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It’s the Chicago Machine Democrat Way. Have Mike Madigan pick your voters through gerrymandering. And then you pick the voters who you will allow to address you.

Rep. Sean Casten announced a series of town halls that are invite only. Tickets required.

“Sean Casten is a master illusionist,” said congressional challenger Jeanne Ives. “He doesn’t practice representative government; he and the selected voters he casts for only simulate it.”

She’s repeated that invite-only claim on other occasions.

* BGA…

Ives said Casten has held numerous “invite-only” town halls.

But her own press release on the subject makes clear she was referring to a public event page the congressman’s team created that allowed anyone interested in attending to reserve a seat for free. Those events, and the sign-up link, were advertised in advance online.

We rate her claim Pants on Fire!

…Adding… Good point in comments…

Kinda ironic that Ives brings up gerrymandering when Casten won a district drawn to be Republican

* Press release…

State Representative Mark Batinick challenged his opponent, Harry Benton, today to provide a simple “yes” or “no” on whether he supports Mike Madigan’s continuation as Speaker. Representative Batinick recently called for Speaker Madigan to resign in light of multiple federal investigations involving the Speaker’s inner circle of confidants.

“Our first vote as a state representative is to elect a Speaker of the House,” said Batinick. To reform Illinois, we must take that vote seriously and be honest with the voters. I have consistently voted no in allowing Speaker Madigan’s unchecked power to continue and call upon my opponent, Harry Benton, to provide a straightforward answer as well.”

Rep. Batinick has been a leading advocate for reform and to end the culture of corruption in Springfield. Batinick has supported legislation to bring substantive structural changes to how government operates, including term limits, fair maps, revolving-door bans, and other measures to increase government transparency – pieces of legislation that Speaker Madigan refuses to bring to a vote.

“Candidates cannot change Springfield by embracing the status quo and allow Speaker Madigan to continue as the House leader,” stated Batinick. “I am running to reform the culture of corruption in Springfield, and that starts by voting no on Madigan. Voters deserve to know if Harry Benton will continue to empower Michael Madigan. How Mr. Benton responds to the question will tell voters everything they need to know about his candidacy for state representative.”

* WGN Radio…

David Krupa is a DePaul University sophomore running for 13th Ward Committeeperson in an effort to lessen the power of House Speaker Mike Madigan in the ward. When David joined John in October, he explained what Madigan’s office did to harm his campaign for Alderman. And he talks about some of the issues he wished to address.

He didn’t, however, talk about the allegations of sexual assault and abuse against Krupa. Indeed, the program’s host John Williams referred to himself as a “champion” of Krupa’s.

* This, however, is intentionally funny. Rex Huppke titled this segment: “Federal investigators appear to be at least Madigan-adjacent”…

These might be sweaty holidays for Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Four people interviewed by federal investigators told the Tribune they have been “asked about connections between Commonwealth Edison lobbyists and Madigan, lobbyists giving contracts to people tied to the speaker, and city, state and suburban government jobs held by his associates.”

During the fall legislative session, Madigan was asked if the feds are targeting him.

He said: “I’m not a target of anything.”

Yeah. And I’ve got a sleigh and some real estate up at the North Pole to sell you, buddy.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:37 am

Comments

=== investigations involving the Speaker’s inner circle of confidants===

1) No one has been indicted.

2) Guilt be association is a thing for Batinick?

3) I dunno if playing “who are you supporting” in this cycle is a good thing for Republicans either.

If I were Batinick, I’d be more worried about things he may NOT have voted for that people, looking at a voting record, might ask themselves, “Does Mr. Batinick represent our values?”

Oh, running against Madigan hasn’t worked, so there’s that too. If Mr. Batinick wants to be *that candidate* who, in reality, and being in the super-minority has done nothing of consequence, he *should* at it.

=== supported legislation to bring substantive structural changes to how government operates, including term limits, fair maps, revolving-door bans, and other measures to increase government transparency===

Mr. Batinick is such a leader, he has gotten ZERO of this done.

Why re-elect anyone who can’t get things done?

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:47 am
===We rate her claim Pants on Fire===

Impressive. She’s already lying at a Congressional Republican level. She’ll fit right in out there (God forbid).

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:52 am
“John Williams referred to himself as a ‘champion’ of Krupa’s.”

Disappointing but not surprising.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:53 am
Kinda ironic that Ives brings up gerrymandering when Casten won a district drawn to be Republican.

Comment by OH Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:56 am
Asked it before, ask it again.
When Madigan eventually leaves office, who will be the ILGOP’s boogeyman then?
Lord knows, they have to have one.

Comment by efudd Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:56 am
OW - are you sure your not Steve Brown😄

Comment by Sue Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 9:58 am
Is that a nice thing for Madigan’s favorite Republican to say?

Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 10:01 am
- Sue -

lol

I‘d like to win seats, be closer to 50 seats than 40 in the House, maybe even break 20 seats in the Senate.

This path has only reduced seats in both chambers, and now, of all 8 (including US Senate) statewides, none are Republican.

I’m not gonna cheerlead for a failed plan of winning.

Nope.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 10:01 am
Batinick sounds scared for the first time.

It’s not like Batinick is going to run on his own record of voting against the infrastructure bills.

“Madigan” is just a placeholder for anyone to use when they can’t run on their own record locally.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 10:16 am
“I’m not a target of anything”

The Federal grand jury looking into Com Ed corruption acts in secret, so his quote could be qualified with a ” as far as I know”

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 10:59 am
Jeanne has been in the race since July, has been fact checked twice and has been caught lying twice. Is anyone surprised?

Comment by Lord of the Fries Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:05 am
=Kinda ironic that Ives brings up gerrymandering when Casten won a district drawn to be Republican=

Excellent point. Win the house etc. and you too can gerrymander all you want.

I think the ILGOP thinks that because they have more square footage (think War of the Roses) that translates or should translate into votes. Win some elections.

If anyone can actually prove Madigan broke the law I hope they lock him up and throw away the key. But the crying wolf thing has gone on for so long it gets old. Let the FBI do their job.

=I‘d like to win seats, be closer to 50 seats than 40 in the House, maybe even break 20 seats in the Senate.=

Hat tip to OW here, win some elections and that will change things.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:06 am
Is gerrymandering why DuPage County voted Democratic in every statewide race in 2018?

For Congress in 2018, Foster, Underwood and Raja all got more than 60% of the DuPage votes.

Yup, it’s Madigan and his tricks. ;-/

Comment by Hamlet's Ghost Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:17 am
Is Ives going to have “Thanks Madigan” ads next year? /s

Comment by ike Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:21 am
To the gerrymandering point, the irony probably never crossed her mind. I’m sure it is shocking to no one that Ives’ message discipline has been non-existent and all over the place. She was trying to label Casten as a socialist for a while then turned around and attacked him for being a Capitalist. Her campaign is already becoming a laughable joke.

Comment by Lord of the Fries Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:35 am
Ike,

Do not give her ideas.

Comment by SpfdNewb Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 11:58 am
Batty might want to check with FORMER Rep. Breen on how well the antiMadigan stuff works And can we assume Batty has shredded at the floor photos with Rep. PAWS and Nick? Weren’t they seatmates?

And Them…..”Four people interviewed by federal investigators told the Tribune they have been “asked about connections between Commonwealth Edison lobbyists and Madigan,…”

But the Tribbies failed to tell the readers what their mystery sources told them they told the feds. Hmmmm. Another small flaw in the reporting of the so-called sprawling probe.

Comment by Annonin Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 12:04 pm
- JS Mill -

My hope after Raunerism would’ve been a rebirth… with the proposition being that recruiting candidates, we agree with each other 80% of the time… and choosing to lead Illinois means getting things done, not being the party of “no”.

I’m not that messenger, heck, I’m not the person to lead this rebirth, but I do know Raunerites refusing to see a huge change to messaging needs to occur will make what’s left more regional, less inclusive, and far more angry.

We’ll see.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 1:12 pm
Suburban Republicans never minded gerrmandering when it helped them maintain control of congressional seats and county boards for 50, 100 years . . .

Comment by Gerry Mander Monday, Dec 9, 19 @ 1:38 pm