* Things got ugly in the Senate yesterday…
A Senate panel unanimously approved a ban on “pay-to-play” for state contractors Thursday despite a last-minute threat from Senate President Emil Jones to add a provision proponents said would derail the legislation.
Jones (D-Chicago) wants to amend the bill to make it impossible for all statewide officials to get campaign cash from contractors that do at least $50,000 in business with any of the state’s six constitutional officers. Under Jones’ version, a company that gets a contract from the governor couldn’t give campaign cash to the treasurer, for example.
That would be a change from a bipartisan agreement lawmakers announced last week after more than a year of dickering. The lawmakers’ version would ban companies that hold or seek at least $50,000 in business from contributing to the campaigns of the office-holder who actually awards the contract.
* And a congressional candidate was put in the middle…
Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D- Crete), who helped negotiate the pay-to-play deal, said she has no intention of letting Jones tinker with the bill.
“He knows better,” said Halvorson, a congressional candidate whom Jones recently kicked off the powerful rules committee. “[The amendment] will not be put on there because that kills it over in the [House], and I wouldn’t vote for it over here.”
* Is this the explanation? Really?
Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, believes Jones is just making noise to ensure the Senate gets proper credit for its contributions to the legislation. The House adopted the idea more than a year ago but it has been intensely negotiated between the chambers since.
* And then things got a bit weirder…
Saying he’s tired of the House “pimping” the Senate, Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) said he’ll try to change a bill so lawmakers who vote against raises won’t get the extra cash.
Hendon said it’s unfair for House members who vote against the raise to get the extra pay if the Senate allows raises to take effect.
He said he’s tired of the House ‘’pimping us.'’
* And weirder…
Hendon also took issue with state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat who was leading the push to reject the raises.
“People should not miss out on the fact that she’s a millionaire. She don’t need it. Have you seen her house? Mind-boggling,” Hendon said. “So it just blows my mind how the filthy rich are always the ones saying, we don’t need the raise. No, she don’t.”
* And weirder…
In the middle of Garrett talking to reporters, Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat who supports the raises, walked past and loudly quipped that he needed to get some food stamps.
* Would you like some audio? You would? Well here you go. Click on the links if the audio player doesn’t work for you… UPDATE: Y’all were killing my server, so I’ve moved the files to a new server and deleted the audio player…
* Sen. Hendon attacks…
* Sen. Garrett responds…
* Sen. Jones wants foodstamps…
[Thanks to the Daily Herald for the audio clips. The paper now has the audio files on its own site as well.]
Try to avoid just teeing off on individual legislators in comments. It gets boring after a while and we’ve all heard it before. Be a bit original, please. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** Per a request by a commenter, I’ve trimmed Jones’ “foodstamps” comment and converted it into some ringtone files. Click to download…
* mp3
* WAV
* OGG
Enjoy.
*** UPDATE 2 *** These were cleaned up by John at AgriTalk…
* mp3
* WAV