BERNARD SCHOENBURG: Governor's Day shaping up differently this year
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair will be far different this year than last.
Last year, in the middle of a campaign, Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH's political team filled 60 charter buses with people from other cities to help crowd the director's lawn for the traditional afternoon rally.
It was, you might recall, an election year, and the governor's fund was flush with cash. Not all was copacetic in the party - Attorney General Lisa Madigan didn't appear on the rally stage with the governor because her office was investigating his hiring practices - but it was still a good TV-style show.
This year, with Governor's Day on Aug. 15 less than two weeks away, Blagojevich campaign spokesman DOUG SCOFIELD said last week that there hasn't been a decision on "precisely what, if anything, the campaign will do."
In earlier years, the Democratic Party of Illinois has controlled the afternoon event. Of course this year, the chairman of the Democratic Party - House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago - is still trying to fashion a state budget.
STEVE BROWN, Madigan's spokesman, asked Friday about any plans for the rally this year, said, "I haven't spent a minute on the state fair at this point."
Still, it will be interesting to see how feuding leaders of the Democratic Party deal with one another. The Illinois Democratic County Chairmen's Association, led by JOHN GIANULIS of Rock Island County, will once again have its brunch at the Crowne Plaza the morning of the 15th. All statewide Democratic officeholders and legislative leaders are invited, so Mike Madigan and Blagojevich could both take turns addressing the crowd.
Gianulis, an early Blagojevich backer and at age 84 an icon in the party, remains a fan of the governor.
"I'm supporting the governor 1,000 percent," Gianulis said.
Gianulis also said his chairmen's group last month endorsed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president. Obama is invited to the brunch, but hasn't confirmed. If he makes it to Springfield this year, then things go back to TV-show status.
Meanwhile, Republicans - not always the most together bunch - are hoping to capitalize on the Democratic-led budget disarray with their own fair events.
Republican Day, Aug. 16, will include a combined State Central Committee and GOP County Chairmen's Association breakfast at the Crowne Plaza, followed by meetings of each of those groups.
A presidential straw poll, a first for the GOP at the fair, will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the director's lawn. Lunch will be at the same place from noon to 2 p.m., with speeches likely to start about 1.
A reception is scheduled from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Sangamon County GOP headquarters, 1132 E. Sangamon Ave., hosted by state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington and Larry Bomke of Springfield. Another reception will be at Franny's, Eighth Street and Sangamon Avenue, from 2:30 to 4, hosted by state Sen. Dan Rutherford of Chenoa and delegate candidates who back Rutherford's preferred presidential candidate, MITT ROMNEY.
SUBHEAD
Former WICS-TV reporter JILL BURWITZ, 34, of Pawnee is the new spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Burwitz had been spokeswoman for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum since 2005. She made $57,600 annually in that contract job, which ended July 1. She now is a state worker speaking for IDOT and officially working in the information pool of the Department of Central Management Services. She'll make $63,300 in the new job.
DAVE BLANCHETTE, 46, of Jacksonville, who has been with the state since 1987 and was already spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Capital Development Board, returns to familiar territory by adding the library and museum to his responsibilities.
"It was an easy fit for me because I had done the publicity for the library/museum for many years" as it was being developed, he said. Burwitz's contract was designed to have her help with the extra publicity surrounding the initial year or two of operation of the museum.
"Things have reached a plateau now where I can resume those duties in addition to my normal duties at IHPA and CDB," Blanchette said. He makes $57,600 annually.
Burwitz takes the place at IDOT of MATT VANOVER, who recently became a spokesman for the State Board of Education.
There are a couple other new agency spokespeople at CMS. They are:
--RIKEESHA CANNON, a Chicago-based spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services. She comes to the $60,500 state job from being media relations director at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago. TOM GREEN remains the Springfield-based DHS spokesman.
--KATHERINE RIDGWAY, Chicago-based spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue. A 2006 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, she has been a Dunn Fellow with the governor's office since last fall. She will make $51,500.
Subhead (CUTTABLE)
Blanchette, in his new role, reports that nearly 400 people attended last weekend's fashion show at the Lincoln Museum, which featured MYCHAEL KNIGHT, who gained fame on the "Project Runway" TV show, and about $7,000 was raised for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
"It was sold out so far in advance … people were calling for tickets and weren't able to get them," Blanchette said. "They enlisted political support in an attempt to get tickets. We had calls from city officials wanting to know if they could secure tickets for their constituents."
No such luck, apparently. And no names, either.
SUBHEAD
There was a pleasant interlude from state budget battles last week as a dozen former lawmakers, including one-time GOP House Speaker W. ROBERT BLAIR, were on the House floor for a get-together designed to mark the recent renovation of the chamber.
House Speaker Madigan introduced the group, telling the House he thought of inviting the former members "because one day I was back in my office with nothing to do except convene special sessions (yes, that line got a laugh), and I thought that the prior renovation of the chamber had occurred under the administration of Bob Blair."
Madigan said he decided to ask Blair to "spend some time with us, view the changes that we've done in the chamber, and then share with us some of his remembrances."
Blair, a spry 76, now lives in Chicago and Sarasota, Fla. He was elected in 1964 and served until the beginning of 1975, was speaker from 1971 to 1974. He said he thinks the recent renovation is "magnificent."
Madigan noted that in 1971, his first year in the House, members had no offices beyond their desks on the House floor, and the only phones on the floor were eight or 10 public ones in the rear of the chamber.
Blair said an obvious difference from the 1973 renovation to now is that back then, there were 177 House members to 118 now. He noted that he resisted the idea of closing off the second-floor gallery with bulletproof glass, and it was also decided to keep press boxes on the House floor so reporters could have access to members.
"I remember that sometimes the paper bills and amendments were stacked up so high on the desks at the end of the regular sessions that I could hardly make out the faces of the members," said Blair,
Now, lawmakers see proposed legislation on laptop computers.
He also noted that back then, it was decided to install blue carpet - thought to have a calming effect -- versus the original red. About three weeks after the House renovation was done, he said, some members of the Senate, still working on a red carpet, got into a fight.
"So the guys were chuckling," he said. "They should have done it in the Senate. Then they wouldn't have gotten into fisticuffs."
Also on hand last week were some former reporters, including BILL O'CONNELL, retired from the Peoria Journal Star, and RAY SERATI, retired form Copley News Service and now working for the city of Springfield. Publicist PAUL LIS was also there.
State Rep. DAVID LEITCH, R-Peoria, himself a one-time Journal Star colleague of O'Connell, thanked Madigan for assembling the former members, but added that "there's no one who has impacted my life personally more than my dear friend Bill O'Connell."
O'Connell, 78 and seeming feisty as ever, said later he helped argue privately - at the appropriate time - to the then-chairman of Peoria County Republicans that the chairman "shouldn't let the Senate seat leave Peoria County" after the 1986 death of Sen. PRESCOTT BLOOM, R-Peoria. Leitch was appointed to fill out Bloom's term. O'Connell said then-state Rep. CARL HAWKINSON of Galesburg, who would later win a Senate seat, also wanted the appointment.
Among former House members recognized at the ceremony were AARON JAFFE, RAYMOND EWELL, EUGENE BARNES, PHIL COLLINS, DAN PIERCE, GLENN SCHNEIDER, MIKE McCLAIN, GERALD SHEA, BILL KEMPINERS and, from the post-Blair era, JIM REILLY.
"I thought it was great," said Kempiners, now of Springfield, who is retired from running the Illinois Health Care Association. "I thought it was a good example of how bipartisanship … brings people together and gets past some of the problems of the legislative day."
Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at (217) 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.
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