Urbanagora » Illinois

So…close…

Gordon the Gnome — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Watch the IL House hearing on the proposed rules for the impeachment proceedings

Joshua — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:09:57 +0000

If you’d like to watch the live hearing, which just started, click here.

Thanks to Rich Miller at Capitol Fax for providing the link.

Case No. 107713 – Bambenek v. Milorad R. Blagojevich

Joshua — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:46:42 +0000

Attorney General Lisa Madigan wasn’t the only one to file suit today to remove Rod Blagojevich. Urbanagora contributor John Bambenek also filed suit today.

Here’s coverage of Bambenek’s filing in the Belleville News Democrat. You can download the pleadings for Bambenek’s case or AG Madigan’s case here at a special page on the IL Supreme Court’s website.

Illinois Review ran the following on Bambenek’s suit yesterday:

Suit to be filed Friday before Illinois Supreme Court to remove Governor

SPRINGFIELD – Frustrated by the lack of direct action on the part of state legislative leadership, two private Illinois citizens said Friday they will be filing a petition before the Illinois Supreme Court to temporarily remove Governor Rod Blagojevich from office.

“Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been bringing up the possibility of removing the governor from office based on Illinois Supreme Court’s Rule 382, which allows the court to move quicker than any other recourse,” petitioner John Bambenek of Champaign told Illinois Review today. “Illinois can’t wait for months for the Governor to step down, we have too many crucial issues before us to wait.”

“The standards for incapacity are very broad. We’re saying he’s unable to fulfill his duty to appoint someone to fill the U.S. Senate seat, since Senate Majority leader Harry Reid refuses to accept his appointment,” Bambenek said. “He’s also unable to function politically, because he’s been caught on tape compromising his office. We’re also stating in the petition that Attorney General Madigan has a potential conflict of interest, as she has stated her own interest in running for governor in the future.”

Bambenek, co-foundeer of Illinois Citizen Coalition will be joined in the petition by Hinsdale resident Adam Andrzejewski, director of the year-old good government group “For the Good of Illinois.”

Also, a fun fact John mentions on his blog, both he and Blago have been on the Daily Show.

Some ways to fill Obama’s seat

Joshua — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:46:04 +0000

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.

First I want to recommend the Capitol Fax Blog to all of our readers who are interested in monitoring the Blagojevich scandal, news on the IL Senate seat, and all of the fallout from this controversy. When I worked in Illinois state politics, Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax was the single best resource for the news of the day. It’s a great site to bookmark and check regularly if you’re interested in Illinois politics.

While most of these ideas are a little off the wall, and unlikely, this post was largely intended as a brainstorming session. I’m hoping some readers might add thoughts of their own.

Special Election

Durbin, and several other Illinois politicians, have called for a special election to fill the vacancy. In coming days we will probably see many who objected to a con-con for costs reasons, advocating a statewide special election. In addition to being expensive (estimated at up to 50 million dollars) a special election is too slow. It is in the best interest of the people of Illinois to appoint the new Senator before all the newly elected Senators are sworn in. The U.S. Senate is a body where seniority matters a great deal. I would rather our new Senator be more senior than all of the newly elected Democrats, rather than our new Senator be the most junior member of the U.S. Senate.

It could take a long time to pass legislation to hold a special election. As the aforementioned Rich Miller notes in his column:

The first problem which springs to mind is that Blagojevich, who was arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to auction Obama’s vacant seat to the highest bidder, would have to sign the [special election] bill into law.

Our jailbird governor could sit on the bill for 60 days before he does anything. And he might just veto it, which would only prolong the process.

On his Blog Miller adds, “Plus, if he waits to veto the bill after the General Assembly adjourns sine die on January 14th, the bill dies.”

This does require changing state law, specifically, the ILGA would have to amend 10 ILCS 5/25‑8:

Sec. 25‑8. When a vacancy shall occur in the office of United States Senator from this state, the Governor shall make temporary appointment to fill such vacancy until the next election of representatives in Congress, at which time such vacancy shall be filled by election, and the senator so elected shall take office as soon thereafter as he shall receive his certificate of election. (Source: Laws 1943, vol. 2, p. 1.)

From a partisan standpoint, this is really dumb. It risks losing the seat to a Republican, perhaps someone like Mark Kirk. Hell, Jim Edgar today is talking about how he regrets not running for Governor in 2006. I’m not sure there are many Democrats who could beat Edgar in a statewide race for anything, Kirk still has a sizable war chest, and there are several other Republicans that could enter the race with reasonable winning chances. The Blago scandal will mobilize the GOP base, hurt dem turnout, and maybe help sway some independents with Blago=Whoever ads. (It would also be easy for any Republican to raise money in this climate from interest groups who want to make sure the GOP hold back cloture votes on issues like the EFCA.)

The counter argument is that any appointment by Blagojevich will be tainted and lose in two years because Blagojevich appointing him/her. Or a broader point, that with all of the corruption and bribery at issue here, the only path to legitimacy is a popular election. I think both of these points of view are too narrow.

Alternatives to a special election:

1. Impeach Blago’s corrupt ass and let Pat Quinn pick. This seems to me like the best approach, while he is still innocent at law until proven guilty, in the public mind he has lost all credibility, and no longer has the ability to effectively lead the state. He is unquestionably undeserving of the highest gift at the disposal of the people of Illinois. He has lost the public trust. We don’t need to wait for a guilty verdict to toss him.

There is no chance a Pat Quinn pick will be tainted by Blagojevich, because Quinn and Blago hate each other. Quinn had an answer at a press conference yesterday that illustrates just how bad their relationship is. He was asked when the last time he talked to the Governor was. I think many expected, “this morning” or “last night” or “a few weeks ago.” But he hesitated, and said “I think it was June…of 2007.” Wow. Good for Pat Quinn!

Some observers think that Quinn is too much of a wild man to be trusted with this pick. I love Pat Quinn. And I think he’s reasonable, and given this time of crisis, he could be be prevailed upon to make a moderate, broadly agreeable pick, especially if his agreeing to do so can expedite the impeachment process making him Governor. Michael Madigan and John Cullerton (new State Sen. Pres) could work out a short list of names with him, and move ahead with impeachment if he agrees to this, and likely several other conditions. Even if he wouldn’t compromise with Madigan and Cullerton on the pick, anyone Quinn would pick would likely be a good government populist, and we could sure use another one of those in the Senate, not to mention how much good it would do to have someone with as much public integrity as Quinn in the Governor’s mansion.

2. Create legitimacy for a Blagojevich pick. This is easier than it sounds. Madigan and Cullerton broker a limited deal on the pick where Blagojevich could publicly state that he will appoint a panel of Democratic leaders/ statesmen in Illinois, or a bipartisan group, to deliberate, interview candidates and make the pick. The group would have to be totally independent, and have the stature for the public to trust their independence, and he would have to agree to appoint whoever they pick. The right group of leaders, preferably those with limited ties to Blagojevich, could appear legitimate enough to avoid the Blagojevich taint. We do have some Democratic statesmen left, despite losing the great Paul Simon, such a panel could include: Dawn Clark Netch, Abner Mikva, Adlai Stevenson III, Alan Dixon, Glenn Poshard, etc.

As a pragmatic democrat, I am much more worried about losing the Senate seat now in a special election due to immediate backlash to the Blagojevich scandal than I am concerned that the Blagojevich taint will render any candidate, no matter how credible and independent, incapable of winning in two years. If the candidate is too tainted, they will lose in the Democratic primary. And it’s almost always better to hold the seat now, given how unpredictable politics has become. This proposal would be best if it wasn’t suggested by Blagojevich.

3. Blagojevich could pick someone with sufficient independent credibility that the U.S. Senate would have to seat them, possibly an elder statesman to hold the seat for two years until the next election. Again, Dawn Clark Netch, Abner Mikva, Adlai Stevenson III, Alan Dixon, and Glenn Poshard come to mind. Thought a few of these might not be healthy enough to serve. When the 2010 election rolls around the impact of the Blagojevich scandal wont be driving Republicans to the polls in a special election. While this approach sacrifices seniority for the next, hopefully longer term Senator, for the next two years Dems hold the seat, and are a step closer to winning cloture votes in the 111th Congress.

4. Blagojevich could briefly step aside and allow Pat Quinn to make the appointment. Assuming it becomes apparent in the next few days that the ILGA lacks the will to impeach Blagojevich, and that Blagojevich wont sign the special election law, but it is apparent any appointment he makes will not be seated, the IL Constitution may provide another way out of this mess. He may be able to use what Pat Quinn referred to as the “step-aside” provision for the very limited purpose of appointing a new Senator, but this would involve a hairy arrangement for reclaiming his office, because of the IL Constitution doesn’t specify a clear way for the Governor to reclaim his post, but instead leaves it to the ILGA to sort out.

From IL Constitution, Article V, Section 6:

(c) Whenever the Governor determines that he may be seriously impeded in the exercise of his powers, he shall so notify the Secretary of State and the officer next in line of succession. The latter shall thereafter become Acting Governor with the duties and powers of Governor. When the Governor is prepared to resume office, he shall do so by notifying the Secretary of State and the Acting Governor.
(d) The General Assembly by law shall specify by whom and by what procedures the ability of the Governor to serve or to resume office may be questioned and determined. The Supreme Court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction to review such a law and any such determination and, in the absence of such a law, shall make the determination under such rules as it may adopt.

For this to work, the ILGA would likely have to agree in advance to make this arrangement, which would be untenable given the political will of the people to impeach Blagojevich. But given the time and expense of a special election, it might be a compromise, provided that Pat Quinn would make a pick the ILGA leaders could live with.

5. Allow Blagojevich to pick, but legislatively force his hand. This is a creative constitutional argument that could potentially work, but I haven’t seen it proposed anywhere. Blagojevich may resent complete surrender of the appointment power enough that he wont sign the legislation for the special election, and the timing and cost elements may give him cover to do so. The Governor’s power to appoint comes from the U.S. Constitution, Amendment XVII. The relevant section is:

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

The amendment specifies the legislature may empower the executive to make temporary appointments, but it doesn’t specify how the legislature may empower the executive to make temporary appointments. The legislature could change the IL statute to say, “the Governor may appoint a candidate chosen by the state legislature or call a special election” or “The Governor may appoint one of three prospective candidates chosen by the legislature or call a special election.” While its unlikely Blago would be willing to pass this law, but would veto the special election law, it may give him a way to save face by techinically retaining power, get the U.S. Senate to seat the choice, reduce the Blago taint, and avoid the cost and expense of a special election.

An unlikely scenario that could work, but wont happen:

Blagojevich could defer to the President-Elect’s choice. Assuming Blago would agree, Obama could save the day by asking the Governor to appoint someone, preferably someone who has no connections with Blagojevich or Rezko. At this point most would agree there is no risk of Blagojevich gaining anything from appointing whoever Obama wants. He is too toxic for Obama to help in any way, and Obama can state that he will never, under any circumstances, issue a pardon to Blagojevich or any of his associates.

While Obama may have a preference, and he certainly wants the appointment filled sooner rather than later so he has another vote to move his agenda early, and he would probably prefer not to risk letting a Republican win the seat, Obama should stay the hell away from this. he’s already called for a special election. Plus he doesn’t want to be the one to say no to a bunch of up-and-coming Illinois Dems. And the good government approach, consistent with his interest in protecting his message and image, is calling for a special election.

Authors note: In an earlier version of this post I made a silly mistake based on misreading the XVII Amendment too quickly. I briefly thought the ILGA could amend the IL law and give themselves the power to name the replacement, as the state legislatures did before XVII. I apologize for the error. Also, I may further amend this post if I have other ideas or decide any of these are completely impossible.

Quick look at the Illinois Constitution

Joshua — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:55:03 +0000

Article V of the Illinois Constitution deals with the Executive Branch.

Today Pat Quinn discussed a provision that allows a Governor to “step aside” rather than resign.

Article V, Section 6. (c). Whenever the Governor determines that he may be seriously impeded in the exercise of his powers, he shall so notify the Secretary of State and the officer next in line of succession. The latter shall thereafter become Acting Governor with the duties and powers of Governor. When the Governor is prepared to resume office, he shall do so by notifying the Secretary of State and the Acting Governor.

If the office of Lieutenant Governor is vacated, it remains empty until the end of the term. So if Pat Quinn becomes Governor through Blagojevich’s impeachment or resignation, he will not have a Lieutenant Governor.

Article V, Section 7. If the Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller or Treasurer fails to qualify or if his office becomes vacant, the Governor shall fill the office by appointment. The appointee shall hold office until the elected officer qualifies or until a successor is elected and qualified as may be provided by law and shall not be subject to removal by the Governor. If the Lieutenant Governor fails to qualify or if his office becomes vacant, it shall remain vacant until the end of the term.

Illinois’ next U.S. Senator?

Segen — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:17:29 +0000

Any predictions about who will take over Obama’s seat in the U.S. Senate?

“You can tell a lot about a guy from his shoes”

Joshua — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:35:11 +0000

Today cable news is paying too much attention to what the McCain campaign paid for Sarah Palin’s clothes. This is a story I couldn’t possibly care less about, and while it’s good for the Obama campaign, it’s not as helpful as focusing on the issues. As I speak the Dow is down 515. Palin will stay connected with those she connects with, but by now most at the margin have been lost, with polls showing that 55% of Americans have reached the self-evident truth that Palin isn’t prepared to be President.

As an Illinoisian I take pride in our state’s history of producing leaders who were great speech makers, like Lincoln, Everett Dirksen, and Adlai Stevenson.

I was thinking of Stevenson today when I heard about Palin, and the famous picture of Stevenson with a hole worn into his shoes. In that spirit, take a look at the pictures below:

U of I Law Prof. Francis Boyle attacked on Fox News

Joshua — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:19:00 +0000

U of I alum Bob Novak’s attempted hit and run

Joshua — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:03:00 +0000

The Prince of Darkness tried to take out a jaywalker today, and then started to speed off like he didn’t notice. From the witness description, it would be hard not to notice:

The bicyclist was David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who was on his usual bike commute to work at 1700 K St. N.W. when he witnessed the accident. As he traveled east on K Street, crossing 18th, Bono said “a black Corvette convertible with top closed plows into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed into the windshield.” Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a “Walk” signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. “This car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said.

In a 2001 interview, Bob Novak commented on his loathing of jaywalkers: “He was crossing on the red light. I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don’t run the country, all I can do is yell at ‘em. The other option is to run ‘em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that.”

Illinois: Rich State or Poor State?

Urbanagora — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:14:00 +0000

It should be required reading for every member of the Illinois General Assembly, particularly as they contemplate new and exciting ways to fleece the state’s producers.

At the end of 2007, the bipartisan American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) published a study done by noted economists Art Laffer and Steve Moore entitled “Rich States, Poor States”.

The study did two things. First, it provided an economic performance ranking over the past 10 years (1996-2006) state-by-state. Second, it provided an economic outlook ranking, again state-by-state, based on a comparative review of 16 separate economic indicators.

Am I boring you yet? Well, here’s where the information gets more stimulating:

The upshot for Illinois is that, over the past decade, we would have been better off with MC Hammer setting the state’s fiscal policy.

Illinois’ ranked 48th out of 50, ahead of only Michigan and Ohio, in economic performance over that time.

There were 727,150 people who got hip to this reality well before the ALEC report. That is net number of individuals who moved out of Illinois between the years 1996-2006. Only New York and California lost more population.

Besides contributing to Illinois’ incredible shrinking tax base, that population loss has Illinois slated to lose at least one congressional seat after the 2010 census. It is so bad here that not even waning political clout can motivate our Honorables.

As important as who and how many are leaving is who and how many are not coming in the first place. Illinois ranked 45th in the nation when it came to attracting college graduates to locate here (Federal Reserve Bank of New York – August 2007 study). The good news is we are poised to shoot past West Virginia, a state whose senior U.S. Senator is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, for 44th place. Look out, West Virginia, we’re coming for ya!

Add to this that in our state’s largest public school system only 6 of every 100 high school freshman will go on to earn a bachelor’s degree (Consortium on Chicago Public School Research).

Thus, Illinois neither produces college graduates nor does it attract them. How’s that working out for us in the hyper-competitive, digital, global economy of the 21st century?

Just about how you think it might: Illinois is 44th in the nation in per capita personal income growth and 47th in job growth over the decade that was studied.

The bad news for Illinois is compounded with our high property tax burden (41st), an unfriendly legal liability system (46th), and a high minimum wage (44th).

Tally up those dismal numbers and Illinois’ 16-variable composite score gives it an economic outlook ranking of 42nd. In other words, the outlook is depressing or, perhaps more accurately, a Depression.

Edwin Moses could not clear all of the hurdles to economic prosperity state lawmakers have put in front of Illinois families and Illinois small businesses and therefore, the exodus.

Sans a crash course in Econ 101, this study is a message to Illinois lawmakers to identify their gut instincts when it comes to thinking about state economic policies and then do the opposite.