THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Medicaid cuts...Madigan's attorneys trying to toss wiretaps...Chicago mayoral race is going to get nasty
March 2, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Anyone that works in politics knows about caffeine addiction. (I just finished my coffee at 10:22 P.M.) But Illinois basketball player Matthew Mayer took it to a new level, getting “caffeine poisoning” from drinking six Monster energy drinks during a video game marathon over the weekend.
Practicing free throws would have been better. Illinois plays hated Michigan tonight in Champaign and will likely continue to keep my blood pressure up.
If you missed our podcast yesterday, you can listen here or watch here. Thanks to Tahman Bradley from WGN-TV and political operative Chris Jackowiak for talking with us.
The House is in at noon. The Senate is out. Governor Pritzker does not have anything on his public schedule.
Don’t forget, we’re offering a seven day free trial to join the ranks of paid subscribers.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets)
As many as 700,000 Illinois residents could lose Medicaid health coverage this year (Chicago Tribune)
Jose Salmeron doesn’t want to think about what would happen if he lost his Medicaid coverage.
The 70-year-old Cicero resident has been on the state and federally funded health insurance program, which is for people with low incomes and disabilities, for years. It covered him when he had heart surgery in 2015 and helps to pay for his ongoing care.
“I would not have access to medical services,” Salmeron said in Spanish, of if he lost Medicaid coverage. He’s also on Medicare because of his age, but Medicaid helps cover many costs that might otherwise be out-of-pocket and unaffordable for him. “What would I do?”
It’s a question many Illinois residents will soon face. Anywhere from about 384,000 to 700,000 people in Illinois are expected to lose their Medicaid health coverage this year, as federal protections put in place during the pandemic fade. Though some of those people will gain coverage elsewhere, others will find themselves suddenly uninsured, and unable to pay for doctor visits and medications.
“We are very concerned that people are going to fall off (Medicaid), and they won’t know about it until it’s too late,” said Susan Vega, programs manager at Alivio Medical Center, a federally qualified health center that serves many Chicago-area patients on Medicaid.
Related: States are turning to Medicaid to help people leaving incarceration (Illinois Public Media)
Michael Madigan’s attorneys seek to toss recordings, dismiss part of his indictment (Chicago Sun-Times)
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan asked a federal judge Tuesday to toss secret recordings made by investigators and dismiss part of the bombshell racketeering indictment the feds spent years building against him.
The more than 100 pages of motions filed in federal court amount to the most substantive response yet from Madigan’s defense attorneys to the aggressive public corruption investigation that swirled around him long before he was indicted in March 2022.
They also offer new context to a secretly recorded August 2014 meeting between Madigan, then-Ald. Danny Solis, a hotel developer and a secret government informant. The Chicago Sun-Times exposed details of that recorded meeting in January 2019 in a report that first revealed the feds’ interest in the powerful Southwest Side Democrat.
Though Madigan did not appear to cross any legal lines in that meeting, Madigan’s attorneys painted it Tuesday as the starting point of the feds’ lengthy pursuit of Madigan — and wrongly so, they say.
They said the feds submitted an application the next month to the city’s chief federal judge. It allegedly theorized that Madigan and Solis had conspired to withhold Solis’ approval of a zoning change unless the developer hired Madigan’s law firm.
Madigan’s firm was not hired by the developer.
“A full and fair review of the audio and video recording of the meeting, as well as analysis of the surrounding circumstances, demonstrates that the government’s inferences were not objectively reasonable,” defense attorney Sheldon Zenner wrote. “In fact, they were purposefully false.”
Zenner and the rest of Madigan’s legal team wrote that the application, filed on Sept. 26, 2014, amounted to the “first time that the government sought authority to intercept Madigan’s communications.”
The more holes Madigan’s team can poke in the (mostly circumstantial) evidence, the more likely they are to raise doubt in the government’s case.
Chicago mayor runoff begins with mutual attacks: Brandon Johnson would ‘destroy’ economy; Paul Vallas ‘failed everywhere he has gone’ (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago’s mayoral runoff campaign has officially begun, with finalist Brandon Johnson the first to go on the offensive against Paul Vallas as the rivals shared starkly differing visions for the city’s future.
Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, fired the opening salvo during his victory speech Tuesday night following the stunning loss of first-term Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who became the first full-term mayor to fail in a reelection bid since 1983.
“This is the truth about Paul Vallas: He has literally failed everywhere he has gone. In fact, Paul Vallas is the author of ‘The Tale of Two Cities,’” Johnson said, again accusing the former Chicago Public Schools CEO of being a closet Republican, a label that Vallas forcefully denies. “Chicago, we cannot have this man as the mayor of the city of Chicago.”
Wednesday afternoon, Vallas held a news conference across from City Hall and mostly deflected by criticizing Johnson’s plans on taxes and policing.
“Individuals who really have no track record or are trying to hide their track record are generally going to get nasty. But Brandon still has to explain his so-called tax the rich plan — that doesn’t look like a ‘tax the rich’ plan to me when you’re talking about head taxes,” Vallas said about his opponent’s plan to enact a $4 per employee head tax at large companies that perform 50% or more of their work in Chicago, as well as raise the city’s hotel tax. “I mean, that’s not a ‘tax the rich’ plan. That’s (a) ‘let’s destroy Chicago’s economy’ plan.”
This won’t be friendly.
Related: Rejected before, Vallas aims to win over a city ‘in crisis’ — promising to get it ‘back on track’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Fresh on the runoff trail, Johnson vows to provide ‘what the families want’ — not rival’s ‘failed politics of old’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Where Vallas and Johnson won — and what the numbers say about April (Crain’s Chicago Business)
In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime (Chicago Tribune)
Pritzker's not endorsing anyone for mayor. For now. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Editorial: Is the Chicago Teachers Union the new machine? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Get Ready For the Runoff (Chicago Magazine)
Opinion: Mayor Lori Lightfoot was in a fight she couldn’t have won (Chicago Sun-Times)
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
John Lausch announces resignation as U.S. attorney for Northern District of Illinois (Chicago Sun-Times)
Appeals court rejects Raoul attempt to revive Equal Rights Amendment (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Court rulings supercharge Illinois’ strongest-in-nation biometric privacy law (Capitol News Illinois)
Stellantis idles Belvidere plant, takes step toward closure (Associated Press)
Pritzker announces $60 million park grants, declines to endorse Chicago mayor candidate (Capitol News Illinois)
Plans are back on the table for a carbon pipeline in Illinois (Illinois Public Media)
Retired officers angry at board’s delay on gun-carry law (Associated Press)
Southern Illinois wineries react to rollback of license fees (The Southern Illinoisan)
SOME TOP LINKS FROM THE WEEK SO FAR
JOIN US