[MUSIC] >> Welcome to capital view on WSIU.

I'm Brian Sapp.

The Obama Presidential Center opened to much fanfare last week.

Three former presidents joined musicians, civil rights leaders and thousands of Chicagoans for the festivities.

We'll talk with our guests about the former president and how the center could share his legacy.

And the dust continues to settle on this spring's General Assembly session.

Governor Pritzker's bold plan, which aimed to address a need for affordable housing, met some opposition and did not pass.

We'll talk about that.

Joining us to talk about these issues are Dan Petrella.

He's a reporter with the Chicago Tribune.

And Ken Renfield.

He's the political scientist, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Springfield.

Dan and Ken, it's good to talk to you.

Good to see you guys.

Welcome to the program.

>> Good to be here.

>> Glad to be here.

>> Great.

It was, as you know, in the newsroom, we had the TVs up, and I think all the stations had the wall to wall coverage at the Presidential Center last week.

Dan, can you kind of fill us in on what happened?

And we'll kind of move on from there?

>> Yeah.

So the big grand opening ceremony that was invitation only was on Thursday, June 18th.

And there was a big, uh, public watch party nearby out there on the south side, uh, sort of near the University of Chicago, as you said, uh, former President Obama and former first Lady Michelle Obama, uh, spoke and we had former presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush all in attendance, uh, with their wives as well.

Notably absent was the current president, Donald Trump, who was, uh, notably not invited to the event.

Obviously, he has made a political career of attacking President Obama and built his political career off the, um, birther, uh, myth.

Um, and that was really what sprang him into into a real life in politics.

So, you know, it was a very celebratory event.

It was interesting to look out over the crowd and see, uh, you know, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson there and governor JB Pritzker there, obviously, but also, uh, former Congressman Bobby Rush who, who, uh, Obama unsuccessfully challenged back in the early 2000, uh, in a Democratic primary and lots of other folks all, uh, from throughout his course, uh, in both Chicago, Illinois and national politics as well.

Um, you know, it was a very, uh, joyful day for the Obamas, I think, um, you know, there was some nostalgia.

I think the president in his speech was, was careful to encourage people, you know, not to, to just look back to the past, but sort of, um, you know, harkening back to his, his campaign themes, this idea of hope for the future and, and, and building a better America and things along those lines.

Um, one moment that really stood out to me was when Michelle Obama was speaking actually, and took a shot at the current president with a reference to the fact that her husband had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

You could audibly hear Hillary Clinton laughing, laughing on the on the microphone, in the audience.

Um, but, you know, it was a really a star studded event as well.

Event as well with performances, uh, with two members of U2 and you had Bruce Springsteen and you had, uh, Stevie Wonder and Common, and there's a sort of a whole big wrap up at the end, uh, with a lot of those folks all on stage together.

Um, and interestingly enough, afterwards when the music ended, Joe Biden kind of walked up to the lectern and started to talk and I think was sort of waving to folks in the audience.

But it was one of those head scratching moments that they let him get near a an open microphone while the live stream was still going.

But, um, you know, I think, I think, uh, folks are, um, you know, hopeful for, for what it's going to mean for, uh, you know, economic development things on the south side.

There are also concerns about, you know, gentrification that might come along with it.

Um, but I think one of the other things is if you're interested in going to see it and don't already have your tickets, it sounds like you're going to have to wait quite a while because I think I just saw that it sold out until something like November.

But, um, I will say, I just want to shout out, I did notice my former State Journal Register colleague, uh, Dean Olsen, who's now at the Illinois Times in, uh, in Springfield, there was, uh, one of the first 100 people in line, I believe, on when it opened on June 19th.

And, uh, was there when, uh, Michelle and Barack Obama surprised the folks who were among the first visitors to enter the museum.

>> Well, that's that's very cool.

I, yeah, I keep reading that lots of people want to be able to go see it.

Let's slide into that a little bit.

What are some of the things you would like to see in the center, Kent.

And what do you hope to see from the president?

>> Well, I know I it it's a fascinating concept.

I mean, it is you know, if you've been to other presidential museums, I mean, there's a wide contrast And and, you know, the only thing that I remember about, uh, President Johnson's museum when I was in Austin, uh, was that it didn't, you know, it didn't look like a library, but it didn't look like much of anything else.

Whatever you think of it, it is certainly a distinctive visual sight in terms of, of what they've done.

And, and I think, you know, content wise, well, well thought out, I think, you know, the, the, the external architecture is, is, you know, problematic for a lot of people.

Um, so I, I think it's a wonderful thing to go and, you know, immerse yourself and, and, and they really have tried to do something that, you know, really brings people, you know, you've got the president's office, the first lady's office, you know, those sorts of things that, uh, you know, you can kind of get those kinds of, of, of insights and feelings for, um, you know, it is in some ways aggressive in terms of trying to make it more of a community sort of thing.

It is, you know, the, the, the size of the, the, the is, is, is actually pretty remarkable compared to, again, other presidential museums.

The real question is, you know, from a community standpoint, from a Chicago standpoint, you know, are you going to have an impact on the surrounding community?

And, you know, it's an it it's something positive that's happening at a time when Chicago is really struggling with, you know, we're struggling.

They're struggling with the bears, but they're just struggling in general in terms of kind of, you know, what is the future of huge urban areas post pandemic and things.

And so, you know, the hope is this will be something that, you know, you can that the city can build out from.

And so that's, you know, it's, you know, ten years from now, what, you know, what what it's going to be there.

Besides that, it's a really neat place to visit.

You know, what's, what's the impact outside of the, you know, outside of the, of the, the site itself?

>> Um, Dan, I wanted to talk about one more question.

The president, former president moved to Illinois early in his 20s and found a really dug in his career here.

What do you think that you think that he might be able to share and what people might be able to learn from, you know, the president's center here?

>> Yeah, that was one thing that really stood out to me in his speech when I was watching the, the live stream, uh, online is the way that he talked about how there really was no other place He could have built this, this center, and some might argue, well, he was born in Hawaii.

He could have built it there or, you know, that sort of thing.

But, you know, obviously he he had political beliefs and ideas that were developing before he came to Chicago as a young community organizer.

But it was really here, um, that he formulated this vision of himself as a, as a political figure, as a political person.

I mean, it was in the era of Mayor Harold Washington.

And I think at that time, at some times earlier in his career, he saw, you know, City Hall as as his goal and that sort of thing.

Um, but, you know, I think one thing I'm interested to see when I get a chance to go, I guess maybe early next year at this point, it sounds like, but, um, is how, how the Chicago elements of the story are told.

And I think from what I've heard from folks who have been, there's really, um, you know, that's really woven into the, into the narrative that, that the center is telling.

Um, and it's also, you know, how like you said, or like Ken was saying how it's made itself part of, of the community.

There's a branch of the Chicago Public Library that's, um, part of the center and there's a, you know, a basketball court and things like that that are inviting community in.

So I'm really interested to see how it how it weaves Chicago into the overall narrative.

That doesn't just start with his birth in the in the 60s in Hawaii, but actually, I believe from what I've heard goes all the way back to the Declaration of Independence.

So I'm looking forward to it.

And as a big fan of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, I'm interested to, once I get to go see it, to kind of contrast the two and compare how they how they tell those stories.

>> Yeah, I think that will be probably a lot of people will be looking to see, see that story and, you know, and adopted, you know, Illinois son.

And, um, and he has such a gift to, and it seems like to have transcended this kind of trying to transcend, tell his story and look forward.

And I think it's seen in a lot of that.

We're going to switch gears, move on.

Um, like I said, it's been, we're just under a month since the end of the session and a lot of articles have come out looking at plenty of things.

The bears that's still undecided.

We're going to not touch on that this week too much.

But one of the topics was the governor's build plan.

It was a key part of his address in the spring back in February.

That didn't get passed.

Kent, can you kind of tell us about this build plan?

And, you know, the governor's apparent failure not getting this passed?

>> Yeah.

I mean, this is we're all about affordability and our politics.

And, and we're very cognizant of issues involving particularly, you know, low income housing.

This is a a bill that really is in the middle, if you will, because what the governor was looking for was a way to promote, uh, multi unit, you know, duplexes, triplexes, uh, granny flats, the idea of building a, a small, a house or a resident on existing property.

And so to kind of fit in that area of, you know, people not we're not talking about low income housing, we're not talking about, you know, getting people into, uh, you know, areas above a starter home, but more in terms of if you're not, if you can't afford a starter home anymore initially, then how do you get out into, uh, you know, some residential space?

And, uh, so that's, that distinguishes it from, you know, other ways of thinking about housing.

But to do that, it was proposing essentially a statewide, um, kind of zoning area that where this would be a state law that would, uh, would allow people to build these kinds of projects on pretty much any place in Illinois that's zoned residential.

And what that and it it was not, you know, this is something that really hadn't had a lot of spade work done.

And so it caught a lot of people by surprise.

And, you know, you've got a local, you've got a state that has since the 1970 Constitution, extremely broad, uh, local government powers.

And, uh, zoning is something that if you've ever been around City Hall almost anywhere, you know, that's the flashpoint.

You know, I've got my, you know, my particularly residential, you know, I want to protect my home and that sort of thing.

And so, uh, that got a lot of pushback on just exactly that.

The municipal league, uh, who was the primary opponent was saying, well, what we need is kind of a statewide Guidance that people could opt into, that municipalities could opt into that.

We just incentivize with, uh, grants and things.

It didn't help the presentation of the plan that it would seem to be coordinated with the Illinois Realtors Association.

And, you know, so that you were really butting up against two pretty strong interest groups whose interests often don't, you know, don't coincide.

And so it really did not get any traction, uh, lots of hearings.

And, you know, it is a very tough nut to crack in terms of going in and, uh, and saying we need some statewide kinds of restrictions on what local governments and communities can do on, on their zoning.

You know, it's good to have a housing plan if you're running for president, obviously.

uh, but, uh, you know, this is going to need a lot of work and it may end up looking a lot more like what the municipal league wanted than what, you know, what the governor initially proposed.

>> Dan, I wanted to touch on that.

Um, yeah, the municipal league, like there was a little bit of stuff, but really they seemed to kind of come to the fore as the session went on.

What does this say about their ability to make things happen?

>> Yeah.

You know, I think it really showed that they they do wield a lot of influence with lawmakers in Springfield.

Um, they push back pretty hard on this plan.

And I think, you know, one of the other issues that they is an issue for them pretty much every year the legislature is in session, but they get the local governments get a share of, uh, state income taxes.

And as the income tax rate has gone up, the amount that goes to the local governments has not gone up with it.

And the governor had actually proposed giving them the same dollar amount in the upcoming budget, but cutting the percentage.

So tax revenues have grown and the state would be keeping keeping more of that for itself to help balance its budget.

And they managed to negotiate that out of the final budget package.

But, you know, I think the the fact that this plan, um, you know, didn't get across the finish line in this session isn't indicative of a couple of things.

I think it's just like the governor said in his post-session press conference, sometimes these big ideas do take, you know, more than one session to get through.

I think in some ways, the governor's a little bit of a victim of his own successes in the past.

You know, whenever he thinks back to the 2019 session, when he first came into office and got all these huge things done in, in just a matter of months.

Um, so which kind of set maybe a high bar, but also I think there's some criticism on this and other issues about how much the governor himself, you know, personally, uh, was working lawmakers or on trying to, you know, win their votes over.

He spent a lot of time talking publicly about the plan, going to places like the City Club of Chicago and the Illinois Realtors Association and things like that.

Um, you know, doing interviews with, with, uh, social media personalities and things like that on it.

Um, but, you know, I think there's questions on this and other issues with how much, you know, individual lobbying of key lawmakers he's doing on some of these issues these days.

Um, but I do think, you know, I'm sure we'll hear more about this plan either throughout the campaign in the fall or, you know, maybe it'll come back up in, in veto or lame duck.

Um, or obviously, uh, if one, assuming he wins the election in November, I'm sure we'll hear about it again in his, his, uh, budget, state of the state address at the beginning of term three.

>> Yeah.

I think there's plenty of opportunity for the governor to, to work that.

And I like I think your idea there.

And as you said, look, let's just look at last year, the transportation issue that took you know, they didn't get that done in the spring and it kind of lingered and talks happened.

And, um, you know, in the fall, they were able to take care of it and it was still up in the air for to see how people appreciate it or like it.

But, um, you know, it took a while for him to, build that coalition to make it happen.

Uh, Dan, I wanted to stay with you.

The last week, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, um, had four new members join your colleague, Jeremy Gorner wrote an article looking at the review board and some of the challenges as they're trying to, to move forward.

You know, crime has become an issue.

People argue whether the numbers really where they stand.

But, you know, when people are hurt, it does make news.

Um, where what are we looking at when it comes to the prisoner review board?

>> Yeah.

This, this is an issue that really has been a thorn in the governor's side for, for about four years now, um, for a lot of reasons, back in, in zooming way back to 2022, when he was running for a second term, uh, the Senate actually rejected one of his, his appointments to this board, um, concerns about qualifications.

And, and at that time, you know, crime rates were sort of at their post-pandemic peak or near their post-pandemic peak.

Um, and Republicans were campaigning that year very heavily on that issue.

Obviously, the, uh, Safety Act had just been passed.

And there's a lot of criticism over that, as I'm sure we'll hear again this fall.

Um, and then in 2024, I believe it was, um, the, uh, review board released, allowed the release of a man named Corsetti brand who had a history of domestic violence.

And he went on to, uh, attack a former partner and kill her 11 year old son when the son came to try to defend her.

Uh, he's now serving a life sentence in prison, um, for that crime.

Uh, but, uh, you know, the Pritzker administration and the governor himself have faced a lot of criticisms over their appointments here.

So there was a big revamp a couple years ago of qualifications for the board.

And, um, so he was appointing folks to some vacancies and, um, ran into a couple snags.

Again, there were some criticism from Republicans over one of his nominees, uh, Stephanie Love Patterson, who is a domestic violence prevention advocate.

and some questions about her role that she had played with the national organization.

She had checked on a on a form for her appointment, that she was fired from her previous job.

And then some of the Republicans on the committee that reviews executive appointments weren't satisfied with her answers about what happened there.

Democrats defended it as sort of philosophical differences with the the board of the organization.

But, um, a sort of another road bump there.

And then there was a former prosecutor from Sangamon County who had also done some work with the executive inspector general's office at the state, uh, who faced some questions from from Democrats about her responses on questions about are there any crimes that you would, you know, automatically not let someone out of prison ever, if they committed?

And, you know, Democrats who are who are interested in criminal justice reform and ideas of, uh, you know, rehabilitation rather than, um, you know, just the justice system being a tool of punishment.

Uh, you know, sort of balked at that.

And she ended up withdrawing her name from consideration and the governor withdrew her appointment.

So the board is now, I think, up to 13 of the 15 seats being filled.

But it's sort of this ongoing issue that that comes up from time to time is, you know, these folks weigh very difficult decisions where, you know, they're asked to review all sorts of records and hear testimony and, and somewhat, you know, predict the future, right?

They, they have to make judgment calls about, um, you know, the likelihood that someone, if they're, if they are released, might commit another crime in the future, which is a very, uh, you know, difficult thing to do, obviously.

So, um, you know, and I'm sure we're gonna be hearing a lot about crime in, in the governor's race this fall.

So, uh, more opportunities to scrutinize this, this board and, uh, you know who the governor has chosen to appoint to it?

Um, one of the changes they did make, I should say, is, is requiring background in, um, criminal justice or being a defense attorney or a prosecutor or things like that for, uh, for several of the members of, of the board.

>> I think we'll have to look and see again, it's a process.

And and any crime is horrible and really harms those that that that it touches directly.

And there's lots of rights to way and it sounds like, I mean, in a way, I appreciate that, you know, it sounds like the people are listening and that they're having some impact.

And we'll just really have to see how that that turns out.

Um, turning to politics, we've got about five minutes left and turning to politics, as you said, the campaign season, summer, you know, before we know it, the state Fair will be here.

We'll have all the politicians out there and things like that.

Last week, the AfL-CIO sent out an email saying that they were going to defer any endorsements.

Kent, you've been around for a while here in Illinois.

Can you help us make some sense of this?

>> Well, you know, that's certainly got everybody's attention.

Uh, big labor, uh, is, you know, the top dog in terms of, uh, certainly money that comes into Illinois politics, uh, you know, absent, you know, my billionaire versus your billionaire, which, uh, we're we seem to be past that, uh, that stage at this point.

And, uh, you know, some of this is, you know, they, you know, they have some assets, some things that they would like to have happen.

Uh, generally they have done very, very well under the governor.

And we have a, uh, a workers right constitutional amendment.

Uh, you know, we took a significant, uh, things that labor wanted and, uh, enshrined them in the, in the state constitution.

So, uh, you know, the, the, the idea that, you know, there's trouble within the Democratic Party and its sponsors gets everybody's, uh, you know, attention.

But, uh, it is probably more, you know, part of it is signaling, you know, we're here.

Uh, we would have liked to have done better.

You know, there are other issues having to do with, uh, unemployment insurance, uh, you know, things that cost money for, uh, employers.

Uh, unless it's state agencies, it's a, you know, a different sort of thing, like non-educational, uh, or, you know, non-teaching kind of educational, uh, staff, uh, things.

Regular unemployment is money out of the pocket of businesses.

And, and so those issues are, are, are always tough.

Some of it is, uh, as you know, our friend Rich Miller capital facts talked about his, you know, if you head up an association, you're not only managing the legislature, you're managing your members.

And so you need to show your members that, uh, you know, we're, we, we understand, uh, that, you know, there are things out there that we want to do and that we're going to, you know, we're going to, we're going to go out and fight for you now.

Uh, reforming tier two at the cost of billions and billions of dollars is not likely at this point.

But, you know, you're, you're, you're trying to do that.

And so, uh, you know, I assume we will come back together.

Uh, and because it is pragmatic, I mean, you know, we are, uh, you know, it is about ultimately about getting elected.

Uh, and in the case of, uh, of labor, they generally do better if the Democrats are in charge.

And so, uh, but, uh, it is not, you know, uh, this is potentially an issue.

Pritzker going nationally is he may not be at the top of organized Labor's list in terms of, uh, you know, who they'd like to see, uh, come out of the Democratic convention, uh, you know, and so, uh, this is going to be, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll have to see what what is sound and, and what is fury as we, you know, we get back into really, you know, getting down to individual bills.

>> We've got just, just under a minute there.

Dan, don't mean to cut you too short, but is this going to have a big impact on the fall or not too much.

>> No I don't think we're going to end up seeing the AfL-CIO endorsing Darren Bailey in the governor's race or endorsing a whole host of Republican lawmakers.

But I think it is significant.

You know, obviously, the governor has plenty of money to spend on his his own race and his own political organization.

But rank and file lawmakers do rely on union support.

I think this also signals maybe some of the dissatisfaction with some of the more progressive unions under the AfL-CIO umbrella, with the lack of action on on more progressive income tax structure, which is something they've been pushing for a long time.

The governor, um, you know, says he supports, but since 2020, when his attempt failed, hasn't, uh, hasn't pushed publicly to really do anything about that.

So I think obviously labor is a big tent, but it's it's going to be interesting to see how they come back together.

And if they fully embrace each other by November.

>> Yeah, we got it's about five months away.

Plenty of time to get it all figured out.

Gentlemen, thanks for joining us.

It was good talking with you.

On behalf of Dan Petrella and Kent Redfield, I'm Brian Sapp.

Thanks for watching.

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