* Carol Marin writes about a conversation between Sheila Simon, a member of the governor’s independent reform commission, and Steve Brown…

One of the interesting conversations Simon had last week was with Steve Brown, the longtime spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan. Brown’s criticism, something he says he has expressed many times, is that the reform seekers, by and large, haven’t ever contributed to a political campaign. “Kind of curious,” Brown said by phone Tuesday, “that people hold themselves out when they have never made a donation.”

“That was an interesting assessment to me,” Simon said. “I’m regarded as not being a political contributor and yet I think we are regular and active participants and not naive in anyway.”

Brown argues that with regard to the last two indicted Illinois governors, Ryan and Blagojevich, “neither of the two gubernatorial scandals would have been affected by limits.” But beyond that, he says, “If you talk to people who worked in limit systems, all they talked about was how much time they had to spend raising money.”

Though Simon disagrees with the first point, on the second she does not. “I watched dad go through elections with federal limits. I’m not saying it was fun. But you don’t run for election because it’s fun, you run because there’s something you want to accomplish in government.”

Actually, a search of the Illinois State Board of Elections site shows that Ms. Simon has made just two contributions which have been disclosed by campaigns, both for $25 to Lisa Madigan.

Sheila’s father, the late US Sen. Paul Simon, constantly complained about the money he had to raise for reelection. But Sen. Simon did support campaign contribution caps when he pushed an ethics reform bill in the 1990s. Then-state Sen. Barack Obama also favored caps at the time.

I posted a comment about Ms. Simon on the blog yesterday which referred to her unsuccessful bid for Carbondale mayor. Simon limited contributions during that campaign to just $50…

[Simon’s losing, contribution-capped campaign] would make her an expert, however. She’s also an expert in running as a reformer and being bashed by the local media as a Democratic Machine tool, even though her contributions were capped at $50 and her opponent was taking tons of help from the state GOP.

The editorial boards screaming loudest these days for reform are the same ones who dumped on just about every reformer candidate we’ve ever had. Just ask Glenn Poshard about the Chicago Tribune, for example.

This is about more than just legislation. It’s about changing attitudes. And the Trib and the Southern Illinoisan have had horrible attitudes.

The Tribune endlessly banged on Poshard for bending his own, self-imposed campaign contribution caps, while endorsing George Ryan - despite clear evidence that commercial drivers licenses were being sold in exchange for campaign contributions.

Until we get a better editorial corps in this state, I’ll be wary of limiting candidate spending [contributions] too much. I still support caps, but newspaper editorial boards are a prime reason to be suspicious.

* Meanwhile, GateHouse has a “fumigation bill” update…

As proposed last week by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), the bill targets nearly 3,000 state workers and members of boards and commissions who got their positions while Blagojevich and George Ryan served as governors. If Madigan’s bill becomes law, those workers can stay for another 60 days before they lose their jobs. During that time, Quinn could decide to keep the people in their positions.

Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said there’s “been some conversation between our staff and the governor’s staff” about changing the bill. He said Tuesday there’s been no agreement on the changes and refused to discuss it further.

Bob Reed, spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn, said the office is still reviewing House Bill 4450 and “may propose some changes,” but said it is too early to discuss them.

It’s very likely that the bill will eventually be changed.

* And the Aurora Beacon-News has an interesting back and forth over the stalled Plainfield hospital proposal, which involves reform commission member Edward Hospital CEO Pam Davis…

“It is unfortunate that Edward Hospital CEO Pamela Meyer Davis and the hospital continue to try every means possible to gain approval,” wrote Brickman, Finn and Mace [area hospital CEOs]. “Their latest antic in Springfield is to fire state staff and change the rules for approving new hospitals.”

The village of Plainfield wasted no time in responding. Acting Village Administrator Don Bennett fired off a letter to the editor that questioned the executives’ motivation.

“I think that they’re trying to, through the health facilities planning board, force geographical areas to come to their facilities, even though they may not either have the resources to handle it or the ability for your doctor to go to that facility,” Bennett said Tuesday.