Call It A Comeback
This appears to be the real deal, Speaker Hastert is trying to connect with Mike Ditka. Furthermore, look for a presser on Wednesday at Navy Pier. The Republican State Party is looking to announce with big Republican names coming out in support of a Ditka candidacy. If they can’t announce definitively, look for a show of support the way I understand it.
Mike Lawrence explains the basic problem with Illinois education funding and why it is unlikely to be solved soon.
Up to this point, Illinois’ leadership has lacked the political will to overhaul a terribly flawed funding scheme. Unlike tribunals in other states, the Illinois Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to intervene, and there is no assurance of an expeditious resolution if it did. Yet, we sorely need comprehensive reform to a system that allows a homeowner in one school district to pay $874 in property taxes to support $5,137 in per pupil spending and the owner of a comparable home in another district to pay $454 to support $18,189 per student.
Some proponents believe the reform, which would command hefty state tax increases, could happen this fall in the post-election legislative session. About 75 percent of the school districts are running deficits, and one in four has been doing so for at least three years. Springfield must respond, the bold prognosticators say.
But his idea is interesting as to how to solve the problem
A more realistic strategy would focus on pushing the legislature to place before voters in November 2006 a proposed constitutional amendment to shift the burden of school finance to the state, reduce property taxes and guarantee adequate funding everywhere. The governor has no formal role in this process; lawmakers could send the matter directly to the ballot. Moreover, they essentially would be supporting a referendum instead of imposing tax increases. If approved by voters, the governor and the General Assembly would have a mandate and the political cover to implement sweeping changes.
In 1992, voters nearly approved a proposed amendment that was so vague its proponents could not agree on its ramifications. In 1996, when a more defined measure was stymied in the General Assembly, Democratic lawmakers criticized the Republican majorities for not permitting a roll call. Now Democrats control both the House and the Senate, and they should seize the opportunity to prove they were not merely pandering to education interests. Likewise, downstate Republicans who repeatedly have promised to support the reform if it ever came to a vote should be delighted to hop aboard.
While the race is extremely tough, I have to say Christine Cegelis is running a spunky campaign against Henry Hyde (ed. would you use spunky for a mail challenger_–absolutely).
Top Ten Reasons to Donate to Cegelis
And if Hyde is busy taking on a challenger who will make him actually campaign, he’s going to be too busy being a sock puppet for Tom DeLay.
Why not facing serious opposition is a bad thing:
Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) who is an influential member when it comes to postal service issues, is being feted by Deutsche Post, the company with a controlling interest in DHL International, which competes with the U.S. Postal Service.
Davis said “there was not really anything” he had to vote on that was directly Deutsche Post-related and he agreed to front the function because the company wanted “to make sure” it had a presence at the convention.
“to make sure” it had a presence at the convention?
Most reasonable people call this getting access through disproportionate use of money. If you have serious competition you actually have to think about how stupid you sound.
And isn’t continuing the Post Office’s monopoly under the purview of your subcommittee Congressman?
And Chris thinks that Habitat’s build-up isn’t a big deal–I tend to agree except if you look at the list of partners, most are looking for access to politicians:
in an event sponsored by Dow Chemical Company, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac especially have tight ties to Congress, though in this case at least one source besides the for profit sector is represented.
It’s hard to figure out who to dislike the most here: Jack Franks or The Blagorgeous.
Mr. Franks is up for election this year, and while this blog is reliably Democratic, unless there is some serious exculpatory information out there, take the Cross Blog’s suggestion and support Perry Moy
That’s about the end of any budget that Jim Edgar had hoped for to run the Illinois for Bush team.
We’ll be doing it daily since we are near a decision of the Party! Ditka appears serious.
Maureen Ryan does an article on blog ads and their explosion. For some they can be significant, but to now I’ve found that the ads do a good job meeting my bandwidth costs and a bit more in terms of meeting other costs of being a blogger and not much more. It’s nice and I don’t do this for money so that is perfect for me. That said, being a largely regionally run blog, while site visits continue to increase steadily in the last few months, my traffic is relatively low compared to Eschaton or Daily Kos.
Jeff Berkowitz puts together the list of who’s in, who’s out and who is potentially persuadable.
I haven’t seen the official list of who has applied for the job so if anyone has it—and isn’t going to get in trouble pass it on.
A couple things to clarify from Jeff’s article
McCracken said no and he lists Jim Thompson, Peter Fitzgerald and Schillerstrom as people who might change their minds. I can’t imagine Big Jim would get in this race. I could be wrong and maybe DC reignited the fire, but I see that a fight he wouldn’t want at this age. Peter–as Jeff says is effectively out though I’ll add it isn’t just because of Judy and Kjellander, but also Speaker Hastert. Schillerstrom is gearing up for an ’06 Gubernatorial bid so I don’t buy that (though the confusion on the poor Governor’s face as he confuses Schiller of the Board of Ed and Schillerstrom will be hysterical–didn’t I already fire that guy?)
Bring back MacDougal? Only in my dreams, only in my dreams.
Unless Ditka comes through, I think option one is likely:
Go with an embarrassing candidate and blame it all on Jack.
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