Governor orders lawmakers back to Capitol, again
SPRINGFIELD - On the heels of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama trying to nudge loose a stalled state ethics proposal, Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered lawmakers back to the Capitol next week and demanded they approve his competing ethics plan.
"We have an opportunity to enact real ethics reform in Illinois that will cover all elected officials and help end the conflicts of interests that are inherent in Springfield politics," Blagojevich said in a news release.
Blagojevich's move comes a day after Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat, agreed to bring senators back to the Capitol next week to address a pending ethics proposal. He said he'd been convinced to do so by Obama, who considers the Senate president a political mentor. Jones hadn't planned on doing anything until after the November elections.
But within hours of that news spreading, Blagojevich ordered a special session for Monday, which could cost taxpayers upward of $40,000.
"The governor's acting like a person who didn't get invited to the prom," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
The political one-upmanship among Democratic leaders provides merely the latest twist in their quarrelsome tenure atop state government.
This spring, lawmakers announced an ethics deal focused on ending pay-to-play politics by banning businesses with state contracts from financing the campaigns of the officials who award those contracts. Blagojevich has repeatedly lined his campaign war chest with such donations.
After the deal was approved, Blagojevich used his veto pen to rewrite it to include banning some, but not all, government employees from serving in the General Assembly and an overhaul of the pay raise process for lawmakers and other state officials.
He also signed an executive order banning contributions from state contractors.
However, those involved in the original deal say his order doesn't carry the same weight as a state law and his other proposals need a lot of work before they're ready for a vote let alone a potential legal challenge.
"It's not ready for prime time," said state Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat and sponsor of the initial ethics deal. Harmon said he'll persist with an override of the governor's changes.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero suggested the pay-to-play prohibition is yesterday's news and challenged lawmakers to do more.
"This whole pay-to-play thing, it's all ready been done. What we're hoping is the General Assembly does more than just agree with the governor," he said.
And if they don't, he warned they might grow accustomed to seeing the Capitol in the coming weeks.
"The governor's willing to call special sessions as long as it takes," Guerrero said.