Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what’s going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.
Topspin
Gov. Bruce Rauner dismissed concerns about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as “overblown emotion” Tuesday hours after her controversial Senate confirmation that required Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote.
The Republican governor, whose 2014 campaign received donations from DeVos and her family, had praised DeVos after she was nominated by President Donald Trump as “a very talented and very passionate education advocate.” Rauner and DeVos share a history of supporting charter schools and vouchers that would allow students to use tax dollars to attend private schools.
Rauner’s comments Tuesday came after an appearance at a school in Downstate Herrin, where he was asked by a reporter what he would say to students, teachers and parents in Southern Illinois who have concerns about DeVos’ agenda for federal education policy.
“First of all, I think Betsy DeVos could be a very good secretary of education,” Rauner said. “I personally believe that there should be choice of schools for all parents regardless of whether they have much money or not. Every family should be able to choose a school that fits their child the best, regardless of their income. I think that’s a big principle. I think that there’s probably some overblown emotion around this appointment and much that’s going on in the federal government.”
Rauner, who has a habit of dodging questions about national politics, particularly those that relate to President Donald Trump, tried to steer his answer back to Illinois.
“We don’t control, I don’t control what happens in Washington, D.C. We can all have our voices, and I would encourage everybody to have a voice. But we don’t control that,” Rauner said. “What we can do in Illinois is make sure that we support our public schools to the utmost degree. And we have not done that. And I’ve been fighting, working hard to get more state support for our schools so our teachers can have the resources in every district especially our lower-income districts.”
He continued: “And now we’ve not only got more resources but we’ve got a new approach to funding so our lower income schools will get even more. We can do this together. And we’ve got to focus. I don’t think we should spend time getting distracted and have hypotheticals — well, what could happen from the federal government. Let’s focus on what we can do. Let’s have the best schools in Illinois ourselves. We can control that. The federal government stuff will take care of itself."
Rauner’s comments came a day after Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Democrats should "take a chill pill, man" over their national political prospects in 2018. (Kim Geiger)
What’s on tap
*Mayor Emanuel has no public schedule.
*Gov. Rauner and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti will appear at a community college in Normal to discuss government consolidation efforts.
*The Cook County Board will meet.
*The Illinois House and Senate are in session, with votes on the Senate budget blueprint continuing to be a daily possibility and House plans percolating to keep state workers’ paychecks flowing.
*A union representing thousands of CTA workers will hold a morning news conference to object to sometimes having to use portable bathrooms on the job.
What we’re writing
*Illinois Senate tweaks budget blueprint to raise state sales tax on food, drugs (but lower overall rate).
*Syrian family to arrive in Chicago as court weighs refugee ban.
*CPS and Rauner administration trade barbs on budget cuts via letters.
*Downstate lawsuit accuses Illinois Lottery manager of fraud.
*Northwest Side Ald. Santiago says burglary felt like ‘violation.’
*Infrastructure Week continues at City Hall as Emanuel administration unveils Fulton Market street redesign.
*Immigration lawyers swamped in wake of travel ban.
*Stalled Olive-Harvey construction project on South Side called a ‘travesty.’
*Trump again calls out Chicago on violence and repeats debunked murder rate claim.
What We’re Reading
*Settlement of another lawsuit against defrocked priest McCormack: $2.3 million.
*State’s Attorney Foxx talks running for office, overcoming sexism in Elle magazine interview. (h/t @byalisonbowen)
*Michael Jordan’s Steak House is among restaurants recently hit by a data breach.
From the notebook
*Cook County emails measure: The Cook County Board Wednesday it is set to consider a proposal requiring county employees to use only government email accounts for official business — a topic that’s been highlighted recently by former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s and Mayor Emanuel’s use of private email addresses.
Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, said he launched his effort “long before that stuff was swirling around.” Indeed, he first proposed the idea before the Clinton controversy, but he says it’s been hung up amid resistance from some county officials. “I’m going forward,” Suffredin said Tuesday. “I don’t care who objects.”
His idea is to foster transparency by making sure workers and public officials can’t evade public scrutiny by using private devices to do county business. Employees and appointed officials would have to do all official, electronic business through their county-assigned email accounts, and would be barred from doing that business via text messages or social media, with an exception for the latter to “broadcast information to the general public.”
Elected officials and their top staff would be allowed to use their own office or private email accounts for official business, but they would have to notify the board secretary and make those communications subject to public record requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
Emanuel in December settled a lawsuit with the Better Government Association by releasing a set of emails from private addresses he used to conduct government business, but a Tribune lawsuit over the email issue and text messages continues. During her campaign, Clinton came under fire for setting up a private server in her home on which she conducted official government business.
The County Board on Wednesday also will consider creation of a new Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership that would find construction jobs for people on projects that get county property tax breaks, as well as dueling resolutions calling on the federal government to provide more resources to combat crime.
And being introduced is a plan from Commissioner Richard Boykin, D-Oak Park, to create a Neighborhood Revitalization Act Authority to help teachers and first responders buy homes in struggling areas, in addition to an a proposal that would strike many county code references to “citizens,” under the rationale that Cook is a “fair and equal county for immigrants." (Hal Dardick)
*Candidate for alderman gets a boost: One of the 4th Ward candidates in this month’s special election is getting a little help from a group aligned with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Activist Gregory Seal Livingston has received a pair of $2,500 contributions from the Illinois Liberty PAC, a group that counts among its contributors Citadel hedge fund founder Kenneth Griffin and Uline CEO Richard Uihlein — both major backers of Rauner. Matthew Besler, who is listed as chairman of the PAC, also is president of the Illinois Opportunity Project, a “free market” group co-founded by conservative radio talk show host and unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft.
The contributions aren’t a big shock, given that Livingston was the spokesman for the 2015 mayoral campaign of Willie Wilson, who backed Rauner in 2014. But they may not play well in the 4th Ward. More than 92 percent of its voters cast ballots for Hillary Clinton last year, and more than 88 percent went with Democrat Pat Quinn in the 2014 gubernatorial contest. This month’s special election is nonpartisan.
For his part, Livingston notes he’s also received $2,500 from Blair Hull, a businessman and onetime Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, and $1,000 from Dr. Mohammed Sahloul, past president of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. He also said former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones gave him $500 on Monday.
“I have received contributions from an incredibly diverse & brave list of donors,” Livingston said. “Unlike the Machine, I can’t control who wants to contribute to my campaign.”
Illinois Liberty PAC’s contribution, however, is relatively modest, among about $10,000 in large contributions Livingston has reported raising since Jan. 1, after having a bit more than $2,500 on hand at the end of the year, according to an amended statement he filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
That’s dwarfed by the take of Ald. Sophia King, who Emanuel last year appointed after predecessor Will Burns resigned to take a job with Airbnb.
This year, King — a friend of former President Barack Obama — has raised $66,900 in large contributions while also earning the endorsements of Obama, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The largest contribution — $5,000 — came from the Service Employees International Union, but she’s also received money from other unions and business owners. King already had more than $100,000 on hand at the end of last year.
Also running are three attorneys: Ebony Lucas, Gerald Scott McCarthy and Marcellus Moore Jr. Each has received large contributions of $2,000 or less so far this year and none of them had more than $14,000 at the end of last year. (Hal Dardick)
*Where is Rep. McClintock? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been promoting opposition to Republican Rep. Peter Roskam, of Wheaton, amid its announcement that it will pay for a staffer to try to help defeat him in 2018 in the GOP-leaning west and northwest suburban 6th District.
But in its eagerness to point out Republicans who have been met with protests over President Donald Trump and the GOP agenda, the DCCC used a news release to give Illinois a new GOP congressman.
“Rep. Tom McClintock (R-IL) was escorted out his town hall by police and lashed out at the peaceful protesters, saying there was an ‘anarchist element,’" the DCCC said.
There is no Tom McClintock among Illinois’ 18-member congressional delegation. But there is a Rep. Tom McClintock in Congress. He’s a Republican with an office in Roseville, Calif., near Sacramento.
According to Google, it’s a 2,006-mile trip to Roseville from Wheaton. (Rick Pearson)
*Schneider on House Judiciary panel: Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, of Deerfield, has been named a member of the House Judiciary Committee in the new Congress.
Schneider, in a statement, said the post “serves as a great platform for the people of the 10th District on the important issues facing our country, from immigration and gun safety legislation to voting and women’s rights to civil liberties and intellectual property.”
The panel has oversight over the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, as well as the administration the federal court system. Schneider is also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (Rick Pearson)
*How they voted on DeVos: Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth joined the rest of Democrats in voting against the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary.
They had signaled their intentions and explained their reasoning in the days before the vote. Still, enough Republicans stuck together to confirm Trump’s pick.
Follow the money
*Ald. Brendan Reilly reported $40,500 in contributions, including a $5,000 donation from the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago’s political committee.
*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.
Beyond Chicago
*DeVos confirmed with Pence casting tie-breaking vote.
*The number of senators voting against appointees has risen during recent administrations.
*Trump administration to approve final permit for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
*A report says up to 13,000 people were hanged in a Syrian prison.
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