In the battle to protect the little guy who takes out a payday loan, Illinois state lawmakers can listen to two groups.

They can listen to the consumer advocates trying to look out for the Average Joes, who have so little money they need to get payday loans with sky-high interest rates.

Or lawmakers can listen to the lobbyists representing the big-money lenders, who have a ton of cash and donate millions of it to politicians.

Guess who gets the most attention in Springfield?

The payday loan industry showers millions of dollars in donations on lawmakers across the country as they look to keep their lucrative industry lucrative.

And of all the nation's lawmakers, those in Illinois get the biggest chunk, ranking first in the country, according to a study that looked at contributions from 1999 to 2006.

Of the 10 states that got the most money -- $9.5 million in total -- Illinois lawmakers' share was $2.5 million, according to the study done by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Turns out the contributions were a good investment.

From 1999 to 2006, more than 50 bills were introduced in Illinois to regulate the payday loan industry.

Three passed.

Two courageously recommended study of the industry.

One actually imposed a number of regulations, which the industry promptly figured out a way around.

In Springfield, big money buys big access.

"It's the kind of access that my group can't compete with," says Lynda DeLaforgue, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois, which is fighting again this year to beef up regulation of the payday loan industry.

If you need a concrete reason why Illinois needs campaign finance reform, look no further than how lawmakers have failed taxpayers on this issue.

Right now, Illinois is one of the few states without any limits on how much people can give to state lawmakers. Gov. Quinn's Illinois Reform Commission -- along with a host of good-government groups -- has recommended putting caps on the campaign donations, using the federal limits as a guide.

Under those restrictions, for example, a person couldn't give more than $2,400 to a politician per election.

We know imposing such limits won't wash corruption out of the Illinois.

Far from it.

But it will limit the leverage of the big-money players.

And that's a start.

We're not buying the arguments going around Springfield as to why federal limits wouldn't work for Illinois. We hear the scoffs, that campaign contribution limits have done little to clean up Washington.

So, of course, that's an excellent reason to do nothing here.

We hear the argument that the good-government advocates have never made a political contribution in their lives, so they've never been part of the process and have little basis to criticize it.

By that reasoning, you should never question how a teacher is instructing your kid if you've never been a teacher.

You should never criticize your local politicians because you've never run for office.

And you should never try to shut down a house of ill repute since you've never . . . well, you get the idea.

One argument that has actual merit is that the proposed state campaign donation limits, like the federal limits, are too low and will force our state lawmakers to spend too much time raising money, leaving too little time to do their actual jobs.

U.S. senators and representatives, though, somehow cope with those contribution limits.

And we'd be more receptive to the productivity argument, if state lawmakers were actually, you know, productive in the first place.

Now is the time for change in Illinois. Now is the time to pick up the phone, send an e-mail or mail a letter to your state representatives and most important, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. You can find contact information on the next page.

Or you can do nothing.

And nothing is what you'll get in return.