Illinois Democrats are No Longer the Party of Free and Fair Elections
Senate President Don Harmon, who helped shepherd a bill ending the practice of slating candidates for the November election after the primary, helping Democrats avoid general election challenges.
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OPINION
Sometimes, the hypocrisy just makes me laugh out loud.
In fact, I’m glad I wasn’t in the Senate chamber Thursday when Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) commented on Senate President Don Harmon’s legislation to end the process allowing the slating candidates after the primary for the November election.
I may have snickered and gotten thrown out of the chamber.
McClure sat on the Senate redistricting committee, which held a bunch of sham virtual meetings in 2021 while Democrats in a back room gerrymandered a map that made their supermajority nearly bulletproof for the next ten years.
“You already get to pick your voters, now you want to pick your opponents,” McClure zinged in Harmon’s direction Thursday as Democrats rushed a bill to protect one vulnerable Democrat through the House and Senate in about 24 hours.
“Democrats don’t want to pick our opponents.,” Harmon said in response. “We want the voters to. There are still opportunities for folks who didn’t choose to run in a primary election to get on the ballot, [such as] running as an independent, running as a new party candidate. Those are decisions for the voters.”
Mhmm.
Look, slating is very rarely successful. But I strongly support the idea of giving voters a choice.
Think about this: if you have the inclination to run for state office, you have to invest more than a year of your life to it. You can begin circulating petitions in September. You file those petitions in November. The primary is in March and the general is in November. That’s a whole 14 months.
What’s to say someone shouldn’t have the ability to get into a race when there’s an open spot after a primary? What if an incumbent gets indicted? Not like that’s ever happened in Illinois. There’s one member of the Senate currently under the indictment, you know.
There’s a blatant track record among Democratic leaders in the General Assembly to consolidate power and limit the choices of voters in this state. It’s like Madigan on political steroids.
Voters in Illinois deserve fair, impartially drawn legislative maps that are fair and competitive (which, by the way, Governor Pritzker supported during the 2018 campaign before he flip-flopped on the issue.)
Voters in Illinois deserve more choices at the ballot box, meaning fewer restrictions on ballot access for challengers and independent candidates, and, yes, the ability to slate a candidate later in the cycle.
Voters in Illinois deserve campaign finance reform so we know immediately where the money is coming from and what candidate is paid for by a union or a billionaire or a special interest.
Voters in Illinois deserve better.
At least, they deserve a hell of a lot better than they’re getting today.
I don’t know if this clunky, sinister plot to protect Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) actually ends up hurting her in November or not, but it shows Democrats are worried about her and it shows what lengths they’ll go to protect an incumbent.
Those lengths are the kinds of moves that make you question the democratic intentions of politicians.
Protecting democracy is on the top of mind of a lot of Illinois voters. I’ve seen the polling.
Perhaps they should be looking at Illinois Democrats and the lengths those politicians will go to subvert the will of the people, too.
