Bambenek Pushing for Constitutional Convention

by Billy Joe Mills • Jan 9th, 2008 at 10:16 pm •

The Champaign County Libertarian Party will be hosting John Bambenek, Director of Lobbying and Advisory Board member of the Illinois Citizens Coalition, on Thursday, January 10 at 7 pm in the auditorium of the Urbana Free Library, 210 W Green St.

Article XIV of the Illinois Constitution requires that every 20 years a referendum be held on whether to convene a constitutional convention to rewrite or amend the state constitution. The next time this question is on the ballot is this November. All the special interests will likely be out to enshrine their issues into the constitution. Is it safe for reform-minded voters to support such a convention? John Bambenek will argue ‘yes.’

A convention is the best chance to drive true reform in Illinois government. Term limits, open ballots, open primaries, and binding referenda are just a few of the reforms that Illinois could see if successful. Most important to me would be a revolution in the way that public education is financed. The Illinois Citizens Coalition is putting forth a new draft constitution to create a framework for good governance that will help lead Illinois out its cell of corruption and fiscal mismanagement.

Learn more as John Bambenek lays out the agenda for a new constitution.

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There Are 2 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Augur on 10 January 2008 at 8:52 am:

    Other useful items bamby said it would contain:

    eliminating the 4 tops model where essentially companies like com ed only have to really buy the speaker and senate president to run roughshod over the people

    switching from a system where the parties each draw their own maps to a impartial panel of judges or a map drawn by a computer - this is a bigger problem than mere gerrymandering - i can go into more on that later if anyone is interested

    also, I’d like to see the new constitution include a procedure for recalling a governor

  2. Comment by The Squire on 14 January 2008 at 9:59 pm:

    One of the very, very few things John and I agree on is that open primaries are stupid. I also am not a fan of statewide referenda - really badly worded ones can be enshrined into law, and then we’re screwed into dealing with them.

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