Archive for June, 2008
June 23rd, 2008
The Politico.com today published a mostly glowing profile of Barack Obama’s time as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama was the first African-American to head the prestigious student-run publication.
The eight dense volumes produced during his time in charge there — 2,083 pages in all — show the Review to have been a decidedly liberal institution, albeit one in transition as its focus on race and gender was contested by both liberals and conservatives. Under his tenure, the Review published calls to expand the powers of women, African-Americans and the elderly to sue for discrimination.
But Obama, who this March referred to “identity politics” as “an enormous distraction,” was not so easily pinned down. He published a searing attack on affirmative action by a former Reagan Administration official. And when, in an unusual move, he selected a young woman from a non-Ivy League law school to fill one of the Review’s most prestigious slots, she produced an essay focused on individual responsibilities as much as on liberties, which criticized both conservative judges and feminist scholars.
The article quotes scholars whose work the Law Review, under Obama’s direction, published. It also walks through the focus of several of those articles.
It concludes:
In the end, though, Obama’s time on the review mirrored other aspects of his life. Even in the staunchly liberal milieus in which he’s spent his entire adult life, Obama has managed to lead without leaving a clear ideological stamp, and to respect and even at times embrace opposing views. To his critics, that’s a sign of a lack of core beliefs. To his admirers, it’s the root of his appeal.
June 20th, 2008
As I covered the Prisoner Review Board’s consideration of Ted Bacino’s request for parole in recent weeks, one question that prosecutors and others repeatedly wondered aloud to me was: Why are so many parole board members determined to release a cop killer?
Bacino’s request for parole was denied on Thursday when just four of the board’s members voted to free him. But in past years, as many as six of the board’s members have voted for his release. He needs just seven votes for freedom.
The board’s chairman, Jorge Montes, has consistently promoted Bacino’s parole. On Thursday, Montes argued it was only a matter of time until the board finally releases him.
“Mr. Bacino is in very poor health. He’s been in poor health, maybe a little worse last year than this year. He’s had great support from this board — up to six votes last year and the year before. He’s going to be released whether we like it or not within the next eight years, probably, if he’s still alive,” Montes said.
“He’s had support from very notable figures in the community, including Justice (Prentice) Marshall (who) before he passed away was one of the most important jurists on the federal bench in Chicago, the Northern District. So (he’s) a very influential and important man who put his reputation on the line to support Mr. Bacino. He’s elderly. He has excellent support from his family. His wife has still been waiting for him. He’s got good support at home. And he’s very involved with his church group, with his pastor, etc. So I’m going to be voting (yes for parole).”
June 18th, 2008
Illinois Auditor General Bill Holland today took another whack at the state’s dysfunctional Department of Healthcare and Family Services. For starters, Holland’s audit said the department was slow to provide its financial statements to auditors.
From his audit summary:
The Department did not provide the auditors with timely and accurate financial statements. Financial reporting matters were first brought to the Department’s attention on June 19, 2007. On May 27, 2008 the Department ultimately agreed with the accounting presentation recommended by the State Comptroller and the Office of the Auditor General.
The Department’s actions resulted in significant delays in the financial reporting process, were dilatory and were a disservice to the users of the State’s financial reports.
The Department made inappropriate payments of Workers’ Compensation Act claims from its appropriation for health care coverage. These payments totaled approximately $20 million.
The Department did not pay the fiscal year 2007 hospital improvement access payments on a timely basis. All fiscal year 2007 payments totaling $1.2 billion were paid on September 25, 2007.
The Department did not require Cook County to comply with an Intergovernmental Agreement that was executed between the Department and the County. Cook County owed the Department $10 million at June 30, 2007.
The Department did not exercise adequate internal control over voucher processing. A total of $1.6 million in 2008 medical services was paid from fiscal year 2007 appropriations. Further, an estimated $17.6 million in interest is owed to medical providers at June 30, 2007.
The Department did not pay interest on intercepted State income tax refunds. The Key Information System is not capable of automatically calculating interest on intercepted State income tax refunds.
Holland is on a roll.
June 17th, 2008
I recently told you about a major political fight over the re-appointment of former Chicago cop Salvador Diaz to the Prisoner Review Board, just as the board prepares to vote on whether to parole local cop killer Ted Bacino.
The State Journal-Register has much, much more today:
A collection of law enforcement and victims’ rights groups is decrying what they view as an effort to make the Illinois Prisoner Review Board more lenient.
In a letter sent to state senators and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the organizations say the “recent debacle” over reappointing a former Chicago police officer to the 15-member board shows that the process is becoming politicized.
“The incident was an absolutely unacceptable act of political manipulation and patronage that endangers the Illinois public and the political reputations of those pressured into supporting such an effort,” says the letter signed by 12 groups. “We ask your most sincere efforts to prevent patronage and political deal making from being used when it comes to the Prisoner Review Board.”
Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago Democrat who led the fight to oust Diaz repeated his stock explanation that Diaz violated protocol by failing to ask Hendon for his blessing. He said his determination to remove Diaz from the parole board was not part of an effort on his part to steer the board leftward.
Hendon gave a similar explanation in 2005 when he worked to reject the nomination of consumer advocate Marty Cohen to the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates utilities. Hendon said Gov. Rod Blagojevich violated protocol by by not seeking his blessing for the Cohen appointment.
“Marty Cohen is not the only talent in this town,” bellowed Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago Democrat who chairs a committee that, earlier Thursday, voted 7-0 against the nomination.
Hendon said his opposition was meant as a message to Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat who failed to consult with him before advancing Cohen’s name.
“Rod Blagojevich,” Hendon shouted on the Senate floor, “get your act together!”
Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat who teamed with Hendon to reject Cohen, said their effort had nothing to do with trying to protect ComEd by preventing one of the utility’s adversaries from joining the ICC — one of the greatest donors to Jones’ campaign fund.
Utilities contributed more than $1.3 million to the campaign funds of Illinois policymakers and candidates since the beginning of 2003, according to a report published in October by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a nonpartisan government watchdog.
The report said Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, took $219,400 of that money, making him the top recipient. It said ComEd parent company Exelon, together with its subsidiaries, lead the donors with $535,400 in contributions.
“No contributions that I receive impact the decisions that I make here,” Jones said after the Senate panel rejected Cohen.
More background on the Cohen fight is here and here.
After the Senate rejected Cohen, Blagojevich appointed former Rockford Mayor Charles Box to head the ICC, and the Senate confirmed him. Box promptly voted to rubber-stamp ComEd’s plan to procure power through reverse auctions — a plan that consumer advocates opposed. (The Legislature later abolished reverse auctions.)
Anyway, back the parole board.
Republicans, like prosecutors, believe Hendon and Jones are in fact trying to make the parole board more sensitive to the calls of prisoners seeking freedom.
“There’s no doubt the Senate Democrats want to remove law enforcement personnel (from the board),” said Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale. “They’re seen as too strict when it comes to parole.”
“I’ve heard that they are trying to remove all of the law enforcement people from the Prisoner Review Board,” said Sen. John Millner, R-Carol Stream. “From behind the scenes and people talking in back rooms, there’s (supposedly) not enough prisoners being released.”
Millner said he thought it inappropriate to oust the last former law enforcer from the board. At one time, there were three: Diaz, former Tazewell County Sheriff James Donahue and ex-Peoria Police Chief John Stenson.
Blagojevich didn’t reappoint Donahue, and Stenson’s reappointment was rejected by the Senate in 2007.
The Prisoner Review Board is expected to vote Thursday on Bacino’s request for parole.
June 13th, 2008
If Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey has been anything toward state government leaders — even when they haven’t been Rockford’s friend — it’s diplomatic.
When unpopular Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to deep-six Morrissey’s chief legislative priority last spring, Morrissey had nary a critical word about Blagojevich. And though Rockford’s own state senator, Republican Dave Syverson, has for the second year in a row failed to advance Morrissey’s objectives in the Senate, Morrissey hasn’t offered much criticism about Syverson, either.
And so I was particularly surprised to see Morrissey join a recent staged event in Rockford dedicated to bashing House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. From Chuck Sweeny’s column:
Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen said Madigan was stifling democracy and demanded, “Mr. Speaker, pass the (word I can’t use) bill.” Mayor Larry Morrissey, not to be outdone by the county, said maybe it’s time for voters to change the state’s rules by having a constitutional convention, something they’ll be asked on the Nov. 4 ballot.
“Who here voted for Mike Madigan?” the mayor shouted. “I’m angry, I’m (word I can’t use) off.”
It’s true that voters in Rockford did not elect Madigan. Voters in Madigan’s district on the southwest side of Chicago elected him to the House. Other Democratic representatives — including Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford — elected him speaker of their chamber.
It’s also true that Madigan quashed a recent plan for a new statewide capital construction plan — a plan backed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the state’s other three legislative leaders. The plan could have meant more than $100 million in funding for local infrastructure projects.
In a news conference Saturday night, Madigan said he supports a new capital plan. But he said Blagojevich — his fellow Democrat and political adversary — must first modify his governing style.
He also undercut plans to expand gambling and lease the state lottery — two ways in which supporters of the defeated plan hoped to raise money to support it. Madigan prefers an income tax hike.
“It’s the fairest tax. If you make money, you pay the tax. If you don’t, you don’t pay the tax,” he said, adding he was not actually proposing an income tax hike.
But it’s also true that Madigan has arguably sent more state dollars to Rockford than any other legislator — including Jefferson, Syverson and former Rep. Doug Scott, D-Rockford — since Rep. Zeke Giorgi, the city’s last great Springfield mover and shaker, died in 1993.
In 2002, Madigan secured $14.5 million in grants for Rockford, including $3.9 million for MetroCentre improvements, $3 million for water-main extensions and $2.5 million for two additional levels to the Pioneer parking deck. The money was part of $1.6 billion that former Gov. George Ryan and legislative leaders set aside to cement support for Ryan’s Illinois FIRST capital program.
As Sweeny noted in his column, Zeke was a Madigan mentor, and Madigan has always had a certain affection for Rockford. To this day, Madigan has framed photos of Zeke and Zeke’s family in his sparsely decorated Statehouse office. He has a conference room named after Zeke.
Over the last two years, Madigan has consistently gone out of his way to support Rockford initiatives sponsored by Jefferson, who last spring became a member of Madigan’s exclusive leadership team. Morrissey’s office didn’t get its anti-truancy plan — one of the mayor’s chief legislative initiative — to legislators until late April, a little more than a month before the end of spring session. But Madigan’s staff worked with Jefferson to twice maneuver Morrissey’s plan through the House before session ended.
Madigan’s staff also was instrumental in winning approval of Morrissey’s top priority last spring — a change in state law that allowed Rockford to impose an extra 1-percentage-point sales tax six months earlier than law otherwise would have allowed. When Blagojevich vetoed Morrissey’s expedited sales tax plan, Madigan’s staff was again key to winning the Legislature’s override of Blagojevich’s veto.
Madigan helped Morrissey even though Morrissey, running as an independent, ousted Madigan’s ally — Democrat Doug Scott — from the mayor’s office in 2005.
Jefferson is a well-intentioned legislator. And over the last two years, he was worked to assert a higher profile for himself. But without Madigan’s staff, I’m not sure either of these Morrissey initiatives would have advanced, given the considerable obstacles they faced.
Morrissey has said much over the last two years about his desire to hire a lobbyist in Springfield. But Rockford already has a virtual lobbyist: Michael Cassidy, a Madigan staffer who works closely with Jefferson and, by extension, Morrissey and his staff. Cassidy has coached Jefferson on everything from drafting to passing bills. And when Morrissey and his staff have worked to press their agenda, Cassidy coached them too.
Madigan killed the capital plan in the course of his ongoing feud with Blagojevich, whose stature has crumbled under a federal probe of his administration. Call Madigan’s move on the capital plan what you will — irresponsible, petty, vindictive. But it is what it is. Madigan isn’t budging.
Madigan withstood pressure from Blagojevich and every other legislative leader, not to mention members of his own caucus, and he killed the capital program anyway. His determination to undermine Blagojevich trumps other political and practical considerations. Did Morrissey, Christiansen and others at the “bash Madigan” event in Rockford truly think they would muster the pressure necessary to finally break Madigan?
Madigan is famous for his attention to detail. I’d bet it’s safe to say he has already taken notice of Morrissey’s “bash Madigan” remarks. I’m eager to see how much Madigan helps Morrissey now.
UPDATE 1
Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, authors a weekly column that he distributes to local newspapers. Here’s the relevant portion of last week’s column:
What a gutsy lady. Though I often disagree with Representative Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) on issues she brings before the House, she hit the nail on the head last Saturday evening at about 10:30. Ms. Hamos expressed her anger and disgust on the House floor (and on the record) as she chastised Speaker Michael Madigan for refusing to allow our $31 billion capital jobs and infrastructure plan from moving forward. The bill passed out of the Senate with bi-partisan support, but was manipulated in the House and killed with procedural maneuvering by the Speaker’s leadership team.
Ms. Hamos stated for all to hear that Speaker Madigan didn’t want this Governor traveling the state for the next two years cutting ribbons and accepting accolades. What a shame. 700,000 jobs – good jobs repairing and building roads, bridges and schools – lost; at least for now. Northwest Illinois stood to benefit greatly as did every part of our state.
Former U. S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a Republican, and former Congressman and current Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard, a Democrat, had been traveling the state garnering support for a capital jobs bill at the Governor’s request. You could literally feel the excitement building as the bill passed out of the Senate Saturday afternoon. The Governor himself worked very hard for the bill’s passage. Sadly, many of us recognized early on that the Speaker would come up with some maneuver to prevent it from passing the House.
The Speaker’s excuse is that he believes the funding mechanism is not correct. He says there should be some “pain” involved. (Translation: he wants an income tax increase). He also has said that you can’t trust this Governor with that kind of money. Certainly the trust issue is significant. But is it significant enough to prevent the creation of 700,000 new jobs and to punish the 13 million people in this state without even trying to come to consensus? I personally think not and I believe most lawmakers agree with me.
The Governor was on the floor with us Saturday night talking with individual members about the capital bill. From my seat, which is literally in the first row right in front of the podium, I was able to watch what appeared to be a cordial exchange between the Governor and Speaker Madigan. I’m told, however, that it was anything but cordial. The Speaker’s press secretary, Steve Brown, said “The speaker, based on his experience, has determined that meetings with this Governor are not a productive use of his time.” What a shame. Isn’t it time to move this state forward?
UPDATE 2
Blasts from the past …
During Morrissey’s 2005 campaign to unseat Scott, both Blagojevich and Madigan worked to save Scott and defeat Morrissey.
Blagojevich said access for Scott is, in fact, a matter of friendship. He said he’d “like to think” that he’d take phone calls from the Rockford mayor regardless of his or her party affiliation, but that the nature of his “close, personal relationship” to Scott means phone calls get answered on the fly.
“If my brother calls, I get that call directly. When Doug calls, I get that call directly,” Blagojevich said. “A lot of other calls, you tend to get it on a sheet at the end of the day.”
Madigan, who also is chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, was less diplomatic. He implied the absence of Scott would be Rockford’s loss.
“He’s got a personal relationship with me,” Madigan said. “So when he calls, I take his call. If I get a call from the mayor of Peoria, I may not take it; I may not return it. I don’t even know who he is, the mayor of Peoria.”
Later that year, Morrissey made his Capitol lobbying debut.
As he departed the Capitol Thursday, Morrissey brushed aside a question about whether tension underscored his meetings with Blagojevich and Madigan.
“What we’ve got are two professionals who want to get progress done,” he said. “They understand that the mayor of the city of Rockford, no matter who it is, is the leader of a region of close to 300,000 people. They recognize that. Plus, Speaker Madigan is a Notre Dame guy, so we had that in common.”
June 11th, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich will try once again today to kickstart talk about correcting a budget plan that he says is $2.1 billion out of balance. At 10:30 a.m., Blagojevich plans to meet with legislative leaders in his Chicago office, just as he did in the first such meeting last week.
But just as he did last week, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is expected to skip today’s meeting and instead send a surrogate. So when Blagojevich takes he seat this morning at a table with legislative leaders, he won’t see the face of one man whose support probably is necessary to win approval of any budget change — a tax or fee increase, perhaps, or an expansion of gambling — that the others all may agree on.
For his part, Madigan is busy promoting the notion that lawmakers ought to consider impeaching Blagojevich. A memo Madigan sent to House Democratic candidates says, “Criminal activity in the Blagojevich administration is no longer
theoretical - it is proven.”
It also says, “Blagojevich is clearly not an innocent victim of circumstances,” and that, “One thing we learned from the George Ryan case is that we should excise a tumor when it is first discovered; not leave it in the body to continue to spread and do further harm.”
You read that right. The governor has now, in the eyes of the House speaker, been relegated to “a tumor.”
As governor, Blagojevich has the power to veto the budget and send it back to lawmakers for their reconsideration. But as I noted in a previous post, Blagojevich has not mustered the courage to so much as threaten to veto the budget or, for that matter, call lawmakers back to Springfield in special session. By calling a series of meetings with legislative leaders, Blagojevich may look as if he is pursuing solutions, but without actually using — or even threatening to use — the actual tools at his disposal as governor.
Then again, Blagojevich could not veto the out-of-balance budget plan even if he wanted to do so. Though the Senate and House both approved that budget, the presiding officers of those chambers — Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, and Madigan — have not yet transmitted that budget to the governor. The governor cannot act on bills that lawmakers have not sent to him for his formal consideration.
As the CapFax Blog noted on Tuesday, this conundrum puts Blagojevich squarely at odds with Jones, his chief ally in the Legislature. The budget consists of multiple bills. And because most of those bills originated in the Senate, Senate President Jones therefore is the first to decide when to release those bills to the governor. (Both Jones and Madigan ultimately must sign off on each bill.) Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer did not respond to my requests for comment on Tuesday.
Under the state Constitution, the Legislature has 30 days to transmit the budget to the governor. Since the core of the budget did not pass until May 31 — the last day of spring session — the Legislature may wait until June 30 to send Blagojevich the budget. That’s the last day of this fiscal year. If Blagojevich does not act on the budget by the following day, then this state will enter its new fiscal year without a budget. If there still is no budget a couple weeks later, state workers will start missing their paychecks. Schools could miss out on their state money. And so on.
If the Legislature waits until late June to send Blagojevich the budget, he will face tremendous political pressure to approve it in full or make only limited cuts, rather than vetoing it in full. If vetoes the entire budget anyway, there is no telling when the state might have something resembling another budget. The political complications would be numerous.
For starters, lawmakers need a three-fifths majority to approve any budget at this point. That requires Republican votes — the same Republicans shut out of negotiations leading to the budget that passed May 31. Republicans would have lots of catching up to do, to say the least.
Jones may have another reason to avoid a summer session: If the Senate is in session for just a few days this summer, then pay raises will automatically kick in for Jones and other senators because Jones and fellow Democratic leaders refused to allow senators to vote on whether to reject that pay raise.
Lawmakers have just 30 days to act on the pay raise recommended by an obscure commission, or it automatically becomes law. The House has already voted to reject the raise; now it’s up to the Senate. Jones may prefer for the pay raise to kick in after the Nov. 4 general election. But to suspend the 30-day clock until then, the Senate must avoid session days.
For his part, Blagojevich also has reason to avoid a summertime session. The longer lawmakers are sitting idle in Springfield, as they did for much of last summer, the more likely they are to talk about impeaching the embattled Blagojevich.
Madigan is doing his part to fuel talk of impeachment. He said recently that his legal counsel had already researched the law on impeachment and he noted it takes just 60 votes in the House, a 118-member chamber, to impeach the governor. He also distributed a 14-page memo with talking points on impeachment to House Democratic candidates, according to news reports published Tuesday.
A Madigan aide said the document is not necessarily reflective of the speaker’s personal views but was prepared by House Democratic campaign staff.
“Candidates get incessant questions from the media about the impeachment process. Some asked staff if they could have background and information,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
Blagojevich responded:
“This is another example of the pettiness, silliness and backroom games that Speaker Madigan has been playing for months to prevent progress,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. “We wish he would drop his behind-the-scenes maneuvering and come to the [legislative] leaders’ meetings.”
The full memo is here. If you’ve got 10 minutes, it’s well worth a read:
The list of Blagojevich’s malfeasance and inability to govern grows with every passing
day. It is not simply his legal problems that brought him to where he is today. These are
not stray, isolated incidents, but rather taken together they represent a clear pattern of
behavior and demonstrate Blagojevich’s consistently poor judgment and third-class
temperament. Time and again Blagojevich has been tested and found wanting.
From there, the memo lists precisely 30 examples of Blagojevich’s alleged “malfeasance and inability to govern.”
More to the point, it lists three reasons for the House to launch an impeachment investigation:
1. The ongoing federal criminal investigations of his administration,
including his role as Public Official A, have significantly impaired his
ability to do his job as governor. With Ali Atta’s guilty plea, the governor
has been directly implicated in a bribes-for-jobs scheme - the latest
revelation of malfeasance in the governor’s office. The conviction of Tony
Rezko on 16 or 24 federal corruption counts related to Blagojevich
administration activities also suggests something is seriously amiss. Using
common sense, and the totality of what has been learned so far about these
investigations, prudence demands that lawmakers act. Already, six
individuals associated with his administration have pled or been found
guilty of federal criminal charges in connection with their roles in corrupt
activities. Criminal activity in the Blagojevich administration is no longer
theoretical - it is proven.
Blagojevich is clearly not an innocent victim of circumstances.
Legislators have a responsibility to do what is in the best interests of the
state and not depend on the federal government to save us. One thing we
learned from the George Ryan case is that we should excise a tumor when
it is first discovered; not leave it in the body to continue to spread and do
further harm.
2. Blagojevich’s violation of his oath of office by repeatedly attempting to
operate outside of the Illinois constitution and state law - expanding
FamilyCare beyond the limit authorized by the General Assembly,
spending money absent express statutory authority, failing to comply with
AG ruling that federal subpoenas are subject to FOIA, and a gross abuse
of the constitution’s special session power - using special session as a
blunt force instrument for dealing with the General Assembly and
attempting to force it to submit to his will - rather than for deal with
emergency situations.
3. Finally, Blagojevich’s legal problems have clearly become a distraction
for the governor. He is largely withdrawn from the legislative process spending
most of his time hunkered down at home or in a political
campaign office in Ravenswood hiding from the public and refusing to
answer the media’s questions. Aside from an occasional meeting or event
appearance, he is not faithfully executing the duties of his office.
Blagojevich acts like an absentee governor - content to let his underlings
do as they wish. That’s not acceptable. We need an engaged governor
who wants to be the governor.
Governor Blagojevich’s inability to govern is the principal reason that the
state is in its current predicament and that stalemate is the order of the day
in Springfield. The first step to cleaning up the mess and getting the state
back on track may be to remove the governor from office. If the evidence
warrants it, we cannot afford to wait until 2010. That will be too late and
he will have had two-and-a-half years to do even more damage to the
state.
Yowsers.
June 10th, 2008
This couldn’t help matters between Madigan and Blago …
House Speaker Michael Madigan is circulating a memo to legislative candidates spelling out how they can discuss whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich should be impeached - with talking points that compare corruption under the governor to a tumor that must be removed.
The 14-page rundown of Blagojevich’s alleged “misdeeds and malfeasance” is sure to deepen the feud between the two Democrats and lend substance to talk of impeachment.
A memo sent to some House Democratic candidates, obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press, offers detailed talking points on the merits of impeachment.
“One thing we learned from the (imprisoned former Republican Gov.) George Ryan case is that we should excise a tumor when it is first discovered; not leave it in the body to continue to spread and do further harm,” the memo reads.
June 9th, 2008
Sheila Nix, a deputy governor to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is leaving her $135,000-a-year post to, ahem, spend time with “family.”
“In these positions, you have to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to be able to do your job,” Nix said. “Obviously, we spend a lot of time in Springfield and I’m away some. It was really more just a situation where I felt like after four years, it was the right time.”
The governor’s senior staff spend “a lot of time in Springfield”?
C’mon!
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| “Say What?” |
Anyway, Nix’s exit neatly coincides with the conviction last week of Tony Rezko, a Blagojevich insider, on federal corruption charges. And it follows the recent departure of press secretary Rebecca Rausch, who called the governor’s office — the subject of multiple federal probes — “a great working environment.”
Nix dutifully trumpeted the governor as a guy determined to help people.
Nix said she does not believe Blagojevich has changed how he goes about his work because of the trial of Rezko, who was a top fund-raiser for the governor.
“The governor is focused on doing his job,” she said. “That’s what he’s doing, and that’s what he’ll continue to do.”
This is the same governor who enters and departs the Capitol using its lowest-profile door — the one in the rear of the building, next to a trash compacter — during his infrequent visits here. From that door, the governor accesses a basement tunnel, which he uses to get to and from his office.
Now, for the best part. Nix defended Blagojevich’s heavy reliance, early in his administration, on advice from now-convicted Tony Rezko.
“Tony was a successful businessman at that time,” Nix said. “I think the governor’s point of view is, ‘I want to bring new people into state government. I want to have people who understand business.’”
“If you turn back the clock … the idea of getting recommendations from a successful businessperson made some sense,” Nix said.
Yes, Rezko was a successful businessman in Chicago. He was a real estate developer who also owned pizza and Panda Express franchises.
But in political circles, Rezko was well known — even in 2003, when Blagojevich took office — as a prolific fundraiser. He raised gobs and gobs of money for pols like Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. He understood how to get people with money into the same room, and how to get those people to hand their money over to the pol of his choice. In doing so, Rezko ingratiated himself to those pols.
Rezko raised an estimated $1.4 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund, according to an FBI agent who testified at Rezko’s trial.
When Blagojevich took office as governor after campaigning on a promise to clean up state government in the wake of Gov. George Ryan’s scandal-tarred administration, he handed control over much of state government directly to Rezko, according to numerous witnesses who testified at Rezko’s trial.
The governor’s patronage chief had breakfast with Rezko on Monday mornings to talk about job openings that Rezko might wish to fill. The governor’s chief of staff reportedly cleared key decisions with Rezko. Rezko hand-picked some state agency directors. He attended the governor’s high-level meetings. He even sat in the room when Susan Lichtenstein interviewed to be the governor’s chief legal counsel.
The notion that Blagojevich yielded to Rezko because he was sincerely determined to include “new people” who “understand business” in the administration of state government — rather than because Rezko packed $1.4 million into his campaign fund — is nothing short of absurd.
June 5th, 2008
Gov. Blagojevich insists there’s a $2.1 billion hole in the budget lawmakers approved on Saturday.
Yet, he has not vetoed — or even threatened to veto — that spending plan. Nor has he called — or threatened to call — lawmakers back to Springfield in special session, as he did repeatedly last year. Remember that circus?
So what gives?
First and foremost, Blagojevich is far more politically vulnerable this summer than he was last summer (if you can imagine that). The trial of Tony Rezko, Blagojevich’s former fundraiser and adviser, is now complete, with Rezko found guilty on 16 of 24 counts.
The feds clearly signaled during that trial, which lasted most of the spring, their keen interest in Blagojevich’s activities. Witness after witness testified about Rezko’s extraordinary influence over Blagojevich’s administration. Rezko hand-picked workers and advisers for the governor. Lon Monk, the governor’s former-chief-of-staff-turned-lobbyist, allegedly checked with Rezko before the governor’s office made decisions.
Oh yeah, and there was that pair of $25,000 donationsAli Ata made to Blagojevich just as Blagojevich gave Ata a high-ranking state post.
Meanwhile, certain House Democrats are clamoring to begin impeachmentproceedings against the wounded governor. House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, coyly acknowledged Saturday night that his legal counsel had already researched the law on impeachment. Madigan added that “60 votes” in the House is all it requires to impeach the governor.
It just so happens that the Illinois Constitution says lawmakers may consider three matters during a special session called by the governor — the subject of the governor’s order, “impeachments” and confirmation of appointments.
The Governor may convene the General Assembly or the
Senate alone in special session by a proclamation stating the
purpose of the session; and only business encompassed by such
purpose, together with any impeachments or confirmation of
appointments shall be transacted.
Throw into that mix the fact that lawmakers now need a three-fifthsmajority to modify their existing budget plan or approve a new one, making any budget deal far more complicated than it would have been prior to May 31. If Blagojevich vetoes the budget, it could take weeks or months for lawmakers to put that budget back together. And if lawmakers spend weeks of months wrestling through another summertime session, chances are good that they will talk seriously about impeachment.
Blagojevich, at least at this juncture, does not appear willing to go there.
And then there’s the political interest of Blagojevich’s ally, Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago.
Salary increases recommended by an independent board automatically take effect unless they’re voted down by both houses of the General Assembly, which didn’t happen before legislators adjourned for the spring Saturday night. […]
Those increases would raise the basic salary of a state representative and senator more than $7,000 a year to nearly $73,000. Legislative leaders’ compensation would top $100,000, and the governor’s salary would rise $20,000 to $190,000.
The House voted to reject the raises. The Senate never acted, and Senate President Emil Jones has made remarks supporting the additional money. […]
There’s still time for senators to reject the newest recommendation. Lawmakers have 30 session days to act, and four days remain before that deadline.
In other words, senators may need to spend just four more days in Springfield, and their raise automatically goes into effect. (I must note that there is considerable debate about when this 30-day clock expires; there’s even debate over when the clock started ticking. The AP’s “four days” conclusion is just one interpretation I encountered.)
Jones and his Senate Dems likely do not want to be hanging around in Springfield, fighting their way through another budget that they failed to balance during the regular spring session, even as their pay raise becomes effective simply because they refused to vote on whether to reject the raise.
By refusing to call special sessions, Blago can help Jones by pre-empting such a political pickle. If there are no special sessions this summer, the raise won’t go into effect until after the Nov. 4 general election.
You might say Blago is in a bind.
June 2nd, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. at his Chicago office to comment on the budget approved Saturday night by Democratic legislators.
As you probably know, that budget is out of balance by some $ 2 billion.
There is much speculation that Blago will veto the budget and call lawmakers back to Springfield, were they would start from scratch with a new budget.
Democrats shut Republicans out of negotiations over the budget they sent to Blago Saturday. But any budget approved after May 31 requires a three-fifths majority for passage, and that requires GOP votes.
UPDATE 1
CapFax Blog reports there will be no special session announcement.
UPDATE 2
Blago’s statement:
Gov. Blagojevich announces General Assembly’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget unbalanced, unconstitutional
Governor urges all four leaders to join negotiations on operating and capital budgets
Initial review shows House inaction on new revenue leaves FY09 budget $2.1 billion in the red
CHICAGO – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced today that after an initial review, his budget experts have found the Fiscal Year 2009 budget passed by the General Assembly on Saturday to contain $2.1 billion more in spending than anticipated revenue will support, making it unconstitutional. The Illinois State Constitution requires the legislature to pass a balanced budget. The Governor said he will call the four legislative leaders together this week to resume work so the people of Illinois will have a budget that fulfills constitutional requirements and meets the state’s needs by July 1.
“As consumer prices go up and wages stay the same, households across Illinois and across the whole country are making tough decisions. Some people may cut back on expenses, or pick up extra shifts at work – whatever it takes to make ends meet. Our lawmakers should take the same responsible approach when it comes to budgeting the public’s resources. Unfortunately, because the House did not pass new revenue as the Senate did, I have a budget on my desk that jeopardizes the State’s ability to meet its core responsibilities like providing healthcare, educating our youth and protecting the public,” said Gov. Blagojevich.
The new budget lawmakers approved for Fiscal Year 2009, which begins on July 1, includes a $1.2 billion increase in spending over the Governor’s FY2009 introduced budget. The General Assembly’s budget does not include $875 million of new revenue contained in the Governor’s proposed FY09 budget, leaving it $2.1 billion in deficit.
The Illinois Constitution states that the General Assembly “by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.”
While the Illinois State Senate passed two new revenue sources, the House failed to adopt them. Those revenue sources included $530 million through transfers from special purpose funds, and $400 million which would have been freed up through a refinancing of the state’s pension debt.
The Governor warned lawmakers that more work will be required to ensure the state can afford to meet its obligations and serve the public in the fiscal year ahead.
“This budget will not be final until it is balanced. Lawmakers, especially those in the House, have more work to do in order to enact an operating budget that’s balanced and a capital bill that will put people to work and fix our aging infrastructure. I will call a meeting with the four legislative leaders this week to resume the work necessary to make sure we have met our responsibility to the people of Illinois before the new fiscal year begins on July 1. It’s imperative that all four leaders take equal responsibility for ensuring we can pay for new spending, and can meet the state’s most pressing needs. To date this year, that responsibility has not been shared evenly,” the Governor added.
After the state Senate approved new revenue mechanisms in conjunction with the increased spending plan, the House pushed through the spending plan without passing the Senate’s proposals to provide revenue necessary to pay for it.
In early March, Gov. Blagojevich appointed former Republican US House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Democratic US Congressman Glenn Poshard as co-chairs of the Illinois Works Coalition. The duo focused on crafting and passing an infrastructure and jobs bill that would address pressing capital needs that have built up since the last public works plan was passed nine years ago. The co-chairs facilitated regular meetings with the Governor and four legislative caucuses to draft a capital plan that could be acceptable to all participants. Three of the four leaders participated in those negotiations. In the end, the House Democratic leadership used procedural maneuvers to kill the negotiated capital plan before it could be voted on by the full House.
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