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Hynes sorry about Democrats' performance

Posted August 15, 2007 11:00 pm

Bernard Schoenburg

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes said he hoped he wasn't ruining the day for fellow Democrats Wednesday when, on the Illinois State Fair's Governor's Day, he said the discord within the party is hurting people.

"There is a great debate, a legitimate debate, taking place in Springfield," Hynes told several hundred people gathered at the Crowne Plaza for a fundraising brunch put on by the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen's Association.

"But I'll tell you, in the course of this debate, in the heat of this debate, many people in elected office in Springfield have forgotten what our basic commitment is to the people … that under no circumstances will we allow their lives to be at all impaired or harmed by a debate. I fear that we have allowed ourselves to lose sight of that."

"We have brought our government to the brink of a potential shutdown," he said. "We have allowed school districts, state employees and thousands of other people to wonder, every day, whether they're going to get the money they were promised by the state of Illinois."

As the legislature's record overtime summer session dragged on, Hynes warned that if deadlines were not met, he could not issue state checks. He was told at one point by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue checks without a state budget in place, but Hynes waited for a court order to do so.

After the speech, Hynes was asked if he was speaking about the governor, legislative leaders, or both, in his comments.

"There's enough blame to go around," he said.

Asked if he's interested in running for governor, Hynes said, "I just want government to operate the way it should be, and I want to do my job and not be told how to do my job by people who don't know what they're talking about."

Asked if he was referring to Blagojevich, he said, "I think it speaks for itself."

Hynes said that with possible payless paydays looming, he gathered his 300 employees and apologized to them for the uncertainty.

"I looked in their eyes, and I saw that we let them down," he said, adding that some of his workers make "barely $20,000 a year."

He also told the party faithful at Wednesday's breakfast that he apologizes to them.

"You deserve better from the people you worked to put in office," Hynes said. "We let you down, and there's no excuse for that."

"I hope we can all enjoy this day," he added. "But after this day, I hope we can all commit, one and all, that we will come together and do the right thing for the people of Illinois and not let our differences get in the way of our jobs."

Blagojevich arrived at the breakfast after Hynes speech. The governor was asked later if he thought he owed people an apology.

"I can't speak for Comproller Hynes," Blagojevich said. "I suspect he's probably apologizing because he was standing in the way of state employees getting paid."

Blagojevich also said the people who elected him put their faith and trust in him.

"I would apologize if I sold them out," the governor said. "I would apologize if I wasn't prepared to fight for them. I would apologize if the going got tough and all of a sudden we cut and ran and we just started to cut some back-room deals with some cynical players down here, support all kinds of pork and waste and shortchanged people who need health care.

"If I did something like that, I would apologize."

Doug Finke of the State Capitol Bureau contributed to this report. Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at (217) 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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