Impeachment: Day 3

The evidence gathered during the third day of the Illinois House’s impeachment investigation will play a role in committee members’ decisions about whether to recommend impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Yet the answers committee members could not get from witnesses today is likely to be just as important, if not more, in determining whether the governor is fulfilling his constitutional duties.

Questions floated during today’s nearly seven-hour hearing focused on three things:

1. Has the governor exceeded his authority, and is he directly responsible for the expansion of a state health care program without legislative approval?
2. Do particular state audits of his administration document a habitual ignorance or flat-out disregard for state and federal laws?
3. Has his administration unnecessarily and inappropriately withheld information from the public?

Ultimately, the committee is looking for a pattern of behavior. Today’s testimony offered information that dated back to 2003, the first year Blagojevich took office.

“For those of us who have been around the building for the last six or seven years, some of it’s old news,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is presiding over the impeachment investigation. “But in the context of a pattern of abuse of power, abuse of law, abuse of the appropriations process, I think it all shows a real pattern of behavior.”

The known work of the committee is done, Brown said. But it’s unknown yet whether the U.S. attorney’s office will give the OK to invite testimony from people involved in the ongoing criminal investigation(s), mainly Ali Ata and Joseph Cari (see the Day 1 blog). The committee went home for the weekend but will return to the state Capitol at noon Monday. Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, committee chair, told members to be prepared for two days of work, but the specific agenda is unknown.

Here are some highlights of information gathered from today’s hearing:

Administrative authority (JCAR)
Committee members could not get straight answers about who ultimately made the decision to expand the state-sponsored health insurance program despite rejections the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Simply called JCAR, the bipartisan legislative panel reviews administrative rules to make sure they stay true to the legislative intent. Read lots of background information about the expansion of FamilyCare in previous blogs.

A group of businessmen filed a lawsuit against the governor, claiming that he expanded a state-sponsored health care program to middle-income families without legislative approval and without specific spending authority to pay for it.

Director Barry Maram pointed out that court rulings have not specifically addressed whether the Department of Healthcare and Family Services had authority to expand the program. Court decisions so far have only determined that the eligibility criteria used for the FamilyCare expansion don’t abide by federal employment rules (see more here).

Fun fact: Since JCAR was created 31 years ago, nearly half of the rules it has suspended or prohibited have happened during the past six years of the Blagojevich administration, according to Vicki Thomas, executive director of JCAR.

The governor’s office has said JCAR is just an advisory body. Thomas said if the state didn’t have a JCAR, it would lead to “abuse of power and serious problems of separation of powers because then you would have the administration making law.”

Audits
Auditor General Bill Holland cited a June 2005 audit that documented significant problems in the agency where the governor consolidated many of the state’s important functions, Central Management Services. So-called efficiency initiatives turned out to be not so efficient, costing state agencies more money than they saved, Holland said. But the agency’s contracting practices were even more problematic. Many times, members of the governor’s staff played key roles in selecting the companies that would receive the state contract, which is unusual, he said. In one instance, a state contract was granted to an agency that did not yet exist.

Holland said routine requests for such information as contracts and travel vouchers also have been problematic. “Every year those are questions we’re going to ask … but when we ask for information and it is now being routinely given to legal staff, that is not making it any easier. It is making it more complex,” he said.

Holland also repeated the scenario in which he said the governor illegally tried to import doses of flu vaccine after initial scare of a shortage, but the U.S. government never approved the European vaccine. It eventually was meant to ship to Pakistan, but it didn’t get used there, either, because it expired.

Freedom of Information
The administration had shown “disregard” and “contempt” of the law on rather routine requests for public documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government Association. He said the administration repeatedly denied his requests, which isn’t that unusual. But what is unusual is that officials couldn’t confirm whether they had the information requested, and if they did have the information, they wouldn’t provide it. Stewart said it was the first “hypothetical denial” he’s ever received. The association has been trying to get access to federal grand jury subpoenas served upon the administration.

Impeachment: Day 1

Jamey Dunn, Public Affairs Reporting intern, contributed to this report.

It’s the first day that the Illinois House is investigating cause for impeaching Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Kent Redfield already anticipates articles of impeachment from the House and a successful trial by the Senate.

A political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Redfield said that politically, the governor has forfeited his ability to govern.

Both chambers took actions today that attempt to establish precedent for the proceedings, given that the state Constitution’s vague language and the state’s short history on the process.

The House committee’s investigation will lead to a recommendation about whether to hold actual impeachment proceedings by the full House. More significant action will start Wednesday, when the first witnesses will be called and the rules will be adopted.

Should the House send articles of impeachment over to the Senate, then that chamber is preparing rules to guide a trial. A special committee created today will will draft the rules.

House investigation
But the process starts with the House. Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, chair of the House investigative committee, said she intends to call witnesses to testify, including Ali Ata and Joseph Cari. Both were convicted of felonies related to the federal investigation into the Blagojevich Administration’s hiring and contracting practices

However, the request for witnesses could interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation headed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. The federal prosecutor asked for a letter with more specific requests about the committee's plans.

Until Fitzgerald’s office responds, members might not meet seven days a week as scheduled. “While we are prepared to work, roll up our sleeves, get it done in a timely but deliberative fashion, we may be stymied early in the investigation by an inability to get clear answers from the United States attorney,” Currie said.

Then again, Redfield said, the effect on the feds’ criminal case is a completely separate issue. “Obviously the legislature’s not going to force someone to testify in ways that would compromise their legal position, but the legislature cannot focus on what this does to the U.S. attorney’s criminal case. The legislature has to focus on what is its political duty, its constitutional duty, in terms of exercising impeachment in a situation that clearly calls for impeachment.”

Even without the U.S. attorney’s cooperation
Even if the feds think the House committee’s proceedings could compromise the criminal investigation, some Democrats and Republicans said they have enough information to go on for impeachment.

Rep. Jack Franks, a Woodstock Democrat and longtime Blagojevich critic, said the plea agreements of Ata and Cari (Ata’s here; Cari’s here) spell out so-called pay-to-play politics, where Ata donated $25,000 to Blagojevich’s political campaign and landed a $125,000 state job soon after. “I’ve been asking for these [hearings] for months, well before this arrest occurred,” Franks said. “I’m confident that we have enough information.”

Franks also intends to discuss two state audits that looked into the governor’s purchase of doses of European flu vaccines that went unused, as well as a $1 million grant mistakenly given to a Chicago school.

The committee might not even need the criminal charges. Showing a significant abuse of power by the executive could itself be adequate cause for impeachment, Currie said.


Political process
That’s partially because the impeachment process is a political proceeding, according to Redfield. While the committee will consider criminal charges filed by the feds, it also will consider the governor’s performance. And it doesn't have to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt. “This is about whether or not the governor has violated his oath of office, whether he is fit to govern or whether he can govern. It’s a political decision.”

Partisan politics also are inevitable. Republicans will have ample opportunity to make Democrats look bad, considering Democrats control every office in this state. Call it retribution for years of GOP fallout from former Gov. George Ryan.

“It’s going to be very easy to get into broad questions of policy and the failures of the Democratic leaders, as well as the governor, to get things done,” Redfield said.

Senate Republicans, in fact, said in a Statehouse news conference this afternoon that they urge an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the impeachment-related committees to prevent the majority party from being able to cover up facts that could hurt the party’s reputation.

“Is this more about uncovering everything and learning about everything that maybe the governor was involved in, or is it about just selectively trying to carve the governor out of the process and leave everything in place?” said Sen. Dale Righter, a Mattoon Republican. “If the latter is what happens, there will not be reform in Illinois politics. There will just be more of the same.”

Here’s the Senate resolution creating a nine-member committee to come up with the rules for a potential impeachment trial. Democrats have five members, Republicans four.

Impeachment: Day 2 and 3
Wednesday
The real work in the House investigative committee will start Wednesday, when members have invited the governor’s lawyer to testify. Items on the agenda, starting at 11 a.m.:

• Digest the 76-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich
  
• Review the plea agreement of Ali Ata
• Review the plea agreement of Joe Cari

Thursday
Thursday’s agenda would focus on information not needed from the U.S. attorney’s office. That includes two items:

• Cases in which the governor might have exceeded his authority, including initiatives he tried to advance through the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. For instance, the governor tried to enact a FamilyCare health insurance program for middle-income families.
• Audits of the governor’s effort to secure doses of European flu vaccine without legislative approval.

Obama’s replacement update
To the Senate GOP’s disappointment, the Senate did not consider legislation that would allow for a special election of President-elect Barack Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. The House Democrats asked for more time to consider such a measure, which wouldn’t happen until the General Assembly returns January 12.

Impeachment hearings start Tuesday

Seven days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest on federal corruption charges, a special Illinois House committee will start to meet every day, including weekends, other than four days for the holidays, as long as it takes to determine whether there is cause to impeach the governor. But even in crisis, the political rhetoric within the Statehouse today was thick, dashing the hopes of voters and government insiders hoping to see a sense of unity after a week of shocking corruption allegations.

Obama’s replacement
One thing the House will not do tomorrow is advance legislation that would allow for a special election to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. House Speaker Michael Madigan said his Democratic caucus was split on the idea and would like some extra time to consider it. The full House is not scheduled to return to Springfield until January 12.

House Republicans used the national spotlight to liken Democrats to enablers of the allegedly corrupt Democratic governor. Republicans like the idea of a special election not only because the GOP would have a chance to snag a Democratic seat, but, more importantly, because an election would avoid the perception of impropriety that plagues the current system of giving one person sole authority to appoint a replacement, said House Minority Leader Tom Cross.

Democratic Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie said there’s nothing inherently wrong with the appointment process, just the person currently holding the power to use it. He said he opposed the idea of changing state law because of one official who was disliked or incompetent.

Various versions of the special election legislation are here:

• Rep. Jack Franks' version, HB 6730
• The speaker's empty version, HB 6731
• Rep. La Shawn Ford's version, HB 6732
• And the Republicans' version, HB 6733.

Impeachment
The special committee to investigate whether there’s cause for impeachment consists of 21 members, including 12 Democrats and nine Republicans. Democratic members must have served at least six terms. Republicans have not yet released their committee members, as of this post.

The vein of evidence to be collected? “Abuse of power,” Madigan said during a Statehouse news conference this afternoon. “The many instances where the governor took governmental action without authority by the legislature, took governmental action without an appropriation having been adopted, instances where he ignored directives from the legislature.”

Find a one-stop-shop for Blagojevich stories and analysis at Illinois Issues magazine here.

The speaker’s staff has been reviewing grounds for impeachment for about a year, he said. The committee, chaired by Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, also likely would attach the criminal complaint against Blagojevich as evidence. They are asking the U.S. attorney’s office for cooperation in sharing information.

Madigan will preside over the proceedings, which will be public hearings that take place in the state Capitol.

The estimated timeline has ranged from a few weeks to a few months. Madigan said the governor’s decision about whether to attend the proceedings as “invited” could play into how long the process takes. “If he does not appear personally or through an agent, it will greatly shorten the proceedings of the committee. If he appears personally or through an agent, it will lengthen the proceedings of the committee. That’s all I can tell you.”

Whatever the timeline, it’s expected to be thorough. “We are going to move with all deliberate speed, but we’re not going to trample anybody’s constitutional rights in the process,” Madigan said.

If the proceedings run into the next General Assembly, which is scheduled to start January 15, committee members said they would vote to allow their work to carry over.

Currie emphasized that the proceedings aren’t just about Blagojevich. Given the Illinois Constitution’s vague description of the impeachment process, this investigative committee’s actions set precedent for the future, Currie said. “And it is absolutely critical that we do this deliberately, that we don’t rush to judgment, that we don’t say, ‘Because the public is clamoring for his head, we should take the head first and do the trial later.’”

The governor’s office declined to comment.

Lisa Madigan tries to involve the High Court

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Illinois Supreme Court to temporarily remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office and replace him with Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. But the process to get Blagojevich out of office — if he doesn’t resign first — already started in the legislature and in the federal courts.

It’s unknown whether the high court will even hear the case or how long it would take, but Madigan said with Blagojevich in office, the state is paralyzed and in crisis.

“In light of his arrest and the filing of his criminal complaint, Gov. Blagoejvich can no longer fulfill his official duties with any legitimacy,” she said during a Chicago news conference, carried live on multiple media outlets, including CNN.

She seeks a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction, which she said could be quicker than the impeachment process. However, she wants the Illinois legislature to continue pursuing impeachment and trial.

If Madigan’s motion were to succeed before the Supreme Court, Blagojevich would be prevented from filling the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, acting on legislation, directing state contracts, directing the Illinois Finance Authority and dolling out state funds.

Among the items held up by this week’s events is a $1.4 billion borrowing plan that would help the state pay an extreme backlog in bills owed to medical providers who care for Medicaid patients. The plan was supposed to be carried out this week; however, it needs the attorney general’s signature to certify that she’s unaware of any proceeding or threatened litigation challenging the authority of the governor to hold his office. “So I, at this point, would not necessarily be able to sign that,” she said.

Madigan said is her job as the attorney general to serve as the lawyer for the people of the state, and it is her job to present the question to the court. However, the motions beg political questions, to which she did not address during her press conference. “Political issues and political matters are not even on my radar screen this week,” she said to a question about her filling the vacant U.S. Senate seat.

She is exploring a run for governor in 2010. She also is the daughter of House Speaker Michael Madigan, arch nemesis of Blagojevich.

Here are the documents filed in Springfield this morning:
The motion for a temporary restraining order and/or a preliminary injunction
The brief in support of the motion
The motion for leave to file a verified complaint
The Supreme Court Rule 382 upon which Madigan’s motion is based
(If the links still aren't working, try here.)

It only gets harder

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest this week unleashed a fury of activity that a) demonstrates how complicated and unprecedented this week’s events have been in Illinois and b) gives us a potential glimpse into what our future state government could look like.

Everyone agrees that the state legislature needs to act quickly but fairly. Yet, there’s already dissension among the legislative leaders and the second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. If next week’s emergency legislative session doesn’t foster some kind of consensus-building atmosphere, the national media will continue to sharpen their pencils and take copious notes about how such a screwed up state produced the next U.S. president.

Case in point: CNN’s headline the day after the governor’s arrest: “Illinois state politics read more like a script from ‘The Sopranos’ than a page out of the history books.”

The context

1. All 50 Democratic U.S. senators indicated they would not seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama, so that begs the question of how Obama should be replaced: Let the lieutenant governor appoint a replacement, or change state law to let the Illinois voters elect a new senator.
2. There’s mounting pressure, even from the future president of the United States, for Blagojevich to resign. If he doesn’t, which is somewhat expected for this unpredictable individual, then there’s question of whether the legislature or the state Supreme Court shall kick him out of office.

The intertwined debate
In a very gubernatorial-like news conference from his Statehouse office this morning, Quinn said he doesn’t want to wait for a special election to fill Obama’s Senate seat. He would select a replacement as his first act as governor, if Blagojevich resigns or is forced out.

Quinn added that the governor’s legal problems already cost the state. Standard & Poor’s Rating Services put the state on a negative credit watch, potentially making it more expensive for the state to borrow $1.4 billion to pay down backlogged bills.

“We’re going to have to spend more taxpayer money to borrow $1.4 billion … because we have a cloud, a storm cloud, over the governor of Illinois and his chief of staff,” Quinn said.

The short-term borrowing is delayed by a few days, according to Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for state Comptroller Dan Hynes. She did not comment about why it was delayed but later said, "Everything in state government is in jeopardy as long as the governor remains in office."

The need for that borrowing plan adds to the urgency of why the Illinois General Assembly should immediately address “the source of the problem,” Quinn said, referring to getting Blagojevich out of office. “To focus on anything other than that, I think, is missing the highest priority.”

The House and Senate are scheduled to come back into emergency session Monday and Tuesday, but the intent is to advance legislation that would change state law so that voters could choose Obama’s replacement through a special election.

Quinn frequently speaks of “government by the people and for the people” and said that a special election would be ideal in normal circumstances. But the current scenario would make it more delayed and more expensive — by about half a year and $50 million. Quinn said that lag time would rob the state of a voice while the Congress voted on major decisions for reviving the national economy.

So far, there’s little indication that the chambers will comply with Quinn’s ideas.

Senate Republicans released a statement that supports the call for a special election. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno is quoted in the release as saying: “It is ludicrous to talk about anyone appointing the next United States senator. … There is no way that an appointment process can be free from the stench of this corrupt administration.”

In Illinois, the lieutenant governor and the governor do not run as running mates in the spring primary elections. They get lumped together on the same ticket in the November general election, making Blagojevich and Quinn running mates. Yet, Quinn said this morning that since the 2006 election, he repeatedly has spoken out against Blagojevich for various reasons, including the vastly unpopular idea to levy a gross receipts tax on businesses. Quinn was one of the most vocal supporters of an amendment to the state Constitution to allow voters to recall elected officials, a movement started because of Blagojevich. Quinn also held a rally of sorts outside one of Blagojevich’s fundraising events this year to support ethics reforms that will ban so-called pay-to-play politics, the heart of the federal probes involving Blagojevich.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross said a special election is the only way to help restore the public’s trust in the system. And while not alleging anything improper done by Quinn, Cross said an election would avoid perceptions that the appointment process is tainted.

Impeachment
Cross also introduced the first resolution that could start the impeachment process. It would form a committee to gather evidence and determine whether there’s cause for impeachment. Four House Democrats also released a letter saying they wanted impeachment proceedings to start immediately, allowing for the quicker appointment of a U.S. Senate replacement.

House Speaker Michael Madigan said he’s “prepared to discuss the suggestions of the House Republican Leader.” But it doesn’t look like he’s exactly on board with them. Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said: “They just want to have a committee to investigate the investigation. That seems like a two-step backward process to me.”

Cross, however, said this afternoon that his proposal is based on House proceedings in 1997. A special investigative committee was formed to gather evidence and decide whether it was enough to move forward with impeachment proceedings for then-Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Heiple. “There’s not a lot of history, here. There’s not a lot of guidance in the Constitution, so we’re trying to respect what the speaker did before,” Cross said. “The bottom line is we want to move forward.”

If Madigan wants to jump right into impeachment proceedings by the full House, Cross said he’s open to that. “I’m not going to block something because the speaker has a different way to go. We just need to move, I think, soon.”

The Heiple impeachment took six weeks. Former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment process took four months. Cross guessed that Illinois could get it done in about month, although no one really knows. “Regardless of the amount of time it takes, I think you need to start the process, or it’ll just hang over us longer and longer and longer.”

A “new low” and a challenge for the future

House and Senate members are preparing to return early next week in an emergency session to change state law and call for a special election to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. The power to appoint a replacement currently is held by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but that power is the focus of today’s federal corruption charges against the governor.

“It’s a very sad day for Illinois government,” said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is spearheading the ongoing corruption investigation. “Gov. Blagojevich has taken us to a truly new low.”

Numerous state officials are requesting that Blagojevich to step aside, resign or prepare for the Illinois House to investigate whether there is cause for impeachment.

The FBI awoke Blagojevich at 6 a.m. with an arrest warrant at his Chicago home, according to Robert Grant, U.S. special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Chicago office. A day before the governor’s 52nd birthday, he’s charged with extensive political corruption related to the five-year-old Operation Board Games investigation that exposed the rigging of state boards to benefit the governor’s political campaign fund. But the focus of today’s charges are much more appalling, Fitzgerald said. Today’s charges focus on Blagojevich’s actions since October, particularly allegations that he wanted to financially gain from his U.S. Senate selection. See the criminal complaint for details.

Fitzgerald said the complaint made no allegations that Obama knew anything of Blagojevich’s actions.

Obama, heard during an unrelated news conference on CNN, said: “I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening. It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”

The complaint
Perhaps most surprising to many throughout the day was the timing of the arrests of Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris. Illinoisans have suspected for quite some time that the governor might be indicted. But given the investigations, as well as the corruption trial of convicted felon and Blagojevich insider Tony Rezko, and the upcoming enactment of a new ethics law trying to prevent so-called pay-to-play conduct, it’s shocking that the governor allegedly would participate in a “political crime spree” as recently as a week ago, Fitzgerald said.

“You might have thought in that environment that pay-to-play would slow down. The opposite happened. It sped up,” he said during a Chicago news conference, heard through Web casts.

Fitzgerald said the investigation was made public today in order to stop conduct that could have had dire consequences for the nation, as well as specific individuals.

A 76-page criminal complaint released this morning alleges that Blagojevich feverishly tried to collect as much campaign cash as possible in anticipation of the new ethics law, which was aimed at Blagojevich. Starting in the New Year, it will be illegal for executive officers to collect donations from those seeking significant business with the state. Fitzgerald said recent wiretaps of Blagojevich’s phone revealed that the governor allegedly wanted to ensure the financial welfare of his family and of his political future. Blagojevich’s campaign fund, at last report, was paying a significant amount in legal fees related to the ongoing investigations.

Fitzgerald mentioned more specific allegations:

• Conspiring to threaten to withhold state aid for the Tribune Co. if it didn’t fire Chicago Tribune board members who were critical of Blagojevich.
• Conspiring to withhold $8 million state aid for Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago if the chief executive officer didn’t donate to Blagojevich’s political campaign.
• Conspiring to shake down the person who wanted state legislation enacted that would shave profits from the state’s riverboats and casinos to help the horse racing industry compete. (Here’s a statement from the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association: “[The association] has not been cited, named or implicated, nor are we involved, in any of the issues contained in the Department of Justice complaint against Gov. Blagojevich.)

The governor’s office issued a statement trying to reassure Illinois residents that this wouldn’t prevent them from accessing services: “Today’s allegations do nothing to impact the services, duties or function of the state.” The paragraph did not indicate whether Blagojevich would step aside or resign.

As of this post, Blagojevich still has the authority to appoint Obama’s Senate replacement and to serve as governor. However, numerous officials are urging the governor to step aside and are working to stop the governor’s power to fill the Senate seat.

The impeachment
In case Blagojevich doesn’t step aside, House Minority Leader Tom Cross requested that the House immediately start impeachment hearings. However, legislators must tread carefully, as Blagojevich is entitled to due process. He’s been arrested, not convicted.

But the Illinois Constitution allows the House to investigate whether there is cause for impeachment, which would require a majority of House members voting to do so (scroll down to Section 14). The state Senate then would conduct a trial, with a state Supreme Court justice officiating. It would take a two-thirds vote of Senate members to convict the governor. The conviction would only remove him from office and prevent him or her from holding any public office in the state. It’s not a criminal conviction.

But given how extremely rare impeachment proceedings are in Illinois, there are no permanent rules for impeachment in Illinois, according to the annotated state Constitution. For how Blagojevich’s arrests fits in with Illinois history, check out our list of legally challenged governors from The Illinois Governors: Mostly Good and Competent.

Kent Redfield, political scientist with the University of Illinois at Springfield, estimated that impeachment proceedings also would take at least a month to conduct. Just like a court case, the process would involve forming an investigation, gathering evidence, calling witnesses and prosecuting and defending the charges. It would be hard to do quickly and shouldn’t be done quickly if the General Assembly wants to ensure due process, he said.

In the meantime, Redfield said the House speaker and the new Senate president could try to “govern around the governor.” We’ll have more on this possibility in the coming days and weeks.

The future
It’s clear that Illinois has a reputation. FBI Agent Grant had this to say: “If it isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor.” He added that agents who listened to the wiretaps “were thoroughly disgusted and revolted by what they heard. And I think even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked.”

Redfield said he, like the FBI agents, hoped that Ryan’s corruption convictions last year would send a message that personally gaining from public office is a thing of the past.

“As long as we allow politicians to treat politics that way, where it’s all about private gain and personal advantage, then we’re going to continue to have this stuff. Thank God for a vigilant, aggressive federal prosecutor. But at some point, the citizens of Illinois have got to start electing better people to public office and applying higher standards.

The kicker: “Because we did reelect this person two years ago.”

How Blagojevich fits into Illinois history

Given today's arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, we thought it might be helpful to consider the context of his arrest. Here is a list of Illinois governors tainted by corruption. Complete with page numbers, the information is gathered by Beverley Scobell at Illinois Issues magazine and contained in The Illinois Governors: Mostly Good and Competent.

Only one governor, Len Small (1921-1929) was indicted while in office. In July 1921, he was indicted by the attorney general whose appropriation he had cut (page 196, new edition of Governors book). Charges were conspiracy and embezzlement of interest money during Small's second term as state treasurer. The criminal trial held in Waukegan in 1922 ended with an acquittal. One historian suggested jury tampering because after the trial, four jurors received state jobs.

Four governors were indicted after their terms ended:

• William Stratton (1953-1961) was indicted in 1964 for violating income tax laws. He was acquitted on tax evasion charges centered on campaign contributions (page 242)
• Otto Kerner (1961-1968) was convicted in 1973 of conspiracy, income tax evasion, mail fraud and making false statements on income tax returns. He served 7 months of a 3-year sentence, released on parole when lung cancer was diagnosed (page 250 of the new edition of Mostly Good).
• Dan Walker (1973-1977) was sentenced after pleading guilty to bank fraud, misapplication of bank funds and perjury in 1987. He served one and a half years of a 7-year sentence (page 272).
• George Ryan (1999-2003) was indicted the December following his term on charges of tax fraud, racketeering conspiracy and other and crimes related to his actions as secretary of state. He was convicted in 2006 and began serving a 6 1/2 year sentence in November 2007.

One other governor, Joel Matteson (1853-1857), would probably have been indicted under today's laws. In the last year of of his governorship, he engineered the Scrip Scandal (page 80, new edition), where he cashed again notes issued to build the I&M Canal that had been redeemed but not cancelled. The state Senate Revenue Committee indicted him in 1859, held a trial, convicted then reversed the decision and finally acquitted him. He finally repaid the state more than $250,000 ordered by Sangamon County Circuit Court in 1863.

Blagojevich arrested on corruption charges

Federal authorities arrested Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, in Chicago early this morning on charges of ongoing — and very recent — plans to personally benefit from, among various official acts, replacing President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. According to a 78-page criminal complaint by the U.S. attorney of the Northern District of Illinois, the conspiracy allegedly included threatening to withhold state aid for the Tribune Co. if it didn’t fire Chicago Tribune board members who were critical of Blagojevich. The allegations of corruption are long and shocking.

Here is the news release from the U.S. attorney’s office and the criminal complaint, first made available by the Chicago Tribune.

The governor is scheduled to appear in court before U.S. Judge Nan Nolan this afternoon.

We’ll learn more at 11 a.m. when U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to hold a news conference in Chicago. Stay tuned for more background and analysis about what the governor’s arrest means for state operations and for Obama's Senate seat.

Consolidation concerns

On one hand, good government groups and business executives are backing the state treasurer’s plan to narrow control of pension investments made on behalf of public employees. On the other hand, pension managers oppose the idea because of its potential cost and market losses.

Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias said the intent is to save money and to address ethical violations exposed during the federal probe surrounding Tony Rezko (see Operation Board Games background). The proposal would need approval from the General Assembly, which has been cool to various “consolidation” proposals after Gov. Rod Blagojevich merged many state agency functions in his first term. But Giannoulias said now is the time, considering the state’s need to free up some cash and to regain the public’s trust.

In a Chicago news conference Monday morning, Giannoulias pitched his “complete overhaul” of the state’s five pension systems for teachers, lawmakers, judges, state workers and university employees. He wants to merge three boards that oversee investments of those five pension systems and replace them with a single new fund, the Illinois Public Employees’ Retirement System. He shortened it to ILPERS.

Giannoulias said the consolidation could cost about $25 million upfront, but it also would save up to $80 million each year. According to his numbers, that includes $12 million saved from reduced administrative functions and up to $70 million saved from fewer fees paid to private investment firms.

Concerns
The Teachers Retirement System disagrees and pegs the cost of moving assets much higher at “hundreds of millions of dollars.” In a statement, TRS also said a consolidated investment board could make the systems less accountable to members and more vulnerable to influence of elected officials and “investment experts.”

Sen. Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican who serves as minority spokesman of the Senate Pensions and Investments Committee, doesn’t buy the estimated savings without seeing more details. He added that the state could save money by improving coordination between the five pension systems without consolidating them. However, he said he would have to give Giannoulias’ proposal a fair shake. “We cannot afford not to look at every possible efficiency and savings,” he said.

Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat who has sponsored similar pension reforms last year, questioned whether a single board would erase a system of checks and balances. He explained in his new blog: “I’m skeptical that bigger always means better when it comes to governing public finance. … Folding all the state retirement systems into one board doesn’t necessarily mean more accountability.”

He also questioned whether the creation of a mega-fund would translate into fewer opportunities for investment firms owned by women and minorities. Giannoulias’ spokesman said those concerns would be addressed in the upcoming legislation (it could be filed this month, according to spokesman Scott Burnham).

Schoenberg said he would welcome the chance to continue working on legislation that stalled last year. It would include similar ethics reforms, including prohibiting board members and their family members from working for firms that do business with the state. In other words, he supports most but not all of the plan.

“I would put consolidation in the icebox because it is likely to face difficult sledding in the legislature,” he said on his cell phone Monday.

Support
Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago, described Giannoulias’ legislation as “loaded with common-sense, realistic change that needs to happen,” including ongoing training and work experience requirements for the 13 new board members. As someone who has led reform efforts to curb Illinois pension debt, Msall spoke to the fears of existing state employees and retirees. During the news conference, he said: “No pensioneer, no retiree, not even existing state employees who are not yet retired, their benefits are not going to be changed as a result of this. That is a part of a challenge going forward for the state of Illinois, but it’s not addressed in this legislation.”

Cindi Canary, director of the Campaign for Political Reform and a force behind the state’s upcoming pay-to-play ban on state contractors, lauded the proposal’s demand for higher ethical standards and stricter disclosure requirements for board members. “This is a critically important first step and a model [of] how we try to do government differently and how we try to do government for the people,” she said during the news conference.

Other supporters include Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association and Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, both based in Chicago. And Blagojevich issued a statement saying the administration supports increasing efficiency and transparency of state government pension systems, "provided that all efforts are made to ensure the diversity among investment managers and protect the interest of annuitants."

Partial restorations and restored hope

State parks could remain open, but historic sites definitely would not. And substance abuse treatment services would receive the $55 million they need to remain active and to secure federal matching funds. But the state attorney general, other constitutional officers and legislative commissions weren’t so lucky.

In short, the battle ain’t over, even though the legislature’s annual fall veto session is.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Thursday restoring, according to his office, about $180 million that had been vetoed as part of his $1.4 billion budget cuts earlier this year. That leaves about $55 million unfunded from what the legislature wanted to restore this fall. The General Assembly approved a plan to transfer money from special dedicated funds to save state parks and historic sites, programs that deal with substance abuse and developmental disabilities, and funding for constitutional officers. Blagojevich approved half of the plan in September, leaving the restorations up in the air. And some of the budget restorations for state parks could remain up there, as the governor left himself some space to maneuver.

Blagojevich announced the $180 million in restorations minutes after the House and Senate adjourned their annual fall session Thursday evening. Through a news release, Blagojevich said certain special funds are restricted by the federal government and could jeopardize future federal funding if swept.

“If you discount those federal funds that are restricted, then that only leaves a certain amount available,” said Katie Ridgeway, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich’s budget office.

She added that the bigger picture is that these cuts are accompanied by a $2 billion deficit, for which the governor introduced a four-point economic plan. The House started early Thursday by discussing one part of the plan to let the governor reserve up to 8 percent of the budgets approved for numerous state services, but the bill wasn't called for a vote. Ridgeway said the governor will continue to work with the legislature to find more agreeable language, but she would not specify whether those changes would address some lawmakers’ concerns that the governor could withhold 8 percent of the budgets for some state services and not others. (See background here.)

The legislature is not supposed to return until January 12, meaning the governor’s economic plan won’t advance unless Blagojevich calls lawmakers back into special session before then.

What’s funded by SB 1103:
The governor’s release says he restored $175.9 million, much of it for substance abuse treatment centers, front-line staff for the Department of Children and Family Services and a reduced fare subsidy for the Chicago-area Regional Transportation Authority. Other beneficiaries include state parks front-line staff, water and soil conservation, higher education, mental health and developmental disabilities.

What’s not funded because of the veto of SB 1103:
The governor did not spare the $2.4 million for the Historic Preservation Agency’s front-line staff, which means the 32 employees already laid off won’t get their jobs back. And without the staff, about a dozen historic sites scheduled to close Nov. 30 will close for the remainder of the fiscal year, says Dave Blanchette, agency spokesman.

Another significant portion of the $55 million vetoed by the governor is from Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. Functions affected range from personnel to state law enforcement and contributions to the state employees’ retirement system.

The attorney general’s chief of staff, Ann Spillane, didn’t buy the governor’s explanation and said through e-mail that the restorations would have come from “money generated exclusively through this office’s litigation — and Illinois law requires that this money can only be used by the attorney general’s office. The governor’s decision to veto this funding is nothing more than petty politics. And his explanation for the veto is false. In this current economic crisis, when the attorney general’s office is working to help Illinois homeowners stay in their homes, it is a disgrace to let the governor’s politics get in the way of this critical work.”

Ridgeway would only say that the governor made difficult decisions and set a priority of protecting core services.

The secretary of state, also, maintained significant losses. Others include the lieutenant governor, the treasurer and the auditor general. The legislative branch wasn’t immune, either. Cut were budget items for legislative research, printing and audits, as well as funding for two commissions that project economic activity and review the governor’s administrative rules.

A brighter spot: New leaders
Thursday was a historic day in the Senate. Wednesday night’s rare, simultaneous internal elections of new leaders for the Democrats and Republicans undoubtedly will change the dynamic of leadership in the Capitol. Sen. John Cullerton of Chicago is slated to become the next Senate president and leader of the extraordinarily large Democratic Caucus. Across the aisle, Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont will replace Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson as the first female caucus leader of either party. They start in January.

The mood in the Capitol Thursday felt lighter. People smiled, mingled, debated some serious legislation and congratulated each other. Perhaps the most touching moment came when Watson returned to the chamber floor for the first time since experiencing a stroke last month. Shortly after the stroke, he announced he would not seek re-election as minority leader but would continue to serve as a senator.

He spent four days in the hospital, 18 days in recovery and numerous days in therapy, but on Thursday, he Watson was walking, talking, laughing and crying. He broke down as he recalled the way he felt when he realized he had the symptoms of a stroke: slurred speech and difficulty walking. “I thought of [former Sen.] John Maitland and my dad,” he said, unable to finish his sentence through the tears. Both had serious strokes with lasting side effects.

Watson is undergoing intense therapy three hours a day, three days a week. He said he had low cholesterol, low blood pressure and didn’t smoke, although his family history increased his risk. He urges awareness. “People need to take care of themselves. They need to recognize that something like this can happen at any time. You need to take care of your diet, take care of your weight, take care of your blood pressure, take a baby aspirin every day.”

The previous night, Watson cast an important vote for Radogno over Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale. “She was my deputy leader,” Watson said. “I supported her and wanted to see her become leader. She did such a good job on the campaign side and on the policy side. And that’s important.”

Radogno, a moderate Republican, says she sees her role as a continuation of Watson’s. “One of the things that Sen. Watson did very well is keep the caucus together. And I think that’s probably the primary job that the leader has because when you’re in the minority, if you’re fractured, you’re even less effective. It’s going to be a challenge because we do have diversity within our caucus, but I think everyone in our caucus recognizes that we need to stick together. And I think it’ll be easy for us to do on both issues that are in the forefront right now, which are the tax issues and fiscal issues.”

We’ll have much more from Radogno in the coming months of Illinois Issues magazine.

Cullerton says he, too, will foster a more inclusive atmosphere in the Capitol, where the governor, House Speaker Michael Madigan and outgoing Senate President Emil Jones Jr. have been in years of gridlock. “I’m not going to fight with the speaker. I’m not going to fight with the governor. And hopefully, I can be a good go-between to try to bring about positive change.”

He already appointed Sen. James Clayborne, the runner-up in the Democrats’ internal elections, as his majority leader to signal a fresh start. “Even though we ran against each other, we remain friends,” Cullerton says of Clayborne. “He’s a very talented guy. He comes from another part of the state from me, and we need to make sure the downstaters feel like they can work with a leader from Chicago, which we can. So it’s important to have him as a person and the symbolism of having somebody from downstate in majority leader.”

Watch Illinois Issues for more about Cullerton’s first priority: advancing a long-awaited capital bill.

Keep your sights on 2011

The state’s bipartisan legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability projected the state’s budget shortfall between $2 billion and $3 billion for the current fiscal year, FY09. And that striking deficit includes a one-time windfall when the state collects on a lease of the 10th casino license.

Yesterday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich pitched a four-point plan. Tonight, Rep. Gary Hannig, the chief budget negotiator for House Democrats, said he plans to discuss legislation Thursday that would advance one of the governor’s proposals. (Watch for the new language in an amendment of SB 2083.) It would allow the governor to withhold 8 percent of general revenue funds in “reserve.”

This and previous governors have applied that power to state agencies under the governor’s control in the past, but the new proposal would expand that authority and allow Blagojevich to impound some additional funding for K-12 education, higher education and state pension funds. It also potentially would allow Blagojevich to collect some tax revenues typically shared with city and county governments.

The same power to reserve up to 8 percent also would be extended to other statewide officers. The governor already applied a 3 percent reserve on state agencies and cut funding for constitutional officers earlier this year. The potential for further reserves begs the question of how state managers would be able to cut more programs or institute more furlough days than they already have.

Hannig said the current proposal also would allow Blagojevich to apply the reserves unevenly, potentially requiring 8 percent reserves, say, for higher education but not for K-12 education. The House will have to flesh out the details of this serious but controversial proposal, Hannig said. “Our view in the House is in light of the fact that we’re scheduled to go home tomorrow and not return until January 12 that we shouldn’t just ignore the governor’s proposal.”

Hannig pointed out: “The language says he may. So he may not.”

Hannig’s budget negotiating counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Donne Trotter, agreed. “He doesn’t have to do this against any agency. This is an alternative to us getting dollars from the feds or selling the license, so it’s a contingency plan.”

While the House could move the bill Thursday, Trotter said the Senate could still act on it by week’s end or in the first two days of session in January.

Either way, the FY09 budget is in bad shape, and the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability projected that FY10 will be worse. The first thing that sticks out, Hannig said, is a massive payment to the state’s five pension systems for public employees. He anticipates an additional $1.2 billion payment, and if revenue projections are accurate, the state might not even garner $1.2 billion in growth for FY10.

“If we don’t do something, we may not even be able to make the pension payment next year, let alone anything else,” Hannig said.

To avoid ending on a bad note, take the advice of Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. He spoke to Statehouse reporters during a national conference in North Carolina last week and said: Look forward to FY11, when things actually might start to look better. Hannig agreed with that projection and compared post-FY11 to a spring day after the long, dark days of winter.

Turn of events

Democratic Rep. Art Turner of Chicago is one of three finalists to lead the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The center plans to replace Mike Lawrence, the executive director who retired, in January.

The other two finalists include veteran journalists, William Freivogel, director of SIUC’s School of Journalism and a longtime journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and David Yepsen, a political columnist with the Des Moines Register.

Matt Baughman, who has been with the institute for a decade in various capacities, is serving as interim director.

Turner, who is in Springfield this afternoon for an abbreviated fall session of the General Assembly, says if chosen, he would resign his legislative post and move with his family to Carbondale. We'll have more soon.

Nervous energy and four-point plans

The national economic doom and gloom is starting to cast ominous clouds on existing state budget problems, leading Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other state officials to propose some ways to adjust. So far, it seems as though the state is running in place. There’s no indication that the General Assembly and the governor are going to start getting along any time soon to follow through on some of these proposals. The legislature returns for its annual fall session Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is still up in the air.

The governor's proposal foreshadows this month's closure of numerous state parks and historic sites, as well as reduced human services, that resulted from $1.4 billion in budget cuts. While the first two rounds of money already have been transferred from special dedicated funds to help restore some of the funding, the governor hasn’t yet signed legislation authorizing the spending. He has until December 5 before it automatically becomes law.

In the meantime, Blagojevich released a four-point plan that includes borrowing money, asking the feds for some bailout money and withholding more state money. Announced through a news release, part of the plan would create a new law for emergency budget management. He seeks authority to hold as much as 8 percent of general revenue funds in reserves for state agencies, education, higher education, state pension funds and local government funding. That would be on top of the 3 percent reserves he already requested. Another portion of his new plan seeks as much as $3 billion in federal aid during the next three years.

Part of his proposal also relates to Comptroller Dan Hynes’ idea announced last week. It would allow the state to borrow money, which is nothing new. But instead of having to pay back the loan by the end of the state’s fiscal year (June 30), the state would have 12 calendar months to repay the loan. The premise is that because the comptroller would have more time to repay the loan, his office would have more flexibility in cash flow.

The proposal would need legislative approval by a three-fifths majority of each chamber so it could immediately take effect.

Right now, cash flow is a huge problem because the state can’t pay about $4 billion of its bills, including Medicaid payments to medical providers. The comptroller wrote in a letter to state officials to announce that the backlog could top $5 billion and inflict 20-week delays for payments by March. “To characterize this as an imminent crisis risks understatement,” he wrote.

Hynes’ spokeswoman, Carol Knowles, says the comptroller’s office is getting continuous complaints that unpaid bills threaten everything from police officers being unable to fill their gas tanks to prisons being unable to pay their vendors for food deliveries. Bills are paid as cash flows in, but the comptroller’s office also has to have enough money on hand to pay such long-term obligations as employee payroll and general state aid for schools. “It’s a very delicate balancing act,” she says, “and the larger the bill backlog is, the more difficult it is to answer the emergencies when they arise because it gets to the point where everything is an emergency.”

Senate Republicans describe the governor’s four-point plan as “begging and borrowing.” Sen. Christine Radogno, deputy minority leader from Lemont, says while she could support further belt tightening for state agencies or regular short-term borrowing as legitimate cash-management tools, she wants specifics that aren't available from the governor's press release. And she says she has concerns about short-term borrowing that crosses over into the next fiscal year, as proposed by Hynes. “I’m certainly willing to look at any proposal of the comptroller or the governor, but we just need to be careful not to fool ourselves and the taxpayers,” which, she says, are the same taxpayers who are footing the bill for the federal government’s $700 billion bailout package approved last month.

Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones Jr., says he acknowledges that the state is facing a huge crunch, and he looks forward to hearing more details as they come out. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, says only that the plan is under review.

Education re-reform
Also Tuesday, a new diverse, well-funded education policy group announced efforts to issue comprehensive reforms by this spring, although it’s unlikely that the group’s recommendations would be ready to go by the time the legislature is supposed to enact a state budget for fiscal year 2010.

Founders of Advance Illinois, a nonprofit based in Chicago, plan to travel around this state and others to gather evidence during the next six months. The goal is to take a broad and long-term view of ways to reverse some of Illinois’ worst academic trends that hamstring its students and workforce.

“The bottom line is … that Illinois schools are performing, despite the fact that we’re the fifth largest economy in the country, at an average to below-average level,” says Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois and sister of state Sen. Heather Steans of Chicago. “On any academic measure or any attainment measure you might care to look at, we’re trailing the nation. At all grade levels in all subject areas.”

Ellen Alberding, president of the Joyce Foundation, serves on the board and says the Chicago-based foundation funds educational policy efforts throughout the Midwest. Illinois’ condition sticks out, she said after the news conference, because a large gap exists between educational attainment of low-income minority students and higher-income white students. According to information released by the group Tuesday, Illinois ranks 6th in the nation for having one of the largest achievement gaps between African-American and white students. Alberding also said she was struck by a study of Chicago students that shows only 10 percent of eighth graders who score well on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test later score 20 or above on the ACT, which indicates that most students in the study were ill prepared for higher education.

“It’s outrageous that the state has its expectations so low,” she said.

The Joyce Foundation supports the new effort along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, the Grand Victoria Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the McCormick Foundation and the New York-based Wallace Foundation.

Board members include a vast political mix, starting with co-chair and former Gov. Jim Edgar. The Republican unsuccessfully pitched a plan in the 1990s to reduce local property taxes and increase state income taxes as a way to reform education funding. He said Tuesday that he still believes the state relies too heavily on local property taxes to fund education, but the group would not focus on funding reforms. It only would announce recommendations for funding reforms as part of a more comprehensive plan, he said.

Deflecting the focus away from the question of whether taxes would increase, however, will be a challenge.

The other co-chair is former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, the Democratic brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and a rumored candidate for governor in 2010. Also among the board members is former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican who helped lead negotiations between Blagojevich and legislative leaders to draft a capital program for road and school construction projects. That plan stalled. Former state Sen. Miguel del Valle, a Democrat and current city clerk of Chicago, used to chair the Illinois Senate Education Committee. Del Valle said Tuesday that Advance Illinois “is the most promising” of all the efforts he’s seen to reform public education.

Veto session preview

As we head into the first week of the Illinois General Assembly’s fall session, the biggest questions are who will be selected to lead the Senate Democrats and the Senate Republicans? Leaders of both caucuses are stepping down, opening the door for a rare change in leadership that has potential to drastically change the atmosphere in the Capitol.

See this month’s Illinois Issues magazine for information about the Democratic race for Senate president.

So far, two Senate GOP members are openly seeking the minority leadership position, while two others are mentioned as potential candidates if the caucus can’t agree. Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont and Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale both represent suburban Chicago districts in mostly DuPage and Will counties. Both have described themselves as fiscal conservatives who can work with different factions within the Illinois Republican Party. And both say they have a good understanding of issues throughout the state.

Radogno says she’s “definitely” interested in becoming Senate minority leader. Although she says she had absolutely no intentions to become a career politician, she now fills the caucus’ No. 2 position and serves as its budget negotiator. She also ran for statewide office in 2006 but lost to Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, the current state treasurer.

Radogno didn’t agree or disagree with former Gov. Jim Edgar’s statements that the Illinois GOP needs to move toward the middle for it to revive its stature. She simply says: “I think what we need to focus on are the issues that we all agree on. And those, quite frankly, are the very ones that are on voters’ minds right now, and that is jobs, the economy and policies that allow people to succeed. That would be making sure they have job opportunities so that people can make their own way.”

Her name also has been mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2010. Radogno doesn’t rule it out. “It’s hard to never say never. Right now, my interest is clearly legislative,” she says, adding, however, that, “it may make it more challenging to run for governor if I were leader.”

Dillard also uses the word “definitely” in describing his interest in the position. “I definitely know that I am the best person to move my caucus and the state’s business forward in Springfield.” He says the principles in which he ran Edgar’s office as his chief of staff and in which he used to run the DuPage Republican Party are the blueprint for the way he would operate as a Senate leader.

Dillard sought the leadership position before, but the caucus selected outgoing Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson. Watson announced last week that he would not seek the position after having a minor stroke last month.

“Sen. Watson was my friend. And I tried to help him in any way that I could, from fundraising on down,” Dillard says, but, “no matter who the new Senate leader is in the Republican Caucus, it is imperative that we remain cordial and cohesive because when you only have 22 members, you have no room for dissention.”

Some dissention did occur when Dillard, who says he has a personal relationship with President-elect Barack Obama, appeared in a TV ad for the Democrat during the campaign season. But Dillard cites his relationship with Obama as helping to break the logjam of recent ethics legislation, in which Dillard says he was one, with Comptroller Dan Hynes’ leadership, who encouraged Obama to call Senate President Emil Jones Jr. to call the bill for a vote. Dillard also cites his legislative work with Obama to revise the state’s death penalty statute.

Dillard also won’t rule out a run for governor, but he says he won’t run in 2010. “I’m 52 years old. I have time.”

Two other names mentioned as possible compromise GOP candidates are Sen. Dave Luechtefeld of downstate Okawville and Sen. Dale Risinger of Peoria.

We’ll see if commitments to the leadership candidates solidify this week and next. Republicans have an internal caucus meeting scheduled for November 19.

Veto session
The Illinois Senate will return to the Capitol on Wednesday and is scheduled to meet through Friday, although that could change. The House canceled the first week of session and won’t convene until November 19. Action during the so-called veto session could be somewhat light but significant if the General Assembly considers allocating more money to such state agencies as the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Veto session serves as a good time to review the state’s fiscal realities, including whether revenues match up to spending. They don't, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. They're $800 million out of whack. This comes on top of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $1.4 billion budget cuts that are causing state parks and historic sites to close this month, although the General Assembly approved ways to restore about $221 million to keep those sites open and to save some social services from closing. Blagojevich still hasn’t signed Senate Bill 1103, which would release the money. He has until December 5 to do so before it automatically becomes law.

Tenaska update
Watch for Senate action that would take one more step toward the state’s first clean-coal power plant. Senate Bill 1987 would kick off a study to estimate the cost and design of the proposed Taylorville Energy Center, but it also would set the framework for the state’s long-term energy portfolio. Future power plants would have to use Illinois coal and advanced technology to reduce pollution, and the door would open for a system of carbon tax credits as one more way to reduce pollution. Tenaska Inc., a Nebraska-based energy company, announced today that it already purchased half of the land for the energy center.

Medical malpractice update
This Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court will consider the controversial medical malpractice law that limits the amount juries can award for pain and suffering caused by malpractice. See the background here.

My update
I’ll be on an airplane headed for North Carolina for the annual CapitolBeat conference for Statehouse reporters Thursday, so, unfortunately, I’ll catch up with these updates next week.

10-4 on 11/4/08

I’m about post-election analyzed out for the week. You can listen and/or watch my interpretations and the perceptions of other political junkies from panels and interviews in which I participated this week:

• WILL-AM Focus 580
• The Illinois Government and Public Affairs luncheon with Gov. Jim Edgar and political scientist Kent Redfield, courtesy of the Illinois Channel
• WUIS 91.9’s State Week in Review (Scroll down to see the November 7 link.)

And here's a recap of the most common and obvious questions discussed:

What does President-Elect Barack Obama’s win mean for Illinois?

• Read Illinois Issues’ PRE-election analysis here. Stateline.org reporter Dan Vock reminds readers that while Illinois officials form their wish lists, this state won’t get its fair share of construction dollars or other earmarks unless the state General Assembly and the governor finally approve a capital plan. Also, Obama has "railed against earmarks," Vock writes.
• In the next year, we'll also watch for Obama’s presidency to affect Illinois tourism and Illinois scrutiny. And he could increase awareness about life in urban areas, as well as the effort to protect the Great Lakes and, maybe, just maybe, the effort to bring FutureGen to Mattoon. Whether that all translates into more money for Illinois, however, will be interesting to watch.
  
• If Obama continues to recruit Illinoisans to his cabinet in Washington, D.C., then the vacancies left by those state and Chicago officials will enhance the domino effect already in play.
• Obama ’08 completely changed the ground game and the technological savvy required of political campaigns.

What is the future of the Illinois GOP?
Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar says his party needs to move toward the center, particularly when recruiting gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates. That’s with the understanding that some politicians should continue representing their conservative Illinois districts.

Edgar also says the thing that concerns him the most is that to be a viable political party nationally, the GOP has to secure the Hispanic vote. “We’re going to have to show a little more sympathy and understanding and try to bring Hispanics in more party roles and run them for office and show that we appreciate them being part of the Republican Party.” Either way, the state GOP will have to overcome perceptions of the national Republican Party, which Edgar says took most of the blame in the court of public opinion for killing immigration reforms a couple of years ago.

Political scientist Paul Green of Roosevelt University says the Democratic wave rippling through the nation is sustainable, and it’s not exactly created by what the Democrats are doing. “It’s what the Republicans are not doing. You have a Republican Party that’s fighting against itself.”

He, like Edgar, says the middle is where the GOP needs to aim if it wants to attract and retain new individuals in Cook and Lake counties. He points to the reelection wins of two moderate Republicans in the Chicago suburbs: Rep. Rosemary Mulligan of Des Plaines and Rep. Beth Coulson of Glenview. Both survived targeted races. “And they’ve been able to withstand the Democratic Party because their issues and their positions are much more aligned with the people living out there,” Green says.

He adds that his philosophy on what the Republicans should do resembles what he wrote for Illinois Issues in 1978: Downstate holds the key to victory. Right now, he says, downstate is irrelevant. If Democrats carry Chicago, suburban Cook County and a few of Chicago’s surrounding counties, then there aren't enough people downstate to help Republicans win a statewide election.

“So the Republican Party has to decide does it want to remain divided, or does it want to find itself back to where it used to be — a party of small government, lower taxes and business growth? If they do that, they have a chance to rebound. If they keep talking about abortion and guns and gays and stem cell research, they are going to keep losing.”

Will Con-Con 2008 turn into Con-Con 2010?
Read Wednesday’s post to see what Con-Con supporters say. They are unlikely to pursue legal action to reverse or redo Tuesday’s 68 percent “no” vote. But they likely could pursue legal action to clarify the process of future referenda.

Con-Con question remains unclear

The ballots are in, but legal concerns are ongoing. Sixty-eight percent of Illinois voters on Tuesday rejected the call for another constitutional convention. The results don't satisfy a group of supporters who still want clarification about the process of putting that question before voters, as constitutionally mandated every 20 years. At this rate, the 2008 question could drag out until 2010.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn says he is considering whether to file a new complaint over the handling of the referendum or to continue seeking the Illinois Supreme Court’s clarification on the issue. Quinn says voters in numerous counties did not receive their blue pieces of paper, as mandated by a judge last month.

From the beginning, Quinn and others who supported the call for a convention expressed concerns that the language was misleading, which was affirmed by two court decisions. He says if opponents can defeat this referendum, then opponents of future referenda could do the same.

“My major concern above all else is that this not become a precedent and a habit of the legislature when they hear about something they don’t like on the referendum ballot, that they put together an ‘explanation’ — in quote marks — to help the voters along, when, in fact, it’s designed to steer the voters against it,” Quinn says. “If that becomes a pattern of behavior in Illinois, then it really will be a blot on our democracy.”

The Chicago Bar Association, meanwhile, does not plan to file another lawsuit over the results of the referendum, says Steve Pflaum. He's the association’s general counsel and a partner with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. However, the association does plan to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to review a lower court’s opinion to determine whether the ballot was unconstitutional and whether the remedy of a so-called corrective notice was inadequate.

The association, like Quinn, wants to clarify the process. “Our primary objective at this point would be to try to establish the legal principals that govern these Con-Con referenda so that when we do it again 20 years from now that we won’t have this kind of confusion and these kinds of problems,” he says. He adds a big however. “If the court agrees with us that the separate ballot requirement that is expressly contained in the Illinois Constitution was violated here, then it’s quite possible that the court would conclude that it would be necessary to redo this Con-Con referendum.”

Pflaum estimated that the association wouldn’t file the appeal with the Supreme Court for another month. And if the high court ruled that the referendum had to be redone, he says it most likely wouldn’t happen until the 2010 General Election.

The association also is asking voters who did not receive their blue notices with their ballots to fill out affidavit forms to help plaintiffs gather evidence.

The Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution, which formed a well-funded campaign to defeat the referendum, issued this statement from its executive director, Nancy Kaszak, last night: “This campaign was a unique opportunity for organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum to come together and provide real leadership. Voters saw through the rhetoric and rejected opening up our state's foundational document to wholesale re-write. We look forward to working with leaders of every political persuasion to solve the challenges facing Illinois.”

The search for Obama's replacement

Gov. Rod Blagojevich will rely on his senior advisers to pick the best person to fill the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama. In a news release, the governor said that the “calendar won’t dictate our search.”

The appointee will serve until 2010, when the seat opens up for another six-year term.

The governor could choose anybody, ranging from himself to one of the Democratic members of the U.S. House to outgoing Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr. But Blagojevich told reporters in Chicago that he’s not interested in that job.

Speculators also have considered that Blagojevich would pick one of his potential gubernatorial opponents, including such state officers as Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Comptroller Dan Hynes or Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois’ director of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, also has been mentioned. But it’s all speculation about what an unpredictable governor would do. Illinois Issues magazine will have more in the coming months.

The Democratic wave — UPDATED again

Update: I was interviewed by WILL-am's Focus 580 this morning. Listen here.

There were two questions heading into Election Day in Illinois. The first was how far the Democratic wave would overcome traditionally Republican areas. The small tide in the Chicago suburbs swept away at least one and potentially two suburban Republican incumbents in the House. The Dems gained another open seat in Peoria. But Republicans also held on to a number of open seats and even gained one in southern Illinois. The Democratic majorities in both chambers, on the other hand, remain in tact. The second question was how the GOP would rebuild before 2010.

One change is that Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, who suffered a minor stroke in October, told his members Tuesday that he would not seek the leadership position again. We’ll consider who could take his place in another blog. The Senate’s makeup remains the same, with 37 Democrats and 22 Republicans. The Democratic Caucus, however, hasn’t unified to make use of its so-called supermajority in the past two years. The retirement of Senate President Emil Jones Jr. in January will open the door for change there, too.

The House Democratic Caucus increased its majority from 67 to 69 members out of 118. And they could gain one more, pending official results in what turned out to be a barn burner. If the Democrats gain 70 members, they're one member away from the magic number needed to approve major spending, borrowing and other legislation without Republican votes.

Keep an eye out for these official results:

• House 66: GOP Rep. Carolyn Krause is retiring. The race is still too close to call this morning, but Democrat Mark Walker leads Republican Christine Proncho, as of this morning. If Walker is declared the winner, among the dynamics in play was the “Obama factor,” where a record number of Democratic voters cast ballots for President-Elect Barack Obama of Chicago.

Two Republican incumbents lost to Democrats:

• House 85: Rep. Brent Hassert, a Romeoville Republican in Will County and a member of the House Republican’s leadership team, lost to Democrat Emily Klunk-McAsey. The Democratic campaign machine was in the works, with the help of the Obama factor; Hassert was active in gaming and revenue issues.
• House 43: Rep. Ruth Munson, an Elgin Republican, initially appears to have lost to Democrat Keith Farnham. A Green Party candidate, Dane William, got 3 percent of the vote. [UPDATE 5 p.m.: Munson's campaign office confirmed that the representative conceeded to Farnham this afternoon. The office cited the vote: Farnham's 12,589 to Munson's 12,911, a 322 difference. The county clerk will have to count provisional ballots and absentee ballots within 14 days of the election.] Munson currently serves on committees related to business, technology, trade and pensions. The district is vulerable to the Democratic wave. A Democrat took the Senate district from Republicans when former Sen. Steve Rauschenberger retired. And the House district adjacent to Munson’s transferred from Republicans to the Democrats when Rep. Fred Crespo defeated veteran GOP Terry Parke in the last election. The Obama factor was at play.

Democrats also won this open seat, most recently held by a Republican:

• House 92: GOP Rep. Aaron Schock ran for Congress and won that seat last night. He will be replaced by Democrat Jehan Gordon, despite some alleged credibility problems released about the candidate during the campaign. Gordon beat out Republican Joan Krupa. Before Schock, the Peoria district historically was Democratic territory.

Two Senate Democratic incumbents hung on to win close races:

• Senate 59: Sen. Gary Forby, a Benton Democrat in the southern tip of Illinois. He barely won against Republican Ken Burzynski, the brother of state Sen. Brad Burzynski of Clare. It was the most expensive race for legislature in the state. The Campaign for Political Reform reported that a total of more than $2 million was spent by both sides. Forby fought hard during the electricity rate debate but was the sacrificial lamb in a political move by Senate President Emil Jones Jr. That opened the door for his Republican opponent to say Forby failed to get lower Ameren rates for his constituents.
• Senate 42: Sen. Linda Holmes, an Aurora Democrat, kept her seat. It was another expensive race exceeding $1.5 million, according to the Campaign for Political Reform. Holmes edged out Terri Ann Wintermute of Bolingbrook. Holmes took over the suburban seat when Republican former Sen. Ed Petka retired; Holmes got a lot of financial support from Sen. John Cullerton, one of the Democrats in the running to replace retiring Senate President Jones.

Two Republican incumbents held on in relatively close races, despite the Obama factor:

• House 17: Rep. Beth Coulson, a Glenview Republican in northern Cook County, and active voice for human services and environmental issues. She pulled out the win.
• House 46: Rep. Dennis Reboletti barely won in 2006. He took the seat after former Rep. Lee Daniels retired.

More Republicans filled three open seats vacated by the GOP:

• House 48: GOP Rep. Jim Meyer is retiring. Republican Michael Connelly won the race against Democrat Joe Heneghan.
• House 96: GOP Rep. Joe Dunn is retiring from the DuPage and Will County district that includes Naperville. Republican Darlene Senger barely beat out Democrat Diane McGuire in a race where about $1 million was spent.
• Senate 26: GOP Sen. Bill Peterson is retiring from the seat, which represents the northwest suburbs of Chicago in Lake and McHenry counties. Republican Dan Duffey comfortably won against Democrat Bill Gentes.

House Republicans gained one seat from the Democrats:

• House 107: Democratic Rep. Kurt Granberg retired. He'll be replaced by Republican John Cavaletto, who challenged Granberg in a tight race in the last election. Cavaletto defeated Democrat Patti Hahn Tuesday.
  

Illinois’ Obama
Personal story: I have a distinct memory of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama. When I worked as a health reporter in Decatur, Obama visited a local community college during his first year as a U.S. senator. He met with military veterans and talked about their health care, among other things. After the event, Obama made himself available to a handful of reporters. He answered our questions, and then most of the reporters except me said thanks and walked away. I asked for one more question. He said I could ask as many as I wanted and suggested we walk into a neighboring room so he we could hear each other better. We walked into the next room, and he pulled two folding chairs over for us to sit. Except he turned his chair around so that he straddled the chair and rested his elbows on its back. He stayed until I asked all of my questions. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his exact answers. But what stuck out were his mannerisms and his willingness to answer as many questions as I had. No staffers tried to cut off the conversation and whisk him away to his next appointment.

Some of my fellow reporters haven’t had as good of luck when trying to break through the communications lines of Obama’s presidential campaign. I can only hope that a President Obama would remain as genuine, considerate and open as he was in the that instance.