How do legislators learn constituent opinions?

At Wednesday night's town hall meeting in Carpentersville, the heat was on Rep. Keith Farnham from the first question. In fact, I thought the man who stated his opinion on concealed carry might rise out of his seat and confront Rep. Farnham nose-to-nose. I felt he might have to be restrained before the meeting ended.

I admired Rep. Farnham for standing his ground and listening in an open manner to the question and to the man who was asking it. That man, who I think did not live in the 43rd District, addressed Rep. Farnham in an antagonistic, brash, aggressive and almost-threatening manner - totally out of place for the first question of the evening, before Rep. Farnham explained his position on concealed carry.

Rep. Farnham said that he had learned the opinions of his constituents by walking his district several times. One woman announced, "Well, you never came to my house!" Was she even home, when he walked her block?

One member of the audience respectfully suggested that Rep. Farnham might have a survey printed and mailed to every house in his district. We've certainly seen those surveys (occasionally) from Rep. Jack Franks' office, although not recently.

The advantage of a printed survey are several:
1. The survey can be sent to every household in the District;
2. Everyone gets asked the same question, in the same way;
3. Most bias in a question can be removed (or will be clearly evident);
4. Prepaid-postage return often assures a higher return rate;
5. Tear-off address portion may increase return rate, if respondent wants to remain anonymous;
6. Short response time may increase response rate, as it can reduce the survey's getting "lost" before being returned.

Electronic surveys are good, too, although they might draw responses from a small audience in some districts. And you have to get the word out, so that those with internet connection can respond.

Jack Franks' only website now is at http://www.franks4illinois.com/, and this is the one that is paid for by his political campaign, not by his State office budget. Would it be nice for his legislative office to maintain a official web presence with information about his official position on bills, laws and issues? If you would like to be on Jack's e-mail distribution list for Jack's political activities in the 63rd District, you can sign up for his e-mails on that website.

Jack cast a "Yes" vote on HB 0148, the concealed-carry bill in the most recent legislative session. Sixty-third District gun owners and concealed-carry (right-to-carry) advocates should continue to stay in touch with Jack to thank him for his support and to solicit his continued support of this legislation.

Illinois is now the only state to forbid its law-abiding, trained, qualified citizens the right to carry. Gov. Walker is expected to sign Wisconsin's law shortly after July 4th.

Concealed carry bill - 5 votes short

The Illinois House of Representatives voted late this afternoon on HB 0148, the concealed carry bill, and it was five votes short of the super-majority needed to make it bulletproof when it hit Gov. Quinn's desk. A super-majority would also keep it out of the clutches of home-rule cities and prevent their watering it down with local rules.

HB 0148 is still alive. It's on the House Calendar as "Consideration Postponed".
Rep. Jack Franks signed on as a co-sponsor today.  THANK YOU, JACK!

Also signing on today as co-sponsors were Rep. Kay Hatcher and Rep. Michael Connelly, bringing the number of co-sponsors to 45. McHenry County's Rep. Mike Tryon had signed on as a co-sponsor back on February 24.

There are some strong proponents of this bill who are not sponsors. At least one of them, with whose office I spoke yesterday, believes he can do more "behind the scenes" than by having his name on the dotted line. His office told me that extreme pressure has been put on him to vote against the bill, but his office told me he will vote for it.

You can see the line-up of co-sponsors at http://www.ilga.gov/ Look for the small box on the left for "Search by Number". Enter HB 0148 and click on "Go". Then click on "View All Actions".

No doubt that pressure will be brought to bear on many of these co-Sponsors. Be sure to contact them and thank them for their courage and ask them to resist all efforts to change their minds.

What happened to www.jackfranks.org?

Does anyone else wonder what happened to Jack Franks' website? Maybe I'll call tomorrow to ask.

There used to be a fair amount of information about Jack's legislative activities on www.jackfranks.org Then the site was devoted to the I-CareRx program - you know, the one through which you could purchase illegally imported prescription drugs. This was one of Blago's pet projects and one that was clearly illegal, according to the FDA.

But not illegal in Jack's opinion. One of his staffers told me that it was a State's Rights' issue, as if that made it okay to violate Federal law.

At any rate, after the Legislative Attorney General started paying a little attention to the I-CareRx promotion on Jack's website, Jack quickly removed it, and I don't think there has been anything on his website since. And for the past several months, maybe longer, there hasn't even been a website.

It's not hard to keep a website up-to-date. It would be a fine service to constituents in McHenry County for Jack to utilize a website to inform us what he is doing to represent us.

If you want to know what Jack is doing, go to www.mchenrycountyblog.com and search for Jack Franks. Cal Skinner will fill you in on some of the goings-on. Thanks, Cal!

Open Letter to Jack Franks

Dear Jack,

I regret that you did not call back with a statement regarding your position on concealed carry in Illinois, after I left a message on your political office phone number in Woodstock recently.

Although your seat in the Illinois House of Representatives is uncontested again this year, on behalf of the many law-abiding citizens who would like to see Illinois leave the Dark Ages and join the other 48 States that permit at least some form of "carry", I ask you to reconsider your opposition to concealed-carry and to vote in favor of legislation in the next session that will bring concealed-carry to a vote.

The facts are that a society is safer when law-abiding, qualified, trained, educated (in the "carry" laws), permit-holding citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons. Many police officers and law enforcement leaders do not object, although northern Illinois and Cook County are strongholds of negative opinion. Police officers have nothing to fear from the honest, law-abiding citizen who "carries."

What we have up here is law enforcement leadership with the mindset, "Don't confuse me with the facts. I'm against it."

When criminals don't know "whether" a citizen might be armed, crime rates go down. It's a fact.

Can we law-abiding citizens count on you not to oppose concealed-carry in the next session, Jack?