Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, March 14,2013

Pension reform problems linger

House Speaker Michael Madigan was hoping last Thursday to avoid the same results as the previous week when he presented some new pension reform ideas.The previous week, one of his pension reform propo

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, March 7,2013

Cartoonish charades at Statehouse

By Rich Miller

Nobody ever really knows what’s going through Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s head except for Madigan himself. So, the actual purpose of two highly choreographed gun control and p

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, February 28,2013

Cost of inaction on concealed carry law

By Rich Miller

Illinois House Democrats were told during a private caucus meeting in Springfield last week that, despite what Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says, inaction on concealed carry would

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, February 21,2013

Bad start to Quinn’s re-election effort

By Rich Miller

“Off topic? I can’t imagine what that would be,” cracked Gov. Pat Quinn last week during a press conference. Just hours before, his lieutenant governor had announced that she would n

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, February 14,2013

Illinois: the nearly ungovernable state

By Rich Miller

Gov. Pat Quinn used the phrase “our Illinois” almost 30 times last week in one form or another during his annual State of the State address.“In our Illinois, everyone should have acc

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, February 7,2013

Polls peg Madigan above Quinn and Daley

By Rich Miller

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a poll taken last Wednesday, Jan. 30 of 1,255 likely Illinois Democratic primary voters shows Attorney General Lisa Madigan leading Gov. Pat Quinn b

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, January 31,2013

Republicans want gay marriage passed

By Rich Miller

Talk to just about any top Illinois Republican these days off the record, and they’ll freely admit that they want the state bill legalizing gay marriage passed as soon as possible.It’s not

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, January 24,2013

Will Bill or won’t Bill run for governor

By Rich Miller

Bill Daley called the other day. We estimated that it had been about three or four years since we had last spoken to each other, which is par for the course.Going back to at least 2001, Daley, the bro

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, January 17,2013

The state pension reform waiting game

By Rich Miller

“Frankly, I’m not sure they want it,” Illinois Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno said Tuesday about the Democratic legislative leaders and state pension reform. It sure look

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, January 10,2013

The day the bills stood still

By Rich Miller

Last Thursday was not exactly a banner day for the Illinois Senate Democratic leadership. In high profile moves, leadership’s attempts to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage stalled, as did bill