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Democrats Mon Mar 01 2010
Why I am More Powerful than the Next Lt. Governor
Because, for one thing, the lieutenant governor in Illinois has virtually no power outside waiting for the governor to be in a position not to be governor anymore.
The Lieutenant Governor shall perform the duties and exercise the powers in the Executive Branch that may be delegated to him by the Governor and that may be prescribed by law.
That's it in terms of explicit duties.
So how do I have more power than the Lt. Governor?
In the Democratic party, the voters elect the folks who will serve as state central committeemen and committeewomen (the elect one of each gender from each congressional district). These are the folks who will decide who is going to replace Scott Lee Cohen as the Lt. Governor candidate.
On the Republican side, however, the central committee members are elected using a weighted vote of the elected precinct committeemen within the congressional district based off of the number of Republican ballots cast in the last primary in that precinct. So therefore I have about 50 votes to decide who will be elected one of these committeemen. This is the same group that decided that Alan Keyes for Senate was a good idea...
There is a move afoot to change the process on the Republican side (SB 500), but for now it is what it is.
So thanks to the rules of the Republican party, I have more power than the Lieutenant Governor.
