Teachers’ Union’s First “Hit Piece” Against Steve Reick Arrives

As reported yesterday, a no name pop-up committee called “Government for the People” had not registered with the Illinois State Board of Elections even though it had gotten $12,500 from the Illinois Education Association’s Political Action Committee called IPACE.

The address of the committee was given as 2857 W. Leland Ave., Unit 1, Chicago, IL 60625.

I would guess it was not a coincidence that one of Mike Madigan’s hit men, Shaw Decremer, seems attached to that address.

Now today, the teachers’ union sent a mea culpa to the Elections Board saying the address of the committee has suddenly moved to Naperville.

One of Mike Madigan's experts in negative campaigning apparently wasn't supposed to have his address show up as to where the teachers' union's $12,500 check was sent. Now, the IEA says the address should have been

One of Mike Madigan’s experts in negative campaigning apparently wasn’t supposed to have his address show up as to where the teachers’ union’s $12,500 check was sent. Now, the IEA says the address should have been 2878 Kentshire Circle in Naperville.

Maybe the shifting of the committee’s address explains why there is no address on the first hit piece against Steve Reick that arrive in the mail today.

Note that this teachers' union-financed mailing attacking Steve Reick has no address. The name of the committee is in teeny-tiny letters in the far lower right hand corner of the mailing.

Note that this teachers’ union-financed mailing attacking Steve Reick has no address. The name of the committee is in teeny-tiny letters in the far lower right hand corner of the mailing.

The back of the hit piece rates Steve Reick "F."

The back of the hit piece rates Steve Reick “F.”

The same use of the "F" grade was used against Jack Franks' opponent John O'Neil in 2010.

The same use of the “F” grade was used against Jack Franks’ opponent John O’Neil in 2010.  This was also from a pop-up committee.


Comments

Teachers’ Union’s First “Hit Piece” Against Steve Reick Arrives — 23 Comments

  1. Another Jack Franks aka Mike Madigan slime attack.

    I cant wait to see Steve in office to break the stink of Cook County holding all of the citizens left in Illinois hostage on the SINKING ship of state!

  2. I’ve been self employed since I got out of law school, and haven’t earned any “wages” that could be subject to garnishment.

    I don’t intend to run away from my past, what’s happened to me affected me alone.

    Jack Franks needs to answer to the people of Illinois for the staggering amount of debt he put upon them with his vote to not fund the state’s public pension system in 2005 and 2006.

    He doesn’t have an answer to that, so he reduces himself to practicing the politics of personal destruction.

    Hit pieces against me won’t lower anyone’s property taxes by one thin dime.

  3. Scum, the public sector greed bags have destroyed our state.

    If I see a union bug on literature, I vote against the crook.

  4. If one requirement to run for political office is to have lived the life of Jesus Christ, we can solve our elected official pension issues real fast!!

  5. Just to prove how good a job our public education is doing, I posted this on another blog post: **REMINDER: EVERY DOLLAR SPENT BY IPACE WAS PROVIDED BY THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS STATE!!!!**

    Guess what my response was from ‘alabamashake’?

    “Wrong.

    “It was provided by IEA members.

    “Good try though.”

    We have “dumbed down” our population to the point where people actually believe welfare payments are made with Obama dollars and the teachers are paid with money which does not come from taxpayers!

    It is no wonder the GOP elite believe Trump is the problem – not the elite or the actions of a majority of the elected GOP legislators in Washington and yes, even Springfield.

    Had Bruce Rauner not been elected as Governor, the GOP members of the Springfield Legislature would have continued to side with Mike Madigan because as Pam Althoff and Barb Wheeler so frequently state:

    “We must compromise”.

  6. Knowledgeable voter- if the funds come from an IAE member- it is their choice to vote with their wallet out of their compensation.

    That is like saying the money you earn is government money because it was minted by the government.

    I don’t disagree that the pension problem needs to be addressed.

    But how people use their money is not the same thing as taxpayer money directly given to an agency like it is the MCEDC. Members are giving money out of their earnings.

    Trump is an issue because he had no solutions- just alot of grandiose language, school yard behavior and is tapping into the fear of people who are being left behind by a changing economy.

    The only thing he has succeeded at is being a reality star.

  7. Just to prove how good a job our public education is doing, I posted this on another blog post: **REMINDER: EVERY DOLLAR SPENT BY IPACE WAS PROVIDED BY THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS STATE!!!!**
    Guess what my response was from ‘alabamashake’?
    “Wrong. It was provided by IEA members.
    Good try though.”

    Yup… and you’re still wrong.

    Union dues, which come from individuals and not the government, fund IEA.

    The government – ie taxpayers – funds IEA teacher salaries. T

    he individuals fund IEA.

    Would you also say that Trump funds unions, because some of his businesses have unionized workers?

  8. The teacher unions in cahoots with the legislators and Governors are the #1 reason we have our #1 problem, hiked pension benefits to teacher and administrator pensions which were already underfunded.

    ———————-

    Jack Franks’ election committee has received about $870,960 from labor unions since 1998.

  9. Alabama – Nancy Zettler, IEA member dues come from the taxpayers.

    They don’t grow on a magic tree outside of reality-land.

  10. Dan – answer this question:
    Would you also say that Trump funds unions, because some of his businesses have unionized workers?

  11. Absolutely, in many instances, private sector unions are FUNDED by the private sector.

    I have zero problem with that.

    If the private sector business wants to get rid of the union, he / she simply shuts down the business.

    The only way I can shut down the union in the public sector is to get people elected who will change the law relative to mandatory union dues!

    To get that done I have to use my money to support candidates while the unions are using my taxpayer dollars to work against me!!

    I have a problem with my tax dollars being used to pay public sector employees who contribute a portion (in this state it is a FORCED contribution) of their salary to their union which in turn uses that money in a political campaign!

    Why do school boards ‘rubber stamp’ all teacher union wage increases?

    The union sits on both sides of the table.

    I have a real problem with that.

    In the case of Steve Reick you have taxpayer dollars being used in an attempt to malign his character.

    My taxpayer dollars!

    The same people who are funding the campaign to malign his character are supporting the person responsible for the deaths of people in Benghazi!

    I have a real problem with that!

    The postcard just makes me work harder to get people to vote for Steve and refuse to vote for Jack Franks this fall!

    Jack Franks fully supports the unions sitting on both sides of the table during negotiations!!

  12. **The same people who are funding the campaign to malign his character are supporting the person responsible for the deaths of people in Benghazi! **

    I didn’t realize IEA was supporting terrorists that attacked the embassy.

    That is a pretty bold assertion.

    Once again though – you’re just wrong about taxpayers funding IEA. That is a total distortion of reality.

  13. Illinois laws allows the IEA to receive a massive subsidy from employees who don’t want join the union.

    Illinois law requires such non members to pay agency fees to the union as a condition of employment.

    Agency fees are also known as forced fees / mandatory service fees / agency shop fees / fair share fees and more.

    Agency fees are challenged as a violation of free speech in the Friedrichs v California Teachers Association case in the US Supreme Court, which with Justice Scalia’s death it seems the status quo will remain for now.

    Right to Work means employees have the right to employment without being forced to pay fees to a union present at the employer, and thus the employee does not have to pay an agency fee to the union.

    In 2015, Wisconsin passed a right to work law with Scott Walker as Governor which eliminated agency fees.

    In 2012, Indiana (Governor Mitch Daniels) & Michigan (Governor Rick Snyder) passed right to work laws eliminating agency fees.

    In 2011, Wisconsin (Governor Scott Walker) passed a law eliminating agency fees for public sector workers (Wisconsin Act 10 aka Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill).

    The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation specializes in the issue.

    ————

    Governor Bruce Rauner in February 2015 issued Executive Order 13 which eliminated fair share fees in state collective bargaining agreements, but that’s on hold until the issue is resolved in court.

    ————

    The state laws regarding unions vary greatly from state to state.

    In Illinois many employees don’t have a clue how to opt out of union membership and only pay reduced agency fees.

    Such employees can contact the National Right to Work Foundation who will assist them.

    ————

  14. The laws regarding unions also vary between private sector (NLRA) and public sector.

    Within the public sector, the laws also vary between Federal and state / local public sector.

    From the Friedrichs v CTA case:

    Justice Scalia: Why do you think that the union would not survive without these fees charged to nonmembers of the union? Federal employee unions do do not charge agency fees to nonmembers, and they seem to survive; indeed, they prosper. Why is California different?

    California Solicitor General DuMont: The Federal situation is different. They have very different scope of bargaining. I wouldn’t say that it’s been established that they prosper. They have about a 30 percent membership rate.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/14-915_e2p3.pdf

  15. A few reasons membership rate is so high in Illinois public sector unions:

    – mandated agency fees

    – agency fees are a large percentage of full membership fees, and it’s very difficult to challenge the validity of that percentage which is pretty much unilaterally determined by the union.

    – Employees don’t know the rules of how to opt out of full membership fees.

  16. You do know that those agency fees can’t be used for political contributions, right?

  17. IEA does plenty of political related work and provides all sorts of support regarding their positions and ideology outside contributions to political candidates via the IPACE PAC.

    That’s part of the freedom of speech issue raised in Friedrichs v CTA.

    http://www.ieanea.org

  18. Mark – that is debatable, but keep up. We’re specifically talking about IPACE contributions. Which are funded by optional contributions from teachers to IPACE.

  19. IEA does plenty of political work that is not categorized as political contributions.

    They have a legislative platform and an annual Representative Assembly at the state level and their national parent the National Education Association (NEA) has a legislative platform and Representative Assembly.

    A Representative Assembly is an annual conference.

    ++++++++

    In terms of the specific mailer discussed above and Shaw Decremer’s involvement as a former Madigan top campaign aide and current lobbyist who also does political campaign work that reached McHenry County and opposed the Steve Reick campaign for 63rd District State Representative (Reick’s opponent was a Democrat named Jeffery Lichte masquerading as a Republican).

    The B-1 form filed March 8, 2016 by Illinois PAC for Education (IPACE, which is the PAC for the Illinois Education Association) listed the following:

    Expended to – Government for the People (an Independent Only Expenditure Political Action Committee aka PAC)

    Address – 2857 W Leland Unit 1, Chicago, IL 60625 (Shaw Decremer address)

    Amount – $12,500

    Date – March 8, 2016

    Purpose – Mail Pieces

    Supporting or Opposing – Opposing

    Candidate Name (opposing) – Steve Reick

    Office & District – State House 63rd District

    ++++++

    Shaw Decremer (and his wife, Jill Rubin Decremer (who works as a Business Administrator in the Political Science Department at Northwestern University) purchased a 3,700 square foot home at 2760 Windsor Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60625 in the Ravenswood Manor neighborhood for $1.1 Million on March 25, 2016 as reported in the Chicago Tribune on April 20, 2016.

    Shaw Decremer, the former Michael Madigan top campaign aide, is now a lobbyist at Shaw Decremer Consulting who volunteers on Madigan campaigns.

    The Illinois Secretary of State Lobbyist lists includes the following customers (some contractual) for Shaw Decremer Consulting, 2857 W Leland #1, Chicago, IL 60625:

    – AT&T Illinois & its affiliates

    – Britan Bolin

    – Casino Law Group

    – Chicago Commons Association

    – Citgo Petroleum Corporation

    – COMED

    – Cullen & Associates

    – Dish Network

    – DraftKings

    – FanDuel

    – Fantasy Sports Trade Association

    – Williams Filan

    – Jeffrey A Glass

    – Illinois Coalition of Appraisal Professionals

    – Illinois Federation of Dog Clubs and Owners

    – Illinois State Medical Society

    – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 134 (IBEW Local 134)

    – Ismie Mutual Insurance Company

    – K-12, Inc.

    – Kemper Corporation

    – Mona Martin

    – Purdue Pharma LP

    +++++

    In a 2014 Illinois Lobbying Entity Registration filing for Shaw Decremer Consulting LLC, Cullen and Associates is shown as representing Health Care Council of Illinois & Village of Bartlett.

    +++++

    More lobbyist information is available at http://www.ilsos.gov/lobbyistsearch

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