Because… Madigan!
Thursday, Aug 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Seems like a pretty small space…
What matters is media attention, however. We’ll see.
* Press release…
Today, Governor Rauner joined Illinois House candidates Mike Babcock, Jason Madlock, Doug Jameson, and Dwight Kay to sign The People’s Pledge, a commitment to put term limits on state elected officials and to vote for anyone other than Mike Madigan for House Speaker. The event followed Governor Rauner’s announcement that he’ll be supporting the House Republican Organization with another $4 million.
At the event today, Governor Rauner said this about The People’s Pledge:
“I’ve been an advocate for term limits my entire life. We together collected over 600,000 signatures to get them on the ballot five years ago, you guys remember this. But Mike Madigan sued us with his lawyer, and he got the state judges who are elected by Madigan, to say ‘no, you can’t do it that way. The only way to get term limits done is if the General Assembly votes to put them on the ballot.’ That’s what the judges ruled and that’s why The People’s Pledge is so important. We need the legislators to promise to put term limits on the ballot.
“And this guy Pritzker, who is running against me, he funds Madigan, he funds the lawyer who sued us to block term limits. Pritzker is part of the problem, he’s protecting the Chicago Machine. We’ve got to beat him, and the way to beat him is get The People’s Pledge signed.”
Emphasis added.
* OK, from the Illinois Constitution…
Amendments shall be limited to structural and procedural subjects contained in Article IV.
Article IV is the legislative article.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled way back in 1976, when Madigan had been in office just five years, that the word “and” in that sentence meant “both.”
And in 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that term limits satisfied neither the structural nor the procedural subject matter requirements…
The eligibility or qualifications of an individual legislator does not involve the structure of the legislature as an institution. The General Assembly would remain a bicameral legislature consisting of a House and Senate with a total of 177 members, and would maintain the same organization.
Likewise, the eligibility or qualifications of an individual legislator does not involve any of the General Assembly’s procedures. The process by which the General Assembly adopts a law would remain unchanged.
So, since the Supremes had long ago ruled that “and” means “both” and that term limits were “neither,” Rauner had no case in 2014 unless he could convince the justices to overturn their previous rulings which dated back to the year the Starland Vocal Band recorded “Afternoon Delight” and the year OJ Simpson was arrested for a double murder.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:48 pm:
Wait so……does Dwight Kay start over with his terms if he wins? I thought he served two or three terms already.
Shouldn’t he not sign the People’s Pledge
Or did he sign the Pledge of the people which is just
No Madigan.
Cause I thought the HRO (BND 9/15/17) wanted to
“go in a new direction”
- Anonymous - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:51 pm:
The key thing to realize is Rauner will spend hundreds of thosands to tour his ideas (this one being term limits) but nary a nickel to hire the best and brightest to write it constitutionally.
Isn’t that odd… if you want things changed?
Money to tout an idea, but it’s flawed from jump street.
Unless of course it’s never been about changing things, but running against something, and getting lists of supporters from it…
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:52 pm:
The key thing to realize is Rauner will spend hundreds of thosands to tour his ideas (this one being term limits) but nary a nickel to hire the best and brightest to write it constitutionally.
Isn’t that odd… if you want things changed?
Money to tout an idea, but it’s flawed from jump street.
Unless of course it’s never been about changing things, but running against something, and getting lists of supporters from it…
- Thoughts Matter - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:54 pm:
Never let the facts get in the way of good ole campaign hyperbole and fibbing. Sad thing is, there are lots of voters that don’t believe the facts but do believe the hyperbole.
- Chicagonk - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:58 pm:
The 1976 decision makes sense (even if I doubt that was the intent of the drafters - obviously not the judges responsibility to correct poorly drafted laws). The 1994 decision on the other hand …
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 12:58 pm:
Now I have that song stuck in my head. Don’t worry Rich, I blame Rauner.
- Fixer - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:05 pm:
Cheryl44, you spelled Madigan wrong.
- Flat Bed Ford - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:06 pm:
When the those on the left say they want to open up the Illinois Constitution to change the flat tax to a progressive one all should demand that this be changed too. How can the people of Illinois be limited to such narrow language for referendums? Pretty tough to oppose giving residents more power to change their government.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:07 pm:
===The 1976 decision makes sense… The 1994 decision on the other hand===
I think I’m just the opposite on this. I don’t see how “and” has to mean “both.”
- wordslinger - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:08 pm:
–Starland Vocal Band recorded “Afternoon Delight”–
Wow, that earworm is just mean. You couldn’t have gone with “Play that Funky Music” for the 1976 pop culture reference?
This aggression will not stand, man.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:16 pm:
===Wow, that earworm is just mean.===
One of my favorite Arrested Development episodes featured this song as a karaoke duet with Michael and his niece Maeby, until they realize how creepy singing this song to a family member sounds.
That show was brilliant.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:19 pm:
A reminder that what Rauner wrongly says about term limits is exactly what happened with redistricting, by a court majority that showed it’s “Bush v. Gore”-like partisanship by repeatedly refusing to rule on the issue of whether redistricting is capable of amendment (thus saving a bullet for the next challenge to Madigan’s (or similar figure in the future) power.
Per the vibe of the post, I’d have gone with “More than a Feeling”
- Skeptic - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:32 pm:
A thought just occurred to me…given how “Janus” and “Citizen’s United” have gone, I wonder if term limits could survive a First Amendment challenge.
And I’ll go with “Saturday Night” (Bay City Rollers.)
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:34 pm:
Because..OJ. Who knew?
- umm - Gov'nor is right on this one - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:43 pm:
those supreme court cases opined on ballot initiative petitions…not on con amendments proposed by GA - which Gov clearly stated is the route now needed. see Section 2 v. Section 3 of ILCON ART XIV
- JS Mill - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:48 pm:
=How can the people of Illinois be limited to such narrow language for referendums? Pretty tough to oppose giving residents more power to change their government.=
Banned word.
Citizens have an opportunity to change their government every two years. They can vote. No better way to change government.
You may want to cede power to the wealthy and the lobbyists, but I prefer the representative system that we have employed for the last 232 years.
Just because you don’t get you way doesn’t mean we need to change the system.
- Trapped in the 'burbs - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 1:55 pm:
On a complete tangent, Rauner shows up to the Illinois black chamber of commerce meeting wearing a cowboy shirt and his hair unkempt. Is that a message, a sign of disrespect or something else?
- Montrose - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 2:33 pm:
let’s see if I can do Rich’s trick.
- Montrose - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 2:33 pm:
Apparently I couldn’t. Here’s is just the link to help with the earworm.
https://youtu.be/MAhCpAS2AwA
- btowntruthfromforgottonia - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 2:53 pm:
“the state judges who are elected by Madigan”.
Anyone who believes that has no idea how government works.
Anyone who said what Rauner said should not be taken seriously.
- JoanP - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 2:56 pm:
=I don’t see how “and” has to mean “both.” =
I think that grammatically, in this context, it does. Otherwise it would say “structural or procedural subjects”.
Commas matter, too: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/oxford-comma-maine.html
- Chicagonk - Thursday, Aug 9, 18 @ 3:27 pm:
@JoanP - Long live the oxford comma