Senator June N. Gibbs Says Vote Often "Doesn't Count"

In our Daily News editorial forum a few weeks ago I brought up over 80 instances of June NOT VOTING. I mean that she was there but just didn't cast a ballot. I've mentioned some of these before - Sen. Jackson's timeshare which she had voted FOR the previous year. A bill to expand gambling at Lincoln Park. One for mandatory health insurance coverage of hearing aids. A sex offender registration law....I could go on.

Her response to the editors was that "sometimes my vote doesn't count, " "it doesn't matter," and "sometimes I can't make up my mind." I wonder how long I would have lasted in my teaching job if I had told students that sometimes their vote often "doesn't count."

When I also brought up the fact that legislation with her name on it doesn't seem to go anywhere, she agreed and again said that "it doesn't matter." Say what? A legislator who can't legislate? Yet in the televised forum she she said quite the opposite about legislation with her name on it.

The good senator also mentioned commissions on which she sits as officer. What she neglected to mention was that in a Democratic controlleged legislature, these are defacto groups with no legislative power. Currently on one of them she isn't even listed as a member, much less as "co-Chair." The only business that the Permanent Commission on Childcare has enacted in a year is a motion for a study group. This committee is still discussing what their purpose is & who is a member.