Feb. 23--Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.
Topspin
Gov. Bruce Rauner has publicly stayed out of the Republican presidential primary and did so again Monday. Asked if Donald Trump's vague comments about the Ricketts family were inappropriate, Rauner remarked that the presidential race "has been a very wild process," but he would not comment further.
Rauner's communications chief just left the adminisration to work on Gov. John Kasich's campaign, but there are some special circumstances as he's joining his twin brother. Rauner's 2014 campaign manager, Chip Englander, was working on Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's campaign, and when that ended he jumped aboard Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign.
Meanwhile, House Republican leader Jim Durkin, who spoke at a City Club of Chicago lunch, said he'd back the party's eventual nominee, even if it's Trump. Durkin isn't publicly backing anyone in the presidential race either.
What's on tap
*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will visit a Red Line stop this afternoon to announce the addition of more public art at CTA stations.
*Gov. Rauner will continue his appearances discussing education with a stop at a Peoria school.
*Chicago City Council Zoning Committee meets at 10 a.m. Agenda here.
What we're writing
*Kirk: Obama Supreme Court nominee should get hearing.
*Rauner continues positioning on education ahead of battle with Democrats.
*Trump takes to Twitter to gripe about Ricketts super PAC contributions.
*Jesse Jackson Jr. seeks more frequent visits to imprisoned wife.
*Chicago homicides running nearly double from last year.
What we're reading
*New Yorker profile on Father Pfleger, includes mention that Emanuel texts.
*Illinois Supreme Court makes in-courtroom cameras permanent.
*A wild Uber ride with Kalamazoo shooting suspect.
From the notebook
*Where's there's smokes ... Retailers and aldermen trying to stop Mayor Emanuel's latest move to raise tobacco taxes and stiffen rules for buying smokes in Chicago will hold a City Hall news conference Tuesday as they try to rally City Council support to defeat the measure next month.
The opponents of Emanuel's ordinance, which would increase taxes on chewing tobacco, cigars and roll-your-own tobacco and raise the age to legally buy any tobacco products in the city to 21, aren't expected to announce that they will sue if the proposal passes. But they are going to question a clause in the plan that establishes minimum prices for tobacco products in the event a judge rules the new taxes are illegal.
Tanya Triche, vice president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said recently that all Chicagoans should be worried if the city starts setting prices for goods that can be legally bought in stores. Focusing on that aspect of Emanuel's ordinance could be a move by tobacco retailers and aldermen who are against it to try to broaden the opposition.
Emanuel called for a vote on the package at last month's council meeting, meaning he believed he had sufficient support to pass it after he amended it to crack down on illegal cigarette sales -- an increasing problem in some neighborhoods.
But a handful of aldermen used a procedural rule to delay the vote for one month. The mayor reacted defiantly, as he often does when the issue is his self-styled crusade against big tobacco, saying opponents "can delay it, but they cannot defer the inevitable because we will pass this and take another step built on every step Chicago has taken." (John Byrne)
*Rauner on MAP grant veto: Gov. Rauner vetoed a Monetary Award Program grant funding bill Friday as promised, saying the state doesn't have the money to pay for it. On Monday, the governor tried to blame House Speaker Michael Madigan for the situation.
Asked Monday to explain why college students have been left out of his education spending agenda, Rauner pointed at Madigan.
"They're not out of luck, they're out of Speaker Madigan control right now," Rauner said of college students. "I could get them the money right now, if we could do the reforms and free me up," to cut spending elsewhere in the budget.
That's a reference to Rauner's request that lawmakers grant him the authority to unilaterally slash spending in order to make the books balance. Rauner proposed a budget last week that contained a hole of at least $3.5 billion, and said that if Democrats aren't willing to grant him his pro-business, union-weakening agenda in exchange for a tax increase to fill the deficit, they should let him make spending cuts instead.
Rauner did not spell out where he would make those cuts, and Democrats aren't willing to give him that authority anyway. But he told reporters Monday that they should "study" his budget proposal of last year, which would have cut spending on Medicaid and slashed the amount of income tax dollars that are shared with local governments, among other things. (Kim Geiger)
*Downstate U.S. Rep. Davis for Rubio: Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis has endorsed Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential bid.
Rubio "will unite our party, grow the conservative movement and win in November. I am proud to offer him my full support," said Davis, a two-term congressman from Taylorville in central Illinois.
Davis' GOP-leaning district runs from Normal on the north, Champaign on the east, then goes southwest through Decatur and Springfield to the Mississippi River.
The same day the endorsement was announced, Davis met with the editorial board of the State Journal-Register in Springfield where he said if the fall presidential contest comes down to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, "I of course would support Donald Trump." (Rick Pearson)
*Stratton preparing TV ad buy against Dunkin: Juliana Stratton, the union-backed Democratic primary challenger to Rep. Ken Dunkin, of Chicago, is preparing an end-of-month TV ad buy.
Chicago television station records filed with the Federal Communications Commission show Stratton's campaign has bought nearly $70,000 of air time on CBS-Ch. 2, $50,000 at WGN-Ch. 9 and has made inquiries for time at NBC-Ch. 5 through the March 15 primary.
Dunkin is the Democratic lawmaker who has sided with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on several social service and union-related issues, effectively denying House Speaker Michael Madigan a 71-vote veto-proof majority.
Spending in the race, between unions helping Stratton and Rauner allies helping Dunkin, is expected to exceed $2 million. (Rick Pearson)
*New parents: Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, and wife Charna Epstein welcomed daughter Sigalit Koufax Epstein-Pawar into the world Feb. 16, the alderman announced over the weekend. "And yes, her middle name is in honor of Sandy Koufax," Pawar wrote in his weekly email blast to constituents.
Epstein is Pawar's former chief of staff and now the chief operating officer and managing director of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute. They were married in December 2014. (Hal Dardick)
Follow the money
*Kim Foxx, the slated Democratic Cook County state's attorney candidate, kicked in $40,000 to the county party, which does get-out-the-vote efforts.
*Speaker Michael Madigan's Democratic Majority fund gave $25,000 to state Rep. Christian Mitchell, who faces a Democratic primary challenge from Jay Travis, a community organizer who got within about 5 percentage points two years ago.
*The Illinois Federation of Teachers fund gave $15,000 to Republican state Sen. Sam McCann, who is being challenged in a Downstate primary by Bryce Benton, who is backed by Gov. Rauner.
*Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle reported $141,500 in contributions, led by $50,000 from an operating engineers union fund. Preckwinkle, who is not on the ballot this year, is backing Foxx for state's attorney.
*A construction and laborers union fund gave $25,000 to Marty Durkan, who's running as a nonslated Democrat for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board. Durkan recently funded a mailer for himself and slated Cook County circuit court clerk candidate Michelle Harris.
*Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash
Beyond Chicago
*Presidential race, Republican side: Rubio's path remains perilous as Cruz dumps spokesman.
*Presidential race, Democratic side: Sanders' superdelegate problem.
*U.S. aircraft carriers face "growing threat," think tank says.
*Seas to rise as much as 4 feet by 2100, NYT reports.
