63 Comments - Chris - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:31 am: “All of this rhetoric is just red meat for the locals, but it’s not based in reality. Garbage in, garbage out as they say.” Don’t the kids shorthand that (inaccurately, natch) as “fake news”? - NIU Grad - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:31 am: I think a test of how successful “red meat” can be with Democrats in power will be the Skillicorn campaign…he’s chasing after every “in your face” conservative wedge issue he can find. - efudd - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:35 am: Big thinker, Bryant. Another small-government Republican drawing a government pension, representing a region that would look like Mississippi if it wasn’t for public facilities. Thankful I live in the half of Union county that isn’t represented by her. So far, Windhorst appears to be pretty even-tempered. - Skeptic - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:36 am: Essentially what they’re saying is that two people living on their 400 acre farm should have the same influence over State government as a 15-story apartment building. - thoughts matter - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:41 am: I thought our elected officials represented people in a specified geographic area - not the geographic area itself. She seems to think that because downstate covers a bigger geographic area, then that geographic area is what counts. That’s not how this works. - Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:44 am: Words almost can’t express how grateful I am that Illinois is not a red state and didn’t succumb to the wave of anti-unionism and austerity that happened to our neighbors and states like Kansas and Oklahoma. I’m so happy for our strong rejection of Raunerism and the right wing Koch brothers/IPI ideology, also of xenophobic Trumpism. I’m also happy to see some of that reversed with Democrats winning governors’ seats in Wisconsin and Michigan. Big hat tip to Missouri for overwhelmingly repealing RTWFL. - Maggo - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:47 am: Often times I think Rep. TB was better suited for her government job in DOC, not really sure how she got here, thankfully her reach and potential are minimal. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:48 am: Once the ILGOP was bought by the uber-left, costal, limousine liberal Diana Rauner’s social agenda, Bruce felt it necessary to continue his own attacks on Madigan, She-Caw-Go, and side with the “us versus them” premise of dividing the state to keep that liberal social agenda an afterthought. The past 4 years have accelerated the dissolving of the ILGOP as a statewide party. Now the ILGOP is a regional, white, angry, rural party. There is no want to make a big tent to include the suburbs, as She-Caw-Go is “anyone not like us”. There is no want to be open to religious freedoms, same sex marriage, no want to reach minorities or peoples of color. There is distain for facts, for the idea that upstate helps downstate, that their own echo chamber is a “silent majority” as both Rauner and Trump lost by 15 points, including those all important suburbs. There’s no 80% Reagan Rule, but 100% compliance. Dan Proft has made a fortune sowing seeds of anger and distain for folks “not like who we are”… “conservative and unyielding”. The Raunerites that litter the GA… the few Proftkins that remain… they don’t want majority. They want anger. They want destruction. They want people to choose sides, not choose Illinois. This won’t change. Even the young, “best and brightest”… they are wasting their talent. They know exactly who they are, wasting their talent. They don’t care. My only hope is that the ILGOP as it sits now continues its isolation and regional shrinking. My hope is those wasting talent enjoy the irrelevance of who they are now. Until the big tent Republican comes in and shines a light in the party and moves the leadership away from Proft, regionalism, and anger… this will continue, and Proft and those funding him will enjoy the feeding of anger politics. I won’t subscribe to this. I will be waiting for that Republican leader who wants a better Illinois to emerge. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:48 am: This downstater feels more represented by Chicago legislators than my own legislators nowadays. Frustrating. Sorry to my fellow Illinoisans up north. Noone should be subjected to Terri Bryant. Plato look out; there’s a new political philosopher on the block. Sheesh. - logic not emotion - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:52 am: Hmmm… I may have to check a dictionary… Just for fun… Take a look at the following election maps for 2016 and 2018. If you were in a game where you had to drive across the state trying to go through the most counties of one color without touching a county of the other color; which color counties would you choose to go through? https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/illinois/ https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/illinois/ - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:52 am: If you break down the state into three components — Chicago, the suburbs and Downstate — Chicago is the smallest. The reason the GOP is shut out of state offices, has only five congresscritters and is a super-minority in the GA is the rapid growth of Dem voters in the suburbs. Look at the congressional delegation. Dems hold five all-suburban seats — Raja, Casten, Foster, Schneider and Underwood — while Lipinski’s district is heavily suburban. That was unthinkable even 10 years ago. Underwood and Casten’s districts were drawn as “safe” GOP seats. Roskam and Hultgren won those districts by 34 points in 2014. In 2018, two virtual unknown Dems turned them out. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:55 am: Counties don’t vote. - chuddery - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:55 am: Logic, I ask this completely seriously. What is your point? - @misterjayem - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:57 am: The state of Illinois is not a left-leaning state. It just happens that we have Chicago, who mixes in with our votes when it comes to statewide elections. This state is middle- to right-leaning. tl;dr- Illinois appears to lean to the left only because of how it votes. – MrJM - Honeybear - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:57 am: Unless you live in the Metro East or Springfield You just don’t experience state government. And the problem is There are two things that you can’t contradict in another Their feelings Their experiences because they are……theirs….exclusively. I can’t feel what Rich is feeling I can’t experience what Rich is experiencing. So oddly, she’s not wrong. But….she’s also not right. Where that leaves us is Southern Illinoisans feeling and experiencing being left out Ignored not seeing where or how state government does much of anything. seeing Chicago get all kinds of attention and resources. So Pritzker folk- help, facilitate, nourish Southern Illinois by overtly focusing attention and resources South. Which happens But….. you have to have more folks feel and experience responsive, concerned, attentive, caring State Government. They experienced private social services going down. They experienced their rural hospital/clinic going down. They experienced no help from the state for their businesses and farms. They feel neglected and looked down upon by Chicago. Right or wrong-these are experiences and feelings It’s your starting point. Go How about going on a hiring spree for state government in the south? Start there. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:59 am: ===the most counties=== You cannot possibly be that stupid. Seriously, are you that stupid? - Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:01 am: I am sad that The ILGOP is not the party of moderates. I could see people like Jim Edgar and the late Judy Baar Topinka being popular today. A good moderate would sit with Pritzker and negotiate for a fair tax, and give good input to improve the final product. - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:04 am: Logic (?) are you getting a way-early jump on the weekend, or did you just keep rolling after the Purdue/Old Dom game? And dude, how’s about you not drive anywhere today, ok? Party on. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:09 am: OW- With all due respect. As a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, I am tired of, and offended by, you continuing to spout that Rauner was a liberal. I understand that as a Republican you want to distance yourself from him as much as possible because he was a disaster, but he was *not* a liberal. He took a liberal stance on one issue - ONE. He also tried to destroy organized labor, stripped out safety net funding (Friday afternoon massacre, anyone?), and starved the state of resources throughout his tenure. Those are not liberal pursuits. Rauner ran as a Republican and was elected by Republicans, not by liberals like me. You may not like it, but those are the facts. Do NOT try to say he’s a liberal and is on our side, he never was. Do better. - titan - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:09 am: +++ - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:52 am: If you break down the state into three components — Chicago, the suburbs and Downstate — Chicago is the smallest. +++ If you break it down as Cook County, the “collar counties” and “downstate”, the Cook County is the largest (very roughly a 40/30/30 split). - Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:12 am: If you look at the vote totals, downstate counties (non Cook and collar counties) voted for Pritzker 42%. And then there are outliers within the outlier. Champaign County went for Pritzker 55.2%, Rock Island Pritzker won 50.8%, and Jackson 52.4%. Pritzker’s worst vote numbers were in counties under 10k voters like Wayne where Pritzker only got 17% (his lowest percentage number) 5391 voters. or Iroquois 18.2% (Pritzker’s second lowest percentage with 9277 voters. In populous counties he was pretty consistently in the mid 40% range. Downstate isn’t a monolith and neither is Cook for that matter. Another fun tidbit is there were 426,196 Cook County votes for Rauner. That was almost of quarter of Rauner’s total votes, 24% - anananaomous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:14 am: There are just no significant population centers outside of the Chicago metro. The state is huge and people probably forget just how far south you can go and still be in Illinois. South of I64 is a different place than even the Springfield - Decatur - Champaign band of the state. below 64 is basically just Kentucky or at least a very rural south mentality. It makes sense that this rhetoric is popular in Bryant’s district. Trump has a net approval rating in the states surrounding southern Illinois. - Merica - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:17 am: Most of the State’s population resides in Cook County. Out of the State’s $750B GDP, $650B is generated in Cook County. Yet most of the State’s employment and spending is done south of Cook County. Most of the State’s pension debt was generated South of Cook County ($185B just for downstate police and firefighters). It’s time for downstate to pay it’s fair share This can be accomplished by a statewide tax on farmland. 75% of downstate land is cropland, yet Illinois farmers pay the lowest real estate taxes in the Midwest. We tax service industries and manufacturing, who can move their business elsewhere, yet farmers who cant move, are given this sweetheart deal. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:17 am: - Da Big Bad Wolf - - Joe Bidenopolous - - So_Ill - Read. For. Comprehension. ===Once the ILGOP was bought by the uber-left, costal, limousine liberal Diana Rauner’s social agenda, Bruce felt it necessary to continue his own attacks…=== It’s as though you give Diana Rauner’s role in the social agenda so Bruce can destroy labor nary a thought. Be better, read. Be better, understand how it went down. Be better…. know that Diana got all she wanted… as Bruce failed. The uber-left, costal, limousine liberal things Bruce signed… - 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:19 am: My ward in Chicago has about 50,000 people, give or take. 71 counties in Illinois have fewer people than my single ward in Chicago. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:20 am: - Da Big Bad Wolf - My apologies… I guess I inadvertently added ya in when I cut and pasted. That’s on me. Apologies. OW - west wing - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:20 am: There are slices of blue and purple throughout downstate. The entire downstate region is comprised of several mini regions with their own identities. The smart politicos work them based on that understanding - not putting the entire 96 counties into one block. Seems that a lot of the region south of I-64 is increasingly more in line with Kentucky. - ZC - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:22 am: The state of Illinois is left-leaning, but it’s not THAT left-leaning. Republicans have won here recently statewide, will again. The problem is also that the Republican party in DC has veered further right, and especially taken on a host of traits more associated with modern Southern Republicanism. Deep South politics just don’t play long-run in wide swathes of the Midwest … except, again, parts of Downstate. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:26 am: ===but it’s not THAT left-leaning=== Agreed. But it’s way more to that side of the spectrum than some would have us believe. - Perrid - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:26 am: Titan, wordslinger said Chicago, not Cook County. A lot of people use them interchangeably but it’s not quite right. About half of Cook County does not live in Chicago. - Not a Billionaire - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:27 am: If this is the way they keep going the republicans are not going to win statewide. Also look at urban downstate the 74 corridor and metro east. All are blue or purple. The only deep red are a bunch of farm fields. Rich has said the elderly have too much historic influence. I would say rural Illinois has had too much influence. - Chris - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 11:28 am: “71 counties in Illinois have fewer people than my single ward in Chicago.” I understand underselling a bit, but the Fightin’ 47th is about 55,000 people, and would be the 26th largest county by population in the state. 50 Chicago wards each bigger than about 70 of the 102 counties. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:08 pm: OW- ===- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 29, 18 @ 1:29 pm: Rauner is an uber-left, costal, limousine liberal that signed HB40, something that even liberal California would call too much.=== Your words, man. You called *Bruce* Rauner a liberal. Own it or don’t. Your call. Just stop it with the nonsense. Again, I get it - as a Republican you want to distance yourself from him because he was a disaster, but don’t you dare put him on our side. He’s on the Republican side, now and forever - State Board of Elections records prove it. - anon - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:13 pm: I keep going over whether Underwood’s victory means something about a shift in the far western suburbs (and beyond). As a resident, was it mostly that Hultgren has been an absentee pol and didn’t even show the desire to campaign to keep his job? Was it anti-Trump? The same area has already chosen Foster over Oberweis but that is in-keeping with a more centrist or even slight-right lean. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:13 pm: ===Rauner is an uber-left, costal, limousine liberal that signed HB40, something that even liberal California would call too much.=== Yep. Rauner’s own action by signing HB40. So? ===Again, I get it - as a Republican you want to distance yourself from him because he was a disaster, but don’t you dare put him on our side.=== It was the a Dem Governor that signed a bill like HB40? I’m surprised you don’t praise Bruce, LOL So your take Bruce signing, but not Bruce and Diana’s liberal social agenda? Jeanne Ives ran calling out Bruce for his liberal social agenda actions. You should be thanking Bruce, did Bruce do more for liberal agenda things than Quinn and Rod? - Southern_Dawg - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:17 pm: OW at 10:48 is about as good as it gets. Essentially Bryant is saying Illinois wouldn’t be a left leaning state if it wasn’t for where all the people live. I’m born and raised in deep south Illinois and this line of thinking, bickering, victimization is so old. TB has not one project or dollar she can deliver to her district so this is what she gives them instead. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:24 pm: OW- That is the lone item that BVR displayed any “liberal agenda.” Again, he tried to destroy unions, crush the social safety net and starved universities and other state assets. That is not a “liberal agenda.” If you want to keep calling him a liberal, there’s obviously nothing I can do to stop you. But, I think it’s incredibly dishonest on an intellectual basis. But you go ahead and live with your cognitive dissonance, it seems to be what Republicans do best (see TB’s comment above). Also, just FYI, it took about two seconds on the google to identify a direct quote from you after you claimed you were only calling Diana a liberal. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:28 pm: - Joe Bidenopolous - Yeah… no. The Jeanne Ives ad… there was more than just HB40… but you already know that. ===Also, just FYI, it took about two seconds on the google to identify a direct quote from you after you claimed you were only calling Diana a liberal.=== … which is what I pointed out in my comment today. I get it. Bruce moves a liberal agenda better than Quinn abd Rod, but… The reason Bruce was primaried as he was… Diana’s liberal social agenda Bruce pushed. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:30 pm: ===So your take Bruce signing, but not Bruce and Diana’s liberal social agenda?=== OW - since your fond of asking others for citations, I’ll be waiting for yours outlining the breadth of BVR’s “liberal agenda.” I won’t hold my breath. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:30 pm: ===there was more than just HB40=== Citation please - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:31 pm: People, let’s move along on the Rauner stuff. Get back to the topic at hand. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:34 pm: Thank you Honey Bear. Well said. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:34 pm: OW- Look dude, it ain’t true just because you say it is over and over ad nauseum. There’s someone on Pennsylvania Avenue who believes that so I guess I know where you get it. You want to be intellectually dishonest and claim he’s a liberal, have at it. But you’re gonna be challenged each and every time. Outline the “liberal agenda.” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:35 pm: - Joe Bidenopolous - tiny.cc/74uc4y Back to the Post, Let’s also remember that the ILGOP is focused on allegiance to the platform, not understanding that 80% friends build a party around platform positions. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:53 pm: ==TB has not one project or dollar she can deliver to her district so this is what she gives them instead.== And that, Dawg, sums up the whole game. - Last Bull Moose - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:58 pm: In 1960 Chicago proper was 35% of the Illinois population. Now it is about 20%. At the same time the number of farmers and coal miners has shrunk dramatically. There are only about 4,000 coal miners in Illinois now. Large parts of the state are losing population. The suburban people will drive the politics of the state. They can choose between socially liberal or socially conservative. Unfortunately it is not clear if there is a choice between fiscally responsible and fiscally inept. The Republicans spend without funding. The Democrats tax but then overspend. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:59 pm: I really hope all of us, from Cairo to Chicago, can eventually be tired of this fake divide. It’s fake. It’s cheap. It’s political. Shame on any politician who pretends that this crap is real. One Illinois. - Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 12:59 pm: The ILGOP, based on the resolution to oppose and certain social media posts, is screaming out against Pritzker’s fair tax plan. They yell for tax cuts but staunchly oppose them for the vast majority in order to protect the wealthy. Not good for future overall election prospects. - Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:03 pm: Democrats were making inroads into Dupage County before 2016, and the national election in 2016 pushed Democrats gains even further. I don’t think it was so much Pate Phillips’ Chicago bashing that made Dupage solidly Republican in the past, but economic issues and suburbanites feeling that Republicans were better for their bottom lines. I don’t think those economic issues work as well, and with Trump as the figurehead of the Republican party, they are going to alienate educated suburbanites. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:04 pm: ===DuPage now has just one Republican state Senator. Few suburban Republican legislators openly bash Chicago these days.=== ILGOP went from DuPage as a center of Republican leadership (for better or worse) to a lone state senator in the upper chamber. If ya think it’s “redistricting” or some other Dem trick, you aren’t paying attention. The collars turning blue, the state GOP wants anger and litmus tests, the “perfect” candidate being the enemy of the good candidate for districts, with Uihlein money and Proft recruiting. The ILGOP wants regional relevance to keep grifters happy. - Anon - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:10 pm: ===And, of course, Downstate is a net state tax eater=== It’d be nice if folks representing the down state were forced to acknowledge this everything they talk about taxes and budget. There’s a lot of mythology down here that are various versions of the theme that the state government takes money from hard working people(whites) downstate and gives it to lazy people(blacks) in Chicago. It’s a deep seeded narrative that is full of that light touch of racism that Southern Illinois never wants to acknowledge while continuing to support a GOP that wants to make sure their kids will grow up in poverty with terrible educational opportunities. - Hamlet's Ghost - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:36 pm: == ILGOP went from DuPage as a center of Republican leadership (for better or worse) to a lone state senator in the upper chamber. == And that state senator lost in the DuPage County portions of his district. Ponder this: Not one square inch of DuPage County is represented by the GOP in the US House of Representatives. - Super Cop - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:37 pm: Someone should ban Rich Miller from this blog. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 1:40 pm: Someone should stop being such a delicate flower. - DuPage Bard - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 2:17 pm: Judy Barr, Rosemary Mulligan, Tom Cross et al most couldn’t pass the test anymore during a Republican primary. Let’s not kid ourselves though the DuPage Republicans used to feed heavily into the Chicago is stealing our money narrative all the time. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 2:28 pm: ===Judy Barr, Rosemary Mulligan, Tom Cross et al most couldn’t pass the test anymore during a Republican primary. Let’s not kid ourselves though the DuPage Republicans used to feed heavily into the Chicago is stealing our money narrative all the time.=== Not “all the time”, but enough to make it a piece of the furniture in the house they built. This is “true”, the rest. The problem is that those willing to fight for the rebirth of the ILGOP need to also fight for a big tent where we can today say all those listed above would be welcome. As of now, those three the way there were would be challenged and seen as “unworthy”. Here is ground zero to get the party back. - IllinoisBoi - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 3:23 pm: ” Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 10:55 am: Counties don’t vote.” True. And corn and bean fields and woodlots can’t vote either. - James Know Polk - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 3:29 pm: Saw a remark about socially liberal/socially conservative. The real issue is are you fiscally liberal or fiscally conservative? Is Illinois a fiscally left leaning state? Yes. Will the Fair Tax be the financial panacea? No–the 1% whether fiscally liberal or not, will keep moving to no income tax Florida (and similar states)leaving those left behind to address an accelerating fiscal fire that can’t be contained. Our elected officials have shown no willingness to address the pension nightmare. Those who can, leave leaving those of us behind to contain the Chernoybl State of Illinois melt down. YUCK - Exit 59 - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 3:47 pm: On WJPF, Middle to right leaning probably didn’t go over well. Middle? Nope. - LakeCo - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 4:06 pm: OW, I respect the heck out of you, but I have to say I’m glad Joe Bidenopolous called you out on that Rauner-is-a-liberal thing. Joe’s right; it’s not true, and your repetition of it is tiresome. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 4:17 pm: ===I respect the heck out of you=== Doubtful. ===Joe’s right; it’s not true=== Rauner’s signatures say otherwise. Meh, everyone’s a critic, that’s why this place is great. Liberal Democratic governors would’ve loved Rauner’s signed social agenda bills to run with, and Ives exploited that record in her primary run. Please, don’t patronize me… just criticize me. I’m a big kid. I can take it. Thanks. Be well. - Blue Dog Dem - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 4:46 pm: All along I thought Rauner was a free market capitalist. - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 22, 19 @ 7:49 pm: ==I really hope all of us, from Cairo to Chicago, can eventually be tired of this fake divide. It’s fake. It’s cheap. It’s political. Shame on any politician who pretends that this crap is real. One Illinois.– From your mouth to God’s ear. It’s all so stupid. I suggest that the existing foundations of community colleges and public universities can be improved to develop the workforce that will attract private capital. Mazeltov. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.