| | | | |  | | By Shia Kapos | | | Happy Super Tuesday, Illinois. We’re two weeks away from the Illinois primary.
|  | TOP TALKER | | | | 
Joe Calvello, right, the comms director for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, center, is in talks to work with Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP | SCOOP: Mayor Brandon Johnson is in talks with Joe Calvello, the director of communications for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, about joining the administration. Outsized job: Though Calvello has spent much of his career as a communications operative, the discussions with City Hall are about a position with a broader role, according to a person familiar with their meeting. The staffing revamp comes after Johnson’s team has struggled to get out its message. The mayor clashed with reporters during a recent press briefing and then drew criticism when his team tried to go off the record for a Sun-Times editorial board meeting. Calvello knows about managing through a crisis. He joined Fetterman’s team in January 2021, working on his Senate campaign and during the turbulent period when Fetterman was hospitalized for a stroke. Calvello is a Chicago-area native who grew up in Woodridge and played lacrosse for Naperville North High School and the University of Massachusetts. After graduation, he pivoted to politics, working in various political jobs before landing on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s 2018 campaign. During the 2020, Democratic primary, Calvello worked as a spokesman for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. It’s there that he got to know folks who would later help Johnson get elected. Calvello also worked at Planned Parenthood Federation of America before joining Fetterman’s team. That’s amore: Calvello’s family has roots in Chicago history. His cousin, Joe DiBuono, owns the iconic Tufano’s restaurant in Little Italy. Family legend has it that DiBuono’s grandfather, Joseph DiBuono, started the restaurant in 1930 after losing his job cooking for Al Capone when the mobster was sent to jail.
| | | THE BUZZ | | | ON THE BALLOT: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states can’t remove Donald Trump from their ballots. In a decisive decision the justices said only Congress, can disqualify a presidential candidate under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause.” The decision follows an Illinois state judge ruling last week that Trump was ineligible for the ballot. Illinois was among three states that had taken trump off the ballot. After Monday’s SCOTUS decision, a spokesperson for the Illinois Board of Elections said that case was now resolved. Trump will appear on the ballot. An attorney for the objectors remains concerned. “The Supreme Court has spoken on constitutional procedure, but the decision does not address or override the clear facts — Donald Trump supported and incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Caryn Lederer, part of the legal team representing the Illinois objectors. “This must ring like an alarm to voters. Donald Trump tried to overthrow our democracy. He cannot lead it.” Illinois Republicans celebrated. “It’s a victory for voters, who will now have an opportunity to choose who represents them in the White House," Don Tracy, chair of the Illinois Republican Party, said in a statement. RELATED ‘They didn’t do it clearly enough’: SCOTUS ruling prompts worries of another Jan. 6 crisis, by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein If you are Joe Calvello, Playbook would like to hear from you. Email skapos@politico.com
| | | | A message from Amazon: Amazon fulfillment centers provide 3,000 local jobs on average with comprehensive benefits and free on-the-job skills training programs for hourly employees. Nate started at an Amazon fulfillment center for the benefits and pay “then I learned about the growth opportunities.” Now he serves as an Amazonian ambassador to his local community “so that people know that you can build a career here.” Learn more about employee growth. | | | | | WHERE'S JB | | At the Midwest Food Bank in Morton at 1 p.m. to announce Illinois Eats grant awardees.
| | WHERE's BRANDON | | His daily schedule was unavailable.
| | Where's Toni | | No official public events. Have a tip, suggestion, birthday, new job or (heaven forbid) a complaint? Email skapos@politico.com
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The stakes are high as America's health care community strives to meet the evolving needs of patients and practitioners, adopt new technologies and navigate skeptical public attitudes toward science. Join POLITICO’s annual Health Care Summit on March 13 where we will discuss the future of medicine, including the latest in health tech, new drugs and brain treatments, diagnostics, health equity, workforce strains and more. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | 2024 WATCH | | — In IL-07: Congressman Danny Davis has been endorsed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and challenger Kina Collins is endorsed by Ja’Mal Green, the former mayoral candidate and activist. — Democratic bona fide accusations flare in state’s attorney race, by the Tribune’s A.D. Quig…. Clayton Harris is out with a TV ad attacking opponent Eileen O’Neill Burke. And Harris was endorsed by Rev. Jesse Jackson and activist Anjanette Young. — In the 36th Illinois House District, a southwest suburban showdown: The race pits Palos Township Democratic Organization founder Rick Ryan against Sonia Khalil, a Markham city worker and board member of the Arab American Democratic Club, founded by her father. Both candidates said protecting women’s reproductive rights is the top issue in the race, “though Ryan was against abortion rights when he ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2000,” reports the Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout. In her new ad, Khalil attacks Ryan on abortion rights. — Welch on Flowers: Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch was on Perri Small’s talk show on WVON and was asked about his strained relationship with state Rep. Mary Flowers. “This is about our caucus. Last week, our entire Democratic leadership team supported her opponent,” Welch said, referring to Michael Crawford in the 31st District House race. “He’s an educator, husband, father and disability advocate … he’s energetic.” Full interview (Flowers question at about 16:30) — Senate race tension: State Sen. Natalie Toro (20th) is getting support from fellow senators as she tries to hold on to the seat she was appointed to last year. Her campaign has received $50,000 each from state Sens. Laura Murphy, Linda Holmes, Sara Feigenholtz and Bill Cunningham. It’s a lot of money on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars already funneled to the campaign by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon. All that and polls are showing Toro is trailing, which has some senators worried that spending on the campaign isn't money well spent. — Congresswoman Delia Ramirez and a group of Northwest Side progressives have endorsed Mariyana Spyropoulos for Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.
| | THE STATEWIDES | | — ETHICS KUMBAYA: Former Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is teaming up with state Rep. Ryan Spain, a Republican, to kick off a campaign to win support for an Illinois Ethics Initiative that would change the constitution to allow voters to go to the polls to dictate ethics laws instead of public officials making the rules. Spain will introduce the resolution and ask for legislative hearings. — School daze: State Senate President Don Harmon will present the Chicago Elected School Board bill in Executive Committee today. The measure would have voters choose 10 board members, with the mayor appointing 10 others. It’s a measure that the Illinois House and Chicago Teachers Union and was backed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The measure as it stands now still has some opposition from folks who want to see the 20 board members elected all at once. — Should Illinois become a ‘right-to-die’ state? Lawmakers consider end-of-life option for terminally ill adults, by the Tribunes Angie Leventis Lourgos
| | SPOTLIGHT | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The Christmas in the Wards program is going year round. The group has seen a leadership change. Founder Larry Huggins has turned over the organization to his daughter, LaToyia Huggins, who's revamping the program as year round “social impact organization” to support historically marginalized, hard-to-count communities across the city. It's got a new name, too: Wards365. Coming up will be Summer50 Fest, a pre-summer resource and social impact festival planned for May 18 at the United Center. Details here
| | | | A message from Amazon:   | | | | | CHICAGO | | — HEROES AMONG US | CTA driver, passenger rescue 14 residents from burning South Shore homes: “Driver Anastasios Adamopoulos and a passenger hopped off his bus about 2 a.m. Monday and woke residents in two homes that were on fire. ‘The flames were reaching for the heavens,’” by the Sun-Times’ Emmanuel Camarillo. — White Sox, Bears discussing ‘financing partnership’ for two stadiums, developer says: “Wouldn’t it be unbelievable for our city if you were to see two amazing facilities for these great sports teams built at once?” said Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, which oversees the vacant 62-acre site where the White Sox hope to build. The Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman reports. — Community activists push back on plan to move Sox to the 78, reports Robert Reed for Chicago magazine — Johnson to carry on Lightfoot-era plan to revamp LaSalle Street canyon, by Bloomberg’s Shruti Singh and Miranda Davis — DCASE leadership still in flux as city braces for start of festival season, by WBEZ’s Courtney Kueppers and the Sun-Times’ Mitch Dudek — Chicago's biggest academic medical systems form breast cancer research network: The Chicago Breast Cancer Research Consortium includes UChicago Medicine, Rush University System for Health and Northwestern Medicine will work together to increase access to clinical trials for breast cancer research, by Crain’s Jon Asplund. — CPS students help open container farm to provide fresh produce in the middle of South Side food desert, by WGN 9’s Judy Wang — OVER THE WEEKEND: Shots fired at security detail outside home of former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, via ABC 7
| | COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS | | — The Village of Flossmoor saw a standing-room-only public meeting Monday night to protest efforts to push Police Chief Jerel Jones out of the job he’s held for less than a year. The concern: teenagers got out of control at last year’s Flossmoor Fest. But some residents at the meeting said Jones hadn’t been hired when the security plans were put in place. Residents pushed for questions, which prompted Village Mayor Michelle Nelson to threaten to kick attendees out of the public meeting. Jones is the first African American police chief in Flossmoor, fueling the racial overturns in the meeting. SPOTTED: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, state Rep. Will Davis and about 20 Black uniformed police leaders from across the region.
| | | | On the ground in Albany. Get critical policy news and analysis inside New York State. Track how power brokers are driving change across legislation and budget and impacting lobbying efforts. Learn more. | | | | | | | Reader Digest | | We asked how you’d describe your driving (me, too fast):Dave Dahl: “If they want to ticket me for 9 over, go right ahead.” Lucas Hawley: “Midwest Nice: passive and polite on the road, letting people merge in when needed and a wave ‘thank you’ to end it even though I was the one that let them in.” Ed Mazur: “For 65 years of licensed driving, always keep on my side of the divided lines.” Joan Pederson: “Sedate. Except when I'm late: five times out of eight.” Ray Sendejas: “I asked my wife, Erika Poethig, how my driving was and she said, ‘excellent but not as good as you probably think it is.’” Timothy Thomas Jr.: “Guardedly defensive.” Steve Weiss: “Not being responsible for an accident for the last 60 years, I’ll say my driving is OK.” NEXT QUESTION: How do you watch the State of the Union address?
| | DELEGATION | | — MAIL KUMBAYA: Democratic Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) and Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller (IL-15) teamed up to write a letter to Postmaster Louis DeJoy “raising serious concerns" about the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to downsize the Champaign Processing and Distribution Center. Read their letter here — Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02) has called for a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza and Israel. Here’s her statement.
| | THE NATIONAL TAKE | | — Super Tuesday is the first test of what next year’s House GOP will look like, by POLITICO’s Madison Fernandez and Ally Mutnick — White House announces ‘strike force’ on unfair and illegal prices ahead of State of the Union, by POLITICO’s Josh Sisco — White House turns to health care in Biden’s latest move against ‘corporate greed,’ by POLITICO’s Josh Sisco, Adam Cancryn and Megan R. Wilson
| | IN MEMORIAM | | — William "Bill" Quinlan, who over the years served as legal counsel for Chicago Public Schools, Rockford Public Schools and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, has died. He was 73. Obit here
| | TRANSITIONS | | — Abby Walsh is now political action director for Illinois Credit Union League. She was director of fundraising for the Newberg Group. — Rob Clary has joined Baker McKenzie’s North America Tax Practice in Chicago. He was a principal at KPMG.
| | | | A message from Amazon: Since joining Amazon in an entry level role at a fulfillment center, Nate has been promoted multiple times and is now an area manager at a delivery station.
“At Amazon, you don't have to be stuck in one place, there is room for growth,” he said.
Learn how Amazon supports employee growth. | | | | | EVENTS | | — Thursday at 6 p.m. at The Hideout! Before you check out the State of the Union address, stop by the Hideout for a “state of the city” discussion. Guess: Ald. William Hall and Ald. Bennett Lawson. Details here — Friday: Orland Township is holding a Senior American Idol. Details here
| | TRIVIA | | MONDAY’s ANSWER: Congrats to Matthew Beaudet for correctly answering that Park Phipps and Lloyd Cowan won a contest to design the official seal for the Chicago Park District. TODAY's QUESTION: Which two female pioneers of punk rock were born in Illinois? Email skapos@politico.com
| | HAPPY BIRTHDAY | | Ald. Matt Martin, Calamos Investments CEO John Koudounis, former state Rep. Jim Sacia, Civic Nation Chief Impact Officer Lauren Kidwell, policy wonk Alison Leipsiger, lifestyle guru Wendy Pashman and dance therapist Joan Erenberg. -30- | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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