after a few formalities, springfield resident and the number two democrat in the u.s. senate, dick durbin, welcomed us to the capitol city of illinois.  he noted the political divisions represented in the room and, despite his own recognized loyalties, warned of the "strong feelings" that had emerged.  but after this race is over, he continued, we will have to all come together.  we will come together, he assured us.  

then sen. durbin went on to talk about the exciting opportunities in illinois, especially in light of illinois' junior senator being at the top of the statewide ticket.  he mentioned that congressional democrats had targeted six seats here in illinois, starting with defending melissa bean and bill foster, to turning republican seats into democratic ones by electing debbie halvorson, dan seals, scott harper and jill morgenthaler in the collar counties.  diplomatically, durbin noted that obama's nomination does increase the chances that more democrats will be elected to congress in the state.

then we went off the agenda, as president emil jones spoke to the assembled democrats.  observing that he's campaigned for barack "across the country" (i know i ran into jones in iowa and wisconsin), jones then went on to talk about his own success in expanding the number of democrats in the illinois state senate.  he specifically mentioned dan kotowski and the need to retain him, and then talked about the opportunities he foresaw in picking up a handful of other seats in the state senate.

yet, still, the speaker did say a word.  he was a compleat professional, all business.

madigan noted that everything had been negotiated in advance between the two campaigns, as represented by nate tamarin and kevin o'keefe.  the names of the "unpledged" add-on delegates (3), who are appointed at the discretion of the party chair (speaker madigan) had already been announced: mayor richard daley, president todd stroger and majority leader barbara flynn currie.  all three have declared their support for illinois' favorite son.

in keeping with tradition, madigan said, mayor daley will the the delegation chair (as he was in the past).

the campaigns had agreed to the 20 pleo (party leaders and elected officials) as follows:

Obama (13):
Tom Balanoff
Joe Berrios
Ed Burke
Michael Carrigan
Dennis Gannon
Alexi Giannoulias
Julie Hamos
Dan Hynes
Lisa Madigan
Harry Osterman
Cynthia Soto
Pat Quinn
Jesse White

Clinton (7):
Victory Bell
George Cardenas
Kevin Conlon
Jack Franks
Sylvia Leonberger
Shirley McCombs
Alice Palmer

the 33 at-large delegates are:

Obama (22):
Anita Alvarez
Martha Tovias
Lauren Verdich
Kappy Scates
Ann Kaliyil
Tina Tchen
Marilyn Stewart
Norma Nunez
Cindy Houlihan
Jayne Mazzotti
Lorrie Jones
Sheila Simon
Soraida Gutierrez
Robin Kelly
Henry Tamarin
Anne Wedner
Michael Bauer
Pam Cullerton
Tammy Duckworth
David Munar
Noele De Leon
Nellie Grove

Clinton (11):
JB Pritzker
Tim Wright
Richard Boykin
Raj Fernando
Kevin O'Keefe
Gay Bruhn
Delmarie Cobb
May Solis
Carmen Mora
Lynn Cutler
Valeria Alexander

where i was expecting some fireworks was in the composition (and breakdown) of the standing committee members (specifically the rules and credentials committees).  yet these, too, had been worked out in advance.  illinois will send seven members to each of the three standing committees, and while the platform committee breaks down 4-3, the other two break down 5-2:

Rules:
Courtney Nottage (Obama)
Mike Kreloff (Obama)
Jesse Ruiz (Obama)
Latasha Thomas (Obama)
Laura C. Liu (Obama)
Karen Pittenger (Clinton)
Jon Bunge (Clinton)

Platform:
Ed Geppert (Obama)
Henry Bayer (Obama)
Cindi Klickova (Obama)
Renee Ogeltree (Obama)
Mary Smith (Clinton)
Bob Remer (Clinton)
Joan Murphy (Clinton)

Credentials:
Diane Meeks (Obama)
Bob Rivkin (Obama)
Marilyn Katz (Obama)
Jacky Grimshaw (Obama)
Rick Munoz (Obama)
Patsy Bowles (Clinton)
Joe Powers (Clinton)

the elected delegates can be found at this prior diary.

these are pretty much familiar names among democratic activists.  with 187 delegates going to the convention from illinois (and more than two dozen alternates), perhaps only a third of them actually attended the meeting.  given the fact that everything was worked out in advance, and most of those not attending gave their proxies to their candidate's "floor leader," this is hardly a surprise.  but i still remember how late the illinois delegation was in 2004 in getting to boston, given the problems that illinois' elected leaders have in coming to agreement in recent years.  everyone says they support barack -- but what good is that support if they don't make it to denver to vote this year?  any interesting floor fights -- if they occur -- will happen on the first day, not the third.  

what was clear from today's proceedings is that the speaker can sit down with two warring parties (the obama and clinton campaigns) and get them to come to an agreement.  in essence, the illinois delegate selection meeting finished in less than an hour because everything had been worked out in advance.  the conversations before and after the official meeting were more interesting (by far) then the meeting itself.  as you might expect, the favorite question seemed to be, "how do you expect tomorrow to go?"  and that's where the tightness of the democratic primary can truly be seen.  hardened political professionals are sitting on pins and needles, hoping and praying that their preferred result happens on tuesday.  unlike campaign workers, who basically talk amongst themselves all the time, these politicians don't get the opportunities many of us have.  those that get to follow this race closely were the center of attention after the meeting concluded.  that, in itself, was very interesting.

the obama campaign had a very good day -- that is, if the governor allows the general assembly to come to denver without holding them hostage.  in that case, hillary clinton may have gained more than you'd expect.  it just really depends.  politics in illinois are that fragile.  but speaker madigan proved that he remains the maestro that everyone always said he was.  a quick meeting as a result of the broad consensus built beforehand -- something we're not used to seeing in illinois politics at the moment...