Well, not quite that bad–G-Ry had several more problems than the current Governor, but this Governor has effectively figured out how to use pork to reward political allies. Today, Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax released a list of pork projects that the Governor has quietly approved.
I believe most, if not all, of the projects are under the Member Initiative program where the Legislative Leaders (AKA The Four Tops) dole out favors to Lege Members from a fund. These funds were stopped initially by Blagojevich in a public gesture to show he was stopping pork, and The Way Business Is Done In Springfield (TM). He has quietly released nearly $200 million (keep that figure in mind for the next story).
But most importantly to understanding what is going on is that Blagojevich is rewarding those who helped him and punishing those who fought him. From Rich Miller’s story,
The list of projects is dominated by House Republicans, a legislative caucus that worked closely with the Democratic governor all year. The House GOPs scored about 200 releases, worth tens of millions of dollars. The Senate Dems were a fairly close second on the totem pole, followed by the House Democrats.
Who did the worst then? The Senate Republicans with even new Four Top member Frank Watson not getting money for a hospital in his district according to Miller. Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) does real well though and he has been peeled off of party line votes by the Governor for a couple votes including the pension bond plan.
My speculation is that the House Dems are the so tightly run by Speaker Madigan that less pork is needed to grease the wheels in House Democratic Caucus and hence Blagojevich did not bother to release as many projects for them. Senate Democrats are not as tightly controlled by Senate President Emil Jones so they needed a little more grease.
On the other hand, Senators Watson and Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) are the key Senate Republicans trying to obstruct nearly everything in the budget. Their strategy is closely allied with the Illinois Center-Right Coalition which has been influenced heavily by Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform group (Note: fellow Illinois Political State Report contributor Jeff Trigg is affiliated with the Center-Right Coalition). The strategy is to not give an inch to Democrats and instead turn the political debate in Illinois to one of strong opposition instead of going along to get along.
And if successful, the Center-Right Coalition will change the shape of Illinois politics. While it is an open question as to whether they will win electorally, such a change would dramatically alter the political landscape from one of bipartisan pork-barrel politics to one of ideological diviseness. Blagojevich’s strategy is to reward those who want to go along, and punish those who won’t and keep the bipartisan coalition together. The problem is that his Permanent Campaign tactics alienate many who he needs most.
What will make this especially interesting is if an insurgent group of House Republicans begin to make trouble for House Minority Leader Tom Cross. Cross is a moderate ally of US House Speaker Denny Hastert, but has been far too conciliatory with Democrats and the Governor in particular for movement conservatives.
Ultimately, in systems with decentralized parties, pork gets things done. One can complain about the degree of pork and in this case it is a problem, but without pork, a political system with separate branches for the executive and legislative functions and especially bicameral legislatures needs pork to create stable coalitions. In that sense it makes sense to rail against pork to score political points during elections and then turn around and play the game. Electoral sense or not, it is awfully hypocritical for a Governor who claims to be changing The Way Business Is Done In Springfield (TM).
UP DATE: Greg Blankenship disagrees with my characterization of the Illinois Center Right Coalition because,
What is interesting is that ArchPundit seems to believe that Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform are somehow behind the Illinois Center Right Coalition — and more incredibly is allied with State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger:
I’ll stick by what I said for two reasons. Rauschenberger is allied with the Illinois Center Right Coalition–though through the vagaries of the sentence I’m not sure Watson is. Rauschenberger was the point man on the just say no to Blagojevich effort. Secondly, I said that ICR was heavily influenced by Norquist. Greg disagrees, but this seems strange since much of the idea is to make Illinois politics combative is identical to what Norquist has been preaching about how Republicans can turn the fight nasty and make gains from such fights instead of operating in bipartisan fashion. To say the ICR isn’t heavily influenced by that strategy is a bit hard to believe. The specifics might be different, but the strategy is very similar.