Your Questions...Answered!
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf smokes a cigar before a 2021 playoff game. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
I like to periodically open it up to your questions. Thanks to all who submitted. We’re not going to use any names to protect identities and employers and biases and all that stuff. Don’t worry, there is plenty of opinion to be found here.
Is the White Sox strategy for public funding of a new ballpark one of the worst high profile efforts of the session?
It may be one of the worst high profile efforts of any recent session.
The Sox, which may be the most poorly run professional franchise in the city, and that’s saying something, just seemed to believe the General Assembly and Governor would jump right on board their idea of $2 billion in taxpayer financing to replace a ballpark the state still owes money on and sits about 55% empty during most home games.
88-year-old Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who got a sweetheart deal from Gov. Jim Thompson for the current Sox park in 1988, made a trip to Springfield earlier this spring to pitch the idea to legislative leaders.
It didn’t go so well.
“I made it clear to them then that there’s next to no appetite to fund a new stadium with taxpayer dollars,” Senate President Don Harmon said last week.
The Sox, at least publicly, have done nothing since to change the minds of weary lawmakers and a Governor who has said repeatedly he doesn’t want public money used for a privately owned professional sports team.
The Bears, in the meantime, are doing a far better job of changing their message and strategy. They’re trying to focus on the City of Chicago, where you’re going to find city lawmakers far more willing to keep the team in town than vote for them to vacate to the suburbs. They’ve hired a better lobbyist with ties to Gov. Pritzker and have tried to get their ducks in a row before they put a full proposal out there.
Maybe the Sox should take some notes.
How hard is it going to be for Democrats to hammer out a budget deal?
That’s the $50-some-billion dollar question, isn’t it? Obviously, Governor Pritzker’s budget proposal from February is going to be the blueprint used for budget negotiations, but there are a bunch of progressive Democrats, in the House especially, that really want to use their supermajority to start enacting some big new programs.
“Tax the rich,” progressive Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) told me in February.
But, it’s long been Springfield practice for Democrats not to get near a tax increase in an election year, and that doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards this year, either.
My guess is there will be some grumbling from progressives, but they’re not going to buck the most progressive Governor in the history of the state for not being progressive enough.
Will Republicans be at the table at all?
History tells you no. House GOP budgeteer Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) told me last night it’s been “crickets” from House Democrats and their budgeteer, Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria). We asked Speaker Welch’s spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll if Democrats planned to have “substantive” budget discussions with the House GOP, and she replied “yes.” Remember, last year, Speaker Welch blamed Republicans for being unwilling to put any votes on the budget when they were essentially barred from any discussions. So, we’ll see if that changes.
In the Senate, it’s a little less clear at this point. Democrats did have some talks with Republicans last year, though it’s hard to believe they were little more than performative. We’ll keep an eye out, though.
Does anyone in Springfield take Republicans seriously at this point?
It’s looking less and less so, isn’t it? They’re in a tough spot, for sure.
Republicans in a supermajority have two choices: they can either try to govern or they can try to raise hell. I don’t think either caucus has picked a lane.
The Prisoner Review Board issue is a good example. While Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) made the media rounds, including on our podcast, Senate Republicans also introduced a bill reforming PRB. But, it went nowhere because they didn’t engage with any moderate Democrats to try to put together a bipartisan bill that had some a better chance than a snowball in Miami on a July day.
It’s been crickets from them since then. So, they aren’t making a campaign issue out of it by screaming from the rooftops everyday and they aren’t making a serious legislative play, either. They’re just kind of there.
The House Republicans have watched the pitch go by on a bunch of issues, too, so it’s not just PRB.
We’re less than seven months from Election Day and do you know what Republicans in Illinois stand for? I sure don’t.
Does losing his county chairman race solve the mystery about why former Rep. Tim Ozinga quit?
I don’t know that it’s related. County parties are pretty weird things. But, now you know why he rushed the timeline to appoint now-Rep. Patrick Sheehan (R-Lockport) to his seat, losing his chairmanship just five days later.
I wrote about Ozinga’s odd resignation the other day and the clunky way he appears to be rolling out a statewide campaign for 2026.
He’s a smart dude, but I don’t understand the strategy.
Can Republicans pick up any seats in the House or Senate with Trump on the ballot?
I’m on record saying I think Republicans will lose seats in the House.
Seven House Republicans represent districts Joe Biden won in 2020. If you really twisted my arm today, I’d tell you four of them probably lean Democrat today.
Some of them, like Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) are just doing a pitiful job of fundraising. Grant raised $200 in the first quarter of the year.
Not a typo. $200.
Biden won her district by 12 in 2020 and they almost beat her without going hard after her in 2022. She just looks like a sitting duck right now.
And Trump doesn’t really help them with pickup opportunities, either. Former Rep. Dennis Reboletti is a great candidate in the DuPage County district being vacated by Rep. Jenn Ladisch-Douglass (D-Elmhurst). Same goes for potential candidates against Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Downers Grove), Rep. Maura Hirschauer (D-Batavia), Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville), or even Rep. Sharon Chung (D-Bloomington), who has a lot of urban Bloomington-Normal and Peoria.
None of the Senate seats on the ballot are really seriously in play, though I was previously told they hoped to play in as many as seven districts. That field has probably narrowed to more like two, but they don’t have anywhere near the money that Senate Democrats have (Don Harmon is sitting on more than $12 million) and the gerrymandered map is just killer for the GOP this cycle.
Does Rep. Marty McLaughlin (R-Barrington Hills) know he’s in a Tier One race in a district Joe Biden won?
It sure doesn’t seem like it. House Republicans are just banging their heads against their desks with McLaughlin, who is easily one of the three most vulnerable House Republicans in November.
He has improved his fundraising prospects a little in the last few months, but he’s made a few questionable decisions in the process.
In March, he posted a photo on Twitter with disgraced election denier Mike Lindell. House Democrats just took a screenshot and let the mail piece write itself.
He published an op-ed in the Daily Herald this week attacking migrants, vaccines, and JB Pritzker’s COVID policies. He’s running in the suburbs, not Metropolis.
There are photos floating around of him at this week’s March for Life outside the Capitol when Democrats are dying to make abortion the only issue that counts in that district.
He faces Democrat Maria Peterson, who gave Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) a run for his money out of nowhere last year. Democrats are going to go hard after this district. Hard.
Why don’t Republicans raise any money?
This is not a new issue. I’ve written about it extensively.
A lot can be traced back to Bruce Rauner pushing a bunch of business interests and bigtime donors out of the pool from 2014-2018 and none of them have ever gotten back in the game. Fundraising lists just kind of disappeared.
Sure, Democrats have an advantage with the kind of fundraising machines unions are. But, business can be that for Republicans. They just have to find a reason to get them invested. Maybe the Illinois Chamber under new leadership will start making its PAC a force.
Tony McCombie is doing a good job in her current predicament, but, man, it’s such an uphill battle.
JB Pritzker is totally running for President in 2028, isn’t he?
As Harry Caray once said, “as sure as God made green apples.”
