A poll taken earlier this year for the University of Illinois' Institute of Government & Public Affairs and released last week shows overwhelming public support for legislative term limits and recall of elected state officials.

It's difficult to take seriously last week's House vote to establish a recall provision in Illinois' state Constitution. An amendment to the constitutional provision passed the other day with 80 votes - a pretty solid majority.

The tiny minority who opposed the amendment pointed out that the proposal could cause all sorts of problems.

I get questions all the time, so here are a few answers ... .

 

 

A new statewide poll confirms what most of us knew anyway. If Barack Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, he will do a whole lot better in Illinois against Republican John McCain than will Hillary Clinton. But there's more to it than that.

 

Sam Zell, the owner of the Tribune Company, is fast becoming Public Enemy Number One.

Normally, a tax hike would be the last thing that state legislators would consider in an election year. Tax increases are usually approved in "off years" to give voters time to forget before they vote. So, you'd think that a large income-tax increase in Springfield would be the last thing being considered.

The 2008 general election is almost nine months away, but you don't have to listen too closely to hear some of the first shots of the 2010 governor's race being fired.

Governor Rod Blagojevich "It's been anticlimactic," sighed a top House Democratic operative last week when asked about some of the Chicago-area primary races.

I have no idea if a national recession is likely. Even economists don't seem to know for sure. Nobody really does.

But it has been interesting to watch Washington, D.C., react to the potential of a recession.

Pure genius. Hot-dogging genius, of course, but brilliant nonetheless.

I'm referring to Governor Rod Blagojevich's announcement last week that he would abandon his much-repeated pledge to veto any tax hike "on people" and go ahead and approve a regional sales-tax hike to fund a mass-transit bailout for Chicagoland. His only caveat was that senior citizens must forever ride free on all transit districts in the state.

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