Almost nothing frightens state legislators more than redistricting. The drawing of new legislative district maps after every census causes more bouts of heartburn than just about anything else.Take a ...

It seems like everywhere you look these days, the Illinois Democrats are getting hammered. Most of the Democratic carnage is self-inflicted, like the Scott Lee Cohen debacle, or the brutal gubernatori...

For a couple of otherwise pretty smart fellas, the two major party candidates for U.S. Senate seem to be playing right into the other’s hands these days.It seems to me at times that Republican S...

In roughly ten and a half hours last week, the House and Senate introduced, debated and passed sweeping pension reform legislation by overwhelming majorities in both chambers. The breadth of the legis...

I’m going to tell you right up front that this is a column about the state budget and involves a little math. Wait! Don’t move on to the next story. I know this can get a bit tedious. But ...

Like all of the budgets proposed by governors in the past few years, Gov. Pat Quinn’s spending outline last week was an almost complete fantasy.  It has pretty much zero chance of surviving...

The Statehouse is buzzing yet again with talk of a new gaming expansion plan. This time, the players say, they have their acts together. Really.I’m always pretty skeptical of these big legislati...

Jerry Clarke is not easily ruffled. Not only has he seen it all in his years running campaigns in Illinois, but he’s served several tours of duty in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot. But I thou...