* I’m in favor of redistricting reform. In fact, I’ve often said and written what Sen. Kirk Dillard was quoted as saying yesterday…
“The politicians should not be picking the people we represent. The people ought to pick us.”
But one of the problems with the Illinois Reform Commission’s proposal is that it turns the Supreme Court into a legislative body…
If the General Assembly fails to approve a third redistricting plan, then the Illinois Supreme Court must evaluate the third redistricting plan on statutory and constitutional grounds. If the plan satisfies statutory and constitutional requirements, it will be adopted. To invalidate the third redistricting plan, a two-thirds majority of the Court would have to find it legally infirm.
That kinda rubs me the wrong way.
And two hand-picked experts who testified before the Senate Redistricting Committee also had doubts about the IRC’s proposal…
Dr. Michael McDonald, an associate professor at George Mason University, said the [reform commission’s] proposal does “not have political neutral consequences.” He also said taking political affiliations out of the equation isn’t the answer.
Dr. Bruce Cain, a professor at the University of California-Berkely and director of the University of California Washington Center, said the proposal is “woefully inadequate in transparency requirements” and recommended greater public involvement and transparency.
Former commission chairman Patrick Collins then undermined all those reformers and legislative Republicans who have loudly demanded that the commission’s proposal be approved intact…
“What we propose here is not perfect. We had a very short time to put it together. It was a good faith effort. It has holes,” said Reform Commission Chairman Patrick Collins.
That’ll be our quote of the week. Oops.
* Meanwhile, I told you yesterday about a man who killed his mother-in-law soon after his parole from state prison. I told the story to point out how dangerous the governor’s new early release plan could be. Turns out, the alleged murdered wouldn’t have qualified for the new early release plan and the governor is not backing down. AFSCME, however, makes a good point…
“The Schmidt case clearly demonstrates the difficulty of predicting how any parolee will behave after they are released,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
True, but nobody can predict how almost anybody will behave.
* OK, I lied. I could’ve predicted this quote…
Some lawmakers said Tuesday they support the MAP grants and are willing to look for alternative funding sources. State Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria, said he believes money for MAP grants eventually will be restored.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to come up with the money,” he said. “There’s going to be some head scratching. . . . I think the will is there to do it.”
Risinger is a conservative Republican, but he has Bradley University in his district. He’s gonna be on the hot seat if a tax hike is proposed to fill that MAP grant gap. A whole lot of conservative Republicans represent university towns, actually so it’ll be interesting to see if they come up with any plans other than general “cut waste” and “eliminate corruption” stuff.
* And, finally, kudos to Anita Alvarez for putting the kibosh on Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch last week. Welch. you already know, was way out of line in his first press conference announcing the investigation into Chris Kelly’s death…
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez dispatched Welch an irate letter Sept. 15 basically asking him to “respectfully” shut up because there is an ongoing probe of Kelly’s death.
Alvarez contended such statements “could jeopardize the integrity of any investigation [into Kelly’s death] and pose a violation of Illinois Supreme Court rules … pertaining to the making of extra-judicial statements by government/law enforcement.”
…Adding… I had them ready to go, but then forgot about a few other quotables. Here’s the goofiest of the bunch…
Wasting no time in seizing on the apparent suicide of Christopher Kelly, who died Sept. 12, Sam Adam Jr. told reporters that Kelly’s refusal to plead guilty in Blagojevich’s case proves that the ex-governor did no wrong.
At next June’s trial: “Chris Kelly’s voice will speak louder from the grave,” Adam said. Kelly pleaded guilty to two criminal cases involving income tax fraud and fraud at O’Hare Airport. Kelly’s refusal to plead guilty in Blagojevich’s case shows Blagojevich was not involved in wrongdoing with Kelly, Adam argued.
This story about Sam Zell’s apparent use of the Cub sale to avoid taxes hits home…
By my estimate Tribune would have about a $720 million gain — the $740 million, less 95% of the $21 million Tribune paid for the Cubs in 1981. At a 40% federal-state combined rate, the gain would generate around $290 million in taxes. Instead, that money will go to Tribune’s creditors.
That would fund a lot of college scholarships.
And the last word goes to Alexi Giannoulias, who was responding to a report that Mark Kirk was Tweeting about a new website design around the same time he missed a floor vote on extending unemployment insurance…
“Congressman Mark Kirk can’t decide whether tens of thousands looking for work here in Illinois should be able to keep their benefits. Wherever you were tweeting from in Washington, Congressman, you should know there is a recession back here in Illinois and people are hurting. After all, it was your votes that helped put thousands of Illinoisans out of work to begin with,” said Giannoulias.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:01 pm:
==“What we propose here is not perfect. We had a very short time to put it together. It was a good faith effort. It has holes,” said Reform Commission Chairman Patrick Collins.==
Is this the same guy who in the summer came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets? I don’t recall any doubt or ambiguity expressed then.
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:11 pm:
I have to say that there are certainly some predictability measures that you cantake when evaluating prisoners and their behaviors etc.. certainly not an exact science but there are models. I worked for a company SAS and presented with them to IDOC ontheir parolee program to gain some predictive factors in parolees and what their triggers are etc… and there was no funding - never mind that it saved the state much $$$ and better use of their money… the state is consistantly closed off to new ideas and they hide behind funding
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:19 pm:
“What we propose here is not perfect. We had a very short time to put it together. It was a good faith effort. It has holes,” said Reform Commission Chairman Patrick Collins.
Like the ones in his head, obviously.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:21 pm:
Bradley University is not in Sen. Risinger’s district. Knox College, however, is in his district and Bradley University and Eureka College are both very close to his district. Bradley is in Sen. Koehler’s district and Eureka College in Sen. Rutherford’s.
- Bill - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:47 pm:
Good one by Alexi! Kirk might just tweet himself out of a job. First, he possibly jeopardizes troop security by tweeting on federal property and now this. The adult in his campaign should take away Kirk’s toys until after the election.
- Ahem...The REAL Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 12:53 pm:
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…was Tweeting about a new website design around the same time….
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Heaven help us all if it were actually Kirk who was redesigning the website instead of his Campaign staff.
Attackers must be pretty desperate if misconstruing Kirk’s Tweets is the best they can do to get press.
Oh, look…a kitty!
- DRG - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 1:22 pm:
Sam Adam Jr. may be very prophetic about the late Mr. Kelly voicing information during Blago’s trial. Who knows what the feds got from him before he left us. Not sure what he might have offered that would prove the ex-guv did no wrong. Seems there may be a hear-say ruling coming from Judge Zagle. R.I.P.
- Pete Giangreco - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 2:02 pm:
Mark Kirk is very talented. He can tweet while flip-flopping in mid-air, having voted both for and against unemployment benefits extensions in the past.
Apparently he’s more talented than his campaign staff, who cut and pasted the same lame comment here and on Progress Illinois.
- D.P. Gumby - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 2:32 pm:
The way things are going, that may be the high point of Alexi’s campaign!
- Bill - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 3:19 pm:
Pete must have a contract!
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 3:40 pm:
=======
Pete must have a contract!
=======
I hope so, and that it’s with Alexi because, boy, was he wrong on ALL points–except for repetition, which has an intended purpose.
- Quinn T. Sential - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 5:03 pm:
{But one of the problems with the Illinois Reform Commission’s proposal is that it turns the Supreme Court into a legislative body}
The SC turns itself into a legislative body through its interpretive rulings with some regularity, and the legislative branch is usually none too happy about it when they do.
They would be better off having an appointed body; with staggered terms, overlappuing the Governor’s term(s), with appointments coming from a variety of sources including both majority andminority parites
- Rob_N - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 5:17 pm:
Quinn,
Which branch of government is supposed to interpret the laws that are written by the legislature and enforced by the executive?
- Paul Frank - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 5:21 pm:
According to ISAC, Senator Risinger has 2,557 MAP recipients who live in his district. That ranks his district 18th among Senators with most MAP recipients. Some of those college students might go to school elsewhere, not just in his district.
- irving & ashland - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 5:49 pm:
I think the proposal is that the third plan is final and official unless the court invalidates it as unconstitutional or counter to statute. That’s normal judicial review.
Of course, I can easily see the Illinois Court approaching this in a political way and invalidating the third map for other reasons under cover of a ’statutory’ issue.
If anything, this would give a non-political redistricting committee two chances to get their map approved — if either the legislature or the court signs off, it’s good.
- CircularFiringSquad - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 5:58 pm:
I favor remap reform too
Perhaps Madigan and Cullerton could just appoint everyone to 10 years terms in 2010, save the expense of the remap, the $10 million+ for the “non-partisan” consultant, court fights, and four cycles of campaign expenses.
All would be right with the world.
- Quinn T. Sential - Wednesday, Sep 23, 09 @ 10:55 pm:
Rob_N,
The power of the court is to interpret the laws; as they were written, not to simply re-write them the way they wish they had been written, by reserving power to the state, for which neither the constitution, nor the people intended the state to have.