Madigan hoping to regain supermajority
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan waited on Tuesday night's election results to see whether he regained his supermajority as the Democratic Party he leads was poised to claim total control of state government once again.
Two years ago, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cost Madigan his veto-proof margin by leading a charge in southern Illinois and other conservative pockets around the state that saw the GOP score a net gain of four seats. But Trump did not fare well in the suburbs, and this time around, Madigan sought to capitalize on that antipathy toward the president by targeting several seats in historically Republican areas like DuPage County and the northwest suburbs.
Madigan-led Democrats dumped an avalanche of negative advertising into races that tied Republican House candidates to unpopular Trump messages, and they portrayed incumbent GOP lawmakers as taking votes that supported wideopen gun rights and hurt women and social programs. In turn, Republicans sought to re-energize their party's disenchanted voters by warning that complacency risked empowering Madigan even more. Republicans had hoped to gain ground after the speaker pushed through a major state income tax increase in July 2017 and ended a yearslong budget impasse with Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Senate President John Cullerton's Democratic troops were seeking to expand a 37-22 lead over Republicans, already having one more than the minimum 36 needed for a supermajority. Again the battleground was centered on DuPage County, where a hot congressional race between Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam and Democratic challenger Sean Casten had spurred Democratic hopes for a wave election.
Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate could be of great help to Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker, who defeated Rauner on Tuesday. The billionaire Democrat campaigned on a promise to drop the current flat-rate income tax and replace it with a graduated income tax, a sliding scale that would impose higher rates on people with the biggest incomes. Pritzker repeatedly declined to say what the different tax rates should be, calling it something to be negotiated with lawmakers.
But such a major change to the state's tax structure would require putting the issue on the 2020 ballot for voters to consider. First, lawmakers would need to approve placing a constitutional amendment question before voters by a threefifths majority. That would require 71 “yes” votes in the House, and Madigan had 67 Democrats headed into Tuesday night, compared with 51 Republicans.
In the House, the contentious suburban contests found Republican incumbents trying to hold on:
In DuPage County, Republican Rep. Peter Breen of Lombard was up against Democrat Terra Costa Howard of Glen Ellyn in a contest that abortion rights group Personal PAC spent heavily in. Breen is a key abortion rights opponent at the Capitol, and he's gotten backing from Dan Proft, a conservative radio host.
Republican Rep. Christine Winger faced a challenge from Democrat Diane Pappas, an attorney from Itasca. Appointed Republican Rep. Deanne Marie Mazzochi of Elmhurst, a lawyer and chairman of the College of DuPage board of trustees, battled Democrat James “Jim” Caffrey, a former Clorox custom team manager from Elmhurst.
Among other DuPage races, Amy Grant, a Republican DuPage County Board member from Wheaton, is vying to fill the seat given up by Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Wheaton Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Rauner in the March governor primary. Grant faces Kathleen Carrier, a Carol Stream Democrat and the former chair of the Wayne Township Democratic Party.
In the north and northwest suburbs, Republican Rep. Tom Morrison of Palatine was trying to fend off Democrat Maggie Trevor of Rolling Meadows. Morrison faced criticism for submitting a letter of support for a Christian pastor who was convicted on charges he spanked children in Arizona.