Who IS ICJL/Deep Pockets Illinois? Follow the Money.
The Illinois Civil Justice League has launched a new propaganda campaign, "Deep Pockets Illinois," aimed at thwarting the passage of Senate Bill 1296. If you believe ICJL's Ed Murnane, the world is about to come to an end.
I'll have more about the bill later, but before we get into the nitty-gritty of why the ICJL claims that legislation that merely codifies 20 years of judicial practice will bring the world to an end, I think it's fair to take a deeper look at just who's behind the ICJL and their political arm, JUSTPAC.
According to the ICJL, they are "a coalition of Illinois citizens, small and large businesses, associations, professional societies, not-for-profit organizations and local governments." Unfortunately, there's no way to verify that claim because nowhere does the ICJL disclose who actually funds them.
Fortunately, the ICJL's political arm, JUSTPAC, is required to disclose where their money comes from. So I went to the State Board of Elections website, and low and behold......
- More than half of JUSTPAC's funding comes from outside of Illinois;
- Fewer than 100 donors to JUSTPAC come from Illinois, but
- Nearly one-third of in-state donors have direct ties to the insurance industry;
And where does JUSTPAC's money go? Since 1994, JUSTPAC has given:
- $2,094,662.60 to 80 Republican candidates in Illinois.
- $500.00 to one Democrat.
Draw your own conclusions about who's interests JUSTPAC is looking out for. I believe that "he who pays the piper calls the tune," and if you:
- Live in Illinois, and
- don't work for the insurance industry, and
- Aren't a GOP candidate for office
13 comments:
Congrats on the shallow, naive, and juvenile critique of the ICJL, Yellow Dog!
Actually, I think YD does a good service here. ICJL's financing and "membership" is shadowy, at best. Its governance structure consists of only three persons, one of whom is Murnane. This hardly reflects a broad coalition.
Knowing who funds a special interest group tells you a lot about its real goals. (Listen up, CORE.) ICJL is clearly a group that seeks to benefit business, not necessarily consumers or regular folks.
I find it interesting that you separate out the term "benefit business" from the term benefitting "consumers or regular folks."
Without business, would there be employees?
This is what the liberals don't understand - and why Blagojevich and his allies are going to succeed at driving even more businesses out of the state.
Businesses create jobs. Jobs are filled by Illinois workers. Illinois workers pay taxes. The more workers there are, the more tax revenue to fund various government programs the liberals love so much.
Bottom line - run the businesses out of the state, and we have more people out of work.
Why is job creation such a bad thing?
And, I will point out, the businesses you lament create many, many more jobs than the trial lawyers you defend.
Actually, this post is way out of bounds. ICJL has been around for almost 15 years now, hardly a "shadowy" organization. Unlike other organizations, the ICJL gives a thorough explanation of who and what their membership is comprised of.
Those who are unclear about the ICJL just haven't been in Springfield a long time.
The JUSTPAC donations are probably lopsided because of that downstate supreme court campaign, and the trial lawyers contributions are even more skewed to the other side.
This isn't the first time that Yellow Dog has shilled for the trial lawyers. And, if you're not a trial lawyer, you can definitely bet the trial lawyers aren't working for you.
Who is Yellow Dog?
Actually, as a small business owner, I can definitely tell you that businesses do not create jobs. So will any smart economist.
Businesses create profits. Jobs are a waste product of that process. As soon as businesses figure out how to increase productivity, or better yet replace man with machine, the jobs go.
Don't get me wrong, my mom's a small business owner too, and I like business folks in general. But let's not pretend they wake up every morning asking "How can I create jobs today?" They ask "How can I make more money."
And let's not pretend that the ICJL is out to benefit ALL business folks. They are mainly doing the bidding of out-of-state interests and the insurance industry. Anyone with half-a-brain understands that the interests of US Chamber of Commerce giants like Wal-Mart are often at odds with Main Street, Illinois.
5:46 Anonymous questions why I separate business interests from the interests of consumers and regular folks.
We live in an age when "business interest" no longer means your neighbor who owns a small shop, who earns about the same as a skilled factory worker, and who generally shares a middle class wage earner's values.
Rather, we live in an age when an increasingly small percentage of people control an increasing percentage of wealth. We live in an age when income disparity is growing.
Business interests will use the "small family business" as its icon, but in reality more and more businesses are really part of multi-national conglomerates that justify mass layoffs for the sake of increasing (not just maintaining) profitability.
Maybe there used to be a time when business interests shared a lot with wage-earners. But we don't live in that time.
And yes, ICJL has been around for a long time. So we know exactly whose agenda they are carrying: the agenda of insurance companies and large manufacturers who wish to avoid paying the price for cutting design and manufacturing corners. The point is that ICJL claims to be some sort of grassroots organization, when it is in fact the tool of big business.
Yellow Dog is correct to point that out, especially on this page. Most of the bloggers here are independent bloggers sharing their thoughts. ICJL is using Illinoize to promote an agenda, not to "blog" in the normal sense of the word.
I was getting kind of sick of it, so I'm glad one of the regular bloggers is calling them out.
Thanks for doing the research and shining some light on this this organization.
I rarely read their posts on Illinoize because, instead of a person named Ed Murnane adding to the conversation, they read more like press releases in search of an audience.
"ICJL is using Illinoize to promote an agenda, not to "blog" in the normal sense of the word"
Are you suggesting that YDD does not have an agenda?
JBP
JBP,
I'm suggesting that YD is not being paid to promote someone else's agenda. I think YD is blogging his own thoughts, based on reading his posts and comments.
And, to use Julie's words, he doesn't sound like a press release in search of an audience.
Ooops . . . I meant Marie.
I wonder if Yellow Dog would disclose if he/she has ever been funded by the Trial Lawyers???
Well that is a relief,
I thought for a moment that someone might actually be paying YDD for his typing up his junior high level analyses of issues.
JBP
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