The organization also acts as a lobbyist, primarily in the Illinois state legislature, on behalf of governmental reform issues.
Its adopted positions are generally liberal, and in recent years the organization, more often than not, endorses Democrats.
The IVI-IPO supported Harold Washington in the Illinois House of Representatives and as Mayor of Chicago during the 1980s "Council Wars."
On January 13, 1996 the IVI-IPO endorsed community organizer Barack Obama early in his first attempt at elected office, his first run for the Illinois Senate.
[7] In 2009, the IVI-IPO filed suit claiming the City of Chicago’s 2008 concession agreement for the operation of its parking meters to a private company violated state law.