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Survey says…

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Illinois

From a press release:

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) now allows voters to learn through its website (ilcampaign.org) where candidates stand on important campaign and government reform proposals.

â€œWe asked a handful of direct questions about limiting campaign contributions, policing the campaign finance system, giving citizens more information about investigations of ethical conduct in state government, and other important reform proposals,â€ said Cindi Canary,
Director of ICPR. â€œNow, voters can learn what the candidates want to do to change the system.â€

Nearly all of the statewide candidates, including the three gubernatorial candidates, answered the questions, but the majority of candidates for the General Assembly dodged the issues.

â€œDespite repeated requests over the past 8 months, only 89 of the 250 men and women running for election to the General Assembly were willing to tell us their positions,â€ Canary said. â€œSome of those running without any opposition told us they donâ€™t feel any need to tell voters where they stand on these issues. Some incumbents even had the brass to say their record speaks for itself, when many of the issues have not
come before the General Assembly for debate or a vote.â€

* Responses listed by candidate are here.

* Responses listing all candidates for the same office are here.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 10:11 am

Comments

Another good resourse is Project Vote Smart’s The National Political Awareness Test (NPAT).

Whitney and Blagojevich have completed the NPAT, Topinka has not.

Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 10:34 am
Rod says he wants to end pay for play…yeah right.

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 10:50 am
Looks like Mike Frerichs (52nd Senate) answered the questions, but Judy Myers did not even bother to respond, nor did she bother to show up to a Sierra club question/answer public forum the other night.

Comment by 105th Blues Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 12:15 pm
How did Cindi Canary get her job? Who appointed her?

Comment by IL Tollway Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 12:34 pm
I would like to know what the definition is of ‘completed’. I checked the NPAT results of the answers that Blagojevich supposedly completed; however, he did not answer one single question. At least Whitney gave yes/no type answer where you can get a good idea as to how a candidate stands on each issue. All Blagojevich did was throw in a little one or two line campaign style comment at the end of every question category without actually answering any single question.

Comment by Definition of Completed Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 1:22 pm
Our state legislators are truly a pathetic bunch. I remember having drinks with a state rep a few years back and him telling me how hard it was to get by on the $60K a year he earned representing his constituents. The guy was single and in his 40s for crying out loud. Not exactly the young single mom working her ass off to make ends meet. These folks are so out of touch.

Comment by Veritas Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 3:36 pm
All that to say they can’t be bothered answering questions, they have self fulfillment to worry with.

Comment by Veritas Wednesday, Sep 13, 06 @ 3:38 pm
Blagojevich wants to end pay to play? If that’s really true, then the first thing he needs to do is kick the cash habit and stop accepting all the legalized bribery from corporations–like Rich Whitney has already done.

Comment by Squideshi Thursday, Sep 14, 06 @ 12:01 am