SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
"RODNEY DANGERFIELD SYNDROME" AFFLICTS IL HOUSE REPUBLICANS -- THEY GET NO RESPECT

It’s called “dissing.” That’s slang for disrespect. Among those in the gang culture the response could be a bullet in the head  or a drive-by.

For the hapless band of 40 Republican Illinois state representatives it means looking for the nearest exit – as did House Republican leader Jim Durkin earlier this year when he resigned his seat. With 78 Democrats in the chamber, Republicans are “dissed” every minute of every session day. They are a bunch of Rodney Dangerfields. They get no respect.

But being a doormat does have one consolation and that is the compensation, which was raised to $85,000 last January. So 85K plus a plethora of chairs makes being in Springfield 60-90 days per year a bit more tolerable.

CHAIRS) FOR EVERYBODY: Every House Democrat wants a $10,000 chair, and I’m not talking about a La-Z-Boy. They want a committee chairpersonship which pays an extra 10K and boosts their salary to $95,000. And they all get one.

That’s because the House has 44 full committees and 49 subcommittees, enough to give some Democrats two chairs. That’s 93 full-chairs and sub-chairs. But luckily for taxpayers only full-chairs get the 10K. But then there’s the 93 Republican “minority spokespersons” (MS) on every panel. Every one of the 44 MS chairs ALSO get 10K. That’s surely $880,000 well-spent and shows true bi-partisanship.

The legislature is in session annually from the second Wednesday in January to June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Since they are in session only Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday until mid-May, then 5-6 days per week until adjournment (plus the 2-week fall “veto’ session), legislators are in Springfield 60-90 days per year. A committee meets only during the spring session, and then only when the speaker assigns a filed bill to it.

It hears testimony, considers amendments and may or may not “report out” an approved bill back to the speaker. Republican committee input is non-existent, as they are outnumbered 2-1. The speaker then may or may not schedule the bill for a floor “reading” and vote or kill it by not scheduling. However, every bill that now comes out of any of the 44 committees is pre-approved by Speaker Chris Welch (D). So committee Democrats are just going through the motions.

Then there the staffers. Every committee has at least two staffers hired by the speaker, some up to six. Republicans get half that number. That’s about 300 payrollers who have plenty of idle time after June 30. That’s when the brightest of the Democratic staffers go off-payroll and become field operatives or campaign managers for Democratic incumbents, their salary paid by the state party (DPI), which is funded by Governor JB Pritzker.

And then there’s the LEADERSHIP. In the IL House there are 118 members who have 26 “leaders,” a job deemed so important that they get an extra $19,000 atop their $85,000, which means 114K-a year. A “leader” is defined as a person who directs, commands or guides a group or activity. Thank goodness, for the measly cost of $494,000, the House has 26 of them (or 22 percent) who make sure that their 92 other colleagues don’t lose their way. It’s sort of like a long-ago cattle drive: Keep all those cows in the herd.

If this “help you” mentality were applied statewide, the 12,582,032 Illinoisans would have 2,768,047 “leaders.” Why didn’t Karl Marx think of that? Luckily for taxpayers the “leaders,” all of whom are also chairs, cannot collect that 10K, saving $260,000.

The Democrats have 16 “leaders,” including Welch, a majority leader, plus three “deputy” majority leaders and 9 “assistant” majority leaders, plus a caucus chair and sergeant-at-arms. Why not have 118 “leaders”? That would be inclusivity. Sensitive to “diversity,” the Democrats’ leadership is carefully balanced by race and gender, with Welch the first African American speaker. Republicans have just ten, including Brad Stephens (R-20), Rosemont’s mayor, who is an assistant minority leader.

HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? As recently as 2016 the House was 67D-51R. Democrats did not have a 70-vote super-majority. It’s now 78D-40R, meaning Republicans lost 11 seats in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles. Trump bears much of the blame. The Republican brand is toxic not only in Chicago (which has 26 Democrats) and the county suburbs, but also in the Collar Counties and exurbs. Democrats have elected state reps in Batavia, Gurnee, Grayslake, Crystal Lake, Plainfield, Oswego, Ottawa, Bloomington and Macomb. They also now hold seats in Bolingbrook, Naperville, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Elgin, Deerfield, Northbrook, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Glenview, Inverness, Elmwood Park and Des Plaines/Park Ridge. Those were Republican bastions 20 years ago.

Republicans are still clinging to seats in Woodstock, Lake Villa and Geneva, and barely so in Barrington, Wheaton and Hanover Park.

Democrats pledge to field candidates in all 118 districts for 2024, are targeting seven Republican seats (see chart) and expect an anti-Trump wave. In 2022 they let 26 Republicans run unopposed, including Durkin and Stephens. All the rest were from Downstate south of Springfield. Not next year. Democrats’ top targets will be the vacated seat of Durkin in Western Springs-Lemont, where John Egofske (R-82) was appointed, and Marty McLaughlin (R-52), ex-Barrington Hills mayor, who won by 2,029 votes in 2022.

Also targeted are Dan Ugaste (R-65), who won by 3,706 votes in Geneva; Amy Grant (R-47), who won by 2,850 votes in Wheaton; Jennifer Sanalitro (R-48), who won by 3,776 votes in Hanover Park;  and Steven Reick (R-63), who won by 2,347 votes in Woodstock. Welch will dump more than $1 million into each of the six

Republicans will be targeting Marty Moylan (D-55), who won by 2,632 votes in Des Plaines; Jenn Ladish Douglass (D-45), who won by 364 votes in Elmhurst; Nabeela Syed (D-51), who won by 2,928 in Inverness; Harry Benton (D-97), who won by 1,158 votes in Plainfield; Sharon Chang (D-91, who won by 1,641 votes in Bloomington; and Matt Hanson (D-83) who won by 2,877 votes in Aurora.

20TH DISTRICT: Stephens was unopposed in 2022. Democrats spent $2.6 million to beat Michael McAuliffe in 2016 in $2.1 million to beat Stephens in 2020. That won’t recur in 2024.

45TH WARD: In an abrupt reversal, alderman Jim Gardiner has decided NOT to run for re-election as ward Democratic committeeperson, a post he won by 292 votes in 2000. Joe Cook, the 41st Ward committeeperson (D) whose Wildwood home was remapped into the 45th is running instead.

Cook dawdled all summer waiting for Gardiner’s decision, having said he would not run against Gardiner because he didn’t see a path toward victory. The alderman announced in July, and Cook dropped out in August, about the same time as Michael Rabbitt, who ran for 15th District state rep in 2022, announced he was running. “I’m committed,” said Rabbitt, who has a fund-raiser this month and expects the endorsement of state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-15).

Rabbitt is unknown south of Devon and needs LaPointe’s imprimatur to (1) keep a Portage Park “progressive” out of the contest and (2) consolidate the ward’s 7-8,000 anti-Gardiner base behind him. Rabbitt was planning an anti-Gardiner campaign. He is altering that to an anti-Cook/Gardiner campaign. Cook cannot straddle the issue: He’s either WITH Gardiner or NOT.

It should be remembered that the 2023 turnout was 17,707, and Gardiner won by 1,274. The 2020 primary (D) turnout was 10,826. This has every sign of ending badly for Cook. But he still has a better chance than Gardiner did.

Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com

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