Yesterday's editorial in the News-Gazette supports a constitutional convention saying:
The final authority for approving anything proposed by a constitutional convention, whether it is one or two revisions, several, or a wholesale rewrite, rests with the voters of Illinois. They deserve a chance to repair the flaws in the Constitution, and to make needed changes in Illinois government, that the politicians will not.
The problem with this logic is that they make simply no attempt to find out who is behind pushing for a constitutional convention. The groups against it are many and respected. People may disagree with the unions or the business groups, but these people are no slouches. They argue opening up the constitution could lead to making a worse document. It only takes one brief glance at the "yes" group to see that this is true.
The so-called Illinois Citizens Coalition was the brainchild of our own local arck-kook John Bambanek. It appears there are no other "yes" groups, so it is quite correct to say that the push for the constitutional convention is the "Bambi Show". Apparently after being thoroughly embarrassed in his school board race when the voters trounced him rejecting his bid to force creationism on Unit 4, he's decided to take it a step further.
A constitutional convention pushed by John Bambanek would be akin to returning to the days of Jim Crow laws and women treated as chattle. The fact that he is running it should tell everyone all the need to know about why a convention is the absolute worst idea to deal with Illinois' problems.
