111 Days
Posted yesterday on ICPR's blog, The Race is On:
Three months can define a career. Most of the alphabet soup agencies that came to embody the New Deal were created during the first three months of FDR's first presidency. In 1985, the song "We Are the World" was recorded on January 28th and hit #1 on the American charts on April 13th. Heck, the U.S. invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003 and President Bush held his "Mission Accomplished" press conference on the USS Lincoln on May 2, 2003.
Where there's a will there's a way. Alas, to date the Illinois Senate has shown no will to address pay-to-play in state contracting.
Despite dozens of news reports highlighting state contracts awarded to campaign contributors, despite exit polls last November showing that 86% of voters think fixing political corruption is very or extremely important to them, despite the support of every major reform organization in the state, despite supportive editorials in over 15 of the largest newspapers around the state, despite the endorsement of five of the six statewide officers in Illinois, despite the votes of 116 members of the Illinois House, and in the face of 46 Senators (out of 59) who have signed on as Sponsors, the bill has never even had a hearing in the Senate.
Today marks the 111th day that House Bill 1 has been locked down in the Senate.
While Senate President Jones and his spokespeople insist they want something "bigger and better," no alternatives to HB 1 have been filed for public hearing. With a budget sent to the Governor, will the Senate President now devote more of his energies to making this happen? He has several possible avenues. Sen. Jeff Schoenberg has worked hard to include pay-to-play rules in his pension and procurement reforms. Sen. Don Harmon still has HB 1 as a stand-alone measure. The public isn't as interested in vehicles as they are in results. Bromides aside, it is high time for the Senate to declare what they will support.
5 comments:
Hopefully, Emil Jones will receive the reception at the State Fair today that his actions this year as Senate President have merited. Unfortunately, I cannot list that reception in appropriate detail on a family blog site. Suffice to say that I will give no support to any Democrat running for the State Senate in 2008 who plans on supporting Jones for Senate President in the next General Assembly.
Simply put, most of our legislators pledge allegiance first and foremost to the party, to themselves, to their contributors and to their campaign workers. Only then do they get around to representing their constituents. Emil Jones is the poster-boy for why change is needed.
stop misleading people. I read the bill. It will do nothnig to stop corruption in this state. If people are corrupt, they wull be corrupt. You do gooders never leave well enough alone. Once you pass this, we will have to justify your groups existence and push for further reforms. I know this is not a popular opinion, but it's the truth
Nice comment Rod, but nobody's buying it.
And further reforms is a bad thing?
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