EXTRA: History, or Illinois’ lack of political backbone on display?

It seems that Illinois will barely qualify as being amongst the top third of the states of the United States that decided to go forward in striking down the state laws that made it clear marriages between gay couples were not legitimate.

QUINN: His turn to act

Illinois would like to think it is some sort of progressive place. Yet in the end, both Iowa and Minnesota beat the Land of Lincoln to the punch in approving a measure that permitted marriage as an option (rather than just civil union) for gay people.

AND OVERALL, ILLINOIS is 15^th (out of 50) in terms of approving the concept – which once Gov. Pat Quinn puts his signature to the bill will strike down the law the then-Republican-dominated General Assembly enacted in 1996 that specified that marriage between gay couples was completely unacceptable in Illinois.

Do you want a sports analogy? It’s kind of like the integration of Major League Baseball, where the Chicago White Sox were the fifth ball club overall (out of 16 in existence back then) that took on black ballplayers.

The White Sox may be better than the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals or Philadelphia Phillies – but they’re not anything to brag about in that regard.

Although I suppose it could have been worse. Illinois could have let this issue linger on a few more years and we could have wound up being something like 40-somethingth in terms of approving the issue.

I DO FEEL for anyone who winds up someday getting married in whichever state winds up being 50^th of the 50 states to implement it. Because those public officials probably will take pride in being last and will probably behave in ways that the anti-abortion activists do – they push for all kinds of restrictions to make it next to impossible for a woman to actually get an abortion.

MAYFIELD: She was "present"

In terms of the politics, it is intriguing that the reports starting creeping out of the Statehouse on Monday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was picking up the telephone and calling certain legislative colleagues to put the pressure on them to quit being wishy-washy on the issue.

The 61 Illinois House members who voted for the issue probably include a few who wish they could have voted “present” (only two did).

As it turns out, there were only three Republicans who went for the idea – including former House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, who apparently wants urban votes in his bid to become Illinois treasurer in next year’s election cycle.

SMITH: "P" vote adds to legacy

HE’LL NEED THEM, because the rhetoric already is spouting out from opponents of the concept who are determined to dump those supportive legislators come the March primary elections. The Illinois Review website that likes to tout conservative causes couldn’t wait to publish a copy of the roll call for Illinois Senate Bill 10 – just so we’d know who the evildoers are!



Personally, I think state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, is typical of the fence-sitting. I haven’t talked to him on Tuesday, so I don’t know what exactly went through his mind.

But he’s a guy who started out the year saying he definitely supported the idea. But as a member of the Black Caucus, he got a lot of the pressure from assorted African-American ministers who wanted him to oppose.

He was publicly supportive of the notion of delaying a vote as long as possible. But in the end, he turned out to be a “Yes” vote on Tuesday – just like he originally said he would be.

MADIGAN: Could he be active earlier?

THE FACT THAT it took so long to resolve, but got settled quickly once Madigan inserted his presence, makes me wonder why he couldn’t have done this back in the spring.

It could have been resolved then, and we could have averted an entire summer’s worth of nonsense rhetoric that I’m sure has inflamed the matter all the more – and may have even created a sense of distrust between the gay rights activists and those who back African-American interests.

Was it worth it?

Or perhaps this is the issue that shows all this talk about “blue” states and Illinois being so far gone to the left is just a bunch of nonsense.

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EXTRA: The price Dems pay for being all-dominant in Illinois government

I know one Illinois House of Representatives member whose contempt for the Better Government Association is such that he always manages to work in a dig against the group just about every time I encounter him.

MADIGAN: Angry? Or whining?

Then again, state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, was the focus of one of the BGA’s studies for a trip to Miami he took over a year ago to attend a filmmakers conference. He came across looking ridiculous!

NOW IT SEEMS that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is taking on a similar attitude toward the government watchdog group headed up by one-time WLS-TV political reporter Andy Shaw.

Madigan recently sent a letter to all the members of the Democratic caucus that makes him all-powerful, along with members of the Democratic State Central Committee, taking shots at the BGA for doing so many reports that focus on Democratic Party-aligned government officials.

He’s most recently upset with the BGA study that shows most of the people who circulated his nominating petitions have government jobs. Implying that the job itself is some sort of payoff for political work.

Now I’ll be the first to admit there are times when I find the BGA reports a little over the top, although they do take the time to look at the details behind the day-to-day gristle that comprises the typical news report!

BUT THE POLITICAL rants we’re hearing from Madigan are embarrassing to him. He should know better.

JONES: Sure he agrees w/ speaker

If it seems like the BGA investigators are focusing their attention on Democratic Party officials and politics, perhaps it’s because they’re so all-dominant!

There just isn’t much activity in the Republican Party amongst its officials that is worth intense scrutiny. They just don’t matter as much. When they start winning more significant offices, then investigative efforts will focus back on their work.

Call this scrutiny the price da Dems pay for their dominance over Illinois state government these days. If we ever get a repeat of 1995-96 (the era of Republicans running roughshod over Democratic officials concerns), then there will be equal scrutiny of the GOP. I don't think Madigan wants to revert to that era.

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We’re approaching lack of a payday

Thursday is the day the members of our General Assembly should be getting their pay for the month of August.

But on account of the fact that Gov. Pat Quinn used his amendatory veto powers to delete the money put aside in the budget to cover legislative salaries for the year, they’re not getting paid.

ILLINOIS COMPTROLLER JUDY Baar Topinka went so far last week as to make a formal statement saying she doesn’t have the authority to cut checks for the General Assembly’s 177 members – although she did strongly imply that she’d be more than willing to pay them if a court were to order her to do so.

It’s probably one of the rare occasions when a government officials WANTS to be sued – irregardless of how a lawsuit would wind up making just about everybody look foolish.

Of course, nobody has come up with a lawsuit against the state. Because it’s one of those things that would make somebody look incredibly stupid and selfish!

Quinn’s motivation for not paying the legislators (and himself, technically) is that the public officials don’t deserve compensation for as long as they fail to come up with a plan to reform the way in which the state pays the cost of the pension programs it oversees.

AS OF MONDAY, there still isn’t a plan for covering the pension costs. And no hints as to when a plan could be ready for legislative consideration.

Who wants to be the person who sues to get paid even though significant work has yet to be complete?

Although the Capitol Fax newsletter has indicated that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has had his staff looking into ways that could force legislators to get paid even without a resolution to the pension funding problem.

Regardless, the action that usually would be taking place now to ensure that paychecks that won’t bounce come Thursday is NOT taking place. Legislators are not going to get their monthly compensation.

SOME OF THEM won’t be as impacted because they have other jobs or sources of income – particularly those who are attorneys and are going to have to rely upon their law firm legal fees to cover the cost of the groceries they consume and their mortgage payments for the upcoming month.

But there are those who actually live off the incomes. Some may have financial problems crop up – just like other people who run into unexpected conflicts.

So in that case, the next couple of weeks could turn out to be an educational experience for our legislators.

Not that they’re willing to say so themselves. I have contacted a few legislators in recent days, and NONE of them are willing to comment in any form.

“I’M NOT PUTTING myself in the middle of that,” state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, said. He was the most eloquent. The others I spoke to had less to say – as all are afraid of saying something that could offend the powers-that-be.

None of them want to be the target of political payback once this issue gets resolved, and the legislators wind up getting back pay to cover the cost of the money they are being denied this week.

That’s the flaw in the argument being made by some that Quinn acted in an unconstitutional manner by altering the salaries of the General Assembly. He really didn’t.

The salaries on the books for the individual legislators remain the same. They’ll get their money eventually – just like the state workers whose get gets delayed every time the Legislature and the governor get into a political spat and can’t put together a state budget by the July 1 beginning-of-the state fiscal year.

BESIDES, THERE ALSO have been several occasions where the General Assembly uses the backhanded maneuver of approving something, but then failing to provide funding for it – thereby ensuring it won’t happen.

In a sense, the governor has done the same to the legislators, who apparently can now turn to the Credit Union 1 in Rantoul (just north of Champaign) to get loans of up to half of their salaries to help them pay bills in coming weeks – similar to how they help state employees on strike.

So excuse me for not being too sympathetic to the legislators. Even though some are trying to make the argument that Quinn is behaving irresponsibly – creating a precedent for future governors to “strong-arm” the General Assembly to get them to do anything.

“No pay checks until you pass a measure restricting abortion so heavily that it becomes next-to-impossible to obtain!,” they argue we’re going to hear someday.

THAT MAY BE so. It is possible that some future political nit-wit would try something arrogant like that.

Although I’d argue that is the arrogance of the future public official, and not the questionability of the tactic itself.

I also have enough faith in the Illinois electorate to think that if a future governor tried something like that, the public would be so repulsed that the official would suffer severely.

Unlike Quinn in this instance, who seems to be gaining tidbits of support for his behavior in recent weeks!

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EXTRA: Perhaps Illinois legislators need a lesson on how to cast a vote

Both the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives gave overwhelming votes of support on Friday for a measure permitting “concealed carry” – the practice of carrying a pistol on one’s person in public for self-defense.

JONES: Meant to vote "yes"

Yet it seems that some legislators don’t want to have to take criticism for how the official record will record their stance. In the Illinois House, the final vote was 89-28.

ONE OF THE people who did not vote was state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City. Is he really position-less on the matter?

Or is he telling the truth when, as he explained after the vote was taken, he meant to vote “yes” but that the device on his desk that allows him to vote on bills did not function.

Did someone really “turn off” his device to prevent him from being vote number 90? Who’s to say!

Although his explanation bothers me less than that of state Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, who is recorded as voting “yes” for the bill, but says he wants to be thought of as having voted “present.”

NOT THE BOLDEST of actions – although it prevents the National Rifle Association-types from being able to criticize him on the issue.

So now, the issue goes to Gov. Pat Quinn – who likely will sign it to avoid legal catastrophe from being imposed by the federal appeals courts. Although this is a man who has been willing to say “no” to the gambling interests who dream of more and more casinos across Illinois.

ACEVEDO: Pushed the wrong button

And we may soon have a law that allows those people in rural parts of the state to carry pistols for use against anyone they feel threatens them – although the larger municipalities with Home Rule powers will have the ability to push their own restrictions on firearms.

Which will tick off the rural interests; for whom a large part of this whole issue was imposing their perspective on firearms onto Chicago and the whole state.

SO FOR THOSE who are upset that Illinois won’t be in a group with California and New York (states that give their local police great authority to reject applications for firearms permits), keep in mind that the law could have wound up much worse!

Although I’m still waiting for the first incident where someone who is armed gets crocked in a restaurant that serves liquor, then feels threatened by the presence of another patron in the booth two seats away.

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Why is this not bribery? Because it’s “Smart Grid” legislative politics

The Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session begins Tuesday, and one of the key issues that will come up will be the fate of the “Smart Grid,” that new technology desired by Commonwealth Edison that they want near-guaranteed rate hikes to pay for its implementation.

JONES: $50 million for LiHEAP is his price



Gov. Pat Quinn used his “veto” power this summer to kill the bill. Or should I say, try to kill it. Because this measure is likely to rise from the dead as many legislators, particularly those who are upset that Quinn won’t go along with their desired gambling expansion plan, are more than willing to vote to over-ride him.

FOR SOME, IT’S payback. They’ll dump on Quinn’s attempt to keep Com Ed in check. Of course, they’ll claim other reasons for it. Some of them will even sound altruistic on the surface.

Take the case of a statement issued Monday by state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, who made it publicly known that although he voted against the “Smart Grid” bill during the spring, he is now inclined to vote “yea” when the issue comes up in the veto session.

Now I don’t know that there’s a direct tie for Jones between the Smart Grid and casino expansion bills (although Jones once said he thinks Quinn is looking at gambling in the wrong way – focusing on problems it causes rather than the money it can raise to help pay to fix problems).

But the reason that Jones gives isn’t much better.

HE CITES A “trailer” bill that will be forthcoming during the fall session. In politico-speak, a trailer bill is one that is approved separately from its main bill, but provides for various issues that are related to the original vote.

In this case, the trailer will include up to $50 million in extra state funding for the LiHEAP energy assistance program. State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the trailer could get a vote in the state Senate as soon as Tuesday.

That program is one that gets tapped into every winter by low-income people who, because of the excess cold that is a Midwestern winter, run up extremely-high heating bills that they cannot possibly afford to pay off on their own.

The program helps those people pay those bills, thereby assuring that no one gets cut off in mid-winter and dies from the cold. For those who are now going to spew an ideological argument about how government shouldn’t be paying utility bills, figure that government believes that the expense of paying a few bills is better than having to cover the cost of an indigent person’s funeral – or the bad public image of letting people freeze to death.

AND FOR JONES, the idea of the state providing extra money to help cover those costs (particularly since he represents a portion of Cook County filled with suburban communities where the economic struggles of our nation have impacted harder-than-elsewhere) is a plus.

“For that reason, I will vote to support …the Com Ed ‘Smart Grid’ bill,” Jones says, in his statement.

He also points out that he’s not the only former “nea” vote who will flip to “yea” on Smart Grid. It seems that this trailer bill is meant to give a lot of legislators something they desire – in exchange for getting them to go along with the desires of Commonwealth Edison on this particular issue.

Which means they will be able to put the political spin that they brought something back to their home communities – rather than just knuckled under to the utility company. Because if it had to run purely on its merits, I think the negative image Com Ed has in many peoples’ minds is strong enough to kill this issue off for good.

I DO BELIEVE that Quinn tapped into a public sentiment on this issue; which is to say that the ‘Smart Grid’ technology that has the potential to pinpoint outages to their exact location and give repair crews detailed explanations of the problem before crews even get there is a noble goal.

But I wonder how many people don’t trust Com Ed to be able to implement it without significant problems. Which is why they resent the idea that the bill provides for rate increases to pay for its implementation.

Those television commercial spots of recent days that imply the current infrastructure is a century old and too primitive to accommodate our society much longer aren’t going to sway those who don’t trust the utility.

It could be said that the distrust is Com Ed’s payback for years of screw-ups and incompetence.

SO HOW DO the political powers-that-be respond? By making the payoff.

In the case of Jones, his price is $50 million more for the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program. (although nowhere do I see an explanation of where this money will come from – at a time when so many state government bills are going unpaid).

Other legislators, I’m sure, have their own prices. In fact, I probably shouldn't give the impression that Jones is the only legislator guilty of such conduct.

So if it turns out that the General Assembly does decide to override Quinn on this issue, keep in mind that part of it is meant to embarrass the governor. While the rest is just a good ol’ fashioned payoff – albeit one that is legal and only the most hard-headed of assistant U.S. attorneys would dare to even think of in terms of prosecution.

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