Andy Shaw Advocates For Better Government

Andy Shaw, famed Chicago reporter and currently the executive director of the Better Government Association (BGA), visited Northeastern Illinois University on Nov. 4s as part of the Political Science Day events. "I don't think I've ever felt a passion about anything the way I feel about this," said Shaw. Both a retired journalist and newscaster, Shaw entered the world of news with the City News Bureau of Chicago, something that is extinct in this age, along with their methods of teaching journalism.

With a career that he thought had good bookends with the election of Mayor Harold Washington and the election of President Barack Obama, Shaw decided to step away from news reporting in 2008 to pursue other interests. Less than a year later and feeling revitalized, Shaw decided to join the Better Government Association (BGA), an organization that he followed throughout his reporting career.

"What I witnessed was government in crisis at all levels," Shaw told the Golden Eagles' audience. "It made me sick as a reporter, and I thought to myself, here is an opportunity to lead an advocacy group and do something specific about it." The BGA does three basic things: Investigate, litigate and advocate. Before Shaw took over for the BGA, he described the group as a "watchdog with very, very, dull teeth." Over the course of 17 months, the association went from two employees to 13 and quadrupled their budget thanks to donations. "People understood the critical need for watch-dogging."

The goal of the organization is reduce Illinois' "Corruption Tax," as Shaw calls it. "That is what we pay when the government is run for the betterment of the politicians and not the people." The group has been as active as ever with investigations with salaries at METRA, missing charity "donations" at the Circuit Court Clerks' office and more. Even so, with things turning around for the BGA, Shaw wants to keep up the progress and transform the organization so it can identify and respond to day to day behavior of public officials and gather an army of volunteers, members and donators to support their cause, something that the old BGA couldn't do and, in consequence, ended up limping through decades of corruption throughout Illinois.

Shaw reminded us that everyone can help out with the new BGA. "You see something, you hear something, you feel something you think merits further review, call us, send us an email." With the recent elections and shifts in Illinois, the BGA hopes to keep their upward trend going with the help of everyday citizens. "Better government is a right and a responsibility and if we work together and if we're smart, creative, tenacious, it can become a reality."