Whether they admitted it or not, a large majority of Statehouse denizens was relieved last week when the General Assembly approved the income-tax hike.

Ironically enough, Republicans might have been the happiest. The state's horrific structural deficit was finally addressed, which is good news all around. And since they didn't put any votes on the tax-hike bill, the Republicans now get to use it as a wicked political hammer against the Democrats.

The official U.S. Census numbers were released not long ago. The statistics revealed that Illinois will lose one U.S. congressional seat when the new district maps are drawn.

It's impossible to know exactly what will happen with the new maps since block-level Census numbers aren't yet available. That very specific, hyper-local data is plugged into computer programs so mapmakers can draw the new congressional and legislative boundaries. The data should arrive in late March or early April.

Once that happens, the Democrats will go to work.

Ten years ago, when the governor's office and the Illinois Senate were controlled by Republicans and the House was run by the Democrats, the powers that be compromised by allowing incumbent congressmen to draw their own district maps.

That was a huge mistake. The incumbents did what incumbents do: They protected themselves to the point where the districts were gerrymandered worse than they've been in a century. The zig-zagging district running from Rock Island to Decatur made Illinois a laughingstock - as if we needed any more of that.

Organized labor is engaged in a furious multi-front legislative war in Illinois, and more skirmishes may be on the horizon.

Trade and industrial unions are hoping to mitigate major damage from proposed workers' compensation reforms. Teachers unions are trying to fend off what it considers to be some egregious education reforms. And public-employee unions are warily eyeing a potential new battle against a well-known foe that their counterparts in other states have had to face in the recent past. Looking at the battlefield right now, you'd probably never know that the Democrats held onto power in last month's elections.

Tim DavlinSpringfield mayors hold a unique position in Illinois. As the mayor of the state's capital city, they have access to more state leaders more often and more intimately than just about any other local leader except for maybe Chicago's mayor.

Tim Davlin took advantage of that position better than most mayors his city has had.

I've been saying for the past couple of years that Illinois government is one of the biggest drags on our state's economy. Now, a new survey shows just how true that is.

The survey was conducted in October and November of this year by Illinois Partners for Human Service (IPHS). It found that almost half - 49 percent - of private human-service providers have laid off staff. Why? Because the groups are at least partially funded by the state, and the state is a total deadbeat when it comes to paying its bills.

Six Illinois House Republicans voted with 55 Democrats last week to approve a civil-unions bill. But a few of the Democratic "yes" votes were a bit more surprising.

All but one of the six Republicans were suburbanites. Bill Black, who is retiring later this month, was the only Downstater. Representatives Suzi Bassi and Beth Coulson were suburban "yes" votes who are not returning next year. Representatives Mark Beaubien, Rosemary Mulligan, and Skip Saviano were the other Republican "yes" votes, and all three are suburban legislators. None of those was a particularly huge surprise. Black has been a more traditionally liberal Republican for years, endorsed by labor unions and backed by many Democrats in his district. Black quoted late U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen during the debate, citing Dirksen's crucial vote for civil-rights legislation in 1964 as the basis for his own position.

One of the consequences of Governor Pat Quinn's laser-like focus on Chicago and Cook County during this fall's campaign was that he won just 20 to 22 of the state's 59 Senate districts, according to recent estimates by the Illinois Senate Democrats. That's not even close to half.

There's been plenty of hand-wringing in the Downstate media about the fact that Quinn only won three counties in their region, which comprises the vast majority of the state's geography. That's mostly irrelevant as far as statewide races go; a win's a win, period.

But it is legitimate to look at the totals when it comes to legislative districts. The lack of public support in a majority of districts can have a major impact on the coming legislative session, especially because Quinn lost quite a few Democrat-held districts by wide margins.

What started out as a slow state-legislative veto session suddenly accelerated last Thursday.

Senate President John Cullerton formed two new bipartisan committees and charged them with reforming workers compensation and Medicaid. The catch is that the committees must finish their work by Monday, January 3.

That means votes could be taken on workers-comp and Medicaid reform before the new General Assembly is sworn in about a week later. The Republicans have been clamoring for those very reforms for years. So that means, if all goes well, the Republicans will have two fewer excuses to refuse to put votes on the big bills the Democrats really want, like borrowing to make the state's pension payment, gaming expansion, and even a tax hike.

One of the very top officials in Bill Brady's campaign told me a few days after the election that he believes Brady lost to Governor Pat Quinn for one reason: the pro-choice group Personal PAC.

Brady's election-day model, the top campaign official said, had him taking 43 percent of the suburban Cook County vote. Instead, Brady only took 40 percent. That extra 3 points would've definitely won race for the pro-life Brady.

"The North Shore went to hell," added this uppermost Brady operative, blaming Personal PAC's mail, TV ads, and robocalls for the loss.

Without a doubt, the worst place to be right now in Illinois politics is the state's House Republican caucus.

Their leader Tom Cross went "all in" this year against House Speaker Michael Madigan and came up way short.

There were the innumerable planted newspaper stories about Madigan, including, for instance, how he apparently picked his own Republican challenger. The Republicans then staged a downtown Chicago "fundraiser" for Madigan's invisible opponent. Then there were the billboards along the Tollway ridiculing Madigan, which ginned up even more unflattering media coverage. Of course, there were also the countless mailers and TV ads claiming that Madigan was the real problem in Illinois. Not to mention the hundreds of times Cross boldly predicted he would win the majority and finally put Madigan in his place. Madigan detested Cross before the election. It's gone way beyond that now.

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