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* UPDATED x1 - Jackson blasts Quinn over… supermarket closure? * A victim he ain’t

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*** UPDATE *** Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. just sent out a press release headlined: “Southland Jobs Continue to Hemorrhage Under Quinn.” It was about an announcement of a supermarket closure, but he tied it in to the third airport and the south suburban casino…

Upon hearing Jewel-Osco’s surprise announcement to close the Olympia Fields store this summer, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. today called on Gov. Quinn to commit whatever state resources he can to keep the supermarket open.

“The Governor’s delays in developing a south suburban airport and Southland casino continues to create a hemorrhaging of jobs in the south suburbs, with Jewel being just the latest company to announce a shutdown and layoffs,” Jackson said. “Today I am calling on Gov. Quinn and the Jewel-Osco management team to come together and find a way to keep Jewel-Osco open.” […]

Jackson noted that a recent analysis showed that Quinn’s economic development programs awarded $350 million in business incentives during the last two years, but only 1 percent ($3.4 million) went to south suburban businesses.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Um, Congressman, the Democrats gave you a sweet map and a very Republican district. Yes, you were “targeted” - for preservation…

Shimkus was asked if he felt Democrats had singled him out by dividing his hometown between two districts.

“It’s almost an honor to be personally targeted, because it means that someone doesn’t like the job you’re doing,” he said. “And if it’s the Democrats in Springfield and Chicago, then that must mean I’m doing a pretty good job.”

I know it’s all the rage in DC to claim to be a victim, but Shimkus ain’t a victim. And since those bad ol’ Democrats actually kept him safe and sound, what does that mean?

* I’m told by his campaign that Raja Krishnamoorthi put just $11,406 of his own cash into this rather impressive fundraising haul…

Raja Krishnamoorthi who lost a primary bid for Illinois comptroller last year has already launched a campaign. On Friday, his campaign said in a release Krishnamoorthi has in the last five and a half weeks put $400,000 into his warchest.

Krishnamoorthi’s wife reportedly contributed another $2,500.

* Krishnamoorthi’s most likely Democratic primary foe is Tammy Duckworth, who was released from Hatch Act restrictions last Thursday when she left the federal payroll. She started making calls on Friday…

If Duckworth ran for the House again, she would have a much stronger position than the first time around–her resume is more formidable–since 2006 she ran the Illinois veterans agency and is one of the top VA officials in Washington– and she would be running from the more Democratic district.

Her Hoffman Estates home is in the proposed new 8th district, designed by Illinois Democrats to have a Democratic tilt.The new 8th contains territory from the present 6th district where Duckworth beat Roskam.

 When Duckworth ran in 2006, her candidacy was supported by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and then Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), now Chicago’s mayor, then running the House political operation.

* This is a clue as to her intentions…

Pete Giangreco, a consultant who also worked on Duckworth’s 2006 bid, said Friday was her first day back in Illinois after leaving her job as assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs in Washington.

Giangreco was making calls and sending out e-mails Friday on her behalf.

* The Chicago News Cooperative has a decent basic primer on the expected Republican challenge to the legislative and congressional maps…

Republicans and Latinos are not traditional political allies in Illinois. But in a lawsuit expected to be filed this week, Republicans will stump for Latino interests as they challenge the legality of the state’s redrawn political boundaries.

In addition to that case, which disputes the new map of General Assembly districts, Republicans also plan to file a similar lawsuit opposing the redrawn congressional map.

In both instances, the GOP will advocate for more Latino representation in the Statehouse and Congress, a cause driven by political expediency, not ideology. Republicans and Latinos tend to clash on immigration policy, entitlement programs and criminal justice issues. […]

Latino groups are split over their analysis of the new boundaries. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Chicago) supports the new congressional map, which secures his seat representing a super-majority Latino district but does not create another. Other groups, such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, continue to weigh legal options to sue and have been communicating with GOP officials. The state map divides the heavily-Latino Little Village neighborhood into multiple districts, a change MALDEF opposed.

“It is not ironic,” MALDEF Midwest Redistricting Coordinator Elisa Alfonso said of a Latino-GOP partnership. “If you look at the history of redistricting cases, some cases we’re friends of the Republicans and sometimes we’re not.”

* Speaking of the map, I suppose one could look on the bright side and rejoice in the notion that the Associated press has finally discovered the rural hamlet of St. Anne…

Surrounded by fields that grow corn, soybeans, melons and potatoes, this tiny rural village is 65 miles from Chicago but light years away from the big city. Still, St. Anne and a lot of the farm country around it has now been dragged into the metropolis as part of an ambitious political strategy focused on the 2012 national elections.

A new census-based political map drawn by the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature, and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, has taken swaths of suburban and rural Illinois and added them to the districts of veteran Chicago Democrats such as U.S. Rep. Jackson Jr., who could be St. Anne’s next representative.

That Jackson district is most certainly one of the weirder aspects of this new map. And perhaps the reporters in the southern end of his new district will have more luck prying answers out of Jackson…

During the trial, he denied, under oath, any involvement in Blagojevich’s shakedowns. Afterward, he issued a written statement:

“As you can imagine, I have many strong feelings about this entire matter,” he said. “My strongest feeling, however, is respect for our judicial system. Therefore, I will have no further comment about the case or how it has affected me until there is a verdict.”

I couldn’t wait. Alas, post-verdict, Jackson kept his “strong feelings” to himself. Last week, his office issued the usual “no comment.”

* This CNC story tells part of the story about black migration to the south suburbs…

On Willow Road, a boulevard lined with 3,200-square-foot houses, five of the nine buyers in the 1000 block moved to Newbury Estates from heavily black sections of the South Side. Buyers came from the Woodlawn, Park Manor, Morgan Park, Gresham and Englewood neighborhoods, property records show.

The subdivision, about 30 miles from the Loop, represents only part of a much greater migration to the south suburbs from 2000 to 2010. In all, Chicago’s black population declined by about 181,000 people, or 17 percent, in that period, according to recently released figures from the 2010 census. The rapid contraction of the black population was the main driver of the city’s overall population loss of about 200,000 in the last decade, a fact noted by Rahm Emanuel in his mayoral inauguration speech in May.

According to the CNC’s chart, south suburban towns saw a population increase of about 46,000 over ten years. Some of that was natural growth, much was migration from the city. But that still leaves a whole lot of people unaccounted for.

* Roundup…

* Sheyman Raises Almost $110K for Congressional Run

* Eric Reyes announced Saturday in Rock Island he will be joining three other Democratic candidates seeking nomination for the race against Rep. Bobby Schilling in the 2012 election.

* Bustos In, McNeil Out in Illinois’ 17th District Race

* Chuck Sweeny: Rockford stands to lose big in the new 17th District

* Foster, we’d like to miss you for a change

* Hultgren gets a look at thriving business in Genoa

* Kent Gaffney plans to run in 2012

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 1:59 pm

Comments

Over heard a rumor that Roskam may go for the 8th District instead of the 6th and freeing that district up for Joe Walsh.
I wonder if there will be another match up?
I did ask why would Roskam even consider such a move and it actually makes sense. The 8th is close to half his former district, he is a great campaigner, and has the best chance of keeping it Republican. it also keeps Hultgren and Walsh in different districts.

Comment by Observer of the State Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 2:17 pm
Rich, The next thing, St. Anne’s area might actually get storm sirens

Comment by Irish Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 2:21 pm
I’d sell popcorn to a Roskam - Duckworth rematch in the 8th … I suspect these are two candidates are not fond of each other. But, seriously, Roskam would take that kind of heat “for the team”? He could walk to renomination and reelection in the 6th.

Comment by ZC Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 2:44 pm
It would be funny match up but this whole race as a deja vu feeling about it.

Comment by Observer of the State Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 2:48 pm
you left out the wonderful headline that schock was in london (on taxpayer expense? staying at grosvenor hotel) for a ribbon cutting.

Comment by shore Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:02 pm
If anyone’s going to be sued, it should be Shimkus, for breach of contract.

Remember the first time he was elected he promised to only serve six terms? He blew that away years ago. He said George W. Bush practically begged him to stay and he just couldn’t tell the president no.

Comment by just sayin' Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:10 pm
Strange stuff from Trips. I don’t know why Jewel is closing in Olympia Fields, but a state bailout? Olympia Fields is a pretty wealthy community.

Geez, doesn’t he need all the friends he can get?

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:16 pm
Dear Congressman Jackson, I’ve never seen anyone call a closing of Jewel-Osco’s a “hemorrhage of jobs.” Oh, who will fill this hemorrhage of low paying retail jobs? Ah, probably another retail chain, that or it’s just not needed. Get a grip on reality.

Dear Congressman Shimkus, you’re not doing a good job. In fact, outside of lying about term limiting yourself and covering up a page scandal to protect your fellow Congressman, I can’t think of a single thing you’ve done. The Democrats protected you because you are not a threat to do anything.

Comment by Ahoy Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:19 pm
It’s not like there’s a “food desert” in Olympia Fields-Chicago Heights-Park Forest-Matteson. Lots of better-run places to shop in the area. There are also a lot more neighborhoods needy of a decent food store in JJJr’s district than here.

If only the airport was there, thousands of customers fresh off their flights would have driven the 15 miles to shop at O.F. Jewel for an after flight snack.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:35 pm
Jessie Jr. should not be emulating his old man…

How in the heck is this Pat Quinn’s responsibility?

If you need jobs in your congressional district, get busy man….

Comment by Loop Lady Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 3:38 pm
Governor Quinn will be speaking at the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday. Wonder if JJJ will show up and make a scene?

Comment by Because I say so Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:12 pm
Perhaps JJJ could ask his fundraiser friends from the Blagojevich trial to bail out Jewel, they seemed to have access to a lot of cash.

Comment by Wensicia Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:12 pm
The more I think about it, that Trips release is so weird.

Most of folks in Olympia Fields live along one of the most exclusive country clubs in the Chicago area. They had the U.S. Open there a few years ago. We’re not talking Ford Heights here.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:19 pm
I don’t suppose his ire about Jewel-Osco closing has anything to do with the family liquor distributorship.

Comment by Responsa Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:27 pm
A Jewel in Olympia Fields seems like an interesting thing to go after Pat Quinn about, JJJ

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:36 pm
Responsa, that distributorship is for the near north side, not the south suburbs.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 4:41 pm
I was never a fan of Halvorson when she was a Congresswoman but I sure hope she changes her mind and runs against JJJ.

Comment by K3_Spfld_Chi Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 5:38 pm
nothing to see here. jewel-osco is closing because a food 4 less opened across the street in chicago heights.

jesse jackson would know that if he spent any time in the south suburbs…

Comment by bored now Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 6:26 pm
I love St. Anne. Pass through it often on my way downstate to visit relatives. Granted, I don’t know anything about the people of the town, or it’s culture, but there are some small towns you pass through that give you a turn off feeling, and others that don’t. St. Anne’s one of the ones that I’m happy to go through.

Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 6:30 pm
I’ve been to Saint Anne. It is just minutes from Kankakee, but it looks and feels like God Scooped up a chunk of Mississippi and plunked it down in the Chicago Suburbs. The soil is very different there; silty and sandy, not great for corn, but that’s why melons and other stuff grow well in it, and there’s cattle ranching there.. One of the oldest black rodeo men anywhere has a ranch out there, (he starred in a commercial for Colt 45 as a real bull rider, that ran in the superbowl, the year the Bears won it) and there’s land there that’s been in the same family a hundred years. Another guy out there raises goats for meat, specifically for Halal butcher needs for Arab feasts. Capone’s guys used to do some stuff out there, you could say it’s a great place to get rid of a body. I met a census taker that had to work out there once. The people out there are very private, keep to themselves. Hard to find your way around if you’re not local, as the road signs keep disappearing, and I think they like it that way. It is a very different kind of place, yet so close to the big city.

Comment by Traveler Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 6:59 pm
Never heard of St. Anne, and I seek out this sort of thing. I’ve got a road trip south in my near future.

Love the discoveries of backroad America.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:03 pm
is J3 still in Congress? I thought he was just the guy not named on tv reports marching with Ald. Jackson of Chicago. useless.

Comment by amalia Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:07 pm
Jackson has been this district’s congressman for a long time. What has been the benefits? He is down to fighting for a Jewel in Olympia Fields? After over a decade, he is down to this?

The region has not seen improvement. We have been going downhill for generations. He was supposed to do something about it. How long are we supposed to give him?

There is no political fight here. Jackson carpetbagged it and there has been no bi partisanship here on a National level in sixty years. So no leadership is fought over where there is no competition.

No one cares if Jackson gets a dime, his voters will keep sending him back.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:11 pm
–There is no political fight here. Jackson carpetbagged it and there has been no bi partisanship here on a National level in sixty years. So no leadership is fought over where there is no competition.–

VMan, are you the ghost of William Burroughs? I’ve diagrammed that, and have no clue as to what you’re trying to communicate.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:18 pm
–He is down to fighting for a Jewel in Olympia Fields? After over a decade, he is down to this?

The region has not seen improvement. We have been going downhill for generations–

The southern suburbs have been going downhill for generations? Really? In the United States of America? Who knew?

How does the suffering manifest itself at the Olympia Fields Country Club? Absolut when you want Stoly?

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:48 pm
I’m not a big fan of JJJ, but does anyone else feel like a good deal of the fuss about him representing rural Will and Kankakee has a huge racial tinge to it.

I understand his voting record doesn’t reflect the views of these areas whatsoever, but you don’t hear the same fuss about Schakowsky representing parts of Park Ridge or Quigley’s district being drawn into Hinsdale and Burr Ridge.

Comment by Chester J. Lampwick Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 9:52 pm
Chester,

I don’t doubt some of the anti-JJJr is racially tinged. But there’s some history there that involves his support of the 3rd airport, his enlisting the south Cook suburbs and Bensenville and Elk Grove Village in a bid to control the airport development without Will County’s participation. A lot of the staunch farmers in the area do not like the airport idea anyway, and up til now saw JJJr as a meddling out-of-district congressman. That he’s theirs now doesn’t make the relationship any warmer.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 11:05 pm
Word, you are so correct. The ritz coming off the Olympia Fields CC spreads for 10 miles in all directions, so that there are no crackheads in the Heights, just caddies. And no welfare mommas in the co-ops in Park Forest, just eligible bachelorettes waiting for an OFCC swell to sweep them off their feet.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Jul 5, 11 @ 11:14 pm
Oh, I won’t attack JJJ for wanting to keep a grocery store open. I wish I could remember where I read it, but I saw a study once that found some interesting correlations between the quality of a neighborhood in relation to the proximity of a grocery store. I know other factors can play into it, but it showed interesting evidence stating neighborhoods without grocery stores really suffer.

Are those quality jobs? Mostly, probably not. However, the vacant grocery store means more than a few jobs.

Interesting statistic though about how much money has come into the south burbs…. But does anyone actually care about the airport issue beyond him? Shouldn’t fight a battle you know you’ll lose…

Comment by PoliGeek Wednesday, Jul 6, 11 @ 3:39 am