* 12:00 Noon - Senate GOP Leader Frank Watson calls for Attorney General Lisa Madigan to get off the sidelines and provide some guidance. From a press release…

Illinois Democrats need to take responsibility for jeopardizing the enactment of “pay-to-play” reforms, according to Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson, and join Republicans in getting the anti-corruption laws on the books. Watson is seeking a formal opinion from Attorney General Lisa Madigan to speed the constitutional questions that now surround the issue. […]

Just another week remains in what many legal and constitutional experts consider the deadline for action by the Illinois Senate. Democrat Senate President Emil Jones has refused to convene the Senate within 15 calendar days of the House of Representatives’ vote to enact House Bill 824, as required by the Constitution.

“A formal opinion from the state’s top legal officer should carry some weight with Senator Jones and Democrat Senators,” Sen. Watson said. The Attorney General has indicated in media reports that failing to act with 15 days “invites lawsuits” that put the ethics reforms at risk.

“We’d like to see that in a formal opinion, that makes the record clear,” Watson said. In his letter to the Attorney General, Watson included specific instances where the Senate has in the last month received the necessary paperwork from the House of Representatives and acted upon it promptly, in accordance with the Constitution and past practices of the chamber. “The record has already been established,” Watson said.

* In other breaking news, AFSCME won a similar lawsuit before, so it is trying again today. From a press release…

AFSCME, PRISON WORKERS, ELECTED OFFICIALS FILE SUIT TO STOP PONTIAC CLOSURE

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 filed suit this morning in Livingston County, seeking a court order to prevent Governor Rod Blagojevich from carrying out his threat to close the maximum-security Pontiac Correctional Center. […]

In its filing, AFSCME argues that the governor and his Department of Corrections have no authority to close the Pontiac prison, which is fully funded in the current state budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Blagojevich.

“The General Assembly passed a budget and the governor signed it into law. We’re asking the court to ensure the governor follows that law, which directs the state to operate Pontiac,” AFSCME director Bayer said. […]

The complaint notes that closing the facility would result in the loss of some 600 jobs—causing irreparable harm to employees and their families—while making the dangerously overcrowded Illinois prison system even less safe. […]

AFSCME prevailed with a similar complaint in 2002 when it won a court order barring then-Governor George Ryan’s planned closure of the Vienna Correctional Center.

“AFSCME took legal action to make certain that George Ryan respected the budget process, followed the will of the General Assembly, and couldn’t just close a facility on a whim,” Bayer said. “We’re going to hold Rod Blagojevich to the same standard. He’s not above the law.”

Today’s action by the union comes a day after the state legislature’s bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted 9-0 to reject the Pontiac closure plan. COGFA will release a full written report detailing its recommendation by Sept. 24.

The governor’s office hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit so couldn’t comment.

* Meanwhile, I told subscribers a bit about this yesterday…

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is calling on Secretary of State Jesse White to redraft the language of this year’s Con-Con ballot question because it is “biased” and therefore “illegal,” his legal adviser said yesterday.

Quinn, a vocal proponent of convening a constitutional convention in 2010, filed an administrative petition with White yesterday, requesting that he strike a sentence from the ballot that recounts the outcome of the 1988 election (the last time the electorate had the opportunity to call for a Con-Con).

The bolded sentences in the SoS’s language is what Quinn wants removed…

This proposal deals with a call for a state constitutional convention. The last such convention was held in 1969-70, and a new Constitution was adopted in 1970. The 1970 Illinois Constitution requires that the question of calling a convention be placed before the voters every 20 years. In 1988 the electors rejected the call for a constitutional convention, with 75% voting against calling a convention and 25% voting in favor of calling a convention. If you believe that the 1970 Illinois Constitution needs to be revised through the convention process, vote “YES” on the question of calling a constitutional convention. If you believe that calling a constitutional convention is not necessary, or that change can be accomplished through other means, vote “NO” on the calling of a constitutional convention.

From Quinn’s office…

“We think that that statement there is … a subtle way of suggesting that supporting Con-Con is a fringe position,” said Sean Vinck, Quinn’s legislative counsel. “We just want a real simple question: ‘Are you for or against Con-Con.’”

*** UPDATE 4:41 pm *** From Quinn’s spokesman…

(T)he entire “explanation of proposed call” paragraph is illegal because the election code does not authorize it. My concern is that our argument is being unfairly caricatured as simply an attempt to remove “one sentence”. We think the issue is much more profound.