Illinois' Split Government Might Just Work

While Illinois House Speaker Rep. Michael Madigan can seem like a formidable figure in state politics, Rich Miller of Capitol Fax believes that he and Republican Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner can work together to govern competently.

Miller writes:

Right now," Rauner continued, "Madigan controls the Legislature from his little pot of cash. It isn't that much money. And he runs the whole state government out of that pot. We need a pro-business, pro-growth, pro-limited government, pro-tax reduction PAC down there in Springfield working with the Legislature for those who take tough votes."

Word is that Rauner's new legislative PAC will be launched relatively soon - perhaps after the governor-elect's transition committee has finished its job.

Rod Blagojevich tried the same thing with his Move Illinois Forward PAC several years ago. As I pointed out on my blog when Rauner revealed his plans, Blagojevich's PAC didn't work out all that well, partly because Blagojevich was relying on a Democratic donor base which didn't want to step too hard on Madigan's toes.

Rauner, of course, won't have that problem. And he also has plenty of his own cash.

Read the rest of his thoughts on Madigan and Rauner's upcoming working relationship at Reboot Illinois.

Maybe the Illinois government will become the best bi-partisan coalition in the nation and set an example for the rest of the country. We could use some "best of" monikers to balance out the designations of being the worst state in the nation to raise kids, the worst debt, the worst credit rating and more. One of our current "best ofs" isn't actually all that great--Illinois is best state in the country at having citizens with gang affiliations. The website 1BOG.org says that eight to 11 per every 1,000 of Illinois' residents are affiliated with gangs. Check out Reboot Illinois to see a map of what every state is best at. Most of the awards are better than ours.