Rauner to entrenched pols: ‘Work for a few years and then go back to the real world’

Gov. Bruce Rauner was in Belleville Wednesday as part of a statewide tour promoting term limits and legislative redistricting reform.

Calling himself “one of the most persistent rascals on the planet” during his noon remarks, Rauner urged General Assembly members to vote to put constitutional amendments on the November ballot to allow legislative term limits and to change the way the state’s legislative districts are drawn.

Term limits and redistricting reform have been part of Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” he’s promoted since he first ran for governor. He vowed he would never give up on trying to achieve the reforms.

“We have got to change the system,” Rauner said. “Term limits is an issue I believe very passionately in. We need politicians who are elected for public service rather than power and a pension.”

Currently, Illinois’ legislators and constitutional officers are not subject to term limits. As for legislative districts, the majority on the committee that draws the districts mirrors the party in power — in Illinois’ case, Democrats control the process.

“There’s no choice. These districts have been gerrymandered and the incumbents are locked in. We’ve got folks in the legislature that have been there 20 years, 30 years, 40 years in office. That’s not right. Work for a few years and then go back to the real world,” Rauner said.

A non-legislative attempt at reforms began in 2014 when Rauner led petition drives hoping to get enough signatures to force constitutional amendments onto the ballot without a vote from lawmakers. But the term limits proposal was shot down because courts ruled the amendment was unconstitutional. Illinois’ constitution requires both structural and procedural changes to the legislature be included in proposed amendments.

A Cook County judge on July 20 ruled against the redistricting petition. The Independent Map Amendment group supporting the effort vowed to appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court. The court’s ruling remains pending.

Rauner said after his remarks that he was not optimistic the court would rule in favor of the proposed reform. Hence his present statewide tour, where he issued a call to General Assembly members:

“Come back to the fall veto session. Let’s vote on a constitutional amendment to get term limits on the ballot and let you guys vote on it, let you guys decide if you want term limits or not,” he said.

But the legislative approach to getting the measures on the ballot presents a problem, too. Democrats, who enjoy a supermajority in both the state House and Senate, largely oppose the term limits and redistricting reforms that Rauner and Republicans favor.

“Term limits aren’t going to fix everything but what it’ll do is put the right people in,” Rauner said. “Fresh ideas, new leadership, new focus and fresh faces. And we need that to get the government working for you. This is the one thing that will change the culture the fastest.”

Rauner’s other scheduled stops Wednesday included a farm near Quincy, a farm near the tiny village of Bonnie in Jefferson County and a factory in Kankakee.

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Rauner to entrenched pols: ‘Work for a few years and then go back to the real world’."