Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: The good, the bad and the ugly
Next Post: *** UPDATED x1 *** Board doesn’t step in, wants change in law so it won’t have to
Posted in:
* Right after Sen. James Meeks dropped out of the mayor’s race, I began hearing rumors that he would retire from the Senate as well. He missed some session days early on, which only intensified the rumor-mongering. I finally button-holed him in Springfield in late February or early March and asked him point blank if he was stepping down. He said that he needed a break after the mayoral campaign craziness, so he skipped some session days when his attendance wasn’t really required in Springfield. He denied that he was going anywhere.
But now he’s saying that he’s considering retirement…
State Sen. James Meeks, a former candidate for mayor and governor and one of the city’s best-known black public officials, says he is thinking of stepping down from his Far South Side legislative seat when the spring session ends.
“I am giving prayerful consideration to focusing on the church,” Mr. Meeks said. That would be the giant Salem Baptist Church in the Roseland neighborhood, which Mr. Meeks literally built and where he serves as senior pastor.
His congregants “have been very understanding” while he served in Springfield and took time off to campaign for governor and mayor, he said. “It might be time to concentrate on them.”
Mr. Meeks, 54, said he has not made up his mind and he might merely choose not to seek a new term in 2012. But Springfield sources say it looks to them like the 10-year legislative veteran is going soon, and Mr. Meeks conceded, “I have discussed (spring retirement) with a few people.”
* In other news, Mayor Daley said yesterday that he has no interest in a census recount. Ald. Bob Fioretti and 44 of his city council colleagues introduced a resolution yesterday calling for a recount. Chicago lost 200,000 residents in the last census…
“You know, they had a thorough - we had a really outreach program. I mean, we’ve done everything possible. That’s over with,” Daley said.
That’s not what his administration indicated when asked ten days ago about its position…
Outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley’s government is passing the buck to Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on this one.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department says that the decision can’t legally be made until June, which is when Mr. Emanuel will be in the big chair.
Daley obviously despises Fioretti, so that may be why he reacted so harshly. But as some of the highly informed comments on our previous post made abundantly clear, Chicago really does need to seek a do-over.
Rahm Emanuel’s transition team is looking into the matter, but hasn’t yet come to a conclusion.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 12:21 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: The good, the bad and the ugly
Next Post: *** UPDATED x1 *** Board doesn’t step in, wants change in law so it won’t have to
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
I’m finding I care less and less about Daley’s opinion on anything.
Comment by Cheryl44 Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 12:28 pm
Maybe somebody will offer Meeks something on the back of a napkin and he’ll stay in the Senate.
Comment by Old Milwaukee Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 12:45 pm
Daley’s been phoning it in since the Olympics humiliation. A census recount is an obvious step when there’s so much money, and possibly a Congressional seat, to be gained.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 12:45 pm
Illinois was not on the border of losing a congressional seat so it’s debatable as to whether or not the state would gain a seat through a recount.
Comment by shore Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:09 pm
===Illinois was not on the border of losing a congressional seat===
Yes, it was.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:12 pm
This seems like a no brainer to me, there are dollars and represenation at stake; odds are a recount won’t do any further damage, and there is much to gain.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:24 pm
Speaking of the Congressional seats, does anyone here know when the deadline is for finalizing the allocations?
November, 2012 would of course be the latest but I’m thinking it has to be sooner than that.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:25 pm
Since the number of Representatives is a zero sum game, for Illinois to pick up a seat, somebody must lose one. Does anyone know how many people Illinois population would need to increase in order for us to gain a seat, and which would be the state to cough one up?
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:48 pm
Or our we just looking for dollars…
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:49 pm
Cincinnatus, IL was about 75K short.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:49 pm
Cincinnatus we could take one from NJ to help somone to locate to a state with a lower tax burden
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 1:55 pm
@Cincinnatus
According to Swing State Project, Minnesota’s 8th seat was just on the bubble, so we would take our nineteenth seat from there.
Comment by Ben Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 2:09 pm
Thanks, Ben.
Rich,
I remember the thread from a while back where we talked about the Chicago numbers. We all agreed that 200k was a big numb. In order for IL to gain a seat, we’d need to gain that 75k.
Within that frame, do you (and others) think it is possible that Chicago lost 125k or is that still beyond reason using what that fellow from before (who knew demographics from CHA and other places). There didn’t seem to be many people who though Chicago didn’t lose population, it was just a matter of degree. A gain of 75k is pretty big as a proportion of 200k, but a loss of 125k or 200k are both about the same when considering the whole population of the City. If you catch my drift here…
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 2:18 pm
This new auto-correct feature of Mac OS 10.7 really makes you watch what you type! Sorry for the typos in the previous post.
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 2:19 pm
All this talk about IL gaining a congressional seat is also dependent on Chicago (and perhaps other IL cities) having a successful challenge in sufficient numbers, and no other states on the bubble having similar successful challenge efforts serving to counteract it. Not that there are other benefits to be gained with a recount, but “good luck” in retaining the seat.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 2:51 pm
I wish Mayor Rollo Tamasi would just go gently into the good night.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 2:56 pm
Right, Six Degrees of Separation. That’s what I was trying to get across. I’d be interested in hearing some opinions on the likelihood of both winning a challenge (which we may well do) and effecting the outcome (altogether a different proposition).
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 3:10 pm
Though it’s not just about the seat. Any increase in census may also spell more federal dollars marked for populations in large urban centers.
Comment by ZC Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 6:17 pm
Here’s the list of Congressional Districts that have precedence over IL’s 19th district:
North Carolina 14th
Missouri 9th
New York 28th
New Jersey 13th
Montana 2nd
Louisiana 7th
Oregon 6th
Ohio 17th
Virginia 12th
California 54th
Comment by Ben Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 6:33 pm
So Daley has time to go on a self-congratulatory farewell tour but has zero interest in fighting for another Congressional seat? This proves that Daley is first and foremost about Daley. Good riddance, mayor, your time to leave cannot come soon enough.
Comment by Independent Thursday, Apr 14, 11 @ 9:42 pm