Illinois legislators will only get a brief post-election respite from politics. A week from today they’ll be back in Springfield to begin the veto session. The current makeup of the General Assembly will remain in place for that. But come the new year … when the Capitol welcomes a new set of lawmakers elected last night … the balance of power will shift ... slightly. Illinois Public Radio's Amanda Vinicky has the story.
Election Day is like the Super Bowl of politics.
And while Gov. Bruce Rauner is the Republican Party’s standard-bearer, he had no public events yesterday.
The Republican quietly cast his ballot Tuesday morning back home in Winnetka, then watched the results come in last night in private at the executive mansion in Springfield.
But despite his physical absence, Rauner made sure his presence was felt across Illinois, and in a big way.
He spent more than $30 million dollars bankrolling legislative races.
It’s part of his attempt to break the Democratic grip on the legislature, a grip that thus far has stifled Rauner’s agenda. That, in turn, has led to a partisan stalemate that’s left Illinois without a real budget, and with an all-too-real deficit.
Rauner has frequently put the onus on Democrats to break the stalemate:
“If the Speaker and the General Assembly doesn’t want to take up reforms … then they should go ahead and pass a tax hike. They have a supermajority. They’re fully capable of increasing the taxes.”
Rauner won’t be able to use that excuse anymore.
A brief primer here.
A supermajority means one party has at least 3/5ths of the seats in the House or the Senate, that’s how many votes are needed to override a governor’s veto.
In the Illinois Senate, that takes 36 votes. And Democrats have 39 seats – a super, supermajority, if you will.
Republicans chipped at that some, but only a net gain of two seats. Democrats in the Senate still have a supermajority, with an extra vote to spare.
But in the Illinois House it’s a different story.
Unless you managed to stay away from a TV all campaign season, you surely heard a Republican ad like this one –
“Mike Madigan made a fortune on tax appeals, forcing you to pay more … It’s an inside game…”
Ads that both denigrate the longtime Speaker of the Illinois House, while at the same time exalting Michael Madigan as an all-powerful master of puppets.
Madigan has had a supermajority of 71 Democrats (though they’ve rarely been united enough to ACTUALLY override Rauner vetoes).
That will soon end. Republicans gained a net of FOUR seats in the Illinois House. Meaning: No more supermajority.
“This is about southern Illinois, this is about the state of Illinois. And you know what it shows to me, that there’s hope, if you stay true to your dream, if you stay true to your Lord, then he’ll guide and direct you. It may take some time …”
Dave Severin – a Benton businessman – is one of the GOP victors.
“We can get jobs back here. Stop people leaving here as far as businesses and people having to leave the area because there aren’t jobs. Fund education. Take care of senior citizens. All the different things that my opponent said … I’m not going to go there, sorry, you guys got TV cameras on, I’m not going to talk about that stuff.”
Severin’s opponent: Democratic Rep. John Bradley … one of Madigan’s top lieutenants.
It’s a big win for Rauner, and Republicans. In a statement, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin says Illinois voters sent a message that Democrats should get on board with Rauner’s agenda.
But Madigan and his fellow Democrats heard something different.
They did end the election with big statewide wins. Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth easily bested incumbent Republican Mark Kirk in a race the race for U.S. Senate.
And Gov. Rauner’s handpicked choice for Comptroller, Leslie Munger, lost her job to Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza. In a statement, the Speaker says voters showed they want to keep strong democratic majorities in the legislature, to serve as a check on the governor.
Madigan says it was a “difficult environment” for many Democratic candidates, thanks to Rauner’s unprecedented millions, coupled with “the Trump headwind in downstate Illinois.”
Trump did well in those regions, even though Illinois as a whole went strongly for Clinton.
The changes coming in Springfield, combined with the economic uncertainty that’s greeted Trump’s victory, mean the “difficult environment" will not soon be getting any easier.
