Tag: Illinois

MONEY did not talk during the Democratic and Republican primary elections held in Illinois on March 20th—it screamed. The incumbent Republican governor, Bruce Rauner (pictured), who splashed out some $50m on his campaign, saw off a strong challenge from a right-winger, Jeanne Ives. He will face an even richer opponent in the general election in November, because J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire who poured almost $70m into his own campaign, easily won the Democratic primary for governor. Wealthy candidates also prevailed in many of the primary races for Illinois’s 18 congressional seats and other positions, held on the same day. Ten house members and three senators are worth more than $43m each (many politicians are not required to state the value of their properties). The race, which has already cost about $160m, could well become the most expensive non-presidential campaign in history, exceeding the $280m spent in California’s governor’s race in 2010. Get our daily newsletter It is easy to see why the Democratic establishment, including county chairmen, big unions and elected politicians, embraced Mr Pritzker’s candidacy. Enormously wealthy people have competed in Illinois elections before. But until Mr Rauner’s victory in 2014 “they did not really do well”, says Christopher Mooney of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In February the Chicago Tribune unearthed tapes of a conversation in 2008 between Mr Pritzker and Rod Blagojevich, then governor of Illinois, who is now in prison.

Today in 5 Lines Congress is expected to unveil a $1.3 trillion spending bill to keep the government funded until September. Lawmakers have until Friday at midnight to pass the bill before the government shuts down, but President Trump is already threatening to veto it. The man suspected in a series of recent bombings in Austin, Texas, died after blowing himself up Wednesday morning. A year before being fired, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe reportedly oversaw an investigation into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions lacked candor when questioned about his contacts with Russian operatives. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to the highest level in a decade. The central bank is expected to hike rates three more times this year, as the U.S. economy continues to strengthen. Today on The Atlantic A New Hope? But on Tuesday, Democrats in Illinois nominated a billionaire of their own to run against Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. : Robinson Meyer explains the scandal in three quick paragraphs. Mark Zuckerberg Is Wrong: The Cambridge Analytica scandal proves that the time has arrived for the U.S. to create a Data Protection Authority.

Incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski won a narrow victory after a fierce challenge from progressive Marie Newman on Tuesday in Illinois’s third congressional district. However, in a district that backed Hillary Clinton by 15 points in 2016, he faced criticism not just for his views on abortion but his opposition to the Affordable Care Act and refusal to endorse Barack Obama in 2012. Illinois primary pits rare 'pro-life' Democrat against progressive wing Read more The race drew national attention as Newman was backed by a number of major players in the Democratic party including Emily’s List, the Human Rights Campaign and SEIU. She also received the support of national political figures including Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders while touting her support for crucial progressive priorities such as Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. In contrast, Lipinski relied on support from local labor unions as well as the remnants of the “Democratic machine” in Chicago. In an interview with the Guardian, Ilyse Hogue, the head of the influential pro-choice group Naral, which backed Newman early on, said the group had “made the race a top priority”. Newman echoed this message, telling the Guardian Lipinski was too conservative for the district: “He’s to the right of most Republicans.” She also criticized her opponent for “living on the coattails of his father” and claimed “he doesn’t work hard”. Lipinski is virtually certain to win in November. With 95% of precincts reporting, Pritzker had 46% while Biss had 26% and Kennedy had 24%. With 95% of precincts reporting, the incumbent eked out a win by 52% to 48%.

has been spent on TV and radio ads on both sides. And it’s possible that two incumbents — the state’s Republican governor and a Democratic congressman — could go down to defeat. Is Gov. Rauner should still be considered the favorite to win today’s primary in his rocky road to re-election. Rauner could lose #ILGov primary tomorrow night, or at least closer than expected for a challenge to a multi-millionaire incumbent governor.” If Rauner loses, he’d be the first Illinois governor seeking re-election to lose a primary in 42 years. 2. Who wins the Dem primary for governor — the billionaire, the Kennedy or the former teacher? It’s an affluent suburban district and a top target for Dems. Here are the numbers for the primary: Trump shakes up his legal team “President Trump’s legal team was poised for a shake-up on Monday, according to two people briefed on the matter, as he openly discussed firing one of his lawyers, another considered resigning and a third — who pushed theories on television that Mr. Trump was framed by the F.B.I. The president reassured Mr. Cobb that he had no plans to fire him, according to a person who spoke with the president late Monday, in part to prevent a narrative that his team was in disarray after The New York Times began making inquiries.” More: “Mr. Net change: ~+2D.” Politico: GOP is worried about Don Blankenship in West Virginia “National Republicans — on the heels of the Roy Moore and Rick Saccone debacles — worry they’re staring down their latest potential midterm election fiasco: coal baron and recent federal prisoner Don Blankenship,” Politico says.

Illinois gubernatorial race is shaping up to be a 2020 microcosm. Republican Gov. Rauner talks about draining the swamp in Illinois. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political…

He’s in a political pickle. Since his first campaign four years ago, Illinois Gov. Rauner has 60 days to review and decide whether to sign it into law. The House also approved another bill to raise the minimum age to buy an assault rifle, and a ban of bump stocks, which equip a gun to fire more rapidly. Rauner’s office issued a statement in response to the legislative awakening. “We will review any legislation when it is sent to the Governor’s desk. So, he will sit on the legislation, reviewing and conversing, until after the primary. He’ll endure weeks of attacks from the state’s Democratic Party leadership, its political action committees, gun control activists and gubernatorial candidates. That Democratic nominee will sit even farther to the left of Rauner’s fellow hunters and other downstate voters who both cherish gun rights, and loathe liberal Democrats, especially ones from Chicago. The women who wonder, every day, whether their children are safe in their own schools.

This is not, of course, the official Democratic position. And there are only three Democratic senators — Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III and Pennsylvania’s Robert P. Casey Jr. — who have less than a 100 percent lifetime score from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. In some places, surely. But Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report points out two complicating factors: First, the heterodoxies of local candidates seem to matter less and less in the way Americans make political choices. Increasingly, Walter says, “all politics is national.” Voters believe that support for any Democrat — even a more conservative Democrat — is actually support for the Nancy Pelosi-Chuck Schumer team. “Somewhere along the way,” argues Walter, “the idea that each district is different went by the wayside.” She calls this the “Starbucksization” of American politics. “No matter how you feel personally” on abortion, she says, “you have to vote to support the Democratic Party values.” Think on that a moment. Second, Walter points out that the political battlegrounds in American politics have shifted. The Democratic targets of opportunity in the 2018 midterms are generally not, for example, in the rural House districts of Georgia; they are in the upscale suburbs of Atlanta. This trend also narrows the ideological range of American politics.

But thanks to a Supreme Court decision in 1977, he is forced to pay the union “agency fees,” feeding the coffers of an organization he wants nothing to do with. More than 5 million government workers in 22 states are currently forced to pay these unholy tithes to big government unions just to keep their jobs. According to the unions, if Janus wins, government functions will be completely crippled and public unions will be destroyed. Among other taxpayer-friendly reforms, the landmark law allowed public employees to opt out of their unions without risking their job, prohibited government from withholding union dues from paychecks, and required annual re-certification of all government unions. Contrary to frantic claims that education in Wisconsin would be devastated, Wisconsin now boasts the second-highest high school graduation rate in the country, and the number of advanced placement exams taken by high school students has increased 47 percent since 2010. Before the passage of Act 10, the state’s largest teachers union had almost 100,000 members. As of 2015, the union stood at just 36,074 active members. As it turns out, giving workers the freedom to leave a union results in steep declines in union membership as unwilling members vote with their feet. This is all possible while maintaining good public services and giving public employees the freedom to not join a union. If Mark Janus slays the AFSCME giant in the Supreme Court, the big government union bubble will deflate just as it did in Wisconsin.

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