Carl Nyberg has set up a Condorcet poll here for voting on a Candidate for Lt Governor now that we have lost Scott Cohen. Use this diary to discuss that poll. Or anything else LG related.
So in the comments Carl suggested a Condorcet poll. I love Condorcet polls but I don't have one handy. So how about this:
In the comments to this diary nominate a Lt Gov possibility and include a few sentences about why your nomination would make a good running mate for Quinn.
Then we can all vote 1 to 4 on how much we like that choice. (No zeros please)
Then we can take a narrowed down list and do a front page pick all you like poll.
Remember the only comments allowed are candidate nominations. You can reply to nominations, but comments to this diary that are not nominations may get deleted.
Update: Carl says that Condorcet polls can be created at this website.
BobB reminds us that you can't vote for your nominee. We'll just have to remember that the nomination counts as a vote. Don't worry the goal of this exercise is to create a list for Carl's Condorcet and PSB's approval polls
Bobb says Dan Hynes says he's out. So don't nominate him.
There has been a lot of conversation here and elsewhere about Scott Lee Cohen, his personal life and character, and the litany of conflict and controversy that appears to populate his life. It is so colorful (and allegedly criminal) that Democratic leaders are calling for his resignation. What hasn’t been discussed is how to facilitate his exit. Cohen may be something worse than a schlemiel but let's face it, that certainly hasn’t prevented others from holding office.
This situation is the product of multiple failures and not all of them are Cohen’s. Lynn Sweet has a good column on the topic in today's Chicago Sun-Times. Lynn touches on one element of this debacle, one that was likely unexpected when the Speaker moved up the primary. The time period between when pre-election D2s are filed and election day used to be 5 weeks. It’s now 13 days. And it matters.
Cohen's pre-election D2 is breathtaking but coming just days before the election, there wasn’t enough time to act on it. It provided an important clue. This is not unlike what we experienced last week at the ISBE arguing on behalf of Laiacona and Lozano. Given the abbreviated primary schedule and the partisan nature of the Board, the purpose of campaign finance law is for all intents and purposes neutered. Information that matters is either never found or lost in the flurry of what has become a one month primary campaign season.
Focusing exclusively on Cohen I think, misses the forest for the wife-beating tree and begs a number of questions, none of which I find easy to answer. Who should be held to account? Why should Cohen absorb the cost of his campaign if he's forced out? What is your solution and what might the long-term political and policy consequences be for implementing your proposal?
Clint Krislov today posted a thank you letter to his supporters on his website. Clint's words reminded me why I'm happy I helped him in his run:
The voters have spoken, and my sincerest congratulations go out to David Miller, now the Democratic nominee for Comptroller. In an election cycle in which the process seemed to reach new lows, I am proud that we all three managed to run the best race on the ballot. We addressed issues, took positions, and, despite a few swipes at each other, did a pretty good job of doing what campaigns are supposed to be about.
Today, I return to the fulltime practice of law, taking on the system and the "big guys" for all of us; for taxpayers, workers, investors, consumers, voters-the "us" who are the people who the laws protect, but only with someone standing up and demanding that those laws be enforced, to hold the big guys accountable. I have the privilege of being able to do that every day.
Read what we should be pressing David Miller to do to make the next Comptroller do to get our support here:
It's been reported that Governor Quinn expects Cohen to drop out of the Lt. Governor's race because of allegations he abused a woman. This story is deeper than that. At least for now, Cohen may be a position of power. Will he be able to leverage it?
(a topic i'll be watching over the next six months... - promoted by bored now)
I hate to write the obvious but the conservative talk-radio crowd has a habit of sticking to their talking points in the face of reality. And the corporate press has a habit of adopting their narratives.
In the US Senate primary, Patrick Hughes was the darling of conservatives and the reactionary tea-bagger crowd. He ran against Mark Kirk, who became a talk-radio target after voting for Obama's climate change bill. Limbaugh and Beck commanded their forces to flood Kirk's office with angry calls after the cap-and-trade vote.
Their poutrage didn't amount to much in the Republican primary. Hughes' campaign never gained momentum and Kirk won resoundingly with 57% of the vote against five challengers.
Apparently Scott Lee Cohen has some personal issues in his past, something about holding a knife to his lover's throat about the time he was getting divorced. The police got involved. But the day after the woman was convicted of prostitution the woman failed to appear in court and charges against Cohen were dropped. So, since the charges were dropped it's not that big a deal, right? See Sun-Times (Chris Fusco, Dave McKinney, Abdon M. Pallasch and Steve Warmbir).
State Sen. Terry Link (D-Vernon Hills), one of the unsuccessful candidates for lieutenant governor, and representatives of the other candidates met a month before the election with representatives of the Quinn and Hynes campaigns to warn them about Cohen, Link said.
"We tried to warn the governor beforehand and they didn't want to listen to it," Link said. "He and Dan should have issued a joint statement denouncing this guy."
So, Terry Link lacked the balls to make the allegations about Cohen himself.
Link is too fucking stupid about politics to see why Quinn and Hynes wouldn't derail their campaigns to deal with Cohen.
And Link lacks the savvy to get the information to the media in a way that he wouldn't be connected (almost wrote "linked") to it.
And Link has succeeded in making himself part of a story that no sensible politician would want to be part of. And Link has succeeded in not only making himself part of the story, but making himself look cowardly, foolish and inept.
Where did all the parking meter money go? David Roeder of the Chicago Sun-Times tells us. To fill holes created by deals like this:
Last summer, owners of Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower, announced plans for a $350 million hotel next to it, plus a top-to-bottom renovation of the skyscraper to conserve energy. Given the economy and the finance market, nothing has happened since then but some talk with the city, and apparently that hasn't gotten far.
Perhaps that's because the tower's team has been shopping for a whopping subsidy, at least $100 million under the tax-increment financing program, said Ald. Robert Fioretti, whose 2nd ward includes the property. Fioretti said the original request was in the $200 million range, and that he keeps telling the developers to curb their appetites. "I tell them I've got a lot of other things to use TIF money for," he said. Fioretti added that "they are a long way away" from a deal with the city
Laiacona and Lozano vs. Burke, Mell, Sente and Zalewski
I thought I had glimpsed the underbelly of Illinois politics and gave it a poke when I ran for office a while back. Yesterday, I learned that until you challenge the process (as opposed to just the polls) you're just tossing popcorn from the balcony.
Joe Laiacona and Rudy Lozano have set down the popcorn and stepped into the ring. And not just because they are running against incumbents related to long-lived political families. These two candidates have done something more. They filed a campaign finance disclosure complaint last week that strikes at the heart of pay-to-play.
Illinois law requires candidates to report anything of value received in connection with their nomination for election. Neither Dan Burke, Deb Mell, Carol Sente nor Michael Zalewski—the named respondents in the complaint—reported all of the litigation support costs or any of the attorney’s fees related to the ballot access challenges their campaigns were involved in and benefited from.
When I (Ed Mullen) decided last year to run for State Representative as an independent and progressive Democrat, I knew it would be an uphill battle. In the months leading up to the election, I have knocked on ten thousand doors, earned the support of many community leaders, and feel confident going into the final stretch of the campaign. I wanted to take a moment to tell the PSB community a quick story about what we're facing today on the campaign, and I welcome feedback.
