Ouch…

January 8th, 2008 at 05:39pm Andrea Zimmermann

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn seems to call for the public — rather than on legislators — to decide on every major issue that comes before the General Assembly, and Rep. Lou Lang has had enough.

During the House Gaming Committee hearing, Quinn’s lawyer, Sean Vinck, relayed the lieutenant governor’s wishes to have the public vote on the massive gambling proposal via referendum during the next election.

Quinn first burst onto the political scene in the 80s when he started a grassroots movement to reduce the size of the state Legislature and has led various other protests since. More recently, he has protested the Ameren electric rate hikes by calling on citizens to include a teabag with their monthly bills.

Lang, D-Skokie, deadpanned his response and asked Vinck if the lieutenant governor believes Illinois should ask the voters to decide every major issue, and proceeded to rattle off a long list of potential topics.

Vinck responded, seemingly unmoved by the sarcasm, by reaffirming the lieutenant governor’s longstanding belief that Illinoisans should have the power of citizen initiative to place any question on the ballot.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized