A bit of Political Theater here yesterday.
http://new.livestream.com/blueroomstream/events/2135929 Senate Executive Committee chaired by Don Harmon. Senate President Cullerton is behind him and to his left. Testimony on LTC/CCW starts at about 1:50:00.
SB2193 (The Preemption May-Issue Bill, which the NRA/ISRA have taken a neutral position.) which passed the house 85-30 was killed in the Senate Executive committee by a 10-4 vote, so it won't go to the Senate floor for a vote.
SB183 (The No Preemption May-Issue Bill, which the NRA/ISRA oppose.) passed the Senate Executive committee by a 8-6 vote and will go (maybe) to senate for a vote, if called. However, it is dead in the House.
Both bills, however, will be vetoed by Our Beloved Governor, Pat "Three County"* Quinn.
They still have a budget to pass and pension reform to deal with before the session ends at midnight on Friday. Those are HUGE contentious issues, LTC/CCW will be lost in the background and nothing will pass. The next session is the Fall veto session, unless either Quinn or Madigan AND Cullerton call a special session to deal with one issue, again, not happening. They are not going to call a special session to pass something they hate.
Yes, I know that a bunch of people are saying there's already a deal in place and this is just political kabuki. I don't think there is a deal, nor is this a show put on for our benefit. Madigan pissed off Cullerton when he went over to the Senate and twisted arms to kill a different May-Issue (the first Raoul bill) Senate CCW bill. Yesterday was payback, in that Madigan had endorsed SB2193 and worked to get it passed in the house.
This is a gang war. It's Capone vs. O'Banion all over again for control of the statehouse and Illinois.
There are bigger fish to fry and LTC/CCW just happens to be the bone these two dogs are going to fight over to prove dominance.
So over the "cliff" we shall go.
* There are 102 counties in Illinois. Pat Quinn won three, and became Governor. I sure wish we had and Electoral College for State-wide offices.