Legislators foresee no push for new ethics regulations
By Philip Ewing
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
04/18/2006
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.
Legislators say former Gov. George Ryan's conviction doesn't mean Illinois needs new ethics laws.
Republicans and Democrats agreed that the trial highlighted the importance of clean government but said the Springfield of today is a more ethical place than the one Ryan worked in.
Rep. Mike Bost, R-Carbondale, noted that Ryan couldn't even follow the old laws.
"Why create a new law if the old one works?" Bost said. "Murder's against the law. Everytime somebody is murdered we don't go out and pass eight new laws against murder."
But reformers reject the idea that Ryan's conviction shows that Illinois' laws are fine as they are.
"I think that's the craziest thing I've ever heard," said Cindi Canary, director of the Chicago-based Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
Only when Illinois begins to regulate money in politics, she said, will the lessons of the Ryan era finally be put into practice. To start with, the state should cap how much money candidates can receive and should ban direct contributions from corporations and unions, Canary said.
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, said Illinois' current regulations were tough enough. Instead, he said, the verdict will put renewed attention on the administration of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which is dealing with its own allegations of awarding contracts to political contributors.
"If you're under investigation by the same office that just put George Ryan in jail, people are going to talk about that," Stephens said.
He also said the verdict proves that in Illinois, corruption is an "equal opportunity for both parties" - two previous Democratic governors, Otto Kerner and Dan Walker, were convicted and imprisoned.
State Sen. Deanna Demuzio, D-Carlinville, said: "It's very sad when you have a governor get convicted. It doesn't matter what the politics are or what party you're from, it's very disheartening to have that."
