Q: The Speaker pointed out a few of the Biden-won districts that you’re defending in November that he sees as pick-up opportunities for Democrats. You previously said you think you can pick up five. Who’s right, who’s wrong?
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie: I guess we’re going to see in November. I’ll argue that 78 is not great, and I think a lot of folks around the state would agree with me. So we’ll see what happens. I mean, last cycle was certainly interesting. The map didn’t help. So we also have numbers and overlays. This will be an interesting cycle, and I think we will discover that House Republicans will make a bite into that apple, and we’re going to bring some balance to Illinois.
Q: Donald Trump has lost Illinois by 17 percent in the last two elections. Clearly, in the last eight years, it’s had a big impact for Republicans negatively down-ballot. I mean, that’s why there are 78 for example, in the House of Representatives. How do Republicans overcome the Trump factor going into this election, especially down ballot?
McCombie: Well, I would argue Trump is not the reason for 78, I would argue that that is because of Speaker Welch’s mismanagement of the crafting of a map. That is certainly nothing to do with President Trump. But we have a top of the ticket, whether, no matter what state it is, that they say always drags down bottom of the ticket. You know, locals want to get to their polls, we have whether it’s a exciting school board race, a sheriff’s race, a state Reps.’ race, a mayor’s race. I mean, this is a presidential, you’re going to see great turnout, just like you did in 2016 when I flipped a D+16 and you’re going to see that again this cycle.
Q: But the thing is, it’s not just the Illinois House. Democrats control every constitutional office. They control five of the seven seats on the state Supreme Court, and yeah, so it’s not just the legacy…
McCombie: No, absolutely not. And I think that’s when you see when we run, and this is why this election is so important here, because we have to start looking forward already. This is about the Republican turnout. Because for us, it’s about the next governor’s race, and if we can show that we have a great turnout, we are going to get a great Republican candidate. Because you’re right, that map doesn’t matter. We will turn the state around. I promise you that. It might not happen next this year, but it is going to start happening because people are tired of what is going on here.
Q: How does Kamala Harris on the top of the ticket change things as compared to Joe Biden?
McCombie: Well, I think you want to ask Cori Bush how it affected her. Certainly didn’t help her right after the honeymoon stage. We’ve been polling, and I would say Kamala’s faves and unfaves have been pretty equal, and you’re already starting to see that drop a little bit. I think after the DNC, you’ll see her perk up a little a little bit more. But once you actually get her in front of this, actually have the courage to do something like this, she won’t be able to handle it, and everybody else will see who she really is.
Q: What do Republicans need to do to sort of bite into the bump that they’ve gotten right now? This gives you a lot of enthusiasm among Democrats, with Harris leading the ticket. How do you overcome that after the DNC going forward to November?
McCombie: Yeah, I’m actually kind of surprised, because if I was a Democrat, I certainly feel pretty disenfranchised about not being able to have an opportunity to vote for who I voted for in a primary. So that surprises me. But, you know, they are the party of democracy they say, which, obviously that’s not true. I think they are excited because it’s not Biden. They didn’t plan properly, and now they’re cleaning up their mess. So here we are, and it this will be no different campaign than we will run, whether it was Joe Biden or whether it was Kamala or any Democrats top of the ticket, we would run a race to win, and that’s what we’re going to do.
Q: What are the issues you think that are helping Republicans this election cycle?
McCombie: Our issues are your issues, and they are the top of top of mind for everybody, and that’s inflation. Every time you go to the grocery store, every time you pay an energy bill, every time you go to the gas station and there’s already conversations about what they’re going to do to our income tax here in January to try to cover up what we’re going to do for pensions. Tthey’re not talking about pension reform. They’re talking about raising taxes. And that’s another thing that they’re going to do about getting people out of our state. And we’ve got to start looking at true structural reform if we’re going to grow our state, we can’t keep taxing our way, and that’s a real problem.
Q: What do Republicans have to do to turn around your fortunes in the suburbs… because your performance in the suburbs has declined in lockstep with Donald Trump being on ballot.
McCombie: Well, we’re out and about. We’ve got really great candidates this cycle. We were very measured on our candidate recruitment, and we have candidates that have been working harder than they’ve ever worked before. They’re getting their messages out. And the bottom line is this, whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent, people are fed up with the mismanagement of the state from the top to the bottom.
Q: You’ve been doing this a while now. And the Republican Party in Illinois used to be fueled, you know, funding wise, by wealthy donors. Obviously, it’s very hard to compete with a billionaire like Pritzker, but it seems like a lot of those donors have, you know, abandoned or eroded, that that funding has been eroded right now. That’s key to any election when you’re a Democrat or a Republican. So how do Illinois Republicans get that kind of funding to overtake some of the blue areas, overtake blue Illinois?
McCombie: Well, unfortunately this cycle, we’re probably not going to get a million-dollar donor. You know, every day I sell hope for Illinois, and we’re gonna do it five bucks, 20 bucks, a hundred bucks, a thousand bucks at a time, and we’re gonna do it at the door ourselves. We’re gonna knock the doors, and we’re gonna do the work. Unfortunately, we have to do this the hard way. We’re gonna have some wins this cycle, and we’re gonna bring back some of those donors.
Q: Are your odds better or worse with Harris atop the ticket?
McCombie: No different.
Q: We’re a little over a month since the Sonya Massey [garbled]. Have there been some discussions of needed police reform? Is there any [garbled] that Republicans maybe support Democrats in that effort? Or are there any changes [that you could support]?
McCombie: Well, there was quite a bit of what was called police reform in the SAFE-T Act and I think a lot of those things probably haven’t been put into place. You have to talk to the governor and his administration and see what was in that act for reform. I think there’s definitely some bad actors, and that was a terrible situation, but there’s also a lot of things going on right here in Illinois that the governor and his administration also needs to be accountable for. Look at DCFS.
- Norseman - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:11 am:
MAGA weirdness doesn’t hurt your ticket as much as the map. Sure, your party’s cat lady and post-menopausal babysitter stuff along with book banning will help you pick up seats.
- Pundent - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:20 am:
=It might not happen next this year, but it is going to start happening because people are tired of what is going on here.=
The results say otherwise. You can’t embrace the personality and messaging of a Presidential candidate who lost the state by 17% and expect to win anything of consequence. When McCombie and the ILGOP acknowledge that obvious fact I’ll begin to take them seriously.
- Neef Jr. - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:27 am:
I’ll give her this: She stays on message. It’s a message that is proven not to work with voters but they have it memorized and there is no turning back now.
- Cool Papa Bell - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:28 am:
=We will turn the state around. I promise you that. It might not happen next this year, but it is going to start happening because people are tired of what is going on here.=
Along with Prudent this stood out to me.
The follow up is what exactly are people tired of? Balanced budgets? Credit upgrades? Massive infrastructure improvements?
Leader, what are people tired of?
- Da big bad wolf - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:28 am:
=== But once you actually get her in front of this, actually have the courage to do something like this, she won’t be able to handle it, and everybody else will see who she really is.===
Um, what?
- TJ - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:31 am:
Cori Bush lost a primary to another Dem. Using that as logic for Harris not giving downballot Dems a boost is nonsensical.
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:33 am:
- people are tired of what is going on here. -
And for decades you’ve been saying that and losing ground because you don’t offer any real ideas.
The IL GOP has to be in the running for laziest state party in the nation.
- Norseman - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:40 am:
Saying the nonsensical seems to be in the MAGA GOP handbook of tactics.
- low level - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:42 am:
==if I was a Democrat, I certainly feel pretty disenfranchised about not being able to have an opportunity to vote for who I voted for in a primary==
Yet nothing about the January 6 rioters who attempted to disenfranchise millions of voters. OK, Jan.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:54 am:
= Our issues are your issues, and they are the top of top of mind for everybody,=
Lemme check the records here real quick… Not one single state level elected for two cycles now. A minority status is so small that the National Fish and WildLife Service has labeled them endangered.
And you think your issues are MY issues? Jiminy Crickets they are delusional.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:55 am:
Leader McCombie:
You can’t blame the maps for Republicans losing the gubernatorial election. That loss was because you had an extremely bad candidate. If you want to be competitive in Illinois you’re going to have to find a different message and better candidates. When your message consists of whining and saying Democrats are bad you are offering nothing.
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:01 pm:
So much whistling past the graveyard.
No self-introspection with that bunch whatsoever.
Keep “getting your message out”. That’s why your party is in its current shape.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:06 pm:
=== So much whistling past===
I mean what is she supposed to say? She has a nearly impossible job. A few words at the state fair ain’t gonna change that.
- Google Is Your Friend - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:11 pm:
- low level - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 11:42 am:
She’s not gonna attack her base, or her members for that matter.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:11 pm:
Adding to what I wrote, look around the country and we have two of the most reasonable Republican legislative leaders anywhere. A little grace maybe.
- Lurker - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:11 pm:
I am only one person but I feel comfortable saying Trump is the main problem for Illinois GOP. I have never voted more than a couple democrats in an election and this time I am voting straight Democrat and not even looking at the names.
- The Truth - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:20 pm:
I can’t even imagine why anyone would want her job.
- walker - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:29 pm:
Amen Rich.
McCombie is one of the most reasonable, (and might I say truly patriotic), Republican leaders I have ever met, and she’s in a horrible spot trying to mange her political constituencies.
As to the focus in the suburbs, with a couple of exceptions, it appears they are trying to build a bench and momentum for the next cycle more than for this one.
- walker - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:34 pm:
manage not “mange” (Im not that clever.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:55 pm:
@Rich. I am afraid that having the two most reasonable Republican legislative leaders anywhere will be their downfall
- Give Us Barabbas - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:56 pm:
The things they can attack JB on, human service agency issues in DCFS, HFS, DORS, senior care, health care, education and IDOC, they have no answers or alternatives to; indeed, they would certainly cut funding to all of those. And make them worse. It has been their DNA since the New Deal and a shibboleth of their party.
Until they come up with a better alternative than a magic cure through the invisible hand of the free market, the GOP is going to wander in the political desert in Illinois getting smaller and weaker and more desperate every year. The rural populations they count on for votes from angry old white men get smaller with every generation. The angry old rich men who fund them are aging out as well. What’s left? Big business lobbies. Catering to those exclusively doesn’t get voters excited. I can’t say I will be sad to see them go. They can’t evolve past old fears and hates and economic philosophies.
- Huh? - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 1:01 pm:
“Our positions are extreme and polar opposite of your positions on issues”
Fixed it for ya .
- Original Rambler - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 1:24 pm:
Agree that McCombie did a good job staying on message. She did not come off as your typical MAGA Republican. As noted, what is she going to say?
As to the “people are tired of what’s going on here” from my personal experience, that is somewhat accurate. Most of the people I hear that from have moved to Florida. They all just can’t help themselves from criticizing the state they left that now has a balanced budgets and a rainy day fund. Me, you won’t catch me even vacationing in Florida but I don’t go around disparaging it for what I think are its shortcomings. I find that odd behavior. On a related note, I’m pretty surprised how educated people I know are unaware of the damage Rauner caused to this state and how JB has done so much to fix our financials. It’s like they don’t want to hear about it.
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 1:25 pm:
Having the “two most reasonable” GOP ain’t nothing to brag about.
Bar height and all.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 1:29 pm:
=== ain’t nothing to brag about.===
At least recognize it.
- Roman - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 1:47 pm:
Don’t get the Cori Bush reference — if anything her loss in a primary demonstrates the Dems are doing a better job of weeding out their more radical members than the GOP is.
I’d just acknowledge it’s a Democratic state, throw in a few jabs on gerrymandering, and stress the need to elect more Republicans to prevent unchecked one-party rule.
- charles in charge - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 2:29 pm:
==Well, there was quite a bit of what was called police reform in the SAFE-T Act and I think a lot of those things probably haven’t been put into place. You have to talk to the governor and his administration and see what was in that act for reform.==
“Because we Republicans have never had any interest in police reform and don’t even know what’s in the SAFE-T Act despite having spent the past three years badmouthing it.”
- Huh? - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 2:53 pm:
“We will turn the state around.”
By banning abortion, banning books, making it possible for children to work in dangerous occupations, lower spending until there are no social services left in the state, put the 10 commandments in every classroom, chase out anyone who doesn’t agree with us, and all for “liberty”.
- Cosgrove - Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 3:45 pm:
Amazing, no mention of her and her candidates’extreme anti-abortion position that has contributed mightily to her record breaking loses. Perhaps she needs a new polling firm or two and candidates who aren’t an anathema to most voters.