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* Biggest winners and biggest losers of the spring legislative session? Be specific and explain your answers in comments, please.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:36 am
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Biggest winner- Gun rights advocates. To get a pretty solid shall-issue law with preemption was a pipe dream a few months ago. Carry in Chicago has been unimaginable, but we got it.
Biggest Loser- Taxpayers. No action on state pensions. Our finances continue to smolder.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:38 am
Todd and the pro-CCW groups - big win, finally got a CCW bill passed
State retirees - well, they didn’t really win, but they got a several month reprieve
Madigan - both won and lost, depending on the bill … but overall more a loss due to the resounding rejection of his pension plan
IL taxpayers lost - more pork barrel spending this year the State can’t afford
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:44 am
Winners Phelps and Raoul. While coming from different points of view both managed to get copious amounts of press and name recognition has to be up. (could add Todd V. for press)
Losers P. Quinn. Did he gat anything he said he wanted?? All his veto’s got overridden. He tried to push through Pension stuff and failed. Tried to get may-issue no preemption CCW and Failed. It seems like everything he championed crashed and burned.
Comment by Mason born Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:45 am
Winner - Lisa Madigan. Primed for a solid primary challenge. I don’t see her father costing her more than 10% in a general and she still has room to spare at that.
Loser - Pat Quinn. His lack of legislative floor help is glaring to those inside-baseball types and his lack of ability is blaring in headlines.
Comment by New Name Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:47 am
Winner - Governor Pat Quinn - the man that was placed on this planet with “the mission to solve the pension crisis” - If he completes the “mission” or “his calling” than he is done, finito, toast - - even in his own words. So no pension fix, no accomplished mission - - he still has a job. sarcastically of course!
Comment by East Central Illinois Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:51 am
Winner- the gun lobby. even if PQ vetoes, they have what appears to be momentum to override it.
Losers-LGBT rights advocates. A total train wreck by a) not hiring lobsters till the last minute and b) having LGBT families in the gallery, waiting for a vote that never was called. Now the circular firing squad is out for my State Rep. Greg Harris, he deserves better.
Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:52 am
Winner - Governor Pat Quinn for his persistence on advocating for pension reform. He can’t do it alone.
Loser - Speaker Madigan for making Governor Quinn do it alone.
Another winner - Third airport people.
Loser - Mayor Rahm Emanuel cause I can’t think of one thing he won this time. Pension holiday. No. Pension reform. No. DePaul stadium. Yes, but no. Without the casino, definitely a no. Chicago-owned casino. No.
Comment by MrGrassroots Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:52 am
Winners: the low-income uninsured, AT&T, Com Ed, the natural gas companies, Southern and East-central Illinois (assuming those fracking jobs materialize and drinking the water doesn’t kill them), human services providers who might actually get paid sort of on time this year
Losers: whatever lobbying and PR firm or firms the marriage equality advocates hired, same-sex couples planning June weddings in Illinois, uncompromising environmentalists, would-be casino operators and the communities that wooed them, Speaker Madigan’s mystique
Winners by virtue of not losing: Local school districts, local governments, colleges and universities
Special mention: The ISRA/NRA. They won, but they won in court. In the legislature, they bit off more than they could chew. Sure, it’s a shall-issue bill, but a very restrictive one. Most of those restrictions were in the original Raoul bill and stayed there through the whole fight over Chicago and preemption.
Comment by Yossarian Lives Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 11:54 am
Winners: Todd V and Phelps. Got basically the bill that they wanted from the start. To the extent that Kwame was involved in negotiations, they rolled right over him.
At the end, they knew when it was time to be quiet so as not to alienate people voting on it. Todd could teach a course based on his performance on this one.
Losers: Speaker Madigan. It is now clear that his influence does not extend beyond the House, and the marriage bill served to either make him look as if he was opposed on the issue or simply lacked power to get it done. Either way, he loses.
Quinn is neither a winner nor a loser. He was never in the game. He came in looking irrelevant and he left the same way.
Comment by HenryVK Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:01 pm
Winners: From afar, I just can’t see any winners. I’m sure there are many “inside baseball” theories on why this or that legislator had a great session, but no “winner” is obvious to those of us on the outside.
I disagree that the gun lobby was a big winner. They already won the court case, all they had to do was hold their ground, which they did quite well. But all the crazy statements from the state association make them sound like losers. Too bad.
Loser: Quinn, without a doubt. I’m not a Bill Daley fan, but he is right, Quinn never once demonstrated any leadership this session. He might be able to blame the legislature for a few good sound bites on Sunday morning, but frankly everyone can see through that rhetoric. He should take his pension and go back to being a lovable gadfly. He can’t govern, that’s for sure.
Comment by anon sequitor Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:09 pm
Winner: Rich Miller.
Thank you for calling things as you see them during the end of session.
Some call that “not helping”.
Others call that doing your job, and doing it well.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:17 pm
Winners:
–Cullerton: showed he won’t roll over and will listen to his members first. More that he didn’t lose than he won however.
–Gun rights advocates (NRA?): they had a huge assist from the law, but that conceal carry passed while everything else didn’t?
–Progressives: while gay marriage might not have passed, it’s closer than ever and medical marijuana passed. All in all, not a bad.
–Taxpayers: Assuming SB1 would have been found unconstitutional (know not everyone agrees), that would have been billions more that taxpayers would have been on the hook for… no pension reform is a major issue, but considering that the one bill that many were pushing would probably be found unconstitutional, there is hope that a better solution/deal/policy can be found
–Trib Ed Board: this is what they wanted right? They threw more mixed messages on their pages that it confused everyone and they got the gridlock they wanted I assume. Now they can write 500 editorials about the mess in the state this summer without offering up any solutions other than cut everything and vote the bums out, a win-win if there ever was one.
Losers:
–Yeah he probably never loses, but Madigan lost more than he won
–Quinn: sort of goes without saying
–Rahm: dipped his toe in the water which was foolish, didn’t get anything he wanted so looks like a loser, if he sits on the sidelines he doesn’t end up here. Does he know what he’s doing, appears to be in way over his head. Also, how many more national publications are left to write nice things about him when everything is going down the tubes?
–Nekritz: only because of Friday where she seemed desperate.
–Unions: sure SB1 didn’t pass, but came dangerously close to having to take this to the courts. Seemed disorganized and all over the place during the process. Need to get their act together or they’ll lose next time.
Comment by From The 'Dale to HP Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:18 pm
Winners the legislators who retired
Comment by Flyer Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:30 pm
Biggest winner- Southern Illinois
Biggest loser- the rest of Illinois
Comment by Rail Sitter Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 12:44 pm
Winners - Electric and gas utilities
Losers - rate payers
Comment by Cal Skinner Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 1:03 pm
Loser–Squeezey
Comment by Anonymour Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 1:41 pm
Winners: ISRA/NRA and bill sponsors, hopefully southern Ill. workers and businesses realted to Fracking
Losers: Anti-CCW folks any Illinois businees that depends on bond rating financing and big loser the Tribune Editorial Board !! maybe they can write an essay on how irrelevant they’ve become !!!
Comment by railrat Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 1:43 pm
Winners - Republican Legislators. So marginalized that they are non-players, non-existant and don’t seem to mind all that much.
Loser - Governor Quinn. See above…
Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 1:47 pm
Winners: ComEd, Raoul,Phelps and Todd V for CCW, Bradley for fracking.
Runner Up: Nekritz didn’t finally succeed beyond the House, but distinguished herself tackling the number one issue in a bi-partisan way. She’s becoming a major player.
Losers: Madigan, being outmaneuvered by Cullerton. Illinois — because we still have no financially solid pension solution.
Runner-Up: ISRA for almost undermining Todd with ridiculous statements.
Comment by walkinfool Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 2:02 pm
Winners: Gun Advocates, ComEd and Ameren
Losers: Tax payers of Illinois, thanks to a truly incompotent Governor and Legislature
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 2:08 pm
Madigan, a loser? The zeitgeist around here seems to be that the Speaker is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. The pension bills that did not get passed this Spring were only a couple of endgame moves before checkmate. That will be the spin anyway.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 2:26 pm
Winner - Rep Bob Rita. Why become sponsor of a gaming bill that would ban campaign contributions as soon as the gov signs? Take the summer, raise oodles from the gaming industry. Pass it in the veto session.
Loser - Quinn never stood a chance to be a winner this session so should he be considered the biggest loser? Kind of like saying the guy who didn’t play the lottery was a loser.
Comment by Just Kidding Of Course Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 2:30 pm
Winners:
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association who formed the GROW Coalition and kept a very diverse group together for fracking
Electric and gas utility companies
Bradley, Phelps, and Nekritz in the House for leadership
Raoul, Kotowski, and Murphy in the Senate for leadership
LOSERS:
Tom Cross for his ill-timed announcement for AG with 2 weeks remaining in session that only further eroded his caucus’ position.
Illinois Chamber for their stupid gas tax idea. Are they tone deaf?
Quinn, Madigan, and Cullerton for their pension games
Taxpayers
Comment by dazed & confused Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 5:11 pm
Not an inaccurate answer by Anon @11:38 am. I would only suggest that so long as the Governor signs it into Law, that seriously-suffering Illinoisans with a variety of painful ailments who will benefit by a prescription of medical marijuana are also REAlly big winners. AND that Illinoisans and visitors hoping to travel more safely through our Home State, with other Drivers whizzing by even faster w/the 79 mph limit passed, (oh, that’s right, I MEANT 70) w/nearly 1000 people DECEASED on Illinois Roads just last YEAR alone, are surely also NOT winners after this session, also since they’d need to have a lousy hands-free device to even quickly call 911 on their cell phones and talk to someone since they’ve taken away THAT simple freedom for responsible drivers as well…!
Comment by Just The Way It Is One Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 8:10 pm
Winnera:
* Lou Lang for finally getting medical marijuana threw.
* Dan Kotowski for getting a puppy lemon law passed over the usually fatal Ag lobby opposition.
* House Republicans, the majority of whom opposed the Madigan pension bill but didn’t get any of the blame. Now the 24 NO voters keep their union support without paying any political price.
Losers:
* Lou Lang because his casinopalooza scheme again bit the dust.
* House Dems who went back on their pledges to unions in voting to emasculate pensions. they will never be trusted again.
Comment by reformer Tuesday, Jun 4, 13 @ 8:24 pm