From the St. Louis Post Dispatch

Partisanship stalls debate on ethics bills
By Kevin McDermott
Post-Dispatch Springfield Bureau
11/04/2003

Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, argues government ethics legislation while on the House floor.
(Seth Perlman/AP)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A new ethics package, designed to clean up Illinois' famously soiled political landscape, became bogged down in partisan bickering Tuesday.
Among the sticking points was whether congressional lobbying contracts, like the one granted to a Metro East-area lawmaker earlier this year, should be outlawed.
Still, state legislative leaders in both parties - facing widely publicized scandals and a looming election season - again vowed that they won't leave Springfield this month without major new restrictions on how Illinois politicians raise money, accept gifts, interact with the private sector and use government resources.
"This is an issue that won't go away. The public won't stand for it," Cynthia Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform said after one committee debate. "After this . . . they go home to campaign. They can't have this hanging over their heads."
The proposal would set up a system of independent ethics officers and put tough new restrictions on campaign fund raising, gift giving to politicians, "revolving-door" contracts, use of government property for political gain and other practices highlighted by a series of recent federal investigations.
The Legislature has passed one version of the package, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called for it to be strengthened. Both parties appear to agree that it should be.
But on Tuesday, the first day of the Legislature's six-day fall veto session, procedural and partisan snags held up approval of the measure. By Tuesday night, the core part of the package again had won passage in the House but was shelved in the Senate, while both chambers continued to debate additional details.
Among the points of contention between Republicans and Democrats late Tuesday was whether to bar lawmakers from acting as paid lobbyists outside Illinois. That prohibition, sought by Republicans, was in response to the revelation in the Post-Dispatch earlier this year that state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville, had been contracted to lobby Congress on behalf of the United Mine Workers of America. Reitz canceled his $10,000 contract with the union after it became public.
"There's an individual of your party persuasion who was well-compensated by a private entity for trying to influence members of Congress," state Sen. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, told Democrats during a contentious evening committee hearing.
Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, one of the architects of the package, responded with a warning that the ethics debate was denigrating into partisan potshots. "Are we going to start accusing one another of things, and then start writing legislation about it?" she asked.
Federal investigators are reportedly looking into the campaign practices of Illinois legislative leaders in both parties, focusing especially on the question of whether government employees have been systematically used for political purposes, in violation of the law. That issue was at the core of some recent federal convictions of underlings to former Gov. George Ryan - along with bribery, fraud and other crimes by state officials. Ryan hasn't been charged with any crime, but federal prosecutors have made comments in court indicating they have been investigating his actions while he was in office.
On Tuesday, Blagojevich reiterated his commitment to get an ethics overhaul into law and threatened to keep legislators in Springfield until it's done. "We will not leave Springfield until tough, meaningful ethics reform occurs," he said in Springfield.
The ethics proposals being pressed by Senate Republicans include one aimed primarily at Blagojevich, a Democrat. Republicans want restrictions on the influence of "shadow government," meaning people who give the governor advice but aren't paid state employees, and therefore don't have to make their finances public.
Some also are pushing for a ban on the practice of politicians putting their names on state-funded items such as billboards, bumper stickers and public service announcements. Some critics suggest that amounts to tax-funded campaigning by the officials.
Both chambers of the Legislature resume session today.