Author: Newsdesk

UPDATED AT 9:15 p.m. ; originally posted by David Heinzmann and Monique Garcia at 7:33 p.m.

In their last televised debate tonight, Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes spent most of an hour calling each other incompetent, a sign of increased tension in the final week of a tight race for the Democratic primary for governor.

While both politicians profess to have the answers for Illinois’ future, much of the rancor during the debate on WTTW-TV focused on distant history in Chicago politics. The two Chicagoans argued over Hynes’ ad featuring old television news footage of the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, explaining why he dumped Quinn as an aide.

And after Hynes vowed to fix the state’s pension system by rooting out abuses, including double dipping, Quinn accused his rival’s father, Tom Hynes, of taking multiple pensions stemming from his various jobs as a longtime state legislator and former Cook County assessor.

“His father’s a double-dipper, I don’t think that’s right,” Quinn said.

The Hynes campaign acknowledged Tom Hynes’ multiple public pensions, but the comptroller accused Quinn of being “disoriented” for attacking his father, who has been out of office for more than a decade.

Quinn has been reacting to the Washington ad for days, at times accusing Hynes of race-baiting, but also pointing out that an 18-year-old Dan Hynes appeared in an ad for his father, who temporary split from the Democratic party in 1987 to oppose Washington’s reelection bid for mayor. Quinn said Hynes and his father were “trying to take out Harold Washington.”

The governor also defended his tenure as revenue director for Chicago, saying people in Washington’s administration asked him to do unethical things, such as giving businesses breaks on paying their taxes. Caught in a fight between Washington aides who variously contended he was either too reform-oriented to deal with administration friends or too interested in seeking the media spotlight, Quinn was ousted after eight months.

Quinn said he was preparing to resign the office  when Washington asked him to leave over a “different management philosophy.”

Hynes stood by the ads, saying Washington fired Quinn for allegedly mismanaging an office tasked with fiscal oversight, an issue at the center of Illinois’ current crisis.

“I think the words of Mayor Washington are very powerful,” Hynes said. “They tell a story.”

The candidates also argued again over Hynes’ level of responsibility in the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, with Quinn alleging the comptroller’s office ignored numerous complaints about irregularities at the south suburban graveyard. Hynes countered that the comptroller’s office had very limited oversight restricted to auditing cemetery finances.

The candidates spent very little of the debate discussing issues facing the state. Even in response to questions about the budget mess and other hot-button issues—gay marriage, video gambling—the candidates quickly attacked each other.

At one point, moderator Carol Marin asked the candidates to exchange compliments. Quinn struggled, saying “I think anybody who gets in the (political) arena deserves credit,” but then slicing back at Hynes with accusations he used the comptroller’s office to undermine the governor politically. Quinn also refused to say he’d support Hynes in the general election if the comptroller wins on Feb. 2.

Hynes lauded the governor’s commitment to veteran’s issues, and said he would fully support Quinn if he ends up being the candidate.

“I’m very concerned about what the Republicans are saying about cuts,” Hynes said.

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Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes traded charges of incompetence tonight in a televised debate with a week to go in their tight race for the Democratic primary for governor.

The debate on WTTW-TV began with the two Chicago politicians arguing over Hynes’ ad featuring old television news footage of the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, explaining why he fired Quinn as an aide.

Hynes contended it showed Washington firing Quinn for "incompetence and mismanagement", adding "that’s what we got" from Quinn’s first year as governor.

Quinn responded that he quit the Washington administration at the mayor’s request because he was in a dispute with the mayor’s chief of staff, and without giving specifics Quinn implied that he was under pressure to give breaks to people with political connections.

Quinn, as he has before on this topic, asserted that Hynes and his father, former state lawmaker and county assessor Tom Hynes, encouraged racial division when the elder Hynes ran as a third-party candidate against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign. At the time racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics.

Quinn hit Hynes again over the comptroller’s limited role in overseeing cemeteries, saying he "completely dropped the ball" on the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal in which cemetery workers are accused of digging up bodies and re-selling graves.

"He was incompetent," Quinn said.

Posted by Robert Becker and Hal Dardick at 7:10 p.m.

Down in the polls, Democratic County Board presidential hopeful Terrence O’Brien took aim today at his three rivals in the Feb. 2 primary, characterizing front-runner Ald. Toni Preckwinkle as an official who has “never seen a tax that she doesn’t like.”

O’Brien, who has been attacked during the campaign for raising property taxes by more than 30 percent during his tenure as president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, chastised the media for being too lenient on Preckwinkle. O’Brien also contended that the media had not reported the millions in tax dollars that the MWRD had returned to taxpayers.

“We don’t feel that there’s been a fair shake as far as reporting the records of the candidates running against us,” O’Brien said.

“What am I suppose to say to that?” Preckwinkle replied.

The Tribune/WGN poll results, released on Friday, showed Preckwinkle with a 12 point lead-—36 percent to 24 percent–over Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and a greater than two-to-one margin over O’Brien. Current Board President Todd Stroger was in last place with the support of 11 percent of Democratic voters polled.

In unveiling a new television ad, O’Brien said the public needed to know about Preckwinkle’s votes that have raised fees and taxes during the course of her career as alderman.

Of her various budget votes, O’Brien notes Preckwinkle supported the revenue portion of the 2005 city budget which contained a dozen fee and tax increases, although she voted against passage of the overall $5.1 billion budget.

Her voting record, said O’Brien, shows that Preckwinkle is not the reformer she claims to be.

O’Brien also said Preckwinkle has promised to cut a pay cut if elected.

“Well, she’s voted for three pay raise increases for herself and a cost-of-living raise,” said O’Brien. “So are we talking out of both sides of our mouth, or what’s the story.” 

Preckwinkle argues that she’s voted against city  budgets that contained increases in taxes, notably the 2008 city budget containing an $86 million property tax increase and the revenue portion of the 2009 budget, which contained $53 million in new taxes and fees. Preckwinkle notes that she opposed the controversial parking meter deal.

“I’ve been a legislator for 19 years and in that time you’re going to vote for tax and fee increases,” Preckwinkle said.

Preckwinkle acknowledged voting for the pay increases.

“My general philosophy is you ought to pay your elected officials adequately and expect them to work for you full time,” said Preckwinkle. “That’s a test he (O’Brien) doesn’t pass. I don’t have any divided loyalties.”

Preckwinkle received her biggest donation to date in the race last week, a $150,000 donation on Jan. 22 from the Illinois council of the Service Employees International Union.

 

Posted by David Heinzmann and Rick Pearson at 2:53 p.m.

Former Illinois Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch endorsed the current comptroller, Dan Hynes, today over Pat Quinn in the race to be the Democratic nominee for governor.

Netsch, the Democrats’ unsuccessful 1994 nominee against then-Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, called Hynes a straight shooter on state budget matters. It was a reference to her TV ads of that long-ago governor campaign which displayed her billiard-playing prowess.

"For years, he’s been signaling that our state’s finances are on the wrong track,” said Netsch. “Hynes is a competent manager who doesn’t stick his head in the sand."

The Netsch endorsement was aimed at gaining the support of progressives for a Hynes campaign that has made up significant ground to Quinn in recent weeks and is now in a tight race according to a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll.

But Quinn also touted a progressive endorsement today from Democrats For America — the fundraising and net-roots operation that was formerly Dean For America. That group was behind the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee Chairman and Vermont governor.

Quinn’s “fight against corrupt government officials and special interests, as well as his work for the people of Illinois, make him a real progressive champion,” said Jim Dean, the former governor’s brother who heads DFA.

My story on Sunday’s front page about Dena Lockwood, a single mom who got fired for taking a day off to take care of her sick 4-year-old, has struck a chord.

It has generated a lot of comments on chicagotribune.com. Some of the commenters said I didn’t present the company’s side of the story. As my story says, I called the company’s attorney who declined to comment and then I left messages at the company’s office for the owners of the business.

The company, Professional Neurological Services, also failed to present evidence at the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, where the case was brought. Here’s a copy of the commission’s ruling.

From the print edition:

Giannoulias, Kirk continue to lead Senate races

Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows undecided voters could still swing Feb. 2 primary

By Rick Pearson, Tribune reporter

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias entered the final days of the
campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination with a significant
advantage over rivals Cheryle Jackson and David Hoffman, but undecided
voters could still swing the election, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.





Republican Senate contender Mark Kirk held onto a wide lead over
little-known challengers, but a third of GOP primary voters were still
undecided with the Feb. 2 primary looming.





The statewide poll conducted Jan. 16 to 20 shows candidates in both
parties have yet to sway large numbers of voters in a nationally
watched race for the seat formerly held by President Barack Obama.

Giannoulias was backed by 34 percent of Democrats, while 19 percent
supported Jackson, the former Chicago Urban League president, and 16
percent supported Hoffman, the former Chicago inspector general. The
poll of 601 likely Democratic voters has an error margin of 4
percentage points.





About a quarter of Democrats were undecided, leaving room for the
contest to tighten as candidates make their final appeals for support.
Two other contenders, Chicago attorney Jacob Meister and Burr Ridge
radiologist Robert Marshall, continued to show only 1 percent support
each.





Giannoulias, a wealthy banking heir who won his first bid for statewide
office four years ago, and Jackson, a former top aide to ousted Gov.
Rod Blagojevich, saw their support increase slightly from a similar
poll in early December. Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, showed
the biggest gain — 7 percentage points — since the Dec. 2 to 8 survey.





But Hoffman remains known to just half of voters statewide, similar to
Jackson, while Giannoulias has been able to enjoy greater name
recognition through his state treasurer’s post. Despite Hoffman’s
attempts to criticize Giannoulias over controversial bank loans at the
family’s Broadway Bank and a $150 million loss in a state college
savings fund, the state treasurer has not seen a drop in job approval
and favorability ratings. He has used his financial advantage to run TV
ads aimed at drowning out negative attacks from opponents.





Jackson, the lone African-American contender in the Democratic contest,
has the support of 48 percent of black voters, which has helped keep
her virtually even with Giannoulias among Chicago voters. But Jackson’s
percentage of black support has not increased significantly since
December, while Giannoulias’ backing from African-Americans has roughly
doubled to nearly a quarter of the black vote.





Giannoulias also holds a healthy edge over his rivals of 2-to-1 or better among suburban Cook County and collar-county voters.





Jackson has not raised enough money to mount an aggressive TV ad
campaign. Hoffman has largely used debates to contend that as Democrats
try to keep the seat Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell, he is
the only major contender not associated with the taint of the former
governor.





The contest has largely been focused in the Chicago area, where the top
contenders live, and nearly half of the voters outside the six-county
region remain undecided — virtually unchanged from six weeks ago.





On the Republican side, Kirk, a five-term North Shore congressman,
holds a commanding advantage over Hinsdale businessman Patrick Hughes,
47 percent to 8 percent. None of the four other contenders in the GOP
race — Kathleen Thomas, Don Lowery, John Arrington or Andy Martin — had
more than 3 percent.





In December, Kirk was supported by 41 percent of likely GOP primary
voters, while all of his rivals had 3 percent support or less. In
January, 35 percent of Republican primary voters were still undecided
in the contest, including nearly half of downstate voters and nearly 40
percent of those who say they are very conservative.





Already known to more than 90 percent of Republican voters in the
Chicago area, Kirk has improved his name recognition outside the region
in the last six weeks, jumping from 44 percent to 71 percent. Yet
nearly 4 in 10 downstate voters don’t know enough about him to rate him
favorably or unfavorably. Hughes remains unknown to nearly half of the
state’s GOP voters.





Kirk maintains strong backing in the Chicago area with support from 61
percent of GOP voters in Cook County and 56 percent in the collar
counties.





Hughes has sought to cultivate support from disaffected Republicans and
others through the "tea party" movement critical of higher taxes and
spending and big government, citing Kirk’s initial support for
cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon emissions. Kirk, a social
moderate, has since said he would not vote for such legislation in
representing the entire state.





More than half of GOP voters said they agreed with the tea party
movement, including nearly 70 percent of those who describe themselves
as very conservative. But that hasn’t translated into support for
Hughes. The survey found Kirk being supported by 48 percent of
Republicans who said they backed the tea party movement while Hughes
got only 10 percent support.





While one-third of likely GOP primary voters said they mostly agree
with Kirk on the issues, nearly a quarter of GOP voters said they
believe he isn’t conservative enough — a percentage similar to six
weeks ago.

Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

Posted by John Byrne at 5:20 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley pledged today to consider a recommendation by the city’s inspector general to suspend two key aides for their handling of a student intern’s sexual harassment complaint

The Tribune reported Friday that Inspector General Joseph Ferguson has issued a report to Daley recommending he suspend Anthony Boswell, executive director of the mayor’s Office of Compliance, and Mark Meaney, the first deputy.

Ferguson found Boswell and Meaney violated city policies and showed favoritism to an official at the 911 center after an intern there complained about being harassed in 2008.

Daley, who spent much of the week at a mayor’s conference in Washington D.C., said he hadn’t seen Ferguson’s findings.

“We’re going to sit down. I haven’t discussed it with him yet,” Daley said at a Saturday event to announce the donation of three Chicago Fire Department ambulances to Haiti. “But like anything else, I’ll listen very closely to his recommendations and evaluate it. I have not seen him as yet.”

Daley also reiterated his pledge not to endorse anybody in the Feb. 2 primary election. The mayor acknowledged some candidates might be touting his support on their campaign literature, but said he won’t seek to prevent them from doing so.

“I think some of them maybe are using my name. It doesn’t bother me,” the mayor said.

The mayor’s comments came as he stood in front of the three Chicago ambulances that soon will be on their way to Haiti to help in the earthquake relief effort.

The ambulances were too old to remain in service in Chicago, Fire Commissioner John Brooks said. So the city’s Department of Fleet Management helped recondition and restock the ambulances with medical supplies provided by private firms to give them a longer life.

The city will pay for the gas needed for off-duty firefighters to drive the three vehicles to Florida, Daley said.

The city is also working to set up informational sessions to help Haitians earn temporary protection status from the Department of Homeland Security. “Dates will be soon announced,” the mayor said.

A blood drive is also in the works, he said.

So far, 157 refugees have been brought to Chicago since the earthquake, the mayor said.

Posted by John Byrne at 2:55 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn joined with Rev. Jesse Jackson today as he continues to push back against opponent Dan Hynes’ campaign ad featuring decades-old footage of the late Mayor Harold Washington ripping Quinn.

The governor urged voters to reject "divisiveness" during an appearance at Operation PUSH with Jackson and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. It echoed remarks Quinn made Friday night, when he accused Hynes of trying to "sow the seeds of racial divide."

The commercial shows a 1987 interview by Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, calling Quinn "completely undisciplined" and expressing regret for appointing Quinn as the city’s revenue director.

Quinn noted the irony of Hynes — whose father, then-Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes, mounted a third-party challenge in 1987 against Washington for mayor during a racially tense time in the city’s political history — now invoking Washington to bolster his governor campaign.

 

"I was very disturbed to see the Hynes family leave the Democratic Party, start a third party, to try to unseat and destroy Harold Washington, to take him out of office," Quinn said, flanked by the Jacksons.

Jackson Jr. urged African-American voters to keep in mind Quinn’s decades of work to improve working conditions and living conditions in the black community in Illinois.

 

Hynes’ campaign commercial is an effort to get black voters to sit out the race, the congressman said, and that could turn into a "nuclear strategy" that hurts candidates who would best represent blacks up and down the Democratic ticket.

 

"When a candidate fears he cannot win the black vote, he tries to convince black voters to stay home and not vote," Jackson Jr. said. "Don’t be fooled. Don’t be bamboozled. Don’t be hoodwinked. Don’t be confused, and don’t forget the past. And don’t stay home on election day."

 

Speaking from the stage at PUSH’s weekly Saturday morning forum, Rev. Jackson called on Quinn to concentrate on governing and push past the political mud being slung. Though he didn’t mention Hynes by name, Jackson reminded the crowd that during Washington’s time in office, some politicians in Chicago started third parties and abandoned "Democratic Party loyalty."

Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath has said Quinn "still doesn’t get it."

"This
race isn’t about Tom Hynes, and it’s not about what Dan Hynes was up to
as an 18-year-old college freshman," McGrath said. "The reason Mayor
Harold Washington’s words resonate so much today is that his firsthand
experience with Pat Quinn is so eerily similar to Illinois’ experience
with him as governor.  Mayor Washington had to fire Quinn for his lack
of discipline, lack of planning, and incompetent management. Now the
voters of Illinois are facing the same situation, and they ought to
follow suit," McGrath said.

From Sunday’s print edition:

Quinn, Hynes in Democratic dead heat for governor primary

McKenna, Ryan, Dillard lead pack of Republicans

By Rick Pearson

Tribune reporter

The Democratic governor primary is a toss-up between Gov. Pat Quinn and
Comptroller Dan Hynes as controversy over an inmate early release program and an
imploding state budget cut into the governor’s once-sizable advantage, a
Tribune/WGN-TV poll has found.

On the Republican side, three candidates are in a tight battle ahead of the
Feb. 2 primary. Former state GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, former Illinois Attorney
General Jim Ryan and state Sen. Kirk Dillard lead the field, but none reached 20
percent, according to the new poll.

The results show that with an early primary election coming little more than
a month after the new year, candidates who placed a premium on extensive and
expensive TV advertising are seeing dividends as prospective voters began tuning
in to the upcoming election.

Each of the surveys, conducted Jan. 16-20, also indicate that results for
this primary could depend on last-minute voter appeals through TV, radio and
campaign get-out-the-vote efforts.

Among Democrats, Quinn’s better than 2-to-1 lead over Hynes in a Tribune
survey six weeks ago has evaporated amid concerns about the unelected
incumbent’s ability to handle the job. The poll of 601 likely Democratic voters
showed Quinn with 44 percent and Hynes with 40 percent — within the survey’s 4
percentage point error margin. Thirteen percent of the voters were
undecided.

Hynes’ surge was dramatic, given the command Quinn held in early December. At
that point, Quinn’s job approval rating was 58 percent, 46 percent supported his
efforts to repair the state budget and he held a 49-23 advantage over Hynes, the
three-term state comptroller.

Since then, Hynes has hammered Quinn with TV ads criticizing the governor for
releasing inmates only days after their arrival at state prisons to save money.
Dozens of those released early are back in prison for alleged crimes. Quinn
ultimately called the program a "mistake" and blamed it on his prisons director,
Michael P. Randle, who he kept on the job.

Two-thirds of Democratic voters polled said the early release of inmates to
save money was wrong, including 71 percent of Hynes supporters and 59 percent of
those backing Quinn.

Quinn also has been stung by the woeful state budget, with overdue bills to
state service providers growing to more than $5 billion. On TV, both Hynes and
some Republicans have ripped Quinn for proposing a major income tax increase
that would affect the middle class. Quinn has supported various tax hike plans,
some that had tax breaks for those with lower incomes and some that did not.
Hynes backs a plan requiring voters to approve a state constitutional amendment
to impose a higher tax rate on those who make the most.

Democratic voters are split at 44 percent on whether a tax increase is
necessary to help cover the state’s budget deficit. Among Quinn supporters, 57
percent said they believed a tax hike is needed while 34 percent said it’s
unnecessary. Those numbers are virtually reversed among Hynes supporters, with a
majority believing a tax increase isn’t necessary.

All told, Quinn’s job approval rating has slumped to 43 percent — below the
50 percent mark that incumbents seek at election time. At the same time, the
number of Democratic voters who disapprove of how Quinn has handled the job has
climbed from 18 percent to 31 percent.

Despite Hynes’ heavy dose of attack advertising, he still maintained a
favorability rating of 41 percent of Democratic voters, while only 13 percent
viewed him unfavorably. Even after getting into a highly publicized battle with
Quinn and refusing to sign off on more state borrowing, half the voters approve
of the comptroller’s job performance, as they did last month.

In recent days, Quinn has made efforts to gain support among African-American
voters, criticizing Hynes over failing to discover the Burr Oak cemetery scandal
and even for criticizing Barack Obama when Hynes was running against him in the
2004 U.S. Senate primary. Hynes struck back last week with an ad featuring the
late Mayor Harold Washington saying he made a mistake in hiring Quinn as city
budget director.

Mirroring the overall results, 44 percent of black voters in the survey
favored Quinn and 40 percent backed Hynes. But only 36 percent of
African-American voters said they approved of the job Quinn was doing as
governor.

In addition to Hynes’ attack ads, Quinn also has been targeted by McKenna,
the most prolific advertiser on the Republican side. McKenna’s ad blitz helped
him achieve support from 19 percent of Republican voters compared to 18 percent
for Elmhurst’s Ryan and 14 percent for Dillard, of Hinsdale.

Another 9 percent backed state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, while Hinsdale
transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski had 7 percent and Chicago political
pundit Dan Proft had 6 percent. Another 17 percent were undecided in the survey
of 592 likely Republican primary voters.

DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom of Naperville, who had 2
percent support in the survey, dropped out of the race Friday and announced he’s
backing Ryan.

McKenna and Ryan are strongest in Chicago and the suburbs, where each has
support from more than one in five voters surveyed. Dillard has the backing of
22 percent of downstate voters, but lags in his home base.

Weeks ago, Ryan, the unsuccessful 2002 Republican nominee against disgraced
former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was the frontrunner in the contest with 26 percent
support, largely from being the most well-known.

Ryan has denied he was coasting on his lead, but he hasn’t been the most
visible campaigner. Still, his familiarity among voters has kept his candidacy
viable against more moneyed opponents. McKenna, meanwhile, has increased his
name recognition among GOP voters to 84 percent from 67 percent in the previous
survey.

Dillard, whose money woes led him to seek campaign cash from controversial
conservative activist Jack Roeser, made the most headway in name recognition. He
moved from being known by little more than half of GOP voters to 81 percent of
them. Dillard, who saw his support increase slightly from 9 percent in the last
survey, also is being backed by the Illinois Education Association, a powerful
teachers union that has sought a tax increase to bolster funding for schools and
pensions.

More than 85 percent of Republican voters still believe that opposition to a
tax increase is important in their selection of a candidate. All of the
contenders have said they do not support higher taxes to repair the state’s
budget, but McKenna has used his ads to target Ryan and Dillard as refusing to
rule out a tax increase.

David Bernick, a star litigator at Kirkland & Ellis, is leaving the firm to become general counsel at Phillip Morris International.

Bernick has been with Kirkland for 31 years and has been involved in nearly every type of complex litigation imaginable, from defending companies with asbestos liability to representing breast-implant manufacturers.

"I have spent my entire career at Kirkland & Ellis and I am proud to have contributed to the growth and success of one of the top law firms,” said Bernick in a statement provided by the firm.  “I will remain close to my many friends and colleagues at the firm, but I look forward to pursuing new challenges during the next phase of my career with Philip Morris International.”

Kirkland’s incoming chairman, Jeffrey Hammes, said: “David has been an integral part of our premier litigation practice, and his achievements during his 31 years at Kirkland are truly remarkable. We thank him for his varied and long-standing service to the Firm and we wish him success in his new role.

Bernick will join Philip Morris on March 1. As part of the move, he will relocate to Switzerland from New York.

Tip of the hat to Above the Law for breaking the news.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 5:10 p.m.; last updated at 10:26 p.m. with Hynes response

Gov. Pat Quinn tonight accused opponent Dan Hynes of trying to "sow the seeds of racial divide" by airing a TV attack ad that features decades-old video of late Mayor Harold Washington saying it was a mistake to put Quinn in charge of the city’s revenue office.

Speaking to a predominantly African-American congregation at a South Side church, Quinn recounted how he stood by Washington and worked to help get him elected. He also brought up the political history of how Hynes’ father, 19th Ward power broker Tom Hynes, opposed Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor.



"(Hynes) and his father in the 1980s were standing against Harold Washington and everything he tried to do bring our city together, bring our state together. I was on Harold Washington’s side on every single election Tom Hynes and his son Dan were against Harold Washington," Quinn said. "They were part of the mass of resistance against Harold Washington, and I think that there’s a real choice for voters today not to go back to that, stand with me where I believe everyone’s in and nobody’s out."

Quinn said the ad is reason for voters to shun Hynes in the Feb. 2 Democratic governor primary.



"Are we going to have 11 days from today a governor who brings our state together or are we going to go back to what happened before I came along with a governor who’s dividing people? I don’t think we want that," Quinn said.

Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath tonight said Quinn "still doesn’t get it."

"This race isn’t about Tom Hynes, and it’s not about what Dan Hynes was up to as an 18-year-old college freshman," McGrath said. "The reason Mayor Harold Washington’s words resonate so much today is that his firsthand experience with Pat Quinn is so eerily similar to Illinois’ experience with him as governor.  Mayor Washington had to fire Quinn for his lack of discipline, lack of planning, and incompetent management. Now the voters of Illinois are facing the same situation, and they ought to follow suit."

The governor’s comments came after Washington supporters called on Hynes to pull the ad at a news conference the Quinn campaign called as it continues to respond to the ad push. The spot is the latest escalation in a hard-fought battle for the Democratic governor nomination. It’s especially charged because of the city’s history of race and politics.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis said Hynes’ ad is aimed at turning the black community against Gov. Quinn and is insulting to Washington’s memory because he’s not alive explain his comments.

Washington appointed Quinn to head the city’s revenue department, but later said he dumped him after Quinn “almost created a shambles in that department."



Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath said the campaign will not pull the ad because it directly speaks to Quinn’s poor leadership.



“The ad and the mayor’s words speak volumes and they are relevant today,” McGrath said.



Supporters of Quinn said the ad is in poor taste coming from Hynes. They pointed out Tom Hynes mounted a third-party campaign against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign at a time when racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics.



U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush said the ad was an act of desperation on Hynes’ part, and he predicted it would cause a “blacklash” among African American voters.



“I say (the ad is) repugnant and irrelevant and (Hynes) should apologize not only to Pat Quinn, but to the African American community,” Rush said.

Posted by Tribune staff at 9:59 a.m.; updated at 11:25 a.m.

Citing a lack of campaign money, Republican governor candidate Bob Schillerstrom dropped out of the race today and endorsed Jim Ryan.

"As Election Day nears, it is clear that we lack the financial resources necessary to communicate with voters statewide and win the Feb. 2 primary. Given that reality, I have decided to end our campaign for governor," Schillerstrom said at a Loop news conference. "This decision was not made lightly, and was particularly difficult given the incredible investment that so many have made in this campaign. Words cannot express how grateful and humbled I am by the work of our volunteers, staff and supporters."



Schillerstrom said Ryan, the former Illinois attorney general, is the best Republican choice to lead Illinois at a time of crisis.

"In a political arena where individuals are only as good as their word, Jim Ryan stands out as a man of integrity. He is tested. He is honest. I’ve known Jim Ryan for nearly 30 years and I’ve seen him deal with

difficult challenges whether they were personal, political or professional," Schillerstrom said.



Schillerstrom, an attorney and DuPage County Board chairman, had 2 percent support in a December Tribune poll. He struggled to gain traction with four Republican governor candidates in the contest who hail from DuPage, a Republican stronghold.

He began airing a TV ad largely on cable stations with the theme that Illinois needed a "Schiller-storm," but it wasn’t enough to create buzz for his candidacy.

Schillerstrom was scheduled earlier this week to announce his endorsement by an abortion rights group, but canceled the appearance.

While Schillerstrom asked voters to support Ryan, Schillerstrom’s name will still appear on the Feb. 2 primary ballot. Early voting already has begun.

Also running in the Republican governor primary are former Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, state Sens. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale and Bill Brady of Bloomington, government transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski of Hinsdale and political pundit Dan Proft of Chicago.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 9:54 a.m.; last updated at 2:31 p.m.

Democratic Cook County Board president candidate Dorothy Brown today tried to move past an employee "jeans day" controversy that’s dogging her campaign by providing records she said shows the money was accounted for.

Brown, the county circuit court clerk, said the $2 or $3 that employees paid to wear jeans on some Fridays has gone to charities including the American Heart Association, a Hurricane Katrina victims fund and a Pakistan earthquake victims fund.

"It is unfortunate that this innocent practice that helps so many causes is being subverted and maligned by some members of the media," said Brown at a lengthy news conference. (You can read her documents by clicking here.)

Questions about jeans day follow previous stories about Brown raising money for pet causes from workers in her office, which
has more than 2,100 employees. She’s also raised campaign money through her employees and they’ve been asked to contribute to gifts for her.

Today, Brown’s staff acknowledged that there’s no comprehensive accounting of the jeans day cash contributions that reach the tens of thousands of dollars each year. She said the office tries to verify that the number of permission stickers issued equals the number of contributions. Employees also are supposed to write their names on envelopes when they contribute for jeans day, she said. The comptroller in her office tracks the money, Brown added.

According to documents Brown’s staff provided, nearly $23,000 was spent last year from the employee appreciation fund, accumulated with jeans days’ contributions, to pay for an the annual appreciation dinner held at a union hall. She provided an overall accounting, canceled checks and bank account statements.



More than $29,000 was spent on an annual picnic. Expenses included more than $13,000 spent on raffle tickets and prizes, and more than $9,000 on “sr. staff game supplies.”



She also provided checks indicating $11,814 was donated to charitable causes, including money to help employee Marie Norred after a fire at her home and $8,961 for the American Hearth Association.



But she conceded she could not produce records for other jeans days that are approved for various departments within her office. Brown said at least 22 jeans days were held last year.

Brown said she discontinued jeans days when taking office in the late 1990s, but employees "begged" her to bring it back. She said she did so in 2004.

The news conference came after news stories this week about the jeans day events. For years, employees have complained about the practice. A new Tribune poll showed Brown in second place in the Democratic primary, trailing Toni Preckwinkle, the 4th Ward alderman. Brown was in first place in a December poll.

Brown recently told the Tribune that all the money
collected either goes to charities or into a fund that pays for an
annual employee appreciation awards ceremony.

“It’s a voluntary
thing,” said Brown, noting the jeans practice is not held every Friday.
“If they want to do it, fine, because blue jeans is not our attire, and
you have to have on a tag saying I’m wearing blue jeans because…But
they want to wear blue jeans and not pay — is that what it is?”

From the print edition:

Suspensions urged for 2 Daley aides who probed harassment case

By Todd Lighty

Tribune reporter

Two of Mayor Richard Daley’s key aides, whose jobs are to make sure
city workers obey rules and use good judgment, should be suspended for
their own poor judgment in handling a student intern’s sexual
harassment complaint, according to findings by the city’s watchdog.





Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, in a report to the mayor,
recommended strong disciplinary action against the top officials in his
Office of Compliance, a unit that Daley created in 2007 to promote a
culture of good conduct among city workers.

Ferguson recommended that Daley suspend the office’s executive
director, Anthony Boswell, and Boswell’s first deputy, Mark Meaney, for
at least 30 days without pay, according to sources familiar with the
report who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sources said Ferguson found that the two fumbled the handling of a
intern’s complaint that a boss at the city’s 911 center sexually
harassed her in 2008.





The report found that Boswell and Meaney repeatedly disregarded city
policies and showed favoritism to the boss during the sexual harassment
investigation by trying to find him another city job, sources said.
Ferguson, in his report, said the two men’s actions were particularly
egregious because their duties involve reviewing the conduct of other
city workers.





Boswell declined to discuss the report Thursday, and Meaney did not respond to messages.





The case stems from a May 2008 complaint from the intern about her boss
at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. The intern
claimed the boss made inappropriate comments about her appearance and
remarked about how he someday would like to have a cheerleader as an
intern.





The city’s sexual harassment officer, who worked for Boswell and
Meaney, began looking into the intern’s complaint, but she ran into
resistance from the two, according to the report. The sexual harassment
officer complained about Boswell and Meaney to the inspector general,
who opened an investigation.





The inspector general found that Boswell and Meaney tried to get the
boss a new intern and also tried to move him to an unspecified city job
away from the 911 Center.





Ferguson found that the two men were instrumental in the intern’s
complaint being summarily dismissed by the Office of Compliance.





Boswell made his own complaints to the inspector general, alleging that
the mayor’s office inappropriately intervened in the matter and that
the sexual harassment officer tried to use political influence in her
job, the report said. The inspector general found no merit to those
allegations.





The federal court has been monitoring the city’s hiring system because
of past corruption in handing out jobs and promotions. Boswell and his
office are in line to take over monitoring of city hiring once court
oversight ends. But Boswell’s office has been criticized by the
court-appointed monitor — most recently for allegedly not reporting
hiring violations and trying to cover it up.





Daley has said he will ask the court to end oversight this year, and
sources said his administration is now considering taking away the
monitoring functions that would go to Boswell’s office.





Ferguson, a former federal prosecutor, became the inspector general
late last year after David Hoffman resigned to run for the U.S. Senate.
The report is an early indication that — like Hoffman — Ferguson will
be willing to investigate conduct by the mayor’s top aides.





Ferguson declined to comment. The mayor’s office also had no comment.

From the print edition:

By Robert Becker and Hal Dardick

Tribune reporters

Chicago Ald. Toni Preckwinkle has surged to a significant lead in the
Democratic primary for Cook County Board president as she has become
better known and liked among suburban voters, a Tribune/WGN-TV poll
shows.





Board President Todd Stroger fell to last place among the four
candidates, his support dropping to 11 percent from 14 percent six
weeks ago.





During that time, Preckwinkle supplanted Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy
Brown as the front-runner with the support of 36 percent of likely
Democratic voters, up from 20 percent, the poll found. Brown, who held
a lead last month built upon her name recognition, fell from 29 percent
to 24 percent.





Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien rose to 16 percent from 11 percent in the December poll.

The survey of 503 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted Jan.
16-20, found only 12 percent undecided in the contest, putting the onus
on Preckwinkle’s opponents to use the final days of the campaign to try
to take support away from her. The survey’s error margin was 4.4
percentage points.





Preckwinkle is airing TV ads promising to repeal the remainder of the
unpopular and controversial Cook County sales tax increase backed by
Stroger. She has seen her name recognition increase from about half of
the county’s likely suburban voters last month to three-quarters in the
new poll.





Democratic voters with a favorable impression of Preckwinkle have
doubled from 23 percent last month to 45 percent now. Her favorable
impression among white voters also doubled to 54 percent. Those factors
help explain why she has the support of 46 percent of white voters in
the contest.





O’Brien, the lone white candidate, has the backing of 25 percent of white voters.





Among black voters, Brown scored 36 percent support, Preckwinkle had 24 percent, Stroger had 23 percent and O’Brien 4 percent.





Preckwinkle, the former high school history teacher and current
five-term alderman whose ward includes the home of President Barack
Obama, has avoided injecting race into the campaign. Preckwinkle has
argued that the Feb. 2 primary is a political test among all Democrats,
not just African-Americans.





The poll showed Brown losing support among suburban county voters as
her opponents in recent weeks publicly questioned her practice of
accepting gifts, including cash, from employees.





Many of those gifts were presented to her at birthday parties that
doubled as fundraisers, organized by top-level employees, with
significant contributions from many of her 2,100 workers.





That issue arose before the campaign, but this week reports focused on
her practice of requiring employees to pay $2 or $3 a day to wear jeans
on some Fridays. She said the money goes to pay for employee
appreciation events and to make charitable donations, but she has yet
to produce records to document it.





About two-thirds of likely Democratic voters continued to disapprove of
Stroger’s job performance. His administration has been dogged by the
unpopular sales tax hike and hiring scandals.





On the campaign trail, Stroger blames the news media for his bad image.
He says he has done a good job of keeping the county financially sound
and the public health system intact during a deep recession.





That contention has been lost in the controversies over the
penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase and his hiring of a troubled
steakhouse busboy for an executive post.





The tax increase spurred talk of secession among outlying suburbs and
prompted his old colleagues in the General Assembly to seek political
cover by making it easier to override the board president’s veto.





In his three years as president, Stroger never escaped the perception
that clout rather than merit installed him in the office. A wide array
of establishment Democrats backed him to replace his then-ailing
father, John, in the November 2006 election.





Along the way, however, Stroger has lost much of that support. And Stroger’s opponents have all taken aim at his leadership.





O’Brien has focused his campaign on repealing the sales tax increase,
but has been criticized for raising the water district’s annual
property taxes by more than 30 percent during his decade-plus tenure as
president.





Despite the campaign’s focus on the tax issue, the poll found that only
54 percent of voters favor a repeal of the remaining half-percent
increase in the sales tax. Nearly a third oppose repeal.





O’Brien has pledged to immediately roll back the remaining half cent of
the sales tax increase, while Brown and Preckwinkle have promised to do
so over time.





Only Preckwinkle has unconditionally backed making permanent the
independent board overseeing the county’s vast public health system.





Preckwinkle’s opponents are criticizing her for decade-old campaign donations from convicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
Preckwinkle has said that she knew Rezko during the 1990s when he was
developing affordable housing in her 4th Ward. Preckwinkle said their
relationship soured around 2000 after she confronted him about problems
at his developments.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 8:52 p.m.



Already a hotly-contested race, the campaign for President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat is expected to get uglier and more expensive following today’s Supreme Court ruling that corporations and unions can spend as much as they want to sway voters.



“Big money is going to interject itself into federal elections,” said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “And people with money always have an advantage over people without money.”

The high court’s ruling led the respective front runners in Illinois’ U.S. Senate primaries to start attacking each other on the issue before the Feb. 2 election has even taken place.



Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias released a statement Thursday decrying the court’s decision, saying it gives power to “the very corporate special interests that got us into this economic mess.”



Giannoulias, the freshman state treasurer, also criticized Republican Senate candidate Rep. Mark Kirk, saying Kirk has taken more corporate money in his time in office “than just about any other politician.”



Kirk’s campaign countered with a statement of its own.



“According to state and federal records, Alexi Giannoulias took $504,700 from corporate and union Political Action Committeesas state treasurer and already accepted another $63,500 from special interest, business and union PACs in his bid for Senate,” Kirk spokesman Eric Elk said. “In the wake of Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris, Illinois voters deserve better.”



Blagojevich, the indicted Democratic ex-governor, appointed Democrat Burris to the Senate seat that Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell to benefit himself and his family.



While the decision means corporate cash will flow more freely, it also leaves candidates with less control over their message because unions and corporations can run TV spots and other advertising without the knowledge or approval of candidates.



That may not manifest itself in time for the Feb. 2 primary election, said Redfield, but it sets the stage for a brutal November election. It also raises questions of accountability for candidates who benefit from corporate spending.



“If they make big expenditures on your behalf and you win, then how are you going to deal with the legislative agenda assuming you’d like them to spend that money on your behalf in the next election?” Redfield said. “This shifts the focus away from individuals and I don’t think that’s healthy in terms of the democratic process and people’s faith in the process of government.”

Posted by David Heinzmann at 12:58 p.m.; updated at 3:45 p.m.



Decades-old video of the late Mayor Harold Washington calling Pat Quinn "a totally and completely undisciplined individual," is at the center of Democratic challenger Dan Hynes’ latest attack ad aimed at the sitting governor.

The television spot released today is the most recent in a series of ads geared toward swaying black voters against Quinn, who faces Hynes, the state’s comptroller, in the Feb. 2 Democratic governor primary election.

The Quinn campaign responded this afternoon in a statement issued by spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin.

"The late, great Mayor Harold Washington is spinning in his grave today. It is outrageous that Dan Hynes is now invoking the name of Mayor Harold Washington in a blatant maneuver to mislead voters," she said. "That Dan Hynes would use a 24 year-old news clip of a beloved figure to attack Gov. Quinn shows there is no limit to his negative campaigning.  There also is no limit to his hypocrisy."

The footage was filmed after Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, fired Quinn as his revenue director. Washington lambasts Quinn and said appointing him in the first place was a terrible misstep.

"I was nuts to do it. I must have been blind or staggering," said Washington, who died in 1987. "Pat Quinn is a totally and completely undisciplined individual who thinks this government is nothing but a large easel by which he can do his (public relations) work. He almost created a shambles in that department."

Quinn’s campaign shot back that the ad is in poor taste coming from Hynes, alleging that the comptroller’s father, 19th Ward power broker Tom Hynes undermined Washington. The elder Hynes ran as a third-party candidate against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign at a time when racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics

"Harold Washington is spinning in his grave," said Quinn spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin. "Dan Hynes was featured in ads for his father against Harold Washington."

 

The ad hits on two leading themes of the Hynes campaign. First, Hynes repeatedly has tried to paint Quinn as an incompetent manager who is not up to the task of dealing with the state’s perilous $13 billion budget deficit. The assault on Quinn’s ability to run the city revenue department in the mid-1980s is right on message. Second, Hynes is trying to win over African-American voters, a key Democratic constituency. To this point, he has focused on his own ties to President Barack Obama, including a letter he sent the young U.S. Senator in 2006 urging him to run for president.

 

Recently, Hynes sent fliers to black neighborhoods discussing public safety issues and invoking the names of slain African-American kids, including Derrion Albert, the Fenger High School student who was beaten to death in an after-school brawl last year.

 

Hynes’ latest ad uses the words and image of an icon in the black community to directly condemn Quinn. Washington called appointing Quinn revenue director had been "my greatest mistake in government."

Meanwhile, Quinn is running a new TV ad blaming Hynes for failing to prevent the Burr Oak cemetery scandal. Hynes’ campaign has scheduled an afternoon news conference to respond to Quinn’s ad.

Quinn and Hynes are scheduled to be at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale this evening for a debate.

Update on 1/15: I’m providing some more context to the layoffs Seyfarth made yesterday.

The firm laid off 50 attorneys and staff in May. And a year ago it cut about 60 lawyers and staff. The grand total: 150 attorneys and staff, which is about 10 percent of the firm. Did the cost-cutting measures drive up the firm’s profitability in 2009. We’ll see.

Above the Law is reporting that Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell had a 4 percent increase in net income in 2009 compared to 2008.

End

Seyfarth Shaw laid off about 40 attorneys and staff on Thursday.

The firm said in an internal memo that the the reductions were made to meet anticipated workloads in 2010. In addition, some of the approximately 20 lawyers let go were targeted because of poor performance. The layoffs were spread across offices and practice groups. The firm has a total of 1,500 attorneys and staff.

The reductions were made despite the firm exceeding its financial forecasts in 2009, the memo said.

Please continue reading to see the full memo.

By all accounts, 2009 was one of the most challenging years in generations for our clients, our peers in the legal profession and for our firm. Our overall performance in 2009 exceeded our forecasts and was strong in comparison to many other firms. We thank our Firm members for their efforts and contributions.



Nevertheless, while we all hope that 2010 will be a year of economic recovery, we must be poised to be even more efficient and competitive in how we deliver the level of counsel and service that our clients expect. We see opportunities for creating or strengthening client relationships in all of our departments; however, we also know that we must approach these opportunities with the most effective use of our people and their skills.   

 

As a result, we implemented today a separation of approximately 20 attorneys and approximately 20 staff members from a total of about 1,500 people nationwide. In some cases, these decisions were made to better match current or anticipated workloads; others were made as a result of our annual performance management process for attorneys. The separations were spread across multiple offices and practice groups. We have talked to each person affected prior to the distribution of this e-mail.



We believe that these decisions are an appropriate adjustment to meet the challenges of the year ahead with confidence and momentum. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your OMP,  Department Chair, Office Administrator or manager.



We appreciate your understanding and continued support.

Update on 1/15: I wrote a story about Joseph Collins’ sentencing that ran in Friday’s paper. The seven-year prison term certainly caught people’s attention.

Here’s the link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-refco-collins-0115-jan15,0,7243617.story

End

Joseph Collins, guilty of defrauding investors in his legal work for Refco Inc., was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday.

Click here for Bloomberg’s coverage of the sentencing hearing in New York.

The federal court in Chicago has four vacancies on the bench, and the nomination process is slowly coming to a close.

Lynne Marek of the National Law Journal reported Tuesday that President Obama has pared the list of candidates from seven to three. The finalists are Judge Susan Coleman, Sidley Austin partner Gary Feinerman and Mary Rowland, a partner at Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym.

The reason that there are three finalists for four openings is that the fourth vacancy came after Sen. Dick Durbin submitted his recommendations to the White House in August.

James Holderman, the chief of the court, hopes the president will make the nominations and the Senate will confirm them sometime early this year, according to Marek’s story.  

Here’s my latest Chicago Law column that appeared in Tuesday’s paper:

Companies are figuring out, much like consumers, that less debt is better in good times and bad. And for the time being, creditors also are saying less is more.

The convergence of interests is playing out in corporate bankruptcies in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown. Still, bankruptcy cases usually remain long and complicated, unless you’re an automaker receiving a government bailout.Take Merisant Co.

The Chicago-based maker of the artificial sweetener Equal emerged from bankruptcy Monday with 74 percent less debt than it had when it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization a year ago. Its debt decreased to $147 million from $567 million.

Like in other corporate bankruptcies, Merisant wiped out much of its debt by converting it into equity. What’s interesting is that some of the secured bank debt also was converted into equity. Secured lenders are usually wary of taking equity because if the company can’t service its debt and files again for bankruptcy, the equity becomes worthless.

In Merisant’s case, the company converted about $45 million of the company’s $205 million in bank debt, the majority of which was held by Minnesota-based Wayzata Investment Partners LLC, into convertible preferred stock. Wayzata emerged as the majority stockholder of Merisant.

The goal was to have as healthy a balance sheet as possible going forward, according to lawyers representing both the debtor and creditors.

"While the company could have emerged and serviced $200 million in debt, it’s that much better off with $150 million," said David Neier, a bankruptcy partner at Winston & Strawn who represented the official creditors committee. "If you really want to have a successful workout, you have to make sure you can service debt in a good economy and a bad economy."

James Conlan, a bankruptcy partner at Sidley Austin and lead counsel to Merisant, said: "Majority stakeholders agreed that a conservative debt load was the right approach. That’s what is happening in many big (bankruptcy) cases. It’s a different world than it was three or four years ago."

If the lawyers make it seem like Merisant’s bankruptcy case was smooth sailing, don’t be fooled.

To entice Wayzata, the company offered it a premium on its bank claim. According to court papers, Wayzata would have recovered up to $1.22 for every dollar of bank debt in Merisant’s original reorganization plan.

Some of the bondholders, who came after the holders of bank debt in terms of being paid, complained. There was no premium for a class of bondholders who were to receive up to 12.5 percent of common stock in Merisant in exchange for $235.3 million in notes.

One bondholder, Nomura Corporate Research & Asset Management Inc., stuck its head out and filed a formal objection to Merisant’s proposed reorganization plan. For its effort, Nomura and other bondholders boosted their equity stake to 22.5 percent, and Wayzata received fewer preferred shares.

"We were happy to be able to positively increase the recoveries for Nomura and other members of the noteholders class," said Robert Novick, a New York bankruptcy lawyer who represented Nomura.

With the reduced debt load, Merisant said, its annual interest expense will be cut to $11 million from $36 million. It will likely redeploy some of the savings in marketing.

Before the bankruptcy, Equal had been losing ground to Splenda, an artificial sweetener made by Johnson & Johnson. In 2008, Splenda grabbed 60 percent of the market, and Equal had 11 percent, third after Sweet & Low.The upshot: Merisant’s revenue sank 25 percent from 2003 through 2008, when it totaled $262 million.

Merisant is betting on future growth through PureVia, a zero-calorie natural sweetener derived from the leaves of the stevia shrub.