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Campaign Finance Reform
Last week, the Illinois General Assembly took a
significant step forward on campaign finance reform. At the urging of
every reform advocacy group in our State, I joined in supporting the bill
despite my reservations over the lack of spending limits by political parties
in a general election. I’ve included a link to the website of
CHANGE Illinois - a coalition of over forty groups working to reform
government in Illinois - regarding their support for the legislation.
http://www.changeil.org/
This was a difficult choice to make.
But before this legislation passed, Illinois was one
of only five states with no campaign contribution limits. That has now
been addressed.
Before this legislation passed, the State Board of
Elections had no authority to conduct random audits of campaign committees to
determine whether their campaign disclosures were accurate. That has
now been addressed.
Before this legislation passed, campaign committees
were only required to report every six months. Now each committee must
report their contributions quarterly and every contribution in excess of
$1000 must be reported in five days. Disclosure has been significantly
enhanced.
Before this legislation passed, there were no limits
on transfers from political parties to candidates. A cap has been
placed on those transfers in primary elections – the point at which
every candidate enters the political process.
I will keep fighting to require caps on transfers from
political parties for general elections. But the compromise that was
reached that does not include those caps is not a failure. The federal
campaign contribution laws do not include any limits on party transfers
– in either a primary or general election. Twenty five states
have no limits on party transfers in either a primary or general
election. So the bill we passed is not, by any means, out of the
mainstream for campaign finance laws in this country.
I appreciate your willingness to hear me out on what
has been a protracted and contentious process.
Chair of MIPRC
Last month, I was honored to be elected the new chair
of the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC), a 10-state group
of state legislators and officials leading efforts to improve the
region’s passenger rail system.
The election occurred at on October 16 at the
group’s two-day fall meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
The landscape for passenger rail has changed
dramatically in the last twelve months and it requires MIPRC to chart a new
course. I look forward to the
challenge of leading the group through this significant time of transition.
I will serve for one year along with Ohio
Representative Bob Hagan, vice chair, and Robert Polk as financial
secretary. Mr. Polk is president
of M2 International and serves as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s private sector delegate to MIPRC.
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