22 Comments - Fire Ron Guenther - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 9:52 am: UI Trustees should be elected, not appointed. Another failure by Jim Edgar. - Yellow Dog - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 9:55 am: I’d add a couple more points to Wheeler’s analysis: - The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a case this fall considering whether bans on direct contributions from corporations and unions are legal. The “reformers” campaign contribution reform scheme might have to be redone entirely. - Privately, the “reformers” will all admit that they’d much prefer a system of public financing to a system of caps, which experience shows is full of as many holes as swiss cheese no matter how you construct it. Not only that, EVERY system of caps will naturally discriminate against challengers and favor wealthy, self-financing candidates. This is the chief reason President Cullerton says he opposes the low $5,000 caps, and he’s absolutely right. - “Reformers” portray the Iowa redistricting legislation as a panacea, but they couldn’t be more wrong: 1) As Senator Raoul points out, Illinois is much different than Iowa, because of its racial diversity; the Iowa system does not allow race to be considered as a factor when drawing legislative boundaries, and applied in Illinois, would certainly diminish Latino representation in the General Assembly and would likely diminish African American representation. That would violate the federal Voting Rights Act. 2) As CapitolFax has pointed out repeatedly, the perverse affect of creating more “competitive” legislative districts is that it makes it much less likely that Illinois will adopt big bipartisan legislation, like a much needed tax increase. 3) Because the Iowa system restricts districts from crossing county or municipal boundaries, it would increase parochialism within the legislature. When you no longer have lawmakers like Julie Hamos who represent the city AND Cook suburbs, or lawmakers who represent the Cook Suburbs AND Collar Counties, or the Collar Counties AND Downstate Counties, it becomes much more difficult to address regional and statewide issues. 4) If anyone at the Tribune editorial board bothered to actually READ the Iowa Plan, they’d know that while the computer draws the map, the legislature is not compelled to adopt it. In fact, if the legislature rejects three different maps, they get to draw it themselves. That, I would argue, is what’s most likely to happen anyway. Finally, let’s not ignore the fact that none of these changes would help us enact a morally and fiscally balanced budget this year, or even next year. - dupage dan - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 9:57 am: It sure has been hard to get good independent info re the reform efforts in this state outside of this blog. Thanks, Rich for linking us to this article. The GA sure didn’t do a good job of communicating what they were doing, and why, to us sidewalk slugs. I guess maybe we ain’t got nuff book larning to reckon that there polytician stuff. - UnQualified - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 9:59 am: Charlie Wheeler’s work brilliant? Come on, you really have set a low standard here. Compare Illinois regs versus any well managed state and you will find us lacking significantly. Limits on campaign financing, no where. Where is the money going? Sorry, you can’t look that up. You need to go find it somewhere… - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 10:10 am: Looks like Charlie actually did the reading. The problem was Blago, but for some reason Quinn’s Commission seemed to focus on the GA. Maybe Quinn was trying to leverage the leadership. He certainly abandoned his commission when the chips were down. - CircularFiringSquad - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 10:43 am: The very best part of the Wheeler piece is that is exposes the II Editor for being the total dunce that he is. Let’s also be honest, the reform panel is composed of folks with little or no real world experience in campaigns. Even Sheila Simon. Most are non political types who tend to think all donations are bribes or extortion. SubGub created the monster when he was still the little boy on the outside throwing stones and forgot to pull the plug when Blagoof was tossed. The campaign finance bill will only require candidates to spend MORE time raising money. Campaigns are not getting cheaper and candidates must rely on paid communications because the media only care about polls, name calling and end of campaign wrap ups. Coverage is getting slimmer and slimmer - I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 11:29 am: With UI Trustees Eppley & Schmidt throwing around names like Blago, Kelly, and Wyma, this UI admissions stuff takes on a whole new look. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 11:56 am: Many years after Paul Simon’s death don’t you think it time to let go of the whole Sheila “I’ll carry the mantel” Simon. Heck, Sheila couldn’t even win her hometown mayors race. So really, beyond a few old timers, who really cares what Simon’s daughter thinks? What’s next Roland’s daughter? - Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 12:20 pm: At the risk of being deleted and/or being repetitive, let’s give the Feds and all those hours of tapes just a little more time before we proclaim the GA as a whole pure as the driven snow. I agree that for reasons known only to them, Quinn and Collins focused more effort on the legislative branch than on the executive, to their Commission’s eventual detriment. On the other hand, I’ve never bought the argument from the Speaker’s staff, er, ah, you know, CircularFiringSquad, that the Quinn group was somehow impaired because they weren’t veterans of political campaigns. That same line of logic could be applied to require all GA members to have 10 years’ experience in other elective office before filing for the lege. That would take out a lot of well-qualified people just as the notion that one has to be a ward captain or the like to serve on, of all things, a reform commission. Something is getting “slimmer and slimmer,” CFS, but it ain’t the coverage. Kudos to Wheeler for a thorough and enlightening piece. - Tom Joad - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 12:33 pm: The Reform Commission should have tried to solve the immediate problem with executive branch and let it go at that. Thier attempt to let the newspapers “beat the drum” for massive reform on all levels should have been recognized a a negotiating position, and not a realistic one. Instead, they got carried away believing the editorials claiming the sky was falling. The absurdity of the Commission’s position was brought home when Chairman Pat Collins was crying during a press conference. “Politics ain’t beanbag”. - Obamarama - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 12:59 pm: ===Sorry, you can’t look that up.=== It is relatively easy to look that up. You can search contributions by candidate, committee, and contributor very easily on the State Board of Elections website. Heck they even give you options on how you want it sorted. - Will County Woman - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:01 pm: Quinn said that he was going to “fumigate state government.” state government in an all-inclusive sense. so, yes he meant the GA, and that is why the reform commission recommended what it did. maybe quinn should just stay out the reform business. after all his reforms are responsible for the way things now work in springfield. don’t like the way that madigan, cullerton and the GA operate? blame quinn. - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:09 pm: I agree with Wheeler when he says that the glass is half full. After watching the last three Democratic governors head off to jail as well as the last Republican governor, filling that glass half full after Ryan and Blagojevich is pitiful. If we cannot get a full glass of reform after these fiascos - when? - lake county democrat - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:12 pm: Apparently I was censored for calling one of Wheeler’s theories a name (though I gave my reason for it). We’ll rephrase and see if Rich allows this: When U.S.prosecutors commit misconduct to the level of using selective prosecution to go after political enemies, nobody says we should take away anti-corruption powers from them and leave, for instance, Patrick Fitzgerald without wiretap or broad subpoena powers. But Wheeler endorses this at the state level and gets called “brilliant” for it. As to Yellow Dog’s argument about the Iowa system, ends don’t justify means. ONE MAN ONE VOTE (am I allowed to capitalize?) At least if Iowa legislatures reject three politics-blind maps and start drawing bizarre districts of their own, the issue will be spotlighted. And any reform effort that didn’t address that, let alone Illinois hideously gerrymandered districts, and at the same time combined it with a new election cycle cap that gives incumbants a huge fundraising advantage over competitors, is a disaster that even a third grader would realize is unfair. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:15 pm: lcd, whatever you wrote must’ve been so profane that it got automatically deleted by my screening software. you really need to start learning how to write without all that over the top vitriol. instead, you’ll just scream censorship, even though this is a private website and not a governmental agency. my site, my rules. don’t like it, go somewhere else. have a nice day. lol - CircularFiringSquad - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:26 pm: Capt fax Continue your policy of censoring based on excluding the dopiest. Refer them to the Tribune - Makesmeralph - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:27 pm: OMG, somebody clouted their way into the University of Illinois? That’s much worse than selling drivers licenses to unqualified schmucks that go on to run over minivans. The integrity of the institution will never be the same. How will anyone cheer at the Amos and Andy mascot now? I’m shocked. Shocked to learn there is gambling going on in here. Here are your winnings sir. Thank you very much. - lake county democrat - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:48 pm: Rich: Couldn’t agree more on “my site, my rules” but 1) didn’t know there was an auto-delete and 2) honestly, while, er, passionate, there was nothing more profane than the word “inane” and I made sure not to apply that to a person but a contention. That auto-delete must have some heavy-duty artificial intelligence to it! - Captain Flume - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 4:09 pm: Mr. Wheeler’s use of phrases like “reform crowd” and “Hyper-ventilating editorial writers” smack of an ad hominem argument, which may be brilliant for making his argument seem plausible but hardly proves its plausibility. The General Assembly may have indeed been “surgical” in its passage of the bills to which Mr. Wheeler refers, but “selective” would be a much better term. There are opportunities for massive corruption in the legislature the way it is currently operated. But because the potential blame cannot be pinned on one person, no legislation was passed as remedy. The de facto statewide power vested in the Speaker of the House and in the President of the Senate without consent of a statewide popular mandate for such power has found, and will find, precious few champions among those invested with responsibility and collective authority to effect a change. - Phil Huckelberry - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 4:15 pm: Wheeler wrote: “In so choosing, did Democratic leaders and their majorities sustain a culture of corruption? Or was that the rational approach, focusing on eradicating the opportunities for clearly documented illicit activities while ignoring certain aspects of the legislative process that some might not like but are hardly corrupt?” “Hardly corrupt”? Whatever credibility the piece might have had was completely shot by those two words. The way that funds are transferred between committees; the way that the districts are drawn; and all of the other ways that the system is rigged in favor of incumbents and especially in favor of maintaining the leadership status quo; all of these are simply dismissed as being “hardly corrupt”? Pathetic. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 6:41 pm: Captain Flume, you don’t know Charlie. There are no ad hominen attacks in his piece. Crazy as it sounds, he actually does the the reading and thinks about it before he puts his thoughts on paper. He knows Springfield better than I know what I have in my pockets. He has no axe to grind. He’s generous enough to share his wisdom with us while he raises a group of students to hopefully to be as good, knowledgeable, fair and honest as a reporter as he is. Read what he wrote (again?), then give it a think. - Smitty Irving - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 7:42 pm: Charlie Wheeler’s piece was pretty good - but he swallowed Hook Line and Sinker the garbage about House Bill 35. The so-called “Accountability Portal” only provides information about agencies under the Governor. No access to the Governor’s Office, the Constitutional Officers, the state supported universities, the Legislative branch, or the judicial branch. Typical Illinois “reform” - picks on the little people, lets the powerful skate. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.