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Miller: Much interest in attorney general run but it’s all up to Lisa

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:36:13 -0500

One of the worst-kept secrets over the past few weeks is that House Minority Leader Tom Cross has been considering a run for Illinois attorney general. Cross (R-Oswego) has reportedly been asked by state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka and U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-18th) to think about a bid in case Attorney General Lisa Madigan decides to run for governor, or not for anything. A former county prosecutor, Cross has long eyed the attorney general position. But as recently as a few weeks ago, his people were denying that he would seek it. Now, they’re saying it’s a possibility. Calls …

Miller: New polls show state GOP has tough road ahead

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:14:01 -0500

Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady resigned last week just as a new statewide poll showed big trouble for his political party. Brady, chairman since August 2009, had been under pressure to resign ever since the disastrous 2012 elections. The pressure increased publicly after Brady announced his support for a gay marriage bill. Multiple attempts to oust Brady were unsuccessful, but the opposition was building. The way forward is unclear, to say the least. Some party leaders have a list of more than 25 people to consider. This could easily turn out to be a total mess. And this all …

Miller: Back to square one for GOP in chairman search

Mon, 06 May 2013 07:40:40 -0500

In yet another blow to the Illinois Republican Party, state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) has withdrawn his name from contention as state party chairman. And, no, it didn’t have anything to do with Murphy being injured during the annual House vs. Senate softball game last week. Murphy was approached a month or so ago about taking the top party job when the current chairman, Pat Brady, eventually resigns. Brady, chairman since August 2009, has been under fire for the Illinois GOP’s lack of electoral success, criticism that intensified from the party’s right wing when he public supported the gay marriage …

Miller: Poll shows Illinoisans back concealed carry, extra review in Chicago, Cook

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:36:03 -0500

A new statewide poll shows that a majority of Illinoisans favor concealed carry. But it also shows that an overwhelming majority everywhere in the state also say it’s OK if Chicago and Cook County police have additional authority over who gets to carry in their jurisdictions. The Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll April 24 of 1,284 likely voters found that 52 percent say they approve of allowing concealed carry. “Illinois lawmakers are debating proposed laws that would allow some citizens who are properly licensed to carry concealed firearms,” respondents were told. “In general, do you approve or disapprove of allowing …

Miller: Madigan sends NRA message on concealed carry

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:08:09 -0500

During the Illinois House’s floor debate last week over the concealed-carry bill backed by the National Rifle Association, I was told by an intimate of House Speaker Michael Madigan that Madigan wanted to make sure the bill received no more than 64 votes. Because the bill pre-empts local government home-rule powers, the bill required a three-fifths majority of 71 votes to pass. The anti-gun forces were demoralized the day before when their highly restrictive concealed-carry proposal got just 31 votes, so Madigan (D-Chicago) wanted to do the same to the NRA’s version, I was told. The idea, the source said, …

Miller: GOP conservatives see handwriting on gay marriage

Thu, 09 May 2013 06:26:32 -0500

You can always tell when somebody is losing an argument because they’re constantly backtracking and recalibrating. And it’s no different with gay marriage. In January, for instance, newly elected state Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) freely admitted that gay marriage was at the heart of his desire to oust state Republican Chairman Pat Brady, who’d recently announced his support for a Senate bill to legalize same-sex marriage. “I believe we have to have a meeting to ask Pat for an explanation, to modify his actions or get a new CEO,” Oberweis told the Kane County Chronicle then. “Our CEO has …

Miller: Some pension reform progress, but hurdles remain

Thu, 02 May 2013 06:19:46 -0500

As it turns out, the Illinois House Democrats didn’t need the Republicans to put 30 votes on a significant pension reform bill. There’s been worry for at least two years that the Democrats would have to rely heavily on the Republicans to get anything out of the chamber and that maybe even 30 Republican votes — half the required 60-vote majority — wouldn’t be enough to pass a reform bill. But 41 House Democrats voted for a bill in March that severely whacked retirees’ annual cost-of-living raises. Just 25 Republicans voted for the bill — five votes less than they’ve …

Miller: Quinn irritating legislators over university board moves

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:29:09 -0500

A recent meeting between Metro East legislators and Gov. Pat Quinn’s staff turned heated at times, and as a result nothing was accomplished in the standoff over Quinn’s appointments to the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees. The governor’s three appointments to SIU’s board were unanimously rejected by the Senate in late February — the first time anybody I’ve talked to can ever remember that happening. But the governor has doubled down instead of compromising. Quinn replaced three members with close ties to the university’s Edwardsville campus, which is near St. Louis. For years, governors have followed a “gentleman’s agreement” …

Miller: Business leaders’ opposition sinks Cullerton pension bill

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:21:22 -0500

“Pardon me,” said Ty Fahner to a nearby microphone that he accidentally bumped into during his testimony last week before the Illinois Senate Executive Committee. Fahner could probably be excused for apologizing to an inanimate object. The president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and self-styled pension expert had been forced to wait for hours in the hearing room before testifying against Senate President John Cullerton’s pension reform bill. Cullerton (D-Chicago) was obviously furious with Fahner for helping organize the opposition to his bill, and he grilled the former Illinois attorney general mercilessly — tag-teaming with …

Miller: They’re in control, but Dems can’t agree on pension reform

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:23:57 -0500

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was hoping Thursday to avoid the same dismal results as the previous week when he presented some new, and harsh, pension reform ideas. The week before, one of his pension proposals received just one vote, his own. None of his other proposals got more than five votes. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Members of his leadership team thought some of those amendments would get at least a few dozen votes. Oops. Making matters worse, the House Republicans refused to participate in the process, with not a single member voting up, down or “present” on Madigan’s …

Miller: Wide divide in Springfield on gun control, pension reform

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:21:55 -0500

Nobody ever really knows what’s going through Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s head except for Madigan himself. So, the actual purpose of two highly choreographed gun control and pension reform debates last week ordered up by Madigan weren’t completely clear to anyone. That’s by design, of course. Madigan (D-Chicago) prefers to keep people in the dark until he’s ready to make his final move. But I did hear one theory from a Democrat last week that made quite a bit of sense, at least for a while. Last Tuesday’s hours-long debate on numerous aspects of concealed carry that ended with …

Miller: Concealed carry coming; tougher laws on gun sales, too?

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:41:08 -0500

Illinois House Democrats were told during a private caucus meeting in Springfield last week that, despite what Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says, inaction on concealed carry would have serious consequences. As you most assuredly know, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Chicago gave the General Assembly until June 8 to pass a law allowing some form of carrying a loaded gun in public. The full appeals court upheld that ruling by a 5-4 vote on Friday in an appeal by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan. After the June 8 deadline, Illinois’ law against carrying a …

Miller: Simon takes curious path in separating from Quinn

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 06:25:17 -0500

“Off topic? I can’t imagine what that would be,” cracked Gov. Pat Quinn last week during a news conference. Just hours before, his lieutenant governor had announced that she would not be Quinn’s 2014 running mate. Quinn usually does a pretty good job during his news conferences of persuading reporters to wait to ask off-topic questions until all questions about the subject at hand have been asked. Last week was no exception. Quinn was holding the session with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to discuss her conditional approval in allowing Illinois to move forward with an online …

Miller: Illinois’ diversity contributes to political divisions

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:21:16 -0500

Gov. Pat Quinn used the phrase “our Illinois” almost 30 times in one form or another last week during his annual State of the State address. “In our Illinois, everyone should have access to decent health care,” Quinn said. “In our Illinois, working people find good jobs, not just for today but for tomorrow.” “In our Illinois, we find a way to get hard things done.” In our Illinois, Quinn said, we are a “community of shared values.” While the phrase was mainly a rhetorical device for a constitutionally mandated annual speech, it’s important to point out that Illinois isn’t …

Miller: Lisa Madigan poll numbers bad news for Quinn, Daley

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:24:40 -0500

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a poll taken Jan. 30 of 1,255 likely Illinois Democratic primary voters shows Attorney General Lisa Madigan leading Gov. Pat Quinn by a very large margin. Madigan also leads Quinn and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley in a three-way contest, according to the poll, but Quinn leads Daley in a one-on-one race. And a large plurality of Democrats disapprove of the governor’s job performance. The We Ask America Poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. About 18 percent of the results came from non-landline users. In …

Miller: Illinois GOP wants gay-marriage bill passed ASAP

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:09:58 -0500

Talk to just about any top Illinois Republican these days off the record and they’ll freely admit that they want the bill legalizing gay marriage to be approved as soon as possible. It’s not that they’re necessarily in favor of gay marriage, mind you. Many of them are publicly and privately opposed. Some of them do support it, even though they don’t feel they can vote for it because it might destroy their careers in the next GOP primary. The reason so many Republicans would like to see the bill passed is because they know that with the huge, new …

Miller: Bill Daley sizes up chances of winning governor’s office

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:23:02 -0500

Bill Daley called the other day. We estimated that it had been about three or four years since we last had spoken, which is par for the course. Going back to at least 2001, Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors, has mulled a bid for governor. The last time was in 2009, when he publicly thought about challenging Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary election. And now he’s talking about it again. Before I returned Daley’s call, I wanted to check around and see what might be different this time. I was told that there are two …

Miller: What’ll it take for Madigan to push for pension reform?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:19:32 -0500

“Frankly, I’m not sure they want it,” Illinois Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said Tuesday about Democratic legislative leaders and state pension reform. It sure looked liked she was right last week, at least in the House, where Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) barely lifted a finger for any of the pension reform bills that were on the table. His top aides insist that Madigan does want pension reform. Madigan has said he wants a bill to pass. So, what will it take to get him off the dime and start pushing for a solution? Madigan’s members almost always take …