Constitutional Convention Advocates Blast Deceptive Claims by Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution
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Contact: John Bambenek
(217) 493-0760
jcb@illinoiscitizenscoalition.com
Constitutional Convention Advocates Blast Deceptive Claims by Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution
Advocates of a constitutional convention condemn deceptive tactics and fear-mongering by those opposing a constitutional convention to reform Illinois’ broken political system.
(CHAMPAIGN) - July 15, 2008 – The Illinois Citizens Coalition, a non-partisan group of concerned voters across the political spectrum founded to support a constitutional convention, condemned deceptive tactics by constitutional convention opponents. The opponents of a constitutional convention have formed the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution and reads as a who’s who list of special interests in Illinois.
According to the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution’s website at http://www.protectillinoisconstitution.org/why2.html, they claim “… the constitution is unclear about who would get to pick delegates to a constitutional convention, voters or politicians in Springfield.” The problem is that the Illinois Constitution is clear on this question where it says in Article XIV, Section 1 Paragraph b: “The General Assembly … shall provide for the Convention and for the election of two delegates from each Legislative District” (emphasis added).
“This is another example of the outright lies that the connected special interests will use to scare voters away from insisting on a better government” said John Bambenek, co-founded of the Illinois Citizens Coalition. “It is one thing to not believe a constitutional convention is not the right vehicle to fix a broken political system, it is another to resort to deceptive scare tactics.”
John Bambenek, along with fellow co-founder Bruno Behrend have written a book to support a constitutional convention called Illinois Deserves Better: The Ironclad Case for an Illinois Constitutional Convention. The book lays out a solid case for how Illinois’ broken political system is caused by deficiencies in the Illinois Constitution and put forward concrete and specific reforms tailored to fix those problems. The book offers change that voters can believe in.
“The current constitution mandates asking voters whether to convene a constitutional convention so that voters have the ability to act when the legislature and political leaders refuse to do so. Now is the time to realize the promises of democracy and for citizens to demand a political system that works.”, says Bambenek.
