Where Have the Downstate Moderate Democrats Gone?
Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) is one of the remaining moderate downstate Democrats in the legislature.
This time ten years ago, rural Democrats were well represented in Springfield. Dan Beiser, John Bradley, Dan Reitz, Gary Forby, Mike Frerichs, and John Sullivan all represented wide swaths of rural constituents from Champaign and Quincy to the Ohio River.
With the exception of Frerichs, who is now State Treasurer, today, they’re all gone from Springfield. A couple of their districts still remain in Democratic hands, but many have flipped to Republicans in recent years and even the latest Democrat remap gives their party few avenues for growth in southern and central Illinois.
One of the most visible downstate moderates is Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign), he, along with Sen. Rachelle Crowe (D-Glen Carbon) are two of the downstate members most likely to break with their Chicago-centric counterparts. Bennett will likely lose Crowe at some point this year as she has been nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.
We sat down with Sen. Bennett Monday n Champaign and we talked for close to an hour about this predicament for Democrats. They’ve become virtually irrelevant in rural areas and, in turn, no Democratic representation in those areas has left many struggling areas on the outside looking in when they need help from the state or federal government.
Bennett, who represents much of Democrat-trending Champaign-Urbana isn’t your stereotypical college town liberal. He grew up on a farm in Ford County and was a prosecutor before being appointed to replace Frerichs in the Senate.
“I think what we’ve seen in the last ten years or so is that there are certainly fewer moderates,” Bennett said. “I think that is being show in the legislation that has come from the caucuses, quite frankly.”
He said moderates were able to bring legislation more toward the center. That is more difficult today.
“What we’d see is a lot more of the tweaking, a lot more of the [rewriting of a bill],” Bennett said. “So the sponsor would still get a bill passed, perhaps, but it wouldn’t have some of the components of the bill that opponents would find so objectionable.”
As both parties have abandoned traditional centrist candidates [think Mark Kirk and Dan Lipinski], it has opened the door for more partisan lawmakers to take their places.
“The national landscape plays a big role in this,” a longtime Democratic operative, who asked not to be identified, said. “Many former moderate Democrat voters were pushed out by Obama and Pelosi and the Trump people took them. I don’t know how we get them back, or if we can ever get them back.”
“The Democratic Party has done a terrible job of outreach to rural communities nationally,” Bennett said. “They often don’t see the benefit of the Democratic Party. To the extent they don’t see a party helping and they see positions out of D.C. or elsewhere that are farther than what they can agree with, it’s easy for voters to throw everyone into one basket.”
Bennett defended Democratic redistricting that strengthened existing “blue” districts while numerous rural districts have gotten larger, and more conservative, due to population loss.
Bennett says he attempts to personally call every constituent who wants to talk about a bill or issue, whether they agree or not.
“They at least want an explanation about a bill that’s either coming up, or they want to tell me how I should vote on it,” Bennett said. “A lot of my role in this district, which is absolutely divided close to down the middle, is give people a chance to explain why they want me to vote one way or another. And I take a lot of time in the summer to do town halls and go where constituents are. I think what drives people crazy is the idea that their legislator thinks they don’t have to listen to people or they know best all the time.”