Author: Newsdesk

Posted by Ray Long at 9:15 p.m.



SPRINGFIELD—Shortly after a speech to supporters in Springfield tonight, Republican governor candidate Kirk Dillard learned his father had died.



Edward Dillard, 82, taught at Hinsdale Central High School, where he was as a longtime baseball coach. He died at home.



"While my dad has not been in the greatest of health, it’s still always a shock to lose your father," state Sen. Kirk Dillard said.

Dillard’s spokeswoman put out a statement tonight saying Dillard was suspending his weekend downstate swing so he could be home in Hinsdale with his mother and other family members.



Before he left the Springfield event, Dillard said "you never expect your father to ever pass away. You think that he’s an invincible guy."



Edward Dillard had battled colon cancer and a broken hip, the senator said.

Posted by Rick Pearson and Monique Garcia at 4:40 p.m.

A heated tossup race for the Democratic nomination for governor escalated along racial lines today as Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes traded charges of incompetence fueled by the scandal at Burr Oak cemetery and a TV ad featuring the late Mayor Harold Washington.



Quinn was joined by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush today to criticize Hynes, the state’s three–term comptroller. Quinn alleged that Hynes knew for years about disinterred human remains at Burr Oak, a predominantly African-American cemetery near Alsip.



Hynes, however, said Quinn is “trying to fan the flames” of anger in the black community over the alleged reselling of grave sites and dumped human remains at the cemetery in order to keep his job as governor.

The African-American vote traditionally is a crucial voting bloc for Democratic candidates and had been one of the last vestiges of support for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich prior to his ouster a year ago, when Quinn was elevated to the post. Quinn and Hynes are scheduled to spend Sunday on the city’s South and West Sides attending churches with large African-American congregations.

At issue on the Burr Oak controversy are two documents: an internal corporate memo involving the cemetery owners and a later letter from Hynes’ office to the cemetery owners. Each document uses the term “human remains,” but in different context. Hynes’ office oversees cemetery trust finances.



A Friday night report on WLS-Ch. 7 detailed what it described as a 2003 internal corporate memo in which the Burr Oak chief executive in charge of the cemetery at the time allegedly noted that its previous owners had buried over or cleared out old graves for new ones and expressed concern that older human remains had been dumped.



A separate 2004 letter from Hynes’ comptroller office to the same Burr Oak executive noted that the cemetery owner wanted to construct a mausoleum on the grounds, but in the process of excavation had found human remains. The Hynes’ letter instructs the cemetery to contact the state’s Historic Preservation Agency or the state’s cemetery association.



Quinn has seized on both documents, tying them together to allege that the issue of grave re-selling and dumping of human remains was known to Hynes’ office as a result of the comptroller’s memo. Hynes said the two documents were unrelated and that it would not be unusual for excavation in a century-old cemetery to unearth human remains in an area not previously charted.



Following a get-out-the-vote rally with members of the Service Employees’ International Union, Quinn alleged Hynes knew of improper disposal of human remains and didn’t do anything about it.



“They were given specific information that they knew, that they acknowledge there were human remains not properly disposed of at the cemetery,” Quinn said. “Now the proper thing to do would have been to immediately investigate that, as he did with other cemeteries in Illinois, but they decided not to do anything. And I think they owe the people an explanation for why not and an apology for not acting properly.”

 

Rush, an African-American congressman from the South Side, said Hynes’ failure to act earlier was a disservice to the black community.

 

“He was so uncaring, so callous, so cavalier that he didn’t even lift a finger. Didn’t bat an eye, didn’t do anything,” Rush said. “The gall of this man to come now to ask for our votes for governor– when he has been probably the most callous comptroller in the history of this country when it relates to the pain and suffering of our community.”



Rush was an immediate supporter of the disgraced Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, despite Blagojevich’s arrest for allegedly trying to sell the seat. At the time of the appointment of Burris, who was the first black elected to statewide office a quarter century earlier, Rush asked critics “to not hang or lynch the appointee.”



Quinn has sought to use the Burr Oak scandal for weeks in TV advertisements against Hynes to try to shore up his soft support among African-American voters. A recent Tribune poll found Quinn with 44 percent support from black voters, compared to 40 percent for Hynes — percentages that were identical to the overall statewide poll. The poll had an error margin of 4 percentage points.



But Quinn’s attempts to draw linkage between the cemetery firm’s internal memo and the comptroller’s office memo on Burr Oak also are a way to respond to Hynes’ TV advertising that shows the late Harold Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor. The ad, using footage from a 1987 interview, shows Washington calling Quinn incompetent and saying it was a mistake that Quinn was hired as city revenue director in his administration.



“If anybody asks, why should I vote on Tuesday, what’s a stake? I’ll tell you what’s at stake,” Quinn said. “Which way is our state going to go? Are we going to go backwards? Are we going to go back to those days in the 1980s when people were divided against each other? I don’t think so.”

 

Quinn’s campaign has noted that Hynes’ father, former Cook County assessor and state Senate president Tom Hynes, a powerful 19th Ward Democrat, briefly left the party to try to mount a mayoral campaign against Washington. Hynes has said Washington’s words speak to Quinn’s competency to hold office and are not aimed at racial and political divides that existed during Washington’s tenure.

From the print edition:



By Michelle Manchir and Ray Long

Tribune reporters



Tuesday’s primary election won’t change the balance of the legislature, but most hard-fought Democratic primaries for House and Senate seats in Chicago will determine who goes to Springfield next year.



Winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory in the fall general election, making the local legislative races high-stakes. Candidates listed on the palm cards carry great weight. Ward-by-ward turnouts count more than a candidate’s philosophy. And state government’s budget crisis means less to a voter than how the recession hurts a single family.



"The feedback I get is, ‘I need a job,’" said Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Chicago, running for another two-year term in a Southwest Side district that stretches into McCook.

He faces challenger Terrence Collins, a Chicago police officer and lawyer who paused from knocking on doors to say he was "doing all I can do" to win.



But Zalewski has far better funding as well as the clout and backing of the 23rd Ward, where his father is alderman.



Also on the Southwest Side, veteran Rep. Dan Burke, the brother of Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, is facing his strongest challenge from Rudy Lozano Jr., the son of the slain political activist Rudy Lozano, in a largely Hispanic district.



Nearby, the fight over an open seat has Evergreen Park’s Michael Macellaio getting support from House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. Also in the hunt is attorney Kelly Burke, the president of Evergreen Park Public Library Board. She is not related to the alderman or the state lawmaker with the same last name.



A West Side race that has heated up features Rep. Annazette Collins of Chicago against longtime environmental and public interest advocate Jonathan Goldman.



In a Northwest Side race that features two openly gay candidates, Rep. Deborah Mell, the daughter of 33rd Ward Ald. Dick Mell, is running for re-election with her father’s organization at full stride. She faces a challenge from part-time <runtime:topic id="OREDU0000199">Columbia College</runtime:topic> teacher Joe Laiacona, an author of books on bondage and sadomasochism.



On the North Side, departing Rep. John Fritchey has endorsed Dan Farley, an attorney and the son of former Sen. Bruce Farley, who pleaded guilty a dozen years ago to ghost payrolling. Also running are attorney Ann Williams, a former aide to Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and attorney Ed Mullen.



In the Senate, Sen. Heather Steans faces challenger Jim Madigan, an attorney, in a North Side race. And an open Northwest Side seat vacated by retiring veteran Sen. James DeLeo includes four candidates: John Mulroe, an attorney and accountant; Thomas Ryan, a real estate broker; Wanda Majcher, former director of the Copernicus Foundation; and Mary Sendra Anselmo, a former teacher and now an official for the Cook County circuit clerk.



Unlike other Democrats, the winner of the DeLeo seat will be in a general election donnybrook, facing veteran Ald. Brian Doherty, 41st, a Republican.



Competitors for an open House seat in Evansto include Eamon Kelly, an attorney who once served as chief of staff at the state Board of Education and as an aide in ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration; attorneys Edmund Moran Jr. and Jeff Smith; law student Patrick Keenan-Devlin; and Robyn Gabel, director of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition.



In the north suburbs, appointed incumbent Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, is challenged by Elliott Hartstein, village president of Buffalo Grove. On the Republican side, attorney Dan Sugrue and businessman Mohan Manian are facing Cynthia Hebda, an early-education teacher and Vernon Hills trustee. Hebda, who is preferred by the House Republican leadership, won a Supreme Court ruling to stay on the ballot last week.



In the far north suburbs, Republican Rep. Sandy Cole of Grayslake faces challenger Paul Mitchell of Hainesville, a computer developer and consultant.



In the northwest suburbs, Rep. Suzanne Bassi, R-Palatine, is running a hard-fought race against Palatine businessman Thomas Morrison.



"It’s tight. It’s tight," Bassi said. "The biggest problem is everybody thinks they want change, and change is not always for the better."

From the print edition:

Democratic incumbents in unusual spot

Quinn and Stroger trying to fight off slew of challengers and charges

By Rick Pearson Tribune reporter

Gov. Pat Quinn and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger find
themselves in the rare spot of being incumbents battling to hang onto
their jobs when voters decide in Tuesday’s primary whether opponents’
charges of incompetence are valid.

At the top of the ballot, Democratic and Republican voters will pick
U.S. Senate candidates, setting the stage for an expensive,
nationally-watched contest for the seat once held by President Barack
Obama.





Attack ads dominate the three highest-profile races. Whether the
monthlong barrage works may provide an indicator of the public’s
appetite — or distaste — for politics following a year in which ex-
Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and Obama’s first-year agenda has
been marred by the recession and intense partisanship that belied his
campaign promise of change.

With several contests in the tossup category, about the only thing more
uncertain than the outcomes is whether the number on the thermometer
Tuesday will exceed the voter turnout percentage for the first
non-presidential February primary elections in Illinois. That factor
puts the premium on better-organized candidates who have put together a
get-out-the-vote ground game.





Traditionally, only die-hard partisans — about 28 percent of voters —
cast ballots in mid-term primary elections. In 2006, only about a
quarter of the state’s registered voters turned out when Republicans
had a heated battle for governor — and that primary was in March.
Candidates expect that despite a rise in registered voters to 7.5
million, turnout will be even less than four years ago.





A total of 79,850 people voted early in Chicago and suburban Cook,
election officials said. That’s about double the total when early
voting launched in the March 2006 primary. But it’s down significantly
from the more than 132,000 early ballots cast in the February 2008
primary, when favorite-son Obama was on the ballot.





The early election has led to a compressed, post-holiday month of
campaigning. TV commercials among the candidates for governor have
resembled mini-debates — one candidate attacks a rival, only to see the
fire returned 30 seconds later when the next ad airs.





Mailboxes have been stuffed with political fliers and answering machines have been filling with automated telephone pitches.





"Do these candidates really think the average voter is going to be
swayed by a stupid phone call?" said Gayle Siegert, an Elburn real
estate agent who has been getting about a half-dozen phone calls a day
— from Democrats and Republicans — to her unlisted home office phone.





"It is the junk mail (of telephone calls)," said Siegert, who said she
jots down the name of the offending campaign and vows not to vote for
the candidate. "In the course of life, this is a mere irritant. … But
it’s something that’s annoying and we find it offensive and rude."





To be sure, the candidates’ rhetoric often has been blunt — not in
describing what they’d do if elected, but in assailing their rivals’
qualifications.





Quinn, who took office a year ago after the disgraced Blagojevich was
ousted, has seen what was once an insurmountable lead vaporized.
Comptroller Dan Hynes has not let up in his withering criticism of the
unelected governor’s competence in stumbling over an early inmate
release program and an income-tax hike plan.





Hynes worked to pound home that theme in an ad showing the late Mayor
Harold Washington saying he made a mistake hiring Quinn as his city
revenue director. For a week, Quinn has contended Hynes’ use of
Washington is an attempt to create racial divisions. Quinn said the
comptroller should be "ashamed" for the ad when Hynes’ father sought at
one time to run against Washington, the city’s first African-American
mayor.





On the Republican side, the six-way governor’s race also has displayed
stinging attacks but little clarity in terms of a front-runner.





The contest between state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington and Kirk
Dillard of Hinsdale, former Attorney General Jim Ryan, former state GOP
chairman Andy McKenna, Hinsdale transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski
and Chicago political consultant Dan Proft has been an attempt to label
those with political and governmental experience as insiders and those
who are outsiders as inexperienced.





In Cook, the Democratic board president primary represents a referendum
on Stroger’s first term following controversies over patronage hiring
and his successful push for a hike in the county sales tax.





With polls showing deep voter dissatisfaction with Stroger, Democrats
Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, and Terrence
O’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, each
have pledged to do away with the remainder of the sales tax increase.





There also are the primaries for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by
tarnished Blagojevich appointee Sen. Roland Burris. Treasurer Alexi
Giannoulias has been the front-runner, but finds himself in a fluid
contest with former Chicago inspector general David Hoffman and former
Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson.





Among Republicans, five-term North Shore U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has held a
commanding lead over several challengers who have failed to get into
the double digits, percentagewise, though there are still a sizable
number of undecided voters.





Regardless, it may be difficult for any candidate to count on TV ads this weekend to put them over the top.





"There are candidates for a variety of offices on TV (and) plenty of
commercials," said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at
University of Illinois- Springfield. "I’ve never seen this much
clutter."

Posted by Todd Lighty at 9:40 p.m.; updated Saturday at 5:27 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley’s administration has put up “stiff resistance” to the inspector general’s attempts to fully investigate and root out political favoritism in city hiring, according to a new report filed Friday in federal court.

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s report, which concluded “the dangers of political hiring remain real and constant,” comes as Daley is pushing this year to end court oversight of the city’s scandal-plagued hiring system.

Ferguson said his investigations into hiring abuses have been hampered because Daley’s top lawyer routinely invokes attorney-client privilege to stop him from obtaining crucial documents; the mayor’s compliance office does not share key information; and the city has failed to discipline employees involved in illegal hiring practices.

In his report, Ferguson suggested a city ordinance that bars him from investigating alderman be lifted. He said the ordinance has prevented him from looking into a Tribune report in November that aldermen had put family members, campaign operatives and others with political connections on a stealth taxpayer-funded payroll.

“This prohibition poses a severe obstacle to and gaping hole in any comprehensive effort to curtail improper political influence in hiring,” he said in the report.

He concluded the court should stay involved in city hiring “until the operational resistance has been ameliorated and the broad risks have been significantly reduced.”

A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said she had not seen the report and had no immediate comment. On Saturday, Daley dismissed the report as limited to one issue and not an indictment of City Hall’s overall relationship with Ferguson’s office.

The inspector general’s office in November sued Daley’s top lawyer, Mara Georges, after she refused to turn over subpoenaed documents, citing attorney-client privilege.

Ferguson, in an interview, said he believed the city could fix those key areas to achieve “substantial compliance,” the legal threshold for getting out from under court control. “The mayor has a critical role in reinforcing the importance of cooperation of all employees in moving the city toward substantial compliance,” he said.

Ferguson’s critical report follows one filed in December by Noelle Brennan, the court monitor. She alleged the mayor’s Office of Compliance, which would take over her duties once the court case ends, violated hiring regulations and misled her about efforts to deal with hiring abuses.

City Hall is operating under a decades-long consent decree aimed at keeping politics out of most personnel decisions. The judge in that case appointed Brennan in 2005 after federal authorities accused Daley’s patronage chief and others of circumventing that decree by rigging hiring to reward the mayor’s political allies with jobs, promotions and overtime.

According to Ferguson’s report, the inspector general found favoritism in the hiring of student interns. Investigators looked at intern hiring in seven departments from 2005 to 2008. The office found that about half of the 900 interns who got jobs had connections to city employees and a number of the connected interns later were hired into full-time city jobs.

Ferguson found that interns “were pre-selected based on their connection to a city employee, and in instances, the hiring criteria was tailored for the desired candidate.”

[email protected]

Posted by Rick Pearson at 7:56 p.m.

Former state Republican chairman Andy McKenna has now poured more than $2 million in family money into his Republican governor bid, campaign disclosure documents show.



McKenna has now put $2.075 million in cash into his campaign through loans made by his wife, Mary, during January. The latest was a $365,000 loan dated Tuesday. The personal funds represent the bulk of the nearly $3 million that McKenna has reported in donations since the first of the year.

Through the family money, McKenna, the president of Schwarz Supply Source, is far and away the largest cash recipient among Republicans this month, state records show. Next on the list is state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, with $707,388 in receipts since Jan. 1.



McKenna’s rivals contend McKenna is trying to buy the nomination and avoid debating them. McKenna’s campaign has said the candidate appeared at earlier forums and had scheduling conflicts that prevented him from appearing at recent debates.



Spending a few million dollars for public office is nothing new for McKenna. He put $2.4 million in personal funds into a failed 2004 bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 4:44 p.m.

Democratic President Barack Obama today spoke to U.S. House Republicans in Baltimore and took note of how bipartisanship can cause some sticky issues by citing the current Republican governor’s contest in Illinois.

The issue came up as Obama fielded a question from U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, a former Illinois Senate colleague of Obama. The president noted how he and Roskam “did work together effectively on a whole host of issues.”

Then Obama said to Roskam that “one of our former colleagues is right now running for governor on the Republican side in Illinois” — a reference to state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale.



“In the Republican primary, of course, they’re running ads of him saying nice things about me,” Obama said. “Poor guy.”



The president was referring to TV attack ads being aired by former state Republican Chairman Andy McKenna of Chicago. McKenna cites Dillard’s appearance in a 2007 TV ad on behalf of Obama’s presidential candidacy during the Iowa caucuses. The McKenna ad asks if Dillard “is really who he thought he was.”



Dillard, a former DuPage County GOP chairman, has run into frequent criticism for the ads, which he said he did as a friend to speak to Obama’s bipartisanship in the state legislature. But Dillard also was elected as a 2008 delegate for unsuccessful Republican presidential contender, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and has criticized the president’s social agenda.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 12:40 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn marked the one year anniversary of his ascension to the state’s top office by joining Mayor Richard Daley and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin this morning to highlight $1.2 billion Illinois is getting in high-speed rail money.

Speaking at Chicago’s Union Station, Quinn said he couldn’t think of a better anniversary gift than an influx of cash from the federal government. The money, which the Obama administration set aside in the stimulus package, will be used to cut the travel time on the Chicago to St. Louis rail line.

The ceremony capped a week of feel-good announcements by Quinn, who in the run up to Tuesday’s primary is trying to stress his accomplishments since taking over for the impeached and removed Rod Blagojevich. Quinn faces Comptroller Dan Hynes in the Democratic governor primary and a Tribune poll taken last week shows Hynes has cut into what was once considerable lead for Quinn. Hynes has hammered on a campaign theme that Quinn is incompetent.



Quinn has had a sometimes difficult first year as governor, but said today that he thinks he has done a good job steering the state following Blagojevich. Quinn twice served as Blagojevich’s running mate.



“I think it’s a good job performance, I think the voters will say the same thing on Tuesday,” Quinn said. “You’ve got to put your heart and soul into this job and my heart is ever at the service of the people of Illinois.”



Quinn said that the rail is a good representation of his time in office because he had to bring several parties together to ensure Illinois got its piece of the stimulus pie.



“Today is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Quinn said. “We had to work with the federal government, with local mayors like Mayor Daley. We had to work with our unions and businesses, everybody was here today. That’s what Illinois at its best can do. When people work together we can create jobs and make a better future.”

From the Breaking News Center:

A federal appeals court in Chicago today overturned the probation sentence given to former Ald. Edward
Vrdolyak and ordered his resentencing by a different judge. Vrdolyak
now faces faces a likely prison term.



The 7th Circuit U.S. Court
of appeals signaled in December that it had problems with the probation
sentence imposed on Vrdolyak by U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur.

For more of Jeff Coen’s story, please click here.

Posted by Tribune staff at 5 a.m.

A look at what’s going on in Illinois politics on Friday:

*Gov. Pat Quinn continues his campaign theme of construction and jobs just a few days before Tuesday’s primary by appearing with Mayor Richard Daley and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield at Union Station this morning. They’ll talk about Illinois’ high-speed rail funding. While the trio of politicians are likely to sing Washington’s praises, Illinois is getting less money than some anticipated.

*Quinn’s Democratic governor rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes is set to announce endorsements from African-American leaders this morning. The campaign event comes after Thursday’s encounter between Quinn and Hynes on a radio station that’s popular in the African-American community.

*On the Republican side of the governor’s contest, Adam Andrzejewski is scheduled to formally get the endorsement of Poland President Lech Walesa at a fundraiser.

*Chicago Board of Elections officials will hold a morning event to brief the media on the finer points of Tuesday’s primary. They’ll talk about early voting numbers, voter registration totals on ward-by-ward basis and some new software they say is in place for this election, among other things.

*Today marks one year to the day that the Illinois Senate voted to remove Rod Blagojevich from the governor’s office.

Posted by Monique Garcia and David Heinzmann at 7:40 p.m.



The two Democratic governor candidates today met face-to-face for the final time before Tuesday’s primary election, with Comptroller Dan Hynes coming under fire from both Gov. Pat Quinn and a radio host over a controversial TV ad featuring the late Mayor Harold Washington.



Appearing on the “Cliff Kelley Show” on WVON 1690-AM, the governor again accused Hynes of using decades-old footage of Washington, Chicago’s first African-American mayor, criticizing Quinn to turn black voters against him.



The radio show host seized on that idea when he asked Hynes the purpose of the ad, in which Washington says he fired Quinn as City Hall revenue director because Quinn was more concerned with public relations than effective management.

“Was the intent to try to divide the black community or to draw votes from people who are racist and didn’t want Washington in office in the first place?” said Kelley, who frequently sided with Quinn and talked about their mutual past work on issues.



Hynes countered that he ran the ad to “explain to people that the governor’s inability to solve problems and his lack of competence is not just a one-time situation.”



Quinn used the live radio show to again question Hynes’ involvement with his father’s 1987 mayoral bid against Washington. Tom Hynes, 19th Ward power broker, made his third-party bid at a time of great racial tension in Chicago politics.



“I’d rather lose the race for governor than divide the people of Illinois along race,” Quinn said. “That’s what my opponent is doing.”



Quinn also repeatedly ticked off the names of prominent black elected officials who have endorsed him to demonstrate his support in the African-American community, a key source of Democratic votes.



Hynes asked if anyone was “keeping track of how many names the governor drops.”



At times, Hynes appeared frustrated at the amount of time Quinn was given to respond to questions, at one point asking Kelley off-air if he could respond to a “10 minute monologue” Quinn gave on job creation. Kelley answered "no, you can’t," though Hynes later cut in.



Afterward, Quinn declared the exchange the “most substantive” discussion of issues yet. Asked if it was because he got more favorable air time, Quinn laughed before state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, interjected.



“Well, he’s home here,” Trotter said. “No doubt about it.”

Posted by John Chase at 6:08 p.m.



Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias tried to dampen criticism today of what role he may have played in causing problems at the family bank where he worked before being elected state treasurer.



But on more than one occasion, Giannoulias didn’t answer direct questions about which loans he approved while chief loan officer at Broadway Bank that have since gone bad.



“We’ll have plenty of time to get into that,” Giannoulias said at a hastily-called news conference.

With five days left before the primary election, Giannoulias’ opponents have made his experience and decision-making at Broadway Bank a major issue. The struggling bank, which was founded by Giannoulias’ father and is still run by one of his brothers, reached a consent order this week with federal regulators that requires it to receive more oversight.

The bank is suffering in part from bad loans that haven’t been paid back and from being undercapitalized. Giannoulias was chief loan officer at Broadway from 2002 through 2006, when he left to run for treasurer.

After today’s news conference, a spokeswoman said that Giannoulias doesn’t know which loans may have contributed to the bank’s problems because he hasn’t been involved in the bank’s day-to-day operations since he left.

Giannoulias quickly organized the news conference to answer criticisms raised by U.S. Senate rival David Hoffman, who earlier highlighted the consent order Broadway reached with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Hoffman said the consent order raises questions about Giannoulias’ experience and what he described as Giannoulias’ inability to accept responsibility for his actions.

“(Broadway Bank’s) decisions, including the decisions at the time he was there as the chief loan officer, are the reason that the bank is in such trouble,” Hoffman said.

In addition, Hoffman said the bank is in trouble because of $86 million in payouts that were made to Giannoulias and other family members who own the bank. About $70 million went directly to the family members — $2.5 million to Giannoulias himself. The other $16 million went to pay off a loan, a Giannoulias campaign spokeswoman said today.



Giannoulias has said the payouts were triggered by the 2006 death of his father, Alexis, who founded the bank and whose will called for estate and income taxes to be paid with dividend payments from the sale of Broadway shares. His family still owns the bank, which is run by one of his brothers.



Giannoulias, who has addressed some of the problems at Broadway in the past, said today that more than 700 banks have made similar agreements with the FDIC and reiterated the bank was heavily involved in real estate loans.

“Over the last four years a lot of the real estate market has just had some enormous challenges and while I haven’t been there for four years it’s a family institution and I hope that they can fight through and make it through,” he said.

Democratic Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson, who is holding a fundraising concert tonight with Lupe Fiasco, has called on Giannoulias to exit the contest.

Posted by Hal Dardick and Robert Becker at 5:50 p.m.

Attack ads are a staple of politics, but one of the four Democratic candidates for Cook County Board president is accusing another of stepping over the legal line with his TV commercial.

In a defamation lawsuit filed today, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown asks a judge to order Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien, his campaign and its chairman to pay her $1.25 million in damages for this accusation in a TV commercial: “Ethically challenged Dorothy Brown forced employees to give her cash gifts.”



Last summer, the Tribune published a story about Brown receiving annual birthday and Christmas gifts, including cash, from her employees. Brown said she would discontinue the practice, adding that the gifts were voluntary and did not affect personnel decisions.

Attorney Adam Lasker, who filed the defamation suit, did not dispute that Brown had received gifts but said the O’Brien campaign went too far when it stated as fact that employees were “forced” to give them. “This very clear and simple language states as  a matter of fact that she did something she has never done,” Lasker said.

In response, the O’Brien campaign said stories about “Brown pocketing cash from her employees have been in the headlines for years now." But the campaign declined to talk about the lawsuit, saying they haven’t seen it yet.

Brown and O’Brien are joined by Board President Todd Stroger and Chicago Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for county board president.

Also today, Stroger released his tax returns after challenging his opponents to do the same. All declined after dismissing his announcement as a campaign ploy by
a candidate who was last in a recent Tribune poll and behind all three
of his opponents in fundraising.

As expected, the returns for 2007 and 2008 showed that the income of Stroger and his wife, Jeanine, comes entirely from government payrolls. Stroger gets about $138,500 for his job, and his wife was paid about $55,000 each year as a part-time deputy director for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

In the 2007 return, they also reported income from pensions and annuities of about $80,000. Stroger has said a “deferred compensation plan withdrawal” led to a higher tax bill, which in turn resulted in a federal tax lien being placed on his home last year.

When Stroger announced Wednesday that he would release his taxes, he said he’s paid about half of the $12,000 in back taxes he owes.

The Stroger family returns also showed that they claimed charitable deductions of about $5,200 each year. They did not release copies of any receipts related to those deductions.

Posted by Michelle Manchir at 3:55 p.m.



SPRINGFIELD — Chicago business leaders are launching a media blitz Friday to highlight the breadth of the state’s dire budget problems under the theme "Illinois Is Broke."



The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago says it’s pouring about $1 million into a campaign through the November general election to mobilize voters and influence candidates to address the state’s fiscal woes.

The non-partisan committee wants the state to reform its method of paying for the massively underfunded state pension systems, including the enactment of a plan that would give lower benefits to new workers.



In addition, the group called for scaling back overall spending. The state’s pile of unpaid bills this year reached a record $5 billion.



The state costs for retirement benefits eats into the money that could be used to pay for basic expenses, such as money for schools, the group said.



"At the end of the day, if we don’t get it under control, there will be nothing left in the state," said Jim Farrell,  the committee’s vice chairman and former top official with Illinois Tool Works Inc.



Farrell and Eden Martin, president of the committee, said they want to involve civic and business organizations across the state in demanding from legislators more fiscal discipline.

The committee won’t endorse candidates in Tuesday’s primary, but its full-page newspaper ads ask: "Which candidates will be the best ones to fix this mess?"

The committee also is promoting a Web site, Illinoisisbroke.com, stating its case for pension reform and urging citizens to contact their state representatives with calls for a balanced budget.

The group isn’t really spelling out how the state should balance its budget, however, and it opposes a tax increase until after reforms are put in place.

Many state budget experts say a tax increase and major reforms or cuts will have to be made with the deficit expected to hit $13 billion.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 3:18 p.m.



Cheryle Jackson has spent months trying to appeal to women as the lone female candidate in the Democratic U.S. Senate race, and today she picked up a major endorsement that could help her along those lines if she can get the word out.



Jackson’s campaign sent out a fundraising email to supporters authored by Lilly Ledbetter, the now-retired supervisor of a Georgia tire manufacturing plant who sued because her pay was not the same as male supervisors. Almost a year ago, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

 

“Only 17% of U.S. Senate seats are currently held by women, less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies call women their chief executive officers, and on average women still earn only 78 cents for every dollar men earn,” Ledbetter wrote in her fundraising appeal.



“I can think of no better way to celebrate this important milestone of the Lilly Ledbetter Act’s enactment into law than electing the first woman president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League and a true champion of economic empowerment, Cheryle Jackson, to the U.S. Senate,” Ledbetter wrote.



Shortly after that fundraising appeal went out, Jackson followed up with an e-mail to supporters expressing surprise, saying she had just been “walking out of a meeting and saw this email” from Ledbetter and asking for donations to keep her TV ad on the air through the campaign’s final weekend.



As for her appeals for female support, Jackson trailed front runner state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ among likely Democratic women primary voters in a recent Tribune poll , 37 percent to 20 percent.

From the Breaking News Center:

Posted by John Byrne at 2:17 p.m.; last updated at 2:58 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley today recommended former buildings commissioner Mary Richardson-Lowry as his pick to be the new president of the Chicago Board of Education.

Daley called the appointment "bittersweet" because she will replace Michael Scott, a close friend of the mayor who committed suicide in November.

Richardson-Lowry is Daley’s former building commissioner and assistant corporation counsel and is an attorney with Mayer Brown.

She pledged to review district spending as one of her first orders of business, including the appropriate use of board credit cards.

Scott had been the subject of an internal investigation into spending
at the school board that included Scott’s use of his taxpayer-paid
credit card for thousands of dollars in meals, travel and other
expenses. The Tribune previously had disclosed that Scott improperly
used his board credit card to pay for a trip last fall to Copenhagen to
lobby for Daley’s failed bid for the Summer 2016 Olympics.




Scott died Nov. 16 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Daley said that he will tell her to get to the bottom of accusations that there have been "spending improprieties at the board."

 

"I’d ask Mary to immediately get on top of this so all our taxpayers see that they are all protected," Daley said. "There cannot be any question about this. Taxpayers must be protected at all times, at every level. They must have the confidence in the board, Chicago Public Schools spending policies and priorities. This includes managers, board members and executives."

 

While reiterating his friendship with Scott, Daley said he does not "condone any misuse of taxpayers’ money by anyone, no matter who it is."

 

Richardson-Lowry said she would need to "look at the issue" of board credit card use before taking a position on appropriate action going forward.

 

"I will be curious to hear what their perspective is on the needs for those cards," Richardson-Lowry said.

A product of public schools in Compton, Calif., Richardson-Lowry said it is important to create "a safe environment" for children to learn.

Richardson-Lowry, 53, said it is important that she give back after her own public school upbringing.



"By all rights I should not have survived some of my early years, and I did," she said at a City Hall news conference. "Someone made an investment in me."

She joined the law firm Mayer Brown in 2002 and is a member of the
firm’s Lateral Hiring and Diversity and Inclusion committees, according
to the firm’s Web site.

In 2006, she led the transition team for then-incoming County Board President Todd Stroger.

Richardson-Lowry got her law degree from Texas Southern in 1984 and bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1981, according to her profile on the law firm’s site.

Daley formally appointed Richardson-Lowry to the school board and recommended the other members elect her president.

Daley said Richardson-Lowry will help Chicago Public Schools focus on improving student achievement at neighborhood schools and "fairly recruit students to special schools."

Posted by Michelle Manchir and David Heinzmann at 1:21 p.m.

Democratic governor candidate Dan Hynes got the endorsement of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas today.

On the Republican side of the race, state Sen. Kirk Dillard picked up the endorsement of a key central Illinois GOP organization.

The announcements come just a few days before Tuesday’s Democratic and Republican governor primaries, which a Tribune poll taken last week showed are fluid contests.

Comptroller Hynes, who is locked in a tight contest with Gov. Pat Quinn, toured Manny’s, a South Loop restaurant that’s a popular campaign trail spot, along with Pappas. The longtime county treasurer ran against Hynes in the 2004 Democratic U.S. Senate primary, which was won by then-state Sen. Barack Obama.

A beaming Pappas clutched Hynes’ arm, saying they’ve been friends for 20 years. Pappas called Hynes "a tortoise type" who takes a slow and steady approach but makes it to the finish line.

Hynes and Quinn are scheduled to debate for an hour at 4 p.m. on WVON 1690-AM. It’s expected to be an explosive hour of radio, given the rancor between the two candidates as they seek support from African-American voters.

Quinn is likely to continue to voice his complaints about Hynes’ TV ad featuring former Mayor Harold Washington and new Hynes mail piece that uses a 2008 quote from Obama to criticize Quinn’s income tax increase plan.

In Springfield, the Sangamon County Republicans endorsed Dillard, one of six candidates in the GOP governor contest.

The downstate group recognized Dillard, who’s from suburban Hinsdale, as a man with the vision to straighten out state government, which employees more than 15,000 people from the heavily Republican area.



"Sangamon County is the heart and soul of the Illinois Republican Party," Dillard said, adding that he was looking forward to becoming a full-time resident of Springfield by living in the Executive Mansion. "This is where the brain trust is."



Dillard, on a downstate campaign swing, visited the local GOP headquarters in Springfield as he headed to Bloomington to unveil an endorsement from the National Rifle Association, a follow-up to winning support of the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Posted by John Byrne at 12:47 p.m.



Mayor Richard Daley today applauded President Barack Obama for focusing on the economy in his first State of the Union speech Wednesday night.

"It’s a much more serious economy," Daley said at an event promoting winter tourism in Chicago. "I think the president last night realized that, and finally Washington has realized. The president has always realized that, but I think both parties have to come together in regards to the future of this country."

In his speech, Obama warned that the nation had developed a "deficit of trust” in
government and promised to put the public’s
top concerns — jobs and the economy — at the center of his second year in
office while continuing to press for a health care overhaul and the
rest of his stalled agenda.

Daley said today that the federal government must focus on improving the climate for businesses to create jobs.

"It’s one word — three words — jobs, jobs, jobs. Everybody knows that," Daley said. "How do you create jobs in America? It’s easier to offshore a job than to keep the job in America. Washington has to figure that out. If it’s easier to offshore a job, then what’s the purpose of keeping a job here? That’s the dilemma America has."

Posted by John Byrne at 12:22 p.m.; updated at 12:36 p.m.

A day after his aides blamed the cancellation of the city’s July 3 Grant Park fireworks extravaganza on a lack of money, Mayor Richard Daley today said cost was only a secondary consideration.

The mayor said he’s been thinking for more than a decade about spreading out the patriotic displays along the lakefront. The city now plans to hold three shorter, simultaneous fireworks shows.

"I’ve always believed in that, the past 10, 15 years, I’ve always believed in one north, one south and one downtown fireworks display would be much better," Daley said at a news conference to promote winter tourism in Chicago.

 

"It’s not about saving money, but with the amount of people, a lot of people felt like they couldn’t come because it got too crowded," he added. "So you have one on the North Side, one on the South Side and one downtown. You take all parts of the city. You get more and more people at each site."

 

Daley acknowledged many people will be unhappy about giving up the Grant Park tradition.

 

"No one likes change, but this helps people all over the city," he said.

"The North Side is part of the city and the South Side is part of the
city," the mayor added. "I
don’t think it’s separating the city. You want activities like that to
be part of the city, to get more people to enjoy, with their families,
July 4th."

 

There’s also a safety factor, Daley added, but said it has to do with people enjoying city fireworks rather than setting off their own in the neighborhoods.

 

"If they don’t have it, a lot of people will set off their own fireworks, and that’s dangerous," the mayor said.

Daley brushed off questions about public safety at the Grant Park event. It became a concern in 2008 after five people were shot
— one fatally — over the Fourth of July weekend near the Taste. This year, the city is shutting down the Taste three hours early on
July 3 and July 4. Shutting down at 6 p.m. means less money is spent on
police, fire, and Streets and Sanitation, city officials said Wednesday.


 


"Don’t think just because they’re going to the fireworks they’re all
dangerous. They’re not," Daley said today. "These are law-abiding people
enjoying it with their families. That’s what it is."

The preliminary plan is for North Side fireworks to be held around Montrose Beach and the
South Side fireworks in the vicinity of 63rd Street Beach. Another
display will light the sky over Navy Pier. People will be able to walk from their homes to fireworks displays at
Montrose Beach and 63rd Street Beach, making it more convenient, the
mayor said.