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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
“I love this governor!” exclaimed a jubilant utility lobbyist a few weeks ago.
Why would a utility lobbyist express his undying love for our self-proclaimed consumer activist governor?
Simple.
The lobbyist was convinced that Gov. Pat Quinn’s over-the-top media antics had helped pass the so-called “smart grid” trailer bill by a huge margin and provided the extra oomph needed to override Quinn’s veto of the original bill.
That lobbyist was not alone. Several legislators, staff members and other longtime observers said basically the same thing. When the governor decided not to negotiate the bill’s details and slammed legislators who received utility campaign contributions as somehow criminal or at the very least sleazy, he created a nasty legislative backlash that helped the utilities hold their coalition together.
Yet Quinn appeared to revel in his alleged victories. He got his clock cleaned, but he fought the good fight, and that’s apparently what really mattered.
“I read somewhere that I enraged the General Assembly,” the governor said afterward about the ComEd bill imbroglio, including his unfounded and untrue allegations of “monkey business” during the House roll call. “Well, so what?”
But then, several days after the first week of the veto session ended, Quinn abruptly changed his tune. Gone was his public anger, replaced with a far more professional attitude. He stopped ripping the General Assembly and stopped holding media events.
As a consequence, the governor did much better during the second week of the veto session. He came very close to a deal on solving some serious budget problems, got a bill passed to his liking that addressed his veto of regional school superintendents’ salaries and a gambling bill he opposed petered out in the House.
If he’s learning, that would be a good thing.
No governor has ever had great relations with the General Assembly. Then-Senate Minority Leader Pate Philip would go days, even weeks, without returning fellow Republican Jim Thompson’s calls. Thompson got so fed up at one point that he stomped over to Philip’s office, banged on the door and pushed past Philip’s chief of staff when told he couldn’t come in. The difference between then and now is nobody held a press conference.
Gov. Jim Edgar left office with public approval ratings in the 70s, but he was not beloved by state legislators. After every Edgar budget speech, reporters would rush to Philip and wait for him to declare that Edgar’s proposals were dead on arrival (the wait rarely lasted longer than a few seconds). But Edgar never aired his grievances with Philip during a press conference.
As a former House Speaker, George Ryan had an amazingly effective relationship with the Legislature. Even so, he had problems that at times were severe enough to make him want to tear his hair out by the roots. But Ryan never fumed about his frustrations in public.
Fighting with the General Assembly is part and parcel of being governor. And veto sessions are, by their very design, overtly hostile to the governor. The governor is set up to lose.
Rod Blagojevich never really understood that. He thought that everyone, including Madigan, should bow down to him, and we all know where that led. It was starting to look as if Quinn had the same counterproductive personality trait as Blagojevich.
Quinn’s change in tactics for the second veto session was perhaps just in time to prevent the gambling expansion bill’s sponsors from rounding up more votes. His earlier antics and public tantrums were a major tactical component of the bill’s backers. When he calmed down, it was tougher to persuade members to go against Quinn’s wishes. The bill failed miserably, and Quinn’s hand was strengthened.
Quinn needs to stay calm, work hard behind the scenes, take names and, if necessary, plot a more subtle revenge. Whining to the media has never accomplished anything under the Dome.
* And Quinn kept this up over the weekend as well…
Gov. Pat Quinn passed on a chance to rub it in Saturday after legislators failed to adopt a revamped gambling expansion during the fall session.
The Democratic governor said lawmakers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel should work off the framework he has laid out to try to reach a compromise on a gambling package that can pass the General Assembly and enjoy public support.
* Others have also taken notice…
When we last saw Gov. Pat Quinn, he was lobbing grenades at the General Assembly, doing a pretty decent impression of his former running mate, Rod Blagojevich, minus the hair.
But sometime around when October turned into November, he went from the Angry Quinn to the Silent Quinn.
As lawmakers returned to action last Tuesday, Quinn’s press staff issued its obligatory public schedule for the governor. For the next three days, each one said the governor would be holding no public events.
Although we’re told he was in the Capitol building, Quinn never once stepped out of his second floor office to talk with the media about what was happening above him in the House and Senate chambers.
The abrupt change in public attitude happened the same day the Capitol Fax quoted that above-mentioned utility lobbyist expressing his love for the governor. I’m not taking credit, but it sure was a happy coincidence.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 3:46 am
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=It was starting to look as if Quinn had the same counterproductive personality trait as Blagojevich=
I have not seen the similarity between the two governors to which the press trait theorists make claim. My own opinion is that it is the General Assembly as a body displays a more persistent neuroticism over time, wholly independent of the Executive. Blago would appear to have been a neurotic extravert, whereas Quinn seems to suffer from conscientiousness (arguably an unusual trait in Illinois politics).
The GA might look in the mirror sometime, before undergoing therapy at the ballot box.
Comment by Das Man Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 6:09 am
It’s possible that Quinn saw there was no real compromise he wanted to be part of on Smart Grid, so he might as well go down howling and move along.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 8:27 am
Quinn may have the last laugh after the March primaries.
I was at a local political meeting over the weekend, and constituents are spitting mad over the largesse passed by the GA in the first week of the veto sesion to the utilities.
Folks are paying attention and will show up at the polling places in a few months.
Yet maybe more State elected officials could be retiring…many are grossly underestimating how their actions are playing at home.
Comment by Borealis Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 9:40 am
Why is it that it appeared Quinn was being hammered in the media because he apparently had a brutal veto session?
Comment by Levois Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 12:12 pm
Quinn is adopting the bunker mentality of Blago
which may work. Most Governors have a problem with
the legislature so it comes no surprise he has to.
He is in over his head.
Comment by mokenavince Monday, Nov 14, 11 @ 2:07 pm