We have too many people in jail. And we can't afford it.

First, congratulations to the anti-patronage reformers on the Cook County Board who muscled through a budget that didn't resort to higher taxes. There's plenty of patronage to weed out in Cook County, and the majority of commissioners are now (at least this week) on the side of efficient government.

But, our jails and prisons are ridiculously overcrowded, and all those bodies cost a lot of money. I heard the estimate is something like 20 grand annually for every inmate.

Meanwhile, the per-student cost at Chicago Public Schools is around $7,000.

We ought to stop locking people up so much.

Especially for possession of soft drugs like pot.

It's not a good sign that the Medical Marijuana bill didn't get out of committee a few weeks ago. I wonder how a Decriminalize Pot bill would fare. And I wonder what the fiscal note on that would be ("Not locking up non-violent pot smokers is estimated to save the state $400 million annually).

The Cook County budget next year might depend on a sane drug policy. . . .

David Orr's office working on a good election reform bill

In today's Tribune, David Orr's got a good column here on the problems of these local electoral boards. I've practiced before them. Some of them are fair-minded (maybe most of them), but when they want to railroad a candidate off the ballot, it's harder to think of an adjudicative structure that's designed more efficiently to do that than the local electoral boards.

Two bills would abolish these local electoral boards. Senator Martin Sandoval's (D-Chicago) SB 204 and Representative Robin Kelly's (D-Matteson) HB 2416 would get the job done and let the county officers electoral board handle disputes. HB 2416 was assigned to a substantive committee, not sent to the Executive Committee, so that's a good sign for its passage.

The Election Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association (of which I am a member) has voted to support this bill, and I think the Association's lobbyist, Larry Suffredin (also a reform County Board member -- check out www.suffredin.org), will weigh in on the bill.

Another good bill -- HB 758 -- that ought to be passed

As a former third party organizer, I can tell you from experience, that Illinois election laws just aren't fair. Any citizen who wants to run for office should get on the ballot. But Illinois law treats appearing on the ballot as a prize to be earned, rather than a right to be claimed by any citizen.

Jeff Trigg with the Illinois Libertarian Party is leading the charge to get more public attention paid to how unfair the ballot access laws are. There's a reason why among the top 10 states, we're the only state to have only two established parties on the ballot. Most states have 3 or 4. Some states have 7 or 8. The major party candidates almost always win, but voters have the choice to pick whatever candidate they want -- and those small party candidates are great for the public dialogue, because they are exclusively about issues. Major party candidates have to be about a lot of things besides issues. They need to appear to be a responsible representative of their community. They need to culturally identify with the people who live in their district. And they need to convey an ability to serve as an ombudsman to citizens. Pushing an issue-oriented agenda is only part of that. That's one reason why I like lots of candidates and parties -- it teaches us all about potentially better ways to run the government.

I appreciate Jeff sending me a public thank-you for working with Representative Mike Boland in drafting HB 758. Boland deserves a lot of credit for consistently working for a more open government, as do his two co-sponsors, Paul Froehlich and Jack Franks (full disclosure -- I'm Paul's roommate in Springfield).

It's long past time that Illinois voters are routinely presented with an array of choices on election day, and HB 758 will hasten that day.

Good move by Dan Hynes, Lisa Madigan, Jesse White and Judy Baar Topinka

Dan Hynes' office has pulled together all the other constitutional officers (leaving out, for some reason, Pat Quinn) in backing a prohibition on state contractors making contributions to political camapigns. He held a stand-up press conference on Friday, with John Fritchey, Miguel Del Valle and Bill Black (and probably others not mentioned in press accounts.)

Hynes also issued an Executive Order implementing the policy in the Comptroller's Office.

And this is how government is supposed to run. One of the big complaints of Governor Blagojevich is that he has raised so much money from, primarily, state contractors who then profit from state business. And that's parasitic.

All the electeds emphasized that they aren't holding a press conference to target Blagojevich, since the governor does deserve credit for the 2003 ethics bill getting significantly strengthened over the summer and into veto session after President Jones in May of 2003 weakened the bill, but has in the last two years looked more like the same-old, same-old kind of pay-to-play governor from all the millions he has raised from contractors. Maybe it isn't fair that someone looks dirty without breaking any laws, since it isn't illegal to raise 50 grand from a lawyer and then hire that lawyer in a no-bid contract, but it sure looks bad. It's that type of stuff that makes people believe that government isn't an efficient or trustworthy institution, and as progressives, we really can't tolerate that perception or any actions that perpetuate that perception.

So this is a great move for the future of Illinois government. Unfortunately, the bills have not yet been filed. Senator Del Valle's bill from the early part of the session, SB 39, has not been released from the Rules Committee. Just about every other bill has, so that's not a good sign. President Jones has been more of an obstacle than a leader on campaign finance reform. Hopefully that will change this year.

Oh, one more thing. This means that more regular people should send in small checks to the electeds that we think are doing the right thing. If you haven't sent in a $25 or $50 check to a good elected this month, what are you waiting for? I'm sure every single one of them -- every single elected official -- would rather fund their campaigns with tens of thousands of small checks than a few big checks. But not enough of us send in small checks. So do it! Sometimes they appreciate the $35 check from someone who just likes what they are doing more than a $1000 check from a PAC or a group that will be looking for something in return. These guys are really under-appreciated. Send in some money.

And one more thing on Russia and the US

In the Tribune article (can't link to it since I'm blogging from the Amtrak on the way back to Chicago), Bush brags about our press freedom. Three paragraphs later we get a substantive quote from a 'senior administration official.' Yeah. How bout a name, buddy. Our papers shouldn't tolerate all these unnamed sources. They work for us. So put your name on the record.

Putin avoids criticism of Russian abolition of direct gubernatorial elections by referencing the Electoral College

That's great. When President Bush criticized Russia's move to abolish direct elections of their state governors, he simply pointed out that the man doing the criticizing was elected by 271 people and not 100 million people in a direct election. So what the hell are we supposed to say to that. We are, in the language of 5th graders, totally busted. It is long past time to abolish the Electoral College. This Russian bust of Bush is one more reason.

And the vote is. . .

saviano is a no. bradley is a present as is burke. coulson is a no. fritchey is a no. delgado a present. miller is a no. mendoza and froehlich are yes. I don't get where all the no votes are coming from. department of public health was an opponent. there is a back story to this one because the bill looks great to me on the merits.

Jack Franks great bill on big pharma's bribes to docs

HB 656 is in committee now. OK maybe bribes is a bit strong, but when drug companies give money or give-aways to doctors, the financial interest of the pharma companies conflict with the health interests of the patient who might get pushed into more expensive drugs. 4 states now require pharma companies to disclose to the state how much they spend on direct marketing. Jack's bill would add Illinois to the list. Ed Sullivan voted no and went to another committee. The Chamber is arguing that the industry standards where they argue that they have cleaned up the excesses of their industry. Jack's point in debate is that the for-profit drug companies market their products to physicians, not the end users, so that this is a special circumstance that justifies regulation. Plus the fastest growing part of the state budget is the cost of prescription drugs. Paul Froehlich asks the Chamber that the accountability of self-regulation is basically internal without any outside check. The Chamber agrees but thinks that is OK. Paul argues that means you never find out how compliant the pharma companies are. Makes sense to me. So how will the reporting change their behavior? Maybe because people will know how they send their drug reps into doctors offices. That's it. Not too compelling. Rosemary Mulligan seems hostile or at least indifferent. Jack responds with a 'brilliant' article from the New England Journal of Medicine that writes about the kickbacks in the 22 billion direct marketing to doctors. That's more money than they spend on R and D. Kosel votes no and leaves. Back in a minute.

Chicago has way too many bus stops

These CTA routes take five or six times as long as driving, largely because we stop at every freaking block to let one guy off or a few people on. The Director of Pace testified in the Mass Transit Committee that slower busses equals more expensice busses. Well in this time of tight budgets for everything tha benefits regular Americans (but tax cuts for those earning more than 300 large and a bottomless pit of money for our armed adventures overseas), the CTA should start eliminating bus stops to no more than one per half-mile. And while we're at it we should figure out how to copy Berlin where people pay their fare at the bus stop while waiting for the bus and when it arrives, everyone just gets on quickly from both doors instead of forming a slow-moving single-file line where each person pays the fare while the bus idles.

Mayor Laurel Prussing of Urbana. Village President Larry Dominick of Cicero.

Wow. In a big comeback, Laurel Prussing looks to have topped Mayor Tod Satterthwaite in the Democratic primary by 250 votes. Here is the Champaign County Clerk's latest returns.

Laurel Prussing was one of the first politicians I ever interviewed as a reporter for the Daily Illini. She was a newly-elected state representative in 1992, and in 1994 lost in the GOP landslide to Rick Winkel (now State Senator Rick Winkel).

She tried some comebacks for state, and then federal office, before finding the Urbana mayoral primary a better fit.

She represents the liberal wing of the Democratic Party while Mayor Sattherthwaite represents the moderate wing.

Apparently the entire Urbana City Council will be new.

I think an untapped resource for progressives to develop innovative policy are municipalities. Maybe Urbana will become more of a laboratory, which would be great.

In Cicero, challenger Larry Dominick has edged out the incumbent. Maybe some reform away from old-school patronage and skimming off the commonwealth is coming to Cicero. That town has always been the soft underbelly of the Cook County Republican Party's call for reform, as they have tolerated the graft and patronage for years, since that's one of the few machines that votes for Republicans. Maybe that's about to change. It depends how honest President Larry Dominick is. And since clean-government conservative Dan Proft was a Dominick consultant, I'm guessing the odds the Cicero is going to get a-scrubbing are better than 50-50. Which is great.