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Mr. Griffin and Mr. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and the brother of former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, have had a running feud in recent years, lately over rising violence in Chicago. “I’ve had multiple colleagues mugged at gunpoint. I’ve had a colleague stabbed on the way to work,” Mr. Griffin said of Chicago. “That’s a really difficult backdrop with which to draw talent to your city.”
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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This ‘Battle of the Billionaires’ is an excellent argument for limiting campaign spending. Just think, if all politicians were provided with a government stipend based on the position they were seeking and candidates were prohibited from spending a penny more, the playing field would be level. No more PACs, no more influence peddling, no more billionaire battles. Illinoisans are seeing too many ads already – and as we get closer to November we’ll be inundated with flyers, ads, social media and telephone calls. All of which will be designed to tell the candidate’s version of ‘truth’ or to emphasis questionable… Read more »
I like what your saying but I think you also then have to limit political donations from public & private unions, associations, etc
Although I agree with most of what you post, on this issue I disagree with you. In my mind money is speech and limiting money in campaigns limit the amount of speech a candidate can have. Incumbents have such an advantage over challengers and allowing a challenger to spend as much money as they can helps get their message before the voters. My favorite example of money bringing down an incumbent is Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential primaries. No candidate was willing to challenge Johnson. McCarthy, with a wealthy donor, Stewart Mott, was able to afford a challenge to… Read more »
There are many ways for individuals to exceed contribution limits legally. For example, take the trial lawyers. The law firms band together to form their own PAC and max out their contributions to that. Then each law firm, as a corporation, contributes directly to the same candidates backed by the PAC. Then the partners, as individuals, max out their contributions to those same candidates.
Beware anyone who touts the jabs as Griffin does.
Mr. Griffin has been on a safari , as it looks like he has a big RINO to back this time.
Just curious, without a billionaire Griffins $ who’s going to counter the machine (Pritzker $, the unions $, the lawyers associations $, etc, etc..)?
There’s nobody. Unfortunately you need a billionaire to back a race these days when the governor is a billionaire himself. It’s a reality of the massive wealth concentration of the Fed’s policies.
Yes and I don’t care. It’s one baby step at a time to turn the state red again. It took two generations of Madigan to turn the state solidly blue and it will take nearly as long to turn it back red, if that’s even possible given the demographics.
I think the criticism of Griffin LOCALLY is he’s just writing giant checks to Irvin campaign and isn’t funding any other Republican rep/senate candidates and he’s not funding any overall state Republican ground game. Which leads you to believe he doesn’t have a lot of hope for illinois Republicans, who could blame him? Others (G HINZ)are confused why he’s bothering with irvin, but tens of $ millions are just another tax write off for him? I give irvin or any other Republican gov candidates ZERO chance of beating jb&machine. Also, interesting Uihlein’s even a bigger donor than Griffin to Republicans… Read more »
I’m not very hopefully for anything either but this is a red wave year coming unlike any other so I’m first the candidates will win in IL and then the campaign checks will follow.
Griffin & uihlein are putting $ into 3rd district supreme court fight ,but nowhere near enough. 3rd dist supreme court fight & amendment #1 is what Illinois elections all about–eveything else is in the bag for the machine. Read this article about how machine is going to pass bill keeping Griffins $ out of the supreme crt race (some tricky sh#t). Mind you, they’ve already gerrymandering that judicial district. https://www.metropolisplanet.com/news/session-recap-lawmakers-pass-limits-on-campaign-contributions-in-judicial-races/article_06d8748e-287a-52e5-a515-993baf8d3b15.html