by Sam Pierce Illinois conservative voices seem to be clamoring for the passage of SB600 to fix the way the ILGOP state central committee members are elected. A part of the goal is to perhaps remove the power from the…

By the end of this month, we’ll be officially told that Illinois’ population loss will result in us losing a congressional district and an electoral college vote. Because Illinois voters chose to re-elect a Democrat for governor and retain a…

The ability of voters to recall corrupt or ineffective governors was a hot topic in the days after the arrest of Rod Blagojevich. Voters will get the chance to adopt an amendment that purports to give citizens this right. I support recall. The public needs a means to fire public servants who no longer serve the public. However, I will be voting no on the recall amendment in November. The reason is simple; this amendment is a sham.
In order for citizens to initiate a recall election, they need to collect …

This is about deaf people.

The deaf politicians and the rest of the political class, who, oblivious to the tumult growing around them, continue to do the same stupid things that got the public so riled in the first place.
An exhibit: Cedra Crenshaw, the Republican candidate for the state Senate seat from the 43rd District in Will County. The Democratic-controlled county election commission threw her off the November election ballot because the language in her nominating petition contained a minor mistake. She had more than enough signatures, but the error, while …

The most awful news about the General Assembly tonight is that Illinois is flat-broke and $12 billion in the red.

The most repugnant news about the assembly is that the speaker of the House, Mike Madigan, is abusing his power, using his clout, to help his friends and relatives sneak their children into the University of Illinois.
Gasp! More from Walter here

“Illinois politician” continues its run as a late-night punchline.
In just the past couple of weeks since returning from France, we’ve been treated to the following:
–Senator Roland Burris’s nose grows longer with his circumlocutions around a newly revealed wiretap wherein he seems to be negotiating about how little he might have to pay to play senator du jour.
–Speaker of the House Mike Madigan and his senate henchman John Cullerton, kill off any significant “pay to play” reforms, let alone any suggestions of transparency or fiscal responsibility.
–Corruption rears its head in higher-education, …

Jack Frank’s a nice guy and a friend but he can’t convince me that Mike Madigan screwed up Pat Quinn’s session by not raising taxes because he lost the power to convince his troops. Not anyone of Madigan’s leadership stripe. Tax hikes are not anathema to Dems as they are to Republicans or the general public. Madigan gave his step-daughter a golden opportunity for the nomination in 2010 and the general in November. There’s a thought that if Madigan wanted to harm Quinn he’d pass the tax hike-but in the …

The idealistic news media, covering the closure of the legislative session, are weeping bitter tears. I have been studying these sensitive, hope-filled people since 1953 as a journalist, while covering the Minnesota legislature, as a congressional aide and press secretary to a governor, then assistant commerce secretary, foreign service officer, corporate executive, adjunct university teacher and now, as an octogenarian, as a part-time talk show host and blogger. Believe me, they are all of the same stripe: they are fated to fall in love with Democratic politicians and each time …

The man in unembarrassable—like his mentor the recently impeached MISTER Blagojevich.
It will take harsh action beyond appealing to Sen. Roland Burris’s better angels to get him to resign. (I once thought he had better angels.)
First we learn he talked to several, not just one of Blagojevich’s associates. Then that he was solicited but gave no money nor engaged in fundraising. Finally, well, yeah, he did try a bit of fundraising but it was not successful. He denies this was …