Rich Miller

Other than a handful of state employees, highway workers, Medicaid vendors, commercial-truck owners, and poor people, few out there in Voter Land have really paid much attention to the state’s budget problems. Sure, they know that the troubles exist, but only on an abstract level. Most people have very few direct contacts with state government, […]

There’s no violation of state law if a toxic-waste landfill — or even a nuclear-waste dump, for that matter — is partly owned by one of the governor’s in-laws. There’s no problem with the law if a member of the governor’s family owns stock in a regulated monopoly such as Commonwealth Edison or SBC. A […]

Harsh statements and public and private threats by Senate President Emil Jones in the past two years have prompted Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson to reach out to some labor leaders. Jones has been sharply critical of the construction-trades unions, accusing them of freezing out African-Americans and Latinos from apprenticeship programs and job sites. Black […]

By now, you’ve probably read or heard stories about all of the gun-related bills pending in the Illinois General Assembly. A large number of gun-control bills is not particularly surprising. Most that end up on the legislative calendar are introduced year after year by allies of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. What’s striking this year […]

Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has a new poll that shows her trailing Gov. Rod Blagojevich by just 3 points in a head-to-head matchup. By just about any test, the numbers are real. I was given access to all of the poll’s results, and the internal numbers tracked with those of several other recent surveys. The […]

Dan Hynes was once the brightest of Illinois’ young political stars. After Hynes won his first statewide race for Illinois comptroller in 1998, the 30-year-old Democrat’s future looked limitless. Hynes was the youngest person elected to a statewide constitutional office since World War II — his father’s long service in politics helping automatically smooth relations […]

Almost half of the entire Illinois House has signed up to sponsor an anti-abortion bill this year. The proposal is an exact replica of a federal law that ostensibly protects infants who are “born alive” during botched abortion procedures. Opponents say that the bill is merely a backdoor attempt to ban almost all abortions, but […]

Emil Jones was not treated too well during his 10 years as the minority leader of the state Senate. The majority Republicans locked him out of the room and killed most of his members’ bills. His fellow Democrat, House Speaker Michael Madigan, treated Jones like a junior associate, occasionally helping him out but not doing […]

One of the problems with applying “appearance of impropriety” rules to Illinois and Chicago politics is that most of the players are swimming in a small political pond. We’re constantly treated to stories about how this or that political insider connected with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is representing a company that just landed a sweet […]

The reaction by the religious right to the passage of a gay-rights law in Illinois has been predictably loud and aggrieved. But the law’s critics have universally zeroed in on one key argument: a claim that churches and religious institutions will now be forced by the government to hire gays and lesbians. They’re wrong. Their […]