Springfield politics & government
While I never covered city hall as such, I wrote about Springfield politics often; in fact one of my very first published pieces was on that topic. Springfield became widely known as a political town when it was named Illinois capital in 1835, but in fact it was a political town before then. In fact, Springfield won the capital because its civic stalwarts—men ambitious for themselves and thus for their town—were adept at the political arts as then practiced.
In other Downstate cities, politics is the means by which good governments are achieved; in Springfield, government is the means by which good political organizations are achieved. The capture of city hall by successive professional pols of both parties occasionally offended respectable local opinion, but never so much that a majority of citizens demanded a change.
The articles listed below are only a selection. The rest are about issues that no longer are of consequence and people whose names are not longer familiar.
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Municipal government reform
In the middle 1970s, Springfieldians unhappy with the city’s commission form of government undertook twice to change it. The dissidents acted through different organizations and they had different gripes about the status quo, but all under-estimated how attached their townspeople were to the status quo simply because it was the status quo. The dispute was familiar in its essence, pitting as it did cosmopolitan good-government types against the courthouse culture of Springfield.
Springfield did get a new form of local government, by the way, in 1987, but that was a result of a settlement of a civil rights lawsuit that found the at-large voting system used under the commission form to be inherently discriminatory. While the new council was more representative, it would achieve none of the other improvements the reformers hoped for in the 1970s, mainly because the reformers were not running it.
The failed hopes of commission reform
“Prejudices” Illinois Times September 16, 1977
Springfieldians propose being herded by cats
“Prejudices” Illinois Times January 6, 1978
Change of Government in Perspective
Government without politics in Springfield?
Illinois Times March 17, 1978
When "justice" means a fairer distribution of spoils
“Prejudices” Illinois Times January 29, 1987
Springfield’s “new” aldermanic government turns 30
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times January 26, 2017
Sangamon County tries to re-invent the wheel
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times November 9, 2017
Of the developers, by the developers,
and for the developers
“Prejudices” Illinois Times January 11, 1980
Bad Government Is a Cultural Defect
The sociology of the Illinois Way
"Forum" Illinois Times April 1, 1976
The interests of City and city often are at odds
“Prejudices” Illinois Times February 25, 1977
The Catholic ascendancy in capital city politics
“Prejudices” Illinois Times February 23, 1979
Remembering Springfield’s “greatest citizen after Lincoln”
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times December 29, 2016
Daring to Imagine the Future
Mayor Davlin seeks advice on infrastructure
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times August 26, 2010
Conflicts and Conundrums
To disclose or not to disclose, that is the question
“Prejudices” Illinois Times February 16, 1979
Bill Cellini, Springfield’s politics pro
"Prejudices" Illinois Times July 17, 1981

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