Pekin Mayor Mark Luft will join the Illinois House in January, filling the seat held by retiring 91st District state Rep. Mike Unes, R-East Peoria, and following in the footsteps of his father, Dick Luft, who served in both General Assembly chambers from 1975-93 as a Democrat.
Running as a Republican with a focus on ethics reform and economic recovery, Luft gained 64% of the vote in his race against Democrat Josh Grys, a former teacher from Pekin. In a conversation with Joe Deacon, Luft discusses the election, party affiliation, a need for leadership change in the House, and his plans for his current elected office.
Joe Deacon: What are your thoughts or reflections on the campaign and the fairly decisive election results?
Luft: The campaign went very well. I've always been blessed with good teams, as I was this time, too. We worked very hard to get this done, and we succeeded, obviously, and all the credit goes to my team. So I'm proud to say that I worked with them, and I hope to keep them by my side through my tenure down there as well.
I think it helped, my background as a council member and as mayor. One of the good things about that is those two positions, you did not have to declare party. So everything that we've gotten done over the last 5½ years, especially the last two, people have seen who I am, what I'm about what I'm trying to get done, and the hard work that's being put in to get us to a better place. And I think a lot of people correlated that by not having a party attachment, to show that (when) you put party attachments aside how much you can actually get them when you work together.
So when the state rep. position came up, you do have to declare a party and I declared my party. But I think most people feel like regardless of the party I would have declared, that my main goal is to get us back to working together, getting things done. Each party has always had their own agenda items; they do now, and they always will. But there's a whole pool of agenda items out there that have to do with the quality of life for the for the rest of us that are still living here in Illinois, and it's important to work together to get those issues resolved to improve the quality and address the needs of the people - despite party.
I understand your father Dick also served in the General Assembly, albeit with different party affiliation. What advice or guidance or inspiration have you received from him, either directly or through observation?
Luft: You know, he's been the best resource anybody could ever ask for. My father had a great reputation here. As a kid growing up, I watched everything he did, saw his focus on helping people moving things forward, and lifting the community, and that stuck with me. That's what I've done in just about every arena that I've been in.
Again, my dad was a Democrat during his terms, but he was also known as the aisle guy. He knew how to bring people together and get things done and work together. It's a philosophy that works.
So I chose to carry that same philosophy and I'll take that down … I did that with the city, and we've had big payoffs with that, and I'm excited to take that same philosophy down to Springfield, to a bigger arena where we can get bigger things done and help a lot more people.
Building off the difference in party affiliation there from your father, can you detail what has led to the difference in between the parties and what has changed, in your opinion?
Luft: Well, to be honest with you I hear from a lot of people – before I even got into this, I heard it from people that they were switching parties, that they didn't feel ... and it was both (parties) to be honest with you. I heard Democrats say they didn't feel like the party was focused on the things that they were in the past, that it was a different party, and I heard some similar comments about the Republicans as well. I think both (parties) have gone through changes that have affected people's choice of affiliation with each one.
As I watched and worked with our legislators, being in the municipal business – the local government, I felt like the Republican Party was trying to focus more on getting things done, and not so much separation. It always doesn't show that way with either party, but I think that there's a true genuine drive, especially with the teams that the Republicans have been building the last three or four years, that they want to do better things. They want to be there for the people. They want to be fiscally responsible. And I feel like most of the separation between the two parties – and I feel bad saying this – is coming from the other side.
My father even mentioned to me at one time – and he's 82 years old now, and obviously follows everything and recognizes the changes – but he made a comment to me through this that if he were to go into politics these days, he would probably go in as a Republican.
So both parties are trying to rebuild. Both parties need to step back and understand that we're both here for the people; we're not here just for our party, we're here for the people. We both have our own drives, but we do need to work together on that common ground. And those are the bridges I want to build down in Springfield.
Beyond that, what goals or accomplishments do you hope to achieve for the state and for the 91st District? What are some of the issues facing the state that you hope to address?
Luft: Well, I think the major issue that everybody's aware of now is ethics reform. We're not going to move forward and get anything done until we can get that back to a common ground, where those people in the state of Illinois trust what's going on in Springfield. If you don't have that, you're not going to move quickly. You're not going to move anything, to be honest with you.
We've had the same leadership in place for decades. Until that leadership changes and we focus on a new direction – especially in ethics and an understanding of why we're there – we're still not going to get anything done. So you can build the best team in the state and send them to Springfield, but ultimately, it'll all start with the leadership change and hopefully we've reached the point to where everybody recognizes that and we can move forward with that first step.
After that, it's a rebuilding process, and I think during that rebuilding process people will recognize how needed that leadership change … how much we needed that, and I think we'll be able to move forward in a positive direction from there.
It should be a common feeling to get that done. When you live in a state that is ranked at the bottom of the ladder in so many categories, you would think everybody would be throwing up their arms saying, ‘You know what? We need to start all over and rebuild this.’ And I feel like Springfield is finally at that point. It's overdue, but I think that Springfield is at that point.
Mike Unes represented the district for the past 10 years. What do you intend to do to follow his service for the last decade? What will change, and what will remain consistent with you as representative?
Luft: Mike Unes was very good at building relationships and a network. I've been fortunate in my position to be part of that network, and to grow mine as well along with his. So those relationships in that network will continue to grow in this district, and they'll continue to grow in Springfield.
The groups that supported me and endorsed me, one thing they always said at the end of the conversation is ‘let us know if there's anything we can do for you’ – and it should be the other way around, and I told them that. At the end of those conversations, it should be me telling them, ‘let me know what I can do for you.’ That's where the relationships and the networks come in. If you're not communicating and having those relationships, you're not aware of what the district needs.
Each city has their own different needs and wants; East Peoria is different than Canton, Canton is different than Pekin. So you have to you have to really be engaged and communicate with all entities so you know what needs done, where they need help, what you can do to help them move forward. So the relationships that that Mike built, will definitely benefit me, and I will continue those.
And Mike had a great work ethic, which I feel I do as well, and Mike did his homework, and that's who I am, too. Everybody at City Hall knows the white boards in my office and how much time I spend on the phone. I'm on nine different boards and committees, and it's important to stay in touch with your region as a mayor, not just the city. So my drive to reach out to the region and be involved there will certainly help my position as a state rep., because I'm very aware of what the region needs and the district. And I feel very blessed to have the relationships that I do here.
What are your plans regarding your mayoral term? There's still just over three years until the office is on the ballot, again, is it possible to home both offices simultaneously, at least temporarily?
Luft: It is. Actually, I believe there are three other state reps. right now in Springfield who continue to hold their mayor's position. I think it's the only state office that you can still hold your mayor's position; I think you can still, as a state rep., you can even hold your county board seat, if you are still in that term during the election.
When I decided to run for this, I pulled staff together and the council and told them what I was asked to do and what I wanted to do, and I had a unanimous opinion that ‘we support you, and we want you to stay here.’ I think a lot of that support came knowing that I was going to be able to fulfill my obligation as mayor, if I did win the election.
So the timing of this: We had the election this month, the swear-in would be Jan. 13, and municipal election is just a blink of an eye after that in April, the first Tuesday in April. And right now we have the potential of three council seats changing. So after that election, the swearing in for the new council seats would be second or third week of May.
Tentatively, I would be out of (General Assembly) session by the end of May, and at that point we could regroup with staff and the new council and sit down and see where we are at with our projects – what we have left on our list to get done, which is a lengthy one – and see what the first session brought as being a State Rep. and mayor, and where we are timewise and juggling all of that.
I have a really good team at City Hall, we have a really good council. I have an outstanding city manager. We have moved forward and restructured most of the departments in City Hall. So we're in a really good place right now.
And COVID has kind of given us a little background of what it would be like (to work remotely). With City Hall shut down for periods, Zoom and conference calls obviously have taken over everything. So I feel like we're in a position that we can continue this ball rolling in a positive direction on both ends. If I didn't have the staff and I didn't the team that's in City Hall, I might have reconsidered. But it's such a good team there, that I feel like it is certainly possible for us to continue to move forward in the same direction.
On top of that, I've seen (municipal) appointments before and there can be some issues with that. I've always been a firm believer that if we were to have a new mayor here, I think it's the right of the community to pick their next mayor, and not the seven people that are sitting in the Chamber.
That's how it would work then, it would be the council members who would pick your replacement if you were to resign?
Luft: Yes, for most important appointments the way it usually works is the mayor chooses an appointment and then that has to be approved by the council. We did have, when I came in as mayor – right when I came in as mayor – we had an empty council seat that had two years left on that term. So my very first step as mayor when I got elected was an appointment. I chose to do it a little bit different: I reached out to the community and let them know that there was a vacant seat. I allowed people to submit resumes or letters of interest, and as I received those, I put those up to the council so that they could review those, and we did it as a team.
We walked through those and we looked at all of them, and we made an effort together to pick out of the applicants who would be the best person to put in that seat. So I'm not all about any kind of dictatorship; I'm more about this team. So we did that together, and if we reached a point where there was a decision made that it would be in the best interest for me to resign and stay focused on the state rep. aspect, then I would insist on the same process that we use before: that we would make that appointment as a team and not just the mayor standing up and saying who he wanted in there.
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