Category: News

Fresh off voting to give themselves massive pay raises, Illinois Democrats are at it again. This time, they’re talking about reviving JB Pritzker’s failed 2020 tax referendum that would raise taxes on middle-class families and businesses which was resoundingly defeated 55-45% by the voters.

From Crain’s Chicago Business yesterday afternoon, “asserting that the second time could be the charm, a veteran Illinois lawmaker is preparing a new effort to get the state to enact a graduated income tax. In a phone interview, Sen. Rob Martwick, who represents portions of Chicago’s Northwest Side and adjacent suburbs, said he still believes the state, and particularly middle-class families, need the income and lower property taxes, respectively, that a graduated income tax would bring, even though voters in 2020 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to do that by about a 10-point margin.”

“First they voted to give themselves self-congratulatory pay raises, now Illinois Democrats are talking about reviving Governor Pritzker’s rejected tax referendum to help pay for them,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “If the past week is any indication, we’re in for two years of massively out-of-touch overreach by Illinois Democrats, that sadly Illinois voters will be asked to foot the bill for. I don’t recall a single Democrat campaigning on these issues last fall.” 

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Illinois Should Enforce Existing Laws to Curb the Gun Violence Epidemic – Not Go After Law Abiding Gun Owners 

This week, Governor Pritzker signed into law a bill banning law-abiding gun owners from purchasing certain types of firearms and requiring registration of some guns already owned.  “While the epidemic of gun violence in Illinois is tragic and very real, we strongly disagree that this bill is the solution to it. Instead, it only infringes on the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners to bear arms safely and legally,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “It should be noted that Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country and yet still had the most murders in the US last year. This bill will do nothing to deter criminals from committing these heinous crimes, yet it infringes significantly on the constitutional freedoms of law-abiding Illinoisans who use firearms safely and responsibly.” 723 people were murdered in Chicago in 2022. Tragically, that is more than any other major city in the US, despite having some of our nation’s toughest gun laws. Under the watch of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the city has far too often taken a lax approach to prosecuting violent crime. According to the Chicago Tribune, “For the three-year period analyzed, Foxx’s office dropped 8.1% of homicide cases, compared with 5.3% under Alvarez.”  In 2021, the Chicago State’s Attorney initially refused to press charges in a deadly gang shootout due to it being “mutual combat”. Charges were ultimately filed months later.  Chairman Tracy continued, “The criminals are the problem, and when instead of enforcing the laws that we have on the books, Democrats go after law-abiding gun owners, it sends the wrong message. We need more cops on the streets, and when criminals commit violent crimes, instead of letting them go, we should fully prosecute them, and support the law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to arrest them. Instead of violating the Second Amendment, we should enforce existing gun laws to curb this horrible violence epidemic.”

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After rewarding themselves with massive pay raises, Illinois Democrats are once again drunk on power, and have moved to weaken signature requirements on absentee ballots.  During the 2022 election, the DuPage County Clerk chose to flout the letter of the law by not requiring that signatures on returned vote-by-mail ballots be matched to the official signatures on file for those voters.  A DuPage County judge rebuked the Clerk for this practice. “Use of the Vote by Mail ballot application to qualify signatures on the Vote by Mail ballot itself would be an obvious way to commit ballot fraud.” Now, instead of abiding by the law – or strengthening it with common sense measures like voter ID –  Democrats have decided to do away with the requirement altogether.  “When the rules don’t go the Democrats’ way in Illinois, they use their massive supermajorities to change them in their favor. First they voted to give themselves massive pay raises, next they voted to weaken signature verification requirements on absentee ballots.”

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While Illinois families struggle with higher cost-of-living and rising taxes, Illinois Democrats have voted to reward themselves after the election with massive pay raises. Consistent with fiscally responsible governance in this time of economic uncertainty, all Republican legislators voted against this historic salary increase.  Under the law which passed the legislature last week, the Democrat Lt. Governor, Democrat Comptroller, and Democrat Treasurer will receive 13.9% pay raises beginning when they are sworn in this week. The Democrat Attorney General and Democrat Secretary of State will receive 10.8% pay raises, and all Illinois State Legislators will receive raises of 18.4%. Democrat agency directors will also see substantial pay increases.  “If Illinois Democrats have proven one thing over the years, it’s that they love enacting unpopular policies after elections to avoid the ire of voters during election season. They passed cashless bail and postponed the gas tax increase until after the election, and Chicago Democrats deferred property tax bills – all to avoid accountability with voters. Now, they’ve voted to raise their own pay. Illinois voters want fiscal sanity and responsible government, not tone-deaf pay raises for the Democrats and their allies,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “It’s clear that this is self-benefiting overreach by Democrats reading the wrong mandate from the November elections. If Governor Pritzker signs this bill into law, Illinois voters should hold these legislators accountable next election.” If signed into law by Governor Pritzker, the nearly 20% pay hike will make Illinois legislators the 4th highest paid in the country, behind California, New York, and Pennsylvania.

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This morning, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy issued the following statement celebrating the court decision striking down the cashless bail provision in the [Un] SAFE-T Act: “Cashless bail was slated to go into effect across Illinois this Sunday. This law would have severely limited the ability of judges and prosecutors to keep dangerous criminals off of the streets thereby exporting the epidemic of lawlessness we’ve seen in certain parts of Chicago throughout the rest of our state. The Circuit Court ruling which rightly declared it unconstitutional is a win for public safety, and the businesses and residents of Illinois, if upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court. For now, it should serve as a message to Governor Pritzker and Democrat legislators that they can’t subvert our constitutional process by ramming their unpopular and dangerous soft-on-crime policies through the legislature in the dark of night.”

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For decades, the Mike Madigan – Ed Burke Machine has controlled Illinois’ judiciary, including the Illinois Supreme Court. The Machine controlled the appointments and slating of all judges in Cook County (which has 3 Supreme Court seats) and at least one other judicial district (out of 7 statewide) in perpetuity for decades.

The Machine has used the Supreme Court and lower courts to protect their power and block good government and pro-business reforms. The Supreme Court has blocked term limits, legislative redistricting reform, pension reform, tort reform, medical malpractice reform, and other policy measures.

The Supreme Court also controls the appointments of all vacancies on the Illinois judiciary, so if there’s a vacancy at any court level (trial court or appellate court), the Supreme Court decides who gets appointed and is more than likely elected on the court.

Who sits on the Supreme Court may decide the future of redistricting reform in Illinois, or how your representation in the Illinois General Assembly and in Congress is decided. In 2016, the Court struck down a citizen-led bipartisan Fair Maps referendum on a 4-3 vote with an overtly partisan decision that every Republican on the Court publicly decried. 

The Fair Maps effort was led by the nonpartisan group Change Illinois and had overwhelming bipartisan support, as it was led by former Republican Governor Jim Edgar and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. But the Madigan Machine, the Dem-controlled legislature, trial attorneys, and the public sector unions opposed it because it would have taken power away from Springfield insiders.

With so much turnover on the Court in recent years, citizen activists and good government groups may try again to get a citizen-led referendum on the ballot regarding redistricting reform. With a court majority that isn’t controlled by the Machine and Springfield insiders, redistricting reform is plausible.

Who sits on the Supreme Court may also decide the future of public safety in the State of Illinois, as a lawsuit regarding the constitutionality of the Governor’s so-called “SAFE-T Act” is making its way to the Court.

Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O’Brien are both Madigan Machine judges who will put the Machine before the people of Illinois.

Rochford’s political connections and ties to the Machine run deep. She’s funded by trial lawyers allied with Mike Madigan, and she personally wrote a big campaign check to indicted Chicago Alderman Ed Burke AFTER the FBI raided his office. Rochford served for years on the Illinois Court of Claims, which is a patronage political appointment that typically goes to political insiders.

O’Brien’s deep ties to the Machine are well known. O’Brien was appointed as an Appellate Court Justice during her final year in the Illinois General Assembly after voting with Madigan 93.6% of the time. O’Brien also helped Madigan regain the Speakership and received nearly $200,000 in political contributions from political groups led by Madigan. In the General Assembly, O’Brien supported Madigan’s gerrymandered legislative maps and even had her own district changed to incorporate family members who lived in another district just so they could vote for her.

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Throughout the 2022 election cycle, the Illinois Republican Party has been closely monitoring the voting process to ensure that the election is conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner, and in accordance with the law.  In doing so, it has relied on reports from Republicans from polling places and Clerks’ offices throughout the State.  

In a bid to require the Kane County Clerk to follow the Election Code and for the sake of greater transparency, the ILGOP has joined candidates Cody Holt and Gary Daugherty in filing suit against the Kane County Clerk following the Clerk’s Office’s refusal to require that election judges and election workers initial Vote By Mail ballots as they process them.  From the suit:

“On or about October 25, 2022, counsel for the ILGOP sent a letter to the Kane

County Clerk requesting that the Clerk conform VBM ballot processing to the requirements of the Illinois Election Code by having his election judges initial VBM ballots that are processed by the Clerk…Despite this demand, the Kane County Clerk has, contrary to the Election Code, persisted in refusing to abide by the requirement of election judges endorsing VBM ballots with their initials when processing VBM ballots received by Kane County voters.”

“It is vitally important that there be a transparent and accountable process. The failure by the election officials in this case to not initial these ballots completely frustrates that process,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “The Illinois Republican Party and the campaigns joining the suit, are simply asking the County to follow the law.  The Clerk’s stubborn attitude erodes confidence in the electoral process.”

In a second suit, while not a party to the suit, the Illinois Republican Party is monitoring and supportive of the recent action filed by Jim McGuire against the Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons. It has come to light that an employee of the Champaign County Clerk’s office was found to have a stack of loose ballots on the front seat of her car.  McGuire’s action seeks to determine what these ballots were doing in this employee’s car, and to bar that employee from participating in election activities, at least until the facts around the mishandled ballots could be vetted by a Court.

“The Illinois Republican Party supports any effort to get a complete, credible, and expedited explanation into how these ballots ended up on the front seat of the Deputy County Clerk’s car. Whether this was intentional conduct or mere carelessness, it is absolutely unacceptable.  We call on the Champaign County Clerk to immediately take responsibility for this breach and corrective action in his office,” said Tracy.

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Amendment 1 might is worded to sound great but make no mistake, it is a trojan horse tax increase that will give super-legislative powers to big government unions while forcing property tax increases on the rest of Illinoisans. Here’s what the Editorial Boards are saying:

Wall Street Journal:

“If you think teachers unions are powerful now, wait until this passes. Amendment 1 would bar the Legislature from passing anything that ‘interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and work place safety.’”

Crains:

“As Crain’s business columnist Joe Cahill pointed out on Oct. 3, if the WRA passes, Illinois will stand out for giving broader constitutional protections to organized labor than any other state. The amendment bars any legislation that interferes with unions’ bargaining rights, and—going further than any of the handful of states that constitutionally protect collective bargaining—explicitly prohibits “right-to-work laws” like those recently adopted by neighboring states”

Chicago Tribune:

“Moreover, since the public sector also has to raise funds to cover its cost, the amendment seems likely to put pressure on property taxes and other sources of government revenues. We’ve not heard a viable counterargument to that. It certainly won’t reduce the size or expenses of government.”

Daily Herald:

“We recommend a “No” vote on Amendment 1 because it is not needed and because unneeded Constitutional provisions unwisely tie the hands of the people’s representatives and the representatives of future generations to deal with problems we may not even foresee today.”

The News Gazette:

“This amendment is a masterpiece of obfuscation sailing under the banner of making Illinois a constitutionally-mandated non-right-to-work state. In other words, it’s a Trojan horse. One need not be a foe of unions or collective bargaining to have serious doubts as to the wisdom of this proposal. One can vigorously support the rights of employees — public or private — to work out their issues at the bargaining table without seeing this amendment as necessary to enhance their existing statutory rights.” “Make no mistake – Amendment 1 is a trojan horse tax increase, even 5 major news editorial boards agree,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “This constitutional amendment is designed to give big government unions super-legislative powers and pass higher property taxes on to Illinoisans. Voters should reject Amendment 1 at the polls tomorrow.” ###

The Illinois Republican Party is condemning a desperate, last-minute mailer targeted to Republican voters that attacks Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael Burke. The mailer was paid for by a shady Democrat Political Action Committee (PAC) called “Ballot Access Illinois,” which has close ties to indicted Democrats. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement in response to the Democrats’ mailer:

“Just hours before the polls open on Tuesday, Democrats are flailing at the prospect of losing control of the Illinois Supreme Court and launching ridiculous attacks on Justice Michael Burke. Machine Democrats and shady political operatives are behind this desperate, last-minute mailer targeting Republican voters. The momentum going into Election Day is clearly on the side of Michael Burke and Mark Curran, and the Democrats are doing everything they can to mislead voters and stop Republican momentum.”

The chairman of “Ballot Access Illinois” is Rudi Patitucci, who currently works for Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign and has worked for Democratic candidates like scandal-ridden State Sen. Michael Hastings over the past decade, according to Patitucci’s LinkedIn page.

“Ballot Access Illinois” currently reports having no money in its bank account, according to its most recent D-2 filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, and hasn’t had any contributors for years. The Democrat PAC filed its most recent D-2 over two weeks late. Previous contributors to the PAC include indicted Democrat politicians Tom Cullerton and Danny Solis and several labor unions.

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Joe Biden’s agenda is so unpopular that purple state Democrats don’t want him anywhere near their campaigns. Forced to spend the Saturday before the Election bailing out once-safe suburban Democrat Lauren Underwood who is now on the run from her support for his disastrous agenda, Biden lashed out at critics of his record, calling them “idiots”. 

The Illinois Republican Party issued the following statement from Communications Director James Zenn, calling for Rep. Lauren Underwood to disavow Biden’s comments:

“With inflation at record levels unseen in 40 years, Biden would rather name-call and distract than have to explain to voters why his terrible energy policies and reckless spending agenda have ratcheted up their gas and grocery bills. Underwood supported these policies every step of the way, proving that she is just as out of touch with what is ailing western suburban voters as the President. Underwood can disavow the President’s out-of-touch comments, or she can continue to follow his agenda to its final destination – out of office on the morning of November 9th.”

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