Campaign no excuse to neglect duty

So GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady says he won't accept any state mileage, hotel or meal money for the days he missed work as an Illinois state senatosr in the spring session.

That's all well and good. He doesn't deserve the money. A Daily Herald analysis of voting records shows Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, missed votes on 25 different session days this year. Most of those occurred after he was named the Republican nominee for governor in March. The Senate was in session 43 days, but some days there were no votes taken.

Brady's decision means he'll not collect $3,475 in expense checks. While we agree that he shouldn't be paid, we also believe he has shirked his duty as an elected state senator. The people of Bloomington should be outraged.

But here's the rub: This is common political practice. And most voters don't get that outraged over it. The issues come up during election campaigns and usually are forgotten by the time polls open.

For example, can you guess which U.S. senators missed the most votes between January 2007 and January 2009? Not too hard to figure out. The worst offender was GOP presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona. He missed 63.9 percent of the votes during that time, according to The Washington Post votes database.

No. 3 was Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate from Illinois who went on to win the presidency. He missed 46.3 percent of the votes.

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden of Delaware, was No. 4. He missed 31.8 percent of the votes before moving on to his job as vice president. And right behind him was Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who missed 31.7 percent of the votes during the time she ran as a Democratic candidate for president.

The only person to crack the top five with a legitimate reason: Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who missed 47.3 percent. He suffered a brain hemorrhage right before the session started and missed several months while recovering.

We believe candidates ought to do their current jobs while at the same time campaigning for new jobs. If they can't, then perhaps they should step down.

It might be a nightmare for campaign schedulers, but candidates ought to be in Springfield or Washington, D.C., when votes are taken and travel when they can.

We strongly disagree with Brady's campaign spokeswoman, Patty Schuh, who told our reporter Timothy Magaw that casting votes are only part of Brady's job as a senator.

"In order to run a credible campaign for governor, you have to be on the trail," she said.

We're more in line with Paul Green, a political science professor at Roosevelt University, who said: "You get elected to vote on issues. There are only 59 senators who can vote. There are a lot of people who can give speeches."

It's the votes, not the speeches, that should help voters distinguish between the candidates.