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Blagojevich pits North vs. South in Illinois
'WE'VE BEEN LIED TO'

Downstate lawmakers fume over lack of respect

December 2, 2007
Chicago Sun-Times

BY CAROL MARIN

Illinois is a family in pain. Politically, we are perilously close to our own civil war, thanks in large part to the combative, testosterone-driven, absentee leadership of Gov. Blagojevich.

It's become North against South.

The Chicago area vs. Downstate.

Thoughtful legislators in Springfield -- honest, there are some -- were witness this past week to a bipartisan uprising, a call to arms that's been fueled by the governor's failure to grasp how his actions and often his inaction roll like thunder across this state.

Lawmakers were already spitting mad when they pulled into town Wednesday morning. It was the 17th time Blagojevich had dragged them into special session to find a long-term funding solution for the mass transit crisis that threatens to shut down the buses and trains of the CTA, RTA, Metra and Pace.

But that morning, newspapers from one end of the state to the other carried a wire story that made legislators' blood boil. The Associated Press' John O'Connor reported that the governor had hoodwinked them again. That Blago's most recent emergency $27 million Band-Aid for the hemorrhaging urban and suburban transit systems wasn't what he claimed it to be. That some of the cash he miraculously came up with last month for the CTA was money he quietly diverted from desperately needed statewide road and building projects.

The AP got its story despite stonewalling from the Blagojevich administration, which "ignored repeated requests from the Associated Press over the past three weeks for more details about the source of the money and what projects have been set aside."

"Very few people, when that story broke, were sitting on the fence anymore," said state Rep. Bill Black.

Bill Black is one of the most respected lawmakers in Springfield. He is a 21-year veteran of the House whose family has lived in Danville for four generations.

"Downstate, we're passengers on the Titanic. It's sinking and we get panicky," Black said, citing plant closings, 10,000 lost jobs in the last 15 years and crumbling infrastructure.

"We have a bridge we can't run a fire truck over anymore and we don't have $3.5 million to fix it," he told me late last week.

Black is no Chicago-hater. His wife hails from Oak Park and is well practiced in taking the CTA. They rely on mass transit on their visits to downtown Chicago to shop with their grandkids or to take in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

But something snapped among the rank and file last week in Springfield. They were finally fed up with being furniture, tired of being sat on by a governor and four leaders who hate one another too much to get anything done. They were fed up. Not just Republicans from Downstate but Democrats, too.

And so Wednesday night, despite the urging of the governor, Speaker Michael Madigan and Minority Leader Tom Cross, despite the valiant efforts of Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) to craft a compromise, rank and file members dug in and said no. Not until Downstate got a little respect.

"We've been lied to and bamboozled," Black said. "We don't all wear overalls."

Though there's always been tension between Chicago and Downstate, it's been a lot worse since Blago arrived. It hasn't helped that he spends as much time as possible away from the capital.

But when the governor had the nerve to jet off on our dime Wednesday for a Blackhawks game in Chicago, leaving behind a Legislature he had ordered into session that was working until 9 that night on a state crisis of epic proportions, well, lawmakers were livid.

"It's galvanized Downstate Democrats and Republicans like nothing in my memory," Black said.

And Chicago area lawmakers, too, some of whom were reportedly meeting without their leaders in small groups Thursday.

Could the inmates be taking over the asylum?

We can only hope.