Reform bill not what it could be

Political reform in Illinois is a tough – bordering on impossible – sell to the Legislature.

How does one get Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to do the right thing, particularly when it might reduce his political influence?

That's an easy one. You don't – the idea's a nonstarter – and proof comes in the form of the latest effort to pass a campaign finance reform bill aimed at cleaning up the state's tawdry politics. In the midst of Illinois' endless political scandal, it's hard to imagine a moment in state history more ripe for cleaning up the political process.

That's why legislation that passed the House and Senate last week is so Illinois.

The campaign finance bill, if signed by Gov. Pat Quinn, would establish the state's first limits on campaign donations by private groups and individuals to individual legislators. But the caps have a major exception that allows legislative party leaders and political parties to give unlimited funds to candidates in the general election. So money will be funneled through the parties and the legislative leaders to the candidates.

As both speaker of the House and chairman of the state's Democratic Party, Madigan has been able to use the campaign finance reform vehicle to enhance his already formidable influence over Democratic legislators. The same also applies to Senate President John Cullerton and House and Senate Republican leaders.

But the reality is that Madigan already was the 800-pound gorilla in Springfield. Now he'll be twice as big.

Political reformers, including Campaign for Political Reform director Cindy Canary, conceded the legislation is far less than what they had hoped for but characterized it not only as they best they could do but also just the first step of many.

The News-Gazette has never supported actual limits on campaign donations. Our preferred approach is full, immediate disclosure that would allow the public to make a judgment about who's giving to whom. Nonetheless, what happened to the campaign finance bill stands as testimony to the ugly reality that the state's political leaders are as much against cleaning up state politics as the voters are for it.

Since reform in Illinois depends upon the political class enacting it, it's a dead letter absent almost unimaginable public pressure. Political leaders are happy to pay lip service to the idea. But in the end, they'll water it down to nothing, if they pass anything at all.

In this case, they watered campaign finance limits down while elevating Madigan's status even higher. The House speaker, clever fellow that he is, killed two birds with one stone. That's his idea of how to clean up the political sewer that is state government in Illinois.

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