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It’s time once again to dive into another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:
Gird your loins
Illinois’ election filing season is underway; it began Oct. 27 and ends today (Nov. 3).
Then the real battle begins. No, not the primary and general elections in March and November 2026.
The end of filing starts the season where rival candidates file objections to their opponents’ voter petitions. Dispensing of an opponent before the first vote is cast is a favored tactic of bare-knuckled politicos.
Objections can be filed from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10.
Objections cross a range of categories: anything from the number of signers, the status of the signers or the failure to include all the appropriate papers, including a statement of economic interest.
The State Board of Elections rules on the objections, but disputes can find their way into the courts and cost a lot of time and money.
It’s a nasty, dirty, double-dealing process, but par for the course in Illinois.
Make LSU great again?
There are some strange doings down on the Bayou, where Louisiana State University’s athletic director Scott Woodward announced the firing of head football coach Brian Kelly, followed by Gov. Jeff Landry’s announcement that Woodward won’t be involved in the search for Kelly’s successor — followed by Woodward’s resignation Thursday night.
So who’s going to lead the search now?
“We aren’t going down a failed path. Maybe we’ll let President Trump pick it. He loves winners,” the governor said.
Trump does have some background in running a football program. He was briefly the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the failed USFL.
Then again, Trump has other things on his mind these days.
It may strike some people as strange that Louisiana’s governor is involved with LSU football. The only way to explain it is to say that LSU football is not a religion down yonder — it’s way more important than that.
Woodward drew fire from the governor because he hired two ultimately fired football coaches (Kelly at LSU and Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M) to long-term contracts that carried mega buyouts.
The Athletic reports that Landry has a long-standing beef with Woodward because Woodward fired LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade after the NCAA cited LSU for program violations.
While Landry’s intervention is unusual, it’s not without precedent.
Former state governor and U.S. Sen. Huey Long (he held both positions for a brief period of time) was heavily involved in LSU football. The Kingfish reportedly gave the Tigers halftime pep talks and suggested (meaning ordered) plays to the team coach.
The Kingfish, an alleged shyster who was not the least bit shy, even led the LSU band on its marches.
Include me out
The Illinois-Indiana Boundary Adjustment Commission recently met to hear testimony on the wisdom of downstate Illinois seceding from the Land of Lincoln and joining Hoosierland.
While Indiana’s representatives on the 11-member commission were present, no one from Illinois showed.
That absence pretty much sums up Illinois’ official response to a movement to secede that’s been approved by 33 of the state’s 102 counties.
It is, of course, never going to happen. But people appear to be going through the motions anyway.
The commission is charged with studying the issue and recommending how Illinois-Indiana boundary lines should be adjusted. After completing its review, the commission has 60 days to submit a report to the Indiana legislature.
A spokesman for a group called “New Illinois” doesn’t want to join Indiana but, instead, create a new, separate state.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the commission is expected to meet again, perhaps in early 2026. But no date has been set to discuss this political flight of fancy.
Auditor/clerk wars
Those following the power struggle between the Champaign County Board members and county auditor George Danos will be amused to know that another political War of the Roses is going on in DuPage County.
That’s where DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek is fighting it out with the county board over her authority to spend money from her budget.
A judge there recently ruled that the clerk’s office must follow county competitive bidding rules. She’s appealing the decision.
In the meantime, two vendors who are collectively owed more than $230,000 are waiting to be paid for election-related materials and equipment they previously provided. Further, representatives of the two businesses say they will do no more work for DuPage County until they are paid what they are owed.
The battle between Kaczmarek and board members who object to her claim of elected-official independence has become nasty.
Not only did the matter of compliance end up in civil court, but Republican State’s Attorney Robert Berlin asked for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether the clerk’s office violated competitive bidding laws.
Meanwhile, Democrats led by board Chairwoman Debra Conroy have targeted Kaczmarek for defeat in the March Democratic Party primary. Board Democrat Paula Deacon Garcia will face Kaczmarek in the primary.
That will be the first time in nearly 30 years that there will be a primary contest for the county clerk’s office, according to the Arlington Daily Herald.
Kaczmarek is seeking court permission to pay the outstanding bills so her office can prepare for the 2026 election.
“No business will agree to work they aren’t being paid for. The voters elected me to administer elections, and my efforts to do so continue to be illegally obstructed,” she said.
Kaczmarek is appealing the judge’s decision that she must abide by county purchasing rules.
Another day older and deeper in debt
A study of debt accumulated by states and localities show that Illinois ranks in the top five in the nation.
California leads the nation, having combined state and local debt of $1 trillion. It’s followed by New York ($798 billion), Texas ($550 billion) and Illinois ($407 billion).
It’s no great surprise that the largest states have the largest debts. But it’s deeply disturbing that Illinois has the second-largest public-pension debt ($228 billion). That’s $17,786 per resident.
First and goal?
What Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones doesn’t know about football, he does know about oil.
That’s why the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Comstock Resources, an exploration company mostly owned by Jones, has “unlocked a $100 Billion Gas Bounty” in a rural stretch of east Texas.
The company’s oil/gas extraction technology represents another upgrade that has turned the U.S. back into a major world energy producer.
Comstock is betting it can develop “some of the hottest, deepest wells in the U.S. — and unleash a torrent of new gas supplies.”
That’s a good thing, because domestic energy demands are skyrocketing. Comstock says it is gearing up “to pump enough fuel to help meet” requirements from “exporters, data centers and heavy industries for years to come.”
Jones knows a lot about making money. Already wealthy when he purchased the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million, he’s seen the team’s value skyrocket to $13 billion.
That ain’t hay.
Now he’s hoping for even bigger success with Comstock. But it won’t be easy.
The Journal said Comstock plans to drill down as far as 19,000 feet, “which is the equivalent to stacking up to 13 Empire State Buildings” where temperatures can reach “more than 400 degrees Fahrenheit” and the pressure “can be as high as at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest points in the world’s oceans.”
And people think winning the Super Bowl is hard.
Jones clearly is up to taking on the challenge as well as talking it up.
“That’s why I’m talking to you on the telephone rather than trying to fix our defense with the Dallas Cowboys,” he told a WSJ reporter.
