The
most positive thing to come out of last week's umpteenth special
legislative session was that Governor Rod Blagojevich didn't call
another one for the next day.
I
was on a TV show recently and the host asked me what I thought could
be done to bring the Democratic leaders of Illinois back from "the
brink of the abyss."
Too
late, I said. We're already in the abyss, and we've been there
for a while.
Now
that Governor Rod Blagojevich has unilaterally declared that a
previously obscure but always important legislative committee has no
real power, things could change radically at the Illinois Statehouse.
The
decision by Governor Rod Blagojevich to attend a Chicago Blackhawks
game last Wednesday night instead of remaining at the Statehouse
while the Illinois House defeated his mass-transit-funding-bailout
proposal says a lot about the governor on several different levels,
none of it positive.
Political blogs have been getting a bad rap in newspapers for years, but they're rapidly coming of age, and they're already making an impact in campaigns throughout Illinois this year.
A
new statewide poll shows that, given the opportunity, a majority of
Illinoisans would vote to recall Governor Rod Blagojevich. But don't
get your hopes up.
In
the hyper-over-reactive world that is the Illinois Statehouse, every
move made by every major player is analyzed to death to see who is
zooming whom. House Speaker Michael Madigan's Illinois Gaming Board
reform plan is a case in point.
In
preparation for the November 6 Davenport municipal election, the
River Cities' Reader sent
a survey to all 22 candidates for office. Twelve candidates answered
the survey.
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