Capital Facts

Topsy-turvy landscape on full display in Springfield

Published by admin on Sat, 10/30/2021 - 10:46am

The current topsy-turvy political landscape was on full display in the Illinois House and the Senate last week as the chamber debated and passed a bill to slightly narrow the scope of the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

Republicans get their chance to ‘cure’ IL remap

Published by admin on Mon, 10/25/2021 - 7:52am

It has been a foregone conclusion since the official U.S. Census numbers were released in August that the first state legislative redistricting plan passed back in May would be ruled unconstitutional. And the inevitable happened last week when a federal court tossed out the General Assembly's spring plan.

There’s more Pritzker can do against gun violence

Published by admin on Fri, 10/15/2021 - 5:00pm

Catholic priest and Chicago community activist Michael Pfleger has now twice called on Gov. JB Pritzker to declare a “state of emergency” over his city’s notorious gun violence problems.
The first time was this past July, when Fr. Pfleger demanded that Pritzker issue a similar emergency declaration to the one announced by New York’s then-governor Andrew Cuomo. Pfleger repeated his demand again last week after a security guard and a little girl were injured by gunfire outside of a school.

Why Democrats believe Illinois remap will pass

Published by admin on Sun, 10/10/2021 - 10:07am

The Illinois House Redistricting Committee held its first hearing last week on new congressional and judicial subcircuit district maps at the Michael Bilandic Building in Chicago. Another half-dozen hearings were scheduled for the following seven days to redraw the maps, which have to be reconfigured after each decennial census.

Pritzker doesn’t always listen to what senate leader has to say

Published by admin on Sat, 10/02/2021 - 2:53pm

At the end of August, after the Illinois Senate had been unable to find a consensus on the massive climate/energy bill and punted the issue to the House, I asked Senate President Don Harmon during a press conference why he hadn't addressed Gov. JB Pritzker's list of problems, legal and otherwise, with the Senate's proposal.
"I don't know if the governor's team understood how fundamental some of those provisions were to getting the agreement among all stakeholders," Harmon replied.
That seemed to me to be quite an extraordinary statement about the governor and his team.

IL lawmakers face vaccine mandate loophole

Published by admin on Sun, 09/26/2021 - 8:54am

After well over a year of successfully fending off every legal challenge to his executive powers during the pandemic, it now appears that Gov. JB Pritzker might have reached the limits of his authority.
The brick wall is the state's decades-old Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which was originally designed to protect doctors and other health care workers from any repercussions if they refused to participate in abortion or other medical procedures/treatments they opposed.

Candidate’s combat claim needs clarification

Published by admin on Sun, 09/19/2021 - 9:48am

Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Schimpf has mostly followed Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment and avoided speaking ill of his Republican opponents.
Until now.
When a relative unknown named Jesse Sullivan jumped into the race earlier this month with a nearly $11 million out-of-state-funded campaign war chest, state Sen. Darren Bailey and businessperson Gary Rabine both called him a member of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley “elite” because that’s where his business was located and where much of his campaign money came from.

Energy bill proves there’s a new way in Springfield

Published by admin on Sun, 09/12/2021 - 9:54am

"This is what decentralized, collective leadership looks like," declared House Speaker Chris Welch's spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll not long after the chamber approved the climate/energy bill on an unexpectedly lopsided 83-33 roll call on Thursday.
The vote was without a doubt a spectacular victory, especially considering the Senate was unable to put together its own package that could pass both chambers and be signed into law.

Here’s who’s to blame for failed Illinois energy bill

Published by admin on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:51pm

While a huge cloud of coal ash exploded around Springfield's coal-fired electric power plant late in the afternoon, the state's top three Democrats were huddled in a Statehouse conference room trying to find a way to slash electric power plant carbon emissions to zero by 2045.
The irony was both unmistakable and irresistible.
The giant ash plume, caused by an equipment failure, finally dissipated hours later. But by then it was also clear that any attempt to pass a climate/energy bill by the end of the day was doomed - and that was a human failure.

Dodging the Covid virus while chasing Springfield politics

Published by admin on Mon, 08/30/2021 - 5:50pm

The week of Governor's Day and Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair is always packed with political events. And this year was no exception. It's impossible to attend them all, so one has to pick and choose and go with the flow.