The Spin: Trump to exit hospital; Durbin, Duckworth slam his Sunday motorcade | Lightfoot phoning voters for Biden-Harris | Mayor to deliver budget address Oct. 21

President Donald Trump announced he’ll exit Walter Reed hospital this evening, just days after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and as conflicting messages about his health have emerged from his hospital team and the White House.

Meantime, Illinois U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin are among the chorus of Democrats saying the Republican president’s brief venture outside the hospital yesterday, while being treated for COVID-19, to drive by cheering supporters via motorcade underscores the notion that he doesn’t take the virus seriously.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to do in-person campaigning, while Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is giving him a little virtual help. Biden will participate in an hourlong town hall meeting, hosted by NBC at 7 tonight.

Lightfoot is hosting a virtual phone banking session today on behalf of Biden and running mate, Kamala Harris, according to the mayor’s political team. It’s part of a weekly virtual series known as “Mayor Monday” where Democratic city leaders across the nation get on the horn but enlist their supporters to join in talking up not only the Biden-Harris ticket but also local Democrats down-ballot.

The mayor will offer some opening remarks to volunteers and then make some calls herself.

The battle of the billionaires continues over the proposed constitutional amendment to shift the state from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated tax with rates that increase with income. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the Chicago-based Citadel hedge fund and investment firm, put up an additional $26.7 million — for a total of $46.75 million to date — to defeat the measure. A signature proposal of billionaire Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first-term agenda, the Hyatt hotel heir has kicked in $56.5 of his own money. That money is being dumped into pro-con advertising swamping the airwaves.

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Trump may not be 'out of woods yet,’ physician says, as president returns to White House

The latest from The Associated Press: "President Donald Trump said Monday he’s leaving the military hospital where he has been receiving an unprecedented level of care for COVID-19, saying that despite his illness the nation should not be afraid of the virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.

“Trump’s doctor, Navy Cdr. Sean Conley, said the president would not be fully out of the woods for another week, but he said Trump had “met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria.” Trump is expected to continue his recovery at the White House, where the scale of the outbreak that has infected the highest levels of the U.S. government is still being uncovered.” Read more here.

Illinois’ two senators, both frequent Trump critics, were holding their noses after, the AP notes, Trump briefly ventured out of the hospital while contagious to salute cheering supporters by motorcade — an outing that disregarded precautions meant to contain the virus. Durbin took to Twitter: “After downplaying the virus for months, the President is in the hospital & 210,000+ Americans have died from #COVID19. Pres. Trump’s decision to go for a drive around Walter Reed shows he’s still not taking this virus seriously. We need science & leadership, not political stunts.”

Duckworth, also on social media, wrote: “Why is a man with #COVID19 meeting with ANYONE rn? Why force @SecretService into a small space to do it? This isn’t leadership—it’s irresponsible & it could have deadly consequences. How many more lives does he need to put at risk before he takes this virus seriously?”

Pope Francis’s new encyclical feels like a papal warning, in part, about the U.S. election: The Washington Post writes, “For Americans, certain passages will likely read as a warning against Trump-style politics. Those sentiments come as little surprise to anybody who has listened to the pope’s remarks over the years — with frequent denunciations of populism and wall-building — but the paper argues in more details about how the style can exacerbate divisions and lead to other societal breakdowns.” Read the full story here.

More beltway news: Facing a conservative turn, Supreme Court opens new term with a remembrance of ‘a dear friend and a treasured colleague’ — Read The Associated Press story here.

COVID-19 in Illinois: by the numbers.

The free ride is over for Metra UP commuters: Ticket verification is beginning at Ogilvie station, the Tribune’s Robert Channick writes. He notes, “Metra and Union Pacific have been at odds over fare collection since June, when UP refused to allow conductors into the aisles to punch tickets on its three Metra lines, citing coronavirus safety concerns. That essentially created a no fare policy, which has been costing the commuter rail system $1 million a month in lost ticket revenue, Metra said.” Read the full story here.

Auto industry rebounding, but it’s slim pickings at Chicago-area new car dealerships: The Tribune’s Robert Channick has the details here.

You’re worried about a pandemic, the election and a safe Halloween. Are you ready to start holiday shopping? The Tribune’s Lauren Zumbach has the details here.

Other news: In the final days of the census, Chicago-area outreach workers struggle against apathy and distrust: “The reason people are hard to count is because they don’t trust the system,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who has been involved in census efforts on the West Side of Chicago. “People don’t believe they should participate because our communities suffer, and they believe they are never going to spend the money on our neighborhoods anyways.” Yet the push continues with federal funding at stake for the next decade and Illinois at risk of losing as many as two seats in Congress if the records show the head count has shrunk more dramatically than expected. The Tribune’s Sophie Sherry and Jessica Villagomez have the full story here.

Road to November: Hey, must be the money

Battle of billionaires on tax amendment: “Griffin and Pritzker are the main funding sources of the campaigns for and against the proposal asking voters to change the state’s constitution to replace Illinois’ current flat-rate income tax with a graduated-rate tax,” the Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes.

In a statement after his latest donation, Griffin said if the proposal is adopted by voters on the Nov. 3 ballot, it would mean “the continued exodus of families and businesses, loss of jobs and inevitably higher taxes on everyone.”

Quentin Fulks, who chairs the pro-amendment Vote Yes for Fairness group and worked on Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaign, contended “Griffin is growing increasingly desperate to ensure he can keep the special deal he gets under our current tax system that allows him to pay the same tax rate as our essential workers.”

GOP-aligned group files lawsuit challenging ballot language on Pritzker’s graduated-rate income tax amendment: The Tribune’s Rick Pearson has the detail here.

Fact-check: Will large and small Illinois businesses pay more under the graduated tax plan? TV ads suggest the proposed graduated income tax measure on the ballot would hit small businesses, already hurting amid the pandemic, in the pocket. The Better Government Association dug in to ferret out the details, finding: “Corporations will see an increase in their flat-rate income tax under the plan that takes effect if the amendment is approved. But only a wealthy subset of small businesses, which generally pass their profits to shareholders, would be affected — and data suggests that portion would be small.” Read the BGA’s Kiannah Sepeda-Miller’s full take here.

Casten, Ives say they’ve each raised $1 million-plus in 3rd quarter of year: Today, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten’s campaign announced he’s raised over $1.14 million in the third quarter, while Republican challenger Jeanne Ives’ campaign says she raised more than $1 million in the race for the west and northwest suburban 6th Congressional District seat.

In the coming days, Casten and other congressional candidates are expected to file fundraising documents with the Federal Election Commission and we’ll get a clearer picture of the campaigns’ financial standing going in to the final month before the election.

While Ives’ spokeswoman said they only know how much money had been raised, Casten has had a distinct fundraising lead; his team said the candidate has raised $5.2 million, with nearly $2 million cash on hand right now, during the 2020 cycle. More on that here.

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Officials, 102-year-old South Sider Bea Lumpkin say they’re confident voting by mail is safe

Illinois in general and Chicago specifically is seeing a record-shattering number of voters in Chicago and across the state requesting mail-in ballots, my Tribune colleague Dan Petrella wrote over the weekend.

One of them is 102-year-old Bea Lumpkin who lives in the Hyde Park-Kenwood area. Take a look at this picture, tweeted out by the Chicago Teacher’s Union last week after Lumpkin mailed in her completed ballot. (A relative, she tells The Spin, made the protective covering with the aid of a vaccuum cleaner fan and other material.)

Lumpkin said as soon as she received the ballot, she quickly filled it out and took it to the mailbox “because I don’t want to take any chances.”

“It’s 100 years since the 19th Amendment came to be and now that right to vote is being questioned. So I think you need to vote like your life depends on it - because it does," she told The Spin in a phone interview.

Asked whether she was alarmed by President Trump saying mail-in voting would result in “massive fraud,” she said “no” and later said that she was on team Biden-Harris. Plus, she has a plan: “Well, by voting by mail this early (I can make sure) I get (emailed) confirmation (from the Chicago election board) that my ballot did reach the right people,” Lumpkin said. “It’s the safest way. If for any reason it doesn’t get there in the mail, then I will vote early” at the polls.

That’s how she’d been doing it in recent years; her polling place is across from the nearby YMCA where she was exercising regularly until the pandemic hit. “It was really convenient,” said the one-time high school and later college instructor. Her career including Washington High School on the Southeast Side as well as Malcolm X College. Her grandson is now a CPS science teacher.

Secure drop boxes, extra sorting machines and a decade of experience: Here’s why Illinois election officials say voting by mail is safe: The Tribune’s Dan Petrella takes a deep dive here.

Facing $1.2 billion shortfall, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot set to deliver budget address Oct. 21

The mayor had initially set Oct. 14 to deliver her 2021 budget address but is pushing that back a week. It gives her finance team more time to plan. Read Gregory Pratt’s Tribune story here.

Chicago aldermen advance new members for Northwest Side home equity board: The Tribune’s John Byrne has the details here.

Also - Gun club wins controversial tax break from Cook County Board: My Tribune colleague Alice Yin has the full story here.

Marijuana license finalists file suit to stop state from giving losers a second chance

The Tribune’s Robert McCoppin writes: “Investors who won a chance for a license to sell recreational marijuana in Illinois have filed a lawsuit asserting it’s illegal to give other applicants a second chance.

“The petition calls on the Illinois Supreme Court to order that the licenses be awarded without recent changes to the application process they say were made because of ‘political expediency.’” Read the rest of the story here.

Illinois put 75 licenses to operate recreational marijuana dispensaries up for grabs earlier this year, with more than 700 groups submitting 4,000 applications. Last month, lawmakers and applicants who lost out were up in arms when the state said 21 of those groups would proceed to the final phase: a lottery to award the licenses.

They argued — and even even filed a federal lawsuit later withdrawn — that the state’s process defeated the stated goals of diversifying the largely white-owned industry. Pritzker subsequently changed the application process.

Older people will soon receive health coverage in Illinois regardless of immigration status under first-in-nation program

The Tribune’s Laura Rodriguez Presa writes that in December 'hundreds of older immigrants (will be) eligible for Medicaid-like coverage in Illinois for low-income immigrants age 65 and older regardless of their immigration status." The program is part of the state budget passed this spring.

“Illinois is the first state to fully fund this type of health coverage program for noncitizen immigrant older people, according to Hayley Burgess of the National Immigration Law Center,” Rodriguez Presa writes.

“The program was championed by the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus, in response to data showing uninsured older people who got COVID-19 could risk more severe coronavirus complications, incurring more expensive medical bills the state would end up paying, said Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago,” she notes.

Costs: The expansion is expected to cost the state $5 million, said Evan Fazio, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. But that’s a small amount compared to the tax contributions of the group covered, advocates say. Read the rest of the story here.

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Twitter @byldonovan

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