Politics – Rich Miller

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his staff have tried to muddy the waters on the question of that now-infamous $1,500 check from his friend by seizing on the flip-flopping of the friend’s wife, Beverly Ascaridis. Beverly Ascaridis, you will recall, got a state job about the same time that her husband, Mike Ascaridis, wrote the governor […]

If you think Gov. Rod Blagojevich gets bad press now, imagine how harsh the coverage would be if we knew what he was hiding. For instance, we know from sources that the governor’s own office and his various agencies have been served with dozens of federal subpoenas involving countless criminal allegations, but Blagojevich won’t even […]

OK, by a show of hands, how many of you out there have ever given $1,500 to the college fund of a friend’s 7-year-old and then didn’t tell your spouse about it? Yeah, I didn’t think so. In case you haven’t heard yet, I’ll give you a brief wrap-up of the latest scandal that has […]

After spending millions of dollars on unanswered television ads, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has only an eight-point lead over Republican nominee Judy Baar Topinka, according to the latest poll. The Research 2000 poll of 800 likely voters was conducted Aug. 28-31 for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and had a margin of error of 3.5 percent. The […]

As President George W. Bush’s job approval ratings continue to slump, Republican incumbents almost everywhere are running away from him as fast as they can. It’s gotten so bad that even U.S. Rep. Tom Reynolds, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, doesn’t have the word “Republican” on his campaign Web site’s front page. […]

Why did Republican gubernatorial nominee Judy Baar Topinka go with a Chicago-casino idea to help fund her education, property-tax, and infrastructure proposals? Well, a general tax increase had all but been ruled out months ago. Polling and focus grouping showed high levels of opposition to a tax increase — and Topinka already has enough troubles […]

Stu Levine has flipped — and things are gonna get crazy real soon. Levine was a big Republican insider with very close ties to Jim Ryan, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 2002 opponent. Some saw fair-minded bipartisanship when Blagojevich reappointed Levine to both the Teachers’ Retirement System board of directors and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. […]

Every day for four years I got down on my knees and thanked God for sending me George Ryan. I knew that no matter how slow the news day was, I could always count on the former governor’s various scandals and antics to provide enough interesting fodder to fill up white space. Reporter: “Gov. Ryan, […]

Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka don’t agree on much, but their campaigns concurred last week, saying that Blagojevich is leading in the polls. Blagojevich campaign staffers say that their latest poll shows the Democratic governor leading the Republican treasurer 47-31, a seriously large advantage. Topinka’s campaign has Blagojevich ahead 44-37, a far narrower gap. […]

“There is so much more coming it is breathtaking,” an almost always reliable source said recently when asked about the recent flood of news stories about alleged corruption within Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. That source wasn’t the only one making this prediction. Plenty of others are saying that the Chicago Tribune is sitting on a […]

Do citizens of this state have a right to know whether their governor and his administration are under criminal investigation? According to the governor, the answer is no. Around the same time as this year’s campaign season moved into full swing, the governor’s state press operation stopped answering questions about whether the office had received […]