THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
November 1, 2021
Rabbit, rabbit.
Good morning, happy November. We’re 372 days from the General Election next November.
The legislature left town Thursday night after passing a congressional map, repealing the Parental Notification of Abortion law, restricting the use of a little-known state law as an exemption from mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, and passing a tax break to incentivize electric vehicle battery makers to come to Illinois.
Check my work, but I don’t believe veto session included any actual disposition of a gubernatorial veto.
Obviously, a lot happened politically Friday. Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon) announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. Two potential congressional primaries shaped up as Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-La Grange) said she would challenge Congressman Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove) in the new 6th district. Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-Oakland) has also indicated, though not announced officially, that she plans to challenge Congressman Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) in the new 12th district.
Subscribers got an exclusive look Friday at the waning hours of veto session and a special edition Friday afternoon on Kinzinger and rumors from the campaign trail. If I can confirm it, subscribers will get another exclusive delivered to them today.
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Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Fallout of new Illinois congressional map was swift, forcing some incumbents to make tough decisions (Chicago Tribune)
The fallout from the new map came quickly. First it was six-term Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, an outcast in his own party over his opposition to former President Donald Trump, taking himself out of a primary matchup against the four-term U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Peoria, a staunch Trump supporter.
Then first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of La Grange, mapped into a heavily Latino district represented by U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, opted to mount a primary challenge to two-term U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove in a new district that includes some of her current southwest suburban territory.
Still to be heard from is controversial freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Oakland who was mapped into a district with four-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro. Miller could choose to challenge five-term U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, whose neighboring district includes some of her current district.
Then there’s Davis, himself, who was left alone by Democratic mapmakers in a heavily Republican central Illinois district. Always active in state GOP politics, Davis has said his political future depended on how Democrats treated him in drawing a new district. Davis has been considering a possible bid for the Republican nomination for governor.
In all, the state House’s post-midnight vote on the once-a-decade redistricting map sets up midterm elections that will have serious consequences for Illinois’ state representation in Washington and in deciding which party controls the U.S. House in January 2023.
Related: Will Bost, Miller or Davis go to Congress for southwest Illinois? There’s room for two (Belleville News-Democrat)
What an Illinois redistricting expert thinks of Democrats' new maps (The Southern)
Kinzinger speaks out on leaving Congress, 'cancer' in the Republican Party (ABC News)
Opinion: Can't make political omelet without cracking GOP eggs (Champaign News-Gazette)
In racially divisive Chicago ward remap fight, something’s got to give as deadline nears (Sun-Times)
I talked to Prairie Farmer about the impact of redistricting on downstate communities.
Some other veto session news…
Illinois legislators pass COVID-19 administrative leave for school employees, but Pritzker is not a fan (Chicago Tribune)
The School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection bill, now headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk, was championed by the state’s teachers unions, who said school employees with young families were being forced to use all of their sick days if they or their children contracted the virus or were required to quarantine.
Some critics of the proposal say if it becomes law, the legislation is certain to disrupt in-person learning by magnifying an already steep shortage of school employees and substitutes.
Pritzker, who could choose to veto the bill, expressed reservations about the legislation through a statement from a spokesperson Friday.
“This legislation raises some serious concerns, including its cost, its potential to destabilize classrooms and discourage vaccinations,” the statement said.
Despite Pritzker’s concerns, a veto of the bill could be unlikely, as the proposal received strong support from both sides of the aisle, passing the Illinois House 92 to 23 and the Illinois Senate 53 to 1.
Related: Illinois bills to expand electric vehicle production, certify health workers head to Pritzker (State Journal-Register)
Health Care Right of Conscience changes will head to governor (Capitol News Illinois)
Betting on in-state college sports teams approved by Illinois lawmakers over objections from school athletic directors (Chicago Tribune)
Rep. Mary Miller’s claim about Mexican caravan the size of Minneapolis not gonna make it after all (Sun-Times)
A Republican congresswoman from east central Illinois took aim at President Joe Biden’s immigration policies by claiming hundreds of thousands of migrants are preparing to cross the nation’s southern border.
“The Biden-Harris caravan is the population of Minneapolis and will enter our country with no vetting, no criminal background checks, no COVID testing and no vaccine requirements,” freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of downstate Oakland tweeted on Oct. 23 atop a video showing a large group of migrants marching from the southern Mexico city of Tapachula.
Minneapolis, Minn., is home to nearly 430,000 people, according to the U.S. Census, while the highest estimate we found for the group leaving Tapachula was less than 1% of that total. The congresswoman, who took office in January, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Reports from news outlets covering the trek have included estimates ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 migrants, including as many as 1,000 children. None of the experts we contacted had seen any estimates on par with Miller’s comparison.
“This is an exaggeration designed to scare people into believing that we are experiencing an ‘invasion’ at the southern border in an attempt to advance anti-immigrant and anti-asylum policies,” said Nicole Hallett, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
I was pretty fed up with the Sun-Times/BGA/Politifact nonsense last month when they went after a comment Sen. Terri Bryant made in passing. This is a complete 180.
Congresswoman Miller (Disclosure: I worked against her in a 2020 primary.) uses exaggeration and fear as the cornerstones of her political agenda. When your best friend in Congress is Marjorie Taylor-Greene, she of Jewish space laser infamy.
Miller is exactly the cancer killing the Republican party today, and the more people realize it, the better it will be to cut the cancer out as soon as possible.
Chicago gets 5 bids for long-sought casino (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Chicago has received a hefty five bids from four competing teams to open a huge casino here, an indication that the long-dreamed of project finally may get built.
The city [Friday] afternoon released only the names of the bidders, which include two national firms and Chicago gambling mogul Neil Bluhm.
But it’s believed, based on conversations with industry insiders, that they’re bidding on a wide range of sites, including the obsolete lakeshore building at the east end of the McCormick Place complex; the Tribune printing plant land at Halsted and Chicago; the 78 property at Clark and Roosevelt in the South Loop; and truck assembly yards just to the west of McCormick Place.
Two of the bids come from one company, Rhode Island-based Bally’s, which has been expanding its footprint nationally.
It proposes using either the Tribune printing plant site or the McCormick truck yard site as the base for a $1.6 billion casino/hotel/entertainment complex that would be built in two phases.
How a Mexican immigrant became mayor in Illinois’ Trump country. ‘People here just get along.’ (Chicago Tribune)
Jesus Garza’s palms were sweating as he pulled his stocky frame up behind the wheel of a green Jeep Gladiator to take his spot at the head of the 50th annual Broomcorn Festival parade.
In the 28 years since he left Mexico to work in a broom factory in this small central Illinois city, Garza always attended the local festival, but he never rode in the parade, let alone at the front as the town’s mayor.
His anxiety quickly gave way to joy. Residents jammed along Arcola’s brick streets cheered, clapped and shouted “Jesus!” and “Mr. Mayor!” as Garza gleefully chucked candy while choking back tears.
Garza, 51, took office in May as a Mexican American political novice in a city filled with supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump, a nativist politician well known for his vitriol toward immigrants, from allowing children to be separated from their parents at the southern border to broadly portraying Mexican immigrants as criminals.
I don’t know Mayor Garza, but I’m aware of him. I’m also told he’s a bright and likeable guy.
But, I’m a little annoyed at the shock of the writer (Bill Ruthhart, if you’re keeping score at home) that people in a central Illinois town could possibly vote for a Mexican immigrant for mayor.
He fails to cite any difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. Spend 20 minutes in any downstate community and you’ll know people see the difference.
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