A must-read exposé in The New York Times details the massive onslaught of cash that a mere handful of ultra-wealthy donors have injected into recent Illinois political races in an effort to drive state fiscal policy to the right. In 2014 these rich donors successfully catapulted into office venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, who himself is worth several hundred million dollars. Combined with Rauner’s own self-funding to the tune of $27.5 million, Republicans attained a 2-to-1 spending advantage over then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and his allies.
So what did this cash buy these wealthy elites, who like Rauner derived their wealth in large part from rent-seeking interests such as finance? A governor whose main priorities have been gutting unions with right-to-work, slashing pensions, cutting government spending, lowering taxes on the rich, and not-so-secretly opposing the minimum wage entirely. Democrats bear a large part of the blame for Rauner’s victory because they renominated Gov. Pat Quinn, whose unique level of toxic unpopularity played a decisive role in Illinois Democrats losing their first gubernatorial election since 1998.
Were it not for solid Democratic majorities in the state legislature, Illinois would be well on its way to becoming the next Wisconsin, so of course that makes the legislature the next target for Rauner and his plutocratic allies. Not even two months after his election last year, just three of Rauner’s elite backers had flooded his campaign coffers with another $20 million in an effort to pressure lawmakers during the 2015 legislative session. Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s family alone gave Rauner $13.6 million in 2014, more than what 244 unions combined had spent for Democratic Gov. Quinn. This rapidly-growing rate of political campaign spending will undoubtedly now spread to legislative races themselves ahead of the 2016 cycle.
Thanks to Illinois being one of the rare states with an effective Democratic gerrymander, the party maintains the bare 60 percent majority of legislators needed to override vetoes, meaning Republicans have a ways to go if they want to flip either chamber. In response, the GOP strategy has been a cunning tactic I have long advocated Democrats adopt: when the maps are rigged, change how they are drawn. Rauner and his allies have supported a ballot initiative drive to establish an independent redistricting commission in 2016 to overturn what are unquestionably biased legislative districts (congressional districts would be unaffected). However, their nefarious effort is motivated by anything but fairness and good governance.
As we have previously shown, nonpartisan redistricting could actually worsen bias because of how Democrats would be clustered into just a few ultra-Democratic districts in Chicago, while Republicans are more efficiently spread out elsewhere. That could result in Republicans winning legislative majorities in anything but a Democratic wave year, despite losing the statewide popular vote every time. While the current Democratic-leaning maps clearly give their party more than its fair share of seats, at the very least most of the electorate votes for a Democratic majority year after year. Supposed good-government efforts like this tend to be broadly popular with Democrats and there’s a good chance it would pass if it makes it onto the ballot, thanks to Republican support.
Fortunately, Gov. Rauner has quickly made himself very unpopular by pushing these disliked economic policies that would only benefit the rich, rather than a more balanced approach of spending cuts and tax increases to fix Illinois’ longstanding budget woes. However, he and his plutocratic allies have made it very clear that they will stop at nothing until they have created a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.