By now, you've probably heard that new Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was so surprised about the actual size of the state's budget deficit that he is considering breaking his campaign promise to not raise taxes.
An absolute necessity in politics is to have friends outside of the political game. Most political types understand this and routinely delineate between their political friends and their "real" friends.
A lobbyist, legislator, reporter, etc.
As you might have observed by now, Illinois governor-elect Rod Blagojevich promoted himself last year in an almost presidential manner. As soon as the election was over, a sympathetic scribe or two in the media even suggested that our governor-elect might have some presidential material in him.
Secretary of State George Ryan sat on a couch in his Chicago office, reading a document in early September of 1998. It hadn't been a good day. The feds were closing in, the media was turning against him, and election day was just two months away.
Some top Illinois Republicans are making a lot of noise lately about finding a candidate to run against Senator Peter Fitzgerald, a fellow member of the GOP, in two years. But is their publicity barrage against the incumbent freshman a warning that he faces defeat, or is it just a shot across his bow to remind him that he needs to start being more cooperative in Washington, or, at least, be a little more quiet?
Whatever.
Congressmen almost never have much influence in Illinois politics.
The political class sometimes even ships them off to Washington to get them out of the way - often to keep them from running for a truly important job, like alderman.
Every legislative session has its own feel, and its own rhythm. This fall's veto session feels like death - in more ways than one.
One should never predict anything about what could happen in a veto session, but nothing big seems to be moving or percolating this fall.
You've probably heard by now that Illinois Governor George Ryan has ordered almost all state agencies under his control to come up with 2-percent budget cuts.
The idea is to find $250 million in savings to make up for a drop in state revenues.
From the totally pro-life Jim Ryan, to the tough-talking, pro-life, pro-gun prosecutor Joe Birkett, to the "Let's attack Iraq today!" U.S. Senate candidate Jim Durkin, the right wing got its head handed to it last week in Illinois.
You'd think that all four state legislative leaders would have busted their humps this fall to win every possible race.
But it actually looked like a couple of those leaders threw some races, albeit for different reasons.
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