Wednesday, June 11, 2003
It's been a busy day. I did WJPF AM in the morning followed by News Three which did a VO/SOT for this evening's newscast. Also, the Gallatin Democrat came out today with a repeat of Brian DeNeal's article. Should get more coverage tomorrow.
Tonight the Board of Trustees of the Village of Equality unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the governor to act now in order to get the Old Slave House reopened this summer. The resolution backed the plan of action that will be presented in full tomorrow at the meeting at Southeastern Illinois College. Remember: 6:30 p.m. in the private dining room off of the cafeteria. I hope to get more local governments throughout the state to endorse the proposal. Equality passed a resolution that was specifically geared to their situation as the home town for the site. I'll have a generic resolution ready for people to pick up tomorrow night. It will eventually find its way to this website for folks to download.
Meanwhile the rain continues. Southern Illinois got a month's full of rain last night, and nearly doubled it again today. More rain is forecast every day into next week. It won't be fun to drive in Friday. I have a meeting about the Old Slave House in Chicago at 1 p.m. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
On a lighter note, if there is anyone out there who is trying to be the next state senator in southeastern Illinois that I haven't contacted about tomorrow's meeting, consider this your invitation.
The word on the street (or at least among political junkies and journalists who follow this sort of thing) is that there was a secret meeting last week of Democratic county chairman, except that the chairmen of Franklin and Williamson counties weren't invited. Those two counties control around 45 percent of the vote and have already stated their support for 117th District state Rep. Gary Forby of Benton. Yet, the meeting's purpose was to build support for 118th District state Rep. Brandon Phelps of Norris City. It's been years, if ever, that a state senator in the 59th has not come from Franklin or Williamson counties. Word is that they don't want to give it up.
Meanwhile new faces are emerging as rumors surface that Forby is backing off and will stay in the House. The Marion attorney slated to replace him, John Bradley, is now looking at the senate seat, but so is rich trial lawyer Ron Osman, the man who's won a big federal whistle-blower case as well as represented Jo Ann Argersinger in her legal fight against SIU-Carbondale. Others mentioned include Williamson County Sheriff Tom Cundiff, former Williamson County Board Chairman Rex Piper and area businessman and former legislative primary candidate Carl Ortale, who's considering a run in the GOP primary if the Democrats don't slate him. Play him or trade him as someone put it.
Tonight the Board of Trustees of the Village of Equality unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the governor to act now in order to get the Old Slave House reopened this summer. The resolution backed the plan of action that will be presented in full tomorrow at the meeting at Southeastern Illinois College. Remember: 6:30 p.m. in the private dining room off of the cafeteria. I hope to get more local governments throughout the state to endorse the proposal. Equality passed a resolution that was specifically geared to their situation as the home town for the site. I'll have a generic resolution ready for people to pick up tomorrow night. It will eventually find its way to this website for folks to download.
Meanwhile the rain continues. Southern Illinois got a month's full of rain last night, and nearly doubled it again today. More rain is forecast every day into next week. It won't be fun to drive in Friday. I have a meeting about the Old Slave House in Chicago at 1 p.m. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
On a lighter note, if there is anyone out there who is trying to be the next state senator in southeastern Illinois that I haven't contacted about tomorrow's meeting, consider this your invitation.
The word on the street (or at least among political junkies and journalists who follow this sort of thing) is that there was a secret meeting last week of Democratic county chairman, except that the chairmen of Franklin and Williamson counties weren't invited. Those two counties control around 45 percent of the vote and have already stated their support for 117th District state Rep. Gary Forby of Benton. Yet, the meeting's purpose was to build support for 118th District state Rep. Brandon Phelps of Norris City. It's been years, if ever, that a state senator in the 59th has not come from Franklin or Williamson counties. Word is that they don't want to give it up.
Meanwhile new faces are emerging as rumors surface that Forby is backing off and will stay in the House. The Marion attorney slated to replace him, John Bradley, is now looking at the senate seat, but so is rich trial lawyer Ron Osman, the man who's won a big federal whistle-blower case as well as represented Jo Ann Argersinger in her legal fight against SIU-Carbondale. Others mentioned include Williamson County Sheriff Tom Cundiff, former Williamson County Board Chairman Rex Piper and area businessman and former legislative primary candidate Carl Ortale, who's considering a run in the GOP primary if the Democrats don't slate him. Play him or trade him as someone put it.