THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...The "big tent" problem for Dems...ComEd trial closing arguments today...but they want more of your cash
April 24, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
The final four weeks of the scheduled legislative session is upon us.
The House and Senate return at noon tomorrow. There is nothing on Governor Pritzker’s public schedule.
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YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Brandon Johnson’s win as mayor furthers Democratic leftward tilt as party examines big tent philosophy (Chicago Tribune)
Brandon Johnson’s election as Chicago’s next mayor represented a further leftward movement of the state’s Democratic-led politics, fueled by generational and ideological changes that are stretching and sometimes straining the fabric of the party’s big tent.
“In my view, the state of Illinois, led by Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker and this legislative body, has become the vanguard for progressive policy all over this country,” Johnson told lawmakers Wednesday to resounding applause while making his first visit to Springfield as mayor-elect. “You’ve done it.”
But Johnson’s 4% victory over Paul Vallas to become the city’s 57th mayor, laid bare some fundamental splits within the state’s Democratic Party that go deeper than just Chicago’s most recent mayoral contest.
Vallas billed himself as a “lifelong Democrat” despite ties to right-wing activists, the conservative Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, and his declaration in 2009 that he considered himself “more of a Republican than a Democrat” and was “fundamentally opposed to abortion.”
The potential for increased friction between moderates and progressives threatening the party’s future has grown to the point that a special committee was formed by Cook County Democrats to determine what it means to be a Democrat in today’s political climate.
“What I started to see was there are Democrats that are confused,” said Northwest Side Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, a member of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, who is chairing the committee. “Your regular Democrats are confused as to what are the principles around being a Democrat, and how the Democratic Party is being influenced by some portions of the left.”
Villegas just won reelection to the City Council against a progressive challenger backed by the Chicago Teachers Union after last year losing a Democratic congressional primary to Delia Ramirez, a product of the progressive United Working Families organization whose candidacy was backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Calling the Democrats the big tent party is a little bit contradictory. Just ask Bill Lipinski. Republicans have just done an exceptional job of running moderate suburbanites off.
Related: What to know as Brandon Johnson prepares to become Chicago’s next mayor (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago’s downtown mayhem won’t be repeated, mayor-elect’s chief of staff vows (Chicago Sun-Times)
Mayor-elect Johnson’s plans to double number of summer jobs for Chicago’s teens might require some work (Chicago Sun-Times)
Hundreds march in the Loop to reach out to teens who caused chaos last weekend: ‘People do care about them’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Youth violence, policing and the tough road ahead for Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson (Chicago Sun-Times)
ComEd wants a $247 million rate hike on top of the $1.5 billion hike already pending (Crain’s Chicago Business)
While former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore stands trial charged with conspiring to bribe former House Speaker Michael Madigan in return for winning approval in Springfield of lucrative legislation like the 2011 "smart grid" law, that statute continues to provide benefits to ComEd.
The utility filed today with state regulators for a $247 million rate hike, taking effect January 2024, based on that law, even though the statute technically expired at the end of 2022.
That's because the 2021 Climate & Equitable Jobs Act, which now controls how electricity delivery rates are set, permitted ComEd to continue a key aspect of the smart-grid law. That allows the utility each year to charge ratepayers for shortfalls in the revenue it collected in the previous year.
For 2022, that figure is $247 million, according to ComEd's filings with the Illinois Commerce Commission. If approved by regulators, and they would seem to have little choice under the formulaic nature of the controversial smart-grid law, that will compel the average household in ComEd's territory to pay $3.09 more per month to keep the lights on.
Closing arguments in ComEd bribery trial set for Monday (Capitol News Illinois)
After nearly six weeks, a federal jury has heard almost all the evidence in the bribery trial of three ex-lobbyists for electric utility Commonwealth Edison and its former CEO who are accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Prosecutors allege the four arranged for Madigan allies to get jobs and contracts with ComEd in exchange for the powerful speaker’s help with their legislation in Springfield. Defendants contend they were merely engaging in above-board lobbying.
Attorneys for three of the four defendants rested their case Wednesday afternoon, while the marquee defendant in the case, Madigan confidant and longtime ComEd lobbyist Mike McClain, indicated he would not be calling any witnesses. The jury will begin hearing closing arguments on Monday.
On Thursday, prosecutors and defense lawyers will negotiate over jury instructions, which could be key to the outcome of the case.
“I am optimistic, perhaps more so than you guys, that it will be a smooth instruction conference,” Judge Harry Leinenweber quipped to the parties after the jury had been sent home Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, longtime ComEd lobbyist John Hooker finished hours of testimony that had the jury laughing when he underwent questioning from his own attorney, followed by a withering cross-examination from the government.
At one point during questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz, Hooker contradicted the testimony of codefendant Anne Pramaggiore, ComEd’s former CEO. At issue was a wiretapped call featuring Hooker and former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, recorded in the third month of Marquez’s cooperation with the government in April 2019.
In the call, Hooker related to Marquez that he’d spoken with Pramaggiore about hiring Madigan’s former chief of staff, who the speaker had been forced to fire the previous year after sexual harassment allegations. At the time, Pramaggiore had already been in her new role at ComEd’s parent company, Exelon, for nearly a year.
Related: Could Michael Madigan be bought? Jurors to weigh central question in ‘ComEd Four’ trial after closing arguments Monday (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: ComEd case jurors prepare to cross the finish line (Champaign News-Gazette)
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Nearly $1B in expected spending on health care for noncitizens adds to state budget pressures (Capitol News Illinois)
GI Bill snafus fallout: Illinois attorney general backs decorated Army vet James Rudisill’s bid to Supreme Court to restore benefits (Chicago Sun-Times)
After-school programs at risk of closure after state board says it miscalculated federal funding (Capitol News Illinois)
'Prepared for anything': Krishnamoorthi far outpaces suburban peers in 1st-quarter fundraising (Daily Herald)
Sorensen says he voted with GOP so they could not 'harm him' in next election (Peoria Journal Star)
What was up with mayoral polling in Chicago’s runoff election? (WBEZ)
Vallas sues consultant who allegedly defrauded campaign out of $680,000 (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: State's bipartisan shift toward nuclear power leave open the serious question of waste (Daily Herald)
Editorial: Illinois Senate should pass Native American repatriation bill (Daily Herald)
Opinion: How lawmakers can create fair voting maps for Chicago’s elected school board (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: State still falling short of obligations to those in its care (Shaw Media)
Opinion: It's time to restore the Local Government Distributive Fund back to 10% (Rockford Register Star)
Collins/Gillespie: A modest first step for children in Illinois DCFS? Give them a lawyer. (Chicago Tribune)
SOME TOP LINKS FROM LAST WEEK
Why Did Johnson Receive an Unprecedented Joint Session Address?
Republican Leaders Criticize, Democrats Reluctant to Discuss Specifics for Final Month of Session
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