Republicans say their time is coming in Illinois

State Treasurer Dan Rutherford takes the podium at the fair.

By Jamey Dunn

Illinois Republicans are optimistic about their party’s chances in the 2012 elections, if they can get their message across to voters.

“I think that America’s going to be looking at who is going to help lead us during an economically stressful time. Who’s going to help us with regards to jobs?” state Treasurer Dan Rutherford said at today’s Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair. He said Illinois Republicans need to reach outside of their traditional voting base and cannot count solely on the wave of popularity the Tea Party has found in other parts of the country. “The Tea Party brings a portion of the electorate, and more power to them in doing that. I just say that there is much more to wining a race in Illinois than just one specific segment. The traditional base of hard-core Republicans is not as large as the traditional base of hard-core Democrats. And for that reason, a candidate like me, who wins statewide races, has to understand that you need to reach into the independents and, to be very blunt with you, into the Democrats.”

Rutherford would not say if he plans to run for governor in the future. “I’m going to be a good state treasurer for the next few years, and we’ll make a decision later.”

Republicans believe their message of reduced spending and smaller government resonates in the down economy. “Incrementally, we continue to be the voice of reason,” said Sen. Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican. Brady said Illinois voters need to get to know some Republican candidates better. “I think the people of Illinois are on a learning curve.” He says that “learning curve” is what made the difference in his failed run for governor last year. “At the end of the day, the undecideds didn’t get to know me as well as they felt they knew Gov. [Pat] Quinn, a career politician,” he said. Brady, who has served in the General Assembly for more than for 15 years, would not say whether he plans a third shot at the governor’s office.

The message Republicans were pushing today was opposition to borrowing. Quinn has renewed his call for the state to borrow to pay some or all of the estimated $4 billion backlog of overdue bills that Illinois owes to schools, social services providers, local governments and others. State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said the state has a stack of more than 190,000 bills, the oldest of which dates April 19, 2011.

“I’m just thrilled to death that we’re paying bills from 2011. We finally got out of 2010. We don’t have the money to pay it. It’s just that simple,” she said. Topinka joined Rutherford and the Republican legislative leaders to oppose borrowing to pay late bills, which they say will only dig the state into a deeper hole. Republicans also warn that with the recent Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating and a specific warning to Illinois from the bond rating agency Moody’s, the cost of borrowing for the state may soon increase. “We actually do have a plan. … It’s not rocket science,” said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno. “It simply says you spend less money than you have coming in, and you start paying more bills down.” The Senate Republicans' plan called for $5 billion to $6 billion in budget cuts. Radogno said the plan would result in a budget surplus in five years.

Democrats criticized Republicans for not drafting their plan into legislation, saying such massive cuts to the state’s major spending areas of education, health care and human services are not so simple. They say some of the Republican plan would violate court orders and cause the state to miss out on substantial amounts of federal funding. “If there was an easy way out of this, we’d have figured it out a long time ago,” said Sen. John Sullivan, a Rushville Democrat. Sullivan sponsored several proposals to borrow to pay down the state’s backlog. He only called one of the bills, a proposal to borrow about $6.2 billion, for a vote, and it received a meager 19 “yes” votes. Sullivan said he is trying to sell lawmakers as well as voters on the idea, and he plans to push some version of the plan again. “I’m just trying to build a case,” he said.

Party chair Pat Brady address the crowd.

Both Sullivan and Quinn said the borrowing would actually be a restructuring of a debt the state already owes to those it has not paid for their services. Sullivan said he worries that businesses that work with the state may go under while Illinois fails to act quickly on the backlog. “I don’t even know how they're keeping the doors open in some instances.” He argues that the plan could help the state’s recovery. “Just imagine what putting $5 billion into the Illinois economy is going to do.”

In this year before the presidency and every seat in the General Assembly comes up for grabs, Illinois Republicans are working to raise the profile of their party and their message of fiscal responsibility. Republican Party Chair Pat Brady announced an Illinois straw poll — similar to the famous Iowa straw poll conducted last weekend — on Republican presidential candidates on November 5, one year before the election. Brady said the party plans to have polling locations in every county in the state. Brady put a positive spin on the spotty attendance at the Republican rally at the fair today, while noting that Democratic Party Chair and House Speaker Michael Madigan did not attend yesterday’s Democratic events. “This is a substantially better crowd than we had in the last off-]election] year, and we don’t bus people in because we gave them jobs. These are all people who came because they want to support the party.”

Quinn signs workers' compensation reform,but the issue isn't put to rest

By Jamey Dunn

Gov. Pat Quinn signed workers’ compensation reform legislation today that supporters say will save the business community hundreds of millions of dollars, but it may not save him from facing workers' compensation as a campaign issue if he decides to run for governor again. 

Quinn toured the state on a victory lap today, stopping at businesses in Melrose Park, Rockford, Champaign and Marion.

“Today is such an important day. We’re going to be helping the employers of Illinois, the workers of Illinois — all of those who are committed to economic growth — by signing a law that will help our employers in Illinois reduce their premiums for workers’ compensation insurance by a huge amount,” Quinn said in Melrose Park.

Backers of the plan estimate that it will save businesses $500 million to $750 million. The bulk of that savings will come from a 30 percent cut to the rates doctors are paid for treating injured employees. Arbitrators, who decide cases will all be out of a job on July 1. They can reapply but will have to be appointed by Quinn and confirmed by the Senate for three-year terms. Arbitrators can only spend two years of their term working in the same location to prevent them from forming “cozy” relationships with workers. These provisions were spurred in part by an investigation by the Belleville News-Democrat that found Menard Correctional Center employees have been awarded more than $10 million in workers’ compensation benefits. The claims are being investigated by the state. The new law will also:

• Require the use of American Medical Association standards when determining workers’ level of impairment from injuries.
• Apply standards of judicial conduct to arbitrators that are the same as those used for as for the Illinois Supreme Court justices and require them to take additional training
• Allow creation of a provider network of doctors. Injured employees could pick their doctors, but only from this predetermined pool. An injured worker would still be able to visit a doctor outside of the network but could not get a second opinion from a doctor of his or her choice.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said the new law will improve a system that had become “dysfunctional” for both employers and employees. “Is it a perfect bill? Probably not. I think every single participant in this process would tell you there are a few other things they wished had been in this bill. And we will continue to monitor the progress of the workers’ comp system here in Illinois — first and foremost that our workers are protected, and secondly, that our workers’ comp premiums do not make us noncompetitive with other states.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan shed some light on the behind the scenes process, saying that Quinn was “intimately involved” in negotiations. “Mayor [Rahm] Emanuel of the city of Chicago played a very active and important role on this piece of legislation. It’s not usual for a mayor of a city to get involved with legislation like workers’ compensation before the General Assembly, but Mayor Emanuel chose to do that. He did it. He was very helpful,” Madigan said in Melrose Park.

“At any moment over the last six months this legislation could have been derailed. We could be talking about another missed opportunity for workers’ compensation. Instead bipartisanship showed up. Business and labor worked together. Lawmakers rolled up their sleeves and worked with committed business leaders for reform in our workers’ compensation laws,” said David Vite, president and chief operating officer of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

However, Republicans — both in support of and opposed to the plan — said that it did not spread sacrifice evenly. They complained when the bill passed that asking doctors to reduce their rates by 30 percent was an unfair hit to the medical community.

Others have called the savings estimates into question. “I think the actual cost savings are suspect, in part because the range is so great,” said Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t think anybody genuinely knows what the cost savings are going to work out to be.”

He said insurance companies will not start to drop employers’ workers’ compensation insurance premiums until they see that the plan cuts costs. “Realistically, those rate reductions probably will not begin to appear for the next two or three years. … That’s going to take some time to show up.”

Whitley said the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, which remained neutral on the new law, plans to push the issue in the 2012 and 2014 elections. “We should not have to wait another five [or] six years to go back.” He said Illinois must continue to reform its system to be competitive with other states. “The political leadership has to appreciate, understand, recognize that workers’ compensation is not a static action. … Even if we make progress in Illinois, that doesn’t mean that other states didn’t do things similarly. There’s a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses aspect to this.”

Primary election changes considered

By Rachel Wells

After a primary election that resulted in low voter turnout and a lieutenant governor candidate stepping aside amid scandal, legislators are considering some changes to the state’s election process.

HB 4964 would move primary elections from the first Tuesday in February to the third Tuesday in March – the date used before the General Assembly changed it for the 2008 presidential election.

“This is the date that we had lived with for many, many election cycles, and I think that given the experience of the voters and candidates in the February election, it is a good idea to move it back,” said the bill’s sponsor Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat.

HB 5820 – a bill pairing the lieutenant governor and the governor as running mates before the primary – also passed through committee but not without opposition.

“It’s different, of course, than other ideas that are being floated, [including] one to abolish the office entirely. I think this is a better approach, frankly,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat and House assistant majority leader.

The way the lieutenant governor is chosen has come under scrutiny after candidate Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker accused of domestic battery, won the Democratic primary and then stepped aside amid a media storm over his past. The Democratic Party now gets to choose its candidate.

Another proposal, from House Speaker Michael Madigan, calls for a constitutional amendment abolishing the lieutenant governor position altogether.

“Who do you think Gov. Blagojevich would have picked? Harris?” asked Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat, referring to the former governor’s chief of staff, John Harris, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud. “You’re saying that whoever the governor is would have the right to choose his or her successor.”

Lang said voters could consider that fact when choosing their candidates. “[The measure] would solve the problem of – as you heard recently – of candidates not being vetted by political parties, which of course they had no responsibility to do in the first place. But this will solve that problem.”

Republicans push for party spending limits

By Rachel Wells

House Republicans are pushing for continued campaign finance reform with new legislation that would limit the power of political parties and all four legislative leaders in general elections.

As proposed by House Minority Leader Tom Cross, HB 5008 would expand on campaign contribution limits that were passed along party lines during last fall's veto session. The campaign finance reform bill -- signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn exactly one year after then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges -- placed contribution limits on individuals, businesses, unions and political committees during both the general and primary election cycles but only limited legislative leaders and political parties during primary races.

Under the new bill, legislative leaders and political parties would be limited to giving $200,000 to statewide candidates, $125,000 to Senate candidates and $75,000 to House candidates during general elections, as they are now limited in the primaries.

Cross called the proposed legislation a solution to Illinois' "image issue" created in part by the consolidation of power in the hands of a few, the very same situation that could keep the bill from being heard at all.

"I think almost every member would tell you they're for this. The reform groups are for it, the public is for it, and it would be a shame to let two people (House Speaker Micheal Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton), in kind of evidence of the problem we're talking about, stop a piece of legislation like this. I would hope that it would get a vote and it would get a vote where people could actually vote their true feelings," Cross said.

Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat involved in last year's negotiations, said near unanimous approval of Cross' proposal is highly unlikely. "I can say with certainty that not all members would support that," Harmon said. "They believe the political parties exist for the purpose of electing members of their political party. That's their role, to elect Democrats or elect Republicans."

Madigan cited the same argument last fall in testimony against extending limits on parties to general elections.

Reform coalition Change Illinois supported the signing of last year's bill but says its members will continue to advocate for further contribution limits, like those proposed in HB 5008. "The contribution limits bill passed and signed last year was an historic step forward, and the next step should be enactment of limits on contributions from political parties and legislative caucus committees controlled by the four legislative leaders," the organization stated in a news release.

During the announcement, Cross was pressed concerning his endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy McKenna, who was reprimanded by the Illinois Republican State Central Committee. As reported this morning by the State Journal-Register and described in the committee's ethics inquiry, then-chairman McKenna used party funds to commission a statewide poll measuring voter attitudes toward potential candidates. Although the poll included McKenna's name, he failed to disclose that fact at any point to the State Central Committee and failed to alert members of his potential for personal benefit in commissioning the poll.

Cross dismissed any connection between his endorsement of a candidate who violated party ethics codes and his call to weaken party power as a step toward reform. He said that critics of McKenna are using the controversy to score political points during an election year.

"People that are talking about this that don't want to talk about the fact that they're for tax increases and not talking about restraining spending and creating jobs. It's kind of a political 101 -- 'let's throw some dirt on an issue and not talk about the real issue,'" Cross said.

Pressure builds for another Illinois politician to step down

By Jamey Dunn
Gov. Pat Quinn today called on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign and once again threw his support behind a special election to fill the seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

Quinn said at a Chicago press conference that the mounting controversy over the circumstances of Burris’ appointment has made him unable to be an effective U.S. senator. He said he would consider a resignation from Burris a “heroic” way for the senator to preserve his legacy.

“I would ask my good friend, Sen. Roland Burris, to put the interests of the people of the Land of Lincoln first and foremost, ahead of his own, and step aside and resign from his office,” he said.

Quinn said that he hopes to see the seat vacated and legislation that would allow a special election within a week.

But Burris is still in office and hasn’t stepped down, despite growing pressure for him to do so, including a strong message from Obama’s press secretary earlier today. And negotiations on the idea of a special election still have a way to go. Quinn supports a bill from Rep. Jack Franks, a Woodstock Democrat, that would require a special election if the seat became vacant more than 180 days before the general primary.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, who joined a group of Republicans yesterday to call for a special election, said she wants the primary for the proposed special election to be held with the April 7 municipal general election and the special election to take place 30 days after. She said that would save the state money.

Franks said Radogno is jumping ahead in the process and that a date cannot be set as long as Burris is in office. He said that it would be impossible to hold the primary for the special election in conjunction with the April election because there is not enough time. Franks said he wants a timeline to be set that could be used if the seat became vacant. He proposed a bill that would call for a special election within four months of the vacancy.

However, both Franks and Radogno support reimbursing local governments for some of the cost of a special election.

Franks is counting on Republican backing once all the details have been ironed out, but he said he’s not sure if there would be enough support from House Democrats. When a special election was proposed in December after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest, Democrats blocked it. But Franks said he thinks that they would be more willing to negotiate now. “At least we’re talking about it, and now it’s much more serious than it was just a few days ago,” he said.

Wrap-up Wednesday

By Bethany Jaeger and Patrick O'Brien
The surprise on Super Duper Tuesday in Illinois was at the state level, not the national level. Illinois still played a significant role February 5 by doling out more than 200 presidential delegates to the Democratic and Republican candidates, but the state got lost in the mix of 22 states that held primaries that day. I’ll repeat this point made by Kent Redfield, political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield, for a previous blog. “There’s a certain irony in the fact that we moved our primary up so we could be a major player, and now states that didn’t move actually may be more important than Illinois. If we’d have stuck to mid-March, we might have been this huge battleground all by ourselves instead of one of all of these other states.”

National view
Illinois Democrats were predictable in electing Barack Obama, former state senator and current U.S. senator of Chicago. But Obama is still in a tight race against U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York to win enough delegates nationwide to secure the Party nomination. (See more at the Associated Press’s “Delegate Tracker” here.) By Wednesday morning, Clinton had fewer than 100 delegates more than Obama, heightening the importance of the next round of primary elections throughout this month and next (other states have primaries scheduled through June for Democrats and July for Republicans).

Republicans in a dozen states nominated U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He already has half of the GOP delegates needed to win the nomination over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

State view
The state-level surprise was that Senate Democrats fared better than expected, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich could still have some allies to replace those who vacated their seats to work for him.

Senate Democratic incumbents — particularly assistant majority leaders Iris Martinez and Ricky Hendon, both of Chicago — withstood challenges that had potential to significantly alter the chamber.

Martinez’s leadership position sparked controversy within the Latino Caucus because Senate President Emil Jones Jr. selected her over fellow Latino Sen. Tony Munoz to serve in Jones’ cabinet. The disagreement affected the entire chamber, sometimes preventing such major legislation as the governor’s health care plan from advancing.

Martinez received a lot of money from Senate Democrats, including four separate $40,000 donations and a $100,000 check from the Illinois Senate Democratic Fund. (We're having a hard time with the State Board of Elections Web site linking to the wrong page. I hope it works for you.) She ended up winning more than half the vote over state Rep. Rich Bradley, who vacated his House seat so Chicago Ald. Dick Mell’s daughter, Deborah Mell, who also is the governor’s sister-in-law, could run. Mell is uncontested in that race.

Martinez’s likelihood of staying put won’t change the Senate dynamic much, but it will deepen tensions that likely will affect this spring’s negotiations or lack thereof.

Hendon, a former West Side Chicago alderman and Party committeeman, is a rather outspoken senator called “Hollywood Hendon” because of his flashy suits and quick quips. He’s also a licensed producer and writer. He’s become a point person on gaming negotiations and gained a last-minute sponsorship of the Chicago-area mass transit legislation because he was in an intense race against Chicago Democrat AmySue Mertens, an experienced community advocate who had the backing of AFSCME Council 31. A third candidate, Jonathan Singh Bedi, had potential to be a spoiler if it turned out to be a close race. That wasn’t the case. Hendon won more than 60 percent of the vote, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. The $17,000 donation January 31 from the Senate president probably didn’t hurt.

In the Illinois House, two successful candidates backed by Blagojevich could place more emphasis on the dynamics of the governor’s relationship with House Speaker Michael Madigan, as the governor held onto the seat of a former ally and gained another probable supporter.

Blagojevich ally Patti Hahn of Centralia won the democratic primary for Rep. Kurt Granberg’s seat in the 107th District. Granberg, a Carlyle Democrat, vacated his seat and could pop up in the Blagojevich Administration. Hahn defeated Travis Loyd by twenty points in the historically Democratic district. Democratic Rep. Jay Hoffman, a key Blagojevich ally in the House, contributed to Hahn’s campaign.

Will Burns, a former aide to the Senate president, won the primary in the 26th District on Chicago’s South Side with 33 percent of the vote in a five-way race. Incumbent Rep. Elga Jeffries, who was appointed to the seat in 2007, finished a distant fourth with 12 percent. Burns also was an Obama staffer at one point, and Obama won more than 90 percent of the vote in that district in 2004. The victory means another potential supporter to the Blagojevich-Jones alliance next year. Burns received significant financial support from Senate Democrats allied with Jones and from contributors with strong ties to Jones, including utility giant Commonwealth Edison.

Preview
(And follow-up from January)
House District 44 Democratic incumbent Rep. Fred Crespo will face Republican Margaret “Peggy” Brothman in November to serve the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

House District 56 Schaumburg Rep. Paul Froehlich, who switched from a Republican to a Democrat last year, won the Democratic nomination despite fierce opposition from John Moynihan. He’ll now face Schaumburg Republican Anita Forte-Scott, who was unopposed in the primary.

House District 92 Because Republican state Rep. Aaron Schock vacated his seat to run — and ultimately win — a GOP nomination for Congress, the west-central Illinois seat was vacant. Now Peoria Democrat Jehan Gordon will face Peoria Republican Cindy Ardis Jenkins. Gordon won the primary with financial help from Senate Democrats and Hoffman despite a controversy regarding whether she actually graduated from the University of Illinois as stated in campaign literature. The district leaned Republican by fewer than 300 votes in 2004 and was competitive in 2006.

Ready for Super Tuesday

Super Bowl Sunday will lead into Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states including Illinois will hold primary elections. That invites this fun fact: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama collected enough donations in January alone to pay for 13 TV advertisements during the game. That's a lot, considering a 30-second ad goes for $2.4 million.

Obama's campaign officials reported that the Democratic presidential hopeful raised $32 million just in January. (We'll have more on Obama's campaign donations linked to the federally indicted Tony Rezko later.) Obama's camp also attracted 170,000 new donors, bringing his total to 650,000, according to David Plouffe, his national campaign manager. He said in a conference call that the strongest day was the day after the New Hampshire primary, when Obama came in second to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

Clinton's campaign said it wasn't releasing its January donations yet. You can see older contribution summaries for all candidates here. Obama's campaign said it's now able to run advertisements in every state with a February 5 primary, as well as in states with later primary dates.

Kent Redfield, political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield, has a good point about moving up Illinois' primary to February 5 from its original date in March. “There's a certain irony in the fact that we moved our primary up so we could be a major player, and now states that didn't move actually may be more important than Illinois. If we'd have stuck to mid-March, we might have been this huge battleground all by ourselves instead of one of all of these other states.”

That's an indication the Democratic race has some legs. While Redfield predicts that the Republican race between U.S. Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney could be decided on Super Tuesday, he doesn't think the Democratic nominee will be as clear-cut. It is likely that Obama will win the majority of delegates in Illinois, he says, but it's still a really tight race because every delegate counts.

FutureGen factsAnd to keep FutureGen discussion going, the FutureGen Alliance released this fun fact sheet in response to the federal government's kibosh on the Mattoon project announced Wednesday.

Recall the governor?

It’s no secret state Rep. Jack Franks, a Woodstock Democrat, often disagrees with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, also a Democrat. But Franks said Thursday that he’s been so disturbed by the governor’s actions in his first and second terms that he drafted legislation to change the state Constitution to allow voters the ability to recall an elected official after they voted him or her into office.

“I don’t think I would have written it but for what’s going on in Illinois this year,” Franks said at a Statehouse news conference. “You talk about the perfect storm. It’s like this governor is the poster child for recall.”

This comes after the Chicago Tribune asked readers whether they think Illinois voters should be able to remove a public official from office, Blagojevich specifically. The Tribune then published results that showed a majority of the 1,200 readers who responded did support a recall of Blagojevich.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn stood by Franks Thursday but would not say he supports the legislation simply to get Blagojevich out of office. Rather, Quinn said he supports, and thinks voters support, the principle of recall as a tool for public accountability. And this year, being a “very disappointing year,” could serve as a vehicle for a grassroots campaign to put the question to voters in November 2008, he said, adding that it’s an ideal time because a presidential election year typically attracts a lot more voters.

In particular, Quinn said he was disappointed by the governor’s proposed gross receipts tax on businesses, the stalled ethics reform and the governor’s lack of leadership on skyrocketing electricity rates after a state law expired.

“This whole year has been so disappointing with the gridlock and the failure to respond to the public interest that I think it underlines the need for having extraordinary tools of democracy, direct democracy, like recall,” Quinn said.

In order for Quinn and Franks to secure a question on the November 2008 ballot, they would have to win approval from three-fifths of both legislative chambers. It also would require six months of public debate before being posed to voters. Three-fifths of voters then would have to say, "Yes, recall the official and elect this person in his or her place."

If it were posed to voters and approved in 2008, then it would take effect in the April 2009 elections. That would be the last year of Blagojevich’s second term. And the lieutenant governor would not necessarily be the person listed on the ballot as the candidate to replace the governor.

Franks said the recall provision would top his legislative agenda in January. “This is a perfect example, this session, why we need to have the ability to remember that the citizens control the government and that we are public servants and not their masters.”

Get ready, early birds

The Illinois State Board of Elections expects to receive double the number of petition paper filings Monday than it would normally receive in an election year. It’s happening about six weeks earlier than normal, too.

For the first time in Illinois, Democratic candidates for president, delegates and alternate delegates to the Democratic National Nominating Convention will file their petitions the same day as candidates for federal, state and county offices. The Illinois General Assembly also moved the primary election from March 18 to February 5 to aid a presidential bid of Illinois’ “favorite son,” U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

Petition filings start at 8 a.m. Monday, but candidates are expected to line up early in an attempt to be the first candidate listed on the ’08 ballot. The filing period ends November 5. We’ll have more Monday.

Comptroller: "Follow the money"

The public, the media and anyone with Internet access has a new tool to search for connections between people who donate money to political campaigns and people who win state contracts. Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes’ office designed a new Web site, called Open Book, which combines records from his office with records from the State Board of Elections’ office. That allows people to search state contractors side by side with campaign contributors.

Hynes said at a Statehouse news conference Tuesday that he also hopes the new search engine will apply more pressure on lawmakers, particularly Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones Jr., to advance ethics legislation drafted by Hynes. Known as House Bill 1, the measure would ban and criminalize so-called pay-to-play politics (a.k.a. granting state contracts in exchange for political campaign contributions). It gained unanimous support in the House and lined up 46 sponsors in the Senate, but it’s never been called for a vote.

“In the absence of a statutory ban on contributions from those who have state contracts, what we can do is create more transparency, more awareness, better information for watchdog groups, the media, citizens, so that people know who’s doing what,” Hynes said. “And perhaps that information will create pressure to enact the right legislation that will prohibit it, or, as one of my colleagues said, shame people out of not awarding contracts to contributors or getting contributions from contractors.”

A search takes a few seconds and starts with entering a person’s name or business in the blank. The database comes up two columns, one for state contracts and one for political contributions. It also lists the person’s or company’s address and how much was donated to any political campaign in each fiscal year back to 1999. It does this by tapping into the comptroller’s accounting records of contract information and into campaign disclosure reports filed twice a year with the State Board of Elections. Previously, matching contractors with campaign donors required multiple searches on the separate Web sites of each state agency.

“Open Book creates a one-stop shop where you plug in one name, one field and get all of those answers at once,” said David Morrison, deputy director of the Chicago-based Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which started one of the first searchable, online databases for campaign contributions with Kent Redfield, director of the Sunshine Project for campaign finance research based at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “It’s a really terrific system that I think has the potential of unleashing thousands of ants all over the state to crawl over the problem with pay-to-play contracting,” Morrison said. The Chicago-based watchdog group the Better Government Association also came to support the unveiling of the site.

Redfield added that more disclosure is important to prevent conflicts of interest, whether actual or perceived, from eating away at public confidence in the system. He says the costs of corruption include turning people away from participating in government and wasting tax dollars to curry political favors.

Then Redfield pointed directly to the governor, who has said in the past that he favors more sweeping ethics reform than the measure urged by Hynes. The governor’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Rausch, said Blagojevich supports anything that increases transparency to state government, in terms of the comptroller’s new Web site. But as far as supporting the ethics reform measure backed by Hynes, Blagojevich is holding out for a measure that he deems more comprehensive.

In response to Hynes’ statement that House Bill 1 could be the first step with more legislation following, Rausch said, “Why not do it right the first time? Why set the bar low? It’s taken many, many, many years to pass the first round of ethics reform in 2003. We shouldn’t squander the opportunity to do something sweeping and across the board now.”

Redfield says the governor still could do more. “The governor could do what the comptroller has done through executive order this afternoon. It should not be sufficient for the governor’s spokesman to say, ‘Well, we’re in favor of broad reform.’ These are the sorts of things that should be in law, that can be done by executive order.”

Hynes and the other constitutional officers issued executive orders to ban campaign contributions from people holding state contracts that are worth more than $10,000, as in Hynes' case. Secretary of State Jesse White said his office also prohibits campaign contributions from his own employees and the employees’ families.

For more background on previous attempts to reform state ethics laws, check out an April 2005 column by Pat Guinane, former Statehouse bureau chief for Illinois Issues.

A few surprises

The first day of the Illinois General Assembly’s annual fall session played out as expected Tuesday. The only surprise came with the news that Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, a Crete Democrat, announced she’s running for Congress to replace Rep. Jerry Weller, a Morris Republican. He announced his retirement in September shortly after the Chicago Tribune and other news reports said he failed to fully disclose land holdings in Nicaragua, potentially violating federal ethics rules. Weller said that didn’t play into his decision. It was simply to spend more time with his family.

Halvorson’s announcement is key because she was previously mentioned as a potential contender for the Senate president’s position whenever the current president, Emil Jones Jr., retires. Jones seems to be supportive of Halvorson’s Congressional bid. “It’d be a tremendous loss, but she’d be a great congresswoman,” he said Tuesday.

During a break from the veto session, Halvorson said she opted not to pursue the Senate leadership position because, “It’s not about me. And it’s not about titles. And I found over the weekend it’s about people and about where you can make the biggest impact. And that’s why I’ve chosen to move on to where I believe the issues are much bigger and my help is needed.”

She attended a women’s leadership conference in Washington D.C. over the weekend and said that helped her realize that she could make the biggest difference in such issues as health care and troop levels in Iraq. While in D.C., she also met with current speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi, and members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Halvorson said the committee assured her that the 11th District race was an important one and that they would be working with her to snag the seat from Republicans. The district covers 11 counties of the southern suburbs of Chicago and parts of north central Illinois and has leaned Republican, but it could be vulnerable to political change as the demographics shift.

“It’s a very large district, but anybody who knows me knows what a fighter I am and what a campaigner,” Halvorson said. “I love a good fight, a good challenge, and I can’t wait to get out there.”

(Former intern Deanese Williams-Harris featured Halvorson in a March article about the senator’s push for young women to receive a vaccine for HPV, a common sexually transmitted disease that can lead to ovarian cancer.)

One potential contender for Weller’s seat mentioned was state Sen. Christine Radogno, a GOP budget negotiator who failed to win the state treasurer’s race last year. But the Lemont Republican said Tuesday that she decided not to run. “One, I like what I’m doing here. Two, I don’t live in that district, and while that’s not a legal requirement, I think that voters deserve to be represented by someone who does live in the district. It’s a different type of district than I have right now. It’s a rural district, 11 counties, as opposed to a more suburban district than I have right now.”

Here’s the not-so-surprising news:
• An overwhelming majority of House members voted to override most of the governor’s budget cuts. But the overrides are unlikely to have a favorable future in the Senate.
• Latino legislators representing the southwest side of Chicago still want the Senate to override the budget cuts, too, to help relieve severely overcrowded schools. Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat and Latino Caucus member, says there would be enough votes in his chamber if the Senate president would allow a vote to override the governor’s budget cuts.
• However, Jones said this afternoon his stance has not changed and that he does not intend to call the overrides for a vote in his chamber.
• Mass transit advocates still want a long-term funding source to aid the Chicago area’s public transportation systems, but that’s still intertwined in the ongoing debate about whether to add new casinos. A House Gaming Committee hearing isn't scheduled until October 17 in Chicago.
• And the Senate advanced another version of a measure to limit increases to Cook County property tax assessments to 7 percent, the so-called 7 percent rule. This one is supposed to be identical to the governor’s announcement that he wanted to increase the homestead exemption from $20,000 to $40,000 and make the so-called 7 percent rule permanent. That version is unlikely to win over House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has supported phasing out the 7 percent cap over three years.
• Also, the Senate voted to override a governor’s veto and support the original measure that would establish a uniform speed limit of 65 miles per hour for all vehicles traveling on four-lane highways separated by a median. Essentially, it would allow trucks to drive the same speed as cars. The House would also have to override the veto in order for the uniform speed limit to become law.

One-month budget by Friday

BY BETHANY CARSON and DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Whatever needed to be worked out among the Republican and Democratic caucuses of each chamber appears to be worked out. At least, there’s enough of an agreement for the legislative leaders to publicly say that the House is expected to approve it Wednesday and the Senate to consider it Friday.

The summary from House Speaker Michael Madigan and House Minority Leader Tom Cross: It’s a maintenance budget that simply extends the fiscal year 2007 budget with some changes. But it has no new revenue and no “member initiatives,” or “pork barrel spending” that pays for special projects in legislators’ districts.

Next on the discussion table: new revenue to support a full, 12-month state budget. “We haven’t had a discussion on available revenue,” Cross said outside of the governor’s Capitol office Tuesday afternoon, “and we had no discussion about electricity.”

Electric rate freeze action is still possible in the next couple of days — Senate President Emil Jones Jr. said he’s just about fed up. “I resent all the stalling that’s been taking place as it relates to those negotiations,” he said after budget talks. “We may, even though I’m opposed to it, let them go ahead and have the freeze.”

He said he could call the measure as early as Wednesday once he talks to his members. He added that after several meetings to discuss rate relief, the people who advocated for extending a 10-year rate freeze that expired in January are suddenly starting to change their minds. “Now they’re saying exactly what I’ve been telling them all along: The freeze does not solve the problem,” Jones said. “But now they’re throwing different things into play, so therefore, maybe I’ll go ahead and let [Sen. Gary Forby] call the freeze. I’ll find out tomorrow.”

Recap:
- The House is expected to vote on the one-month budget Wednesday, adjourn Friday and come back for more overtime session the second week of July.
- The Senate will get the budget and have to follow the rules to hear it three times before they can consider it for good on Friday.
- Senate President Emil Jones may let his chamber debate an electricity rate freeze, depending on how his caucus feels about it Wednesday morning.
- The next leaders’ meeting, whenever it’s scheduled, could likely talk about revenue ideas.

Rep. Froehlich changes from an R to a D
State Rep. Paul Froehlich of Schaumburg will join the Democrats Wednesday after considering himself a “lifelong Republican,” according to a press release. He served as Schaumburg Township Republican Committeeman since 1998, so he’s also resigning from that panel.

“I became a Republican because the party permitted a broad range of views and welcomed moderates with open arms,” he said in the release. “Over the last six years, that has changed. I, however, have not. The same beliefs I held last week, I hold today.” He said he thought he could best serve his constituents as a Democrat, and his constituents in the northwest suburbs of Chicago are leaning more Democratic these days.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross said he’s unhappy about Froehlich’s switch, but there’s nothing he can do about it. “This is a guy that decided that he wanted to do what was best for him, unfortunately at the expense, perhaps, of his constituents,” Cross said before entering the governor’s office for budget talks Tuesday. “I’m not going to comment on what he did or didn’t do. I think he did what was best for his own political future.”

After budget talks, Cross said he’s likely to target Froehlich in the fall election campaigns, “just like I will in all the races where I think that we have a chance, and clearly I think we have a chance there. He will be on a list with others [where] we think we can have success in the fall of ’08.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan said he did not recruit Froehlich, who supported another Schaumburg official, now state Rep. Fred Crespo. He won a seat on a local board with Republican support but ran as a Democrat to win a House district seat last fall.

What this means

A lot of analysis will be kicked around as we try to understand what the November 7 election results mean for the future of this state, but here’s a starting point:

• Democrats swept the constitutional offices and will maintain majorities in the Illinois House and Senate, but Senate Majority Leader Emil Jones Jr. might have taken the cake. His 31 Democrats and one Independent-turned-Democrat could have gained enough seats to secure a “super majority” of 36, the number of votes needed to override the governor’s vetoes and to approve some major items, such as the long-awaited school and road construction plans. But that doesn’t mean those major items will fly through the House, which is unlikely to gain enough seats to secure a three-fifths majority.

• Update: Key state legislative races that we covered in September proved to be tight. In the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Democrat Fred Crespo has a lead over incumbent Terry Parke, a Hoffman Estates Republican who has served the area for more than two decades. Not all precincts had reported the last I checked. Downstate around Clinton, Marion and Jefferson counties, Democratic incumbent Kurt Granberg of Carlyle could edge out his repeat Republican opponent, John Cavaletto of Salem. But the race has yet to be called, with the latest results showing Granberg with 50 percent to Cavaletto’s 49 percent. That’s a difference of about 100 votes.

• A county-by-county map of unofficial AP results of the Illinois governors' race shows Republican Judy Baar Topinka won counties spanning the middle third of the state, while Blagojevich won many counties in deep southern and some western Illinois. He swept Lake, Cook and Will counties lining Lake Michigan. Green Party candidate Rich Whitney secured 10 percent of the vote statewide, ranging from 4 percent in counties surrounding St. Louis (he received 5 percent in many western Illinois counties) to 25 percent in Jackson County, where he lives in Carbondale. He received double digits in many central Illinois counties, but not as many in deep southern Illinois.

New term, same quotes

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s speech, as seen live on the Web, sounded like many other speeches I’ve heard him give. He recited his favorite anecdotes, right down to being the son of an immigrant steelworker. He said the guiding principle of his administration is getting things done for people and trying to make sure things are better for the next generation.

He even repeated the same quote from his Monday campaign stop at Springfield’s airport. He cited the Rudyard Kipling poem, “If,” in the closing stanza. “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much. If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, and which is more you’ll be a man, my son.”

The only difference is that Monday, he asked his supporters to give him one more minute so he could continue to build on progress. Now he’s got four more years. We’ll be watching for that progress every minute he's in office.

Blame it on the money

Former Gov. Jim Edgar, who can speak as a Republican Party member as well as a political analyst, said Gov. Rod Blagojevich won by having the advantage of more campaign money.

“To put on a successful campaign, we’re going to have to have adequate resources, not just a good candidate. I thought Judy Baar Topinka was a good candidate, but she didn’t have the financial help she needed.”

He said he was disappointed with the fund-raising from national and past Topinka supporters, which contributed to her delayed response to negative ads aired by the governor’s camp.

By Edgar’s count, Blagojevich outspent Topinka 5-to-1 and ran negative commercials, and unfortunately, many people rely on them for candidate information. “You can look at the numbers, and, I know people don’t like negative commercials, but when [Blagojevich] went negative on Judy, that changed the outlook of this election.”

In short, he said by defining Topinka as “George Ryan’s treasurer” — even though she’s a three-term, independently elected constitutional officer — Blagojevich inoculated himself from the potentially damaging news stories about an ongoing federal investigation into his administration’s hiring and contracting practices.

"That's the way it goes"

Topinka, characteristic coffee cup in hand, addressed her supporters with a hoarse voice as she congratulated incumbent Gov. Rod Blagojevich for his win. “That’s the way it goes. God bless him.”

Flanked by her son Joe, she said she ran her campaign the right way. “How many people can say they’ve been in politics for 26 years and have nothing but wonderful things to show for it? I mean, it’s just great.”

In true Judy Baar Topinka style, she continued to joke about everything from her coffee cup to her two dogs. But then she got a little sentimental. “You know I’ve loved every minute of it, even the tough times. I’ve really tried to serve honorably. I think there’s something to be said for honor, and integrity and sticking up for what you believe in. And whatever you can say about campaigns, we did it the right way. And it was honorable.”

She left the stage and the room, and security guards escorted her out of sight. Comments from Gov. Jim Edgar to come.

Topinka's coming

Just as I was going to post my last entry, I heard that Topinka's on her way down. I'll report back as soon as she speaks.

What I was going to say:
While more precincts are reporting vote returns, not many more people have shown up at Topinka’s election-night party. One that stuck out was Ron Gidwitz, Topinka’s opponent in the March primary. He now supports Topinka.

A more developing story comes from Carbondale, where there’s likely a happy Green Party candidate for governor, Rich Whitney. One of his campers, Jessica Bradshaw, has been blogging and expressing her excitement as Whitney’s percentages reach double digits in some counties. Unofficial results, such as those reported by CBS 2, show Whitney with 10 percent with 4,514 of 11,692 precincts reporting. That’s more than the required percentage to relax the requirements for future Green Party candidates to get on the ballet.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s election-night headquarters has been covered by University of Illinois at Springfield’s WUIS, which reports the governor could appear within the hour.

Birkett's response

People are starting to trickle into the ballroom, and Topinka’s campaign staffers have been buzzing back and forth between the basement and upstairs.Topinka hasn’t yet been sighted.

Joe Birkett, Topinka’s running mate and candidate for lieutenant governor, came in for a brief statement. Surrounded by reporters, he said it’s way too early and irresponsible to call the race based on exit polls before some polls — Kane County — haven’t even closed. He said it could discourage people who haven’t voted from driving to cast their ballots.

His statements echoed a press release received through e-mail. In it, campaign spokesman John McGovern said, “Recent history has shown that exit polls are not always accurate. An early call of any election depresses voter turnout and disenfranchises voters. That is unfortunate for the democratic process.”

Topinka's first response

As expected, reporters crowded Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign spokesman, John McGovern, shortly after 7:30 p.m. And as expected, he said the campaign had no official comment, yet. But he did say the campaign feels Topinka finished very strongly, despite the “unprecedented” amount of money spent on negative advertising that “dumbed down the discourse of this election.”

At that point, the crowd of reporters had grown and consumed the back hallway as they tried to hear McGovern’s statement. All he said was that the campaign was working to get a more comprehensive response.

Winner already?

Here I am, ready to cover exciting election results from Judy Baar Topinka’s camp at the Swissotel-Chicago, and what happens as soon as I prepare to write my first blog? ABC 7 and CBS 2 in Chicago report Gov. Rod Blagojevich wins reelection over Topinka.

Most polls closed only minutes before at 7 p.m., save Kane County polls that the Daily Herald reported opened more than an hour late.

Topinka’s campaigners and staffers are on their cell phones. There’s still a lot of ballot counting and confirming that has to be done. And it will still be interesting to find out how vote returns panned out across the state. Stay tuned.