Gov. J.B. Pritzker has quickly signed into law a measure that will eliminate the long-standing practice of allowing party leaders to choose general election candidates if no one has run for a legislative seat in the primary.
Under the new law, state House and Senate candidates must run in the primary in order to appear on the November general election ballot — but Republicans blasted Democrats for the rapid passage of what they dubbed a “dictator-style tactic of stealing an election.”
The governor signed the measure on Thursday, hours after telling reporters he didn’t know all the details.
The measure also places three nonbinding referendums on the November ballot to try to boost voter turnout after the state saw the lowest presidential primary turnout since at least 1960. And it pushes up petition filing deadlines to accommodate for an increase in early voting.
Pritzker and fellow Democrats framed it as an ethics measure that would take “backroom deals” out of the equation when choosing candidates — with Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, calling it a “favorite tactic of a former legislative leader,” Mike Madigan, who was House speaker and Democratic Party of Illinois chair.
But Republicans described the quick move as changing the rules in a game that’s already in play.
The GOP is particularly miffed at the speed of its passage — with the Democratic supermajorities in the House clearing it on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday. The Democratic governor, who on Thursday afternoon told reporters he hadn’t seen “all the details of it,” swiftly signed the legislation hours later.
The biggest point of contention is that the new law will affect the general election this year, and Republican House and Senate candidates were already collecting petition signatures ahead of a June deadline to appear on the November ballot. The new law will give Democrats a win in races in which Republicans did not slate a candidate in the primary.
Specifically, Republicans grumbled that it will help boost state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville. No Republican filed to run in the district in the primary, but the GOP was in the process of slating a November candidate.
Previous law allowed local party officials to choose a candidate after a primary election as long as the prospective nominee gathered the appropriate signatures on their petitions. The new law will require legislative candidates to run in the primary in order to run in the general election.
The change does not apply to other offices up and down the ballot.
Since the Republican base tends to vote more conservatively in primaries, that could mean the party could veer even more to the right. The same could be said for Democrats — pushing the party further to the other end of the political spectrum.
On the Senate floor, Harmon called the measure a way for voters to have more of a say on who makes it onto the ballot.
“What we have here before us is an opportunity to end a corrosive practice where, strategically, people avoid primaries to see what the lay of the land is, and then pick the candidate best suited for November after the primary has been settled on the other side,” the Oak Park Democrat said. “Would I do it this way, at this time, if left to my druthers? No, but this is an opportunity to end a practice that has been abused.”
But state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, criticized the timing of the legislation — with several Republican candidates already in districts collecting signatures.
“Now here we are, in the middle of the electoral process, in the middle of elections, and the House is trying to change the rules of this process. They’re trying to take options away from voters. They’re trying to prevent people from getting on the ballot in the middle of the election,” Plummer said. “Not for the next election. Not for two elections. Now. This election. ... Are you gonna get worked up over democracy and the electoral process being changed in the middle of an election?”
Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, called the measure “how to steal an election” and “a direct attack on the core principles of democracy itself.”
After it was signed, Curran called the effort a “30-hour dash by Illinois Democrats to politically suppress Illinoisans’ voting rights.”
“This abuse of power that blocks candidates from giving voters a choice in free, fair and open elections is unprecedented in Illinois’ 205-year history,” Curran said. “Their dictator-style tactic of stealing an election before a vote is cast is a new low for elective government in this state and undermines the core principals of American democracy.”
With the bill’s passage, the three nonbinding referendums on the ballot will ask voters about a 3% tax on annual income over $1 million with money going to property tax relief; whether insurance coverage should be mandated for in vitro fertilization; and whether candidates running for office should face civil penalties for interfering with election workers. There’s a limit of three referendums on a ballot, so the law also blocks out efforts by anyone else to place a question before voters.
