Politics – Rich Miller

 “Is that the guy from the Policy Institute?” House Speaker Michael Madigan asked his press secretary after an Illinois News Network reporter recently tried to ask Madigan a question at the Statehouse. The Illinois Policy Institute transferred ownership of the network to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity back in January. But they […]

 I had the pleasure of meeting several Democratic women candidates from Lake County during the Illinois State Fair last summer. Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) was showing them around town and brought them to a reception I was attending. Those candidates were positively joyful. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be running for office. Only one had […]

Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker has taken the prospect of an immediate income tax hike off the table, telling the Sun-Times that he won’t pursue an “artificial” progressive income tax during the coming spring legislative session. Pritzker floated the idea as a possible way to impose an immediate graduated income tax, which the Illinois Constitution forbids. He […]

 The last column I write before Election Day is always the toughest because some papers will publish this before Election Day and others will publish it after. So today you get a yard sign story. Let’s start with U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam’s campaign, which sent out two press releases during the fall campaign complaining about […]

 “I’ll be a check on the Pritzker-Madigan agenda,” Republican attorney general candidate Erika Harold says in her latest TV ad about Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner J.B. Pritzker and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. And now a similar line of attack is cropping up elsewhere. In southern Illinois, for instance, state Rep. Jerry Costello’s Republican opponent David […]

The more I read it, the more skeptical I became of the racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the J.B. Pritzker campaign by 10 current and former field-level workers last week.   The initial demand for $7.5 million in one business day along with personal recommendations from Pritzker himself in exchange for their silence really hurts […]

Dear J.B. Pritzker, I totally understand the campaign politics of not wanting to say what you think the income tax rates should be under a graduated tax structure. I also get why you won’t say what ought to be the income level at which people will begin paying a higher income tax rate than they […]

J.B. Pritzker was recently endorsed by Crain’s Chicago Business. The state’s premiere business magazine endorsed a candidate whose biggest promise is to raise taxes on the publication’s well-off subscriber base.Gov. Bruce Rauner has called Pritzker’s graduated income tax proposal “a green light to raise taxes on everyone.” Pritzker has infamously dodged hundreds if not thousands […]

The Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access panel set up by the Democratic Party earlier this year released its final recommendations last week. The AHEA panel wants the state’s political parties to make their funding of candidates contingent on campaigns adopting specific policies and training. The panel was created in the wake of numerous sexual harassment allegations […]

The first gubernatorial debate of the 2018 general election was almost all heat and no light. Instead of talking about where they want to take the state, the candidates focused mainly on delivering rehearsed zingers at other people in the race. Gov. Bruce Rauner and Sen. Sam McCann, the Conservative Party candidate, crafted some of […]

 Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign-reset speech last week has been described as “contrite,” a “mea culpa” and even an “apology.” I actually do believe, as Rauner claimed, that he’s “grown” in office. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming into it, but he’s grown some. After losing the budget and tax hike veto battle last […]

 The J.B. Pritzker campaign slapped a new label on Gov. Bruce Rauner the other day, calling him “Governor Veto” because he’s vetoed several bills that the Democratic candidate supports. Since the legislative session ended, Gov. Rauner has vetoed 75 bills. By my count, 44 passed with veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers. The governor issued […]