Illinois lawmakers did not trample on the U.S. Constitution when they gave the go-ahead for committees dedicated to electing state legislative candidates to make bigger contributions than many other donors, a federal judge held today.
In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman rejected the argument that lawmakers were improperly playing favorites when they set higher contribution limits for legislative caucus committees than for such donors as individuals, corporations and political action committees.
Imposing lower contribution limits on those other donors does not violate the First Amendment or the equal protection clause, Feinerman held. […]
One sufficiently important interest, he wrote, citing cases that included Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), “is the state’s interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption or its appearance.”
Placing limits on the amount of money donors can give to a candidate is a way to serve that interest, Feinerman wrote.
And, he continued, lawmakers could legitimately believe the possibility that a large contribution is part of a pay-to-play transaction is greater when the donor is an outsider.
“Illinois reasonably concluded that corruption (or the appearance thereof) by private individuals and non-legislative entities poses a far more serious risk to the democratic process than does a legislative leader contributing to another legislator or electoral candidate in that leader’s own caucus,” Feinerman wrote.
The Tribune editorial board might disagree with that particular sentiment. Plaintiffs plan to appeal.
Spending by the leadership committees is capped during the primary, but not the general.
Today, Patrick Harlan, the Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the Illinois 17th District, issued a challenge to Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline):
“Congresswoman Bustos needs to commit to serving a full term for the office she is seeking,” Harlan said. “If she is plotting to climb the political ladder and run for governor in 2018, her constituents in the Illinois 17th District have a right to know.”
Harlan called on Bustos to sign a pledge indicating her intent to serve out her full term if elected in November.
“I am requesting that Congresswoman Bustos make a pledge that, if she were to be elected in November, she would uphold the duties of representing the constituents of the 17th District without resigning to run for Governor of Illinois and requiring a special election. If Bustos is not willing to make this reasonable pledge to her constituents, then we shall be safe to assume that she is going to deny her responsibilities to serve us as a representative, and we demand that she withdraws her candidacy for the November election.”
Earlier today, when Congresswoman Cheri Bustos’ campaign was asked about the rumor that she might run for governor in 2018, her campaign manager stated, “2018 is a long time away — her focus right now is on 2016, representing her district to the best of her ability.” But when pressed further about how Bustos might be able to compete with Rauner, her campaign manager proceeded to attack Rauner’s record.
She wouldn’t have to resign to run for governor. And her congressional term would end about the same time her gubernatorial term would begin if she won, so there’d be no need for a special election.
Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield, agreed that Quinn is clearly trying to remain in the spotlight.
“Now, to what end?” Redfield said, offering two possible scenarios: an attempt to rebuild an organization to push for political reform or an effort to lay the groundwork for a future bid for public office.
If it’s the latter, it seems doubtful that fellow Democrats would rally behind Quinn, Redfield said.
“I don’t know that a lot of down-ballot Democrats would view him as an asset in terms of being at the top of the Democratic ticket,” he said.
Southern Illinois University’s fall 2016 enrollment is down 7.55 percent, according to Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell.
The official enrollment number is 15,987, which is down from last fall’s reported number of 17,292.
SIU officials said Tuesday they weren’t surprised by the dip in enrollment. In fact, they knew it was coming. […]
Numbers from SIU show a 23.69 percent drop in the number of freshman, and a 17 percent drop in sophomores — which is the same number from last year.
There are increases in the amount of juniors and seniors, which Colwell said is a bright spot because it shows the university’s retention efforts are working.
Grad student enrollment fell 12 percent, or 431 students.
With total enrollment for the fall semester showing a decline of more than 5 percent, Northern Illinois University President Doug Baker vowed Wednesday to take steps to put the school back on a path to growth.
Total enrollment was counted at 19,015 on the 10th day of classes this year, down 5.5 percent from fall 2015, according to data released Wednesday by the university. There are 1,115 fewer students enrolled at the school than there were at this time last year.
“Our largest decline is in the freshman class, while smaller declines took place among transfer and graduate students,” Baker said in a written statement sent to NIU faculty and staff. “We are clearly not where we need to be.”
Total undergraduate enrollment declined to 14,079, down 6.2 percent from 2015, according to data provided by NIU. Graduate school enrollment fell 3.7 percent to 4,672. Enrollment at the law school was a bright spot, growing 4.3 percent.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville saw 14,142 students register for this fall. Although that number is about 100 students fewer than the all-time high of 2015, it’s above the 14,000 student goal for the university.
If you want to get a real first-hand look at gang culture in Chicago’s South Side, all you need to do is scroll through the Twitter feed of Gahrika Barnes.
The 17-year-old was a known member of the Gangster Disciples, a gang in the Woodlawn neighborhood, who’s suspected by police in multiple shootings.
Under the alias @TyquanAssassin, Barnes tweeted over 27,000 times to her 2,700 followers: boasting about her gang affiliation, posting messages of grief over friends who had been shot by rival gangs and threatening retaliation, and taunting the police. She describes herself in her bio as a “PAID SHOOTA.”
She was murdered on Eberhart Street, mere hours after tweeting the address of her current hangout.
The article goes on to talk about an effort by researches and activists to stop these social media fights from escalating into real life shooting wars. You should definitely read it all.
As one of the few researchers in this field, [Dr. Desmond Patton, an associate professor at Columbia University in New York and one of the few academics looking into the language of gang members online] dominates the literature, most of which has been published this year. His January article in the academic journal Computers in Human Behavior, titled “Internet banging: New trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity and hip hop,” identified historical and cultural threads that have led to the intersection between social media and gang culture.
For starters, he notes the “relative low cost of smartphones, emergence of social media and SNSs, and increased technological literacy” has led to influx of tech-savvy teens. At the same time, Patton and his co-authors link urban growth and economic disenfranchisement to the rise in gang violence. They argue that the loss of factory jobs in urban areas “affected masculine identity profoundly. Almost overnight, many blue-collar men who embodied the American work ethic became unemployed and disenfranchised, severely damaging many urban men’s self images and representing an identity shift.”
Indeed, since 2000, America has lost over 5 million factory jobs. These losses have directly impacted the Rust Belt, America’s so-called manufacturing heartland, of which Chicago once reigned supreme. Yet, due to many factors including increased automation, free-trade agreements and the transfer of manufacturing plants, factory jobs have been on a slow decline since the 1980s and have, in part, contributed to the poverty of Chicago’s neighborhoods. A New York Times article from May of this year draws a link between the poverty in Chicago’s racially segregated neighborhoods and a lack of affordable housing to the rise in Chicago’s gang-related crime.
* And just as a reminder, here’s an excerpt from Greg Baise’s recent City Club address…
Just remember as you leave, in the last seven years….
Wisconsin created 44,100 manufacturing jobs
Ohio created 75,900 manufacturing jobs
Indiana created 83,700 manufacturing jobs and
Michigan created 171,300 manufacturing jobs.
Illinois created 4,600 jobs. Even Idaho created 9,100 manufacturing jobs. A state better known for its potato farms.
Can we “create” manufacturing jobs? Not really. I mean, we can hand out subsidies that could spark a few new jobs. But what we really need to do is make this state a less challenging place to start and grow businesses, including factories.
* Last weekend, I drove to Remington, Indiana for my uncle’s funeral. The road I took isn’t far from Watseka, which is a former home to several of my cousins and used to be a haven for factory jobs (Baise’s own parents emigrated there from Kentucky in the 1930s for the jobs). It’s now a sad shell of its former self.
The road then meanders through some little Illinois towns that are almost dead. Once you cross the border into Indiana, however, you almost immediately see small factories and far more prosperous little towns. The contrast is stark - and depressing for an Illinoisan.
You can scream all you want about Gov. Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda, and I’ll agree with much of it. But the bottom line is he ain’t wrong about our business climate. Holding the budget hostage is wrong. Plain and simple. But so is refusing to address a frightening problem with our state.
For once, I’d like to see the Democrats step up and offer a plan. Blaming China and Mexico is all well and good, but the fact that more manufacturing jobs are being created in Idaho than Illinois makes me sick to my stomach. Enough with the excuses.
A company spokesman says Richelieu Foods chose Wheeling because of Chicago’s central location in the country, and good infrastructure.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the governor that some business climate things have got to change around here, investing in infrastructure is supremely important for a crossroads state like Illinois. Whether it’s by road, rail or air, you gotta come through Illinois to get most anywhere. Chicago let its railroad snarls get so horrific that companies set up workarounds to avoid the, in many instances, weeks-long city delays. Most of those new terminals are in Illinois, but Indiana is trying to get a huge one off the ground right now.
Bruce Rauner campaigned on his support for massive capital investments, but nothing has yet materialized. He even signed off on raiding the Road Fund last year.
IDOT Assistant Secretary Rich Brauer said major road, rail and bridge projects such as the Carpenter Street underpass should not depend on the political uncertainty of capital budgets.
“We’re trying to get away from a capital bill. We’re trying to get toward more sustainable funding,” Brauer said after Monday’s ribbon cutting. “Then we can plan on projects like this instead of saying we have to wait for a year, we have to wait five years for a capital bill.”
Brauer, who previously represented Springfield in the General Assembly, gave an increase in vehicle registration fees as an example of funding that could be earmarked for transportation projects, though he said the department has not advocated for such an increase.
I fully agree that we need sustainable infrastructure funding year after year and we shouldn’t do things in spurts with occasional capital bills.
And no offense to Brauer because he’s not in charge of this, but where is the administration’s plan? The governor has been in office 20 months and we have yet to hear a peep out of him.
* By the way, infrastructure is not just about roads, bridges, airports and mass transit. Universities, K-12 schools and local water and sewer systems are also in dire need.
And here’s Department of Natural Resource Director Wayne Rosenthal…
“(W)e have identified $850- to $900 million in needed maintenance at park and other DNR facilities”
* Susana Mendoza personally pitched me this story during the Illinois State Fair. I told her that she was misinformed…
“I’m here to announce our office’s newest initiative. It’s called Open Book,” [Comptroller Leslie Munger] said at a news conference on July 20 in Peoria. “It is a searchable database that allows you to compare state contracts with campaign donations.”
Not only does Munger’s program have the same name and website address as [former Comptroller Dan Hynes’] virtually identical effort. Like Hynes, she also used the same “follow the money” catchphrase.
“#OpenBook is a one-of-a-kind transparency initiative developed in-house by my office. #FollowTheMoney,” @Leslie MungerIL tweeted. “Hold elected leaders & those running for office accountable with our new transparency tool.” […]
Munger’s Democratic challenger in the November election, Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza, said, “It’s amazing to me that she would have the audacity to steal her predecessor’s award-winning initiative — a good-government initiative, ironically — and claim it as her own.”
* The reason I knew Mendoza was wrong is because the manager of this project was my former intern Barton Lorimor. We didn’t talk much about it, but I knew enough about all the hours he was putting in and the complicated stuff he was doing to realize this was more than a simple cosmetic upgrade. This was essentially a complete rebuild.
Every line of code on the site has been changed. They also added new algorithms, new search functions and improved the user interface. It’s like saying a 1932 Cadillac is essentially the same as a 2016 Cadillac. The name’s the same, and there’s still a steering wheel and four tires, but the technology is radically different. It’s not “virtually identical.”
* More detailed examples from the comptroller’s office…
· We switched from using modules to responsive data tables. Before July, every search result was displayed in these floating boxes, which took up a lot of space if you searched for a vendor that has dozens of contracts. Responsive tables are cleaner, display more information, and they auto-adjust to the user’s screen’s dimensions.
· You can search by contributors and receiving political committees now, too. Previously you could only search by the contract’s vendor name (and that name had to be as it appeared on the contract or else the records were not displayed). Old OpenBook also wasn’t displaying some of the State Board’s data even if the records matched the search criteria. It does now thanks to all new SQL code.
· OpenBook ties directly into the contract database on Ledger. Obviously you could not do something like that before because Ledger is fairly new itself.
· Search results can be filtered by vendor name, the donor’s name, the donor’s employer (when provided), recipient name, dollar amounts, date, and a contract’s awarding agency. You can order them in alphabetical, numerical, ascending, and descending orders. You can even download all of this into a PDF or CSV file. None of that was available beforehand.
Gov. Bruce Rauner toured two Northwest suburban businesses Tuesday, touting both as prime examples of the role Illinois should be playing in the national and global economy.
Rauner helped cut the ribbon on a new processing plant for Richelieu Foods, Inc. in Wheeling, and then admired the research and development in progress at Gas Technology Institute in Des Plaines, aimed at creating new sources of energy through a process called gasification. […]
O’Connor said that while the costs of doing business in Illinois are a little higher than other places the company could have gone, the state’s transportation infrastructure, location and workforce weigh in its favor. The company expects to have more than 100 employees working at the Wheeling facility by the end of the year,
While Rauner called Richelieu’s new 115,000-square-foot plant a good sign for Illinois’ economy, he said all is not well with the state. Not every business is capable of overcoming the state’s challenges as Richelieu is, he said.
“We don’t have nearly the successes we deserve,” Rauner said.
* The governor is fond of publicly name-checking Rep. Elaine Nekritz whenever he wants to point to a Democrat who favors some of his non-budget reforms. Nekritz was at yesterday’s event, and, as usual, diplomatically spoke her mind…
“I think we can do more of selling ourselves rather than selling ourselves short,” said State Rep. Elaine Nekritz.
Nekritz - one of the Democrats at the ribbon-cutting - aimed her comment at Rauner, who has spent much of his first term criticizing the state’s business climate. Nekritz said companies like Richelieu will respond if Illinois does a better job selling itself.
“A lot of states take advantage of the fact that they can point the finger at us and say ’see how bad they are’. Again, we need to do better but we also need to do better at promoting ourselves,” Nekritz said.
But the governor warned that announcements like this do not happen often enough.
“We should have far more. Too often, when we have a good announcement we also have announcements of folks leaving or moving to another state,” Rauner said.
* Eric Zorn once reveled in the commenter community he helped nurture on his blog. But new Tribune rules prevented him from banning the worst of the worst and he gave up…
I now cheer when media sites shut down their comment threads and hope the idea spreads. Public radio network NPR was the latest, switching off its forum Aug. 23 citing the prohibitive cost of effective moderation, the comparatively small slice of web visitors who participated in the scrum (less than a 10th of 1 percent) and the migration of online debate to social media. […]
The loudest, most polarizing participants come to dominate most comment-thread “conversations.” They wander from the point to attack each other, the publication and the writer with name-calling and innuendo — anything that can get past the profanity filters — which, paradoxically, drives off those with actual contributions to make. […]
Comment threads are more usefully interesting to readers at sites such as CapitolFax.com, the Illinois politics blog, where proprietors invest considerable time and enforce no-nonsense rules to maintain focus and civility in their comment areas.
But that sort of investment doesn’t appear to be scalable for big media.
We most definitely have our problems here. I’ve been deleting more and more comments as election day approaches and as an AFSCME showdown with Gov. Rauner nears. I expect banishments will exponentially increase in the coming days and weeks. There’s just not enough respect for other viewpoints and it frustrates me to no end.
Try to keep that in mind as we move forward. You may think you have the right to say whatever you want, and you do as long as it’s on your own turf. This is my turf, however. You are all guests. Try to act like it.
* This rumor has been floating around all week. Bustos is a Dick Durbin person, so the trial balloon could be a sign that Durbin won’t run. Or not. Who knows? It’s still really early…
Illinois Democrats have recently set their sights on U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill. in the party’s quest to deepen its gubernatorial candidate bench.
Sources close to the state party say discussions have recently centered on Bustos as a possible contender in the 2018 race against incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, if U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin decides against running.
When asked about a possible gubernatorial run, Bustos’ campaign responded similarly to Durbin’s camp, arguing that it’s too early to consider, while leaving the door open. […]
Asked how Bustos, of East Moline, might compete against deep-pocketed Rauner, Raker said: “Rauner has been a disaster for the state of Illinois, for Cheri’s district in particular. Rauner’s tactics and policies have been hurting real people here.” […]
Bustos has demonstrated an ability to raise money — she started CherPAC, which has raised more than $100,000 and used as part of the DCCC’s Red to Blue campaign, which she co-chairs.
Your thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Kyle Hillman in comments…
I am sure her NRA A- rating will go over well in Chicago and Suburban moms right now.
* It’s not every day that a former presidential candidate and sitting US Senator cuts a robocall for a state House candidate, but that’s just what Arizona Sen. John McCain did for Rep. Mike McAuliffe (R-Chicago). Have a listen…
* Why did this happen? Subscribers have known about this brewing controversy for a while, but here’s some background…
Area veterans responded with support for State Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-20th) after his Democratic opponent, Merry Marwig, challenged McAuliffe’s record.
A group of nearly 30 people, mostly veterans, gathered in Monument Park in Chicago’s Northwest side Edison Park neighborhood to respond to Marwig’s claims that McAuliffe claimed to be a military veteran. The rally, held near McAuliffe’s campaign headquarters, took place Friday, Aug. 26.
In letters to the editor published last September, McAuliffe referred to his “fellow” veterans. Marwig said that wording amounted to McAuliffe claiming to be a veteran when he is not one. McAuliffe said the reference amounted to a typo.
“Every function he’s (McAuliffe) ever been to, he’s said he is not a veteran, but appreciates what we do,” said Robert Fuggiti, an Army Vietnam veteran and retired 32-year Chicago police officer who helped organize Friday’s rally.
“I’m so tired of politicians taking one small issue and making it big,” Fuggiti said. “As far as things he’s (McAuliffe) done for us, he’s always listened to our grievances and been there for us.”
Take Michael McAuliffe, a 20-year state representative. Anyone who has watched broadcast television this summer, from the Olympics to the Cubs to game shows, has seen a McAuliffe ad featuring his wife, Kim, touting his re-election bid in the Northwest Side and northwest suburban district.
Since Aug. 1, the candidate’s 30-second ads have run at least 478 times — at a cost of at least $614,475, according to TV station records filed with the Federal Communications Commission. […]
But it is highly unusual for someone running for the Illinois House to buy August broadcast time in the expensive Chicago TV market. Not only are campaign funds usually too scarce for such a move, but it’s not viewed as good bang for the buck because only a tiny fraction of the people who see the ads will actually be able to vote on the race. After all, there are 118 Illinois House seats and 40 Senate seats on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The governor was not asked to confirm an otherwise quite odd story about how he reportedly said he was voting for Donald Trump. Instead, Rauner was asked today if he was now supporting Trump…
However, on Tuesday, Rauner responded to questions about the report, denying that he’s endorsing anyone in the presidential race.
“I’m not endorsing in the presidential race, I’m staying out of it,” Rauner said during a press conference in Wheeling. “I’m 100 percent focused on Illinois.”
* Raw audio, with the governor’s response near the end…
* It’s taken most of the mainstream media until only recently to report on Gov. Rauner’s huge contributions to the Illinois Republican Party, so maybe we’ll see some stuff on these developments by October…
Liberty Principles gets $1 million from Ken Griffin, now with an estimated $5 million on hand. https://t.co/qdNO8PlWzw
* The race between appointed Rep. Andy Skoog (D-LaSalle) and Republican Jerry Long ain’t getting any less ugly. After sending a mailer blasting Long for renting a house to a registered sex offender, the Democrats have hit him with a new piece…
Dems continue to attack Long over sex offenders. Its latest mailer features a mat reading, "Welcome predators."
* Fitch Ratings lowered DuPage County’s rating to AA+, down from AAA, the first time in anyone’s memory that this has happened…
In a statement Sept. 2, released as the holiday weekend was beginning, Fitch said roughly $150 million in DuPage debt was a victim of revisions in its criteria for state and local governments.
“The downgrade reflects Fitch’s concern (about) the county’s limited revenue flexibility and slow revenue growth prospects,” the New York firm wrote. “(Fitch’s) revised criteria placed increased focus on Fitch’s expectations for the natural pace of revenue growth without revenue-raising measures and the ability of an entity to independently increase revenue.”
That concern appears to be in part due to extreme reluctance by the county in recent years to raise property taxes. It also reflects that the county now has little undeveloped land, with its population apparently plateaued at a bit under 1 million.
In general, Fitch said it expects revenue from existing taxes to grow “slightly below historical trends” and generally only in line with national inflation. “While sales tax revenue has growth between 4 percent and 5 percent annually over the past several years, it has slowed to only 1 percent growth in fiscal 2016, leading the county to change its growth assumptions going forward to only 2 percent growth.”
In a statement back, DuPage Chief Financial Officer Paul Rafac emphasized that the county still is AAA in the view of Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s ratings.
* David Cooke wants some help with his State Board of Elections case against Auditor General Frank Mautino, who has, as we’ve discussed several times so far, filed some questionable campaign finance reports. Cooke’s not getting any assistance, though…
He said he sought legal help from Republicans, with no success.
Ken Menzel, the election board’s general counsel, said the agency hasn’t had an investigator on staff for more than a decade. He said the board takes on the investigative role with “clear-cut” issues, such as late campaign finance reports, but not larger ones like Mautino’s case.
Menzel said he was surprised the Republican Party hasn’t helped Cooke because party members seemed to be “up in arms” about Mautino’s campaign spending issues.
He said the delays in the case are normal.
“At each stage, there is another round of motions. They don’t get resolved necessarily fast,” he said. “That’s due process.”
* I’m not a huge fan of using the state Constitution to permanently lock up money for special uses, but, this Tribune editorial is a bit much, if you ask me…
No, little voter, you cannot term-limit the Illinois lawmakers who’ve ruined this state’s finances; the politicians don’t want that. Nor can you stop legislative leaders from gerrymandering their members’ district maps; the Illinois Supreme Court says that injustice is OK. But if the pols of both parties won’t let you do something good for you, they will let you do something good for them and their friends:
They want you to enshrine in the Illinois Constitution a perpetual payday for their loyal donors in road-building and organized labor. You could say they’ve all got this thing — this proposed amendment — and for them it’s … golden!
The stated aim of the amendment — it’ll be on your Nov. 8 ballot — is to prevent state and local governments from using transportation revenue for non-transportation purposes. Sounds fine, to a point. But the diabolical effect is that contractors, and the unions whose members they employ, would have constitutionally guaranteed dibs on future billions of state and local revenue dollars.
That is, they’d have dibs on tax collections so that some future Illinois — an Illinois where finances are even more disastrous than today’s — couldn’t circumvent this amendment even in a natural catastrophe or other crisis. This amendment would, for example, wall off road dollars from any emergency uses for basic human needs. You’ve seen how rigidly the constitution’s pension protection clause forbids public pension reforms? Well, the pavement protection clause would be just as rigid.
And it goes on and on like that forever.
Look, these aren’t regular ol’ general revenues. Their intended purpose is for transportation infrastructure. Last year, the stopgap agreement dipped heavily into the Road Fund. The move got us out of a crisis, but it’s like eating your seed corn - staves off starvation today, but creates huge problems down the, um, road.
* I think there is more than enough room for argument here. And I even think the Tribune’s warnings about the future have some merit. But, sheesh, man. The road builders and the unions have watched as billions were swept from funds intended for infrastructure. So, of course they’re gonna do their best to stop it. They’re acting rationally.
And this proposal, along with the Supreme Court’s pension decisions, can be seen as a way of finally forcing the General Assembly and the governor to face up to fiscal reality and raise some taxes and cut some programs rather than raiding the future.
Having watched some particularly tough fiscal emergencies (revenues dried up after the 9/11 attack, for instance) I would argue for more flexibility, but I also have to admit that the other side makes some decent points.
A federal lawsuit has raised questions about whether Illinois’ new Election Day voter registration rules are constitutional, a situation that could complicate how polling sites are run this November.
Illinois tested same-day registration in the 2014 governor’s race, with all election authorities required to offer it in at least one location. It was popular, with long lines on Election Night, particularly in Chicago. When lawmakers made same-day registration permanent the next year, they expanded it, ordering highly populated areas to make it available at all polls.
That change is at the heart of a federal lawsuit brought by Republicans, who argue it’s an unfair and unequal system because voters in less populated and GOP-leaning areas don’t have equal access. They’re asking a judge to end all precinct-level Election Day registration, which would impact voters in 21 of 102 counties and five cities: Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, Bloomington and East St. Louis.
“It seemed obviously unfair to skew election results in this way,” said Jacob Huebert, an attorney with an organization representing a north-central Illinois Republican congressional candidate and party committee. “The purpose is obviously to boost Democratic turnout relative to Republican turnout.” […]
Legal and political experts question the timing of the lawsuit, which is so close to the election, as well as its backers. The Illinois Policy Institute’s legal arm, the Liberty Justice Center, is arguing the lawsuit. First-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s foundation has donated to the group and some in his administration previously worked there. Rauner’s spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment.
A pregnant woman and her boyfriend were shot Monday afternoon while on the porch of a home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, relatives said.
Doctors at Stroger Hospital later operated on Crystal Myers, relatives said, and delivered the nearly full-term baby boy, but no details were available about his condition.
Her boyfriend, Albert Moore, 24, was shot in the neck and was in critical condition, police said.
Myers, 23, had been due Sept. 30, relatives said. She had been shot in the stomach and was listed in serious condition at Stroger, where family and friends were awaiting updates outside the hospital on the couple late Monday.
The pair were on the porch of Moore’s grandparent’s home in the 5200 block of Sangamon, where they lived, when a gunman sneaked up the gangway, fired about nine shots, and fled, said a female friend who hit the deck when shots rang out and didn’t want to be identified. […]
Police are looking into whether the shooting is connected to a fatal shooting that happened the previous day less than a block away.
The couple was planning to move to Iowa this month to get away from the crime.
* Three caveats. This is an online survey of registered (instead of likely) voters going all the way back to August 9th…
The new poll was conducted online as part of SurveyMonkey’s 2016 Election Tracking project, which recruits respondents from the large number people who take polls on the company’s do-it-yourself survey platform, roughly three million each day. A subsample of respondents to this range of surveys — which includes formal and informal polls of community groups, companies, churches and other organizations — were invited to participate in a second survey with the prompt, “Where do you stand on current events? Share your opinion.” The survey was not advertised on any website, so individuals could not “click-in” in an effort to influence results. A survey invitation could be used only once.
From Aug. 9 to Sept. 1, the survey asked the sample of 74,886 registered voters about their presidential support, including between 546 and 5,147 respondents in each state. The final sample was weighted to the latest Census Bureau benchmarks for the population of registered voters in each state.
* The Chicago Tribune editorial board published a long screed over the weekend which essentially declared that no remap reform proposal would ever get by the Illinois Supreme Court and called upon Bruce Rauner and the billionaires he controls to spend lots more money on Supreme Court elections.
When former Gov. Pat Quinn produced his own remap plan, it was nitpicked to death by the media. We didn’t see hardly any of that sort of analysis of the remap reformers’ two failed plans. Why? You’d have to ask them, but I’m not the only person who believes that the reformers presented a poorly drafted proposal. And some even believed the reformers’ plan appeared as if it was designed to fail. My weekly syndicated newspaper column looks at the political angle and concludes…
Again, the governor, his party apparatchiks and his legislative candidates are not wrong to blame Madigan or Senate President John Cullerton or rank and file Democrats for the lack of action on redistricting reform this year. Have at it. You use what works in campaigns, and this works.
Indeed, Republican legislative candidates have been doing their very best to kick up as much dust as possible since the redistricting opinion was handed down. The common thread, of course, is Speaker Madigan.
“Mike Madigan and the career politicians in Springfield have made a mess of our state, and it is going to take fair maps and term limits to clean it up,” said Tony McCombie, the GOP challenger to Rep. Mike Smiddy (D-Hillsdale). Hers was one of countless statements I’ve seen from Republican candidates throughout the state, and the governor was in her district’s main media market the same day to amplify his party’s case against the ruling.
But knocking down [Quinn’s] proposal before it even gets out of the gate because of the sponsor is wrong and implies that no idea proposed by any Democrat with the slightest bit of taint on this topic will ever be acceptable in the least. And that more than implies that the governor wants a campaign issue far more than he wants an actual solution — which is exactly what the Democrats have suspected from the very beginning.
* Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago) has his own remap reform plan, which he has filed as legislation, but believes could also pass constitutional muster if presented as a citizen initiative…
It has been said that the fundamental problem with the way Illinois draws its political districts is that it lets the politicians choose their voters, rather than let the voters choose their politicians. This year an attempt to solve that problem by Independent Maps was rejected as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I’d like to offer another solution, one that I have filed as HJRCA 60.
The method for creating an independent commission proved to be one of the stumbling blocks for the Independent Map Amendment in court. I’d keep the formation of the commission the same as it currently is in the constitution, but I would change its function. Instead of drawing a map, the commission would provide data and software for drawing maps to the public. This provides a procedural change as required for a citizen initiative.
A citizen initiative must include both procedural and structural changes and it must stay confined to changes to the legislative article of the constitution. My proposal separates House and Senate districts as was recommended by the Illinois Reform Commission in 2009. This provides a structural change to the legislature as required for a citizen initiative.
Unlike the Independent Map Amendment, my proposal stays confined to changes in the legislative article of the Illinois Constitution. The Secretary of State currently acts to break a deadlock, and I keep the Secretary in substantially the same role. I also leave the roles of the Attorney General and Supreme Court as they are in the current redistricting process.
So how are the maps drawn? I’d let the public draw them. The legislature must first define in law the criteria that will be used and how maps are scored, before the Census data is released. Then by “crowdsourcing” the creation of the map the public can submit maps or improve on previous submissions. The commission acts as the referee, making sure maps meet the law and are scored and submitting the top three maps to each chamber. Each chamber may vote to approve one by a supermajority vote, but the legislature can’t amend any. If a chamber cannot agree on a map, then the Secretary of State certifies the map with the best score.
One state that is often praised for their redistricting process is our neighbor Iowa. Like this proposal Iowa separates the task of drawing the map from the task of approving the map, and the criteria for drawing the map are laws passed by the legislature. Like this proposal the Iowa legislature can only vote up or down on the map.
My proposal is not entirely new. It’s based on a proposal that I filed in 2009. That proposal had a hearing in the Senate and received mention in a few media outlets. The Daily Herald asked its readers to “urge your state representative and state senator to look at this proposal.” (Aug 8, 2009) Maybe it is time to do just that.
That looks a whole lot tighter than the reformers’ plan, which wandered all over the place.
And whether you agree with this idea or not, it puts the lie to the drama queens out there who claim with purist certainty that nothing can ever be done.
The bottom line is that the reformers screwed up badly - again - and almost nobody wants to admit it.
Even though union leaders have branded him the anti-organized labor governor, Bruce Rauner confidently stepped onto the streets of downtown Naperville Monday for the huge suburb’s Labor Day parade.
Jim Caffray, a home remodeler from Oswego, says he likes that the governor is fighting the Democratic machine, and appreciated the fact there weren’t any unions in the parade.
“I think that’s great, actually. Because I think the unions have been destroying this country for 50 years now,” he said. [Emphasis added.]
* And then he said this…
Rauner at Naperville parade; says effort to curb unions really intended to protect nation's hardest workers @WGNNewspic.twitter.com/3DHbAqKdm7
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost released the first television advertisement in his re-election campaign for Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, titled “Stand Up.” The ad will begin running with 500 points this week in the Metro East media market.
“I was proud to feature my grandchildren in our first ad because I believe this campaign is about the future,” said Bost. “We must cut wasteful spending, reduce the debt, and lower the tax burden for working families if we’re going to strengthen the world our kids and grandkids will inherit. I look forward to continuing to stand up for Southern Illinois’ future and ensure our young people inherit a better world than the generation before them.”
MIKE BOST: “These are the faces of Illinois’ future: eager and hopeful. It’s up to us to give them the best opportunities. That’s why we must reign-in out of- control Washington spending. Take on the country’s massive debt. And lower taxes on working families. The way I see it: it’s our responsibility to give them the strongest future possible…for kids like these…my grandchildren and yours. I’m Mike Bost and I approve this message because we just have to stand up and do the right thing.”
First, keep it simple—a lot simpler than former Gov. Pat Quinn’s recently proposed “solution,” which may not pass constitutional muster, either. Forget about endless unconstitutional details on how the map should be drawn. Just set a few simple rules:
• No legislator can ever have any role in the actual mapmaking process.
• Mapmakers cannot take into account any previous election results.
• Home addresses of state legislators and existing district boundaries cannot ever be factors.
All these requirements are in force in Iowa, which is a national redistricting model.
The results might not be perfect, but they’d surely be better than what we have now: a system where one political party draws district boundaries to protect its majority and its legislators. Yes, it’s true: Voters should be able to choose their legislators, not the other way around.
But hey, maybe the high court could twist legal logic enough to declare even this idea unconstitutional. That’s where Plan B comes in. It’s hardball and a little bit evil, but I think both are called for in this situation.
* You have to wade through quite a bit of stuff before you get to the point, but Jeff Berkowitz repeatedly tried and failed over the holiday weekend to convince Gov. Bruce Rauner to talk about the presidential race. Somebody else managed to get something out of him…
And, then a young man stepped up out of nowhere and said simply to the Governor, “Are you voting for Trump?” And, the Governor said yes, and apparently realizing the music noise level was high- nodded his head up and down, indicated yes, once again.
* The governor made some appointments this afternoon (click here), but I’m told there will be no bill signings/vetoes this afternoon, so I’m done. Merle will play us out…
Sometimes I think about leaving,
Do a little bummin’ around
* A new radio ad starts out with a man talking in a thick southern drawl and proudly proclaiming “All my life I’ve only moved one mile.” The man says he’s hunted “for years” with the candidate he supports and that the politician “fights” to protect the 2nd Amendment.
Then, the President of Citizens for Life PAC calls the candidate a “champion for pro-life issues and someone that we can trust.”
A woman named Julie says the candidate fights for tougher laws against sexual predators.
And a southern Illinois mayor, who says to listeners that he’s a Republican, vouches for the candidate as “one of us. He knows our values.”
* Who is this candidate? Why, none other than state Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat…
To be clear, this is common practice in Downstate races. It’s just sooooo southern I thought I’d post it for your listening enlightenment.
* The administrative law judge has sent a split recommendation to the Illinois Labor Relations Board regarding the dispute over whether AFSCME and the Rauner administration are legally at impasse on contract negotiations. The Rauner administration claims they are at impasse, AFSCME denies it. There’s something in this recommendation for both sides.
Though the Board could find that there was impasse on one of the three critical issues, and that under the NLRB precedent, this would presumably allow the State to implement its entire last, best, and final offer, I find that this remedy is, like the standard remedy urged by the Union, extreme when applied to this case. The parties were at impasse on a large number of packages, but they were not at impasse on several others. If the State were able to implement its entire last, best, and final offer, the implications and impact would be so enormous that, when applied to this case, it would be destructive of the collective bargaining process and not serve the statutory mission of the Board.
After spending extensive time with the factual and legal matters raised in this case, I am left with the firm conviction that both parties entered negotiations with the intent to bargain and bargain hard. I do not imagine that an objective reviewer of this record will come away with a belief that either side acted as in a completely virtuous manner. However, like all things, good faith bargaining is a sliding scale with some lawful conduct looking less like good faith but not necessarily falling so deficient as to be unlawful bad faith bargaining. Certainly, neither party went out of their way to make negotiations easier on the other or to be overly accommodating, nor is this required of the parties under the law.
Instead, these negotiations reflected a battle mindset on both sides of the table, with each willing to do what it takes to achieve its bargaining goals. However, this mindset does not mean that either side was not sincerely seeking to reach agreement. The Union clearly did not share the State’s interest in having the contract settled expeditiously. The Union contends that the State was unlawfully intransigent on its bargaining goals; accordingly, the Union looks with indifference at the number of proposals the State withdrew and the number of proposals on which the parties reached agreement. The State urges that it came in to bargaining looking for a negotiated agreement, but the Union largely failed to respond to proposals in a way that would actually bring the parties closer together. Despite their many differences in philosophy and approach, I find that record before me, taken as a whole, reflects that each side sincerely hoped to reach agreement, though they had vastly different views of what that agreement should look like and had varying levels of optimism about whether they would actually be successful.
Therefore, I am resistant to accept either of the parties’ lawful, yet extreme, positions on remedy. Instead, I recommend that the Board adopt an alternate approach. I recognize that a decision on whether to adopt an alternative remedy is a policy decision that is within the exclusive province of the Board. Some support exists for an alternative remedy in the Board’s precedent, specifically in cases where, as here, that alternative remedy accomplishes the Board’s statutory mission to promote labor harmony and “to provide peaceful and orderly procedures for protection of the rights of all.” […]
I recommend the Board adopt a modified remedy, namely partial implementation. Specifically, I recommend that the Board allow the State to implement the packages on which the parties have reached impasse and for which there exists no other impediment to implementation: Subcontracting; Vacation, Holiday Scheduling, and Leaves of Absence; DOC/DJJ Roll Call (Definition of Terms, Articles V, XII, XVII, XIX & XX); Mandatory Overtime; and Management Rights and Check-off/Fair Share packages. Of course, nothing would prevent the State from continuing to bargain over these issues if it so chose.
On packages on which the parties are not at impasse or that the State either failed to provide information or provide the Union sufficient time to respond once receiving the information, I recommend the Board order the State to provide the requested information and send the parties back to the table for further bargaining and resolution of issues precluding implementation. Those packages include the following: Wages and Steps, Appendix A – Health Insurance, Layoff, Outstanding Economics, Health and Safety Outstanding Issues, and Semi- Automatic/Classification In-Series Advancement.
Awaiting response from both sides.
* The next step…
Pursuant to Section 1200.135 of the Board’s Rules, parties may file exceptions to the Administrative Law Judge’s Recommended Decision and Order in briefs in support of those exceptions no later than 30 days after service of this Recommendation. Parties may file responses to exceptions and briefs in support of the responses no later than 15 days after service of the exceptions. In such responses, parties that have not previously filed exceptions may include cross-exceptions to any portion of the Administrative Law Judge’s Recommendation. Within seven (7) days from the filing of cross-exceptions, parties may file cross-responses to the cross-exceptions… If no exceptions have been filed within the 30-day period, the parties will be deemed to have waived their exceptions.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
The following statement can be attributed to Catherine Kelly, Press Secretary for Governor Rauner:
“We appreciate that the Administrative Law Judge concluded that we have been bargaining in good faith for a fair deal on behalf of taxpayers. We are reviewing her opinion to evaluate the next steps as the rest of the agreed-to process continues.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Council 31…
An administrative law judge of the Illinois Labor Relations Board has dismissed the Rauner Administration’s complaint against AFSCME Council 31 and upheld much of the union’s cross-complaint against the administration.
The ALJ rightly rejected the Rauner Administration’s core contention, finding that the parties are not at impasse on the fundamental issues of wages and health care. She said that the administration has refused to provide information to AFSCME that the union needs to develop proposals and said they must do so. She recommended that the labor board order the state to resume bargaining on these and other issues, and to do so in good faith.
In short, she said that the Rauner Administration should “cease and desist from failing to bargain collectively in good faith with [AFSCME]” and “Upon request, bargain collectively in good faith with the union over the terms of provisions of a successor agreement”. (***see citation below)
“We are pleased that today’s recommendation underlines what AFSCME has been saying all along,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “There is no impasse on key issues, and the parties should get back to the bargaining table to resolve them.”
There are also points on which the union disagrees with the hearing officer’s findings. For example, AFSCME does not believe that the parties are at impasse on subcontracting and other issues. The union will continue to review the recommended decision, which is voluminous and detailed at more than 400 pages long.
“Ever since Governor Rauner’s representatives broke off negotiations with our union back in January and walked away from the bargaining table, AFSCME has repeatedly made clear that we want to reach a fair agreement and we are prepared to do the hard work of compromise to make that possible,” Lynch said.
In contrast, the Rauner Administration for eight months has refused to even meet with the union bargaining committee. Instead Governor Rauner wants the unilateral power to impose his demands, forcing public service workers in state government to work under his unfair terms or go out on strike.
Both parties now have the right to file written “exceptions” on points of disagreement with the recommended decision, as well as replies to the other party’s exceptions. Those filings and the recommended decision all go before the full labor board, which has indicated it could consider them and act on a final decision in November.
“We hope the labor board’s final ruling will affirm the hearing officer’s recommended order to resume negotiations,” Lynch said. “But there is no need to wait—Governor Rauner should direct his representatives back to the bargaining table now, to work with AFSCME and develop a compromise agreement that is fair to all.”
***FOOTNOTE:
From the recommended decision and order [https://www.illinois.gov/ilrb/decisions/decisionorders/Documents/S-CB-16-017rdo.pdf, pages 248-9]:
It is hereby ordered that the State of Illinois Department of Central Management Services, its officers and agents shall:
A. Cease and desist from:
1. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees (Union) by failing to provide
requested information;
2. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union by declaring
impasse on packages where the parties are not at impasse;
3. Failing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union by declaring impasse on packages when the State has failed to provide requested information or failed to provide the Union with a sufficient opportunity to
review and respond to the information; and
4. Failing and refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with the Union,
in any like or related manner, interfering with, restraining or coercing its
employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed them in the Act; …
B. Take the following affirmative actions designed to effectuate the policies of the Act:
1. As soon as practicable, provide the Union with the following information…
2. Upon request, bargain collectively in good faith with the Union over the terms of provisions of a successor agreement
The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) has agreed to pay $450,000 to a man punished and humiliated by prison officials after he reported his Logan Correctional Center cellmate had sexually and physically assaulted him.
The James Fontano v. Godinez settlement, which was announced Friday, is believed to be among the largest payments made for a prison retaliation case. Fontano was represented by attorneys from the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People’s Law Center.
“Whether in prison, in the Catholic church, in a school or anywhere else, any person who reports a sexual assault deserves to be treated with concern and respect,” said Locke E. Bowman, Executive Director of the MacArthur Justice Center. “Those in charge must investigate the allegations fairly and aggressively. Sexual predators must be brought to justice.
“The response of prison officials to James Fontano in this case is a model of what not to do,” Bowman said. “Instead of concern, James was met with derision and disbelief. The investigation was designed to cover up the rape, not to hold the perpetrator accountable. We need to ask: Just how prevalent is rape within Illinois’ prisons?”
Fontano, who was imprisoned in IDOC for eight months on a minor drug offense, served the majority of his sentence at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Fontano was celled with an older, physically larger and stronger prisoner serving a lengthy sentence for armed robbery. In August 2011, shortly before Fontano’s scheduled release date, Fontano’s cellmate repeatedly raped Fontano over the course of two nights while he and Fontano were locked together in the cell they shared.
Fearing that the assaults would escalate and with nowhere else to turn, Fontano reported the assaults to prison authorities. Although Fontano’s report was detailed, graphic and credible, prison officials responded by punishing Fontano, not his assailant. Fontano was forced to spend the rest of his prison sentence in segregation, purportedly because he had lied about being raped.
Eventually, Fontano’s report was corroborated by a finding that his cellmate’s DNA was present on the rear inside panel of Fontano’s underwear. Even with this information, prison officials refused to rescind Fontano’s punishment.
Fontano sued Alex Dawson, the former warden of Logan Correctional Center, and Kevin Standley, the IDOC investigator who recommended that Fontano be disciplined. The suit, filed in the federal court in Springfield, claimed that Dawson and Standley retaliated against Fontano for exercising his First Amendment right to report the rape.
“Men in prison learn quickly there are two things you don’t want to be known for,” said Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown People’s Law Center. “First, if other prisoners believe you are a snitch, you are in danger of being beaten, stabbed and worse. Second, if you are viewed as a weakling and easy mark to be used for sex by another man, you will always be in danger of a sexual assault. Those are the reasons – fear of being known as a snitch and weakling – James endured two sexual and physical assaults and decided to seek help when he could break away during the third attack.”
“Immediately after James reported the rapes, prison officials punished James, threatened him with extra time in prison and pushed him to withdraw his report,” said Sheila Bedi, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center. “Enduring this kind of punishment for reporting his rape came at a great cost to James.
“This settlement should serve to motivate IDOC to change its practices,” Bedi added. “IDOC needs to do all it can to end sexual assault behind bars, to protect the men and women locked in state prisons, and to encourage victims to report sexual assaults.”
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did an attorney who represented the prison officials, including former warden Alex Dawson and Kevin Standley, the IDOC investigator assigned to look into the rape allegations.
I’m glad they settled this case. Let’s hope this stuff is never repeated again.
Here is a scorecard of a few tiers of GOP-held House seats to watch over the next 2 1/2 months. They run from near certain Democratic takeovers to Democratic long-shot opportunities.
Should be a slam dunk. These Republican seats are likely to flip in November even if 2016 turns out to be a surprisingly disappointing year for Democrats. The districts are just too tough for GOP incumbents to hold in any presidential year.
Illinois 10, Bob Dold. Republican Dold is a strong incumbent who fits his district well. But he lost to Brad Schneider (D) in 2012 because of presidential turnout, and he will probably lose in another rematch. Of course, in a midterm with an unpopular Democratic president (like 2018?), don’t bet against Dold. He won in both 2010 and 2014.
* Schneider’s campaign then sent out an e-mail entitled: “ICYMI: Washington Post says Schneider a ‘Slam Dunk’ in IL-10.”
Rothenberg was not amused, pointing out that it wasn’t WaPo which made the claim, it was he who made the claim in WaPo.
In this case, “should” is an auxiliary verb that, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, expresses “what is probable or expected,” not what will or must happen.
Unless someone has a problem understanding the meaning of the word “is” – and I certainly understand that some people do – my intentions were quite clear.
The point of the column was to lay out a series of expectations to allow readers to follow along during the final months of the campaign to see how the fight for the House was playing out, not to predict, and certainly not to guarantee, which candidates were going to win.
The Schneider campaign press release did include two full paragraphs from my column which included the correct “Should be a slam dunk” language and even noted Dold’s greater chances in a midterm election. But that hardly makes up for the press release’s headline or lead paragraph, both of which are misleading or worse.
* In other campaign news, here’s a press release…
After being the first candidate in the 12th congressional district race against Congressman Mike Bost to air television ads in Southern Illinois, Democratic candidate CJ Baricevic will continue his advertising campaign by being the first candidate to air ads in the St. Louis media market, communicating to voters in the Metro East section of the congressional district.
The thirty-second ad “Working Families,” which began airing in the Paducah media market last week will begin airing on Monday on St. Louis stations. See ad: https://youtu.be/I6jywmTHJGE
The two sides are reportedly spending about $70k for a week of ads.
* PolitiFact took this recent statement about Illinois Democrats (which he used constantly in 2014) by Gov. Bruce Rauner…
“They are cutting our school funding. Four times in the last 10 years before we came into office.”
* Includes more detailed claims from the governor’s office…
Rauner’s office provided us with figures from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget from FY 2000 to FY 2015 (the last year in which Illinois had a state budget) to illustrate the trend, and said the years referred to in the speech were FY 2010-FY 2013.
During those years, elementary and secondary education funding went from $7.32 billion to $6.55 billion.
Clearly there’s a decline in school funding over that period. But was it the result of “cutting,” as Rauner claims, or because federal stimulus money ended?
* Then compared it to the Civic Federation’s analysis from 2014…
General Funds spending on education in FY2010 is shown in budget documents as $7.3 billion. But that number includes $790.8 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Some analysts might deduct that amount to maximize comparability, which would reduce the General Funds figure for FY2010 to $6.5 billion. Based on that calculation, General Funds spending on education increases by $358 million to $6.8 billion in FY2015. Similarly, budget documents in FY2009 show education spending at $7.4 billion, but that amount includes $1.0 billion of stimulus funding. Deducting that amount results in General Funds spending of $6.3 billion in FY2009 and an increase of $522 million to $6.8 billion in FY2015.
* Doesn’t include this handy Civic Federation chart, which clearly shows the state money increase…
Last I checked, $10.4 billion was higher than $9.2 billion.
But in claiming that Democrats cut school spending in the final years of their hold on the governor’s office, Rauner resurrects an allegation that should have stayed buried after he won the election.
* If you want to see what stuff Republican Comptroller Leslie Munger might use to attack her Democratic opponent Susana Mendoza, click here. It’s a veritable cornucopia of OR. And it doesn’t even include the “She says Mike Madigan is her mentor” hit.
* There was a big fire at Springfield’s Crows Mill Pub this week. The place was a regular hangout of mine back in the day when I was a student at Sangamon State. US Sen. Dick Durbin was one of its owners years before I got to town, but he and his partners created a venue that thrived through my early Springfield partying days. The SJ-R talked to Durbin about his memories of the place…
In a telephone interview, Durbin said he was at an interesting point in his life when he was approached about investing in the Crows Mill and serving as its attorney, something he would not be paid for.
It was 1976, and he’d just lost a bid for an Illinois Senate seat to incumbent John Davidson, a Republican.
The building at the time housed the Navy Club in the basement. The pitch was to convert the space into a lunch spot, bar and live music venue. The appeal, as it is today, was its proximity to Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois Springfield) and Lincoln Land Community College.
Durbin said they really tried to create a unique place. He also remembers that he and other owners were confident their business would be popular.
“We were certain the McDonald’s Corp. was going to buy us out,” Durbin joked.
Ultimately, the Crows Mill ended up being a “crash course” in running a business, he said. They had some success, but not at the level they envisioned, so they sold it after five years.
The current owner says he will gut the charred interior and eventually reopen. I wish him nothing but the best.
A strike at a construction site on the Jane Addams Tollway in Des Plaines orchestrated by a tollway board member could slow the long-awaited completion of the project.
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 members said they would picket a tollway contractor, Stalworth Underground, starting Thursday night at the I-90 bridge over Oakton near Des Plaines.
Stalworth owes the union more than $40,000 from a grievance settlement, said James Sweeney, Local 150 president and a tollway director.
The massive rebuild and widening of I-90 between Elgin and O’Hare International Airport is on a tight time schedule and is supposed to wrap up at the end of 2016. […]
The picket isn’t the first salvo against the tollway since a new batch of directors appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner voted in 2015 to nix a 21-year agreement requiring contractors to hire unions in exchange for guarantees of no strikes or walkouts.
More than 10,000 people are expected to participate in a Labor Day Parade that will celebrate unions in the 10th Ward.
The Saturday parade and festival, which will include representatives from more than 35 unions, was in part organized by Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th). The large celebration will show anti-union politicians that they can’t mess with the city and its working class people, Garza said.
“We got Bruce Rauner sitting in Springfield, waiting to pounce on labor unions. They want to take away collective bargaining and this, that and the other,” Garza said. “I’m hoping to send a message to Springfield that says, ‘Hey, Bruce Rauner, don’t screw with Chicago. Don’t screw with Illinois. Because labor is standing strong.’ “
S&P Global Ratings warned on Thursday that the Chicago public school system’s B-plus credit rating could fall deeper into the junk level due to its “extremely weak” cash position.
“Unless (the Chicago Board of Education) achieves what we view as a credible and sustainable long-term solution to its financial pressures while continuing to demonstrate that it can fund its cash-flow needs, further downgrades are possible,” the credit rating agency said in a statement.
S&P affirmed a B-plus rating for the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) outstanding general obligation bonds and assigned the rating to $150 million of bonds the district privately placed with J.P. Morgan in late July. But that rating remained on S&P’s watch list for a potential downgrade over the coming months. […]
S&P said it could drop the rating multiple notches if CPS is unable to obtain credit lines to aid cash flow. A downgrade would also be likely if $215 million in state funding does not materialize, it added.
Here’s a scary number for you: In the last 16 years, Illinois has lost 35 percent of its manufacturing jobs. That’s about 304,000 jobs, more than the population of any city in the state other than Chicago.
That number alone, cited by a business leader this week in a lunchtime speech before the City Club, tell the story of our state’s poor business climate and sputtering economy. It sounds an alarm. It reminds us once again — if anybody still needs reminding — that our elected officials have failed us miserably and time is running short to set things right. […]
Manufacturers “aren’t necessarily fleeing the state in droves, although many have left,” [IMA President Greg Baise] said. “Instead, when expanding, they do it in other states because they can be more successful.”
In a number of earlier editorials, we have placed much of the blame for our state’s political paralysis on Rauner. The new governor promised to roll right over the evil opposition — that would be House Speaker Mike Madigan — but never had the votes. We still put the bulk of the blame there. All that counterproductive tough talk has left Illinois with nothing but $10 billion in back bills.
But the governor no longer insists on most of his vaunted “turnaround agenda” of pro-business reforms before he’ll agree to a tax increase and other measures, and there is no doubt the Democrats can and should meet him part way. He is right that our state’s business climate is competitively weak. Give the guy something real. Further tweaks to worker’s comp — when and how much an employer must pay a worker who is hurt on the job — would be an excellent start.
Thoughts?
…Adding… Some of the more ridiculously partisan commenters here are forgetting something I posted just the other day from Baise’s speech…
Just remember as you leave, in the last seven years….
Wisconsin created 44,100 manufacturing jobs
Ohio created 75,900 manufacturing jobs
Indiana created 83,700 manufacturing jobs and
Michigan created 171,300 manufacturing jobs.
Illinois created 4,600 jobs. Even Idaho created 9,100 manufacturing jobs. A state better known for its potato farms.
In a recent paper published in Political Research Quarterly, I tested competing expectations about the ways media can convince partisans to engage in motivated reasoning. The study examines the conditions under which partisans internalize their preferred “facts.”
The Cooperative Congressional Election Study is a massive survey project put together by more than 50 research teams nationwide. I presented survey-takers with one of five randomly assigned articles about the economy during the 2014 wave of the study. These stories were designed to mimic the type of content they might see when visiting a partisan news source. Some of the articles presented readers with “just the (congenial) facts”: these survey-takers saw a news story showing either optimistic or gloomy economic data. Others saw stories that presented these facts paired with statements blaming or praising President Barack Obama for the trend. These latter treatments make survey-takers highly aware of the agenda of the story’s author – especially if they identify as partisans.
Just as expected, Republicans and Democrats in the study were most likely to learn from the news story when it reinforced their own worldview. Republican Reba believed the bad news, while Denny the Democrat believed the good news.
The surprising finding was that this pattern only held for the “just the facts” news stories – not the overtly partisan ones. In other words, partisans enjoy cheerleading for their party but are even more strongly affected by news stories that appear to be highly objective. When asked to report whether they thought the economy in the past year had gotten better or worse, partisans in these treatment conditions were significantly more likely than others to give the party-congenial response.
In a second paper recently published in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, I show that this is indeed the case: An analysis of a large number of public opinion polls reveals partisans tend to agree on the state of the stock market. The ubiquitousness of this economic indicator allows it to bypass even the most intense agenda-setting efforts.
We would normally expect partisans to feel the mental discomfort known as cognitive dissonance when knowledge of stock market performance conflicts with their biased economic judgments. As the stock market soars to record highs, this news conflicts with the idea that the economy is still stuck in post-Great Recession doldrums. Partisans should adjust their beliefs.
However, to echo the title of a recent paper by Danish political scientist Martin Bisgaard, I nevertheless show in survey analyses that “bias will find a way.” Partisans perform mental gymnastics by changing the way they think the economy works. When stock market performance runs in conflict with the partisan economic narrative, partisans become less likely to say the stock market matters at all for the broader economy.
