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player ready...George Ryan lashed out Tuesday at Democratic rival Glenn Poshard for an education funding plan that the Republican gubernatorial candidate called “legislatively impossible.”
Because Poshard’s plan relies upon reversing several recent legislative votes affecting business taxes, Ryan said the Democrat would face a brick wall among legislators who supported the measures.
“I don’t think he’s got a funding proposal for education, as $200 million to $300 million comes from bills that were just passed last session,” he said. “His plan is just not doable.”
But Poshard is still taking it to the streets. He stopped at Portillo’s restaurant in Rolling Meadows Tuesday to shake hands with just about everybody, including startled motorists waiting in the drive-through lane.
When Poshard made his way to the entrance, dining room attendant Yolan Caldwell was holding the door open.
“Thank you very much, ma’am. I really appreciate your help,” Poshard said as he shook Caldwell’s hand.
“Well, I work here,” Caldwell quipped. “I don’t have much choice.”
Poshard also got some help from the state Democratic Party, which is airing another $225,000 in TV ads critical of an alleged truck-license selling scandal at a secretary of state drivers’ facility. Ryan has said he has fought corruption in the secretary of state’s office.
Helping hands: Saying Republican secretary of state candidate Al Salvi had “flip-flopped” too many times on law-enforcement issues, the Chicago lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Democrat Jesse White for the post.
Salvi has repeatedly said he has worked for law-enforcement issues in the General Assembly and has the support of several suburban police departments.
White also got a boost from a $50,000 donation made by the state Democratic Party to help pay for a beefed up schedule of radio and television ads.
Meanwhile, officials of south suburban Thornton Fractional School District 215 are investigating whether a high school band director violated policy by allowing band members to wear Salvi’s campaign T-shirts in the Columbus Day Parade in Chicago Oct. 12.
Search no more: The Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women made an unusual endorsement of a Republican, backing Cook County sheriff candidate LeRoy Martin. The group said incumbent Democratic Sheriff Michael Sheahan has failed to follow federal court orders to stop strip-searching women at the Cook County Jail.
Women can avoid the searches by allowing deputies to bring their belongings back from the cells, a Sheahan spokesman said.
Child’s play: Both Dan Hynes, a Democrat running for state comptroller, and Judy Baar Topinka, the Republican incumbent state treasurer, began running TV ads that put the spotlight on kids. Topinka’s ad features youngsters trying to pronounce her name, while the Hynes ad shows him in a classroom discussing education.
Revving up: Statewide voter registration is down slightly from the March primary, but it is up dramatically from four years ago–thanks largely to motor-voter laws.
The voter registration total now stands at 6,706,342, down 41,034 from the March primary. But it is up 587,341 from the last gubernatorial election year in 1994. The number of registered voters in Chicago is 1,366,957, a 5,708-name drop from March but an 8,444 increase from four years ago.