Illinois
Nonpartisan think tank identifies Illinois’ most effective state legislators
Nearly 200 lawmakers convene at the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield every year to craft bills, negotiate them with various interest groups and pass them onto Gov. JB Pritzker.
It’s a job often done in relative obscurity, and sometimes those lawmakers get a bad rap for how seemingly little they do.
But the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a nonpartisan think tank involving Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, identified those it says actually get things done.
Unsurprisingly, because of their legislative supermajorities, Democrats in the Illinois House and Senate ranked the highest on the researchers’ list of legislators’ deemed to be the most effective, with House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, and Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, leading the way.
While right-leaning, conservative Republicans occupied the bottom of the group’s lists, a few downstate Republicans bucked that trend, including state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris.
“I’m all about trying to solve complex problems that affect everybody in my district and across the state,” she said.
The researchers assigned each legislator a score, determined by how many bills they introduced, how many were passed and, ultimately, how many were enacted by the governor during the 2023-2024 session of the General Assembly.
Rezin introduced 66 bills. A third of them got called up in a committee, and three were signed into law by Pritzker.
During the two-year legislative cycle studied by the group, Rezin was able to carry through a measure that she said, transcended party lines — a partial lift on a 1987 moratorium to construct small, nuclear reactors.
“It took a tremendous amount of education, but I’ve built up credibility with many people in the Senate and the House,” said Rezin, who has served in the state Legislature for 15 years. “It’s very helpful when you are trying to work and get large pieces of legislation passed in a bipartisan manner.”
Rezin said because Republicans comprise a legislative super-minority, it’s impossible for her not to work with Democratic colleagues.
Rezin said sometimes, she’ll even give a bill to a Democratic senator to increase its chances of getting passed.
“When I’m in my district, there’s no ‘R’ or ‘D,’” Rezin said. “As long as I can continue to make a difference and pass legislation with my colleagues … I’ll continue to do what I’m doing.”
Craig Volden, a University of Virginia public policy professor and co-author of the research, said there are many factors that contribute to a lawmaker’s “effectiveness” at getting bills passed, such as a legislator’s ability to work with members of the opposing party or their expertise in a certain policy area.
Being in the majority party did not guarantee a top spot on the list. For Democratic state representatives and senators ranked at the bottom, most reported only a handful — or even no bills at all — getting past the first committee.
“It’s not enough to just say, ‘Hey, I have this great bill,’ but then don’t do anything with it,” Volden said. “How do they build a coalition? Are they active in committee? Are they active on the floor? Some of those coalitions are bipartisan. Sometimes, there are some negotiations back and forth across chambers.”
After Welch, the top five House Democrats singled out by the group included Rep. Jay Hoffman, Rep. Katie Stuart, Rep. Anna Moeller and Rep. Kelly Cassidy.
On the House GOP side, the group identified the top five most effective legislators as House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, Rep. Norine Hammond, Rep. Charles Meier, Rep. Daniel Swanson and Rep. Amy Elik.
Among Senate Democrats, after Harmon, the group singled out Sen. Laura Fine, Sen. Julie Morrison, Sen. Ram Villivalam and Sen. David Koehler.
And the group’s top five Senate Republicans were Senate Minority Leader John Curran, Sen. Jil Tracy, Sen. Chapin Rose, Rezin, and Sen. Thomas Bennett.
Cassidy, a progressive Chicago Democrat, said her philosophy is to build coalitions.
Cassidy said she’ll have trouble convincing more-centrist Democrats to buy into legislation. One example was a measure removing barriers for a person to legally change their name, due to their gender identity. Cassidy said it took endless meetings with her colleagues in the House, as well as trans-rights activists.
“These are going to be really sensitive issues, and the most important thing we can do is to humanize them,” Cassidy said. “It’s really easy to ‘other-ize’ an issue and pretend that you’re never going to know somebody who’s directly impacted by it.”
Reyna Ortiz, a Chicago-based activist for transgender rights, said it took enormous work to move Cassidy’s bill.
“The process is so long, [the bill] was not coming out of committee. I remember screaming one year at Kelly Cassidy because I was so fed up. I just didn’t understand,” Ortiz said.
But she and Cassidy prevailed.
The experience “just taught me. I was, like, in school,” Ortiz said. “I was learning about building a bill … [we] built a beautiful relationship with Kelly Cassidy, and we’re very grateful for the work that she did put into the battle for trans women of color.”
Illinois
Produce Recall Issued In Parasite Outbreak Hitting IL
A number of Taco Bell locations have posted signs announcing they are “currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall,” according to Detroit-area news radio outlet WWJ.
Taco Bell told the Post it would keep monitoring the situation and follow authorities’ guidance.
Taco Bell Lettuce Linked To Growing MI Parasite Outbreak: FDA
“Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, supplier, restaurant or retailer,” the company told the Post. “While authorities continue their broader review, Taco Bell has voluntarily and temporarily removed limited ingredients at select restaurants as a precautionary measure.”
In Michigan, where cases have been concentrated, media reports said notices were posted at some Detroit-area Taco Bell restaurants last week telling customers the chain was “currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro-Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall.”
Illinois
Illinois GOP trails badly in midterm cash
The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223K in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101K higher than it had reported the day before.
But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.
Republicans no longer have a pet billionaire. Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin have fled the state. The legions of wealthy business titans who once contributed and raised money have either retired to sunnier climes or passed away. Several prominent party members have publicly shunned labor unions and their hefty political war chests, although the state GOP legislative leaders have at least tried to rebuild ties to trade unions and even the Illinois Education Association. But the heavily gerrymandered legislative map combined with the current political climate means they’ll mostly receive scraps.
And, yes, the House Democrats are struggling this month with scandals, including a state representative who resigned under pressure and another who was indicted. I’m not trying to downplay that at all. But Democrats have the national political environment, the local infrastructure and tons of cash behind them. The Republicans have little to none of that.
The GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Darren Bailey, raised $1.3 million in the second quarter, which ended June 30. That sounds like a lot, but he spent almost all of that on direct mail fundraising costs. The huge expenditures do give him a prospect list for future fundraising, but he ended the quarter with a mere $128K in the bank. That was still a whole lot more than the rest of the statewide ticket.
Attorney General nominee Bob Fioretti, a perennial candidate, raised $31K, spent $39K and had $28K on hand at the end of the quarter along with almost $15K in recent debt. Secretary of State candidate Diane Harris raised $6K, spent a bit over $4K and had a paltry $1,816.42 in the bank. Treasurer candidate Max Solomon, who ran as a write-in during the primary because the party failed to recruit anyone, raised less than $3K, reported no spending and ended the quarter with less than $8K. Comptroller candidate Bryan Drew raised $30K and received $47K in in-kind contributions from a company owned, ironically, by independent gubernatorial candidate Collin Corbett, spent less than $3K, ended with $54K and had $25K in debt from earlier this year.
Man, that’s just downright pathetic.
But I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway unless we see a massive sea-change in national opinion in the coming months or the federal government finds a way to not certify certain election results. Regardless of where individual candidates are at this moment, they’ll have the money to compete. Unlike the Republicans, the Dems do have a pet billionaire (JB Pritzker) and, I assume eventually for most of them, organized labor.
The Republican legislative leaders have tried to scrape and claw as much as they can, but they’re vastly outgunned. Senate Republican Leader John Curran raised just $75K in the second quarter. He spent $71K and reported having a bit more than $3 million in the bank. His caucus committee reported having $160K in the bank.
Leader Curran has three Republican-held districts to defend in the Chicago media market that have all trended Democratic in the last three cycles. Depending how bad things get, he could be defending a couple, two or three more.
The Senate Democrats have a ton of money to do whatever they want. Senate President Don Harmon has about $20 million in his personal campaign account and $1.7 million in his caucus account.
Over in the House, Republican Leader Tony McCombie has at least four Democratic-trending or swingy districts to defend and just $1.3 million in her personal campaign account and another $363K in her caucus account so far.
In contrast, House Speaker Chris Welch had $11.4 million in his personal account and $1.2 million in his caucus account. Like Senate President Harmon, he has more than enough money already, but more is never enough when there’s so much out there, so those numbers will likely rise by November.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.
Illinois
Hillsboro grad, Springfield golfer Alex Eickhoff 2nd at state amateur
BLOOMINGTON — Springfield’s Alex Eickhoff nearly had a magical Thursday as he tied for second place in the 95th annual Illinois State Amateur Championship at Crestwicke Country Club.
Eickhoff, a 2020 Hillsboro High School graduate and former standout on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s men’s golf team, shot a 4-under-par 68 in Thursday’s third round and followed that with an even-par 71 to finish the three-day, four-round event 1-over 285. He tied for second with Bloomington’s Logan Stauffer.
Eickhoff briefly took the lead through nine holes of his fourth round when he sat at 1-under par. Chicago’s Charlie Kulwin finished both of Thursday’s rounds under par and finished 2-under 282. He was the lone golfer to finish under par for the tournament.
Eickhoff was The State Journal-Register’s Small School Boys Golfer of the year twice in his high school career: once as a freshman in 2016-17 and again as a senior in 2019-20. After high school, he golfed for the University of Minnesota for two years before transferring to SIUE.
He began the tournament with a 3-over 74 on Tuesday and shaved off a stroke Wednesday with a 2-over 73. He closed out the event with an even-par 71 in Thursday’s final round.
Other area golfers who made the cut were Springfield’s Charles Hoogland (7-over 291, tied for 20th) and Jacksonville’s Brady Kaufmann (8-over 292, 25th).
The last golfer from The State Journal-Register’s coverage area to win the Illinois State Amateur was Jay Davis. Davis, a Jacksonville Routt graduate, won the 1991 and ‘92 tournaments.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
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