Posts filed under 'Illinois politics'
June 30th, 2008
The National Rifle Association isn’t wasting any time following the U.S. Supreme Court’s pro-gun decision on Thursday.
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| The Late Charlton Heston,
NRA King |
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision striking down a gun ban in Washington, the National Rifle Association on Friday sued Chicago and three suburbs to have their firearm bans repealed.
The separate federal suits by the NRA target gun bans in Evanston, Morton Grove and Oak Park in addition to Chicago.
On Thursday, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association also sued Chicago to overturn its 26-year gun ban.
Each of Friday’s lawsuits was filed on behalf of three or four NRA members who live in Chicago or the three suburbs and want the court to block the enforcement of the gun bans.
The suits in Chicago’s federal court quickly followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to throw out the longtime Washington gun ban.
That opened the door for legal challenges to other municipalities that have similar laws.
Similar lawsuits have been filed against other cities, including San Francisco.
The Supreme Court said in its landmark decision that the “Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”
However, the high court said “the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.”
It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any
manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed
weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment
or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast
doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by
felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms
in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or
laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of
arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those
“in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition
of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.
The complete decision is here.
Justice Breyer noted in his dissent that “Chicago has a law very similar to the District’s, and many of its suburbs also ban handgun possession under most circumstances.”
May 31st, 2008
The powers that be of Illinois government do little in moderation, especially when it really counts.
Today, on the last day of spring session, they’re poised to do it all. They’re gearing up to pass not only a spending plan of roughly $60 billion for the next fiscal year, but also a $31 billion multi-year capital construction program.
Oh, and to help raise money to cover that spending, they may also approve a massive expansion of gambling and agree to lease the Illinois lottery to private investors.
The last day of session is a long, long day. Negotiations continue behind closed doors as lawmakers dart from committee to floor debate and back. Staff rush to put into writing conceptual agreements brokered by legislative leaders. Then they rush those budget plans back to rank-and-file lawmakers, who vote on them even as they attempt to read and understand them.
When voting is over — often just minutes before midnight — they party. They head to a nightclub near the Capitol, and dance, drink and eat until sunrise. Then they say goodbye and head home for the summer.
Or not.
The larger a budget agreement, the more complication it can be to move – with all its parts — through the Legislature in a way that satisfies lawmakers highly suspicious of each other.
If they can’t pull it off by midnight, the beast implodes. They need only a simple majority — 50 percent plus one vote — to approve most of the package by midnight. Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, can advance their plan largely without a single Republican vote.
Once midnight strikes, they need a three-fifths majority. The Democrats can’t get that without the help of Republicans — the same Republicans they have, until this point, kept in the dark.
May 29th, 2008
With each report released by the state’s chief auditor, it becomes clearer that Illinois government under the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich is unravelling.
On Tuesday, it was the governor’s budget office and the Illinois Department of Central Management Services — the state’s central purchasing agency — under scrutiny. And it wasn’t pretty.
First, there’s the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, or GOMB (pronounced GUM-by by Capitol cynics). According to Auditor General Bill Holland’s report, the office with “management” in its name failed to manage on multiple levels. From the audit summary, here are the highlights:
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| Bozo the Clown |
The Office did not exercise adequate controls over contractual agreements.
The Office did not exercise adequate control over its interagency agreements and related travel expenditures.
The Office did not exercise adequate control over its travel functions.
The Office personnel files did not contain all required information.
The Office did not maintain sufficient controls over the recording and reporting of State property.
The Office did not fully comply with annual financial reporting requirements set forth by continuing disclosure undertakings.
The Office did not comply with provisions of the Accountability for the Investment of Public Funds Act.
The Office did not exercise adequate control over its Cash Management Improvement Act Annual Report.
One might say GOMB failed to “exercise adequate control.”
From the Tribune, here’s a closer look at some of the details:
The audit found 12 significant lapses of adequate controls over such things as contracts with other state agencies, travel expenditures, salary adjustments and the recording and reporting of state property.
In reviewing 21 contracts worth nearly $7.3 million, auditors found that the office failed to bid competitively for legal and other services, did not properly maintain documents and awarded contracts to bidders that did not receive the highest scores under bidding criteria.
For example, two legal services contracts to major law firms were not competitively bid. Freeborn & Peters was awarded a $50,000 contract in September 2005, while Barnes & Thornburg received a $40,000 contract in August 2005. By law, the state must bid all such professional service contracts that cost more than $20,000.
More here from the AP:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s Office of Management and Budget improperly awarded state contracts and had difficulty monitoring others, a state audit said today.
The review by Auditor General William Holland found that the budget office did not issue contracts based on required competitive bidding procedures. It also wrongly paid employees for travel expenses and failed to document workers’ pay raises.
“As the management agency of state government, they’re setting a poor example,” Holland said.
Now, on to CMS.
From the summary of Holland’s audit, here’s my personal favorite, which concerns a deal between CMS and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services
In April 2007 an interagency agreement was transacted between the Department and HFS which essentially authorized the Department to expend funds (up to $20 million) from HFS’ appropriation from the Health Insurance Reserve Fund for the payment of medical expenses under the Workers’ Compensation program. During fiscal year 2007, the Department processed $19,998,199 from HFS’ appropriation for State Employees Group Insurance to pay for claims and services related to the Workers’ Compensation Act.
In other words, CMS and HFS — the agency responsible for managing the state’s health care programs — forged an agreement under which CMS raided nearly $20 million set aside for state worker health insurance to pay costs associated with worker’s comp. This is the “health care governor,” after all.
CMS also had trouble keeping its fiscal years straight, Holland’s audit found.
In the fiscal year 2007 lapse period, the Department accepted payments from the Department of Revenue (IDOR), totaling $2,825,621, that were not associated with any billings for services rendered. The Department did apply $614,957 of these payments toward outstanding balances owed by IDOR. IDOR reported expenditure against its current fiscal year appropriations, while the Department was recognizing the receipt as an advance payment against fiscal year 2008 services. This is a violation of the Advance Billings Rules. Although the Department did not specifically issue a billing, the Department did accept and process payments which allowed the IDOR to expend remaining appropriations.
Applying payments toward a wrong fiscal year is a recurring theme. In his recent audit of the state Department of Revenue, Holland cited that agency for this — and for creating “falsified” documents to support its flawed accounting.
The Department paid $1,592,300 out of FY06 appropriations (10 separate invoices) towards the FY07 Department of Central Management Services (DCMS) Internal Service Fund billings.
The Department paid $2,825,621 out of FY07 appropriations (8 separate invoices) towards the FY08 DCMS Internal Service Fund billings.
In FY07, the Department created or falsified six invoices with DCMS headings as supporting documentation in order to make these prepayments. Of these invoices, 1 of the 6 invoices stated it was for FY07 charges or leases when, in fact, it was to prepay FY08 costs. The remaining five invoices stated they were prepayments. All six invoice vouchers (Form C-13) submitted to the State Comptroller stated they were “FY2007 Contracted Prior to July 1.”
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| The Three Stooges |
In FY07, the Department created two invoices on Department of Revenue letterhead, in essence charging itself, in order to prepay two invoices to DCMS. Both invoices appeared to be for FY07 charges and did not clearly state they were prepayments for FY08. Both invoice vouchers (Form C-13) submitted to the State Comptroller stated they were “FY2007 Contracted Prior to July 1.”
What was going on over there? This is the agency responsible for collecting — and keeping track of — your tax dollars.
Then there was that doozy of an audit a couple weeks ago of HFS, the health care agency formerly known as the Illinois Department of Public Aid.
From the Register Star:
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has carried an average of $1.5 billion in unpaid medical bills over from one fiscal year to the next since fiscal 2005, the audit found. And while the agency generally took less than a week to process claims for payment, it took an average of 57 days to submit those claims to Comptroller Dan Hynes, who distributes the payments, according to the audit.
The agency’s failure to pay bills on time means it owes providers upwards of $81 million in interest for in late-payments, the audit found.
Again, this is the state agency in charge of administering health care — the governor’s longstanding chief policy focus.
When the agency fails to pay doctors and other health care providers on time, state law requires it pay those providers interest — hence the potentially $81 million in interest owed. Yet, Holland reported that HFS “did not have a system in place to pay automatically owed interest (interest greater than $50) to providers until May 2007 – almost eight years after the inclusion of Medicaid claims” in the state law mandating interest payments.
Holland also noted HFS required health care “providers to follow a cumbersome process to request interest” and that it had been “excluding certain claims from interest payments, some of which are not supported by Administrative Rule.”
And when providers asked the agency to reimburse them for their costs, HFS routinely rejected their claims by citing “error codes” that providers may not have recognized since HFS didn’t include those codes in its provider handbook, Holland reported.
We identified 123 error codes HFS used for rejected services that were reported to providers in 2006 that were not on the list of error codes found in HFS’ provider handbook. These error codes are used by providers to determine why a service was rejected so they can make the appropriate corrections in order to resubmit the rejected services within the required 12 month period.
Then again, some providers just had to ask when they needed some cash. HFS doled out at least $5.7 million in “one-time drop payments” to providers who called up to “declare their emergency,” even though auditors could not substantiate how exactly the agency determined whether to make such payments.
No policies or procedures exist to delineate the process for providers requesting or HFS’ review and approval of the need for a one-time drop payment. HFS does not require providers to submit a written request documenting their need or keep a log of one-time drop payment requests. According to HFS officials, these providers usually contact HFS by phone and declare their emergency need to be paid.
During testing, auditors found that generally the only documentation to support one-time drop payments were the e-mails between HFS employees changing the payment parameters for these providers and an internal HFS spreadsheet which tracked the one-time drop payment requests. There was no log or consistent documentation showing who outside HFS requested the payment or whether HFS determined that an emergency need existed.
UPDATE 1
Blago’s administration has been marked by such audits since shortly after taking office in 2003. In 2005, Holland cited CMS for wasteful spending and widespread contract irregularities.
State auditors Tuesday accused the Illinois Department of Central Management Services of wasteful spending, skirting its own rules when awarding contracts and failing to document claims that it had saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
Auditor General William Holland did not allege any criminal wrongdoing at the giant administrative services agency, but he did forward his report to Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s inspector general. […]
“There clearly was some inappropriate activity,” he said.
Asked if CMS oversight was sloppy, Holland said, “Sloppy is a very kind word. It’s above sloppy. I don’t know that it’s sinister, but I don’t know that it’s not.”
During the audit, CMS staff launched their own “audit” of Holland’s office — an apparent attempt by CMS to somehow retaliate or pre-empt the force of Holland’s investigation.
When Holland released his audit, CMS staff worked feverishly to undermine its credibility.
Holland responded by defending his audit in a Capitol news conference — a highly unusual move for a guy who does remarkable well at staying out of the political limelight.
The audit covered the two years ending June 30, 2004, which included the administration’s first 18 months. The CMS director, Michael Rumman, resigned at the time. Blago brushed off the audit as a fight between “bean counters.”
May 27th, 2008
This is the last week of the formal spring session.
After May 31, it requires a three-fifths majority to approve any bill with an immediate effective date – i.e., the state budget. Therefore, lawmakers generally work to dispose of the budget and other legislative matters by May 31, then head home for the summer.
Among the local matters we’ll be watching closely this week are Morrissey’s red-light camera plan and his plan to combat truancy by gaining more information from the School District.
It’s not clear, however, whether lawmakers will in fact approve a budget by Saturday. The Senate and House have advanced competing budget plans, and the governor – while generally assumed to be in line with the Senate’s plans – has been MIA for most of the spring session. Actually, he’s been MIA for most of the last two years.
If they don’t agree on a budget by Saturday, lawmakers may be here much if not all of the summer, just like last year. Morrissey may have plenty of time to build support for his initiatives.
Meawhile, the Rezko jury continues its deliberations this week. A guilty verdict against Rezko could certainly make Gov. Blagojevich much more interested in a speedy end of session; he will not want to be hanging around Springfield, where the press, public and rank-and-file lawmakers may reach him. An acquittal, on the other hand, may only embolden him.
Then again, it’s never wise to bet on Blagojevich’s next move . The man is not rational.
UPDATE 1
House Speaker Mike Madigan said the governor may be “delusional.”
May 6th, 2008
Continuing to raise his profile while traveling Illinois, state Comptroller Dan Hynes on Monday slammed Gov. Rod Blagojevich for reportedly threatening to cut higher education funding.
Blagojevich has said the state has a $750 million deficit in the budget ending June 30, and his aides have said a number of programs — including perhaps higher education — may not get all the funding that lawmakers appropriated for them this year.
In a news release following a visit to Western Illinois University, Hynes said the governor ought to honor the state’s commitment.
“The Governor says we can’t afford to give colleges and universities the state assistance they promised this year,” Hynes said following a round table discussion with administrators from Western Illinois University. “I say we can’t afford not to. I say investing in our colleges and universities is one of the best investments this state can make to help ensure a thriving economy and a solid future for the next generation. The Governor needs to keep his word and give the universities the funding they were promised.”
It was the third time in a month that Hynes, a third-term comptroller, took a shot directly at Blagojevich. But compared to his speech at Southern Illinois University, in which he offered an exhaustive and nuanced criticism of Blagojevich’s budget practices, this announcement didn’t strike me as too constructive. It seemed like boilerplate campaign rhetoric in which one candidate attacks another candidate in an attempt to garner some publicity, but then doesn’t really say how he or she would do things differently.
I sent a few questions by e-mail to Hynes spokeswoman Carol Knowles:
Does Hynes dispute the governor’s statement that the state has a $750
million deficit in the current year? If so, then does Hynes believe that
there is a deficit? And if so, how large does he believe that it is?
If Hynes does not dispute the governor’s deficit figure, then where does
he suggest the administration find the promised money for higher ed?
Would Hynes prefer to see across-the-board cuts or some alternative
approach to reconciling the budget deficit?
She responded:
The Comptroller doesn’t know where/how the governor’s Office/GOMBY came
up with that figure.
As you are aware, the Comptroller has said repeatedly, over the last
several years that the state’s budget is not balanced because of
Medicaid carryover.
The Comptroller would point out that the cuts the governor has
threatened will not really address the long-term funding concerns for
education, pensions and health care and that entities such as the
universities and the U of I Extension are being unfairly targeted.
The comptroller has indeed been steadfast in his dour assessment of state finances. The governor, for his part, has been anything but focused on reconciling the state’s massive debt load. Still, do you think it is fair of the comptroller to continually rail against irresponsible budget practices, then criticize a particularly spending cut and then not provide a specific alternative cut? You tell me.
April 8th, 2008
Rockford Sen. Dave Syverson, Clare Sen. Brad Burzynski and other Senate Republicans last week unveiled a seven-point economic stimulus plan.
Let’s look at those points, one at a time. First up: The Senate Republicans say Gov. Rod Blagojevich must not “demonize” businesses. From their report:
Businesses not only provide jobs for our
citizens, they also pay the tax revenues
that fund our state budget and allow us to
implement our priorities. Since taking office,
the Governor and his administration have
repeatedly portrayed the business community
as a group of “fat cats” to be taxed and
demeaned, rather than entrepreneurs who
provide our economy with needed jobs, taxes
and investment.
Indeed, Blagojevich has repeatedly vilified Illinois businesses to suit his political needs, saying for instance that they ought to pay their “fair share” in taxes. The Senate GOP report continues:
Today, Illinois is renowned for its
hostile business climate – something which does not
go unnoticed to prospective businesses. The more the
Governor and his allies fuel this notion, the fewer jobs
and investments we will see in Illinois. In addition,
harsh anti-business rhetoric scares other companies
from coming to Illinois and expanding their business.
It’s time to stop the antibusiness
rhetoric and harmful tax-and-spend
proposals that seek to balance the state
budget on the backs of business owners and,
more importantly, the jobs they provide for
our economy.
And now for the kicker:
Demonizing the business community doesn’t
just have a negative impact on the owners of
companies. When hit with higher taxes and
fees, business owners end up passing the
new costs on to their customers – working
families. This is a point even the Governor’s
staunchest supporters concede – during
last year’s committee hearings on the GRT,
a sponsor of the measure, Senate President
Emil Jones, acknowledged: “Any costs
that businesses incur, they pass it on to
consumers.”
So here’s the question for you: Does the governor’s tone truly affect a business’ decision on whether to stay in, or relocate to, Illinois? Clearly, a business will weigh the tax burden in Illinois as compared to neighboring states. But the governor’s tone?
March 21st, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has tried his best to act like he’s not paying attention to the federal corruption trial of his pal Tony Rezko. He has said repeatedly that he is not following the case and that, in fact, it has nothing to do with him.
You might conclude, then, that Blagojevich has nothing to hide. You might think he’d be happy to talk about that which he presumably is familiar — those matters pertaining to his administration.
Only, he doesn’t have much to say about that, either. He rarely appears in public. When he does, he does so only during short, highly choreographed events with a cadre of guards and stiff-lipped press aides.
If you buy the case made by federal prosecutors, Rezko’s allegedly corrupt activities were practically synonymous with Blagojevich’s administration in its early years. It may be no wonder, then, that Blagojevich insists he knows nothing of Rezko’s allegedly crooked behavior, even as he won’t talk about the activities of his own administration.
With each passing day of testimony at Rezko’s trial, they appear increasingly indistinguishable, according to reports published by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Associated Press and other media.
Susan Lichtenstein, the governor’s former general counsel, testified that when she interviewed to become top attorney for the governor, Rezko sat in on her interview. An aide to Blagojevich’s patronage chief testified that the patronage chief, Joe Cini, met Rezko every Monday morning. The aide, Jennifer Thomas, went to those meetings and brought along a spreadsheet so Rezko could view open state positions.
Thomas testified that she and Cini visited Rezko’s Chicago office on “most Mondays” between late March of 2003 through June of that year. She brought with her a spreadsheet of open positions on various state boards and commissions to Rezko’s office so they could talk over how to fill vacancies. They would also talk about how Rezko’s favored people were faring in the vetting process.
Separately, the governor’s director of boards and commissions testified that Rezko had great influence over who won appointments to state boards.
The Health Facilities Planning Board’s former chairman testified that he schemed with Rezko concerning board approval of hospital construction. Guess who appointed him to the board, at Rezko’s behest?
Thomas Beck, appointed by Blagojevich in 2003 as chairman of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning board, testified under immunity from prosecution that he got the post after seeking out support from Rezko. When he approached Rezko, Beck said he also came with a $1,000 donation to the governor’s campaign fund.
Prosecutors played tape of Beck calling co-conspirator Stuart Levine on the phone to talk about their plan to rig an upcoming board vote. Beck referred to Rezko in that call.
“I got the marching orders,” Beck told Levine. “…Our boy wants to help them.”
Rezko allegedly conspired with Stuart Levine, a longtime political insider, to shake down firms seeking business from the state. Their alleged scheme related to two state boards, in particular, where Levine had seats — the Teachers’ Retirement System, which manages a pension fund for teachers, and the Health Facilities Management Board, which regulates hospital construction projects.
Levine has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds. In exchange for a reduced sentence, he is the government’s chief witness against Rezko. He has spent the better part of this week on the stand describing Rezko’s uncanny power over Blagojevich’s office.
On Thursday, prosecutors played a tape of Levine talking on the phone about Rezko’s extraordinary influence over state government.
Levine was plainly excited to be so close to power and eager to share his feelings with others – including corrupt contractor Jacob Kiferbaum.
“I have never been in a better position than I am right now,” Levine tells Kiferbaum on a recording played at the trial. “Maybe it’s because there has never been such tight control of the central apparatus.”
“I mean, this guy is making decisions,” he says on the recording.
“He can get anything done that he wants done,” he said.
In the courtroom, Levine was on the stand.
The “central apparatus,” Levine testified, was Gov. Blagojevich’s office. And the guy who was “making decisions,” according to Levine, was Rezko.
“Although I had been involved in politics and in corrupt political deals before,” Levine said, “I had never witnessed . . . someone who was able to influence the governor as I saw that Mr. Rezko could. And I had never been as close to an individual who had that type of power.”
On Wednesday, Levine told the jury about a plane ride he shared with Blagojevich after the governor reappointed him to the Health Facilities Management Board. Levine said he thanked the governor for reappointing him.
Levine told jurors this morning at the corruption trial of indicted Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko that Blagojevich responded: “Never discuss any state board with me. You discuss them with Tony Rezko or Chris Kelly, but you stick with us, and you’ll do very well for yourself.”
Levine told the jury how he interpreted that statement: “I took it to mean I would have an opportunity to make a lot of money.”
Also Wednesday, Levine said Rezko reached through Blagojevich’s chief of staff, Lon Monk, to control all major decisions made by the governor’s office.
According to Levine, “Mr. Rezko told me that all major decisions that were made in the governor’s office were cleared by Mr. Monk through Mr. Rezko.”
A Blagojevich spokeswoman, breaking with the governor’s know-nothing position, confronted the damning testimony directly on Wednesday.
“Stuart Levine’s assertions about the governor are wrong,” communications director Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mailed response. “As we’ve said before, that’s not how the governor does business.”
I suppose that’s progress. At least the governor’s spokeswoman acknowledged that the government’s key witness is on the stand in federal court saying he viewed the governor as a fellow crook. These are serious allegations and the public deserves a serious response — something the governor has yet to provide.
Rezko is innocent until proven guilty. Chris Kelly, another top Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser under indictment in a separate case, also is innocent until proven guilty. Blagojevich has not been charged with a crime.
But federal prosecutors in Chicago don’t often lose when they take on public corruption. The odds are stacked against Rezko, Kelly and, yes, Blagojevich. Blagojevich’s campaign fund allegedly stood to share in kickbacks demanded by Rezko and Levine.
At the very least, if you believe a parade of former Blagojevich insiders, Blagojevich handed control of his administration’s affairs to Rezko. The governor has not even begun to explain why he made that happen.
March 18th, 2008
David Axelrod is the Chicago-based mastermind behind U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The political consultant has long been well known to Illinois political insiders, with clients like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and insiders of national politics too, with a slew of congressional races and other high-profile races behind him.
Now the behind-the-scenes campaign guru is gaining a celebrity of his own.
In the most recent in a series of Axelrod profiles, Business Week looks at Axelrod’s other consulting firm, ASK Public Strategies. The firm has worked mostly in secret, though its clients have included ComEd and AT&T. Just as Axelrod’s well-known firm, AKP&D Message and Media, is focused on aiding the campaigns of Democratic candidates, ASK is geared toward the (super-secret) interests of corporations.
ASK’s predilection for operating in the shadows shows up in its work. On behalf of ComEd and Comcast, the firm helped set up front organizations that were listed as sponsors of public-issue ads. Industry insiders call such practices “Astroturfing,” a reference to manufacturing grassroots support. Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd Ward, who has been battling the Children’s Museum’s relocation plans, describes ASK as “the gold standard in Astroturf organizing. This is an emerging industry, and ASK has made a name for itself in shaping public opinion and manufacturing public support.”
ASK’s Web site says little about the firm’s activities. AKP&D’s Web site, on the other hand, is loaded with info, including the firm’s impressive client list.
Perhaps the more comprehensive profile of Axelrod appeared last spring in the New York Times Magazine. It walks through the evolution of Axelrod’s career, from his days as a Chicago Tribune reporter to campaign aide for the late U.S. Paul Simon of Illinois to chief strategist for Obama’s presidential race.
When the first major profile of Axelrod appeared in Chicago magazine in 1987, three years after he left a high-profile job as the lead political reporter for The Chicago Tribune to work as a political operative, the article (“Hatchet Man: The Rise of David Axelrod”) began by comparing him to an “exotic rodent.”
The Times Magazine story continues:
Two decades later, there remains the matter of the comb-over and the damp mustache, but his looks seem less important now. In the last four years, Axelrod has helped steer campaigns for fully four of the Democrats now running for president — Obama, Clinton, John Edwards and Chris Dodd — and one who dropped out (Tom Vilsack); framed the messages for the new young governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick; and served as the chief political adviser for Representative Rahm Emanuel when the congressman helped orchestrate the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives last fall.
The Washington Post also profiled Axelrod last February.
A measure of his status in the top tier of Democratic spinners, scripters and fixers is that when his peers detect something subtle and good, they presume Axelrod must have had a hand in it.
Of course Axelrod won’t take credit for specific lines. Consultants are supposed to stay in the background. “One thing I came to realize early in the process of working with Barack was, he was always going to be the best writer in the room,” Axelrod says. “If you appreciate words and the power of them, he’s a wonderful person to work with. . . . I’d say 80 percent of what he did on that platform on Saturday was in that initial draft,” which Obama had e-mailed to Axelrod at about 4 a.m. Thursday.
The liberal Nation weekly also weighed in last February. And if you’re looking for video, here is PBS’s Charlie Rose’s interview with Axelrod. A Tribune profile, complete with video, is here.
From the Trib:
By 1984, while still in his 20s, David Axelrod had already built an impressive career as a star political reporter, columnist and City Hall bureau chief for the Tribune, the largest and most influential newspaper in Illinois.
It was his dream job. But he was unhappy.
Always awash with doubts and anxieties, Axelrod would agonize over the nuances of the stories he was writing, putting in long hours in the city’s wards doing research and then spending hours more at the computer keyboard. But that was who he was.
March 10th, 2008
I caught up this morning with Rep. Harry Osterman, a Chicago Democrat spearheading legislation to make landlords pay for the cost of housing tenants when the landlord’s property is condemned.
Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, is co-sponsoring the measure, and the mayor’s office is backing it, as the Register Star reported this morning.
“If a municipality takes an action against a building with condemnation or makes a ruling on safety hazards, and the people are forced to vacate the building because it is deemed unhealthy by the municipality, many of these people don’t have the means to go and find another place to live. They’re going to go live with their relatives,” Osterman told me by phone.
“So what we want to do is have this individual slumlord or landlord, who’s responsible for this building, pay to move someone to another place to live. If for whatever reason that (landlord) is not able to do that, we would enable municipalities to front-end those costs, and then to try to get them back through a civil action against the landlord. The bottom line is what we’re trying to do is if there are renters, who through no fault of their own are in a building that is in disrepair and has been condemned, we want to make sure they have some kind of protections.”
Osterman’s bill:
The landlord would need to pay each displaced tenant $2,000 per unit or three times the monthly rent, whichever is greater, plus the tenant’s deposit, interest and prepaid rent, within seven days of getting a condemnation notice, under the bill.
Critics complain that the measure doesn’t recognize the possibility that a tenant may have caused the damage to a rental unit, prompting the city to condemn it. Osterman said he is prepared to negotiate a provision making that clear.
“What I have committed to do is to work with them to strengthen that provision, to very explicitly and flesh out in an amendment, that this is not the tenant’s fault, but this is something due to the inaction of the owner,” he said.
March 4th, 2008
State officials every couple years find new and creative ways to put off paying public pension debt, causing a greater financial burden for future taxpayers.
At any given time, the state’s backlog of unpaid bills tops more than $1 billion, causing doctors and other health care providers to wait months for reimbursement from the state when they care for Medicaid patients.
For the last five years, the governor and lawmakers postured over the details of a capital construction plan, failing to ever implement a new one necessary for road and school construction.
That governor, Rod Blagojevich, is as likely to fill out top-tier positions in his administration with political hacks as opposed to professionals with meaningful, relevant experience.
That same governor has no qualms with putting the full force of this taxpayer-paid staff behind his latest feel-good, politically charged initiative, yet he seldom puts even a fraction of this emphasis behind follow-through and completion of such projects.
Yet the Pew Center on the States awarded Illinois a perfectly acceptable “C” grade in a report covering how well the 50 states manage their money, people, information and infrastructure. A summary of the group’s report, showing how Illinois compares to other states, is here.
A detailed look at Illinois is here.
The Blagojevich administration has been troubled from the start, and the consequences for Illinois government have been serious. The administration began with high hopes: Blagojevich’s election victory in 2002, bringing his party control over all three branches and replacing a Republican regime tainted by corruption, generated widespread interest in bringing the state’s shaky management into good shape. But intraparty battles have continually stymied progress. Political disagreements have been delaying a new infrastructure-spending plan for years, to cite just one example, and the state may soon lose federal matching funds intended for roads and bridges.
Then, the report cuts the governor some slack:
It can’t be easy to manage a state such as Illinois, with huge outstanding bills and troubled revenue streams. But when the state’s leaders are effectively stuck in the mud, the difficult becomes all but impossible. Last year, the governor proposed a major expansion of health care supported by a gross receipts tax on business. The House rejected the plan 107-0. “We weren’t even talking about coming to some resolution,” says state Senator Christine Radagno. Months later, the legislature passed its own budget, Blagojevich vetoed about $500 million of it to make room for his health care expansion and the whole mess wound up in the courts.
Still, as the Post-Dispatch notes, this state’s grade fell:
Illinois fell from a C+ to a C, ranking it among the bottom nine states. Researchers blamed a dysfunctional relationship between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the state Legislature.
“The Blagojevich administration has been troubled from the start, and the consequences for Illinois government have been serious,” the report says.
The administration’s response:
Blagojevich’s office released a statement saying the report didn’t acknowledge Illinois’ success at improving efficiency while reducing debt and budget deficits.
“Unfortunately, the Pew Center chose to focus on politics instead of fiscal facts,” the statement said. “The report does not accurately reflect the progress we’ve made.”
That’s classic Blagojevich.
First of all, this administration is notorious for skewing financial figures. Rather than stating the amount of new money the state sends to schools each, for instance, this administration prefers to state the sum of all the increases occurring since Blagojevich took office in 2003. Obviously, that’s a much bigger, more dramatic, number.
Oh, and when the state ran the biggest deficit in the nation, Blagojevich — who happened to be campaigning for re-election at the time, in 2006 — insisted that simply wasn’t possible. The “fiscal facts” in Illinois are sad indeed.
Second of all, as I already alluded to above, this administration also is notorious for putting politics before policy. And that’s not to say they even do well at that. Look no further than today’s headlines.
Illinois should be thrilled with its passing grade. I’m wondering how it did so well.
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