As regular, loads of false claims have been made throughout
this state legislative election cycle.
However the marketing campaign I hold going again to in my very own thoughts is
the battle within the 97th Home District.
The race options freshman incumbent Rep. Harry Benton, D-Plainfield,
a union ironworker and a former native elected official. The Republican
challenger is Gabriella Shanahan, an government assistant with the Illinois
Coverage Institute.
Organized labor is eager on this race as a result of the Illinois
Coverage Institute is understood for its anti-union crusades and Benton is one among
their very own.
The 97th District had been held by the Republican Celebration
earlier than the 2021 remap, so the Republicans actually need to win it again.
However the remap did a quantity on this district. Donald Trump
misplaced the previous district by eight factors in 2020 and three in 2016. Trump misplaced the
precincts that make up the newly redrawn district by greater than 10 factors in
2020 and 6 in 2016. Each statewide Democratic candidate has received the
precincts within the new district going again to 2016 besides one, appointed Republican
Comptroller Leslie Munger received it by lower than 4 factors.
The freshman incumbent and the Democrats have been
taking part in some video games there, regardless of having an enormous fundraising benefit of shut
to $2 million for Benton to $525,000 for the Republican Shanahan (together with a
$100,000 mortgage from herself on Nov. 1) as I write this 4 days earlier than the
election.
My affiliate, Isabel Miller, reported some time again that
Rep. Benton informed WSPY Radio earlier this yr he was “fairly completely satisfied to see
that the grocery tax goes away,” after the governor proposed
eliminating the tax throughout his State of the State message in February.
A few of Benton’s marketing campaign mailers even claimed that the
incumbent “supported the elimination of the grocery tax.”
However when it got here time to vote on eliminating the grocery
tax, Benton didn’t vote both approach.
Benton informed Isabel that a few of his municipalities would
lose a lot of cash because the 1% grocery tax was solely collected for native
governments.
However when Isabel requested him why he was touting a place
that he didn’t formally take, Benton mentioned, “Since I did not vote on HB 3144,
individuals would not have identified my place. I wished to let individuals know earlier than
anybody may misrepresent my place that whereas there have been elements of that invoice
I did not agree with, I had spoken out about chopping taxes on groceries.”
Um, OK.
Final month, the Democrats ran a digital advert blasting
Shanahan for accepting contributions from politicians who “voted to dam
funding for testing rape kits,” amongst different issues.
That allegation was primarily based on marketing campaign contributions from
Republican state legislators who voted in opposition to the state price range, which included
funding for rape equipment testing. Shanahan has certainly acquired cash from a number of
of these GOP members.
Nonetheless, wanna take a guess who additionally voted with these
exact same Republicans in opposition to the omnibus appropriations invoice (SB251)? In the event you
mentioned, “Rep. Harry Benton,” you win a prize.
An individual near Rep. Benton mentioned on the time that the
freshman incumbent had no veto energy over the Home Democratic advertisements.
Nicely, the incumbent’s private marketing campaign fund, Mates to
Elect Harry Benton, then started operating a Chicago broadcast TV advert that made the
identical actual hypocritical cost.
“Gabby Shanahan received’t defend girls,” Rep. Benton himself
mentioned within the voice-over. “She’s backed by excessive politicians who voted to dam
funding for testing rape kits.”
In different phrases, he was personally, together with his personal voice,
blasting his opponent for taking cash from Republican legislators who made the
identical actual “No” vote that he did on the price range.
Rep. Benton additionally mentioned this within the advert: “I voted in opposition to a
new tax on retirement financial savings for our seniors.” No invoice quantity was flashed on
the display as a reference, and I do not know what the heck he was speaking
about.
The virtually comically lopsided imbalance in marketing campaign cash
this yr signifies that Democratic candidates can principally say regardless of the heck
they need with none form of consequence. And the collapse of native information media
within the state signifies that nearly no one within the district will ever hear about this
and the incumbent received’t be referred to as to account.
The Democrats know all this, after all, which is why they
do it.
