released the first television advertisement in his re-election campaign for Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, titled “Stand Up.” The ad will begin running with 500 points this week in the Metro East media market.
“I was proud to feature my grandchildren in our first ad because I believe this campaign is about the future,” said Bost. “We must cut wasteful spending, reduce the debt, and lower the tax burden for working families if we’re going to strengthen the world our kids and grandkids will inherit. I look forward to continuing to stand up for Southern Illinois’ future and ensure our young people inherit a better world than the generation before them.”
MIKE BOST: “These are the faces of Illinois’ future: eager and hopeful. It’s up to us to give them the best opportunities. That’s why we must reign-in out of- control Washington spending. Take on the country’s massive debt. And lower taxes on working families. The way I see it: it’s our responsibility to give them the strongest future possible…for kids like these…my grandchildren and yours. I’m Mike Bost and I approve this message because we just have to stand up and do the right thing.”
First, keep it simple—a lot simpler than former Gov. Pat Quinn’s recently proposed “solution,” which may not pass constitutional muster, either. Forget about endless unconstitutional details on how the map should be drawn. Just set a few simple rules:
• No legislator can ever have any role in the actual mapmaking process.
• Mapmakers cannot take into account any previous election results.
• Home addresses of state legislators and existing district boundaries cannot ever be factors.
All these requirements are in force in Iowa, which is a national redistricting model.
The results might not be perfect, but they’d surely be better than what we have now: a system where one political party draws district boundaries to protect its majority and its legislators. Yes, it’s true: Voters should be able to choose their legislators, not the other way around.
But hey, maybe the high court could twist legal logic enough to declare even this idea unconstitutional. That’s where Plan B comes in. It’s hardball and a little bit evil, but I think both are called for in this situation.
* You have to wade through quite a bit of stuff before you get to the point, but Jeff Berkowitz repeatedly tried and failed over the holiday weekend to convince Gov. Bruce Rauner to talk about the presidential race. Somebody else managed to get something out of him…
And, then a young man stepped up out of nowhere and said simply to the Governor, “Are you voting for Trump?” And, the Governor said yes, and apparently realizing the music noise level was high- nodded his head up and down, indicated yes, once again.
* The governor made some appointments this afternoon (click here), but I’m told there will be no bill signings/vetoes this afternoon, so I’m done. Merle will play us out…
Sometimes I think about leaving,
Do a little bummin’ around
* A new radio ad starts out with a man talking in a thick southern drawl and proudly proclaiming “All my life I’ve only moved one mile.” The man says he’s hunted “for years” with the candidate he supports and that the politician “fights” to protect the 2nd Amendment.
Then, the President of Citizens for Life PAC calls the candidate a “champion for pro-life issues and someone that we can trust.”
A woman named Julie says the candidate fights for tougher laws against sexual predators.
And a southern Illinois mayor, who says to listeners that he’s a Republican, vouches for the candidate as “one of us. He knows our values.”
* Who is this candidate? Why, none other than state Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat…
To be clear, this is common practice in Downstate races. It’s just sooooo southern I thought I’d post it for your listening enlightenment.
* The administrative law judge has sent a split recommendation to the Illinois Labor Relations Board regarding the dispute over whether AFSCME and the Rauner administration are legally at impasse on contract negotiations. The Rauner administration claims they are at impasse, AFSCME denies it. There’s something in this recommendation for both sides.
Though the Board could find that there was impasse on one of the three critical issues, and that under the NLRB precedent, this would presumably allow the State to implement its entire last, best, and final offer, I find that this remedy is, like the standard remedy urged by the Union, extreme when applied to this case. The parties were at impasse on a large number of packages, but they were not at impasse on several others. If the State were able to implement its entire last, best, and final offer, the implications and impact would be so enormous that, when applied to this case, it would be destructive of the collective bargaining process and not serve the statutory mission of the Board.
After spending extensive time with the factual and legal matters raised in this case, I am left with the firm conviction that both parties entered negotiations with the intent to bargain and bargain hard. I do not imagine that an objective reviewer of this record will come away with a belief that either side acted as in a completely virtuous manner. However, like all things, good faith bargaining is a sliding scale with some lawful conduct looking less like good faith but not necessarily falling so deficient as to be unlawful bad faith bargaining. Certainly, neither party went out of their way to make negotiations easier on the other or to be overly accommodating, nor is this required of the parties under the law.
Instead, these negotiations reflected a battle mindset on both sides of the table, with each willing to do what it takes to achieve its bargaining goals. However, this mindset does not mean that either side was not sincerely seeking to reach agreement. The Union clearly did not share the State’s interest in having the contract settled expeditiously. The Union contends that the State was unlawfully intransigent on its bargaining goals; accordingly, the Union looks with indifference at the number of proposals the State withdrew and the number of proposals on which the parties reached agreement. The State urges that it came in to bargaining looking for a negotiated agreement, but the Union largely failed to respond to proposals in a way that would actually bring the parties closer together. Despite their many differences in philosophy and approach, I find that record before me, taken as a whole, reflects that each side sincerely hoped to reach agreement, though they had vastly different views of what that agreement should look like and had varying levels of optimism about whether they would actually be successful.
Therefore, I am resistant to accept either of the parties’ lawful, yet extreme, positions on remedy. Instead, I recommend that the Board adopt an alternate approach. I recognize that a decision on whether to adopt an alternative remedy is a policy decision that is within the exclusive province of the Board. Some support exists for an alternative remedy in the Board’s precedent, specifically in cases where, as here, that alternative remedy accomplishes the Board’s statutory mission to promote labor harmony and “to provide peaceful and orderly procedures for protection of the rights of all.” […]
I recommend the Board adopt a modified remedy, namely partial implementation. Specifically, I recommend that the Board allow the State to implement the packages on which the parties have reached impasse and for which there exists no other impediment to implementation: Subcontracting; Vacation, Holiday Scheduling, and Leaves of Absence; DOC/DJJ Roll Call (Definition of Terms, Articles V, XII, XVII, XIX & XX); Mandatory Overtime; and Management Rights and Check-off/Fair Share packages. Of course, nothing would prevent the State from continuing to bargain over these issues if it so chose.
On packages on which the parties are not at impasse or that the State either failed to provide information or provide the Union sufficient time to respond once receiving the information, I recommend the Board order the State to provide the requested information and send the parties back to the table for further bargaining and resolution of issues precluding implementation. Those packages include the following: Wages and Steps, Appendix A – Health Insurance, Layoff, Outstanding Economics, Health and Safety Outstanding Issues, and Semi- Automatic/Classification In-Series Advancement.
Awaiting response from both sides.
* The next step…
Pursuant to Section 1200.135 of the Board’s Rules, parties may file exceptions to the Administrative Law Judge’s Recommended Decision and Order in briefs in support of those exceptions no later than 30 days after service of this Recommendation. Parties may file responses to exceptions and briefs in support of the responses no later than 15 days after service of the exceptions. In such responses, parties that have not previously filed exceptions may include cross-exceptions to any portion of the Administrative Law Judge’s Recommendation. Within seven (7) days from the filing of cross-exceptions, parties may file cross-responses to the cross-exceptions… If no exceptions have been filed within the 30-day period, the parties will be deemed to have waived their exceptions.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
The following statement can be attributed to Catherine Kelly, Press Secretary for Governor Rauner:
“We appreciate that the Administrative Law Judge concluded that we have been bargaining in good faith for a fair deal on behalf of taxpayers. We are reviewing her opinion to evaluate the next steps as the rest of the agreed-to process continues.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Council 31…
An administrative law judge of the Illinois Labor Relations Board has dismissed the Rauner Administration’s complaint against AFSCME Council 31 and upheld much of the union’s cross-complaint against the administration.
The ALJ rightly rejected the Rauner Administration’s core contention, finding that the parties are not at impasse on the fundamental issues of wages and health care. She said that the administration has refused to provide information to AFSCME that the union needs to develop proposals and said they must do so. She recommended that the labor board order the state to resume bargaining on these and other issues, and to do so in good faith.
In short, she said that the Rauner Administration should “cease and desist from failing to bargain collectively in good faith with [AFSCME]” and “Upon request, bargain collectively in good faith with the union over the terms of provisions of a successor agreement”. (***see citation below)
“We are pleased that today’s recommendation underlines what AFSCME has been saying all along,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “There is no impasse on key issues, and the parties should get back to the bargaining table to resolve them.”
There are also points on which the union disagrees with the hearing officer’s findings. For example, AFSCME does not believe that the parties are at impasse on subcontracting and other issues. The union will continue to review the recommended decision, which is voluminous and detailed at more than 400 pages long.
“Ever since Governor Rauner’s representatives broke off negotiations with our union back in January and walked away from the bargaining table, AFSCME has repeatedly made clear that we want to reach a fair agreement and we are prepared to do the hard work of compromise to make that possible,” Lynch said.
In contrast, the Rauner Administration for eight months has refused to even meet with the union bargaining committee. Instead Governor Rauner wants the unilateral power to impose his demands, forcing public service workers in state government to work under his unfair terms or go out on strike.
Both parties now have the right to file written “exceptions” on points of disagreement with the recommended decision, as well as replies to the other party’s exceptions. Those filings and the recommended decision all go before the full labor board, which has indicated it could consider them and act on a final decision in November.
“We hope the labor board’s final ruling will affirm the hearing officer’s recommended order to resume negotiations,” Lynch said. “But there is no need to wait—Governor Rauner should direct his representatives back to the bargaining table now, to work with AFSCME and develop a compromise agreement that is fair to all.”
***FOOTNOTE:
From the recommended decision and order [https://www.illinois.gov/ilrb/decisions/decisionorders/Documents/S-CB-16-017rdo.pdf, pages 248-9]:
It is hereby ordered that the State of Illinois Department of Central Management Services, its officers and agents shall:
A. Cease and desist from:
1. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees (Union) by failing to provide
requested information;
2. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union by declaring
impasse on packages where the parties are not at impasse;
3. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union by declaring impasse on packages when the State has failed to provide requested information or failed to provide the Union with a sufficient opportunity to
review and respond to the information; and
4. Failing and refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union,
in any like or related manner, interfering with, restraining or coercing its
employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed them in the Act; …
B. Take the following affirmative actions designed to effectuate the policies of the Act:
1. As soon as practicable, provide the Union with the following information…
2. Upon request, bargain collectively in good faith with the Union over the terms of provisions of a successor agreement
The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) has agreed to pay $450,000 to a man punished and humiliated by prison officials after he reported his Logan Correctional Center cellmate had sexually and physically assaulted him.
The James Fontano v. Godinez settlement, which was announced Friday, is believed to be among the largest payments made for a prison retaliation case. Fontano was represented by attorneys from the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People’s Law Center.
“Whether in prison, in the Catholic church, in a school or anywhere else, any person who reports a sexual assault deserves to be treated with concern and respect,” said Locke E. Bowman, Executive Director of the MacArthur Justice Center. “Those in charge must investigate the allegations fairly and aggressively. Sexual predators must be brought to justice.
“The response of prison officials to James Fontano in this case is a model of what not to do,” Bowman said. “Instead of concern, James was met with derision and disbelief. The investigation was designed to cover up the rape, not to hold the perpetrator accountable. We need to ask: Just how prevalent is rape within Illinois’ prisons?”
Fontano, who was imprisoned in IDOC for eight months on a minor drug offense, served the majority of his sentence at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Fontano was celled with an older, physically larger and stronger prisoner serving a lengthy sentence for armed robbery. In August 2011, shortly before Fontano’s scheduled release date, Fontano’s cellmate repeatedly raped Fontano over the course of two nights while he and Fontano were locked together in the cell they shared.
Fearing that the assaults would escalate and with nowhere else to turn, Fontano reported the assaults to prison authorities. Although Fontano’s report was detailed, graphic and credible, prison officials responded by punishing Fontano, not his assailant. Fontano was forced to spend the rest of his prison sentence in segregation, purportedly because he had lied about being raped.
Eventually, Fontano’s report was corroborated by a finding that his cellmate’s DNA was present on the rear inside panel of Fontano’s underwear. Even with this information, prison officials refused to rescind Fontano’s punishment.
Fontano sued Alex Dawson, the former warden of Logan Correctional Center, and Kevin Standley, the IDOC investigator who recommended that Fontano be disciplined. The suit, filed in the federal court in Springfield, claimed that Dawson and Standley retaliated against Fontano for exercising his First Amendment right to report the rape.
“Men in prison learn quickly there are two things you don’t want to be known for,” said Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown People’s Law Center. “First, if other prisoners believe you are a snitch, you are in danger of being beaten, stabbed and worse. Second, if you are viewed as a weakling and easy mark to be used for sex by another man, you will always be in danger of a sexual assault. Those are the reasons – fear of being known as a snitch and weakling – James endured two sexual and physical assaults and decided to seek help when he could break away during the third attack.”
“Immediately after James reported the rapes, prison officials punished James, threatened him with extra time in prison and pushed him to withdraw his report,” said Sheila Bedi, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center. “Enduring this kind of punishment for reporting his rape came at a great cost to James.
“This settlement should serve to motivate IDOC to change its practices,” Bedi added. “IDOC needs to do all it can to end sexual assault behind bars, to protect the men and women locked in state prisons, and to encourage victims to report sexual assaults.”
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did an attorney who represented the prison officials, including former warden Alex Dawson and Kevin Standley, the IDOC investigator assigned to look into the rape allegations.
I’m glad they settled this case. Let’s hope this stuff is never repeated again.
Here is a scorecard of a few tiers of GOP-held House seats to watch over the next 2 1/2 months. They run from near certain Democratic takeovers to Democratic long-shot opportunities.
Should be a slam dunk. These Republican seats are likely to flip in November even if 2016 turns out to be a surprisingly disappointing year for Democrats. The districts are just too tough for GOP incumbents to hold in any presidential year.
Illinois 10, Bob Dold. Republican Dold is a strong incumbent who fits his district well. But he lost to Brad Schneider (D) in 2012 because of presidential turnout, and he will probably lose in another rematch. Of course, in a midterm with an unpopular Democratic president (like 2018?), don’t bet against Dold. He won in both 2010 and 2014.
* Schneider’s campaign then sent out an e-mail entitled: “ICYMI: Washington Post says Schneider a ‘Slam Dunk’ in IL-10.”
Rothenberg was not amused, pointing out that it wasn’t WaPo which made the claim, it was he who made the claim in WaPo.
In this case, “should” is an auxiliary verb that, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, expresses “what is probable or expected,” not what will or must happen.
Unless someone has a problem understanding the meaning of the word “is” – and I certainly understand that some people do – my intentions were quite clear.
The point of the column was to lay out a series of expectations to allow readers to follow along during the final months of the campaign to see how the fight for the House was playing out, not to predict, and certainly not to guarantee, which candidates were going to win.
The Schneider campaign press release did include two full paragraphs from my column which included the correct “Should be a slam dunk” language and even noted Dold’s greater chances in a midterm election. But that hardly makes up for the press release’s headline or lead paragraph, both of which are misleading or worse.
* In other campaign news, here’s a press release…
After being the first candidate in the 12th congressional district race against Congressman Mike Bost to air television ads in Southern Illinois, Democratic candidate CJ Baricevic will continue his advertising campaign by being the first candidate to air ads in the St. Louis media market, communicating to voters in the Metro East section of the congressional district.
The thirty-second ad “Working Families,” which began airing in the Paducah media market last week will begin airing on Monday on St. Louis stations. See ad: https://youtu.be/I6jywmTHJGE
The two sides are reportedly spending about $70k for a week of ads.
* PolitiFact took this recent statement about Illinois Democrats (which he used constantly in 2014) by Gov. Bruce Rauner…
“They are cutting our school funding. Four times in the last 10 years before we came into office.”
* Includes more detailed claims from the governor’s office…
Rauner’s office provided us with figures from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget from FY 2000 to FY 2015 (the last year in which Illinois had a state budget) to illustrate the trend, and said the years referred to in the speech were FY 2010-FY 2013.
During those years, elementary and secondary education funding went from $7.32 billion to $6.55 billion.
Clearly there’s a decline in school funding over that period. But was it the result of “cutting,” as Rauner claims, or because federal stimulus money ended?
* Then compared it to the Civic Federation’s analysis from 2014…
General Funds spending on education in FY2010 is shown in budget documents as $7.3 billion. But that number includes $790.8 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Some analysts might deduct that amount to maximize comparability, which would reduce the General Funds figure for FY2010 to $6.5 billion. Based on that calculation, General Funds spending on education increases by $358 million to $6.8 billion in FY2015. Similarly, budget documents in FY2009 show education spending at $7.4 billion, but that amount includes $1.0 billion of stimulus funding. Deducting that amount results in General Funds spending of $6.3 billion in FY2009 and an increase of $522 million to $6.8 billion in FY2015.
* Doesn’t include this handy Civic Federation chart, which clearly shows the state money increase…
Last I checked, $10.4 billion was higher than $9.2 billion.
But in claiming that Democrats cut school spending in the final years of their hold on the governor’s office, Rauner resurrects an allegation that should have stayed buried after he won the election.
* If you want to see what stuff Republican Comptroller Leslie Munger might use to attack her Democratic opponent Susana Mendoza, click here. It’s a veritable cornucopia of OR. And it doesn’t even include the “She says Mike Madigan is her mentor” hit.
* There was a big fire at Springfield’s Crows Mill Pub this week. The place was a regular hangout of mine back in the day when I was a student at Sangamon State. US Sen. Dick Durbin was one of its owners years before I got to town, but he and his partners created a venue that thrived through my early Springfield partying days. The SJ-R talked to Durbin about his memories of the place…
In a telephone interview, Durbin said he was at an interesting point in his life when he was approached about investing in the Crows Mill and serving as its attorney, something he would not be paid for.
It was 1976, and he’d just lost a bid for an Illinois Senate seat to incumbent John Davidson, a Republican.
The building at the time housed the Navy Club in the basement. The pitch was to convert the space into a lunch spot, bar and live music venue. The appeal, as it is today, was its proximity to Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois Springfield) and Lincoln Land Community College.
Durbin said they really tried to create a unique place. He also remembers that he and other owners were confident their business would be popular.
“We were certain the McDonald’s Corp. was going to buy us out,” Durbin joked.
Ultimately, the Crows Mill ended up being a “crash course” in running a business, he said. They had some success, but not at the level they envisioned, so they sold it after five years.
The current owner says he will gut the charred interior and eventually reopen. I wish him nothing but the best.
A strike at a construction site on the Jane Addams Tollway in Des Plaines orchestrated by a tollway board member could slow the long-awaited completion of the project.
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 members said they would picket a tollway contractor, Stalworth Underground, starting Thursday night at the I-90 bridge over Oakton near Des Plaines.
Stalworth owes the union more than $40,000 from a grievance settlement, said James Sweeney, Local 150 president and a tollway director.
The massive rebuild and widening of I-90 between Elgin and O’Hare International Airport is on a tight time schedule and is supposed to wrap up at the end of 2016. […]
The picket isn’t the first salvo against the tollway since a new batch of directors appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner voted in 2015 to nix a 21-year agreement requiring contractors to hire unions in exchange for guarantees of no strikes or walkouts.
More than 10,000 people are expected to participate in a Labor Day Parade that will celebrate unions in the 10th Ward.
The Saturday parade and festival, which will include representatives from more than 35 unions, was in part organized by Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th). The large celebration will show anti-union politicians that they can’t mess with the city and its working class people, Garza said.
“We got Bruce Rauner sitting in Springfield, waiting to pounce on labor unions. They want to take away collective bargaining and this, that and the other,” Garza said. “I’m hoping to send a message to Springfield that says, ‘Hey, Bruce Rauner, don’t screw with Chicago. Don’t screw with Illinois. Because labor is standing strong.’ “
S&P Global Ratings warned on Thursday that the Chicago public school system’s B-plus credit rating could fall deeper into the junk level due to its “extremely weak” cash position.
“Unless (the Chicago Board of Education) achieves what we view as a credible and sustainable long-term solution to its financial pressures while continuing to demonstrate that it can fund its cash-flow needs, further downgrades are possible,” the credit rating agency said in a statement.
S&P affirmed a B-plus rating for the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) outstanding general obligation bonds and assigned the rating to $150 million of bonds the district privately placed with J.P. Morgan in late July. But that rating remained on S&P’s watch list for a potential downgrade over the coming months. […]
S&P said it could drop the rating multiple notches if CPS is unable to obtain credit lines to aid cash flow. A downgrade would also be likely if $215 million in state funding does not materialize, it added.
Here’s a scary number for you: In the last 16 years, Illinois has lost 35 percent of its manufacturing jobs. That’s about 304,000 jobs, more than the population of any city in the state other than Chicago.
That number alone, cited by a business leader this week in a lunchtime speech before the City Club, tell the story of our state’s poor business climate and sputtering economy. It sounds an alarm. It reminds us once again — if anybody still needs reminding — that our elected officials have failed us miserably and time is running short to set things right. […]
Manufacturers “aren’t necessarily fleeing the state in droves, although many have left,” [IMA President Greg Baise] said. “Instead, when expanding, they do it in other states because they can be more successful.”
In a number of earlier editorials, we have placed much of the blame for our state’s political paralysis on Rauner. The new governor promised to roll right over the evil opposition — that would be House Speaker Mike Madigan — but never had the votes. We still put the bulk of the blame there. All that counterproductive tough talk has left Illinois with nothing but $10 billion in back bills.
But the governor no longer insists on most of his vaunted “turnaround agenda” of pro-business reforms before he’ll agree to a tax increase and other measures, and there is no doubt the Democrats can and should meet him part way. He is right that our state’s business climate is competitively weak. Give the guy something real. Further tweaks to worker’s comp — when and how much an employer must pay a worker who is hurt on the job — would be an excellent start.
Thoughts?
…Adding… Some of the more ridiculously partisan commenters here are forgetting something I posted just the other day from Baise’s speech…
Just remember as you leave, in the last seven years….
Wisconsin created 44,100 manufacturing jobs
Ohio created 75,900 manufacturing jobs
Indiana created 83,700 manufacturing jobs and
Michigan created 171,300 manufacturing jobs.
Illinois created 4,600 jobs. Even Idaho created 9,100 manufacturing jobs. A state better known for its potato farms.
In a recent paper published in Political Research Quarterly, I tested competing expectations about the ways media can convince partisans to engage in motivated reasoning. The study examines the conditions under which partisans internalize their preferred “facts.”
The Cooperative Congressional Election Study is a massive survey project put together by more than 50 research teams nationwide. I presented survey-takers with one of five randomly assigned articles about the economy during the 2014 wave of the study. These stories were designed to mimic the type of content they might see when visiting a partisan news source. Some of the articles presented readers with “just the (congenial) facts”: these survey-takers saw a news story showing either optimistic or gloomy economic data. Others saw stories that presented these facts paired with statements blaming or praising President Barack Obama for the trend. These latter treatments make survey-takers highly aware of the agenda of the story’s author – especially if they identify as partisans.
Just as expected, Republicans and Democrats in the study were most likely to learn from the news story when it reinforced their own worldview. Republican Reba believed the bad news, while Denny the Democrat believed the good news.
The surprising finding was that this pattern only held for the “just the facts” news stories – not the overtly partisan ones. In other words, partisans enjoy cheerleading for their party but are even more strongly affected by news stories that appear to be highly objective. When asked to report whether they thought the economy in the past year had gotten better or worse, partisans in these treatment conditions were significantly more likely than others to give the party-congenial response.
In a second paper recently published in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, I show that this is indeed the case: An analysis of a large number of public opinion polls reveals partisans tend to agree on the state of the stock market. The ubiquitousness of this economic indicator allows it to bypass even the most intense agenda-setting efforts.
We would normally expect partisans to feel the mental discomfort known as cognitive dissonance when knowledge of stock market performance conflicts with their biased economic judgments. As the stock market soars to record highs, this news conflicts with the idea that the economy is still stuck in post-Great Recession doldrums. Partisans should adjust their beliefs.
However, to echo the title of a recent paper by Danish political scientist Martin Bisgaard, I nevertheless show in survey analyses that “bias will find a way.” Partisans perform mental gymnastics by changing the way they think the economy works. When stock market performance runs in conflict with the partisan economic narrative, partisans become less likely to say the stock market matters at all for the broader economy.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has issued layoff notices to 29 workers at the Illinois Department of Transportation, a move the governor’s office says is aimed at ridding the agency of patronage hires that flourished under his Democratic predecessors.
Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly confirmed the layoff notices went out Thursday to employees classified as “staff assistants,” a special position created to hire hundreds of people without having to go through strict personnel procedures designed to keep politics out of most state hiring.
The patronage hires were the subject of a scathing report the state’s top ethics investigator issued in 2014. The probe found the lax rules had been in place since before ex-Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office in 2003, but determined that such hiring escalated during former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.
“The duration and pervasiveness of IDOT’s improper acts have undoubtedly denied countless qualified candidates the opportunity to lawfully obtain state employment on the basis of merit,” the report stated.
…Adding… Press release…
Governor Bruce Rauner today announced the state has reached a conclusion in the IDOT patronage hiring scandal that began under previous administrations. IDOT gave the remaining staff assistants layoff notices today.
“Our administration has put an end to the illegal patronage hiring that started under Blagojevich and continued under Quinn,” Governor Rauner said. “Since taking office, we have worked for taxpayers to ensure proper hiring at all of our state agencies. This is an additional step to restore citizens’ faith in state government so it works for them and not the political insiders.”
IDOT notified the remaining 29 staff assistants connected to the illegal patronage hiring scandal their last day with the agency will be September 15th. In 2014, an Executive Inspector General report found staff assistants at IDOT were illegally hired and then either transferred into protected government positions or allowed to perform job duties that had little or no relation to their actual job description. The previous administration attempted to lay off these employees, but the union representing the staff assistants sued the state to stop those proceedings. As a result of the settlement of the lawsuit, the 29 employees were notified today their services are no longer needed by the State of Illinois.
During the first month of his administration, Governor Rauner signed an Executive Order to publish all Rutan-exempt employees on the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal website in a direct response to the IDOT hiring scandal. In addition, he signed an Executive Order that removed the requirement that the Governor’s Office review and approve the hiring and promotion decisions of Rutan-covered positions. This Executive Order removed a level of bureaucracy in hiring civil-service positions and further protected the process from unlawful political influence.
* So, the Sports Facility Authority gets a piece of the sponsorship action, finally. Good…
The new naming rights deal for the publicly owned stadium where the White Sox play baseball is worth $25.1 million but will deliver no additional money to the team, documents associated with the agreement show.
The White Sox will receive only the remaining value of the original contract entered into with U.S. Cellular in 2003, which amounts to $20.4 million. The remaining $4.7 million will go to the state agency that serves as landlord of the ballpark, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
The contract that will change the facility’s name to Guaranteed Rate Field runs through 2029. If the agreement is extended for a year, the authority would receive $6.4 million in all. The agency can use that money in any way it sees fit, according to general counsel Anthony J. O’Neill, who suggested it may be used to help retire debt.
The White Sox, Guaranteed Rate and U.S. Cellular have declined to discuss other financial details of the new contract, which requires U.S. Cellular to pay an undisclosed portion of the $20.4 million owed on the company’s 2003 agreement.
* Way too many people are pointing to “fully autonomous cars of the future” to argue against mass transit projects. It’s a silly argument for a lot of reasons, including the fact that mass transit prevents city streets from being flooded with even more automobiles. And then there’s this, from MIT Technology Review…
BMW, Ford, and Uber have all recently said they plan to have “fully autonomous” cars ready to drive themselves on the road in 2021 (see “2021 May Be the Year of the Fully Autonomous Car”). Ford says its fleet of vehicles will lack steering wheels and offer a robotic taxi service.
But don’t expect to toss out your driver’s license in 2021. Five years isn’t long enough to create vehicles good enough at driving to roam extensively without human input, say researchers working on autonomous cars. They predict that Ford and others will meet their targets by creating small fleets of vehicles limited to small, controlled areas.
“Probably what Ford would do to meet their 2021 milestone is have something that provides low-speed taxi service limited to certain roads—and don’t expect it to come in the rain,” says Steven Shladover of the University of California, Berkeley, who has worked on automated driving for more than 20 years.
Shladover says many media outlets and members of the public are overinterpreting statements from Ford and other companies that are less specific than they appear. The dream of being able to have a car drive you wherever you want to go in the city, country, or continent remains distant, he says. “It ain’t going to be five years,” says Shladover. “The hype has gotten totally out of sync with reality.”
Alain Kornhauser, a Princeton professor and director of the university’s transportation program, also expects 2021’s vehicles to be very restricted. “By then we may be able to define [a] ‘fenced’ region of space where we can in fact let cars out there without a driver,” he says. “The challenge will be making that fenced-in area large enough so that it provides a valuable service.”
The other “challenge” for policymakers here and elsewhere will be fending off what are sure to be huge lobbying armadas for Google, Uber and the automakers which are going to demand that existing public transit and/or road funding be diverted or increased to construct those “fenced-in areas.”
The Illinois Education Association (IEA) today endorsed Bob Dold for re-election due to his strong record on education that is directly impacting Illinois’ 10th District schools and students.
“We need more leaders in Congress like Bob Dold. Congressman Dold consistently reaches across the aisle and stands up for our schools and our students. Bob Dold fought for long-term funding for North Chicago Schools and he worked in a bi-partisan manner to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act, which will help local schools educate the children in their own communities. Bob has our strong recommendation,” said Kathi Griffin, IEA Vice-President.
“Education is the greatest source of opportunity to help get Americans back to work and equip generations to lead. As a father of three, I understand the importance of giving our children the tools they need to succeed,” said Rep. Dold. “The Illinois Education Association is a strong advocate for public education and works to increase opportunities for children in our communities. I am honored to receive their endorsement.”
The IEA endorsed the incumbent Dold in 2012 (when he lost his seat to Democrat Brad Schneider in a presidential year), and backed the incumbent Schneider in 2014 (when Schneider lost his seat to Dold in an off-year).
So, the union is back to endorsing an incumbent who’s facing an election year with strong national headwinds.
MORRIS—State Representative David Welter (R-Morris) is seeking members for his new legislative advisory committees.
Welter will be hosting regular meetings that will allow these advisory boards to provide input he can use when presenting and voting on legislation in Springfield.
“Advisory boards are key to representing our district well,” said Welter. “This provides opportunity for members of the community to not only bring in ideas, which I always welcome, but it allows for a sounding board when discussing legislation that is presented by other parts of the state. I want to know how this will impact our community so I can represent our district well.”
The first round of advisory communities will include Education, Agriculture, First Responders and Disability Advocates.
Welter (R-Morris) was recently appointed to replace GOP Rep. John Anthony.
* The Question: Your advice to the new legislator?
The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) State Lodge and Labor Council salute all working men and women in the state of Illinois this Labor Day, particularly the law enforcement officers, emergency telecommunicators and corrections officers who will be on duty to help make the holiday safe and enjoyable for everyone.
“These law enforcement officers take no holidays so others can enjoy theirs,” said FOP State Lodge President Chris Southwood. “This Labor Day, take a moment to appreciate the work that law enforcement officers do that maintains and protects our society, where people of all backgrounds are free to advocate for higher wages, better benefits, safe workplaces, and fair treatment on the job.”
“Remember the courage and dedication of those who put on the badge every day in one of the nation’s most dangerous and demanding jobs,” said FOP Labor Council Executive Director David Wickster. “Let’s honor their service by celebrating the workers who built this great nation and keep it running, and make sure everyone’s right to fair compensation for an honest day’s work is never diminished.”
As Chicago police battle surging violence, the union representing rank-and-file officers continues to urge officers not to work overtime shifts over Labor Day weekend.
The request from the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police comes as the city is reeling from 86 homicides in August, the deadliest month in 20 years.
The FOP has been calling for the boycott since late July, and the latest memo sent Wednesday to its 10,000 rank-and-file officers declared Friday through Monday as “FOP Unity Days” and urged officers to spend time with their families. […]
In a brief telephone interview Wednesday, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told the Tribune he was confident staffing levels for the Labor Day weekend would be adequate. He didn’t take issue with the union’s message but called on officers to stay united. […]
If the department falls short on the number of officers needed to work overtime this weekend, Johnson said, he’d cancel days off for some officers, a common move by officials over holiday weekends during the summer.
* The Second City Cop blog reported the other day that some days off have already been canceled…
Days off Cancelled for All District Tact Teams, Area Saturation Teams, Gun Teams, Gang Enforcement Teams and Summer Mobile for the Labor Day weekend
* Meanwhile, as I was watching Charlie Rose the other night, film director Spike Lee told the host that he wanted to see the US Army brought in to Chicago to quell the violence, pointing to the success of Gen. Russel Honoré after Hurricane Katrina. But reports of violence in New Orleans were hugely overblown and Lee should know that, since he did two documentaries on the topic.
The Republican governor said he had discussed the concept with community leaders, police officers and the National Guard, but that “no thoughtful leader thinks that’s a good idea or would really provide a solution.” […]
“If that means bringing in the National Guard — some people have said, ‘Bring in the National Guard.’ We’ve discussed that. We’ve analyzed it,” Rauner said. “In fact, it may exacerbate the other problems. So, nobody thinks that’s a good idea.”
Calling up the National Guard is an idea that has repeatedly surfaced during the last decade amid Chicago’s persistent gun violence. A change.org petition pushing the idea has accumulated more than 10,000 signatures. On Wednesday, a reporter suggested to Rauner that residents on the South and West sides want the troops brought in.
“Well, see, sometimes, when you get emotional and you say, ‘Well, we’ve got to do something,’ …the reality is, sometimes, something is — actually makes it worse, or something creates other problems,” Rauner said. “You’ve got to think these things through and the implications. And the National Guard right now wouldn’t make sense.”
And although Chicago has a lower homicide rate than many other U.S. cities that are smaller in population, the city this year has had more homicides and shooting victims than New York City and Los Angeles combined. The two cities are larger than Chicago’s population of roughly 2.7 million. […]
Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Bruce Rauner ruled out the idea of deploying the National Guard to help combat street violence in the city, saying that to do so would be an “emotional” reaction that “wouldn’t make sense.” At his demonstration, Pfleger demanded the governor instead call for a state of emergency in order to tap federal resources to help deal with Chicago violence.
“When there are fires, we call a state of emergency. When there are hurricanes, a state of emergency. When there’s floods, a state of emergency,” he said. “Well, we have the fire of violence and gunfire. We have the floods of blood in our streets. And we have communities that look like third world countries, that look like it must have had a tornado hit it, or a hurricane.”
More than a week past their deadline, parties in the workplace harassment suit against U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates still haven’t reached an agreement. What’s the holdup?
Sources involved with the case tell me plaintiffs Christine Butler and Denise Goins, workers in the downstate Anna Veterans’ Home, have two sticking points.
They don’t want to agree there was no wrongdoing by Duckworth in the case stemming from her time heading the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and they want more than the reported $26,000 compensation in an earlier agreement. […]
Judge Mark Boie has given both sides several more days to settle before he takes matters into his own hands, records from the Union County clerk’s office show.
* But that court case didn’t impress Larry Sabato, who just moved the Senate race from “Leans Democratic” to “Likely Democratic”…
Let’s tackle these in order of likeliest Democratic pickups, starting from most likely to increasingly less likely.
We’ve long listed first-term Sens. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) as underdogs in their reelection bids: Both Senate races have been leaning to the Democrats for more than a year in our ratings. Kirk and Johnson were helped by 2010’s optimal Republican conditions, but this year they drew solid challengers in Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D, IL-8) and ex-Sen. Russ Feingold (D), respectively… Illinois has had very little polling, but Republican outside groups appear to have abandoned Kirk, a sure sign that they do not see much of a path to victory for him.
Additionally, Trump does not appear to be targeting either state. Of course, Illinois going Democratic for president is a foregone conclusion unless a Republican is winning a huge national victory. Illinois has voted at least five points more Democratic than the nation as a whole in each of the last six presidential elections… While Johnson has largely if occasionally tepidly embraced Trump, Kirk says he won’t vote for him. They are utilizing different strategies, but neither method seems likely to create the distance they’ll need from Trump to win reelection. (In fact, Johnson is currently running slightly behind Trump, as shown in Table 1 below).
If Johnson or Kirk recover, it will likely be a sign that the national winds have shifted in favor of Trump and the Republicans. As of now, it’s hard to see how either one wins, so we’re moving both races from Leans Democratic to Likely Democratic.
Frustrated with a lack of legislative progress, a group of agriculture leaders is bypassing the General Assembly to form a private foundation to support the state fairgrounds in Springfield and Du Quoin.
Characterizing it as a completely private initiative, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner applauded the effort, which was announced Tuesday morning during Agriculture Day at the state fair. […]
“The wonderful thing for the people of Illinois is now private citizens – farm families, community leaders, agriculture executives – are stepping forward to take the leadership on this initiative,” Rauner said. “We’re not going to wait. … The General Assembly won’t do it; private citizens are going to do it.”
Leaders in the agricultural community established the Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation to promote, support, assist, and sustain the Springfield and Du Quoin State Fairgrounds. The foundation will be led by a volunteer board representing a diverse cross section of the agriculture industry. Board members will engage with private sector business organizations and individuals to develop strategies to raise private funding, coordinate with the Department of Agriculture to plan projects and determine the Fairgrounds’ needs, and serve as ambassadors for the revitalization and improvement of the Fairgrounds and their agricultural heritage.
When Gov. Bruce Rauner announced during last month’s Illinois State Fair that a nonprofit foundation had formed to help pay for upkeep of the state fairgrounds in Springfield and Du Quoin, he touted it as an effort of private individuals in agriculture and business.
“This is not going to be a government agency in any regard,” Rauner said in announcing the foundation on Agriculture Day at the fair. “This is all private money, all private management, all private control.”
But emails and other records released to the Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act show that officials with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Rauner administration were heavily involved in the group’s formation. […]
Records show that state officials have been meeting since at least early June to discuss the foundation and played a role in assembling the organization’s board. State officials also put together a “Facts & FAQs” document detailing how the foundation would function and set the agenda for a conference call with board members five days before the effort was publicly announced.
The governor was most certainly hyperbolic during the unveiling, but somebody had to get this thing off the ground and the original story included this quote from John Slayton, a bank vice president who’s been involved with the fair’s Sale of Champions for years…
“Gov. Rauner really took the lead,” Slayton said, “and he’s the one that gets credit for the formation of this foundation.”
Even so, if they’ve already put together the details about how the foundation would function it’s not really a privately led organization.
…Adding… The governor’s office claims that “individuals reached out” to the Department of Agriculture asking to be involved if the bill creating the foundation passed. When the bill failed to move, the governor’s people say they “helped bring those individuals together so they could create a foundation.”
* Years ago, a wise man told me that candidates who constantly speak at or attend civic events were wasting much of their time. The folks who attend these various local events tend to be the same people. So, doing too many of them meant you were talking to or meeting with the same people time after time. It’s much better, he said, to skip many (not all, because some are must-attends) of those events and walk precincts and make fundraising calls.
There is also the real danger that events won’t be well-attended. Like yesterday, for instance, when Rep. Mike Smiddy (D-Hillsdale) spoke at a forum that his Republican opponent wisely skipped…
Frustration with the Illinois financial picture roiled on Wednesday when Don Benson, East Moline, slapped his hand on a table and said to state Rep. Mike Smiddy: “How will you pay for that? Your math doesn’t compute!”
Benson’s eruption came during a discussion on state support for hourly wages of home health care workers.
Smiddy, Hillsdale, is a Democrat representing the state’s 71st District. He and Mike Halpin, Rock Island, the Democratic candidate in the 72nd District race, were the only two candidates to show up at a political forum on Wednesday sponsored by the Quad-City chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans. […]
Benson said he was disappointed Smiddy wasn’t able to work with Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been in office less than two years.
“You can’t lay this all on Rauner,” he said. “It’s time for a change.”
Dick Benson, of East Moline, expressed disappointment in Rep. Smiddy’s service, calling him a “lapdog” for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Mr. Benson said Democrats needed to stop blaming all of the state’s woes on Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican.
All that time and effort spent on an event that only wound up providing embarrassing coverage for the incumbent. Smiddy should’ve spent that time walking precincts.
* After reading all the opinions on the subject and reading the various analyses, Charlie Wheeler offers up some “broad suggestions” for the next attempt at remap reform via popular referendum…
At a minimum, don’t include anything that could be construed as extraneous. No new duties for the auditor general — an office created by a different article of the constitution.
No limits on future office seeking by those drawing the maps.
Don’t tinker with the Supreme Court’s exclusive jurisdiction on remap cases, nor with the attorney general’s charge to initiate legal action in the people’s name, both issues included in the most recent failed plan.
Keep the independent commission, but find someone else to screen the applicants, somebody not mentioned elsewhere in the Constitution. Perhaps a legislative support body, like the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or the office of the Legislative Inspector General. Maybe a private entity, like the Illinois State Bar Association, or a group of academics specializing in demographics, GPS tools, information systems or other related fields.
* He’s a good reporter and, apparently, one heck of a great guy…
They’re close friends who root for different teams.
That worries Tom Costello ahead of Thursday’s surgery in St. Louis, where he is to receive Tom Kacich’s kidney.
“I just hope it doesn’t turn me into a Cubs fan,” said Costello, loyal to the White Sox.
Costello was at MTD and Kacich at The News-Gazette when they first met in ’75. Their friendship bloomed over the years and continues today, the two joining others at Perkins in Urbana on Saturday mornings. Over breakfast in January, Costello informed the gang that his wife, Rose, had been rejected as a kidney donor.
“I’ll try it,” Kacich said with no hesitation. Many tests and weeks later, Kacich and his kidney were cleared to proceed. Their operations will take place 30 minutes apart Thursday morning.
“He gets my left kidney — the inferior one,” Kacich said. “I get to keep the better one.”
Pay Now Illinois, a coalition of 97 Illinois-based human and social service agencies and companies, said today that it will consider an appeal of Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rodolfo Garcia’s denial of their request for immediate preliminary injunction and full payment of unpaid contracts dating back to July 1, 2015. While the judge dismissed the coalition’s suit against the State of Illinois, he also urged that their breach of contract suit be expeditiously appealed to a higher court for resolution.
In his ruling, Judge Garcia contended that a trial court was not the right setting for the case.
“We are disappointed with the ruling, but heartened by the Court’s recognition of the irreparable harm that has been caused in Illinois and by the Judge’s comment that our case deserves to be heard at a higher level,” Pay Now Illinois Chair Andrea Durbin said.
“From the beginning this lawsuit has been about good business practices – paying signed contracts in full and on time. The State’s failure to pay – and their belief that there is no way to make them pay – sets an extraordinarily bad precedent that should be of concern to anybody doing business with the state. It calls into question whether any contracts in the state are valid.”
Pay Now Illinois had sought a preliminary injunction for emergency relief that would require the state of Illinois to begin immediate payment on contracts that were more than 60 days in arrears. The motion for injunction was deemed necessary because of the devastating and irreparable harm being caused to plaintiffs who are facing a cascade of damages – laying off staffs, curtailment of essential programs, or entirely shuttering their programs, all of which seriously impedes their ability to serve their clients.
The original lawsuit filed on May 4, 2016 against Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger and the directors of six statewide agencies – one agency has since been added – claimed that the state’s failure to pay invoices on services performed under signed contacts was an unlawful impairment, or interference, with the agencies’ constitutional right to a legal remedy for the non-payment of these contracts. The suit further charged that the Governor and other state officials have acted illegally by failing to make payments on contracts while continuing to enforce them.
“It’s important to remember we are seeking full – not partial – payment on our contracts,” said Durbin who is also CEO of Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY). “For the State of Illinois to be considered a desirable business partner, it has to show that it honors its contracts in full. Right now, that is not the case.”
The State Board of Elections can confirm that approximately 700 voter records were viewed and those 700 individuals will soon be notified by mail as required by law. In addition, approximately 86,000 records are strongly suspected to have been viewed and the Board staff continues to identify those individuals. Anyone within that group will receive written notification within the next thirty days. There appear to be 3,533 records viewed which will not be able to be identified.
* Jason Barclay, Gov. Rauner’s General Counsel on July 6th…
Last week we learned that AFSCME is conducting strike assessments throughout the state. This document confirms that AFSCME is now asking individual members to commit to a strike. And we have also heard that they have already selected a strike date of September 1 – which, depending on the status of the Impasse Case at the Labor Board, could be a violation of the Tolling Agreement AFSCME signed with the State wherein it committed not to strike until the Labor Board determines if an impasse has been reached. An AFSCME strike could result in serious disruptions to its members lives – disruption to pension calculations because of a lengthy strike, loss of wages and health insurance during a lengthy strike, and the possibility of being replaced by replacement workers, potentially permanently.
Members of the largest state employee union have been getting briefed on what would happen in the event of a strike and some are being polled over their willingness to go on strike over the stalled contract negotiations between the union and the state.
Members of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration said the actions show that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees “is now asking individual members to commit to a strike,” possibly by Sept. 1.
* An op-ed published in the State Journal Register by John Terranova, Deputy Director, Office of Labor Relations on July 16th…
This paper recently reported on the possibility that AFSCME Council 31 employees could go out on strike, perhaps as early as Sept. 1.
Um, yeah. The reporting relied on the Rauner administration’s memo.
That op-ed was sent out to state employees by Terranova on July 19th.
As we near AFSCME’s September 1 strike date, I wanted to update you about a troublesome development.
A September 1st strike looked like a lock by then, according to the administration.
* Gov. Rauner was asked about the September 1st date today…
“That’s, that, we’re just hearing that from, we have many, uh, state employees who are working closely with our administration who like our proposal, who like our contract recommendation and are, and are advising us and there’s been a lot of chatter about strikes and strike dates and strike preparations and raising a strike fund. I don’t know. Nobody, I mean, we, we believe we’re at impasse. Um, and, uh, we’re just going through the process that we all agreed. We agreed with the union how the process would go. We had a toll agreement. We have a legal agreement. And we’re going through that process right now and it’s going to play out in the coming weeks and months.”
[The audio link doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. None of the links on the CMS site are working, actually. So, give it some time.]
…Adding… The link is working now.
…Adding More… A senior administration source with knowledge of the administration’s thinking claims signs are popping up in agencies during the past few weeks in AFSCME colors that say “Get ready.”
“We think that’s preparation for a strike,” the source said.
Anders Lindall with AFSCME said the signs mean the union is “Ready for whatever may come. Right now, we’re ready to set straight the frequent falsehoods of the administration’s misinformation campaign. Looking ahead, we’re ready to act if the administration tries to unilaterally impose its unfair terms.” He also said the signs have been up for close to two months.
The administration source also pointed to how they’d asked the Labor Board to expedite the hearing on the impasse declaration by bypassing the administrative law judge. AFSCME opposed that motion, you’ll recall. The Labor Board sided with AFSCME. As of now, there’s been no decision from the administrative law judge. “The union can’t credibly go on strike if judge hasn’t ruled,” the Rauner source said.
The source also said the union was “Likely continuing to raise money for a strike fund,” but, he admitted “that’s never been confirmed.”
…Adding Still More… From Anders Lindall…
Donald Trump is known for using the phrase “people are saying” to spread misinformation and innuendo without any proof. Now Bruce Rauner, who said he would support Trump for President, is employing the same tactic to mislead state employees and all the people of Illinois about the status of contract negotiations between his administration and our union. There never was any “Sept. 1 strike date,” and AFSCME has corrected the record time and again.
Public service workers in state government want to do their jobs and serve their communities, not be forced out on strike by Governor Rauner—but that’s exactly what he’s trying to do. Rauner’s administration walked away from negotiations, has refused to bargain since January, and is seeking to unilaterally impose terms on state employees instead of compromising with them.
State workers deserve a governor who is honest, who understands the important public services they provide, and who treats them with respect. Just because Bruce Rauner supports Donald Trump politically is no excuse for the governor to copy Trump’s ludicrous behavior.
The Governor says redistricting should be the number one priority of lawmakers when they return to Springfield after the election in November. […]
Rauner says he wants redistricting reform passed before he can agree to a comprehensive budget deal that will include a tax hike.
Rauner did say the second priority should be pension reform, after the Teachers Retirement System voted to lower their expected investment returns, meaning the state will be on the hook for hundreds of millions more when it comes time to make the pension payment.
* From the governor’s Tuesday appearance on Channel 7…
We’ve got to have financial discipline and we need reforms to grow our economy. That’s the number one priority.
…Adding… Today, Gov. Rauner said a budget deal, along with property tax reforms, would be worked out after the election and that redistricting reform and term limits should be included in the deal.
Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday issued an ominous report about Illinois’ finances, warning that the lack of a full year budget will more than double the state’s deficit and could lead to further credit downgrades. […]
According to the report, the partial budget will likely widen the state’s operating fund deficit with a backlog of bills likely to reach $14 billion or more — a new high — this year “absent actions by the government to align revenue and spending.”
The report says current spending authorizations, appropriations, court orders and consent decrees in the fiscal year which began on July 1 will drive expenditures up by an estimated 12 percent compared with the revenue coming in.
The report warns that the state might “resort to actions that cast doubt on an otherwise strong legal framework prioritizing debt payment, such as borrowing from funds set aside for debt service.”
Moody’s also warns that a reliance on payment deferrals to offset the budget imbalance will be hard to end, calling the payment backlog “the by-product of a weak governance structure that includes permissive laws and legal interpretations.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel today was joined by award-winning producer Dick Wolf, NBCUniversal executives, members of the film industry and unions in announcing that the City of Chicago has seen record TV filming production in 2016—a two-fold increase in TV shows filming here over last year. This year’s filming boost is due in large part to TV series selecting the city as the main stage for filming—with an unprecedented eight full-time major TV series filming across the city’s neighborhoods this year, and another two major series’ filming locally part time.
Additionally, while the city has recorded more than $1.3 billion in economic activity from film and commercial production since 2011, this year’s filming is expected to outpace economic benefits seen in previous years, contributing to local jobs and the livelihood of Chicago’s neighborhoods.
When the hit TV show “Empire” filmed scenes in Chicago last year, it lured big-name stars like Chris Rock to the Cook County juvenile detention center.
But relatives of two juveniles were far from star-struck. And now they’ve sued Twentieth Century Fox Television Inc., Cook County and others over the lockdown they say occurred when “enormous” film crews descended on the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center at Roosevelt and Ogden in the summer of 2015.
“The purpose of these lockdowns was to provide Fox with a realistic prison facility to use as the primary set of two highly profitable ‘Empire’ episodes,” their lawyers wrote in a 37-page federal complaint filed Wednesday. “The children at JTDC, meanwhile, were placed under restrictions more severe than those governing many adult jails.” […]
Meanwhile, the juveniles housed at the facility were relegated to their cell and “pod” areas and were required to sit in one place, according to the complaint. For one teen, “even to stand up without first obtaining permission was treated as a major rule violation.”
“There they were told to sit, for days on end,” lawyers wrote. “Their schooling continued in name only, visits from their families were interrupted, cut back, or effectively eliminated, sick-call requests were ignored, and programs that are intended to help them overcome the problems that landed them at the JTDC in the first place were cancelled or interrupted.”
This has been showing up in parades in the LaSalle County Area. Not sure the guy towing it understands political messaging. Might be fun for a caption contest.
If you run for a position on your local school board, Illinois’ campaign finance laws require that you disclose contributions and expenditures. You buy pizza with campaign funds for volunteers? You have to disclose it. You accept free signs from a friend who owns a printing shop? You have to disclose it. You spend $23.56 on gasoline to drive around collecting signatures? You have to disclose it.
That hasn’t been the case with one of the state’s most influential yet obscure groups. The People’s Map, a political organization formed to fight against independently drawn legislative maps, has not disclosed any contributions or expenditures on the forms it filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Little is known about the group — like who finances it, who pays the attorney and court fees, or how the group spends its resources. […]
The People’s Map has filed four quarterly reports, all listing zero contributions and zero expenditures.
Meanwhile, six union groups reported on their own filings that they contributed $2,000 each to The People’s Map effort. The groups are Illinois AFL-CIO COPE, Laborers’ Political Action and Education League, Illinois Pipe Trades PEF, Illinois State Conference of IBEW (the group later canceled its payment), SEIU Local 73 and the Illinois Education Association, the union representing most teachers in the state.
Backers of the remap amendment, Support Independent Maps, asked the State Board of Elections to review The People’s Map’s disclosure paperwork. The board agreed and gave The People’s Map until Aug. 19 to file amended reports. At this writing, nothing has been filed.
The editorial was based on an earlier AP story and a press release from the remap reformers demanding an investigation.
* The group’s attorney Mike Kasper sent a response dated August 15th that was recently posted on the Board of Elections’ website…
And, as I’ve told you before, Kasper doesn’t usually bill a client for fees and/or expenses until after the case is completed. If there’s no invoice, there’s nothing to pay, which means there’s no reason to cash any checks or no debts to report. The guy probably wrote that statute, so he knows how to use it to his clients’ advantage.
Five groups, led by the ACLU, are asking a federal judge today to preserve Election Day registration in local polling places in advance of the November presidential election. U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan is presiding over the case.
The argument, from the ACLU: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Better Government Association, the League of Women Voters of Illinois and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform in Harlan v. Scholtz, an effort by a political candidate to block implementation of the current EDR system approved by the legislature, piloted during the 2014 general election, and used in the March 2016 primary election. “This election has generated interest and fervor across the nation,” said Colleen K. Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois. ‘Eliminating Election Day registration in local precincts so close to an election could leave thousands of people unable to vote.’”
Unmentioned above is that the lawsuit was filed by an arm of the Bruce Rauner-allied Illinois Policy Institute. The group wants the federal court to haltall precinct-level election day voter registration this year because smaller counties are only required to provide a central location for election day registration, while larger counties are required to provide in-precinct election day registration. To them, that’s not fair.
If the Court determines that preliminary injunctive relief is required, it should extend Election Day registration at polling places in low-population counties, rather than deprive voters in high-population counties of that opportunity. Such a remedy would support, rather than undermine, the public interest in allowing qualified voters to vote, would appropriately respect legislative intent, and would more directly remedy the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries. […]
(T)he requested injunction will overturn voters’ reasonable expectations. In preparation for November’s election, voter education and get-out-the-vote organizations have undertaken massive voter education campaigns, getting the message out to thousands of voters that they can vote on Election Day even if they have not registered or their registration is out of date. Those voters have every right to rely on a state statute guaranteeing their right to vote at their local polling place on Election Day. Turning those voters away at the polls would betray those expectations. Voters in high-population counties – including both Republican and Democratic leaning counties – would be confused at precinct polling places and face long lines at EDR sites, assuming that they make it to an EDR site at all. Meanwhile, short- staffed election personnel would have to spend significant additional resources in assisting voters at both types of locations, all thanks to plaintiffs’ decision to file suit more than a year after the statute’s effective date and less than three months before the election.
Moreover, the burden of an injunction limiting EDR is likely to fall disproportionately on identifiable sub-groups. For example, the research surveyed by plaintiffs’ expert suggests that those most likely to be disenfranchised by such an injunction include “the young, the residentially mobile, and those with moderate level of income and education.” Additionally, although plaintiffs do not mention it, the Fourth Circuit recently found that the elimination of same-day registration unlawfully discriminated against African Americans. The Court noted that “African American voters disproportionately used same-day registration when it was available,” and that African Americans “are more likely to move between counties and thus are more likely to need to re-register.” The possibility of a disproportionate racial impact is another reason the public interest weighs heavily against the proposed injunction.
Finally, the plaintiffs incorrectly assert that “a preliminary injunction would simply preserve the status quo ante.” The current EDR system went into effect in June 2015 and was in place for the March 2016 primary election. Plaintiffs’ proposed remedy would disrupt the status quo. […]
Shutting down EDR at precinct polling places in high-population counties will deny many qualified voters the right to vote, in derogation of the public interest. The plaintiffs have the burden of proving that (1) allowing those citizens to vote will cause the plaintiffs irreparable harm; and (2) the alleged harm to plaintiffs outweighs the harm to those citizens. They have made no such showing. […]
In this case, an injunction requiring low-population counties to provide EDR at all polling places would be far more respectful of state legislative policy judgments than an injunction prohibiting high-population counties from doing so. The plaintiffs would have this Court order a direct violation of state statute: Counties that are required by Illinois law to provide EDR at polling places may not do so. By contrast, an injunction extending EDR to all counties would be wholly within the bounds of existing state law, which already allows the low-population counties to offer EDR at polling places. The choice is between ordering some counties to do something that state law prohibits, or ordering other counties to do something that state law allows.
We’ve seen lots of stories this week about a mythical Russian government hack on the state board of elections, and almost nothing this month about a very real lawsuit that could have a serious impact on election day.
Odd.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The attorney general also filed a brief yesterday. Click here to read it.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Another amicus brief was separately filed by a coalition that includes Asian-Americans Advancing Justice, Common Cause, Change Illinois, Illinois PIRG and ICIRR. Click here to read it.
The Independent Maps coalition on Wednesday filed a petition asking the Illinois Supreme Court to reconsider its recent ruling denying voters the ability to vote this November on the proposed constitutional amendment to require a transparent, impartial and fair process of drawing legislative maps.
By a 4 to 3 party line division, the Supreme Court ruled that the Independent Map Amendment is not in line with the Illinois Constitution’s requirement for amendments proposed by voters. Under the Supreme Court’s rules, Independent Maps has the right to point out argument the majority of the Court overlooked or misapprehended and to ask it to reconsider its ruling and its reasoning. Four votes are required to grant rehearing.
“We believe the four justices in the majority were wrong and inconsistent in their reasoning and would reach a different conclusion if they consider, as they have in all other similar cases, the legislative debates from the 1969-70 constitutional convention,” said Dennis FitzSimons, Chair of Independent Maps. “More than 563,000 Illinois voters signed Independent Map Amendment petitions, and we owe it to them and thousands of volunteers across the state to make every possible effort to convince the Court that the amendment deserves to be placed before voters in November.”
The petition includes the following arguments in favor of a rehearing:
Ø The four justices in the majority said that their decision was compelled by the “plain language” of the Illinois Constitution, which states that voters can propose a constitutional amendment only if the amendment is “limited to structural and procedural subjects contained in” the article dealing with the legislature. However, the majority completely ignored Independent Maps’ “plain language” argument explaining why the amendment meets that requirement. Because each provision in the proposed amendment is limited to redistricting and because redistricting is a “structural and procedural subject,” there should be no doubt that the amendment is properly limited to a “structural and procedural subject.”
Ø Even if the majority’s strained construction of “structural and procedural” is one reasonable way to look at that section, the interpretation by Independent Maps is reasonable, too. That means that the constitutional provision is at least ambiguous and the court must look to the legislative history to decide which interpretation the framers intended. The four justices in the majority ignored the legislative history, which clearly indicates that redistricting is one of the “critical” areas the framers had in mind when they created the provision allowing voters to propose amendments to the constitution. “They ignored the debates during the constitutional convention, which show that the ‘limited to’ language was designed to prevent initiatives from being used as a subterfuge to address controversial subjects like taxes, abortion and the death penalty,” FitzSimons said. “Our amendment does exactly what the framers intended to allow citizens to do – propose meaningful redistricting reform. The majority’s refusal even to consider the legislative history is unprecedented in cases like this.”
Ø At a minimum, the Supreme Court should reconsider its ruling that a citizen-initiated amendment cannot include the Auditor General as a participant in the redistricting process, and it should reconsider its decision to postpone for another day any discussion of the other issues plaintiffs prevailed on in the trial court. Because the majority opinion is limited to a single issue, it fails to provide the citizens of Illinois with any guidance about whether a redistricting initiative is even permissible, let alone guidance about what the permissible contours of such an initiative would be.
“The majority opinion is inconsistent,” FitzSimons said. “At one point, it says that the Auditor General can’t be involved because that office is not now part of the legislative article of the constitution, but at another point, it suggests a redistricting initiative could use a non-legislative actor to help select a redistricting commission. Which is it? Without clear guidance, no one will be willing to invest the time, effort and money necessary to put a genuine redistricting reform initiative on the ballot.”
The link accompanying the press release for the full petition for reconsideration is here, but it’s not working as I write this.
In the high court’s ruling last week, it rejected the Independent Maps plan because it extended new duties to the state’s auditor general, going beyond the scope of the one legislative article that can be amended by the citizen initiative process. But the justices did not address other issues that Cook County Judge Diane Larsen also had found unconstitutional, including an expanded role for the high court and changes to the attorney general duties.
Currently, the state Supreme Court plays a role in the tie-breaking process, when they select the names of one Republican and one Democrat who will be chosen at random to end stalemates on the current eight-member redistricting commission, made up equally of House and Senate Republican and Democratic representatives.
Quinn’s argument is that because the state Supreme Court already has a role in redistricting under the legislative article, expanding the court’s role to select a new remap commission would fall under the court’s ruling and be constitutional. But it’s also questionable whether the justices would find the additional duties imposed on them to be constitutional.
Quinn’s proposal also could suffer from its simplicity. The proposal is silent on what would happen if the commission couldn’t reach a seven-member agreement on a new map.
All good points.
* Scott Szala, “an adjunct professor who teaches a course on the state constitution at the University of Illinois law school,” talked to Dan Petrella about the proposal…
He said one potential pitfall of Quinn’s idea is that having the Supreme Court appoint the commission’s members and rule on any legal challenges to the map they draw could create conflicts of interest.
There’s also the question of whether assigning a new task to the court would pass constitutional muster, Szala said.
There are other problems, which I mentioned to subscribers this morning.
Democratic state Rep. John Bradley of Marion and Republican Dave Severin of Benton will fight their campaign for Illinois House alone.
Libertarian candidate Scott Schluter of Marion was removed from the race, as was Tea Party candidate Robert Harner of Pittsburg, according to state campaign records. […]
The Illinois State Board of Elections decided in both cases that the candidates didn’t have enough petition signatures to get on the November ballot. […]
And independent Dan Silver of Alto Pass was removed in his bid to run for Illinois House against Republican Rep. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro and Democratic challenger Marsha Griffin of Jonesboro.
A key ratings agency said the decision by the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System to lower its expected rate of return was “a positive,” even though it means the cash-strapped state will have to find hundreds of millions of dollars more to pay into the pension program for teachers who live outside of Chicago.
The decision by the system’s board to alter the rate of return on investments from 7.5 percent to 7 percent was made despite opposition from Gov. Bruce Rauner, who characterized it as a rushed decision that puts taxpayers on the hook. It was an odd position for the Republican governor, who has long criticized state and city government for kicking the can down the road on financial issues.
But Moody’s Investors Service said the change was “a positive” despite increasing financial pressure on the state in the near term, saying the move would “lower exposure to volatile investment performance.” Moody’s estimated that if the new, lower rate had been in effect for the budget year that began July 1, the state’s required employer contribution would have been $4.3 billion, roughly $421 million more than if the assumed rate of return stayed at 7.5 percent.
* But it’s not all good news. From Moody’s Investors Service’s David Jacobson…
However, even under the lower 7% discount rate, Moody’s estimates Illinois’ contributions would remain roughly $1.5 billion below our “tread water” indicator. Our “tread water” indicator equals the sum of employer service cost (called the “normal cost” for actuarial funding) plus interest on the unfunded liability, using reported assumptions. In the most recent TRS valuation report, actuaries projected that reported unfunded liabilities will continue growing until 2030 under the statutory funding formula.
Oy.
…Adding… Related…
* Amend the state constitution to cut public pensions?: Higher taxes may be needed along with other changes, Baise said. But what’s really needed is to change a clause in the state constitution that the Illinois Supreme Court repeatedly has said fully protects pension benefits some say the state no longer can afford. “In what world do we live in where a $100 billion-plus pension obligation can be explained away by saying ‘It’s in the constitution’?” Baise asked. “A constitutional provision that was drafted in 1970 cannot and must not bankrupt this great state.” In a later interview, Baise conceded that the courts might balk at such an amendment. And getting it by voters would be no snap. But change nonetheless is needed, he said. “Democrats and Republicans have both got to say, ‘We need to get this problem under control,’ ” he said. “Nothing is so sacrosanct it can’t change.”
* From a Peoria Journal Star editorial on remap reform…
Perhaps Quinn has a magic incantation to use on the Supreme Court, starting with using “simple, clean, and pristine” language impossible to poke constitutional holes through even by the most motivated. We just have three questions regarding the referendum Quinn hopes to get on the ballot in 2018, in time for the 2021 map:
Will Madigan still be speaker of the Illinois House? Will Madigan still be chairman of Illinois’ Democratic Party? Will the Supreme Court still have a Democratic majority?
If the answer is “yes” to all three, well, good luck to Quinn, but he’ll forgive us for not holding our breath on any map “reform” worthy of the word.
What that editorial board wants is not remap reform, but a Republican state. Talk about a “magic incantation.” Sheesh.
I mean, if the maps are drawn fairly and without political considerations, who’s to say that Madigan would definitely lose control of the House? This is, after all, a Democratic-leaning state, despite Gov. Rauner’s 2014 win. How are you gonna “fairly” draw lots of Republican districts in Chicago and the south suburbs? And, remember, Madigan kept the gavel eight out of ten years of a Republican-drawn map in the 1990s. So, if he can win under a relatively unfair, partisan map, how is he supposed to be guaranteed to lose under a fair, non-partisan map?
And how are fair legislative district maps gonna end Madigan’s chairmanship of the Democratic Party of Illinois or change the balance on the Illinois Supreme Court?
If this is the bar they’re setting, they should also thunder against the current fair map proposal.
