A PRIMARY ELECTION SEASON MUST READ!

Today's Tribune Editorial....IMO this nails it!!
mcl

January 6, 2010
Corruption, clout and you

"Half-measures will not suffice to repair our State's troubled (governing) infrastructure or our citizens' broken confidence. ... Past reform efforts have met with forces just as destructive as self-interest or corruption: apathy, inertia and cynicism."

-- Illinois Reform Commission

To this sorry trio of failures that many Illinois political leaders hope you'll again exhibit, add a fourth: severe memory loss. There is so much mischief that, as the Feb. 2 primary election looms, they're just desperate for you to forget -- and thus forgive. Don't be a sap. That is, don't succumb to their anticipation that you're too dense, or too distracted, to hold them accountable for their self-serving behavior -- that you're too clueless to elect better officeholders in 2010. So start reminding your family members and friends -- all the folks in your life who complained about scandals under George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich -- that those two governors' political heirs in Springfield have plenty of unfinished business. Some lawmakers brag that they've done enough to exterminate Illinois' culture of political sleaze. Don't believe them. Many of them are jealously guarding their power from real reform. Truth is, they got all the reform they wanted the day they bounced Blagojevich out of office. As for their own realm, well, they like Illinois governance -- with clout concentrated in only a few tight fists -- just as it is.

If you disagree with them, act. Don't let any potential voter forget these outrages:--Lawmakers ousted Blagojevich. But remember, you weren't permitted to fire him yourself because, in 2008, 26 state senators -- 25 of them Democrats -- deprived you of a chance to vote up or down a muscular constitutional amendment permitting the recall of public officials. In 2009, 61 state representatives -- every one a Democrat -- voted to bury in their chamber's Rules Committee an amendment that would have let you recall the executive officers and legislators you employ. Instead, lawmakers tried to look reformist by proposing a pathetic little amendment -- you'll vote on it next year -- to allow only the recall of governors. They granted themselves and other politicians a pass.--Lawmakers heap praise on themselves for writing laws to curb the pay-to-play culture of the Blagojevich era. Yes, they made it harder for future governors to do what Blagojevich allegedly did. And they passed other measures, including a revised Freedom of Information Act, that should make government more transparent. But legislators also evaded changes that could expose crimes closer to their own realm: In May, a Senate subcommittee quashed proposals by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins' reform commission to stiffen enforcement of anti-corruption laws. Democrats said the proposals needed more study. This is the same legislature that abruptly passed legislation to flood Illinois with video poker machines. That fiasco sure didn't require much study.

This page is no fan of campaign finance limitations, in part because they're easy to circumvent. But this year's new law isn't even good eyewash. It caps contributions -- except the most influential rivers of money: Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton flat-out refused to cap how much they can give their chosen candidates in a general election. That keeps the legislative rank-and-file dependent on caucus leaders. Madigan and Cullerton passed caps, yet enhanced their own power. Illinois needs lawmakers with the courage to buck Springfield leadership and fix that.

The controlling pols have been in no rush to surrender another protection racket: Illinois' system of drawing boundary lines for legislative and congressional districts. This legalized gerrymandering creates overwhelmingly Republican or Democratic districts that cheat voters out of competitive races. That is why we've proposed that Illinois drop "Land of Lincoln" from its vehicle plates and substitute "The Incumbent State." Consider these galling statistics: In the 2008 general election, incumbent legislators got more than 75 percent of the vote in 25 of the 40 state Senate races that were in contention, and in 72 of the 118 House districts. How so? Districts had been gerrymandered to keep those in power in power. The General Assembly needs to exterminate this abomination before the 2010 federal census prompts the next redistricting. We hope for a noisy debate in Springfield. So ask every legislator and challenger whether he or she favors a non-politicized, computer-driven mapping strategy like the one Iowa uses. Every candidate will know exactly what you mean; this topic is dear to their hearts. If you get pablum such as, "I'm open to that" or "Everything's on the table," walk away.

This Feb. 2 primary is so early in the year that babies conceived on that day could be born before the general election nine months later (Nov. 2). Why a winter primary? It was moved up in 2008 to benefit favorite-son Barack Obama in the presidential primaries, but then lawmakers made no effort to move it back for 2010. Incumbents love a short post-holidays campaign because challengers have so little time to engage voters. In Illinois, even the date of the primary favors the insiders.

After this series of four editorials, the Tribune will offer endorsements for the primary. Those choices mostly will reflect which candidates strike us as most likely to attack the problems savaging Illinois and poorly governed locales like Cook County. This year, incumbents face intense scrutiny of their voting records. Some worked to combat Illinois' culture of political sleaze. Some acted in their own interest, hoping that, come Election Day, you'd forget how much corruption and clout have cost you.
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