* Yesterday will not go down in history as the Illinois Senate’s finest moment…
“I need a pay raise. I need a pay raise,” [Senate President Emil Jones] told reporters who asked him about the [salary increase] proposal.
* You wonder if Senate President Jones knows how he comes across to the public when he makes comments like that on the same day that he helped engineer the defeat of a recall proposal and then refused to call the alternative House version for a vote…
Some Illinois Republicans maintained that the Senate’s version was designed to fail because it made so many more public officials, including judges, eligible for recall.
Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), who sponsored the House proposal, predicted his version of recall would have passed and was denied a “fair shot.”
Franks’ narrower proposal would have only allowed voters to toss out legislators, the governor and other statewide officials.
* Jones said yesterday that Franks admitted the Senate version was superior to the House version and snapped at reporters who asked why he didn’t call the House proposal for a vote.
But at least two of Jones’ own members admitted publicly that they didn’t support the Senate version because it included local officials…
Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, was among the senators who opposed the recall plan on Thursday.
“My biggest concern was for local officials,” Sullivan said. “I know how difficult it is to get people to run for alderman and for city council and for mayors. This would have created a situation, in my opinion, that would have made that even more difficult.”
Sen. Deanna Demuzio, D-Carlinville, also voted “no” and echoed Sullivan’s comments, saying: “Who would want to take on the responsibilities of running for a local municipality or city in rural Illinois?”
* Other Senate Democrats said they couldn’t support their chamber’s proposal because it included judges. The Tribune’s editorial quotes one of those Senate Dems today…
Even the Senate debate was rushed. But some of it was telling. Sen. John Cullerton voted to deny citizens the right to recall the people they put in office. Cullerton was aghast at the notion of “turning over to an outside entity” the question of whether to recall inept judges.
Yes, you, Illinois voters, are that much-feared “outside entity.”
That’s such a complete lie and/or evidence of gross incompetence that it makes me believe the Trib’s editorial page will do anything it can to smear whoever dares question its authority. Cullerton was referring to the fact that the recall proposal required that the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board file a complaint against a judge before that judge could be recalled. That’s the “outside entity” he was talking about, not voters. The Tribune needs to retract that utterly false statement.
* The bottom line, though, is that if Franks’ proposal had made it to the floor then a whole lot of Senators would have either voted for it or they would’ve been forced to come up with another excuse. We’ll never know.
* There is a bright side, however. As Dan Johnson-Weinberger wrote over at Illinoize yesterday, the odds of the voters approving a constitutional convention just went up…
The main justification for voting yes on the constitutional convention is now clear: the only practical way to give the electorate an opportunity to improve the Illinois Constitution is through a convention. The General Assembly is not able to improve the Constitution.
* And then there’s this…
“We have a chance to do what we want to do, and that’s impeach the governor of Illinois,” [Sen. Mike Jacobs] said. He called on Blagojevich to “do the right thing” and quit first.
* Related stuff…
* Recall cartoon
* Anticlimactic
* Senate rejects recall proposal
* Recall amendment officially dead, for now
* Recall Amendment Fails In Senate
* Illinois: Voters will not get recall option
* State Senate Kills Recall Amendment
* Recall plan narrowly defeated in Illinois Senate
* Con Con Considerations: Special Election, or Regular?
* A Trip down Memory Lane (con-con version)