The Rhodester suggests that the passage of SB 3186 will lead to Blagorgeous getting hit hard down state.
Problem with that? Yeah, since nationally 68% of Americans support job discrimination protection and 66% support housing discrimination protection, I’d say The Governor is on the right side of the public on this issue (and Illinois is more of a blue state afterall). That’s a 2000 poll, but not much has changed.
Gay marriage is a different story, but Americans tend to favor equal civil rights for all.
Within Illinois, Cook County and 15 cities have similar provisions: Bloomington, Carbondale, Champaign, Chicago, Decatur, DeKalb, Evanston, LaGrange, Moline, Naperville, Normal, Oak Park, Peoria, Springfield, and Urbana.
When Decatur, Moline, and Normal for goodness sakes pass such ordinances, it’s not a big deal to the general public.
And, you know Rhodes, Skip voted for it! Of course, that might just be to annoy Daniels. It’s too bad Cross didn’t.
Skip’s vote is probably part of the deal he cut with Sarah Feigenholtz and other supporters of the bill a few years back — votes for the gay right bill in exchange for votes for the Rosemont casino. Nice to see that Skip keeps his word.
I’m not sure what’s up with Tom Cross’s “no” vote. Anyone know how he voted in the past on this bill?
Why would Cross vote for the bill? Most Republicans hate gays — that’s why they become Republicans. That’s all the GOP is about today, and men like Cross are owned by Peter Labambam. The Alan Keyes nomination proves that. Some Republican legislators voted for it, but I can’t imagine the Republican leader of the house going along with the idea. He’d probably lose his leadership position and possibly lose a primary.
I’ve never really understood why some on this site have such a high opinion of him anyway. The GOP will sell you out every single time. I’ve seen some comments on liberal/moderate blogs from Democrats who say they may vote for a Republican in 2006 because of Blag or Madigan or whatever reason. I hope this vote will remind people why they should stay far away from the GOP.
To answer my own question: I found an unofficial roll call from the previous vote on then-HB101, and Cross voted against it.
I’m surprised because Cross is generally considered a moderate on social issues, and is strongly pro-choice. The Republicans with his profile (e.g., Mulligan, Beaubien) were strong supporters of this bill. The question for me was whether Cross changed his vote because of his leadership position. Apparently not; he was always against the bill.
As for James’s comment: keep in mind that on the state level, the parties do not line up on social issues the same way that they do on the national level. Cross is pro-choice; Madigan is mixed on the issue (he gets between 60% and 40% on both sides voting guides, depending on the year). Some of the strongest supporters of the gay rights in the House were Republicans; some of the most vile anti-gay rhetoric came from Democrats.
I think people on this site respect Cross because he is the most “modern” of the four legislative leaders in Illinois. Unlike his predecessor, Lee Daniels, Cross has a genuine commitment to debating new ideas, opening up different channels of communication, and in general seems less wedded to the status quo in Springfield.
Having said that, I’m glad Cross is the minority leader rather than Speaker. Madigan may occasionally run a tight ship and seem autocratic, but there’s nobody who understands how the legislature operates better than him. And, quite frankly, we need an adult in Springfield to counter the press-release-driven Administration.
Vasyl, while the votes of those 3 Senate Republicans were crucial to passage and I think that gays and tolerant people of all stripes should work very hard for these 3 incumbents in 2006 primaries/general elections, I would still say that the base of the IL GOP is anti-gay and that you cannot trust the IL GOP for anything. I think that when people promote the idea that Cross is “better than” other Republicans, you give him credence he does not deserve. Republicans, every last one, will sacrifice anyone, do anything, to get in power and keep that power. You can guarantee that if Cross were Speaker of the House, he would be peddling laws to ban benefits for gay couples, because he is a lapdog for the wingnuts of his party. This is the way things are in every state party. Even in supposedly liberal Connecticut you have the governor saying gays deserve no benefits and her handpicked state party chair lying about public support for gay rights and saying that gay marriage will cause polygamy.
If you trust any Republican with an extended hand they will repay you with a knife in your back. Every single time. And believe me, if a Republican wins as governor, they will be pushed as far to the right as possible. Moderates are dead in the GOP. And if Topinka somehow manages to win the primary I think she will be pushed far to the right as well.
This vote showed just how modern Mr. Cross is on gay issues. So I guess if people want to see gays spat on and humiliated and scapegoated, they know who to write a check to. If they want anything else, they will have to look elsewhere.
Hey, I’m probably as partisan as anyone — and I certainly agree with you that having even moderate GOP-ers in positions of power is dangerous precisely because they have to contend with the wing-nuts.
Having said that, it’s important to recognize that the “D” and “R” labels simply do not provide enough information about an individual politician, especially when it comes to social issues in Illinois. Think back to 1998, when the Dems nominated a guy who was opposed to abortion even in the case of rape and incest; whose press secretary said that it’s OK for doctors to refuse to treat gay patients; etc. The Republican alternative, George Ryan, ended up being a far more progressive leader than most Democratic governors in the country — he did more personal lobbying on the gay rights bill than our current Democratic Governor. Ryan was the guy who — on his own initiative — did an amendatory veto to a bill to include language on gay rights. He vetoed extremely popular pro-life legislation and imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.
In fact, if you ask pretty much every issue group that can be considered liberal or progressive whether they better off under Republican George Ryan or Democrat Rod Blagojevich, you’ll find that almost all would prefer the Republican Ryan. (No doubt that G-Rod is better than JRyan, though.)
I don’t want to see Tom Cross as Speaker. Nor do I think he’s the perfect politician. But it’s certainly fair to recognize his strengths.
Just as it’s absolutely fair to recognize that his vote against the gay rights bill was wrong, and almost certainly motivated more by politics than a true sense of justice or the public good.