31 Comments - 47th Ward - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 12:38 pm: Sorry Senator Radogno, I gave you a 3. I can’t think of a single accomplishment you’ve had, and you might be too liberal for your very conservative caucus. Blocking the borrowing to pay past due bills is costing the state more than it should, and even though saying no to borrowing might poll better, it is horrible fiscal policy. Also, I loved your press conference laying out how your caucus wanted to proceed last spring, but I hated the fact that no actual legislative proposals followed up on that. You put politics ahead of governing and you should refund your per diems for the entire spring session since you didn’t earn a penny while sitting on your behind. I think you should prepare for a challenge to your leadership, or better yet, maybe you should simply give it up to someone who wants to actually lead. If you quit, I’d bump your score up to a 4. - Dirt Digger - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 12:38 pm: Same as for Cross, a five. No idea what she’s been up to, think that is a good thing, but she’s on the other team so I probably have some problem or other with her. - just sayin' - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 12:42 pm: I give her an 8, mostly because it’s easy to look good next to Cross. Radogno’s not doing nearly as much as she should be doing, but at least there is some common sense and honesty there. You get that with Christine. With Cross it’s just a feeling of what’s the point, I don’t believe anything he says anyway. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 12:54 pm: I gave Radogno a 3. Giving Tom Cross a 3 made it pretty easy to give Radogno a 3 as well. She has done nothing to make Cullerton sweat, but had done plenty to irritate him, and so much so, … HAVE YOU SEEN THE SENATE MAP!?!? You would think Radogno irritating Cullerton would make someone like me happy, but all she did was make just about every member of her caucus have to move, get primaried by another member of her caucus, or worse, Radogno make it impossible to vie for OTHER seats. But, when Bill Brady lost, she made her own bed. Her own bed? She will have to move her bed, her furniture, etc., if she wants to kee HER OWN seat! If Cullerton goes “Veto-Proof” majority on her … again … her caucus has to think long and hard about her as Minority Leader. Or, if she gets beat in 2012, the caucus will have nothing to worry about, and MIGHT be better off … I am not saying others might sit on their hands … for the greater good … the GOP would NEVER do that … Radogno gets a 3, but deserves … what she got via the map from Cullerton. - Mia - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 12:57 pm: Who? - Poilitical Junkie - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 1:21 pm: A 5, besides blocking borrowing which is great she hasnt done much. - Ahoy - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 1:46 pm: Gave her a 1, I really like her personally, but she just has not done anything but hold press conferences. I do think she’s in a rough spot with her conservative members and it puts her in a spot that does not allow her to compromise and when you’re one person away from a super-minority, you need to be able to compromise as you don’t have any chips to play (except for holding up a borrowing bill that was probably the loan good idea the Governor’s office proposed all session, even though his first bill was horrible). - 1776 - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 1:48 pm: She gets an 8. Personally involved in workers compensation and her caucus actually put out a budget plan with cuts. She has grown more than any other leader in the last two years and will get better. - Old Milwaukee - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 1:53 pm: I gave her an 8. She inherited an extraordinary minority but picked up seats and used those seats to block Quinn’s borrowing plan. SR’s are probably the most united caucus on the top tier issues and that can’t be easy given some of the unreasonables in her group. She seems to be a reasonable person and somewhat of a policy oriented person. Certainly not flashy. If her numbers were better in the Senate, I think she could be more effective. - zatoichi - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:13 pm: She’s ok, but no significant tasks got completed outside of work comp efforts. I have been to several events where she follows Cullerton as a speaker. Came across as another ‘No’, with reasons why the problems exist, but very few actions to change things. She seems to have a lot more potential than she is showing publicaly. - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:18 pm: 10. Leader Radogno deserves some major props. Think about it, the Senate Republicans don’t actually do anything, but they still get paid. Sure there’s the stress of all of those news conferences, but it’s not like the Senate GOP has to follow them up with action. Who wouldn’t want to be a Senate Republican? - Small Town Liberal - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:23 pm: Three, same as Cross. I probably should have given Cross a 4 because he at least worked on something with the Dems, Radogno doesn’t seem to do much of anything besides talk to reporters. I liked listening to Cullerton take her to task for wanting to talk more but not offer up any bills. - Loop Lady - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:29 pm: I gave her a 1… As I have stated many times on this blog, what are her qualifications as a fiscal watchdog? What are her qualifications, period? IMO this woman is a waste of the taxpayers money. All she does is say no and I told you so. Between her and Cross, I can’t imagine more inept leadership. And yes, I do admire some Republicans in the Legislature like Dillard and Durkin… - Map maker - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:31 pm: I gave Sen. Radogno a 9. She has opened dialogue with Cullerton on tough issues like workers comp and she has kept her caucus united on fiscal issues like being against borrowing. On the political side she won a couple seats last time is out from under supermajority. She’s reasonable for a Republican and would have made a better candidate for governor than Brady. Give her some props. - PrecinctCaptain - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:37 pm: One. She’s nearly irrelevant to the political process of the state in terms what becomes policy. Her caucus can surely talk, but cannot seem to draft a bill, let alone a white paper or something detail anything behind their rhetoric. Her caucus gains were products of an anti-Democratic wave across most of America, not anything effective the impotent IL GOP did. In others, she could drop off the face of the Earth and nothing would change about the political scenery in Illinois other some stooge be called the Senate Minority Leader in the GA. - PrecinctCaptain - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:41 pm: Some corrections In other words* other than* some other* stooge being* - walkinfool - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:41 pm: I gave her a 6, for knowledge, hard work, and honesty. Should have done more than just talk to the press on the budget, and actually produced bills. But she’s the only one of the Senate Repubs to fully understand and tell the factual truth on our fiscal challenges, rather than just repeat national GOP talking points. Best of a pretty sorry bunch, which holds her back. - PrecinctCaptain - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:42 pm: detailing* - Common Sense - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:49 pm: Why would you do a poll on minority leadership? It’s not as though they have been making any decisions! If you think Illinois is in disarray then look at who has held the majority for most of the time and where they get their money. Irresponsible. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 2:58 pm: Common Sense, we already polled on Madigan, Cullerton and Quinn this month. Before going off the rails, try the Google search right here on this site. In other words, bite me. - Reasonable Republican - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 3:10 pm: I give Radogno an 8… even though she is mostly staying out of primaries, the fact that she is doing her part to keep tea party nut jobs from being candidates come the general. A great example is the 52nd district where we have a respected businessman and republican in Alan Nudo who has to face a primary from tea party nut job John Bambenek. Kudos to her for stepping in there to protect serious candidates from the lunatic fringe. - Shore - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 3:13 pm: Like the earlier commenter said-who? No one outside of her district and springfield has heard of her and or considers her much of a leader in the party. She also comes off horribly on television-not getting personal here, but it wouldn’t hurt for her to a)smile b)not sneer on tv c)have a message or agenda. - DTOM - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 3:31 pm: I gave a 7 although its pretty hard to gauge considering she isn’t in a great position to create policy so much as she is to try and block it. - sal-says - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 4:35 pm: At least she responded to a letter I sent which none of the other ‘leaders’ nor governor did. - Justice - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 4:45 pm: I gave her a 3. She is solidly part of this ‘done nothing notable’ group. Where are the ideas? Where are the solutions? Other than show up what has she done? In fact, how do the politicians rate themselves on this question? How proud are they about what they have personally accomplished and how do they tie their accomplishments to our financial predicament? - Bonsheik - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 7:33 pm: Whenever Chris Radagno is being confronted with an argument that she be more assertive with the Dem overlords she literally looks scared and appears to physically shrink. She is very poorly staffed. A bunch of lifers waiting to collect a pension. Political staff is no better. - Elder - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 8:36 pm: Well I gave her a 7 though I wear the other jersey. I have always found her open, gracious, and practical. She has steered the caucus away from extremism that does not help R’s in Illinois, and she has worked to open the party up to Hispanics. Maybe her practicality is the reason she got so many “1’s”. - Jon Zahm - Thursday, Aug 25, 11 @ 9:49 pm: Reasonable Republican? Bambenek is a Republican party platform supporting conservative. Nuda backs civil unions, a position that not a single member of the Senate Republican caucus supports. So it is your candidate that is out of the mainstream. - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 8:10 am: I gave her a 7. That’s an impossible group of cats to herd, with eight or nine wannabe governors, senators and tea partiers to boot. There was some bipartisanship on workers comp, and the Senate GOP didn’t just cave to the docs to preserve the status quo. I got the feeling she was open to a loan deal to catch up on bills, but not enough members in that caucus understood that it saved money. Go figure. She’s been quite outspoken on the tuition waiver boondoggle. Lousy job to have. - way south of I-80 - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 8:46 am: 2- She has completely abandoned her own policy positions that she has held for years to “lead” her caucus. Very disappointing. Not sure why the Senate Republicans have such long caucus meetings when they know they are going to vote NO on anything/everything that is important? Why do they even meet at all? Probably should have given her a 1 - but she is a nice person - just not a great leader. - reformer - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 9:59 am: she’ll be back in the super-minority again after next year. F for feckless. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.