The Capitol Fax Blog » *** UPDATED x3 *** Quinn: Brady represents “extreme fringe of the right wing”

*** UPDATED x3 *** Quinn: Brady represents “extreme fringe of the right wing”

Friday, Mar 5, 2010

* And here we go…

Quinn for Illinois Statement on GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Bill Brady

The Republican nominee is from the extreme right wing of the party and far from the mainstream of Illinois voters. In his legislative career, Senator Bill Brady has voted against the Family Medical Leave Act, equal pay for men and women, and raising the minimum wage. He has also proposed repealing anti-discrimination laws, would ban all abortions — even for victims of rape and incest — and even voted against a bill funding mammograms and pap tests.

These and other extreme positions reflect Mr. Brady’s misguided priorities, especially at a time when we need to rebuild our economy and prepare our workers for the jobs of the future. He may represent the extreme fringe of the right-wing, but he certainly does not represent the people of Illinois.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Brady got some rather pointed advice this afternoon from the president of the IMA: Move to the suburbs…

Mr. Brady needs to focus on issue like taxes — Mr. Quinn is proposing a big hike in the state income tax — and needs to “buy a house in the western suburbs and learn the culture of metropolitan Chicago,” said Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Assn.

Mr. Brady must learn that local property taxes are high in part because a disproportionate share of state education aid goes to other portions of the state, and he needs to understand that local motorists need alternatives to clogged highways and gridlock, Mr. Baise said.

Literally living here for a while “would give him a better feel for what’s on in the mind of people who haven’t voted Republican in the last few election cycles but might.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** The Quinn people are apparently using a big-time jobs announcement to help drown out the official Brady win. That’s the only reason I can figure for dropping something this juicy on a Friday afternoon. From a press release…

Governor Pat Quinn US House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL) to highlight federal funding for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program’s Englewood Flyover in Chicago. The project received $133 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program to build a rail flyover in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood that will significantly reduce rail congestion.

The project will create nearly 1,500 Illinois jobs.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Some Dillard video from today’s announcement…

- posted by Rich Miller

31 Comments

- Northsider - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:05 pm:
“Extreme right wing of the party”? Those sound like mainstream GOP positions to me.

- A Naughty Moose - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:09 pm:
Quinn: “And then there’s Brady’s plan for gassing puppies.”

Brady: “There is?”

- wordslinger - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:12 pm:
I hope they have a lot of debates.

- Dooley Dudright - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:14 pm:
With apologies/thanks to Stealers Wheel — Quinn will spend the next eight months warbling this refrain to every voter in sight:

Whitney to the left of me
Brady to the right
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you!

- OneMan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:16 pm:
When Little Timmy and Tommy are in a classroom with 40 kids this fall, people are not going to care in Brady wants to gas puppies while banning everything.

- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:17 pm:
Brady is such a tool for the insurance industry, he not only opposed legislation to protect the privacy of your DNA from insurance companies from snooping into your DNA, he spoke against it on the floor and asked for verification.

And that was a Republican-sponsored bill.

But hey, I guess I should get points for being consistent in his opposition to the Right to Privacy.

- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:19 pm:
@Oneman

Good point. By Fall the focus will be on Brady’s plans to cut school funding and college financial aid to lower funding levels than Alabama.

- Pat Robertson - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:23 pm:
Doesn’t anyone represent my demographic — the lunatic fringe — anymore? Is Brady a lunatic fringer in name only?

- Conservative Veteran - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:24 pm:
Senator Brady voted for the law that allows illegal aliens to attend state universities and pay in-state tuition. If he was on the “extreme fringe of the right,” he would have voted against that bill.

- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:27 pm:
“It’s the economy, stupid …”

Dunno, to whom (Quinn and/or Brady) that should be directed to, but …

Here is a senerio …

An unemployed voter, living with his elderly parents, who can’t afford their drugs, let alone their son … oh, did I mention the son’s wife & two kids also live in this 2 bedroom apartment…and this unemployed voter just dropped off his kids at the school where they are in classrooms with 38 kids, and sharing books ….all the while thinking, “I have to hurry and vote, after selling my car, I need to make the bus, otherwise I am stuck here for 50 minutes with the new bus schedule…”

Do you think for one second that voter has social issues, like gay marriage & doggie gas chambers?

Goodness Gracious!

- OneMan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:30 pm:
YDD

Sorry the now is not going to replace the ‘what if’, never has just ask Jimmy Carter or George Bush the first. The he is going to make things worse argument almost never works.

Also if nothing else, just reminding everyone how much better things were under the Jims vs. today (even under George)..

The state is going to be in such a financial mess none of it is going to matter. It is going to be pure ‘they screwed it up’

To be honest, if Quinn wins I think we will have been guaranteed the mansion for the next 20 years by the end of his term.

- Reality is - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:33 pm:
Given the following facts, what is the cause for the big outcry concering property taxes in Chicago ?

Chicago
Estimated median house or condo value in 2008: $287,500

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2008: $2,982 (1.0%)
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2008: $2,253 (0.9%)

Springfield
Estimated median house or condo value in 2008: $109,600

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2008: $2,229 (2.0%)
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2008: $1,701 (1.7%)

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Chicago-Illinois.html#ixzz0hL8xi4m9

- OneMan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:34 pm:
== The project will create nearly 1,500 Illinois jobs. ==

BS, it might have 1,500 people working on it. But it will not create 1,500 jobs that’s the same sort of math Rod used to use with the Film jobs.

The only way a rail flyover rely creates 1,500 jobs, that is employs people full time basically forever (or without a fixed end date) is if the flybridge is made up of 1,500 people literally.

The growth at the Ford plant, that is creating jobs, this isn’t

- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:38 pm:
===The he is going to make things worse argument almost never works. ===

It works all the time. Did you miss the ‘08 presidential race? ;)

- Red Ranger - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:44 pm:
@ Reality: Try looking at property taxes in suburban Chicago. Lake County, DuPage County, Far North and Western Cook County, and portions of Will County all have property tax rates that dwarf the rest of the state. $10-$15k per year property taxes on a $450-$500 house are very normal in those areas. For the actual city of Chicago, Im sure its frustrating to home owners that even with all of the tax revenue that the City brings in (Loop office buildings, retail, sports teams, restaurants etc) property taxes are still fairly high.

- Reality is - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:49 pm:
OK thanks Red Ranger, I will check out those specific areas. Just trying to understand the issue. The actual “Chicago” numbers dont seem disproportionate though.

- Northsider - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:52 pm:
Mr. Baise,

The Western suburbs do not the Chicago metropolitan region make. In my part of the region, for example, I can walk to shops, grocery stores, a pharmacy, transit stops and stations, enjoy mixed housing and mixed use neighborhoods, and interact with people, cultures, and cuisines not completely identical to my own. I don’t have to drive everywhere to do anything, even if it’s just to get a loaf of bread, a newspaper, or a gallon of milk. I’m not completely enslaved by my car/SUV/mini-van.

If suburban drivers suffer from clogged roads and highways, well, that’s like couch potatoes who drive everywhere, spend most evenings watching TV and eating nothing but processed foods, and then complain of clogged arteries. The suburbs suffer from from clogged roads because they’re built for cars, not people, and are built on a fatally flawed road system that guarantees sprawl and higher infrastructure costs (i.e., taxes). God forbid we spend decent money on fixing our regional transit system, however…

Nor does my portion of the region suffer the sad environment of strip malls (except the God-awful Gateway Center at Howard and Clark) and cookie-cutter subdivisions built completely out of proportion or relation to anything, including the very idea of shared public space.

While your comments that Mr. Brady needs a broader perspective are well taken, please don’t taint us all with sprawl.

Sincerely,
Northsider

P.S. I strongly recommend you read The Long Emergency, by James Howard Kunstler.

- Brennan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:59 pm:
OneMan: Quinn is posturing to have it both ways.

=1,446 direct and indirect job years are estimated to be created from a $133 million investment.=

I don’t see any usage of “saved or created” so score this one as, uhh, progress.

- Red Ranger - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 3:59 pm:
@Reality It really depends where you live in the City as well. Lincoln Park, Lake View, North Center etc can have really high rates compared to other areas of the city. Also, the property tax bill can jump 30%-%40 from one year to the next because of the 3 year assessment cycle. It can be a real shock to get a bill. It is true that for large portions of the city, propert taxes are a deal.

- Coach - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:01 pm:
That’s some rather interesting, inverted logic on property taxes and school funding from Greg Baise.

I’ve never heard anybody claim that property tax rates are actually higher in the burbs because the suburbs are lacking in dollars since the state funding formula sends state education dollars to other areas of the state.

Suburban schools are far better funded than schools elsewhere in the state because the property values are significantly higher - not necessarily because the suburban property tax rates are higher. (Areas in southern Illinois or Rockford, for instance, simply don’t have the affluent base.) Or at least that’s how I understand the facts.

Moreover, the state education dollars flow to those other, non-suburban areas precisely because those schools need them to make up for the absence of overwhelming property tax revenue. The suburban schools do not rely as heavily on the state dollars precisely because they’re awash in property tax dollars.

If you follow Baise’s logic, he would seem to be suggesting that in fact the state ought to send more education dollars to the suburbs to alleviate the supposed pressure on local officials to push property tax rates upwards. That, in turn, would obviously require a significant increase in state taxes.

- Brennan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:07 pm:
Northsider: May I recommend you read about the Simon-Ehrlich Wager as a better understanding of how your scare tactics need a broader perspective.

Shockingly, Paul Ehrlich is still getting paid for his paranoia. Now he’s urging his peers to engage in something they’ve engaged in their whole lives. Politicizing science for their own gain.

- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:19 pm:
There goes the Brady Pity voters….

There are two Illinois. Mr. Brady is from the smaller part of this state in every way. His political viewpoint, his voting record, his statements on Primary Night that Illinois is a “center-right” state, reflects only this southern part of Illinois. Even his “running mate”.

Consequentially, the 2010 Illinois Republican Gubernatorial candidate lives in an alternative version of Illinois to the majority of Illinois voters. He is an alien. The Candidate differs from the majority of Illinois voters on many political and cultural ways. He might as well speak Pig Latin and have shiny metallic green skin.

Worse, Senator Brady doesn’t seem to sense this.

Illinois will have to move to Mr. Brady, because Mr. Brady will not move to Illinois.

- randle - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:27 pm:
anyone else hear that Randle got the ax this afternoon?

- downstate commissioner - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:28 pm:
Unfortunately, Quinn is right about Brady being too far right. On the other hand, had big hopes for Quinn, thought he might prove me wrong about him just being a political gadfly; he blew it.
As it stands now, will vote for Whitney.

- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:29 pm:
Hadn’t yet. Will check. Burying it under all this other stuff would be a good move.

- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:31 pm:
Denied by spokesman.

- Northsider - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:40 pm:
Brenan @ 4:07,

Where exactly am I using “scare tactics”?

Like it or not, the suburban way of life as we know it is predicated on cheap gasoline, and is therefore doomed. We all saw what happened when gas prices went north of $4 per gallon; it helped precipitate the mortgage foreclosure crisis as more and more suburban residents’ incomes were required to fill up their SUVs and mini-vans and drive everywhere for anything. What happens when gas goes above, and stays above $4 per gallon? The Simon-Erlich Wager scenario is irrelevant because oil is a finite resource and will run out.

What then? What fuel will replace gasoline? Hydrogen fuel cells? Perhaps, though I’ll believe it when I see it. If not them, then what?

Bottom line: Sprawl is not a sustainable form of development or lifestyle, and we’re in for a world of hurt as hydrocarbon fuels tap out.

As for the Washington Times? Please. The National Enquirer and my wife’s soap opera magazines have more credibility.

- phocion - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 4:52 pm:
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Quinn people are apparently using a big-time jobs announcement to help drown out the official Brady win. That’s the only reason I can figure for dropping something this juicy on a Friday afternoon.

Er, Rich. This story came out today because this event - which had been planned for weeks - just happened today.

- phocion - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 5:05 pm:
Yes, everyone should live like Northsider. Cars are immoral; public transit is moral. Millions of Americans are fools because they choose to live in the suburbs. Read only Northsider’s unbiased books and articles that support his viewpoint, and any that hold a contrary view are without any basis in fact. Promoting alternative energy for personal automobile use is a pipe dream and should not be attempted. Public transit receives no public subsidy, while roads receive everything from general funds in Springfield and Washington, not from gas taxes or user fees. Move to densely populated urban areas and all social and economic ills will instantly vanish.

- 2010 - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 5:05 pm:
@ Northsider

I am aghast that you make such a generalization regarding suburbanites filling up their gas tanks and the mortgage crisis. Unbelievable.

Read the facts.

- votecounter - Friday, Mar 5, 10 @ 5:25 pm:
All of you Democrats forget that a majority of voters in the Chicagoland area are catholic. Weather they go to church or not they call themselves Catholic. Now do they agree with or even follow their religion? Not all the time but tio say that another Catholic follows their religion and that makes them inelligible to be Governor is a pretty far streach.
That would mean thousands of people they know and love are right wing kooks? Come on. Will Pat Quinn keep bad mouthing the Church he claims to belong to? And if it is such a fringe religion why is he still a member?
The cardinal is pro life in all cases, he is anti gay marriage, he is against stem cell research. Is he a kook? This is a fine line Quinn and you Democrats are walking, and a majority of the people agree with at least one of those and its close on others

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