Adam Doster

Schock's Holiday Mailer

Adam Doster — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:53:30 -0800

Congressman-elect Aaron Schock isn’t asking for much this holiday season. After ousting Democrat Colleen Callahan by a healthy 20-point margin in the 18th congressional district race, the 27-year-old Republican sent a letter to supporters on November 21 requesting for a bit of assistance to pay down his campaign debt. Here’s an excerpt from his plea (PDF), courtesy of the State Journal-Register’s Bernard Schoenburg:

The decision I had to make was to risk losing this seat from a carefully coordinated and perfectly timed attack coordinated by a biased journalist and insiduous, non-stop attacks by my opponent, or stand up to them by matching their burst of extra late campaign ad spending to hold our own in a campaign where so many volunteers and contributors had sacrificed enormously for 15 months to elect me to succeed Ray LaHood in serving you in Congress. [...]

I had to go against every fiber of my being in going out on a limb financially by $80,000 to keep from being overwhelmed by these coordinated attacks on top of the Obama tsunami.

What’s screwy about this appeal (besides the abundance of run-on sentences)? For one, Schock outspent his Democratic rival by over $1.5 million. Sure, the DCCC added Callahan to its list of Emerging Races in June, but for Schock to suggest that he was under siege by Callahan or the national party is a joke.

So is the timeline Schock sketches for his supporters. As the congressman-elect tells it, he resisted the urge to put his own skin in the game until his opponent’s relentless attacks at the tail end of the campaign forced his hand. But FEC disclosure records tell a different story. Schock dropped $50,000 into his own campaign fund in September of last year, well before the general election race even got underway. Going against every fiber of your being, Aaron? Hardly.

Equally interesting is Schock’s desire to recoup $80,000 of his own dollars. The $50,000 he spent last September was his only personal contribution. He didn’t donate any money to his leadership PAC, either. Where the extra $30,000 comes from is unclear.

UPDATE: One possibility is that Schock isn't referring to an $80,000 personal contribution (though the language he uses certainly suggests that), but rather $80,000 in last-minute spending that exceeded the campaign's cash-on-hand. That seems unlikely, however, as the "pre-general" report he filed with the FEC -- which includes receipts up to October 28 -- showed him with $266,000 cash-on-hand. And none of the supplementary filings issued by Schock's campaign between that date and November 4 show a loan. Is it possible Schock spent that $266,000 plus an extra $80,000 in the six days prior to the election? I suppose. But there's no paper trail to prove it at the moment.

Sun-Times Endorses Jackson Jr.

Adam Doster — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:25:02 -0800

Time is ticking for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to name Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate successor. The state’s chief executive -- who may have showed his hand on Thanksgiving Day by calling Rep. Danny Davis “Senator” on two different occasions -- insists he will go public with his choice around Christmas. That leaves just over three more weeks for the political pundits to guess who the unpredictable lawmaker might appoint.

Of course, who Blagojevich should choose and who he will choose are two very different questions. Today, the Sun-Times weighs in on the former, joining the SouthtownStar in endorsing Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. From their editorial:

We believe Jackson, 43, has the drive, the passion and the experience. In his 13 years in Congress, he has distinguished himself as a thoughtful, committed legislator who fights for what he thinks is right. [...]

Above all, we believe, Jackson shares the values and goals of the president-elect, a consideration of no small importance to us in making this endorsement. The voters of Illinois chose Obama twice—first for the Senate and then for president—and they deserve a replacement who fully shares the president-elect’s agenda.

The paper also singles out Attorney General Lisa Madigan as “one other superbly qualified candidate for the job,” but notes that it’s unlikely the governor would offer any favors to the Madigan clan.

Eliminating The New Poll Tax

Adam Doster — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:55:53 -0800

Two days before Americans went to vote this year, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow described Election Day lines as “a poll tax.” Considering the opportunity costs of waiting around to cast a ballot on a work day, the description seems apt. It’s possible that the historical parallel -- a poll tax was originally intended to price out prospective African-American voters -- is appropriate as well.

Northwestern University engineering professor Michael Peshkin argues that long lines this year disproportionately affected black voters. Analyzing a rough tally of Election Day news reports containing the phrase “long lines” (there is no actual survey of polling place delays), he found a high correlation between states with the largest African-American populations and those with the longest delays. Check out his graph:

It’s clear that the GOP has institutionalized tactics that suppress turnout among Democratic-leaning demographics: as Rick Perlstein wrote after the 2006 midterm elections, “by now it’s in [the GOP’s] DNA. They’re proud of it, and thus the smoking guns will keep coming.” But many of the barriers Americans face at the polls, like the one Peshkin identifies, aren’t necessarily related to partisan interference. Instead, they are caused by enduring holes in the nation’s election administration infrastructure, some of which could be closed quite easily.

One fix for the line problem would be a federally mandated ratio of voting stations to voters. It seems silly that such a law doesn’t already exist, but those decisions have been left to local registrars historically, a fact that helps explain why certain communities aren’t provided an equal amount of resources. Moving Election Day from Tuesday to the weekend and expanding early voting opportunities nationally would easy the voting glut too. According to the New York Times, “many of the states that allowed early voting this year experienced few delays on Election Day.”

Lines aren’t the only problem worth fixing. Trumped up concerns over “voter fraud” could be dispelled and the franchise could be broadened if the United States adopted a same-day voter registration system, too. Not only would we eliminate the need for well-intentioned but problematic third-party voter-registration drives, we could curtail the amount of “no match” situations, when a voter’s identification and registration are slightly different.

Now is as good a time as any for legislators to take action. If they don’t enact changes while the voting experience is still fresh in people’s minds, the inertia will fade and the same problems will bubble up in 2010 and beyond. Senator Dianne Feinstein authored a bill to expand early voting in 2007 that now faces better prospects of passage with co-sponsor Barack Obama in the White House. Hopefully, we’ll see more legislation in this vein when Congress reconvenes in 2009.

Demand For Food Stamps Surges

Adam Doster — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:16:08 -0800

Most Americans will spend Thanksgiving Day feasting on turkey and stuffing with loved ones. Unfortunately, a healthy, home cooked meal is out of reach for a growing number of families, as the Washington Post explains:

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. [...]

“We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. “If the economic forecasts come true, we’re likely to see the most hunger that we’ve seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established.”

Illinois is not immune. The number of people participating in the food stamp program jumped almost 5 percent between August 2007-August 2008, totaling 1.34 million. Only Texas, New York, California, and Florida had more residents qualify. And the benefits one receives haven’t kept up with the soaring cost of food. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average monthly food stamp benefit per person was $105 in 2007. In October, Congress increased the maximum food stamp benefit by 8.5 percent for fiscal year 2009, but even that legitimate bump won’t be enough to cover the Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four in December.

Inadequate public subsidies in turn drive people to food pantries, many of which are having difficulty supplying the rush. As Josh wrote last month, Illinois food pantries saw “a 30 percent increase in people needing food” between August 2007 and August 2008 and the the state was forced to distribute an emergency $500,000 appropriation to the Illinois Food Bank Association in order to solve the problem.

Congress can take immediate steps to aid the hungry. The Democrats’ stimulus proposal will hopefully include a temporary increase in food stamps, which Moody’s Economy says is worth the cost: every $1 spent on food stamp benefits generates $1.73 of economic activity. And it doesn’t hurt that President-elect Barack Obama, whose mother once briefly received food stamps, favors the proposal.

Chicago Bike Fed Changes Name, Expands Focus

Adam Doster — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:53:11 -0800

For almost 25 years, Windy City cyclists have relied on the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation to promote bike safety and advocate for bike-friendly public policy. Now those that use mass transit or their own two feet to traverse the region can call the 6,100-member organization an ally as well.

Earlier this month, the Federation officially changed its name to the Active Transportation Alliance (ATA), a move that emphasizes the organization’s widening scope. “The board had seen this connection between bicycle advocacy … and how it directly affects pedestrians and transit users,” said Margo O’Hara, ATA’s director of communications, “and how taking a broader approach will help bicyclists even more.”

Here’s the new mission statement:

The mission of Active Transportation Alliance is to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, environmental stewardship and resource conservation.

Adding transit into the mix will keep ATA busy. Not only are the budget woes and infrastructure needs of the CTA and RTA constant concerns, but the federal transportation bill—which sets the transportation budget for the next six years—will be reauthorized in 2009. O’Hara says pressuring lawmakers to devote enough capital to cycling, transit, and pedestrian projects will be a “huge priority.”

In the meantime, ATA intends to grow its membership and improve its programming. Check out their blog here.

High-Speed Rail Coming Down The Tracks

Adam Doster — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:26:50 -0800

The Supertrain could be coming to a station near you. Following the excellent news last month that Congress doubled the amount of federal funding earmarked for Amtrak, Sens. John Kerry and Arlen Specter unveiled another bill last week that would build upon the Amtrak reauthorization and fund high-speed rail lines across the country.

Titled the High-Speed Rail for America Act of 2008, the bill would provide money for tax-exempt bonds to finance long-stalled high-speed rail projects. “A first-rate rail system,” Kerry said in a statement, “would protect our environment, save families time and money, reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and help get our economy moving again.”

If the bill passes, Illinois riders could benefit handsomely. The legislation sets aside $5.4 billion over a six-year period for rail infrastructure bonds that can be used on 10 rail corridors deemed in need of repair by the Federal Rail Administration. The Midwest represents one such corridor, with Chicago as its hub. Plans to revamp the region’s stretch of rail (dubbed the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative) were drawn up years ago. All that’s needed is the capital, which this bill would help provide.

As Ryan Avent writes, the timing of Kerry and Specter’s initiative is especially poignant in light of the Rust Belt’s financial struggles and the auto executives’ impending 500-mile carpool to Washington:

High-speed rail could cut travel time between Detroit and Washington from nine hours to three — just a smidge longer than the train ride from Washington to New York, from downtown to downtown. And you’d never have to take your shoes off, unless you wanted to. High-speed rail would also cut a five-hour drive from Detroit to Chicago to just over an hour. Detroit to Cleveland? Just under and hour. Detroit to Pittsburgh? About an hour and a half.

High-speed rail would, in other words, turn Rust Belt distances into northeast corridor distances, while also shifting the Rust Belt closer to the northeast corridor. It would increase the return to doing business in every city in the region. It would be the Erie Canal and the original railroads on steroids.

(H/T Praire State Blue)

Illinois' Abstinence-Only Problem

Adam Doster — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:47:20 -0800

Regardless of what President Bush says, abstinence-only sex education has been widely discredited. Last April, a longitudinal study of 2,000 children commissioned by Congress found that preaching abstinence does not keep teenagers from having sex nor does it increase the likelihood that they will use contraception if they do. The results essentially gutted the fundamental premise behind the abstinence-only movement.

Here in Illinois, however, it seems Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Department of Human Services (DHS) have ignored the overwhelming evidence to this effect. According to the Sexuality and Information Education Council’s (SIECUS) William Smith, the state accepted over $1.8 million in abstinence-until-marriage funds this past fiscal year through a federal funding stream known as Title V. And the money went to some undeserving causes.

One beneficiary was Scott Phelps, founder of the Wheeling-based Abstinence and Education Marriage Partnership. He’s also the co-author of three popular abstinence-only curricula, Game Plan, Aspire, and Navigator. Glenview’s Project Reality, an industry leader in abstinence-only publishing, netted $81,560 in funding and used the cash to distribute Game Plan in 15 states. What value can be gleaned from Phelps’ manifesto? Page 36 features this nugget: “Even more widespread than disease are the emotional scarring and deep wounds that come out of broken relationships. No matter how strong a condom is, it won’t protect you from a broken heart.” Smith writes that “by supplying funds for Project Reality, [DHS] Secretary [Carol] Adams is not only putting Illinois youth at risk, but financially backing one of the worst abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula nationwide.”

The state also doled out $250,000 to four crisis pregnancy centers, anti-choice institutions that are generally operated by religious organizations. The primary goal is to talk women out of abortions, often via misleading information and questionable tactics.

What gives? DHS Secretary Carol Adams wrote to Smith that the agency “supports a myriad of services designed to address the goals of reducing teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The Abstinence Education Program is part of the continuum of services designed to address these goals.”

That’s not a very convincing argument. There are a myriad of ways to teach math, but the state wouldn’t fund a school using discredited algebra equations. And there is precedent for turning down the funds, too; twenty-five state health departments currently reject federal abstinence money, up from 11 last year. DHS needs to focus all of its efforts on improving comprehensive sex education programs in the state. That’s where the real difference is made and where improvements are needed.

(H/T Mechanics)

A Bailout For Main Street

Adam Doster — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:21:37 -0800

Just three days after Dick Durbin relaunched his effort to let judges alter the terms of distressed mortgages in bankruptcy cases, a coalition of activists rallied outside the senior Illinois senator’s Chicago office to commend his efforts and push him to offer more expansive assistance.

Organized by Chicago Jobs With Justice (JWJ), a group of around 50 gathered to hear testimony from Antoinette Chambers, a West Side resident facing eviction from her apartment because her landlord is being foreclosed upon. The coalition also delivered a letter to a Durbin staffer (right) calling on Congress to support his bankruptcy bill, impose a freeze on all mortgage foreclosures, and pass a job-creating stimulus package as outlined by the Institute for Policy Studies.

“This is a letter,” said James Thindwa, JWJ’s executive director, “that we’re sending to Senator Durbin to thank him, to acknowledge his good efforts, and to ask him to do more and push other members of the U.S. Senate and the Congress at large to really understand what an emergency this is.”

While a federal stimulus package was put on hold during the lame-duck session this month, Barack Obama has expressed support for a plan that would provide billions to state governments struggling with budget shortfalls. It’s likely that portions of the bill would also go towards green infrastructure investments. Carl Rosen, a representative from the United Electrical Workers, says progressives must push Obama and other legislators to ensure they deliver what the coalition is calling “a bailout for Main Street.”

“There’s a feeling that leaders in Washington have their priorities backward,” he says. “That they are taking care of the rich and wealthy and not taking care of average Americans, who needs jobs that pay a living wage and health insurance.”

Waiting On The Office Of Urban Policy

Adam Doster — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:14:46 -0800

It’s still unclear what Barack Obama’s Office of Urban Policy will do. On his campaign website, the president-elect makes the amorphous promise that whoever holds the position will “develop a strategy for metropolitan America and … ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs.” Bearing in mind that a bunch of departments and agencies deal directly or tangentially with issues that effect urban America (HUD, Transportation, the EPA, Labor, Agriculture, HHS), it’s important that the new “urban czar” not get bogged down in what Ezra Klein calls “turf wars.”

I like a suggestion put forth by The American Prospect’s Dana Goldstein. “[W]hat Washington needs is less a day-to-day manager of urban programs,” she writes, “than an outspoken advocate on behalf of urbanism.” This is a valuable point. Even though the vast majority of Americans live in or near cities, the federal government has failed to offer an affirmative argument (much less a forward-thinking policy agenda) for why the health of cities is vital to the nation’s long-term economic, social, and environmental stability. Putting someone within earshot of the president who is fluent in the language of both urban poverty and regional planning reform would help ensure the new administration focuses effectively on these pressing issues of human geography.

Goldstein highlights two policies such an officer could champion. One is near and dear to the heart of most Illinois progressives: working with the Department of Education and local governments to encourage states to revisit school-funding formulas. The second is getting the federal government to lean on cities to enact congestion pricing schemes. While Chicago hasn’t committed fully to any such plan, the city seems to be moving in the right direction with the development in April of a new rapid Bus Rapid Transit network and a variable rate parking meter system downtown.

I’ll suggest a third issue just begging for attention: incarceration. We’re not going to solve the enduring problem of urban poverty and violence until we end the failed drug war. Luckily, an array of policies already exist that can reverse the nation’s drive toward mass imprisonment in humane fashion. What’s lacking is the political will to fund and promote such solutions.

Unemployment Jumps Again

Adam Doster — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:22:08 -0800

The October jobs numbers are in and as expected, they aren’t pretty. The state’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 7.3 percent from 6.9 percent in September, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. October also marked the fifth consecutive month in which the percentage of jobholders in the state fell. While unemployment rose to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent nationally last month, Illinois’ figures have consistently tracked higher than the federal average since the beginning of 2007. Check out the graph below: