In what some observers say is a surprise move, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle won’t be backing her one-time cabinet member Robin Kelly in the 2nd Congressional race, but will throw her significant political weight behind state Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields).
Preckwinkle told the Sun-Times on Monday that she believed Hutchinson – not Kelly – had the muscle to win the race.
“It was a really tough decision to make. I had to make a difficult choice between two people…” Preckwinkle told the Sun-Times by phone, pausing for a moment. “But I had to pick the candidate who I thought could win.”
Preckwinkle declined to answer any more questions, saying she’d talk more at an afternoon news conference to announce her endorsement of Hutchinson.
Kelly, who was also a chief of staff to former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, was among Preckwinkle’s first hires when she won the November 2010 county board presidency. Kelly was earning $172,519 annually before stepping down in December to focus on campaigning for the seat vacated by Jesse Jackson Jr.
*** UPDATE *** With a hat tip to a commenter, here is Robin Kelly’s response…
“Getting an A rating from the NRA might get you President Preckwinkle’s endorsement, but it won’t fly with the voters in the Second District. They want someone who will fight against the NRA not stand with them. Robin Kelly is the one candidate ready to stand with President Obama to bring common sense gun control to help families throughout Chicago and the Southland.”
Between 2009 and 2012, Illinois slashed funding for community mental-health programs by more than 30 percent — more than all but three other states, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Even before those cuts, Illinois’ per capita spending on mental health was about $85 — well below the national average of about $123 per person, the group found.
The funding situation has made it difficult, if not impossible, for people who aren’t in crisis or eligible for Medicaid to enter the system, says Lora Thomas, director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Illinois.
And while there’s no way to predict when a tragedy like the recent shootings in Connecticut and Colorado might occur — or even if the perpetrator will be someone with a mental illness — the lack of resources in Illinois makes it less likely a mental-health provider could intervene.
“We absolutely know the system in Illinois is so broken there is no community-based system that could catch or prevent it,” Thomas said.
The state of Michigan lost 42,000 union members from 2011 to 2012, the ninth largest drop in the country, according to a Jan. 23 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Illinois had the largest drop in the country with a loss of 75,000 union members.
It has been 13 years since Illinois lawmakers approved a significant overhaul of the law that allows cities to create tax increment financing districts.
State Rep. John Bradley, a Democrat from Marion, plans to introduce legislation this spring to bring changes to the state’s TIF laws.
A year ago, TIF reform shepherded by Bradley ran aground amid disagreements by those involved in the locally managed economic development program that continues to surge in popularity.
At the end of 1990, there were 238 TIF districts in the state. By 2006, that number had grown to nearly 1,000. Now the number stands at 1,221, according to figures collected by the Illinois comptroller’s office. […]
Under Bradley’s proposal, cities would be required to submit annual reports that would include the jobs created or kept within the district; tightened control over the transfer of funds between TIF districts; required cities to return any surplus TIF funds to taxing districts within the TIF; require property tax bills to reflect when a property is included in a TIF district; and created a state website so people could look up information about individual districts.
For the next six months, the presidential museum honoring Abraham Lincoln wants visitors to believe one thing when they see the iconic $6.5 million beaver-fur stovepipe hat put on display this past week.
The hat was his. Really.
To mark Lincoln’s 204th birthday, the museum is bringing the hat out of storage for the first time since the Chicago Sun-Times last April questioned the prized showpiece’s authenticity and for the first time disclosed holes in its provenance.
But not even the slightest doubt is reflected on the sign now attached to the hat’s display case. The placard that went up with the hat on Wednesday explains its background in eight sentences, noting that only three of Lincoln’s famous stovepipe hats are known to exist: “2 silk ones from his last days of life, and this.”
“There’s no deception at all,” said Chris Wills, a spokesman for the museum.
* Proposal seeks to clear air about smoking in beer gardens: Koehler’s proposal would require that one side of the enclosed area be constructed with material that allows smoke to pass through. But material that allows smoke to pass through hasn’t been defined in building or architectural codes, Schafer said.
Nearly 1 million workers in 10 states rang in the new year with an increase in pay, thanks to those states raising their minimum wage.
Illinois’ minimum wage, however, remains at $8.25, where it’s been since 2010. Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) has been working to change that.
Of the 10 states, only one raised its minimum wage because of new legislation. The other nine raised their minimum wages automatically because of existing laws that require annual adjustments to keep pace with inflation, a process known as indexing.
Illinois’ minimum wage is not indexed, however, and minimum-wage workers have seen their purchasing power erode because of it. To match the purchasing power the minimum wage had in 1968, when spending power was at its highest, Illinois would have to raise it to $10.58, according to the latest figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* The Question: Should Illinois’ minimum wage be indexed to inflation? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Talk to just about any top Illinois Republican these days off the record and they’ll freely admit that they want the bill legalizing gay marriage to be approved as soon as possible.
It’s not that they’re necessarily in favor of gay marriage, mind you. Many of them are publicly and privately opposed.
Some of them do support it, even though they don’t feel they can vote for it because it might destroy their careers in the next GOP primary.
The reason so many Republicans would like to see the bill passed is because they know that with the huge, new Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers, that it’s eventually going to pass anyway.
They want to get this issue out of the way and behind them as soon as possible. The issue is trending hard against the GOP’s historical opposition, and they want the thing off the table before it starts to hurt them.
In 2005, a statewide poll taken for the Illinois Policy Survey by Northern Illinois University found that 31 percent of Illinoisans supported gay marriage, while 34 percent backed civil unions and 29 percent were opposed to any legal recognition.
Five years later, in 2010, a poll by Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute found little change in the public’s attitudes — 34 percent supported gay marriage, 34 percent backed civil unions and 27 percent wanted no legal recognition.
But then things began changing fast. By 2012, the Paul Simon Institute’s annual poll had support for gay marriage at 44 percent. Opposition to all legal recognition was down to just 20 percent, while backing for the civil unions status quo was at 32 percent.
A Public Policy Polling survey taken last month had support for gay marriage at 47 percent, with opposition at 42 percent. Worse yet for the Republicans, 58 percent of people under 45 backed gay marriage, while 37 percent were against it. And 54 percent of women backed the idea, compared with 37 percent opposed.
Republicans and Democrats expect this trend to continue. By 2014, people figure that a solid majority of Illinoisans will support gay marriage.
The Republicans don’t want to be on the wrong side of another hot-button issue during the statewide election that year. They also don’t want it coming up in their primary election races that spring.
Except for things such as the state income tax increase, which was designed to be “temporary,” what’s done is usually considered done in politics.
The gay-marriage issue is causing some serious short-term divisiveness within the Republican Party ranks. Social conservatives such as freshman state Sen. Jim Oberweis and former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh have called for state Republican chairman Pat Brady’s head for publicly lobbying on behalf of the gay marriage bill.
The quicker this thing gets resolved, goes the reasoning, the quicker the white-hot war will end and the quicker the party can move along to other, less divisive issues such as taxes.
The Republicans want to make repealing the 2011 income tax hike (from 3 percent to 5 percent) a centerpiece of the 2014 election. The higher tax is set to expire in January 2015, less than two months after that election.
But if the GOP gets too bogged down in too many social issues where they are on the “wrong” side of public opinion, its candidates won’t stand much of a chance.
Anyway, that’s why Brady was sent out to walk the plank on the gay-marriage issue this month. Yes, he does personally support gay marriage, but he undoubtedly wouldn’t have gone so public with his support if party leaders were not encouraging him behind the scenes.
And the party’s top dogs, including U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and its top two legislative leaders, want this thing taken care of so they can move beyond it, even though they may not actually vote for the bill when it gets to the floor.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) will be a “no” vote on the bill, for example, but she didn’t try to stop Brady when he checked in with her before his public support of it.
Robin Kelly, candidate for Illinois’ second Congressional district, today called on her opponents, former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson and State Senator Toi Hutchinson, to publically release their National Rifle Association questionnaires they filled out in previous elections.
“I am calling on my opponents to release their previous NRA questionnaires so that the people of the second Congressional district know what promises they have made to the NRA, and how they earned their ‘A’ ratings,” Robin Kelly said. “I earned a lifetime ‘F’ rating from the NRA and I could not be more proud of that fact. The voters deserve to know how Toi and Debbie both earned ‘A’s’ from the pro-gun lobby, which is notoriously known for only issuing ‘A’s’ to its very strongest supporters.”
“It is a tragedy that we have lost so many lives in Chicago and the Southland to gun violence, including losing seven lives this Saturday alone. We have to stop the violence and get the guns off the streets. I am the only candidate in the race with the record of fighting against gun violence. I am ready to work with President Obama to take on the NRA and protect our communities.”
Robin Kelly is the only candidate in the race to issue a five-point pledge to combat gun violence and has earned an ‘F’ rating with the NRA. Both Debbie Halvorson and Toi Hutchinson scored high ratings with the NRA in previous elections, but have yet to release the candidate questionnaires that earned them high ratings from the pro-gun group.
* The gun issue was highlighted in today’s Tribune…
Debbie Halvorson found herself alone among leading Democratic candidates Sunday when she indicated she would not support a ban on the semi-automatic firearm used in the Sandy Hook school shooting last month. […]
“We’ve buried far too many of our own children over the years — every day. When are we going to go after the criminals? When are we going to go after the people who buy guns for those who aren’t able to go get their backgrounds checked? We need to strengthen the laws we already have instead of keep talking about new ones,” Halvorson said at the forum at Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St.
“We need to do more about the criminals. Cook County has an assault weapons ban. We have the highest amount of murders in the country. Let’s do more about enforcing the laws we have at the same time doing more about keeping our streets safe,” she said, adding she backs a universal background check and tougher criminal penalties on straw purchasers. […]
State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, of Olympia Fields, who replaced Halvorson in the state Senate, also has had NRA backing in the past. Hutchinson, who did not attend the forum, has embraced Obama’s call for tougher gun measures and co-sponsored a bill in Springfield to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Now, black leaders — concerned about Halvorson’s position atop polls — say they’re prepared to make gun control the central issue in the contest. The goal is to paint her as an NRA ally who’s too conservative for the seat and insensitive to Chicago’s rising tide of gun violence.
“The NRA gives Debbie Halvorson an ‘A’ rating,” said Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and gun control activist in Chicago who is supporting one of Halvorson’s opponents. “That tells me she should not be the representative from the 2nd District. If she gets an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, she gets an ‘F’ from me.”
Though she has described herself as a conservative Democrat, Halvorson voted with her party more than 90 percent of the time in Congress. She backed a cap-and-trade bill as well as President Barack Obama’s health care and economic stimulus measures. The onetime cosmetics saleswoman is pitching herself to voters as an experienced hand who can hit the ground running in Washington after Jackson’s long-running troubles that ended with his resignation in November.
But it’s her stance on guns that’s drawing the most attention.
* It’s not just Halvorson, though. The Kelly folks are zeroing in on Hutchinson as well. For instance…
After being appointed to Debbie Halvorson’s state senate seat in 2010 Hutchinson received an A- rating from the NRA Political Victory fund, the highest rating for a candidate without a record of gun votes at the time. Until her current run, she has listed the NRA endorsement on her website. The NRA gave her a 92% rating for the 2012 cycle.
In her 2010 campaign, Hutchinson aggressively struck back against accusations from her Republican opponent that she was not pro-gun enough. In fact, Hutchinson released a statement to the press saying:
• “Law-abiding citizens don’t need any more infringements on their constitutional right to protect their families and their property.”
• “I know that my stance on gun rights isn’t the consensus in my party, but above all else, I represent the 40th district; a diverse district that is representative of the State of Illinois,” said Hutchinson. “I’m clear about our right to keep and bear arms, and I’ve been recognized for that.”
* A Lee Newspapers story about the high number of court fights over the state budget included this choice quote from the governor’s budget office…
But, state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, who is among a handful of Republicans mulling a second bid for governor in 2014, said previous governors have managed to deal with financial problems without the courts playing such a high profile role.
Dillard, who served as chief of staff to former Gov. Jim Edgar during an economic downturn in the early 1990s, said Edgar worked across the partisan aisle to forge agreements that would reduce the budget in a legal way.
“(Quinn) is not a good manager, and he doesn’t have the legislative allies who will help him,” Dillard said. “The lawsuits are symbolic of the chaos in Springfield. There has never been such a blizzard of lawsuits against the governor or the state of Illinois than like now.”
[Abdon Pallasch, spokesman for the governor’s budget office] said lawsuits are a part of the process.
“In Greece, the government tries to cut back and people take to the streets and throw firebombs and burn down buildings. Here we go to court,” he said.
Oy.
* Related…
* Illinois Credit Rating Lowered by S&P as Pension Costs Rise: The move affects $26.6 billion of debt, according to Robin Prunty, an S&P analyst. It leaves Illinois’s bond grade six levels below AAA and ties it with California as S&P’s lowest- rated state. The combination of the pension burden and budgetary stresses may push Illinois closer to speculative grade, the company said.
How could anybody believe that a Gov. Lisa Madigan is really running the show when Mike — the proud father who paved the way for her career — remains the powerful speaker of the House?
Mike Madigan would carry Lisa in Springfield the way Frank Sinatra carried Nancy when they sang “Somethin’ Stupid.”
Illinois would have itself a Gov. Madigan. But would it be Lisa or Mike?
I know I stand in line until you think you have the time
To spend an evening with me
And if we go someplace to dance, I know that there’s a chance
You won’t be leaving with me
And afterwards we drop into a quiet little place and have a drink or two
And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like “I love you”
* Lawyers for three people facing terrorism charges want the state’s law kicked because it is too vague…
Brent Betterly, 24, Jared Chase, 28, and Brian Church, 21, were each charged in 11-count indictments with conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of explosives and attempted arson after a raid at the Bridgeport apartment where they were staying in the weeks leading up to the May 2012 summit. […]
According to the filing, the terrorism statute – which had previously been used in only one Illinois prosecution since being enacted a decade ago after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – defines terrorism as “intent to intimidate or coerce a significant portion of a civilian population.”
“The vague nature of the terms ‘coerce,’ ‘intimidate,’ and ‘significant portion of the civilian population’ allows for the arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of the law,” the filing said.
Michael Deutsch, a lawyer for the People’s Law Office who represents Church, said after today’s brief hearing that the statute also allows police and prosecutors to “arbitrarily pick and choose” whom to charge with terrorism offenses.
“On its face, (the law) could criminalize as terrorism First Amendment conduct, like protests, labor strikes, boycotts – they are all intended in some way to intimidate or coerce,” Deutsch said.
* Naperville opponents of the “smart grid” have lost battle after battle, mainly because their considerable fears appear to be unfounded. But arresting one of them for “attempting to eavesdrop” on the police is a bit much, particularly since the state law was struck down as unconstitutional, albeit in a very limited way…
Two vocal opponents of Naperville’s initiative to install wireless electric meters on homes were arrested after interfering with the installation process, according to city officials.
Police are accompanying crews this week as they install smart meters at homes that previously sent away installers.
“The previous installation attempts were met with some resistance and we wanted to ensure our employees’ safety,” City Manager Doug Krieger said.
Naperville has installed smart meters on 57,000 homes and is about 99 percent through with the process. Officials have said the project will make the electric system more reliable and efficient and reduce costs.
However, the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group has expressed concerns over whether the wireless meters will affect health, security and privacy. The group has a federal lawsuit pending against the city.
Residents have the ability to opt out of the wireless smart meters for a fee. The people in question apparently refused to agree to that alternative, so the town sent installers out with a police escort. People need to calm down on both sides.
State lawmakers would be required to take drug tests under legislation proposed by State Representative Bill Mitchell.
The Forsyth Republican introduced a bill requiring welfare recipients to take drug tests. The twist is it also requires candidates for the Illinois legislature to pass a drug test when filing paperwork to run for office. […]
Mitchell admits the measure faces an uphill battle. While popular with downstate lawmakers the bill would likely not make it out of committee due to opposition from Chicago area lawmakers.
Yes, because Downstaters are so pure and Chicagoans are such druggies.
* We’ve got 30 days to go until the 2nd Congressional District special primary. Some ministers are hoping to trim the field…
Apostolic ministers, including the chief apostle for all of Cook County, plan to ask 12 of the 17 candidates now on the ballot for the 2nd Congressional District race to consider dropping out of the campaign.
Chief Apostle William Malloy will lead the group of clergy from Chicago’s far South Side and surrounding suburbs in a news conference Friday at the Am I My Brother’s Keeper Outreach Church, 283 E. 14th St.
Robert Storman, a spokesman for Thornton Township Democratic Committeeman Frank Zuccarelli, who is helping to organize the event, said the group is concerned voters will be confused with 17 people seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the Illinois 2nd Congressional District post in the Feb. 26 primary.
They’d like the fringe candidates that polls thus far are showing with less than 1 percent support to drop out — leaving a field consisting of former state Rep. Robin Kelly, of Matteson; former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson, of Crete; state Sens. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, and Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor; and Chicago 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale.
Some of those other candidates are vanity candidates, so I doubt any of them will ever drop out.
* Meanwhile, Robin Kelly has a new radio ad. Rate it…
* Transcript…
“It’s heart breaking, There are kids dying every day.
I’m Robin Kelly.
As a mother you think, ‘What if that was my child?’
Sadly our neighborhoods are no strangers to the worst kind of gun violence.
It’s why I have spent my career fighting to end this brutal reality.
We all need to say, ‘Enough is enough.’
If elected to Congress, I will…
Pass a strong, comprehensive ban on assault weapons, eliminate the gun show loophole, ban high capacity ammunition magazines, support current laws that prohibit conceal and carry, and pledge to never to receiver support from organizations like the NRA.
While we don’t know who will represent this community in Congress, we do know that we must speak with one voice on this critical issue.
That’s why I am asking each of my colleagues in this race to join this pledge.
And I am asking you to join me as well.
I’m Robin Kelly.
If we succeed in saving just one life, then it’s worth it.
I’m Robin Kelly, I’m running for Congress, and I approve this message.”
* We’re getting dangerously close to junk bond status, campers, but we’re not there yet. From a press release…
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its rating on Illinois’ general obligation (GO) bonds to ‘A-’ from ‘A’. At the same time, Standard & Poor’s assigned its ‘A-’ rating to the state’s $500 million GO bonds of February 2013. The outlook is negative.
“The downgrade reflects what we view as the state’s weakened pension funded ratios and lack of action on reform measures intended to improve funding levels and diminish cost pressures associated with annual contributions,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Robin Prunty.
The aggregate pension funded ratios on an actuarial basis declined to 40.4% at fiscal year-end 2012, compared with 43.4% in fiscal 2011. Based on the state’s current projections, the funded ratio will decline further to 39% in fiscal 2013. The continued decline in pension funded ratios is due in part to contributions below the annual required contribution, investment returns below assumptions, and lower investment return assumptions. While legislative action on pension reform could occur during the current legislative session and various bills have been filed, we believe that legislative consensus on reform will be difficult to achieve given the poor track record in the past two years. If there is meaningful legislative action on reform, we believe that there could be implementation risk based on the potential for legal challenges, and it could be several years before reform translates into improved funded ratios and budget relief. In addition, Illinois has to manage other challenges, which include pending statutory reduction of rates on the personal and corporate income taxes beginning in fiscal 2015 and a high level of accumulated payables, combined with the more typical pressures facing the state sector in terms of a slow economic recovery, potential federal fiscal consolidation, and health care reform implementation. […]
Offsetting these generally positive credit factors are what we consider:
· Sizable budget-based deficits for fiscal years 2009 through 2012 despite revenue-enhancement measures implemented in 2011 that we view as significant;
· A historically large generally accepted accounting principles general fund balance deficit;
· Large unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) for its five pensions; and
· A moderately high and growing debt burden due to debt issuance for current pension contributions in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, and the approved long-term capital program.
The negative outlook reflects what we view as the range of challenges Illinois faces that will require legislative consensus and action. We believe the outcome of deliberations relating to pension reform and the expiration of current personal and corporate income tax rate increases on Jan. 1, 2015, along with other normal budget pressures, could have a profound effect on the state’s budgetary performance and liquidity over the two-year outlook horizon. While it is unusual for a state rating to fall into the ‘BBB’ category, lack of action on pension reform and upcoming budget challenges could result in further credit deterioration, particularly if it translates into weaker liquidity. We could revise the outlook to stable if Illinois achieves pension reform that lowers liabilities and associated costs to the state and takes credible actions to achieve structural budget balance over the two-year outlook horizon. We believe there is limited upside potential for the rating in the next two years given the size of the accumulated deficit and the liability challenges Illinois faces but will evaluate the state’s progress in addressing key budget and pension challenges. [Emphasis added.]
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Quinn was asked about pension reform today. His response…
“The pressure is higher than ever … We’ve got to have an urgent approach,” Governor Quinn said. Referring to State Senate President John Cullerton’s Senate Bill 1, which incorporates suggestions from Democrats, Republicans and labor unions for a multi-pronged approach to tackling the pension problem, he continued: “We’ve got to all work together in a bipartisan way to get this challenge of pension reform behind us … We’ve got to put our seat-belts on here, and understand the rating agencies won’t give us better marks until the legislature passes Senate Bill 1 and gets the job done. That’s really the message the credit rating agencies are screaming at the top of their voice. I’ve heard it, and I think the members of the legislature need to hear it as well.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** President Cullerton…
“The rating agencies are confirming what we all recognize. It’s time for action on pensions. The Senate President will continue to push constitutional reforms to stabilize our pension systems and restore confidence in the state of Illinois.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** Leader Cross…
“S&P’s downgrade of our bond rating – coming on the heels of Fitch’s announcement just two weeks ago – is another indication of the gravity of Illinois’ fiscal crisis. We simply cannot afford continued downgrades at a time when we urgently need to restore stability and balance to the state’s fiscal climate. The General Assembly must act in order to avoid further damage to our credit rating by achieving consensus on meaningful pension reform that can pass the House and Senate this spring.”
Stan Musial already has a statue in St. Louis named after him. If state and federal lawmakers get their way, a new Mississippi River bridge also will carry the name of the St. Louis Cardinals great.
Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, and Dick Durbin, of Illinois, proposed legislation Wednesday that would name the new bridge the Stan Musial Memorial Bridge - some already are dubbing it the “Stan Span.” The bridge carrying Interstate 70 traffic is expected to open in 2014.
Musial, a three-time MVP and seven-time National League batting champion who spent all 22 seasons of his career with the Cardinals, died Saturday after several years of declining health. He was 92.
“The respect and devotion that people have for Stan Musial has more to do with his character than his swing,” McCaskill said in a phone interview. “His swing was amazing, a unique thing of beauty, but it was the man that made a lot of decisions in his life that just reflect the kind of values that we all want as Americans.”
I don’t doubt that the bridge will be named for him. And it’s Friday, so let’s lighten things up a bit.
* The Question: Who is your all-time favorite baseball player? Explain.
* Gov. Pat Quinn was asked about the possibility of Lisa Madigan running for governor…
“You have to deal with the House, if you’re governor, every single day, and I think it’s important that no members have conflicts of interest, and those who are in executive office shouldn’t have conflicts of interest,” Quinn said. “Especially as we clean up from my two predecessors, who are still in jail right now at the same time, we want to clean up government.”
Suggesting that Lisa Madigan could wind up in prison because of conflicts of interest between herself and the Speaker ain’t gonna go down too well.
With the recent failures in the House to come up with comprehensive pension reform, some Springfield observers have suggested Speaker Madigan might be dragging his feet, and setting the stage for his daughter to ride in on a white horse and solve the state’s biggest problems.
“I work with the Speaker of the House, the President of Senate on all kinds of legislation. I presume that everything they do is for the people of Illinois, the common good,” Quinn said.
If this prison talk continues from Quinn, there will be problems during spring session. Guaranteed.
Asked if that would be a conflict of interest, Mike Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said, “That will be dealt with if and when it happens.”
“That was effectively dealt with 10 years ago when voters overwhelmingly elected Lisa to Attorney General. She has worked well with the Speaker,” Brown added. “There’s no conflict.”
*** UPDATE *** I just talked to Brown. Some of what he said will be saved for subscribers on Monday.
But he did claim that CBS2’s reported quote “That will be dealt with if and when it happens” was not in its proper context. Brown says that he wasn’t responding to a question about a conflict of interest, but about Speaker Madigan’s possible retirement if Lisa Madigan runs.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, I am not yet convinced that Bill Daley will run for governor if Lisa Madigan does…
Bill Daley on Thursday essentially fired the opening shot against potential gubernatorial rival Lisa Madigan in what could be the “Clash of the Titans” of Illinois primaries.
Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times he didn’t want to come off as giving advice to the Madigans but said Lisa Madigan needs a “game plan” to answer questions about possible conflicts in running for the state’s top job while her father remains one of the most politically powerful men in Illinois.
Daley, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama and Commerce Secretary under President Bill Clinton, said that his familial relationship with his brother, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, factored into his reasoning for not running for Illinois office in the past.
“It had to. The City of Chicago plays such a big part in the state, his persona as mayor for umpteen years would obviously be an issue, good or bad. I think the same thing applies to the [attorney] general,” Daley said. “I’m not giving them advice. I assume they would have to deal with that up front. She would be smart enough politically … She’d have to answer you guys when you say: ‘How does this work?’ Then the voters have to decide whether they buy it.”
At the Democratic National Convention last year, Michael Madigan said he had no intention of retiring and, if his daughter were interested in a 2014 gubernatorial bid, nothing would stop her from aiming for the Executive Mansion while he is in control of the Illinois House.
Bill Daley and Lisa Madigan both have a history of flirting with running for higher office, only to have it dissolve into a political tease.
But — if it’s real this time and two of the most powerful political families in Chicago and Illinois history actually do square off in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary — it’ll be a dramatic crescendo to a decades-long family feud.
I think the relationship between Speaker Madigan and Mayor Daley is a complicated one. Like two brothers. Rod Blagojevich tried to get between the two men and peel off Daley when he was warring with Madigan. I told the governor it wouldn’t work. They fight each other like brothers, but get between them and they’ll turn together and fight you. And that’s what happened. Remember this?…
Mayor Richard Daley said Monday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s claim the mayor and the CTA are misleading the public about transit funding problems is “cuckoo.”
Daley quickly followed up his one-word response by saying he was “not getting into an argument” with Blagojevich.
“He’s arguing with everybody in America,” Daley said of the governor.
* Peoria Congressman Aaron Schock was in Chicago yesterday and discussed his future and his likely GOP opponents…
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, who’s mulling a 2014 Republican bid for governor, chastised a pair of potential rivals Thursday, saying state Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard have “proven nothing more than they can lose an election.”
“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results,” said Schock, 31, a three-term congressman and former state lawmaker from Peoria who held forth on Illinois politics after a speech to the Civic Federation in Chicago. […]
Of Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican who already has announced his candidacy after narrowly losing the 2010 Republican governor primary to Brady, Schock said: “You’ve got one guy who’s been announced for two months. You can hear crickets.”
Schock questioned whether Brady or Dillard would be able to get the financial support needed to run again.
“At some point, you know, as a Republican in this state, I’ve watched cycle after cycle a lot of the same horses trot out on the track that have proven nothing more than they can lose an election,” he said.
Schock, whose views include opposing gay marriage and abortion, nonetheless stressed his electability across the state and said he would have “no problem competing in the suburbs” as he has performed well with moderate voters, women, and young people in past races.
Schock, however, would not comment on the state’s GOP leadership and a move by some GOP leaders to oust state party Chairman Pat Brady of St. Charles for his statements supporting legalized same-sex marriage.
“I”m not telling the state central committee what to do,” Schock said.
Schock has some suburbs in his district, but they’re small, Downstate suburbs. Big difference when compared to Cook and the collars.
Lots of US House members tend to think they’re moderate because they stack up as moderates in DC. But DC moderates ain’t Illinois moderates. Illinois hasn’t elected a major statewide pro-life, anti gay rights candidate in over 14 years (Peter Fitzgerald, 1998).
If you want to understand why little to no progress will likely be made on gun control here in Illinois or nationally, just look at the abortion issue.
Abortion is a hugely emotional and divisive issue in this country. At the heart of the matter is the belief by the extreme opposition that no legal right to an abortion ought to ever exist, while those on the other extreme view any tiny, baby step infringement as a giant leap toward prohibition.
Both sides are well-funded, well-organized and have reams of studies, talking points, experts and lawyers to back them up. Both sides demand purity from anyone they support. Vote against a bill that uses government regulations to run abortion clinics out of business and you’re deemed a heretic by the hard right. Vote for a bill to allow parents to be notified when their underage daughter is about to have an abortion and you’re branded a traitor by the hard left.
The ball simply cannot move unless one side manages to take over a state government and then lets the courts sort it out.
Like the pro-life activists, most gun-control advocates either want to change the Constitution or vehemently disagree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions. That was made obvious in Illinois when the state Senate took up a bill recently that would’ve banned the sale of most popular handguns and required that all gun magazines be registered with the state, even though magazines have no serial numbers. The arrogance and ignorance of the people who drafted that bill cannot be overstated.
On the other hand, the extreme pro-gun folks have a dangerously warped view of reality in which their firearms are somehow the only thing standing between “the people” and “tyranny.” Never mind that we live in a democratic, constitutional republic with a solid history of more than two centuries of ever-expanding rights. Because of this “sacred gun” fantasy, any government restriction on their rights, as they see them, amounts to a tyrannical abuse of power. Some of those folks ought to try visiting a real dictatorship to see how ridiculously they are overstating their case.
As with the abortion issue, the extremes pay for the political megaphones, so we usually only see radical proposals from both sides. Far-reaching gun bans on the one hand, opposition to any regulations on the other.
A requirement that gun owners securely lock their weapons in safes may have done more to prevent the recent Connecticut slaughter than almost anything else.
Adam Lanza stole the guns he used from his mother, whom he also killed before his murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Yet, requiring that gun owners lock up their weapons is not even being discussed, even though all the responsible gun owners I know keep their pistols, rifles and shotguns locked in gun safes.
With rights come responsibilities. So, to my mind, the right to own a gun ought to come with a responsibility to make as sure as you possibly can that your property doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
But the NRA has staunchly opposed such measures in the past as an outlandish burden on gun owners. And antigun politicians would rather focus on “sexy” poll-tested issues like assault weapons bans, even though the last federal ban was a joke. Connecticut’s assault weapons ban was modeled on that now-expired 1990s era federal ban, so the assault weapon used by Lanza was legal.
There just is no viable center, so there can be no negotiated solution.
* And even though the column took pretty hard shots at both sides, the first e-mail it generated last night was this one…
Why do you hate guns? Do you hate people that get abortions as much as someone that likes to shoot guns? Yes not every legal gun owner is a super evil person, I know hard to believe.
Do you skip movies with guns in them? Cartoons ? Meat from a game animal?
What happened to factual reporting in this country? Yellow journalism is running rampant now. Worse than ever people like you seem fit in using your jobs to call millions of Americans bad people.
You should be ashamed.
* Meanwhile, GOP state Sen. Sam McCann believes gun ownership for self protection is an inherent right granted by God. He spoke of the issue at last weekend’s pro-gun Statehouse rally and again to Bernie Schoenburg…
“And our generation is now charged with fighting to ensure that this great nation will remain a government, not of the politician, not of the entitlement seekers, but a government of the people, by the people and for the people. To live up to the great expectations placed on our generation, we must pass the mantle of liberty to the next generation, and the only way we can accomplish this is to preserve our Second Amendment rights,” McCann said at the speech, recordings of which were posted on YouTube by 970 AM WMAY.
“They’re not privileges and they cannot be revoked by a bunch of politicians,” McCann added. “They were given to us by God almighty himself, himself, and we will stand strong on that. Our message to the legislators and executive officers of the state of Illinois and this nation is this: Do not attempt to diminish our liberty as co-equal citizens of this great land, but instead be champions of liberty. I pledge to you today, I will be a champion of liberty, so help me God.”
So, when I saw McCann at the Frontiers International Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast Monday, I asked about the speech. McCann made it clear he thinks gun rights and other rights — and not the Constitution written by people — are what he thinks come from God.
“All of our rights, the right to speech, the right to assembly, the right to join together and talk about ideas … the right to protect yourself — all of those rights I believe are given us by God,” McCann said. “It’s not just the Second Amendment. It’s all of the rights that are outlined and all of those that aren’t outlined, as a free citizen.”
I noted the Constitution had to be amended to include gun rights, to end slavery and let women vote.
“Nothing created by man is perfect,” McCann said. “You’re talking about the document. I’m talking about the rights, the inherent rights. … All of our rights are given by God. We wouldn’t be free if they were given by a document created by man.”
A newly elected suburban state senator is rounding up fellow Illinois Republican officials to try to oust the chair of the beleaguered party over his support for legalizing same-sex marriage.
Sugar Grove dairy magnate and state Sen. Jim Oberweis emailed several fellow state central committeemen several days ago about organizing a special meeting to remove Illinois GOP chairman Pat Brady of St. Charles, the Daily Herald has learned. Brady is under fire for recent statements he made supporting same-sex marriage. […]
Oberweis said Brady should be removed to get past this issue and added the state needs to focus on financial problems.
“All of my time is now being spent responding to emails on social issues,” he said. “I don’t think those are the most pressing issues we should be dealing with.”
If it’s so not all that important, then why spend any time on it?
Hey, I get that he’s against gay marriage. He absolutely has a right to that opinion. I get where he’s coming from on Brady. But if this isn’t a “pressing” issue, then why “press” it at all?
* Heckling is not free speech when it’s specifically orchestrated to drown out a speaker. It then becomes the opposite of free speech. One cannot “debate” loud, obnoxious, continuous catcalls.
So, last week when I saw this Illinois State Rifle Association notice to its members, I wondered how things would play out…
The gun control movement is on a roll in the northern suburbs. They will be holding a rally to recruit and organize new gun grabbers into their campaign to take your guns away from you.
IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ATTEND THIS RALLY!
As a patriotic firearm owner, you have a responsibly to defend our Constitution by challenging those who would tear down our Bill of Rights. If the gun controllers are left unchallenged, then they and their friends in Springfield will walk all over YOUR constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Sunday, January 20, 2013, 2:00 PM
WHERE: Glenview Police Station, 2500 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL
(was: Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette Ave, Wilmette, IL)
WHO: This event is being hosted by a band of gun controllers including Mark Walsh of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence; Lee Goodman of Stop Concealed Carry Coalition and; Jennifer Bishop of the Million Mom March. These people are the real deal - the hard core top dogs of the gun control movement. These are the people leading the charge to raid your gun safe and confiscate and destroy your guns. These are the people who want to prevent you from carrying defensive firearms. These are the people who don’t care if you or your family members are raped, robbed and murdered by violent criminals. They only care about one thing - disarming you.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRO-GUN PEOPLE
1. Plan to be at the Glenview Police Station between 1:00 and 1:30 so that you can get a seat. At past events like these, the anti-gunners try to play a game claiming that the room is “full” so as to deny entry to pro-gun people. Our aim is to ensure that there are more of OUR people there than THEIR people.
2. Be observant of abuses of your First Amendment rights by village officials. Get the name and title of any official who attempts to suppress your right of free association, assembly and speech.
3. If you have an I-GOLD t-shirt, hat, or badge, wear it! If you have an ISRA hat or an NRA hat, wear it!
4. If you see members of the media there, don’t wait for them to come to you. Rather, actively approach them, tell them you are a law-abiding firearm owner, and then tell them that you adamantly oppose punitive gun control laws being proposed by the organizers, Obama, and Emanuel. Make sure the media hears our side of the story first, and often!
5. Bring your children, grand children, and other young people with you. They are the next generation of patriots. Let them see how effective grassroots organizing works! If there is a question and answer session, have your children ask the organizers why they want to leave kids and their parents defenseless against criminals.
6. Be polite, but be assertive. Do not let the anti-gunners shout you down. Defend your 2nd Amendment with passion. If you have a smart phone, video as much of the proceedings as you can.
7. Remember, this is our Lexington, this is our Concord. Be prepared to teach the gun controllers a lesson in Liberty.
8. Please share this Alert with your friends and family - encourage them to show up at the rally.
9. Please post this Alert to any and all Internet blogs and bulletin boards to which you belong.
REMEMBER - YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PRESERVING YOUR FREEDOM - IF YOU DON’T DO IT, NOBODY ELSE WILL
Notice the token mention of politeness parachuted into the middle of an otherwise frenzied diatribe. “Be prepared to teach the gun controllers a lesson in Liberty.” Sheesh.
* And the gun guys were certainly fired up when the meeting started…
About two-thirds of the audience sported Illinois State Rifle Association or National Rifle Association hats or tee-shirts. Many held up “Don’t Infringe My Rights” signs. Many photographed the crowd and speakers with phones and cameras.
[Mark Walsh, campaign director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence] was the first speaker; he reviewed the gun control measures proposed last week by President Barack Obama and told the audience that a recent Pew Research poll indicates 88 percent of respondents support implementing stronger background checks at gun shows. Minutes into his presentation, crowd members began shouting him down.
Walsh later characterized the interrupts as pretty tame, but Walsh is known for his, shall we say, understated manner.
Look, booing is a natural human act. But it doesn’t have to be done in a way that drowns out a speaker at his own event. Liberty requires at least a modicum of civility or we might as well just all be anarchists. Even some of the gun guys understood that…
The crowd’s greatest criticism was reserved for [Lee Goodman, of the Stop Concealed Carry Coalition] and a commentary he read, which focused on “the babies – children and young people killed by gun violence.” Audience members yelled at him, asking his views on abortion.
Goodman said public support for stronger gun control has strengthened as a result of the latest mass shootings, but heckling continued until a gun rights advocate in the audience came to the front and asked everyone, including his colleagues, to be calm, reminding them that they were at the event to gather information.
Things got really heated, however, when [Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins of the Million Moms March] displayed a photograph of a Nazi rally on a screen with the caption, “this is what a gun show looks like”. Following that he displayed a picture of a chihuahua with the words “this is what I think the NRA really is”.
Great. You got a room two-thirds full of gun rights activists and you basically call them Nazis and little dogs.
People gotta stop being morons.
* Meanwhile, a former Sangamon County resident tried and failed to get a charge of concealed carry dismissed…
A man charged with carrying a concealed handgun in Sangamon County is asking that the charge be dismissed because Illinois’ ban on concealed carry is unconstitutional.
A hearing on Donnell L. Jackson’s motion to dismiss a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon was continued Wednesday until Feb. 6 to allow the Sangamon County state’s attorney’s office time to review the legal ramifications of whatever action it may take.
Springfield attorney Daniel Noll objected to the continuance, which was requested by assistant state’s attorney Travis Strobach.
“Moore vs. Madigan makes it pretty clear this is unconstitutional,” Noll said. “There is no gray area.” […]
Jackson, now of Champaign, was arrested about 2:10 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2011 when Springfield police patrolling the 1900 block of South 14th Street saw a vehicle stopped in the road and a man wearing a blue, hooded sweatshirt walk away from it.
Police reports said Jackson was asked to remove his hands from inside the sweatshirt, but he removed only one hand. When he was patted down, officers found a gun in the sweatshirt, and Jackson was charged.
* Also, the pro-gunners have filed their response to Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s motion to rehear the federal concealed carry case en banc. You can read that response by clicking here.
* Every so often a few public employees will demand in comments to be allowed to withdraw all the money they contributed to their pension funds so they can invest it themselves. Well, if SB40 passes, they might be able to. From the bill’s synopsis…
Provides that a person who is a member on the effective date of the amendatory Act may file a written notice of election not to participate in the General Assembly Retirement System within 24 months from the date of becoming a member or 18 months after the effective date of the amendatory Act, whichever is later. Provides that a person who makes that election shall, upon written request, receive a refund of his or her total contributions, without interest.
The bill is sponsored by Republican state Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon).
…Adding… And, yes, the bill as written only applies to GARS. But it’s a step.
* No surprise here, the Tribune believes that House Speaker Michael Madigan should step aside if Attorney General Lisa Madigan decides to run for governor…
But tension between the two branches protects the citizens much, much better than coziness between the branches. Illinois leaders, unfortunately, have managed to come together often enough to sink the state into massive debt by borrowing, spending and promising money they didn’t have.
The risk here is that a father and daughter cannot, will not, serve as fundamental checks on each other.
Simply writing off conflict-of-interest concerns under “trust me” proclamations will not suffice.
There is real risk that politics would trump the effective functioning of the state during a campaign. If Lisa Madigan runs against fellow Democrat Quinn, Michael Madigan will be in the position of actively seeking to crush the incumbent — and his policy agenda — at the same time they attempt to co-manage the state. Every government action by Michael Madigan will be suspect: Is he putting Illinois first or Lisa first?
There are plenty of questions for Lisa Madigan, should she run for governor. Does she support an extension of the state income tax increase that was shepherded through the House by her father? Will she support pension reform, which has stalled in her father’s House?
But the key question will be the concentration of so much power in one family.
A decade ago, when then-state Sen. Lisa Madigan was elected attorney general, she was able to navigate questions about potential conflicts between her new role and her father’s role as speaker. She has from time to time signaled political independence, most notably when she stood firm against a heavily clouted bid to steer a casino to Rosemont amid questions about the influence of organized crime in the deal. She did well under pressure and she prevailed; we remember that.
But the relationship of a governor and House speaker does not come down to the occasional disagreement. It’s a daily do-si-do. People must have confidence that these two leaders can serve as checks on each other.
Lisa Madigan’s campaign announcement — if she makes one — should include the addendum that her father plans to step aside.
Even though Quinn is trying to ignore Madigan, the 2014 primary is only 14 months away, and the campaign has begun. There’s an old saying in politics that AG doesn’t just stand for attorney general, it also stands for aspiring governor. That’s certainly the case in Illinois. If Madigan runs, she’ll be the fourth consecutive attorney general to seek the governorship. Here’s how her predecessors fared.
Neil Hartigan: won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1990; lost to Jim Edgar.
Roland Burris: lost Democratic primaries for governor in 1998 and 2002.
Jim Ryan: won the Republican nomination for governor in 2002; lost to Rod Blagojevich.
In fact, no Illinois attorney general has ever gone on to serve as governor, although Ninian Edwards, who served in 1834 and 1835, was the son of a governor, and Otto Kerner Sr. (1933-38) was the father of a governor.
In 2012, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union–was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also declined over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers….
Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (35.9 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers…
About half of the 14.4 million union members in the U.S. lived in just seven states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 1.8 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.7 million; and Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio, 0.6 million each), though these states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
Other members of the school safety summit said getting students to speak-up about potential threats is, perhaps the best idea from the Springfield meeting.
It would also be the cheapest.
Roger Eddy, a former state lawmakers and current head of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said Illinois cannot afford to do much more than talk about school safety.
“Certainly most things are going to cost money and resources,” Eddy said. “And some communities are going to have to make tough choices about that.”
Cinda Klickna, who spoke at the safety summit for the Illinois Education Association, said the price tag could be huge.
“If you are going to have resources for students, programs for students, and personnel to help students, you are going to have to pay for it somehow,” Klickna said.
Quinn angrily denied that if Illinois were to pay the nearly $1 billion it owes local schools and local government that there would be ample money for school safety.
“I’ve gone out and gotten resources for our schools, and for a lot of other things in Illinois, two years ago. Check it out,” Quinn retorted.
* Speaking of schools, Greg Hinz follows up on my earlier stories about how $35 million for an UNO school construction project was inserted into the supplemental approp budget and helped kill it…
But, in checking around, I hear that the guy who really pushed the proposed $35 million grant was House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose district has turned overwhelmingly Latino in recent years and who probably could use one of those new UNO schools in his district. Mr. Madigan — his spokesman failed to return calls — was so hot for the grant that he actually tried to add it to some other bills, multiple reliable Springfield sources say.
Mr. Rangel confirms that the money “quite possibly” would have gone for work in Mr. Madigan’s district, where schools are “severely overcrowded.” And guess where that new soccer high school is? At the north end of Mr. Madigan’s legislative district, at 5050 S. St. Louis Ave.
So it goes in our fair capital city. Education money is short, and CPS is talking about shutting schools. But those with friends have their ways.
* Do you ascribe more to the theory that a Gov. Lisa Madigan would concentrate too much power in one family’s hands, or do you lean more to the belief that a Gov. Lisa Madigan would mean that the Democrats would finally elect somebody who could work with House Speaker Michael Madigan?
Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Nine months ago, our organization, For the Good of Illinois, filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking Republican Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar-Topinka to send us one year of the state’s checkbook. We were simply seeking to share state expenditures with Illinois citizens through our online database. Our request for this information was rejected.
The comptroller asserted “review, redaction, and arrangement of all 2011 vendor payments would take multiple staff members, dedicated solely to this request, more than three days to complete.” Topinka’s office concluded that fulfilling the request was an “undue burden.”
This conclusion is not credible, and her refusal is against both the spirit and the letter of the law. Is the comptroller really going to argue that in this electronic age state government can’t produce a timely and organized checkbook? Is the comptroller’s office really that much of a mess? The fact our FOIA request is being denied by the state’s top financial officer because it’s inconvenient is inexcusable. Or is Topinka trying to hide something?
Here in Illinois, income tax rates rise as fast as 67 percent overnight and property taxes double every ten years. You would think citizens should at least have access to detailed information showing how their tax dollars are being spent. The state’s checkbook should be public information.
(T)he state database tracking revenues and expenditures includes confidential information that the law prohibits from being given out — things like Social Security numbers and information about tax refunds, public aid and foster care payments, worker’s comp and unemployment checks. A “complete data dump” would be illegal.
Topinka is absolutely correct. She can’t just hand over things like everybody’s individual tax refund checks. No way. And Andrzejewski ought to know better than to ask for stuff like that.
* But in corresponding with Topinka’s office, it became clear that they could take some time to write a program which would weed out all the protected classes of information. In other words, they could give him all the individual checks for everything except what is protected by state law. There would be no individual check copies of tax refunds or such stuff, just aggregate amounts. It would be an effort, but they could do it. It would certainly be a lot easier than redacting each, individual record.
* So, I told Andrzejewski that I’d noticed that the two sides seemed to be talking past each other. Would he accept the raw data used by the comptroller’s website that didn’t include the info that couldn’t by law be disclosed? His e-mailed response…
This appears to be welcome news…
However, as you know, the information we requested goes beyond the information available on the Comptroller’s website. While it is our preference to reach an amicable resolution, doing so requires the Comptroller to produce all of the information responsive to our FOIA request.
The Comptroller apparently told you that it could provide the data showing individual payments. This information must certainly exist, and there should not be any “probability” involved. The Comptroller must possess a record of each payment the State of Illinois made, to whom it was made, when it was made, and the amount of each payment. This is all information which the public has a right to know, and it is all subject to FOIA.
You mention that providing this information could “take some time.” However, we sent the Comptroller our FOIA request nine months ago. We are willing to be reasonable on timing, but we expect the information to be provided over a reasonable amount of days, not multiple weeks or months. The Comptroller does not have to format the data in any way. We can work with the raw data as it is kept by the Comptroller. Chicago provided 10 years and nearly 7 million individual transactions in approximately 10 days.
The FOIA statute provides for the recovery of attorney’s fees and costs. The Comptroller has already caused us to incur substantial fees and expenses. These must be reimbursed in order to resolve our case.
“Substantial fees and expenses”? C’mon. Andrzejewski the conservative “cut the budget” millionaire now wants to ding the taxpayers for legal fees? Just settle this thing, for crying out loud.
* Illinois’ top atheist “activist” Rob Sherman lost another and likely final round yesterday in his attempt to overturn a $20,000 state grant to renovate a huge cross in southern Illinois, known as the “Bald Knob Cross of Peace.” Lower courts had already ruled against Sherman, and the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal this week…
Sherman sued in August 2010, arguing that efforts to repair the cross using state money have “the primary effect of advancing a particular religious sect, namely Christianity.” He noted that the grant came from a $5 million pot of money that the state Legislature channeled to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Sherman insisted that the grant was a legislative earmark - not a discretionary allocation from the executive branch - and therefore violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of religion.
“This action by the Supreme Court affirms that our nation’s court system is a joke,” Sherman said in a statement. The high court’s “refusal to take my case means that any legislative (body), whether it be Congress, a state legislature or a municipal board, can make blatantly unconstitutional grants to advance religion simply by naming an executive branch agency as a middleman in the transaction.
“What a joke! What a fraud against the taxpayers of this country.”
Well, if the nation’s court system is such a “joke” then maybe Sherman will stop suing at the drop of a hat.
No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. […]
Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
But since the cross is a tourist destination and doesn’t necessarily serve as a “place of worship” or a “sectarian purpose,” then it’s OK, I suppose.
* Late last week, the governor considered halting a big gun show/sale at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. He didn’t end up doing anything.
I went to the show on Saturday. The place was packed. Some booths were so crowded that I couldn’t even see the guns that vendors had for sale. I ran into a Chicago state legislator at the show, his first such event. He marveled at the crowd. It’s quite possible that all Quinn did last week was drive turnout even higher. Who knew that Pat Quinn could be such a friend to gun dealers?
Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday said he is looking into a possible ban on gun shows held on publicly owned property
“We are talking to the lawyers about that,” Quinn said in response to a reporter’s question after a four-hour summit on school safety at the Springfield office of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
Last week, Quinn and other Illinois Democrats called for a statewide ban on assault weapons. Yet, some of these very guns were on sale Saturday at a gun show at the state-owned Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
There were some mean looking weapons at that show, but most of the stuff looked pretty ordinary to my relatively untrained eye. The most sought-after weapons appeared to be pistols, perhaps in anticipation of the federal order requiring Illinois to come up with a concealed carry permit system.
The governor doesn’t like guns. So, it would not be surprising if he went through with this sales ban idea. But maybe he ought to go see one of these shows for himself and talk to some of the average folks who attend them before making up his mind.
Among the many speakers Saturday was state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville.
McCann said owning a gun was a right and not a privilege that could be revoked. McCann told the crowd he planned to propose a constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot that would make Illinois the strongest gun rights state in the nation.
McCann was just posing for the crowd and his proposal is going nowhere. And he really wouldn’t want gang members convicted of violent crimes to lose the right to own a gun? Really?
* The SJ-R posted some video from the event. One quote from a speaker…
“I am a gun-toting, God-fearing, Bible-reading Christian, let’s make that clear.”
A review of candidate campaign pledges and data from the General Assembly Retirement System shows at least two dozen of the 177 members of the House and Senate have opted out of the General Assembly pension system.
One of the things that the unions rely on is legislators voting to protect their own pensions and benefits. But the more opt-outs we get, the fewer legislators who will care.
* Even so, some legislators who’ve opted out are still eligible for other pensions. For instance…
State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, decided not to take a legislative pension when he first took office in the mid-1990s.
“What motivated me to do it was I didn’t want people to think I was doing this for the money,” Luechtefeld said.
Luechtefeld, a former teacher and basketball coach, is a member of the Teachers Retirement System. He said his TRS pension is not large.
“It may not have been the best financial decision, but I’m certainly going to get by. I’m happy. I’m satisfied,” Luechtefeld said.
People have been predicting a Luechtefeld retirement for years. We may now know at least one reason why he’s decided to stick around. Luechtefeld is 72.
* For some members, no pensions might mean even less turnover if they simply can’t retire. Simple “solutions” never produce simple results.
State legislators can take jobs as lobbyists immediately after their time as lawmaker is done.
That means a lame-duck legislator can support a particular bill that sends money into one business or sector and then leave the General Assembly and begin working for that company or in that sector the next day. It stinks, but it’s still legal.
Thirty-five states have laws that force lawmakers to wait between six months and two years before taking a job as a lobbyist.
It’s time for Illinois to pass a law making lawmakers wait at least a year before becoming lobbyists.
Congress has a similar rule, but members get around it by being “of counsel” to lobbying firms until the revolving door ban expires. Reforms ain’t always what they’re cracked up to be.
Still, what bothers me is not so much that members take those jobs, it’s that they apply for them and negotiate their contracts while they are still legislators. Several members, for instance, applied for the bigtime Illinois Hospital Association gig which then-Sen. AJ Wilhelmi got. That process went on for a while, and some pretty prominent members served for weeks while the decision was being made.
And I don’t mean to single out Wilhelmi or the IHA here as a particularly noxious example. AJ is a decent guy and the IHA does good work. He was eminently qualified for that job. I don’t blame them at all for hiring him and he’s proved to be top notch.
He introduced a federal voter photo ID bill in June and again in September called the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2012, which – if passed into law – would have required voters to present a government-issued photo ID to vote in federal elections. The bill died in committee both times.
“[Democrats] believe everybody should vote; it should be so easy for people to vote,” Walsh said. “I shouldn’t say this, and this will cost me votes – if and when I run next time. It should be tough to vote. I don’t like this whole early-voting stuff. I think you should have to swim a mile, walk five miles, find a bus – I’m exaggerating for everyone who is filming me – and it should take you three hours to get to the ballot box.
“It should be that important. It shouldn’t be easy to vote. This is probably one of the most sacred privileges you’ve earned, you have to earn to live in this country.”
Sen. Dick Durbin told me Tuesday that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is “seriously thinking” about running for governor.
I talked to Madigan about a gubernatorial bid on Saturday night — she was here for President Barack Obama’s Inauguration festivities — and my takeaway from the conversation is she wants to run whether or not Bill Daley also gets in a Democratic primary to challenge Gov. Pat Quinn.
The main consequence of Madigan, 46, inching toward a bid is this: We now know the politically vulnerable Quinn is heading toward a colossal primary fight because he is going to be facing strong opponents, either Madigan, Daley or both in the March 18, 2014, balloting.
“She had made special outreach to labor and they know it, they’ve noticed in terms of her showing up at events and the like,” Durbin told me. “I don’t think she has made a final decision. I know she is in the process of making a decision.”
When Madigan mulled a Senate run in 2009, she mustered little enthusiasm when we talked about the prospect of what would have been a Democratic primary contest and taking a job where she would have to commute between Chicago and Washington.
That was not the case when we chatted about a 2014 Democratic primary for governor at the Illinois Inaugural Gala. This time, she’s hungry.
As we talked, with her husband, Pat Byrnes by her side, Madigan, was the one who reminded me that her kids were older now and more independent: Rebecca is 8 and Lucy turns 5 next month.
Durbin told me he assumes Quinn is running for re-election. As for getting involved in a primary, Durbin, who is up for re-election in 2014, said, “My plan is to stay out.”
Gov. Pat Quinn sidestepped whether he is concerned about possibly the strongest indicator yet that four-term Attorney General Lisa Madigan is considering running against him for governor in 2014.
“I’m not really doing politics right now,” Quinn said Tuesday following a school safety summit in Springfield. “I think it’s better to do policy…there will be plenty of time to focus on politics later on.”
