Sneed: Comptroller Munger looks to her dogs for stress relief

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How does she do it?

How does State Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger, who is battling the budget brouhaha, manage stress?

“I walk my dogs,” said the unflappable Munger, who is mired in the miasma of the state’s backlog of unpaid bills.

“Walking Maddie and Daisy helps even things out.”

Then she added: “And I just got a bike for my birthday.”

“Look, I don’t internalize stress,” said Munger, who holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University — and who has been refreshingly open to talking to the press, contrary to other officeholders in the Rauner administration.

“I set my career on being a problem-solver and welcome the opportunity to get out and talk to people and let them know what is going on in our state.

“Nobody tells me who not to talk to,” she said. “Nobody. It pays to be open and honest.”

Then Munger noted: “But family is most important, so I sneak time to listen to feedback from John, my husband, who knows me better than anyone else . . . and who brings along his laptop — so he can keep up with his own office work as a patent attorney.”

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Trump stump . . .

Da Donald and Da Coach: Here’s what Mike Ditka said Thursday on his ESPN Radio show about Donald Trump and our front-page coverage Wednesday of the Trump/Ditka lovefest.

“I like him a lot, because I think he is exactly what this country needs. We don’t need what we have now. There is absolutely zero leadership in the White House right now.

“I’m kind of maybe old-fashioned. I think somebody who runs this country has to be the real deal. And I’m looking for the real deal right now. And I am hoping that Donald is that. I don’t know. I know what we have isn’t. And I don’t know if we’ve had it for a long time. I’m looking for another Ronnie Reagan, man.”

The tax ax . . .

Ai! Is the City Council Hispanic Caucus in a rebellious mood over the city property tax hike?

Might Mayor Rahm Emanuel be in line for a little Latino agita!

• Translation: Sneed hears the City Council’s Hispanic Caucus is getting the jitters about Emanuel’s proposed property tax hike and were set to meet Thursday night to figure out how to sell it to their constituency.

“It’s called how to shove it down the throats of their constituency,” said a Sneed source.

Ald. George Cardenas (12th), who is chairman of the City Council’s Health Committee and a member of the Hispanic Caucus, told Sneed he is prepared to support the mayor, “but there is a tremendous amount of anxiety and rightly so. There is always the possibility [the caucus may not support the tax hike], but it is important to support the mayor in stabilizing the finances of the city.”

Stay tuned.

The Colbert file . . .

Left vs. right? The set of the Stephen Colbert show has been redone . . . and the desk placement used by David Letterman has been moved. It’s gone from stage left to stage right.

I spy …

Star puckster Andrew Shaw visited his stitches last week.

• To wit: The Blackhawk stopped by the Chicago Sports Museum with friends on Friday and saw the stitches he had put in his cheek after he took a puck to the face in the 2013 Stanley Cup clincher game.

Harry Caray’s Restaurants CEO (and sports memorabilia enthusiast) Grant DePorter bought the stitches later that year in an auction on eBay. DePorter paid $6,500 to Shaw’s favorite charity – the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research — for the threads.

Sneedlings …

Friday’s birthdays: Taraji Henson, 45; Ludacris, 38, and Tom Dreesen, ageless and priceless.

Follow Sneed on Twitter: @Sneedlings

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