The Civic Report

Ald. Bernie Stone (50th) went on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” Wednesday to defend City Hall’s parking meter deal against the lawyer for a group who’s suing the city over it and a journalist who helped expose the hasty way it was done.

Stone got testy fast. He called Inspector General David Hoffman’s scathing report on the lease deal “worthless.” The Reader’s Mick Dumke, who has followed the deal closely, asked what research the alderman had done on the value of the meters. “That’s none of your damn business,” Stone replied.

Watch the video:

Stone doesn’t exactly have the best record when it comes to attentiveness. Watch this video of him falling asleep during a City Council meeting in March:

Bonus: Scope the Inspector General’s report:

Chicago Inspector General’s Report On Parking Meter Deal –

Ald. Helen Shiller

Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) is on the hot seat from Uptown constituents who say she has ignored an outbreak of violence in the North Side neighborhood.

What’s really put the heat on her is a video that an Uptown resident took of rival gangs running, cursing, punching, shouting and throwing glass bottles at each other on Sheridan Road.

Watch the video:

What a riot! from Joe Gray on Vimeo.

Since the video hit Uptown Update, a community news blog, CBS, NBC and the Huffington Post have reported on it.

At an Olympics bid town hall meeting Monday night at Truman College, protesters waited for Shiller outside holding signs demanding that she do something.

Shiller briefly tried to address the protesters but kept getting interrupted. So she left, and the protesters and the media ran after her.

Watch this Fox News Chicago report:

Making a race-announcement video and posting it on YouTube has become a mandatory rite of passage for politicians these days. They all do it, and they all applaud themselves for doing it. As though having a video on YouTube makes them hip and in touch with young voters.

Rather than having you scouring YouTube for all these gems (We know how you despise scouring YouTube), we’ve collected them here in one, frequently updated location.

If you’re bored, give them a look and post comments with your reactions below. It’s amazing what you can learn about politicians when they train cameras on themselves.

Note: Joe Birkett’s video announcing he’s running for attorney general remains in the line-up, even though Birkett has since changed his mind. We left it in for old time’s sake.

Jeremy Rose, president of the Chicago Young Republicans

Jeremy Rose, president of the Chicago Young Republicans and campaign adviser to gubernatorial candidate Matt Murphy, gives his take on Lisa Madigan, Mark Kirk, Kirk Dillard and Alexi Giannoulias.

Rose offers an insider’s look at the jockeying and political calculations being made within the Illinois Republican Party and which office the party thinks it has the best shot at winning.

Hint: It rhymes with U.S. Tennant.

Listen:

Rose 1 Lisa Madigan’s big decision (4:22)

Rose 2 New faces and old faces in the party (3:48)

Rose 3 The governor’s race (4:34)

Rose 4 The importance of fund-raising (3:16)

Rose 5 Republicans and Chicago politics (4:34)

Rose 6 Looking ahead (2:47)

Attorney General Lisa Madigan

Political commentator Greg Hinz called Lisa Madigan’s decision to run for re-election as attorney general the most consequential political event since Jim Thompson entered the 1976 governor’s race.

Given how the political dominoes have been falling ever since, Hinz may be right.

Background: Every politician in Illinois was waiting on Lisa Madigan to decide what office — Senate, governor, AG — she would run for before they made their race decisions.

Why: She’s considered the most popular politician in Illinois and, thus, nearly unbeatable.

Domino report:

• Republican Mark Kirk is in for the U.S. Senate race.
• Republican Joe Birkett is regretting announcing early that he would run for attorney general.
• Democrat Alexi Giannoulias wants to be the frontrunner in the U.S. Senate race.
• Republican Kirk Dillard is in for governor.
• So is Republican Bill Brady and Democrat Dan Hynes.
• Republican Dan Rutherford is in for state treasurer.
• Democrat Julie Hamos is moving so she can run for the Congressional seat Mark Kirk is leaving.