A Quick Take on the Quinn-Collins Reform Commission Proposals

The 15-member Illinois Reform Commission convened by Gov. Pat Quinn and headed by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins, and including State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and Prof. Sheila Simon, on March 31, 2009 rolled out in dual press conferences in Chicago and Springfield its preliminary proposals for reform of Illinois's pay-to-play political ecology. I posted a summary at Gapers Block and am referencing that to avoid duplicative posting. You can also just cheat and watch the slideshow.

There were some expected ideas, such as contribution limits and a later primary(yay), but also some intriguing ideas that some reformers hadn't kicked around as much, including disclosure of "bundling" and year-round real-time contribution reporting. The latter is intriguing but requires more thought; it has some potentially problematic  implications for smaller grassroots campaigns, and also impacts rights of privacy and association, since it would essentially "tip off" any incumbent to political activity that might be opposing them.

But then, any reform will to some degree serve as an incumbent-protection program, because them's that has already built up a warchest and favor list will continue to have it. That's the nature of closing the barn door at this stage.

Another consideration is that the paperwork requirements for all committees may be amped up considerably; again, analogous to what we see in business, this becomes more of a burden on the small committee than on the large one that is staffed year-round.

As might be perhaps expected from a panel with a couple of prosecutors on it, there are some left-undefined expansions of wiretap powers, which will have to be watched closely so as to be narrowly applied to the targeted behaviors. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any new particular ban on pay-to-play outside of state contracts; say, selling a U.S. Senate seat, for example.

Overall, I imagine the proposals will be greeted as good steps in the right direction. Because the entire legislative schedule is compressed (due to the impeachment), extra monitoring will be required to try and get this as right as possible.

Adapted from Quinn Reform Commission Preliminary Rollout at Prairie State Blue


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