The Illinois Combine, for those unfamiliar with the term of art, refers to an unfortunate reality in Illinois politics: to wit, Illinois is not precisely a two-party state. There is a Republican Party of Illinois, and there is a Democratic Party of Illinois – but the party bosses of both more or less ignore everybody else and run the state to suit themselves. Case in | Read More »
Well… actually, if you can you’re one up on the Illinois Republican party, which is in the novel position of running a fundraiser for a candidate whom nobody can find. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady announced that the Party will host a fundraiser for Patrick John Ryan, the “Republican” candidate challenging House Speaker Michael Madigan in the race for State Representative in the 22nd | Read More »
Back in May it was reported that the failing, yet politically-connected Shorebank in Illinois was to be bailed out. The bank actually closed last Friday, but was resurrected yesterday and turned into a new bank – one that will of course have no obvious relationship to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), who lobbied very strenuously to save Shorebank… even though it’s not based in her district. | Read More »
Cedra, as you will recall, is a conservative Republican running for the Illinois state Senate who had been thrown off the ballot for being a black conservative Republican a ballot technicality. That has been… resolved, and not in the Democrats’ favor: State Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi has a fight on his hands, and his Democratic bosses have only made it worse. Party leaders brought out the | Read More »
Quick background: Cedra Crenshaw (website here) is a conservative Tea Party activist – and, not incidentally, one that NAACP President Ben Jealous would happily call a ‘race traitor,’ if it weren’t for the minor fact that not even the media would ignore that kind of hypocrisy – who is trying to stay on the ballot for Illinois state senator. Emphasis on ‘trying:’ she’s fighting having | Read More »
I understand that the man is desperate to escape to Washington, DC – but the bills are piling up. And I am not being figurative in the slightest: Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo. He | Read More »
A pleasant beginning to the week, no? First it was President Barack Obama, then White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, now U.S. Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias is joining the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial subpoena list. Giannoulias is in the middle of a hard fought campaign against Congressman Mark Kirk for the right to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Obama. So | Read More »
…mostly left. When politicos play musical chairs in Illinois, what happens after the music stops and there’s no safe place to sit? There have been four dead in recent years, unrelated cases of suicide, different except for the acts of the common pageant: The corruption investigators call. The music ends abruptly. Two were done in by guns, one on a beach, the other under a | Read More »
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