Good morning!
Monday, Nov 10, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From “Where the Buffalo Roam”…
Hunter Thompson: Hi, sir, it’s Harris from the Post. Can I get you anything, sir?
President Nixon: How’s the family, Harris?
Thompson: Oh the family, well that’s bad news. The screwheads finally came and took my daughter away. Let me ask you a question, sir. What is this country doing for the doomed? There are two kinds of people in this country, the doomed and the screwheads. Savage tribal thugs who live off their legal incomes, brow deep out there; no respect for human dignity. They don’t know what you and I understand, you know what I mean.
Nixon: You ever play football, Harris?
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Yes, sir, thank you, sir. I played in college. And they’re gonna get your daughter too, sir. I’ve heard their rallies, they like Julie, but Tricia… and they really hate you, sir. You know that one half of the state Senate of Utah are screwheads? You know I was never really frightened by the bopheads and the potheads, with their silliness, never really frightened me either. But these g-d screwheads, they terrify me. And the poor doomed, the young, and the silly, the honest, the weak, the Italians … They’re doomed, they’re lost, they’re helpless, they’re somebody else’s meal, they’re like pigs in the wilderness.
Nixon: Come here Harris. Come here… F- the doomed.
* One of the greatest and most profoundly honest songs ever written about the screwheads and the doomed…
Will she ever stand a chance?
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* From a press release…
Volunteers and attorneys from both parties continue to closely monitor the tallying of remaining ballots in the city of Chicago today. Today’s tally makes the race for Illinois State Treasurer one of the closest statewide general elections in state history.
In Chicago today, Tom Cross gained 2,043 votes from mail-in ballots, compared to 9,446 for Democrat Mike Frerichs and 520 for Libertarian candidate Matthew Skopek, consistent with previous citywide returns.
Vote totals have seesawed since election night, but they have trended in Frerichs’ favor. Mail-in ballots counted in collar counties like McHenry and DuPage County saw big net gains for Cross. However Cross’s gains in the collar counties have been offset by vote tallies from Rockford and suburban Cook communities where Frerichs has fared well.
Based on unofficial totals from Capitolfax, The Frerichs campaign projects Tom Cross’s lead has now shrunk to fewer than 1,800 votes. Frerichs cautions the contest remains far from over, with tens of thousands of ballots still to be counted in counties across Illinois through November 18th.
The approximate 1,800 vote difference out of nearly 3.5 million votes cast in the state treasurer’s race makes it one of the closest statewide general elections not only in Illinois history, but U.S. history, with a margin of only .05%, or one in 2000 voters.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data fame plugged in the new Chicago numbers and has Cross’ lead down to just 646 votes.
…Adding… Kennedy explains…
The City of Chicago added just shy of 14,000 votes to their already reported totals and Frerichs netted a little more than 8,500 of them. The difference is now down to a very slim lead for Tom Cross of 646 votes.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Cross campaign says the city numbers are strange. Both sides, they say, got the same report from Chicago about what was counted today, which is why both initially believed the margin was in the 1800 range. “I don’t know what else that could be,” a Cross guy said. “We closed out the place. We got the reports for the night.”
…Adding… To be very clear here, the discrepancy isn’t in Kennedy’s counting, it’s in Chicago’s report tonight. They reported more votes than they initially revealed to the two sides.
From Kennedy…
All weekend these were the numbers publicly listed on the City of Chicago Board of Elections website:
Frerichs: 466,477
Cross: 118,356
Skopek: 22,972
These are the numbers now publicly on their website now:
Frerichs: 477,439
Cross: 120,750
Skopek: 23,550
*** UPDATE 3 *** So, after Chicago released its last report on Thursday afternoon, it recounted 69 of what it called “obvious discrepancy precincts.” The totals just didn’t look right, so they reran them through the machine. It seems likely that those 69 precincts were included in tonight’s numbers.
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Brad Demuzio
Sunday, Nov 9, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Secretary of State Police Director Brad Demuzio passed away at his home today.
Brad was a heckuva guy who had tons of friends. I’ll let you know about arrangements as soon as I know.
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Phil Crane
Sunday, Nov 9, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Eric Elk…
Philip M. Crane (1930-2014)
Philip M. Crane, 84, a former congressman from Illinois who represented Illinois’ 8th Congressional District (previously the 12th District) for 35 years (1969-2004), passed away peacefully at the home of his daughter, Rebekah, on November 8th in Jefferson, Maryland.
Crane was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 3, 1930 to George W. Crane and Cora Ellen Miller. He received his undergraduate degree from Hillsdale College in 1952 and went on to earn a PhD in history from Indiana University in 1963. He also served in the US Army from 1954-1956.
Crane gained national recognition in politics through his work on the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964. While working as an Assistant Professor of History at Bradley University (1963-1967), Crane proved to be a popular and charismatic public speaker on behalf of Goldwater. Through these efforts and his book, “The Democrats Dilemma” which came out in 1964, Crane became a leading national figure in the fledgling conservative movement.
While serving as headmaster of Westminster Academy in Chicago in 1969, Crane was urged to enter a special election race triggered by the appointment of then Illinois Congressman Donald Rumsfeld to the Nixon Administration. Crane won the primary and went onto win the election, serving in that seat from 1969 until his defeat in 2004.
As a leader of the conservative movement in Congress, Crane was instrumental in the founding of a number of conservative organizations that flourish to this day. In 1973, he founded the Republican Study Committee which is the preeminent GOP conservative organization in the House of Representatives. In that same year, he was a leader in the effort to form the Heritage Foundation which has grown into one of the most well known and respected conservative think tanks in the country. Later in the 1970s, he also served as head of the American Conservative Union.
In Congress, Crane spent most of his career serving on the Ways and Means Committee. There he championed lower taxes, a simplified tax code, free market economics, and free trade. He was the ranking member and eventually Chairman of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. There he led the effort to pass numerous free trade agreements including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He also was very active in efforts to reduce or limit government spending and authored and supported hundreds of bills and amendments to accomplish those ends.
His passion for history and the US Constitution was always evident in his public speeches and floor debate as he routinely cited historical events and the Constitution to make his case. Crane also wrote numerous books. In addition to his most celebrated work, “The Democrats Dilemma”, he also wrote the “The Sum of Good Government” in 1976, and “Surrender in Panama: The Case Against the Treaty” in 1978.
In addition to his efforts on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Crane was actively/directly involved in Presidential politics in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the first sitting Congressman to come out and openly support Ronald Reagan’s effort to defeat then President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primary. When it appeared that Reagan was not going to run in the next presidential election, Crane threw his hat in the ring in 1978 to run for the 1980 GOP nomination, only to have Reagan enter the race later. Crane eventually withdrew from the race throwing his support to Reagan.
While Crane was a fierce partisan in debate and on the campaign trail, he was very personable and well liked by members of both parties who he served with and got to know over the years. He was well known for his great sense of humor and was a master joke teller and prankster as anyone who spent time with him would soon discover. He took pride in hand writing hundreds of letters over the years to family, friends and constituents and was particularly quick to write a note to friends or colleagues who were facing difficult times or had lost a loved one.
A loving father and husband, Phil was preceded in death by his parents, George and Cora Crane , his wife, Arlene, his brother, George, and his daughter, Rachel. He is survived by his siblings, Judy, Daniel and David and his children, Catherine, Susanna, Rebekah, Jennifer, Sarah, George and Carrie in addition to numerous grandchildren.
Services are expected to be Thursday, November 13th at Loudoun Funeral Chapels in Leesburg, VA, with burial near the family farm in Indiana.
Emphasis added.
* US Sen. Mark Kirk…
“Today we mourn the loss of one of the great leaders from northern Illinois. He will always be remembered for vowing to never raise taxes, a promise he kept through his long career, and for expanding trade opportunities for our state. I send best wishes and prayers to his family.”
* IL GOP…
Tim Schneider, Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, released the following statement today:
“On behalf of the Illinois Republican Party, I want to extend my sincere condolences to the friends and family of Rep. Phil Crane.
“His accomplishments, and his lifelong pursuit of conservative principles, will have a lasting effect for generations to come: from his work on the Ways and Means Committee and the Republican Study Committee, to his work founding the Heritage Foundation and leading the American Conservative Union. He fought for lower taxes, a simplified tax code, free-market principles, and free trade.
“Our thoughts and prayers today are with his seven children, his grandchildren, and his family and friends.”
* News coverage…
* Daily Herald: Longtime suburban congressman Phil Crane dies
* Tribune: Former Illinois congressman Phil Crane dies
* Sun-Times: Former Congressman Phil Crane dies at 84
* AP: Longtime Rep. Phil Crane dies at 84
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* Counting in Cook County provided Democrat Mike Frerichs with 2,029 net votes late today. As you can see by the chart on the upper right hand side of the blog, Republican Tom Cross now leads Frerichs by just 9,214 votes - a margin of just 0.27 percent.
Chicago still has at least 24,000 votes to count, and suburban Cook has about 5,500.
My intern Marc Reiter called over 20 of the largest election authorities outside the biggest ones this afternoon, and wasn’t able to find any new votes counted, or totals released. Rockford counted about 400 votes later on and Frerichs picked up 164 net votes.
*** UPDATE *** From the Cook County Clerk’s office…
We have about 1,300 mail ballots in hand, which will be counted Monday. We’ll probably have 500-1,000 trickle in over the next week.
Bulk of provisionals will be added Monday - estimate is 6,000/8,000 will be verified and count.
So universe for suburban Cook is likely in the 7,800-8,300 range.
That’s a lot more than Kennedy and I thought were out in Cook. Also, the spokesperson’s math is off. I put the range at 7,800 to 10,300.
…Adding… As mentioned above, Frerichs’ net gain in suburban Cook on Friday was 2,029 votes. That’s out of a counted universe of 7,454 votes. If that ratio holds up, and being conservative here by using the low end of the range, he can expect to get another 2,000 or so net votes out of suburban Cook.
Cross received 19.47 percent in Chicago. Let’s make it 20 percent, and he’d expect to receive 4,800 votes from what we know is left to count there (which could be more, as suburban Cook clearly shows). Frerichs would emerge with a net gain of, conservatively, 14,000 votes.
Adding Chicago and Cook together, we get a conservative net gain of about 16,000 votes. That would put Frerichs ahead by about 6,500 votes. Again, I’m rounding down and being conservative here.
The question now is, how many more votes are left to be counted outside Cook County? And the answer is we just don’t know.
…Adding More… I’m told Lake County has almost 2,000 mail-ins and 1300 provisionals to count. Of the 1,300 provisionals there are 1,018 where voters said they never received a mail ballot so those will have to wait the full 14 days of the vote by mail process to figure out.
The Frerichs people claim late mail-ins are usually Democrats. We’ll have to wait and see, however.
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* From a press release…
Governor-elect Bruce Rauner today announced that Mike Zolnierowicz will serve as his gubernatorial chief of staff.
“I’ve worked closely with Mike Zolnierowicz for more than a year and he has my complete trust and confidence,” Rauner said. “I know he shares my commitment to making our state the most compassionate and competitive in the nation. Mike will be a dedicated public servant whose only focus is on bringing back Illinois.”
“No one has a better understanding or greater love of Illinois than Mike Zolnierowicz,” U.S. Senator Mark Kirk said. “Mike is an outstanding choice who will serve the people well.”
Mike Zolnierowicz
Mike Zolnierowicz currently serves as director of the Bruce Rauner Transition Committee. He previously worked as deputy campaign manager for Citizens for Rauner, Inc., overseeing more than 500 paid employees and more than 10,000 volunteers. Prior to joining the Rauner campaign, Zolnierowicz served as deputy chief of staff for U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. As deputy chief of staff, Zolnierowicz managed the Senator’s Illinois operations, overseeing the Senator’s work with key stakeholders, including community leaders, the Congressional delegation, the state legislature and Constitutional officers. Zolnierowicz graduated from Downers Grove North High School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Hope College.
One of the most solid guys I’ve ever met.
*** UPDATE *** I wouldn’t put too much stock in this Tribune story about Rauner’s potential advisers if I were you. Rauner’s team is most definitely leak averse, and this doesn’t look like a leak to me. Instead, it looks like a few folks promoting themselves. Probably not a great idea.
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Question of the day
Friday, Nov 7, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* We’re only supposed to have one governor at a time, but Illinois has a history of governors-elect (or governors-in-waiting, in the case of Pat Quinn) who have tried to influence decisions before actually being sworn in. And it happened again yesterday…
The future governor did, however, urge Quinn and lawmakers not to take any major action to enact new laws before his administration takes over Jan. 12.
“I hope that there will be no real significant action take during the lame-duck and with a governor on the way out,” Rauner said.
“I hope that anything of significance to be addressed can wait until mid-January so we can all deal with it together on a bipartisan basis,” he said, adding that major decisions “made by folks who are on their way out of office … would be very inappropriate.”
Quinn, in conceding the race a day earlier, made clear that he would continue to push for passage of an increase in the state’s minimum wage to at least $10 an hour from its current $8.25 an hour rate.
* Because of that Quinn promise, Rauner made it particularly clear that the minimum wage should not be raised until he takes office. The response…
As far as attempting to raise the minimum wage, [Cullerton spokesman John Patterson] said: “Those would all be conversations to have with the members to see what they’re interested in doing.”
Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, reiterated that.
“I think if there’s support for any particular proposal the Legislature should act,” Brown said.
* Statewide support for raising the minimum wage was two-to-one on Tuesday…
Yes 2,262,241 (66.7%)
No 1,129,856 (33.3%)
And the referendum didn’t just ask whether voters supported raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour, it asked whether that should be done before January 1, 2015 - which is, of course, before Rauner takes office.
The GA can also delay implementation until June 1 so that it only requires a simple majority vote.
* The Question: Should the General Assembly vote on raising the minimum wage before January 1? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
survey service
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A look at Chicago turnout
Friday, Nov 7, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Chicago’s election returns are being examined closely because the 2015 mayor’s race has already begun. Here’s Mary Mitchell…
In the city’s 20 predominantly black wards, Quinn got about 12,319 fewer votes than he did in 2010. Citywide, Quinn got 40,247 fewer votes than in 2014. The incumbent governor lost by more than 170,000 votes.
Interestingly enough, Quinn actually did better in some predominantly black wards than he did four years ago.
For instance, in the South Side’s 9th Ward, which includes the Roseland area, Quinn got 15,964 votes compared to 13,895 in 2010. Rauner picked up only 511 votes, 81 fewer than Scott Lee Cohen did in 2010.
Rather than a black backlash, it appears a lot of Democratic voters decided they couldn’t hold their noses.
In 2010, 689,951 Chicago residents cast ballots in the governor’s race, compared to 621,995 cast on Tuesday.
* Dan Mihalopoulos…
A coalition of labor and activist groups claimed it registered 80,000 new voters in Chicago this year. They failed badly in their first attempt to channel those voters, for Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s re-election bid.
Rather than bringing more people to the polls Tuesday, voter turnout was down sharply in the city’s wards compared to the 2010 election. According to the city’s election authorities, less than 622,000 votes were cast — a drop of about 70,000 in four years. Quinn received more than 40,000 votes fewer in Chicago than four years ago.
The campaign that boasted of registering so many new voters was called Every Vote Counts and also signed up new voters in the Cook County suburbs. It involved staunch Emanuel foes such as the Chicago Teachers Union, the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois Indiana and the Grassroots Collaborative activist group.
That campaign failed miserably. Absolutely miserably.
* Greg Hinz…
Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner did do OK out in Milwaukee Avenue land, snagging 38 percent in the 39th Ward, 40 percent in the 38th Ward and a near-majority 47 percent in the 41st Ward — the last ward in Chicago to have given most of its votes to a GOP gubernatorial nominee, Jim Ryan against Rod Blagojevich in 2002.
But this election, Mr. Rauner outpolled Democrat Pat Quinn by an unofficial 7,707 to 7,346 in the 42nd Ward, which covers the heart of downtown, according to the latest unofficial totals.
Equally notable, Mr. Rauner came within 90 votes of snagging Lincoln Park’s 43rd Ward and at latest count had 43.51 percent of the vote in the new 2nd Ward, which snakes from Ukrainian Village south and east to the Near North Side. Almost as good, he cracked the one-third mark in the 32nd Ward, which covers the increasingly upscale Bucktown/Wicker Park area, and Lake View’s 44th Ward.
Some of that is because of the hard work of long-ignored Chicago GOP leaders. “It’s the fruition of years of effort,” says 42nd Ward GOP Committeeman Eloise Gerson. “We’ve touched base with the people.”
But most of it, I suspect, has to do with the nature of the neighborhoods that mostly feed downtown’s growth industries: finance and technology, trading and upper-level management, law and accounting. Those folks mostly are social liberals, but Mr. Rauner’s entrepreneurial, pro-business “growth” message almost certainly resonated with them more than Mr. Quinn’s attacks on Mr. Rauner’s wealth and how he obtained it.
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What’s up with the state treasurer’s race?
Friday, Nov 7, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Scott Kennedy’s Illinois Election Data website is by far the most useful, most up to date, most indispensable site anywhere in this state. He’s far ahead of both the AP and Reuters, and that’s why I’m using his numbers (posted in the near upper right hand corner) as we track the oh so close state treasurer’s race.
Kennedy was concerned about the freshness of numbers from 20 small counties, so I had my new intern Marc Reiter call all of them today. Nothing has changed yet from the AP’s original results.
* So, who’s gonna win this thing? Scott wrote the following analysis exclusively for us…
The margin as of the morning of 11/7 is Cross by 11,407 per my unofficial count.
Here is what is known and unknown:
The City of Chicago still has almost 24K votes to count and Frerichs will net a margin probably somewhere between 10K and 15K out of that.
I am told that Cook has about 13K votes to count. Yesterday Cook counted about 6,500 votes and Frerichs netted about 1,500 votes, if that trend stays the same Frerichs will likely net another 2,000 to 4,00 votes here.
On Wednesday night, both DuPage and McHenry updated their numbers from election night. I expect these were mail ballots. Cross netted about 3,700 and 4,900 votes respectively from those two updates. As near as I can tell neither Lake or Will has provided a similar update. Also, Kane should be looked at too but it’s important to remember that both the Kane County Clerk and the Aurora election authority have jurisdiction there.
* Here are some questions that when answered would give us a better picture overall:
- In these collar counties, how many uncounted votes are there that are not included in the data publicly available on the county websites and when is it expected to be counted/updated?
- It would also be helpful if someone did the same for the next 20 or so biggest counties.
- Last, the State Board of Elections typically has no election results until the certified totals are reported to them in about a month but one bit of useful information they do have concerns the number of early voters and vote by mail applicants. During the election season each election authority has to report the list of people voting early or by mail within about 48 hours to the State Board and then that data is made available to the state parties so they can update their voter files nightly. The State Board should be able to use this data to give a count by county of the number of vote by mail people for each.
It’s important to remember that even with vote by mail there will be several numbers here. The number of people who applied for a ballot, the number of ballots returned to the election authorities that either have been counted or still need to be counted, and then the number of ballots that have not yet been returned but potentially could still legally show up in the mail and be valid votes.
You can do a little math to come up with some likely scenarios based on what is known but there are a lot of unknowns still to be resolved before you can accurately predict the final outcome for sure.
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* As we all know by now, Bruce Rauner said this on election night…
“I placed two very important phone calls. I called Speaker Madigan. I called [Senate] President [John] Cullerton, and I said to them ‘This is an opportunity for us to work together.’”
* Rauner admitted yesterday that he didn’t talk to either man. He said he called Madigan’s chief of staff and left a voicemail and said “I…we” called Cullerton’s chief of staff.
Madigan’s spokesman said Tim Mapes received a call from an “unknown number” and let it go to voicemail. Mapes was kinda busy on election night and didn’t have time to chat with someone he didn’t know. Mapes didn’t listen to the voicemail until yesterday after he was told what Rauner said. Madigan had previously checked all of his lines because the Rauner campaign insisted that Bruce had tried to call him. Sun-Times…
“Why he called a staff person’s cell phone from an unknown number” was beyond him, [Steve Brown] said.
“The bottom line is, they never talked on election night,” Brown said of Rauner and Madigan.
Notice a change in tone?
* Cullerton’s chief Dave Gross said he answered the call and some staffer he didn’t know started going on about something or another and he cut the guy off and said something like “I get it, Rauner wants to talk to Cullerton,” said he’d pass the word and clicked off. He was kinda busy too.
Anyway, now you know.
* John Kass gets the last word…
Elected officials are taken at their word, until they don’t have one. And then it’s over.
The Boss Madigan fib isn’t a monumental thing. But it’s not a tiny little thing either. You might think of it as a wake-up call from the Boss to Bruce.
So wake up, Bruce Rauner.
It was an unforced rookie error. He’ll make more. Hopefully, not too many more.
Rauner says he’s working on setting up a meeting soon with Madigan and Cullerton. I’d sure love to be in that room.
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Today’s number: $97.31 million
Friday, Nov 7, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Kent Redfield sent this to me on election day and I shared it with subscribers. Here are the top contributors to Bruce Rauner since he started running in 2013. His total raised as of election day at 9:45 am was $65.89 million…
$27,559,000 Rauner, Bruce
$8,650,000 Republican Governors Association
$4,939,000 Griffin, Kenneth – Financial Citadel
$2,526,000 Illinois Republican Party – in-kind contributions (Citizens for Rauner transferred $7.950 million to the IL Rep. Party)
$640,000 Uihlein, Richard & Elizabeth - Uline Corp
$565,000 IL Manufacturers Association Manufacturers PAC
$405,000 Christie, Elizabeth – Retired executive - Manufacturing
$405,000 Jannotta Jr, Edgar – Financial Investor
$280,000 Tullman, Glen - Financial 7Wire Ventures
$253,000 Digital Greensigns
$250,000 IL State Medical Society PAC
$250,000 Singer, Paul – Business Elliot Management Corp
$247,000 MacLean-Fogg Company & MacLean family
$223,000 Alpine Bancorporation Inc
$219,000 Macneil, David – Manufacturing McNeil Automotive Products
$205,000 Mansueto, Joe - Financial - Morningstar
$161,000 Keiser, Michael – Manufacturing RPG Corp
$155,000 Schwertfeger, Timothy Retired Nuveen Investments
$150,000 IL Chamber of Commerce Chamber PAC
$136,000 Lefkofsky, Eric – Financial Lightbank
$135,000 Trott, Byron – Financial BDT Capital Partners
$111,000 PEAK6 Investments
$110,000 Associated General Contractors of IL
$105,000 Kunkler, William – Manufacturing CC Industries
$104,000 Pritzker, Jennifer – Financial Tawani Enterprises
$100,000 Siebel, Tony – Energy C3 Energy
$100,000 Brinson, Gary, Financial GB Brinson Investments
$100,000 Childs, John – Financial JW Childs Assocaites
* Here are Gov. Quinn’s top contributors since 2013. His total raised was $31.42 million…
$4,941,000 Democratic Governors Association
$1,778,000 SEIU IL Council PAC Fund
$1,250,000 SEIU HealthCare IL IN PAC
$1,005,000 Eychaner, Fred – Media Newsweb Corp
$1,120,000 UA Political Education Committee Pipe Trades
$781,000 Laborers Political League Education Fund
$583,000 Engineers Political Education Committee Separate Education Com IUOE
$555,000 IUOE Local 150
$551,000 IL Education Association IPACE
$567,000 IBEW PAC Voluntary Fund
$513,000 United Food & Commercial Workers International Union
$500,000 Drive Political Committee Teamsters
$378,000 Illinois Federation of Teachers
$355,000 SEIU COPE – National
$352,000 Pritzker, J.B. & M.K. - Financial Pritzker Group
$300,000 International Association of Fire Fighters
$281,000 I UPAT Political Action Together Painters Union
$278,000 UAW IL United Auto Workers
$253,000 Construction & Gen Laborers District Council Chicago & Vicinity
$250,000 UAW V – CAP
$250,000 Chicago Land Operators Joint-Labor Management PAC (IUOE Local 150)
$200,000 American Federation of Teachers
$200,000 Working for Working Americans
$188,000 Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters
$178,000 IL Hospital Association
$175,000 Chicago for Rahm Emanuel
$160,000 Brandt, William CEO Development Specialist, Inc. & Development Specialists
$148,000 IUOE Local 399
$131,000 Realtor PAC IL Realtors Assn
$129,000 Cook County Teachers Unions (Community College)
$115,000 Teamsters Volunteers in Politics
* Kent also aggregated Quinn’s top 10 union groups…
$3.383 million SEIU
$1.741 million IUOE
$1.491 million Pipe Trades Unions
$1.387 million Laborers Unions
$1.381 million Teacher Unions
$0.791 million Teamsters
$0.660 million IBEW
$0.528 million UAW
$0.513 million UFCW
$0.467 million Fire Fighters Unions
Total: $12.342 million
* Keep in mind that these totals don’t include Independent Expenditures by groups like Illinois Freedom PAC, the Local 150 spending for the Libertarian Party candidate, Personal PAC’s money, and ballot initiative money. When you total all that up, we’re over $100 million.
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* The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has updated its totals online. This latest info could be crucial to the too close to call state treasurer’s race. From a press release…
Here are the biggest items that remain:
- Absentee Ballots: Approximately 9,900 absentee ballots that were received Monday and Tuesday, plus 1,500 that arrived on Wednesday that had postmarks of Nov. 3 or earlier.
- Approximately 10,000 in-precinct provisional ballots from 48 wards, excluding what we still needed to retrieve from all of the 3rd Ward and parts of the 4th Ward.
- Approximately 2,900 Same-Day registration provisional ballots from Monday and Tuesday
There then is a universe of 11,400 absentee ballots that were mailed out to voters but not yet returned, which hypothetically could have a Nov. 3 or earlier postmark and arrive by close of business Nov. 18. Some of those may arrive and qualify to be counted, and others may arrive postmarked too late to be counted, and still others may never arrive if the voter decided instead to vote in the polling place on Election Day.
That totals over 24,000, plus whatever additional absentees they receive.
* The AP has Cross ahead by 21,011 votes. Reuters has Cross ahead by 3,552 votes. I’m not sure who’s right, but I tend to trust the experienced AP more than Reuters.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Forget about the AP, forget about Reuters. Scott Kennedy’s online tracker has, by far, the most updated numbers. And right now, the tracker has Cross up by only 13,202 votes. That could easily be wiped out by those Chicago ballots.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Kennedy updated his numbers…
Yikes.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Kennedy explains his update…
I went to all the election authority websites again tonight and updated any data that was new in the tracker. Here’s a summary of what’s new:
City of Chicago – they finally included the last 6 uncounted precincts in their totals, they now have 100% precincts reporting. It appears that the City of Chicago totals only show regular votes, it doesn’t appear they have vote by mail votes or any provisionals (including same day registration) counted. See more on that here. Frerichs had a net gain here of 1,171 votes.
Cook County Suburbs – they added a little over 6,500 votes to their existing numbers, I’m guessing these were vote by mail ballots. Frerichs had a net gain here of 1,509 votes.
Jackson County – they added almost 1,700 votes to their existing numbers, Frerichs had a net gain of 53 votes.
City of Rockford – they added about 600 votes to their existing totals, Frerichs had a net gain of 231 votes.
Ogle County – they added 4 votes to their existing totals, Frerichs had a net gain of 2.
I had heard that Will County was supposed to have some updated numbers, which most likely would have added to Cross’ advantage but they haven’t updated anything yet.
Also here are a few known issues:
Fulton County – I went to check to see if there was any update and tonight I couldn’t find a link to their totals. Not sure if I am just missing it or what. I swear it was there last night.
Jersey County – I am still using the AP’s numbers here. The numbers they have listed on their website are so small they can’t be right. The AP’s numbers are consistent with historical norms, the numbers they have listed just seem like there has to be an error. I’ll keep an eye on this.
Marshall County – their website was down tonight and displaying a server error.
20 Small Counties – all the data in pink on the tracker is still just what the AP reported for these 20 small counties. Most of them don’t even have a county website so short of calling them all I can’t verify the AP’s reported numbers.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* Meanwhile the Chicago GOP sent out an “emergency” plea for volunteers…
Volunteers,
Tom Cross won the Treasurer’s race Tuesday, but only by a few thousand votes. Now they’re counting absentee and provisional ballots at the Board of Elections, and the Democrats are going to try to make up the difference. We need volunteers to ensure that the votes get counted correctly.
Please show up at the Chicago Board of Elections tomorrow. The work starts at 8:00 am, but any time you can give during the day will help.
Chicago Board of Elections
69 W Washington
Contact: Caitlin Huxley
Phone: 312.841.0172 or Caitlin.Huxley@ChicagoGOP.com
The job is very simple, and very important: watch the ballot process to make sure everything is above board.
Don’t let the Democrats take this one away.
Chris Cleveland
* From Team Frerichs…
Thanks to all of you, our race is extremely close and could go either way. While the Cross campaign has indicated that they believe there are only 17,000 ballots still to be counted as of Wednesday morning, by everyone else’s count, election authorities are still counting tens of thousands of ballots across the state.
Many of those ballots come from seniors and military personnel serving overseas, as well as the provisional ballots cast on Election Day by people who unfortunately waited as long as nine hours to vote.
We, like most people, believe those votes should be counted. The race is extremely close right now and could go either way, and the campaign is waiting for all the votes to be counted.
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Today’s number: 322,329
Thursday, Nov 6, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Our number today is this site’s total page views during election day/night. 322,329 is also a new record, by far. And we only crashed once, when ScribbleLive crashed and everyone freaked out, including me…
Heh.
Sure glad that’s over.
Thank you!
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Meanwhile, in Opposite Land
Thursday, Nov 6, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Indiana State Building & Construction Trades Council…
We pursue politics as means to improve infrastructure and to spur economic development for the benefit of our membership and society as a whole. Politics is important, but it is always secondary to the direct needs of our membership for steady employment, cutting edge training, quality healthcare, and a stable and comfortable retirement.
The Tuesday saw a Republican sweep that was weeks in the making. It was a nationalized election that was a referendum on President Obama, ISIS, Ebola, and Obamacare. Most voters felt disenfranchised, and stayed at home. Independent voters, who trust neither party, saw Republicans as the lesser of two evils. The local issues, such as education, just did not resonate with the majority of voters. Despite all of this, and a General Assembly with an increasing number of anti-labor members, we will overcome and press on.
No matter the outcome of any election, we will continue to pursue projects, ideas, policies, and legislation that promote the best interests of our membership. I believe that regardless of party, the pursuit of infrastructure investment, economic development and workforce training will remain a top priority of the Indiana General Assembly. Are there those in the legislature that will pursue an anti-labor agenda? You bet! Will their agenda get traction this year? It very well may. Are we prepared to fight for what is right and rightfully ours? Damn straight we are!
Here are the basic results of Tuesday’s Indiana House and Senate races. The Indiana Senate is going to be 40-10, Republican-Democrat. Senators Richard Young (D-Milltown) and Tim Skinner (D-Terre Haute) both lost. Our Republican friend, and UA contractor, Mark Messmer (R-Jasper) also picked up the open Democrat seat held by Senator Lindel Hume (D-Princeton) who just retired. State Rep. Rick Niemeyer (R-Lowell), who was endorsed by the Northwest Indiana Building Trades, picked up the open Republican Senate seat that was held by Sue Landske (R-Cedar Lake). This means that we lost two Democrat friends, and four retiring Republican friends, but picked up two Building Trades-friendly Republicans.
The Indiana House is 71-29, Republican-Democrat. Mara Reardon (D-Munster) and Shelli Vanderburg (D-Crown Point) lost, as did Rep. Bionca Gambill (D-Terre Haute) to Bruce Borders (R-Jasonville). The Dems picked up Melanie Wright (D-Yorktown), who beat Rep. Jack Lutz (D-Anderson).
We must now start reaching out the the newly elected Republicans, and sole Democrat, and make sure that they are educated on our issues.
Thank you for all your work this election cycle!
In Solidarity,
Pete Rimsans
Executive Director
All emphasis in original.
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*** UPDATE *** Service details…
* Visitation will be from 12 noon-6:00 p.m. at Esterdahl Mortuary (6601-38th Avenue in Moline) on Saturday & Sunday, November 8 & 9.
* Funeral will be at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, November 10, at Sacred Heart Church (1608-13th Street in Moline).
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* From the Quad City Times…
Former U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, who has been battling Parkinson’s disease for years, died Wednesday night, according to his longtime friend and district director, Phil Hare.
Evans, who represented the 17th Congressional District in Illinois for 24 years and was a hero of local Democrats on both sides of the Mississippi River, had been living at the Hope Creek Care Center in East Moline. He was 63 years old.
Hare said that he got the call late Wednesday night, and that he had seen Evans as recently as 10 days ago, when retiring U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin also paid a visit.
Evans, a former Marine who won accolades for his work helping veterans who had suffered the effects of Agent Orange, was swept into office in 1982, and he maintained the seat even in the face of stiff Republican challenges in the 1990s.
* A text message early this morning from a pal in organized labor…
Lane Evans passed away yesterday. One of the most inspiring political leaders I have ever known. He dedicated everything he had to the people of Western Illinois. It will be a long time before we see another one like him. Thank heavens for Lane Evans.
Lane surprised the Republicans when he won his first race in 1982. In 1984, he won reelection by the same margin that Ronald Reagan won his district, despite voting against the President more than 90 percent of the time (if memory serves, a higher percentage than any other member except Harold Washington, who was at 100 percent). Those two wins made him a larger than life figure for many Democrats.
He was so successful politically because he never, ever forgot about his district. Unlike a lot of members of that era, he flew home every weekend and had one of the best constituent service operations in all of Congress. And he never forgot who he was and where he came from.
I didn’t always agree with him, but I sure as heck admired him.
* From Cheri Bustos…
Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) released the following statement on the passing of former Congressman Lane Evans, who represented for more than 20 years the same Congressional District Bustos is honored to now represent:
“I was saddened to wake this morning to the news that Lane Evans passed away late last night. A native of Rock Island, and a proud Marine Corps veteran, Lane represented everything that is right about public service. He was a champion for our region in the halls of Congress and a strong advocate for veterans and working families across the country. Lane will be sorely missed by all who he touched but his legacy of service will never be forgotten.”
Bustos first got to know Lane Evans when she was a newspaper reporter, covering the region. She last visited him during the summer at Hope Creek, where Lane lived and was cared for.
* Dick Durbin…
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin today released the following statement after learning of the death of former Quad Cities Congressman Lane Evans.
“Illinois lost one of its kindest, most caring public servants with the passing of my friend and colleague Lane Evans. When I last visited him, I told him our friend Barack Obama still remembered his quiet courage as a Congressman. I recall our many common causes for veterans and our downstate districts and, of course, our many hard fought campaigns.
“Lane told me years later that it was during a joint appearance in 1996 at a Labor Day parade in Galesburg that he first felt the numbing in his hand which led to his Parkinson’s diagnosis: a disease that trapped his body but never restrained his great spirit. Thank heavens for Lane Evans.”
* Sen. Kirk…
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) released the following statement today after the passing of former Illinois Congressman Lane Evans at the age of 63:
“For 24 years, Congressman Lane Evans dedicated his life to serving the people of Illinois. As a Marine, and senior Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Congressman Evans gave a voice to the thousands of Illinois veterans and worked to rid the stigma that often surrounds combat-based injuries. I am grateful for the work he has done to care for our nation’s servicemen and women, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family today.”
* From the White House…
Statement from President Barack Obama on the passing of former Congressman Lane Evans
“Michelle and I were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former Congressman Lane Evans. Lane was a proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, and dedicated much of his public life to helping his fellow veterans, particularly those who fought in Vietnam and were exposed to Agent Orange. Lane was one of my earliest supporters when I ran for the Senate, and I was proud to have him by my side when I was elected President. Above all, Lane was an American hero, a dear friend and a beloved public servant of the people of Illinois. Michelle and I extend our thoughts and prayers to Lane’s family and friends, and the people he represented in Congress who loved him so dearly.”
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