Charles Madigan suggests a “Panel of 50”: “It should find some way to form itself from the ether [Ed. note: you’d have to draw a sword from a stone] and tap a candidate for the Senate position first and for the governor’s race later and for any other significant race in the interim. It should urge boycotts of any fundraising efforts but its own. It should put tight limits on what money it can raise and how it can be used.”

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

I have in the past called for such a group to determine our politicians for us until we can be trusted to elect half-decent politicians again. I called it: “Wisconsin.” Nonetheless, the idea of a “Panel of 50” gives me the fantods, for reasons that Steve Rhodes nails: “Huh? You mean like outsourcing our politics to the Abner Mikvas and Penny Pritzkers of the world? They’re sort of already doing that, aren’t they?” That, and the concept of impaneling a bunch of “clear minded and decent citizens”–is there a test for that? do you throw them in the lake to see if they float?–to grace us with someone pure of heart and spirit sounds at worst like tyranny and at best like the Unity Party, which you may not remember because it didn’t have any candidates.

[About that Fifth District race: I don’t know who I would vote for even if I could, though I suspect it’d be Thomas Geoghegan, whose answers to the Trib‘s quite engaging questionnaire (similar to the ones he gave the S-T) are sui generis and suggest that he’d be an independent voice within his own party. Having recently read his book In America’s Court, I’m impressed with his humanely practical moral compass and his passion for human rights and international law. (I also amusingly admire that back in the day he was a gadfly for WFMT, rattling the chains about the quality of local radio being a hobby of mine.)

A fair amount of blame, I think, can be laid at the feet of the local media, or what’s left of it (and I include myself in this, I’ve dropped the ball on following IL-5). 

It’s a shame–it’s a fascinating race with a lot of candidates who say a lot about local politics and not much time to figure them out.