I've often said that I'm a reform agnostic.
It's not that I don't believe in good
government. I do. Fervently.
And I most certainly don't believe as some do
that voters should be given the sole responsibility to weed out the crooks and
con artists. "Let the buyer beware" just isn't good enough. Rod
Blagojevich's two consecutive gubernatorial campaign wins and George Ryan's
earlier win proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that voters simply aren't able to
handle this task on their own.
So, we do need some "consumer
protection" laws in Illinois. But we should also keep some important
points in mind.
For instance, campaign contribution caps are now
being pushed hard by good government groups and Gov. Pat Quinn's independent
reform commission. Most want a federal style program that would cap
contributions at about $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for political action
committees.
On its face, that looks quite reasonable.
Contribution limitations are imposed in Washington, DC and many other states.
But caps can also hurt those who challenge the
status quo.
It's probably no coincidence that no incumbent
Illinois congressman has lost his or her seat for years unless they were under
some sort of extreme ethical cloud. For instance, Dan Rostenkowski got caught up
in a probe of the US House post office and was the only Illinois Democrat
turned out during the historic 1994 national Republican landslide. Dan Crane
was ousted by voters after his involvement in a congressional page sex scandal.
Charles Hayes lost a primary when he was linked to a House bounced checks
scandal.
Back in 2007, several deeply entrenched Chicago
aldermen lost their seats to young reformers because a few reform-minded labor
unions dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into their campaigns. If the
union contributions had been capped, most of those reformers would've lost.
Caps mean that most challengers have to work
much harder to raise money. Incumbents have access to financial networks that
usually dwarf those of outsiders. National political parties and caucus
organizations often take up the slack these days to help level the
congressional playing field, but that usually means they choose who runs. The
proposals coming out of Springfield would cap those sorts of contributions to
state and local candidates.
The horrific venality revealed after Rod
Blagojevich's arrest and indictment has prompted loud and angry calls to
"Do something and do it now."
One of those "somethings" most often mentioned is campaign
contribution caps.
If we're going down that road then we should do
as little harm as possible to challengers. A higher cap, perhaps somewhere near
the $10,000 legislative limit proposed by Senate Republican Leader Christine
Radogno, might be the way to go. It's high enough to help people fend off
uncapped, self-financing millionaire opponents, but low enough to do some
reforming good.
Also, barring all campaign donations of any kind
to incumbent legislators and statewide officials during the spring legislative
session would help even out the playing field for challengers and could prevent
some pay to play hanky panky. It might also ensure that the General Assembly
adjourns on time.
Banning contributions from industries regulated
by the government would be an obvious help.
Requiring almost immediate online disclosure of
contributions could be an effective deterrent. If we had known in "real
time" that Blagojevich was taking $25,000 contributions from his
appointees to state boards and commissions, we might have been able to stop
some of his excesses.
One of the most important changes we can make
has nothing to do with money, however.
Prohibiting incumbents from drawing legislative,
congressional, aldermanic and county board district maps is an absolute must.
Incumbents in this state "choose" their voters by manipulating their
own district boundaries every ten years.
Iowa allows a computer to draw district maps
based on population, not political or other parochial preferences. As the
congressional results show, incumbents have far too much advantage, so keeping
them from drawing their own maps would be an enormous help.
In the end, though, Illinois voters absolutely
must start looking beyond the slick ads, familiar names and blind partisan
leanings which have gotten us into this mess. Just about every political
reporter in Illinois did his or her very best in the 2006 governor's race to
warn voters that they were about to reelect a crook. Voters bought
Blagojevich's bag of disgusting goods and here we stand.
-30-
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily
political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.