Your role in ethics reform

SPRINGFIELD - Lawmakers could unanimously approve every recommendation recently put forth by a select reform commission, but voters would have the final say on key proposals that many say hold the key to changing the state's political culture.

Atop that list is changing how the state goes about drawing state House and Senate districts to reflect population shifts after each census.

Under the state constitution, if lawmakers can't agree, then a name is literally drawn out of a hat - sometimes a bowl - to give a tiebreaking vote to either a Republican or a Democrat.

Using a wealth of election data on voter habits, the party that controls the map can tweak boundaries here or there to protect its own and make it harder for members of the other party to get elected.

Republicans knowledgeable of the mapmaking process in Illinois correctly predicted their party's demise after a Democratic name was pulled from Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe at the dawn of this decade.

The GOP had similarly used its power to draw the map for the 1990s to briefly sweep control of all of state government.

The system is unique to Illinois. Other states, such as neighboring Iowa, use far less partisan systems that produce districts that look more normal rather than the abstract puzzle pieces the Illinois process creates.

Changing the Illinois system requires a constitutional amendment, which requires a statewide vote, which would happen next year.

The deadline to get the issue on the ballot would be next May. If lawmakers and then voters OK'd such an amendment, the new system would be used after the 2010 census and applied to the 2012 elections.

Also requiring a constitutional amendment would be term limits for legislative leaders.

The reform commission proposed limiting to 10 years how long someone can serve as House speaker, Senate president or one of the minority leader posts.

A constitutional amendment is the only sure way to make such limits stick. Members of Congress have frequently abandoned voluntary term limits. A state leader-limits law could be undone at any future date if lawmakers and the governor agreed.

Similarly, giving voters the power to recall state officials requires a constitutional amendment.

The reform commission did not include that power in its recommendations, but Gov. Pat Quinn has said he wants to put the question to voters.

The Illinois House voted to do that last year, but the Illinois Senate rejected it. The Senate now has new leadership.

These issues could all end up before voters next fall. If lawmakers approve an amendment but voters reject it, nothing happens.

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