Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones will announce his retirement, perhaps as soon as today.
By far, whe most important vote any State Senator takes is the vote for the leadership of their caucus and of the Senate as a whole. With Jones out of the picture, it will be interesting to see who earns the support of our State Senator, Mike Frerichs, as he looks towards a re-election campaign in 2010.
UPDATE: Tom Kacich has reaction from Sen. Frerichs, who isn't pledging support to anyone just yet:
Frerichs said he wants a new Senate president who will pledge to three things: an understanding of downstate values and concerns, an interest in higher education and a pledge to give individual senators more power, including opening up the budget process and allowing more legislation to reach the Senate floor.
ANOTHER UPDATE: There is water at the bottom of the ocean: Jones hopes to appoint his son to his seat. I love Illinois.
Emil is the perfect candidate to become President of Chicago State University. He'll finally get that pay raise he wants!
From the Trib's list of likely successors, only one is from downstate (Belleville.) Gordy, do you think there's any realistic possibility that Jones' replacement will hail from south of I-80?
"Gordy, do you think there's any realistic possibility that Jones' replacement will hail from south of I-80?"
No. I just don't think there are enough downstate votes.
But that said, I know little-to-nothing about the internal workings of the Senate Democrats. Rich Miller at CapFax is the most knowledgable outsider on the subject.
It is as good a time as any to leave, the cookie jar is empty. The City of Chicago is broke,,,,Cook County is broke,,,,,the state is broke. Even our humble little Champaign County tried their best to break us. Some very hard and real decisions will need to be made soon,and Emil just does not have the IQ to handle that, thankfully for him he has set up his family with plenty of pork,,,so the grits and chitlins will be plentiful. One down,,,,,,,one to go :)
Is the pension for the legislature dependent on their last salary, or is it the same across the board for all?
Would a comparison to a scene of rats jumping overboard to keep from going down with the ship be appropriate?
Some very hard and real decisions will need to be made soon,and Emil just does not have the IQ to handle that, thankfully for him he has set up his family with plenty of pork,,,so the grits and chitlins will be plentiful
Wow.
Xian,,,,,Actually I added that for you benefit:) I knew you would comment on it as soon as you read it.
Bruce,
xian already sees racists behind every tree, why egg on his paranoia?
Prairie. sometimes one just has to do things like that,,,,I figured they could beat up on me for awhile,,,and give you and some others a rest on here. :)
Enjoy yourselves. You are very good at what you do. Take care.
"Some very hard and real decisions will need to be made soon,and Emil just does not have the IQ to handle that, thankfully for him he has set up his family with plenty of pork,,,so the grits and chitlins will be plentiful."
Ugh. I've had more than my share of disagreements with Jones, but this is completely disgusting. I wish I'd have caught it earlier, as I would have just deleted it, but now it's become the focus of the entire thread, rather than the actual story of Jones' retirement.
Disgusting.
It will be enteresting to see how the balance of power changes in the senate if Jones leaves? It may just shift to someone Jones has groomed. I wonder what will happend to Blago when he no longer has a "freind" in the senate to keep him from being impeached or to stop a veto override?
Folks calm down,,,,we cannot have it both ways in this life,,,,Emil watched the white poilitcians for years soak up everything from the taxpayers they could, to help out friends and family, and donors. etc. Now you get mad at me for making a crack about how well he learned the ways of the white man! Grab everything you can while you can, that is the way of Springfield, and the world,,,people tend to get on here, and not state what is really on their minds,,even with protection of no one knowing them,,,Emil learned well,,,,and that puts him the same category of all the politicians that soak up the money. Live with it, or change,it,,,but being santimonious about things will not change them.
It's not the point which is disgusting, it's the fact that you felt you needed to include a reference to "grits and chitlins" to make the point.
So I'm not going to calm down about it.
He got Chicago State what it wanted ( and more) in terms of money.............anyone see how much they paid for a book on the outgoing President of Chicago State? With his pension benefits the difference between working and not working was probably mininmal......he's 73... let him enjoy retirement.....he the "hog of big nuts" as he described himself.......
I don't see how things could get any worse under someone else's leadership, but this is Illinois...
Bruce,
His ethnicity has nothing to do with it. Can't you criticize him without making that an issue?
Bruce-Sorry I think you are way off here. I didn't get on here thinking; gee I want to talk about "grits and chitlins" or white politicains or what I think Jones learned from the white politicians. Really I don't think Jones needs anyones help he has proven to be one heck of a politicain on his own, not that I agree with what he has done but he has got what he wanted done and in the GA assembly with that Gov. that's really really hard.
Praire, sure I could,,,,,,and it doesn't have anything to do with reality, I admit that,,,,but stop and think for a minute,,,,is it not in the back of a lot of white peoples minds,,,,( use an honest assessment here ), about that fear,,,that stereotype,,,,that characiture of the black man in power? The fear of Obama by many,,,,yes I may have put it wrong,,,,and from the reactions on here,,,it is obvious that many think that I did,,,,,but my true meaning was to convey how we have to overcome these fears,,,and pretending they do not exist does not make it so. does it? So I do sincerely apoligize to anyone that was offended by my process in this,,,,I think most of you understand the stero type I am alluding too, But having said that,,,,it is out there,,,,and in sronger force than we sometimes want to admit,,,
I think we can all agree that Jones and his support for the governor has been a complete disaster for Illinois and for downstate in particular. Let's not allow an inappropriate comment to take away from that. It's not as if we don't have plenty of stupid Jones comments and actions to point at: I need a raise. I'm going to have to apply for food stamps, etc--we don't need to create controversy--Jones is a walking talking controversy all by himself. We all now, more than ever, need to get in touch with our local legislators and demand that in picking the next Senate President, that they give us better and more responsive leadership, or we'll just vote out all incumbents and start over, Democrat and Republican alike.
Illinois is a living example of how the voters get the government they deserve.
>Illinois is a living example of how the voters get the government they deserve.
So is Michigan. But even worse. Granholm, Levin, Conyers, Dingell, Kilpatrick....
Well, there's two ways of looking at this. It could actually be glimmer of hope, or just more of the same old despair.
Sigh...
Oh! My! God! Surely the democrats aren't crazy enough to appoint Jones' son The entire STate of Illinois must have done something very bad in a previous lifetime to deserve the idiots we have governing us right now.
Jones hopes to appoint his son to his seat.
Now that's nepotism we can believe in!
Oh, I see nothing wrong with Emil passing along his job to his son. Seems like the natural line of progression to me.
Todd Stroger followed his father as head of the County of Crook a few years ago and I am sure that we can find examples on both sides of the aisles if we looked long enough.
Oh, I see nothing wrong with Emil passing along his job to his son. Seems like the natural line of progression to me.
It happens all the time doesn't make sense although the wife’s/husbands and family many times work in the family business. I am not saying I like it but that's what happens.
"So is Michigan. But even worse. Granholm, Levin, Conyers, Dingell, Kilpatrick...."
Stabenow is worse than Granholm or Levin. I would ask which Kilpatrick, but six of one, half a dozen of the other.