By Steve Rhodes

Up until his recent turn into right-wing loony land, I had always respected Mark Kirk. In fact, when I interviewed him in 2000 during his first congressional campaign I came away thinking he might be on a national ticket someday. His biggest obstacle to national renown, it seemed to me, would be the rightward turn of his party. Now he’s turning with it – depressingly so. But if you take a look at the Mark Kirk of 2000, you’ll see the attributes and background that made him an impressive candidate then with a bright future. Here is the Chicago magazine story I wrote then of that first campaign.
Two Pols in a Pod
The race to replace GOP congressman John Porter has attracted national notice as a key battle in the House, and the two parties have sent in their heavy guns. One problem: How do you tell the candidates apart?
Two scenes from one of the nation’s most widely watched – and expensive – congressional campaigns, now playing on the North Shore:
Lauren Beth Gash is knocking on doors in Highland Park one August evening when she comes up on a man sitting on a motorcycle in his driveway. Gash asks for his vote. He gives her a skeptical eye. “How do you feel about all this nursing home stuff?” he asks, apropos of nothing. “What nursing home stuff?” she replies. The stories in the papers, he explains, about the abuse of nursing home residents. “Of course I’m against nursing home abuse,” Gash says tersely. “Everyone is.” And then she tacks in the unexpected direction of a Chamber of Commerce mouthpiece. “But it’s a complicated issue. We can’t make regulations so stringent that we put owners out of business.”
Gash is the Democrat in this race.
Mark Steven Kirk is the scanning the largely African American crowd at the First Fellowship Baptist Church in Waukegan minutes before a candidates’ forum one day in September. He is looking for his favorite ministers. Then he takes his place behind a lectern and opens his segment of the forum by explaining his ten-point plan for Waukegan; four of the first five points address environmental issues. And then he introduces a special member of the audience – Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat.
Kirk, who is also pro-choice and pro-gun control, is the Republican in this race.

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Posted on February 18, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

When Gov. Pat Quinn named Michael Randle the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections in May, he said his administration had “looked all over the country” and found “the best of the best.”
But at the time Quinn hired Randle, “the best of the best” was under investigation by Ohio’s inspector general for allegedly conducting business in a very Chicago way. (Did I mention that Randle is originally from Chicago?) That investigation was completed last July, but virtually no one in Illinois paid attention to it. Let’s take a look.
*
The investigation was spurred by this TV report about a sweetheart deal to sell prisoner-made furniture at a discount to a frat brother of Randle’s.
Ohio’s inspector general concluded that Randle had acted improperly, but uncovered a far more serious deal that Randle steered to his old college buddy.
“It smells of sweetheart deals, sweetheart relationships,” Henry Eckhart of Common Cause told WBNS-10TV. “It smells of secrecy, of cover up, of all that.”
Randle had no comment back then on the inspector general’s conclusions; by that time was already Pat Quinn’s new prisons chief.
You can find the Ohio inspector general’s report here. We’ll provide the executive summary and some other highlights.

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Posted on February 15, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Data for top primary campaign contributors (contributions and loans) from January 1, 2009 to January 2, 2010 supplied by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. Comments by me.
*
1. Mary McKenna, $2,732,000.
It must be nice to be a kept man, Andy.
2. SEIU HealthCare IL In PAC/SEIU IL Council, $2,066,000.
They give to Republicans too.
3. Scott Lee Cohen, $1,788,666.
But you couldn’t buy a responsible press.
4. RP Lumber, Inc., Plummer General, Jason Plummer, Robert Plummer, $1,310,000.
Another rich kid coasting on daddy’s money.
5. IL Education Assn IPACE, $872,500.
Backed Hynes, Dillard and Hoffman.

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Posted on February 8, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Embattled lieutenant governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen has finally won my support. If only he wasn’t tethered to his bumbling running mate.
It happened during Cohen’s interview on Chicago Tonight last night when I realized that Cohen was the only one during the campaign and this ensuing episode who did his job. He didn’t try to hide his past; he practically begged the media to take a look at it and get it out of the way – so just this scenario wouldn’t develop.
As Cohen sat (with his ex-wife) opposite Phil Ponce, I thought to myself, Cohen should be interviewing him!
“And why, sir, did you not see fit to examine the backgrounds of the candidates running to sit within a heartbeat of the governorship?”
“What do you think about the media’s failure to care about this race?”
“To what degree should we hold party chairman Michael Madigan responsible?”
“Am I any less qualified for the job than Rickey Hendon? Doesn’t his background scare you?”
Let’s take a look at Cohen’s interview and some of the coverage in today’s papers.

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Posted on February 5, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Sometimes, I just don’t know whether to laugh or cry” a faithful Beachwood reader writes. “How the hell did local media manage to break the news about Dorothy Brown’s jeans drama before Tuesday while blowing off Scott Lee Cohen’s legal troubles?”
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on February 4, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Talking back to the TV as the returns roll in.
*
Cliff Kelley is on CLTV! With Al Salvi. Both are rehashing partisan nonsense. What’s the point?
*
Garrard McClendon: His blog commenters are “on fire.” He thinks this shows that the Constitution is alive. Seriously.
*
Don Rose! Let’s trot out all the old warhorses. Certainly Paul Green is on somewhere!
*
“Weather is brought to you by RedEye.”
No it’s not!
*
Enough with Pat Quinn’s lucky tie, please. There’s no such thing.
And do we really want a governor who believes so? (Does he wear it to budget negotiations?)

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Posted on February 3, 2010

By The Beachwood Change Is Us Affairs Desk

Editor’s Note: This is a primary. You don’t have to vote if you don’t want to participate in internal party activities. But if you do chose to vote, don’t hesitate to use our eVoter ad on our right rail to construct your sample ballot, or consult the Tribune or Sun-Times election centers. And remember, you can take this guide with you into the voting booth. Just cut along the dotted lines.
–
GOVERNOR, DEMOCRATIC
Candidate: PAT QUINN
Sleaze Factor: 8 of 10
Chance Of Winning: 50 percent
Reason To Vote For Him: So Green nominee Rich Whitney becomes the default progressive candidate.
Reason To Vote Against Him: Backed by Ed Burke and Joe Berrios.
Relevant Trivia:
* Says his greatest accomplishment is “assuming office last year and stabilizing the government.” In what state?

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Posted on February 2, 2010

By The Beachwood Bureau of Experts

1. From Sue Fisher Yellen:
Chicago Politics As Usual
I watch TV, ad after ad, politicians smiling, showing their shiny white teeth…
Especially the dentist who wants to be something else…
The White man, naming all the Black men who, he says, love him most…
The young Greek, trying to look old, patting blue collars, promising new jobs…
The ubiquitous Irish machine-made man, grinning his Irish grin…
And some lady who has stolen a statue of a beautiful slave-woman in chains with deep scars on her bare back, trying to look like a hero…
Blaming, claiming, shaming…
Buying time so we can see these smiling faces,
all the white teeth,
all the promises…
Selling us hope…
Teaching us cynicism.

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Posted on February 2, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

On the trail ahead of Tuesday’s primary voting.
GIANNOULIAS: No wonder his handlers continue to try to keep him away from reporters. Every time he opens his mouth to answer a question – or to not answer a question – he illustrates why he is ill-prepared and undeserving of being a United States senator.
“Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias refused to provide details Thursday about whether his decisions contributed to his family bank’s financial problems, saying five days before the election that those questions can wait for another time,” Politico reports.
“‘If I’m fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation,’ the Chicago Democrat told reporters.”
Party leaders must be wondering if that’s a promise or a threat.

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Posted on February 1, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

The most vicious attacks against Alexi Giannoulias this primary season aren’t coming from his opponents in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, but from a candidate running for his current job as state treasurer: Justin Oberman.
Oberman is in a primary campaign against Giannoulias chief of staff Robin Kelly, but there is no way to separate his attacks on her performance in office from the performance of Giannoulias. David Hoffman should retweet Oberman’s every press release. Let’s review.
December 14: “Justin Oberman, Democratic candidate for State Treasurer said, ‘Last week, Illinois’ bond rating was downgraded by both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service and no one from the Illinois State Treasurer’s office has said a word. ‘The silence is deafening. I am stunned by the lack of leadership by the Treasurer’s office and other Illinois elected officials and candidates,’ said Oberman.”

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Posted on January 28, 2010