Editor's Note: January marks a new phase in our journalism. Due to the merger between WUIS and Illinois Issues, we now have a number of journalists that enable reporting on a beat model. A beat allows a reporter to learn events and people more thoroughly than general assignment reporting. Each reporter is focusing on key issues in the state. We're calling it the "Illinois Issues Initiative."
ILLINOIS LEADERSHIP Politicians: Just Like Us Amanda Vinicky
Next time you’re in the grocery checkout line, flip through a copy of the celeb rag Us Weekly for its section They’re Just Like Us. It features movie stars doing things “JUST LIKE US!” Shopping for groceries! Pumping gasoline into their (albeit luxury) cars! Pushing their children on swings!
I bring this up not to make you feel better about your taste in magazines, but because it gets to the heart of why I believe so strongly in my work as a Statehouse reporter, keeping a watchful eye on Illinois politicians and the decisions they make.
Because for all of the focus on the academic — the merits or demerits of a bill, the very real impacts of policies regarding everything from hydraulic fracturing, to the health issues insurers are required to cover, to whether teens must notify their parents before having an abortion — another element is at play in much of what goes on in Springfield: the relationships.
Politicians, after all, are “just like us!”
Which means they have foibles and carry grudges; some have strong religious faith, or principles they hold above partisan politics; others have aspirations to rise to higher office. When figuring out why a bill passes or fails, or why a legislator takes a certain stance, these dynamics cannot be ignored.
This gets at why it is crucial to have journalists observing up close what makes any given leader tick. Sometimes, what goes on at the Statehouse can come down to something as simple as whether a politician likes someone.
“Everything in politics, or the vast majority of success, is based on establishing relationships,” Rep. Dan Beiser, a Democrat from Alton, said recently. I was talking with him about incoming Gov. Bruce Rauner, who clearly already recognizes this, as he works to fulfill a pledge to get to know every member of the legislature — be it with a phone call, a meeting in the Capitol during veto session, or a gathering with the Black Caucus at what one member described as a swanky Chicago bar.
Legislators, who clearly are starving for attention from the executive branch — many say they rarely if ever heard from Gov. Pat Quinn — are eating it up.
It doesn’t require going far back in Illinois history to show why it’s so important for a governor to maintain a good relationship with members of the General Assembly, and particularly its leaders. Remember the epic battles between House Speaker Michael Madigan and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich? Madigan grew so disgusted with Blagojevich he refused to attend meetings with him; the feud eventually spilled over into lawsuits and an endless summer of special sessions.
It was ostensibly about the budget. But at its heart, it was about a distrust and an obvious clashing of personalities and priorities.
In Illinois, policy and even politics are not always as important as the people wielding power.
