Want to Get a Slice of Springfield?

Two people who attended the Thursday press conference where State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Bull Valley) continued his “trash the governor” campaign wrote what they saw.

Bethany Jaeger, who writes for Illinois Issues, a monthly magazine on things political and governmental in Illinois, wrote this about the Thursday press conference held by Franks and Lt. Governor Pat Quinn.

Franks is quoted as saying,

“I don’t think I would have written it but for what’s going on in Illinois this year. You talk about the perfect storm. It’s like this governor is the poster child for recall.”

As the press conference was going on, blogger Dan Johnson-Weinberger put up two posts on Illinoize, a statewide aggregator blog to which I contribute, as the press conference was being held.

In his first post, the part of which is about Franks follows (used with permission of the author):

“A ton of press. More Chicago cameras than I’ve seen in a while.

“Jack Franks says that this empowers the electorate and the issue isn’t about partisan politics since the Governor supports the provision (is that true, at least conceptually?). Jack’s thought process, as he is sharing it, is his disappointments with the Blagojevich Administration (executive order 1 setting up a hiring freeze moving over to scandals in hiring).

”Andy Shaw interrupts to say, ‘Jack, can you wrap it up?'”

”Jack’s getting a little angry talking about the lack of good government.

“Carol Marin interrupts to say it’s about Rod Blagojevich.

”Jack says yes, because I am hearing this from my constituents and they want to know why these things are happening.

”Mike Flannery says but we have elections.

“Jack says that new information comes to light after elections, where he promised James Meeks to put 10 billion into education and campaigned on that but after election, tries to put the money into universal health care. Where’s the accountability?

“That’s a fair point…”

And, from the second post, which is mainly about Lt. Governor Pat Quinn:

“Franks said this would be on the top of his legislative agenda next year.”

= = = = =
The picture of State Rep. Jack Franks and WBBM-TV political reporter Mike Flannery was taken at McHenry County College before the 8th congressional district debate, held before Labor Day. It was the last debate in which Congresswoman Melissa Bean particpated.

Dan Johnson-Weinberger is a University of Chicago Law School graduate who is a lobbyist, among other things, including being a blogger.

I did note that the proposed constitutional amendment treats legislators differently from statewide officials. To obtain a recall vote on a governor, for instance, one has to obtain signatures equal to 12% of the people who voted for the office. For state legislators an judges, the percentage is 20%.

Do I sense a lack of equal protection under the law?


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