THE NEW ERA

01Japan’s New Era Comes After Three Decades of Economic Change

No result found, try new keyword!Go inside the global economy with Stephanie Flanders in her new podcast ... hold in recent years. Women have poured into work -- though mostly part-time and contract positions -- to the point ...

02

Savvy moves by Senate President Don Harmon herald a new era in Springfield

Give new Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) some credit. He’s made a few very solid moves since Jan. 18, when he was elected to his chamber’s top job.

Harmon won a majority vote of his caucus before the full Senate voted. He had at least some support from just about every Democratic faction. Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) is an African-American, but Harmon received several votes from people of color. Downstaters voted for both candidates, as did women. A majority of the “X Caucus,” a loose confederation of more conservative members, went with Harmon, but at least four voted for Lightford. Suburbanites were split and so were Chicagoans.

With the factions all over the place, putting a deal together wasn’t easy. But after several tense and sometimes contentious hours, Harmon emerged victorious.

Hard feelings remain. Some senators apparently just up and lied to Lightford about whom they were supporting. But Lightford will remain majority leader, and her supporters in Senate Democratic leadership were protected. Harmon made peace and he has time to work things out before he has to run again in less than a year.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has denied it, but people close to him were indeed working hard on Lightford’s behalf. The two men have known each other for over two decades, but Harmon endorsed then-Sen. Daniel Biss in the 2018 gubernatorial primary over Pritzker, and things kinda soured after that. The two are ideologically very close, however, so they should be able to work things out, but I’d bet the Senate’s appointment confirmation process, among other things, might get just a wee bit tighter in the near term.

The night he was elected, Harmon sat down with his entire staff. Employees had been fretting about their futures ever since John Cullerton unexpectedly announced in November that he would be resigning soon.

Staff members are people, too, after all. Many have families to support, mortgages and tuition to pay, plus the all-important health insurance. They’d been walking on eggshells ever since Cullerton’s announcement, wondering what their future holds.

Harmon, according to spokesperson John Patterson, told the all-staff meeting “he looks forward to working with everyone and was counting on staff to help him during this transition and heading into what we expect will be another successful and productive session.”

The highly unusual mid-term resignation of a sitting Senate president plopped Harmon into uncharted waters just a week before the General Assembly was scheduled to return from its long winter break. Replacing key staff members in mid-stream would’ve been difficult and perhaps even risky. He needs to get up to speed right away, and he couldn’t do that if he brought in new folks to run the day-to-day operation.

Harmon will eventually have to decide what he wants his staff to look like. But it was a smart, grown-up move to stick with the status quo for a while. The staff Harmon inherited is efficient and capable. There was simply no pressing need to make any major immediate changes.

In some ways, Harmon is old school. He runs one of the few truly active Democratic township organizations in Cook County, and he has indulged in the tradition of working at a powerful law firm while serving. But he’s also the first ever member of “Generation X” to lead a legislative caucus and preside over a chamber here. He loves playing guitar and he attracted the votes of the younger members in his caucus.

Harmon strongly signaled that we’ve entered a new era during an appearance later in the week on Chicago Public Television’s “Chicago Tonight” program.

Harmon has worked at a politically connected Chicago law firm for the past 15 years. He has done bond work for municipalities, and his firm has represented several state agencies. He has said he was as diligent as possible to avoid conflicts of interest, but now that Harmon has the chamber’s top job, it was a sure bet that questions would at least be raised.

So Harmon told Amanda Vinicky during the WTTW interview that he plans to step down from the firm. He’ll avoid any conflicts and he can devote himself full-time to his new role.

This almost never happens in Illinois government. Just the opposite, in fact. When people move to the top of the legislative food chain, they generally ramp up their, um, marketability.

He’s making the right moves so far. We’ll see how he does in the future.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com

03

Division I Meet of the Week: Virginia Hosts NC State in New Era of Dominance

NCAA Division I Meet of the Week: (#7/3) NC State vs. (#17/6) Virginia in battle of ACC supremacy.

This week’s NCAA Division I meet of the week focuses on the battle between ACC heavyweights NC State and Virginia as both women’s teams are in the top ten and could be vying for national titles within the next four years.

The meet will be in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday at 4 p.m. The meet will be streamed here.

Division I Meet of the Week

With the recent success in the recruiting game within the last year, the power dynamic in NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving is starting to shift from the west coast (Stanford & Cal) to the east coast (NC State & Virginia). Within the next two years, both the Wolfpack and the Cavaliers could be vying for a national title. NC State head coach Braden Holloway and Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo actually coached alongside each other in Raleigh for a long time before DeSorbo took over as head man in Charlottesville in the fall of 2017.

Focusing on the now, both of these ranked in the top ten in the latest CSCAA Division I women’s poll, with NC State 3rd and Virginia 6th. It should be a hotly-contested matchup between two budding programs as they look to gain some momentum ahead of ACCs and NCAAs, where both teams are aiming for historic finishes at the national level. Even though we are discussing potential national titles between the two schools down the line, neither program has finished in the top four on the women’s side, which seems hard to believe for Virginia’s sake since they had produced many great swimmers as of late including Olympians Lauren Perdue and Leah Smith as well as multi-All-American Courtney Bartholomew. But neither program has been higher than fifth.

There should be some fast times thrown down at the meet and the relays should be particularly exciting. Virginia has the top time in the country in the 400 medley relay while NC State is fifth. The back end duo of freshman Kate Douglass and senior Morgan Hill will be particularly tough to contain, but NC State has an equally strong front half with freshman Katherine Berkoff and sophomore Sophie Hansson. Berkoff has not been as strong as predicted but the Wolfpack have usually saved their best for the end of the year so they should not be counted out because of a less-than-stellar showing at their invite.

Douglass has been particularly strong for Virginia this year as she has seemed to have her hand in every single event and has been strong across the board. Right now her championship event lineup looks to be the 200 IM, 100 fly and 200 breast; a wide range of events but another reason why Virginia is going to be nationally relevant for the next few years. Couple in senior sprinter Hill, breaststroker Alexis Wenger, rising star backstroker Caroline Gmelich and junior distance swimmer Paige Madden, this is a very dangerous team.

The main matchup to watch should be in the backstroke and breaststroke events. If NC State’s Hansson can take down either Wenger or Douglass, then that could swing momentum in the favor of NC State. If Virginia wins either of those events, then that could swing momentum in their favor. If NC State’s Berkoff can get the better of Gmelich, then that would be huge point swing.

In the sprint free events, NC State’s Ky-Lee Perry and Kylee Alons will match up alongside Morgan Hill, making for another can’t-miss race with Hill sitting sixth in Division I in the 100 free and Perry sitting 13th.

Paige Madden is the top swimmer in the country in the 500 while NC State’s Kate Moore and Makayla Sargent should be in hot pursuit.

These are the two of the best teams in Division I and that is why it is our NCAA Division I meet of the week.

The #7 NC State – #17 Virginia men’s matchup is not as competitively-matched on paper as the women’s meet, but it will still pit two of the best ACC teams against each other. Sophomore Nyls Korstanje seems to be the headliner here as one of the top sprinters in the nation. The Dutch sprinter has had some recent long course success, winning the 50 free at the Knoxville Pro Series this month with a best time of 22.15. He is currently third in Division I in the 50 free as it looks to be a wide open race for that event. He has taken the reigns as the top sprinter for a historically strong sprinting school that has produced Olympians Cullen Jones, Ryan Held and Simonas Bilis.

Virginia does not have a strong sprinting core like that of NC State, with their strengths lying in their longer events with freshman Jack Walker (500 free), Keefer Barnum (200 breast) and Casey Storch (400 IM). The Cavaliers just came off a devastating loss to in-state rival Virginia Tech and now they have the difficult task of going up against the best team in the conference in NC State. But they will be at home and will be celebrating their senior class the next day on Saturday against unranked North Carolina.

One cannot talk about NC State without mentioning Coleman Stewart, who was the top men’s swimmer in the country in the pre-season. Stewart is ranked second in the country in the 100 back and is third in the 200. He hasn’t been known to be a great in-season swimmer but he has been doing his job for the Pack, and he will be looking to lead them to a top four NCAA finish for the fifth straight year.