PAT QUINN TO BLACK VOTERS: BRUCE RAUNER = RAHM EMANUEL?

8/18/14

Bruce Rauner, according to the polls, holds a big lead in the 2014 Illinois governor’s race.   My asking around, and my instincts, tells me that the polls are right.  Even natural Pat Quinn voters (liberal women, union members, even friends of mine who know Mr. Quinn and voted for him out of a sense of Fenwick affinity in 2011) have told me they won’t, even can’t, vote for the Governor this time around.   One would be a fool to write off Pat Quinn’s chances in any election; he is a great campaigner and a very clever politician.  (See, inter alia, 2014 Illinois Gubernatorial Election Year Rag:   “Hand Me Down My Bulletproof Vest…” (Rant Lifestyle, 1/20/14) and PAUL VALLAS ON THE TICKET:  PAT QUINN MAKES ANOTHER BRILLIANT MOVETOWARD RE-ELECTION, 11/8/13.)   Plenty of former politicians got that way underestimating Pat Quinn.

But Pat Quinn is clearly in trouble.  If he is to win, he has to do a lot of things, and one of those is to shore up his loyal base among black voters, primarily in Chicago.  How can he do that?

Black voters, if one believes the polls, don’t like Mayor Rahm Emanuel.   Rahm Emanuel has endorsed Pat Quinn but he is a close friend of Bruce Rauner.  Mr. Rauner helped Mr. Emanuel become wealthy during the Mayor’s brief stint as an “investment banker,” the two have done business together, and they even vacation together.   So at least one strategy would appear to hold some potential for Pat Quinn:  convince black voters that a vote for Mr. Rauner is a vote for Mr. Emanuel.

This will be difficult, especially when Mr. Emanuel is publicly, if not all that enthusiastically, endorsing Pat Quinn and Mr. Quinn is doing nothing to deflect that endorsement; after all, Mr. Quinn needs all the votes and financial support he can get.  But this is what political operatives of an especially Machiavellian, some might say sneaky, variety are for.   Somehow, the back channels have to be cultivated.  The word has to get out on the street, but only on some streets, that Mr. Emanuel is secretly backing his old pal Bruce Rauner and that support for Mr. Rauner is de facto support for Mr. Emanuel.

Can Pat Quinn pull off such a feat?   Despite his much vaunted, but now tarnishing, reputation as some sort of Mr. Clean, he has not survived nearly forty years in Chicago and Illinois politics by being some kind of choir boy.  One can be confident that Mr. Quinn has plenty of dirty tricksters in his indirect, or maybe direct, employ.   One can be confident that Mr. Quinn will try, or is trying, such a Rauner=Emanuel tactic, if only because he is almost at the point at which he will need to try anything.

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. 

TIFS: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING…TO THE POLS AND THEIR PALS

9/29/13

Today’s (i.e., Sunday, 9/29/13’s, page 6) Chicago Sun-Times contains an article by staff reporter David Roeder about tax increment financing districts (“TIF”s), which have been in use for decades now but that lately, and finally, have engendered the controversy they’ve long deserved.  People see that the city of Chicago is broke (See yesterday’s post,  CHICAGO PENSION PROBLEMS:  I’LL GLADLY PAY YOU TOMORROW FOR A HAMBURGER TODAY…AND THIS TIME, I REALLY, REALLY MEAN IT! for only the most salient manifestation of the city’s wretched financial condition.) but that Mayor Emanuel is seemingly able to summon boatloads of spondulicks from TIF funds for whatever will further his reelection and/or repay the myriad IOUs he has figuratively written to campaign contributors.  People are understandably upset; what makes TIF money so special that it is untouchable for any purposes except those that Super Rahm deems worthy?

           

The Sun-Time article states, correctly…

TIFs have been called a slush fund, a description that’s in the eye of the beholder.  But they are a mad money pot of off the books spending controlled by the mayor of Chicago based on priorities that can be mysterious.

The article goes on to describe various projects, some that have worked out and some that haven’t, that have been funded by TIF money and summarizes some recommendations for reforming the process.

Yours truly will leave the arguments regarding the pros and cons of TIFs for another post, other than to say that TIFs are another idea that makes eminent sense in theory but in practice turn into yet another mud pool for the porcines that we continue to re-elect.  However, I will take this opportunity for nearly shameless self-promotion.  In chapter 10 of my second book,   The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, I describe a meeting between developer Jack Smith, his somewhat putzy son that he is trying to break into the family business, and Linas Siliunas, an old school alderman who has replaced the book’s title character as chairman of the city council Zoning Committee.  In one especially relevant portion of that chapter, the parties discuss TIF financing and the Smiths discover that the wily Siliunas is way ahead of them on this subject and correctly describes TIFs for what they are.  This excerpt starts with the elder Smith asking Alderman Siliunas for TIF money and thinking he is somehow enlightening the unenlightened:

“Good, Alderman, because I’ll need something I didn’t need before, but only because they weren’t much in use when we did the original project.  We’re going to need a tax increment financing district so any additional property taxes go back into the project instead of to the city.   It only makes sense, Alderman; if we didn’t do the development, there wouldn’t be any additional property taxes.   Why not let them go back into the property to make it better?  Provides a little more incentive, if you know what I mean.”

Alderman Siliunas smiled.  “And we get a lot of say over where the money goes.  It’s a great deal for everyone, Jack.   It’s sort of like our little pool of money to reward our friends and screw our enemies, as my old friend, the late, great Alderman Brancato used to say.  But Jack, I’m the Chairman of the Zoning Committee.  I’ve been an alderman for over thirty years.   You sound as if I don’t know what a TIF is.”

Smith immediately backtracked.  “I’m sorry, Alderman…”

“Don’t be sorry, Jack.  I know that it’s sometimes hard to conceive that people from the neighborhood could understand something as sophisticated as a TIF.”  Smith felt sufficiently put in his place.   Siliunas continued.   “But we do.   Hell, you know, if you’ve followed what’s going on in our town, that we’ve used TIFs more than anyone else.  We love them so much that, if you hadn’t suggested one, I would have suggested, no, demanded, that you use one.   We really like TIFs.”

“So it’ll be no problem.”

“No problem at all.”

(Emphasis mine)

You should read the book if you want to learn more about TIFs and other shenanigans that politicians around here (and everywhere) use to circumvent normal political channels to get their hands on scads of cash.

In fact,

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. 

PAT QUINN, PENSIONS, AND THE UPCOMING ILLINOIS GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY: WHAT WOULD JIMMY STEWART DO?

6/5/13

In my post of two days ago (THE PENSION DEBACLE IN ILLINOIS:  MR. MADGIAN AS MACHIAVELLI, MR. EMANUEL LOSES A ROUND, OR MR. QUINN GOES TO SPRINGFIELD?, 6/3/13), I stated of Governor Pat Quinn (no relation)

He can, and probably will, conduct a sort of Mr. Quinn Goes to Springfield type of campaign in 2014, in which Mr. Quinn, a lifelong politician who has played “get along, go along” for the last 40 years, will be cast as a sort of St. George who battles the dragons of Mike Madigan and his minions.   The voters of Illinois might go for it; they have certainly gone for much more preposterous notions; see, as only the most salient example, the governorship of the man whom Mr. Quinn served as Lieutenant Governor, Rod Blagojevich.

Mr. Quinn seems to be doing just what I suspected he would do.  Already, he has called a meeting among him, House Speaker Mike Madigan, and Senate President John Cullerton to try to reach a solution to the pension problem.   Mr. Quinn called the meeting even though, according to Madigan spokesman Steve Brown, the Governor knew Speaker Madigan was not available.  If Mr. Brown is correct, what could be the purpose of such a meeting if not to highlight the inability, or the unwillingness, of the legislative leadership to solve the pension problem?

Mr. Quinn also said yesterday  

“I think it’s important for the speaker of the House to come to the realization that working with his counterpart in the Senate is the way to go to get comprehensive pension reform in this state.  We can do this.  The key is for the Legislature to do its job.  I’m ready to do my job and that’s to sign the bill into law.”

Mr. Quinn said this despite knowing full well that Mr. Madigan has never considered Mr. Cullerton a “counterpart” if the word “counterpart” implies anything like equality.  Mr. Madigan has always considered Mr. Cullerton at best a very junior partner and more likely, as I have said in the past, a sort of mini-me to Mr. Madigan, and perhaps deservedly so.  While Mr. Cullerton is obviously an accomplished pol himself, he doesn’t play in the same league as Mike Madigan.  No one does.

Mr. Quinn’s efforts to blame the legislature for the failure to enact pension reform and to set up the fast approaching 2014 primary as a Jimmy Stewartesque battle between the forces of sweetness and light vs. the dark side may be working.   Yesterday, House Minority Leader Tom Cross opined that Mr. Quinn does not wear the jacket for the legislature’s failure; the blame, according to Mr. Cross, lies squarely with Mr. Madigan.  Of course, in Illinois no one cares what the Republicans think, but one can be quite sure that Mr. Cross’s thinking reflects that of his suburban constituency, the type of voters Mr. Quinn, or his likely opponent Attorney General Lisa Madigan, will need to win in order to remain, or become, governor.

Mr. Quinn may need to tread lightly here.  As long as there is a chance that meaningful pension reform can be enacted into law between now and the primary season, he cannot afford to antagonize Mr. Madigan or Mr. Cullerton.   Solving, or even seriously mitigating, our pension problems while he is in office would give a huge boost to Mr. Quinn’s efforts to keep his job, so he doesn’t want to throw away an opportunity to do so.

But Mr. Quinn, despite all too frequent evidence to the contrary, is a clever fellow and a good politician.  He can probably attack the “do-nothing” legislature while not naming Mr. Madigan, or Mr. Cullerton, specifically and make it look to Mr. Madigan as if he is attacking Mr. Cullerton and to Mr. Cullerton as if he is attacking Mr. Madigan.   Though the above quote from Mr. Quinn, specifically

“…it’s important for the speaker of the House to come to the realization that working with his counterpart in the Senate is the way to go to get comprehensive pension reform in this state.”

seems to be a direct assault on Mr. Madigan, it is more subtle in its criticism of the Speaker than it appears at first glance and leaves plenty of room to place plenty of blame on Mr. Cullerton and on the nebulous “legislature.”   Such tactics might ultimately somehow shame the Speaker and the Senate President into actually doing something about the problem that is bankrupting our once great state.   Notice I used the term “might.”

On the other hand, Governor Quinn may have already come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that Mr. Madigan has decided to sabotage any hope at pension reform in the interest of denying Mr. Quinn the type of crowning achievement that could keep Mr. Quinn in, and Mr. Madigan’s daughter out of, the Governor’s mansion.   If Mr. Quinn has come to this conclusion, he will see no need for subtlety in his attacks on Messrs. Madigan, Cullerton, and anyone else he can demonize, and deservedly so, in his struggle for re-election.

Whether Mr. Quinn attacks subtlety or engages in a full frontal assault, he will be going after the legislature and “politics as usual” in his upcoming campaign for re-election.  It’s his only chance, and it’s a better chance than most people think.  

And however Mr. Quinn conducts his imagined or otherwise crusade of the virtuous against the cesspool that is the politics of this state, it will be interesting, as are all things in Chicago/Illinois politics,; see my 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 our peculiar politics. 

ROBIN KELLY AND STANLEY MOORE: THE LADY AND THE TRAMP…OR TWO PEAS IN A POD?

4/12/13

Featured prominently in both Chicago newspapers this morning was the stunning news that Stanley Moore, whom the relevant ward and township committeemen chose to replace Bill Beavers on the Cook County Board (See my 3/22/13 post, COMMISSIONER BILL BEAVERS:   HOG WITH THE BIG NUTS, REAL LIFE FRANK PANTANGELI, OR BOTH? and the posts to which it will refer you.), has a few ethics problems.   Specifically, Mr. Moore was fined $3,000 by the state of Illinois’ Executive Ethics Committee for campaigning for the state legislature while on the clock when he was working for the Illinois Department of Transportation.  He paid $2,900 of that fine only after he was being considered for the County Board post, pleading poverty until then.   Note that Mr. Moore has been convicted of no crimes; the Ethics Committee is an extra-judicial body, if you will.

So a long time Cook County political hanger-on gets fined for campaigning for office while on the public payroll.   What, other than Mr. Moore’s actually getting fined for this transgression, is news?

Throughout the same week on which we heard this stunning news on Mr. Moore, we read breathless media commentary about Robin Kelly, who went through the electoral motions Tuesday to trounce her Democratic opponent and was sworn in yesterday as the replacement for the disgraced Jesse Jackson, Jr. (“Triple J”) as the 2^nd Congressional District’s representative in the U.S. House.   It is all, according to the media, sweetness and light with Ms. Kelly.   She is new, different, and refreshing.   She will change things in the 2^nd District.

But wait a minute…  

Robin Kelly had nearly the same ethical problems as Mr. Moore.   While she was working for State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who himself has something of a questionable past, she was campaigning to succeed her boss…while on the clock at the Treasurer’s office.   But we don’t hear much about that…she is new, smart, brilliant, compassionate, honest, etc., etc., etc….the same kind of hoping against hope, gormless bullroar we heard about Triple J and about Mel Reynolds before him.   Both left Congress in disgrace, Triple J with money problems, Mel Reynolds with teenage girl problems.   But when each of these nonentities assumed office, both with thin resumes but either a big name or a big academic pedigree, we were told by their shameless media cheerleaders that they were new, smart, brilliant, honest, etc., etc….and none of it was true.   They were both nothing but corrupt pols and we had no reason to think otherwise…other than the distastefulness, or worse, of their predecessors.  

The same is true of Robin Kelly.   There is nothing in her record of “public service,” which amounts to one spot at the public trough after another, while playing the types of games endemic to Cook County politics, to indicate that she is anything but yet another hack looking for a better place at the trough from which she can enrich herself and/or advance her career as some kind of self-imagined messiah for the benighted masses who just can’t seem to figure out the right way to live.   (See my 2/27/13 piece,  MR. SUNSHINE ON ROBIN KELLY, DEBBIE HALVORSON, AND THE ILLINOIS 2^ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RESULTS)   Yet the media just want to believe because, one supposes, Ms. Kelly is relatively young, relatively attractive, and unceasingly spouts the liberal line on guns, taxes, and the constant necessity for more government.   Her life has been one of using other people’s money to prove her compassion and advance her career.   The same could be said for each of her predecessors…and look how they turned out.

No one is excusing Mr. Moore’s ethical transgressions.  But why is he singled out for media derision while Ms. Kelly, who is not in any substantial way different from Mr. Moore, suddenly worthy of unceasing, unflinching, and unthinking adulation?

Someone like yours truly whose memory exceeds the last few months or years, and thus has heard it all before, will reserve judgment on this latest media darling.   Perhaps she will prove to be the most ethical, the most effective, and the all around most wonderful politician to come out of the 2^nd District (a very low bar) or the Land of Lincoln (an only slightly higher bar).   A thinking person doubts it, given Ms. Kelly’s at the very best mediocre, same old same old, record.   But, believe it or not, I would be delighted if she proves me wrong; the long suffering residents of the 2^nd District badly need a break.

 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.