Is Illinois finally ready for reform?

If only people in Illinois could take a sample candidate ballot to U.S. Attorney and corruption-buster Patrick Fitzgerald.

Then ask him, "I am thinking of voting for these candidates. Are they under investigation for bribery or making shady deals? Are they suspected of being corrupt?

This way, voters could have at least some assurance that the people they would vote for might be honest, or at least would fill out their term in office and not have it end in a federal prison.

But that's not something Fitzgerald should do, nor would even have time to do considering how busy he is making sure FBI agents have enough handcuffs to click around the wrists of corrupt Illinois public officials.

What citizens can do is demand that Illinois finally be ready for reform. And take heart knowing there are groups like the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform that are on their side, fighting hard to clean up government. Citizens also have reason to think that some progress is at last being made in enacting reforms.

Group Director Cindi Canary is "cautiously optimistic" that the legislature is on the verge of a breakthrough in attacking a form of clout that invites both corruption and mismanagement of tax dollars -- pay-to-play. It's the game where campaign contributors get state contracts as a reward for their hefty donations.

Under House Bill 1, anyone with state contracts of more than $25,000 would be prohibited from making campaign contributions to the officeholders awarding those contracts.

The bill also contains requirements important to building transparency in the granting of contracts. Bidders would be required to disclose their campaign contributions.

House Bill 1 gets to the source of the problem -- stopping contracts from being awarded on an insider basis with little regard to quality of services or competitive pricing.

But this proposal also raises questions of constitutionality. We would agree that campaign contributions are a mode of free speech. So limiting them can be viewed as an infringement of this right.

Yet, if limits to campaign contributions were to be challenged, we would hope that an Illinois law regulating campaign donations might fall into the comfort zone established by the U.S. Supreme Court. It has ruled that such contributions might be restricted within the bounds of the First Amendment in the interest of preventing "real or apparent" corruption.

You wouldn't have to file a 100-page legal brief in defense of an argument that there is "real or apparent" corruption in Illinois. It's very real.

And getting some control of it is now in the hands of the state legislature. House Bill 1 is getting the attention of an Illinois Senate committee after being approved by a unanimous vote in the House. Good-faith negotiations to find compromises toward passage of a veto-proof bill are under way, Canary said. But we also share her "wait-and-see" attitude.

lllinois citizens have waited long enough for substantial reforms to clean up government. They need to see this bill become law.