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Brady dumps another hot-button bill, will see his “budget” proposed by Democrats

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Illinois

* As you already know, Sen. Bill Brady gave up his sponsorship of a bill last week to re-legalize mass euthanasia of dogs and cats by gas chambers after the press got wind of the legislation. But that wasn’t the only bill which Brady dumped…

The Illinois State Senate is considering a bill (SB3447) to roll back some protections of the Illinois Human Rights Act, which currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. […]

The bill was authored by State Senator Bill Brady, Republican gubernatorial hopeful, though the chief sponsorship has since changed to State Sen. John O. Jones. The bill has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee and a hearing on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2.

I wish I had known about that when I wrote my syndicated weekly newspaper column on Friday. The beauty of the column is I can somewhat bypass the Associated Press if they’re not covering an issue. The column appears in over 100 newspapers statewide, so I do reach a lot of eyeballs. This time around, the AP has so far completely ignored the uproar over Sen. Bill Brady’s bill to re-legalize gas chambers for dogs and cats. My column uses the legislation to partially illustrate how Brady’s campaign is doing so far, along with another related development…

Jerry Clarke is not easily ruffled. Not only has he seen it all in his years running campaigns in Illinois, but he’s served several tours of duty in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot.

But I thought Jerry might actually faint last week when I called him with an update on his candidate’s latest piece of legislation. Clarke is running state Sen. Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign.

Sen. Brady’s bill would undo a compromise worked out over two years to stop the practice of mass euthanasia of dogs and cats. The animals were often put into auto exhaust gas chambers and killed en masse, sometimes allegedly by so-called “puppy mills” when the animals weren’t sold. The gas chambers were deemed cruel because it could take as long as 30 minutes for the animals to die, and some even survived the ordeal.

One of the state’s animal gas chambers is in Brady’s Senate district, and Brady has said he sponsored the bill on a local veterinarian’s behalf. Brady’s new legislation would delete the law’s requirement that “companion animals” be euthanized one at a time.

The Humane Society of Illinois blasted Brady’s legislation. “This bill would allow numerous animals to be gassed at the same time, in the same chamber, which will cause fear and panic, at the same time these dogs will be gasping for their final breath.”

That’s not exactly the image you want associated with your gubernatorial candidate, to say the least.

The point here is that Bill Brady is obviously not yet thinking like a statewide candidate. For crying out loud, you can’t introduce a bill to help out your local puppy gas chamber when you’re trying to be governor. I mean, seriously, what kind of thought process concocts an idea like that?

Clarke called me back to say that Brady would introduce an amendment to delete the bill’s content. The next day, Brady handed off sponsorship to someone else. At least his campaign is finally learning that they’ll have to keep this guy on a short and tight leash.

Jerry has no time to spare, either. As I write this, the Senate Democrats are drafting a state budget based on Sen. Bill Brady’s proposals from his Republican primary race.

During the primary race, Brady told the Chicago Tribune: “I believe Illinois needs to prioritize its programs and cut state spending by approximately 10 percent, saving $5.5 billion on the $55 billion base budget.”

Brady’s answer was dismissed by most budget experts because about half that $55 billion figure can’t really be altered much. You can’t, for instance, just tell Wall Street that you’re cutting your bond payments by ten percent. So a ten percent across the board cut to the operating budget would only provide about half of Brady’s projected savings.

And now the Senate Democrats have decided to show the world just what, exactly, Brady’s proposed ten percent cut and billion dollar tax cut would mean to Illinois - agency by agency.

The Senate Democrats have already passed a legislative scholarship “reform” that was specifically designed to call attention to Brady’s granting of a tuition waiver to the child of a campaign contributor. The ploy didn’t work, though, because Brady uses an independent committee to award the scholarships. Also last week, the Democrats forced a hearing on Brady’s campaign finance reform bill. The legislation was so poorly drafted that Brady was forced to agree to make numerous fixes, but the hearing got absolutely no media coverage.

The “Brady budget” proposal may finally break the media logjam, so this budget hearing could be a major test of Brady’s campaign, and its early reaction was fairly strong.

“When are they going to hold hearings on Quinn’s budget?” Clarke thundered last week when told of the planned budget hearings. Brady’s campaign manager accused the Democrats of using a Senate committee and state agency higher-ups for pure political gamesmanship while their own party - which has a huge majority in the chamber - hasn’t yet come up with solutions of their own. Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget address will not be unveiled until a full week after the scheduled “Brady budget” hearing.

If Jerry can just get a hold on his guy, he may have a real shot here.

As subscribers already know, the Senate appropriations hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

* Gov. Pat Quinn got in some licks during the annual International Kennel Club dog show on Saturday…

“As long as I am governor, we’re never going to pass any kind of legislation that allows cruelty toward animals, whether it be dogs, cats or any other living things,” Quinn said to applause, barks and woofs.

Quinn spoke amid the booths of organizations that rescue abandoned pets and finds homes for them, holding the leash of a German shepherd.

“The governor has a veto pen and we’re going to make sure we protect our animals from any kind of cruelty,” he said, then added, “There are some folks in our society unfortunately they have dollar signs for eyes, and that’s all they think about is money. We’re not going to let that kind of monetary compulsion get in the way of treating our animals in a proper, dignified, friendly manner.”

Asked if that was a direct shot at Brady and his bill, Quinn said, “That was a terrible piece of legislation and I think everybody in Illinois knows it. A bill was put in to allow a mass killing of dogs and cats in the gas chanber. Putting all those animals together… many of them obviously very fearful as you put them in a small, contained place, perhaps fighting with each other, for them to be subject in their last minutes on earth to that kind of cruelty, is just plain wrong… There may be firms out there that think they can make money by mass killings of dogs, puppies and kittens. But that’s not what our state stands for and that law will never be approved.”

WBBM Radio got to a point that Quinn will probably use several more times before this campaign is over…

Quinn accused Brady of caving in to business interests by sponsoring the bill.

* Related…

* Saying ‘yes’ can be dangerous

* Abused scholarship program should be ended, not altered

* It’s time for politically connected tuition waivers to end

* Same problems at the state level

* Quinn turns heat up on Brady over dog bill

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 8:50 am

Comments

–The bill would carve out exceptions to the Act, allowing certain employers and tax-exempt organizations to discriminate against Illinoisans on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.–

Yeah, that’s the way to build a broad-based coalition in Illinois in 2010.

The funny thing is, the guy has been running statewide forever. His political instincts are meshuggeneh.

On the bright side for voters (if they care to look), he doesn’t hide his light under a bushel. His priorities are out there.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 9:09 am
It’s Amateur Hour at the GOP Corral.

Brady ran for governor four years ago, and knew he would be repeating that effort this year, yet this is how he handled his legislation?

Bill Brady is clueless. Yeah - we all know he is a Downstater from Bloomington, but c’mon, if he really wanted a shot to a statewide spot, he needed to remove his head from the very dark place he seems to be keeping it.

I have been blogging about how Brady needed to get out and go north to understand how Illinois functioned and thought, yet I was told that he was doing just that. Well, I don’t see it.

We haven’t even gotten a month into the General, and Bill Brady is looking like a friendly Amish guy running for mayor of Las Vegas.

Then there is Plummer!

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 9:15 am
Brady is on target. Get the proposals to satisfy your base out of the way early and eat the bad press as far away from November as possible.

You have to realize that with each requirement you place on employers, public and private, it creates expenses to track compliance. Our state is killing business with layers and layers of regulation. While you may think who is really against anti discrimination legislation, it is the people who have to pay for it…The voters!

Quinn has to cut a billion dollars from education. I estimate over 1000 teachers will get pink slips in the next 30 days. If you think a discrimination bill and gassing dogs ends this race you are sadly mistaken. It is going to be a very very long summer…Especially for Quinn.

Comment by the Patriot Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 9:34 am
Am I the only person who thinks that excessive legislative time spent on dog euthanasia and horse meat preparation just might be one reason why IL is in the fiscal mess it’s in?

Comment by Pat Collins Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 9:47 am
**Am I the only person who thinks that excessive legislative time spent on dog euthanasia and horse meat preparation just might be one reason why IL is in the fiscal mess it’s in? **

Yup… I am sure that bills looking at animal rights are really what is getting in the way of solving the budget crisis.

Comment by dave Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:04 am
I think it was after the SIU debate during a post-debate session with reporters Quinn said that he had a couple of GOP votes, presumably in the House, for his income tax increase. Quinn also suggested that he would use re-districting presumably to force Madigan’s hand on the Quinn tax increase issue.

As YDD has suggested in the past Jim Sacia would have made an “excellent” Dept of Corrections head. And with Randle STILL on the hot-seat it’s possible that he could be sacked or placed elsewhere in a deal-cutting move by Quinn to get Sacia to break with his party and support the tax increase for promise of a high office in the Quinn administration.

Recently Sacia vocally and openly supported the Quin/Durbin/Obama transfer fo Gitmo Cuba enemy combatants to Thomson. And Sacia had high praise for Quinn’s State of the State when no one else did.

So it seemed to me that one of the possible GOP House votes in favor of Quinn’s tax increase would be Sacia.

Thanks to Abdon Pallacsh’s glowing story about Quinn at the dog show, the comments section provided a golden nugget of a comment.

As of lastnight there was only one positive comment about Quinn on the Brady Puppygate issue. The commenter stated that Jim Sacia was responsible for legislation that allowed for the cruel and inhumane killing of horses. And I feel like I have heard that about Sacia before. So, if that’s true, Quinn couldn’t possibly appoint someone like Sacia to a post in his administration based on all of the things Quinn said in the glowing story written by Abdon Pallasch.

So, if Sacia were thinking of breaking ranks with his party to support Quinn’s tax increase because he (Sacia) has hopes of high office, he better pack it in.

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:09 am
PQ needs to get together with ASPCA and Sarah Mclaclan (or however you spell it) and cut a nice tear jerker attack ad, showing adorable pets with the text “Why does Bill Brady want to gas me?”

Comment by matt Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:22 am
**Am I the only person who thinks that excessive legislative time spent on dog euthanasia and horse meat preparation just might be one reason why IL is in the fiscal mess it’s in? **

==Yup… I am sure that bills looking at animal rights are really what are getting in the way of solving the budget crisis.” ===

While I am sure people are concerned about their animals. I think that voters are tired of the gottcha politics that people play like this. Quinn had to ask for an extension to get his budget out and now he’s using the time for politics. I guess you will say well that’s nothing new. I would say maybe that’s why we are in this mess.

Comment by Dnstateanon Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:28 am
“While I am sure people are concerned about their animals. I think that voters are tired of the gottcha politics that people play like this. Quinn had to ask for an extension to get his budget out and now he’s using the time for politics. I guess you will say well that’s nothing new. I would say maybe that’s why we are in this mess. ” —-Dnstateanon

I think you are 100 percent correct! I think the comments to Pallasch’s story speak to what you are speaking about.

And at one point in the story Pallasch asks Quinn if he is appearing at the Dog as a political candidate or as govenor? It was rather odd question because Quinn is obviously not going to admit that he was using the occassion to be political.

Seriously if Quinn has so much time to talk about animals and lt. governor picks then he is not talking about the budget, and as such he is not really doing job or the people of illinois justice.

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:44 am
WCW, attempting to gauge public opinion by newspaper website comments is quite silly.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 10:48 am
Rich, I’m not trying to nor have I have ever done that. I agree with you. The same can be said about scientific data collection to some extent too (e.g., those darn trend lines) . According to late polls, Hynes was going to win. Likewise, according to polls it looked like Andy McKenna was going to win or at least do better than he did and Brady had no chance at all so far as late polling was concerned.

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 11:01 am
- According to late polls, Hynes was going to win. -

No, they showed it was going to be very close, which turned out to be correct.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 11:19 am
STL provides yet another example why WCW needs to take a break for a while.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 11:40 am
The new Quinn add is up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjFTubAdXP8

Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 12:37 pm
Thanks Rich

Comment by Small Town Liberal Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 12:42 pm
So Gov Quinn would rather spend money on dogs and cats rather than needy people. The State is broke and we can not afford taking care of dogs and cats for people that are not responsible.

Comment by Hickory Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 12:57 pm
The polls at least on the republican side were widely flawed. Brady’s constantly said his polling put him around 20% and in the mix. Everybody else put him at 4-8%. Most of the polling did not include representative samples south of I-80 and some did not even list Brady as a candidate.

This is why I suggested in an earlier post that there should be minimal standards set for polls before they can be released for campaign purposes. You know like actually list all of the candidate running.

Comment by the Patriot Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 12:58 pm
===So Gov Quinn would rather spend money on dogs and cats rather than needy people. ===

And he said that where, exactly? Please don’t argue like that here.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 12:58 pm
re Bill Brady. 80% of Republicans can’t be wrong.

Comment by just sayin' Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 1:22 pm
Where is Brady’s bill to cut his own pay and benefits and pension by 10%?

Maybe Cal Skinner should mount an I told ya so campaign as a better, fiscal libertarian leaning option to Brady without the distracting social issues.

Comment by TaxMeMore Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 1:52 pm
==The State is broke and we can not afford taking care of dogs and cats for people that are not responsible.==

When and where does the state care for people’s dogs and cats? I’m going on vacation this summer and would like to sign up for this service.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 2:46 pm
I wonder if Quinn began singing “its begining to look a lot like christams” when he larned his opponent was Brady.

Brady is doing a good job of luring the independent anti-animal, anti-gay, anti-transgender voting block.

Comment by Ghost Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 3:07 pm
Pot/Black
They are called municpal shelters. You know where the Dog catcher takes the animals without licences. Who do you think feeds the animals there? Who pays to have them put down? Why do you think vet’s who have spent their lives helping these animals want the bill? They can’t afford the cost of the drugs it takes to do it individually. Maybe if Democrats didn’t run the economy into the ground over the last 8 years people wouldn’t have to abandon their pets and the tax payer wouldn’t have to pay to have them put down.

Comment by votegetter Monday, Mar 1, 10 @ 5:33 pm