As Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police try to calm down the city’s violence, President Trump and Governor Rauner are ratcheting up the rhetoric.
The first volley fired at Emanuel came Thursday morning, as governor Rauner called him corrupt. Speaking on a downstate radio station, Rauner claimed that Emanuel received $20 million from special interest groups.
“He’s corrupt. He’s part of the problem in Chicago,” Rauner said. “Failure on jobs. Failure on taxes. He’s got to go.”
Adam Collins, a spokesman for the mayor, said Rauner’s comments were “high praise” considering he was named the worst governor in America.
“He’s wrapping up a term in which he achieved nothing other than gridlock, and I guess desperate times call for desperate rhetoric,” Collins said.
Emanuel has faced calls to resign from Chance the Rapper and prominent Chicago pastor Reverend Gregory Livingstone.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was raised in Peoria and attended Princeton and Harvard. Raja, influenced by Barack Obama, now represents the 8th District for Illinois. Can President Trump and his tax reforms be given any credit to the current economic recovery or was the ball already rolling from the Obama administration? Tax cuts have been helpful, but there is a strong possibility that Americans will be paying for these tax cuts for many years to come. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi sits on the Oversight Committee thinks the proposed GOP impeachment of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is just the newest in a long series of Republican attempts to undermine, discredit, and disrupt the Mueller investigation. Close to home, Rep. Krishnamoorthi is concerned about reports Heartland Alliance, which has been accused of abuse of children being sheltered there by the separation of immigrant families by the Trump administration.
In this week’s round table segment, Bill Cameron is joined by Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune, Greg Hinz of Crains, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Heather Cherone of the Daily Line. Topics discussed include: President Trump and his visit to southern Illinois on Thursday to tout his economic re-development and tariffs. Do these new tariffs help or hurt Illinois businesses and residents. 30% of the congressman’s constituents are foreign born, and he says that many of them are concerned about their future and the ability of others to immigrate into the country.
This week’s community spotlight segment is from Jennifer Keiper. Robert Mendez, Organizer, Illinois Peruvian American Medical Society. A group of Peruvian and American health care professionals and volunteers from Illinois make up the Illinois Peruvian American Medical Society, a non-profit organization that has and outdoor event coming up. 5k for Peru Committee Chairman, Robert Mendez, says the August 5th race, in downtown Chicago, helps raise funds for Doctors here in Chicago to go to Peru to offer medical services in impoverished areas. Mendez talks about the groups’ work and the need for volunteers.
(CHICAGO) The Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association on Monday announced the results of their online straw poll asking who should run for governor and Lt. governor in 2018.
State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) came in first in the gubernatorial straw poll with 25-percent of the vote.
Alderman Ameya Pawar came in second with 15-percent of the vote followed by Chris Kennedy, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline), and J.B. Pritzker rounds out the top five vote getters with 10% of the vote.
The poll was conducted from Monday January 23rd to midnight on Sunday January 29th. The results were tabulated from 5,352 responses.
Write in Candidates include Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former-Gov. Pat Quinn, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
It’s expected that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner will seek re-election in 2018.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a temporary extension of a corporate tax incentive program which has been criticized as expensive and too favorable to large businesses.
The Republican’s action on Friday extends through April the EDGE program — for Economic Development for a Growing Economy.
Rauner supports replacing EDGE with another proposed incentive program which would be less generous.
EDGE provides tax breaks to businesses that create and maintain jobs in Illinois.
Rauner backs a sweetener that gives companies credit for 50 percent of the withholding taxes from jobs created. EDGE gave them 100 percent credit.
Some lawmakers complain that EDGE is too expensive or benefits larger companies over smaller ones.
(SPRINGFIELD) Illinois Republicans are vastly outspending Democrats in fall legislative races with the help of a wealthy governor determined to upend the state’s political establishment.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has contributed $16 million to fund GOP candidates in House and Senate races to try to loosen the Democrats’ supermajorities in each chamber. Of that money, $13 million has already been disbursed to various candidates. That’s four times what the Illinois Republican Party Committee spent on races in all of 2012.
The outcomes of this year’s legislatives could define the remaining two years of Rauner’s time in office and whether he’s viewed as a successful governor if he seeks another term. Rauner was elected in 2014 as a political newcomer promising to shake up the Democrats’ regime but they’ve had the numbers thwart his ideas.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 19, 2016, as the Senate worked on its $1.1 billion plan to combat the Zika virus, setting the stage for difficult negotiations with House Republicans over how much money to devote to fighting the virus and whether to cut Ebola funding to help pay for it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
By John Dempsey, WLS-AM 890 News
(CHICAGO) There’s a new report that says longtime Illinois Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin could possibly run for Governor in two years.
WTTW Channel Eleven broke the story quoting Democratic party and union sources who say Durbin would be a perfect candidate to challenge Republican Governor Bruce Rauner in 2018.
In a WTTW interview, Durbin did not entirely shoot the idea down, saying “I have a great job to be the senior Senator from this state, to be in Washington and help this state in a lot of different ways. I have no aspirations for any other office and I would beg the people who are doing all the speculation to cool it. Let’s focus on the immediate need to get a state budget.”
However Durbin also criticized Rauner for his role in the current state budget standoff. “I believe this Governor has a passion against labor unions, has a passion about lowering the wages of working people, and I just don’t agree with that approach at all.”
Rauner talked about the rumors this morning on “The Big John Howell show on WLS.
“I don’t pay any attention to rumors, you know, I’m just focused on doin’ my job, and gettin’ our state healthy again.”
Durbin is currently 71 years old but the Channel Eleven report says he’s growing tired of Washington after four terms in the Senate.
Durbin also was passed over for the top Democratic position in the U.S. Senate after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced his retirement.
That job will now go to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, and there is no guarantee Schumer would back Durbin in an effort by the Senator to keep his current number two position as Senate Democratic whip.
(Chicago) Dan Walker, 92, who served one term as governor of Illinois in the 1970s, has died, his son’s law office confirmed Wednesday, the Sun-Times reports.
Walker, a Democrat, was elected in 1972.
He had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1945 and from Northwestern Law School in 1950. Walker served as administrative aide to Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson, according to the National Governors Association.
He gained famed in the early 1970s campaigning for governor by walking more than 1,000 miles across the state of Illinois.
After his time in the governor’s office, Walker entered private life and was charged in the mid-1980s in a criminal case concerning loans made to him in connection with a savings and loan he owned. He pleaded guilty to fraud and perjury charge and served 18 months in federal prison.
