Election reform advocates in Illinois announced this week that at least 22 percent of the individual contributions to Gov. Rod Blagojevich were from businesses that had state contracts worth $50,000 or more. The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform reported ...

Here's another good letter in support of the Fair Elections Now Act, courtesy of Bloomington/Normal Citizens For A Living Democracy Committee member Charline Watts. She writes "The survival of a living democracy is at stake when who runs for office, who wins and the content of legislation is bought by the highest and most powerful bidder," and urges grassroots support of Clean Elections legislation to compel change.

Several organizations will sponsor a panel discussion on Clean Elections this Thursday at Illinois State University's Capen Auditorium in Normal, Illinois.  The panel will include three people with experience running for office who can shed light on the role money plays in elections: Carol Koos, McLean County Board member Tari Renner and State Representative Dan Brady.  If you're in the area, check it out!

Illinois is fighting an uphill battle to win public financing for judicial races following a trend of increasingly more expensive races for the Supreme and Appellate courts. A bill to create such a system has now passed the Senate judicial committee and awaits approval by the full Senate before it moves to the House.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday promoting his new book. In his interview, Sen. Obama talked about the problem with money in politics and his desire that elections be publicly financed. Click here to listen to the clip. 1.4 mb (requires Real Player).