Madigan

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois House tonight passed a bill to impose the first political contribution limits in the state’s history. House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, personally presented the measure to the floor.

But critics continue to blast the bill for a loophole that leaves Madigan and a handful of other top state leaders mostly unrestricted in the money they can transfer to rank-and-file lawmakers — a situation that some say creates even more consolidation of power among those leaders.

“Why on Earth would you vote for this bill, unless you were told you have no choice?” House Republican Leader Tom Cross asked majority Democratic lawmakers in floor debate. “Tonight we’re giving a blank check to the legislative leaders.” (Cross is one of them; he acknowledged that.)

The bill limits donations from individuals to $5,000 per election for candidates and $10,000 to political parties or PACs. Businesses and unions can give $10,000 to a candidate and $20,000 to a political party or PAC. PACs can give $50,000 per candidate.

Under the proposed bill, political parties and legislative leaders are unlimited during the general election in what they can give to candidate. During the primaries, they are limited to giving between $50,000 and $200,000, depending on the office.

The sticking point in this year’s campaign finance reform debate has been all about what, if any, limits there should be in what the Legislative leaders in both parties can give to their own rank-and-file members.

Springfield has long operated under the perception that Madigan and other legislative leaders control their party’s legislators like pawns on a chessboard, with that power fed largely by their ability to give (or withhold) unlimited money to those legislators. Some fear that limiting what lawmakers can get from other sources–while leaving mostly unlimited what they can get from the leaders–only tightens that grip.

The politics behind this thing aren’t too mysterious. We have one governor sitting in prison and other one possibly headed there, both for allegedly doing illegal things in the pursuit of otherwise legal (and unlimited) campaign contributions–a temptation that, in theory, wouldn’t have been there if those contributions had been limited. There’s been intense pressure in the media and elsewhere to pass something this year.

Friday is the last scheduled meeting day of the General Assembly. The bill (SB1466) passed the House on a partisan 66-49 vote. It now goes to the Senate.