ALDERMAN BOB FIORETTI THROWS HIS HAT IN THE RING: OH, HEART BE STILL

9/13/14

So 2^nd Alderman Bob Fioretti has thrown his hat into the Chicago mayoral ring.  Yawn.

As 1^st Ward Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno said of Mr. Fioretti’s quixotic quest

“I think he has no shot.  None.  It’s delusions of grandeur on his part.”

Delusions of grandeur are somewhat characteristic of Mr. Fioretti, but probably only to a slightly greater degree than is the case with most politicians.   Like most pols, Mr. Fioretti is convinced that he has all the answers and that he is duty bound to enlighten us with his brilliance.  His feelings in this regard pale beside those of the man he seeks to unseat, but I digress.

There is nothing endemic to Mr. Fioretti that renders his bid for the 5^th Floor laughable.   While being accused of being somewhat loony left, it is hard to label the advocacy of more cops on the street, removing control of the Chicago Public Schools from the mayor’s control, and elimination of red light cameras as being somehow leftist.  A commuter tax is a potentially ruinous idea that does smacks of liberalism run amok.  But, on balance, there isn’t as much room for ideology in running a city as most would have you believe.  The most dyspeptic aspect of Mr. Fioretti is, in any case, not his ideology but his aforementioned ego.  In a field that includes Rahm Emanuel and Karen Lewis, however, Mr. Fioretti’s ego would be, by comparison, a non-issue.

Mr. Fioretti does have some admirable qualities.  What immediately comes to mind is his courage to stand up to Mayors Daley and Emanuel when his colleagues in the City Council were, and are, acting like love struck schoolgirls desperately angling for so much as an approving grin from the object of their sycophancy.   Those who decry the financial ravages Mr. Daley inflicted on our city would do well to have imitated Mr. Fioretti’s voting record in the Council.   Those who decry Mr. Emanuel’s highly unpopular attempts to deal with this mess would have a hard time finding a more genuine champion than Mr. Fioretti.

None of this matters, however.  Mr. Fioretti could be a flawless candidate with impeccable credentials and a solid voting base (He has none of those.) and still get clobbered by Rahm Emanuel.   As I’ve said ad nauseam in the past (KAREN LEWIS, THE HUMAN MONOPOLY GUY: SOME QUESTIONS THAT HAVEN’T BEEN ASKED, 8/14/14, TONI PRECKWINKLE RULESOUT A RUN FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO…MY READERSYAWN, 7/15/14, et. al.), Rahm Emanuel has all the money and all the organization.  Chicago is an array of constituencies that can readily be bought, one way or another, making it an especially fertile ground for pols with money and organization.   Toni Preckwinkle, who has more name recognition and qualifications, and a more natural voting constituency, than Mr. Fioretti, realized that she had no chance and dropped out.   Karen Lewis, with at least two more natural constituencies than Mr. Fioretti, may be in the process of seeing the light and dropping out.  Who knows what she will do?  But that, too, doesn’t matter; nobody is going to beat Rahm Emanuel in 2015.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

CHICAGO’S DAY FOR THE JACKIE ROBINSON WEST LITTLE LEAGUE: HAVE THE POLS ANY SHAME?

8/27/14

Today was a glorious day in Chicago, the day when my home town honored the U.S. Little League champion Jackie Robinson West kids with a parade and other festivities.  The parade kicked off at Jackie Robinson Park on 105^th and Morgan and proceeded north on Halsted Street, passed Comiskey Park (er, sorry, U.S. Cellular Field), turned east on 35^th to Indiana and eventually made its way over to Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park.   It was supposed to be a glorious day and, for the most part it has been, except…

At the kickoff of the parade, at 105^th and Morgan, an observer, casual or otherwise, could not be faulted for wondering who was being honored by the event.   The kids made a cameo appearance, as did their parents.  But who was there, front and center, seizing the limelight?    This is Chicago, Illinois, so you know the answer…the politicians.

There they were, a cast of blowhards that is drawn to such events like hungry dogs to prime steak…Governor Pat Quinn, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Congressperson Robin Kelly, Alderman Carrie Austin, et. al…the usual suspects, turning what should have been a great day honoring some great kids into yet another occasion for self-aggrandizement.

Have these people no shame?  

They have spent our state and our city into bankruptcy.  They have made careers of shaking down the (admittedly, in many instances, not all that uncooperative or put upon) private sector for their nefarious ends.  They have been largely responsible for our city and state having become less and less livable.  They have ruined what was perhaps one of our nation’s greatest states, which combined the bustling, vital, and exciting city of Chicago with a downstate that serves as a vital component of the nation’s breadbasket and an exemplar of the type of small town values that made this country what it once was.  They have stolen and pillaged everything that wasn’t, and much of what was, nailed down. And now they have stolen the well earned limelight the citizens of our great city would like to have cast on a much deserving crew of magnificent kids.

How can one describe these poltroonish politicasters?   They are popinjays, professional narcissists, barnacles on the ship of state.   They are empty suits, carnival barkers, entitled, whimpering no-accounts.   Shameless leaches.   Self centered snakes and scalawags.  Benighted bindlestiffs on an endless, undying quest for the next microphone and/or camera.  Bleating, bumptious boors.  Contemptuous caitiffs.  Jejune jackasses.

Seizing the glimmer of glory granted to a group of great kids, not being able to envision anybody but themselves and their fellow professional narcissists getting any glory…is there any depth to which these despicable human beings will not sink?

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

TONI PRECKWINKLE RULES OUT A RUN FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO…MY READERS YAWN

7/15/14

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today ruled out a run for mayor OF Chicago against Rahm Emanuel in 2015.   She disappointed some and surprised many.  But regular readers of yours truly merely yawned and said something like “Yeah, I knew that…a long time ago.”

Ms. Preckwinkle said she didn’t run because she had unfinished business with the County.  But readers of yours truly know the real reason she didn’t run.  As I said on 3/20/14: (TONI PRECKWINKLE AND THE RAHM EMANUEL JUGGERNAUT, Rant Lifestyle)

Toni Preckwinkle is a smart woman.  She knows all of the above. (i.e., that she had no chance against Rahm Emanuel and the Harold Washington analogies were silly and showed no knowledge of Chicago political history.  Read the whole post for details.).  So one doubts that she will run.  If Chicago Teachers’ Union President Karen Lewis wants to lie down on the tracks in front of the Rahm locomotive, Ms. Preckwinkle will be happy to oblige her and may even lend some tepid support with notably muted enthusiasm; Ms. Preckwinkle knows with whom she will be dealing for the next four years. 

Given the supposed surge of Ms. Lewis in the polls, isn’t that comment about her especially prescient?  But I digress.

And as I said on 4/10/14:  (THE 2015 CHICAGO MAYOR’S RACE:  TONI, TONI, PLEASE BACK DOWN, YOU’LL NEVER BEAT RAHM IN THIS TOWN, Rant Lifestyle)

Toni Preckwinkle has no chance against Rahm Emanuel and she knows it.  (Again, read the whole post for details.

If you want to understand Chicago politics, you have to read my posts.  This latest development in Toni Preckwinkle’s plans is only further evidence of what has always been clear to my readers.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

RAHM EMANUEL IS NOT GOING TO BE THE MAYOR WHO “LOST THE CUBS.”

7/11/14

As a result of yesterday’s decision by the Emanuel rubber stamp Chicago Commission on Landmarks, the Ricketts family and the Chicago Cubs they control will get all they want…and more.  Now it’s seven signs in the outfield, more seats, more suites, new bullpens, new light towers, etc.   Assuming that the revised proposal that was approved was not a mere bargaining chip to get the original smaller scale plan the Cubs first proposed, and it probably wasn’t, Wrigley Field will finally enter the 21^st Century while probably retaining much of its charm, the Cubs will stay in Chicago, and the rooftop club owners and those in the Lakeview neighborhood who don’t like the new plan will just have to deal with it.

None of this should come as a surprise, certainly not to my readers; see, inter alia, THE CUBS,WRIGLEY FIELD, RAHM EMANUEL, AND CHICAGO POLITICS:  PLAY BALL!, Rant Lifestyle, 5/30/14.   Just look at the plusses for Rahm Emanuel in the new plan:   the Cubs stay here, Wrigley Field becomes an even more attractive “entertainment venue” (Note that “entertainment venues” form the core of every “economic development” plan that seems to come down the pike in our town; see THOSE HORRIBLE SOUTH WORKS AND RAHM EMANUEL’S CORE CONSTITUENCY of a few days ago.), the taxpayers are more or less protected, and the Ricketts, who know how to express their gratitude financially, become an annuity for the Mayor’s boundless political ambitions.  Then consider the downside:   a few yuppies around in the Lakeview neighborhood get upset.  Ouch.   They, and those like them, form the core of the Mayor’s base. Where are they going to go on election day? 

Rahm Emanuel was not going to be the mayor who lost the Cubs; if anything had the potential to even partially sour his dazzling urbanite suburban import base on him, it would have been losing the Cubs, the darling of that oh so chic set.   Don’t get yours truly wrong; the Cubs have some true baseball fans among their loyalists; many of them read my musings.  But, for the most part, the Cubs exist to provide a bizarre twist on urban street cred for kids from the North Shore who have decided that they are now hardened, die-hard Chicago residents.   So not only are the Cubs good for Chicago’s economy (though probably not as good as the “consultants” they and those in their corner hire would have you believe), they are an important part of the fragile self-image of the core of Mr. Emanuel’s constituency.  Though Mr. Emanuel’s chances of losing in 2015 are about as remote of those of the Cubs winning the World Series any time in the foreseeable future (See TONI PRECKWINKLE ANDTHE RAHM EMANUEL JUGGERNAUT, Rant Lifestyle, 3/20/14), why would he take the chance of losing the Cubs to, say, Rosemont?  And why would the Ricketts kids take the chance of abandoning Wrigley and having to fall back on the Cubs as the main attraction of the multi-million dollar toy their father’s wealth has acquired for them?

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

QUINN ON PRECKWINKLE VS. EMANUEL, TRIPLE J, JEB BUSH, AND THE PENSION BILL

4/10/14

I took a hiatus from writing last week; I was just too busy to write and was harboring a few doubts about the whole point of the exercise.  But I was at a party last Saturday night and talked to several people whom I hadn’t seen in a while who told me how much they enjoyed my posts and asked me to assure them that I wouldn’t quit.  No coincidences, as they say, but I digress. 

At any rate, I found some time this week to write a few posts.  Almost all my musings this week were on Chicago politics; I did that because it seems like my writing on the politics of my hometown for Rant Lifestyle, a site about which I still have my misgivings, seems to sell my books…if an uptick in sales since writing for Rant is any evidence.

THE 2015 CHICAGO MAYOR’S RACE:  TONI, TONI, PLEASE BACK DOWN, YOU’LL NEVER BEAT RAHM IN THIS TOWN

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/10/2015-chicago-mayors-race-toni-toni-please-back-youll-never-beat-rahm-town/

Some of Toni Preckwinkle’s fans are delusional, but I hope she isn’t.  And I think I came up with a new expression for the political situation in Chicago:  Pax Rahmana.  Pretty good, eh?

TAKE IT TO THE BANK:  CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL WILL GET HIS TAX INCREASE…AND MAYBE HIS CASINO

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/09/take-bank-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-will-get-tax-increase-maybe-casino/

Those who say that this whole pension bill is a stalking horse for a casino may be partially right, but property taxes are going up in Chicago anyway.

JEB BUSH IN 2016:   MOTHER KNOWS BEST

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/09/jeb-bush-2016-mother-knows-best/

Yes, I know the Wall Street Journal editorial page has gone into the tank for this guy, but the GOP can’t be that suicidal.  Or can it?

JESSE JACKSON JR. GOES TO A NICER JAIL:  “THAT’S (NOT) THE SOUND OF THE MEN WORKING ON THE…CHAIN GANG…”

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/07/jesse-jackson-jr-goes-nicer-jail-thats-sound-men-working-chain-gang/

Once the glare of publicity faded, Triple J got to go to the federal housing he wanted all along.   So it goes.  But couldn’t the Jackson family have come up with a story that wasn’t quite so insulting to our intelligence?

Have a great weekend, everybody.   Blessed Holy Week and Passover.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

QUINN ON THE GOVERNOR’S RACE, GIANT PUPPETS, PUTIN, GM, AND HIS NAMESAKE’S HOUSING PLAN

4/24/14

The busyness, if you will, of my schedule combined with the events of the Triduum, ruled out sending you one of these heads-up announcements last week.   But I did manage to find the time to write a few things since we last communicated.  Most were on local and state politics for the simple reason that writing on these topics sells books.  But I did touch on world politics and the car business.

WHO DOES CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL WANT TO BE ILLINOIS GOVERNOR?

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/23/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-want-illinois-governor/

I’m not one to complain about editing, but the editor of this piece dropped the “Who” at the beginning of the title, changing its meaning entirely.   Be that as it may, the punch line is that Mr. Emanuel may be telling the truth in this instance, and it has little, but not nothing, to do with Mr. Rauner’s ill-advised robocalls.

RAHM AND THE GIANT PUPPETS

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/22/rahm-giant-puppets/

Yet another attempt by our yuppie mayor to make us a “world class” city.  Such grotesqueries make one pine for the days of the old Stock Yards, the aroma of which my father would alternately call “fresh air” or the “smell of money.”

THE GENEVA AGREEMENT ON UKRAINE:  PUTIN HORNSWOGGLES THE WEST…AGAIN

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/17/geneva-agreement-ukraine-putin-hornswoggles-west/

I often wonder what Mr. Putin thinks, or thought, after meeting with the likes of Barack Obama and George Bush.  It had to be something along the lines of “This guy is the leader of the free world?  Maybe freedom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“PRODUCT INTEGRITY ORGANIZATION”?  NEW GM INDEED!

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/16/product-integrity-organization-new-gm-indeed/

There is nothing new under the sun…especially in Detroit, it seems.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PAT QUINN’S HOUSING PROPOSAL:  PINING FOR ’08 AND ‘09

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/15/illinois-governor-pat-quinns-housing-proposal-pining-08-09/

Shows what a short memory and an utter lack of understanding of economics can do.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend, everybody.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS: CHICAGO POLITICS CLAIMS A “VICTIM” ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD

2/8/13

According to a front page story in today’s (i.e., Friday, 2/8/13’s) Chicago Tribune, trading in the stock of Redflex Holdings, an Australian company that controls operations in the business of red light cameras and other technological means of traffic control, has been halted.   Moreover, Redflex’s Chairman, Max Findlay, and another Board member, Ian Davis, resigned earlier this week.

These actions came in response to a deepening of a scandal at Redflex Traffic Systems involving the rewarding of a contract for red light cameras in the city of Chicago.   It seems that the company’s generosity to Mr. John Bills, the contract’s overseer and a heavy in the ward organization of 13^th Ward Committeeman, Illinois House Speaker, and Chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party Mike Madigan (pictured), was more extensive than originally thought.   According to a report by David Hoffman, a partner at what we who have been around for awhile used to know as Sidley & Austin and a former Inspector General for the City of Chicago who was so dogged in his pursuit of corruption that the Daley administration was very happy to see him go, Mr. Bills received not one night in a luxury hotel, as had formerly been claimed, but, according to the Tribune, “thousands of dollars in pricey hotel stays, including tickets to at least one Super Bowl and White Sox spring training trips over the course of many ears.”   I, for one, am glad to hear that Mr. Bills was reportedly treated to trips to Sox spring training games; when the story centered around accommodations surrounding a Cubs preseason game, the story was starting to crumble, given that Mr. Bills lives in St. Bede Parish, nestled deep in the heart of White Sox country, but I digress.

Now that this story has resurfaced, I thought it would be a good time to republish what has come to be a very prescient post that I wrote on 10/18/12 for the now defunct Rant Political.   One suspects that this story has a long way to go and will get more, er, interesting as time passes.  See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on this subject.

For now, here is the October post:

REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CHICAGO POLITICS:   TRUTH NEARLY AS INTRIGUING AS FICTION

10/18/12

The City of Chicago has just scratched the surface in the malodorous dealings of Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc., which supplies the city with red light cameras.   Redflex has been barred from bidding on the city’s upcoming speed camera system after having paid a hotel bill for a city purchasing agent and covered up this indiscretion for two years. Redflex continues to be the vendor for red light cameras for at least the time being.  The background story of Redflex and its dealings with the powers that be in Chicago politics is, typically, murky but, er, interesting.

Redflex Traffic Systems was among several companies bidding for the red light camera contract in Chicago back in the early part of last decade; it won the contract in 2005.   The city official in charge of overseeing the contract was (Get this title; talk about bureaucracy!)  Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation John Bills.  John Bills was, and is, a substantial figure in Illinois House Speaker, Chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, and Ward Committeeman Mike Madigan’s 13^th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, serving as a registrar, or the guy in who supervises collection of signatures on candidate petitions, for Mr. Madigan.   One supposes that Mr. Bills is also a precinct captain for Mr. Madigan, but I can’t verify that.   Mr. Bills also lives in St. Bede Parish on the southwest side, which is also Mike Madigan’s parish.  

Redflex just happened to hire as its “consultant” on the red light camera project one Marty O’Malley, who also lives in St. Bede.   Mr. O’Malley claims no affiliation with Mike Madigan’s organization, but admits to contributing $1,000 in 2007, $1,500 in 2009. and another $1,500 in 2010 to Madigan’s political operations.   These contributions were made possible largely by the commissions Mr. O’Malley earned on the red light camera sales, but more on that later.   Mr. O’Malley denies having known Mr. Bills, or Mr. Madigan, before he and Mr. Bills started working together on the camera project.   Mr. O’Malley’s not having known Mr. Bills is plausible, given their ages; Mr. O’Malley is 72, Mr. Bills is 51.   But, for those of you unfamiliar with the mores of the southwest side, one’s parish is a big thing; it often is the center of many of one’s activities, spiritual and otherwise.

As it turns out, Redflex won the contract and Mr. O’Malley, who denies that he used political clout or geographical proximity to either Mr. Bills or Mr. Madigan when interviewing for the consultant job, got a commission of $1,500 per camera, more, according to Mr. O’Malley, than he was expecting.  His total payday came to $570,000.   Some of that, as we learned above, made its way into Mike Madigan’s political coffers.  Mr. Bills denies playing any role in getting Redflex the contract; Mr. Madigan, as far as I know, has not been asked if he had any role in this deal.

There was a small fly in the ointment.  It seems that, according to Mr. Bills, he was in Arizona for a Cubs pre-season game (That a guy from St. Bede would have any interest in a Cub game makes this story suspicious on its face; perhaps Mr. Bills was going to root for the opposition, thus adhering to a proud south side tradition, but I digress.) and didn’t have a hotel reservation.  He called a Redflex executive (Redflex has offices in Phoenix.) to see if he could help out.  Redflex booked him a room in a luxury hotel and the bill somehow never found its way onto Mr. Bills’ credit card, which he didn’t notice for quite some time.   For this minor transgression, and for two yeas of covering it up, Redflex is banned from bidding on the speed camera contract.   Mr. Bills also retired from his Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation job last summer after 32 years of working for the city.  No one has said Mr. Bills' retirement and the Redflex problems are related, but who’s kidding whom?

And it gets better…

Since these shenanigans have taken place, Mr. Bills has been appointed by “reform” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to a position on the Cook County Employee Appeals Board.  This position is part time and pays part time ($35 grand a year), but includes health benefits.  The Appeals Board has long been known as a receptacle for hacks who have somehow run afoul of either the law or the vicissitudes of the voting booth.  Ms. Preckwinkle will not say whether Mike Madigan recommended Mr. Bills for the job.

So…

A minor figure in this drama loses his job for accepting $500 in accommodations from a city vendor.   The vendor keeps its current contract but can’t bid on a new one, though the city Inspector General is investigating the case. 

It looks like there is more to this story and that there are more important people involved than Messrs. Bills and O’Malley.   How likely is it that larger heads will role?   For a hint, take a look at my two novels of Chicago politics, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics.