My associate Isabel Miller and I told subscribers earlier this month that Democrats for the Illinois House had been suddenly cut off from the Democratic Party of Illinois’ lucrative postage discount program, which can save as much as one-third to half of campaign postage costs.
Afterward, an extraordinary interaction occurred between the executive director of the House Democrats’ caucus campaign committee and the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Let’s first break down a few differences in the two stories offered in separate explanatory emails sent to House Democrats.
Democrats for the Illinois House’s TaQuoya McConnico explained the decision to walk away from the state party this way: “The financial structure proposed for participation in the coordinated campaign called for a $750,000 investment followed by an adjusted $500,000 investment that demanded a payment from each individual House member – YOU. Speaker declined to commit to payment from each House member.”
This unprecedented action to split from the Democratic Party of Illinois was taken less than two months before Election Day without Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch ever consulting members of his House Democratic Caucus.
Welch has been under fire for months for how he has run the chamber, to the point where it’s no longer a slam dunk that he will be reelected in January. Cutting out your members before taking such a late-in-the-game step probably isn’t helping his cause.
State Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Lisa Hernandez told House Democrats hours later that the party had reduced its ask twice — ultimately requesting just $400,000 — “the same contribution as the Senate,” which has about half the number of members as the House and far fewer targeted races on the ballot. That’s a pretty good deal.
But the offer was still rejected, and for questionable reasons. “The proposed DPI-coordinated campaign structure called for Welch to demand $10,000 in contributions from every single House member — even in cases where members don’t have a race and don’t have that amount of cash on hand,” McConnico wrote, giving the above-mentioned total of $500,000.
Hernandez told a much different story.
“We did not demand that individual members personally write $10,000 checks to DPI. I asked members to help raise those funds, and I offered to make those fundraising calls myself.
“The $10,000 reflects federal limits on Levin funds, which help fund voter registration, voter contact, and get-out-the-vote work through the Coordinated Campaign. Because those funds are limited to $10,000 from any one source, funding an operation of this size requires support from multiple contributors. I wanted to do whatever I could to help us reach an agreement.”
There’s a school of thought that Welch didn’t want to ask some of his members to pony up $10,000 each (even with state party help) to buy them into the party’s coordinated campaign when, as mentioned above, several of his members are refusing to give him another term with the gavel.
And the Welch allies may somehow see the hand of Gov. JB Pritzker in all this because Pritzker has not explicitly defended Welch during successive scandals this summer.
A House Democratic official told another publication last week that Welch is also more concerned that a coordinated campaign would benefit the top of the ticket far more than legislative candidates.
But the object of some past coordinated campaign mailers has been to use the popularity of the top of the ticket to boost legislative and down-ballot candidates.
Welch also demanded a $2.1 million refund from the state party, which the party, in a spirit of cooperation, complied with immediately. The money hadn’t yet been spent on direct mail.
Welch also demanded that the party comb through its files to determine whether he was owed a refund on another $2 million already given to DPI and mostly spent on mail. The state party spent last week working with its campaign vendors to look for any possible Welch money when it should’ve been working on its fall campaign operation.
McConnico said in her letter to members that it was possible that Welch would push for a special meeting of the state party to discuss the rift. But sources said Welch didn’t have enough weighted votes to get the meeting called, especially with the clock ticking toward November.
This is no way to run a rodeo.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 8:56 am:
Me thinks Welch has become radioactive.
I’m heartened that a lack of information and action on Welch’s part on a serious issue has cost him the support of his party.
Refund him money? Gee, I wonder who he really cares about?
- DuPage Dad - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 9:02 am:
I’m fairly impressed at how much political capital Welch has managed to squander away in the past few years.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 9:08 am:
===“The $10,000 reflects federal limits on Levin funds, which help fund voter registration, voter contact, and get-out-the-vote work through the Coordinated Campaign. Because those funds are limited to $10,000 from any one source, funding an operation of this size requires support from multiple contributors. I wanted to do whatever I could to help us reach an agreement.”===
This is a reasonable and normal request for a state party to make. The excuses that Chris Welch is offering are not reasonable nor are they normal and they probably shouldn’t be tolerated coming from a House Speaker who has so damaged his own public reputation through his behavior, which includes his own wanton sexual harassment, supporting others that blatantly sexually harass their own staff, and his gross political incompetence at addressing these issues when they arose in the public has made it so that the Speaker of the House cannot attend large fundraisers due to the fact that he distracts from the message.
Speaker Welch is making it very clear that the only person he cares about in the Democratic Party is himself.
Looking forward to his next excuse where he says that the Illinois AFL-CIO would think it unreasonable for an incumbent to be able to raise $10,000 to support the state party when they don’t have an opponent.
Oh? You don’t have an opponent? Sounds like you’ve got a lot of free time to be helping the state party get Democrats elected.
There’s no good reason for any politically competent member of the House Democratic Caucus to support Welch as Speaker. He is in no position to help advance anyone’s career beyond the levers he directly controls — and why would anyone want to carry his ‘threaten to fire women who do not fawn over him in public’ baggage?
How much do you care about sexual harassment in the legislature? If a State Rep supports Chris Welch they are answering that question in a manner clearly says “not at all.”
- CA-HOON! - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 9:14 am:
Picking an intra-party fight that threatens campaign funding with the election less than 2 months away?
I think the dems (and Illinois) have had enough of this kind of “leadership”.
Good riddance to Welch come January.
- It's always Sunny in Illinois - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 9:35 am:
The amounts of $$ being casually thrown around in this process are insulting to all taxpayers. the majority of the candidates campaign funds are not from private citizens, it’s Unions….Special Interest Groups….Wealthy Individuals (Governor) looking for influence….your getting the results everyday in the lagging Illinois Economy….Unemployment rates…..Public School Overall Performance Metrics……the individual voter/taxpayer is in a world of hurt going forward….the ..”What’s in it for Me” crowd with Money is in total control.
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:05 am:
I think this is the definition of ‘circular firing squad’.
- Squeaker Welch - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:16 am:
It’s obvious to me what’s going on here. They want to drain as much money from Welch’s coffers as possible by the end of the cycle so that he has little left to stand on moving forward.
That way he can’t cause any harm to members who vote against him and he can’t cause be taken out next time he has opposition.
The question now is, does Welch realize that? And will be hoard all that money and go into siege mode causing members and house democratic candidates to lose seats?
- Just Bill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:19 am:
This is a head slapper when you do the math. With 78 House members, helping raise $400,000- DPI is not asking that they send a check- amounts to just over $5,000. Really? That’s chump change for all but the laziest fund raiser. Welch is going to die on this hill? He spends $5,000 a month in limos.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:32 am:
===I think this is the definition of ‘circular firing squad’. ===
I think this situation is a bit more nuanced than that. The state party is trying to become a modern political party and part of a modern political party is a coordinated campaign where safe incumbents contribute resources to support targeted races and other party building efforts.
If the House Speaker does not want to be a reliable partisan then he probably shouldn’t be leading a partisan caucus.
It isn’t ideal and it isn’t great timing, but why would anyone let Chris Welch try to bully them around this election cycle?
- Stephenson County - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 11:03 am:
When the votes are counted, I doubt that this “disagreement” will have affected any outcomes. Dems are going to win big in Illinois once again.
- Amalia - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 11:12 am:
Welch long tweet recounting all things of his time at Northwestern while he was at the football game over the weekend. hope the money from there is smart enough to say no to him.
- Norseman - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 11:19 am:
It’s the infrastructure silly. Going alone lets that infrastructure rot. It may work for you in the short term, but leads to future problems.
- Archpundit - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 11:30 am:
Speakers change far more frequently in many states and it is a far healthier way to run a caucus
- Friendly Bob Adams - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 11:47 am:
I have no particular knowledge on the topic, but my guess is that Welch is not elected speaker next term.
- factory worker - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 1:14 pm:
the last person who really fought against a coordinated campaign was a guy with the initials RRB. good company there.
- Tough Decisions - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 3:50 pm:
To - It’s always Sunny in Illinois -
Speaking of donors and money shifting around.
“Who you take money from is who you work for”
Who owns who?
- Southern Dude - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 4:56 pm:
== The amounts of $$ being casually thrown around in this process are insulting to all taxpayers
best comment in a long time
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 6:06 pm:
I thought he was smarter than that. (Not recently, but I thought that at one point.)
- Dotnonymous x - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 7:21 pm:
- Me thinks Welch has become radioactive. -
On a clear night, I can see him glowing from my back yard.