2020 has been a year of political ups and downs across the country. Here in Illinois, we’ve had some great successes despite a year of pandemics and political paralysis on the national stage. But we’ve also experienced significant failures and setbacks.
Here are some of the best and worst events in Illinois politics based on the issues we’ve been working on.
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#10: The ComEd Bribery Scandal
The state’s most powerful utility company, Commonwealth Edison admitted to a nine-year bribery scheme to weaken the authority of state regulators over the formula for determining its rates. At the center of the scandal are top executives and close allies to the Illinois Democratic Party Chair and House Speaker, Mike Madigan. One of Madigan’s closest confidants and ComEd lobbyists was under constant pressure to deliver jobs and legal contracts, including a seat on ComEd’s board, according to documents released by a special investigative committee. However, these documents also revealed that ComEd assisted with job recommendations for leaders in both parties at multiple branches of government. The scandal will hopefully hasten the ethics reforms being promoted by progressive legislators.
#9: Democrats Stand Against Madigan
Will this be the end of a nearly four-decades-long reign as Speaker of the House? Kudos to the 19 Democratic State Representatives who have been brave enough to come in favor of new leadership – may their opposition be successful and may a new Speaker restore trust in the Democratic Party and state government.
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#8: Ethics Reforms Stall in Cook County Government
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle did her best to stand in the way of meaningful ethics reform, sidelining a major ordinance for a vote in 2020 which would create more transparency, weed out bad hiring practices, require lobbyists to register, and add sexual harassment as an ethics violation.
Following their introduction of this ethics reform legislation, Cook County Board of Ethics members Juliet Sorensen and Peggy Daley were informed that Preckwinkle would not be re-upping their nominations. Preckwinkle then allowed the Board of Ethics to forego any meetings for some seven months (even while other committees were meeting regularly), stalling any movement on these needed reforms.
The potential bright side? The Cook County Board of Ethics finally held a meeting in September, under pressure from Good Government Illinois and reformers, introducing a new ordinance which included much of what Sorensen and Daley introduced in the prior ethics reform package. We will be paying attention to what happens next.
#7: Transformation of a Corrupt Office
There is perhaps no clearer example of what good government can do, than the transformation of the Cook County Assessor’s Office under Fritz Kaegi. Inheriting one of the most corrupt offices in Illinois, Kaegi set to work on reassessing properties across Cook County to ensure valuations were based on real factors and not political contributions. And, when the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, Kaegi moved quickly to provide relief. Next up: Passing the stalled legislation in Springfield to require more data on property sales and rental income.
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#6: Republican Representatives Reject Democracy
In a disgraceful showing, Illinois Republican U.S. Representatives Darin LaHood (IL-18) and Mike Bost (IL-12) decided that free and fair elections are a bad thing, actually, and that America should become a dictatorship under Donald Trump, signing onto Texas’s anti-American lawsuit to overturn November’s election. By signing onto a lawsuit where they did not have standing, in order to support one state’s attempt to overturn the laws of another, Bost and LaHood have embarrassed the state and disgraced their offices. We hope the voters remember in 2022.
#5: Chicago Gets a 2021 Budget
How do you plan the finances for a city as big as Chicago, in an equitable way, in the middle of a global pandemic which the federal government has no interest in stopping? Kudos to Budget Chair, Alderman Pat Dowell and Finance Chair, Alderman Scott Waguespack for their tireless work and for being opened to suggestions to the city’s politically diverse council, and passing the 2021 budget Though the vote was close, they formed a coalition that included 17 out of 20 Black Aldermen, over half of the Latino Caucus, and 12 out of 18 members of the Progressive Caucus. The budget includes such measures as $36 million for violence prevention, $20 million for a community-based mental health program, and $1 million for an alternative response pilot program, pairing police with mental health professionals for some calls. This was a job well done on a budget that isn’t what we thought we’d be looking at a year ago, but was necessary for the times we are in.
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#4 Link Lurks on Lawmaker To Lessen Sentence For Lying About Income
Former Illinois Democratic State Senator and Lake County Democratic Party Chair, Terry Link was charged with a federal count of income tax evasion. Link wore a wire for the FBI in a bribery investigation of his colleague, Rep. Luis Arroyo, and was terminated as a confidential source after it was revealed he had filed false income tax returns, then agreed to cooperate again with the FBI in hopes of reducing his sentencing on the expected tax fraud case. Link, who was a majority leader in the Senate, chaired the powerful pensions committee and sat on the legislative ethics committee, resigned in August.
#3: Voting in Illinois Gets Easier
Illinois had record voter turnout in the 2020 general election, reaching the highest levels since 1992. This year across the state, 73.8 percent of registered voters (a record total of 6.1 million people) cast ballots. Part of the record turnout can surely be attributed to Governor JB Pritzker’s signing a law sponsored by Rep. Kelly M. Burke and Sen. Julie A. Morrison that considerably expanded the number of voters who cast their ballots by mail. The measure also made Election Day a holiday, freeing up schools to be used as polling places, and expanded the in-person early voting hours so more working families have access to making their voices heard. Hats off to Gov. Pritzker, Illinois Democrats, and the election officials and judges, both Republican and Democrat, in all 108 local election authorities on a successful election despite unprecedented challenges.
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#2 The Fair Tax Amendment is defeated
In a tough beat for working families across the state, the Fair Tax Amendment was defeated. Staggering amounts of money flowed in from billionaires like Ken Griffin, funding a massive disinformation campaign against the measure. Now, the state has no choice but to cut services, raise taxes on those who can least afford it, and seek efficiencies to balance the 2021 budget. A tremendous loss for the people of Illinois.
#1 Illinois’s Leadership Saves Lives in a Pandemic
Due to the dramatic failure of our federal government, Illinois was on its own in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot showed consistent leadership, with Pritzker even arranging secret flights to get PPE delivered for essential workers so that the Trump Administration didn’t steal it. Illinois Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Ngozi Ezieke’s and Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady’s daily briefings became must-watch events, as they cut through the panic and misinformation to calmly and transparently explain where we were each day. A sincere thank you to our leadership and public health officials for their work.
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