All Posts Tagged With: "Illinois General Assembly"

As the Blagojevich circus continues to unfold, I want to recommend that our readers check out the updates at the Capitol Fax Blog. Today, two of our contributors, John Bambeneck and myself, have been debating on the threads.  I hope you’ll join in.

Impeachment hearings *** Monk’s cell phone tapped? ***

Question of the Day

The question of the day is based on a proposal by State Rep. Will Burns, who I got to know when I was working in Springfield.  Will is a creative and bright young rising star in the Democratic party.  And I always thought he was also a genuinely nice guy. Read more…

Out of the chaos of the Blagojevich controversy, somehow we need a new U.S. Senator.  Here I’ll explain some of the problems with Durbin’s special election proposal, and offer a few alternatives. Read more…

As you may have read one of the major power players in Springfield will soon be stepping down. Senate President Emil Jones, Jr. is retiring from the State Senate and planning to have his son fill his vacated seat. It remains unclear who will replace Jones in the powerful role of Senate President, with a veto proof majority.

The Illinois General Assembly is in many ways a parlimentary system where all the staff, campaign money, map drawing, and legislative power is controlled by the “four tops,” the leader of each party in each chamber. Consequently, party leaders stay in power unless they step down or have a major scandal. The race for the next Senate President is important because he could stay in power for the next twenty years.

I’m still surprised that Jones would vacate his post now that his chamber can wield so much power. I cant shake the notion that health concerns might be guiding this decision, it’s hard to understand why else he would do this, unless he’s just wanting to cash in on campaign funds and perhaps make even more as a lobbyist.

Jones departing leaves a hotly contested race for Senate President with several impressive contenders including James Clayborne and John Cullerton. I had a chance to spend a lot of time observing the Illinois General Assembly a few years back when a now famous skinny guy with a funny name was in the Chamber. During the debates I witnessed, I considered the sharpest minds in the room to be Cullerton, Obama, Roskam, Rauschenberger, and Clayborne. (I’m being a little bipartisan). Of those, Clayborne and Cullerton are two of the leading contenders to take over for Jones. Harmon is also mentioned, and also impressive.

I haven’t closely followed Illinois politics for a few years, but in a conversation with a friend today I considered how Blagojevich can factor into this mess. Generally speaking, Emil Jones often sided with Blagojevich against Speaker Madigan. Some think Cullerton would be more of a Madigan ally. If the race looks close, and Obama wins his Senate race, Blagojevich could name John Cullerton to the U.S. Senate to swing the Senate President election. (Note, the last few sentences is colored much more by hypothetical generalization than up to date knowledge of the loyalties of State Senators, and my example could be totally wrong, but the principle remains that Blago could elevfate someone to take them out of the running for Senate President, or to break up a delicately balanced deal that would seat an adversary in this position of power).