One way of getting around the state's new campaign-contribution caps is by forming a lot of different campaign committees. State law forbids people from forming more than one committee (except for independent expenditures, political parties, and state legislative leaders), but nothing in the law prevents "friends" and allies from forming their own committees to receive and give money.

For example, House Republican Leader Tom Cross has his own PAC (Citizens to Elect Tom Cross) and his allowed "caucus" PAC (the House Republican Leadership Committee), and he also appears to control or at least influence four other committees: Illinois Crossroads PAC, Citizens to Change Illinois, the Illinois House Victory Fund, and the Move Illinois Forward PAC.

Before we go any further, let me stress that none of this appears to be illegal. The House Republicans don't deny they're doing this, with one official saying that they even include these campaign accounts in the presentations they give to large donors.

For the past couple of election campaign cycles, this one included, incumbent state legislators have bragged in their campaign ads about cutting their own pay.

They didn't actually cut their own pay. But they did vote several times to take unpaid furlough days. So it's almost the same.

But lots of challengers have upped the ante this fall. The candidates are refusing to accept a state pension if elected.

Beginning in late 2010, for several months teachers' union lobbyists warned that teachers went out on strike a whole lot more back in the days when they were prohibited by law from striking than in the years since they had gained the statutory right to strike.

They warned that attacking teachers was a dangerous game.

They warned that the education reforms being pushed by groups such as Stand for Children risked creating a dangerous and possibly uncontrollable backlash.

In the case of Chicago, anyway, they were right on point. Despite a bold prediction last year by Stand for Children founder Jonah Edelman that "the unions cannot strike in Chicago," the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) hit the picket lines last week.

"We've got to activate the taxpayers of Illinois," Governor Pat Quinn told reporters after his legislative special session failed to move any sort of pension reform forward. He promised to lead a "grassroots" effort to push legislators to pass a reform bill.

But will the voters actually listen to him? A recent poll conducted for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle found that 54 percent of the county's likely voters disapprove of Quinn's handling of the public-employee-pension issue. Just 29 percent approved.

Keep in mind: This is Cook County we're talking about. It leans strongly Democratic. Quinn's job-approval numbers are radically upside-down throughout the state, but 54 percent of Cook County voters still disapprove of how he's doing his job in office. So if he's getting this sort of pension-issue disapproval in Cook, of all places, it's most likely a whole lot worse elsewhere.