State politics smitten with incurable plague Carol Marin: Nepotitis. Unlike erectile dysfunction, the heartbreak of psoriasis or restless leg syndrome, there's no treatment for this one. No vaccine to prevent it. No antibodies to battle it. Nepotitis is that rabid contagion of the Illinois political persuasion that infects whole families. We witnessed another case of it just this week when state Senate President Emil Jones announced his sudden, post-primary retirement together with his plan to plant his son, Emil Jones III, on the November ballot.