Halvorson's chairmanship removed
SENATE RULES COMMITTEE
Senate Majority Leader and 11th Congressional District candidate Debbie Halvorson was removed this week from her chairmanship of the powerful Senate Rules Committee.
The Crete Democrat has been at the head of the committee for at least two years, but was removed completely after she came under fire by Republican Marty Ozinga III's campaign for her apparent inability to pass a popular recall amendment, a measure Halvorson supported but Senate President Emil Jones and Gov. Rod Blagojevich vehemently opposed.
"Jones said we have some more issues that we need to work on for this session, and that my opponent is making a big deal and taking everything out of context, and that it's distracting to what we need to get accomplished," Halvorson said. "I'm very surprised. I did not ask for it."
Andy Sere, Ozinga's campaign manager, said even the Rules Committee change should be an acknowledgement that Halvorson has been a "rubber-stamp (to) the Blagojevich-Jones agenda."
"Now that her long-standing loyalty to that failed agenda is damaging her political ambitions, Halvorson is losing a precious opportunity to help her constituents," Sere said.
The Rules Committee is arguably one of the most powerful committees in the legislature. When bills are introduced in the Senate, they are first assigned to there, and members decide whether or not to pass it on to other committees. If the bill isn't assigned to a committee, it stays in Rules, trapped in a kind of legislative limbo.
In a 2000 story by the Associated Press, Halvorson, then on the minority side, said the Rules Committee drives the legislative agenda of the in-power party. "That's what happens when you rule the place. While you have the gavel, you have the power," Halvorson was quoted as saying.
Ozinga's campaign says Halvorson only started "bucking Jones" during her congressional campaign, but Halvorson offered two examples from before her campaign days: She opposed the proposed gross receipts tax and wanted a capital bill approved before a CTA bailout, both issues on which she and Jones disagreed, she said.
Halvorson was replaced on the committee by Sen. Louis Viverito, D-Burbank, and in the chairmanship by Sen. Ricky Hendon, D-Chicago.
Like Halvorson, Hendon voted for the recall bill, but Hendon also gaveled the session to a close, as Republicans called for a vote on the House version of the recall bill.
Because of legislative procedures, Halvorson is on record as making that adjournment, even though she said she had nothing to do with it and was "on a phone in the back of the room" when the motion was made.