Via the Daily Herald Labor Day, the unofficial opening of campaign season, is still a month away, but one new and potentially big strategy in politicians’ campaigns for votes starts next week. View full article
Read MoreFrom the Chicago Tribune By Hal Dardick Clout Street The City Council today voted to give the job of campaign finance oversight of aldermen to a city agency that doesn’t want it, a move that the council’s watchdog said will…
Read MoreVia the Chicago Tribune By Pat O’Connor and Joe Moore One of Chicago’s best-known and most reprehensible aldermanic quotes is that “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” Then-Ald. Mathias “Paddy” Bauler’s (1935-1943 and 1947-1967) legendary resistance to cleaning up city…
Read MoreVia the Chicago Tribune By Hal Dardick Clout Street Today’s Chicago City Council meeting pregame could feature a showdown between aldermen and the watchdog who is supposed to investigate them. The agenda of the Rules Committee, which huddles before the…
Read MoreVia WTTW Chicago Tonight Big money, bare-knuckle, Washington-style politics come to Chicago. Two new Political Action Committees, or PACs, are going head-to-head over Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s re-election, as well as the election of aldermanic candidates who support or oppose him….
Read MoreFrom the New York Times By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE JULY 28, 2014 An unlikely alliance of liberal intellectuals, big donors and Republican strategists has hit on a solution to the influence of big money in politics: even more money. Starting Monday,…
Read MoreFrom the Chicago Sun-Times It’s not enough for an inspector general to understand how things work behind the scenes. An IG must also be clearly independent. The General Assembly’s new acting inspector general, J. William Roberts, certainly qualifies on the…
Read MoreFrom the State Journal Register By Doug Finke State Capitol Bureau Posted Jul. 28, 2014 @ 11:18 am Updated at 10:21 PM Illinois State Fair manager Amy Bliefnick has been fined $1,000 by the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission after she…
Read MoreVia WUIS By Amanda Vinicky An effort to institute term limits in Illinois has hit a major road block. The state Supreme Court says it will not rush to hear the case. The Supreme Court’s decision could be the end…
Read MoreFrom the BGA BY ANDREW SCHROEDTER AND PATRICK REHKAMP The Illinois General Assembly’s recently appointed acting legislative inspector general has a resume that includes stints as a state’s attorney, U.S. attorney and top aide to then-Gov. Jim Edgar. It’s a…
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