Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a lot of ground to cover in his speech Thursday night on Chicago violence.
How many questions will he answer, and what elephants in the room will he ignore?
We’ll know more starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, when he delivers his speech to what is likely to be a supportive crowd — it’s invitation-only — at Malcolm X College.
Here are some things to look for:
1. The price tag for his plan to bolster the Chicago Police Department is about $138 million over two years. Will the mayor be any more specific about how to pay for that? He’s ruled out increases in sales, property or gas taxes — but you can drive a truck through that loophole. There are plenty of other taxes and fees he could increase.
Monica Lawton at WBEZ just e-mailed me to say that her station (91.5 on your FM dial) will be carrying the speech live. So, click here to listen and let us know what he says. I’ll be in yoga class.
U.S. Rep. Bob Dold, R-Lincolnshire, has been running hard as a moderate’s moderate in his north suburban 10th District, not only emphasizing his support for gun control and gay rights groups, but underlining that he will not vote for Donald Trump for president.
But Dold has lined up another top Republican to star at his Oct. 5 fundraiser who in some ways is almost as divisive: Gov. Bruce Rauner.
According to an invitation that came my way, the “special guest” at a Glencoe reception and “private round table” is Rauner, whom some like and some hate but who has bitterly battled labor unions and Springfield Democrats most of the past two years. […]
“Raising money with the governor shows Republican Bob Dold’s true priorities lie with the extreme Rauner agenda of attacking labor and working families, cutting the social safety net and restricting access to voting rights,” says [Brad Schneider] spokesman Steven Kirsch.
Today, the Schneider for Congress campaign released a new online ad to shed light on Republican Congressman Bob Dold’s actions to pave the way for a Donald Trump presidency.
Despite his claims that he will not support Donald Trump, Dold recently headlined a local Republican party fundraiser titled “Beat Hillary at the Distillery.”
“Whatever he may say, Republican Bob Dold’s actions show he is raising money to defeat Hillary Clinton and thereby working to elect Donald Trump,” said Schneider for Congress spokesman Steven Kirsch. “This is the same political double-talk Bob Dold use to block the gun safety legislation he claims to back and to introduce legislation to defund Planned Parenthood clinics while claiming he supports women’s health.”
The organizations hosting the event – The Lake County Republican Central Committee, The Lake County Republican Federation, and The Women’s Republican Club of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff – list their support of Donald Trump for President on their websites.
Voters in Orland Township will consider a referendum in November to leave Cook County and join adjacent Will County.
The Daily Southtown reports the referendum is an advisory question, which means the south suburban Chicago township will remain in Cook County no matter the result of the vote.
Township Supervisor Paul O’Grady says it’s an issue he’s heard about regularly from constituents. Specifically, he says, after Cook County raised sales taxes. O’Grady says residents “feel they are not getting their money’s worth.”
Similar referendums to disconnect from Cook County were overwhelmingly approved by voters in Barrington, Hanover and Palatine Townships in 2009, also triggered by the sales tax hike. However, seven years later, those communities are still in Cook County.
Illinois ranks 29th in the nation in overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness in the new 22nd Annual Highway Report published today by Reason Foundation.
The state’s overall ranking has worsened, it was ranked 27th in the previous report.
Illinois ranks 16th in fatality rate, 9th in deficient bridges, 1st (tie) in rural Interstate pavement condition, 1st in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 44th in urbanized area congestion.
On spending, Illinois ranks 39th in total disbursements per mile and 37th in administrative disbursements per mile.
Illinois’s best rankings are rural Interstate pavement condition (tied for 1st), urban Interstate pavement condition (1st), and deficient bridges (9th).
Illinois’ worst rankings are urbanized area congestion (44th), capital-bridge disbursements per mile (43rd), and total disbursements per mile (39th).
Illinois’ state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 12th largest system.
And, by the way, “autonomous” cars (that aren’t autonomous and are a very long way from being much above vaporware) ain’t gonna improve that congestion problem.
The number of unauthorized immigrants residing in Illinois dropped by 10 percent, or 50,000 people, between 2009 and 2014 — something experts say has been key to Chicago’s recent population loss.
“So much of the population growth in this region was based on legal and undocumented immigration. This closes the plug on the growth we’ve had,” said Rob Paral, a Chicago-based demographer who advises nonprofits and community groups. “Undocumented immigrants were a substantial piece of the picture, and that era is behind us.”
In 2014, about 450,000 unauthorized immigrants lived in Illinois, compared with about 500,000 in 2009, according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. While most states saw no significant change in their unauthorized immigrant populations during the five-year period, Illinois is among seven states that saw their populations decline, primarily due to a drop in the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico. […]
By almost every metric, the state’s population as a whole is rapidly declining, and the Chicago area in 2015 lost an estimated 6,263 residents, the greatest loss of any metropolitan area in the country. Large numbers of residents leaving the region have traditionally been offset by births and new residents, but those new residents, particularly Mexican immigrants, are no longer moving into the state.
Unauthorized immigrants from other countries remained about the same here during the time period.
* Real Clear Politics has moved the US Senate race here from “Leans Democratic” to “Tossup.” Tammy Duckworth has a 3.5-point lead in the RCP poll average.
* Meanwhile, from the Kirk campaign…
A Union County Judge has set a new court date for the Duckworth whistleblower retaliation lawsuit on October 6, 2016. After the plaintiffs rejected a June 24 settlement offer, no agreement has since been finalized and whether or not a trial will be scheduled before Election Day is uncertain.
“In June, Rep. Duckworth told the public that she wanted to get the truth out about the retaliation charges brought against her for silencing whistleblowers, yet she has continued to hide behind her government attorneys and campaign spokesperson in public while attacking the whistleblowers in private,” said Kirk For Senate campaign manager Kevin Artl. “Voters deserve to hear from Rep. Duckworth about how a convicted a felon ended up caring for veterans under her watch. Voters should hear why the whistleblowers who brought their concerns about veteran care to Duckworth’s attention were fired and threatened. Voters deserve answers from Duckworth.”
The Downstate retaliation lawsuit against Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth is back in court after the judge overseeing the case on Wednesday called for the two sides to discuss the matter with him in early October.
Last month, the Illinois attorney general’s office filed a motion to enforce a settlement it said had been agreed upon between Duckworth and two workers at the Anna Veterans’ home stemming from the congresswoman’s time years ago as head of the state’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
But the two employees have not submitted those settlement documents to the judge, court records show. So Union County Judge Mark Boie set a case management conference via telephone between him and the two sides to discuss the status of the case, according to the Union County clerk’s office. The huddle is set for the morning of Oct. 5.
* Related…
* Press release: What People Are Saying About Mark Kirk’s Latest Military Lie
* NaPo joke-tackled me once after I tossed a playful insult his way. I thought his little love tap was gonna send me right through the brick wall I was standing in front of…
A south suburban state lawmaker appears to have played a role in the capture of three murder suspects from Georgia after being the victim of a mugging earlier this month.
State Sen. Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey) owns two Beggars Pizza franchises in Oak Forest and Harvey; and decided to give his “overwhelmed” delivery crew a break late one night earlier this month, according to his spokesman Sean Howard.
Harris was trying to make a delivery at a house on 158th and Paulina in Harvey, but Howard said the whole order had been a ruse, and that four men attacked the senator when he arrived at the vacant house, which is up for sale. […]
“They put a chokehold on the senator, but to no avail. They were really trying to choke him to death, and he was just too strong. He out-powered all four of them,” Howard said. “As they were all beating on him, one guy just went out of his way and really hit him hard, and Napoleon never moved. He just looked at him like Hulk Hogan, and from that the guys knew that we better get out of here, because we can’t get this guy down.” […]
Harris called 911 and followed the muggers’ Chevy Tahoe from a distance after the mugging. Harris let police know where the truck was going. […]
Howard said Harris is a license concealed carry holder but did not have his gun with him at the time, because he had been driving his children around earlier and did not like having his gun in the car when they were with him.
* I didn’t realize it, but a private company says there’s a national school bus driver shortage (check the Google) and it’s hurting a McLean County district. From September 9th…
Unit 5’s bus contractor has “let us down,” Superintendent Mark Daniel said Thursday, as hundreds of students again were late for school because of a lack of drivers.
In some cases, buses were running 90 minutes to two hours late. First Student notified the district of the problem at 6:45 a.m. and the district alerted principals, schools and parents
Still plagued by late and overcrowded school buses, McLean County Unit 5 may turn to National Guard members, police and firefighters as possible fill-in drivers and to Gov. Bruce Rauner and other officials for help streamlining the hiring process. […]
“Hopefully there can be some executive action that will allow firemen, police officers and members of the National Guard to solve this problem short term. We need them to be a part of our fleet,” said Daniel.
Daniel said he’ll meet Thursday with state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, and Regional Office of Education Superintendent Mark Jontry to discuss how to expedite the hiring process. The governor’s office could approve an alternative driver certification process, for example, he said.
Yeah, there’s a great idea. Unilaterally and quickly lower the state standards for school bus drivers. What could possibly go wrong?
First Student, the largest provider of student transportation in North America, saw revenue and profit gains for fiscal year 2015, according to annual earnings released last month. The company cited alterations in the prices of new contract bids and renewals for the boosts.
The company, which transports roughly six million students across more than 1,300 school districts, said it saw revenues for fiscal year 2015 peak at $2.4 billion, which is up from $2.3 billion last year.
As for operating profits, First Student increased to $177 million, an improvement on the $153 million made in 2014. These returns were a result of a push from parent company FirstGroup plc for a turnaround plan to increase the rates of contract bids and renewals, which proved successful, and made up for losses in other divisions.
With almost a third of its contracts up for renewal in 2014, the company held a 90 percent retention rate with those contracts averaging 4.5 percent price increases.
To attract applicants, First Student is offering a $2,000 hiring bonus. Applicants must be at least 21 years old with a valid driver’s license for at least three years and must pass a background and drug check and physical performance test, according to the company’s website.
Starting pay for First Student bus drivers is $14 per hour with five paid holidays and paid CDL training.
Looks to me like people with commercial drivers licenses aren’t willing to operate a school bus for that part-time wage in an improving economy. So, maybe the company should sweeten the pot and attract more applicants so the government doesn’t have to lower standards and spend precious dollars sending in National Guard troops or pay to use high-wage cops and firefighters?
The company’s bottom line shouldn’t be a concern here. They signed the contract so they gotta provide the service. If it costs them some extra money, so be it. The government shouldn’t bail them out. So, if the state does send in troops, First Student should be sent an invoice.
*** UPDATE *** From Anders Lindall at AFSCME Council 31…
The drivers were school district employees (AFSCME-represented) until just a couple years ago. We fought hard to stop the outsourcing for this reason — they were doing it to undercut the wages of the drivers, which was bound to affect quality if not safety.
As Chicago’s public school teachers tell their union again this week whether or not they would still approve a strike, as they did in December, they’re not making that choice in private.
Union members are being asked to sign their names on a sheet of paper, next to their pre-printed name; check yes or no on whether they would authorize a possible strike later this fall; and initial that check mark, according to Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey.
Given that, you would think CTU leaders would be confident of prevailing in a secret vote now. And probably they are. So we’re perplexed about why they have come up with this Big-Brother approach that falls into the See?-Everyone-Voted-For-Me school of electioneering.
Some famous examples of this strategy:
• In 1995, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein swept to victory with 99.96 percent of votes cast. (We shudder to think of what happened to the recalcitrant .04 percent.)
• In 2014, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly notched an even more convincing victory — 100 percent — to confirm his leadership in the Supreme People’s Assembly. No other name appeared on the ballot. Voters who (bravely or foolishly) sought to reject Kim would have had to do so in an open booth so everyone could see.
• Even more convincing was the 1927 Liberian presidential triumph of Charles D.B. King with about 240,000 votes. The impressive part: Liberia only had about 15,000 registered voters.
This method was considerably less expensive than the secret ballot method used in the winter that cost about $250,000 because it relied on sending couriers twice-daily to all the voting sites. And [Sharkey] pointed to past strike votes when the union members would all meet in person in a hotel ballroom and stand to indicate a yes or no.
I was leaning against the CTU, then the Tribune editorial made me question my judgement and then I read the whole Sun-Times story and now I actually think the union isn’t being all that horribly unreasonable.
Would a secret ballot be ideal? Yep. Is the union acting like a crazed despot? Um, no.
Gov. Rauner pushed this week for meaningful economic and political reforms to bring back Illinois.
In Rockford, he highlighted the need for job-creating reforms to grow manufacturing jobs. In an op-ed published by the Springfield Journal-Register, Gov. Rauner explained the need for the legislature to pass redistricting reform following the Supreme Court’s decision to block a citizen’s initiative to enact Fair Maps.
Please take a moment to learn more by reviewing the updates below.
-Team Rauner […]
FACEBOOK LIVE
On Tuesday, Gov. Rauner participated in his first ever Facebook Live forum - taking questions live from participants on the popular social media platform. He answered questions on the state’s budget, the need for term limits, redistricting reform and other topics.
* The liberal Illinois Working Together group posted a Facebook video on Wednesday touting what it stated were Gov. Rauner’s “four most outrageous claims” during his Facebook Live chat.
* Rauner’s video is much longer, of course, and people greatly prefer short videos. So, the Rauner folks posted a new video yesterday that’s only about a minute and a half long and already has 2,500 views. The new video talks solely about the new state bicentennial commission. Good idea.
Article I, section 13, of the Illinois Constitution, on the other hand, reveals an intent on the part of the drafters to maintain common- law characteristics of jury trials. Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 13. Article I, section 13, provides: “The right of trial by jury as heretofore enjoyed shall remain inviolate.” Id. The phrase “as heretofore enjoyed” plainly indicates that the drafters intended for certain characteristics of a jury trial to be maintained. For this reason, we construe the right of trial by jury protected by the Illinois Constitution differently than the rights protected by the federal constitution. […]
We recognize that both defendants’ and plaintiffs’ positions have some merit but remain concerned with whether the right to a 12-person jury was “heretofore enjoyed” at the time the 1970 Constitution was drafted. “Our task is limited to determining whether the challenged legislation is constitutional, and not whether it is wise.” […]
There is ample evidence that the drafters at the 1970 Constitutional Convention believed they were specifically preserving the right to a 12-person jury when they adopted the current constitution. […]
Because the size of the jury —12 people—was an essential element of the right of trial by jury enjoyed at the time the 1970 Constitution was drafted, we conclude jury size is an element of the right that has been preserved and protected in the constitution.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Doctors from the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS) and ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company praise the Illinois Supreme Court’s 5-0 decision striking down an unconstitutional mandate to impose a six-person limit in civil jury size. Both organizations voiced concern over the flawed jury reduction legislation, which passed during the final days of Governor Quinn’s administration. The controversial law was considered an outgoing gesture to help personal injury lawyers, because smaller juries are perceived as more favorable to their clients.
“The move to allow six-person juries was misguided from day one,” said ISMS President Thomas M. Anderson, MD. He added that “delegates to both the 1870 and 1970 Illinois Constitutional Conventions considered the merit of six-person juries and purposefully deemed them inappropriate for Illinois. If that’s not an indication of constitutional intent, we don’t know what else could be.”
ISMIE Mutual Chairman Harold L. Jensen, MD offered that “the right to a trial before 12 people is an issue of legal fairness. Research has demonstrated that smaller juries have less diversity, are less deliberative and tend to deliver higher than average awards. Forcing the reduced jury composition is in essence a thumb on the legal scales.”
ISMS and ISMIE Mutual are proud of our advocacy to lead the effort to overturn this onerous law. Illinois’ difficult legal environment got a little bit better today.
An official of the Illinois Policy Institute has said that a film crew doing interviews for a “documentary” about House Speaker Michael Madigan was “very forthcoming about … our involvement.”
That statement was in response to Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter and blog, saying last week that he was “duped” into taking part in a policy institute project without notice that the group was involved.
But the head of production and development for Austin, Texas-based Emergent Order, which is doing the project for the policy institute, told me this week that the person who interviewed Miller could not have told him of the policy institute’s involvement because that contractor was not told who was providing the funding. […]
“I was not at the interview, but I sent out a producer who was one of our contractors,” said Teryn Fogel, the Emergent Order production head. “The contractor didn’t know who was funding it except that they were hired through me. … A lot of times subcontractors don’t know who’s doing financing … because we do not want to sway anybody’s interviews in any direction.” … which backs up Miller’s story and refutes the statement by [Diana Rickert, the policy institute’s vice president of communications] that Miller was told of the group’s involvement.
Again, I had no problems at all with the questions asked or my responses. I actually had fun with the producer and director during and after the interview. My complaint is I was not told in advance that the Illinois Policy Institute was backing the project.
* After the White Sox won the World Series, team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and manager Ozzie Guillen brought the trophy to the Statehouse. I ribbed then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich (a notorious Cub fan) for playing such a high-profile role in the festivities and Reinsdorf snapped at me, saying Sox fans shouldn’t be so mean to Cub fans. I replied that when Ozzie (a notorious Cub hater) told me to back off, I’d back off. Besides, Cub fans were just horrible during that playoff run. Their constant heckling in comments here and elsewhere was brutal and uncalled for.
Our first step in weighting is to survey more than enough people. This allows us to then be able to systematically reject individual surveys from demographics that are over represented. Next, survey data is weighted with a 3 point decrease in Conservative opinion and a 3 point increase in Liberal opinion to offset the bias in land line only telephone polls.
Um, that’s not a good way to do things.
*** UPDATE *** The press release and more details are here.
Proft also says he thinks good could come of the November legislative elections for Republicans even if Madigan remains speaker, as most expect. He says Republicans could forge coalitions with some lawmakers in a weakened Democratic majority on certain issues, such as school choice, despite Madigan.
Redfield, though, doesn’t expect much of anything to get done after voters pick between “wholly owned subsidiaries” of Rauner and Madigan. Usually a cautious academic, Redfield admits he’s become prone to ranting when he considers the post-election prospects.
“What are we really accomplishing by doing this?” he says. “I don’t know how we ended up where we’re at. Unbelievable.”
* The Question: Considering all that’s transpired during the summer and all that will eventually happen during the rest of the fall campaign, do you think there’s a real possibility of any significant stuff getting done in the lame duck session? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
We have serious fiscal mismanagement, giving Illinois one of our nation’s highest unemployment rates and lowest credit ratings. Our neighbors in Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin are not smarter or more hard working than the people of Illinois, yet they are doing far better.
We need change, and Rauner will lead us in the right direction and improve the future for our families. He is a moderate on social issues, and his record on human rights, choice, freedom and equality is excellent. He is not a right-wing Republican.
His wife, Diana (a Democrat) will be a major asset for our state; she runs The Ounce of Prevention Fund, a top-notch nonprofit institution for preschool education, created decades ago by my friend Irving B. Harris. The Rauners have a bipartisan home life, and the same spirit and tone of their politics will animate a Rauner gubernatorial administration. I urge Bruce and Diana to emphasize this fact in the general election campaign.
* Minow penned this Tribune op-ed shortly after the election offering his advice…
1) Send your campaign staff home. The campaign by both sides was disgraceful. Too much money, too many commercials, too much nasty negativism. Campaigning and governing are two very different activities. The purpose of a campaign is to defeat the other side. The purpose of governing is to work with the other side for all the people. So send your campaign staff home.
2) Hire a smart staff and Cabinet of men and women who are not ideologues. You want people, like yourself, who are problem-solvers, who are not partisans, and who know how to compromise. Get some young people who understand the new technologies to bring our government into the 21st century.
3) Some of your supporters booed when you said Tuesday night that you had called the Democratic leaders, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. Tell those who booed to get out of your way.
4) Illinois voters decided to elect a Republican governor and a Democratic House and Senate. That decision does not make you enemies but rather partners. You, Madigan and Cullerton want the same legacies: to make Illinois a better place than it is now. Working together, you can restore the greatness of Illinois.
5) Successful Republican governors such as Richard Ogilvie, Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar learned how to work with Democrats. Study how they did it.
Eighth-grade boys were shown how to tie ties on Wednesday at Learn 8 Middle School, in East Garfield Park as a part of the ‘Tied to Greatness’ program.
‘Tied to Greatness’ is a national nonprofit organization, dedicated to impacting the image and esteem of inner city males through affirmation, instruction and long-term mentorship connections. […]
“When we have data and research that shows that when our eighth grade boys wore the ties it sets them aside as leaders,” said David Lewis, Learn 8 Principal. “There is a decrease in referrals, decrease incidents with them, and made them feel special.”
“It felt good,” said Miles Burnett, 8th grader at Learn 8. “I means that I will be able to do stuff when I get older. I will be able to tie a tie and look right in a business, for when I have an interview.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost released the second television advertisement in his re-election campaign for Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, titled “Belleville Boot.” The ad, narrated by Belleville Boot Company President Mark Ferguson, highlights Bost’s successful efforts to stop a federal rule change that would have made it more difficult for the company to compete with big corporations for supplying boots to our men and women in uniform.
“When Washington politicians tried to change the rules and put big businesses ahead of a Southern Illinois job creator, I went down to the House floor and helped stop them,” said Bost. “Because we were successful, Belleville Boot Company will remain one of the largest providers of military boots in the nation. That’s the type of positive result that hardworking Southern Illinois families deserve.”
FERGUSON: “Belleville is a family owned small business. We’re the oldest and leading manufacturer of boots for the US military. The large billion dollar companies were trying to bully the small businesses and eliminate our ability to win contracts. Mike Bost went right to work for us. As a Marine he’s pretty ferocious. He attacked the problem right away and he got it resolved. We’re going to be able to win more contracts now and we’re going to employ more people in this area. When you need a fighter, you need someone like Mike Bost in your corner.”
A week after the Illinois Supreme Court’s 4-3 Democratic majority refused, without comment, to rehear its rejection of a proposed redistricting amendment to the state constitution, the Republican minority is having its say.
Justice Lloyd Karmeier, in a dissent of rejecting the rehearing that was joined by the court’s two other GOP justices, reaches into the wayback machine for a state Supreme Court decision from 1906 involving proposed changes to the state’s 1870 constitution.
Karmeier noted that the majority tossed the proposed Independent Maps amendment from the Nov. 8 ballot because it assigned new duties to the state’s auditor general. The majority ruled that proposed petition-driven changes to the constitution can only affect the legislative article and not affect other constitutional provisions.
But, Karmeier said, in the 110-year-old ruling, the justices said the fact that “articles of the constitution other than the article expressly amended are changed does not render the express amendment invalid.
“Put another way, those other matters, including the duties of the auditor general, are in no sense the subject of the proposed amendment. The ‘subject’ … is the mechanism for redistricting,” Karmeier wrote.
“The assignment of responsibilities to the auditor general and the other changes that would result from adoption of the amendment are merely ancillary to and supportive of the amendment’s core purpose,” he wrote.
Second, the majority suggested that some alternative plan involving a nonlegislative actor other than the Auditor General could be formulated that would meet the requirements of article XIV, section 3. But Independent Maps, in its petition for rehearing, succinctly and correctly points out that the majority’s approach would preclude the assignment of any new role in the redistricting process to any nonlegislative actor, not just the Auditor General, because any such changes would be barred by precisely the same barriers erected by the majority to rationalize invalidation of the proposal advanced here. If the majority believes that such is not the case, it should take this opportunity on rehearing to explain why.
I think the majority’s ruling wouldn’t preclude assigning duties to any non-legislative actor who is currently mentioned in the redistricting portion of the Constitution.
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.
* The governor talked yet again about term limits yesterday. He was asked why it was so important to get a vote on term limits immediately after the election when the limits wouldn’t actually be mandated until over twelve years from now…
The earliest Illinois could amend its constitution to include term limits is 2018. Only then would the 10-year clock start ticking on lawmakers’ careers. If Rauner keeps his own pledge, he won’t be governor then. And Madigan? He’ll be 86. Why, then, is Rauner pushing for term limits?
“The simple answer is nothing would change the performance, and the culture, in our state government faster than term limits.”
Rauner says he expects lawmakers would see the political writing on the wall and resign or quit early.
“If the General Assembly would put those on the ballot … immediately, right today, many elected officials would look and see ‘Wow, the game is kind of over.’ I think you’d see a number of people retire or resign soon.”
Yeah. Because he has so much experience dealing with legislators that he knows exactly what’s in their hearts and minds. Right. Lots of legislators will just quit right away instead of waiting until 2028.
The power of denial is strong in this one.
All he had to say was “The sooner we pass ‘em, the sooner we’ll have certainty when legislators will have to retire.” Instead, we get this muddled fantasy.
The Chicago Police Department will launch a two-year hiring blitz that will add 970 police officers to confront a 50 percent spike in homicides and improve detectives’ ability to solve crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The hiring surge — the biggest since the mid-1980s — marks a turnaround for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has relied on police overtime in a failed attempt to stop the cycle of gang violence on the streets.
Over the next two years, the police department will add 516 patrol officers, 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 200 detectives. […]
Chicago Police officers spend six months in the police academy before they hit the streets for a probationary period that lasts a year. To get reinforcements on the street as quickly as possible, [Police Supt. Eddie Johnson] said he’s drafting plans to shift the police academy at 1300 W. Jackson into high-gear.
More police would be a good thing, but lots of too-quickly trained cops on the street could do a whole lot of harm. Yes, there’s a crisis. Don’t make it worse, please.
The Chicago Police Department announced Sunday that it will spend about $8 million to buy body cameras for the rest of the force, a rollout officials unveiled though it won’t be complete for years and they aren’t sure who will get the new equipment next. […]
The Police Department started issuing body cameras to officers as part of a pilot program in the Northwest Side Shakespeare District at the beginning of 2015, and about 2,000 cameras are now in use in seven of the city’s 22 police districts. Johnson said the department will use “CPD’s operating budget, as well as grant funding” totaling about $8 million to buy about 5,000 additional cameras. He said the body cameras will come “bundled” with Tasers for officers as well.
So the total number of body-cams is supposed to be around 7,000 […]
Correct us if we’re wrong, but Rahm keeps spouting the line that CPD is manned at 12,000 officers. Every officer is slated to get a camera - not like radios that are passed along watch to watch with a fresh battery. So that’s just over half of our manpower to be equipped with a body camera.
We read once that the US military needed six soldiers at the “tail” to field a single fighting soldier at the “teeth.” CPD isn’t fighting an overseas battle far from friendly shores and flying in supplies, ammo, armor, etc., so that nearly 1-to-1 that CPD appears to be operating at seems a bit….inefficient.
The first-year cost will be $138,000 per officer including salary, benefits and supervision. So the 970 additional officers will carry a price tag of almost $134 million.
So, if 2CC is right, couldn’t the city save more money by using lower paid civilians instead of 5,000 or so highly paid cops (the approximate number who aren’t getting body cams)?
The state elections board this week rejected former state Rep. Frank Mautino’s request to delay a public hearing on his campaign spending until a related federal investigation ends. […]
In requesting the delay earlier this month, Mautino, the state’s auditor general, cited his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
However, the board voted 7-1 against the request Monday. This means a public hearing on Mautino’s spending could take place in the next month or so, said Jim Tenuto, the board’s assistant executive director.
David Cooke, a Streator resident, filed the complaint against Mautino.
The U.S. attorney’s office and state Board of Elections are looking into Mautino’s spending of $200,000 in campaign money on car and gas repairs and a similar amount on bank payments while he was a lawmaker. Campaign money cannot be used for personal purposes.
You gotta figure that the steady Mautino drumbeat in the local press is hurting Mautino’s appointed replacement, Rep. Andy Skoog, who is in a very hotly contested race right now.
“I underestimated how much most of the standard media just doesn’t care about this and doesn’t understand and won’t send our message out. We’ve been too slow in creating our own media channels through social media and other outlets. We’re doing that now.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner hosted his first Facebook Live session on Tuesday, fielding a series of carefully screened questions to once again make his case for everything from term limits for elected officials to lowering property taxes.
Wearing a navy blue jacket and a white shirt with an unbuttoned collar, Rauner spoke from inside his Capitol office, an attempt to appear as if he was having a casual conversation with those who submitted queries on his Facebook page.
The event had a scripted feel, however. Run by the governor’s office, the questions that made the cut weren’t exactly high inside fastballs. The first one came from a friendly Republican lawmaker about the governor’s plans to celebrate the state’s bicentennial in 2018. […]
The 30-minute public relations event ended a bit off-script. Rauner stared quietly at the camera for several seconds before a press aide’s face briefly flashed on screen as the stream cut off.
According to Facebook at 10:22 this morning, Rauner’s video had 12,882 views, even after pushing it for days on social media and convincing major media outlets throughout the state to preview the appearance.
By contrast, state Rep. Litesa Wallace popped up on Facebook without warning the other day and got 1,612 views on a live video about registering to vote.
Nathan Carpenter, assistant director of convergent media at the Illinois State University School of Communication, said holding an event like this sends a signal that Rauner doesn’t feel his message is getting across to the public and that he’s not getting the kind of news coverage he’d like. […]
Because the questions were submitted ahead of time and screened by Rauner’s staff, it can prompt criticisms about the authenticity of the exchange, he said.
The purpose of live-streaming technology is “to feed off of the audience,” Carpenter said, but as Rauner responded to the pre-submitted questions, comments and questions posted in real time went unaddressed.
“In this case, it becomes just another broadcasting tool,” he said, “and if you run counter to people’s expectations with how the medium works or counter to what are the norms for the medium, you can really turn off and frustrate a lot of users.”
He played it very, very safe, which is how he usually does things in public. So, I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a gripping experience the next time he does one. I give him a ton of credit for his ability to stick to his talking points. But he needs a different schtick on Facebook if he is serious about creating his “own media channels.”
In total, Bruce’s first foray into the world of Facebook Live wasn’t groundbreaking or even all that interesting. Rauner stuck to the same script he’s been pushing since his shake up express careened into the Capitol building in January 2015. It’s no secret he’s less than a fan of public institutions, infrastructure or unions, and the near-half hour he spent awkwardly looking into a cell-phone camera was just another opportunity for him to appear Millennial-minded while pushing policies better suited for our Gilded Age great-grandparents.
Even his last comments from a conveniently posed question about the most enjoyable thing he’s done as governor didn’t really make Rauner seem all that relatable. We already knew he loves to take selfies and play dress up as a biker—that’s part of a carefully crafted image. What we still don’t know is how he can sleep at night knowing a state starving for public resources continues to go hungry.
Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign falsely asserted on its website that the Illinois Republican was a veteran of the Iraq war, a misstatement that comes six years after exaggerations over his military record nearly cost him his state’s Senate seat.
The Republican, now battling for a second term in a tight race in Illinois, stayed in the United States during the Iraq War when he served in the Navy Reserves. But on a public webpage on his official campaign website touting his record on veterans’ issues, Kirk was listed as a “veteran of the Iraq war.”
While Kirk campaign officials said it was a staff error, the issue resembles the controversy that nearly caused his 2010 Senate campaign to implode. Moreover, Kirk is now running for reelection against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who lost both of her legs during combat in Iraq. […]
Kirk campaign officials said the webpage was not meant to be made public, saying that it was supposed to be a private site while edits were being made to the page.
Campaign officials said a third-party vendor had drafted the language that they said had not been vetted or reviewed by the senator’s staff. The language, they acknowledged, was inaccurate, saying it would be changed when the campaign began a more direct push to court military veterans.
* And in case you don’t remember, Kirk was sharply criticized in 2010 for an earlier claim on his official congressional website that he was “the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.” And that wasn’t the only problems he had…
Kirk needed to avoid any repeat of that goofiness at all costs, so whether it was an honest mistake or not, CNN has now glommed on and others may follow.
To Sum it up: Much has changed since Government Technology gave Illinois a mediocre C+ two years ago. In 2016, Gov. Bruce Rauner established the Department of Innovation and Technology and brought on private-sector information technology veteran Hardik Bhatt to run it. The result has been more consolidation, more collaboration and cost savings. The department has become the central agency responsible for technology at 38 other agencies, and has led efforts to find solutions that work for multiple agencies and perform multiple functions instead of establishing a patchwork quilt of systems.
The creation of a portal for enterprise project management has given the state a greater ability to monitor the health of projects, identify priorities and track performance metrics. A CIO council brings together local IT workers in government to collaborate and share ideas. Meanwhile, the state has consolidated 80 percent of its assets and implemented a cloud-first strategy, ensuring that the cloud is the default target for all new solutions.
So far only 3 percent of the state’s workloads have gone to the cloud, but Illinois has plans to change that quickly, aiming to put 28 percent of work in the cloud by the end of 2017, and 70 percent the year after.
The state has also made a push for VoIP expansion, migrating more than 35,000 centrex lines and achieving a cost savings of $9 per line per month in the process. DoIT is also working to introduce an array of new tools such as instant messaging, email/voicemail integration and Web conferencing. Amid everything, the state has established an Internet of Things Center of Excellence and is canvassing its agencies to identify IoT strategies and projects.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Tuesday said he’s not considering a run for Chicago mayor or Illinois governor.
The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, who returned to Chicago after spending seven years in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, is now a managing partner at California-based Emerson Collective, which is seeking to put money into programs in poor neighborhoods while promoting economic growth.
Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, Duncan said he is not considering a run for Chicago mayor or Illinois governor. Duncan would not be eligible run for governor in 2018 because of a residency requirement for statewide office.
* Tribune columnist John Kass fesses up to willfully participating in the Illinois Policy Institute’s upcoming “documentary” on Speaker Madigan and offers an apology to his readers and his paper…
But it was bad judgment for me to participate in the documentary, since it was backed by the Illinois Policy Institute, a group that supports Gov. Bruce Rauner in his political fight with Madigan. I have no complaints with the institute, and understood from the start that the group was behind the documentary. But I should have declined the group’s request, since the Tribune is an independent newspaper, and my participation is inconsistent with that mission. For this I apologize to my readers and to my newspaper.
Governor Bruce Rauner today signed Executive Order 2016-10 to create the new Illinois Bicentennial Commission and the Governor’s Office of the Illinois Bicentennial to lead the planning for the celebration of the state’s 200th anniversary.
“The Illinois Bicentennial is an incredible opportunity to celebrate Illinois’ contributions to the country and the world and plan for our next 200 years of innovation and achievements,” said Governor Rauner. “I look forward to the commission’s recommendations on how best to move forward to ensure that this will be a celebration to remember.”
Executive Order 2016-10 creates the Governor’s Office of the Illinois Bicentennial. The Bicentennial Office, with administrative support from the Governor’s Office and other state agencies, will develop the strategic vision for the bicentennial celebration and work with the public and private sectors to implement that vision.
The EO also rescinds Executive Order 2014-07, dissolving the 77-member State Bicentennial Commission. In its place the EO establishes a reconstituted commission of no more than 51 members to be called the Illinois Bicentennial Commission, which will be housed within the new Bicentennial Office. No more than 40 members may be appointed by the Governor and one member each may be appointed by the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Minority Leader, the House Minority Leader, the Attorney General, the Lieutenant Governor, the Treasurer, the Comptroller, the Secretary of State, and the Mayors of Chicago and Springfield.
The Governor today also announced the hiring of Stuart Layne to serve as the Illinois Bicentennial Executive Director. Stuart brings decades of experience in strategic marketing and communications, with expertise in research, branding, publicity, events and sponsor partnerships.
* The Question: Your predictions for how this turns out?
The Chicago Teachers Union has supported Governor Quinn in the past because of his commitment to grassroots organizing, publicly funded public education, and collective bargaining. For these reasons we are concerned about his choice of Paul Vallas as a running mate. His choice takes us in the wrong direction for public education in Chicago and Illinois.
In perhaps the most lively debate in the Chicago Teachers Union in quite some time, the delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse Dem. Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday at the House of Delegates first meeting of the new school year.
This strong endorsement came despite impassioned speeches to not endorse Quinn, including several members from the CTU caucus party CORE.
“You know what will happen to someone who will lick their boots,” asked delegate and CORE activist Michelle Gunderson, “they will treat you like a dog.”
But despite the pleas to not endorse a candidate who has burned the CTU, including naming anti-union extraordinaire Paul Vallas as his running mate, and just recently signing devastating pension legislation for municipal workers (look out CTU members - You’re next!), the fear of republican candidate Bruce Rauner was just too much for a house that listens carefully to what its headmistress has to say.
The Chicago Teachers Union claims the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board was further compromised Friday when Gov. Bruce Rauner appointed a former attorney for Chicago Public Schools.
With Lara Shayne’s appointment, three of the five members have been appointed by Rauner, who is known for his anti-union views and dislike of the Chicago Teachers Union. […]
But CTU leaders have complained recently that the board is skewed against them. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said the more Rauner appointments to the board, the less legitimate it is becoming.
“These appointments undermine the board,” he said.
* As we’ve already discussed, Gov. Bruce Rauner is doing a live Facebook question and answer thingy today at noon. Click here to watch and participate. You can also click here to see some questions already posted on Twitter. Some aren’t exactly polite, so beware.
If you do participate, let us know how it goes in comments. Thanks.
Reporter A: As the head of the Republican Party, are you yet able to say for whom you are going to vote for—for President. We heard you said you were voting for Trump in a crowd. Why won’t you say as the leader of the Party.
Gov. Rauner: I am not going to comment on the Presidential race. I am very focused on-
Monique Garcia [Chicago Tribune]: Was that report inaccurate?
Gov. Rauner: I am very focused on Illinois, as you guys know.
Reporter A: Is that a cop out? As the Leader?
Gov. Rauner: We need big reform in the State of Illinois. We need to grow more jobs. We need to protect our taxpayers. And we especially need to reform our political system, through term limits and Fair Maps. That’s where I am focused.
In the high-profile contest for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, the new Loras College Poll finds Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth with a five-point edge over incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. The live-caller statewide survey of a random sample of 600 likely voters was conducted Sept. 13-16.
The new Loras Poll of Illinois asked likely voters whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the candidates for U.S. Senate. The results below indicate the net favorability of the candidates (percentage favorable opinion minus percentage unfavorable opinion). Positive numbers indicate a net favorable view, whereas negative numbers would indicate a net unfavorable opinion.
Tammy Duckworth +12
Mark Kirk +4
In addition, 31 percent of likely voters indicated they had no opinion of Kirk, and 22 percent held no opinion of Duckworth.
“The numbers of undecided and those who have yet to form an opinion of Kirk, coupled with his net favorable rating, mean this race is not over. Add in the general volatility of this year’s campaign season, and the next several weeks could be interesting in Illinois,” Budzisz said. “That said, Duckworth holds some real advantages—including that this is a presidential election year and that tends to help Democrats in a state such as Illinois.”
How a guy can go through a high-profile Senate race and then spend almost six years in office and 31 percent still have no opinion of him is more than a bit troubling for Kirk.
* Kirk does seem to be doing better than expected in Chicago, which may be why Duckworth hit the race button yesterday…
Kirk appears to have more crossover appeal than Duckworth, as 22 percent of self-identified Democrats indicate they intend to vote for the Republican Kirk, compared to 13 percent of Republicans supporting Duckworth.
Turning to those who view themselves as political independents, Duckworth has the edge over the incumbent. Duckworth receives support from 41 percent of independents compared to Kirk’s 29 percent.
Not surprising given the partisan divide on these issues, those who approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance and/or believe the country is on the right track are more likely to support Duckworth than Kirk.
20 percent of Trump supporters are undecided when it comes to the choice between Kirk and Duckworth, compared to only 12 percent of Clinton supporters who remain undecided on the Senate race.
Turning to support within regions of the state, Duckworth has a clear advantage in the City of Chicago (54 percent to 21 percent), while Kirk leads Duckworth Downstate (41 percent to 32 percent), and in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area the two split support nearly evenly, 41 percent Duckworth to 39 percent Kirk.
The majority of Illinois children will be of a minority or mixed race by 2020, according to projections recently released by demographers at two public policy institutions.
It’s a forecast that signals a more racially diverse America in the coming decades, as the country is expected to become minority-majority around 2043. By the early 2030s, 18- to 44-year-olds become minority-majority, and adults 45 and older reach the shift in the late 2050s, according to projections by the Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress based on U.S. census data.
Children, however, will reach the milestone far sooner, and Illinois is among the first 18 states expected to cross the bar in 2020. […]
In Illinois, the children of first and second generations of Mexican immigrants who moved to the state throughout the 1990s are bolstering the Hispanic population, as Hispanic children are expected to make up 25 percent of the state’s child population by 2020, projections show. That same year, just under 50 percent of Illinois children will be white, about 16 percent of children will be black and about 9 percent of children will be Asian, multiracial or of another race. By 2060, the number of white children in Illinois will slip to about 35 percent, projections show, while the number of Hispanic children will rise to 36 percent. Black children will be at about 15 percent and Asian, multiracial and other nonwhite children at about 15 percent.
* This is not particularly new, by the way. From a 1996 study…
At mid-decade, the population of Illinois is just under 12 million. At the 1990 census, 11,430,602 Illinoisans were enumerated, including 952,272 foreign-born residents. From 1990 through 1994, about 250,000 legal immigrants settled in Illinois In addition, the number of illegal residents in Illinois is estimated at between 215,000 and 355,000. Thus, immigration is a major contributor to population growth in the state, and illegal immigrants may comprise as much as 30 percent of the state’s foreign-born population, most of which resides in the Chicago area.
More people leave Illinois and move to other states than enter from other states. Between 1985 and 1990, while 667,778 people moved to Illinois from another state, just under one million moved from Illinois to another state. Over the same period, almost 200,000 people moved into Illinois from abroad. Thus, the population challenge facing Illinois is not growth; it is composition. For example, according to studies by demographer William Frey of the University of Michigan, between 1985 and 1990, almost three-quarters of the net out-migration of 320,331 were non-Hispanic Whites; of the 195,654 immigrants who came to Illinois, over two-thirds were minorities.
According to the 1990 census, 74.8 percent of Illinoisans were White, 14.6 percent were Black, 8.0 percent were Hispanic and 2.6 percent were Asian or Other (i.e., including Native Americans and Others). Of the 952,272 foreign born residing in Illinois in 1990, Mexico was by far the leading country of birth, accounting for 281,651 people- almost 30 percent of all the foreign born living in Illinois. Other leading sources included Poland (80,594), the Philippines (49,119), India (40,817), Germany (39,920), Italy (33,812) and Korea (30,058).
The Governor says he hasn’t been talking with democratic leadership about these things, but he’s hopeful the outcome of the election will swing things in his favor.
“Are you going to support the status quo? Or are you going to support reform? We clearly need to go in a different direction. And folks that argue our proposals on reforms are too extreme, or hurting some class, or whatever, that’s just not true. That’s political spin,” said Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Barring future court action, David Gill’s name will not appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as an independent candidate in the 13th Congressional District.
The Illinois State Board of Elections voted unanimously Monday to remove Gill, a Bloomington physician who’s previously run for Congress four times as a Democrat, because he failed to collect the 10,754 signatures he needed on his nominating petitions to earn a spot on the ballot. […]
When the board met Aug. 26 to certify the ballot, it was under an order from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough to allow Gill’s name to appear alongside those of incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur. […]
But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in and blocked Myerscough’s order, pending the outcome of an appeal from the Illinois attorney general’s office.
Ken Menzel, general counsel to the elections board, said Monday the ballot has now been certified without Gill’s name on it, but his name can still be returned if that is ordered by the federal appeals court. […]
Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said ballots being readied in his county – part of which is included in the 13th – do not have Gill’s name, and the first ballots are to be sent out Saturday to people in the military serving overseas. Early voting in the county begins Sept. 29.
Gray said ballot updates can be made if ordered by a court. He also said there will be a line for write-ins in the 13th on the ballot, so if Gill files as a write-in, there would be a place for voters to cast votes for him.
* From Gill’s attorney Sam Cahnman…
Today’s action by the State Board was expected after a 3-judge panel of the Court of Appeals issued its one sentence order temporarily staying Judge Myerscough’s preliminary injunction pending the outcome of the States appeal. Our focus now is to get Dr. Gill back on the ballot by a) getting the temporary stay lifted; or b) defeating the State’s appeal of Judge Myerscough’s 26-page well reasoned opinion, letting the voters of the 13th Congressional District decide who will represent them in Congress rather than 8 Gubernatorial appointees at the Board of Elections, or 3 Judges in Chicago.
Here’s a candidate who got more than 15 times the signatures the Republican and Democratic candidates had to get. I don’t know what they are afraid of. They are certainly going to great lengths to keep voters of the 13th Congressional District from even getting a chance at voting for this highly qualified candidate.
Senate-seeking U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth appeared with fellow Democrats on Monday to advocate for long-sought changes to immigration laws, casting the November election as crucial to the cause while blasting opponents as “bigots and racists and fear-mongerers.” […]
Duckworth asserted that votes had stalled in Congress on legislation to open citizenship opportunities to students and people who serve in the military “because there are bigots and racists and fear-mongerers who don’t understand that they are in fact weakening this great nation when they turn their backs on immigration reform.” […]
While Duckworth did not direct her comments about racism and bigotry at Kirk specifically, she did cast herself and the Democratic ticket generally as the pro-immigrant choice.
“We’re not going to get anywhere with comprehensive immigration reform unless we have Democrats in charge of the Senate, unless we have a Democratic leader of the Senate, because it will never come up for a vote, just like we never got a vote on a next member of the United States Supreme Court,” Duckworth said. “So if you vote for the Republican, then you are voting for Republican control of the Senate, and that means we’ll never get this issue to come up, it will never pass out of the Senate.”
* Meanwhile, Duckworth’s spokesman is wearing criticism from this blog’s commenters as a sort of badge of honor on his Twitter page…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s approval rating comes in at 33 percent in a new poll.
MorningConsult, a media and polling firm, finds that the governor’s disapproval rating is at 56 percent. Governors who are more unpopular include New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and, at No. 1, Kansas’ Sam Brownback.
Where would Rauner’s numbers be if he actually got his agenda through?
Morning Consult surveyed 71,900 registered voters in all 50 states from early May 2016 through early September 2016. Survey respondents were asked whether they approved or disapproved of their governor’s job performance.
