The announcement last week that the Illinois AFL-CIO was withdrawing from the “agreed-bill process” at least forty years after its inception took almost everyone by surprise, but nobody was really shocked. For years, whenever the group engaged in carefully-constructed negotiations with business interests on workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, labor leaders would grumble privately that most other states don’t have a similar process.

Jim Edgar ran a brilliant campaign for governor in 1990. He set the template for every winning statewide race since then by focusing on the importance of independent suburban women. The Republican Edgar defeated a Catholic Democrat – Neil Hartigan – in that race, with a boost from the National Abortion Rights Action League’s endorsement. That endorsement most definitely helped him with suburban women, who were just starting to lean Democratic.

I’m coming a bit late to this (national current events having overtaken everything), but a lawsuit filed by House and Senate Republicans was recently tossed out by Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Jack Davis II. The suit sought to strike down a new law — Senate Bill 328 — backed by trial lawyers. The Republicans say they will appeal. The Republican lawsuit claimed that the majority Democrats had violated the Illinois Constitution’s “three readings rule.”

Some Republicans in Illinois have taken to regularly bashing Republican state legislative leaders for seeking support from the Illinois Education Association, a teachers union that has for decades worked to help elect Republicans who are sympathetic to their issues.