THE ILLINOIZE: How we're changing...Pritzker pitches the finance bros...Business skittish as Johnson descends on Springfield...ComEd trial nearing completion
April 18, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Before we get to our announcements and news, a look at the day.
The House and Senate are in at noon. Governor Pritzker speaks to attendees of the Early Childhood Advocacy Day in the first floor Rotunda at 1pm.
More below, but now is the time to take advantage of our subscriptions at $99.
Let’s get to it.
PUTTING THE POWERFUL ON NOTICE
Next week marks the first renewals of our third full year in a subscription model. What started as a way to say some things and try to influence a certain political party in 2020 has morphed into something that I never really expected.
Even though I swore off working political campaigns, I’ve found this newsletter take up much of the time I had committed to my PR and marketing work. The prices we have been charging for subscriptions haven’t nearly covered the hours we’ve put into the work we’ve been doing.
But, to ask our subscribers for more money, I want to be sure they’re getting an exclusive experience from this newsletter. So, as of next week, we’re making some changes.
The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday newsletters will all go behind the paywall.
All breaking news alerts, special newsletters, and podcasts will go to paid subscribers first.
All stories will be held for 24 hours before being posted at www.theillinoize.com.
As we begin to utilize new Substack features (like Notes and Chat), subscribers will have exclusive access.
The Monday and Thursday “Free for All” emails will remain free to our entire list.
Our system is also able to identify the devices that open our products, and we’ve seen that many of our subscriber e-mails are being opened by hundreds of non-subscribers each week. I am happy to provide discounts for group subscriptions and to incentivize subscribers who are responsible for a referral (one free month extension of your subscription for each new member). Just drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com and we’ll be happy to discuss options with you.
I’ll begin policing unauthorized forwards of our subscriber only content. I’m a pretty easy going guy, but if paid content is repeatedly stolen, we reserve the right to cancel your subscription without a refund.
We’re also going to realign our coverage priorities over the next few weeks. There will still be some horse race coverage of the legislative session and political campaigns. But, you don’t need to pay me for a regurgitation of a synopsis for a bill that’s never going to get a hearing.
We’ll provide inside information on the conversations taking place behind the scenes and use our contacts gathered over the years having started covering state politics as a cub reporter in 2005 to give you as much of “story behind the story,” especially leading to another election season.
Furthermore, I’m declaring open season on the powerful in our state. We won’t be holding back to find out where the money is being spent, what people are saying and doing behind the scenes, and what it means for you, the taxpayer. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican—expect the FOIA’s to start flowing.
I’m not here to make friends. I have a dog. I don’t have an agenda and I don’t have to cover for anybody I may be in bed with. It isn’t personal, but every single elected official, bureaucrat, or candidate will have to answer to you for what you’re doing. I don’t owe anyone anything.
Nobody is off limits.
That said, renewals that begin next week will be $149 or $14.99 per month. If you want to cancel your subscription, just let me know. No harm, no foul. I’ll also be providing deeply discounted subscriptions for LA’s, junior staffers, interns, and students. Just send me an email at patrick@theillinoize.com from your government e-mail and we’ll get you taken care of.
I’ll have more over the next couple of weeks as we begin to transition our content completely behind the paywall. If you have any questions or comments, drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com.
Thank you for your support so far. We’re just getting started.
PRITZKER PITCHES WALL STREET
Ahead of an expected bond sale this week, Governor JB Pritzker jetted to New York Monday to sell investors on the state’s improving fiscal health amid turmoil on financial markets.
The state plans to sell $2.5 billion in general obligation bonds as early as tomorrow. Pritzker and several top staff briefed Wall Street investors Monday and took wide ranging questions on state finances.
Pritzker was repeatedly asked about the state’s infamous pension systems, defending that pension buyouts, consolidations, and increases in pension payments are slowly turning the tide on the traditional sore spot in state government.
“It took us decades to get us into the situation that we got into in Illinois,” Pritzker said. “We are moving in the right direction and it may take us a few years for us to get out of that. But, as long as we’re moving in the right direction, the legislature is doing the things that are necessary, the Governor leading in that direction, I think you should have some confidence that we’re getting where we need to be.”
Pritzker also defended the balance being made increasing the state’s rainy day fund, especially with progressives pushing for increased spending on social services.
“We keep raising this with the legislature,” Pritzker said. “You can imagine, you’re always in a debate about whether there are social services, for example, that need to be funded, or education that needs to be funded at the same time you’re putting money into the rainy day fund. I think you can do them at the same time and we have been. The legislature’s been amenable to that and understands why it’s important, I think.”
Pritzker demurred criticism of Chicago’s crime and fiscal problems and pointed to his single meeting with Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson in the days following the runoff in early April.
But, Pritzker again threw water on one of Johnson’s key tax ideas, a tax on each financial transaction and market trade.
“It’s not popular in the legislature. It’s not something that would be good or smart for the state, in my view. I know there are differing opinions about this,” Pritzker said. “We’re a state that isn’t going to change our position on it.”
Though, Pritzker admitted through a wry smile he didn’t intend to let his opposition to one of Johnson’s key plans leak.
“Don’t think I meant to let that slip out while we were talking to the press,” Pritzker said.
The two men are scheduled to meet again this week as Johnson will try to get state concessions before the spring session adjourns. Johnson is sworn in May 15 and the legislature is scheduled to adjourn May 19, so Pritzker admitted time is of the essence.
BUSINESS COMMUNITY SPOOKED BY JOHNSON’S CRIME RESPONSE
After a large group of teenagers swarmed Chicago’s Loop over the weekend resulting in vandalism, fights, and even two shootings, business leaders are indicating privately they’re “spooked” by the lack of a forceful response by Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson.
Johnson issued a statement following the incidents claiming “in no way do I condone” the activity of the teens, but said it was “not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
16 teens have been arrested so far.
Johnson’s comments have been lambasted by conservatives and some liberals.
“Where are these kids’ parents?” Ald. Brendan Reilly wrote in an email to the Sun-Times. “They need to know where their kids are going and what they are doing. There needs to be parental accountability for this kind of outrageous behavior.”
Following the incidents, many in the business community are, at least privately, concerned about Johnson’s interest or ability to crack down on crime.
“The business community is even more dispirited than it was a week ago,” said one business insider, who pointed out numerous retail businesses in the Loop were forced to close early amid the violent crowds over the weekend.
Johnson is scheduled to visit Springfield tomorrow and address a joint session of the General Assembly.
“I don’t know how this guy shows his face [in Springfield] if he has no clue how to keep the city safe,” said one Republican lawmaker. “We need serious solutions, not a photo op for Senate Democrats.”
Johnson will surely be peppered by questions form reporters in Springfield this week to clarify his position on the weekend incidents and how he will handle Chicago’s crime issue, especially as he backed off his previous “defund the police” rhetoric during the mayoral runoff.
COMED TRIAL HEADED TO JURY SOON?
From our friend Jon Seidel of the Chicago Sun-Times:
A month after he began to cooperate with the FBI, then-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez helped the feds secretly record a phone call that would become key to their case against rising-star energy executive Anne Pramaggiore.
Marquez told Pramaggiore that people working for a ComEd contractor “pretty much collect a check” and that messing around with it could mean things could go “bad for us in Springfield.” Pramaggiore warned him about what could happen if somebody “gets their nose out of joint.”
But Monday, during her first full day testifying in her own defense, Pramaggiore confronted that and other recordings head-on. Even though Marquez name-dropped Frank Olivo, who once represented then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s 13th Ward power base on the City Council, Pramaggiore insisted she didn’t grasp the Madigan connection at the time.
“I didn’t know who they were,” Pramaggiore, a former ComEd CEO, said of the men being paid by ComEd through a contract with then-City Club President Jay Doherty’s consulting firm.
Though the trial is now entering its sixth week, there were hints Monday that it could be nearing its end. McClain’s attorney, Patrick Cotter, told the judge that defense attorneys could wrap their case by Thursday. Federal prosecutors still might decide to present rebuttal evidence, but it suggests closing arguments could begin as soon as next week.
First, prosecutors are expected to begin cross-examining Pramaggiore on Tuesday morning. And that will give them an opportunity to question her about some of the explanations she offered Monday.
We’ll share some of the latest tapes with subscribers tomorrow.
JOIN US