EXTRA: Political strategist Madigan vs. amateur-hour gov Rauner

Gov. Bruce Rauner concocted a scheme to try to get himself some more votes come Election Day by trying to appear to be the guy who wants to bring back the death penalty to Illinois.

Will Rauner's death penalty fantasy ...

Yet in the ultimate evidence that when it comes to politics, Rauner is a rank amateur, it would seem to be that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is going to wind up using the issue to take him down.

RAUNER’S METHOD OF bringing the issue up was by using his amendatory veto powers to attach the issue to a separate measure – one that would impose a series of restrictions in Illinois on firearms usage and purchase.

In short, legislators who desire to have those restrictions take effect would have to go along with his death penalty plan for people who kill law enforcement officers or large numbers of people in one fell swoop.

So what does Madigan, the man who’s been a part of the legislative process in Illinois for nearly a half-century, do?

He introduced an amendment Thursday to an Illinois Senate bill now pending in the House of Representatives, with the amendment being “the exact language the governor suggested” to bring back capital punishment.

THAT BILL WILL have a committee hearing come Monday. Legislators will have their say on the matter at that time. As Madigan put it, “we look forward to continuing our effort to keep our children, our schools and our communities safe from senseless gun violence.”

More likely, it will give the Democratic Party majority that controls the Illinois House a chance to beat up on Bruce Rauner, knock about his bill, denounce him for trying political tactics meant to impede firearms restrictions that many of them previously voted for, and pretty much go out of their way to make Monday a very unpleasant day for the governor.

Eventually, they’ll probably take some sort of vote on Rauner’s suggestion, and put the spin on it by saying it was evidence that “the people” didn’t like the governor’s ideal.

... be killed off by Madigan's political skill?

It kind of reminds me of a moment some two decades ago – back when then-Gov. Jim Edgar and Mayor Richard M. Daley came up with a proposal related to a new Chicago-area airport.

THE TWO OF them made a public announcement about what they wanted to happen, and implied the General Assembly would follow suit in coming months. Yet then-state Senate President James “Pate” Philip didn’t think much of the idea, and really was bothered by the fact he wasn’t consulted as part of negotiations.

Which resulted in Philip having the Edgar/Daley proposal written up as a bill for the Senate to consider. They wound up rejecting it outright (literally, nobody voted for it), and Philip forevermore would say of that issue, “we voted for it, nobody liked it.”

Now I know some are saying that this may be a tactic by which Madigan ensures Rauner takes full blame for trying to bring back a capital crimes statute – an issue for which the state went to lengthy extremes to abolish in past years.

Which would wind up costing him many votes in Illinois – even though Rauner is looking solely at the ideologically-inclined who might get worked up over this single issue.

BUT I SEE it more as a way of killing the Rauner plan off, while possibly trying to save the separate issues related to firearms ownership.

Reminiscent of Pate tactic

Regardless, it makes Monday’s debate more about partisan politicking rather than about any criminal justice issue.

If you want to be honest, if this gets reduced to an issue of political gamesmanship, it’s most likely that Madigan will prevail.

For Madigan just comprehends the political process and how it can be used to get things done far better than Rauner with his anti-union dreams that he tries to pass off under the label of “reform.”

  -30-

T-minus 15 (days) and counting ‘til Election Day, or you can vote now

I’ve been remembering one-time Illinois state Senate President James “Pate” Philip quite a bit in recent days.

PHILIP: Would he be offended?

We’re coming up on Election Day in a couple of weeks, and the beginning of the Early Voting process actually begins Monday. Although you don’t have to even be registered yet in order to have a ballot that will count come March 20.

A THOUGHT THAT I’m sure would appall Philip. I remember a moment from the Legislature a couple of decades ago when the concept of “motor voter” (registering at a Department of Motor Vehicles bureau when you renew your driver’s license) came up.

Philip went into a diatribe about how uncomplicated it was to register (a trip to the election authority for your home county), and did we really want to have people registered to vote who couldn’t bring them to make such a trip?

I suspect the idea that people can now actually show up at an Early Voting Center without registration; but cast a ballot anyway that eventually will be counted would offend him.

Of course, much of the strategy for Republican political operatives is keeping the total number of voters down – as in only select types of people turning out to the polls. Getting more people to vote usually results in those pesky types who vote for the other political party’s candidates.

Can this cast of characters ...

ONE CAN ARGUE that increasing the number of people who are properly registered to vote benefits society as a whole. Getting people interested in the political process and seeing that it’s their voice in the eventual electoral outcome is a plus.

Then again, public concern usually isn’t the top concern of political people. Even though many operatives describe what they do for a living is “doing the peoples’ business.”

I wonder if they’d be offended by the circumstances of my own extended family.

... motivate people to want ...

I have a nephew, Tyler, who just turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. Yes, he expressed some interest in how to go about registering to vote.

BUT IN THE end, it took my own father’s nagging to get my nephew to sit down at a computer long enough to go through the Illinois State Board of Elections website and fill out a registration form on-line.

... to vote in the next two weeks?

Is it going to take a similar effort to get him to turn out to the polling place in a couple of weeks? Or is there something special about the prospect of political characters such as Bruce Rauner, J.B. Pritzker, a Kennedy of our own or a possible political comeback for Pat Quinn that would stir up interest for his first election cycle.

I know in my case, the “first” election cycle was 1984 – the one in which incumbent Ronald Reagan cleaned Walter Mondale’s “clock” in his re-election bid.

And yes, to this day I take a certain perverse bit of pride in not being amongst those who wanted “four more years” of “the Gipper” himself.

REAGAN: An election 'first' all those yrs ago

AS FOR MYSELF, I’m most likely going to take advantage of Early Voting this week (for professional reasons, it makes the reporter-type person in me more free to work on Election Day if I don’t have to set aside time on March 20 to go to a polling place).

Although I have to admit to not being fully sure yet who I’m going to vote for in the primaries for governor, attorney general or any of the other state, federal or county government posts that are up for grabs this time around.

Yes, I got the text message on Friday from “Team JB,” asking me if they could count on my vote for Pritzker and lieutenant governor running mate Juliana Stratton.

I haven’t ruled it out. But then again, about the only person I’ve ruled out is Robert Marshall. Anybody who wants to run for governor, then break the state up into multiple pieces, isn’t worthy of anyone’s vote.

  -30-

Whodathunkit? A Kennedy trying to act like he’s a true-blue political goo-goo

How free-thinking are the 177 individual members of the Illinois General Assembly? Do we really have expressions of multiple opinions on issues, or are they really just a batch of sheep awaiting orders from the leadership?

KENNEDY: Thinking for himself?

I’m sure the overly cynical among us will think it ridiculous to even ponder such a question. Of course, they’re a batch of hacks who do what they’re told – they’re politicians!

WOULD-BE GOVERNOR HOPEFUL Chris Kennedy has added his own thoughts to this issue – recently telling the State Journal-Register newspaper in Springfield that he thinks the Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature sometimes create bills on issues of concern to the public.

Not that they have any intent of actually addressing those issues. Instead, the bills are a promise of sorts – something the Democrats in charge will get to in some future year. Provided, of course, that they’re re-elected to their posts.

“I think that’s just emblematic of the inherent, well, corruption in our government there,” Kennedy said. “We’re more interested in keeping people in power and preserving power than actually passing legislation that’s helpful.”

A sentiment that, officially, is being debunked by Democratic leadership. An aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, the guy whom many people want to believe is the ultimate political boss to be blamed for all that is wrong with Illinois, said of the statement, “Mr. Kennedy is not very well informed.” No wonder Madigan is in the camp of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker.

THERE’S ALSO THE rule of thumb used throughout the years by many political reporters trying to figure out what will happen on the Statehouse Scene in Springfield – Nothing happens if the Speaker is opposed.

Meaning the legislative leadership, both in the Illinois House and state Senate, have a process by which they dictate which bills amongst the hundreds introduced each year actually get through committee review and get a final vote.

Or, actually, which ones get stalled without anything resembling a public review and are never heard from again. Which isn’t exactly what Kennedy is complaining about.

MADIGAN: All powerful and domineering?

For under Kennedy’s theory, a bill needs some sort of public attention paid to it – what good is it to claim you’ll do something in the future if you don’t tell anybody about it in the present?

CHRIS KENNEDY – WHO may be one of the few members of that political family that can claim Jack, Bobby and Ted as relatives who hasn’t actually held a political office in the past – is trying to create an image for himself with such statements that he’s not a political hack.

That even though he’s the son of Bobby and nephew to Jack and Ted, he’s not the ultimate political insider. Which may be true, but largely because he has never had the will power to follow through his past talk of running for office to actually campaign for the post.

Many people are going to try to tag the one-time boss of the Merchandise Mart (the Chicago property that the Kennedy family owned for decades) as nothing but a political insider. Hence, Chris is now eager to toss out the kind of talk that might appeal to the good-government types in our society.

As though he has high-minded ideals he wants to bring about for the betterment of all of us in our society.

AS FOR WHETHER our legislators are sheep who do what the leaders tell them to do, I know many have explained they rely on the legislative analyses put together by the leadership staffs. They’re told what to believe, then they act.

PHILIP: Was he really just taking orders?

While I know one former Illinois House member who told me that she was always permitted to vote on issues as she saw fit – other than the first vote of each legislative session to pick leadership. So long as she picked Madigan, she was allowed to decide things for herself.

Although I also remember one former Illinois Senate member who once ridiculed me when I suggested that then-Senate President James “Pate” Philip would tell him what to do. He insisted that the Senate Republican caucus was a batch of conservative-minded people who told their president what THEY would permit HIM to say and do.

Which may go a long way to explaining the level of nonsense that appears to pervade our state’s political structure – the one that Kennedy seems to think he wants to oversee, but may someday come to his senses and wish he never became involved with.

  -30-

Rauner makes appeal to Hegewisch-ites to prolong the state budget battle

It’s not every day political people pay any attention to Hegewisch – as in the neighborhood at Chicago’s far southeastern corner where Indiana is a daily reality.

Pate won his political fight in Hegewisch

I remember then-Senate Minority Leader James “Pate” Philip back in 1990 making the trek from his suburb near O’Hare International Airport to visit Hegewisch to reassure the residents that he would oppose all efforts to pave over their streets and homes to develop a new Chicago-area airport.

PATE WON THAT political fight. But the reason the event sticks in my mind is that it is among the few bits of attention paid to Hegewisch by anyone with political influence.

Will Rauner be less successful in his brawl?

Political people making the trek out to Hegewisch do it so infrequently that it is still considered a big deal locally that the final public appearance Richard J. Daley made as mayor was to Mann Park out on 131^st Street – where he shot a basketball through a hoop. He died later the same day in December 1976 while visiting his doctor at a Michigan Avenue office.

That is why it is unique Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner felt compelled to make the trip to Hegewisch on Wednesday, where he hoped to encounter a sympathetic audience of people as part of his last-ditch effort to urge the General Assembly to go along with his rejection of a state budget -- thereby keeping the political battle alive.

Specifically, he went to one of the few places in Chicago where the eastern boundary isn’t the Lake Michigan shoreline, but is State Line Road – with the Hoosier State of Indiana lying just across the street.

130th Street/Torrence Avenue one of the few entrance points to Hegewisch

IT IS A place that in recent weeks has been getting appeals from Indiana-based supermarket chains telling them that they can avoid paying the proposed sales tax hike on pop and other sweetened drinks if they cross over the state line and buy their goods.

Just like they can get gasoline for their cars for anywhere from 20 to 30 cents per gallon less in Indiana.

Hegewisch is the land by the landfills where Chicago used to dump its trash

And now, Rauner wants us to think he’s sympathetic to Hegewisch-ites (or is it Hegewischians?) who live so close to the border that they will feel the direct impact of having to cope with a higher income tax rate.

Rauner might as well be doing the work of Chamber of Commerce groups throughout Indiana in letting people know how miserable a place he thinks Illinois will become. What with him dragging out business-types from the Hegewisch neighborhood who were willing to say they’d be willing to “pick up and drive two minutes to Indiana.”

ALTHOUGH I DON’T think the governor is really that concerned. He’s trying to minimize the damage to his political reputation since it appears that the winner of the partisan battles of the past two years will turn out to be Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

He’s going to be able to claim he and his allies on Thursday finally got a budget passed – with no help from Rauner or his people.

Of course, Rauner will claim over and over (actually, he’s already started) that Madigan’s plan is a tax hike of some 32 percent. Actually, it’s a 1.25 percent boost in the rate, meant to produce some 32 percent more revenue, but facts and details rarely matter to the people spewing partisan nonsense.

DALEY: It all came to an end in Hegewisch

Personally, I think it is sad it took two years to reach this point. This particular increase could have been done during the spring of 2015 and we never would have known the misery of the past two years watching our politicos stumble about like rubes.

WHICH IS WHY there really isn’t a winner. There’s merely a stage set for the partisan nonsense we’re going to be subjected to between now and the general elections of November 2018.

Voters will get their chance at that time to show which of the two political leaders they are most disgusted with – both are convinced that it has to be “the other guy.”

Madigan has made statements about “working with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to begin healing the wounds of the last several years.” Although the interesting point will be to see which wounds develop on the GOP side.

I’m sure those Republican legislators who wound up switching sides against Rauner’s budget rejection will lose out on the financial help the governor would have provided to their re-election bids. How much more spiteful Rauner can be remains to be seen.

  -30-

Politically partisan tactics have a knack of repeating themselves at Statehouse

It’s true that Democrats in the Illinois House of Representatives used political tactics Thursday to take a partisan pot shot at the idea of the “right to work” legislation that Gov. Bruce Rauner so eagerly desires.

RAUNER: Took a political hit

The Illinois House pushed forward a bill that allegedly details the specifics that Rauner wants in a new law that would undermine the concept of organized labor and unions in this state.

OF COURSE, MADIGAN’S bill wasn’t put together by Rauner’s people. His staff had nothing to do with it.

The whole purpose of Thursday was a political stunt so that the Democratic majority that runs the Illinois House (and the state Senate too) could vote “no” in such an overwhelming manner that they could say the idea was dead.

This was a political hit, similar to the scene in “The Godfather” where Clemenza killed Paulie Gatto in the car. The only thing we don’t know is if the Madigan “hit job” involved ditching the murder weapon, but making sure to take the canoli.

So yes, Illinois House Minority Leader James Durkin, R-Western Springs, wasn’t totally out-of-line when he ranted Thursday that the vote – which was 0-72, with 37 other legislators voting “present” (and seven other legislators conveniently being absent from the House chambers when the vote was called) – was pointless.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY... is really a disservice to this body, to this chamber and to this building,” Durkin said.

But excuse me for not being terribly sympathetic toward the Grand Ol’ Party, which I know is really only upset that they can’t use the exact same tactics on Democrats.

MADIGAN: Following Pate's lead?

I make that statement knowing it isn’t the least bit libelous because I remember the days of the mid-1990s (back when Republicans were not only relevant to state government, but were dominant) when the exact same tactic WAS used on the Democrats.

It was an issue in which there was an attempt at negotiation, of sorts. Then-Gov. Jim Edgar and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had reached a compromise and had publicly announced their deal – which Daley was to then persuade Democrats to support while Edgar would do the same for Republicans.

THE REASON THIS issue sticks in my mind some two decades later is the fact that then-Senate President James “Pate” Philip was offended that HIS staff was not included in the negotiations.

PHILIP: His memory lingers

He didn’t like the idea of being told what to do, not even by a governor of his own political persuasion who was supposed to be his ally.

So the very next day, before any talks to try to persuade legislators to back the governor/mayoral deal could take place, Philip had his staff put together a bill supposedly based on the ideals of the issue.

Then, Republicans in the Senate voted unanimously against it. All of the Democrats voted “present.” Officially, Philip said that the vote was legitimate because it showed “nobody wants this.” As I recall, a watered-down version of the issue eventually did get passage, although bitter feelings never truly withered away.

COULD THIS LATEST action have a similar effect – in that it makes it appear that the incumbent governor is weak and capable of being pushed around by a united front on the part of legislative Democrats?

Too many similarities to politics

It would be an equal response to the tough talk that Rauner has engaged in whenever issues of organized labor come up.

Although if it were to wind up that both sides of labor/business disputes were to wind up realizing the need for compromise and to back off the cheap trash talk when trying to resolve the issue, then perhaps something good will have come from Thursday’s politicking.

 

  -30-

EXTRA: Some people just stubbornly desperate for negative attention

I’m not sure who is out-of-touch with the real world these days – the Catholic bishop of Springfield, Ill., or the Indiana House of Representatives.

PAPROCKI:  The disciplinarian?

Both of them this week made it clear they’re not about to go along with anything that is about recognizing marriage as being a legitimate concept for gay couples.

THE INDIANA HOUSE gave its approval on Tuesday to a measure that puts a ban on gay marriage into the Indiana state Constitution. Although it still needs approval from the Indiana state Senate, and another round of Legislature approval in 2015 – before it can go on the ballot for Indiana voters to decide in 2016.

Meanwhile, Bishop Thomas Paprocki – who heads the Catholic church in Springfield and surrounding parts of central Illinois – gave an interview to a religious-oriented website in which he made it clear he’s standing by the prayer ritual he did last year on the day that Gov. Pat Quinn signed gay marriage into Illinois law.

You remember the exorcism? He tried to drive out the demons, so to speak, that caused our political people to approve the change in law!

If anything, Paprocki bothers me more, and not just because he’s actually a Chicagoan who used to be a priest in the Chicago archdiocese before he moved up in the Catholic church ranks by moving down in terms of location.

IN HIS INTERVIEW, Paprocki claimed that being opposed to gay marriage is equivalent to disciplining a misbehaving child. You do it to teach a lesson, while expressing love and caring for the child.

“You really have to understand what love is all about. Love is really to seek the best for people. By being opposed to the redefinition of marriage and being opposed to things that are sinful, that’s actually a very loving thing,” he said to the Lifesitenews.com website.

They were dealt a blow Tuesday!

What a batch of bull!?!

Too many of the people who are pushing for a rejection of marriage for all are doing so because of their desire to want to look down, so to speak, upon others. For Paprocki to get so worked up in his desire to offer aid and comfort to that segment of our society is what makes others amongst us convinced that the church structure becomes the source of our problems.

HE STIRS UP more resentment, and makes it more difficult for rational thought to prevail.

Whereas the Indiana General Assembly’s behavior was just so predictable. With other states taking on the gay marriage issue, the Republican leadership decided that not only was it NOT going to go along, it was going to take a spiteful response.

Hence the writing of the concept of a marriage ban for non-traditional couples into their state Constitution. Which makes it all the more difficult for the issue to be addressed seriously.

It becomes all too similar to many of the southern states that, in the years after the Civil War, created state constitutions that included restrictions on black people and made it near-to-impossible for future Legislatures to erase them.

THOSE POLITICAL PEOPLE were determined to maintain a segregationist mindset and prevent some foolish (to their mentality) pols of the future from doing away with it.

Just as it would seem some want to ensure that no “gay marriage nonsense” ever taints the Hoosier state!

PHILIP: Showed restraint?

When Illinois, back in 1996 when Republicans ran everything, altered state law to make it further clear that marriages between gay couples were NOT permissible, they never went so far as to go to the state Constitution amendment route.

Even the legislative era of James “Pate” Philip managed to show a little bit of restraint in its ideological maneuvers.

  -30-

Are we, the people, best off with more, or less, from our political officials?

Watching the Cook County Board at work on Wednesday made me wonder if we’re better off with more, or less, of their presence.


County wishes us 'happy holiday.' Do we like their present?

The issue at stake was the county board approving a schedule for their meetings for 2014. Under the measure that finally got approval, the county board next year will hold one meeting per month – with the exception of August.

THAT’S THEIR SUMMER break. No one is going to take that break away from them. It’s sacred!

But that is a change from past years. Until recently, the county board made a point of meeting twice per month (with the exception of August). This year, they made a point of meeting every three weeks. Which meant some months had two meetings and others had only one.

They’re now going to be down to one session per month for them to quibble over issues, while also spending endless hours pontificating over symbolic resolutions in which they praise each other’s friends.

It can get so mind-numbing that I have to confess, a sheriff’s deputy had to nudge me at one point Wednesday because I had fallen asleep.

SO THE FACT that there will be fewer such meetings? That could be interpreted as a good thing, or a bad thing.

Believe it or not, that was the issue at stake as county board members argued amongst themselves Wednesday (the final vote was 10-6, in favor of having fewer meetings).

County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, D-Chicago, may well have hit what many non-political people will consider the key question – she said that the county board members will continue to get the same salaries, even though they’re now expected to show up for fewer meetings.

Agreeing was county Commissioner Timothy Schneider, R- , who said, “The perception will be that we’re doing less work.”

A LOT OF people won’t want to have to take into account that an elective office is not some job where one punches a time card and gets paid by the hour, AND that it’s a post where one is basically on call at all times. Attending the meetings alone aren’t what the job consists of.

Take commissioners John Daley and Deborah Sims, both D-Chicago, along with Joan Patricia Murphy, D-Crestwood, who all used the word “efficiencies” over and over – as in the county board now works more “efficiently” and therefore does not have to meet as often.

Murphy literally went so far as to argue that she could better use time in her suburban office so as to deal with all the people who call her, claiming to have problems with government.

She also argued that the county board will be meeting about as often as the City Council – a fact that county board President Toni Preckwinkle (the former 5^th Ward alderman) confirmed.

“I DON’T KNOW why we have to put in more time downtown than the city does,” she said.

As for government meetings, they often are scripted to a heavy degree. Often, the times when officials spout off and criticize each other are the only impromptu moments So the idea that government officials get paid for their work at meetings?

Nonsense!

If that were it, then we ought to demand a repayment of their salaries. What they do there isn’t worth it.

WATCHING THIS DISPUTE on Wednesday actually brought an odd image to my mind – that of one-time Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip.

PHILIP: Was he right?

Some people remember the DuPage politico for his blunt-spoken ways. But I remember him for the fact that he was the motivation behind the General Assembly cutting the month of June off its schedule – ending its spring session business around Memorial Day instead of the old traditional June 30.

Philip often gave the impression that he viewed excess government meetings as merely an excuse for government officials to do something stupid or otherwise harmful to the public interest.

Watching the county board at work on Wednesday made me wonder if perhaps he was right!

  -30-

Political “kids” keep breaking into news

It has been four full decades since Mike Royko, in his book “Boss,” included an aside about nepotism in the Chicago political scene.

MELL: The newlywed



You know, all those political people who “begat” even more political people for the next generation.

WELL, NOTHING HAS changed. That trend has continued well into the 21^st Century. In fact, one of Royko’s examples (how “Joe Burke, ward boss and alderman, begat Edward Burke, ward boss and alderman”) can literally be extended yet another generation, since Eddie Burke – along with spouse and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke – have now “begat” Jennifer Burke of the state Pollution Control Board.

But I’m not about to complain about Jennifer Burke – who has legal credentials and may well be totally qualified for her new political post (and its $117,000 annual salary).

It’s just that in going through the news reports of recent days, it just strikes me as humorous how many of these “stories” involve the kids of Chicago-area politicos.

They’re doing good and bad. They’re making national news. And on some level, they may be causing their elder politico “parents’ to think to themselves, “You’re not too big for me to smack you upside the head.”

THE POLITICAL “KID” who is likely to draw the national attention is the daughter of 33^rd Ward Alderman Dick Mell. Not Patti Blagojevich – she’s had her day in the public eye.

Political parents Mell ...



It’s other daughter Deborah, who got herself elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, has always made it publicly known that she is a lesbian in a committed relationship, and recently took advantage of the fact that neighboring state Iowa is one of the few in the country that permits gay couples to marry.



So at the age of 43, Deborah finally is “settling” down and putting aside her single gal days. She has a spouse, Christin Baker, who works for the YMCA. The couple has known each other for seven years.

Their relationship seems as legitimate as that of any married couple and certainly nothing that was rushed into – a fact that some ideologues are going to refuse to accept as they are now trying to push for legal measures that would allow their states to ignore the validity of marriages performed in other states.

... Philip ...



WHICH MEANS THE Mell/Baker coupling is likely to be an example often cited in public debate when it comes to the “gay marriage” debate and trying to get other states – including Illinois – to get with the program.



For Illinois only has the “civil union” concept, which allows the ideologues to claim that “real” marriage is only meant for them. Which is absurd.

Considering that this marriage took place in Davenport, Iowa, it was right across the Mississippi River from Illinois. It is a shame that ideology prevented the couple from making their union legal on our side of the river.

To his credit, Mell the alderman has long accepted his daughter’s orientation and isn’t one of those parents who lets hang-ups cause him to do something stupid.

NOT AS PLEASED these days (I’d bet) is one-time Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip, who has a step-son by wife Nancy. After Philip retired from the Legislature in 2003, step-son Randy Ramey rose to the ranks of the Legislature himself.

He also serves as head of the DuPage County Republican Party. Which is why it drew public attention when, on Sunday, he got caught driving his car while under the influence of alcohol.

To his credit, he’s not trying to deny what happened, or use his political influence to pressure people to go easy on him. Ramey went so far as to issue a public statement admitting he had been drinking.

“I am prepared to face the consequences,” he said, in that statement. “I am deeply sorry to disappoint my family and my constituents.”

THEN AGAIN, WHEN the police have him with a .179 blood/alcohol level (.08 is the legal standard for intoxication), being noble and accepting guilt is the only way to go.

Either that, or his step-father likely would have led the parade in giving him a tongue-lashing for his behavior. And those of us old enough to remember Pate know that man’s rhetoric can be downright blunt and chilling – when he wants to be.

Then, there’s the saga of Allyson Reboyras, whose father is 30^th Ward Alderman Ariel Reboyras – which I’m sure has some political watchers saying is the most important of these tales because it involves the City Council.

Anyway, Allyson now has gainful employment. She is a secretary (annual salary, $37,570) for the state’s Liquor Control Commission.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported this story as being merely the latest in a line of politically-motivated hires made in recent months by Gov. Pat Quinn – giving jobs on the state payroll to several people of political influence, although commission officials (including its chairman) claim there was no political pressure to hire her.

... and Reboyras



For the record, Allyson has been out of college for three years (a B.A. in political science). So this position could well be her introduction to government. Will she someday follow the route (a stint in the state Legislature, followed by a move up to a city or Cook County post) of many local aspiring politicos?

If so, we may well have to add the line, “Ariel Reboyras, alderman, begat Allyson Reboyras, yet to be determined” to that list of all the begatting that is a part of our local political scene.

  -30-

Somebody needs to tell our state’s Legislature to get back to work on budget

It is at moments like this that I feel the spirit of James “Pate” Philip lingering over Illinois’ state Legislature.

It was the one-time Illinois Senate president who first got the General Assembly to think in terms of finishing their business prior to the end of the state fiscal year each June 30th. It was during his time that the Legislature started to think of Memorial Day as the time each spring when their business ended.

BUT PATE HAS not been a part of the Statehouse Scene for some eight years now. And as often happens when something passes along from its originator to other people, the goal becomes all too flawed – if not downright shrill.

I write that statement because that is how I feel about the fact that Friday is the date that the Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn its session for the summer. In theory, they won’t return to Springfield until just after the Nov. 2 elections.

I write “in theory” because we really don’t know. I’m not even sure if this truly will be the final day. Some people seem to think they might stay in place through the weekend, before adjourning for the summer, although there also has been talk of the Friday night "end of session" party, which means they most likely don't want to return unless absolutely forced to.

The one thing that everybody seems to agree upon is that our state legislators really don’t want to be at the capitol any longer than necessary. They want to “go home” and start focusing on getting themselves re-elected. Or maybe they want to spend some time off at the “Pate” Philip State Park, near Bartlett.

THAT FACT WOULD not bother me, except for the fact that the state Legislature isn’t even close to coming up with a budget that does anything to balance out the state’s financial problems. We really don’t even have any short-term solutions in place, other than some rhetoric about holding off on making payments to fund the various state pension programs.
The "Statehouse in Springpatch" is soon to be a virtual "ghost town," even though there remains business to be complete.

In short, we have a whole lot of state political people who are looking at ducking out on their responsibilities – which ought to include passing a budget that maintains state government in some form through the fiscal year that runs from July 1 through June 30, 2011.

Now I remember that Pate Philip always used to push for the early adjournment on the theory that there ought to be limits as to what state government is doing. Keeping the legislators in place any longer than necessary was just inviting trouble by giving them the opportunity to create mischief.

Of course, some of what he would define as “mischief” is what some of us would call responsible government on the part of the people. But I can’t help but think that the idea of leaving early has been taken to an absurd level with the idea of an early May adjournment date.

THEY HAVE NOT even fulfilled the basic requirement of a budget for the upcoming year, which will cause problems because there are many school districts and municipal governments across the state that are depending on a certain amount of their funding to come from the state – only the state is still uncertain how much they will be able to provide.

Other than saying that the level will be cut, we don’t know how much the cuts will be. The delay in a state budget will have repercussions down the chain of government activity, which ultimately will impact us Illinois residents in hundreds of ways – literally, each entity of “government” that we deal with in our lives will find a way to harm our lives due to the uncertainty.

One big sting from the state will result in countless little stings.

Somehow, I doubt that was what Pate ever intended when he suggested the end of May as the proper time for the Legislature to complete its business. I can’t help but think Pate himself is among the people ranting about the current incarnation of the General Assembly being unwilling to make the hard judgment calls that would allow them to approve a budget for state government.

NOTE THAT I am not using this commentary to urge any kind of tax increase (which seems to be the preference of Gov. Pat Quinn, even though he won’t use his authority to push for it) or for any kind of draconian cuts in state funding (which certain GOP legislators are more than willing to make). I’m of the opinion that the true long-term solution is going to be a combination of both, and will probably have to be imposed over the course of the next several years.

But by thinking they can get away with ramming some sort of short-term solution through the legislative process to get the state government through the next few months, then dealing with the rest of the fiscal year come the fall “Veto Session,” it’s almost like our legislators are trying to vote for “None of the Above” when it comes to resolving our state’s financial problems.

By electing to do nothing in the way of a long-term solution, it makes me wonder if our legislators – both of the Democrat and Republican persuasion – are showing themselves to be worthy of the “None of the Above” option come Election Day.

-30-

When should state’s fiscal year end?

It’s times like now that I wonder if anyone wishes the Illinois General Assembly had never made the change to bring their business to a close by the end of May, rather than the old days when the state Legislature had until June 30 to complete its business.

Because of the way the laws operate, the General Assembly had pressure on it to approve a balanced budget for state government for the upcoming fiscal year while also trying to figure out how to close the potential shortfall totaling in the billions of dollars.

AN INCOME TAX hike? Sales taxes on all kinds of differing services? More casinos and other legalized gambling, which would make completely legal many of the activities that sheriffs across the state now do to show they’re protecting our morality?

The legislature had until 11:59 p.m. Sunday to figure it out, because the moment that the clock ticked Midnight, Illinois would regard it as Monday, June 1. That is the legal deadline by which the lawmakers are supposed to be complete.

Nobody wants to go through the ordeal of 1988 when the clock suddenly stopped at 11:59 p.m. on June 30 so that the deal to have the state construct what is now known as U.S. Cellular Field could pass with a simple majority (some hard-core ranters insist to this day that the White Sox deal passed illegally at 12:03 a.m. on July 1). Back in the days of this early 20th Century postcard, this weekend's legislative headaches wouldn't have occurred for another month.

If they’re not, they face the penalty of needing a larger majority (60 percent) in order to approve anything that needs to take effect immediately.

IN SHORT, THE same legislators who can’t even get a simple majority would have to get even more people to agree. And the Democrats who can’t agree on anything among themselves would now have to make serious concessions to Republican legislators to get some of their support.

The only reason I can’t hear your chuckling at the thought of bipartisan compromise in today’s political world is because it’s being drowned out by my own hysterical laughter.

It wasn’t always like this.

There used to be a time when May 31 was just another date. Those were the days when the General Assembly configured its schedule each year so that June 30 would be the scheduled end of the spring legislative session.

I WAS ONE of the reporter-types at the Statehouse in Springpatch back when the change was made to move things up one month. And I remember the real reason for this change.

“Pate” Philip wanted it that way.

That is one-time Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip, R-Wood Dale, who went through his career on the Statehouse scene thinking it a waste that the Legislature couldn’t have the entire summer back in their home districts.

So when he worked his way up to the leadership position in the 1990s, one of the changes he got the General Assembly to make was to shift the legislative schedule. Instead of having a state Legislature work from mid-March through June, they now work roughly from late January through May.

The amount of time lawmakers spend at the Statehouse is similar. It is just done at a slightly different time of the year.

BUT IF THINGS were done the way they used to be in Springfield, Sunday would not have been a “drop dead” date. Heck, legislators wouldn’t have even been in Springfield on Sunday.

The “work around the clock every day of the week and weekend” period that comes at the end of every legislative session would be about three weeks off.

Now as I noted earlier in this commentary, June 30 used to be the relevant date. It wasn’t until July 1 that the higher majority for approval would kick in.

To my mind, there was a logic to that date – one that will always exist and that can never apply to May 31.

FOR ILLINOIS GOVERNMENT operates on a calendar from July 1 through June 30. As far as the people at the Statehouse and at the Thompson Center in Chicago are concerned, 2010 has only 30 days remaining.

What we will think of as the coming of Independence Day holiday weekend will be thought of by state government junkies as New Year’s Day and the beginning of 2011.

That was the reason for the higher standard for approving measures. It was to discourage people from trying to do “this year’s” business in the early moments of “next year.” It made sense to respect June 30 as something significant.

By comparison, May 31 is just another date on the calendar. It’s a shame that it has gained any significance and caused our legislators some pressure.

NOT THAT I expect anyone to seriously think of restoring the Legislature’s deadline to June 30. I’d sooner expect the National League to voluntarily implement the Designated Hitter rule.

But it would be nice to know that there was one more month of time to try to seriously review the state’s financial problems – rather than try to cram some sort of makeshift political solution that accomplishes nothing for the public good.

Be honest. That is what will happen this year, regardless of what the Legislature winds up doing. As of when I’m writing this commentary Sunday night, I don’t know how the situation will be resolved. I doubt the legislators do either.

Of course, there is one possibility.

THAT OUR LEGISLATORS are so worthless that not even one more month would accomplish anything, except us having this exact same discussion on June 30 instead of May 31.

You may be right about that assumption. But that is a subject for future commentary.

-30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Any attempt by me to come up with a detailed analysis of whatever half-cocked attempt at compromise the General Assembly wound up approving late Sunday while sitting at a laptop computer some 200 miles away would have been absurd. If you really need to know the details of whether or not the Legislature was able to do anything and finish "the people's business" for the spring, check out Capitol Fax (http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/).