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Spotcheck

Newsletter of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform November 12, 2003

In this Issue
* We Need YOUR Help to Move the Ethics Bill
* Energy Utility Campaign Contributions Posted on-line
* ICPR Welcomes New Staff

We Need YOUR Help to Move the Ethics Bill
If you are concerned about the state of public ethics in Illinois, now is the time to call you legislators. Negotiators for the four legislative caucuses and the offices of the governor and the attorney general have been meeting regularly to hammer out the final details of the ethics bill. It appears that the proposal will encompass the five principles included in the Candidate Ethics Pledge, promulgated by ICPR and others in the reform community.

Constant pressure from voters has resulted in a broadly comprehensive proposal, but final passage is far from assured. Many legislators remain reluctant to pass ethics reforms. While the Illinois House passed a broad ethics bill last May, the Senate balked, and it appears once again that both political caucuses in the Senate need to hear from constituents if broad ethics reform is to become law.

The two caucus leaders in the Senate are Senate President Emil Jones and Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson. President Jones can be reached at (217) 782-2728, and Leader Watson can be reached at (217) 782-5755.

An outline of the ethics proposal can be found here. For more on the ethics pledge, see the Illinois Campaign Reform Coalition website.

Energy Utility Campaign Contributions Posted on-line
ICPR has posted summary data of energy utility giving to Illinois candidates from January 1, 2001 to June 30, 2003. The two largest utility donors, Illinois Power and Commonwealth Edison, are pursuing legislation to facilitate a corporate merger between the two and to make it easier to obtain rate hikes in the future. Click here for the data.

ICPR Welcomes New Staff
ICPR is pleased to welcome Chris Nichols to our staff as our new web director. Chris, who started over the summer, is responsible for the new look of our website. We also proud to announce that Mary Schaafsma has joined our staff as the Program Director for our Judicial Reform Project. Mary comes to us from Protestants for the Common Good, where she has coordinated efforts among clergy across the state on a range of issues, including judicial reform. At ICPR, Mary will lead our efforts on Supreme Court Public Financing, and also to build consensus and support around an array of other judicial system reforms.