In the grand scheme of the Lake Forest Bears stumbling toward an eventual relocation of their Sunday home from Chicago’s lakefront to a centerpiece of suburban sprawl, there are two biggest bumblers:

The geniuses in the McCaskey family who approved spending almost $300 million to buy an old horse track without any concrete development plans, and team President Kevin Warren, hired to make vision a reality despite being unprepared for the meat grinder of Illinois politics and willing to squander any and all goodwill players and coaches accrue.

There are other contenders, such as the Indiana lawmakers willing to subject their constituents to an astoundingly terrible economic development package just to lure the Monsters of the Midway a few feet east of the state line. Last week, we got a quote from a new contestant, Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia, who told the Daily Herald things would be different as soon as today, with the state House back in session and the primary election mostly settled:

“When you’re being asked to vote on something that is as massive as keeping the Bears in Illinois, it is important to get that election over with first so there’s not so much pressure on that political process,” Tinaglia told Christopher Placek.

Except, as noted here yesterday, it’s always campaign season in Illinois. True, sometimes the primary cycle can be more determinative of who actually serves in the Statehouse than the general election – thanks, gerrymandering! – but the idea that a bad bill can pass solely because of the date is less solid analysis and more positive self-talk.

It’s true, lawmakers can leverage calendar quirks like lame duck sessions to ram through otherwise unwieldy policy, but usually they’re suiting their own needs like revenue generation or partisan policies. That truth underscores what Bears boosters still haven’t fully embraced: Illinois is very much a “what’s in it for me?” state, and forcing taxpayers to cough up (only?) nine figures of infrastructure spending to grant a valuable private business entity’s real estate wishes won’t benefit lawmakers.

Those votes won’t help the Chicago Democrats, who face reputations for ushering the team from the city. They won’t aid the Representatives and Senators whose districts have their own infrastructure needs, be that transportation projects or the schools literally crumbling because the General Assembly stopped funding a construction grant program in 2004.

Tinaglia said stadium construction might last three years, but it could be 15 for “the adjoining mixed-use district – including hotels, restaurants, residential, office and medical space,” Placek said.

Who stands to benefit when public money enables those private developments? More directly: Whose constituents lose when statewide resources are channeled to just 326 acres?

You know the answer. Tell them directly.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.