Per Article V. Sec. 1 of the Constitution of the State of Illinois, “the Executive Branch shall include a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General Secretary of State, Comptroller and Treasurer.” Of that group, which one is typically talked about the least – Lieutenant Governor.

Technically, it is the 2nd highest ranking position in state government because of Article V. Sec. 6 of the Illinois Constitution, which states, “In the event of a vacancy, the order of succession to the office of Governor or to the position of Acting Governor shall be the Lieutenant Governor, the elected Attorney General, the elected Secretary of State, and then as provided by law.”

That same section adds, “If the Governor is unable to serve because of death, conviction on impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability, the office of Governor shall be filled by the officer next in line of succession for the remainder of the term or until the disability is removed.”

So legally, the position has credibility. It also isn’t that hard to qualify for the position, either. There are only three criteria to be a breath or conviction away from being governor. To be eligible for the four-year term, you must be:

* A U.S. citizen;
* At least 25 years old; and
* Be a resident of Illinois for the three years preceding the election you are running in.

That’s it. It can be a pretty easy job too. According to Article V. Sect. 14 of the Illinois Constitution, “The Lieutenant Governor shall perform the duties and exercise the powers in the Executive Branch that may be delegated to him by the Governor and that may be prescribed by law.” It sounds good. But, essentially, unless you are “in good” with the Governor, you may not have any responsibilities. At least until a 1970 amendment, the Lieutenant Governor was the President of the Senate (like the Vice President of the U.S.). Now, the Lieutenant Governor could actually hold down another full-paying job.

This lack of responsibilities has actually led to some resignations. In 1981, Governor Jim Thompson’s “Lite Guv”, Dave O’Neal, resigned reportedly because of boredom. Governor Jim Edgar’s two-term running mate, Bob Kustra, did not want to run for the second term. After being persuaded to rejoin the ticket, he apparently could not take it anymore and resigned in 1998 to pursue other interests.

But, to be fair, Illinois Lieutenant Governors have had some interesting duties, which include oversight of:

* The Main Street Program
* Women’s Health Advocacy
* Rural Affairs and the Rural Bond Bank
* Broadband Deployment
* Senior Advisor for Economic Development
* Illinois Board of Higher Education and Senior Advisor for Education

In addition, you will probably manage a 29 person staff with a $2 million-plus budget. You also get to give speeches throughout the state and make a salary around $100,000 a year.

But, the Lieutenant Governor position also has another high impact component. It could possibly turn an election. By law, Illinois’ presiding Governors and Lieutenant Governors are members of the same party. In the general election, they run as a team on the ballot. But, during the primary, it is open. So a gubernatorial candidate has two options:

1. Select a preferred running mate in the primary and hope they win; or
2. Do not select a running mate and hope for the best.

The impact of making decision #2 was shown in 2002 when it came back to haunt Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate Paul Vallas when he did not choose to anoint a running mate. The race did indeed end up being close with the primary winner and eventual governor, Rod Blagojevich, beating Vallas by only 25,469 votes. If Vallas had taken advice from some of his supporters and picked, for example,  State Senator James Clayborne as his preferred running mate, things may have been different.

Clayborne represents the 57th District that includes St. Clair and Madison Counties. If you exclude those two counties, Blagojevich only beats Vallas by 860 votes. In addition, Illinois’ current U.S. Senator Roland Burris was also in the race, garnering 10,628 votes. Assuming Clayborne could have helped split the vote in his district for Vallas against Blagojevich and Burris, Vallas would have won the primary election by 4,454 votes. It’s a what if....  but think about how the Illinois political landscape would be different if Vallas had won (and Clayborne would have been a front-runner to replace President Obama in the U.S. Senate).

So, the ieutenant governor position may not get a lot of respect (Per Article V. Sec. 7, the Illinois Constitution doesn’t even allow a replacement if the job becomes vacant), but it can be a very important role. You could become governor, like Pat Quinn. Or, if you were Paul Vallas, you could have potentially kept Patti Blagojevich off of that island and kept her husband out of prison.