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* Bernie interviewed Democratic state Treasurer Michael Frerichs…
For a time, Frerichs was among Democrats being talked about as a possible candidate for governor, though that talk has waned as he hasn’t aggressively promoted himself.
He said he knows it sounds like a cliche, but he is focusing on his office.
“I like my job,” the Champaign resident said. “I’m looking at keeping that job.” And he added that speculation about who’s running for 2018 offices “does nothing to advance the ball” and “stories right now should be exclusively on the fact that the state doesn’t have a budget in place.”
He said he was hopeful that after the November election there could be real movement toward a budget.
“But I think what we’ve seen is people immediately start putting millions of dollars in campaign funds, creating websites and attacking people they’re supposed to be negotiating with,” Frerichs said, without specifically naming Gov. BRUCE RAUNER, who put $50 million in his own campaign fund after the election, and the state GOP, which during the veto session launched BossMadigan.com, designed to criticize House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, and people associated with him.
“You can guess who I’m talking about,” Frerichs said. “And I just don’t think that moves our state forward.”
Unlike our new comptroller, who has been bashing the governor for months, the treasurer has been almost mute about the governor for the past two years, avoiding direct conflict.
* Indeed, after the election, which was super-tight, Frerich’s campaign spokesman said this…
“What we saw emerge [Tuesday] in the suburbs exceeded our expectations. This race is being decided by tens of thousands of Rauner-Frerichs voters: independents in suburbs from Winnetka to Orland Park, from Waukegan to Joliet in the collar counties, and from Rock Island to deep Southern Illinois.”
* Today…
#immigrationban. @ILTreasurer slams @POTUS order. "There's no place for discrimination." Wouldn't bash @GovRauner. pic.twitter.com/6FtcC79Z7l
— Edward Marshall (@edmarshallcbs2) January 30, 2017
* The Question: Should Treasurer Frerichs amp up his rhetoric about Gov. Rauner? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:34 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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I voted “no”. We have too much rhetoric as it is. What we need is progress. The rhetoric is doing irreparable harm to this state.
Comment by Magic Dragon Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:36 am
It is not just about rhetoric, in the negative sense of mere style, it is about rhetoric in the positive sense of persuasive speech.
I am convinced we would have neither Rauner nor Trump had Democrats not lost the habit of declaring clearly what they stood for and how it would help middle, lower middle, and lower class folks. It’s one thing to avoid saying false or otherwise inappropriate or irresponsible things. It is another to avoid drawing sharp distinctions by accurately characterizing yourself and your opponents.
If we fail to draw a distinction we will lose anyway.
Comment by HistProf Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:48 am
No. It’s time for the adults to step in.
Comment by dr. reason a. goodwin Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:48 am
Voted “No”
Why?
I do feel the Treasurer’s Office needs to be far more active in information regarding where the state is now and the damage, from the specific “eyes” of the Office, rhetorically speaking, Frerichs isn’t a passenger, but shouldn’t be a grenade thrower either.
Frerichs can ramp up the information and governing assessments that show threw his Office the measured destruction, but there is no need to amp up the rhetoric to just ramp up pressure Rauner refuses to feel.
No info, just not more amping, for amping’s sake.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:53 am
I can’t think of a single way that would be helpful to Frerichs. If he’s truly committed to the job he has, keeping it, and doing it well, his focus should be entirely on his own sphere of control.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:53 am
Voted “no.” Enough people point out the governor’s incompetence. Another voice, and one where anyone in the know would already know where it stands, and anyone not in the know wouldn’t care where it stands, provides nothing of value.
Comment by AlfondoGonz Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:54 am
We can never be quiet about what the Governor is attempting to do to this state.
Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:55 am
===No info, just not more amping, for amping’s sake.===
Ugh.
“More info, just not more amping, for amping’s sake.===
Also…
===If he’s truly committed to the job he has, keeping it, and doing it well, his focus should be entirely on his own sphere of control===
A single reason to get involved is to educate the damage Rauner is doing, within the Office the Frerichs holds.
That kinda blows your “hands off” thingy out of the water.
Frerichs isn’t a passenger.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:58 am
One more Democrat attacking Bruce Rauner is not going to get a closer to passing a budget.
It might garner Frerichs more “street cred” with some hot-headed liberals.
But Frerichs should not put his own political prospects above the needs of the state’s most vulnerable by throwing red meat to his base.
Frerichs should keep doing what he is doing: calmly, respectfully criticizing the policies of the Rauner administration where appropriate.
Mendoza is in a different boat. Rauner started that fight, she cannot really back down.
Comment by Juvenal Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 11:59 am
Frerich’s will need far more than this to beat Rauner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ12m7-2h7c
Comment by Deft Wing Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:00 pm
==That kinda blows your “hands off” thingy out of the water.==
And yet it’s precisely what he’s doing. So I guess he’s blowing you out of the water.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:05 pm
=== A single reason to get involved is to educate the damage Rauner is doing, within the Office the Frerichs holds. ===
Seems like that has been his strategy: pushing to fund MAP grants, which intersect with the office’s college savings program; pointing out how much $ the state is losing on its investments due to cash flow problems.
Comment by Anonymous Lee Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:05 pm
Voted “yes” but paramedics will need to restore a pulse to make that happen
The Treasurer is the closest guy to all the slimey bank guys who wranp themselves around BigBrain. THe guys fawning over the Koch brother in Rancho Mirage with BigBrain are bankers
He needs to be yapping at them.
Comment by Annonin' Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:07 pm
Unfortunately, most of us are “passengers”. That includes him.
Only a slim few who aren’t right now.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:07 pm
Voted “no”.
I think he should just do his job. TALK about Rauner, explain why he’s bad for Illinois, but “bashing” and “amped-up rhetoric” are not the way to do it.
Comment by JoanP Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:10 pm
===And yet it’s precisely what he’s doing. So I guess he’s blowing you out of the water.===
Then how can you say it’s hands off and agree what I think he needs to do more?
Can’t be both.
===Seems like that has been his strategy: pushing to fund MAP grants, which intersect with the office’s college savings program; pointing out how much $ the state is losing on its investments due to cash flow problems.===
While true, Frerichs could easily enhance and make a governmental education more statewide, less regional, like a discussion, for example, at UIUC to discuss MAP.
Ramping up the current education direct need to amp up the rhetoric just to do it.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:10 pm
===Unfortunately, most of us are “passengers”===
The only way that logic works is also saying Rauner is a passenger. Rauner and Frerichs, neither are passengers.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:12 pm
Should anyone ramp up “rhetoric?”
Comment by Shemp Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:17 pm
I voted ‘no.’ I’d rather see him amp up focus on the critical issues the state faces, regardless of who is in the Governor’s office. He should attack Rauner specifically only if he’s planning to run against him in 2018, and it seems like he isn’t.
Comment by Earnest Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:17 pm
No, Dems don’t need another attack dog. We need state-wide office holders who do their jobs well and don’t get weighed down in scuffles.
Comment by AnonInQC Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:20 pm
Voted no. Frehrichs is smart enough to know that the governor doesn’t even care to respond to political competitors bashing him. What we need is the governor’s political allies bashing him a la Jim Edgar.
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:21 pm
A Guy, it’s a complete waste of time engaging OW. It’s hard enough to win an argument with a smart person. It’s nearly impossible when you’re arguing with an idiot.
Comment by Thunder Fred Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:28 pm
No need to.Go on the attack, just do like Judy did at Comptroller. Publish smart analysis papers full of unrefutable facts and figures … and let the data speak for itself.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:35 pm
Yes! We need more amped up rhetoric. Illinois is a great state with a lot of wonderful strengths, but without more amped up rhetoric we will never realize our fullest potential.
Comment by Bernside Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:37 pm
Voted no. I can’t think of a single way “amping up rhetoric” is helpful to either Frerichs or to the State of Illinois.
Comment by Way South of I-80 Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:45 pm
Voted no. Why poke a bear that is willing to spend millions?
Comment by Highland IL Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:50 pm
No, we don’t need any more amped up rhetoric, in fact we need less of it, much much less and more action.
Comment by Ahoy! Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 12:59 pm
==The only way that logic works is also saying Rauner is a passenger. Rauner and Frerichs, neither are passengers.==
That’s inane Willy. You’re comparing Rauner to Frerichs? C’mon.
People with direct or close to direct control of the process: Rauner, Madigan, Durkin, Cullerton and Radogno.
The same as always. A few names have changed, tragically one hasn’t. It’s the Gov and the 4 tops. Everyone else is a passenger.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 1:28 pm
===Everyone else is a passenger.===
…and…
===You’re comparing Rauner to Frerichs? C’mon.===
Nope. I can read that constitutional duties and responsibilities are upon those who raise they’d haves and take the oath…
… no unlike the pushback to the Attorney General for going to court? Passengers can’t do that.
… not unlike the worry about the Comptroller paying legislators, making good on a Rauner policy that both the past and current Comptrollers favor. I’m not even going into the paying of bills and that constitutional duty. Passengers can’t do that.
Your argument doesn’t hold water…
“because… the Constitution”
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 1:35 pm
“… raised their hands and took… ”
Apologies.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 1:36 pm
- Thunder Fred -
Always enjoyable when you chime in, especially when it’s about me and rarely about Rich’s Post.
Your position on the QOTD is…
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 1:53 pm
as a republican who likes the treasurer, he has nothing to gain by getting into it with the Guv.
Comment by the old man Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 2:11 pm
Why can’t the elected Constitutional Officers of the state get together from time to time to listen to each others issues (which are State of Illinois issues) and perhaps work on solutions together?
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 2:20 pm
That was no.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 2:22 pm
Voted yes. Now is not the time for good people to stay silent. Mike has a moral obligation to step it up and speak out.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 2:34 pm
More rhetoric.
We need more rhetoric.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 2:39 pm
Enough with the politiking. There’s enough hate going around at the federal level that we don’t need anymore. Show up and do your job.
Comment by In_The_Middle Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 3:13 pm
Voted yes, if he has an issue he needs it to be heard otherwise, he will appear to be accepting of the behavior and incompetence.
Comment by cgo75 Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 3:46 pm
Yes the constitutional offices should fly in formation and peel off with OODA loops innuendos at will
Comment by Rabid Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 4:23 pm
No bUt I’d pay to see him and Rauner in a Texas Cage match if the money was for charity of course.
Comment by NorthsideNoMore Monday, Jan 30, 17 @ 6:53 pm