General Election 2022

Jon and Lynn’s Election + Action Guide

Know anyone in suburban or downstate districts?

Here’s our guide to all things election and ACTION for the November 2022 Midterm Election. Even if you have already voted, or vote outside of Illinois, there are nuggets in here for you. There is still time for you, personally, to secure a few more votes in races that matter in Illinois and elsewhere.

Jon & Lynn

Despite the fact that neither Illinois nor our specific ballot in Oak Park has many (any?) close races in this midterm election, now is not the time to hit the brakes on voting BLUE!

With all of our Democratic candidates favored to win, it’s tempting to blow off voting in a midterm. But if MAGA-Republicans do better this year because they turn out and we don’t, it just gives them momentum heading into 2024. So use this midterm as a way to help yourself establish the habit of ALWAYS VOTING. Besides, it will feel good to be part of the “voters against creeping fascism” movement in this country.

Tammy Duckworth for U.S. Senate: Sen. Duckworth deserves reelection. She’s received endorsements from abortion-rights organizations, labor, teachers, environmentalists, gun control advocates, and veterans. We could go on, but we’re proud to vote for her to continue repping us in the U.S. Senate.

JB Pritzker & Juliana Stratton for Gov/Lt Gov: Speaking of proud, we’re proud that JB Pritzker is our governor. He deserves a resounding reelection. We didn’t support him in the 2018 primary out of concern that a billionaire who can buy his way into office may not be in touch with common concerns. But when COVID hit, Gov. Pritzker proved otherwise, governing with a steady hand that helped guide the state through an unprecedented crisis without getting mired in arguments with Right-wing crazies and anti-vaxxers. He’s also shored up state finances, doing more than any recent governor on that perennial problem. It’s just nice for a change to have an effective (and non-criminal) governor in Illinois, isn’t it?

Gov. Pritzker has even been endorsed by the conservative Chicago Tribune. His opponent is an anti-choice MAGA Republican from downstate running an absurd commercial about how much he knows because “he’s a farmer from southern Illinois”. That qualifies someone to govern a state where most of its residents live in one of the world’s greatest metropolises? Only in MAGA World.

And all those crime ads run by Republicans are just racist attempts to scare white suburbanites back into the arms of Republicans, whom they have abandoned because of Trumpism. The gist of the argument seems to be that attempts to reform the criminal justice system have caused a spike in crime.

According to the Brennan Center, though, recent increases in crime do not appear to be associated with criminal justice reform or, more generally, with cities that have progressive leadership. Red States and cities with Republican mayors have seen some of the highest jumps in crime and murder rates since COVID. The same study suggests that police pullbacks are not to blame, either.

But GUNS are at least partially to blame for increases in crime. More than three out of every four murders in 2020 were committed with a firearm, the highest proportion ever. Gun sales hit a record high in 2020, and police reported that 23% of firearms traced were used in a crime within six months of their purchase, up from 13% in the 2015–2019 period. It is not possible to “get tough on crime” without doing something about guns flooding our cities.

Kwame Raoul for Attorney General. In a time when state Attorneys General are on the front lines on all kinds of issues, from guns to abortion to climate, we must have a Democratic AG. If we elect the Republican AG candidate, he would add Illinois to the list of Red States that clutter the conservative federal courts with challenges to virtually any major legislative or administrative policy passed by Democrats.

Alexi Giannoulias for Secretary of State. Jesse White is retiring.

Susan Mendoza for Comptroller.

Michael W. Frerichs for Treasurer. You may have heard some of the recent “anti-ESG” attacks from the Right. This may be a little obscure for some, but so you know, ESG stands for “environmental, social, and (corporate) governance” and refers to the trend among investment managers to evaluate how well companies manage their environmental and climate impacts, how well they treat their workforce, how they attend to customer privacy and product safety, and how transparently they govern themselves. These factors help investors identify successful companies that also are mitigating their negative impacts on society. Those that aren’t carry extra regulatory, reputational, and human-capital risks that will hurt their business over the long run.

Treasurers like Michael Frerichs have been at the forefront of including ESG criteria in managing state pension funds. This also includes engaging with companies about ways they can improve their ESG impact while also maintaining their bottom line.

It’s a global investment trend, but…Republicans HATE it! They oppose common-sense regulations requiring companies to disclose what they see as the risks climate change poses to their business. And they are trying to require state Treasurers to ignore ESG risks in their management/oversight of state funds. Requiring investment managers to put their heads into the sand is not exactly a recipe for investment success in the 21st Century.

This is the work Jon does, and we are passionate about the idea that enormously powerful public companies should pay as much attention to their impact on people and planet as they do to their bottom lines. Investors the world over are moving in this direction AND so are public companies.

ILLINOIS CONGRESSIONAL RACES

IL 7, Rep. Danny Davis. We’ll say it: 80 year-olds are generally too old to be serving in Congress, or, ahem, other public offices. Rep. Davis, nonetheless, will be a vote in Congress for the things we care about, from reproductive rights to climate change to gun regulations and a living wage. And against the extremist MAGA agenda.

But the real point we’d like to make here is that there are FIVE other congressional races in Illinois that Democrats need to win, so if you have friends or loved ones in these districts, please urge them to support these folks, all of them excellent candidates and all of them running against MAGA extremists.

In IL 6, Rep. Sean Casten’s seat is considered “lean” Democrat. Casten is running in a redrawn district this year that extends farther into the southwest suburbs. He is a climate champion who easily deserves reelection over his opponent, who made Fox News for being an anti-masker during the COVID crisis. So if you live in IL 6, vote Casten, or if you know someone who lives in places like Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn and Downers Grove in the west suburbs, or Tinley Park, Orland Park, Oak Lawn and Bridgeview in the SW suburbs — remind them to vote in this important race.

Likewise, two-term incumbent Lauren Underwood is in a “lean” Democrat race in IL 14. Rep. Underwood is an excellent representative, so if you know someone in her district, remind them to vote for her. IL 14 stretches from south Naperville to Joliet, down to Ottawa, and up to DeKalb.

IL 17 is an open Democratic seat that is rated a TOSS-UP! It covers the Quad Cities, includes Galesburg, Macomb, some of Peoria, Bloomington, and also includes Rockford and the NW corner of the state. Urge your friends and loved ones to vote for Democrat Eric Sorensen. If Republicans end up taking the House, it will be because they pull out wins in Democratic districts like IL 17.

Meanwhile, IL 13 downstate is an open seat currently held by a Republican that Democrats have a great chance to flip! The district stretches from the St. Louis suburbs up to Springfield and over to Champaign. Urge your friends and loved ones to vote for Democrat Nikki Budzinski, who worked for both the Pritzker and Biden administrations. She would be an excellent new congressperson.

In IL 11, incumbent Rep. Bill Foster deserves reelection in what’s considered a “likely Democratic” district. The district contains Naperville and the Geneva/St. Charles area and more NW suburbs.

In other races, we support all the Democrats. State Sen. Don Harmon, who as leader of the Senate finally has a chance to work with a great governor, and Rep. Camille Lilly, the Dems running for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, County Commissioner etc.

BALLOT QUESTIONS

There are three questions on the ballot. The first is a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution proposing a guarantee for workers of the right to organize and collective bargaining over wages, hours, working conditions. We are voting FOR the Worker’s Rights Amendment.

The second is a Cook County proposal to extend the property tax limitation for the Cook County Forest Preserve. It asks voters to increase property taxes that go to the forest preserve by about $40 million per year. We’ve seen estimates that this would add about $40 to the tax bill of a home worth $500,000.

We’re voting YES. We were persuaded by The Civic Federation’s support, which is based on its view that the Forest Preserve has strong leadership and management, demonstrated fiscal restraint, limited options for other revenue alternatives and the clearly laid plans for how additional property tax funds would be used.

The third is a local question asking our opinion on whether Illinois should give voters the right to propose and enact state constitutional amendments via petition and referendum. Nothing binding will come of this but we’re voting NO. State questions are not what they’re cracked up to be. In today’s wide-open dark-money political spending environment, it opens the door for special interests with lots of money to finance state questions, run manipulative campaigns, and enact laws directly, without legislative deliberation. If you know anyone from California, ask them what they think about their state’s referendum process.

OK — on to the main event for probably a lot of you: Judges!

We’re going with the Chicago Bar Association’s judgment this year. We’re voting YES to retain all judges except the following:

Judge, Cook County Judicial Circuit

Daniel James Pierce NO #242

Ann Finley Collins NO #256

We’d like to give a special shout out to friend, neighbor, and excellent judge Catherine Ann Schneider who is up for retention in Cook County. If you’re in Oak Park, she’ll be the last person on your ballot. YES #323.

If Democrats lose their 4–3 majority on the Illinois Supreme Court, the state’s highest court could threaten some of the most comprehensive reproductive health care rights in the country.

The first district of the Illinois Supreme Court represents Chicago, Oak Park and suburban Cook County residents, and unlike the other four districts on the court, it actually sends three justices to the bench.

One of those seats will be on the ballot this November, with Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis facing a retention vote.

Under the Illinois State Constitution, 60% of voters will need to vote in favor of Theis to give her another 10-year term on the bench.

So be sure to vote to retain Mary Jane Theis YES #201

The second and third districts of the Illinois Supreme Court could shift the balance.

The second district encompasses McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane and Kendall counties, so if you have friends and loved ones who live there, urge them to support Democrat circuit court Judge Elizabeth Rochford.

The third district includes Bureau, LaSalle, Grundy, DuPage, Will, Kankakee and Iroquois counties. Urge your friends and family to support Democrat appellate court Judge Mary K. O’Brien.

OUTSIDE OF ILLINOIS

There are crucially important races in many other states, so please reach out to your friends and loved ones there to convince them that it’s important to vote in this election. We’re particularly focused on Wisconsin, which has important races for the Senate, Governor, Congress, Attorney General, and state legislature. Every voter you can get to the polls in WI can have an impact up and down the ballot. Key Senate and Governor races in play this cycle include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona. The nudge someone gets from you could be the difference between voting and staying home.

Thank you for reading, and make a plan to vote!