Private donor steps in to help Fermilab -- Updated

Looks like a private donor stepped in to help keep Fermilab running with fewer layoffs thanks to a 5 million dollar donation.

A commenter says that the layoffs are not impacted it will just reduce furloughs. Since roughly the same time the comment came in I got a hit from Fermilab so I will assume that is correct.

Better than nothing I guess, hope this doesn't prevent the feds from coming up with some extra cash.

Why the City Manager idea is bad for Aurora.

Hiram has some stuff about how the solution to pay-to-play in Aurora is Stephanie Kifowit's suggestion that Aurora goes to a city manager system like Naperville.  I am not going to comment on some of Hiram's arguments or logic since he said his is going to have a second post about why and I figured I would wait for that before I addressed his post.

Also let me start with the fact I think Stephanie would make a better mayor than Weisner and I did provide her with some help (more technical) during her re-election bid for alderman. I wouldn't lose any sleep at night if she won. 

However I think a city manager system of government is a bad idea for Aurora.

Why, Aurora has big city problems (crime, gangs, poverty, development, etc) problems that at the end of the day require an elected official to be responsible to the voters for.  Problems that require someone to run for office to address those problems and be held accountable for addressing those problems.

Putting the solutions to these issues into the hands of alderman who set an agenda with a city manager to implement isn't going to be as effective is creating responsibility and accountability.

I know Naperville had a city manager and it generally works for them. But lets be blunt, Aurora would love to have the sort of major issues that Naperville faces.  They don't have our poverty, housing, gang, drug or violence issues. It's one thing for a city manager system when your big issue is how to manage downtown development when it's all trendy shops and nice restaurants. It's another when you are trying to reduce a murder rate.

Also if I am not mistaken all of Alderman in Naperville are elected at large, something that gives them the flexibility to think of everything in terms of the entire city.  Well Aurora elects two aldermen at large and the rest represent wards.  I don't think the DOJ would let us go to a all at-large system.   It would be a challenge for a city manager to deal with aldermen who were pushing area based agendas that might be very different than what is best for the city as a whole.

More to come....

OneMan

 

Kudos to the Beacon...

Since I have given the Beacon flack before I have to give them credit for the story they did about Weisner's fundraising and how it relates to getting paid by the city. A little dispointed they ran it on the Sunday of a holiday weekend but still...

There are two interesting tidbits

A majority -- 58 -- received city payments before Weisner's term, but only eight gave any money to his two-term predecessor, David Stover, the records show.

Also 

"A number like that doesn't faze me," Weisner campaign manager Mike Wilson responded when asked about the number of donors who earned city funds. "It's a tough question, and I don't think it's a fair question.

Sorry Mike, it is a fair question.  I am looking forward to an answer.

You know it's sad when

They issue press releases when Governor Blagojevich  keeps his word.

A sweet deal if you can get it.

Rich linked  to a Sun Times article about how an 8 week stint with the Blagojevich administration has added $37,995 a year to her pension taking it up to $102,000 a year after being in state government for 16 years.

Even the $64,005  she would have gotten before working for Rod blows my mind. A 64K a year pension for a part time job that she worked for 16 years. 

I have been drawing a paycheck as a college graduate roughly the same amount of time. During that period I have worked for 3 large companies, none of which had a defined retirement benefit. It's been all 401Ks and one where the put some money in an account that earns a guaranteed minimum interest rate (like 3%).  

I can't even imagine if at this point in my working life I had qualified for a pension like that that I could start collecting at some point.  Man, that would be sweet.

Yes, I did teach for a community college part time for a little while, but I don't know if that qualified me to participate in the defined plan if I ever got enough service credits.

Folks wonder why people get cynical about politics and government, stuff like this doesn't help.

OneMan

FYI

If I can't substantiate the source of a copy of a letter or something along those lines, I am not going to let the comment go up.

The comments are moderated, and submitting the same comment over and over again does not improve your chances of getting it up.

It isn't the comments about Tom that prevent the comment from going up it's the letter.

Thanks

OneMan

Does the Citizen Participation Act mean anything goes?

The Beacon Blog had a reference to a Chicago Reader story about how Planned Parenthood was trying to use the new Citizen Participation Act to argue...

From the Chicago Reader

 But leading the list is the assertion that the Citizen Participation Act gives Planned Parenthood "absolute immunity against plaintiffs' claims." That's because the organization was campaigning for local political support, and the CAP -- to quote it -- provides that "acts in furtherance of the constitutional rights to petition, speech, association, and participation in government . . . are immune from liability, regardless of intent or purpose" (emphasis from Planned Parenthood's attorney, Alan Gilbert of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal)

So are they arguing that anything goes?  So you can lie, libel and slander until you are blue in the face?  If so and that turns out to be the case then you are in the free an clear?  

That could have made the whole argument over the third high school a lot more interesting. 

Does it mean that you could slander some school board member or elected official and then argue, hey it was in act in furtherance of my constitutional right to petition so even though I may have trashed someone unfairly and ruined his life it's all cool....  Good luck finding school board members down the road if this is in fact the case.

Suffice to say if this turns out to be the case look for the leg to rewrite the law. 

I am looking forward to some MSM coverage on this.

OneMan

From the state senate to...

Well it looks like in less than 6 years Senator Obama will have gone from the Illinois State Senate to being the Democratic nominee for president.

Am I the only one who has seen the Illinois State Senate in action who finds this a bit mind blowing?

The toughest job you will ever dread

I don't know if it is a good sign or a bad sign that the position of press secretary for Governor Blagojevich is listed on career builder.

Additional skills needed:

The ability to keep tabs on Rich Miller

Know how to look up synonyms for unrelated and coincidence.

Finally the ability to say "He isn't public official A" with a straight face

Leadership vs. Politics

vs.

Go Speed Racer Go....

I know SCAM warned me about the risks related to the Speed Racer movie but I went to see it with OneSon (who is 7) last weekend when it came out.

I have to say it was not Citizen Cain, it was a bit long and a bit too colorful. 

But it was a fun movie, and OneSon really enjoyed it.

OneMan

The Incumbent Protection Act of 2007

I have blogged before about how giving the option of not having a 'primary' round during non-partisan elections impacts the Aurora Mayors race. 

However I would also argue it provides a huge additional benefit of providing cover so it is easier to for a incumbent to stay in power...

Lets say you have a mayor race someplace where about 60% of the town wants to get rid of the mayor lets say they were not happy about a referendum, change in traffic patterns, garbage pick-up etc. However two other candidates run for office besides the sitting mayor, so the sitting mayor gets 40%, candidate one gets 35% and candidate two gets 25%.  Or you even have 4 candidates, the sitting mayor ends up with a huge advantage. If he goes head to head with someone he is going to lose, but with enough other candidates, he really can't lose. 

Even using aldermanic elections, I don't know if the law applies to the city of Chicago, but imagine how much harder it would make getting rid of a sitting alderman in the city.  

There is one case where it could actually make life a lot harder for a sitting incumbent, that is within an aldermanic race in Aurora.  Lets say you want to defeat an alderman because you didn't like how he voted/acted in the whole clinic thing.  You get 4 candidates in the race, but make one the obvious anti-clinic candidate and have the anti-clinic forces work hard for that candidate. You then also work to just increase the sitting alderman's negatives some, that will make some folks stay home and some folks vote for the other candidate. You also get the other candidates to be single issue on other hot button issues. Lets say traffic and crime, so they start to pull votes of the incumbent as well.  Since an aldermanic race can really be impacted by turnout or the lack thereof  you can get turnout up for the other candidates and down for the alderman.  All you need is one of your candidates to beat him and you win.  You couldn't have beat him on a single issue but with enough candidates you could. 

Regardless it changes the math. 

OneMan

So you want to be mayor of Aurora...

Well with the current set of candidates I think there is an opportunity to do so.

Why,   well assume for a minute that 30% of the voters will vote for Tom regardless and 30% will vote for someone besides Tom regardless. 

So you basically need to get about 30% of the vote to have a shot.

First and foremost you need to get a fifth candidate in the race or get the number back down to three (since you would make the fourth candidate).  With four and only four it is going to be too hard to beat Tom's built in incumbency with 5 you can get to a second round against a Tom.

So then to get enough to make it to a second round you need to appeal to a non-traditional base in Aurora.

You could:

 Be very immigrant friendly (sanctuary city)

 Be very immigrant unfriendly (police check your status) -- bigger risk with this one.

 Try and appeal to 'new Aurora' that is the far east, west and south sides. 

There are a few others as well.

OneMan

Yes I realize it is Rush and not everyone is a Rush fan, but hey it is about the Space Shuttle.

As the Beacon Reported 

AURORA -- Call it Mayoral Showdown 2009. Maybe.

A new law buried in a lengthy state Senate bill approved last year eliminates the need for election authorities, such as the Aurora Election Commission, to hold primaries in nonpartisan elections where four or fewer candidates are involved. Previously, that number was two.

They also reported today that it Tom Weisner is going to run for re-election.  Assuming the Election Commission is going to follow the law, this makes the race for mayor a lot different.

Why, well under the 'old' system you just had to make it to the second round, so the key in this race in some ways was to be the not-tom candidate.  If Tom failed to get 50% of the vote the first time around, you would have had a decent shot of winning in the second round.

So does this mean Rick and Stephanie are toast, no it doesn't it just means they are running a bit of a different race.  Another option would be to get two more candidates in the race and that could happen. We have had 'other' candidates run before we had 5 last time. All someone would need to get a couple more folks in the race (not all that hard) and still force a second round.

Moment of disclosure here, I did spend an hour once about 3 months ago considering running for mayor myself. Decided not to do it for a whole host of reasons.

The Beacon Blog sort of makes the point about the cost savings but I don't think you really see a big cost savings unless every race in town avoids the first round. 

Another question, do we want a mayor who got 35% of the vote.

Finally I think it is interesting that...

Those wishing to attend Weisner's campaign announcement must register first,

Funny Rick and Stephanie didn't have that requirement.   Regardless OneMan may still go.

Well I have to admit, it is a bit disconcerting to see something I shared using Google Reader on someone else's shared items with a note from you saying 'shared by you' .

Cool however as well...

OneMan  

Lots of stuff going on, sorry for the blog pause. Things should be back to normal shortly.

Well some more thoughts about tech and Illinois politics.

One things that is really different between federal and state is fundraising. 

Since we don't have the limits that the feds do, I think a large number of the advantages that on-line fundraising provides federal candidates (like Obama) go out the window because just a few large donors can match a host of small donors.  When all of your donors are limited  you need a larger donor base than when you can have folks give you 25K.  

There are some list building and momentum advantages that come along with small donor fundraising but again that isn't going to be the key here for state races.

The other challenge for the state parties when it comes to the intertubes is that some of the really good lists (for example motivated folks on gun control because of a specific bill) are going to be in the hands of folks who manage blogs and e-mail lists. Not just the traditional organizations that have had that data (via membership and the rest) will have access to this data and will be the ones who decided to share (or not) with candidates and parties.

Still more to come

OneMan

Rich had a link to a PJ Star story about bloggers and the intertubes and politics...

I think the last 2 presidential cycles have shown the value of the net as a political tool for communications and fund raising. 

As for Steve Brown's comments 

“Democrats do more face to face interaction and real people meeting with real people. That’s what provides energy to efforts like campaigns,” Brown said.

That may be the case, but I suspect the real issue is the risk that you can lose control of the message and even the party.  

Because in Illinois I would argue the most effective users of the net are generally the folks on the edges of the political parties, the folks who complain about the Republicans being to liberal and the Democrats being too conservative. 

The very definition of the net is the distribution of information and computing power.  The tradition of both parties in Illinois has been keeping power in the hands of the relative few. That every party activist with a bee in their bonnet  about an issue (be in gun control or who their national committeeman is) had a hard time communicating with other folks who may have had the same feelings, letters and phone calls cost money. Blogs and e-mail really don't. Look at the folks over at Illinois Reason and Illinois Review. They are both able to communicate with their readers with a freedom and speed unimaginable just a few years ago.  

That's a game changer for the established party structures in this state.  Look at what the Ron Paul folks have been able to do at some of the state conventions, imagine that kind of thing starting to happen here.  

Imagine a groundswell of  anti-Blago opinion within the activist groups of the Democratic party, they get organized and start pushing for impeachment.  Using the web to organize groups to pressure various state reps and senators.  

The first step is the tools that are now in the hands of every committeeman and party activist, once folks figure out how to really use them. Then the quiet voices in the wilderness have a much easier time finding those other voices to make up the choir.

More on this to come.

Not to seem as if I am channeling SCAM.   But please stay in the race Senator Clinton....

My guess is that when closing arguments are given in the Rezko case look for a major announcement from the governor. 

OneMan

Regardless of how the Indiana primary ends up (it looks like it may be Clinton by a nose) I did notice something rather interesting from my travels in the Hoosier state this past weekend.

After driving over 300 miles in Indiana including over 200 miles on route 30, I saw one yard sign for a presidential candidate and it was for Clinton in Fort Wayne.

Just have to admit I was a bit surprised by that. 

The Washington Post argues that getting 'tossed under the bus' is an overused cliché. I would say it is a way of life in Illinois.

OneMan

The Hillary as Darth Vader works for me....

Well we were in Fort Wayne for a wedding on the way home we decided to see the Lincoln Museum since it is closing on June 30th.  On our way we see they were setting up for a candidate rally, since figured it would be my only chance this cycle to give the kids a chance to see all of the other stuff that surounds a rally (like the security, protesters, etc) we decided to go.

So after a couple of hours we got to see

Suffice to say OneMan did not wear the Obama sticker offered to him and at one point wanted to chant McCain,  I was also likely the only guy with a W sticker on his car.

The kids had fun and learned something so that was good.

OneMan

Sometimes you have to just look at things with a sense of humor.
Alderman Rick Lawrence paid $300 to a charity auction so his daughter could be 'mayor or a day'.  Alderman Lawrence is also running for mayor.

But Weisner replied, "It is sad to think that a candidate might use their children to play political games. This was meant to help a charity and educate a child. Nonetheless, Alderman Lawrence's daughter, herself, is welcome to participate."

Well I have to admit it actually strikes me as kind of funny, the school he gave some money to got the money and the mayor could have looked good by playing along instead of seeming a bit petty.

Also OneMan once purchased a bunch of ticket for 'Have lunch with the Mayor'  at his daughters school for comedic effect.

OneMan