GOP’s Brady whacks Madigan, proposes term limits

Chicago Tribune
September 22, 2009
Posted by Rick Pearson at 11:35 a.m.

State Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican candidate for governor, today assailed the control Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has over state government and proposed term limits, a return to multi-member House districts and campaign finance reforms.

“We have reached a point where too few people control too much and the power is too concentrated,” Brady said. “There’s no question that the speaker of the House, representing little over 100,000 people, has had absolute control over the state of Illinois. He’s been able to do that for nearly three decades and it’s time for that to end.”

Brady proposed a combination of state constitutional amendments and legislation to implement what he called his government reform package.

But the Bloomington Republican, who has spent seven years in the House and a like amount of time in the Senate, acknowledged it was unlikely that the Democratic-dominated legislature would put the constitutional changes on the November 2010 general election ballot. Madigan, of Chicago, has served as speaker of the House for 24 of the past 26 years.

Brady, who finished third among the four major candidates in the 2006 GOP primary for governor, proposed a state constitutional amendment that would limit state lawmakers to 10 years and statewide elected officials to 12 years. Lawmakers who are forced out because of term limits could return in six years.

He also proposed a return to what’s known as cumulative voting for the House. Under his plan, the Senate would be trimmed from 59 members to 41, with three House members elected from each Senate district.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn led a push in 1980 that eliminated the cumulative voting system. Critics have said eliminating that system paved the way for increased one-party control of the legislature and dominance by top legislative leaders.

Brady also called for the adoption of campaign donation reforms that conform to the current federal limits of $2,300 per election. He chided Democratic leaders and Quinn for first passing, then vetoing a complicated campaign finance limit plan that critics said was filled with loopholes.

Brady also said he had no favorite for a lieutenant governor running mate among a field of several lesser-known candidates. He criticized former GOP state chairman Andy McKenna of Chicago, a new entry in the governor’s race, for “deal making” in running with state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine. Murphy dropped his bid for governor to run with McKenna as lieutenant governor.

Along with Brady and McKenna, other candidates for the Republican nomination for governor include state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom of Naperville, political pundit and operative Dan Proft of Chicago and transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski of Hinsdale.

Dillard unveiled his ethics reform proposals last week.