Politics – Rich Miller

 The political muscle of ComEd/Exelon aced its last major test in 2016, when the energy companies finally passed what one Illinois House member referred to at the time as a “multibillion dollar corporate bailout” by electricity ratepayers to keep two of its nuclear power plants open. The vote came after that year’s election during the […]

One of the provisions of the sweeping state pension reform law passed in 2010 has always stuck in the craw of first responders. Police and (especially) firefighter unions fought the local government lobby for decades to increase survivor benefits, and then they watched many of those hard-fought wins get wiped away when the General Assembly […]

The Illinois Senate recently released a heavily redacted copy of the federal search warrant served during the raid of Sen. Martin Sandoval’s Statehouse office last month. And the Village of McCook also released a heavily redacted search warrant from the federal raid of its town hall. It’s impossible to tell from the redactions exactly how […]

At about the same time last week, Chicago-based investigators with the FBI and the IRS swooped into Democratic Sen. Marty Sandoval’s district office, Statehouse office and home residence, removing boxes of documents and seizing computers. Last November, the feds launched a simultaneous raid of super-powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke’s city and ward offices, but they […]

 Whatever else you may believe, you have to commend Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for trying to live up to her campaign promise of making sure that new economic development isn’t concentrated in her city’s downtown business district. Her city casino proposal didn’t include a downtown location because she said she wanted the development benefits to […]

The governor’s top budget people sent a memo last week to agency directors giving them a heads up about what will be required in their annual budget request submissions. They are not easy-peasy asks. This fiscal year’s budget was originally supposed to be austere, but then a $1.5 billion flood of unexpected revenue poured in […]

 Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) announced last week that he will not seek reelection. Instead, he said he’ll likely be making a 2022 statewide bid for either US Senate against Sen. Tammy Duckworth or secretary of state if Jesse White retires. He may not be a household name, but McSweeney has been a huge thorn […]

The statement issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office last Thursday night had some good advice for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who gave what was billed as a “State of the City” address earlier that evening. Lightfoot had outlined the challenges facing the city, including an $838 million budget deficit and her need for Illinois government’s […]

 You don’t have to read past the first sentence of Tim Mapes’ statement last week to see one of the core problems with the way he ran the Illinois House Democratic operation. Mapes was responding to an investigative report commissioned by House Speaker Michael Madigan to get to the bottom of allegations of sexual harassment […]

 The Illinois AFL-CIO hosted its annual State Fair reception last week. The highlight was probably a speech by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who thanked his audience of union leaders for their support in the 2018 campaign and for their help passing an enormous amount of legislation during his first session of the General Assembly. But there […]

When House Speaker Michael Madigan announced in February of 2018 that he’d fired Kevin Quinn, the brother of Madigan’s alderman and political general, he said he made the decision because of Quinn’s “inappropriate conduct” with Alaina Hampton, whom he called a “courageous woman.” Hampton had come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by Quinn and […]

 Most state legislators don’t have to worry about next year’s general election. The combination of gerrymandering and the simple fact that many of the state’s regions are dominated by one party or the other pretty much guarantees that all but a handful of incumbents will sail through on the November ballot. But first they have […]