Today, seven members of the Democratic State Central Committee sent a letter to House Speaker and Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan opposing his proposal to do away with the office of lieutenant governor in 2015.  They told Madigan that the plan was "premature" and would “profoundly alter the state’s electoral and succession processes.”

The group of seven -- all of them African-American -- included: U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Jr., and Danny Davis, State Reps. Connie Howard and Karen Yarbrough, Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin, and Committeeman James K. Polk.