· Apparently, the Illinois Republican Party has been in a running dispute with its webmaster Jake Parillo and hasn’t paid its bills. So, yesterday afternoon Jake pulled the party’s site offline. UPDATE: Not long after this post appeared, the IL GOP and Jake worked out their differences. The link now works.
· As the Tribune correctly notes, this Stu Levine flipping story has been one of the hottest political rumors of the summer.
Republican insider Stuart Levine, indicted for alleged corruption at two state boards, is cooperating with the federal investigation of state government, sources familiar with the case said Friday. […]
Despite Levine’s long-standing Republican ties, his decision to cooperate with federal prosecutors could have dramatic implications for the Democratic governor, whose administration faces multiple corruption investigations as he seeks re-election on Nov. 7.
Levine was accused a year ago of using his position as trustee on the teachers’ pension board to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from investment firms seeking business with the pension plan.
In September 2005 co-defendant Joseph Cari, a nationally prominent Democratic fundraiser, pleaded guilty to attempted extortion. In his plea agreement, Cari said that Levine told him a prominent government official, cited as “Public Official A,” and the official’s two associates had steered pension fund business to individuals and firms in exchange for campaign donations.
· Charlie Cook turns even more pessimistic about Republican chances nationwide.
Time is running out for Republicans. Unless something dramatic happens before Election Day, Democrats will take control of the House. And the chances that they’ll seize the Senate are rising toward 50-50.
The electoral hurricane bearing down on the GOP looks likely to be a Category 4 or 5, strong enough to destroy at least one of the party’s majorities. The political climate feels much as it did before previous elections that produced sizable upheavals, such as in 1994, when Democrats lost 52 House seats, eight Senate seats, and control of both chambers.
· AFSCME ups the ante in its dispute with Gateway.
About a dozen drug counselors at two Illinois prisons have voted to join a union that is locked in a nearly two-month-old strike at the state’s only prison for drug-addicted inmates, officials said Friday.
The newly organized counselors at Dwight and Vandalia correctional centers are employed by the Chicago-based Gateway Founda-tion, a nonprofit organization whose workers at Sheridan Correctional Center walked out June 6 amid a stalemate in talks for their first union contract.
Gateway workers in Vandalia voted 3-2 Friday to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, union officials said. Counselors at Dwight approved the union by an identical vote on Thursday.
· I’ll open comments on Monday.
UPDATE: Comments are now open. I’m running a little late, so have at it.
Pingback » It’s Party Time - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 7:06 am:
[…] The Republican Party closed the period with only $254,530 as compared with the Illinois Democratic Party filing with only $166,044. Quite a low amount of money for such a diverse state, no wonder the Republican Party hasn’t paid their bills on their website. […]
- Bill Baar - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 7:13 am:
….the dispute is between Gateway and its employees, so the governor would only step in if the organization’s counseling services slipped…
Funny it’s not hands off with the big boxes too.
The Levine stuff is fantastic. So what happens with Blagovich addressing a National Democratic confab this month and all the locals are speculating if he too is headed for Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute.
- C.L.I.C.K. for Justice and Equality - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 7:18 am:
Blagojevich’s Sheridan Correctional Center mirrors the Rwanda crisis. Blagojevich has knowledge that AFSCME, the union, is involved in “compulsory unionism” with the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), Illinois’ Central Management Services (CMS), and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), yet he will does nothing about it. See my blog at http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/ or C.L.I.C.K. for Justice and Equality. IDOC has finally admitted, by way of IDES, that they have locked out the Gateway Foundation employees who want to cross the picket lines. IDOC reports they are locked out because of security reasons, but IDOC has allowed similarly situated individuals to cross the picket lines. This is clear discrimination, which I have alerted Blagojevich too. These locked out employees have also been denied unemployment benefits even though they are eligible under Section 601 and 604 of the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act.
- Sigh - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 7:50 am:
Pingback…you make no sense.
- Schiznitz - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 9:03 am:
I think the IRP has a lot of money in their “federal account” and this is not disclosed.
- NW burbs - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 9:08 am:
The electoral hurricane bearing down on the GOP looks likely to be a Category 4 or 5
…Bush is on vacation — so time to buy duct tape and flashlights or whatever the latest cockamamie ‘home defense’ instructions are from Bush’s Western White House.
So far we’ve had major terrorist attacks on our soil and entire coastline essentially flooded out thanks to Bush’s vacations.
- Veritas - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 10:51 am:
Schiznitz,
I seem to remember that funds in the IRP’s federal account are typically used to funnel $$$ from the RNC to other state parties across the nation.
- Veritas - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 10:52 am:
The federal account is not so much a reserve that the IRP can draw on, as it is means to “launder” funds if you will.
- the old republican - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 3:56 pm:
To all & as a matter of fact…having read this previously about the GOP web-site on Saturday & not able to respond here in the “blog” ….I logged on to the “Illinois Republican Party” web-site Saturday, August 5th at aprox. 5:50pm & ALL was working just fine. The heading had the 5th of August & ALL functions were working !! If it’s Ill. GOP perhaps a problem. If a “”problem existed”" then it must have been solved . Let’s not make more of it than it is folks !! I trust they’ll figure {or have}it out & it would be a tremendous embarassment were that the case !! Just an honest, actual response & report ! Go GOP !!
- Anon - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 4:46 pm:
HARDHAT
- JavaMan - Monday, Aug 7, 06 @ 9:15 pm:
Most state parties now have the RNC host their website. The IL GOP is moving in that direction.
The IL GOP should have learned its lesson from Tom Cross’ experience with Parrillo and not wasted its money on Parrillo.
- C.L.I.C.K. for Justice and Equality - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 7:37 am:
What about the mess at Sheridan Correctional Center? AFSCME and IDOC are now locking out administrative assistants who are not even in AFSCME’s bargaining agenda. See my blog at http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/or C.L.I.C.K. for Justice and Equality.