The harmony of Illinois Democrats has been broken in recent weeks in disagreements over whether embattled House Speaker Michael Madigan should continue to lead the party and over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s response to looting in Chicago’s Loop.
But in a 90-minute virtual welcoming party Sunday evening, the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention was urged to pursue unity in defeating Republican President Donald Trump in November.
The computer-screen videos of various party leaders rallying for the ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were a precursor to a convention that gets underway Monday and will be unlike any other due to the pandemic, with delegates attending from home and lacking the ability to directly network from what had been scheduled to be their event home at a suburban Milwaukee hotel in Waukesha.
Madigan, the state Democratic Party chairman implicated in an alleged federal bribery and influence scandal involving Commonwealth Edison, spent a scant 15 seconds on screen to welcome delegates. “We look forward to a successful convention, a successful election in November,” Madigan said before turning over the proceedings to Mary Morrissey, the state party’s executive director.
ComEd has agreed to pay a $200 million fine and cooperate with federal prosecutors for three years over what investigators allege was a near decadelong effort to gain influence with Madigan through the use of jobs and contracts to his allies. Madigan has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has denied he ever made a legislative decision “with improper motives.”
But there have been increasing calls within the party for Madigan to give up his chairmanship of the party and his position as House speaker, which he has held since 1983 with the exception of two years when Republicans controlled the chamber in the mid-1990s. He has said he won’t resign either.
None of Sunday’s opening slate of speakers alluded to the controversy, but Madigan’s Capitol counterpart, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park, urged Democrats to look at a bigger picture of electing a new president, reelecting current Democratic officeholders and approving Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ballot measure to change the state constitution to impose a graduated-rate income tax.
“As Democrats, we’ve long known that our diversity is the source of our greatest strength. To that end, every day until Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in, we must be stronger than we have ever been,” Harmon said. Trump, he said, “may be trying to break us, but we will not let him.”
Pritzker echoed the call for unity and urged Democrats to avoid complacency.
“We have a real fight on our hands. Do not take for granted any of these polls. We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we? Take nothing for granted,” Pritzker said of surveys that have shown Biden with a sizable lead over Trump nationally and in key swing states. “If you got involved in politics to make a difference, this is our moment. If we fight hard and stand together, we will win.”
Lightfoot also gave a virtual address. The first-term mayor has faced criticism within the City Council and from some Democratic state lawmakers over her handling of the Chicago Police Department’s response to recent outbreaks of violent looting in the heart of the city’s downtown shopping district.
Lightfoot did not directly address her response to the unrest, which has included a heavy police presence and restricted access to downtown overnight. Instead, she focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic had “revealed the fundamental inequities in our society” and defended her leadership of the city, including her efforts to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods long stricken by violent crime and high levels of poverty.
More Top Picks Best Foldable Reading Glasses
“We have put more resources into every facet of our communities, but we know that even though Chicago is a city of sharp extremes, all the hard work we have done over this last year-plus will not survive if we don’t have leadership and partnership in Washington, D.C.,” Lightfoot said. “We need a president. We need an administration who are our allies, not our adversaries.”
The mayor then pivoted to a call for unity.
“If we are united, if we are determined, if we move forward and follow directions of our leaders all across the state, we will be successful in delivering a victory for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that will resound across the country,” she said. “Coming together, that’s what Chicago needs, that’s what Illinois needs and that’s what our nation needs.”
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Moline, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, expressed sympathy to Lightfoot for Trump’s repeated attacks on Chicago and the city’s struggles to tamp down violent crime.
“I’m nauseated, literally nauseated, by Trump’s constant lies, his relentless attacks on our press, his verbal assaults on Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot, I feel for you every day in the kind of assaults you have to take from this president. Everyone wants to feel safe in their communities. We know that,” Bustos said.
“And we know that all of us want to make sure that our kids get a good education. And we know that all of our families want to make sure that they’re paid fairly,” Bustos continued. “This is what keeps us together as Democrats, and we need to continue to fight for that.”
In a series of short speeches, various Illinois politicians sought to turn the party’s focus externally onto Trump, particularly over the president’s handling of the pandemic that kept delegates away from Milwaukee.
“Donald Trump is utterly and completely incompetent. And that’s put the health of our people in danger, the economy will remain in recession longer than it should and the security of our nation is in peril,” Pritzker said. “Over 168,000 Americans are dead because of his failure to lead.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth told fellow delegates the fact that they couldn’t gather was “a reflection of just how poorly Donald Trump and his administration have managed — no, mismanaged — this pandemic.”
Fellow Sen. Dick Durbin accused Trump of trying to corrupt the Postal Service and said Democratic lawmakers would be returning to Washington to hold hearings on cuts that have hampered mail service across the country that could prevent the processing of vote-by-mail ballots in November.
“This whole notion that he is going to jeopardize, some way through the Postal Service, mail-in ballots — that to me is as close as it gets to undermining the fundamentals of our democracy,” Durbin said. “We’re going to take this seriously.”
Former presidential candidate and Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrapped up the proceedings by mocking Trump’s penchant for using the phrase “people are saying” when floating ideas such as adding his likeness to Mount Rushmore or suggesting the economy is performing well. In doing so, Klobuchar encouraged Illinois Democrats to drive home the real-life consequences of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
“Well, he must be talking to different people than we are, because I can tell you what people are saying. People are saying they don’t know what they’re going to do with their kids in the fall. People are saying they can’t even go see their grandma,” Klobuchar said. “Senior people are saying, ‘Why am I, in my last year that I want to be with my grandkids, why am I isolated like this?’ People are saying, ‘How am I going to get a job when I’ve worked my whole life and I don’t know if my job is coming back?’ That’s what people are saying.”
Twitter @rap30
Twitter @BillRuthhart