Majority truly rules in state Senate
Key members of an Illinois Senate committee initially expressed reluctance last week when Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria, sought their support for a plan to turn over the old Hanna City work camp to Peoria County.
They changed their minds after a well-timed endorsement from Sen. Dave Koehler, a Peoria Democrat who vouched for the merits of the land-conveyance proposal. Peoria County hopes to use the property to ease a jail-overcrowding problem.
Moments after hearing from Koehler, the Democrat-dominated Senate Executive Committee voted 12-0 for Risinger's Senate Bill 2374, sending it to the Senate floor.
The episode illustrates how being a member of the majority party -- in this case, Senate Democrats -- can play a crucial role for lawmakers trying to get their bills passed through the Legislature.
"The process in Springfield is very partisan. It's not necessarily ideological, but it is very partisan in terms of R's and D's," said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Risinger's legislation hit a rough patch March 12 when a couple of committee members recalled that the Peoria Republican had opposed a land-conveyance bill pushed last year by a Democratic senator.
Sen. Debbie Halvorson, a Crete Democrat who holds the No. 2 position in the Senate behind President Emil Jones, asked Risinger how his legislation differed from the earlier measure.
Risinger drew a distinction, but Democratic Sen. Rickey Hendon of Chicago insisted the bills were "very similar." Upon spotting Koehler in the committee room, Hendon asked to hear from him.
Risinger later acknowledged the display of politics.
"Well, you know, we're in the state Capitol and to say that politics don't get played at the state Capitol would be not true," he said. "But in the end, you saw that it came out unanimous."
It was no fluke that Koehler happened to be in the Senate committee room during debate on Risinger's bill.
"The Democrat staff called me," Koehler said a day later. "They said, 'Senator Risinger looks like he's in trouble on this bill. Maybe you should come down and let the Democrats know how important it is to you.' So I said, 'I'll be there.'
"And I was glad they called and asked me to be there because, you know, the Democrats needed to know where I was (on the legislation)."
Peoria holds an unusual distinction in the General Assembly: It is home to two senators, one Democratic and one Republican, each representing different parts of the city. While other places, including Chicago and Bloomington, are represented by more than one senator, only Aurora can make a claim identical to Peoria's.
The Peoria area benefits by having senators on both sides of the political aisle, Koehler said, pointing out that he and Risinger work "extremely well together" and help each other with legislation they both favor.
Republican Rep. David Leitch of Peoria has been in the House of Representatives since 1989, which makes him the longest-serving member of the city's delegation in the General Assembly. He believes the Senate is more partisan these days than the House, at least in terms of advancing bills through the legislative process.
Leitch said that even though he's in the minority political party, he hasn't found it more challenging to get legislation passed.
"Virtually all the bills that I've come up with, certainly in recent years, are requests or in response to constituent issues, so what inevitably seems to be true is that if there's a problem that my constituents are facing, it is representative of what other legislators are hearing . . . around the state," he said. "So they're really not partisan."
Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.