July 2003

Miquelon Scandal

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Well, the Miriam Miquelon resignation got real interesting real quick.

Miquelon survived the attempts by many in St. Clair County to deny her appointment as US Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. She was appointed by Peter Fitzgerald as a tough prosecutor not afraid to go after political corruption and was the lead prosecutor against Amiel Cueto. Those from around St. Clair tried to block her nomination because they were concerned that she would take a hard look at corruption in the County and maybe bag a few big fish.

Now allegations are flying that Miquelon targeted people who opposed her nomination and may well have had an affair with an employee and then intimidated people from reporting it.

I don’t know what the hell to make of it all, but given the nature of the corruption and grudges in this case, truth will probably be the first casualty.

Simmons out–my that was quick

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

John Simmons, the downstate trial lawyer, left the US Senate race last week after having pledged $40 million to win the race. Instead, he is endorsing Dan Hynes.

Can Costello be far behind. Costello spoke very warmly of Simmons recently–giving one the impression that he used his leverage to move Simmons to the Hynes camp.

Why does one drop his promise to spend $40 million so quickly?

A) He was a gadfly hit with a reality sandwich
B) He was a pawn to scare Hull out of the race
C) He was a pawn of Costello’s to get some leverage
D) He was using his candidacy to get some leverage for another run

I don’t know which is more likely, but none of the options are particularly attractive. And again, an establishment candidate is using Jerry Costello to win despite his ties to organized crime.

6 Years in Federal Prison and He Still has a Law License

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Amiel Cueto resurfaces in the news as Miquelon’s scandal breaks. One might think this isn’t a coincidence.

Cueto’s lawyer is arguing that even if he did break the law, it doesn’t mean he should be disbarred.

"Even (if) Cueto’s acts did constitute obstruction of justice and conspiracy …, those acts were not in violation of any of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct"

Cueto is a long time associate of Metro East Congressman Jerry Costello and was sent to prison for obstructing an investigation into him regarding his attempts to obtain a casino license with unindicted coconspirator Costello.

Why so Much about Hull?

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Well, he is actually running and running on-line. Some of the coverage of on-line efforts miss the importance of on the ground efforts to reach key constituencies that don’t use the internet regularly, but on-line activism helps reach people who often aren’t typical advocacy group members, but are politically active.

Hull is announcing the start of meet-ups which is a good idea and helps connect potential on the ground workers when you can’t rely upon the regular party workers. Interestingly, The Common Space is a venue for the Metro East region–still working out the kinks given it wouldn’t generally be convenient for Metro Easters, but I highly recommend it to others. Hull visited Belleville already and I missed it do to weather, but the tour seems to be a positive way to build name recognition while also doing so on the internet and on television.

And did he go to Lucca in Bloomington? Hell yes–go down to the pic next to Mike Kelleher (not a Senate candidate), former Congressional and Lieutenant Governor Candidate and next to that is a pic of the Lucca Grill.

The key to a Hull campaign is to build energy as an insurgent. A key way to do that is to appeal to people outside the general party framework and while such campaigns using the internet are relatively new, this is a good start for a statewide campaign. The other web sites are largely useless, though Obama has some grassroots efforts to start meetups for him.

Interesting FEC Regulation

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Blair Hull’s ads (I’ve only caught them on the net, but they are playing in St. Louis metro) have an interesting feature,

Apparently, all federal candidates are going to have to do what Democratic U.S. Senate contender BLAIR HULL is doing in his television ads – saying that he authorized the messages.

In a 30-second ad about how he wants to create jobs in Illinois, Hull says on screen: "I’m Blair Hull, and I approved this ad because we need to get Illinois back to work."

Hull is doing it because of new FEC regs requiring,

Part of that law requires that a candidate-sponsored TV ad "must include a statement that identifies the candidate and states that he or she has approved the communication. The candidate shall convey the statement either:

(A) Through an unobscured, full-screen view of himself or herself making the statement, or

(B) Through a voice-over by himself or herself, accompanied by a clearly identifiable photographic or similar image of the candidate."

The interesting question is will negative ads be as easy to run? It’s hard to say, but candidates usually want as little identification with a negative ad as possible to avoid association with negatives. I mean it won’t stop the Patrick O’Malley’s of the world, but he is entertaining at least.

Kjellander Named Great Lakes Bush-Cheney ‘04 Chair

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

How will the Illinois Leader react to a leading moderate being named by Rove? Heh.

Via the Sunday Bernard Schoenberg column

Blagojevich 1, Topinka 0

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Jeff Trigg and Bill Dennis already hit on Blagojevich outflanking Jesse White and Judy Baar Topinka on office budget cuts.

Topinka, the best hope the Republicans have of defeating Blagojevich in 2006, is now in the awkward position of complaining about budget cuts. And she can’t even claim the governor’s motives were political because Democrat White’s budget will be slashed as much as hers.

Between this and the federal subpeonas Topinka just put herself in a big hole for the 2006 Gubernatorial Election. All Rod has to do is pull out her complaints and put ’em on the air. Of course, that assumes that is her and not the ever fire breathing Patrick O’Malley in the general election. Rod may be a bit sleazy, but he is damn talented, and on top of it he just triangulated the SoS getting him essentially good press with no real cost.

I only mildly disagree with Jeff Trigg that this turns the Illinois Democratic Party into a circular firing squad. Ultimately the Illinois GOP is a party split on ideology and so they tend to turn on each other. The fight between moderates and conservatives isn’t just a fight over turf or patronage or pork, it is a fight over control of the party. The Illinois Democrats are relatively on the same ideological page and so the intraparty warfare is kept down to typical turf wars–like this.

That being said, while I disagree with the level of spending that Jeff or Bill would have for the State of Illinois, I agree that Illinois doesn’t have a budget crisis–it has a structural spending problem that focuses too much on pork and too little on essential services.

This is Your Steve Neal on Crack

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Moseley Braun’s presidential bid must be taken seriously.

I’m not sure what the hell got into him, but the best line is when he says,

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who made history 20 years ago when he became the first African American to make a serious bid for the presidency, said Moseley Braun’s campaign is important and that women are rallying to her cause. Although Jackson has not made an endorsement, he is friendly toward her candidacy.

Of course Jesse is friendly, she is a stalking horse candidate to Al Sharpton who Jesse hates.

The Outfit Earthquake

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

John Kass related the background on some ongoing investigations into Outfit hits and business over the last 30 years. The low rumble you hear is the beginnings of an earthquake to the Outfit’s organization and the politicians tied to it.

I can’t imagine a more fun disaster to watch.

Also, How About the Readability?

ArchPundit July 14, 2003 0 Comment

Let me know how readable the background makes the site.

And don’t worry, despite the last several posts this hasn’t become a sports blog.