Progress Illinois

Talking to the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, Ab Mikva said that if there is ultimately a special election to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate Seat, he's supporting Rep. Jan Schakowsky:

Abner Mikva, the gold standard for integrity in Illinois politics, told me Thursday night he is not interested in an appointment to replace President elect Barack Obama. And when there is an election to fill the Obama seat, Mikva said his candidate is Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

Not a bad guy to have on your side.

Continue reading »

The Sun-Times editorial board enters the debate over how to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat:

It is time to go beyond partisan politics, to let the voters select who they believe can best represent Illinois in the Senate -- with diligence, competency and, above all, honesty.

A special election will be costly, but it is absolutely necessary now to lift the confidence of voters in their government.

As we noted over the weekend, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan agree that a special election is the way to go.  Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn appears to be considering a proposal that splits the difference: allowing him to appoint a temporary senator who will serve until a special election could take place next year.

Also, has Sen. Dick Durbin really "flip-flopped" on this issue? 

Continue reading »

Time is ticking for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to name Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate successor. The state’s chief executive -- who may have showed his hand on Thanksgiving Day by calling Rep. Danny Davis “Senator” on two different occasions -- insists he will go public with his choice around Christmas. That leaves just over three more weeks for the political pundits to guess who the unpredictable lawmaker might appoint.

Of course, who Blagojevich should choose and who he will choose are two very different questions. Today, the Sun-Times weighs in on the former, joining the SouthtownStar in endorsing Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. From their editorial:

We believe Jackson, 43, has the drive, the passion and the experience. In his 13 years in Congress, he has distinguished himself as a thoughtful, committed legislator who fights for what he thinks is right. [...]

Above all, we believe, Jackson shares the values and goals of the president-elect, a consideration of no small importance to us in making this endorsement. The voters of Illinois chose Obama twice—first for the Senate and then for president—and they deserve a replacement who fully shares the president-elect’s agenda.

The paper also singles out Attorney General Lisa Madigan as “one other superbly qualified candidate for the job,” but notes that it’s unlikely the governor would offer any favors to the Madigan clan.

A day after the Tribune endorsed Barack Obama, the Sun-Times -- not surprisingly -- follows suit:

The times again demand an extraordinary leader. Our next president will take the oath of office in a country that is at war, heavily in debt, deeply divided and sliding into a recession. He will have to make hard choices -- the money won't be there for all his ambitious plans -- and he will have to work with a Congress so lopsidedly Democratic that it may be veto-proof.

Here in Chicago, we have been watching Barack Obama and sizing him up for some time. We knew him well before he introduced himself to the nation with his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

We saw the strength of character, the steady temperament, the intellect, the compassion, the ability to see through others' eyes.

The very title of Sen. Obama's second book, The Audacity of Hope, foretold what America will need in the circumstances under which the next president takes office.

Continue reading »

Earlier this month, we documented how 11th District GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga's concrete company was late on tens of thousands of taxes in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, leading to legal action in each state. The story then got picked up by the Politico, which noted that it had been covered by local "newspapers and bloggers." This characterization was later corrected, however, after someone pointed out that no newspapers had actually reported on Ozinga's late tax payments.

Well, that changed today. Abdon Pallasch has a story in today's Sun-Times headlined "GOP congressional candidate's firm owed $49K in taxes":

Concrete mogul Marty Ozinga's companies racked up $59,000 in unpaid taxes over the last 20 years, according to documents provided to the Sun-Times by political operatives.

The tax liens have been filed against the Republican congressional candidate's companies in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Some are fines on his trucks that pour concrete in Chicago. [...]

"This is shaping up to be pattern of ignoring and breaking the rules for his own personal gain, which raises a question: If he's going to break the rules for his own business, how can you trust him to carry out the people's business?" said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In the wake of the Jesse Jackson "incident," there's been a lot of talk about what the reverend meant when he said Barack Obama has been "talking down to black people." Both in private conversations I've had and in discussions I've observed on the airwaves, there seems to be an assumption that Obama has only stressed personal responsibility and good parenting when speaking to black audiences. For instance, check out Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell's claim on WTTW's Chicago Tonight last Friday that this is "not a conversation he has with white America":

But while it's true that Obama tends to linger on these issues a bit longer in front of predominantly black audiences and that he tends to employ a slightly different vernacular in those settings, Mitchell's assertion that he's not telling white audiences to turn off the TV and encourage their kids to study is false.

For instance, here's what he told an audience in Spirit Lake, Iowa, on December 16 of last year:

Parents, you’ve got to turn off the tvs and shut down the video games. [And] our students have to understand that education is not a passive activity. You don’t just tip your head over and have it pour in....You’re gonna hear me as President not just talking about programs--I’m going to be talking about our obligations to our kids.

And here's what the audience looked like:

In Youngstown, Ohio, on February 18, Obama hit on a similar theme.

Continue reading »

In a great post over at Urbanagora, Kiyoshi Martinez uses the Huffington Post's impending arrival on the Chicago media scene as an occasion to examine the current state of the Sun-Times, the Tribune, and various online outlets. As he notes, Arianna Huffington picked a really interesting time to jump into this pond:

I think the decision to target this city in particular shows a shrewd familiarity of the weaknesses of the two daily papers and their online properties. It seems almost paradoxical that at a time when two newspapers face financial turmoil, one of the largest news and political sites decides it's a good time to move in.

Martinez also highlights how Chicago's two major dailies have utterly failed to embrace the new media environment:

Rarely does the Tribune or Sun-Times link outside of their Web site to local bloggers or other Chicago-media sites (i.e.: EveryBlock, Chicagoist, Gapers Block, Chi Town Daily News). Nor do they embed YouTube videos, make use of Flickr, be active on Twitter or actually understand the concept of creating a community on their Web sites through commenters. And we haven't even talked social networking yet.

Instead, they build walled gardens, which defeats the philosophy of the Internet. Making things worse is that most of their new media content, such as videos, cannot be embedded to a reader's blog or shared easily. And the Tribune removes its articles from the public view after little more than a week, meaning that search engines can't index it and send them more page views and more revenue.

Read the whole thing here. And also make sure to check out the comments section where, interestingly enough, an argument breaks out over ... whether Martinez's post was too lengthy for the internet.

In my first post on this subject, I endorsed Barack Obama's recent decision to opt out of the public financing system. I noted that the move makes obvious sense from a tactical standpoint and further argued that, within Obama's fundraising apparatus, small donors have an unprecedented amount of influence -- resulting in a balance that any reformed public financing system should encourage. In this post, I'll address how McCain has gotten a pass from the media in the midst of this controversy.

John McCain's accusations of an egregious, public financing flip-flop on Obama's part have been broadcast far and wide in the past week. What has been infuriating about this latest controversy -- and McCain's central role in exacerbating it -- is the lack of acknowledgement by the press corps and the editorial boards of how McCain gamed the public finance system this election year.

In case you don't know the details of McCain's maneuvering, here's a helpful recap from Media Matters' Jamison Foser:

John McCain said he would take public financing for the Republican primaries. Then he used the promise of that public financing to help secure a loan for his campaign. Then, after he wrapped up the Republican nomination, he abruptly decided he did not want to be bound by the limits on campaign fundraising and spending that accompany public financing, so he announced that he had changed his mind.

But Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason sent McCain a letter saying that he cannot unilaterally opt out of the public financing system without FEC approval -- a letter the McCain campaign ignored. If McCain cannot opt out of the system unilaterally, he has broken the law by raising and spending funds in excess of legal limits, and continues to do so each day. Even if McCain isn't breaking the law, he has already broken his word and "reversed himself" on the question of whether he would take public funding for the primaries.

Referring to the national coverage, Foser writes: "I have seen no indication that a single reporter has asked McCain to reconcile his criticism of Obama with his own on-again, off-again relationship with the public financing system."

While this is obviously a much more significant issue at the national level, it's also been a problem in our local coverage.

Continue reading »

Illinois is the only state in the country that offers comprehensive and affordable health insurance to all children. The All Kids program covers 1.4 million children, but as many as "376,000 Illinois kids still are uncovered by any health insurance," according to the Sun-Times. That's why the newspaper and Resurrection Health Care are holding a registration drive this Saturday, June 21. The goal is to sign up 1,000 additional children in one day.

While organizers had initially hoped for 300 volunteers to man registration stations throughout Chicagoland, over 400 people have already signed up. As the Sun-Times points out, registering children with All Kids not only protects Illinois' most vulnerable, it saves everyone else money too:

Giving kids who would normally go straight to the emergency room a "medical home" helps to lower health care costs for everyone, said Barry Maram, director of the Illinois Healthcare and Family Services Department.

"Each year, for the people who do have insurance, $1,059 is added to the cost of our policies because of the uninsured," Maram said, citing a 2005 report from Families USA.

You can find a list of registration locations here. Take a look if you or anyone you know might benefit from this program, or call (877) RES-INFO to find a nearby enrollment center.

In her Sun-Times column today, Lynn Sweet reports on the sparring between the Obama and McCain camps yesterday over foreign policy. The piece is headlined: "Obama 'delusional'? McCain, ex-CIA chief doubt Obama's readiness to deal with terrorists." In it, she quotes former CIA head James Woolsey and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann wailing away on Obama's foreign policy approach:

During a McCain campaign conference call with reporters, former CIA head James Woolsey said Obama's support of giving terrorists access to U.S. courts was an "extremely dangerous and an extremely naive approach to terrorism."

McCain senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said if Obama "got that 3 a.m. phone call" -- a reference to an ad Sen. Hillary Clinton ran before the Texas and Ohio primaries questioning Obama's experience -- his response would be to "call the lawyers in the Justice Department." He also called Obama "delusional." [...]

Scheunemann also invoked a stereotype as he tried to make the point that terrorists are not common criminals. These terrorists, he said, were not "your run-of-the mill drug dealers on the South Side of Chicago."

In turn, Sweet devotes one graf to Obama's response:

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could've pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," Obama told reporters on his campaign plane. "In part because of their failed strategies, we've got bin Laden still sending out audiotapes, so I don't think they have much standing to suggest that they've learned a lot of lessons from 9/11."

It's a decent rebuttal. Nonetheless, when a low-information voter reads about a terrorism-related back-and-forth between a politician and a former CIA director, whose argument do you think they're more likely to trust? That's why it would have been nice if Sweet had noted that Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism adviser under the Clinton and Bush administrations, hammered the McCain camp hours before Obama himself responded.

During a conference call with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Clarke described himself as "disgusted" by the McCain campaign's tactics and accused the Republican surrogates of "completely and utterly distorting" the GOP record on terrorism. Clarke also noted that Obama has a "comprehensive terrorism strategy" and demanded that the McCain camp "show where in the record Senator Obama has ever said he is favor of a pure law enforcement approach."

Take a listen to his comments:

Internal mp3