All is not well with either party in Illinois

Question: Why is Illinois politics like Yellowstone's "Old Faithful"?

Answer: Because the hot air just keeps on gushing.

Example 1, the Democrats. Most of the century's first decade has been the best of times for this party. They have won every statewide contest (except treasurer in 2002), mostly with landslide margins; their former junior senator is now president of the United States and is surrounded in the Oval Office by Chicagoans; and their Republican foes have acted more like political kamikazes than competitors. And yet all is not well in the party of Durbin, Quinn, Madigan and Daley.

No need to repeat the litany of missteps; all can be summarized in one word - Blagojevich. But the beat goes on. The Scott Cohen lieutenant governor debacle is the latest example. What is truly remarkable to me is that this man with a troubled past ran the best campaign, richly financed by himself, and won the nomination. Oops, said party leaders, the press, pundits and, yes, professors - but Cohen held firm. Only when his former girlfriend, once arrested for prostitution, said he was unfit for office did Cohen fold his hand. Now that's power! Still Cohen left with style - making his dropping-out announcement in a saloon setting during the Super Bowl halftime. He was the day's real "Who."

Example 2, the Republicans. Think back to the '70s television series as I paraphrase the opening theme song. "Here's a story of a lucky Brady." Yes, it looks like state Sen. Bill Brady will be the GOP gubernatorial nominee. In a hotly contested primary he received slightly more than 20 percent of the vote. Said another way, nearly 80 percent of the Republican primary voters supported another candidate for governor. In fact Brady's 2010 vote percentage was about 2 percent higher than his losing 2006 primary vote for the gubernatorial nomination.

Clearly, Brady was fortunate. His 2010 primary foes all coming from the Chicago area split the vote among themselves leaving Brady far behind in this region. As the only downstater, Brady benefitted from a geopolitical advantage and enough voter support to apparently give him the nomination. But November looks to be be a different scenario.

In the 2006 general election, over 60 percent of the statewide vote came from Cook and the five collar counties. Brady lives 150 miles away from this vote-rich region while his running mate, Jason Plummer, doubles that distance coming from far southwestern Illinois. Politically, it would have been far better for Brady to have state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine on his ticket to give it some geographical balance. Just as the GOP will chastise the Democrats for having a Chicago-based ticket, the Democrats will criticize the Republicans for their candidates living too far away from the majority.

Last week, I argued in this newspaper that the lieutenant governor position should either be abolished or the candidates should run in tandem with a primary gubernatorial candidate. The Cohen fiasco simply reinforces my position. In a state whose finances are in disarray, where Springfield considers borrowing as a source of revenue and where the U.S. attorney has become more famous than most elected officials, debate about the No. 2 office is as relevant as passengers on the Titanic discussing the breakfast menu after the ship hit the iceberg.

A closing point. Political parities exist to win elections and to give citizens a vehicle to practice democracy through organized and competitive elections. The process has always been messy. From almost the beginning of this republic, debate has raged over how much power party leaders should have and exert over the electoral process. In future columns I will try to sort out this endless controversy because in Illinois we do not just talk about it - we live it!

• Paul Green is director of the School of Policy Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago and Schaumburg.