(light music) (camera lens beeping) (light music) (graphics whooshing) (light music) (dramatic music) - Thanks for joining us on "CapitolView."

I'm Fred Martino.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is vetted as a vice presidential nominee, but the title goes to fellow Midwestern Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Plus, how Democrats are fighting to retain the so-called blue wall.

We'll have those stories and much more this week with Dan Petrella at the "Chicago Tribune" and Hannah Meisel from Capitol News Illinois.

Dan, a very big rally this week in Philadelphia with the new Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

We're gonna get your reaction to the pick, and also more on your reporting on another rally that was held by Vice President Harris in Wisconsin.

First, though, I want to mention something that happened on Tuesday night.

We are taping this on Wednesday as normal.

This was a statement by Governor J.B. Pritzker, along with Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton calling for the resignation of Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell after the death of Sonya Massey by former Deputy Sean Grayson.

- That's right, Governor Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton put out this statement late Tuesday.

It was an interesting shift in position from the governor, who, when asked about it earlier in the day by reporters in Chicago, had said, you know, had sort of stopped short of calling for the sheriff to resign.

But the statement says that Sheriff Campbell should do so to let the healing and rebuilding process in Sangamon County and Springfield begin.

So it'll be interesting to see if that carries any weight with the sheriff, who so far has resisted calls to resign.

He's somebody who's been with Sangamon County Sheriff's Office for a long, long time.

He was undersheriff previously before he was elected sheriff and has sort of so far, you know, apologized for the horrific incident, but has said that the responsibility for what happened lies with the deputy who pulled the trigger.

- Yes, something certainly that is not only a focus for the Illinois media, but also, you know, really national and international media as well looking at this incident.

Yesterday, the governor was not only asked about this and then issued that statement at the end of the day on Tuesday.

He was also asked about the pick for vice president, and did have a brief comment on that as well.

- Yes, he was, you know, he said he was honored to be part of the vetting process, which he described as grueling, and I'm not sure if he used the word arduous, but that was sort of the tenor of what he was saying.

But he seemed very, very pleased with the pick of Governor Walz, who he noted came into office at the same time that he did and also has led the Democratic Governors Association, which is an organization that Governor Pritzker has been heavily involved with and has heavily underwritten out of his own personal fortune.

He's given, you know, tens of millions of dollars to the DGA to help in elections around the country.

You know, he said he was pleased to see a fellow Midwestern governor be on the ticket with Kamala Harris.

If you look at, you know, some of the things Governor Walz has been able to do in Minnesota since Democrats took control of the legislature there, it's a lot of the things that Governor Pritzker did in his first term, things related to reproductive rights, and legalizing marijuana, things like that.

So they have similar track record.

One of the more telling comments I thought that the governor made during that press conference yesterday was that being part of the process was beneficial to him, or made him feel accomplished in himself, because he said, you know, "If you get that far "in the process, that, you know, tells you that "they think that you have the capability to be president," so maybe showing his cards a little bit there about his potential future ambitions.

But it'll be interesting to see, you know, I think a lot of what happens in November will determine what Governor Pritzker's route forward in politics is.

- Now, Dan, I'm interested in your opinion on his national debut in Philadelphia with Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, and then whatever reflections you wanna share about another very spirited rally that you covered and wrote about in Wisconsin before the choice was made, and it was just with Vice President Harris before she chose Governor Walz.

- Yeah, I think, you know, he showed a lot, Governor Walz showed a lot of energy coming out of the gate yesterday at the rally in Philadelphia.

I think he showed sort of the, I guess, sort of feisty, but plainspoken way that he will approach sort of being a little bit of the attack dog on the ticket, really going at President Trump and his running mate J.D.

Vance with criticisms, but in sort of a, you know, folksy, Midwestern kind of way.

You know, a lot of the reaction that I was seeing yesterday is, you know, him being a very down-to-earth guy, a former social studies teacher, high school football coach, who also was the sponsor of the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at the school where he taught.

So I think it was a good debut.

I think you could tell, at least from what I was able to see on TV, there was a lot of energy in the room.

I saw some reporting that each of these rallies that the vice president has held since she went to the top of the ticket have gotten larger and larger.

So there definitely seems to be a lot of enthusiasm right now among the Democratic base for the change at the top of the ticket.

And, you know, like you said, I was at her first official rally on the campaign trail, which was actually scheduled as a vice presidential visit to Wisconsin, which I believe was her fifth of the year at the time on the Friday before the Sunday where Joe Biden announced to the world that he was not going to run.

So it sort of quickly pivoted from a running mate rally to a candidate, likely nominee rally, and it was a packed high school field house.

Lots of enthusiasm there, and it will, it should be interesting to see whether Democrats are able to sort of maintain this level of excitement and momentum for the next 90-whatever days remain before- - Yeah.

- November 5th, and I should note she's back in Wisconsin today, Wednesday, for another rally up in Eau Claire, which is sort of a little bit closer to the Minnesota border than the Illinois border.

So I think it's her sixth visit of the year, and I'm sure she'll be back there at least a couple more times before voters go to the polls in November.

- Absolutely, going to all the swing states in many trips upcoming in the week ahead.

Hannah, we're gonna move to you now.

Democrats in Illinois depend on union votes in presidential years, and really every year, and you reported on a new law that may bolster that support.

Under the law, employers cannot force employees to sit through anti-union meetings, a tactic often used when workers are trying to organize a union.

- Right, these so-called captive audience meetings are a huge tactic that companies use when they get wind that their employees are starting to form a union.

You know, the language of the bill is expansive.

It counts religious ideas and political views of their employer.

Basically, the language of the bill says you cannot retaliate against your employees for escaping these meetings.

You're still free to have them, but you can't make your employees sit through them.

And so, the hope behind this, this was a big effort pushed by the AFL-CIO, the big labor umbrella group in Illinois, and, you know, the aim is to, you know, weaken yet another avenue that companies have to kind of stem unionization when it begins.

Of course, this follows voters in November, 2022 approving the Workers' Rights Amendment, which guarantees Illinoisans the fundamental right to unionize.

So this is a, you know, a big deal.

Other states have had similar laws in the last few years, but we have seen business groups push back with lawsuits, so we'll see what happens.

I believe it's in Connecticut and one other state I can't think of right now.

We'll see if similar lawsuits land here in Illinois.

- It will be interesting for sure, and Illinois, one of a number of states that have passed laws similar to this, not allowing employers to force their employees to sit through these anti-union meetings.

Dan, you reported on a meeting of Democrats in Wisconsin during the Republican National Convention.

The headline was this.

"Democrats fight to retain the blue wall "after the RNC in Milwaukee."

Tell us what they are doing.

- Yeah, this is a big strategy for the Democrats in this presidential election year, and really pretty much every presidential election year in memory.

The blue wall is sort of this idea of the Upper Midwest and Pennsylvania being sort of the anchor of Democratic candidates for president getting to the 270 votes in the Electoral College that they need to be elected.

We saw what happened in 2016, where Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but lost Wisconsin, and lost Michigan, and lost the Electoral College vote.

So really, Democrats, every year, but especially this year, trying to prevent Donald Trump from returning to office, are focused in on these key states, particularly Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

And, you know, you saw before she pulled herself out, Gretchen Whitmer in the conversation about a running mate, the governor of Michigan, you saw Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania as one of the finalists there before they went with Governor Walz.

And so, Democrats in Wisconsin in particular are very, very focused on winning in places where they traditionally win, like the areas around Madison, the areas around Milwaukee, but also in trying to reduce the Republican margins in places like Racine County, which is between Chicago and Milwaukee.

It's a Republican-leaning, but purple county, and the reason Wisconsin's such a focus is that many elections in a row, I think every election since 2000, with the exception of the two when Barack Obama was on the ballot, have been decided by less than a percentage point.

So these are razor-thin margins.

You know, tens of thousands of votes decide who takes the state's 10 electoral votes, which isn't a lot of electoral votes, but in the last two presidential elections, it was the decisive state in getting the eventual winner over the hump to get to the 270 votes.

So Wisconsin Democrats have built a very strong ground game.

The Biden campaign, before he withdrew from the race, had opened up dozens and dozens of field offices all across the state.

So they were working really hard to try to reach voters, and as you mentioned there, the new nominee Kamala Harris has made a few trips to the state already, will be there again on Wednesday, and I'm sure we'll be getting a lot more attention there in Wisconsin over the next several weeks before voters head to the polls.

- Absolutely, the Midwest, with those states in particular, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, all in the spotlight.

Hannah, one of the many issues at stake in this election is the question who will get to nominate judges for the US Supreme Court if there are openings, and who will get to approve, or reject those nominations?

A recent Supreme Court decision that may help former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan connected to this.

You reported on this, with the Madigan case scheduled in Chicago coming up this fall.

Tell us more.

- That's right, former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is scheduled finally for his federal corruption, bribery trial in October.

The US Supreme Court in June ruled on a case out of Northwest Indiana, and basically the court's ruling narrowed the federal bribery statute, and said that gratuities, which are payments after the fact of an official act, are not included in the definition of bribery, because there, you know, this was just a gift afterward, and there was no quid pro quo.

But, so Madigan and other folks who are charged with related crimes, this goes back to, of course, the alleged bribery of ComEd officials and AT&T Illinois officials to Madigan via jobs and contracts for Madigan allies in exchange for favorable legislation in Springfield for those utilities.

The ComEd Four, as they were called, lobbyists and former exec for the utility were already convicted in April, or sorry, May of 2023, but their sentencings have been put on hold.

The trial for the former AT&T Illinois exec also caught up in all of this, that's scheduled for next month.

But all three of these cases, the attorneys are trying to leverage this decision as best they can to either get those convictions overturned for new trials, or lessen the charges brought upon Madigan and everyone else who's involved.

The judges in these cases still have yet to decide.

We're kind of in that decision period, but July was a very busy month for all of this legal back and forth, all of these filings, a couple hearings.

So a lot of things remain up in the air.

This is not the only thing that remains up in the air.

The judge in the Madigan case has a lot to decide before jury selection begins in a little less than nine weeks.

So, you know, there's still just so much in the air.

We'll see how much this Supreme Court ruling actually impacts the cases.

- Yeah, just another reminder of the importance of voting, and the impact that the Supreme Court and its decisions can make.

We move on now to economic incentives, which is something that is incredibly important as our economy continues to transition.

Dan, when Illinois provided incentives to attract an electric bus manufacturer, it got a lot of attention.

Getting much less attention was a recent "Chicago Tribune" article noting that that company, Lion Electric, laid off 300 workers, about 1/3 of its workforce, and it is just the latest round of layoffs at the company.

Tell us more about that.

- Yes, Lion Electric is a company that Governor Pritzker wooed and brought to the Joliet area through the use of state tax incentives.

This was a project they had worked on for several years.

It was announced with much fanfare, and then they sort of cut the ribbon, I believe, last summer.

Lion has struggled a little bit with payments coming from the US EPA to customers to purchase these electric buses with subsidies, and other places not getting out the door as fast as they would like.

They're saying these layoffs are temporary.

Interestingly enough, you know, when Governor Pritzker was asked about these and other layoffs, he pointed to the tightness of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, and saying that, you know, it's time for them to sort of ease off the brakes a little bit, lower interest rates, so it's easier for companies to borrow.

You know, part of Lion's problem, I think, from John Lippert, who's a freelancer for us, his reporting is, you know, they're sort of short on cash, and I can't imagine when interest rates are high it makes it easier to borrow money you might need.

But also it makes it more difficult for customers to buy items, particularly large items, like school buses, and things like that, when, you know, credit isn't as easily available, or it's more expensive to borrow money.

So, you know, I think it's sort of the growing pains of an industry that's working to get off the ground.

There is some criticism of, you know, how viable these businesses are if they rely this heavily on government subsidies to be able to function, to meet the needs of the consumer.

So I think it'll be interesting to see whether, you know, this is a short-term blip in production there, or whether this continues to sort of struggle along.

- It will be fascinating, of course, especially in the context that there have been other pullbacks on electric vehicles, General Motors and Ford pulling back a bit on their very aggressive timelines for the transition to electric vehicles.

We move on, Hannah, now to another economic story.

Aqua Illinois serves parts of 14 counties, mostly in Northern Illinois, and state regulators are evaluating a rate increase proposal.

Capitol News Illinois reported on that.

It's revealed tension between the company and its customers.

Tell us more.

- Right, (clears throat) Aqua Illinois is one of just several utilities that are going to the Illinois Commerce Commission this year asking for rate increases.

And so, Aqua Illinois, like you said, 14 counties it serves.

It is the second largest water utility.

The first largest water utility in Illinois, Illinois American Water, is also at the ICC asking for a rate increase.

You know, that is also with ComEd, and I believe Ameren Illinois, they're also going for rate increases.

So if you're a regular, you know, consumer, who doesn't have the time to sort through what all of these things are, you know, at the end of the year, if the ICC does approve these rate increases, or at least approve some of the rate increases, you're gonna feel it in your pocketbook.

But, you know, Aqua Illinois, my colleague, Andrew Adams, has reported on a couple of these public meetings that the ICC has held in Aqua's territory, and, like you said, revealed tensions, because customers basically say you're already charging too much for poor service, especially in University Park, which is a far south suburb of Chicago.

The company has basically been under a consent order by a judge to address lead contamination in the water.

Of course, lead a very toxic chemical, especially dangerous for children, and when it's in a water supply, you know, you wanna get it out as soon as possibly, you wanna remediate that.

The company says, "Hey, we need this rate increase "to address that and to address other infrastructure issues "that have built up, "and, hey, also, we're subject to the same pressures "of inflation, too."

The head of Aqua says that the price of chemicals to treat the water has increased in the last, or has doubled, rather, in the last six years.

- Wow, okay- - We'll see what the ICC says.

- Yes.

- These rates last 11 months, so we'll get a decision- - Yes.

- Around December.

- Very interesting.

Something we'll be watching carefully, and important reporting there by Capital News Illinois.

Dan, we started with the presidential election, and we are gonna conclude with it as well.

Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the high-profile Republicans backing Vice President Harris for president.

The campaign is hoping to rally Republicans who do not support former President Trump, and the "Chicago Tribune" published an Associated Press report about the campaign.

It is called simply "Republicans for Harris."

- Yes, this is, you know, an effort that the campaign has made, I think, trying to capture this small segment of the Republican electorate that is still, you know, in either the Never Trump camp, or has sort of converted to opposing the former president.

You know, you saw some resistance to him in the Republican primaries, when, you know, Nikki Haley, who was the last candidate standing, had already dropped out, but was still getting a small, but not insignificant portion of the vote.

Along with former Congressman Kinzinger, you have former Governor Jim Edgar, former Congressman and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Joe Walsh, who is a former congressman and talk radio host and was once sort of a big Tea Party proponent is also among those from Illinois who have signed on.

You know, it'll be interesting to see, you know, part of Joe Biden's appeal in 2020 was sort of this return to normalcy, and there were some more moderate Republicans who crossed over and supported him in 2020.

I think there's a segment of those folks who maybe were drifting back toward former President Trump this year, because of concerns about Biden's track record in office, which I think, you know, there's a lot of debate about that, but also just the concerns over his age, and his ability to continue doing the job for another four years.

So it is interesting to see there's been a lot of pushback here in Illinois from members of the Republican Party, members of the more conservative faction of the Republican Party toward these folks who have signed their name up to support the vice president and Governor Walz on the Democratic ticket.

You know, I think it also speaks to sort of the divide within the Illinois Republican Party that we've seen rear its head this year with the ouster of the state GOP Chairman Don Tracy, who, despite being pretty conservative, was seen as not favorable enough to Trump.

And so, it'll be interesting to see how many crossover votes like this we see, you know, when we see exit polls in November, how much significance Republicans, you know, crossing the line and voting for the Democratic ticket have in the outcome in November.

- It is fascinating, and I mean, as you look at the developments this week with the choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for vice president by the current Vice President Kamala Harris choosing Walz as her running mate, it was fascinating to see that one of the talking points that came out of the Trump campaign was a criticism of Governor Walz in that he signed a bill in Minnesota that would allow felons to vote after serving their time, their sentence, and it seems highlighting this difficulty for the Trump campaign to make a criticism like that when their candidate has been convicted of a felony.

- Yeah, it is interesting.

When I was at a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin earlier this summer, there were an awful lot of folks wearing T-shirts that said, "I'm voting for the felon."

So, you know, it's an interesting position we find ourselves in this year, and I think there are a lot of folks who just don't, you know, they buy this idea that it was lawfare, that there was some sort of conspiracy cooked up to convict the former president in a state court in New York.

And so, I think, you know, we're just in, we're in really fascinating and somewhat (mumbles), not somewhat, in unprecedented times in terms of that.

- It really is an interesting time, and something that for the work that both of you do, it highlights the importance of the journalism to place all of the strange situations into context for sure.

Hannah and Dan, thank you both for your reporting, and for joining us this week on "CapitolView."

We are out of time.

Thank you both, Dan and Hannah, and thank you at home for joining us.

We are so pleased that you are here to support independent public media in the state of Illinois.

For everyone at WSIU, I'm Fred Martino.

Have a great week.

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