And Giuliani in town for McSweeney

This visit completely missed my radar screen until I read Tom Roeser singing Giuliani's praises.

But I’ve got to tell you: this guy Giuliani has magnetism. I feel about him as I would from the gut. From my gut I think John McCain, though a hero, is something like a cardboard pop-up. The same with everybody else who’s mentioned for president-except.

Republicans are just a bigger tent. I can't imagine a Democratic activist in this state gushing over a National Democrat who was pro-life and supported preserve marriage amendment. They'd hound him or her right out of the party.

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Lynn Sweet: Bush on his way to Illinois for Topinka

Sweet writes there were no hard feelings over Topinka's cracks a few months ago,

Democratic blue state Illinois is flashing onto the radar of the Bush White House, with the governorship up for grabs and two high-profile House seats.

The Sun-Times has learned President Bush is coming to Chicago July 7 for a fund-raiser for Judy Baar Topinka.

The White House political operation, run by Karl Rove -- who helped convince Topinka to run against Gov. Blagojevich -- is also closely monitoring two of the most-watched House races in the country, in the west and Northwest Suburban 6th and 8th congressional districts.

Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are seen by the White House as having very serious potential to pick off a Democratic governor, notwithstanding low approval ratings for Bush and Congress.

Maybe the all the protestors a visit like this brings out serves to pump up those conservatives thinking of sitting out November? (Gay Activists demanding a right to marriage they would disdain exercising themselves, linked arm-in-arm with angry Kossaks crying no war for oil with Ahmadinejad's Iran. Think of the image.)

Also heard Rick Pearson on WGN radio yesterday morning talk about Blagojvich's TV ads. For a guy with a pile of money, they're kind of cheesy commercials. The quality seems poor. Pearson said without a key issue that could knock off Topinka early, they're a waste of money; and they're clearly not hitting he with an issue that will crush her early.

I wish he'd bring out a Ryan-Topinka polka commercial. That would at least hold my attention.

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Are you shocked?

Photo: Terry Herbig
Hare to quit $119,000-a-year post with Evans

Mr. Hare originally had planned to take four weeks of vacation and to campaign at night and on the weekends.

"I don't want to do anything in violation of the House ethics committee," said Mr. Hare, who was chosen this week to replace Rep. Evans, D-Rock Island, on the November ballot. He said he'll submit a resignation letter, taking a week to clean out his desk and reassign cases he was working on before his last day.

Mr. Hare said he had looked through the House Ethics Manual and assumed he could keep his job.

The campaign booklet says that congressional staffers can run for office and still work at their jobs, as long as they campaign on their own time. However, congressional staffers who are candidates to succeed their employers must quit their jobs because of a strong potential of a conflict of interest, according to ethics rules. Another concern is that a congressional campaign takes up a lot of time.

So six months into the year after campaiging for the last 60-days, he still has four weeks of vacation left? I need this kind of job. He's already violated the House ethics committee given the recent news that 'he outworked the rest of the field'. Due to the charade of a selection process by which he was appointed, one might suspect that Hare was going to be a 'business-as-usual' guy. It is just astounding that he is so out-front with it. This will matter little to the Democrats of the 17th, nor will the fact that he has little or no aptitude in reading comprehension.

Come on now "assumed he could keep his job", "campaign at night and on the weekends", Good god, man! He must have cheated to get those C's in High School if he thinks everyone is that dumb. Evan's chief of staff was appointed guardian of Lane's estate yesterday. Any bets on when Evans will step down due to "health issues" and appoint Phil Hare to complete his term? Afterall, the man's gotta eat. (The Quincy Pundit)

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Milk it while you can, Ray

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (RINO-Peoria) is the luckiest sumb*tch on Earth.

We all know the story by now. LaHood was one of many people attending a meeting with President Bush the other day. LaHood remarked that it sure would be nice if somethign could be done about Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist leader responsible for, among many other things, the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg. What LaHood didn't know was that throughout the meeting, Bush was getting secret updates on the attack on Zarqawi's safehouse.

As a result, LaHood is getting press like this piece from the admittedly pro-GOP Washington Times:

Given the irony surrounding this week's U.S. air strike in Iraq that killed terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, one thing is certain: henceforth, Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois will have President Bush's ear whenever he desires. "I was shocked, I really was. I had no idea this air strike was going on over there," the six-term Republican from Peoria told Inside the Beltway yesterday.
[snip]
"The president was nice enough to call me this morning," Mr. LaHood told this column. "He said, 'LaHood, you will go down in history for making a prediction that this would happen. ' "

Yeah, that's right. LaHood's a friggin' genius for figuring out that it might be a good idea if one of the world's worst terrorists took a dirt nap. The episode reminds me of the time LaHood told several newspaper editorial boards that the U.S. was close to arresting the then-figutive Saddam Hussein. At the time, he denied saying it, then denied saying it on the record. Then some U.S. troops found the deposed thug hiding in a hole.

LaHood has a lucky streak a mile long. I suppose if you make enough stupid, ill-informed generic statements about a subject of great importance, you might get lucky once in a while. If he was really in the know, he would have kept his mouth shut about both Hussein and Zarqawi. We can safely assume LaHood knew absolutely NOTHING in advance

But he's getting national press now, press he should have received when he joined a bunch of Democrats who opposed a bill that cuts off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority while the terrorist group Hamas is in charge. LaHood was worried that this would deprive little children of aid, a conclusion based on the incredibly naive belief that Hamas wouldn't divert aid into the making of the bombs that strap around little children, who they then send to kill Jewish people.

Upon learning that LaHood accidentally became part of the Zarqawi story, Peorians reacted with their typical provincialism. "Oh, look. They mentioned a Congressman from Peoria on CNN. Gee, I guess LaHood is an important guy."

Nonsense. LaHood followed Illinois House speaker Dennis Hastert to Iraq and visited a few secure areas. Nothing wrong about it, but there was nothing particularly brave about it either. He may or may not have gathered a few insights from his visit, but nothing to change his opinion and nothing to change the fact that the reason for the trip to was to help deflect some of the criticism and accusations of corruption being leveled against Hastert. The primary beneficiaries of the Hastert/LaHood visit to Iraq were Hastert and LaHood.

So keep telling the rubes in the beltway that you have President Bush's ear, LaHood. Keep saying it over and over. Fewer and fewer people are buying your act. You don't have a real opponent this time around, but two years from now ... the Dems might screw up the courage to find a real candidate.

Crossposted at Peoria Pundit.

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Fact Checking the Other 20,500

There have been a lot of posts on several different blogs today, including Rich’s, regarding the Governor’s job numbers statement.

Greg Blankenship of the Illinois Policy Institute fact checked, and determined that “they have the numbers right, this time." He is right, in regards to the 23,600 reported for April. But, as he says earlier in his post, "there are other aspects of these numbers, however, that one could question." Like, the 43,600 jobs the Governor claims were created "in the last three months."

Well, allow me:

The February and March BLS reports do not list figures for Illinois because they did not reach the “statistically significant” mark. Now 20,500 (43,600 – 23,100) divided any way over 2 months would have appeared on at least one of those reports. The lowest figures considered statistically significant in those two months were 2,000 and 3,200.

To be sure, this wasn’t an oversight by the BLS in February and March. The ‘over-the-year’ change from April 05-April 06 is 56,500, according to the BLS. That means that 33,400 jobs were created from April 05-March 06, which averages out to about 3,000 a month.

Something doesn’t add up, right? Well, remember that the Governor’s statement references “state and federal figures” (emphasis added). The only logical explanation is that the state figures for February and March differ from what the Feds counted. Isn't it reasonable to ask why? Or how?

Don’t get me wrong, 23,100 jobs is fantastic. We should be excited, and the Governor has every right to boast about it. I know I would, if I were him. But we should take a closer took at what else he is claiming, and perhaps wait a month before we get too excited or pat him on the back too much. It seems very likely that this April was a pleasant outlier in what has been a far less impressive trend. If that is the case, then it’ll be harder to argue that April was “the result of the governor's policies,” as his spokesperson has claimed.

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Illinois Ballot Access Laws On Trial

Not exactly, but Friday at 9:30 am Lee vs. Keith (Illinois State Board of Elections) (05-4355) goes before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the number of signatures independent candidates need for the General Assembly (which are the most in the world not to mention the US) and challenging the deadline for independent candidates (the earliest in the US). Let's hope sound logic and evidence prevails.

It's remarkably sad how Lisa Madigan and her office are arguing in favor of some of the worst ballot access requirements in the US and the world for independents. If you like reading 100+ pages of legal briefs, go for it. It looks to me like the plaintiff attorney is ripping Madigan's arguments to shreds, but I'm more than biased. We'll see.

Plaintiff Filing - 370kb
Defense Reply- 160kb
Plaintiff Rebuttal - 140kb

There are a lot of arguments going back and forth in the briefs that are interesting, but a few issues stand out for me.

Both sides cite the Stevenson case from 1986, when Adlai Stevenson III won the Democratic primary but didn't want to be on the same ticket as the two LaRouche Democrats that won the primary for Lt. Governor and Secretary of State. (Yes, LaRouche is a self-proclaimed Democrat and ran for President in Illinois' primary as a Democrat in 2004) Stevenson then wanted to run as an independent, but the deadline had already passed since independents must file the same day for the General Election as the Rs and Ds must file for the Primary. The courts said no to Stevenson running as an independent, so he ended up forming the Solidarity Party to run for Governor.

Madigan's office says Stevenson is the precedence for the early deadline for independents in Illinois. The Plaintiff says, Stevenson was a unique circumstance and that the ruling acknowledged it was unique. Stevenson's problem was not created by the deadline, his problem was created by his own political party's primary.

From Madigan's office, we get this doosey (page 18 of the pdf).

"The Supreme Court has held that “the States’ interest permits them to enact reasonable election regulations that may, in practice, favor the traditional two-party system,” and that the Constitution allows States “to decide that political stability is best served through a healthy two-party system.” Timmons, 520 U.S. at 367. If States may favor the two major parties over minor parties and independents, then they certainly may take the lesser step of favoring major and minor parties over independents."

Yes, right here in America, where we have a state Constitution that says "All elections shall be free and equal", we have Attorney General Lisa Madigan thumbing her nose at democratic elections and our state Constitution by arguing if government can favor the two power parties and discriminate against minor parties, you can therefor discriminate even worse against independents. The Supreme Court has been wrong in the past in their rulings regarding "other" candidates, in my opinion, but that doesn't mean Lisa Madigan should use those rulings to defend political discrimination in our ballot access laws.

Madigan's office also argues that Illinois requirements are no worse than Georgia's. But they fail to recognize some key differences between Georgia and Illinois. Georgia requires signatures from 5% of registered voters in aperiod of 180 days. Illinois requires signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast for that office is the last election in the period of 90 days.

In this Lee case, it was based on 2002 election returns with less than 60% turnout. If it were based on 2004 election returns, the 10% of votes cast would exceed 5% of registered voters in many State Senate and State Representative districts in Illinois. In Illinois, if you sign an independent petition you are forbidden from voting in the primary. That is not the case in Georgia and it reduces the potential for signatures in Illinois. In Illinois, you may not sign an independent petition and another candidate's petition for the same office, which you can in Georgia. Looking at the overall picture, no one can argue Georgia's requirements are harder than Illinois' for the General Assembly. The Georgia requirements cited are actually for US House.

The Plaintiff argues that no independent candidate has been able to get on the ballot in 25 years, but Madigan's office argues that a few were on the ballot in 1980. Current requirements were put in place in 1979. They don't state, however, whether those candidates met all the requirements or if they just snuck by without being challenged. I don't know if they met the requirements or not, but suspect they just weren't challenged.

Madigan's office also strongly argues that Lee did not have to run as an independent and had the option of running as a "new party" candidate with the lower signature requirements and later filing deadline. The Plaintiff argues that the Supreme Court has recognized the difference between independents and new parties and that forcing an independent to form a new political party is contrary to First Amendment rights of association.

The Plaintiff argues the Supreme Court has ruled against filing deadlines 229 days prior to the general election, which is less than Illinois' dealine of 323 days prior to the general election. Madigan's office argues that was for a Presidential race (Anderson in 1980) and shouldn't apply to the states' offices. The Court has also ruled against deadlines 218 and 270 days before the general election.

What are Illinois' requirements for independents wanting to run the General Assembly?
First their filing deadline is the same day the Rs and Ds file for the primary, which is in the middle of December the year preceding the general election. They have 90 days to collect signatures.
Independents must gather valid signatures from 10% to 16% of the number of votes cast in the previous election for that district. In 2006, the average for State Rep. was 4,534 valid signatures. Rs and Ds need 500 or 0 if they are slated. It was 300 until Michael Madigan and the Dems decided to make it harder for challengers in the primary starting this year.
For State Senate the average was 6,220. Rs and Ds need 1,000 or 0 if they are slated. It was 600 until this year.

The deadline for independents is the earliest of any state in the US. The signature requirements are the highest of any state in the US, and, according to Ballot Access News Editor Richard Winger;

"Outside of Illinois, no other jurisdiction in the world requires petitions for parties or candidates in excess of 5% of the number of registered voters."

The implications of Lee vs. Keith may seem trivial and unimportant to most, but consider the following information before siding with Lisa Madigan, her father, and most everyone in the General Assembly.

In a New York Times interview, Iranian president Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, very credibly defended Iran's elections by pointing out the imperfections right here in America.

Question: The criticism that I hear both from the inside and outside the country is that Iran has a veneer of democracy but the tools are not there so that everybody can use it. Will there ever be a democracy in Iran where all ideologies are allowed to compete openly?

Answer: We think it is the opposite and there is only a veneer of democracy in the Untied States and we have a real democracy. Election laws are so complicated in your country that people have no choice but to vote for one of the candidates who are with one of the two parties. The electoral system in U.S. has put the election out of the control of people and independent groups.

Question: Throughout your presidency and that of President Khatami there has been a constant tension between the reformists and conservatives. Mr. Khatami was unable to put through many of the reforms in terms of freedom of speech and other civil rights. I know you had similar problems during your administration. What would you do differently to allow those kinds of reforms to move forward?

Answer: Isn't there tension in the United States between the two major political parties? No other viable candidate can get anywhere except for the one who is with one of these two parties. The tension between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush was more than the tension in Iran. People of the U.S. have no choice but to choose between one of these two candidates. And, In Britain, which is one of your allies, there is constant tension between the conservatives and the labor party. They drag one another to court. I think it is more decent in Iran than in any other country.

Iran is far from democracy, but Illinois hardly allows all ideologies to compete freely. Putin in Russia has also cited restrictive ballot access laws in America when President Bush scolded Putin about Putin recently making it harder to get on the ballot in Russia.

What implications will Illinois laws have in Afghanistan and Iraq 10 or 20 years down the road? What good would all those purple fingers in Iraq be if the majority Shiite parties made it almost impossible for minority Sunni, Kurd, and Christian prospective candidates to run for office? Five years from now the majority Shiite parties could make it 30 times harder for competition to get on the ballot and accurately say that they are in line with a U.S. state like Illinois.

Even if The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals doesn't see the importance of free and equal elections or the sense of truly democratic elections where ideas can freely compete, the General Assembly should immediately change our worst in the US and world ballot access laws as soon as possible. Certainly they should change them before they again have to change the deadline in Illinois for Republicans to be on the ballot for President in 2008, like they did in 2004.

In one case, we have the Illinois Democrats going along with changing the deadline for President Bush to be on the ballot in Illinois for 2004 by moving it to less than 65 days before the General Election, but here we have Illinois Democrats saying a deadline of 323 days before the general election is perfectly fine. Give us a break and change the name to Anti-Democratic Party already.

If you can't trust your Leaders to hold free and equal elections, what can you trust them with?

Sorry for the length, but if there was a Read More category I would've used it.

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Quality of life monies or pork?

State Representative Jay Hoffman held a press conference in Collinsville yesterday to announce the grant monies being given to several metro east cities. $8.4 million will see its way to local communites while the rest of the $60 million from the federal government through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program will see its way to other parts of the state.

While taxpayer watchdog groups like The National Taxpayers of Illinois are unhappy, calling this money pork barrel politics and wasteful spending, local officials are smiling. Hoffman deflects criticism by saying "I tend to believe that what this does for quality of life is well worth it."

In many ways he's correct. Most taxpayers who despise what they consider pork money in other parts of the country or state, enjoy the benefits it brings to their own city. If this weren't so, these grants would never see the light of day and elected state officials would be voted out of office instead of being regularly re-elected.

So what do we think about Fairview Heights receiving $864,390 in order to plant 443 trees, nearly 3,400 shrubs and 22,660 perennials along the busy intersection's off-ramps? Or Collinsville receiving $1.5 million to enhance its already enhanced Main Street? Or $2.7 million for a Madison County hiking and bike trail?

Is quality of life spending a reasonable use of tax dollars?

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John Concepcion: We buy homes, shop locally and protect our nation.

Trib has a bunch of letters on same sex marriage including this one by John Concepcion. I've quoted a sentence from it in the title for the post.

Everyone complains Bush and Republicans are dividing the country. Seems odd because opposition to same sex marriage is one of the few issues I know of where there is a consensus against it. I'd be hard pressed to name a politican who favors allowing same-sex marriages (real marriages; not civil unions).

Concepcion gets it though: ...and protect our nation. Why he linked national security with buying a house and shopping locally a bit odd. But he's right.

The great strategic-political failure of the majority of Gay Activists will be they didn't promote the patriotism of Gay Americans and instead sought to drive ROTC's off campus because of don't ask, don't tell.

The price they'll pay for that is this: I'm certain there's a Gay equivalent to Gen Powell out there and we'll never now much about him or her. A big part of the reason will be the failure of Gay Activists to acknowledge the importance of ROTC in protecting our nation.

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Bloogers

It's not local... and this makes my third post for the day. But it's funny and an example of how some of us can't help blooging away.

I'd like to think though, if you requested me not to bloog it; I'd keep myself in control. Maybe he should have chatted with me on Illinoize instead.

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Water and the incredible growing Elgin

From the Press Release for yesterday's kickoff,

June 1, 2006 (Chicago) …State Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) and regional and statewide advocates for a clean, abundant water supply will mark World Environment Day – celebrated across the globe each year on June 5 to spur political action on environmental issues – by launching the Illinois Water Supply Initiative, the state's first step toward a much-needed comprehensive approach to managing our water resources. The news conference will take place Monday, June 5, at 11 a.m., at the John G. Shedd Aquarium on Chicago's Museum Campus.

and from the report (a pdf),

Illinois currently uses close to 20 billion gallons of water per day but consumption is expected to increase over the next 25 years. Although Illinois is considered to be a water-rich state, water shortages are forecast for at least 22 townships in the Chicago metropolitan area by 2020 and many more shortages are expected in years beyond 2025. Moreover, the lack of rain in the spring and summer of 2005 caused temporary shortages in many communities around the state.

I wonder how we'll quench the thirst for Mayor Schock's incredible growing Elgin. From Wikpedia,

Elgin ranks as one of the fastest growing cities in Illinois. In June 2005, the Chicago Tribune quoted Elgin Mayor Ed Schock saying that Elgin will in 40 years be the second largest city in Illinois.

I'm watching the battle on managing growth unfold here in Campton township and it's not a pretty sight as Sen Lauzen found out with SB2933. It brought the lobbyists out of the woodwork last February,

In the meantime, a lobbyist for powerful land developers visited me and they began their work to deny Campton a voice and St. Charles Township statutory opt-out before referendum. An email and fax campaign of misinformation was begun to panic senators, claiming that a school district was opposed to incorporation when, in truth, they had not even been asked about the issue. Another lobbyist from organized labor was sent ganging up against legislation that they could not have even read because it was in the drafting process at the Legislative Reference Bureau. And, finally, just forty-five minutes before my first presentation to the Illinois Senate Local Government Committee hearing, a reporter called to get a reaction from me to Kane County withdrawing their commitment to the legislation and amendment that they had written and Campton had agreed to.

Maybe we'll just drink beer instead.

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Chuck Goudie: sell the schools, not the lotto

Goudie had a good column in yesterday's Herald asking why we don't consider selling the schools instead of selling the lottery.

He relates some horror stories on bloated adminstrations and exhorbinate salaries and concludes,

Judging by the most recent results of statewide science testing, something needs to be done. Almost three-quarters of Illinois’ fourth- and eighth-graders flunked the test on physical, life and earth sciences. The results were even lower than five years and worse than the national average.

Selling the Illinois Lottery might be an easy answer. It certainly would be politically expedient for the governor if it could be tied up with a neat ribbon before the November election.

It would pump some fast money into the schools. But if the cash just ends up fattening administrators’ wallets, why not leave the Lotto alone?

Seems everyone sees through this lottery sale scheme, and I wonder if Rev Meeks isn't feeling Blagojevich shellaced him with a goofy deal.

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Laura Washington talks about the County Board Race...

So basically she does a run down of all the candidates for the Presidency of the Cook County Board. She didn't seem to do what Rev. Jesse Jackson did this weekend to call for the end to the silence with regards to John Stroger's health. But she did discuss who might be good fits for the job of County Board President.

Of course Todd Stroger's (8th Ward Alderman) name has come up often. He wants the job but Washington isn't exactly falling into line that if white politicians can anoint their children, so can black politicians. This is what she said about Ald. Stroger...

There's 8th Ward Ald. Todd Stroger. His public flip-flops about his father's condition and intentions are laughable. Cook County government -- a $3 billion corporation -- requires a keen administrator. He's a nice young man, but Todd Stroger has never run anything.

Which is why I think he'll be eaten alive if they let him have it but if he did get the nod this comment from Washington sizes up that situation...

Cook County needs a leader and a manager -- not a placeholder or a puppet.

So how about those other contenders. What about CHA chief Terry Peterson? Well he's not interested. Though he and Ald. William Beavers (7th ward) are considered compromise choices according to Washington. Then there's Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown...

...the ambitious Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. Besides, her independent black base gives the royal families of Stroger, Daley and Jackson the heebie-jeebies.

I like her already. But before this there was Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele. Almost in the same breath with Dorothy Brown. When Washington wrote this I honestly would have had absolutely no idea...

Cook County Commissioner Bobbie L. Steele is a 20-year board veteran and says she is up for the job. As a woman who has paid her dues, she's my sentimental favorite. She is up against her gender, and she knows it. Black male politicians are a sexist bunch, and they are not about to move over for any woman. I must say that even though he has no official sway in the decision, kudos should go to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. for backing Steele.

Those ladies have an uphill battle but I would like someone who was outside of the "machine" as Dorothy Brown apparently is. But unfortunetly I'm not sure that Steele's or Brown's time is coming. Then a choice out of left field and I say this because the focus surely had to been on finding a black candidate for Cook County Board President...

The joker in the deck is Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan. There a tiny problem there. He happens to be white. He also happens to be very qualified. Houlihan is a policy wonk who actually has a plan to turn the county around.

Oh, I just have to mention what she says about another potential candidate for the county board presidency. We've heard his name more than anyone else other than Todd Stroger. Rep. Danny Davis...

Rep. Danny K. Davis, aka The Voice of God, proclaims he is getting a raft of spontaneous "calls" for him to run. Davis is a veteran legislator and grass-roots advocate for the disadvantaged. No African-American official has worked harder to build political bridges between blacks and Latinos. Unfortunately, his operation has a reputation for disorganization, and I wonder about a congressman who would participate in a "coronation ceremony" for Sun Myung Moon. Davis did the crowning.

So she has some misgivings about that. It's interesting to see some intrigue around county government. And the characters seeking a very powerful and important seat. And just think this seems to be as a result of a man's failing health. And this man's health went down just before his primary election. Meaning that we see the drama unfolding at this very moment.

Cross-posted at It's My Mind

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