{"id":232743,"date":"2010-01-26T13:42:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a8129cad970b"},"modified":"2010-01-26T16:46:34","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T21:46:34","slug":"republicans-call-for-more-campaign-cash-reform-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/232743","title":{"rendered":"Republicans call for more campaign cash reform in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Michelle Manchir<\/em> at 12:42 p.m.; last updated at 3:47 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SPRINGFIELD — House Republican leader Tom Cross today called for limits on how much legislative leaders and political party campaign committees can give to candidates in general elections, saying it was a necessary change that Democrats refused to put into a new state reform law.<\/p>\n

The legislation was unveiled at the Capitol just a week before the Feb. 2 primary as Republicans try to show voters this year how they differ with Democrats on reforming the way elections are paid for in scandal-ridden Illinois politics. Democrats control state government and the Republicans are looking to regain relevance for the first time in years.\n<\/p>\n

Cross’ legislation aims to fix what critics say is a loophole resulting from last year’s campaign finance reform measure that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law. Democrats agreed to put limits only on contributions from legislative leaders and party committees in primary races, which are fights within each party. But they refused to apply those limits to the general election because those races are all-out warfare between Democrats and Republicans. Spending should not be limited when the fight for control of legislative chambers is at stake, Democrats argued.
<\/br>
<\/br>Cross, of Oswego, contended today that applying the limits only to primary contests does not do enough to scale back the big money poured into rank-and-file races from leaders of both political parties. He called on House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats, to drop their opposition to the limits in general elections because it is the "right thing" to achieve true reform in Illinois.
<\/br>
<\/br>"Hopefully, the speaker and the president have been listening to the people of this state," Cross said.
<\/br>
<\/br>Steve Brown, spokesman for Madigan, who doubles as state Democratic chairman, said Cross is "free to do whatever he wishes" but pointed out the issue of contribution limits has been "widely debated for a number of years."
<\/br><\/p>\n

"Whether it makes any sense, whether any of these limits would solve the political problems that have come up through the years, I think the answer to that is ‘no,’ " Brown said.<\/p>\n

Rikeesha Phelon, Cullerton’s spokesman, had no comment about the
\nCross proposal.<\/p>\n

A similar bill for broader limits was filed by Sen. Heather Steans, a Chicago Democrat facing a primary challenge. Steans called the failure to install contributions in general elections a "loophole" that needed to be closed.<\/p>\n

CHANGE Illinois!, a coalition of civic leaders and good government groups, issued a statement today urging lawmakers to adopt "this missing ingredient to the limits law."<\/p>\n

Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont supported Cross’ legislation, saying the new law will have limited impact and the Cross proposal presents an "opportunity to right that wrong." <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Michelle Manchir at 12:42 p.m.; last updated at 3:47 p.m. SPRINGFIELD — House Republican leader Tom Cross today called for limits on how much legislative leaders and political party campaign committees can give to candidates in general elections, saying it was a necessary change that Democrats refused to put into a new state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}