•May 16, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Governing is a respected magazine that reports on state and local governments in the U.S. Reporter Daniel Vock recently posed this question in a lead article in the May edition: Who ruined Illinois?

Vock interviewed former Illinois Republican governor Jim Edgar (1991-98) at length, who said: “Illinois government did work (presumably when he was in office), but then we had bad luck with a couple of governors (presumably Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn, both Democrats).”

I have great respect for friend Jim Edgar, and I am not privy to the whole of his interview. Yet, I beg to differ with this suggestion that all blame be placed on the two more recent, admittedly failed governors he fingers.

I contend that many, maybe most, of us who participated in Illinois politics and government over the past half century share at least a sliver of the blame for our present parlous situation.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.