Last fall, Gov. Rod Blagojevich took a brief but nasty beating in the Chicago media. Thick smoke from a superhot fire killed nine people in a Loop office high-rise. One of the building’s managers, Elzie Higginbottom, was a Blagojevich campaign contributor. When the city and county’s investigators dragged their feet, the Chicago media demanded that […]
Rich Miller
Posted inOpinion
Prison blues
During the 2002 campaign, gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich spoke to a large crowd of union members in Vandalia, most of whom worked at the local state prison. Blagojevich made a pledge to them: If elected governor, “I will never balance the budget on your backs.” Fast-forward to February 2004. Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposes closing the […]
Posted inOpinion
Torpedoed
I’m going to talk about Blair Hull, but I have to tell you a story first. Nobody thought Terry Link had a chance back in 1996. Link was running for an Illinois Senate seat in a Republican-leaning Lake County district. He was a surefire loser. But Link worked hard, and his Republican opponent wasn’t much […]
Posted inOpinion
Care less
Buried deep within Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s annual budget address last week was a nasty argument with the most influential bunch of do-gooders in Illinois — the social service providers. These are the groups, many of them religious (like the Catholic Conference, Lutheran Social Services and the Jewish Federation), that take care of the state’s most […]
Posted inOpinion
Smooth operator
At first glance, it may seem puzzling that last week’s list of federal indictments included the powerful lobbying firm of Ronan Potts, but not Al Ronan, the guy who runs the firm. Ronan’s attorney has all but admitted that Ronan is “Fawell Associate 1,” who was repeatedly referred to in the indictments of former George […]
Posted inOpinion
Sound and fury
You really have to hand it to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. By simply proposing to transfer the powers of the Illinois State Board of Education to his own office, Blagojevich did several huge favors for the teachers unions, forestalled any budget-busting funding increases for education and all but killed the income-for-property tax swap idea for the […]
Posted inOpinion
Dodge ball
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s success on major legislation last year may not translate into passage of his top priority this year: eliminating the Illinois State Board of Education, which he’s compared to a “Soviet-style” bureaucracy. On every major victory last year, the governor had the backing of both Democratic legislative leaders, House Speaker Michael Madigan and […]
Posted inOpinion
Pride and Prejudice
Rick Garcia, who runs the state’s largest gay rights organization, is obviously a little fed up with some Democrats in the Illinois state Senate. “They’re just wusses,” Garcia says. Garcia is upset at the Democrats for preventing Senate Bill 101 from receiving a vote by the full Senate. The bill would essentially forbid discrimination in […]
Posted inOpinion
Guilt by association
John Sullivan, a Democrat from Rushville, was the biggest surprise winner of the 2002 election in Illinois. Political observers still wonder how Sullivan beat Laura Kent Donahue, a popular Republican state senator, in a Republican-leaning district. Sullivan was a factor in why Senate Republicans refused to cooperate with the Democrats during last year’s session: They […]
Posted inOpinion
Seeking inspiration
Despite easily winning two consecutive statewide elections, a recent Chicago Tribune poll has Comptroller Dan Hynes at just 14 percent in the U.S. Senate race. Even worse, Hynes is tied with two of his opponents, Maria Pappas and Barack Obama. How can Dan Hynes possibly be polling just 14 percent in this race? And how […]
Posted inOpinion
Small potatoes
“A prosecutor once described political corruption as a ‘time-honored tradition’ in Illinois, but the scandal outlined in a 91-page indictment against former Gov. George Ryan might be the worst yet,” the Associated Press claimed last week. At the risk of sounding like an apologist for this state’s Public Enemy Number one, gimme a break. Most […]
Posted inOpinion
Remembering Paul Simon
My father is a Barry Goldwater Republican. He never voted for a Democrat — until 1984. To this day, dad sports a “Goldwater for President” campaign sticker on his prized 1963 Cadillac convertible. But in the year of the Ronald Reagan landslide, my dad voted for his first Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Paul Simon. My […]
