Bernard Carey former Cook County State's Attorney, RIP

I retweeted this over at my other twitter today. Bernard Carey was slightly ahead of my time. He was a Republican Cook County State's Attorney who faced down the machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley. It was certainly hard to do it as a reform Democrat and definitely as a Republican in an area that probably has solid Democrat support. Though I recognize that the Cook County of say the 1970s & 80s probably wasn't as solidly blue and it would be now.

Here's the tweet from a Tribune reporter

Bernard Carey, former GOP state's attorney who helped spark Operation Greylord, opposed Daleys, dies https://t.co/wtg9XrEGhj

— Liam T.A. Ford (@ltaford) June 5, 2018

The question I have to ask now is where are these Republicans today. Chicago & Cook County have gotten so solidly progressive that well could a Carey be elected countywide or citywide today. I have a hard time seeing it you'll be demonized as a Republican and one would have to do nothing more than fool these low-information voters to cast a ballot for a faux Democrat. There is an unfortunate precedent for this...

All the same, we see that Mr. Carey had a hand in these corruption probes of county judges and what not. You can say he in some ways drained the swamp of Chicago politics. Problem is old habits or perhaps some form of old school political wheeling and dealing are very hard to break. What do you do if you want honest government?

Regardless whether Republican or Democrat we need these reformers now more than ever. Unfortunately the process is hard but very necessary.

Here's a campaign commercial for Mr. Carey from 1972 or 46 years ago running for Cook County State's Attorney for the first time. [VIDEO]

I should note as this is more interesting, anger over what happened on Chicago's west side with the Black Panthers and Fred Hampton - a botched raid orchestrated by the State's Attorney he defeated Ed Hanrahan - is what allowed him to become state's attorney. Black voters chose him over Hanrahan, it just shows it is possible for Black voters to be angered by the actions of Democrat leaders. For this race for sure, they were angry at the machine that prevailed in Chicago during that period of time.

Taxed to death in Illinois

[VIDEO] The general manager of our local FOX affiliate Dennis Welsh has aired his latest editorial. Shared over on Marathon Pundit Wednesday. The main subject the abundance of local governments in this state.
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BTW, it has been a while since this blog really covered what's been going on in my home state of Illinois. Even with an election coming up.

Anyway, Welsh talks about high taxes especially property taxes. Why are taxes high in this state? Well Welsh blames the roughly 7,000 units of local governments. He especially notes school districts that only contain one school, mosquito abatement districts, or I suppose an egregious example two governments to run a city or maintain the same roads.

I wonder if these units of gov't include townships. I'm not a suburbanite so I don't entirely understand what they do, however, I do recognize that Chicago has townships. Look at your property tax bill if you live in Chicago it will have the township that covers your property. Although since Chicago is such a large city with a strong government there is no need for townships.

On the other hand I know that there are some suburban municipalities that also are coterminous with a township such as Oak Park. Oak Park is a relatively wealthy or if you will middle class western suburb adjacent to Chicago and they have a city government and a township. A severe case of redundancy I think.

Also I didn't know this the people up in Evanston, Illinois opted in a binding referendum to effectively abolish their township government. Probably for many that's surprising because for many Evanston is viewed as a liberal suburb - Ruberry I think has referred to that city as "Portlandia East". They bought into this idea of essentially consolidation.

For the purposes of this video however, Welsh mentions Dupage County - a typically Republican county to the west of Cook County - as a model for governmental consolidation. What if Cook County one of the more populous counties in the nation followed suit and at least found ways to eliminate the need for township governments and perhaps consolidate those other units of governments that exist in the county.

Besides, I remember finding a Cook County Highway Marker near a school in my neighborhood. So if the county has a vested interest in highways why do townships such as Thornton Township in the south suburbs have a highway commissioner?

Another good editorial by Walsh, here's an earlier one railing about high taxes. Especially as the debate over the county pop tax began to fire up until it was repealed late last year.

Cook County Beverage Tax #tweetyoureciept

It seems here in Chicago our politicians have this great need to engage in some form of social engineering. I wish I had been paying attention to whatever debate took place at the county regarding this tax. Of course these things are never about encouraging people to change their behaviors it's about the revenue. It's about taking some of YOUR money!

Out of Cook County Chicago we have examples of a plastic bottle tax which is per bottle in the city, the idea is to discourage people from buying these plastic bottles that may or may not biodegrade. Just like these plastic grocery bags we'll talk about in a bit. Either way want a pack of bottle water however many there in too bad a tax per bottle. So far it appears the city has little interest in repealing that tax as far as I know. In stead my mother prefers to go outside of the city to buy a pack of bottle water.

Of course more recently is the bag tax. During the past year Chicago attempted to ban the simple grocery bags to discourage their use among city residents. Well that failed and around New Years a 7 cent tax was instituted on plastic and paper bags. The idea was to encourage people to bring their own bags to shop, although the reality is again for the city to further collect more revenue. One report has shown that the city actually has come short of their expected revenue forecasts. Irony one ordinance to discourage use of grocery bags was repealed and now a new ordinance to address this issue also hasn't lived up to expectiations.

And now the beverage tax and even our county board president who at first hides behind the idea that instituting this tax will promote public health admits this is about raising revenue:

"Raising revenue was never my first choice," Preckwinkle said in November. "This measure provides important revenue, not only to avoid damaging cuts for public health and public safety systems, but also to expand our community-based interventions in both arenas. It also puts us on a stable financial footing for the next three fiscal years, during which we will not have to approve any additional tax increases."

Cook County is depending on the tax revenue. It had been expecting the tax to bring in $67.5 million this year and $200.6 million in 2018.

The county lost about $20 million from not being able to collect the tax in July, said Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for Preckwinkle. It will have to make up that money in order to balance the budget, and that could mean layoffs. Shuftan said a small number of employees have already been laid off, but he couldn't provide an exact figure.

This article makes sure to note that this law was poorly written and it was made clear that no business people were at the table to help write this law and institute this tax. In fact a business group filed a lawsuit to block the tax back in June. There was an injunction that was recently lifted that allowed for the ultimate implementation of this tax which was originally supposed to start in July.

I was late to the party by the twitter account of the Tribune Editorial Board wanted citizens to post their reciepts to show the amount of the beverage tax. Hopefully to show some discontent and even though this was almost a day old by the time I learned of this, you can see my tweet below.

@Trib_ed_board #tweetyourreceipt pic.twitter.com/gUuYhNnGla

— Levois (@levois) August 3, 2017

Also I see via the CBS Chicago link that there was at least one vote against this tax by Commissioner Boykin who's a Democrat. There are 17 members of the board of commissioners. I got to find out how many votes were in favor and who voted on it.

BTW, this is the only one that caught my interest there are other laws implemented by Chicago that may prove damaging to businesses, workers, and residents. I'd like to share my thoughts on them in the near future. And furthermore as much as these laws are well meaning my concern is that they could also result in the opposite effect.

BTW I forgot that the County is attempting to sue this anti-beverage tax business group for $17 million. The county wants the money they lost out on as the injunction prevented them from collecting on the taxes. My tweet upon hearing about this

Our county board prez wants $17 mil from those who oppose beverage tax challenge accepted #tweetyourreceipt https://t.co/h7Aqqa85cX

— Levois (@levois) August 3, 2017

Undercharging a crime...

I've been focused when it comes to police violence in such places as South Carolina more recently and of course New York and Missouri. Then this case out of Chicago where a police officer somehow shoots dead a young black woman in 2012. Charges against this officer had recently been dismissed in a Cook County Court, however, it was made easier by the prosecution.

This is why I'm finally being tuned into this case as a local lawyer named Sam Adam - he defended some high profile people including one Rod Blagojevich & R. Kelly - is making some noise about this case. Of course as noted in this article he may consider running against the current state's attorney in Anita Alvarez:

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez was accused Wednesday of deliberately charging a now-acquitted Chicago Police detective with involuntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder to “curry favor with” the Fraternal Order of Police.

Flamboyant criminal defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said the rare directed verdict of acquittal that abruptly ended the trial of Dante Servin makes Adam more likely than ever to challenge Alvarez in the 2016 Democratic primary.

In issuing the stunning ruling, Circuit Judge Dennis Porter said pointing a gun at an intended victim and pulling the trigger is an international act — not a reckless one. He essentially said Servin should have been charged with murder — not involuntary manslaughter — for firing into a crowd and killing 22 year-old Rekia Boyd in March 2012.

Adam couldn’t agree more. But he argued that Alvarez’s “mistake” was intentional.

“When a man comes out, argues with an individual, then shoots an unregistered handgun over his shoulder into a crowd and rips the life out of a young vibrant African-American woman with no good cause and that individual is treated completely differently because he’s an off-duty police officer, that shows the problem we have in this county,” Adam said.

“To charge that as reckless conduct and not first-degree murder — either you’re doing it because you want to curry favor with the police department or you’re completely inept,” Adam said. “I think there’s no question it was deliberate. She wants to curry favor with the FOP. It took a $4.5 million settlement to get charges in this case. She was stuck in a hard place. If you charge first-degree murder, the FOP is mad at her. If you don’t charge anything, the community is upset. So you play the odds. That says you’re thinking about your job, not about what’s right.”

When I saw this I thought about this jewel from 2008. Alvarez has been Cook County State's Attorney since 2008 but before her election she made an appearance on a local political TV show and made her statement in favor of gun control. Something that shouldn't be too unfamiliar with those who have followed this blog over the years.

Soooo I know this seems like it was ages ago, but it came to mind because I just finally learned more about this case. As far as I know Ms. Alvarez hasn't done too much as far as guns in Cook County. I wish there was a way to look up how many cases involving guns go through the Cook County courts. 

Either way, it's disturbing if a police officer got away with shooting an unarmed person. Especially if he did engage in an intentional act of shooting his gun when he's trained to do otherwise. Although I can believe he shot believing that a suspect was holding a gun himself.

Capitol Fax: A totally messed up system

The Capitol Fax shares with us an example of how the criminal justice system works in Cook County. Last week a group of gang members decided to shoot up a park after one of them had recently been wounded in a shooting. It's noted that he was not only on probation in another but he had merely been sent to a boot camp for gun posession. It was noted that another man had been charged with gun possession, but was forced to sit in Cook County jail for 14 months after being charged.

Also noted another man had been acquitted of burglary but still had to sit in jail for processing. He had been at Cook County Jail for two years waiting for his trial to commence. So apparently processing releases is very slow at Cook County. Something needs to change there.

BTW, here's another example that I showed on this blog a while back! Although granted showing that is a bit of an extreme.

Sun-Times: Cook County sheriff’s team taking guns if FOID card is revoked

I'm no lawyer, but this strikes me as unconstitutional. As in unlawful search and seizure, surely there is someone out there who may set the record straight on this.

A new Cook County Sheriff’s team is crisscrossing the suburbs to seize guns from thousands of people whose Firearm Owner’s Identification Cards have been revoked.

More than 3,000 people in Cook County have failed to surrender their revoked FOID cards to the state. Sheriff Tom Dart said he thinks many of them continue to possess firearms.

The Chicago Police Department conducts regular missions to recover revoked FOID cards and seize guns from the holders, but there wasn’t a concerted effort to do that in Cook County’s suburbs, Dart said.

“The system is broken,” the sheriff said. “The system revokes cards, but the guns are of no consequence. . . . Our strong hope is that we will eliminate tragedies.”

FOID cards are supposed to protect the public from dangerous people. Mental illness, felonies and protection orders are grounds for the state to revoke the cards from their holders. It’s illegal to buy guns or ammunition without one.

In February, Dart assigned a sergeant and four investigators to a gun team that has recovered about 160 FOID cards and taken more than 160 guns from the cardholders.

In one case, the team recovered more than 35 firearms, including four AR-15 assault rifles, from a suicidal man whose card was revoked.

Eliminate tragedies, sounds like good propaganda for gun grabbers. Although let me take a breath, of course the last thing we would want is someone who is mentally ill have posses a gun and potentially use it. Here's another breath:

People with revoked FOID cards can’t buy guns from federally licensed firearms dealers. For any gun sale, a store must conduct a background check that will uncover a FOID revocation.

But background checks aren’t required for ammunition. Someone buying bullets must simply show a FOID card. A person with a revoked card probably would still be able to buy bullets because the salesperson wouldn’t know it was revoked, Dart said.

The sheriff said the bigger problem is that most revoked FOID card holders continue to possess guns. Dart said he persuaded the General Assembly to include new language in the FOID law that would allow sheriffs and municipal police to obtain search warrants to look for guns in the homes of people with revoked FOID cards. Dart called the provision a “hammer” for police to wield when investigators suspect people with revoked cards have guns — but the people insist they don’t.

OK, they do have a warrant to conduct a search for a weapon, but shouldn't there be a probable cause for any violent episode. I'm sure in some way doing so is justifiable.

Update on conceal carry in Illinois

From yesterday's syndicated column from the CapFax's Rich Miller. Talks about the conceal carry debate that's raging in Springfield:

During the Illinois House’s floor debate last week over the concealed-carry bill backed by the National Rifle Association, I was told by an intimate of House Speaker Michael Madigan that Madigan wanted to make sure the bill received no more than 64 votes.

Because the bill pre-empts local government home-rule powers, the bill required a three-fifths majority of 71 votes to pass.

The anti-gun forces were demoralized the day before when their highly restrictive concealed-carry proposal got just 31 votes, so Madigan (D-Chicago) wanted to do the same to the NRA’s version, I was told.

The idea, the source said, was to show both sides that they couldn’t pass their bills on their own and needed to get themselves to the bargaining table and work something out.

Right now the discussion is over a bill blogged about earlier here about having Cook County become a may issue county while the rest of the state is shall issue. It's possible this bill won't be successful either as indicated this morning at CapFax:

And [Steve Brown, IL House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman] comments about not finding consensus on concealed carry may be telling. Could they be waiting until after the June 9th federal court deadline to act?

As stated earlier any restrictions on carrying in this state will be null & void after this date as per a federal court ruling last year. Illinois is currently the only state that doesn't allow for conceal carry permits. A bill to consider such a practice had been vetoed by Governor Pat Quinn long before that ruling!

Second City Cop: Screw Chicago

Well the rest of the state is going to have "shall issue" conceal carry permits. Cook County/Chicago on the other hand has the ability to deny conceal carry permits. Needless to say 2nd City Cop isn't happy and throws their ire at a state Senate Republican who helped write this bill with a state Senate Democrat. In fact that Democrat, succeeded President Obama to his old state Senate seat.

All the same, there was a bill in the state House that would have made the whole state "shall-issue" but it failed there. It was because of the compromise bill that was revealed during the course of the house vote that caused that bill to fail.

June 9th is an important date as far as conceal carry goes. The rush is thanks to an earlier federal ruling that deemed unconstitutional the state's ban on conceal carry. The ruling that came down in February gives state lawmakers 180 days to craft a constitutional law permitting conceal-carry with some restrictions.

This AP article aptly puts the issue in perspective in this state:

Gun laws have long divided Illinois along geographical lines, not necessarily political ones. Democrats in Chicago worry about street violence, while Democrats and Republicans in other parts of the state stand by the 2nd Amendment.

And of course, there are the avid hunters and sports shooters.

And another perspective from the Capitol Fax:

Nowhere has it been shown that violent crime increases after concealed carry laws are passed. I wish opponents would start arguing facts instead of emotion here. The liberals are guilty of doing precisely what they constantly accuse conservatives of doing on things like climate change. 

You know what's also correct, both sides are able to block the efforts of the other side. This is where this state is at as far as conceal carry:

That’s pretty much where the gun votes are right now. Both sides have enough votes to block what the other side wants. So, either we’ll get a negotiated solution, or it’ll stalemate. It’s likely that the Democratic leaders will try to ram something through that neither side will love. We’ll see. 

Well, making Cook County a "may-issue" county and allowing the rest of the state to be "shall-issue" may be something that no one is happy about. It may make some of the legislators from Cook County/Chicago very happy however!

Capitol Fax: Alvarez complains about “60 Minutes” story

Anita Alvarez

Alvarez, Cook County State's Attorney is attempting to punch back after the interview she had on CBS' 60 Minutes. As a matter of fact you can watch the story she was interviewed in right here on this blog.

Rich Miller on his blog does a round up of all stories related to Alvarez' defense. He doesn't seem to think that she did a good job defending herself. Indeed he further states that she could've advanced legislation that could've prevented false conviction such as what was chronicled in that 60 Minutes edition:

If she’s really so interested in preventing more of these horrific cases of false juvenile imprisonment, she’d help come up with a solution. So far, nothing.

Then opens her up to another charge, she's not interested in making big changes and only maintain the status quo.

Russ Stewart: Republicans on the March to Evolution or Extinction?

Reading this column from local columnist Russ Stewart, Republicans don't have a prayer in either Cook County or Chicago. If you believe this column even voting Green Party in this part of the state is more palatable than voting Republican. By proxy, if you're running statewide as a Republican you need a good chunk of the electorate up here in Cook in order to win statewide.

We can look towards the 2010 gubernatorial election to see this at work. Although the Governor's race was very close so was the US Senate race where Republican Mark Kirk won. Both were close but the Republican - Bill Brady - failed to win the governorship against a vulnerable incumbent and the Republican won the US Senate race against a vulnerable challenger.

Two questions:

• How did it come to pass that Republicans no longer had a prayer in Cook County or Chicago?
• What's the difference in the candidacies of Bill Brady vs. Mark Kirk in their respective races? That is why did one lose win and the other victorious?

Sun-Times: State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s once-rising star on the wane

Anita Alvarez

In relation to the video I posted yesterday about Anita Alvarez's not very impressive appearance on CBS 60 Minutes. Here in Cook County, now we're debating her political future and it's evidenced in this recent Sun-Times article. If you want to read the whole article registration will be required:

She won re-election with ease in November and was said not long ago to be in line for a judgeship.

But in the past two weeks, Alvarez has suffered two major embarrassments.

Last week, a special prosecutor announced an indictment against Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, for involuntary manslaughter in the 2004 death of David Koschman — a case in which Alvarez had declined to file charges, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Alvarez also argued that an outside prosecutor wasn’t needed. Now, the grand jury led by special prosecutor Dan K. Webb, a former U.S. attorney appointed by a judge, continues to investigate whether criminal charges should be filed against anyone from Alvarez’s office or the Chicago Police Department over their handling of the case.

The second embarrassment for Alvarez came Sunday on national television. A CBS “60 Minutes” segment, recorded six months ago, put a spotlight on Cook County as the capital of documented false confessions. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the interrogation practices in Cook County.

At one point in the program, Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project in New York, said that in one case, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office suggested in court that necrophilia was a possible reason why the DNA of a convicted rapist was found inside the victim.

A group of kids were charged with the crime after confessing.

The “60 Minutes” interviewer asked Alvarez: “It’s possible that this convicted rapist wandered past an open field and had sex with a 14-year-old girl who was dead?”

Alvarez: “Well, there’s all kinds of possibilities out there, and what I’m saying is we don’t know what happened.”

Reached by phone Monday, Neufeld said though the interrogations happened under a different regime, Alvarez’s remarks showed she is unwilling to change practices.

“Frankly, there’s not a lot of difference between her saying necrophilia is a possibility in this case and saying the earth is flat,” Neufeld said. “For the state’s attorney to simply get up there and say, no, we have more confidence in the aggressive interrogations of teenage boys than to DNA hits to these offenders with known MOs — it indicates a lack of fitness to the job.”

OK, I excerpted a lot more than I intended to here. 

Anyway, Alvarez's supposed star isn't shining so brightly these days. Neufeld might as well have said that she represents the status quo!

BTW over at the Capitol Fax in light of a surprising federal appelate court ruling regarding firearms in Illinois he pointed out Alvarez's position on guns from 2008. She sounded as if anyone caught with a gun will be prosecuted because in her words, no one should ever own a gun! Of course he noted this in light of the fact that Trotter will face felony charges in his arrest last week for posessing a handgun at O'Hare. Interesting times we're seeing right now!

Capitol Fax: Alvarez defends “false confession capital”

[VIDEO] I missed this edition of 60 Minutes last night and it's making splash currently over at the Capitol Fax today and also Tribune columnist Eric Zorn criticized Anita Alvarez who as State's Attorney is the chief prosecutor in Cook County, IL. Since this story came out this hasn't looked very good for her. Zorn outright said she humiliated herself! Rich Miller thinks this interview is akin to political suicide.

The issue chronicled in this episode was the large number of false - well wouldn't forced be more accurate -  confessions that has taken place in Chicago over the years. Alvarez was first elected to as State's Attorney in 2008 and in some circles is well known for her stance on guns chronicled in her election year appearance on Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz [VIDEO].

Zorn even mentioned a recent grand jury indictment against a nephew of former Mayor Daley. He said it embarrassed Alvarez and perhaps it was embarrassing because she couldn't control that. The nephew who was recently arraigned had plead not guilty in a death that was a result of a bar fight. BTW, the hits keep coming as the case would be heard by a Daley ally!

I aired some dirty laundry here so let me stop. I wonder if any day now we're either going to hear called for Alvarez's resignation. Not sure that we will, but perhaps it should be put out there. Let's not forget she was also re-elected last month to her current job!

Marathon Pundit: Three election contests--three atrocious results

I intended to link to this post but plain forgot!

John Ruberry talks about three elections out of Cook County that didn't provide a good results.

The most well known of them was of State Rep Derrick Smith. He had been pinched for soliciting and taking a bribe by the feds earlier this year. He had also been kicked out of the Illinois State House of Representatives, but he refused to vacate his place on the ballot. Democratic leaders had put another man on the ballot as a member of a third party for voters to consider, but the voters of that district voted Smith back to his own seat anyway. Sadly the IL constitution prohibits expelling someone from the House again for the same reasons that they were already expelled.

Another well known election was that of Jesse Jackson Jr. In spite of not making any public appearances since it was revealed that he was under medical leave this past summer, he was able to be re-elected to his congressional seat. He hadn't campaigned at all during the course of the general election, but it seems people were for whatever reason very willing to send him right back to Congress!

The least well known is of a Cook County Judge. She was retained to the bench on Tuesday but she had to go to court the next day to face charges of battery. In Illinois judges are elected and they do campaign but unlike running for an executive office or a legislative office it's hard to gauge the job they're doing. She wasn't recommended at all by any local bar association and has been chided for her general temperament.

While I'm sure there are many who aren't happy with who was sent back to the White House on Tuesday, we have even less reason to celebrate here in Cook County. Sheesh!

Running for judge in Chicago is serious business...

So much that even judicial candidates steal the campaign signs of their opponents!

Carl Boyd won the Democratic nomination in March for a subcircuit judge post in Cook County and is a shoo-in for the November election because he is running unopposed. But first he must deal with a trial late this month — his own. He faces a misdemeanor charge of allegedly stealing the campaign signs of a primary rival in the middle of the night.

Boyd, a veteran Chicago attorney, was arrested by Chicago police about 2 a.m. the day before the March 20 primary while allegedly in the possession of a dozen signs promoting the campaign of primary rival Chester Slaughter.

The arrest garnered no public attention, and the next day Boyd won in a landslide over Slaughter and two other candidates with more than half the vote.

In a telephone interview Monday, Boyd acknowledged his arrest but denied any wrongdoing.

"I can tell you that the police officer stated that this would make for a great story," he told the Tribune. "But he certainly did not see me pick up one sign. That much is true."

Boyd said he believes the police report was fabricated, but he wouldn't explain why.

"At this point, I would certainly appreciate an opportunity to have this matter heard in the appropriate forum, which would be the court," he said.

This isn't entirely unexplored territory as a former Republican Cook County Commissioner had been arrested for stealing or vandalizing an opponents campaign sign not long before his election. The publicity surrounding that may well have dented any chance of his re-election and he no longer serves on the County Board today.

Alas in this case, the candidate in question has no opposition and assuming he doesn't get convicted will more than likely be a sitting judge of the Cook County court!

It's safe to say that in Illinois...

The Republican Party is in awful shape in general. Cook County could be a more potent party even in spite of the fact that Cook is generally a heavily Democratic county. If a Republican could win statewide such a candidate needs to run well in the Chicagoland area, and if they fail that forget it the election will not roll in their favor even if the rest of the state comes through.

Chicago may be heavily Democratic but then what about the suburbs. Historically many probably could be counted on for Republican votes. Especially in areas to the north and possibly the west and southwest. Of course even then you definitely have to cater to the sensibilities of suburbanities. Some might put the emphasis on suburban women meaning don't talk about guns and don't talk about abortion. To name a few issues that could be sticking points to many.

Yesterday on the Capitol Fax we see the federal Republican party wants to offer some financial aid to not only Illinois' beleaguered GOP but other "orphan" state parties as well:

National Republicans have begun to intervene in a handful of key Senate and House battlegrounds where state parties are in disarray, seeking to head off the possibility that local mismanagement could cost the party control of Congress.

The GOP presidential nominee will be impacted by the state party woes, but what especially worries Republican operatives are those states where there is no competition on top of the ticket but which feature a number of pivotal Senate and House contests.

These “orphan states,” most notably behemoths with traditionally weak parties like California, Illinois and New York, are increasingly the focus of top GOP officials in the nation’s capital this spring.

The Republican National Committee is going to set aside at least $10 to $15 million to aid states where there are competitive House and Senate races but minimal presidential action, a party official tells POLITICO. That’s enough to blunt the GOP’s financial disadvantage in several states, though not to erase the disparity or put the orphan-state groups on par with their swing-state counterparts.

Half of the money will go to the states with hard-fought House contests, including the blue mega-states, and the other half will be directed to states like Montana and North Dakota, where there are crucial Senate battles.

Of course this is mostly about helping campaigns for Congress and US Senate in those states. In fact it was very much emphatic the level of help US House Speaker John Boenner wants to offer in those "orphan" states.

House Speaker John Boehner and the National Republican Congressional Committee are also stepping in to bolster the state GOP in a handful of the orphan states. By month’s end, Republicans aim to have six “Victory Centers” set up to help with turnout efforts in the six targeted House races in Illinois, according to a GOP aide. California and New York will also get special attention from the speaker, the NRCC and the RNC. There are at least 20 House races in those states that could help determine control of the lower chamber. In California and Illinois, the state parties have more debt than cash on hand for federal races, while the New York Republican Party had just $54,000 in federal funds in the bank at the end of February.

“Helping our House members in states like New York, California and Illinois — where we expect big union bosses and liberal Super PAC’s to invest heavily — is a top priority for the Speaker’s political team,” said Corey Fritz, a Boehner aide. “Each of these states presents a number of offensive and defensive races, and the Speaker is committed to ensuring our Republican members and challengers have the resources needed to win.”

You know I wish I knew what The Politico was referring to when they talk about open warfare amongst Republicans in Ohio.

It seems that way in some respects with Republicans in Illinois. The reason why I don't believe in "RINOs" is because of the dynamics of Illinois politics. Perhaps a conservative can win in this state but you have to be able to dial down your ideology for the political realities of Illinois' voters. You have to attract voters to your ideas but unfortunately here it's not advantageous to talk social issues. The right issues to discuss in Illinois is taxation & jobs for example. Of course the other side can always decide to inject the social issues into the race as a distraction but hey there's a way to stay on message surely.

Preckwinkle Blasted for Ignoring ICE Laws

I'm sure American Rattlesnake are exploring this kind of issue that surely occurs around the nation all the time. This story from our local NBC affiliate:

The Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has written Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, blasting the County’s decision to ignore immigration detainers at Cook County Jail, warning her that the County is likely in violation of federal law.

ICE Director John Morton suggested the County’s decision to release accused criminals back into the community without informing immigration, was a danger to the community.

"The ordinance disrupts the federal government’s efforts to remove deportable criminal offenders from the country, and instead allows for their release back into the community," Morton wrote. "The release of so many of these individuals to the streets of Cook County is deeply troubling, and directly undermines public safety."

The question I have is at least for those who are detained for serious felonies at least why would we just release them into the community?

Read the whole thing!

Ward Room - Illinois: The Most Democratic State

I hope the Republicans had read this from NBC Chicago's local politics blog:

Why are Republicans so powerless in Illinois? As the saying goes, geography is destiny. It’s all about Cook County, which contains half of Illinois’ voters. Only Delaware, Hawaii and Rhode Island -- tiny states with similarly Democratic voting records -- are so dominated by a single urban county.

Illinois’ GOP has become irrelevant because of its association with the national Republican brand: white and rural, with a desire to bring religion into public life, and a belief that the government has no business telling people how many guns they can own.

Unfortunately, the Republicans’ last gubernatorial nominee, Bill Brady, embodied those values. Brady campaigned as though he lived in the Illinois of the Republican Party’s dreams -- an Illinois that does not include Cook County. He counted on Downstaters’ resentment of the Colossus of the North carrying him to victory. The result: He won 99 of 102 counties, and still lost. Pat Quinn would have been elected to a full term even if he’d just carried Cook County.

Republicans will just have to get used to the fact that the Democrats have become the natural governing party of Illinois. They may be able to sneak in a governor after years of one-party fatigue, but as long as the Democrats are the big-city party, and the Republicans the small-town party, they’ll never dominate this state again.

What this means is that they need more of a presence in Cook County. They need not totally cede the county to the Democrats. It's often been said if the Republicans can get enough votes to cut into any potential Democratic votes, they can win a statewide race.

An elected official filing for unemployment

In 2006, Todd Stroger won his father's old job as County Board President. His father had a debilitating stroke one week before the primary election that year and vacated his primary nomination and his job that summer. Yeah even with a debilitating stroke John Stroger won the primary election.

I'm going to avoid calling Todd a disaster in office. He has his supporters who will say the Cook County Budget wasn't in as bad a shape as even the City of Chicago, Illinois and the federal budgets are currently. Still even coming from a political family, I'm not certain that Stroger had the political skill to make it at such a high level as leading a county.

Here's the story from the Sun-Times:

Like thousands of Illinoisans who have lost their jobs, former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has applied for unemployment benefits.

But newly minted Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration officially “protested” the claim with the state’s unemployment agency.

“. . . Former Board President Todd Stroger did submit an application for unemployment,” said a source in the Preckwinkle administration who is familiar with the application. “That application was protested because, as a former elected official, he is ineligible.”
...
Those benefits are tied to wages earned in the year leading up to the job loss. But state law doesn’t recognize the wages an elected leader earns in office when it comes to unemployment benefits.

“When someone applies, their weekly check is based on how much money they’ve earned,” [Greg Rivara, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Employment Security] said. “Could be from one source, could be from multiple sources, but wages earned from doing the job [someone was] elected to don’t figure in.”

In other words, it’s as if they didn’t work — or earn a dime.

That could effectively disqualify Stroger from collecting unemployment benefits — at least benefits resulting from his elected position.

It would be different if he were a regular county employee or worked in the private sector. If he could prove his case — that, say, the voters didn’t fire him for cause but that he lost his job through no fault of his own — he might qualify for unemployment, according to state law.

Not sure what to say about this. This revelation may be one reason why he's no longer County Board President. In fact this revelation may also show a lack of political skill. Indeed if he was interested in the insurance business as indicated in the article, I'm starting to wonder if he had actually started looking since before he lost his primary election.

All the same this is a bad idea, especially when plenty are looking for work today who were never elected officials. It may well be safe to say Stroger was one casualty of the election where incumbents weren't safe at all.

Furthermore, he can't rule out a return to politics. At the same time he's young enough where he could make a comeback in the future. Let's hope that he hones his skills and/or stay in a position that doesn't give him as much exposure as being at the County Board has.

Chicago hospital to no longer accept ambulance runs

Looks like the ER situation at the University of Chicago Hospital on Cottage Grove could get much worse. Story from CPR on Provident Hospital suspending most emergency medical service starting well yesterday actually. So I'm actually late to this story.

You can read the story about UChicago ER here!

Stroger Aide Arrested in Corruption Case

Does Chicagoist mean to tell me that the Cook County State's Attorney will take action in a case of local corruption? Also that they won't just allow the feds to continue holding the bag as far as corruption in Cook County? Well I wish we could see more stories like this.