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deals that would be prohibited under the new ethics law.
“I think it’s proof that certainly we’re headed in the right direction,” Stephens said. “If we need more refinement of those ethics bills, I’m certainly open to suggestions. But one thing that I picked up on in the U.S. Attorney’s remarks was that the sense of urgency that the governor had about getting all of these things done quickly was in large part due to the ethics bill.”
The ethics law didn’t get passed easily, according to Stephens. The bill went back and forth from House to Senate several times, despite the fact that it had broad support in both houses.
“We had trouble getting that bill to the governor’s desk,” said Stephens. “I think the House had to pass it in one form or another at least three times. The Senate was just stalling on behalf of the governor. They would either not take it up in a timely fashion or add some silly amendment that had nothing to do with the bill, just to send it back. I know for sure that we voted on a version of that bill at least three times. So it was clear to most of us that Sen. Pres. Emil Jones was simply dragging his feet.”
Finally, Jones let the bill go to the floor for a vote because U.S. Sen. Barack Obama asked him to, according to State Sen. Bill Haine, a Democrat from Alton. Eventually, the bill was passed and sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich only to be sent back with an amendatory veto.
According to Haine, the governor added provisions designed to weigh the bill down and perhaps scuttle it altogether.
“For example,” Haine said, “he (Blagojevich) added provisions so that the law would apply to just about everybody under the sun holding public office, which I guess might look good to the average person - but some of it raised constitutional issues. The problems of the past few years don’t emanate from all the offices he listed. They came from the executive branch and the questions raised about the governor’s fundraising.”
The governor’s amendatory veto was soundly overridden by a unanimous vote in the Senate, and with just three no votes in the House.
State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, a Republican from Okawville, was pleased with the new ethics law but said it didn’t go far enough.
“I sort of felt that it should be a little broader than that,” Luechtefeld said. “What about donating to parties? All we do here is restrict the governor. What about (House Speaker) Madigan and (Sen. Pres.) Jones who have become extremely powerful, in fact, so powerful that nothing can happen without them? Part of their power comes from their ability to raise money for their party, and that keeps control over their members. I’m willing to look at anything that would maybe get rid of the impression that people have of the state of Illinois,” Luechtefeld added.
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According to a Dec. 9, 2008 MSNBC report, some 79 public officials have been convicted of wrongdoing in the state of Illinois since 1972. That tally includes three governors who went to prison and a host of other state and local office holders. The report claimed that “Illinois has a long legacy of corruption.”
Luechtefeld doesn’t disagree.
“I think it comes out of Chicago more than anything else,” he said. “It’s a ‘You can’t touch me’ attitude. Chicago has always had a reputation of being a free-for-all. It was kind of run like ‘You don’t mess with us; we control the courts; we control government; and you can’t touch us.’ I think a guy like Blagojevich comes right out of that mentality. He grew up in that mentality,” said Luechtefeld.
State Rep. Tom Holbrook, a Democrat from Belleville, said he expects more ethics legislation to be introduced during the spring session as a reaction to the Blagojevich scandal. Holbrook said he thinks the ethics laws should be reviewed and assessed but cautioned against passing something just to be passing something.
Luechtefeld agreed. He said lawmakers need to be careful not to overreact.
“You can never make enough laws to keep crooked people from doing crooked things,” Luechtefeld said. “We have to be careful that we don’t just overreact with things that simply bind people’s hands and hinder them from doing their jobs. That would be my one concern. Legislators sense right now that people want them to introduce bills to clean things up, so you’ll see a lot of that.”
Stephens said he was certainly open to considering additional ethics legislation.
“The people ought to be able to expect that when their elected officials go off to do their jobs, they cannot get away with stealing based on those jobs,” he said. “It is the people’s office. It’s not Rod Blagojevich’s or Ron Stephens’, and I don’t have a problem with making those laws tougher and tougher until we get rid of all of the bad guys.
“It’s certainly painful right now. And as a citizen of Illinois and a Republican, I get no joy out of the governor’s problems, because we all pay a price,” Stephens said. “We all look bad and this is painful. But as painful as it is for us and the people of Illinois to go through, we will be better off. We’ll be more diligent. Back-to-back governors in federal prison…if that doesn’t teach you to behave, well, then you deserve what you get.”
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