Illinois AFL-CIO’s Tim Drea: Election was a ‘mixed bag’ for Labor

Springfield, IL – Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea considers the November election a success, but less than complete because of some prominent defeats.

“As with most elections, we have a mixed bag,” Drea said in a report to Labor leaders. “But it is worth noting that we will maintain labor-friendly super-majorities in the state Senate and House, and the Democrats will control the remapping process following the census.”

“While some results may be hard to swallow, the challenges were significant this year in working around a pandemic, trying to fight regression in seats drawn for Republicans that we took two years ago, and attempting to score super-majority victory totals in the Fair Tax ballot initiative and retaining Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride.”

The Fair Tax plan went down to defeat, and voters chose not to retain Kilbride.

“We would like to thank all of our affiliates for their monumental efforts toward making sure that Labor remains an electoral force in Illinois, especially those with unions that contributed release staff, volunteers and resources to the Labor 2020 program,” Drea said.

Drea and Secretary-Treasurer Pat Devaney pointed to some high points including:

• Labor 2020 – This was a vigorous outreach for targeted and statewide races including 295,000 local union mail pieces, 636,352 phone calls, more than 50,000 union household canvasses, more than 300,000 texts to union household members, and 6,656 canvasses using the new Local Union Digital Canvass Tool.
• President – Drea said Labor delivered in Illinois for President-elect Joe Biden, who won 55 percent to 43 percent in the state.
• U.S. Senate – Labor-supporting Sen. Dick Durbin won re-election to a fifth term by a wide margin.
• Congress – Drea noted the victories of endorsed Democrat Sean Casten in the 6th Congressional District and Lauren Underwood in the 14th District. A defeat was the loss of Betsy Dirksen Londrigan (D-Springfield), in the 13th District to incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis, he said.
• Fair Tax – The AFL-CIO strongly supported Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Fair Tax proposal to replace the state’s flat income tax with a progressive system with higher rates for the wealthiest residents. It needed 60 percent of the vote but reached only 45 percent. “The tens of millions dumped in by anti-union billionaires to run a blatant misinformation media campaign clearly took its toll,” Drea said.
• Supreme Court – Third Judicial District Justice Thomas Kilbride needed a 60 percent vote to be retained but received only 56 percent. “Kilbride was also subject to a multi-million dollar campaign to deny his retention,” Drea noted. The Supreme Court will choose whether to fill the vacancy, and a new election will be held in the 2022 general election, along with an election for a vacancy in the 2^nd Judicial District.
• State Senate – Labor 2020 helped win all three Illinois Senate races it had targeted, including picking up a formerly Republican seat. The score now stands at 41 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the Senate.
• State House – Democrats lost two seats but still have a supermajority with 72 votes to Republicans’ 46. Wins in tough races that Drea cited included those of Labor supporters Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville), Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa), Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) and Joyce Mason (D-Gurnee).