By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – While another May session day continued on the third floor of the state Capitol, the minority leaders of the two chambers were in the basement briefing room, telling reporters despite the change of party in power in the governor’s office, the Democrats in control of the legislature are showing the same movie of years past.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) is upset the Democrats are holding hearings and calling bills which purport to be related to the governor’s “Turnaround Agenda” but are really designed to fail and embarrass Gov. Bruce Rauner.

“It’s a slow roll going on with the Democrats. They are not interested in any of these matters,” said Durkin. “We want people to know exactly what is going on in the chambers. The governor understands it: the farce, particularly in the House, that has been happening over the week and a half.”

Durkin calls the Democrats’ tactics “gotcha politics” on bills they’ve written up and are “destined to fail.”

Durkin’s Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont), says real bills start with conversations, which – she and Durkin say – ought to be happening in the “working groups” in which the Democrats are not fully participating.

So far, though, no Republican members have sponsored bills on behalf of the governor.