Gov. Quinn Wants 'Year of Reform'

By Prescott Carlson in News on Jan 30, 2009 11:25PM

After our new Gov. Pat Quinn spent the morning with a Sharpie crossing out "Lt." on all his business cards, he got right to work trying to clean off the stank of our (good god we love saying this) now former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The first order of business was to issue an executive order bringing the Illinois Reform Commission he had set up earlier this month under his wing in the governor's office. The commission consists of at least 12 commissioners and is an "independent advisory group [that] will examine government practices and ethics." OK, sure, having the group directly under the governor seems about as "independent" as Mayor Daley's Office of Compliance, but at this point we're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for even the tiniest chance of reform in this state -- especially when Quinn says that "we're going to start to fumigate state government from top to bottom to make sure that it has no corruption."

Next up, Quinn urged lawmakers to move the state's primary election from February all the way to September. By cutting the election campaign season down to a couple of months, he hopes to reduce the need and opportunity for raising huge amounts of campaign funds -- which in Illinois, also means the opportunity for corruption.

"This should be a year of reform, a year of governance," Quinn said. "We don't need perpetual campaigns and perpetual campaign fund raising in Illinois."

Quinn, who could be a candidate for governor next year, historically has not raised much campaign cash.

Quinn also had a meeting with the Illinois Association of Park Districts, and other of the state's top officials. Hey, Pat? Don't screw this up.