Politics: Making the case for a Con-Con

The opponents of a new state constitutional convention have come out in force, making all sorts of arguments. Rich Miller of Capitol Fax recently refuted one of these arguments:

I do not understand how the opponents can claim with a straight face that even though a tiny number of people have accumulated an enormous amount of power under this constitution - the House speaker, Senate president, and governor - all we have to do is just elect new people and all our woes will suddenly disappear.

I’ve been around just since 1990, but only a small handful of legislators remain in office who were there when I first started reporting on Illinois politics. Rod Blagojevich was still chasing ambulances for Eddie Vrdolyak’s law firm back then. The 27-year old state Representative Aaron Schock was barely in grade school.

Lots and lots of new people have been elected since 1990. Lots of good people, even. I would venture to say that the General Assembly as a whole has a brighter, more diverse, and more thoughtful membership now than in the old days. But the power-concentration problems have only gotten worse. Our constitution simply allows too much power to be concentrated in too few hands.

I agree with the sentiment that little will change until we start electing better candidates. But there are changes than can be made in the state constitution that can make for a better political climate. One change it’d like to see is a limit on the number of years any member of the state legislature can serve in a leadership position. I’d also limit the ability of legislative leaders to dole out money to candidates, a practice that gives them way too much power.

Illinois Citizens Coalition has more details on the Con-Con.