From the Daily Herald:

Governor wants bite back in ethics law
By Eric Krol Daily Herald Political Writer
Posted June 13, 2003

Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to do Thursday what state lawmakers refused to do last month: put some bite into an ethics reform measure that aims to clean up the scandal from George Ryan's tenure as secretary of state.

The governor said he will use his amendatory veto power to add an inspector general to root out corruption in state agencies and statewide elected offices and an ethics commission to mete out punishment for wrongdoers. State senators stripped out those provisions, rendering the ethics law toothless, before going home for the summer May 31.

"If we stop now, we will end up with an ethics reform package that is little more than a half-measure dressed up as a solution," Blagojevich said at a Chicago news conference. The changes, he said, move Illinois "to the head of the class when it comes to ethics rather than where we've been: sitting in the corner, facing the wall."

Legislators must approve the changes when they meet in November for them to become law, however. Blagojevich threatened to keep lawmakers in session through the holidays if they don't take up the matter.

What Blagojevich didn't do Thursday was put back into the law an ethics commission and inspector general with power to probe and punish the General Assembly.

State senators also excised those provisions on the final day of the spring session, despite federal investigations into three-fourths of the legislature. Authorities are looking into whether House Democrats, House Republicans and Senate Democrats illegally used state employees to run legislative campaigns.

Blagojevich said he didn't reinsert the watchdog provisions for lawmakers because his attorneys told him it would violate the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

David Morrison, a coordinator with the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said "there's no reason" lawmakers shouldn't be covered by an ethics commission as well. Morrison pointed to federal prosecutors' charges that under Ryan's secretary of state office, state workers illegally were used to run Republican House and Senate campaigns in the 1990s as reason the General Assembly needs to be covered.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat who sponsored the measures that were later gutted, said she supported Blagojevich's move and would try to pass a measure that added an ethics commission for lawmakers next year.

Blagojevich said he wouldn't sign an ethics measure that didn't "get at the heart" of the corruption that ended the political career of his predecessor, George Ryan.

Corruption in Ryan's secretary of state office flourished because the inspector general, Dean Bauer, covered it up. That no longer could happen with an inspector general also working outside the secretary of state's office, Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich's changes would seem to step on the toes of Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a fellow Democrat. Madigan had sought a provision that would have required the executive branch inspector general to get investigative authority from her office. Blagojevich's move would not require that.

Madigan spokeswoman Melissa Merz downplayed any notion of a feud, saying, "the only battle going on here is the battle to change the way business is done in Illinois."

Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the lone statewide Republican, bristled at Blagojevich's ban on elected officials appearing in public service announcements. Topinka regularly appears in TV ads touting "Bright Start," a college savings program.

"It adds credibility to these commercials and readily identifies it with the state," Topinka spokeswoman Carolyn Barry Frost said. "It may confuse the public to take her out of the commercials."

Blagojevich also tried to take away lawmakers' prized perks, putting a ban on lobbyists paying for tennis and golf and instituting a $75 cap per day on wining and dining.