Rep. Kevin Levitas is a busy guy

The collection of pre-filed bills before the start of each General Assembly usually falls into one of three categories: frivolous legislation by wack-job House members, such as Bobby Franklin and Martin Scott; important bills by big-cheese sponsors who want to give the rank-and-file time to prepare; and one-shot bills by single-issue lawmakers who’ve devoted themselves to achieving a particular goal.

However, Rep. Kevin Levitas, D-DeKalb, has upended the model by pre-filing an astonishing 17 separate pieces of legislation – not including a bill that he apparently rewrote and resubmitted the next day. And the subject matter runs the gamut from insurance fraud to the governor’s veto power to the election of law-enforcement officials.

Lawmaking is politics, and politics is a game of knowing how hard to push and when and who’s likely to help. The mere fact that he’s willing to draw this kind of attention to himself before the session begins made me wonder if Levitas – the son of a former congressman, let’s not forget – had become frustrated with the sausage-making process and decided to throw caution to the wind.

After chatting with him, I suspect that was part of his motivation. Levitas reminded me that several of his bills were introduced last year without making much of a splash. He reasons he could have more success by dropping them in the hopper as early as possible. But mostly, he says, he hopes to “get discussion started” on the issues.

The bill with possibly the greatest chance of success – because it’s the most local – would further fine-tune the balance of power between the DeKalb CEO and commissioners. Most substantively, it would revoke a provision that allows the board to nominate its own appointee to a county position after having rejected the CEO’s choice.

We’ll see if Levitas’ unusual strategy meets with greater success this year.