From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Ethics reform measure sails through Illinois Senate
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
09/23/2008
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Senate on Monday pushed aside a veto and unanimously approved a landmark ban on "pay-to-play" political donations, after former legislative colleague Barack Obama interceded to jump-start the stalled ethics initiative.
The measure prohibits entities that do more than $50,000 in state business from giving political donations to the elected officials who control their contracts. Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the bill last month, and the House this month voted to override his veto.
Monday's 55-0 Senate veto override means the ban will take effect Jan. 1.
"Hallelujah!" said state Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, during brief floor debate over the long-sought legislation. "This is indeed a great day." The chamber later broke into applause after the override vote.
The vote is a stinging rebuke to Blagojevich, who had vetoed the ethics bill while offering what he said was a superior alternative. Critics said that move was actually designed to kill the reform and keep in place an unrestricted political system that Blagojevich has used to raise millions of campaign dollars.
For Obama, a former Illinois state senator and now the Democratic presidential nominee, the vote likely averts what had been shaping up as a possible public relations headache for his presidential campaign.
The ethics bill was being stalled primarily by Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones, both Obama supporters and fellow Chicago Democrats. The two Illinois pols already have been featured in one recent national Republican commercial that tries to tie Obama to Chicago's famously shady political culture.
After the House overrode Blagojevich's veto, Jones, a Blagojevich ally, prompted howls from reformers by hinting he might not call the bill in his chamber until mid-November, if at all.
On Wednesday, as the controversy grew, Obama called Jones and pressed him to call the bill. Jones later issued a statement saying he would call the Senate in to deal with the issue, "only at the request of my friend Barack Obama."
Blagojevich's alternative ethics package had contained additional restrictions, including bans on legislators taking side-jobs in their local governments, and more straightforward requirements for approval of legislative pay raises. Reformers had feared those additions would make the package too controversial to pass and endanger the whole reform initiative — and some alleged that was the whole point.
In a compromise Monday in connection with the veto override, Blagojevich's provisions passed the Senate Executive Committee as a bill that could now advance through the Legislature separately.
In a written statement, Blagojevich lauded the committee passage of those provisions as "real reform." He played down the override of his veto, saying: "The General Assembly didn't really move the ball forward."
The issue of political contributions from state contractors has long been a controversial one in Illinois, but there are no rules against it, as long as the donations aren't made specifically as payback for the contracts. Former Gov. George Ryan is serving a federal prison term for crossing that line. His crimes included steering state contracts to major campaign contributors.
This year's federal trial of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko — who raised money for both Blagojevich and Obama — included allegations of similar things going on around Blagojevich's administration. Testimony alleged that Blagojevich associates sought a political donation from a contractor in exchange for a promise of state business. Blagojevich himself hasn't been accused of wrongdoing.
A recent Post-Dispatch analysis of 50 of the top service contractors in the state found that fully half of them are major Blagojevich donors.
The ethics bill is HB824.