February 5th, 2010 08:50am
Wally Haas
This happened to a colleague at another newspaper: “Our political writer had been trying to learn, in advance of the big announcement Friday, whether one particular fence-sitting state legislator was planning to run again for the same office, run for higher office, or call it quits altogether. To my surprise, right on the newsroom’s deadline, she called my cell phone and left a message saying she’d be announcing that she’s running for the higher office (and she looked forward to my endorsement). Not having much of a relationship with this particular politician, I was surprised and mildly flattered. Then I realized she thought she had called the former mayor of this fair city — who happens to have the same first and last name. (Yes, I have other stories on this same, comical theme.) Well, we beat TV - and that’s all that matters. Right? Or is this a little like opening someone else’s mail? We’re going with the story, but, after some debate, have elected not to post audio of the voice mail. I did call back to leave her a congratulatory message.”
Do you think he did anything unethical or is being lucky better than being good?
February 3rd, 2010 05:12pm
Wally Haas
You can see and hear it HERE.
It’s long. We talked for almost 25 minutes without commercial interruption, although there are some references to Oberweis ice cream and yogurt.
Chuck and I had fun doing the show. We’ve talked about doing some more, but those will be shorter and easier to digest, especially during the lunch hour.
February 2nd, 2010 11:13am
Wally Haas
Chuck Sweeny and I will analyze the primary election results in a 20-minute-or-so video show for our Web site, rrstar.com. We’ll start about noon Wednesday and go until we run out of things to talk about or until the 20 minutes are up.
Today’s election should give us plenty of fodder. I think there will be some surprises because of the low voter turnout (so far). I’m not sure whose supporters will be more motivated to travel through the snow to vote.
Because of all the uncertainty, I wouldn’t be surprised if only one of the five candidates we endorsed won.
For the fall election, we plan to endorse in a lot more races. I’ve put together a chart that has us weighing in on more than 20 different contests. It’s probably the most ambitious endorsement schedule we’ve had in two decades.
January 27th, 2010 10:51am
Wally Haas
A Rasmussen poll shows Andy McKenna in the lead with 20 percent of likely Republican voters favoring him. Jim Ryan is next at 16 percent; Kirk Dillard has 13 percent; Bill Brady and Adam Andrzejewski (and-GEE-EFF-ski) at 11 percent and Dan Proft at 8 percent.
The plus/minus sampling error is 5 percent. Given that and given that 17 percent of those questioned were undecided, this race could be won by any of the six candidates.
Andrzejewski’s campaign sent an e-mail that says he has the support of 93 percent of Tea Party organizers in Illinois. Those are motivated folks who could make a difference Feb. 2.
A recent Chicago Tribune/WGN poll also showed McKenna as the front-runner with 19 percent and Ryan second with 18 percent. Dillard had 14 percent while none of the others cracked double digits. The poll also showed 17 percent undecided.
On the Democratic side, the Tribune’s poll had Gov. Pat Quinn ahead of Comptroller Dan Hynes 44 percent to 40 percent.
The Tribune’s error margin is plus/minus 4 points.
January 26th, 2010 08:58am
Wally Haas
The last couple of days I’ve noticed more “For Sale” signs than I have campaign signs. Does that show how bad the economy is or does it indicate there’s not much interest in the Feb. 2 primary? Or both?
January 22nd, 2010 10:58am
Wally Haas
… to submit a campaign letter. The deadline is 5 p.m. today. A maximum of two letters about each candidate or ballot issue will appear in the print edition.
Additional letters may be published at rrstar.com.
All campaign letters — published in print or posted online — will be subject to the newspaper’s letters policy. There is no guarantee of publication or posting.
All letters must be signed and are subject to editing for brevity, clarity, grammar and spelling. No more than 200 words will be allowed. All letters will be verified; writers must provide a home address and daytime phone number.
We will automatically reject abusive letters, letters to someone else, letters from candidates and letters endorsing family members.
E-mail:
opinions@rrstar.com
Fax: 815-987-1365
January 19th, 2010 12:29pm
Wally Haas
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle have asked the White House to host a summit about the Asian carp issue after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to order the closing of shipping locks near Chicago.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is the chairman of the Great Lakes commission. Members of the commission come from eight Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Those representatives should be part of the conversation.
Quinn, in a conference call with members of the Editorial Board this morning, said he hoped any action on Asian carp would be reached through negotiation rather than litigation. Seems the summit would play into that.
If there is a “carp summit,” the White House better include scientists. This is not an issue for politicians to figure out.
Perhaps the leading Asian carp expert in the nation is Duane Chapman, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher. Chapman can educate the stakeholders on how great a threat the carp are to the Great Lakes $7 billion fishing industry. Without people like Chapman, any summit will be more about turf wars than the environment.
It seems obvious that scientists should be at the table, but sometimes you need to point out the obvious.
January 15th, 2010 08:31am
Wally Haas
Three Republican candidates for governor will visit with members of the Editorial Board today: Andy McKenna, Adam Andrzejewski and Bill Brady.
McKenna has been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune. Other big newspaper endorsements: Kirk Dillard by the Sun-Times and Jim Ryan was the choice of the Daily Herald.
With so many candidates in the race the votes will be split many ways and it’s a tough to predict a winner. We won’t have to wait too long. Feb. 2 will be here before we know it. Then it will feel like forever before we get to the general election in November.
January 14th, 2010 07:44am
Wally Haas
Harlem Township officials voted against a policy that would prohibit nepotism. Read the story HERE.
Notice the byline. Yep, that’s my boy. Who better to do a story about nepotism?
If I had my druthers, he wouldn’t be working here. He’d be working at some job that pays tons of money so he could support me in my old age.
I never thought he would wind up here. Up until he was about 10 years old, I would regularly drag him down to the office on Saturdays while I finished up a few things for work. He got to the point where he could do some basic pagination on things such as stocks pages. I figured he’d be sick of the newspaper after all those Saturdays when I know he would rather have been at home watching Ninja Turtles.
Nope. After graduating from the U of I he started working here. It’s been five years now. He does a pretty good job, but you all know I’m biased.
January 13th, 2010 01:22pm
Wally Haas
Springfield plans to cut 55 jobs, start furloughs and close two library branches. Read the State Journal-Register’s story HERE.
Rockford’s library will remain open, but with reduced hours and fewer people. Read about that HERE.
Meanwhile the city of Rockford is looking at new, long-term approaches such as privatizing services. Read about that HERE.
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