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* When we talk about the circular firing squad in Illinois, it’s usually about the Republican Party. But the Left has its share of problems as well…
In a move that will likely send shock waves through the local LGBT community, pro-LGBTQ organization Equality Illinois is no longer employing Rick Garcia as its director of public policy. […]
Garcia’s contribution to the advancement of gay rights in Illinois is undeniable. He was a key figure in the passages of both the amendment of the state’s human-rights act that includes sexual orientation and gender identity as well as the civil-unions bill that recently passed through the Illinois General Assembly.
As I told subscribers this morning, the coppers even showed up…
Garcia, though, who co-founded Equality in 1992 and has been the group’s top lobbyist since then, said a few hours after being let go that he didn’t intend to go quietly and the next morning, Dec. 17, showed up to work at Equality’s offices on North Halsted Street.
When he refused to leave, Cherkasov called Chicago police and had them escort Garcia out of the offices.
An interview with Garcia is here. Some of it is not safe for work.
* Lotsa cash…
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago collected about $99 million from criminal and civil debts in 2010.
The collection of more than $72.5 million in debts, coupled with an additional $26.4 million collected through asset forfeiture, means that the office’s total collections this past fiscal year amounted to more than three times its annual budget of approximately $32 million, a U.S. Attorney’s office release said.
But I do agree with the Sun-Times…
In all the best movies about Prohibition, federal agents at some point raid a warehouse of illegal booze, smash the barrels of beer with axes and pose triumphantly for the press cameras.
They pretend not to know — or, worse, really are unaware — that they are on the losing side of history.
We like to watch such movies with a beer in hand.
Precisely the same story played out again Thursday in Chicago, but with marijuana instead of beer. Federal agents held a news conference to announce they had confiscated 11 tons of pot in a raid on a warehouse in Chicago Heights.
The agents showed pictures of the pot and posed for the cameras and called it a “great day for the good guys.”
As if they did not know they are on the losing side of history.
* A bit of legislative logrolling by Mark Kirk…
A provision banning the Obama administration from transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States, even for trial, made its way into the National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House Friday. According to reports, it was part of a deal worked out with Illinois Republicans to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Congress hammered out a compromise last week that stripped controversial measures like DADT repeal (passed instead in a standalone bill) from the defense spending bill. But Illinois Republicans, lead by Sen. Mark Kirk, warned the negotiators not to take out the Gitmo transfer ban if they wanted the bill to pass both houses.
* Charlie Cook takes a look at what could happen to the currently crazy 17th Congressional District after reapportionment…
But what might be better for Democrats than eliminating Schilling’s 17th CD altogether? They could actually make it even more Democratic than it already is. How? First, the 17th CD could give away its only heavily Republican area, Quincy (Adams County), to the safely Republican 19th CD. Then, it could combine Rock Island (Schilling’s home) and Springfield from the current 17th CD with Democratic-leaning Peoria in the 18th CD (sophomore GOP Rep. Aaron Schock’s home) to create a Democratic “supermajority” district. This might force Schilling and Schock into a primary for a seat that would be an uphill battle in a general election. And even if either Schock or Schilling were to prevail in the general, Democrats will have succeeded in “carving out” a Republican. A downstate Democratic dream scenario is depicted here:
The map…
More…
Of course, the rest of the state might not be as easy for Democrats to navigate. If Illinois loses a seat and Democrats eliminate one district downstate, all Chicago area districts would still have to expand. One palatable option for Democrats would be to move the 11th CD represented by Kinzinger (whose home is downstate in Bloomington anyway) downstate and out of suburban Will County entirely. Then, the inner Chicago districts of Reps. Jesse Jackson (IL-02) and Dan Lipinski (IL-03) could expand into fast-growing Will County, which lacks an incumbent, without too much political consequence. If Illinois somehow manages to hold onto its 19th seat, Democrats could still merge Schock and Schilling, but Kinzinger would still probably hold onto most of Will County.
In either case, Democrats would love to strengthen their numbers in the northern Chicago suburban districts of Walsh and Dold, whom they regard as flukes. Democrats could draw more of Walsh’s GOP-leaning McHenry County precincts into GOP Rep. Don Manzullo’s 16th CD, and force Walsh to take over more Democratic precincts in Lake County. In turn, Dold’s district would gain even more heavily Democratic precincts to the south in Cook County around Evanston. Democrats could also seek to improve their numbers in GOP Rep. Judy Biggert’s 13th CD by adding heavily Democratic Aurora (Kane County) from new GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren’s 14th CD. Their hope would be to assume strong position to capture the district when Biggert, who will turn 75 in 2012, decides to retire.
* Other stuff…
* Your Apps Are Watching You - A WSJ Investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 1:53 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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===A WSJ Investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users===
The call is coming from inside the…phone!
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:02 pm
Sounds plusiable about the 17th. The Democrats would love to carve out Schilling and Shock at the same time and make it more democratic
Comment by Publius Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:05 pm
Memo to Rick Garcia: trashing the CEO and board president in the press is not how you take care of an organization and job that you clearly cherish.
Comment by Way South of the Border Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:26 pm
I do not want to be represented as a resident of Springfield by someone in the Quad Cities. The 17th district should be contained solely in northernwestern Illinois. Southern Illinois is tired of being split up too, they have been very angry about how poorly they’ve been treated the past 20 years.
Comment by Segatari Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:27 pm
Wow, drama at EI. Shocker. LOL
Comment by just sayin' Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:36 pm
If we lose a seat, then the 17th will need to add a lot of population if it stays as a Rock Island-based district. Peoria or Rockford are the only reasonable areas of enough population to add to the 17th and increase the D performance. Since Rockford may have more utility in reconfiguring northern districts, Cook’s supposition to attach Peoria to the 17th is not unusual.
Comment by muon Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:05 pm
The Republicans better engage quickly on the remap. Chances are, Madigan and his gang already have several versions of the congressional map drawn out.
Comment by Whatever Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:17 pm
It’s okay, Segatari. With redistricting the 17th, chances are just as good that the district could be represented by someone from the south end of the map.
When you look at the map of adjoining districts, there is less physical distance between Springfield and Rock Island than there is between Hancock and Jefferson counties in the 18th and Moultrie and Whiteside counties in the 11th.
Comment by Aldyth Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:18 pm
History has shown that no matter how the districts are drawn, given enough time, the IL GOP will blow it.
Comment by just sayin' Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:27 pm
===Chances are, Madigan and his gang already have several versions of the congressional map drawn out. ===
They don’t yet have the data, so I doubt it.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:30 pm
Every ten years political junkies all have their opinions on redistricting. It is one of the more complex exercises in all government and the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. Even Charlie Cook oversimplifies a few things, particularly with respect to Walsh and Dold.
Hyperpartisans who think they can create these heavily biased maps are not living in the real world where real people vote on maps representing real communities and self-interest.
It won’t be a picnic for the Congressional GOPers in Illinois, but some of the demographic realities make it hard for Dems to knock off more than a couple incumbents.
Comment by Adam Smith Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:31 pm
There was some pretty detailed 2008 data, which you can be sure was used to create “interim” map scenarios that will need only a little tweaking when the “real” 2010 numbers come in. Somewhere in Madigan’s office there is already a map that looks very much like what the final product will be.
Comment by Ray del Camino Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:41 pm
This is speculation, but my sense is they fired Rick Garcia because he could not be managed and did things his way. He personally and publicly endorsed Gery Chico which may have been viewed as a breach of protocol since it could be misconstrued as an EI endorsement. He also apparently was bad mouthing leadership at Howard Brown. After the firing, he basically said they can’t fire him because he founded the organization, which says a lot about his viewpoint.
Comment by Objective Dem Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:45 pm
Given that Gov Quinn will be with us for a while, Democrats ought to consider looking at the map of the counties (and in Cook the Townships) Brady carried.
They ought to ask themselves how permanant that trends going to be while they divvy up the state among supposedly Democratic districts. Quinn’s term only begun and there much damange this fellow can do to Illinois and his party.
Comment by Bill Baar Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:09 pm
Years ago I thought that by now, marijuana would be at least decriminalized in all states and possibly legalized somewhere.
People are still delusional about marijuana in thinking that prohibition still works. Government loses much from keeping cannabis illegal while it gains little; legal marijuana, which has been proven to be less harmful than alcohol, gets us tax revenue, a change in law enforcement priorities, reduction of organized crime and more money for substance abuse treatment, for example. Keeping it illegal for fear of increased use may not be the case. In the Netherlands, where it’s legally obtained, it’s used less than in the U.S.
Then you have some people on the political right who want government to prohibit consenting adults from engaging in personal activity in their homes (smoking weed), yet these people want less government. It’s almost funny, watching people tell us that the government is oppressing them, and then they turn around and oppress others via government.
Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:43 pm
Wow, I think Garcia has a right to be upset. He should remember the saying, don’t get mad, get even. Move on, make them sorry they lost you.
Comment by Wensicia Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:57 pm
The Census is out tomorrow. If its close to the American Community Survey then downstate will lose a lot of population and the lost seat will come out of downstate.
There is no incentive for incumbant protection like last time so I suspect there will be more than 2 Republicans thrown together. We shall see. The legislative maps should be interesting as well.
The GOP majorities in other states like Ohio may not have as much fun as they had hoped. They may be victims of their own sucess.
Comment by western illinois Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:58 pm
Redistricting:
Jerry Costello enjoyed a 59% victory by sucking up every Democratic stronghold he could find…he’d have gerrymandered South St. Louis into his district if he could figure out how.
Costello needs to man up and take a bigger bite out of Madison County and create a true Metro-East district. Give those Democratic Counties back to create a Delta District that a good Democrat like Glenn Poshard can hold.
Brandon Phelps will make a fine Congressman.
Drawing a more Democratic-friendly map in the burbs won’t be hard, considering the Republicans drew the districts to protect their incumbents.
Gerrymandering to play games in Central illinois should be the least of Democrats’ concerns.
Keep in mind, the more gerrymandered a district is, the harder it is to put together a good field operation, which give Republicans a big advantage…since they generally have more money and the small newspapers are beholden to the business community.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 5:33 pm
===Costello needs to man up===
Considering how freaked out he got in October, I don’t think he will. But he will have little choice in the matter.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 5:39 pm
@Rich -
Yes, well, lots of incumbents freak out at the thought of having to actually go out and justify their re-election every two years. If Costello does some basics throughout the year, he’s got nothing to worry about. If he doesn’t want to do the work, I’m sure Hoffman, Holbrook or Haine would be happy to run in a Madison-St. Clair congressional district.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 6:10 pm
Equality Illinois/Rick Garcia thoughts, in no particular order.
EQIL’s board probably could have handled Garcia’s termination better - dangling a severance package and other pacifiers in front of him, but given the way he reacted, it probably wouldn’t have done much good.
Yes, Garcia deserves a share of the credit for the measure’s passage, but so do a lot of other folks. And from what I’ve heard, playing well with others in the sandbox wasn’t always one of his strengths.
For example, the inside word was that he pushed to exclude Larry McKeon from the bill-signing for equal rights legislation.
Garcia has openly stated in recent weeks that the civil unions bill was the first step in an effort to legalize gay marriage, adding fuel to the fire of conservatives who are no doubt battering Pat Quinn with calls.
During the height of the campaign, Garcia was openly proclaiming that “they” had enough votes to pass civil unions, while the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Harris, was quoted as saying that they were still working hard to round up votes.
This is not a criticism of Garcia. Founder’s Syndrome is so common in non-profit organizations that they teach entire seminars about it. Too often, an Executive Director or Board President who helped start an organization stands in the way of the group’s evolution 10 or 20 years down the road. Their name becomes interchangeable with the groups, they become possessive of it, they stand in the way of sharing leadership.
The gay community is no more monolithic than the Latino community or the black community, so its not surprising that chaos doesn’t erupt from time too time. In fact, its surprising it doesn’t erupt more often.
EQIL probably pushed the envelope by announcing Garcia’s departure in that release. I would have done TWO releases, one announcing the change in direction for the coming year. The second, which I would have had Garcia draft, announcing his departure.
But no way, from a personnel perspective, that they could have given insiders a “heads-up” on Garcia’s termination before they’d even told him.
Also, they probably should have hired an outside management/crisis p.r. consultant, who would have given them much the same advice, along with things like: Hold the meeting off-site.
All that said, I hope Garcia and EQIL manage to calm this tempest over the holidays. Both have great futures ahead.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 6:34 pm
@YDD…I love your term Founders Syndrome! familiar with that with a board where the president paid his son for work not approved by the board, and another board where a member was the ED’s husband. in one of these experiences I was isolated as a mean, awful person because I wanted to do things above boards and ethically, you know, the right way. kind of like small town mindset with the Founder’s Syndrome.
As for EI, shoulda known that Rick would go loudly and found a hyper professional way to deal with it. Rick is Rick and he’s loud about what he supports. Other place on line, someone already threw down the ethnic cards too. sad.
Comment by amalia Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 6:45 pm
People talk about the district coming out of downstate/central Illinois. However, when I look at a map I still count 6 non-Chicagoland districts. That’s pretty much the same as what we have now. The difference is that Kinzinger is a downstater who represents a district that is largely collar county (Will). The effect may be to eliminate a downstate representative, but not a downstate district.
Comment by muon Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 7:04 pm
that is some karma to Garcia for asking Obama to release George Ryan.
Comment by Vote for Nancy Kaszak Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 7:13 pm
How does anyone’s sexual activity even get into the conversation? What adults do behind close doors is no-ones business, as my blue-collar folks who were born in the 1920s taught me.
What, they didn’t know how people rolled back then? Yes, they did, but the minded their own business.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 8:03 pm
@YDD — I agree with most of your observations about EI, except it is not the board’s job to handle the termination of any staff member (except the CEO or ED).
And if EI needed a crisis manager to handle a staff termination — they probably did — then the cause for termination is self evident: You have to have staff that you can manage.
The calculus for brilliant-but-difficult (BBD) staff members is the same for the rest of us working stiffs: when a BBD’s drawbacks outweigh their benefits, it is time to let them go.
This isn’t unusual or shocking, we just hear about it when it involves a BBD because they tend to be vocal.
Comment by Way South of the Border Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 9:30 pm
Founder’s Syndrome:
- Exclusion of newcomers
- Identification of organization with a single person
- Nepotism
@Way South of the Border:
My bad, the Executive Director was the one to deliver the news, although another board member was there.
Come to think of it, what does it tell you that the first news interview of the Exec. Director is over Garcia’s firing? I’ve seen news articles regarding Gery Chico’s endorsement, releasing George Ryan from prison, passage of civil unions, anti-discrimination…almost all exclusively quoting Rick Garcia, not the Executive Director or Board President.
And of course, there were the news articles quoting Garcia — the public policy director — criticizing Howard Brown Health Center. In his job description? Probably not. But Rick Garcia the man had become so inseparable from EQIL the organization that he was the go-to-guy for reporters and Garcia couldn’t separate his personal views from the group’s views. Some would say that Garcia saw himself as the spokesperson for the entire gay community, atleast Chicago’s gay community.
As in this quote:
“Howard Brown is a community health center and the community has a right to know what’s going on,” said Rick Garcia, director of public policy at Equality Illinois. He called Howard Brown “our own little Vatican.”
I’m not even sure if he’s comparing Howard Brown to the sex scandals of the Catholic Church or calling them rabidly homophobic…but its over-the-top.
I’ve been through this as a board member and its a tough situation to end, but a necessary one.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Dec 21, 10 @ 9:35 am
IL-14 can be a strong Dems base by adding Joliet and or Ottawa to Aurora and Elgin. Hultgren is a toast and Foster is back. Chicago districts will grab all high Dem performance areas in all bordering districts IL-13, IL-11, IL-10, IL-6.
Comment by From 14 Tuesday, Dec 21, 10 @ 10:34 am
A much more nuanced discussion of the Garcia issue here than in the gay community itself. @YDD says “EQIL’s board probably could have handled Garcia’s termination better - dangling a severance package and other pacifiers in front of him, but given the way he reacted, it probably wouldn’t have done much good.” I would only add that, for all we know, they did.
Comment by Ann Tuesday, Dec 21, 10 @ 12:03 pm