We’re going the wrong way
Add comment October 23rd, 2008 12:25pm Wally Haas
This poll shows 75 percent of Illinoisans think the state is heading in the wrong direction.
Not surprising
Add comment October 23rd, 2008 08:53am Wally Haas
A Chicago Tribune poll shows Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s popularity at 13 percent. That doesn’t surprise me because none of the candidates we’ve interviewed for state rep or state senator have had anything nice to say about the governor. Most have said they favor impeachment.
That brings me back to something I’ve written a couple of times. If Barack Obama becomes president, Blagojevich gets to pick the replacement. My theory has been that he’d pick himself to get away from the mess state government has become. I’ve mentioned my theory to quite a few elected officials and although they think it’s unlikely the governor would appoint himself U.S. Senator, they don’t dismiss the idea.
If Blagojevich stays and runs for a third term (two more years), he’s likely to face tough competition within his own party. Dan Hynes, Lisa Madigan and Bill Daley are just three of the high-profile Democrats whose names have been mentioned as possible challengers.
If Blagojevich were to survive the primary, and he could if votes were split among enough other candidates, Republicans are likely to have a strong candidate from a field that might include state Sen. Bill Brady and Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Doug Whitley.
Yes, I know we haven’t even finished with this election, but the way folks run for office these days campaigning seems to be more of a job than legislating.
More than we can publish
4 comments October 22nd, 2008 08:50am Wally Haas
Letters to the editor about the Nov. 4 election are due by 5 p.m. Friday, but already we have more letters than can be published between now and Nov. 2, the last day we run election-related letters.
Early in the campaign season we run letters as they come in. Many people like to wait until as late as possible because they think their letter will have more impact for their candidate or their issue the closer to the election it runs.
That’s a good strategy, but when you have as many contested races on the ballot as we have this year, it’s difficult to to get them all in.
In past years I’ve eliminated national columnists the week before the election so I could use as many letters as possible. I’ve received many complaints about that from folks who say they’d rather read what Krauthammer, Thomas, Parker, Robinson, Goodman, etc. have to say than read another election letter.
We’ll run as many as possible, but not all will make it.
Gambling action alert
Add comment October 21st, 2008 10:35am Wally Haas
I regularly get “Gambling Action Alerts” from the Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems. Anita Bedell is executive director of ICAAAP.
Most of the alerts have been about legislation in Springfield that the group opposes and wants you to know more about. This week’s alert is a legislative survey that shows where candidates stand on various gambling proposals such as leasing the lottery, adding casinos, etc. Click HERE to see the survey results.
I took a quick glance and it appears quite a few candidates neglected to take the survey.
Endorsement fallout
10 comments October 20th, 2008 08:51am Wally Haas
I knew there’d be a lot of folks who would disagree with our endorsement of Barack Obama. I received one phone call and about a dozen letters (so far) telling me why we were wrong. I only received one call telling me we did the right thing.
Most were polite, and I thank those people for making their points in a civilized manner. Others resorted to name-calling, which is not surprising considering how passionate people are about this election.
Normally you hear from people who disagree; seldom do you hear from folks who agree with what you’re saying.
At last count 105 newspapers have endorsed Obama and 33 have endorsed John McCain. The Chicago Tribune, for the first time in its history, endorsed a Democrat for president.
I’d like to remind folks that our vote was not unanimous. It was 7-2. I’d also like to point out that we endorsed Republican Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in 1996 and we endorsed George Bush in 2000. We endorsed John Kerry in 2004.
Illinois, land of dysfunction
Add comment October 15th, 2008 10:58am Wally Haas
I’ve attended a handful of candidate forums and we’ve had candidates come here to the News Tower and when it comes to candidates for the General Assembly they all promise to work together, across party lines.
What party lines? Democrats have a supermajority in the Senate, making Republicans almost irrelevant and they are within four seats of having a supermajority in the House. Republicans HAVE to work across party lines to get things for their districts because their is no other choice. Democrats would be better served if they worked to heal the divisions within their own party; they can get things done without Republican help.
Also, I have yet to hear anyone defend the governor. Monday you read in Chuck Sweeny’s column that Democratic candidate Greg Tuite agrees with Republican incumbent Ron Wait that the governor should be impeached. Many candidates, from both parties, consider the governor to be the reason for political gridlock. Some blame Speaker of the House Mike Madigan because of his refusal to sit down face-to-face with the governor, but cut Madigan some slack because they say the governor cannot be trusted.
Illinois has four major political parties: The Green Party, which is running candidates for state rep, U.S. senator and U.S. rep among others, the Republicans, the Blagojevich/Jones Democrats and the Madigan Democrats. It’s the latter two’s failure to work together that has put important issues such as school financing, capital construction and pension debt on hold.
How do we fix this? It’s tempting to say we should vote out all incumbents and start over, but that would eliminate some good people who have not contributed to the current mess. However, some fresh voices, if they don’t allow themselves to be swallowed by the present political culture, could make a difference.
What endorsement do you want to see first?
1 comment October 14th, 2008 11:54am Wally Haas
The Register Star will begin publishing endorsements Sunday. Should we start with the biggest, president, or should we start with one of the hot local races such as Winnebago County Board chairman, Winnebago County state’s attorney or 69th district state representative? You can see videos of the chairman and state’s attorney candidates here.
Wait-Tuite video coming soon
Add comment October 13th, 2008 01:04pm Wally Haas
Ron Wait and Greg Tuite were here this morning for a joint appearance/debate in front of the Editorial Board. An edited video will be posted soon. We can’t post a full video for technical reasons I don’t understand.
It was a lively debate with some interesting exchanges. Chuck Sweeny will write about it in his column Tuesday and we’ll have more on the race when we start writing endorsements.
This has been a nasty race. An informed voter told me last week that she wouldn’t vote for either man because of how ugly the campaign has been.
It’s been one of the uglier, if not the ugliest, local campaign I can remember. Do you agree or do you think there have been nastier local campaigns?
Don’t they look good?
2 comments October 9th, 2008 02:56pm Wally Haas
I assume the ad is for Ron Wait — his name is never mentioned — because it was paid for by the Illinois Republican Party, but I bet that Greg Tuite and Rod Blagojevich have never looked so good.
The back of the ad describes the “pay-to-play workout” accusing Tuite of giving the gov big bucks and profiting from it through a $42,000 per year part-time state job and getting $1 million in taxpayer-paid leases.
In concludes with “Democrats Greg Tuite & Rod Blagojevich … Pay-to-Play on Steroids.”
Do you think it’s an effective ad? I don’t because it tells me who NOT to vote for, but doesn’t tell me who I should be voting for. If there were a Green Party candidate in the race, maybe he’d get the votes.
Gov, legislature neglect those who need help most
Add comment October 8th, 2008 03:23pm Wally Haas
The damage facing the poorest and most helpless among us is catastrophic. How dare the governor and the legislature do this to those who have so little voice.
The governor signed a funding bill Tuesday that would restore more than $220 million in cuts, but he has not signed the bill that would allow that money to go to the agencies that need it.
What is he waiting for? These agencies need funding restored and they need to be paid in a timely manner so they can continue to serve people who have limited options.
PHASE/WAVE offers an example of how the governor’s cuts hurt. PHASE offers specialized treatment for people suffering various forms of chemical dependency, while WAVE provides domestic violence victims shelter and counseling. About 4,000 people a year are served.
Gary Hallbach, president and CEO of PHASE/WAVE, said his agency has not received any money from the state this fiscal year, which began in July. Hallbach said he was told it will be at least three weeks before his agency gets paid.
T
he payment delays coupled with a $285,000 budget cut — a cut that was made after the agency contracted for services — have led to positions going unfilled and two staff members being laid off.
That means fewer people are being served. Fewer people are getting help with substance abuse and fewer women and children are given shelter.
WAVE has 50 beds available, but only can fill 28 of them because of staffing issues. Hallbach said the agency had to turn away 300 people one month.
“It s going to continue to get worse unless the funding turns around,” Hallbach said. “That doesn’t appear to be the direction the state is going in.
“We use to be able to rely on money from the state. That’s not true today.”
Youth Services Network is an agency that works toward improving the quality of services to community youth and their families. YSN was established in 1982 to help impact the youth services system in Winnebago and Boone counties.
The agency will close its Belvidere office at the end of this month because it doesn’t have the money to keep it open.
YSN is 100 percent grant funded and lost $100,000 from the federal government and $300,000 from the state. The agency only has received one payment from the state this fiscal year.
The biggest cut was in the system of care program that helps keep foster children from bouncing from home to home. That program was cut 43.8 percent, which means there is less money available to mentor, tutor, counsel, drive — whatever the children and their foster parents need.
“If we don’t help the kids, we’ll be building more prisons because the kids can’t help themselves,” said Mary Ellen Commare, executive director of YSN. She pointed out that most of the children served — 130 at any given time — are 8 years old or younger.
“If we can’t serve them there will be more truants, more dropouts and more trouble,” she said. “It would save in the long run if we help these children today.”
Frank Ware, president and CEO of Janet Wattles Center, which provides mental health services, also painted a bleak picture.
“The combination of late payments ($2.2 million), cuts ($78,000) and ‘set-asides’ ($340,000) is a problem,” Ware said. “Sadly, we have no assurances that the problems are resolved. It is our understand that only a portion of the mental health cuts were included in the legislation sent to the governor.”
In a guest column that will appear in Sunday’s Opinions section, Ware calls for a summit to address the challenges nonprofit agencies face.
Perhaps the community can provide help because it’s apparent the state will not do its share.
The governor and legislature are guilty of gross negligence, irresponsibility and utter selfishness.
They’ve put petty political feuds above the common good. Shame on them.
They must fix this in the post-election session of the General Assembly. Once we lose these vital services, it will be hard to bring them back. Apparently our political “leaders” don’t listen to the agencies who work with the downtrodden because they don’t “pay to play.”
That’s disgusting.
