Well It Looks Like IFI Is Going To Be Protesting Near My House

This week it is Stephanie Kifowit's turn. The IFI is going to be protesting outside Stephanie Kifowit's office in Aurora.

So a few suggestions for the protesters and counter protesters since you are going to be in the hood...

Lunch:
If the Taco truck is open at 5th and Farnsworth in the church parking lot (just north of the protest location), I highly, highly recommend it.  There is a Mexican restaurant in the strip mall her office is in, not bad, but I would suggest 
There was/still may be a pie place in the strip mall, they are meat pies, not pie, pies.  Have had a bit of one once, not bad, but still wish it was pie, pie.
There is also a Subway, but come on, you are in Aurora, you can do better than Subway.


While You Are In The Hood...
The Growing Place, it is a garden center that has a location just up the road from the protest location. I can say they know there stuff, so if you need some plants, swing on by.

West on Montgomery Road a bit there is a bowling alley that has video poker, so if you are into that sort of thing there is that.

Not Only Can She Play The Banjo She Can Dance Too...

Our Lt. Governor doing the hard issue evasion two step

Via Zorn from Chicago Tonight...

Carol Marin: Pension reform. Do you have a favorite bill? One that you are pushing?

Sheila Simon: My favorite bill would be one that is comprehensive and gets the job done. We’ve got to balance some really tough issues. We have constitutional obligations to people who’ve been paying into the system. We have a moral obligation to teach our children. We’re not going to be able to do everything. And if we can get a comprehensive solution, that’s what we need to do. It could come in several forms.

Marin: What about the Cullerton bill? Because President Cullerton in the Senate believes that his would survive a constitutional test. It is different than Speaker Madigan’s plan to the degree that we understand that. Who are you signing on to?

Simon: I’m signing on to getting the job done. And I think that’s where the state is. I think that’s where most of the people across the state are . We need to address this. We need to be straightforward about it. We need to not look at two or four year perspective but a 30-year perspective Let’s maintain--- let’s build a system that is sustainable.

Well the children are our future....

Also glad to see she is in favor of a plan that will get the job done vs a plan that fails, that is some bold leadership there Lt. Governor.

Also glad she is signing on to getting the job done vs signing on to buy a timeshare

Finally glad she feels that a bunch of non committal platitudes is being straightforward about this.

Sheila, just as an FYI, the fear of pissing anyone off is in part how we got into this mess in the first place.

Thank You Federal Taxpayer, It Will Only Take 543 Years To Pay For Itself

A bit over two years ago Aurora got some federal money ($117,400) to buy and put up two smaller wind turbines to power two sets of stoplights on the east side of town.

The two turbines have been up for a while and as someone who drives by them both virtually every day I as well as others have noticed they don't seem to spin too much.

The Beacon News has an update and things are not going real well, in fact they are going poorly.  They are barely covering the electricity used by the stoplights. Read the whole thing, it isn't going real well.

They seem happy that between the two turbines we are producing about 50 KWh a week or about 200 KWh a month... So how much is the city "saving"...

Well using data from here  it appears and using the the summer rate of 5.511 cents per KWh the city is saving about 11 dollars a month.  Not the $50 they say, using my ComEd bill after the electrical costs, the transmission costs and everything else besides the taxes and other listed on my bill I pay net about  9 cents per KWh, using that number it comes to about an $18 dollar a month savings.

Or to think of it another way it will take 543 years to pay for itself.

Bruce Rauner Social Liberal..

Via CapFax who got get from Bernie

The word later from Chip Englander, manager of Rauner’s exploratory effort: “Like (former Gov.) Jim Edgar and (U.S. Sen.) Mark Kirk, he is pro-choice.”

 Rich also has a link to something from years ago where Rauner referred to himself as a 'social liberal'. Rich then asks if a 'social liberal' can win a Republican primary...

Going in a bit of a different direction, how basically this is a good tactical move on his part (assuming he is stating his actual position)

Why?

Well, based off what I have seen from some of the leading social conservative Illinois Republican conservatives that I follow on Facebook, they were not that enamored with him to say the least anyone. Be it his or his wife's past political donations or whatever, the social conservatives were never going to embrace him because he hasn't really been out front in any way shape or form on their issues. So why not just get it over with, it was going to come up sooner or later and why not take this position while they are still trying to either pick a candidate or draft one.

So why bother trying to reach to a group that I am guessing you don't agree with (I doubt if he was secretly a pro-lifer he would come out pro-choice, that is a guess on my part, but I would argue a logical one)?  Instead just state your position early on and move on.  It's gonna piss people off, but it is better to piss people off almost a year before and election than a week or two before. Also tactically is sends a message to anyone else who was going to run in the primary that there is a pro-choice candidate who has raised some money and may spend a ton of his own.

Smart move Bruce, smart move...

If I were Lisa Madigan

I would just start calling press conferences to mess with people.

Carol Is Mostly Right, But Also A Bit Wrong...

Carol Marin has a column about the latest developments in the attempt to oust Pat Brady as Republican Party Chairman, I suggest you read the column here.  She does seem to get past the it is just about Brady's calls on same sex marriage.

Besides the fact if you are going to oust a party chairman now is sort of the time to do it (between elections). Brady makes a claim that see seems to not challenge very much.

No, Oberweis’ beef with Brady is for taking sides in some contested Republican primaries.
“There is no rule that you can’t get involved in a primary,” said Brady by phone. “Our goal is to get our party elected.”

What I think Carol is failing to understand is Kane County, when Brady got behind a specific candidate in the primary for Kane County Board Chairman he demonstrated a couple of things.

 First: A complete misunderstanding of Kane County Republican politics. By not just supporting Burns but by taking a role in his campaign, he went from trying to stop Chris Lauzen behind the scenes (which wouldn't have surprised anyone) to going active and very public in doing so.  Also besides the ABC (Anyone But Chris) crowd, there seemed to be nobody who thought Burns was the answer.  Heck by the time the primary came around I think I could have gotten as many votes in the primary as Burns did.

To draw a sports example, it was like betting everything on the Cubs winning the world series last year and making that bet after the all-star break and not getting any odds on the bet.

So in doing this (leading the ABC brigade in some ways) he ended up getting nothing in return besides ensuring wholesale turnover in the Kane County party leadership.

But you may think, it is only Kane County. Yep that is true however if he did such a bad job Reading the tea leaves in Kane County where he lives, do you want him trying to look at the bigger picture?

Secondly:  Well Pat, there is sort of is a rule that you don't get involved in contested primaries. That is why to the best of my knowledge we don't generally 'slate' candidates as a party. We let our voters decide, right or wrong.  As part of party leadership you work to get Republican candidates elected, you don't work publicly to get specific candidates past primaries.  Why, because it gives the impression that you are trying to slate candidates (which in essence you are) and damages those candidates who get win primaries who don't appear to have your favor. The fact you can't seem to get this is a problem as well.

Well I Hope It Is Successfull

Well the latest set of TIF spending passed for restaurant row.  I really hope it all works out better this time than it did before, sincerely I do.  Again, still don't think it is the right use of TIF funds for downtown, but I hope it works out.

In fact I hope it works so well, the city doesn't have to use TIF money (or any other incentives) to get things to come downtown...

We will see...

3%

There was a primary in two wards in Aurora for Alderman...

In one of the two, the turnout was less than 3%...

Less than 30%, about 80 votes got you to the next round...

Wow