Saturday, May 24, 2008

State Senator Carol Ronen Gets 'Golden Parachute'

When politicians leave office they can do it the honorable way. They can just retire and let their seat get filled by the electorate.

Or, as seems to be the case with former State Senator Carol Ronen, they can sell out their constituents and make money to boot.

Read all about it at the Chicago Tribune:

10 comments:

  1. In the Constituional world of separation of powers it would be nice to think that a legislator would be loyal to her constituents she represented, not to the Governor in the Executive Branch.

    How well did she represent us and our interests and where did her loyalties lie if she was able to cut this blatant financial deal for herself?

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  2. When did "Lakefront Independent" become the code word for "show me the money?"

    Perhaps Alderman Helen Shiller and Bob Creamer/Jan Schakowsky could also give us some insight into that.

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  3. They just tap dance to the same tune Obama does with Tony Rezko's money.

    "We're not part of that nasty Chicago Democratic Machine, we just get paid by it."

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  4. Lakefront independents? They were co-opted or drummed out after Harold died. And if there's one thing that Harold's short tenure taught us, it may be this: Left to their own devices and absent the meddling manipulations of money, voters are capable of electing truly progressive people with functioning spines. In Ronen's case, however, we never had a chance. She was appointed to her Senate seat, tapped by her predecessor and the poster boy for pension abuse, the former state senator, Art Berman.

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  5. Oh, I hear you because I live here and see what goes on.

    But why, oh why, must we constantly endure the media glorification of these last supposed "lakefront independents" when they are as deep into the Democratic Machine pockets as everyone else and they play the same games as everyone else. That even goes for recently deceased Larry McKeon, whe may have been a nice guy but pulled alot of political games in our district.

    Isn't it time to pop this political balloon that gets floated into our neighborhood by outsiders?

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  6. You don't have to "endure" but you do have to prevail. That means organizing and---when given the chance---defeating them at the polls. It doesn't happen often, but Brendan Reilly did it when he ousted Natarus.

    One by one, office by office.

    There are also structural issues that have to be addressed if we want to put an end to this self-serving ruling class (yeah, them there are fighting words but I stand by them).

    One of the most important is the need for campaign finance reform. To learn more, we're hosting a forum: Springfield for Sale: Reforming Campaign Financing

    Currently Illinois has no limits on campaign donations. When a person or corporation can legally give $10,000, $50,000, even $500,000 to one candidate, does the average person get heard?

    When competitive campaigns for the Illinois House can cost as much $500,000 per candidate, and State Senate races cost $1 million and more, are the interests of regular people represented?

    Speakers---

    David Morrison, Deputy Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

    Wendy Howell, campaign professional and SEIU organizer with on-the-ground experience working in states with public financing.

    Tuesday, May 27, 7:00 p.m.
    Sulzer Library
    4455 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
    Free and open to the public

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  7. "Same ole same ole"
    Emailed Greg Harris twice about the violence in Uptown - his constituency. The response been zero! He knows which side his bread is buttered and that takes
    Shiller's vote machine

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  8. ronen is another dirty democrat ala helen, richie, liza, sarah, mike quigley, forrest claypool, jan (married to a felon), greg harris (mr steamworks), etc etc - when are people going to wake up and see that the democrats are as bad as the republicans - we need a total revolution to cleanse this city of its corruption and filth.

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  9. saw carol on tv last night, doesn't look like she missed a meal - now that is "volunteering" for obama - he just lost my vote

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  10. Yes, now that the media is on their tales, Gov Blago and Ronen are on TV telling a new story. This is their story and they are sticking to it.

    Poor Carol took the job with Blago's office fully intending to work there. But, alas. Poor Carol, within a mere 8 weeks, decided that her valuable skills were needed, for no salary at all, at the Obama campaign. So, she felt compelled to resign.

    Blago and Poor Carol feigned innocence claiming that they had no idea that her 8 week stint as on the Governor's payroll would forever increase Poor Carol's retirement pension from approximately $70,000 per year for a state senator to over $120,000 as Gov Blago's hire.

    The funny thing is that Poor Carol got her 7th District Senate Seat from Art Berman in exactly the same way that Poor Carol manipulated her seat to new Senator Heather Steans.

    And, Art Berman played the same raise-my-pension scheme that Poor Carol just played before he retired. While Poor Carol only managed a 40% increase, Berman managed to triple his retirement package in his hire-and-retire play.

    No wonder she can work for free for the Obama campaign. Or was this really an Obama paycheck in disguise?

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