Politics – Rich Miller

 Back in the old, old days, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley would pack passenger trains full of loyalists and send them all to the Illinois State Fair’s Democrat Day rally where they were treated to rousing speeches by party leaders and candidates. Gov. Rod Blagojevich kept that tradition alive on a somewhat smaller scale by […]

 A political action committee run by top officials of Operating Engineers Local 150 reported a $255,000 contribution last week from a “dark money” organization controlled by the same Local 150 honchos. Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow PAC and its money-raising Fight Back Fund spent $900,000 during the Democratic primary to oppose Rep. Scott Drury’s bid for […]

 Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan will be on the ballot in just one of Illinois’ 118 House districts this November, but his name and reputation will be featured in electoral battles throughout the state as Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Republican Party use Madigan against every Democrat from J.B. Pritzker on down to maybe even […]

 According to a recent Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll, Democrat J.B. Pritzker leads Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner by nine points, 36-27, with 26 percent choosing an unnamed third-party candidate and 11 percent undecided. In other words, slightly more people said they preferred third party and/or were undecided than supported the frontrunner, Pritzker. The partisan breakdown […]

If you ask anyone at the Statehouse about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff Tim Mapes, they’ll all say he “made the trains run on time.” Mapes made sure everything got done exactly the way he (and his boss) wanted. He mastered the complexities and dominated the workings of Illinois House operations as […]

Pointing out the holes in Maryann Loncar’s allegations against Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) is like shooting fish in a barrel. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that absolutely everything she said was untrue. Loncar, a longtime medical marijuana activist, made her allegations last week during a much-anticipated press conference on the final day of the General […]

For weeks now, some Democrats have been wondering if their party intends to run a “coordinated campaign” this year and have asked what it might look like. A coordinated campaign means all the party’s candidates are working together under one umbrella group. The party’s standard-bearer J.B. Pritzker has kicked off “Blue Wave Illinois” and will […]

 Last week’s press conference announcing his latest amendatory veto was, without a doubt, the best press Gov. Bruce Rauner has had since he fired his top staff last July and brought in that Illinois Policy Institute crowd (which he also fired). The governor developed an unexpected and dramatic message and then stayed relentlessly on message […]

 “Nothing’s more important for a governor than having a good budget because that allows you to manage the state to do your job.” Let that recent quote from former Gov. Jim Edgar as reported by The State Journal-Register sink in for a bit. “Nothing’s more important for a governor than having a good budget because […]

 Eastern Illinois University’s legislative liaison Katie Anselment had some strong words for legislators during an Illinois Senate Higher Education Committee hearing last week. Anselment testified against a bill that would create a pilot program to allow a downstate community college to offer nursing bachelor’s degrees. The four-year universities view this legislation as a dangerous slippery […]

Believe it or not, one of the questions I’m asked the most these days is: “When will Gov. Rauner and J.B. Pritzker start airing their general election TV ads?” A few weeks ago, Chicago pundit Dick Simpson predicted to Crain’s Chicago Business that the new campaign TV ads would start “any minute.” He went on […]

 Several months ago, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff Tim Mapes made copies of candidate nominating petitions for what appeared to be every single candidate in the state, regardless of party or office sought. Madigan’s spokesperson was mum when asked why. It turns out that a database was constructed of the names of all […]