From the SJ-R:

Panel approves ‘pay to play’ measure
By ADRIANA COLINDRES
STAFF WRITER
Published Thursday, April 17, 2008
The newest proposal to clean up state government by eliminating “pay to play” politics took a step forward Wednesday, when an Illinois Senate committee unanimously approved it.
A key piece of the plan would bar contractors who do more than $50,000 in business with the state from contributing to the political funds of any officeholder who awarded the contract. Those same contractors also would be banned from making political contributions to any of the officeholder’s declared challengers.
In addition, businesses would have to register with the State Board of Elections within 30 days of receiving a state contract. They would have to report all contributions to political committees.
The Senate proposal, which advances to the full Senate for a vote as House Bill 824, differs in some ways from House Bill 1, ethics legislation that passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate. HB1 would forbid individuals who have contracts worth $25,000 or more from making political contributions.
While members of the Senate Executive Committee voted 13-0 Wednesday on the new legislation, which Senate Democrats unveiled a day earlier, some Republicans on the panel were skeptical that the plan ever would become law.
“I’d almost bet you dinner nothing passes” both the Senate and the House, Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson of Greenville told the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park.
OK, said Harmon, who later invited another doubtful senator, Republican Christine Radogno of Lemont, to the dinner with him and Watson.
“This is a good bill,” said Radogno. “There’s no question about it.”
Even so, she said she thinks the legislation is part of the ongoing “gamesmanship” in which lawmakers keep “lobbing bills back and forth” between the Senate and the House. A bill must pass both chambers and be signed by the governor before it can become law.
Radogno said she doesn’t think Harmon’s plan will be enacted into law, but she is signing on as a co-sponsor of the bill anyway.
“Pay to play” allegations have surfaced repeatedly in state government over the years, and they are at the heart of the federal trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko. A former top fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, Rezko is accused of seeking bribes from companies that wanted to do business with the state.
Neither Blagojevich nor Obama has been charged with wrongdoing.