To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here. Ives takes heat for claiming solution to Chicago’s gun crime is fathers in the home Tuesday, Jan 16, 2018 * NBC 5… Gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy left the stage during a forum on Monday after Republican State Rep. Jeanne Ives argued the solution to gun violence in Illinois was having “more fathers in the home.” Kennedy, a Democrat, replied by pointing out he had grown up without a father before standing up and walking out of the venue. […] “It hit a very special nerve for me,” Kennedy said in an interview with NBC 5. “I lost my father to someone with a gun. For someone to say simply the solution is to have a father-in-law – I don’t know. How shall I react? What should my family have done?” Kathleen Murphy, a spokesperson for Ives, said in a statement Monday night that the representative did not mean to offend Mr. Kennedy during the forum. However, Murphy also reiterated the importance of fathers in domestic life, citing “similar statements” like President Barack Obama’s 2008 Father’s Day speech at the Apostolic Church of God on Chicago’s South Side. In his speech, the then-candidate said, “too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes.” “Those are President Obama’s words, and that was what she was echoing today,” Murphy said. “She certainly meant no offense to Mr. Kennedy.” Nobody doubts the importance of fathers. But that’s not what Rep. Ives said at the event. She claimed that putting fathers in the home was the actual solution… “The problem is the gun violence in this city of Chicago, predominantly. And you know how you’re going to solve it? Fathers in the home,” she said. As the audience booed and shouted, she repeated, “Fathers in the home.” * More… A Democratic rival for the nomination, J.B. Pritzker, who lost his father to a heart attack at age 7, said of Kennedy’s response to Ives, “I think (there are) too many people unfortunately losing family members to gun violence. I don’t know what was going through Chris’ head other than I can only imagine the grief that he feels when he thinks of his father’s death.” As for Ives’ solution for gun crimes, Pritzker said, “It’s not just an issue about how many parents are in the home. It’s about quality education. It’s about health care. It’s about jobs. If you want to avoid violence in a community, provide real economic opportunity. She doesn’t understand any of that.” * Meanwhile, from a Monday press release… When Does the #MeToo Reckoning Come to Springfield? Today, State Representative Jeanne Ives, a conservative reform Republican for Governor, and whistleblower Denise Rotheimer held a joint press conference during which Ives called on both parties to end their bipartisan protection racket and take the complaints of sexual harassment seriously. She demanded that: (1) The Legislative Ethics Committee should invite Denise Rotheimer to testify to her claims against State Sen. Ira Silverstein at their next hearing. (2) The 27 other complaints that were ignored for as long as three years should be immediately released to the public with the names of the accusers redacted. We have elections in March and November. It is because of the failures of legislative leaders, the ethics committee and the governor that we’re at this point. They failed to do their job and ensure that a Legislative Inspector General was in place and that complaints were handled in a timely manner. The voters shouldn’t have to pay the price. Given the political gamesmanship, it is appropriate to give these complaints the opportunities to be adjudicated in the court of public opinion in addition to, where appropriate, public hearings and/or courts of law. Let me be clear, I don’t know the names or party affiliations of the other legislators against whom claims have been filed. And I don’t care who they are.

We either have a system that checks the abuses of those in power or we have a system where those in power abuse. Rotheimer’s testimony illustrated the bipartisan nature of the sexual harassment crisis in Springfield. She noted that she turned to Senate President John Cullerton and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin. Neither came to her aide. Both brushed off her complaints with lip-service, instead of action. Rotheimer added that she is supporting Jeanne Ives in the Governor’s Race because of her independence as a State Representative saying, “Jeanne Ives is the type of leader we need in the Governor’s Office. Jeanne Ives will be in charge. She has already taken charge by using her leadership position to confront the culture of corruption in Springfield and to challenge the policies that enable it to exist.” The video of the Rotheimer and Ives event is here. - Posted by Rich Miller

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