February 17, 2010 - Chicago Tribune 

You remember that charade: Illinois' first-ever caps on campaign contributions conveniently don't apply to party leaders, except in primary elections. That gives them a huge advantage over other contributors, and not by accident. The ability to bankroll campaigns (or not) is what keeps rank-and-file lawmakers in line. They're not going to give that up.

That explains what happened last week, when House Republican leader Tom Cross tried to force a vote on a measure that would fix that fatal flaw. His bill is trapped in the Rules Committee, the kiss of death. If it somehow gets out of Rules, then lawmakers will have to deal with it before the election, and they know you're watching.

So Cross put them on the spot by asking for a vote. Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan told his members to block it. They did as they were told. They always do. That's the point.

Sure, it was a political stunt, but an effective one. Cross raised the reform flag and invited the Democrats to salute. At least we know where they stand.

There's a lot of unfinished business left over from last year's clean-up-Illinois campaign. Good-government crusaders nobly pushed, but ultimately blinked. Madigan wouldn't budge on capping contributions by party leaders; it was half a loaf or nothing, he said. The reformers settled for half, which was worse than nothing. By tilting the playing field, the money limits give party leaders even more power than before.

The reformers are back, trying to finish the job, but Madigan signaled last week that he'll step on them like a bug. Now they're hard at work on a plan to change how the state's legislative districts are drawn — another nonstarter with Democrats, we suspect, since the current incumbents-first process suits them just fine. Republicans will unveil their own redistricting plan on Thursday. Let's see them get that one out of Rules.

So what is on the reform agenda this session? Good question. So far the only measures that are moving are the ones going in the wrong direction.

In January, lawmakers passed a measure requiring public school teachers' performance evaluations to be based on, of all things, performance. But the same law exempted those evaluations from the revised Freedom of Information Act, which at the time of the vote was not even two weeks old.

Suddenly it's open season on government transparency, one of the few areas in which actual progress was made last year. Half a dozen bills have been filed to roll back provisions of the new law. Some would restore oft-abused roadblocks, such as prohibitive fees, meant to thwart access to public records. Others would exclude broad categories of public records from inspection.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have dropped the ball on a number of worthy reforms.

A set of proposals to stiffen enforcement of anti-corruption laws was snuffed out last year because it "needed more study."

A plan to let voters recall executive officers or legislators was buried, yep, in the Rules Committee. Lawmakers substituted a constitutional amendment — it's on the November ballot — to allow the recall only of the governor. There's another half a loaf that conveniently spares the General Assembly.

Lawmakers couldn't even bring themselves to give up the indefensible practice of awarding college scholarships to anyone they choose.

Their actions so far this session suggest that they're finished with reforms, except for the ones they're quietly dismantling. Don't let them get away with it.

In case you missed it — and the state's Democratic leadership sincerely hopes you did — lawmakers have already put a brick on a bill that would patch the gaping hole in their phony campaign finance reform law.

James Warren is a columnist for the Chicago News Cooperative.

Votes in the Illinois primary elections on Tuesday were being counted just as ABC started the final season of “Lost.” The state’s Republican Party, marooned on an island of ineptitude, could now be liberated partly because of whom Democrats picked as their nominee for the Senate.

The nominee, State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, will be at the top of the November ballot, and he makes Democratic leaders anxious. Even though the general election is politically light-years away, many unrelated factors could have an impact. And the Republicans are, well, the Republicans, bumbling holders of just 7 of 28 federal or statewide offices.

Part of the Democrats’ worry involves a sense that Mr. Giannoulias, while affable and good looking, will appear to lack heft when compared with the Republican nominee, Representative Mark Steven Kirk. The prospect of Mr. Kirk, arrogant but very smart, prompted the White House to try to persuade the state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, to run for the Senate seat.

But while Democrats wonder about Mr. Giannoulias’s gravitas, there is also concern about the untidiness of his family’s bank — an issue exploited only somewhat by his opponent in the primary, David Hoffman, a political novice who made the far better-financed, self-styled protégé of President Obama squirm.

For sure, Mr. Giannoulias was artful in his Pavlovian, post-victory response to questions about his years at Broadway Bank, the source of his wealth and claim of competence. After dodging the issue for weeks, he kept saying, “A lot of family businesses are struggling.”

The nominee, a Gold Coast bachelor, portrays himself as an ally of the working class, with the hope that voters are more concerned about jobs than a small bank’s travails. But consider the possibilities.

A just-announced consent decree with state and federal bank regulators requires Broadway to raise more than $50 million by April. In addition, Mr. Giannoulias’s brother, Demetri, who runs the bank, must hire government-approved consultants to recommend changes in lending policies and financial reporting.

It is unlikely any outside investor would inject new capital. This means the family, which took out $70 million in dividends at the height of the real estate bubble, could be forced to reinvest much of that capital or risk having the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shut the bank down. Alexi Giannoulias’s financial assets, and air of competence, could be deflated, with Mr. Kirk sure to be more unsparing than Mr. Hoffman.

Now throw in the coming trial of Rod R. Blagojevich and the headaches that might cause Democratic candidates. The trial will be a giant infomercial for Republicans, and some Democratic leaders in the state are worried.

Mr. Giannoulias, they fear, will make it harder to motivate the base. Add that to an off-year election, in which the party in power traditionally does weaker, add in a recession, a Blagojevich trial hangover, and it will remind folks what they hate about Democrats.

Talking to elected leaders, some of whom nominally supported Mr. Giannoulias, one gets an insider’s guide to politics. They detail legislative “swing” districts with recently elected Democrats, changing demographics and party erosion downstate, counterbalanced by recent victories in the Chicago suburbs.

Potentially vulnerable Democrats include the first-term State Representative Mark Walker of Arlington Heights, the first-term State Senator Michael Bond of Grayslake, the first-term State Senator Michael Noland of Elgin, State Representative Emily McAsey of Crest Hill and Daniel Biss of Evanston, a House candidate for an open seat.

And Mr. Giannoulias could be a drag. He is such a heavy lift, he may give some Democrats a hernia just thinking about getting him elected.

On Wednesday, a state senator said that some colleagues must stay far away from the races for senator and governor.

Does that same reasoning suggest that Mr. Obama won’t aggressively campaign in Illinois?

“If you imagine Barack as Superman, Illinois is Krypton,” said a Democratic legislator and Obama friend.

From this vantage point, Illinois makes the president look weak. It reminds outsiders he is from Chicago and ramps up the whole G.O.P. attack machinery.

But it’s hard to imagine that Mr. Obama won’t reprise his successful stumping for candidates as a celebrity senator four years ago.

Still, throw in Patrick J. Quinn, the accidental governor, stumbling to victory and disclosures that Scott Lee Cohen, the stealth Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, allegedly held a knife to the throat of a former girlfriend who was a prostitute. Republicans may not be so lost.

By LYNNE STIEFEL This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

October 6, 2009 
Whilmette Life

With Elizabeth Coulson, the current office holder, at his side, Republican Hamilton Chang of Wilmette Tuesday announced he's running for the 17th House District in 2010.

"I am committed to reversing the fiscal irresponsibility of this state's government, to stopping its corruption and to crafting fiscal policies that can make Illinois a place for families and businesses to prosper," Chang stated on his Web site.

Born in Taiwan, Chang grew up in Flint, Mich. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and an master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Chang's expertise is financial structuring. He worked for Oppenheimer and Co. from 2007 through 2009 as managing director and national manager of the structured products group.

Read more: Chang gets Coulson's backing for 17th House

09/10/2009 - mywebtimes.com

Morris resident Sue Rezin, a Republican, announced her candidacy for state representative for the 75th District, a position held by state Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Morris.

Rezin recently told supporters Illinois must make significant reforms to protect families from rising taxes and unemployment.

Read more: Rezin runs for state representative

September 5, 2009
BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Call the Neanderthal who left anonymous, threatening, epithet-laced messages on Cook County Commissioner Deborah Sims voice mail by three names: Coward, racist and dope.

The first two require no explanation. The last one is worth a few words.

The caller, in addition to a mournfully stunted vocabulary, didn't seem to understand the focus of his tirade was misdirected.

True, Sims flip-flopped on a crucial vote, one poised to hand President Todd Stroger a stinging defeat. Had commissioners overridden Stroger, beleaguered county taxpayers might have seen a teeny- weeny half-cent bit of sales tax relief.

But Sims is a bit player, not the villain of this story.

House Speaker Mike Madigan and Stroger are the problem.

Each is a believer in the time-honored Chicago tradition of one-man rule. Thus, in Cook County, it's all but impossible to override a presidential veto because the threshold is so much higher than in other units of government across the country. Others require a three-fifths majority to override, but not us. We're stuck with a four-fifths requirement.

And so it takes a whopping 14 out of 17 votes to win a fight with the president.

And the Democratic Machine seems to like it that way. That includes Speaker Madigan.

Back in 2006, state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), bucked Madigan by proposing a bill that would put Cook County in line with the rest of the free world by lowering the override barrier.

His bill died in a House committee.

This spring it looked like that legislation, this time sponsored by state Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), might actually have a strong heartbeat.

The state Senate, led by President John Cullerton, passed it 57-0.

But once again, the life drained out of it when it went to Madigan's House. It lies like a corpse in the Rules Committee, where all good bills go to die unless the speaker raises them from the dead.

"Bills that the speaker wants to see passed, pass," Fritchey said by phone Friday. "Those that he doesn't want to see the light of day, don't."

Fritchey, who was only one of a handful of Democrats to denounce the hollow campaign finance reform bill his leadership claimed as "landmark," is now leaving the House to run for the Cook County Board. The seat he seeks has been occupied by now-retiring reform Commissioner Forrest Claypool.

And Fritchey has a few things to remind Stroger about as his campaign goes forward.

Back in 2006, when Fritchey stuck his neck out on that override legislation, guess what?

Stroger, who was running for president, sided with Fritchey in favor of it.

"Put power back into the hands of county commissioners," trumpeted a Stroger campaign press release.

But once elected? Whammo. Change of heart.

"The Office of the President of Cook County" is listed as an official opponent of Fritchey's bill.

Just think.

If Fritchey's bill had passed two years ago or Kotowski's bill had been taken up in the House this year, maybe Commissioner Sims wouldn't have had to endure some sexist/racist ranting into her voice mail.

"We had a great opportunity to fix a problem before it really hurt the public," Fritchey said. "And it was an opportunity lost."

State Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) said Friday she will fight to get a House vote on it in the October veto session.

With another election, who knows?

Maybe Todd Stroger will remember that this is something in which he once claimed to believe.