THE ILLINOIZE: SAFE-T Act changes "fluid" as legislature returns to Springfield...Mazzochi likely to seek discovery recount as Appellate Court mulls decision on mail-in ballots...Hastings stripped
November 29, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
Thanks to RNC National Committeeman Richard Porter and Republican fundraiser Lisa Wagner for an invitation yesterday to a holiday luncheon with a few hundred political types in Oak Brook.
Incoming House Republican Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) and incoming Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) were both in attendance, as was outgoing Senate GOP Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods). Add Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris), Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry), Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport), Rep. Tim Ozinga (R-Frankfort), Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst), Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington), Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva), and you had a bit of a suburban “who’s who” of what’s left of the GOP. Former Sen. Mark Kirk, former Congressman Bob Dold, outgoing Supreme Court Justice Mike Burke, and state GOP Chairman Don Tracy were among those spotted.
I’ll have a little more for subscribers tomorrow on the disconnect between the GOP “establishment” and voters.
On the first day of the second week of veto session today, Governor JB Pritzker makes his first public appearance since the day after the election this afternoon, providing a “fiscal update” at the Statehouse.
Both the House and Senate are in at noon today. Though, I don’t know that we’ll see much action. See below.
If you aren’t yet a paid subscriber, I hope you’ll take a minute to join us. Paid subscribers get two exclusive newsletters each week along with breaking news, updates, and interesting updates we stumble across each week.
It’s how to support our newsletter and what we do here. Trips to Springfield, equipment, etc. all cost money.
A subscription is just $99 for a year or $9.99 per month. Just click below to join us!
Tell me know what’s on your mind. Drop me a note anytime at patrick@theillinoize.com.
Let’s get to it.
DEMS CONTINUING TO NEGOTIATE SAFE-T ACT CHANGES
Lawmakers, state’s attorneys, public defenders, and victim’s rights advocates spent hours on Zoom meetings Monday working to finalize a deal to amend the controversial cash bail elimination provision in the much debated SAFE-T Act.
A contingent of House and Senate Democrats have been negotiating for months, but Thursday is the presumed deadline to amend the law before it takes effect January 1.
Senate Democrats will likely go over a draft piece of legislation in caucus Tuesday and see if they have enough votes to pass the bill before the end of veto session.
The starting point appears to be a bill proposed earlier this year by Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign), a former prosecutor, which created a broad list of charges that a judge could have the authority to hold a defendant in county jail while awaiting trial.
Democratic sources familiar with the negotiations say draft language appears to narrow the number of charges that can be held in pre-trial detention, limiting the options mostly to forcible felonies.
Bennett declined to discuss negotiations or confirm the potential changes when reached Monday.
But sources say a group of advocates believed the “spirit” of the provision ending cash bail was intended to keep almost no defendants in jail awaiting trial.
“That isn’t true,” the source said. “The spirit of the law is to get cash out of the court system.”
We’re told a number of members of the Senate Black Caucus have been especially frustrated with potential changes to the law.
“They have seen this as such a point of their legislative identity, that they’re very concerned changes are an erosion of that,” the source said. “It would be a slap in the face to certain members of the black caucus.”
Though the biggest challenge of getting the bill out of the legislature this week lies with the most progressive members of the House and Senate Democrats who are deeply opposed to potentially holding more defendants in jail.
It isn’t clear yet how hard House Speaker Chris Welch or Senate President Don Harmon will work to get their members to pass legislation this week and Governor JB Pritzker has yet to weigh in on the legislative changes he supports.
“I don’t know what his position is currently now that the election is over,” the Democratic source said of the Governor.
But don’t expect Republicans to be a part of any final solution. House Republican point man on the issue, Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis), says GOP lawmakers have not been involved in any negotiations, though DuPage County’s Republican State’s Attorney, Bob Berlin, has been in some negotiations.
“We should have done that,” the Democratic source said of including Republicans. “But the position of the GOP during the election was ‘repeal, repeal, repeal’ and anyone who said that can’t be part of this discussion.”
If Democrats can’t make a deal this week, they could delay the implementation date of the cash bail provision, which would also allow courts to begin to rule on lawsuits filed challenging the law, but delay has been described by some as a “last ditch” scenario.
MAZZOCHI AWAITS APPELLATE COURT RULING, DISCOVERY RECOUNT
When the legal deadline for counting late-arriving mail-in ballots passed last Tuesday, Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) trailed Democratic challenger Jenn Ladisch Douglass by 343 votes.
But, it appears the race is far from over.
Mazzochi says she is waiting for a 3rd District Appellate Court ruling on a temporary restraining order approved by a circuit judge and upheld by the Supreme Court while it awaited an Appellate Court ruling.
Mazzochi alleges DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek was verifying signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes with the signatures on their application for the ballot, instead of the usual method of verifying signatures based on voter registrations.
Reached last night, Mazzochi told me she is awaiting the Appellate Court ruling for more direction on outstanding ballots and is beginning the process for asking for a discovery recount, the first step in asking a judge for a full recount.
Kaczmarek has not returned messages from The Illinoize.
The circuit court ruling required the DuPage Clerk to set aside disputed ballots, but Mazzochi says it isn’t clear how many are actually uncounted. She said her data shows around 1,200 mail-in ballots in her district that are marked as “unreturned.”
Mazzochi says she isn’t disputing whether she won the election or not, but says she believes the count needs to be conducted correctly.
“This is not a question of win or loss, this is a question of the Clerk following the law,” Mazzochi said. “It is not a question of doubting the outcome of the election. It is about why the Clerk didn’t follow the law.”
An Appellate Court decision is expected in the next week or two. Meanwhile, it isn’t clear if the State Board of Elections will certify the race when it meets next Monday.
HASTINGS EXCOMMUNICATED
Our friend Dan Mihalopoulos of WBEZ reported yesterday that embattled Sen. Mike Hastings (D-Frankfort) will be stripped of his committee chairmanship in the next General Assembly:
Embattled Illinois State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, is set to lose his powerful legislative committee chairmanship in the new session of the General Assembly next year, Senate President Don Harmon told WBEZ.
Harmon’s move comes after Hastings was accused of physical abuse by his ex-wife, according to police and divorce-court records.
But Harmon said he would not re-appoint Hastings as chairman of the influential Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee or choose him to lead any other legislative committee when the new session starts in January.
“I do not expect Sen. Hastings to be wielding a committee gavel anytime soon,” Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park, told WBEZ last week.
“The voters are one thing – the Senate and the Senate Democratic Caucus is something else,” Harmon said. “I think that Sen. Hastings’s road to rehabilitation within the caucus is likely to be long and rocky. I think he’s lost the trust of a significant number of members of the caucus.”
One veteran Democratic state senator, Mattie Hunter of Chicago, expressed support for Hastings, saying the voters’ will must be respected.
“If they didn’t want him to remain, they wouldn’t have re-elected him,” Hunter said last week.
There is no provision in Senate rules to stop Hastings from being seated. It also isn’t clear if Hastings will be allowed to caucus with the Democrats.
Stripping him of a committee chairmanship does cost him a few thousand bucks next year.
JOIN US