Illinois should abolish office of Governor Lite

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Pop quiz, folks: Who is the lieutenant governor of Illinois?

If you did not immediately say “Evelyn Sanguinetti,” don’t be embarrassed. This is not one of those sucker-punch questions, like “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” Plenty of political junkies wouldn’t be able to name Sanguinetti, either, which is no reflection on her.

It’s just that the job of lieutenant governor is a non-job — so pointless that a couple of past incumbents quit out of sheer boredom — and a waste of money. It’s a job that should be abolished, and finally it might be.

Rep. David McSweeney, a Republican from Barrington Hills, has introduced a bill to abolish the office. If approved by three-fifths of both the House and Senate by May 7, the proposed constitutional amendment would be put on the November ballot.

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McSweeney introduced the same bill three years ago. It passed in the House but was never called for a vote in the Senate. This time though, he tells us, he’s confident he has the votes and the leadership support.

Abolishing the office would save Illinois about $1.6 million a year, which is a drop in the bucket for a state drowning in hundreds of billions of dollars of debt. But it would be, as McSweeney says, “a good start.” Next, the Legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner could work together to combine the offices of state treasurer and comptroller, saving the state an estimated $12 million a year.

And then, while we’re dreaming here, they could abolish township governments.

Lieutenant governors have no prescribed job responsibilities, though the best of them — we’re thinking here of Pat Quinn and Corrine Wood — have made the most of the gig by pushing for things like better health care for veterans and breast cancer research. Legally speaking, however, lieutenant governors are just spare tires, there to be rolled into place if a governor dies, resigns or is impeached and convicted.

Five lieutenant governors, most recently Quinn, have become governor just that way.

Under McSweeney’s bill, the attorney general of Illinois would fill a gubernatorial vacancy, a solution with one obvious political drawback — the governor and attorney general might be members of different parties. Rauner, for example, is a Republican while Attorney General Lisa Madigan is a Democrat.

But, obviously, that’s a scenario that could play out either way in future years. It is no reason to oppose McSweeney’s bill now. And McSweeney notes that in the five states that currently do not have lieutenant governors — Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon and Wyoming — the transition process has worked smoothly.

We can’t imagine why Rauner and the Democratic-controlled Legislature can’t get together on this one.

With all respect to Sanguinetti, and to those who came before her, Illinois does not need a Governor Lite.

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