Rich Miller

Christian Mitchell has had strong detractors ever since Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle elevated the young Black man out of obscurity and backed him for the Illinois House in 2012. Preckwinkle chose her trusted aide Mitchell over appointed Rep. Kimberly du Buclet, D-Chicago. Preckwinkle’s move upset a lot of people in that part of […]

“I ran for governor in 2018 to change our story,” Gov. JB Pritzker told a Chicago crowd June 26 as he announced his bid for a third term. “I ran for governor in 2022 to keep telling our story. And I am running for governor in 2026 to protect our story.” This general theme of […]

I reached out last week to several members of the “19” – the Democratic House members who refused to vote to reelect House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2021, thereby forcing him into retirement. I asked for their reaction to Madigan’s 90-month federal prison sentence handed down a few days earlier. In talking with several members […]

As I write this, multiple news outlets have reported that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is preparing to deploy its Special Response Teams to five major U.S. cities, including Chicago, in the very near future. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas told reporters last week: “There will be tactical teams, […]

I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session. “I think the same thing that happened on energy happened on all the things, you know. Big bills take time,” Welch said. “And I […]

For quite a while now, most folks in politics have assumed that Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and Comptroller Susana Mendoza will probably run for mayor of Chicago in 2027. The incumbent Brandon Johnson is spectacularly unpopular, and a real hunger is developing in the city (again) for new leadership. Anyway, some wags have […]

The U.S. House’s Energy and Commerce Committee released its recommendations for budget reconciliation early last week. A preliminary review by the Congressional Budget Office projected that, if implemented, at least 8.6 million Americans would lose their Medicaid coverage during the coming decade. That translates to well over 300,000 Illinoisans. In addition, the CBO projected that […]

I spent some time talking with a top legislative budget negotiator last week who said rank-and-file legislators will very soon have to come to terms with a state budget environment unlike anything many have ever seen before. The “budgeteer” didn’t know yet how things would shake out, but the person was adamant that weak revenues […]

As you likely know by now, a federal jury deadlocked last week on all three corruption charges against Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago. U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood declared a mistrial after polling individual jurors and arriving at the conclusion that they could not possibly reach a verdict. When you think of the Chicago U.S. […]

Gov. JB Pritzker said last week that the extreme uncertainty with the U.S. government and the international economy might mean that the legislature may have to reconvene to reconfigure the state budget after it adjourns at the end of next month. “It may very well be that we’re going to have to come back at […]