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Quinn better - and worse - than expected

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Illinois

* My syndicated newspaper column takes a look back at the events of last week and puts it all into the context of something I’ve been mulling for quite a while now…

For the past several weeks, I’ve been confiding to friends that I think Gov. Pat Quinn has turned out to be a much better campaigner than anyone expected, and a much worse governor than everyone had hoped.

The campaign team that Quinn has put together is quite good. He’s raised a ton of cash, which has paid for some well-produced television ads.

“He’s had to unlearn three decades of muscle memory,” cracked someone from inside Quinn’s campaign a couple of months ago.

Indeed.

Quinn has never been an “A-List” campaigner. He has never really understood what it took to win a really big race - and it’s showed whenever he’s tried. He ran for secretary of state and was clobbered by George Ryan. Two years later he ran for U.S. Senate and was creamed in the Democratic primary by Dick Durbin. He still owed thousands of dollars from that 1996 U.S. Senate race until early this year.

From what I gather, the governor’s brother sat him down and told him that if he wanted to continue being governor then he would have to do all those things he detested, like spend a few hours a day raising money. To his credit, Quinn listened. And I, for one, have been pretty impressed with the results.

It’s the “governing” part of the job that’s been the problem for me. From the failure of his budget rollout, to his constant flip-flops on everything from taxes to gambling to ethics reforms to a government shutdown, Quinn has seemed that he’s in over his head. I, like everybody else, wanted him to succeed after the six-year Rod Blagojevich horror show. But he just hasn’t proved to me, at least, that he’s up to the task.

Last week came one of the biggest blows yet to Quinn’s credibility as governor.

Quinn unexpectedly and harshly lashed out at Comptroller Dan Hynes during a press conference for refusing to sign off on a $500 million short-term borrowing plan, which Quinn said was needed to pay outstanding bills before the end of the year. Quinn claimed that Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias had already agreed to the plan, which turned out to be false. Giannoulias had done no such thing. Both Hynes and Giannoulias must both agree before the bonds can be sold. Hynes, of course, is challenging Quinn in the Democratic primary.

Quinn’s office was needlessly secretive and grossly incompetent during this entire process. The governor switched the type of borrowing that he wanted to do, changed the amount that he wanted to borrow, demanded - out of the blue - an immediate deadline to approve the plan, refused to provide Attorney General Lisa Madigan with crucial information, all without disclosing how he intended to spend the cash.

You’d think this wouldn’t be a very tough sell. Small and large not-for-profit service providers are hurting badly because the state hasn’t been able to reimburse them in weeks or months.

Heck, even Blagojevich was able to get a short-term borrowing plan approved by the comptroller, treasurer and attorney general after he was arrested by the FBI last year - around the same time that the attorney general was attempting to have him removed from office via the courts. If Blagojevich could put it together, why can’t Quinn? After all, the state’s financial crisis is worse now than it was then, with backlogged bills totaling $4.6 billion.

Hynes eventually turned thumbs down on Quinn’s borrowing idea, saying the cash couldn’t really be spent because there was simply no money to ever pay off the loan. He also pointed out that when Quinn was state treasurer, Quinn opposed a very similar borrowing plan attempted by then-Gov. Jim Edgar.

Some might say that Hynes was politically motivated here, but his case is pretty solid. The real political motivation is likely from Quinn. The governor tried to humiliate his political rival over unpaid bills, got caught in a lie (saying that Giannoulias had signed off on the loan, when he hadn’t) and then couldn’t explain the basic mechanics for how the cash would be used or how the loan would be repaid.

I just wish somebody in that governor’s office would learn how to play this game. It really isn’t that difficult, but you’d never know it from the past ten years.

* Others had slightly different perspectives about the short-term borrowing plan. Kurt Erickson was brutal, comparing Quinn to a prevaricating teenager. Finke just wants it resolved and the Pantagraph editorializes that it’s “hard to tell” which one is playing politics here, then claims it doesn’t care, then says whoever is playing politics ought to resign. What a useless editorial that was.

* Meanwhile, the AP notices how Gov. Pat Quinn always seems to get riled whenever Dan Hynes’ name is mentioned…

Politicians, even when they dislike their opponents, usually hide their feelings. Especially when talking about members of their own party, they portray disputes as simple policy differences and make sure to note their opponent’s good intentions or long record of public service.

Not Quinn.

Normally easygoing, he bristles at the mention of Hynes’ name and flings harsh accusations: Hynes doesn’t know much about creating jobs, he went AWOL during tough state budget talks, he’s an “ankle-biter” who complains without offering better ideas.

Quinn won’t discuss his irritation at being challenged by Hynes, but he doesn’t deny it either.

“It’s a free country. Anybody can run for office,” Quinn said when asked about it.

This has been obvious since at least July, when Quinn first went off on Hynes after a reporter mentioned the comptroller’s name during a press availability.

* Related…

* Hynes, Quinn clash: Quinn blasted Hynes in news conferences and in campaign commercials for being “missing in action” when Quinn was trying to solve the budget crisis earlier this year. Hynes said Friday he suggested cuts to Quinn that would have helped: “I gave the governor a list of $1.2 billion in contracts, 5,000 contracts. I said: ‘This is where we need to cut. Three months go by and not only are they not cut, they grow to $1.8 billion,” Hynes said.

* Hynes to Quinn: No way on borrowing

* Quinn urges Hynes to reconsider nixing state’s $500M borrowing

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:08 am

Comments

I agree, his performance as governor has been crushingly disappointing. I’m not sure if it’s the 30 years of muscle memory on campaigning that need to be unlearned so much as the six years of political cohabitation with Blago.

If Quinn is the nominee for the Democrats and Jim Ryan manages to survive the pander-fest in the GOP primary, I may have to seriously grapple with personal political comfort issues in the voting booth. I’ve never voted for as conservative a candidate as Ryan even in a primary, but at the rate we’re going, this is one scenario I can’t entirely rule out. Of course Ryan may just decide to join in the pander-fest, and then I’m back to square one again. Above all, we could do in this state with knowing where the politicians actually stood.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:24 am
Quinn would have made a great senator. Pick your fights, raise h-e- double hockey sticks.

Governor is a whole different story. You have to take on all comers, and in this economy and environment, there are no good decisions — just various degrees of bad.

It’s wild, though, that Quinn is all of a sudden a big fundraiser.

Speaking of which, why the delays in the cap bill bond sales?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:32 am
I don’t know what you expected. The guy doesn’t seem to have a career record as being a button down executive.

As a republican, despite our differences, I have a lot less of an issue with someone like him or wellstone or sherrod brown or russ feingold than say a madigan or hynes who to me are naked politicians and less about some sort of actual set of beliefs. The democrats I speak to that live in the land of sheridan road seem to back him. I still lean proft or schillerstrom at this point.

Comment by shore Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:35 am
I don’t have a problem with Hynes running against Quinn, it seems to be having Quinn face some serious issues instead of just putting money up in ads that would not be being challenged/held accountable except by the Republicans.

I guess if a ankle biter has to nip at Quinn and is actually pointing out some faults and areas for improvement and/or serious debate, then that’s a good thing.

I don’t think Quinn himself meant to mislead on the borrowing bit facts/timeline, but he’s suppose to be responsible for knowing what is going on and the making of things happens. Yay for Hynes. I just cheered when Blago went poof with all his lies and incompetent governing, if it takes a watchdog nipping to keep things open and functional, so be it.

Quinn has not yet won me over and he should not take being challenged as a bad thing if he sincerely wishes what is best for the state over what is best for himself.

Comment by Cindy Lou Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:42 am
As a GOP partisan, this isn’t as much fun as the fight between Hillary and Barack during the 08 prez primary, but is good. Very good.

Comment by Skeptical Cynic Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:48 am
Meanwhile Hynes get to take the holiday hit for social service/not for profits/ general vendors who are missing payroll because the borrowing was not done?

Not sure this is the fight or time to pick this little fight.

The good news is the Idea Free Zone (aka GOP guvers) are mute on their ideas for dealing withthe problem. Proft has some one liners and the rest want to cut senior health care — wait until WhackyJack McCain finds out)

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:49 am
Interesting about the contracts.

I have long suspected that scrubbing the state of Illinois’ contracts ( 50,000 or so contracts, I believe, costing about $15 billion annually) would yield major savings, not only this year but ongoing. Heck, put them up on a website that’s easy to access and read and we citizens will scrub them. That should provide months of entertainment (and astonishment)_for wannabee investigative reporter-citizens. Likely we are paying more for many goods and services than we need to be, in this economy especially. Many contracts could likely be dumped altogether and should get discounts with many more-as we do with other goods and services in the marketplace.

Alas, state contractors are likely big Democratic contributors, despite efforts to rein them in.
Then they turn around and incorporate the contribution costs into the price of the contracts. Win-win Dem pols and greedy contractors. Lose-lose Illinois citizens–again.

If Quinn is indeed raking in the contributions, I suspect we won’t see much contract scrubbing now or in a Quinn administration. We’ll continue to pay top dollar and beyond. And we’ll continue to pay the price for not focusing more attention on what our elected officials are doing with our money.

Comment by cassandra Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 9:57 am
I listened to the raw audio of Quinn, and not surprisingly, I was not swayed by his overly dramatic statements.

When Hynes signed off on a short-term borrowing plan after Blago was arrested ,and at a higher interest rate than today’s, Hynes was in essence doing it for Quinn and definitely for Illinois, not for Blago’s sake. Quinn benefitted from that cashflow far more than Blago did and Hynes presumably signed off on it knowing and anticipating, like many, that Blago’s days were numbered. if memory serves the whole rallying cry for that loan was that in almost no time Blago would be gone, but government needed to function, bills needed to paid, and the situation was an emergency because the state and its people should not be held hostage for Blago’s misdeeds. And, Blago was in fact gone within no time, or as fast as the removal process allowed. Need proof of that? Talk to Ed Genson.

Yet, during his Friday press conference Quinn convienetly mischaractized and took out of context what actually happened and why. He and his administrtion benefitted almost exclusively, if not exclusively, from the loan that Hynes signed off on during the last days of Blago. Hynes signed off, and rightfully so, which allowed Quinn to assume office and have some breathing room without having to deal with an immediate government shut down or some other horrid scenario when he assumed office. When Hynes was signing off during the last days of Blago, did Quinn suggest stopping it so that once he assumed office maybe the loan could be taken out at a more favorable interest rate? No. he did not. If memory serves he was focusing on himself and running around anxiously/eargerly making sure everyone was aware that he was ‘ready to lead, ’ while demanding that Blago just resign.

Listening to Quinn’s press conference what really struck me was that he defended his staff and in effect stated that their work was done well, his staff was not the problem, and that nothing went or was done wrong on his end. if memory serves he said all of that before he took questions from the media.

So, the other three offices are lying when they stated that the paperwork was incorrect or incomplete or questions couldn’t be answered or that the plan hadn’t even been officially presented for them to review? Did he really mean to suggest that? because he did. Why would the treasurer, attorney general and comptroller offices all lie?

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 11:30 am
Rich, Your column hit the nail on the head. Quinn is indeed a better campaigner than expected, and an absolutely ineffective Governor. Unfortunately no other candidate seems to have any reasonable plan either.
Looks like Dillard to me is the best, only because he has some experience under Edgar in dealing with bad budget and economic times.

Comment by downstate hick Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 12:15 pm
FYI- the comptroller’s web site has pretty much all state contract payment information on line and has for several years. Not much detail on what each contract is for, but, for example, if the DHS mental health division has a contract with a community agency, you can infer it’s for community mental health services.

Thousands of the contracts in question are for community-based services to the disabled, to poor people, to elderly people- nothing particularly controversial. There’s a pretty standard contract format and routine audits.

Also, none of those provider agencies are donors to either party, so let’s get off the idea that all contracts are bad. It’s the mechanism the state uses to pay for some really important services.

Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 1:00 pm
Wow. I just answered my home phone. It was Governor Quinn telling me all the good things he has done and asking for my help - just push 1 if I want to help and a campaign staffer will talk to me. Pretty strange as I am reading all this.

Comment by Just the basics Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 1:33 pm
I don’t think the comptroller and other websites provide enough information about the contracts to be truly useful for average citizens, although the existence of these websites is certainly an advance in transparency.

In one place, I’d like to have information such as who is on the board, who are the executives, how much they make, who the subcontractors are, any add-ons to the original contract amounts, a link to allow checking of campaign contributions by board members and execs, whether relatives and campaign contributors of board members and work there and in what capacity, what the results of annual fundraising efforts are, who their lobbyist(s) are, what they do with the state money, and so on. Plus information on any ongoing or completed investigations regarding misuse of funds. I’m not a contracts expert but
I’m sure there are many ways of looking at state contracts to determine if 1) they are providing needed services at a reasonable cost and 2) whether there are problems with oversight, money management, and so on. It might be possible to
do this with the existing websites, but it would take considerable additional searching from what I can see. Also useful would be whether the vendor is a religious entity, as I think separation of church and state is weak in Illinois.

Comment by cassandra Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 2:30 pm
Du Page Dave is right. A lot of state contracts are for critical human services. For example, DCFS has contracts with private and local agencies to provide all sorts of services to abused and neglected children. Some of these things DCFS could do but it would cost MORE because state employees are better paid than the private agencies.

There may be wasteful and unneeded contracts but eliminating contract services just because they are contracts certainly is not the answer.

Comment by girllawyer Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 3:01 pm
I can’t blame Quinn for being annoyed at Hynes who appears to be running a-if I can’t win-I can at least take you down campaign.
It is hard enough trying to pick up the pieces from the worst Governor in this state’s history but then to be torpedoed regularly by your own party-while trying to hold the seat for the dems must be quite taxing. (No pun intended)

Comment by Big Timber Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 3:31 pm
I think they are all playing politics with this. Quinn is trying to set Hynes up, Hynes is trying to make Quinn look incompetent, Lisa M and Alexi are playing wait-and-see (no sense making one mad when you don’t know who will win the primary).

I would be very interested to know how many short term borrowing plans they have signed off on since they have been in office, what those plans looked like, and what kind of review they gave each one.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 4:02 pm
I agree w/ Cassandra (for a change) that more information should be made public. But I also think everything is moving in that direction anyway. It costs money to put contract details on the internet but it’s something that our legislators should give thought to.

However, I’m not sure how far you can carry the political donation game with not-for-profits. They can’t make donations themselves, but employees and board members can. My experience is that most human service workers are paid pretty minimal salaries and don’t tend to donate to political candidates of any stripe. Is there a standard or rule for what not-for-profit board members can give to candidates?

Re: the religious organizations as social service providers, my feeling is that some are good and some are not. The ones that are serious tend to stay in business and the other ones fall apart.

Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 4:22 pm
I didn’t say the contracts should be eliminated.
I said they should be scrubbed-looked at carefully from multiple perspective to see if they are worth
what we are paying, if they are getting no-bid
increases and why, who the subcontractors are, and
whether they meet basic ethics requirements. Even agencies with noble missions can have bad contracts, and probably do.

Comment by cassandra Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 4:40 pm
Pot Calling Kettle,

Hynes said he was “not going to sign onto a half a billion borrowing and work out the details later.”—Chicago Tribune

Given what we have seen of Quinn, particularly the latter part of this year, what is so wrong or unreasonable about Hynes’s stance? (keep in mind he’s concerned about the ability to re-pay the loan)

If Hynes wins the Primary, the last thing he needs is a fiscal ficaso in which he was unwittingly involved to blow up in his face, while he’s making the case that he is fiscally responsible.

How does Hynes know that his signing off on something incomplete isn’t going to come back and blow up in his face? How does he know that he isn’t being set up by Quinn? It was the Quinn’s administration to present a complete plan and be able to answer questions about the plan, which the Quinn administration failed to do. Hynes is being cautious here, and I don’t blame him.

I would be interested to know why the Quinn administration is scrambling around last-minute/down to the wire to get a borrowing plan completed and signed off on? It reminds me of how he handled the budget this year. He rolled it out and it ultimately got nowhere. then he had to furiously scramble last-minute to try to salvage the thing. He wasn’t able to, which resulted in the GA having to go into overtime. It was then that he decided that he should meet with legislators to get their support and approval on his budget. (The meetings should have been held immediately after he first rolled his budget out.)

despite last-minute efforts, he failed again to get his budget passed, which resulted in a stop gap budget (a route he had been refusing to puruse for weeks).

Time is of the essence on these state fiscal matters. What is with letting valuable time elapse only to run down/out the clock and then end up with nothing?

Hynes has charactized the mishandling of state fiscal issues this year as “madness,” and he’s right!

btw…Carol Marin uses the adjective organized to describe dan hynes, and rightfully so.
I would add that Hynes cleary appears to be the more disciplined of the two as well.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/1922527,CST-EDT-carol06.article

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Dec 7, 09 @ 5:00 pm
“Quinn ineffective”?! Okay, while we are at it let’s add the House and the Senate to that mix. Yikes, well then let’s add “the people” as well. I guess we voted all these “ineffective” leaders in…what to do, what to do, about those ineffective votes…?

Comment by GetOverIt Tuesday, Dec 8, 09 @ 9:19 am
Hynes isn’t a half-bad fellow. Pat Quinn, however, with the God-awful circumstances he inherited, and with the goodness in his heart of proven,genuine service of his fellow man for nearly 3 1/2 decades, albeit his occasional imperfection, is, BY FAR, not only a superior candidate than his opponent, but an admirable leader, foreward-thinking, courageous, wise man of action and remarkable intelligence and will, mark my words, go down in the Illinois’ annals of history, as one of THE greatest Governors ever of our all-to-often beleaguered, misguided, yet beloved State we call home.

Comment by Just The Way It Is One Tuesday, Dec 8, 09 @ 5:55 pm