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Â· From a press release:

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today named David B. Foreman, a retired Captain from the Joliet Fire Department, as the new Illinois State Fire Marshal. Foreman, who has served as president of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois for the past eighteen years, will take the post immediately, pending confirmation by the State Senate.

Â· Yesterday, I complained about the secretary of state’s lobbyist search site. Turns out, I was using the old site (it was in my bookmarks). The new one is quite good and has some new features. Go check it out.

Â· Something tells me we’re going to see a lot more newspaper editorials in Illinois on this particular topic. Mess with the bull, get the horn.

Â· The Decatur Herald & Review has done some innovating things with their website. And now they have puzzles.

Â· The Austin Mayor puts in his two cents on the 6th District.

Â· Public defenders say they’ve been shortchanged by the state.

Â· From Jim Oberweis: “Just as I have been a thrifty fellow in my business and family life, I have run a thrifty campaign, being careful not to waste the hundreds of thousands of dollars that others have donated to our effort for reform. ”

Out of the $738,662.44 that he raised in the last half of 2005, $175,000 came from Jack Roeser, $505,000 came from himself, $5,000 came from a top campaign aide and the rest, about $54,000, was donated by “others.”

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 12:04 pm

Comments

The newspaper editorial - that financial statements continue to be published in the local paper, not just posted on the Internet - is crass self-interest masquerading as public interest. A few years back, I heard from the head of the newspaper publishers organization when my unit of government had introduced a bill to do away with the printing requirement. He was blunt - the elected official sponsoring this would NEVER receive another endorsement from any newspaper in the state if he pushed this bill. It went nowhere.

Comment by Anon Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 12:41 pm
The Pantagraph feeding at the public trough? Shocked, just shocked, we all are at this obvious hypocrisy from the editorial mouthpiece of religious and political reaction/intolerance (the news pages are fine, though).

It’s an anachronistic practice (printing school board financial information — and other units of government — in the newspaper) just like hard-copy newspapers will be in 10 years, a wasteful, resource-intensive, low-tech and inflexible solution to an important public policy problem: public access to government information.

Shame on you, Bill Wills (remember the car repair fraud story you spiked?), although we all knew it already: The Pantagraph is for welfare for newspaper publishers.

Comment by ink by the barrel Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 1:11 pm
Tried the lobbyist section on the Sec of State’s site per your suggestion. Database is inoperative…can’t find anyone registered. Maybe that’s good…no lobbyists exist.

Comment by DownstateDem Friday, Feb 3, 06 @ 9:35 pm
Sorry, but I can’t help but find it interesting that no one seems to be talking about the fact that Oberweis only brought in $54,000 from outside individuals during the last half of ‘05. Very telling of the status of that campaign in my mind.

Comment by the wonderboy Saturday, Feb 4, 06 @ 5:20 pm
You know “wonder boy” @ 5:20pm is right. What a teriffic volunteer base …”not” !! Geez, let’s see @ $54,000 & supposein’ they all gave say $25.00 each IE: a F/R ticket or something like it would only be 2,160 loyal “others”. Then let’s take 2,160 divide it by 102 counties & 50 Chicago wards = 152 units gets down to a “whopping” 14 + {barely} loyal “others” per unit. Raise the contribution level & the loyal “others” count goes down. The regular folk just “ain’t” there & apparently even in his “supposed strongholds”. Another way of looking at it { for fun} is the number of yard signs {I know I’ve personally seen this} in ditch banks along state highways, abandon lots instead of in peoples yards & businesses … I actually saw a guy “installing” one last week on a rural 2 lane highway …. one of the loyal “others” I would assume, maybe one willing to travel. The signs cost a bundle too. I’m sure he’s certainly thrifty with his own cash & that of his loyal “bigger other” … ammassing cash on hand for the next elective office run … what’s this make 3 now. Why are’nt folks getting this ????
He wins this primary … it’s game over GOP … see you in 2010 …”stick a fork in it ..GOP is done” The clue phone is ringing … hello !?

Comment by the old republican Saturday, Feb 4, 06 @ 6:14 pm
You can blame the lack of “others” on his campaign manager, Wiegand.

Comment by genxpundit Saturday, Feb 4, 06 @ 11:47 pm
Has anyone run into an actual campaign volunteer ??? , other than the guy “old republican” saw. please advise! Come to think of it haven’t seen any of JBT’s or Gid’s. Few if any signs there either.

Comment by anon Sunday, Feb 5, 06 @ 4:14 am
Gidwitz has plenty of volunteers. And JBT… well, she has the Treasurer’s office staff.

Comment by genxpundit Sunday, Feb 5, 06 @ 1:17 pm
gidwitz has plenty of volunteers?? JBT & her field folks ..that’s right ….. all on “leaves of absence” I would assume. the guy from down south for Oby…he’s kind of an annoying little guy.

Comment by anon Sunday, Feb 5, 06 @ 3:46 pm