THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All
March 17, 2022
Good morning, everyone. And Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or, as we call it around here, ‘me’ day.
Have a pint of Guinness and enjoy your morning headlines.
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GOP group backing Donald Trump’s baseless election fraud claims among more than 700 candidates filing for June primary (Chicago Tribune)
A total of 740 candidates filed petitions to run for their party’s nomination to state and federal offices in the June 28 primary election, including a fringe Republican slate backing former President Donald Trump’s false claims of endemic voter fraud.
Among the filings likely to gain scrutiny are those filed by candidates running under the “We are the people Illinois” banner in the GOP primary. Individuals associated with the group filed for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer and U.S. Senate.
Emily Johnson of Wheaton, the group’s candidate for governor, issued a campaign statement touting her support for the former Republican president who continues to perpetuate false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Democratic President Joe Biden.
“I will campaign with Trump and stand beside him as we fix the fraudulent election,” Johnson said.
Several GOP candidates for governor have struggled with how to confront Trump, trying not to alienate his supporters while also seeking to attract more moderate Republicans and independents.
The “We are the people Illinois’” group has shown signs of being unfamiliar with state government. Its candidate for secretary of state, Michelle Turney, has vowed to “sell all voting machines and implement fair elections of legal voters on paper ballots.”
Unlike many other states, the Illinois secretary of state does not oversee the state’s elections — that job is reserved for the bipartisan State Board of Elections. Voter sign-ups are conducted at SOS facilities.
Turney, from the Beverly neighborhood, said she is a Chicago Police Department sergeant currently on leave.
These people aren’t Republicans, they’re followers of a cult.
Pritzker pulls another Prisoner Review Board appointment, calls for Senate action (Capitol News Illinois)
Max Cerda was convicted of a double murder when he was 16 years old.
Cerda received parole in 1998. He was 35 years old when he was released and began working with ex-offenders in Chicago to help them transition to life outside of prison.
In March 2021, Cerda was appointed to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. He was the first ex-offender to serve on the 15-member board that decides who will be released from prison and under what conditions. Cerda earned $62,400 last year as a paid member of the PRB.
On Monday, Gov. JB Pritzker pulled that appointment as Cerda appeared not to have enough Senate support for approval, and the governor sent a letter to the state senators in charge of the appointment process urging action on his outstanding appointments.
The PRB appointment process has come under scrutiny by Republican members of the Senate in the past year. PRB members Oreal James and Eleanor Wilson were appointed on April 2, 2019, but Pritzker pulled their appointments on March 19, 2021. They were reappointed two days later.
The governor can withdraw nominations and reappoint the same appointee to restart a 60-session-day clock in which their appointments could be heard by the committee. This practice is allowed under Senate rules and has been used by previous governors.
James, Wilson and Jeff Mears, all Pritzker appointees to the PRB, have not been approved by the Senate. Three other members, Kenneth Tupy, LeAnn Miller and Jared Bohland also remain unconfirmed by the Senate.
Clearly, Senate Republicans are going to try to make a lot of hay here that they force Pritzker to pull the nomination of Cerda because it’s bad politics for Senate Democrats. I would argue he’s probably more qualified to weigh in on these things after he served his sentence and turned his life around.
Democrats are trying to reframe the debate about the PRB, but obviously, it’s about trying to save face without hurting Senate Democrats in November.
Second top leader exits Illinois tollway amid internal turbulence (Daily Herald)
Three years after Gov. J.B. Pritzker selected a team to reform the Illinois tollway, the agency's two top leaders are out after a turbulent tenure that included Senate scrutiny over procurement missteps and an apparent power struggle.
Tollway Executive Director José Alvarez resigned Tuesday, a few weeks after board Chairman Will Evans departed. The governor's office had no comments on Alvarez's exit.
Newly appointed Chairwoman Dorothy Abreu thanked Alvarez in a statement, noting he had "informed the board of his decision to step aside to prioritize his family's needs and to afford the new chairwoman the opportunity to establish new leadership.
"Alvarez helped the tollway continue to deliver on its $14 billion Move Illinois capital program, including during the COVID-19 pandemic," Abreu said.
Alvarez and Evans were picked by Democrat Pritzker in early 2019 as he cleaned house at the tollway amid concerns about nepotism and patronage in hiring and contracts during former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration.
But reports by the Daily Herald in 2020 that Alvarez, a former Chicago Housing Authority executive, had recruited at least nine CHA colleagues for tollway jobs with their salaries totaling more than $1.3 million raised new questions about cronyism.
New fight brewing in Illinois secretary of state race (Crain’s Chicago Business)
First they clashed over secret emails, then over whether one candidate was trying to stampede Democratic powers into making an early endorsement. Now there’s a new point of contention between Democratic secretary of state hopeful Alexi Giannoulias and challenger Anna Valencia.
The issue: whether Giannoulias should disclose the list of investment clients he handled as a senior director at BNY Mellon Wealth Management.
Valencia, in a very pointed letter to the Giannoulias campaign, emphasized that Giannoulias has promised to make “ethics and transparency” a priority.
“Illinois voters deserve action to back up this rhetoric,” she wrote. “That’s why we are requesting that you release a full list of clients and investments you directed on their behalf during your decade” as a wealth manager. “A full view of your private-sector work as an investment banker over the last decade will help to show voters who you were fighting for while Democrats fought the Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump administrations that threatened our communities.”
From a statement: "To clarify Valencia’s misguided attempt to distort the facts, Alexi never was an 'investment banker.' While he was at BNY Mellon, he never invested any money or directed any investments. During his tenure there, Alexi served as a wealth director whose role was to develop new business and introduce new clients to the firm."
This primary is not going to be any nicer between now and June.
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