Illinois Democrats concluded their virtual national convention with a ready response to counter divisions over their leadership — focus on unifying around defeating Republican President Donald Trump.
It’s the same response Democrats nationally applied to try healing the continued split between the party’s progressive wing embodied by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and its establishment side represented by presidential nominee Joe Biden.
But for Illinois Democrats, the divisions are much deeper and say much about the near-term direction of the state party.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also is the state’s Democratic Party chairman, finds his leadership under growing fire after being implicated in an alleged bribery scheme involving ComEd.
The state’s largest utility has agreed to pay a $200 million fine and cooperate with investigators for three years for what federal prosecutors said was a yearslong scheme to win influence from Madigan through contracts and jobs given to Madigan allies.
Madigan has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has denied taking any improper legislative action. But it has not stopped a growing chorus of Democrats from asking him to step down from his role as the nation’s longest statehouse speaker, his party chairmanship, or both.
In a pandemic-created virtual political world, Madigan escaped any direct questioning about his political and governmental tenure. But some Democrats have argued he has become a serious political distraction in a year when the party had looked to not only retain but make gains on its majority status in the legislature and congressional delegation.
Madigan has long been the point man for Republican criticism of Illinois’ problems, an issue amplified during Republican Bruce Rauner’s successful 2014 run for governor, the 2016 legislative elections and in Rauner’s 2018 loss to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
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While Rauner is gone from the state’s political scene, Madigan’s allies in organized labor and some Democratic officials are looking to resurrect those battles between the former Republican governor and Democratic House speaker for another round this November.
Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and a Moline native, warned the state’s delegation to “stay united, focus on what the prize is. The prize is Nov. 3 and getting rid of Trump.”
“I think about what happens when you take your eye off the ball. You know, we lost the governorship for one term with Rauner and Rauner got in there and just … wanted to follow suit with what happened in Wisconsin. He was out to try to destroy labor. He had an anti-union agenda from day one,” Stephenson told delegates, referencing Illinois’ neighboring state to the north’s move to enact a so-called right to work law.
“But thankfully we had our friends that controlled the House and the Senate in Illinois that stuck by us, stuck by labor,” he said. “Congratulations to you all, you booted him out after one term.”
Stephenson said Democrats shouldn’t think that “couldn’t happen in the state of Illinois because it can and we cannot ever let it happen.”
“Stay close, our labor friends. Stay working with the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate and now the governor,” he said.
Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, also brought back the political ghost of Rauner in urging Democrats to not forget the working class — something that hurt the party in Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump four years ago.
“When the Democratic Party nationally forgets its connection to regular people, to working people, to labor, it loses its soul,” Reiter said. “We have the opportunity as Illinois Democrats to help the rest of the country win back the American worker. We showed Bruce Rauner the door. Donald Trump, you’re next.”
The Rauner reminder wasn’t limited to organized labor.
“I can’t wait to get rid of this horrible virus that has infected our country. And I also can’t wait to get rid of COVID-19,” Comptroller Susana Mendoza said, appearing to wait for a virtual rimshot before turning more serious and critical before delegates.
“As comptroller, I’ve witnessed firsthand how bad leadership has hurt Illinois, mainly because of two Republicans. … These two Republicans have a lot in common. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner who nearly crippled our state over political ideology and now President Donald Trump who has botched the White House response to the COVID-19 pandemic and tanked our economy,” Mendoza said.
“Both thrive on chaos and uncertainty. Both made us a laughingstock to our neighbors and our allies. And both vigorously pursued policies that harm women, working families and marginalized populations,” she said.
Democrats and Pritzker have expressed concerns that the issues surrounding Madigan could translate to voter rejection of the new governor’s signature agenda item — a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot to move Illinois from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated-rate tax structure.
As a final message to delegates, Pritzker urged them to push for the tax change as part of their phone banking and organizing activities, noting that it would “no longer require essential workers to pay the same tax rate as millionaires.”
“There’s never been a better time,” Pritzker said of the tax change. It would raise billions of dollars for state government at a time when it is on the hook for potentially billions in loan repayments to deal with pandemic-caused tax shortages with no federal aid in sight.
Trump, who has been frequently vilified by Pritzker over his leadership, returned the favor Thursday night in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News over Democrats seeking aid to the states in a new coronavirus federal relief package.
“So people, all they want to do is get bailout money for their governors who have done so badly in states like New York and Illinois,” Trump said. “He’s done a terrible job in Illinois. Pritzker is terrible. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
