Near-Win in Cook GOP Straw Vote Boosts Brady Statewide

As Republicans from Chicago and suburban Cook County gathered in Rosemont for the Cook County GOP Convention, Sen. Bill Brady’s near-win in the convention’s straw vote may have surprised some of his opponents and critics.

The only gubernatorial candidate not from the Chicagoland area, Brady’s hard work across the state propelled him to just 18 votes short of winning the straw vote on Saturday in an area skeptics have said he can’t win. Already very strong downstate, Brady’s strong showing among Cook County voters cements his status as the clear GOP front-runner statewide.

After candidates for governor gave presentations, delegates participated in a straw vote, choosing their first (worth 3 votes), second (2 votes) and third (1 vote) choices. Final results were Sen. Kirk Dillard with 216 votes, Brady with 198, Adam Andrzejewski 150, Dan Proft 142, Bob Schillerstrom 108 and Andy McKenna 21.

“I’m grateful to all of my supporters in Cook County,” Brady said. “We’re going to win this primary and win this election in November because I’m a candidate for all of Illinois, and I think you see evidence of that in the support I’m receiving in Cook County.”

Brady also congratulated Cook County GOP Chairman Lee Roupas and organizers of the convention.

“Lee, his staff and volunteers did a great job with the convention,” Brady added. “It was great to see so many enthusiastic Republicans fired up about this election, and I look forward to being their standard-bearer heading into the fall.”

Brady Slams Quinn’s Support of a Public Health Care Option

Calls for better management of Medicaid, and greater support for
and investment in the private sector

Sen. Bill Brady, Republican Candidate for Governor, criticized Gov. Quinn today for backing a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. ???
“A government takeover of health insurance is the last thing we need,” said Brady, a downstate businessman. “We need less government involvement in the private sector, not more. Gov. Quinn’s support of such a plan shows how misguided and out of touch he is.”
The so-called public option is expected to be considered Tuesday, when the U.S. Senate Finance Committee reconvenes. It is the last stop before being sent to the House and Senate for a vote.

“The plan under consideration is too expensive, calls for even more borrowing and leaves senior citizens extremely vulnerable,” said Brady. “We should turn our attention to fixing the system we already have, not radically overhauling it.”

Sen. Brady has been a leading advocate of investing in, and empowering the private sector.

“Our focus in Illinois needs to be on improving the management of Medicaid so residents have access at the earliest stages of their illness,” said Brady. “By guaranteeing earlier access to Medicaid recipients and better management of the system, Illinois would save over a billion dollars. That in turn, will allow the state to fund services and reduce spending.”

GOP’s Brady whacks Madigan, proposes term limits

Chicago Tribune
September 22, 2009
Posted by Rick Pearson at 11:35 a.m.

State Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican candidate for governor, today assailed the control Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has over state government and proposed term limits, a return to multi-member House districts and campaign finance reforms.

“We have reached a point where too few people control too much and the power is too concentrated,” Brady said. “There’s no question that the speaker of the House, representing little over 100,000 people, has had absolute control over the state of Illinois. He’s been able to do that for nearly three decades and it’s time for that to end.”

Brady proposed a combination of state constitutional amendments and legislation to implement what he called his government reform package.

But the Bloomington Republican, who has spent seven years in the House and a like amount of time in the Senate, acknowledged it was unlikely that the Democratic-dominated legislature would put the constitutional changes on the November 2010 general election ballot. Madigan, of Chicago, has served as speaker of the House for 24 of the past 26 years.

Brady, who finished third among the four major candidates in the 2006 GOP primary for governor, proposed a state constitutional amendment that would limit state lawmakers to 10 years and statewide elected officials to 12 years. Lawmakers who are forced out because of term limits could return in six years.

He also proposed a return to what’s known as cumulative voting for the House. Under his plan, the Senate would be trimmed from 59 members to 41, with three House members elected from each Senate district.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn led a push in 1980 that eliminated the cumulative voting system. Critics have said eliminating that system paved the way for increased one-party control of the legislature and dominance by top legislative leaders.

Brady also called for the adoption of campaign donation reforms that conform to the current federal limits of $2,300 per election. He chided Democratic leaders and Quinn for first passing, then vetoing a complicated campaign finance limit plan that critics said was filled with loopholes.

Brady also said he had no favorite for a lieutenant governor running mate among a field of several lesser-known candidates. He criticized former GOP state chairman Andy McKenna of Chicago, a new entry in the governor’s race, for “deal making” in running with state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine. Murphy dropped his bid for governor to run with McKenna as lieutenant governor.

Along with Brady and McKenna, other candidates for the Republican nomination for governor include state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom of Naperville, political pundit and operative Dan Proft of Chicago and transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski of Hinsdale.

Dillard unveiled his ethics reform proposals last week.

State Sen. Brady calls for limits on campaign contributions

September 22, 2009
Chicago Sun-Times
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter
For a conservative lawmaker seeking the Republican nomination for governor, Bill Brady’s new proposals might come as a surprise.

The state senator from Bloomingdale announced today that he would push to limit campaign contributions, something Republicans have opposed in the past.

But Brady believes donations to state office holders should have the same limit in place for federal elections: A candidate would be limited to $5,000 from any Political Action Committee or $4,800 from any individual during an election cycle.

Brady would also bring back the state’s “cumulative voting” system — which was abolished in 1980 after a citizen initiative pushed by Pat Quinn before he was governor. The system would ensure minority parties have representation in the state legislature from every district. Republicans, for example, would get a say in Chicago while Democrats would be represented in DuPage.

“There are Republicans here in the city of Chicago who feel left out because they don’t have Republican representation,” Brady said. “Under cumulative voting, they would go back to having a voice in Springfield through their representative. There are Democrats in [downstate] McLean County who feel they don’t have a voice in state government because their legislators are Republican.”

Finally, Brady would limit legislators to 10 years in office.

His proposed reforms, he admits, are an effort to diminish the influence of current Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Madigan, who Brady says has become all-powerful over the past 30 years.

“We have reached a point where too few people control too much, and power is too concentrated,” Brady said at a press conference in his Chicago campaign office. “There is no question that the Speaker of the House, representing a little over 100,000 people, has had absolute control over the entire state of Illinois. He has been able to do that for nearly three decades, and it’s time for that to end. . . . He has had a veto on everything that has run through the General Assembly for as long as I’ve been in government.”

Brady’s proposal for changing the state legislature would not add any additional lawmakers. It would reduce the number of senators in Illinois to 41 and increase from two to three the number of state representatives in each district.

Under the “cumulative voting” system, the third representative from each district typically is a member of the minority party. Those members typically were “wild cards” not “beholden” to legislative leaders, Brady said. The legislature needs those members back, he said.

Brady’s package would attack the legislative leaders’ power from the financial end, too, by lowering the price tags on legislative races and not leaving members in debt to house leaders who collect and then parcel out campaign money.

“In the [former Gov.] Jim Edgar administration, we had eight contributions over $25,000. In the [former Gov. Rod] Blagojevich administration, we had more than 400 such contributions,” Brady said.

Brady wants a bi-partisan panel to redraw legislative districts following county and town boundaries, not drawing them for re-election purposes, he said.

Quinn proposed similar reforms on re-districting, term limits and contribution limits in this most recent legislative session, only to see the proposals rejected.
What would Brady do differently? If he could not get the legislature to pass his reforms in his first two years as governor, he would try to pass them by a statewide binding citizen initiative.

Brady took a swipe at former State Republican Chairman Andy McKenna, who is jumping into the race. State Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) is dropping out of the governor’s race to run as McKenna’s lieutenant governor — even though the two offices do not officially run together in Illinois.

“I’ve just had a number of people come up to me and say: What’s this all about? Matt Murphy and Andy McKenna cutting a deal? I thought we were supposed to choose who our lieutenant governor was. They’re tired of backroom deals,’ ” Brady said.

Brady said that Quinn’s decision to release 1,000 non-violent prisoners early was driven by financial — not public safety — decisions.

Lack of enthusiasm with Brady’s candidacy by corporate Republicans who prefer State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) or new entrant McKenna does not discourage Brady, nor do those who say his downstate base makes it hard for him to win a general election.

“I happen to believe that Chicago is the greatest large city in the world and I want it to continue to be, but there’s more to Illinois than Chicago,” Brady said. “But over the last six to eight years, all of the energy and all the efforts and all the benefits, seem to have come to the northeast corner of this state, ignoring the other 95 counties that play a strong role in Illinois’ economic development.”

As he was leaving a largely empty conference room where he held today’s news conference, Brady was asked where his office is located in the building.
“This is my office,” Brady told reporters, pointing to the large room that had nothing inside of it except for a large conference table and floor-to-ceiling windows looking toward Lake Michigan.
“What do you do — just sit here and look out the window?” Brady was asked.
“I’m a delegator,” Brady smiled. “I don’t like to have anything. In my Bloomington office, all I have is a conference table.”

GOP Guv Candidate Takes Aim at Madigan

By Charles Thomas
September 22, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — A Republican state senator and candidate for Illinois governor is taking aim at one of the most powerful Democrats in Illinois politics as he outlines his campaign for governor.
Bill Brady says Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is his strongest reason for why the state needs term limits. Brady, of downstate Bloomington, wants limits on campaign contributions, wants to redistrict Illinois, and he wants term limits for office holders and legislative leaders.
“Government in Illinois has become all about the politicians and not about the people,” Brady said.
To make his point about the need for term limits, Senator Brady took aim at Southwest Side State Rep. Michael Madigan, the powerful Democratic party chairman and speaker of the Illinois House for 24 of the last 26 years.
“There’s no question that the speaker of the house, representing little over 100,000 people, has had absolute control over the entire state of Illinois,” said Brady.
Brady is the second state senator-candidate for governor to offer a reform package, following Naperville’s Kirk Dillard, who presented his plan a couple of weeks ago.
DuPage County executive Robert Schillerstrom, who is also running in the Republican primary, is not impressed.
“Those two guys have been in Springfield for over 30 years together. I contend that they’re part of the problem,” said Schillerstrom.
Brady, Dillard and Schillerstrom are joined by businessmen Dan Proft and Adam Andrzejewski in the race, with former state Republican party chairman Andy McKenna reportedly poised to join any day now.
In a statement, Andrzejewski took a double shot at Brady and Madigan, writing: “Brady has been in office since 2002 and has since not been willing to address Illinois’ major problem for the last 24 years: Michael Madigan. It’s appalling.”
Also Tuesday, Brady repeated his claim to be the chosen candidate of downstate conservatives, who he says have had enough of Chicago-area politicians, Republicans as well as Democrats.
“What I hear throughout Illinois, including Chicago, including the Chicago metropolitan areas, people are tired of the centerrf point of influence in the Chicago metropolitan area,” said Brady.
But Schillerstrom says the problem is not in Chicago or its suburbs.
“Springfield has failed the people. There needs to be a change down there. And he’s part of the problem,” said Schillerstrom.
Schillerstrom also criticized former state chairman McKenna, who quit his party job last month and reportedly plans to join the primary in the coming weeks. Schillerstrom says McKenna used his role as party chairman unfairly to get information about the other candidates and their campaigns.
These are just the beginning fireworks in what promises to be a very heated race for the Republican nomination for governor.

Brady Proposes Government Reform Package

Illinois State Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, today unveiled a comprehensive government reform package — including term limits for legislators and statewide officials and a return to multi-member districts in the Illinois House — to give Illinois citizens a greater voice in their government.Brady also reiterated his strong support for limits on campaign contributions to curb the influence of pay-to-play politics in Illinois government.

“It is time we allow the citizens of Illinois to control their destiny, not the politicians,” said Brady of Bloomington. “It is time that we return Illinois to the citizen legislature envisioned by our founding fathers and ensure that every Illinois citizen is fairly represented by that legislature.”

“The days of full-time legislators, full-time fundraising and career politicians in state government should be days of the past. We need to ensure that it is the public’s interests that are being served in Springfield, not the politicians’ interests.”

Brady’s proposal includes:

• Limiting members of the state House of Representatives to five terms and members of the Illinois State Senate, who serve staggered two- or four-year terms, to a maximum of three terms. Legislators who are term-limited out of office could seek to return after being out of office for six years. Fifteen other states impose term limits on legislative service. Statewide officials would be limited to three terms in any one office.

• Returning to multi-member House districts with no more than two being from the same political party and slightly reducing the size of the Illinois General Assembly. Three representatives would be elected from each of 41 Senate districts, trimming the size of the legislature to 164 members from the current 177. Responsibility for drawing legislative district maps would be given to the State Board of Elections with a mandate to maintain current county, city and township boundaries to the greatest extent possible.

• Imposing the federal restrictions on individual campaign contributions on Illinois legislative and statewide candidates. Individual contributions could not exceed $4,800 per election cycle including the primary and general election contests. Corporate and union contributions would be prohibited, and political action committees could contribute no more than $5,000 per election cycle.

“The voters of Illinois have lost their trust in state government due to corruption and the one-party, one-city rule that has dominated Illinois politics over the last several years. It’s time to show the voters that Springfield has some trust in them,” Brady said.

Brady’s reforms are being drafted as legislation and Constitutional amendments for consideration by the General Assembly and the voters of Illinois. Brady also said he will support a full vote on each of the recommendations put forth by the Collins Reform Commission and rejected by Governor Quinn and Democrat leaders.

Bill’s Campaign Diary – September 13, 2009

We had another great week on the campaign trail this week, starting with wonderful Labor Day celebrations and parades all around the State. I want to thank the many people who volunteered to represent our campaign at parades and festivals, and Nancy and I particularly enjoyed walking with great supporters in the Hoopeston Sweet Corn Festival and the Schaumburg Fest Parade.

In addition to that, the week went well with meetings throughout the state from the bottom to the top of the state. We met with a great group of business leaders in Edwardsville and also had the opportunity to speak at the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s golf outing in Springfield. It is always enlightening to talk with fellow business leaders who are equally concerned about the direction Illinois has been headed for the last six years and who realize we need a new direction treating Illinois like a business and respecting Illinois businesses that provide jobs for Illinois families.

This week we are looking forward to further travels in the northern part of the state as we visit in Rockford and Freeport and head into Cook, DuPage and Lake counties for events from health care rallies to local political meetings and talks with business and community leaders. And remember our “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” reception in Chicago on Thursday evening. It’s at 5:30 p.m. at McFadden’s, 1206 N. State.

Last week, you may have heard reports that some people are worried about our frontrunner status because they believe Illinois is not ready for a Governor from outside the Chicago area. I will admit that oftentimes what some refer to as the “combine” of power-brokers aren’t real comfortable with my independence and the fact that I care about all of Illinois. I am a statewide candidate, addressing statewide issues, and I will be a Governor for all of Illinois.

It is the downstate values my parents raised me with that make me most proud to be what I am today. It is those same characteristics which will assist our campaign in winning the nomination for Governor on February 2 and winning the general election in 2010 as we work to build a New Illinois with greater promise and prosperity for our children and grandchildren.Thanks again for all your support. Remember you and your friends are always welcome to join and follow our campaign by signing up for our emails, Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter.

Have a great week and God Bless.

Brady Slams Hynes’ Tax Increase and Gambling Proposal

Senator Bill Brady, a Republican candidate for Governor, today said the proposal by Comptroller Dan Hynes to increase taxes and expand gambling is just a continuation of the risky and failed policies of Chicago area politicians that threaten Illinois’ economic vitality. 

“The first words we hear from candidate Hynes is a proposal to dig deeper into the pockets of Illinois’ citizens and businesses. This is just another Chicago area politician looking to tax our vulnerable families and businesses, without realizing Illinois already is pushing jobs and people out of the state due to the high cost of living and working here.”

“As Illinois already ranks 48th in economic performance, we cannot afford to increase taxes on anyone, and we can’t continue to look to expanding gambling as any kind of solution to the state’s spending problems,” said Brady, a Bloomington Republican and business owner.

“We’ve lost an estimated 700,000 jobs and 700,000 Illinois citizens because of the tax and fee increases pushed by Chicago area politicians in recent years.”

In addition to supporting a graduated income tax with higher rates for those making more than $200,000 a year, Hynes proposed new sales taxes on services, hiking the cigarette tax, allowing up to three new casinos in Illinois, and raising the gaming tax.

Brady, the only candidate for Governor with both business and legislative experience, noted that Hynes’ proposal would result in a tax increase for many small businesses, which pay the individual rate for Illinois income taxes.

“Raising taxes is the wrong approach. As I travel around Illinois, I don’t hear support for new and higher taxes. I hear a lot of support for creating new jobs to give our citizens greater financial opportunity and for deconstructing our state budget and constructing new spending priorities within the people’s ability to pay,” Brady said.

Brady Gains Endorsement of Legislative Colleagues

Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, today received the support and endorsement of a dozen Republican legislators for Governor in 2010.Endorsing Brady are:

• Senator Tim Bivins, Dixon
• Assistant Senate Republican Leader John O. Jones, Mt. Vernon
• Assistant Senate Republican Leader David Luechtefeld, Okawville
• Senator Dale Risinger, Peoria
• Representative Mike Bost, Murphysboro
• Representative John Cavaletto, Salem
• Representative Shane Cultra, Onarga
• Representative Donald Moffitt, Gilson
• Representative Rich Myers, Colchester
• Representative David Reis, Willow Hill
• Representative Keith Sommer, Morton
• Assistant House Republican Leader Ron Stephens, Greenville

“I am grateful to these colleagues in the General Assembly for their support for my campaign, because together we are working to make Illinois a great state once again,” said Brady. “As Governor, I will need them working by my side to build a New Illinois that ensures greater opportunity for all Illinoisans and a future of promise and prosperity for our children and grandchildren.”

Brady said other legislative endorsements, as well as other key endorsements, will be announced in coming weeks.

Brady, 48, has served in the Senate since 2002 and previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001. A lifelong resident of Bloomington, Brady and his brothers for more than a quarter century have operated successful home building and real estate marketing and development businesses throughout Central Illinois. He and his wife Nancy have been married for 27 years and have three children.