How Much Should It Cost to Be Governor of Illinois
You will pardon me if I’m not turning handsprings over the results in the various elections in Illinois on Tuesday night. You also will pardon me if I don’t think the results are indicative of either Neo-Con Centrist Revanchism or Democrats In Disarray. I think the results are fairly indicative of the way politics simply are, the way politics always have been, and, also, the way politics should be.
Take, for example, the race for the Democratic nomination in the Third Congressional District. The incumbent, Dan Lipinski, narrowly edged out a progressive challenger named Marie Newman. Lipinski is a very conservative-not “centrist,” god help us-Democrat who is quite vocally anti-choice, against marriage equality, and who also voted against the Affordable Care Act. (He owes a great deal of his victory to the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List. He was their first Democrat. He must be proud.) His father, Dan, Sr., represented the district for 22 years before retiring in 2004.
So, this being Chicagoland and all, don’t expect me to be surprised that a six-term incumbent Democratic legacy pol managed to win re-nomination. Don’t expect me to be all that upset, either. Newman ran a splendid campaign and almost overcame every advantage that Lipinski had. (She was such a good candidate that two of Lipinski’s colleagues in the Illinois delegation supported her against him.) I think you will hear from Marie Newman again. That said, all that’s left is the spin and I feel safe in concluding that the spin will be all wrong. This primary was just as indicative of a healthy party as it was of a party in conflict. There is now a powerful force from the left, stronger than it’s ever been, just as there’s been a powerful force on the Republican right, which nearly turfed out the incumbent governor Tuesday night.
Bruce Rauner, the self-financed and less-than-wildly popular Republican governor, barely survived a challenge from Jeanne Ives, an anti-choice fanatic who ran specifically because Rauner signed a bill expanding Medicaid coverage to include abortion. (Most notably, Ives called the Southern Poverty Law Center “a hate group.”) Rauner squeaked through by a little more than 20,000 votes statewide.
Again, this is the way party politics is supposed to work. This is how big tents are supposed unfold. The fact that there are disagreements on policy is healthy. The fact that new forces arrive and exert influence on the old order is so common through history (Hi, Republicans! See you later, Whigs!) that it hardly rates as a phenomenon. Would I have preferred Newman beat Lipinski? Of course, I would. But the responsibility of the people who nearly pulled off that upset is to hold Lipinski’s feet to the fire in every way possible.
That said, the race for governor is shaping up as a demonstration of everything that’s wrong with the way we do politics. The Democratic nominee is a billionaire named J. B. Pritzker, who spent $70 million (!) to beat two challengers you never heard of. Rauner, of course, rode his personal fortune into the governorship in the first place. This sets us up for an epic post-Citizens United money-whipping in November that’s guaranteed to make consultants rich, the issues interred in a vault, and all friends of good government nauseous.
Pritzker is no bargain from a family that is no bargain, either. They were the primary sugar cousins for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Another Pritzker, Penny, a former Cabinet secretary under President Obama, was involved in Emanuel’s bloody effort at school “reform.”) As near as I can tell, he’s nothing more than a wallet bulging with cash and an ego bulging with ambition. The primary race was enlivened by the return of former governor Rod (Fuckin’ Golden) Blagojovich to the public debate. FBI tapes from 2008 emerged in which Pritzker is heard schmoozing Blagojovich. From WGN:
On the recording, Pritzker suggests Blagojevich appoint Secretary of State Jesse White rather than other African-Americans, including Jesse Jackson Jr. or Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. He says doing so "covers you on the African-American thing." "Of all the African-Americans that I can think that are sort of like qualified ... and people will say 'Oh - that's, you know that's, that's a pretty good pick,' the one that's least offensive and maybe gets you the most because it gets you that secretary of state appointment is Jesse White."
Later in the call, Pritzker is heard laughing as Blagojevich jokes about appointing Obama's former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose comments dogged Obama's 2008 campaign. Among other things, Wright said the U.S. brought on the Sept. 11 attacks by committing terrorism against others and that people should sing "God Damn America" rather than "God Bless America." On the call, Blagojevich mimics Wright, imagining him saying "God Damn America" on the floor of the Senate. "That's funny," Pritzker says.
Freaking hilarious.
Normally, being caught on an FBI wiretap would blow out the tires on a campaign. Being caught on an FBI wiretap with one of the most famous simoniacs in American political history would be enough to break both axles and dump the bandwagon off the Michigan Avenue Bridge. But vast personal wealth has great healing power in politics these days, and Pritzker is now the Democratic nominee against a wealthy Republican incumbent who’s been staggering for over a year. I am already making plans to hate this campaign with the heat of the mines of Mustafar. That’ll happen from time to time, too.
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