Jacobs talks with D/A editorial board

Kurt Allemeier provides some highlights of Sen. Mike Jacobs' discussion with the Dispatch/Argus editorial board, a group he's attacked on several occasions.

Class remains in session for Mike Jacobs, more than a year after his appointment to the 36th District state senate seat.

"I'm learning like everyone else about dealing with the office," Mr. Jacobs told the editorial board of The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus earlier this week, adding, "I'm not your traditional freshman."

He says he has grasped the Springfield system, but needs to learn to balance life with his family and do more to get to know voters. He says he tries to return the calls of his constituents.

He admits life has been tough for his family in the last year, and that he considered not running in the primary. "I wouldn't ask my family to sacrifice if I didn't want other families to improve and prosper," he said.

When talking, he appears to forget that he got the job through appointment to replace his father, Denny Jacobs, instead saying he is fighting for "re-election." Still, he appears to realize he has work to do to keep the job.

"People who say it was a nod of the head and it was over, that was not the case," he said.

He said he's steered $1.49 million to projects in the district, ranging from traffic signals, completion of the Hero Street monument, repairs at the Mercer County nursing home to equipment for the New Kingdom Trail Riders.

Mr. Jacobs considers the Western Illinois University campus in Moline his top legislative priority.

"You can't miss," he said. "Developers want to build in capitals and university towns because that is where the money flows."

He admits he sometimes moves faster than those around him to try to get things done.

Speaker of the Illinois House Mike Madigan, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, offered him some advice, Mr. Jacobs said -- "Be calm."

"I've made some mistakes and I'll continue to make mistakes," Mr. Jacobs said. "I think I'm held to very high standards by my colleagues and this newspaper."

Illinois' method of financing public education through property taxes is an issue that needs to be dealt with, he said.

"Do I have an idea on how to finance education? No?" he said, "but I think the governor is going to have to do something."

He sees gaming revenue as a possible solution to the education funding problem.

He thinks the Illinois Quad-Cities would be helped in lobbying as a unified local government, similar to a system in Indiana that combines cities and counties without each losing its individual identity.

"It would allow us to reap bigger rewards," he said.

He also believes some business taxes and fees need to be looked at, to boost existing businesses and attract new business to the state.

"Four years ago we were the third-largest state" in the United States, he said. "Now we are the fifth-largest state and soon to be the sixth-largest state. We need to find a way to get Illinois moving again."

As has been apparent in comments here for some time, Jacobs has rather bizarrely convinced himself that he was actually elected. Many comments have often referred to Jacobs being "elected" or "re-elected". When these are challenged, the same commenter has always made the weird argument that Jacobs' selection by essentially one county chairman was a hard fought campaign and a great "win" for Jacobs.

Acknowledging some mistakes, and realizing he's likly to make more in the future, Jacobs at least shows some signs of self-awareness, but his seeming complaint at being "held to very high standards by my colleagues and this newspaper." rings a bit odd. Maybe people just shouldn't expect as much from him?

I've said since he was appointed that he didn't need to be a superman, nor could he. But Jacobs invited much of the scrutiny by his frenetic posturing and bragging about anything he could conceivably seize upon to claim credit for.

He wants it both ways, it seems. He wants to be free to posture and boast and claim great deeds, raising expectations with every pronouncement, yet he suggests the media and others are guilty of holding him to too high a standard, a standard that he himself created by inflating all the wonderful things he'd done, was doing, or would do in the future. Many people, including this humble blogger, tried mightily to get him to chill out, but to no avail.

A few eyebrows might get raised by finding that Jacobs has no clue how to deal with financing education, but he thinks the governor better do something about it. Hmmm. Maybe like more GAMBLING? It doesn't inspire a lot of faith that Jacobs is a deep thinker when he gives the impression that if pressed, his response to every problem facing mankind would be to suggest increased gambling.