Can Mayoral Wins Outside Chicago Be a Blueprint for GOP?
Naperville Mayor-Elect Scott Wehrli celebrates with supporters Tuesday evening. (Photo: Daily Herald)
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While much has been made of Chicago’s significant turn leftward electing a new mayor aligned with “Democratic Socialists,” candidates to the right of center won mayoral races in large cities in Illinois like Naperville, Joliet, Springfield, and Champaign.
“Outside of Brandon Johnson, Tuesday was a very good night for center-right candidates,” suburban GOP consultant Collin Corbett said. “In many municipal and township races around the state we saw the fiscally conservative, center-right candidates do very well. Voters vote for the center-right agenda at the local level. Now we have to connect the dots to the higher level races.”
While mayoral races are officially non-partisan, it is often clear who is the Republican and who is the Democrat in the races.
In Naperville, GOP-backed candidate Scott Wehrli defeated Deomocratic-backed City Councilman Benny White. In Springfield, the GOP backed City Treasurer Misty Buscher in her defeat of Democrat-backed incumbent Jim Langfelder. Numerous Republicans and business owners supported Terry D’Arcy in Joliet over incumbent Bob O’Dekirk, though D’Arcy has a background of financially supporting candidates of both parties.
Can it be a blueprint for Republicans moving forward after multiple election cycles of
Another suburban GOP consultant who asked not be named so the could speak freely, said there was a common thread among the winning candidates.
“They all ran as moderates, they appealed to independents, and they won,” the consultant said. “In contrast, [far-right backed] school board candidates lost most or all of their races.”
In Springfield, Buscher was a two-term City Treasurer who denied Langfelder a third term. She turned around Republican luck in a city where Democrat JB Pritzker won in 2022.
A downstate GOP consultant, who asked not to be identified, said Buscher ran a localized campaign.
“Last fall there were Republicans on the top of the ticket that made [Springfield] voters respond by just voting no,” the operative said. “Misty did a good job of talking about the issues in the city and how to move the city forward.”
The operative said while local Democrats tried to tie Buscher to Donald Trump, she successfully navigated the issue and kept her campaign focused on local issues.
"I voted for the candidate who I thought was going to bring new jobs, job creation, corporations back to our states," Buscher said at a forum in January, according to the State Journal-Register. "That person did not govern the way I thought they did with that vote."
Though, it may be easier for Democrats to tie Republicans in legislative or congressional races the unpopular (at least in Illinois) former president.
“It’s harder to do when you don’t have R’s and D’s listed,” the suburban consultant said.
But, Corbett says, while Democrats tried to nationalize issues, GOP-backed candidates were better because they were committed to the community.
“It all comes down to candidate quality,” Corbett said. “This is how the Republican Party wins in the future is recruiting quality candidates.
D’Arcy, Wehrli, Buscher were all accomplished, well-known members of the communities they ran in
“These weren’t new names for voters, they weren’t new brands,” he said. “That’s the model for candidates going forward. Voters are looking for governing leaders and they’re going to trust somebody that’s been involved in the community, who cares about the community, and is going to have the community’s best interest at heart. It’s these types of people that we want to find to run at the state and federal levels.”
Candidate recruitment is an ongoing issue for Republicans, who have had a hard time convincing high quality candidates to get into the Springfield political mess.
The downstate consultant says there are tips for Republicans to follow watching the successful mayoral candidates.
“Talk about issues and what you want to do. Don’t just say ‘no’ to everything,”
the operative said. “Show voters that you want to govern in a conservative way that will lower your taxes, grow our economy, and move our communities and state forward.”
But, not all Republicans see the local election success Tuesday translating to legislative and congressional races.
“So long as the GOP is aligned with Trump, it is dead in the suburbs,” said former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady. “A suburban strategy can’t follow the ‘south of I-64’ blueprint.”