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My campaign for Governor of Illinois has three overarching themes that respond to the concerns of the people of Illinois: trust, leadership and financial control.
Trust: As I have for 12 years as State Treasurer, I want to show the voters that elected leaders can be honest and committed to serving the public - not friends, fundraisers and insiders.
Leadership: In every area of State government and especially in the Governor’s office, this State’s high standing for competence and leadership has suffered during the last three years.
Financial control: Rod Blagojevich has pushed his problems off into the future. The next Governor must face head-on the State’s pension problem, capital needs and growing health care obligations.
Priority Issues My campaign for Governor will focus on several priority issues where I have a track record of success and delivering results: jobs and economic development, education, health care, transportation, fiscal responsibility, ethics, and consumer protection and advocacy.
Jobs and Economic Development Under the Blagojevich administration, Illinois ranks 45th in job creation. His anti-jobs policies have created the impression that Illinois is the wrong place to do business. Under a Topinka Administration, we will create a more jobs-friendly atmosphere that transforms Illinois into a state that welcomes business investment.
As Treasurer, my policies have created over 100,000 jobs with programs that include: Investing more money in Illinois’ financial institutions than any treasurer.
1) Creating the Technology Investment Program, an effective effort that provides the financial resources to invest in new technology and create new jobs.
2) Doubling the resources for banks to help businesses in local communities. Creating thousands of jobs for Illinois through the State Treasurer’s Economic Loan Program (STEP) and STEP Small Business, which deposit State dollars into local financial institutions that agree to loan money at below market rates to businesses creating jobs and growing the Illinois economy.
3) Expanding the Treasurer’s Agriculture and Alternative Agriculture Loan Program from $450 million to nearly $1 billion, thereby encouraging the continued prosperity of Illinois’ largest industry.
4) Creating the Experience Illinois Program designed to provide communities with a financial incentive to bolster the State’s tourism economy through historic preservation, downtown revitalization and tourism enhancement. Implementing an affordable financing program for struggling hospitals throughout the State.
5) Obtaining the authorization to invest in our technology industry by investing monies from the Technology Development Fund in Illinois technology businesses in partnership with private sector investors through venture capital funds.
6) Encouraging the film industry to expand production in Illinois by working with Illinois-based financial institutions to provide loans at below-market rates.
Education As Governor, I will concentrate on school funding issues. My priority is to make education affordable and accessible for all children in Illinois.
Our current chief executive has ignored community colleges and universities, and the result has been a rapid decline in the condition of Illinois higher education. In January 2006, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on a recent study that ranked Illinois 49th out of the 50 states in its funding of higher education during the past two years.
Four years ago, Rod Blagojevich promised to “put a lid” on tuition increases. Instead, college tuition has skyrocketed by annual double-digit increases, making it more difficult for the middle class to attend college.
As Treasurer, I’ve worked to protect education funds the Blagojevich administration wanted to divert for other wasteful uses. I’ve done something about education with programs that include:
1) Bright Start, which has helped more than 125,000 hard-working families send their children to college. Bright Start’s investment performance has been as good or better than any other college savings plan, and its fees are among the lowest in the nation. Today, its asset base has grown over $1.5 billion.
2) Bank at School, a program to help more than 100,000 Illinois school children learn the fundamentals of money management through the operation of an in-school bank, an effort that includes partnerships with local financial institutions. It has been translated into five languages and adopted by Greece and Poland.
3) Developing a Day Care Initiative Program to encourage the construction and expansion of licensed day care facilities in Illinois.
Health Care As a candidate for Governor, I support extending health care protection to people who cannot afford it or who cannot obtain it, but these programs must be run efficiently.
We have to make sure we are providing services in a cost effective and efficient manner. We are damaging access to health care by delaying payments to health care providers, a current policy that jeopardizes the financial standing of thousands of health care providers, hospitals, and pharmacies.
There are huge technological breakthroughs occurring in the medical field. As a state, we need to embrace new technology and help our health care institutions and learning facilities to be part of the new, cutting edge.
I would not expand programs without knowing true costs and having a reliable funding plan. Rod Blagojevich is more interested in the publicity benefits associated with new programs than with program details and benefits.
Fiscal Responsibility After three terms as Treasurer, I have a proven record of fiscal responsibility and accountability to the taxpayers of Illinois that differs sharply from Rod Blagojevich. The Treasurer’s Office is a profit center for the State of Illinois. My straightforward, no-nonsense approach has paid off with record-breaking investments for Illinois and accomplishments that include:
1) Publication of the first-ever comprehensive investment policy for the State Treasurer’s Office.
2) Pushing for the development of written investment policies to be in place for any entity that handles public funds.
3) Streamlining the State’s administration of the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act and reuniting thousands of Illinoisans with more than $330 million in unclaimed property through the Treasurer’s Cash Dash Program.
Ethics Restoring trust and integrity in government in Illinois must start with the chief executive of the State. Rod Blagojevich came into office promising change, then he abused the trust of the people with cynical, empty stunts designed only to make him look good.
As Treasurer, I have: 1) Created of an Office of Inspector General in the Treasurer’s Office a decade before the State Ethics Act was approved.
2) Developed a first-ever investment policy that publicly spells out how the Treasurer’s Office invests more than $7 billion.
3) Formed of a Loan Committee to review all programmatic investments.
4) Established procurement rules to ensure that contracts are bid and awarded in a fair, open process.
5) Prohibited sole-source contractors from contributing to my campaign fund.
Consumer Advocacy As Treasurer, I have leveraged the State’s investment funds to pay for programs that help average Illinois residents and protect them from financial fraud. My “Our Own Home Program” helps people with less-than-perfect credit buy a house, prevents them from losing it, and protects them from predatory lenders.
Other accomplishments include: 1) ATM fee program, which requires all financial institutions operating ATM machines to post all fees and charges assessed on the user.
2) Gift card consumer protections, offering incentives to retailers that refrain from assessing fees and charges on technically expiring retail gift cards.
3) Requiring tax preparation companies to publish rates they charge for tax anticipation refunds.
4) Expanding protection for seniors against consumer fraud and ID theft through financial education.
Judy Baar Topinka
Issue 1: I want to restore integrity to state government. The scandals in this state, as well as in other units of government, have damaged the public's faith and I hope to restore integrity in the governor's office. We need strong campaign financing reform and I have proposed new limits on political contributions. My plan includes significant reforms directed at lobbyists, including a prohibition to stop the revolving door politics we have seen in the Blagojevich administration. People close to the governor have reaped outrageous commissions from state bond sales and this must stop. I would stop offshore businesses from contributing to politicians, such as Gov. Blagojevich. We should prohibit taxpayer funds being used to pay for out-of-state travel involving political fundraisers. My plan prohibits the governor endorsing commercial products, as he has done.
Issue 2: I want to get the state's finances in order. This governor is spending money the state doesn't have and that must stop. He is taking money intended for pensions and using the dollars to balance the budget. We need to pay bills on time and stop the Blagojevich practice of raiding money from special funds. Those funds are for programs like breast cancer prevention, environmental protection, open space preservation, veterans' services and roads. State debt has doubled in three years. State pension systems have $39-49 billion in unfunded liability. At the end of the fiscal year, our backlog of unpaid bills will be nearly $2 billion. I want to invest more money in schools and road construction, but if we do not get the budget under control, we will not be able to properly fund education and other critical programs.
Issue 3: I want to improve the Illinois business climate and reverse the Blagojevich administration's embarrassing record on job loss. In the last three years, Illinois has ranked 45th out of the 50 states in creating jobs. This contrasts sharply with the mid-1990s, when Illinois was ranked as one of the best states in which to do business. Throughout much of the decade of the 1990s, unemployment in Illinois was consistently lower than the national unemployment rate. Today, unemployment is worse in Illinois than the national average. All of our neighboring states have created jobs at a significantly higher rate than Illinois. The job creation numbers in Illinois are significantly lower than those created in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, even though those states have smaller populations. I want to make Illinois a job-friendly state and stop the loss of good Illinois jobs to other states.
From: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/politics/naperville/n17governor.html
Social moderate is conservative with cash
March 13, 2006
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief
If Joan Rivers can make a career of critiquing how much cleavage celebrities are showing in their Oscar gowns, why can't state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka?
“Too many really low necklines are just not all that pretty. A little mystery never hurt a woman,” Topinka wrote in her most recent column in her hometown newspaper, the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark. “Meryl Streep ought to know better, as she is a serious actress and does not need to play the starlet game with the big plunge. Yuck!”
There you have it. Vintage blunt, irreverent Topinka.
As much as the flaming red-haired matriarch of Illinois Republicans is beloved by her supporters, Topinka's drive to get into the governor's mansion is about more than her ability to turn a pithy quote. Her campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nomination is a referendum on her three terms in a state office few Illinoisans know much about.
Her rivals in the five-way March 21 primary say it's a tenure that hasn't been pretty. They primarily point to her willingness to let some clout-heavy hotel developers off the hook for much of what they owed on state-backed construction loans.
But Topinka and her allies, including former Gov. Jim Edgar, stress that she is earnest, a skinflint with taxpayer dollars and intent on stopping the pay-to-play and hiring controversies that have dogged Gov. Blagojevich's stay in office.
“I've put in a lot of time, a lot of feeling, a lot of emotion and personal passion into making a good state and helping people, but I see one big sham on the part of this governor,” Topinka said. “It bothers me. I don't like it.”
Topinka, 62, oversees the state's $13 billion investment portfolio and manages a staff of about 180. She maintains an inventory of unclaimed assets turned over to the state and administers the Bright Start college savings program.
Topinka took control of the treasurer's office in 1995. She began her political career as a state representative from Chicago's west suburbs in 1980, serving two terms in the House. In 1984, she was elected to the state Senate, where she served for a decade.
“Judy has experience in government, a wide range in both the legislative and executive branches of government, which would serve her well,” said Edgar, a moderate who shares many of her beliefs and is honorary chairman of her campaign. “She has the best chance of any of the Republican nominees to be successful in November.”
Topinka is what many would consider a socially moderate Republican. She favors abortion rights but says minors should have a parent's consent before undergoing the procedure. On guns, she opposes allowing most Illinoisans to carry concealed weapons.
She also openly favored a change in state law that now prevents discrimination against homosexuals in the workplace and real estate market, a stance that infuriated the GOP's far right.
Jack Roeser, founder of the Family Taxpayers Network and a supporter of rival Jim Oberweis, said Topinka has drifted from once-conservative leanings and became close with Republicans that he views as rogues, such as former Gov. George Ryan, GOP power broker William Cellini and National Republican Committeeman and lobbyist Robert Kjellander.
Contributing: Tracy Swartz
STYLE
Look inside Judy Baar Topinka's bedroom closet, and this is one of the things you'll see: About nine out of every 10 pieces of clothing once belonged to someone else.
She's one of the state's biggest experts on secondhand stores. To prove it, she can point out the best places to buy used clothing in Quincy (Designers Again), Carbondale (Jane's Consignment Shop) and Chicago (Unique Thrift Store).
That frugality is among the most prominent traits of one of state government's most colorful characters.
She chain-smokes, drinks caffeinated beverages nonstop, freely admits her fiery red hair comes from a bottle and plays the accordion because, as her dad once told her, “you never know when that will come in handy.”
If it's all a shtick, it's something voters seem to relate to because Topinka comes across like everyone's favorite poker-playing aunt.
“There's nothing phony about Judy,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego), who formally endorsed her candidacy last week. “There's something kind of refreshing in someone who says, 'This is who I am. I got a cup of coffee in my hand, red hair, and I play the accordion.'”
Her only child, Army Maj. Joseph Topinka, said the redness in his mother's hair has changed with time, but he said her bluntness and frugality have not. As a child, he said his mother put particular emphasis on his grades and his manners. “Basic courtesies to other people, that was one of the things my mother stressed most,” Topinka's 38-year-old son said.
In the rough-and-tumble world of politics, the treasurer on occasion has let good manners slide, such as last week when after a candidates' debate she referred to her opponents in the GOP primary as “morons.” Friday morning, she called each of her rivals to apologize.
BAGGAGE
Judy Baar Topinka's biggest political liability resides in downtown Springfield at 701 E. Adams St.
That's home to the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center, formerly known as the Renaissance Hotel.
Months into her first term as treasurer, Topinka signed off on a deal that would have forgiven millions of dollars in state-backed construction loans owed by a group of influential investors in the Renaissance, including GOP power broker William Cellini, and at another hotel in Downstate Collinsville.
Her rationale was simple. The state was on the hook for more than $40 million in unpaid loans because the investors were spared having to repay that money under a questionable 1991 state deal that required repayments only when the hotels turned an operating profit, which was basically never.
So, in a move Topinka said was the best that could be brokered, she proposed collecting about a quarter of the amount owed, and the investors accepted. “The facts are sustainable. We tried to get rid of a bad investment,” Topinka said.
But Republican Attorney General Jim Ryan stepped in, called the transaction a bad deal for taxpayers and stopped it.
Ever since, Topinka has faced questions about her decision to help lift Cellini and his fellow hotel investors out of debt. Meanwhile, the interest owed is growing about $70,000 a month.
For Topinka, Cellini also has been a political liability because of how their paths crossed in the 1995 hotel loan deal. As a member of the state Board of Investment, Topinka's representative voted on her behalf to invest $120 million in state pension funds with Commonwealth Realty Advisors Inc., a company owned primarily by Cellini's children. Topinka said she was unaware of Commonwealth's links to him, described herself as “furious” no one told her and tried unsuccessfully to undo the 2005 vote.
Both she and Cellini – an officer with the Sangamon County GOP organization that voted to endorse Topinka – insist they have no relationship and rarely if ever speak.
“I, personally, have not had a conversation with Judy Baar Topinka in several years,” Cellini said. “I'm not involved in the governor's race, but I wish her well.”
FUNDS
Political committees that serve medical and banking interests typically give hefty donations to Judy Baar Topinka, and this election is no different.
The Illinois Hospital Association gave Topinka $50,000 this month and $30,000 last year. The association is Topinka's largest career donor, with about $175,000 in contributions, records show.
The Illinois National Bank political action committee has contributed $20,650 since 2005, while the International Bank of Chicago has given $11,250.
Chicago billionaire investor James Pritzker, one of Topinka's top career patrons, contributed $125,000 over the last year.
Topinka also garnered $25,000 each last year from committees supporting former Gov. Jim Edgar and U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Peoria).
Earlier this year Topinka raised $426,758, mostly in increments of $250 and $500.
Arie Zweig, president of Glenview-based R.A. Zweig, an industrial machining company, and his wife gave $50,000 last month. They have contributed nearly $70,000 to Topinka since 1995.
Topinka reported about $1.4 million in funds at the end of 2005 but raised only about $454,000 during the last half of the year, raising questions about her fund-raising capabilities in a fall campaign.
“I think I'm an effective fund-raiser. But I had limitations because so many people were in the primary, and I think there are some people who were waiting until after the primary,” Topinka said.
If she wins March 21, Topinka said she expects post-primary fund-raising help from the Republican National Committee, the Republican Governors Association and President Bush himself.
TOPINKA'S PICKS
Tastiest thing you can cook? Roast pork and sauerkraut. She says her chili is pretty good, too.
TV show you hate to admit you like? Any and all science fiction.
Last live music performance you attended? “The Magic Flute” by Mozart at the Lyric Opera.
Biggest mistake? “I make so many I can't count them all nor select from them.”
Celebrity you'd like to be stuck in an elevator with? “If we're talking movie star, Sir Anthony Hopkins. If a politician or government type, Rudy Giuliani or John McCain. Historical figure, Elizabeth I. And then, Tina Turner.”
Book you've read cover to cover the most times? The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico.
Childhood nickname? “Judith,” courtesy of her grandfather, when she was bad.
David Letterman or Jay Leno? Leno.
From: http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-topinkaprof13.html