For Democrats in Illinois, the overwhelming political power they enjoy never seems to be enough.
A judge on June 5 invalidated a hastily enacted state law pushed through on a partisan vote that would have booted 17 Republicans from the ballot in November for state legislative seats. Democrats said the law, signed in early May by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, was a bid to prevent “back-room deals” when slating candidates and ensure primary voters have a say in who is representing their political party. The measure would have barred party leaders in various districts from appointing a candidate in the general election if no candidate from their party had run in the primary.
There’s a reasonable debate to be had on this subject. But Democrats made their true motivations obvious by making the law effective for the upcoming election, which at the time Pritzker signed the bill was just six months away. Republicans cried foul and claimed, rightly, that Democrats were changing the rules in the middle of the game to protect their supermajorities.
Most of the GOP candidates to whom Sangamon County Circuit Judge Gail Noll’s ruling applies have little chance of defeating Democratic incumbents. The law in practical terms appeared to be an effort to protect one of the few downstate Democratic lawmakers, state Rep. Katie Stuart of Edwardsville, from facing an opponent. Republicans have a chance of winning in that district, which has posted reasonably decent numbers for GOP candidates in the past.
This law, legally shaky from the outset, says plenty about the state of both parties in the Land of Lincoln. On the Democratic side, going to such lengths to help a single legislator when the party’s gerrymandered state of play already has yielded majorities so large as to be unhealthy for the state’s governance is a bad look. There is no partisan monopoly on good policy ideas, and a Republican Party essentially shut out of policymaking means there’s little check on the worst impulses of the Democratic Party.
That said, the GOP is unquestionably in a dismal state in Illinois and badly needs rejuvenation. The corrosive effect of Donald Trump has plenty to do with this situation, as Republicans in this lamentable MAGA era too frequently battle each other rather than taking the fight to Democrats. If they wish to vie for seats in blue parts of the state, Republicans should reasonably be expected to field primary candidates.
But, as Judge Noll wrote, that requirement shouldn’t be foisted on either party well into an election season. If ethics and good government really were what this law was about, Democrats could have made it effective beginning in the 2026 election cycle. “Changing the rules relating to ballot access in the midst of an election cycle removes certainty from the election process and is not necessary to achieve the legislation’s proffered goal,” Noll wrote in her opinion.
Republicans followed the rules as they existed when the current cycle began and shouldn’t be prevented now from fielding candidates. That’s an anti-democratic move, frankly, from a party that claims to be a staunch defender of the democratic process.
Here’s the bigger picture. We’d like to see Prairie State Democrats show a little more humility. Illinois is a blue state, yes, but well over 40% of this state’s residents are Republicans. We get that politics is a contact sport, but that’s an awfully large chunk of the population to ignore.
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