It’s no lie that women face harassing environment at Ill. Statehouse; Or, is “Miss America” a sexist slur?

It is with some interest that I’ve read the reports about the letter bopping about Springfield these days, pointing out the sexist behavior that women working as part of the Statehouse Scene have to put up with.

Illinois Capitol; long the scene of sexist (not sexy) behavior

From my own days as a reporter-type person at the Illinois Capitol, I know full well it is true. From one former colleague whom I remember telling me I had never been belittled due to my gender the way she was by would-be news sources who’d trivialize her very presence. To another who said she’d be told to “Go to Hell!” any time she tried asserting herself.

I ALSO REMEMBER one spring session when I had a reporter/intern working with me who could accurately be described as a voluptuous blonde. I still recall the days when all the lecherous pigs of the Capitol hung out in my cubicle so they could catch a glimpse – or dream of getting themselves a piece.

Yes, I’ll admit to taking advantage of their attention at times so as to get information for stories – which indicates less-than-noble behavior on my part.

I can recall her complaining about the people on the state payroll who thought the fact she was busty entitled them to their attitudes. I also remember the many rumors that got spread about her – many of which struck me as “wishful thinking” on the part of some people as to what they wished she would do to them.

HUTCHINSON: Not naming names

My point being that when I hear accounts of women being threatened of job loss if they didn’t play along, I find it believable. Elected officials can be just as scuzzy as anyone else in any walk of life – even though some would have us think they are the most noble form of creatures in existence.

IN SOME WAYS, it’s a part of the Capitol Culture, which is sad if we continue to sit back and think this is the way things are meant to be. Because some of the Capitol types view such behavior toward women as part of the perk of being in politics.

Just because the history of the Illinois Statehouse contained many stories from the past of the “monkey girls,” the assorted young women who worked clerical jobs at the Capitol while also cavorting with the legislators when they were in Springfield – rather than back home in their legislative districts.

HYDE: His Statehouse indiscretion exposed

The label, according to the old joke, meant these girls got their jobs by using their tails – so to speak.

If you think I’m exaggerating, just recall the late 1990s reports of long-time Congressman Henry Hyde – who while serving in the General Assembly back in the late 1960s had an extramarital affair with a local woman who was married and with children.

HYDE WAS FAR from unique. He’s just one who got found out – both when her husband told Hyde’s wife, and decades later when Salon.com felt compelled to report the old tale at a time when Hyde was leading the failed Congressional effort to impeach and remove Bill Clinton from the presidency.

In reading the reports, I noticed the view of state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, who pointed out she wasn’t going to name publicly her colleagues who had harassed her.

“That open letter was never intended to start hauling people out of the Capitol and criminalizing a whole bunch of stuff,” she said. “The issue is this survives in silence.”

HAROLD: Will 'Miss America' image help or hurt? Is it sexist to mention?

Because I have no doubt the reaction among some male political operatives will be to want to use names so that this can be turned into a partisan issue with which to beat electoral opponents over the head.

JUST AS I have noticed some criticism over whether state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, who is now running for Illinois attorney general, was a sexist jerk when he made comments belittling his eventual Republican opponent, Erika Harold, as “Miss America” – for which he promptly issued an apology.

The question is that much of Harold’s own campaign is based on the fact that she was a former Miss Illinois who, in 2003, won the Miss America pageant. Does this mean she can only be praised – and not criticized? That would be against the spirit of aggressive campaign tactics; and I’m sure when the campaigning steps up Harold will fight back with her own digs to take at Raoul.

The fact is that if we let this issue be turned into just more rounds of campaigning, it will distract from the serious issue at stake.

And only the real sexist pigs amongst us would want to see that happen.

  -30-

ELECTION DAZE: How did gubernatorial dreamers ‘play’ in Peoria?

Personally, I thought the Thursday night debate between Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner was rather “blah.” More a matter of scratching my head and wondering, “Do we really have to pick from these two guys for our state’s next governor?”

But I can think of one group of persons who probably were ecstatic with what they heard from the two – public educators.

SPECIFICALLY, I’M REFERRING to those schools superintendents all across Illinois who have been quaking in their pants for some time now concerning a measure pending in the Illinois General Assembly – the one that seeks to redo the way state aid is apportioned to school districts.

The bill in question, which has state Senate approval but still needs review by the Illinois House of Representatives, is meant to give more state funds to those school districts in areas where property values are on the decline.

But I have heard several superintendents and financial advisors say the bill’s specifics are so complex and convoluted that there aren’t any easy ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’ I have heard from district officials who are convinced they will lose money even though they technically are in areas where property taxes just don’t produce enough cash to keep the schools functioning at a respectable level.

During the debate, both candidates were asked whether they’d support the bill.

QUINN SAID HE hates it because he doesn’t like the idea of any school district losing state funds. He wants to find a way to increase the state’s share of money for all districts.

Whereas Rauner admitted he hadn’t studied the bill in great detail, but said that from what he had heard, he’d be inclined to oppose it.

Does this mean the sudden “whoosh” we heard Thursday night was the sound of superintendents across Illinois exhaling at the prospect that this reform measure may eventually wither away?

What else should we think of what was the first of three formal debates between Quinn and Rauner prior to the Nov. 4 general election?

LEGISLATORS GET ENDORSEMENTS THEY MAY NOT WANT: At one point, Bruce Rauner confessed to having respect for state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, and state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields.

While Pat Quinn said he respects Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, and former state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale – who now is in charge of running the Regional Transportation Authority.

The question was meant to give the two gubernatorial hopefuls a chance to express some bipartisan support.

But how long will it be until those people named wind up wishing that the candidates had kept their mouths shut and not singled them out? Because we do have way too many people who view “bipartisan” as the ultimate dirty word.

POLITICAL ‘LOVE’ BY ASSOCIATION?: Bruce Rauner offered up Michigan Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and one-time New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as examples of business-oriented people who achieved government office.

He tried to claim them as examples of why he should not be regarded as too inexperienced to hold Illinois government’s top political post. But I can think of many people who would view those examples as proof of why we should vote for Pat Quinn.

As for the Mighty Quinn? He tried at one point to gain some goodwill by touting the accomplishments of that Jackie Robinson West Little League team from the Roseland neighborhood that almost won the Little League World Series this year.

It makes me wonder if, on that date sometime in the future when Quinn has to appear before St. Peter and justify his admission to ‘Heaven,” will he try trotting those youngsters out as an example of something positive that happened on his watch?

GO AWAY!!!!: Chad Grimm is a 33-year-old gym manager who has the Libertarian Party nomination for governor. He also happens to live in Peoria, which would have made him the lone candidate who didn’t have to travel a great distance to partake in the debate at WTPV-TV studios in that central Illinois city.

But we didn’t get to see or hear from him, because the debate organizers wanted only candidates who register 10 percent or more in polls to participate. Various polls that have included Grimm put him at about 5 percent backing.

I know the rationale from TV types; they don’t want the stage cluttered with candidates who can’t win. But I have never bought that – I have always thought anyone who can actually beat the legal challenges and get their names on the Election Day ballot ought to be included.

So that the voters know for sure just who that otherwise-anonymous knucklehead is when they show up at a polling place to cast their ballots.

  -30-

Toi gives up present electoral aspirations so she can have a political future

If I lived in the Illinois Second Congressional district (I’m just outside it in the Illinois First), I probably would have voted next week for Toi Hutchinson.

HUTCHINSON: She's gone

In my dealings with her, she has come across as a responsible official with a sense that not only does her legislative district (south suburban and parts of rural Will and Kankakee counties) have to benefit, but other districts should as well.

WE ALL BENEFIT when we’re doing well and getting something we desire. There are those who mock her as the creator of the “pole tax” (the fee charged to people who attend strip clubs to raise money for domestic abuse programs), but I think we need more people like her in public office.

That’s my opinion. But it really doesn’t matter now, because Hutchinson, the state senator from Olympia Fields, formally gave up her Congressional campaign on Sunday.

She went so far as to say she’ll back the bid of former state Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson – who has her own qualifications for the post and should now be thought of as the front-runner in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. (the man whose “big crime” was using campaign contributions to buy himself a load of junk that once belonged to people like Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

There are those who want to believe that recent news reports about how Hutchinson put her mother on the campaign payroll (I don’t know if she actually did work for her money) is a scandal that would have dogged her chances of winning.

THERE ALSO IS the fact that the same people who have been trashing congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson as some sort of outrageous “gun nut” because the National Rifle Association hasn’t demonized her in the same way they have Kelly’s record as a legislator were planning a new round of campaign advertisements for the final week of campaigning that would have given Hutchinson the same treatment.

KELLY: The new frontrunner?

Although what has caught my attention about the campaigning is the silent sniping that has been directed at Hutchinson. Kelly campaign types seem to think that their candidate ought to be the frontrunner, and that Hutchinson (who is 16 years younger) ought to wait her turn. Even though I wonder if Kelly was such a nondescript legislator that most people had never heard of her until this campaign cycle began.

Why do I suspect that if Halvorson, a Crete resident, former member of Congress looking for a comeback, and the only white person seeking to represent the majority African-American district, would have put Hutchinson on the line as the spoiler if a white lady had really wound up getting the congressional seat.

After all, Hutchinson was once Halvorson’s chief of staff back when Debbie was a member of the Illinois state Senate. And it is Hutchinson who holds Halvorson’s old legislative seat.

PERSONALLY, I HAVE heard and seen enough to know that this campaign cycle has created tensions that have torn at the Halvorson/Hutchinson ties. But too many political observers are more than willing to believe a good conspiracy tale.

Toi Hutchinson selling out black people to benefit her one-time political patron? It could be a tag that could very well stick. Which could result in a targeted effort to dump her from her state Senate post in the 2016 election cycle, and to ensure she could never run a credible campaign for any political post again.

Hutchinson herself indirectly addressed that issue when issuing her statement Sunday that confirmed the end of her current campaign. “I am simply unwilling to risk playing a role going forward that could result in dividing our community at a time when we need unity more than ever,” she said.

Stepping down now could allow the Kelly backers to gradually forget exactly what alleged role they were willing to lambast Hutchinson with. She might be forgiven.

HECK, I’VE HEARD some speculation that Hutchinson could be on the Democratic slate of candidates who run for statewide office in 2014 (Treasurer Toi?).

Say what you want about the improbability of the chances of her actually winning the post. But it probably sounds like a much more attractive future for Hutchinson than a second-place finish on Feb. 26 – and a “bulls eye” on her back come the future.

  -30-

Filler overflows when it comes down to Illinois 2nd Congressional candidates

The Chicago Sun-Times may have inadvertently given us the most accurate assessment of the field of candidates running in the Democratic primary to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress.

He might as well be running

The newspaper published a story Thursday telling us that only three of the 16 candidates have bothered to file the financial disclosure reports that are required by law of all campaigns for federal office.

OR, AT LEAST they’re required of any candidate who has either raised or spent more than $5,000 as part of their campaign.

The point of these reports is to give us a clue as to where this person gets their money from. What is their income? Do they have spouses who have significant financial wealth?

Have they invested their money in something that provides a significant financial dividend that they can live off of, and would be indebted to politically – if elected to office?

If this is a person who truly is working for a living, it comes out in these reports.

AND AS FOR those individuals who don’t want to have to give up such information, I’d argue we’re better off having them weeded out of the political process. I literally recall when broadcaster Howard Stern talked of running for office, it was this requirement that ultimately got him to back off.

Because we would have learned just how wealthy he truly was – despite his attempt to create an image of a guy who’s down-to-earth and more-in-touch with the people (and our crudity) than other politicians.

But back to Illinois, where it seems that most of the candidates didn’t bother to meet the deadline for reporting.

The Sun-Times reported that Debbie Halvorson of Crete, Robin Kelly of Matteson and Toi Hutchinson of Olympia Fields all filed (although Hutchinson needed an extension to get her papers together). And it isn’t clear why Anthony Beale of the Roseland neighborhood didn’t file.

BUT FOR THE rest of the campaigns, it is all too clear why they didn’t bother.

We’re talking the ultimate in fringe campaigns – those candidates who manage to get their names on the ballot but never get included in the coverage leading up to Election Day.

And if, in the end, they get a full 1 percent of the vote, they consider themselves successful. Because their point in running was usually to try to advance a pet issue or cause that they hold dear.

Getting their names on the ballot was about gaining a public forum.

IF ANY OF them were to actually win on Feb. 26, their reaction likely would be even more bewildered than that of actor Robert Redford’s “Bill McKay” character in “The Candidate.”

And yes, I include one-time member of Congress Mel Reynolds in that category.

He may be the one member of the fringe who tops 1 percent – although I’d be amazed if he got as high as 3 percent.

So what we’re talking about is a field of candidates who are spending no money and are gaining no traction – all because they want to rant about some cause. Which may be their right – they did, after all, manage to gain enough signatures of support on nominating petitions and nobody thought it worth their time to challenge their presence on the ballot before the Illinois State Board of Elections.

WHICH WILL MEAN they’ll take (at most) about 12 percent of the total vote. Leaving about 88 percent of the vote for the “real” candidates for Congress.

This truly is going to be an election in which a candidate with 25 percent support is going to be able to declare themselves “da Winnah” and move to Washington.

These are just a few thoughts to keep in mind Thursday if you happen to pay much attention to the candidate “forum” being held at Governors State University out in University Park – where it seems they’re actually going to have the bulk of the 16 Dems and five GOPers who are on the primary ballots.

Personally, I live just outside (less than a full mile) the boundaries of the Illinois Second Congressional district. But those of you who have to make a choice, keep in mind that most the candidate field is best ignored as you try to figure out which woman is fit for D.C.

  -30-

 

One more month for the “War of the Women” in Ill. 2nd Congressional

The political fight to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress has really turned into a battle of women wishing to move up to the political world of Washington – although in one case it really is a desire for a political comeback.

HUTCHINSON: Big backing?

State Sen. Toi Hutchinson of Olympia Fields? Former state Rep. (and Cook County official) Robin Kelly of Matteson? Or former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson of Crete?

NOTE THE KEY to their backgrounds is that they’re all suburban-based – which is really what the bulk of this particular congressional district is about. The fact that it was represented by a Chicago resident like Jackson for so long is the real anomaly.

Now I know some people who are following this particular campaign are going to complain that I’m missing the point in reducing the race down to these three candidates.

There will be 17 people to pick from for those people who show up at a polling place for the Feb. 26 Democratic primary special election (with another five people to pick from for those individuals who persist in using a Republican primary ballot).

And yes, there are some men who are worth taking seriously, on a certain level.

YET THE BIG surprise of this particular election cycle is that none of those men have done much to put themselves forward.

Personally, I thought state Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor, would have been more of a factor, in part because he has an ego and because he is the professional athlete (he played football with Oakland, Minnesota and Kansas City) with business interests who is capable of self-financing a campaign.

KELLY: She needs a political post

He could easily have forced his face into our political awareness, thereby giving himself name recognition. But he hasn’t. His silence (although some might consider it political good taste) has kept him from being a factor, and it wasn't the world's largest surprise when he dropped out on Wednesday to back Kelly.

Then, there’s 9^th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale – whose campaigning has tried to make much of the fact that he’s the only candidate of significance who comes from Chicago.

AS THOUGH HE wants the Chicago portion of the Illinois Second Congressional district to turn out in such force that it overwhelms the rest of the district – which stretches from the Hyde Park neighborhood south to the Kankakee/Iroquois county line.

Just two problems. One is that the district’s population, at best, is 25 percent Chicago-based. It is true that the just over half of the district that is suburban Cook County based is more likely to be aligned with Chicago than rural Will or Kankakee counties.

But there’s a good chance that Beale – if he survives the ballot challenge now pending before the Illinois State Board of Elections – will be irrelevant outside of Chicago.

There’s also the fact that he gets bashed for his part of Chicago, which consists of the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods; both of which are among the parts of the city that only locals bother to visit.

I KNOW ONE suburban official who openly says any political official from Roseland has no business representing anywhere else – on account of how much that neighborhood has declined.

And as for Mel Reynolds, I seriously doubt that former Congressman gets much more than the 1 percent of the vote that the bulk of the 17 candidates would consider a sign of overwhelming support.

Which is why we’re down to Halvorson, Hutchinson and Kelly – the latter of whom has some significant backing from Obama-type political people (although not the president himself).

HALVORSON: A comeback?

While Hutchinson managed to get the endorsement this week of Kelly’s former boss in Cook County, board President Toni Preckwinkle herself.

HUTCHINSON EVEN MANAGED to name six fellow state senators who support her, although that was likely in response to the fact that one-time congressional candidate Donne Trotter gave his support to Kelly – who is trying to turn this campaign into a single issue (firearms) one, but may find that she makes herself equally as irrelevant outside of her home base as the Beale campaign likely will be.

There also are people who are more than willing to give their support to Halvorson – not so much for the angle that many want to believe (the only white candidate in a 17-person field) because they actually like the idea of a member of Congress who wouldn’t be the ultimate political freshman.

Although a part of me still thinks that her support would have to come from the very people who dumped her from Congress in 2010 – most of whom think they achieved something of significance with her electoral loss and aren’t about to send her back to Congress under any circumstances.

  -30-

Illinois’ absentee boys on verge of filling their vacancies in Congress

One of the big stories of 2012 was the fact that two members of our state’s Congressional delegation missed significant amounts of time.

For Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., it was a stroke that took him out of action for a year, while it was a bipolar disorder that caused Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., to have to take a leave of absence that stretched from June until the week in November when he decided to just chuck it all and resign.

WHICH IS WHY I found it intriguing Thursday that both vacancies were on the verge of being filled.

In the case of Kirk, the man himself was able to return to the U.S. Senate. He had the television cameras on hand to record the moment that he walked up the 45 steps of the Capitol – with his congressional colleagues cheering him on.

He even had fellow Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., helping him up the steps, and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., ready to shake his hand when he got to the top.

Kirk isn’t fully recovered from the stroke he suffered early last year. But he seems ready to go back to work and take on a limited schedule, while representing (along with Durbin) the interests of the people of Illinois when they come before the U.S. Senate.

NOW JACKSON WILL not get anything close to a welcome like that. In fact, I haven’t the slightest clue where he was on Thursday. And I doubt that anybody except the U.S. attorney staffers who are trying to bolster their careers with his criminal prosecution cared what he was doing.

But that vacancy in the House of Representatives took a significant step toward being filled on Thursday when the Illinois State Board of Elections began accepting nominating petitions from people wishing to get on the ballots for the Feb. 26 primary elections.

There are more than two dozen people who have said they’d like the Democratic Party nomination for the Illinois Second Congressional district seat, while a few Republicans and a couple of political independents also have said they may run.

But any clown can put out a statement expressing interest in running for any electoral office they can dream about.

IT IS THE people who go through the process of putting together nominating petitions who ought to be taken seriously.

Petitions will be accepted through Monday night, so there is still room for more people to come forth. In fact, some of the names of people who supposedly have a serious chance of winning have yet to file petitions.

Yet let’s look at the five candidates who were actually at the Elections Board offices when they opened at 8 a.m. – all in hopes of getting their names printed atop the ballot when it is finally compiled.

I know one political observer-type person who seriously believes only those candidates deserve to be taken seriously, because their ability to get their petitions filed so early shows a special dedication to the office.

IF THAT IS the case, then 9^th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale, state Sen.-elect Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields (who on Thursday boasted of the $130,000 she raised for her campaign just in the past month) and former state Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson are the ones who should be at the head of the pack.

Oh yeah, Clifford Eagleton of Harvey also was among the early filers. Although I doubt that even this will gain him any significant attention.

We’ll have to wait until 5 p.m. Monday to see how the ballot shapes up. Although I got my kick out of seeing one of the later filers on Thursday – former Rep. Mel Reynolds, who filed his petitions for a political comeback and indicated that he wants to be identified as Mel “MR” Reynolds.

Does he seriously go about calling himself “MR” (as in his initials)? Or is he going to demand that we all call him “Mr. Reynolds” (instead of all those thoughts we have about him based on his past criminal convictions)?

ONE OF THESE people (or maybe one of the other people such as former state Rep. David Miller of Lynwood or former Rep. Debbie Halvorson of Crete) is going to get to fill the vacancy we have had in our state’s delegation for seven month-and-counting.

Somehow, I doubt any of them will make as much of an impression upon their arrival in Washington as Kirk did on Thursday. Who else will be able to tell us (as Kirk did) that he had a near-death experience so close that he heard angels speaking to him – in Noo Yawk-type accents.

It reminds me of that episode of “The Sopranos” where actor Michael Imperioli’s “Christopher Moltisanti” character told of his brush with Hell (or was it Purgatory?) – where every day is St. Patrick’s Day, and the Irish get to rule over the Italians.

Which makes me wonder what a politician’s version of “Hell” would be – probably a place where the “goo goos” get taken seriously, and public policy is meant to benefit public – rather than political – interests.

  -30-

Illinois 2nd Congressional – a flood, or a dearth, of qualified candidates?

Some 16 people made their plea to Democratic Party officials to be the preferred candidate to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress, and yet all of them in their own way fall short of the man who was forced from office last month.

JACKSON: No new "Jr." in candidate field

Which sets up the big question. Are the people of the Far South Side, its surrounding suburbs and the rural areas that immediately border it facing a dearth of quality choices to pick from?

OR DO WE have a flood of quality and we’re just too blind to see it?

There have been some pundits around the country who are spewing out trash-talk these days about all the mediocrities that are crawling out of the woodwork to try to get themselves a “job” in Congress.

After all, if the official who wins the 2013 special elections manages to handle themselves right, this could be the government post that defines their professional careers in electoral politics.

Of course, many of these pundit types are the ones who are looking to be malcontents. They want to gripe, and they’re going to do so regardless of what the “facts” actually are. Some people just like to hear themselves complain.

ALTHOUGH WE OUGHT to admit that any of the potential candidates for the post are going to appear diminished compared to the man they’re replacing. Because in a sense, the namesake son of the civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson sets a standard that none of them can meet.

 

State Sen. Donne Trotter pleads with Dem Party officials to be the "present" in Congress. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

He was, in a sense, one of the “celebrity” types serving in Congress. He was, at one point, a legitimate candidate to move up to one of the top (mayor, U.S. Senate or governor) political posts.

If anything, it was the thought that his personal predicament created a situation in which all he had to look forward to was being representative of the Illinois Second Congressional district for another two decades (after having had the post for 17 years) that may have caused him to decide to chuck it.

It was probably that sense that Jackson was unique as a public official that caused at least some of those votes in the Nov. 6 general election (they were hoping there was a way he’d get around his legal predicament). Of course, there also were those who saw the mediocrity of the Jackson challengers last month who decided that Jackson and a special election in the future was preferable.

IN THAT SENSE, a Congressman Donne Trotter or Toi Hutchinson or Robin Kelly or Anthony Beale or David Miller is going to fall short. None of them are likely to have that national name recognition ever during their lives – especially not on the first day they approach Capitol Hill to serve.

Presuming, of course, that they win on Feb. 26 AND April 9.

But these aren’t exactly  no-names. We’re talking a long-time legislative leader in Trotter and a promising young legislator in Hutchinson (at 39, she could be around for a while and rise to levels of significance in Congressional status).

HUTCHINSON: The future?

Even the others have significant experience in Cook County government, the City Council or the state Legislature. They wouldn’t exactly be amateurs – even though former Rep. Debbie Halvorson tries to claim she’d be the only one who could get things done immediately.

IT IS THE reason why even those Democrats who have their preferred candidates aren’t badmouthing the opposition, and why you have party leadership talking about the quality of candidates that people will get to pick from as they try to replace Jackson in Washington.

And why we should all be watching closely come the first week of the new year – which is when these candidates have to “put up or shut up,” so to speak, and file nominating petitions.

The real candidates will weed out the fringe ones who were looking this weekend for their 5 minutes of fame in speaking before the Democratic slating committee.

  -30-

 

Another one of those taxes we’d like to think we won’t be collecting much of

State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, has assured herself she will get loads of attention this spring.

Red Eye gave it the cover, while ...

For the south suburban native has come up with a bill that satisfies our sense of moralistic outrage, combined with pure titillation. She wants a new tax that would be charged any time anyone visits a strip club/girlie joint/titty bar/whatever goofy name you call it.

IT GOT HUTCHINSON in the Chicago Tribune, and is being picked up by the wire services that will ensure that anyone paying attention to newscasts across Illinois will know all about this.

A $5 fee, in addition to whatever cover charge the alleged “gentlemen’s clubs” are already charging – just to walk into the door. That goes along with whatever drink minimums they charge – and the money that one winds up giving to the ladies themselves for putting on the sexually-charged shows that they do.

Hutchinson says she would want the money from the $5 fee to go toward a special fund that would pay for counseling for women who get raped. Which is a noble goal, although it strikes me as being similar to the logic always tossed up when the fees on a package of cigarettes are increased.

Making it cost more to smoke tobacco products might actually reduce the number of people who smoke, which might improve their health.

... the Tribune gave it the corner

DOES IT REALLY fall into line that making it cost more to look at nude women (although every such club I have ever been in was required to have their girls keep their pubic areas covered) would make guys less likely to go to such clubs – which would make them less likely to get all aroused and feel the need to take their lustful urges out on the “real” women they encounter outside of the clubs.

I don’t know if I buy it.

But heck, if it helps raise a few bucks for a noble effort, then perhaps it will be worthwhile.

Although I will be anxious to see how this particular bill plays out.

WILL THE CONSERVATIVE ideologues get all worked up over the thought of local businesses being hit with another “tax” that might make some of their customers have to reduce the number of trips they make to their local “establishment” to catch a glimpse of nipple?

For the real hard-core ideologue types, particularly those who like to think of themselves as Tea Party-types, that is NOT any kind of ridiculous stance. It would be their natural reaction.

Or will their sense of outrage and the need to meddle in other peoples’ business kick in and make them think it is a good thing to do to discourage people from hanging out in establishments with names like Déjà Vu (which actually is the strip club in Springfield where many legislators of recent years have been known to spend off-hours)?

I couldn’t help but notice that the strip club owners themselves are taking the attitude that they’re enterprising business owners who are being taxed out of business (the owner of Chicago’s Admiral Theatre is taking to calling this new $5 fee a “pole” tax, a pun on the poll taxes of old that is offensive on so many levels).

PERHAPS I’M SO mocking of this issue because I personally have never truly understood the appeal of such clubs. I’ve been in them on occasion, but honestly could care less if I never set foot in one again.

And only part of that reason is because I’m cheap when it comes to finances.

The whole notion of “look, but don’t touch” that exists in these clubs just strikes me as un-erotic. What is the point if there isn’t some physical contact? And there are some people I wouldn’t want to have physical contact with, for fear of what I’d contract.

It actually reminds of me of a gag I once heard from someone questioning why prison inmates would look at pornographic pictures of women, comparing it to looking at pictures of a Thanksgiving holiday dinner to try to satisfy one’s hunger.

IN SHORT, I’D wonder if the experience would be worth an extra $5 per visit. But if some people want to look so bad that they will cough up the cash, then that is their prerogative.

Whether she realizes it or not, Hutchinson has stirred up what may well be one of the most intriguing moments of this year’s Illinois General Assembly session. With the election cycle coming up, it’s not like any political person is going to want to take serious action on any issue of real significance.

Which means they’ll want to get all worked up over something like this, so as to justify the salaries and per diem payments they will receive for their work in 2012.

  -30-

Redistricting will bring out the politicking in Illinois’ government officials

We’re still several months away from that date in which the Illinois General Assembly will suddenly, and with as little public speculation as possible, approve new political boundaries for both the state Legislature and Congress.

No matter what else gets discussed at the Statehouse in Springpatch this spring, the key issue will be redistricting – that once-a-decade redrawing of the political boundaries for the General Assembly and Illinois congressional delegation to reflect changes in population that have occurred during the past 10 years.

THIS YEAR IS going to be a little bit different than the past three times Illinois has gone through the process. Because we have a state Legislature controlled by Democratic leaders, a Democratic partisan as governor and a state Supreme Court that has a Democrat-leaning membership (and may still be miffed at the politicking the GOP tried unsuccessfully to do in the last election to change that political breakdown), it should be a case where Democratic Party partisans will control the process.

It is highly unlikely we will have to resort to the redistricting lottery called for in the Illinois Constitution to break a tie. There won’t be any random luck of the draw. No picking a political party out of a hat (or a glass bowl) that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln.

So what are the political boundaries going to look like? We won’t know for sure until late May. But I do expect the 2010 election cycle will be a major factor – particularly for the state Legislature districts.

Last month’s election cycle is the one that’s going into the Illinois history books as the one where Democratic Party partisans maintained significant influence because of a strong Cook County vote.

REPUBLICAN PARTY PARTISANS from the rest of the state who had dreams of taking over the state government learned once and for all how irrelevant they can be, whenever Cook County-types put their mind to an election cycle.

So as people approach the areas where Cook County interacts with the surrounding outer-suburb collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will, to be exact), we’re going to see a lot of districts that cross the county line.

But that interaction will be done in ways to ensure that the balance of people (and of potential power) is in Cook County.

If anything, there will be many more legislators during the next decade like state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields. She is a life-long south suburban Cook resident who represents a district that stretches south into Will and Kankakee counties.

THE SAME REPUBLICAN mindset that managed to take four congressional seats last month also tried to dump Hutchinson on the grounds that she was too-Chicago-area to cover a district, and her Republican opponent from near Peotone tried to emphasize downstate Illinois roots.

It didn’t work because there was too much Cook County in that district (the Illinois Senate 40^th, to be exact) for the GOP appeal to work.

There will be more districts created just like hers. Districts represented by officials who, no matter how much lip service they pay to representing all parts of their area, are Cook residents who have that urban focus.

As far as the congressional districts are concerned, the key factor is that Illinois is likely to lose one representative – even though the overall population has remained stable. The problem is that it isn’t growing, and rural parts of the state are shrinking significantly.

SO YES, MY guess is that one of the central Illinois congressional districts that usually sends a Republican to Capitol Hill will wind up being drawn out of existence. Just a guess – Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who 14 years ago pledged to serve no longer than 10 years in Congress – could find himself getting squeezed.

But the spin we’re likely to get from Democrats is that there is potential for a city “loss” too.

The fact is that the Latino population has increased significantly enough in Illinois that the state should probably now have two districts that create a realistic chance to elect a Latino to Congress. For all the people who claim the current Latino district looks ridiculous with that little strip connecting two separate areas, it would mean growing each of those areas into a separate district.

A Puerto Rican-influenced district to the north (that Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.) would continue to represent, with a district to the south that likely would be represented by someone of Mexican-American ethnic origins – or someone sympathetic to them.

SOMEHOW, I WONDER if it is bound to be Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., who will have his district redone in a way that he had better follow the lead of state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, who has gone so far as to join the Latino Caucus in Springfield to try to look out for the many Latinos living in his legislative district.

Or else, Lipinski – one of the two Illinois Democrats who voted last week against the DREAM Act measure that party leadership (and Illinois’ favorite-son president) was fully supportive of – is going to be the city member of Congress who gets dumped.

  -30-

It’s replacement season in Illinois

The Illinois Senate has a new member, and people who live in Illinois’ 5th Congressional district (the northwest side and some surrounding suburbs) now have a clue as to when they will get a new member of Congress.

But we still don’t know who is going to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, as District of Columbia bureaucrats put would-be Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., through the motions of showing up on Capitol Hill – only so they could turn him away.

HOW THAT SITUATION will ultimately be resolved has yet to be determined, although I would expect Burris will need a court or two to intervene on his behalf to pressure political people to accept the one-time Illinois attorney general.

Political people took the actions Monday required by law to fill vacancies caused by two government officials who are moving up the ranks of Washington politics.

Democratic officials from south suburban Cook and Will counties, along with rural Kankakee and Iroquois counties, picked a replacement for Rep.-elect Debbie D. Halvorson, D-Ill., who gave up her seat in the Illinois Senate in Springfield to move up to Washington.

It would appear that the party officials decided to go along with the wishes of Halvorson, as they chose her former chief of staff, Toi Hutchinson, to be the new Democratic state senator.

THE KANKAKEE DAILY Journal newspaper reported that Hutchinson got a unanimous vote of support over two other officials – one of whom is a member of the Will County Board. Officials claim that Hutchinson’s knowledge of the Statehouse Scene is what gave her the edge.

In one respect, the suburban and rural folks are a notch ahead of their city-based political counterparts. Halvorson formally resigned her state Senate seat on Monday, and a replacement was picked promptly.

Hutchinson literally took the oath that made her state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, by noon of the same day.

Approving a replacement so quickly provides a sense of confidence for the residents of that legislative district, in that they know there was no gap in political representation and that the local officials who pick the replacement had a sense of what they were doing.

BY COMPARISON, THE rest of us are living in a clueless era.

All of Illinois has no clue who its junior senator will be. And those people who live in the Illinois 5th Congressional know they have some dozen or so people who want to represent them in Congress.

But president-elect chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s refusal to promptly resign his seat in Congress created a situation where nothing could be done to fill the vacancy.

Seriously, we have known for two months that a new member of Congress from Chicago was needed. Yet it is only now that the dates are being set for special elections.

IT IS BECAUSE of that delay that there will be some extra expense in coordinating the campaigns.

For 2009 in Cook County, elections are being held Feb. 24 and April 7. Those elections will be dominated by suburban communities that will be picking their local mayors/village presidents, along with clerks and trustees/aldermen.

Had Emanuel acted promptly (instead of behaving in a manner that gave the appearance he was scheming to keep his congressional post along with his White House job), it would have been possible to hold the special elections on those same dates.

That would have resulted in a certain convenience for local elections officials who already are gearing up for the casting and counting of ballots on those dates. It would have made Chicago’s wards in the Illinois 5th just a few more election precincts that needed to be counted.

YET THERE ISN’T enough time between now and Feb. 24 to schedule a primary election (which is the one that actually matters, the Cook County GOP isn’t strong enough to actually have a shot at taking that Congressional seat) that will coincide with other elections.

So Chicago and the surrounding suburbs that are included in the Congressional district will have to have their own primary election on March 3.

Those people who think of individual neighborhoods as separate entities and can’t appreciate the big picture will probably not get this. But we’re literally going to get cases of suburbs that will have one set of elections on Feb. 24, then another a week later on March 3, then a final general election on April 7 (which does coincide with the general elections to be held throughout the rest of Cook County).

I’m glad I don’t live in any of those suburban communities to the northwest of Chicago that are in the Illinois 5th Congressional. With that many elections to have to endure, I think I would go batty. I definitely don’t know if I would be in the mood for showing up to cast votes in each and every one of them.

AND THEN PEOPLE wonder why some don’t think it worth the hassle to show up at their polling place to vote. Of course, compared to the mess that has become the replacement process for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, it is downright coordinated.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich scheduled the dates for the Illinois 5th Congressional elections without hassle from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, unlike the legal battle that White instigated when he refused to certify the proclamation making Blagojevich’s choice of Burris official.

White claims that his approval of documents setting election dates is just a bureaucratic procedure. Some would argue that all he was asked to do with regards to a Senate proclamation was engage in the same act of bureaucracy.

But that would be too easy. It is what allowed officials on Capitol Hill to turn away Burris on Monday. How hard-line an approach Congressional leaders continue to take with Burris will provide the political “entertainment” of coming days – much to the embarrassment of Illinois.

-30-

EDITOR’S NOTES: Officials in the south suburbs acted promptly in filling a political vacancy (http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=433459). It’s too bad their counterparts in other parts of Illinois couldn’t learn from their example.

Chicago elections officials will have to spend about $3.8 million this year to accommodate the special elections needed to pick a new member of Congress (http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003002877) from the Northwest Side.

No matter what Pat Quinn or other Illinois officials eager to impeach the governor want to believe, Rod Blagojevich (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-illinois-governor-quinn,0,7501589.story) is not the only reason Illinois has become an “international laughingstock.”