Contact suburban Democrats now
As he promised last week, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who also serves as the state's Democratic Party chairman, pushed a bill through a committee Wednesday that limits campaign spending on everyone but legislative leaders and their parties.
Madigan has done many admirable things during his long tenure as House Speaker, but he is wrong about refusing to limit the money he, the parties and the other legislative leaders can funnel to candidates. Madigan and Democratic Senate President John Cullerton already have plenty of power over their incumbents and candidates.
Limiting contributions on everyone else but themselves only exponentially increases their control and diminishes the influence of the constituents who are supposed to be served by their state representatives and senators.
The proposal only Democrats supported Wednesday would limit individuals to donating no more than $5,000 to a candidate. Unions and corporations could only donate up to $10,000, and political action committees could contribute up to $50,000. But Madigan, Cullerton and the Republican leaders still could give their preferred candidates hundreds of thousands of dollars. They already do. Change Illinois!, a coalition of groups fighting for ethics changes, notes that history shows $1 out of every $2 in the handful of truly competitive state legislative races comes from the legislative leaders and state parties. For example, state Rep. Mark Walker, an Arlington Heights Democrat in one of those competitive races, got 69 percent of his funding from Madigan last fall. 69 percent. Think about it. It would be tough for the most moral and ethical among us to say "no" to someone who gave us 69 percent of the money we needed to survive.
It's time for Walker to speak up. It's time for all House and Senate Democrats to pressure Madigan and Cullerton to limit themselves and come much closer to leveling this playing field. It's time for state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora to make the case. And state Rep. Keith Farnham of Elgin. And Sen. Michael Boland of Grayslake and Sen. Linda Holmes of Plainfield.
It's time these newer Democrats and all suburban House and Senate Democrats make clear to Madigan and Cullerton that they fear what might happen to their re-election chances if they don't limit legislative leaders and political parties. Action must be taken to fix this by the end of fall session on Oct. 29. Suburban House and Senate Democrats will be more likely to do that if those of us who are supposed to be the bosses in this equation call, write and demand this limit.
We're printing here the contact information for all the suburban state Democratic public officials. They need to keep hearing from the public they represent.
Madigan says his mission is to support his candidates. We agree. But there's a difference between supporting candidates and pulling their strings like a master puppeteer.
<div style="float:left;margin:6px 9px 6px 0px;"> <img src="/graphics/corruptionlogo.jpg" width="300" height="160" border="0"></a></p> </div> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Contacts</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="/story/?id=329206">Contact information for suburban Democrats</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=292269">How to contact your lawmakers</a></li> </ul> <h2>Editorials</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=329213">Contact suburban Democrats now <span class="date">[10/16/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=327535">Demand tightening of money spigot <span class="date">[10/09/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=327227">Our challenge: Don't wait for a law <span class="date">[10/08/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=317156">Don't waste redo on campaign finance reform <span class="date">[08/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=293839">Good ideas, limits help democracy <span class="date">[05/15/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=292278">Fed up with graft? You're obligated to weigh in <span class="date">[05/11/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=290368">It's time to call for the change Illinois needs <span class="date">[05/01/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=288715">A better way to watch our tax money <span class="date">[04/24/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=287658">Rank projects before spending our tax money <span class="date">[04/20/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=287077">Limiting contributions a good start <span class="date">[04/17/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>