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Mr. Progressive strikes again

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* Classic Daniel Biss…

Excited to discuss money in politics with @LitesaWallace and @CommonCauseIL at @ETHSWildkits tomorrow morning! Hope you can join us; details here: https://t.co/CPYpfXcjUv pic.twitter.com/jM6tfLFbXv

— Daniel Biss (@DanielBiss) April 6, 2018

Why do I say this is classic Biss? Well, here is a Biss question to Pritzker in late January…

You’ve contributed $42 million to your primary campaign for governor so far. Will you pledge to contribute at least $42 million to the general election campaign regardless of who the nominee is?

So, a few months ago Biss was all about pressuring Pritzker to commit to funding his own fall campaign with tens of millions of dollars. And now big money is a “cancer” on our politics.

This isn’t all that different from the days when he was an architect of pension reform, then wholly disavowed it during the campaign.

* I confess to being a bit cranky about Biss because of this Tribune story that broke during my week off…

Days before the Democratic primary, lieutenant governor candidate Litesa Wallace’s campaign denied she had fired a female legislative aide in 2014 for reporting sexual harassment by a community leader. Instead, a spokesman said, the woman was dismissed for unauthorized spending on a campaign credit card.

That same spokesman now acknowledges that Rep. Wallace, D-Rockford, knew — but did not mention — that a police investigation had later cleared the employee she fired, LaVern Sanders. The Illinois State Police determined the purchases were linked to a broader credit card fraud ring and ruled out Sanders as a suspect, according to documents obtained by the Tribune through a public records request.

So they dragged that poor woman through the mud for nothing.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:49 pm

Comments

Daniel “do as I say not as I do” Biss

I think that’s the same middle name as our current Governor.

Comment by Spliff Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:55 pm
Plenty of polls abuse their staff. We could have an entire blog to the abuse those poor people take such as blaming them for the polls’ mistakes, not paying them promised bonuses, not “allowing” them to go get different jobs. The list goes on and on.

Comment by Just Me Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:58 pm
So does that mean Dan wants to outlaw those $250,000 contributions he took during the campaign?

Comment by Spare me Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:58 pm
They’re not wrong about the corrosive effect of money on politics.

Comment by Dome Gnome Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:59 pm
Confused for a minute there. Thought they were starting a support group. /s

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:02 pm
**So does that mean Dan wants to outlaw those $250,000 contributions he took during the campaign?**

Actually, yea, he’d probably be good with that.

Comment by SaulGoodman Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:04 pm
Ives could keynote this: “How outspent marginal underfunded candidate nearly topples a Mr. Thurston Howell III incumbant governor”

Comment by Irony Ike Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:05 pm
===he’d probably be good with that===

But it cannot be done without a new US Supreme Court ruling or a constitutional amendment. So, it’s meaningless.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:06 pm
**But it cannot be done without a new US Supreme Court ruling or a constitutional amendment. So, it’s meaningless.**

That’s actually not true. Caps on contributions have been upheld by the Supreme Court. Citizens United actually had no direct impact on IL’s Gov’s race.

And, there are other ways to combat big money other than banning said contributions, such as the Biss small donor match bill that has already passed the Senate.

IL has all kinds of major loopholes for big money that don’t exist in a lot of other states.

Comment by SaulGoodman Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:11 pm
He lost, but he wants to remain relevant. Biss just needs to finish his term then go away. How do you lose that big, and still think what you have to say is important?

Comment by Retired Educator Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:12 pm
===Caps on contributions have been upheld by the Supreme Court. Citizens United actually had no direct impact on IL’s Gov’s race===

Um, no.

You cannot cap a rich person’s contributions to his or her own campaign. If you want to keep the caps on everyone else in the race, you can do that. But that is horribly unfair to the other candidates.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:15 pm
Now we just need to get JB out of the picture. How much more money does he want from us?

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:26 pm
Daniel has been a partner of Common Cause for years…and introduced public financing matching legislation. I feel like this was an over reaction to something that he probably would have done anyways, Governors bid aside or not.

Comment by ILDemVoter Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:28 pm
Dear Mr. Biss, you lost. You’re not the nominee. JB is the nominee. He gets to set the agenda. You don’t. This is how campaigns and their outcomes work.

Comment by Shytown Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:30 pm
Rich, you and Saul are talking about two different things.

Comment by A State Employee Guy Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:31 pm
Let’s be absolutely clear about one thing: Baniel Biss was perfectly fine with big money in politics when he thought he would be the one with the fattest bankroll running for governor.

That was is strategy running for Comptroller, and it never changed until Pritzker got into the race.

Don’t just look at the dollar amounts, look at the names on his D-2’s: Crown, Steans, and yes, even Pritzker.

This is Biss positioning himself for a run for U.S. Senate. It’s a smart move, but in 2020 he is gonna have the same problem in the Democratic primary that he had this time: one of the worst labor voting records ever amassed by any Democrat in the General Assembly.

Taking cheap shots at Pritzker after the race is over isn’t gonna endear himself any further to labor.

Comment by Thomas Paine Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:37 pm
Speaking pf pensions, the city lost yet again when the circuit court held recently that the “reforms” it tried to impose on park district pensions were unconstitutional because they diminished the pensions. I don’t know why they were fighting this suit when Steve Patton got his rear handed to him by the Illinois Supreme Court on the same issue. Rahm needs to stop wasting taxpayer dollars and the courts’ resources when the law has been made clear again and again.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:39 pm
- Retired Educator - Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:12 pm:

Thanks, you stated what I was thinking

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:39 pm
“So they dragged that poor woman through the mud for nothing.”

They dragged that poor woman through the mud for political advantage.

For nothing would have been better.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:40 pm
Ron, I am just glad that J.B. isn’t running against another billionaire self funder in November. That would be awful

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:40 pm
==So, a few months ago Biss was all about pressuring Pritzker to commit to funding his own fall campaign with tens of millions of dollars. And now big money is a “cancer” on our politics.==

To be fair, Biss was calling $$$ a cancer *while* pressuring JB to pledge to bankroll his campaign, too.

But, yeah, Biss played the game the way everyone else plays it. That’s no problem, at least until he started acting like he was pure as the driven snow.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:41 pm
Reraider, I could care less if someone wants to spend their own money on their own campaign. I do care when someone wants to increase taxes in a state that already has the 5th highest tax burden in the nation, is losing population at a faster rate than any place that is not W. Virginia and has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:44 pm
I will vote for a Red Dog over Biss for U.S. Senator. I will vote for a ham sandwich over Biss for Dog Catcher.

Never Biss

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:46 pm
MrJM, I defer.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:48 pm
Ron, he wants to raise taxes on himself and others that have benefited from the regressive tax structure in Illinois for decades. Rauner made 58 million dollars the year before he took office and 191 million his 1st year in office while the vast majority of citizens were worse off. Not seeing a lot of millionaires fleeing Illinois

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:50 pm
If it is. Biss vs. Ron for U.S Senator, I would write in RNUG.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:51 pm
==I do care when someone wants to increase taxes in a state that already has the 5th highest tax burden in the nation, is losing population at a faster rate than any place that is not W. Virginia and has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.==

Well, show your work on how to fix those things without a tax hike, ’cause Rauner’s spent his whole term singing that same song and all he’s ended up with is a puddle of flop sweat.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:54 pm
I am not a fan of Biss, but he did come in second. And it’s a good issue to bring Biss supporters into the Pritzker camp.

Granted it will take a USSC ruling to really fix things. But first someone has to pass a campaign finance reform that gets challenged.

Comment by A Jack Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:54 pm
Will Rep. Wallace come clean on her fired staffer? Did Wallace investigate the staffer’s allegation about sexual harassment before firing the woman for a bogus credit card theft she was innocent of? In this #MeToo environment, something stinks.

Comment by anon2 Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:13 pm
In regards to his backing pension reform and then opposing it, you have to take into account that he’s both good at math and a Democrat in Illinois.

Comment by AndyIllini Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:13 pm
Andy, I don’t know which party has the higher math scores, but Republicans clearly excel in division.

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:21 pm
Redraider - Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:21 pm

They both excel at division but that is no excuse for Lying Biss

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:29 pm
Anonymous, I have a response, but you don’t exist yet due to the lack of a screen name

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:31 pm
Noon on Saturday at the high school?

Is this some kind of Breakfast Club punishment for the kids in detention?

Cruel and unusual.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:35 pm
Not seeing a lot of millionaires fleeing Illinois”

The exodus will accelerate with JBs tax increases.

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:36 pm
Wouldn’t that depend on where they plan to go and what the tax rate is in that state, as well as where the rate lands in Illinois. They will move no matter what, right ?

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:52 pm
Yes, of course it will depend. But Illinois has a very low threshold to retain people. We’re not NY or CA.

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:56 pm
No one wants to move here because there are no jobs and the state is a fiscal disaster thanks to decades of kleptocracy.

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 3:57 pm
Why hasn’t Rauner created jobs over the last few years? Isn’t he in charge?

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:01 pm
What will virtuous Dan Biss say when the Koch brothers decide they want to buy major media outlets? If the Washington Post can be de facto controlled by Amazon what Dan Biss going to say when they want to buy a major network?

Comment by Steve Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:11 pm
Cap ALL contributions at $10k period, end the issue. Put some serious ground game together if you want to win. $300 mill estimated in this cycle is real money that would actually do something idf applied elsewhere. Think of how clean the mail box would be and the landfills.

Comment by NorthsideNoMore Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:20 pm
We have created jobs over the last three years, but at a very slow rate. But that’s been the Illinois story for decades. Madigan won’t let Rauner change anything.

Comment by Ron Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:20 pm
Dan Bliss sees the road to prosperity in Illinois is through higher taxes.

Comment by Steve Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:28 pm
when did Madigan become Governor. Aren’t there 3 branches of Government and isn’t Rauner the executive branch? Quit making excuses. Rauner has been a failed Governor. Period

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:29 pm
Ron, leaders lead. They don’t make excuses about how someone won’t let them get things done. Rauner is the Governor and has been since January of 2015 and he and his friends are much better off than the vast majority of residents in the State. He has been a failure and should be held to the same standard he set for Quinn

Comment by Redraider Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 4:34 pm

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