The Illinois GOP’s fortunes changed when then-candidate Bruce Rauner entered the political scene five years ago — Rauner was a different kind of candidate: both a successful businessman with no government experience and a self-funder, which allowed the state’s Republican party to focus its fundraising efforts elsewhere.



[audio mp3="http://thedailyline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-10-26-Aldercast-Demmer-smaller-file-mixdown.mp3">[/audio]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

And in the time since Rauner was elected in 2014, Republicans have been able to reclaim power in state government, even breaking Democrats’ supermajority in the Illinois House in 2016. But a predicted Democratic “Blue Wave” threatens that progress, and has forced Illinois Republicans to grapple with both their identity and how best to remain a check on Democratic power in the state.

With credit ratings agencies breathing down Illinois’ neck threatening to downgrade state bonds to junk status last summer, 15 House Republicans finally broke ranks with Gov. Bruce Rauner, voting for a bill to increase the state’s income tax in order to end the 736-day budget impasse. After Rauner’s expected veto, 10 House Republicans ultimately approved the tax hike within a full budget package.

In the weeks and months that followed, a wave of more moderate Republicans with years in the legislature announced their resignations or retirements — though some Democrats also headed for the exits.

Springfield could look quite different come January if Democrat JB Pritzker prevails over Rauner. That could forcing Illinois Republicans to readjust to their new reality. One of those Republicans is State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), who has served in the House since 2013. This summer, he was tapped to become the deputy floor leader within his caucus.

Demmer told The Daily Line he believes the key to expanding the Republican party’s umbrella in Illinois is reaching out to communities the state GOP may have written off as solid Democratic voters, especially Chicago.

“I think there’s a real opportunity for Republicans to make a bigger play in the city of Chicago,” Demmer said. “It’s a city that’s been under Democratic control for decades and Democrats traditionally win the lion’s share of votes in those areas in statewide elections and Congressional elections, but I think there is an opportunity for Republicans to talk about looking at some of the challenges facing the city of Chicago right now…there’s really one party that’s responsible for those decisions. When you look at the amount of debt that the city carries, the underfunding of pension obligations at the city level, when you look at some of the pressures that they see that are not dissimilar to the financial pressures the state sees, you say, ‘Well, who’s been running the city of Chicago for decades?’ Nearly unanimously, it’s Democrats.”

Play this show in a new window | Download this episode

Follow the show: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Listen to past episodes from our archives

Other takeaways:

• Identity crisis? — The nomination and eventual election of President Donald Trump in 2016 caused existing fault lines within the GOP to break into full-blown chasms, at least on a national level. Some of the dischord has trickled down into Illinois, which traditionally enjoys some measure of independence from national politics due to the strength and size of state government. But the near-win of ultraconservative State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) over Gov. Bruce Rauner in the March primary also rocked the Illinois GOP. Does Demmer think the party is facing an identity crisis? “I think both parties have struggled with what their identity is,” Demmer said. But he also said rapid changes in public opinion has presented the GOP with opportunities to expand its identity. “Republicans have been very strong in the last several years on pushing for criminal justice reforms, areas that hadn’t been a priority for Republicans for several years,” Demmer said. “So as we start to embrace new thinking or new policy positions within the Republican party, that gives us the opportunity to talk to new people in a different way. I think in order to be successful, you start to bring some of those people into the fold and say, ‘We can be an ally and we can fight alongside you in accomplishing some of the things we both are pushing for.’”


• Rauner’s money — Though Democrat JB Pritzker’s millions have set campaign finance records in both Illinois and nationally, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s self-funding shocked Illinois when he first ran for governor. Rauner’s infusion of money to the Illinois Republican Party allowed the state GOP to achieve parity for spending in down ballot races, while not having to worry about supporting the top of the ticket. Whether Rauner loses on Nov. 6 or his self-imposed eight years in office run out after his second term in 2022, eventually, the Republican’s cash will stop propping up the party. But Demmer says the Illinois GOP has done enough to transform itself as an operation in order to keep achieving milestones even without the financial support of Rauner and his allies. “When you talk about fundraising, it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket,” he said. “But we’ve seen in addition to the resources that Gov. Rauner’s invested in the Illinois Republican Party, a lot of it’s in sort of developing some of the back-end systems, the data collection systems…all Republican candidates, no matter what level they’re at benefit from those kinds of investments. Reorganizing the party structure, getting more professionalism and more people involved in that, I think those are positive things that everybody benefits from. You can kind of build upon that, I think. It’s not necessarily that that goes away. The investments and gains that we’ve made, they don’t go away at the same time. Those are long-lasting investments.”


• The Madigan question — Gov. Bruce Rauner will leave a lasting impact on Illinois politics for many reasons, but calling public awareness to longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan through television advertisement and constant name-checking has changed the conversation about the 13th Ward boss, and even caused some members of his own party to put distance between themselves and him. Does Demmer consider it a “win” that Republicans have activated voters against Madigan? “I think it’s a win any time you can illustrate to people how state government actually works,” he said. “I’ve talked to colleagues in legislatures in other states across the country and they’re shocked. I mean, they’re absolutely shocked when we talk about the reality of how a bill becomes a law in Illinois. it looks nothing like Schoolhouse Rock. It looks nothing like what your civics book would have taught you. It really is a system that’s been designed to concentrate power into one person’s hands. The people of Illinois need to know that.” Asked if it’s fair to tie his Democratic colleagues to Madigan at every turn, or if it limits coalition-building across the aisle, Demmer said: “the question is when are Democrats going to stop tying themselves to him at every turn?” Demmer urged his Democratic colleagues to consider an alternate vote for House Speaker, or to balk at approving Madigan’s House rules because he alleges it stacks the deck “even against themselves.”

Illinois could reach its clean air goals much sooner if coal power plant owner Dynegy-Vistra shuts down six of its “economically struggling” plants, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Illinois Labor Relations Board was “clearly erroneous” when it sided with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration’s claim that it had reached impasse with AFSCME Council 31 when the parties were negotiating on a new contract, an Illinois appellate panel ruled Tuesday.

The Illinois Supreme Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of de facto life sentences for teens last week, instead sending a criminal case that resulted in a 76-year prison sentence for an 18-year-old back for trial, without addressing whether the sentence violated the Illinois Constitution.

The response from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration to the 2015 and subsequent outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease at the Quincy Veterans’ Home that resulted in the deaths of 13 people and the sickening of dozens more has colored both Rauner’s gubernatorial record and the race for the governor’s mansion.

Police need a warrant to use drug-sniffing dogs to smell out evidence outside of an apartment door in the hallway of a residential building, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision Thursday.

ProPublica Illinois reporter Mick Dumke looks at the state’s political issues and personalities in this occasional column.



Since he first entered politics as a candidate five years ago, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has pledged his commitment to open government.

As he put it during a debate last week with challenger J.B. Pritzker before the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board: “Transparency is great.”

As he fights for re-election, making the declaration is a great move on Rauner’s part — and an easy one. Voters are demanding more and more information about what their governments are doing with their tax money, and every candidate at every level is wise to speak in favor of sharing it with them.

But what Rauner means when he vows to be transparent isn’t so clear, given his administration’s habit of fighting against the release of information. The governor’s office won’t even disclose how often it blocks the release of records sought by the public.

From January 2017 through this June, the governor’s office received more than 500 requests for records under the state Freedom of Information Act, according to a log released to me in response to a FOIA request. The log shows the office received requests from journalists, unions, businesses and independent citizens who wanted copies of the everything from Rauner’s schedule to emails from first lady Diana Rauner.

Yet the governor’s office wouldn’t provide me records showing whether it granted or denied the requests, arguing it wasn’t obligated to under the law.

“Please also be advised that the Governor’s Office is not required to answer questions or generate new records in response to a FOIA request,” one of the governor’s attorneys wrote in a letter.

In other words, Rauner’s lawyer was arguing that his office didn’t have to reveal how it responded to FOIA requests because it doesn’t have those records on hand. That means the governor’s office kept a detailed log of every FOIA request it received, who made it, what it was for and when a response was due — but claimed it didn’t track whether the office ever provided the information or complied with the law.

Either the office isn’t being transparent or it’s not keeping good records.

Even so, the response to my request was more forthcoming than what another Chicagoan, Sarah Jackson, got last year when she asked the governor’s office for a FOIA log: nothing at all. The office never responded to her, according to a summary of the case by the office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s public access counselor, which handles FOIA disputes.

When Rauner’s office didn’t acknowledge her request within two weeks, Jackson notified the PAC, which tried to find out what had happened. But Rauner’s office didn’t respond to those inquiries either. In December, the PAC issued a binding opinion ordering Rauner’s office to produce the log.

Jackson’s FOIA request was one of more than 40 appealed to the PAC from January 2017 through this June after Rauner’s office denied them, records from the attorney general show. In addition to Jackson’s case, the PAC ruled three other times that the governor’s office had violated FOIA. On at least 16 other occasions, the governor’s office responded or reached an agreement with the requester after the PAC got involved. Most of the other cases were closed for administrative reasons. The PAC determined Rauner’s office had acted properly in just one of the disputes.

As I found in a recent investigation, the PAC’s office is backlogged with FOIA appeals that often take months or even years to resolve. One of the reasons it gets so many cases is that public bodies around the state resist such requests.

Ann Spillane, the attorney general’s chief of staff, said the obfuscation starts with Rauner.

“We have a governor of Illinois who actively tries to undermine the FOIA,” she said.

But Patty Schuh, a spokeswoman for Rauner, said his administration remains committed to transparency and devotes considerable resources to complying with the law.

“Our teams spend hundreds of hours each week reviewing documents to respond to FOIA requests as completely as possible and in a timely manner,” she wrote in an email. “We’ve produced hundreds of thousands of pages of responsive documents. In addition, the volume produced by individual state agencies under the Administration could number in the millions.”

Schuh described an office barraged with FOIA requests, including many that take long hours to process. She said the governor would be willing to work on “improvements” to the law, which was first passed in the 1980s.

“The law doesn’t adequately account for the current reality that some government bodies, including our office, add hundreds of thousands of emails each year to their records, if not millions,” Schuh said.

But Rauner wasn’t very sympathetic to the burden the law placed on his predecessor, Pat Quinn, portraying him four years ago as a product of the secretive Democratic machine. He promised to bring a new level of openness to state government if elected.

After taking office in 2015, though, Rauner’s administration began arguing that it was exempt from many FOIA requests, including for basic records such as his daily meeting schedules. In September of that year, the PAC ruled against the governor, concluding his calendars were indeed public records.

His office then stopped naming the people he met with, instead using only their initials on the calendars.

Rauner also repeatedly fought to keep state officials’ emails secret. Last week, the PAC issued another binding opinion that said the emails are public records and releasing them doesn’t place an undue burden on the office.

Much as Rauner once went after Quinn, Pritzker has spent the last year hammering Rauner for concealing key decisions and scandals within his administration.

During the Sun-Times debate, for example, Pritzker accused Rauner of flouting FOIA by redacting emails that reporters sought while investigating a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy.

“They were blacked out because he didn’t want to let people know what was going on, which was an effort to cover their butts, to make sure that they weren’t held accountable,” Pritzker charged.

Rauner denied any wrongdoing. Instead, he attacked Pritzker for not revealing details of his tax plan, and for getting his own tax breaks after removing toilets at his Gold Coast mansion.

The governor had a point: Neither move was a model of transparency.

Jason Rubin, a spokesman for Pritzker, told me the Democrat will “ensure his administration works in good faith to improve public access to information across all executive agencies,” such as making more data and records available, presumably without the need for FOIA requests. In contrast, Rubin said, “Bruce Rauner has routinely shirked ethics and transparency as governor.”

Yet this week the rivals revealed similar notions about openness, and especially its limits. Each released tax records showing more than $50 million in income last year. Each declined to let the public see schedules or attachments showing deductions and other financial details, though news reports have found they each have networks of investments that extend to offshore tax shelters.

Some claims of transparency are easy to see through.

The U.S. Supreme Court May ruling that New Jersey’s sports betting law was constitutional opened the doors to sports betting everywhere, including Illinois.

Last month, The Daily Line took a deep dive into what three third-party candidates reveal about the Illinois Republican Party. Now that quarterlies have been filed, it’s a good time to look into the finances of the three candidates.

Though Illinois will see three major elections within the next six months, it will be another year before the state finishes tuning up its local election practices via the a troupe of cyber navigators hired to survey and help fix the operations at participating entities within Illinois’ 108 local election authorities.