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* You’ll recall this Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold story from May of this year…
The day after WBEZ first reported on the stories of grieving families with loved ones who died from Legionnaires’ disease at the Quincy veterans’ home, a top aide in Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office had an idea: Could they tie the outbreaks to the previous administration? […]
Shortly after WBEZ published the original investigation on Dec. 12 of last year, one Democratic state lawmaker called for an audit examining the fatal Legionnaires’ outbreaks at the facility. The governor’s deputy chief of staff, Darlene Senger, floated a novel — if highly politicized — idea to shift blame for the deaths of the elderly Illinois Veterans Home residents.
“We can maybe tie this back to Duckworth,” Senger wrote in an email obtained through an open-records request. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq War veteran, ran the state agency that oversees the Quincy home under former Governors Pat Quinn and Rod Blagojevich.
She was replying to an e-mail sent by an administration official who wrote that the AG office was drafting the legislative audit language and it “should be filed within 48 hours.”
* Senger was asked about the e-mail at the Tribune editorial board meeting today…
Senger on Wednesday called Duckworth a “hero” and said the veterans agency has had problems “over several governors and several administrations.”
“The comment came out of a, basically a discussion, a question I had, which is, let’s go back and look at the history of how many pneumonia cases happened over time,” Senger said.
Mendoza called Senger’s email “disqualifying.”
“There’s no proof of any kind that she oversaw any Legionella cases,” Mendoza said. “The first reaction should have been not maybe we can tie this back to Tammy Duckworth, it should have been, ‘Oh my God, did this really happen on our watch?’ ”
* The SJ-R editorial board also asked Senger this week about the e-mail…
I probably should’ve used the term ‘Let’s go back and look at other administrations,’ um I mentioned another name who was head of the administration instead, and it had nothing to do except for the fact of, which we did the next day, let’s go back and look at the cases that were tracked.
She also said “There was questioning about whether that was even FOIA-able because I was doing policy work at the time.”
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:24 pm
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God, I really, really like Mendoza.
Comment by Mike Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:27 pm
–“We can maybe tie this back to Duckworth,” Senger wrote in an email..–
–“The comment came out of a, basically a discussion, a question I had, which is, let’s go back and look at the history of how many pneumonia cases happened over time,” Senger said.–
Who can’t see how those two statements are saying the same thing?
And those drops falling on your shoes? It’s raining. Very locally. Just on your shoes.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:29 pm
She should try this statement instead: “It was a stupid thing to write and I regret it and I am sorry.”
Comment by Colin O'Scopy Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:38 pm
==She also said “There was questioning about whether that was even FOIA-able because I was doing policy work at the time.”==
So yah I said it, but you never should have known about it.
That’s another prong of her defense? Not the sharpest tool in the BTIA shed.
Comment by Henry Francis Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:44 pm
I give Senger a pass on this because her job was to make Rauner look good. Some bad ideas are going to go out.
I hope this is her last campaign. She failed badly against Foster and will lose badly this time.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:52 pm
===her job was to make Rauner look good===
She was the governor’s chief legislative liaison.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 2:58 pm
That wasn’t a FOIA it was leaked to Capfax well before it came out in FOIA
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 3:45 pm
===That wasn’t a FOIA it was leaked to Capfax===
It was leaked to me, but it was then officially FOIAd by McKinney.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 3:47 pm
Duckworth left IDVA in early February, 2009. I don’t think her name was put out there in 2017 because she was the most recent person in charge.
Comment by Juice Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 3:58 pm
Oh please tell me Mendoza didn’t really compare putting a merger of the Comptroller and Treasurer’s offices on the ballot to putting a referendum on slavery on it. From the article it sure looks like she did.
Comment by Ron Burgundy Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 4:17 pm
Mendoza did not compare slavery to anything. She said you can’t just demand any hair-brained scheme Darlene Senger has should be put on the ballot as a binding referendum. For instance a question of slavery does not belong there. The actual issue they were discussing at the time was a referendum on removing the state constitution’s clause that pensions may not be “diminished or impaired.” Darlene does not understand — and the Tribsters apparently don’t either — that changing the constitution now does not save one dime because it only applies to new hires from this point on, who already come in at the lower rate. Whatever the constitution said at the time you were hired — the court has ruled that governs your pension.
Comment by Susana Fan Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 4:34 pm
“I was doing policy work at the time.” Since when is trying to evade responsibility for the deaths of people in the care of the state “policy work”?
Comment by Huh? Wednesday, Sep 19, 18 @ 5:57 pm