Illinois GOP aims to support entire ballot, stray from national party
(The Center Square) – With five weeks remaining until election day, spending has ramped up in races across Illinois on both sides of the aisle.
Leaders from the statewide Republican party and the statehouse level explained their approach to the midterms.
Early voting started across most of the state last week, and parties have begun ramping up races.
Bob Grogan, who has only served as the Illinois GOP chair since May, spoke with The Center Square about the party’s approach to races up and down the ballot this fall.
“Some races are obviously much harder than others, and we’re really making an effort to even the ones that are bigger challenges to not leave them behind,” Grogan said.
Especially at a time when the favorability of Republicans is generally down nationally – a trend typically seen of the party in power during midterm elections – Grogan noted the state party differs in its position compared to the national party because of its status as the superminority party.
“We are very different from red states in particular because we actually have a very unpopular governor in J.B. Pritzker and good experience in Darren Bailey to go against it,” Grogan said.
He noted that the state party has been able to coordinate with the GOP caucuses in both chambers of the statehouse, but also on other levels from statewide and congressional seats, all the way down to the county level.
Both the Democrat and Republican political wings for the statehouse are spending in places where they typically lead by comfortable margins.
Mark Cavers, political director of the House Republican Organization, explained that in races for incumbents like Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-St. Charles, or Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, they’re spending on ads because they have opponents and are trying to keep their races local while their opponents try to tie them to the national party.
“It’s our job to help both remind voters that Dan Ugaste has fought hard for property tax relief, that he’s been a champion for small business. And also show voters that hey, this is a choice at a state-level, the state rep race. It has nothing to do with the national environment or national political figures,” Cavers said.
As for some of the specific races, Cavers spoke about the seats of Democrat lawmakers who have been tied to controversies in recent months, like former Rep. Harry Benton’s seat in the 97th district, or Rep. Amy Murri Briel, D-Ottowa, in the 76th district.
Dems for the Illinois House also recently lost a postal discount and some other support from the Democratic Party of Illinois due to a dispute between the two entities.
The disagreement was over how much each Democratic candidate would have to pay into the central party, with House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch reportedly denying the request by the party without consulting his caucus.
Cavers said the dispute comes as Welch is increasingly unpopular within his caucus and voters.
“You have the speaker of the house who seems to be the odd man out there. You know, he’s got sexual harassment issues within his own caucus. He’s got the, you know, defending spending $1.4 million defending Harry Benton,” Cavers said. “He’s got Carol Ammons who’s under federal indictment. And so, it’s interesting that you have just another example of Speaker Welch kind of being problematic even within his own party.”
Partly Sunny
