* Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin held a press conference today. Click here to watch it on BlueRoomStream.com.

* “We are getting down to crunch time,” Leader Radogno told Statehouse reporters. “Unfortunately, with each passing day, it looks more and more like the Democrats are unwilling to seriously engage and negotiate transformational reforms to state government.”

Radogno said Democratic attendance at the governor’s working groups has “become spotty,” adding “things have been slow-walked, things have been taken off the table without any real negotiation whatsoever.”

She claimed the Democrats are “ignoring the problems of this state,” including Chicago’s pension crisis, which includes a “$600 million pension payment that’s due in 40 days.”

The Democrats “want to play politics,” instead of negotiating, she said.

Radogno claimed Democrats took codifying the governor’s executive order on state employee ethics reforms off the table because they feared it was the first step to applying those reforms to the General Assembly.

* Leader Durkin said that Democrats “only appear to be interested in doubling down” on the failed reforms of the past. “They are not participating in good faith,” on the working groups, Durkin alleged, saying “Democrats have made a mockery of the process.”

Durkin said the Democrats are only interested in scoring political points on the House floor so that they can send out mailers and do robocalls into GOP districts. “They’ve ruined the middle class,” Durkin said, mocking the Democrats’ claims that they’re all about protecting the middle class.

* In response to a question about the lack of actual legislation from the governor, Radogno said most of the bills they deal with start with conversations. “It is absolute nonsense that you throw a bill on the table, vote it up or down and then move on. That’s not how it’s done.”

Radogno went on to say that the working group dealing with revenue had made some progress because the Dems are “desperate” for more revenues.

* “The signal I’m getting on the House floor is that it’s over, that they have no desire to participate,” Durkin said about the chance that the spring session would go past May 31st. Radogno said it was solely the Democrats’ choice whether the session went into overtime.

* And asked about the governor’s $400,000 contribution to Republican legislators, Radogno countered that there had been no scrutiny of contributions to the House Speaker during his fundraiser last week. She said the governor’s a Republican so it “makes sense that he supports Republicans,” and said there was “nothing nefarious about it.”

Whew. Here we go, campers…