* 12:41 pm - From the Senate Democrats…

It is clear that we will need bipartisan support in order to take floor votes on gun safety and marriage equality this week. We will take some time to work on these important issues to advance them in the near future.

The executive committee has been delayed, but we still intend to hold a hearing on marriage equality shortly.

* 12:44 pm - Subscribers knew about this sad development early this morning. From IR…

Condolences to State Senator Suzie Schmidt (R-Lake Villa), as her Springfield staff is reporting that Ms. Schmidt’s mother passed away this morning.

Senator Schmidt will not be in Springfield for today’s or tomorrow’s lame duck session. Her absence could affect the outcome of the same sex marriage bill expected to come before the Senate Thursday or Friday.

Schmidt was a “Yes” vote on gay marriage.

* 12:54 pm - I asked the SDem spokesperson if “near future” meant next week at the earliest. Her e-mailed response…

Correct

The Senate is not scheduled to return until Tuesday at the earliest. That’s the last full day of the lame duck session.

* 12:59 pm - From what I’m hearing, you can forget about both issues for the rest of the lame duck session. What a mess.

* 1:19 pm - Sun-Times…

State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) is in Israel. State Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa) is missing because of her mother’s death, and Senate Majority Leader James Clayborne (D-Belleville) had a health issue arise involving a family member, Steans said.

Those absences, coupled with heavy lobbying against the bill from the Archdiocese of Chicago, leave her short of the necessary 30 votes she would need to get her bill out of the Senate before the chamber adjourns for the weekend. […]

Robert Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said Catholic leaders had discussed the possibility of Cardinal Francis George making direct appeals to legislators with personal phone calls, but Gilligan said it wasn’t clear whether that had happened Thursday. […]

Gun-rights supporters estimated that the legislation banning military-styled guns and the ammunition that feeds them is perhaps three or four votes shy of the necessary 30-vote threshold to pass either one, despite a heavy lobbying push from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn.

But state Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), chief Senate sponsor of the ammunition bill, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Schoenberg’s absence, as well as the absence of state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), left him short of the support he needed to pass the ammunition bill on the Senate floor.

Schoenberg was never expected to be in town and Steans knew it. The decision to move forward was ill advised from the get-go if she was counting on that vote.