July 7th, 2008
AP sent this story yesterday. I wrote in February that Gov. Rod Blagojevich could select himself to replace Barack Obama if Obama becomes president.
I think it could happen. I think the key sentences in the story below are “He refused to say if he’d consider appointing himself.” and “He is not a conventional governor; he could pick himself.”
If he wasn’t considering himself, why wouldn’t he say so? Why not rule it out entirely?
Blagojevich could buy him self some political time if he appointed himself senator. It’s unlikely he could win re-election as governor and he could get an extra couple of years on the public payroll before he had to run for senator.
I’d say it would be a given he’d appoint himself if not for the fact that he hates to leave his Chicago bungalow.
Here’s the AP story:
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the nation’s voters decide to send Sen. Barack Obama to the White House, there will be another election of sorts in his home state of Illinois.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat at odds with members of his own party, would alone choose who succeeds the state’s junior senator.
Some politicians are talking openly about the possibility of being appointed to the Senate and bloggers have begun playing the “who’s next” game about the person to fill out the remaining two years of Obama’s term.
“I’m sure a lot of people are trying to tell the governor what to do — absolutely,” said Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who did not rule out accepting an appointment.
Recently, the governor was asked about Obama’s seat and he mentioned several members of Congress. He also mentioned Tammy Duckworth, the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs who in 2006 lost a bid for Congress.
“I’m just throwing names out,” Blagojevich said. He refused to say if he’d consider appointing himself.
Obama, the only black Senator, is trying to become the first black president and that raises the question of whether Blagojevich should consider another black person to replace the senator in the event of a November victory over GOP Sen. John McCain.
“I think that’s a consideration that Gov. Blagojevich is likely to think about if he has a chance to fill a vacancy,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. “I’m not going to presume that will make his decision for him.”
Others think Blagojevich will have little choice but to pick Obama’s successor from the black community, which remains one of the few reliable blocs of support he has after six years of infighting with fellow Democrats.
“I don’t think the governor is going to raise eyebrows for who he didn’t pick,” said state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, a member of the Democratic-led House leadership team. “I believe the governor would pick an African-American.”
The popular assumption is that the new senator would be one of Illinois’ 11 Democratic U.S. House members, particularly Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, Jesse Jackson Jr. of Chicago or Luis Gutierrez of Chicago. The governor also could tap someone from the Illinois General Assembly or a statewide officeholder, or even someone outside the world of politics.
Increasingly, the name of Illinois Senate President Emil Jones comes up, both on Capitol Hill and Springfield. The powerful Chicago pol has been an important ally for the governor, and is widely credited for helping to raise Obama’s profile for a Senate run while Obama was in the state Senate.
State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said Jones could cap his long legislative career by being a U.S. senator, possibly under the condition that he would not seek election in the 2010 primary.
Jones declined an interview request from The Associated Press on the subject, but others question whether he would seriously consider moving to Washington.
“Why would Emil Jones want to be a U.S. senator where, of course, he’d be at the back of the bus?” Rep. Davis asked.
Former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar also wondered if Blagojevich would look to Jones.
“That’s the only friend he has in the Legislature,” Edgar said. “He can’t afford to name Jones … If he does, he can’t rely on who (Jones’) successor will be.”
State Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago, a member of the Legislature’s black caucus, said there are qualified blacks who should be considered as Obama’s replacement but it is not “a black seat.”
“We’re 10 percent of the population of the state. It’s not just a `give me,”’ Trotter said.
Davis, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he could eagerly support someone outside the black community — for example, a longtime friend and political ally, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.
“I would not shed one tear if the governor picked Pat Quinn,” he said.
How much of a role would President Obama play in evaluating his replacement?
“The only stipulation I think he’ll have is that the person would be of extremely high quality, make a good senator and not embarrass him,” said Dan Shomon, a former Obama campaign adviser who has not been an official part of the current campaign.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, the only black in office besides Obama elected statewide, have both said they aren’t interested in a Senate appointment.
Gutierrez, who would become Illinois’ first Hispanic senator, has not ruled out the possibility of succeeding Obama. And Schakowsky, a national co-chair for Obama’s presidential bid, has made it clear for three months that she would be “honored and pleased” to hold a Senate seat.
Jackson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and also a national co-chair for Obama’s campaign, has avoided expressing any interest in the position publicly.
Statewide officeholders such as Comptroller Dan Hynes or Attorney General Lisa Madigan are sometimes cited as possible contenders for Obama’s job, though neither has expressed much interest publicly. That assumes Blagojevich is planning to seek a third term in 2010 and would like to remove a potential primary foe.
Madigan is the daughter of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Illinois Democratic Party chairman and the top Democratic critic of the governor. Hynes has ridiculed Blagojevich’s money-management policies and Quinn is also a sharp critic.
Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, said picking a replacement for Obama depends on what Blagojevich does in two years.
“If he’s still a viable candidate for re-election, he’ll appoint someone who’ll help him politically — a black, a Jesse Jackson Jr., someone like that,” Lawrence said. “If he’s not running again, hard to tell.”
Then there’s the option the governor has that he does not want to talk about.
“He is not a conventional governor; he could pick himself,” Lawrence said.
July 3rd, 2008
The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported that Americans have driven 20 billion fewer miles this year. You wouldn’t know it if you regularly drive on the Illinois Tollway system.
Interstate 90 seems as busy as ever, if not busier. Numbers provided by Joelle McGinnis, a spokeswoman for the tollway, confirm what most observers suspect.
McGinnis said toll transactions for the entire tollway system in the first quarter of this year were up 2 percent. Toll transactions don’t necessarily mean that more cars are on the road; it could be that some motorists are paying more tolls. Still, that means there’s plenty of traffic on the toll system.
Toll transactions might be even higher if it weren’t for the construction on I-88, I-90 and the Tri-State. You’d have to think that some drivers were trying to avoid the stretches where the road work is going on.
In the tollway’s favor is that it has 12.5 more miles this year. The I-355 South Extension Project was completed late last year.
AAA predicted that Americans would drive less during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. AAA made the same prediction about Memorial Day.
On the tollways, transactions were up 1 percent for the Memorial Day weekend.
Gas prices hit the $4 mark on May 27, so perhaps the tollway’s second quarter numbers will show a decline. But McGinnis said typically traffic picks up in the second and third quarters.
“Some people have to drive,” She said.
If you do have to drive, Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants you to slow down. It’s part of a campaign with the tollway and AAA Chicago to “Be Safe. Be Wise. Save Gas. Save Lives.”
“While drivers can’t do much to affect the price they pay at the pump, they can take steps to optimize fuel efficiency by slowing down on the road and traveling at the posted speed limit,” Blagojevich said in a news release Wednesday. “More importantly, reducing speed brings added benefit of enhanced roadway safety. A significant number of accidents on Illinois’ highways are directly related to speeding and driving too fast for conditions, whether construction work zones are in place or not. We want drivers in Illinois to slow down when traveling this summer to ensure that they and their passengers get to their vacations, family outings and other activities safely.”
There’s an economic incentive besides what you would pay at the gas pump. NBC5 has joined the campaign and will give away $50 gas cards to a driver a day between now and Labor Day. Go to www.nbc5.com for details.
July 1st, 2008
I get a bunch of pamphlets, newsletters and books in the mail every week. This week features a couple of reports that I’ll try to get through.
The first is the Joyce Foundation 2007 Annual Report. “The Joyce Foundation supports efforts to protect the natural environment of the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region, and to ensure that its people have access to good schools, decent jobs and a diverse and thriving culture. We are especially interested in improving public policies, because public systems such as education and welfare directly affect the lives of so many people, and because public policies help shape private sector decisions about jobs, the environment, and the health of our communities. To ensure that public policies truly reflect public rather than private interests, we support efforts to reform the system of financing election campaigns.”
The second is a report of a joint meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. The title: “The Public Good: Knowledge as the Foundation for a Democratic Society.”
