A CONVERSATION WITH OUR READERS

Traveling the state has been enlightening and rewarding

by Ed Wojcicki

For the past two years Illinois Issues and the Institute for Public Affairs here at the University of Illinois at Springfield have been taking a close look at how Illinois campaigns are financed.

In recent months a few of us have been traveling to Illinois cities to conduct town hall meetings on the subject of campaign finance. We've been to Champaign, Galesburg, Collinsville, University Park and Carbondale, and we still have more places to go this fall. It's part of a two-year research and citizen education effort we call the Illinois Campaign Finance Project. (For the record, I was unavailable for the Collinsville town hall meeting, but other project staff members handled it well without me.)

At each meeting, we are releasing a research report about how campaigns in that region were financed in 1994. Kent Redfield, the UIS professor who has been doing campaign finance research for years, is the featured speaker at each site.

So far, 30 to 40 people have attended each session. Local media also attend, and their coverage has provided additional spotlights on the growing cost of elections in Illinois.

Conducting such a broad project is consistent with the mission of both UIS and the magazine.

This campus has always had a public affairs emphasis, and the magazine has been one of this university's "citizen education" tools.

Our aim with the campaign finance project is to stimulate discussion. Many Illinoisans agree something is wrong, but there's seemingly no consensus on a solution. Our blue-ribbon Campaign Finance Task Force will grapple later this fall with recommending some changes in the system.

In the meantime, I am grateful to the League of Women Voters and the media that have co-sponsored the town hall meetings. I have found it beneficial to be part of a statewide dialogue and to hear the concerns and questions of so many people. This issue isn't going away.

When we asked last month in the Question of the Month about issues you want to hear state candidates talk about, several of you mentioned "campaign finance reform." Illinois candidates are expressing their own concerns about the cost of elections as they campaign. But they continue to raise lots of money; so we're likely to see record spending in the 1996 election cycle.

A also want to mention that we'll be sending some of you a Readership Survey this month. Your feedback is vital because it will let us know how we can serve you better. Thanks in advance for taking the time to complete it.

Illinois Issues September 1996 ¦ 3