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Chicago
Sun-Times
A Commonsense Plan to
Revive Legislature
By
Steve Neal
July 11, 2001
It was a blow to democratic
government in this state. The 1980 ''Cutback Amendment,'' which
shrunk the Illinois House of Representatives by a third, had
unintended consequences.
As a result of the cutback, the
power of special interests and the legislative leadership were
strengthened at the expense of the people.
A task force of public officials,
scholars, political activists and civic leaders has produced a
blueprint for reform that shows how the damage can be
undone.
Former Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican,
and Abner J. Mikva, a former Democratic congressman and former chief
judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, are the co-chairmen of the
70-member Task Force on Political Representation and Alternative
Electoral Systems.
Their recommendation is a
restoration of cumulative voting. Under this system, each
legislative district elected two members from the majority party and
one from the minority party. Each voter had three votes. They could
cast a three-vote ''bullet'' vote for a single candidate, choose two
candidates, or split their ballot for three of the four
nominees.
The 1980 amendment, which was passed
by referendum, virtually wiped out the Democratic Party in DuPage
County and killed the GOP in the city of
Chicago.
Mikva, 75, who began his political
career in the Illinois House, notes that it is virtually impossible
for independents to win legislative seats under the current system.
He observed that voter turnout has declined as a result of limited
choice and the lack of electoral competition. In last year's
election, half of Illinois' House races were uncontested. Another
fourth of the House faced only token
opposition.
Women, racial minorities and
independents would be likely to gain more representation under
cumulative voting.
When Illinois had three-member
legislative districts, an independent like Mikva could successfully
challenge the political establishment.
The cumulative voting system
produced some outstanding Democratic legislators from the suburbs,
including former state Rep. Harold Katz of the North Shore, the late
House Speaker William A. Redmond of DuPage County, former House
Majority Leader Gerald Shea of Riverside, and Anthony Scariano of
University Park.
Under the cumulative voting system,
nearly 20 percent of the House GOP caucus was from Chicago. Twenty
years ago, House Majority Leader Arthur A. Telcser and his assistant
leaders Pete Peters and Philip W. Collins were all Chicago
Republicans. Chicago got much better treatment from the General
Assembly when the city had a strong presence in both party
caucuses.
If cumulative voting is restored,
the House might once again become a deliberative body. The
Mikva-Edgar report notes that the cutback amendment has produced
larger party majorities and greater party cohesion but at a cost.
There is less discussion of issues, and the decision making is made
by the leadership.
Former state Rep. James D. Nowlan, a
member of the task force, lamented that the leaders operate in such
secrecy under the current system that their membership is often
uninformed about important legislation.
''At the last session,'' said
Nowlan, ''legislators didn't know what was in the budget.''
Is there a chance that Illinois
voters will restore representative government?
The Institute of Government and
Public Affairs at the University of Illinois conducted a statewide
survey last year, which included several questions about cumulative
voting.
One question asked: ''Imagine a
legislative district in which two-thirds of the voters are Democrats
and one-third are Republicans. Do you think such a district should
be represented by a single Democratic legislator or by both a
Democratic and Republican legislator?'' Another question reversed
the percentages, so that two-thirds of the voters were
Republicans.
In both cases, 70 percent of the
poll's respondents said that they favored an electoral system in
which legislators are chosen from both major parties. Less than 20
percent favored retention of single-member
districts.
Mikva and Edgar have made a most
compelling case for the restoration of cumulative voting. The
cutback amendment is the worst thing that ever happened to the
General Assembly. It's time to restore power to the people. |
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