Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has endorsed another candidate in the upcoming March primary election, this time in the 26th district for state representative.
The White House is set hold a conference on Tuesday covering the ways in which government can work with non-profits on job creation, health and non-violence initiatives, and economic deveolpment.
In a move to protect healthcare amid growing tensions between President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other political leaders in Washington, D.C., members of the President’s home-state Democratic Congressional Delegation—and SEIU—are urging him to avoid Medicaid cuts that would impact 2 million Illinois residents.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin was joined by U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Dan Lipinski as they lambasted House Republicans for cutting a project already underway to build a rail bridge on Chicago's South Side that would alleviate traffic caused by Metra, Amtrak, and other freight trains.
After claiming he was prepared to move his district office for security
reasons, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush released a statement saying he was
undecided about the relocation.
Following the tragic shooting in Arizona this past weekend that left six dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition after surviving a gun shot to the head, local legislators are focusing their attention on beefing up security. The public is suddenly hyper-aware of threats to lawmakers, like the one received by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis; U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is planning on moving his office to a safer location; and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is, in the midst of anger over the size of the federal government, calling on Congress to increase members' budgets to add to their security detail.
But the problem, of course, is deeper than simply money or even safety. Politicians are constantly toeing the line between their security and access to their consituents. U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley called any suggestion of 24-hour security for lawmakers "wildly expensive and impractical." Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel, who helped recruit Giffords to run for office when he was the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, said security is something he worries about, but that he "would never want to remove [himself] from hearing directly from people."
Indeed, that is precisely what Giffords was doing when she was shot. Speaking about the importance of giving access to constituents, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky told WIND's Big John & Amy that the "ability to freely interact" with voters is "one of the most precious things about our democracy." Listen to her comments below (and hear the full interview here):
We haven't heard a great deal from Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush on the issue of health care reform in recent months. But he suggested today that he might vote "no" on the package. Here's his rationale, via the Huffington Post:
A Rush spokeswoman told one HuffPost reporter that Rush plans to vote
"no" because he is unhappy that a discount program that reimburses
hospitals for taking care of the indigent and poor was removed from the
final version of the bill. She said the office was waiting for his
signal to release a statement of opposition.
The Hillreports that, after huddling with Democratic leaders on the House floor this afternoon, he told the media, "We're working something out." Anyway, he's yet another member of the Illinois delegation to keep an eye on as the vote approaches this weekend.
In a move to protect healthcare amid growing tensions between President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other political leaders in Washington, D.C., members of the President’s home-state Democratic Congressional Delegation—and SEIU—are urging him to avoid Medicaid cuts that would impact 2 million Illinois residents.
Following the tragic shooting in Arizona this past weekend that left six dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition after surviving a gun shot to the head, local legislators are focusing their attention on beefing up security. The public is suddenly hyper-aware of threats to lawmakers, like the one 