Democrats from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Illinois’ top party leaders sought to present a message of unity in a regionally divided state Wednesday as they celebrated their first Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair in five years.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who defeated Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner last fall, lashed out at elements of the GOP seeking to pit Chicago against the rest of the state and at rural Republican lawmakers who talk of secession from the state’s largest city.
Addressing more than 2,000 people at the annual pre-fair brunch of the Democratic County Chairs’ Association, Pritzker cited “the insidious danger of a campaign by some elected representatives who suggest that Illinois would be better off divided into pieces — that if you live in one part of the state, that you’re less patriotic or less American than if you live in another part of the state.”
“Illinois’ success relies on all of us,” echoed Kristina Zahorik, the president of the county chairs group. “Democrats will not be divided by race, by gender or by whom they love. We will not be swayed by small-minded Republicans who seek to build a wall against Chicago and strive to use diversity as a political weapon.”
The messaging underscored the politics surrounding the visit by Pelosi, the brunch’s keynote speaker, to the heart of ruby-red Downstate Illinois, where rural political allegiances have remained Republican and loyal to President Donald Trump even as once-dominant GOP suburbs shift to the Democrats.
Noting the Democratic control of the state, Pelosi congratulated Pritzker and lauded a state that flipped two Republican congressional seats in last year’s midterm elections. Democrats now hold a 13-5 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
Pelosi highlighted the suburban and exurban victories of Lauren Underwood of Naperville and Sean Casten of Downers Grove in last year’s midterm congressional elections. Underwood attended the brunch but did not appear with Pelosi, while Casten was in Chicago on Wednesday speaking about climate change.
Springfield also is the hometown of Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, a Democrat who could flip the central and southwestern Illinois congressional seat held by Republican Rodney Davis of Taylorville. Davis defeated Londrigan by 2,058 votes in 2018.
Londrigan attended the brunch but also did not appear with Pelosi. The politically polarizing speaker did not directly answer a question about whether a visit to central Illinois would help Londrigan’s chances.
“We are uniters. We are not dividers, which is what we are up against — leadership in Washington which (seeks) strongly to divide our nation,” Pelosi said.
She pointed to last year’s campaign attacks against her by Republicans. “It didn’t work” as Democrats won a House majority, she said.
In her speech, Pelosi borrowed on Pritzker’s campaign slogan in telling the crowd, “You think big. You get big things done.” She said “persistent, bold experimentation” was the “vitality of the Democratic Party.”
Noting national party concerns over attracting Midwest voters who backed Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, Pelosi said Democrats across the country hope to “catch the spark of Illinois, the spark of the heartland of America where our victory in 2020 will spring from.”
Trump, she said, “continually undermines our Constitution” and “has no respect for God’s creation of America.”
Pelosi said her House majority has advanced many initiatives, including efforts to combat gun violence and to remove dark money from politics, but the efforts have stalled in the Senate led by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. She used the moniker McConnell was given by critics for blocking election-related security measures.
“‘Moscow Mitch’ says he is the grim reaper. Imagine describing yourself as the grim reaper, that he’s going to bury all this legislation. Well, we have news for him. All this legislation is alive and well in the general public,” she said.
McConnell has embraced the “grim reaper” tag for blocking House Democrat-passed legislation.
Though it was the Democrats’ day, in an appearance at the fairgrounds after the brunch Pritzker made a point of also thanking Republicans for helping approve parts of his successful first-year agenda at the statehouse.
“I especially want to thank Democrats and Republicans for working together. We got so much done on behalf of our state this legislative session,” he said on stage at the agriculture director’s lawn, where barbecue was served. “We’re going to continue to work together to get things done.”
Pritzker told reporters afterward that he extended invitations to Republican lawmakers to attend the fairgrounds festivities but none took him up on it. Republicans hold their day at the fair Thursday.
Despite the show of unity for Democrats, who swept all statewide elected offices in 2018, there have been problems within the party that have provided the minority Republicans an avenue of attack. Even the brunch had a brief hiccup when a video from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was played with no volume, and had to be replayed.
On a national level, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Moline, a Pelosi loyalist and another of the featured brunch speakers, has come under fire from some members of the House Democratic caucus over diversity issues in the staffing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that she heads.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the state Democratic chairman who served as Rauner’s chief nemesis, spoke briefly at the brunch as has been his tradition. “We gathered together and we rallied and we removed Rauner from office and installed our governor, J.B. Pritzker,” Madigan said.
The FBI has conducted raids of close associates of Madigan, who is the nation’s longest-tenured state House speaker, having served since 1983 with the exception of two years when Democrats did not control the chamber.
The raids of longtime friend and ally Michael McClain, former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski and political operative Kevin Quinn come as the federal government conducts an ongoing probe of corruption at Chicago’s City Hall that has led to the indictment of veteran Ald. Edward Burke on allegations he used his government position to steer business to his private property-tax appeal law firm.
In addition, a distant cousin of Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, state Sen. Thomas Cullerton of Villa Park, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on a federal indictment alleging he embezzled almost $275,000 in salary and benefits from the Teamsters union in exchange for little or no work.
The Senate president said it’s “a very serious charge” but called the senator “a great member of our caucus.”
“It is what it is,” John Cullerton said. “He’s been charged and he’s got to face the trial.”
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![Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced the creation of a new position within the embattled Illinois Prisoner Review Board that will put an emphasis on expanding domestic violence training for its members after the board allowed a parolee with a history of violence against women to be released from state custody last month before, authorities say, he attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her young son. James G. Montgomery Jr., who once served as mayor of a small town west of Chicago, was named executive director of the review board and his appointment will be an interim […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CTC-L-pritzker-solar14_187618288.jpg?w=525 "Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced the creation of a new position within the embattled Illinois Prisoner Review Board that will put an emphasis on expanding domestic violence training for its members after the board allowed a parolee with a history of violence against women to be released from state custody last month before, authorities say, he attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her young son. James G. Montgomery Jr., who once served as mayor of a small town west of Chicago, was named executive director of the review board and his appointment will be an interim […]")
