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In state legislative politics, your word is supposed
to be your bond, but that doesn’t always happen. Illinois legislators
will often tell one person one thing and tell another something completely
different. Rank-and-file legislators aren’t completely trustworthy. Legislative leaders, on the other hand, are supposed
to be different, particularly when it comes to promises they make to each
other. The Senate president, House speaker, and the two minority leaders
share a historical bond that is never breached. By tradition, when the four leaders come to an
agreement the pact is considered almost holy writ. They are all obligated
to do everything they possibly can to implement their agreement. That trust
is absolutely crucial to getting anything done at the Statehouse. When
leaders make a bargain, it’s almost always about large, important,
and politically delicate matters, and nobody can remember a time when those
vows have ever been broken. Until last week, that is. This legislative session has been a year of firsts in
Springfield. It’s been the longest overtime session in modern
Illinois history and has showcased some of the nastiest fights ever between
the governor and some of the legislative leaders. We’ve had open talk
of the governor’s impeachment on the House floor, and legislators
have publicly questioned the governor’s sanity and mocked his mental
acuity. It should come as no surprise, then, that this is
also the first year anyone can remember when the four leaders’
agreement on the budget deal was broken. Last week, Senate President Emil Jones took the
extraordinary step of announcing that he wouldn’t follow through on
his pledge to enact the state budget that he negotiated with the other
leaders. This was the first year since Jim Thompson was governor that the
leaders did the budget on their own, without the governor’s input. Gov. Rod Blagojevich objected to parts of the
leaders’ budget, mainly because they didn’t include funding for
his health-care initiatives, so last week he announced that he would veto
out all the legislative “pork” from the budget and use his
executive authority to add $500 million in new spending for health-care
programs. The Constitution forbids that sort of thing, but he didn’t
really mean it that way anyway, and, besides, that’s another story. Everybody expected Blagojevich to veto out parts of
the bill, but because the leaders had all agreed to support the budget
there was no doubt that all of his vetoes would be swiftly overridden. The big surprise came when Jones stood with the
governor at that announcement and announced that he wouldn’t allow
any overrides to pass the Senate. Without Jones’ cooperation, the
budget will be implemented in exactly the way the governor wants, over the
objections of the other legislative leaders.
The shock is still reverberating through Springfield,
despite Jones’ attempts to explain his unprecedented move. Jones claims that House Speaker Michael Madigan
interfered with his agreement with the two Republican leaders to pass a
multibillion-dollar bond plan for the state’s aging infrastructure. Others suspect darker motives for Jones’
action, pointing to his family’s financial success under
Blagojevich’s administration. Jones claimed last week during a tirade that Madigan
telephoned Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson during a Republican caucus
meeting just before a series of votes on the infrastructure package. Jones
charged that Madigan persuaded Watson to pull votes off the measures.
Watson’s caucus did indeed vote “present” on the first of
the capital-spending bills — a proposal on bond authorization —
depriving the measure of the 36 votes needed for passage. Watson’s
spokesperson flatly denied that Madigan had anything to do with the vote But even if Jones is right, his explanation is less
than satisfying, to say the least. Madigan was not a direct party to those
capital-project talks and was therefore under no obligation to abide by any
agreement. In other words, he was free to interfere. Unlike Jones and the
budget, Madigan never gave his word. “I don’t see how we can do anything here
now that we can’t trust another leader’s word,” said a
top legislative official last week. That’s exactly right. There are still some big
issues to be resolved this summer, including what to do about the
mass-transit crisis in Chicago and the suburbs. If the other leaders
can’t trust Jones, then nothing will happen. I’m not sure how Jones will ever repair this
damage. His reputation is probably forever tarnished.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2007.
