Editorial: State lawmakers in Springfield pass bill to cut off competition in 78 races
Why did SB 2412 need to pass on May 2, in the middle of the election cycle, weeks after the primary election but still well ahead of the November general election? Many candidates had already started the complicated process of petition gathering and paperwork under the old rules. What justifies changing those rules in the middle of the game?
Who’s afraid of a little competition? In Illinois politics, the answer seems to be: Incumbent state lawmakers.
To that end, just weeks after the primary, Springfield legislators passed a bill to protect incumbents from the threat of newcomers in the current election cycle. The measure affects races in 78 districts, which will not be contested in November.
How does all of this work? As political writer Rich Miller of Capitol Fax summarized, aspiring political candidates used to have three routes to get on the ballot:
“1) They can circulate petitions and run in the primary; 2) They can run as write-in candidates during the primary; or 3) They can wait until after the primary and be appointed to the ballot by local party chairs, or committeepersons in Cook County, after passing petitions.”
Senate Bill 2412 changed that by eliminating the third option, which allows candidates to get access to the ballot through party officials – a process called “slating.” Candidates using the slating process were still required to go through the regular petition and paperwork requirements to get on the ballot, but if they were in a district with no primary opponent, slating made it possible to get on the ballot for the general election.
Why does this matter? As Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, pointed out, anyone who wants to run after the primary can still do so as an Independent or third-party candidate. “They would no longer be able to appeal to the local party bosses to have them installed as the candidate of a major political party.”
Fair point. As bill sponsor state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, noted, slating was a favorite tool of disgraced former House Speaker Mike Madigan. On the other hand, fair rules that give people a choice of candidates at the ballot is a good thing.
But why now? Why did SB 2412 need to pass on May 2, in the middle of the election cycle, weeks after the primary election but still well ahead of the November general election? Many candidates had already started the complicated process of petition gathering and paperwork under the old rules. What justifies changing those rules in the middle of the game?
Those questions led four Democrats to oppose the bill. State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, was one of them.
“That’s problematic for me because as an elected official in Illinois, I’m constantly trying to rebuild trust in Illinois government and politics that many of the people I represent…don’t have,” she said to Capitol News Illinois.
Now, 66 House districts won’t be contested. And in the Senate, 12 districts face no competition.
That’s bad for democracy. Illinois Policy Institute analysis has shown higher electoral participation is linked with a greater number of candidates on the ballot. Voter participation was on average seven percentage points lower in Illinois legislative House districts that had only one candidate on the ballot. Under Illinois’ last legislative map, roughly half of all Illinois House races were uncontested on average.
Our political system is already rigged by a corrupt gerrymandering process, which allows politicians to give themselves an unfair political advantage by drawing political maps that create favorable electoral districts. Democrats are abusing this power now, and Republicans have done so in the past when they had majorities in Springfield.
And what will happen to all those potential candidates in limbo? The Illinois State Board of Elections said May 3 they have already accepted some slating filings and will continue to accept them under the original deadline of June 3. It’s possible that some of the candidates who had planned to get on the ballot via slating will sue to make that happen. A lot could happen.
The legislative system should not have been used to protect incumbents’ power and change the rules when people were already working to get on the November ballot. If lawmakers were serious about making reasonable changes to the process, this could’ve waited until after this election cycle ended. But this wasn’t about making things right – it was about making things easy for sitting lawmakers.