From the Tribune (Editorial):

Protecting Illinois sleaze

October 24, 2007

Last spring, Illinois legislators finally appeared ready and eager to raise ethics standards in state government. House members in April overwhelmingly supported an ethics reform measure.

It whizzed out of the House on a 116-0 vote. More than three-quarters of the members of the Senate signed on as co-sponsors.

The measure would restrict most businesses that contract with the state from making campaign contributions to the officeholder who awards the contract. It would be a reasonable condition of doing business with the state -- and a reasonable stab at weaning Illinois from its astonishingly sleazy pay-to-play politics.

The bill would also require contract bidders to disclose how much they have given in campaign contributions in the last two years to the officeholder who awards a contract.The House voted six months ago. Here it is October and Senate President Emil Jones still hasn't allowed that bill to come to a vote in his chamber.

You might think Jones would be desperate for the opportunity to prove he's not protecting the pay-to-play culture in Illinois. After all, he has spent the year in one ethics bramble bush after another. He had to explain how his stepson won a utility company contract, and how his wife and son obtained lucrative state jobs. He undermined some of his fellow Democrats by burying a majority vote in favor of a statewide freeze in electric rates.

So what's going on in the Senate now? Jones argues it's all about noble intentions. So does Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

They say they don't want to settle for the House bill because they are cooking up a much better ethics bill.

Just wait and see.

We're waiting. The House voted in April. And what have we seen from the Senate? Nothing but the same excuses the Senate leaders were mouthing in August, the last time this page wrote about their failure to call a vote on the House ethics bill.

That's what they said in August. Wait! We have a better idea!

Many Democratic senators at this moment are doubtless printing up campaign fliers that boast they have sponsored ethics legislation. And those campaign fliers will be a crock.

Every Democratic senator should be asked two questions:

Why haven't you screamed for your leaders to call a vote on the ethics bills that passed the House 116-0?

Why are you protecting the Illinois culture of corruption?