Six political action committees set up this summer in the name of Asian Americans to support GOP candidates are betting big on a candidate challenging a Democratic stalwart. Meanwhile, Democratic money kept on flowing on Monday after a big-bucks weekend.

Labor won another round in a court battle over local “right to work” zones after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the National Labor Relations Act does not allow for individual municipalities to pass such laws.

The next Illinois Attorney General will have the freedom to set his or her own course — picking and choosing what to make a priority, or how to respond to crises and movements.

Affordable housing may be the next big debate in Springfield in the new year as tensions over gentrification, unrestricted development and changing demographics distill into a movement to lift the state’s ban on rent control.

Attorneys for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District will appear in Cook County court on Wednesday in order to hammer out details on scheduling in a case filed by the water treatment board last week over an appointment made by Gov. Bruce Rauner earlier this year.

The MWRD sued Cook County Clerk David Orr on Friday, seeking a judge’s call on whether or not Rauner appointee David Walsh should be forced to abdicate his seat after the November election, even though his appointment is supposed to run until 2020.

When former Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Tim Bradford died in early December of last year, three days before the filing deadline for primary candidates, Orr’s office consulted with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and decided that the contest should be decided with a write-in election.

Democrat Cameron Davis and Green Party member Geoffrey Cubbage signed on as candidates for the seat, but there was no Republican in the primary. However, just a few days after Davis garnered a whopping 54,183 write-in votes in the March primary, Rauner appointed Walsh to fill the vacancy left by Bradford.

Orr told The Daily Line Tuesday either Davis or Cubbage should have the ultimate right to the seat.

“It’s always better to let the voters decide an election,” Orr said. “For example, there’s other rules where when somebody dies, usually they might be replaced temporarily, but only until the next election…So we think we don’t need any of this. There was that election, there was a contest for write-in ballots and the individual who got the most votes should have that seat after November.”

Rauner spokeswoman Patty Schuh told The Daily Line that Rauner was just following the law when he appointed Walsh this spring.

“Under Illinois law, the governor had a responsibility to make an appointment,” Schuh said. “He made that appointment. It is an extremely unusual circumstance so [the MWRD is] seeking clarity on the law.”

In its complaint, filed on Friday, the MWRD said the “dispute requires immediate adjudication,” or else two people would have a claim to the $70,000 per year job.

Rauner’s March appointment of Walsh was the third time Rauner tapped Walsh to fill a vacancy on the board. In September 2015, the governor had appointed Walsh to fill the vacancy left after former Commissioner Patrick Daley Thompson was elected 11th Ward alderman.

Walsh left in late 2016, but was tapped again to fill Cynthia Santos’ seat when she moved on to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. But in replacing Bradford, Rauner appointed Walsh to fill the “Bradford Vacancy,” thus creating a vacancy for Santos’ seat, which Rauner filled with former State Rep. Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago.)

Earlier this summer, Rauner asked Dunkin to step down from his post following allegations that the former state representative harassed women while serving in the Illinois House.

Speaking to The Daily Line earlier this month, Davis said the fight over the seat is causing people to lose sight of the bigger picture.

“It’s not just about this latest attempt to grab the seat, but it’s really about our water,” Davis said. “That’s kind of why I ran, it wasn’t to be an elected official, it’s because I’ve worked for more than 30 years in the public interest for water.”

• Prior coverage: Water district sues over governor’s appointment, Water Reclamation District Board scraps vote on Bradford vacancy spat

Architects, preservationists and random passersby gathered outside of the James R. Thompson Center Tuesday, calling for the state of Illinois to declare the building a historical landmark instead of selling it to the highest bidder or tearing it down.



Gov. Bruce Rauner has long advocated for selling the Thompson Center, named after Gov. Jim Thompson and designed by German American architect Helmut Jahn in 1985, commissioned as an office building for state government despite its soaring atrium and unusual color scheme.

But years of deferred maintenance and soaring utility bills have created a headache for state official, and Rauner began floating the idea to sell off the property soon after taking office four years ago.

The FY 2019 state budget relies on $270 million in estimated profits from selling the city-block sized property at Randolph and LaSalle streets in the heart of the Loop, though no plans to do so have materialized.

Ralliers made clever signs and even brought “SOS” letter balloons; the initials stand for Preservation Chicago’s rallying cry, “Save Our Starship.”

Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller told The Daily Line that Tuesday’s event was the “first step” in raising awareness that the building is in danger, even though the group hasn’t launched a petition or started to raise funds to save the building.

Miller said he hopes the issue gains traction in the governor’s race, but said his group’s efforts to reach the campaign of Democrat JB Pritzker have not been successful.

It is not just the unique building that’s at risk when Rauner and others talk about selling or demolishing the Thompson Center, but pointed to both the outdoor space and the “Monument With Standing Beast” sculpture by French artist Jean Dubuffet in the plaza, Miller said.

“This is a great public space,” Miller said. “These plazas and this sculpture were created first on the Daley Center and then on this site just to open up the Loop to sunlight and air — quality of life issues — make this a culturally rich experience to walk through the Loop, versus a dark canyon of buildings where you only see sunlight at 12 noon.”

Miller led the crowd in chants of “Salmon pink and baby blue, Thompson Center, we love you!” and “Civic center, public space sent to us from outer space!”

Tuesday’s rally attracted several dozen people, including Ron Tevonian, a docent with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, who had made a sign carrying a sign that said “Jahn turns me on.”

Tevonian said he’s not opposed to the state selling the Thompson Center, as long as the next owner plans to restore the building.

“If the governor thinks, ‘I don’t want to put state offices there anymore,’ he has that prerogative,” Tevonian said. “Our issue is the proper use and preservation of the building, which currently doesn’t seem that impressive because it’s $100 million behind in maintenance costs. But if the building can be brought back to its former glory, there’s a variety of ways in which it can be used profitably.”

The state’s treatment of the building has become a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” in that the state allowed the building to become dilapidated, “and then you look at it and say look at that mess,” Tevonian said/

Also on hand for the rally Tuesday was drag performer and Chicago native Shea Couleé, a finalist on season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Couleé danced in the plaza to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and “Think,” and afterward addressed the crowd.

“We have to get this building landmarked so that we can keep this a part of the public, part of the community so that people can continue to gather here, make wonderful communion between all of us,” Couleé said. “Because if not, this will be privatized and we will not have the freedom to come here and gather the way we do today.”

Past coverage:

• Ald. Reilly: ‘No One Has Come To Talk To Me’ About A New Plan To Replace Thompson Center


• State Budget Relies On $270M From Sale Of Thompson Center — But Mayor’s Office Says No New Proposal On Tap

Advocates for expanded voting rights in Illinois Monday called on Secretary of State Jesse White to comply with the state’s new Automatic Voter Registration law, which they said should have gone into effect three months ago.

Supporters of a bill designed to end the gender pay gap vowed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill designed to end the gender pay gap while the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District sued over a vacant seat that has been the source of controversy.

Both Republicans and Democrats moved around big money over the weekend, including $874,000 in new filings for the Illinois Republican Party and a $420,000 infusion from JB Pritzker to the Democratic Party of Illinois.

On Friday morning, State Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) and State Sen. Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) announced they would hold a press conference urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign HB 4163, which would bar employers from seeking an applicant’s wage history in an effort to stem the gender pay gap.