(WTTW News)

A red wave may not have materialized on Tuesday as polls predicted and the GOP had hoped, but election currents swept in changes across the top ranks of the Illinois General Assembly.

(WTTW News)

Election results ensure Democrats will hold onto their super-majorities in the Illinois General Assembly. Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin was quick to respond to the bad night for Illinois Republicans.

(WTTW News)

In their final days of the annual spring session, members of Illinois’ General Assembly approved a series of bills targeting public safety.

(WTTW News)

On Monday, Democrats unveiled a series of bills they described as “pro law enforcement,” even as a top Republican rebuffed the effort as “trying to rewrite history.” Legislators are set to adjourn their spring session nearly two months earlier than normal, in order to spend spring and summer on the campaign trail. 

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich talks about his criminal complaint outside the Dirksen Federal Building on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. (WTTW News)

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Illinois’ only governor to be impeached and removed from office, was back at the Dirksen federal courthouse on Monday, but this time it was on his own volition — rather than as a defendant in criminal proceedings.

(Meagan Davis / Wikimedia Commons)

Plus: Our Spotlight Politics team on that and more

The state’s top Republicans asked a federal judge Wednesday to appoint an eight-member commission made up of four Democrats and four Republicans to craft the maps with census data.

Supporters of an elected school board demonstrate in April 2019. (WTTW News)
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Republicans were in control of state government in 1995, when a change in Illinois law gave the mayor of Chicago the authority to appoint board members to run the city’s school district. Fast forward to 2021, and Republicans continue to favor that setup.

After several late nights and an extra day on the legislative calendar, state lawmakers wrapped up their spring session May 31, 2021. (WTTW News)

Illinois Democrats took a victory lap when the General Assembly’s regular spring session came to a close this week, holding press conferences touting the session as one of the most productive in memory. But for the minority party, each victory smacks of partisanship and defeat.

(WTTW News)

It’s a once-in-a-decade fight: We take a look at the proposed new maps of political power and get reaction from Republicans and a coalition of community groups.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 at a bill-signing ceremony for a massive criminal justice reform bill. (WTTW News)
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The massive, 764-page criminal justice reform bill will eliminate cash bail, require law enforcement officers to wear body cameras and create a certification program for police. “This legislation marks a substantial step towards dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (WTTW News)

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s lives, and also on government budgets. On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose his ideas for getting Illinois through it. Here’s a preview of that address.

(Ken Teegardin / Flicker)

It’s about the time of year when your mailbox may start to fill up with glossy brochures, pitching you not on a product — but on a candidate. What impact the ComEd bribery scandal might have on the coming election.

A banner on the Chicago home of Rod Blagojevich thanks President Donald Trump for commuting the former governor’s 14-year prison sentence. (WTTW News)

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich celebrated his homecoming Wednesday with a media spectacle at his North Side home. But public sentiment about his early release from prison is divided.

Recently passed legislation to expand gambling in Illinois is so massive, not many people know everything that’s in it. That includes at least two of the state’s legislative leaders who helped negotiate the bill.

(U.S. Sen John McCain / Official Senate Photo)

Reflections on the life of the late Arizona senator, Republican leader and two-time presidential candidate who died Saturday from brain cancer.

(Éovart Caçeir at English Wikipedia)

State Senate President John Cullerton and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin on a major bipartisan agreement and lingering pieces of unfinished business.