High Time for Political Consultant Thacker

1 comment July 22nd, 2008

Jim Thacker, a Rockford-based political consultant, is doing quite well for himself thanks to the campaigns of Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen, U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo and others.

Such local political campaigns paid Thacker at least $108,120 during the year ended June 30, according to state and federal campaign finance disclosure statements.

Thacker earned $42,000 from Chuck Prorok’s campaign for Winnebago County state’s attorney, $22,000 from Morrissey’s campaign, $10,200 from Christiansen’s campaign, and $4,000 for Mike Hakanson campaign for Winnebago County auditor during that one-year period, according to statements updated Monday with the State Board of Elections.Prorok, Christiansen and Hakanson are Republican. Morrissey came from a strongly Democratic family and won election in 2005 as an independent. Thacker describes himself as a conservative Republican.

Thacker also earned $29,920 from Manzullo’s campaign during the year ended June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission. Thacker is formerly Manzullo’s chief of staff.

Thacker started volunteering for political campaigns in 1984 and he’s been a full-time political consultant since 1992, he told me.

“I’ve been involved in politics for 24 years on a pretty serious level,” he said. “And I think what most of these folks are looking for is basically a resource — somebody they can talk to who’s been through the battles before. It’s reassuring when, in the course of a campaign, that different issues pop up and they’re working with somebody who’s probably experienced those issues on a previous campaign.”

As a full-time, Rockford-based political consultant, Thacker has little competition — at least on GOP side of the equation.

“There’s not a lot of people like me,” he said. “I only take on a number of races base on my ability to spend the right amount of time with them and basically not have to work 24 hours a day.”

Thacker, 45, grew up in Woodstock. He attended Rockford College and spent considerable time in Rockford as Manzullo’s chief of staff.

“I’ve been coming back and forth to Rockford for 20 years,” he said. “Later, when I was working on Larry Morrissey’s campaign, that’s when I actually started living here. And I’ve been living here for about five years.”

As is typical for political staff, Thacker said he’d rather not be in the spotlight. He’d rather stay behind the scenes.

“I will not be upset if no article appears,” he said.

Sticking Landlords With the Bill

Add comment 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.