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 The Illinois Chamber will host a second debate
amongst the leading candidates for the Republican nomination
in Springfield, March 7.
As with the Naperville debate on January
25, the event will be broadcast live on network television,
ABC's Springfield affiliate Channel 20.
The
debate will be the closing event for the Chamber's
annual Business Summit lobby day. To attend the
Business Summit and the debate, visit the Chamber's website
for information and registration materials visit the Chamber
Events heading on our website: www.ilchamber.org. |
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With six weeks
remaining in the 2006 Illinois gubernatorial
primary, Governor Blagojevich and State Treasurer Judy Baar
Topinka hold strong leads in their respective contests. Blagojevich is favored
by 62% of likely Democratic primary voters with only 18%
favoring challenger Edwin Eisendrath. The Chicago
Tribune/WGN-TV poll found 18% of Democrats still
undecided.
The Democratic
poll, while indicating strength for Blagojevich's re-election
campaign also exposed some weak areas. Of the Democrats
surveyed only 35% said the Governor had kept his campaign
promise to "end business as usual". Only 42% felt that the
state is headed in the right direction with fully 38%
indicating they did not believe the state is going in the
right direction.
On the Republican
side, of the 600 likely GOP primary voters polled, 38% backed
Topinka with businessman Jim Oberweis coming in second with
17%. Businessman
Ron Gidwitz picked up 11% and 8% of GOP voters back State
Senator Bill Brady.
The poll showed 25% of Republican voters still
undecided.
Interestingly, the GOP survey found that
self-identified conservatives splitting their support between
Topinka and Oberweis.
Topinka is considered a moderate while Oberweis falls
into the conservative category.
In the race for
the GOP nomination for Lt. Gov., a full 50% of polled voters
remain undecided.
Of those with an opinion, 27% selected DuPage
County State's Attorney Joe
Birkett, 20% chose State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, 2%
selected Kane County Recorder Sandy Wegman and 1% chose
attorney Lawrence Bruckner.
In the only other
statewide primary, the Democratic nomination for State
Treasurer, Knox County State's Attorney Paul
Mangieri leads banking heir Alexi Giannoulias 14% to
10%.
The poll was
conducted Feb. 2-6 and had an error rate of 4%.
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 The battle for the Illinois Supreme Court
seems to continue more than a year after the election was
decided in the Fifth District. Last week, a
complaint was filed against Supreme Court Justice Lloyd
Karmeier demanding that judges recuse themselves from
cases which involve campaign contributors. Karmeier won the
Supreme Court seat in what was the most hotly contested,
expensive judicial races ever. The campaign has
produced a number of lawsuits from the loser, Gordon Maag, all
of which have been thrown out. It now appears that
the '04 campaign has produced this complaint intended to smear
Karmeier.
The complaint last
week indicates that Karmeier should have recused himself from
decisions that favored State Farm Insurance and Philip Morris
USA because of their contributions to Karmeier's
campaign. "It
does not allege that the money decided his vote, only that his
decision not to recuse himself was in error," said William
McNary, co-director of Citizen Action of Illinois, one of the
groups that filed the complaint. " . . . This was a wholesale
special-interest lobbying effort (by business groups). They're
trying to buy public policy in this
state."
The St. Louis Post Dispatch
reviewed case records and campaign finance records and found
that if judges were required to recuse themselves from all
such cases, the judicial system could grind to a halt. Because Illinois elects judges up to
the Supreme Court, campaigns must raise money to be
competitive.
Citizen Action, for that matter, was a campaign
contributor to Karmeier's opponent, Gordon
Maag. |
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President
Bush introduced his budget for next year to Congress last
week. Illinois was a big winner in
the areas of transportation and research for alternative
fuels. Farm
subsidies, however, would suffer a setback under the FFY 07
budget with a cut of 5%.
The overall spending plan for the nation came in at
$2.77 trillion.
Illinois' transportation
needs will lead the nation in funding with a proposed $1.2
billion or $300 million more than this year's budget. Bush's budget plan
includes $206 million for locks and dam projects in order to
enhance river navigation. The budget also
includes $298 millions for further research into alternative
fuels including ethanol and
biodiesel. |
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As the Political Insider
previously reported, presiding Circuit Judge George Moran,
who is running for retention, continues
to stun political observers. Judge Moran, it has
been reported, utilizes internet dating site describing
himself in great detail and has bragged about his rate of
success. While
this is certainly a personal issue, given his candidacy the
story has become public fodder. Once the story became
public, Moran removed his name for
retention.
Now, it appears
that Judge Moran has chosen to avoid the limelight by not
coming to work.
In addition, a relative of Moran's cleared all of his
personal belongings out of his office last week. Moran's status remains
up in the air because he has not submitted a formal letter of
resignation. |
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"For decades,
lawmakers failed to set aside enough money to ensure the
financial soundness of pension funds that pay obligations to
retired teachers and other government workers. In 1995,
legislators finally set a correction course with a schedule of
steadily rising payments. That schedule stretches to
2045.
There have been slips along the way. Retirement
benefits were fattened, raising long-term strain on the
pension systems. The governor and legislature borrowed $10
billion in 2003 to inject into the pensions--then last year
skipped $2.2 billion in pension payments." Read
the whole thing... |
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