* Getting his son appointed to the November ballot will, at least in the short term, do even further damage to Senate President Emil Jones’ public perception and to his legacy…
Following the lead of political families like the Strogers and Lipinskis, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones is anointing one of his children to take over for him when he retires in January.
Jones, 72, began the process of handing off his Senate seat to Emil Jones III by filing paperwork Monday with the State Board of Elections to drop himself from the Nov. 4 ballot. Next, Democratic Party leaders in Jones’ South Side and south suburban Senate district will choose a replacement. […]
Despite not having a college degree, [Emil Jones III] was hired in April 2007 as an administrator for Gov. Blagojevich’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity — a job that pays $59,436 annually.
* As I told you yesterday, Jones can legally withdraw about $577K from his campaign fund, and then there’s the pension bump…
As one of the longest-serving members of the General Assembly, Jones also is positioned for a healthy pension. If he does not take any other state positions and retires at the end of his term in January, he would begin drawing a state pension of $81,016 annually. A year later, he would see that total increase by 48 percent because he would be grandfathered in under an otherwise defunct retirement formula that rewarded service beyond 20 years.
The boost for Jones, who has served in the General Assembly 35 years, would take his pension all the way up to $119,903 a year. That’s nearly 26 percent more than the $95,313 he is now being paid to wield the Senate gavel. It’s also more than double the median amount that two households in his Senate district earn combined, according to 2000 Census data.
* Phil Kadner takes a look at Jones’ long-term legacy and doesn’t like what he sees…
In describing Jones’ tenure as Senate president, one Springfield reporter wrote that he “long championed more money for school and education funding reform and made them his top priorities.”
I can’t agree with that.
I would have to say that Jones talked about those things and how important they were for most of his 25 years in the Senate. […]
Jones has made his preference clear. He wants his son to take his Senate seat.
That’s the Chicago way.
So at least one Chicago child can thank Jones for helping him.
As for the rest of the kids in Illinois, they simply chose the wrong parents.
Thanks for the public education, Senator Jones.
* Yesterday’s press release announcing Jones’ retirement highlighted what he considered to be his biggest accomplishments…
Under President Jones’ leadership in Fiscal Year 2008 education received the largest one-year increase in per student funding in the history of the state — $400 per student — $600 million overall in education funding. From 2003 to present, a $196 million increase was provided to early childhood education funding.
President Jones also shepherded the passage of one of the most comprehensive reform measures of the criminal justice system in the history of the State through the Illinois Senate. Among the many substantive changes to the criminal justice system spearheaded by Senator Jones was legislation to videotape interrogations in capital cases. This single piece of legislation put Illinois at the forefront of the nation as the first state to require that interrogations in capital cases be videotaped.
All good, but Jones never accomplished his oft stated goal of a serious restructuring of education funding. If that doesn’t happen by January, he may be soon forgotten.
Discuss.