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Shia Kapos' must-read rundown of political news in the Land of Lincoln | | | | |  | | By Shia Kapos | TGIF, Illinois. Happy shoveling to those who celebrate. Programming note: We’ll be off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day but will return to your inboxes Tuesday.
|  | TOP TALKER | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Emma Tai, the powerful organizer who most recently headed United Working Families, will lead Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign to pass the Bring Chicago Home referendum to target homelessness. Campaign goal: If more than 50 percent of Chicago voters approve of the proposal, there would be an increase on the city’s real estate transfer tax on property sales of $1 million. That extra funding would be targeted to programs that help combat homelessness. Voters will consider the referendum on the March 19 ballot. The campaign has opposition, including from the Chicago Association of Realtors, which has sent out fliers urging residents to reject the proposal. Watch for both sides to ramp up spirited campaigns. Tai will serve as campaign director for the Bring Chicago Home campaign, sometimes called the "mansion tax." She’s a notable name in organizing circles having led United Working Families, a progressive political organization that works closely with the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana — both organizations that helped elect Johnson last year. Tai is well familiar with Chicago's bare-knuckles politics. In 2022, she helped send Delia Ramirez to Congress. Also on the Bring Chicago Home campaign: Asha Ransby-Sporn is deputy campaign director. She most recently was the South Side field director at United Working Families. Vaughn Roland is political director. He's led constituent services for Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02). Christina Rivero is field director, having served in a similar role for Fight for 15, the campaign to raise the minimum wage. Hannah Lloyd is operations director. She's been leading the advance team in the mayor’s office and before that was senior campaign director at the State Revenue Alliance. Brandon Davis, founder and CEO of Technicolor Political, will do paid media. And Jose I. Sanchez Molina is senior earned media adviser. He had worked in the governor’s office.
| | | THE BUZZ | | |  Actress Halle Berry, left, first lady Jill Biden, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Congresswoman Robin Kelly listen to a presentation at the University of Illinois Chicago Illinois Neuropsychiatric Institute on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. | Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP | STAR POWER: First lady Jill Biden visited Chicago on Thursday to showcase work being done at University of Illinois-Chicago to address women’s health and menopause issues. And there was glitz to bring attention to the visit: Actress Halle Berry, a women’s health advocate, accompanied her. Why they care: “Halle and I are here today because the University of Illinois-Chicago is doing groundbreaking research on menopause,” Biden said during the visit. “Every woman will be affected by menopause, yet there’s a stunning lack of information about how to manage and treat its symptoms. UIC is working to change that.” Sun-Times’ story here and Tribune story here. If you are Emma Tai, Playbook would like to hear from you. Email skapos@politico.com
| | WHERE'S JB | | No official public events.
| | WHERE's BRANDON | | | At the Marriott Marquis Chicago at 9 a.m. for the interfaith breakfast to mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — At OEMC headquarters at 10:45 a.m. for a press conference addressing the weather.
| | Where's Toni | | At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day interfaith breakfast. Have a tip, suggestion, birthday, new job or (gasp!) a complaint? Email skapos@politico.com
| | BUSINESS OF POLITICS | | — Tracy Katz Muhl was appointed Thursday to the 57th District state representative seat vacated by former state Rep. Jonathan Carroll. Katz Muhl, a Northfield Township Democratic committeeperson, was sworn in at a meeting of Democratic committee people. Pic!
| | CONVENTION ZONE | | — SECURITY BLANKET: Congressman Mike Quigley (IL-05) is leading a bipartisan letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging allocation of $150 million for the 2024 presidential candidate nominating conventions. The letter asks that $75 million be dedicated to Chicago and Milwaukee to cover security costs for the Democratic and Republican conventions, respectively. Costs range from purchasing technology to detect bomb threats, police overtime pay and more, according to Quigley’s team. Since 2004, the $75 million grant amount has not changed, despite the effects of inflation and changes in domestic security threats, notes Quigley.
| | 2024 WATCH | | | | 
Eileen O’Neill Burke, speaking, Clayton Harris and Andrew Charles talk about how they'd run the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. Andrea Hanis, far left, moderated on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. | Shia Kapos/POLITICO | — SAO FORUM: Crime took center stage during a forum featuring Cook County state’s attorney candidates Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris, both Democrats, and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski. Republican Bob Fioretti didn’t attend. Law Bulletin’s Andrea Hanis moderated. O’Neill Burke v. Harris: Harris ticked off what he’d do if elected: "No. 1, tackle these smash-and-grabs by adding a 10th division in our special prosecutors unit that focuses on crime, guns, carjacking and retail theft.” O’Neill Burke would revisit how retail theft is handled. Currently, no one is prosecuted for thefts below $1,000. "The law currently states it is $300. I will enforce the law as it currently states, but that does not mean that every single person arrested for retail theft goes to jail," O'Neill Burke said. ABC 7’s Sarah Schulte has a good take WITH VIDEO — IOWA BOUND: Gov. JB Pritzker plans to be among Democratic headliners at a press conference in Des Moines Monday for the Iowa caucuses, along with Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and movie big-wig Jeffrey Katzenberg. — 95th House District: Kristen Chiaro, a Village of Chatham trustee, survived a petition challenge. She’s now the only Democrat, which means she’ll face Republican state Rep. Mike Coffey, the incumbent, in November. The State Journal- Register’s Patrick M. Keck has more. — 102nd House District: State Rep. Adam Niemerg was removed from the ballot because his statement of candidacy wasn’t properly notarized. Now, no one’s on the ballot. Niemerg could challenge the decision in court or run as a write-in, notes Lee Enterprises’ Brenden Moore.
| | CHICAGO | | — Lynn Osmond is out. Now the search is on for a new tourism exec, and Chicago’s reputation is at stake, writes Crain’s Danny Ecker — Officials call for splitting Chicago police 8th District to better serve residents, by the Tribune’s Sam Charles — Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen miss Bulls’ Ring of Honor gala, by Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley
| | COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS | | — Cardinal Cupich visits with migrants at Oak Park parish, by Chicago Catholic’s Michelle Martin
| | POT-POURRI | | — High times for Illinois pot industry as annual recreational sales top $1.6B: “More than 42 million joints, gummies and other recreational weed products were sold legally statewide in 2023,” by the Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout. — Rule change allows craft cannabis growers in Illinois to expand more quickly, but it may not be enough to save many of them, by the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin
| | TAKING NAMES | | — Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, appeared to have made some news in an interview with WGN 9. An early version of Wednesday’s story mischaracterized Emanuel’s comments on the Middle East, making it sound like he supports a ceasefire. That would have put Emanuel, a staunch supporter of Israel, at odds with the official policy of the State Department in which he serves. The story was updated Thursday with his full quote: “I have to remind everybody – I’m for a ceasefire. I’m for the one that was working on October 6.” — Former Secretary of State Jesse White, Breakthru Beverage Group EVP Maggie Lapcewich and Wintrust Commercial Bank Senior VP Anthony Balthazor have been named board members of the HAP Foundation. The Oakbrook Terrace nonprofit addresses hospice and palliative care issues.
| | | Reader Digest | | | We asked what’s the most dramatic thing that happened in your hometown. Kristopher Anderson: “The 1997 racially motivated beating of Lenard Clark in Bridgeport.” Eli Brottman: “Norovirus outbreak in my high school in St. Charles” Suzie Bassi: “The Brown’s Chicken murders in Palatine. I still think of it every time I drive by the location.” Lucas Hawley: “The still yet unsolved Lane Bryant murders in Tinley Park 15 years ago.” Ed Mazur: “The battle of Michigan Avenue during the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago.” Mary Kay Minaghan: “When the Eisenhower Expressway was put in, dividing Oak Park.” Jim Nowlan: “When Curt Thompson, an acquaintance from high school, shot dead a deputy in Toulon and then stole his gun and car and went on to shoot two more people.” Kathy Posner: “When the New York Jets opened a training facility in Peekskill, just a few miles down the road from my home in Westchester County.” Dennis A. Rendleman: “When Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844 in little Carthage, Ill.” Mark Rosenberg: “The attempted Nazi march in Skokie in the 1970s.” Jessica Sewell: “When President Biden came to Belvidere last year to celebrate the agreement between UAW/Stellantis and announce the reopening of the Belvidere assembly plant!” Timothy Thomas Jr.: “The election and subsequent untimely passing of Mayor Harold Washington in Chicago.” Steve Weiss: “Yonkers, N.Y., the place where Son of Sam started his murderous plans.” Next question: If you could be any elected official in any office, which would you choose and why?
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | — Sen. Dick Durbin, target of protesters calling for Gaza cease-fire, already called for one: “What is puzzling from a tactical and political perspective is why the protesters calling for a Gaza cease-fire are aiming at Durbin, an ally in the cease-fire cause,” writes the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet. — Congressmen Brad Schneider (IL-10) led a bipartisan letter with 29 members of Congress supporting the Biden administration’s efforts to expand calls for Hamas’ surrender.
| | | THE NATIONAL TAKE | | | — Joe Biden called David Axelrod a ‘prick.’ It won’t shut him up, by POLITICO’s Ryan Lizza — Donald Trump’s 50-year mission to discredit the justice system, by POLITICO’s Michael Kruse — US, allies attack Houthi targets in Yemen in response to missile barrages in the Red Sea, by POLITICO’s Lara Seligman
| | IN MEMORIAM | | — Derrick Elijah Lightfoot, brother of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, has died. He was 73. OBIT HERE
| | TRANSITIONS | | — Megan Lopp Mathias has joined Hinshaw & Culbertson as a partner in the firm’s commercial transactions practice in Chicago. She had managed her own firm. — Kenneth “Ken” Mathieu is now managing director of Berkeley Research Group’s forensic accounting practice. He had worked at Charles River Associates. — Stephanie Sebor has joined Jenner & Block’s Chicago office as a partner in the firm’s environmental practice. She was a partner at Winston & Strawn.
| | | TRIVIA | | | THURSDAY’s ANSWER: Congrats to Janet Mathis and Robert Christie for correctly answering that Edward F. Dunne, a Democrat, was mayor from 1905 to 1907 and governor from 1913 to 1917. TODAY's QUESTION: What was Ulysses S. Grant’s real first name and why did he change it? Email skapos@politico.com
| | HAPPY BIRTHDAY | | Today: Former Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, noted philanthropist and businessman Neil Bluhm, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 spokesman Ed Maher and Chicago Community Trust COO Sylvia Garcia. Saturday: Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray, City of Chicago spokeswoman Melissa Stratton, APS & Associates President Alex Sims-Jones and businessman Ken Norgan. Sunday: Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, United Airlines State Government Affairs Director Kristopher Anderson and singer and nonprofit leader Maria Kotsinis. -30- | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
