PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever thought that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration could ever keep state operations running for a year without an actual state budget. State and federal courts have ordered about 90 percent of state spending since the General Assembly’s Democrats and the Republican governor deadlocked on a budget […]
Capitol Fax
Posted inOpinion
Failing on his mandate
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Near the top of any list of Illinois government’s many problems is that House Speaker Michael Madigan has made a decades-long game out of messing with the minds and the agendas of our governors. If there’s one constant since 1983, it’s Speaker Madigan’s jiu-jitsu moves against whoever happens to be governor. […]
Posted inOpinion
Get out of the way
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS With yet another poll showing plunging Downstate support for Gov. Bruce Rauner in a Republican district and the intense Republican freakout over Donald Trump’s impending presidential nomination and its impact on independent suburban women, there appears to be a growing feeling among Democrats, particularly in the Illinois Senate, that they need […]
Posted inOpinion
Record spending in campaign against McCann
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS “He was a god in that district,” a high-level Rauner guy told me about state Sen. Sam McCann’s poll numbers from before this year’s Republican primary campaign began. Benchmark polling taken months ago showed McCann (R-Plainview) had a voter approval rating of about 70 percent. Sen. McCann “really was everywhere” in […]
Posted inOpinion
Can Gonzales defeat Madigan?
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS A name from the past has been leading the charge for Jason Gonzales’ Democratic primary campaign against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Blair Hull, the hugely wealthy but unsuccessful 2004 Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, directly accounts for $100,000 of the $300,000 which the Illinois United for Change PAC has raised […]
Posted inOpinion
Not working, not winning
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS President Barack Obama seemed to admit almost right from the start of his address to the Illinois General Assembly last week about the need for a more civil politics that he probably wouldn’t sway his audience, which has been bickering amongst itself for over a year. Obama talked about his first […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislative competition up for 2016
One of the realities of Illinois legislative politics is that our state’s system tends to discourage competition. Byzantine ballot access laws, a highly partisan legislative district map-drawing process, heavily concentrated populations of partisan voters in Chicago (Democrats) and in the collar counties and Downstate, (Republicans) along with often tireless work by incumbents and political parties […]
Posted inOpinion
Madigan’s tax-hike gaffe
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS One of the concepts used so effectively by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign last year was what are called “OODA Loops.” I’m going to oversimplify because of space, but the idea, developed by a military strategist and adopted by business leaders, is to essentially introduce rapid changes to a battle with the […]
Posted inOpinion
The state must step up
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Here’s what the Chicago Police Department told the media after Laquan McDonald was killed by a police officer 13 months ago: A drug-addled black kid lunged at a cop with a knife and was then shot in the chest. Six months later and a week after Chicago’s mayoral election, the city […]
Posted inOpinion
Rough week for Madigan
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS “He seems so done with it all,” said one top Republican earlier last week about House Republican Leader Jim Durkin. “He hates this,” said a close Durkin pal not long afterward. The overtime session’s constant battles with the House Democrats and super-strict marching orders from Gov. Bruce Rauner were wearing Durkin […]
Posted inOpinion
Prevailing wage debate rooted in ideology
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS For months now, Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he won’t negotiate a state budget unless his “Turnaround Agenda” demands are met. In the meantime, he has slashed funding for the child care assistance program, homeless services have been decimated, mental health services are going without cash, universities are struggling and even […]
Posted inOpinion
Republicans ‘winning,’ according to Rauner
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Gov. Bruce Rauner took it on the chin for several days in a row this month. The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute’s recent poll of southern Illinoisans showed Rauner’s approval rating absolutely tanking in a region he swept last year. Just 37 percent of voters in 18 southern counties approved of […]
