April 2005
ArchPundit
6th District GOP Round-up
Roskam already mentioned here.
Carol Pankau—who has interesting views on Daylight Savings Time
She also just won Pate Philip’s former State Senate Seat.
Former state Rep. Tom Johnson of West
Former DuPage County Recorder J.P. “Rick” Carney
A Question to Dan Curry
Curry said that nearly everyone in Paris knows who the ?person of interest? is, ?and he?s sick of all the whispering.? The man has kept a low profile in the past, but intends to speak out, soon, under his own name, Curry said.
Now, the man is presumed innocent and certainly he has every right to fight back against whispering campaigns. But, Dan, here’s the problem I have–you are working for a potential candidate for Governor–isn’t this a bad case to take up for now?
This goes back to the rule that staffers should never be making news.
I’m not questioning the general move to help a guy out, I’m just wondering why one would do it given the timing.
(BTW, Dan has no obligation to respond, I just wanted him to feel free to if he so chooses–and it struck me yesterday when I read it as a strange bit of info)
Who Is Peter O’Malley
It appears his supporters jumped into a Rich Miller comment thread about the 6th District race–what are his details? Or Peter? Feel free to e-mail me.
Dedication Speeches
For Lincoln are available on G-Rod’s site
G-Rod’s speech is very good, after you stop laughing that he got an 18 on the ACT
Oh, yeah, and the text of Obama’s is on his blog
Schakowsky in Good Shape for House Dems Vice Chair
I believe this is the number four spot in the Caucus, but I could be wrong. The Hill has the details.
Obama Votes for Lock Upgrades
He’s right on the general issue, though I’m sympathetic to reforming the Corps of Engineers.
If The Guv Wants a Fight-Pick This One
Via the Cross Guys who won’t be happy with the analysis
Kristin McQueary runs down the conflict between The Blagorgeous and Tom Cross over school funding. Last year Cross worked to get a split between categorical assistance and the general formula fund. He wants the same for new funding, while the Governor wants to target new funding for the funding formula.
For the past two years ? and especially last year ? House Republican Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) negotiated a split of education funding to boost the state’s contribution to categorical programs. He is irked that under the governor’s current plan, he’ll have to fight for it again.
“I’m not yelling and screaming out it as much as it seems like a deliberate attempt to ignore the suburbs,” Cross said. “I’m not opposed to putting more money into the state aid formula, but I think we’ve shown the governor’s office before that (categoricals) are important, too, so why go down this road?”
This is even more complex in that the Governor is seeking to increase state mandates upon local districts to increase graduation requirements so there’s an argument for categorical assistance. After all, if the state is requiring new services, it should help pay for them, right?
Wrong, the important part of the article is here:
In a meeting with the Daily Southtown’s editorial board, Blagojevich’s director of education reform, Elliot Regenstein, said about 40 percent of school districts statewide will be impacted by the graduation requirement changes. Most of them are downstate.
Many districts, including Chicago Public Schools, already meet the math, science and English mandates under Blagojevich’s bill.
It’s a largely rural problem again. Rural districts don’t have the faculty or the money to increase their ability to meet these requirements easily and they are are poor in terms of taxing capacity in many cases.
Categorical assistance will divert the money to everyone and split it up, but the districts being hit here are the Districts most in need, most of whom don’t have th financial wherewithall to afford the new requirements plus others.
The entire idea behind the general formula is to provide a base level of assistance depending upon need–by not funding it well, districts with the most needs are hurt. Most of the suburban districts Cross is advocating for are not doing that poorly and have the ability to tax themselves.
The Governor is not making this case–and he should–it shores him up in areas he is weakest and it’s the right thing to do. Cross and he have had a reasonably good relationship, but friends can disagree and this is a the fight to have that disagreement. Don’t demagogue on him–Cross is just protecting his constituents, but fight for rural districts and some inner ring suburbs that face serious funding challenges while other districts have plenty of local funding.
Sending money into the general formula helps those districts most in need and by primarily putting new moneys into it, it creates every incentive for members of the Lege to focus on raising that pot of money instead of sending it to categorical assistance.
Yo Emil
G-Ry also tried to install one of his cronies as the head of a major research library. Is it deserving of credit to try and destroy a world class library and museum before it gets off the ground?
Manzullo Cuts Off Debate in Small Business
In a rather strange scene given the committee isn’t known for partisan spats, Dems walked out of a Small Business Committee meeting after Manzullo cut off the number of amendments to be offered–strange given they were unlikely to pass anyway.