Ma'am; Wouldn't it be nice if no person could stand on their seat to reach for a higher office??? Then people would have to stand on their record or their want of one to gain office... The thought of having something to fall back on when so many of us do not is an insult... We all have to bet everything on a single toss of the dice, and we know the dice are loaded... Taxes are killing the North... Old rotten infrastructure needs constant repair; but why repair it when industry can pack up and run South were everything is new, where the costs are less to begin with... People have to toss the dice, walk away from any equity they might have, and load up like so many Okies, and hit the road searching for a job that may or may not wait for them in a place that even withholds their right to a fair wage... No.. If you want higher office... Be like the rest of us, and give up what you got for a dream.... Or stand pat... Clearly Illinois cannot afford a special election any more than they can afford a bought office... Maybe they should put two and two together to make 13... So long as so much power resides in so few hands, it will be an invitation to corruption... If our government has led us into this debacle, it is a mad man, and no prophet... WE all have the best government money can buy; and we are all learning the best is not good enough... You think... Would we have voted for this situation???? If not, that is our best argument for power in the hands of the people... We must consent on the basis of reasoned argument to what our leaders decide... We do not have consent, so our needs are not even considered... Watch how this plays out; because I trust we have some interesting history before us... The question is: how will we avoid a bloody end for plutocracy and oligarchy??? We cannot live with it.. It is clearly killing us... But how do we get beyond the past and treat those who have brought us to ruin as human beings deserving of the very rights they have so long denied to us??? I want change; but change too long denied so often ends up in violence that I dare not push too hard... Wouldn't it be cool if the rich would just give up their power over us, and say they only want to carry on with us, and to share our pain, and our lives... Wouldn't that be something??? Thanks...Sweeney