Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line 11-29-2026: Li Arellano Jr. talks midterm elections & the plan moving forward

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Talk Line 11-29-2026: Li Arellano Jr. talks midterm elections & the plan moving forward · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Chicago, does anybody really know what? I know. It's 825
0:20
Speaker 1: on your Monday morning here on FM 95.1 and AM
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Speaker 1: 1460 WIXN. It's time for Talk Line on your Monday morning,
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Speaker 1: and we are joined in the booth once again by
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Speaker 1: our good friend all the way from Springfield and around
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Speaker 1: the state, As this guy never stays still, I'm talking
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Speaker 1: about State Senator Lee Arellano Jr. Sir, how are you?
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Speaker 2: Good. Buenos dias. Good to be in here today.
0:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bit of a chilly Monday morning, but
0:44
Speaker 1: old man winter's going to be knocking on the door.
0:46
Speaker 1: I've been talking about the five minutes of perfect fall,
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Speaker 1: and I think we're at four minutes, 32 seconds.
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Speaker 3: I think the clock is starting to run out. The
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Speaker 3: fall was gorgeous there for a second. Really, really, truly beautiful.
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Speaker 3: But in classic Illinois fashion, I think it was just...
1:02
Speaker 3: It was just teasing us and it's getting kind of
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Speaker 3: nippy now.
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Speaker 1: It was like, yikes, here comes a change. Here comes
1:10
Speaker 1: a shift. Yep. Before you know it. And, of course,
1:13
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to smoothly segue that.
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Speaker 2: Let's go. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Obviously. Speaking of shifts, we've got a pretty significant political
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Speaker 1: shift with the midterms, Democrats making gains in traditionally Republican territories,
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Speaker 1: Texas obviously being a pretty famous example. What do you
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Speaker 1: think voters were trying to tell politicians with these kind
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Speaker 1: of results?
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Speaker 3: Everybody has their interpretations, and some things seem fairly obvious
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Speaker 3: to me. The first one is super obvious. People are very,
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Speaker 3: very upset with the status quo. When you look at say,
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Speaker 3: polling on party affiliations. They were mad at Dems. They
1:52
Speaker 3: were mad at Republicans. They were mad at everybody because
1:55
Speaker 3: they're just mad. They're sick of having low affordability. They
1:59
Speaker 3: don't feel like their government is listening to them. I heard,
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Speaker 3: even from within Republican circles, a lot of anger and
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Speaker 3: resentment at the president for what they felt were broken promises,
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Speaker 3: whether that's gas prices, whether that's no wars, whatever it is.
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Speaker 3: It clearly wasn't just Democrats who were mad. You don't
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Speaker 3: have that kind of way of election anywhere. if you
2:19
Speaker 3: don't lose a lot of folks in the middle, if
2:21
Speaker 3: you don't get a lot of folks angry, don't even
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Speaker 3: normally pay attention to politics, and they decide to come out.
2:26
Speaker 2: And certainly there were a lot.
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Speaker 3: Of Republicans defecting, and I talked to some of them,
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Speaker 3: and they told me their reasons. And it had to
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Speaker 3: do with frustration at the tone and tenor of Washington,
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Speaker 3: how leadership was being done there, and I think most
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Speaker 3: critically that they felt promises had been made and promises
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Speaker 3: had been broken. And I don't care what party you're from,
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Speaker 3: if you lose the trust of the people, if you
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Speaker 3: say you're going to do X and you don't, especially
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Speaker 3: if you don't do a good job explaining, here's why
2:52
Speaker 3: I had to shift course, which I think is the
2:54
Speaker 3: contention out there, you're probably going to hear it. And
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Speaker 3: if those things rise to just a revolutionary level, you
3:03
Speaker 3: mentioned Texas, then you're going to feel in a revolutionary pushback.
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Speaker 3: And the Texas is, I think, a pretty good example.
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Speaker 3: And I'll be real blunt. I have said forever I'm
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Speaker 3: a reformer before I'm a Republican. I'm a reformer before
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Speaker 3: I am anything at the political level. And Texas, in
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Speaker 3: my opinion, had gotten a little drunk on their power.
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Speaker 3: And I've accused Democrats in Illinois of being the same thing.
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Speaker 3: I see a lot of parallels. You know, there was
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Speaker 3: the gerrymandering attempts. There was nominating somebody who had been
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Speaker 3: indicted by his own Republican General Assembly for corruption. And
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Speaker 3: out of all of Texas, where you just have literally
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Speaker 3: millions of Republicans to choose from, I was incredibly confused.
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Speaker 3: And I'm not from Texas. I don't know all the details.
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Speaker 3: I don't study their politics. I am focused on Illinois.
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Speaker 3: So certainly there could be details I'm missing, but I
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Speaker 3: was just confused how in all of Texas you nominate
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Speaker 3: somebody for a federal office, which is already dealing with
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Speaker 3: corruption issues and frustrations, somebody that your own party at
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Speaker 3: the highest level, your state legislators, had charged with corruption
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Speaker 3: from within the statehouse. And everybody said, well, it's Texas,
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Speaker 3: it's Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away from Lucy
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Speaker 3: and Democrats are never going to win. In my head,
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Speaker 3: as a reformer, having watched the Tea Party pull Republicans out,
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Speaker 3: and I was like, there are plenty of reformers in
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Speaker 3: the Republican Party who will come at you when you
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Speaker 3: get that arrogant power. And I think that's one of
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Speaker 3: the many dynamics that happened. In Illinois, my frustration is
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Speaker 3: I think the Illinois Republican Party, and certainly my Senate
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Speaker 3: Republican peers, aren't corrupt at all. They have not been
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Speaker 3: engaged in that. And on the flip side, it's the
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Speaker 3: Dems who have been abusing the budget system, abusing gerrymandering,
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Speaker 3: abusing executive power, just completely drunk on power, openly committing
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Speaker 3: acts of corruption, and not a single federal office in
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Speaker 3: Illinois changed. So you had a governor who I think
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Speaker 3: is clearly running for president, has been for a while,
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Speaker 3: hasn't been present down in Springfield much, who's investing hundreds
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Speaker 3: of millions into messaging and campaigning, just insane amounts of
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Speaker 3: money that No one else, including other Democrats in Illinois,
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Speaker 3: can compete with. He bought the comptroller's race, which is
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Speaker 3: a check and balance on the government. He clearly shifted
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Speaker 3: the federal Senate race, and he's shifted a lot of
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Speaker 3: local and state legislative races.
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Speaker 2: And he's all doing it.
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Speaker 3: To focus on federal issues and get people angry about
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Speaker 3: federal issues and feed into that because he thinks it's
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Speaker 3: helpful for his party here to distract from what they're doing,
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Speaker 3: but also it fuels his ambitions. And so my frustration
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Speaker 3: is we knew this whole time, because they'd already stolen
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Speaker 3: all the federal positions through gerrymandering, there was almost no chance,
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Speaker 3: there's no wave big enough where they would take any
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Speaker 3: more federal seats in the state of Illinois.
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Speaker 2: And that was true.
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Speaker 3: We had the biggest Democratic wave election of my life.
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Speaker 3: Not a single federal seat switched parties, right? But they
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Speaker 3: were able to do damage elsewhere, which was the goal.
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Speaker 3: So My takeaway from this as an Illinois resident and
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Speaker 3: as an Illinois reformer is, while in other parts of
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Speaker 3: the nation they might have taken out some areas that
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Speaker 3: needed reform, in Illinois we actually moved further away from
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Speaker 3: the kind of ethical and financial reform we need to
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Speaker 3: get the state healthy. Democrats had already blocked ethical reform
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Speaker 3: bills in Springfield for years, and now I think we're
6:27
Speaker 3: going to be further away from it for two years.
6:29
Speaker 3: And so I get real frustrated at the zoo in
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Speaker 3: Washington today and how effectively it distracts in Illinois from
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Speaker 3: what we need to do here. And it was a
6:38
Speaker 3: little different as a mayor. As a mayor, I think
6:40
Speaker 3: it's easier to get people to look at local issues.
6:43
Speaker 3: You know, if you walk out your house and go
6:45
Speaker 3: to work, your road's there every day. It's reminded of you.
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Speaker 3: It's easy, I think, as a local leader to get
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Speaker 3: people to focus on the local issues that you're responsible for.
6:55
Speaker 3: And certainly it's easier as a federal official to get
6:57
Speaker 3: people to focus on federal issues because that's all the
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Speaker 3: newspapers want to talk about. That's all the governor's spending
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Speaker 3: money on. That's all social media is ranting about. That's
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Speaker 3: what people are looking to ready. I think one of
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Speaker 3: the hardest spots right now in America where politics is
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Speaker 3: not local anymore, it's mostly federal, like this isn't the
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Speaker 3: 80s or the last century or two, the hardest challenge
7:18
Speaker 3: is if you're at the state level, getting people to
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Speaker 3: focus on the state issues, especially when you have a
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Speaker 3: billionaire governor spending tons of money to distract away from them.
7:28
Speaker 3: So we have kids dying under DCFS care. In the
7:32
Speaker 3: past month, DCFS was actually found in contempt of court
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Speaker 3: by a judge. This should be big news. Kids are dying.
7:38
Speaker 3: DCFS is in contempt of court. They're not turning over
7:41
Speaker 3: documents related to why these kids are dying. And nobody's
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Speaker 3: talking about it.
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Speaker 2: Nobody knows. Kids are literally dying, right?
7:50
Speaker 3: I had a bill I've talked about a few times
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Speaker 3: for children's advocacy centers to help get more travel costs
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Speaker 3: for kids who have been physically and sexually abused, get
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Speaker 3: them mental health care follow-ups, do some of the things
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Speaker 3: we need to do. It would have cost a few
8:05
Speaker 3: million dollars, so of course there's no money in the
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Speaker 3: budget for it. And then I have to watch the
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Speaker 3: Speaker of the House spend $ 40 million on an athletic
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Speaker 3: complex for his own district, his own school district in
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Speaker 3: his own house district, which is one school district out
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Speaker 3: of so many in Illinois, and that was $ 40 million.
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Speaker 3: So there's these little things that are clearly, in my opinion,
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Speaker 3: a higher priority, and nobody cares. That should be a scandal, right?
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Speaker 3: It should be. Um, it certainly is at the federal
8:28
Speaker 3: level where people are accusing Trump of being more focused on,
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Speaker 3: you know, reflecting pools or whatever these other things, but
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Speaker 3: we're not angry in Illinois when the speaker builds a
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Speaker 3: youth sports complex, like a sports complex. And we have
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Speaker 3: people dying in nursing homes that shouldn't be, we have
8:44
Speaker 3: people not getting mental health or rural healthcare that should
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Speaker 3: be like just this long laundry list. So that's my
8:49
Speaker 3: biggest takeaway from the election is, is at the state
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Speaker 3: level in Illinois, um, I think we've moved further away
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Speaker 3: from that. But as you know, the further the pendulum swings,
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Speaker 3: sometimes it crashes back. And Democratic leaders down in Springfield
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Speaker 3: have been arrogant, just like Texas Republicans got. They have
9:08
Speaker 3: been abusing power. They have been corrupt. And I firmly
9:12
Speaker 3: believe that at some point, they're going to pay a
9:14
Speaker 3: price for that, either from reform from within their own party.
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Speaker 3: And if their own party can't get reform from within,
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Speaker 3: at some point, the voters will do it to them.
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Speaker 2: But not today. It was not Tuesday.
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Speaker 1: So, I mean, we've got– there's things to fix all
9:32
Speaker 1: across the board, right? And we're going to have– we
9:34
Speaker 1: are going to– we're going to have folks upset. You're
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Speaker 1: going to hear this bickering back and forth between parties.
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Speaker 1: Democrats said to control both the U.S. House and Senate.
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Speaker 1: Is this just– I mean, are we just doing the
9:48
Speaker 1: same song and dance where now we're going to get
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Speaker 1: more gridlock in Washington and across the state because nobody,
9:54
Speaker 1: everybody is more focused on taking control next round or
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Speaker 1: what they can do rather than working? together and if
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Speaker 1: and if we could stop playing that game what would
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Speaker 1: that look like what realistically okay can lawmakers do next
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Speaker 1: legislative session because people regardless of party lines and colors
10:13
Speaker 1: are are upset about cost of living. That is absolutely
10:16
Speaker 1: where we've got everybody across the board, ups and up
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Speaker 1: in arms, and it's going to continue no matter who
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Speaker 1: the leaders are. So what should we be doing to
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Speaker 1: address taxes, housing costs, and everyday expenses working together rather than, okay, hey,
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Speaker 1: look at this, look at that, vote for me next time.
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Speaker 1: What should we be doing if we were realistically working
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Speaker 1: together in the situation? Yes, nobody's happy, but we should
10:44
Speaker 1: be moving forward. And then maybe as we get a
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Speaker 1: little closer, we can switch back into campaign mode again.
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Speaker 1: What should we be doing?
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Speaker 2: Part of it starts at the top.
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Speaker 3: For those folks who love Trump or hate him, I
10:56
Speaker 3: think the common theme is he said he's going to
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Speaker 3: be a fighter. He's going to take it to him.
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Speaker 3: I think the next two years, like you mentioned, are
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Speaker 3: going to be a slog of battle back and forth.
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Speaker 3: And then pulling it down to the state level, which
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Speaker 3: I know much more about and live in and study
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Speaker 3: and am passionate about, you have a similar dynamic. The
11:15
Speaker 3: only difference is Governor Pritzker likes to talk about bipartisanship,
11:18
Speaker 3: but I can tell you in the real world he
11:20
Speaker 3: does not do that in the slightest. His campaign team
11:23
Speaker 3: is a bunch of knife fighters. They're out to win,
11:28
Speaker 3: and when it comes to legislation, they do not care
11:31
Speaker 3: about any of that stuff. their first goal is power.
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Speaker 3: And I think for the next two years, quite bluntly,
11:39
Speaker 3: because of that, there isn't really a path to success
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Speaker 3: at the federal level.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I just can't see it.
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Speaker 3: And at the state level, because of the gerrymandered supermajority
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Speaker 3: and the monolithic power they've built up, there is very
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Speaker 3: little we can do.
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Speaker 2: To stop them.
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Speaker 3: I mean, the Senate Republican Caucus has dropped to 14
12:00
Speaker 3: members from 19. We were already in the superminority, and
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Speaker 3: we lost... five members and we would have lost six,
12:07
Speaker 3: except our leader was unopposed. Uh, and he re he
12:10
Speaker 3: is our last Republican Senator represents part of Cook County now. Um,
12:14
Speaker 3: so what can we do to stop, you know, if
12:18
Speaker 3: I see corruption and I've saw, I've seen blatant corruption
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Speaker 3: down in Springfield, like just seen it, watched it happen,
12:24
Speaker 3: spoke to it.
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Speaker 2: It happens anyway. Right.
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Speaker 3: Uh, the, our ability to respond to that will be
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Speaker 3: even less for the next two years. And the governor
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Speaker 3: is clearly, like I mentioned, I think, running for president.
12:38
Speaker 3: He's going to be fixated on those issues. And that
12:40
Speaker 3: will be the defining, I think, politics of the next
12:43
Speaker 3: two years in Illinois, which is everything that goes through,
12:46
Speaker 3: you have to look through a lens of how will
12:49
Speaker 3: the governor feel about this in the context of how
12:51
Speaker 3: it makes him look in the Democratic primary of a
12:53
Speaker 3: national race for president, right? So you see, I expect
12:57
Speaker 3: stuff like housing to come back up because you got
12:59
Speaker 3: Gavin Newsom out in California dressing, trying to address housing.
13:02
Speaker 3: It is a huge topic in Illinois, and he's not
13:08
Speaker 3: going to want a lot of other contenders to run
13:09
Speaker 3: away with that issue. He's going to want to own
13:11
Speaker 3: a piece of that issue. I think data centers will
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Speaker 3: be a huge topic because both parties are riled up
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Speaker 3: about him, and he owns a lot of real estate
13:19
Speaker 3: in that area, so he has to act.
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Speaker 2: He can't wear that as an albatross hanging him down.
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Speaker 3: So I have to imagine we're going to do something
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Speaker 3: about data centers, probably something good.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 3: And one of my jobs representing the region is understand
13:30
Speaker 3: those dynamics and use them to advocate for my region.
13:33
Speaker 3: If I know the governor's feeling this way and I
13:35
Speaker 3: know the public's putting pressure on him and the majority Dems,
13:38
Speaker 3: then while I might be in the super minority, now
13:40
Speaker 3: there's an avenue to utilize those pressures on them to
13:45
Speaker 3: get a good bill passed. They won't let me sponsor
13:47
Speaker 3: one or any of my colleagues. But through the mouthpiece
13:51
Speaker 3: of our public advocacy and joining together with other advocates,
13:55
Speaker 3: we'll have the ability to influence that bill and make
13:57
Speaker 3: sure things like local control are protected in rural areas, right?
14:01
Speaker 3: Because that's something the governor has notoriously taken away in
14:04
Speaker 3: things like battery storage and the energy bills as we
14:07
Speaker 3: try to fight over these rising electric prices. But there
14:09
Speaker 3: will be a window where maybe we can get that
14:11
Speaker 3: into this particular bill. So moments like that are where
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Speaker 3: I think we'll find success. I wish I could tell
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Speaker 3: you we're going to do a lot of positive things.
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Speaker 3: I don't see that happening in the next two years.
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Speaker 3: I think there's going to be a lot of fighting,
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Speaker 3: and most of it's going to be focused around federal politics,
14:27
Speaker 3: even in Illinois. Our governor's not focused on Illinois. He's
14:30
Speaker 3: also going to be engaging in that federal politics. In fact,
14:33
Speaker 3: the day after the election, he'd already released, what was it,
14:36
Speaker 3: like 100 points on how.
14:37
Speaker 2: To fix the federal issues.
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Speaker 3: And this is the governor of the state that is
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Speaker 3: 50th out of 50 in fiscal stability. Like, you've got
14:46
Speaker 3: some issues here in Illinois to deal with, and your
14:49
Speaker 3: first reaction following your re-election is to launch a plan
14:53
Speaker 3: about the federal government? His eye's clearly not on the ball.
14:57
Speaker 3: So I'm going to have to maneuver that for the
14:58
Speaker 3: next two years. His own party's going to have to
15:00
Speaker 3: maneuver it. I talked to them in the halls of Springfield,
15:03
Speaker 3: and they were frustrated last veto session that they were
15:05
Speaker 3: not getting support or coordination or communication from the state executive.
15:09
Speaker 2: And they won't say that publicly, of course. Actually, some
15:12
Speaker 2: of them did a few times publicly.
15:14
Speaker 3: But they won't say it as powerfully publicly, but they
15:17
Speaker 3: know that's going to be a challenge in Illinois. Right now,
15:21
Speaker 3: Springfield is not focused on Springfield. Even some of my
15:26
Speaker 3: Democratic colleagues who are running for other offices, state offices,
15:29
Speaker 3: state comptroller, things like that, they spent the whole time,
15:33
Speaker 3: the whole election, talking about federal issues. I had to
15:35
Speaker 3: watch candidates for state comptroller, which is one of the
15:38
Speaker 3: biggest checks and balances in the executive branch on spending,
15:42
Speaker 3: talk about immigration and federal issues, and never once, I watched,
15:46
Speaker 3: never once talked about state finances, never once talked about
15:49
Speaker 3: the role of the comptroller in being a check and
15:52
Speaker 3: balance on the General Assembly and on the governor, never
15:54
Speaker 3: once talked about what they would do different in the office.
15:57
Speaker 3: The state of Illinois is just going to suffer as
16:00
Speaker 3: long as all eyes are on Washington. And, again, I'd
16:04
Speaker 3: point to the results on Tuesday. Not a single federal
16:07
Speaker 3: office change. So what we were all mad about, we
16:10
Speaker 3: accomplished nothing on. Every electoral college vote in Illinois has
16:14
Speaker 3: gone to a Democrat since, I think, 1984. This state
16:19
Speaker 3: already votes for Democrats at the federal level. It already
16:22
Speaker 3: had both senators Democratic, and not a single congressional office
16:27
Speaker 3: switched parties. So I think one of my biggest challenges is,
16:31
Speaker 3: as a state official and a reformer passionate about the
16:34
Speaker 3: state of Illinois, how do I get the public and
16:38
Speaker 3: my colleagues to focus on the challenges in Illinois? Because
16:41
Speaker 3: we can't solve them unless we're really focused on them.
16:44
Speaker 1: If we could do one thing to make the cost
16:47
Speaker 1: of living cheaper here in Illinois, what would that look like?
16:53
Speaker 3: I'll give you two quick answers, and then you can
16:55
Speaker 3: delve into them how you like. I'll give you a
16:57
Speaker 3: direct one and an indirect one. The most direct thing
16:58
Speaker 3: we could do is change energy policy. Energy policy has
17:03
Speaker 3: gotten very expensive. We're forcing the shutdown of coal plants,
17:07
Speaker 3: tons of good union jobs, tons of cheap power. We
17:10
Speaker 3: are now facing a close down of natural gas, which
17:13
Speaker 3: is actually better for the environment than many times of production.
17:18
Speaker 3: And we're way behind in nuclear, which is carbon-free and
17:21
Speaker 3: the best baseload power you can buy, but it takes
17:23
Speaker 3: a long time to build out. And we're seeing the
17:26
Speaker 3: effects of that. Tyson Foods closed in my district. We've
17:29
Speaker 3: talked about that. They were the number one electric user.
17:33
Speaker 3: for their supplier in Illinois, in the whole state, because
17:36
Speaker 3: just like grocery stores are usually the biggest electric users
17:39
Speaker 3: for small community businesses, same reason, lots of freezers, lots
17:43
Speaker 3: of refrigerators running all the time because of food safety,
17:46
Speaker 3: have to be maintained and kept at certain temperatures, very expensive.
17:50
Speaker 3: And as Illinois, which used to have cheaper energy, and
17:54
Speaker 3: it was a counterbalance to our expensive property taxes, we
17:57
Speaker 3: have very bad economic things, but we have some good ones.
17:59
Speaker 3: Strong workforce, Good energy prices, number one nuclear producer in
18:03
Speaker 3: all of America, of any of the states. And now
18:05
Speaker 3: we've given away that cheap energy card that Illinois had
18:09
Speaker 3: to play for the past half century. And it took
18:14
Speaker 3: a long time to get there, so people didn't notice
18:16
Speaker 3: it was coming. But we've been warning them it's coming.
18:18
Speaker 3: And now we're here. And the governor's own office has
18:20
Speaker 3: predicted rolling blackouts by 2029 if we don't do more.
18:24
Speaker 3: And the only other state that's ever had that problem
18:25
Speaker 3: is California. We're in rare air, and we took something
18:28
Speaker 3: that used to be an economic cornerstone of Illinois, key
18:32
Speaker 3: to manufacturing, key to all of these things, and we've
18:35
Speaker 3: made it a negative, and it's going even more negative.
18:39
Speaker 3: So the number one thing we could do is change
18:41
Speaker 3: energy policy. It would be the fastest. The longest term
18:44
Speaker 3: is addressing property taxes, but the fastest, most imminent thing
18:46
Speaker 3: we could do is turn around our energy policy and
18:49
Speaker 3: get cheaper energy back. And then the indirect thing I
18:52
Speaker 3: would say is Jeremy. You can't get financial and ethical
18:55
Speaker 3: reforms through the state because of the gerrymandered maps. I
18:59
Speaker 3: think the number one thing you could do overall is
19:01
Speaker 3: fix gerrymandering and give the power back to the people
19:04
Speaker 3: so they can actually decide who's leading them instead of
19:07
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party bosses in Illinois choosing who gets to vote.
19:11
Speaker 2: For their people.
19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think gerrymandering is something that negatively affects people
19:16
Speaker 1: in most any state regardless of who controls it. It
19:20
Speaker 1: can be flipped on either side of that, and I agree.
19:22
Speaker 1: It's not a It shouldn't be led down that path. Right.
19:27
Speaker 1: And ask Texas if it always works. As you said,
19:28
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be for the people, not down to
19:31
Speaker 1: something that is able to be shifted.
19:33
Speaker 2: Yes.
19:34
Speaker 1: Depending on how you end up drawing maps and what
19:37
Speaker 1: that looks like and how that could be.
19:39
Speaker 3: And it breeds a lot of voter apathy. You get
19:40
Speaker 3: a lot of people of, does my vote even count?
19:43
Speaker 2: What does it matter? I heard a lot of that.
19:45
Speaker 2: You know what?
19:46
Speaker 1: I've never asked this question. Why is it that we...
19:50
Speaker 1: been able to identify this and we've even given it
19:53
Speaker 1: a term and we've recognized that it's not a thing,
19:55
Speaker 1: but we've not changed it? Is it just because we
19:58
Speaker 1: prefer whoever gets to wield the knife enjoys picking it
20:01
Speaker 1: up and that's why we won't put it away?
20:03
Speaker 3: It's because, I mean, there's a lot of reasons, but
20:06
Speaker 3: I think the simple answer is political inertia. In order
20:10
Speaker 3: to reform something at the governmental level, the people in
20:13
Speaker 3: charge of government at that time have to be the
20:16
Speaker 3: ones to reform it. And the challenge with gerrymandering is
20:19
Speaker 3: it's used to get people in power. They are now
20:21
Speaker 3: reliant on it, on being in power. So you're asking
20:23
Speaker 3: the people in power who owe their power to gerrymandering
20:27
Speaker 3: to end gerrymandering. And it just goes against all of
20:29
Speaker 3: human nature. I'll give you the Illinois Supreme Court as
20:32
Speaker 3: an example.
20:34
Speaker 2: It is gerrymandered.
20:36
Speaker 3: And it is specifically gerrymandered because Democrats almost lost the
20:39
Speaker 3: Illinois Supreme Court last decade. And they were literally gerrymandering
20:43
Speaker 3: cases that came before the Illinois Supreme Court. We were
20:46
Speaker 3: trying to do a citizen amendment in Illinois. Citizens got
20:49
Speaker 3: so sick of both parties and their shenanigans that they said,
20:52
Speaker 3: we're going to do a citizen amendment to the Illinois Constitution,
20:55
Speaker 3: which requires over 500,000 signatures across the state, just a
20:58
Speaker 3: massive effort.
20:59
Speaker 2: And they were successful.
21:01
Speaker 3: And It was going to be on the ballot, and
21:03
Speaker 3: the Democrats legally challenged it. And it went all the
21:06
Speaker 3: way to the Supreme Court, because they were using all
21:07
Speaker 3: these nonsense things to say, no, the people don't have
21:09
Speaker 3: the power to do this. We're the party bosses. Only
21:12
Speaker 3: we can do it. And it goes all the way
21:13
Speaker 3: to the Illinois Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court, by
21:17
Speaker 3: one vote, five to four, like some Democrats flipped, said, no,
21:21
Speaker 3: we're going to kick this off the ballot.
21:22
Speaker 2: And then they gave a shenanigan reason.
21:25
Speaker 1: And.
21:26
Speaker 3: What the Democrats did is in 2020, for the first
21:29
Speaker 3: time in decades and decades and decades, realizing that the
21:31
Speaker 3: Supreme Court almost made an honorable ruling and killed gerrymandering and.
21:37
Speaker 2: Defended the Illinois Constitution. Because gerrymandering is against the Illinois Constitution.
21:40
Speaker 2: It is unconstitutional, folks.
21:43
Speaker 3: They gerrymandered the Illinois Supreme Court and locked in seats
21:47
Speaker 3: because the response from the public was to do something
21:51
Speaker 3: historic last decade. They got so mad at this Illinois
21:53
Speaker 3: Supreme Court ruling. They unseated a sitting Supreme Court justice.
21:58
Speaker 3: It's never happened in my lifetime, and I don't think,
22:00
Speaker 3: and I'd have to double check, I don't think it's
22:02
Speaker 3: happened in the history of Illinois. Because normally, us regular peons,
22:06
Speaker 3: myself included, we see judges on the ballot. I don't
22:08
Speaker 3: know if a judge is good or not.
22:10
Speaker 1: I still don't understand why these folks don't have term
22:12
Speaker 1: limits the way that others don't. That I still– I
22:17
Speaker 1: am still baffled as to how that is not changing. Yes,
22:20
Speaker 1: I am not a political expert. Politico would certainly reject
22:23
Speaker 1: my application. But we– I mean we have term limits
22:28
Speaker 1: for president of the United States, but somebody could be
22:30
Speaker 1: a Supreme Court justice for life carrying over who knows
22:34
Speaker 1: what possible negative cultural connotations and forms of reality– You know,
22:39
Speaker 1: the older you get, I used to think I wouldn't
22:41
Speaker 1: be that, but, you know, sometimes my kids will just
22:44
Speaker 1: come along and they'll say certain things, and I'm like,
22:47
Speaker 1: don't say that.
22:48
Speaker 2: Don't say skibbity.
22:49
Speaker 1: I can't hear skibbity.
22:51
Speaker 2: You know, I laugh.
22:53
Speaker 1: But, you know, and I'm being funny here, but at
22:55
Speaker 1: the same time, you have to imagine what somebody who
23:00
Speaker 1: has been in that seat for 60-some years, like, In
23:06
Speaker 1: what ways are they maybe not culturally able to move
23:09
Speaker 1: forward and how does that affect their decision making? Plus,
23:12
Speaker 1: I mean, not even beyond that. Again, we don't want
23:15
Speaker 1: our presidents sitting that long. I can't imagine why we
23:19
Speaker 1: haven't changed that. But yeah, that's just my take on that.
23:22
Speaker 2: No, it is interesting.
23:23
Speaker 3: It's worthy of discussion because going back to that citizen
23:26
Speaker 3: amendment to the Illinois Constitution strengthening the anti-gerrymandering component, five
23:32
Speaker 3: people effectively overruled over a half million.
23:37
Speaker 2: Illinois citizens who were petitioning their government.
23:40
Speaker 3: And then more corruption followed to make sure that Dems
23:44
Speaker 3: could keep those five votes so that they could continue
23:47
Speaker 3: to override future citizen amendments. It's just a shockingly undemocratic,
23:52
Speaker 3: shockingly corrupt response. And that's part of my frustration with
23:56
Speaker 3: Tuesday is I completely get why people are angry and
23:59
Speaker 3: why a lot of Republicans took the brunt. But you
24:02
Speaker 3: have things like that Supreme Court ruling that just blatantly
24:05
Speaker 3: put the boot on the throat of Illinois citizens and
24:09
Speaker 3: Democrats were rewarded for more power. Okay, I guess we're
24:14
Speaker 3: not going to address that anytime in the next at
24:16
Speaker 3: least two years. So yes, I mean, the focus now
24:20
Speaker 3: is defensive rural regions. Rural Illinois and even suburban Illinois
24:25
Speaker 3: are at their weakest politically they've ever been because of
24:28
Speaker 3: the gerrymandering and then this wave election. You know, it
24:31
Speaker 3: should be about a third of the state is Chicago,
24:34
Speaker 3: a third of the state. is the suburbs. Another third
24:39
Speaker 3: is like the exurbs. And then the rural areas should
24:42
Speaker 3: have a good 25% to 30% of the vote. We
24:46
Speaker 3: should be able to partner with different regions and get
24:49
Speaker 3: our needs addressed. And Chicago controls over 50% of.
24:53
Speaker 2: The state now.
24:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a concern for anybody, whether you understand politics
24:59
Speaker 1: or not, especially living out in the rural. I can
25:01
Speaker 1: see that. And I would agree. I would think that
25:03
Speaker 1: would make it a little bit easier to be fair
25:05
Speaker 1: for all, if you're considered rural, to be everybody that's
25:10
Speaker 1: rural should be represented by the fact that you're rural
25:12
Speaker 1: and rural communities need these certain needs and have just
25:15
Speaker 1: as much say so in what goes on so that
25:19
Speaker 1: we don't get left out in the dust because Sauk Valley,
25:22
Speaker 1: I mean, we are part of that. We're growing. I mean, there's,
25:24
Speaker 1: you know, at least communities as small as Dixon certainly
25:29
Speaker 1: considered that way. And yeah, it can definitely feel like
25:32
Speaker 1: we're not being considered in state politics. If you think
25:36
Speaker 1: there was could pick out one thing, you know, that
25:40
Speaker 1: areas like the Sauk Valley, the Sauk Valley specifically aren't
25:44
Speaker 1: getting enough attention for in Springfield, what would it be?
25:47
Speaker 2: Oh, man, I don't know that I could pick out
25:49
Speaker 2: one thing. Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
25:50
Speaker 1: That's why I preluded, but.
25:52
Speaker 3: You know, I would say on the infrastructure side, we
25:56
Speaker 3: have consistently shifted.
25:57
Speaker 2: More and more money into Chicago.
25:59
Speaker 3: And even Chicago legislators, and I, you know, sometimes I'm
26:02
Speaker 3: proud of my Democratic colleagues. And there's a few moments
26:05
Speaker 3: where I was very proud of them for speaking truth
26:07
Speaker 3: to power. And one of them was during that fiasco
26:11
Speaker 3: when they were stripping the rural road and bridge funds,
26:14
Speaker 3: 500 million a year and sending it into Chicago mass transit.
26:17
Speaker 3: And there was a Democrat, a prominent Democrat on the
26:19
Speaker 3: House side, who got up and blasted the Chicago transit
26:24
Speaker 3: systems for their corruption and mismanagement and said, how can
26:27
Speaker 3: you ask for all of this money to get poured
26:29
Speaker 3: into you when you haven't fixed your own known issues,
26:32
Speaker 3: your inefficiencies, your wasting money, your ghost payrolls, your patronage systems,
26:37
Speaker 3: your really expensive maintenance costs per mile, far more than
26:40
Speaker 3: almost any other American big city, if you want us
26:44
Speaker 3: to give you more money, first you have to reform
26:46
Speaker 3: yourself and get lean and mean. This isn't a capitalist system.
26:49
Speaker 3: There's no other competitor forcing them to get better. They're
26:51
Speaker 3: just asking for more money and then being super inefficient
26:53
Speaker 3: for it, which is brutal for us rural regions because
26:56
Speaker 3: not only are they ripping our money away, but we're
26:58
Speaker 3: enabling their bad behavior that cost all this need for
27:02
Speaker 3: money in the first place, right? So we're getting double whammied.
27:06
Speaker 3: And there were a number of Democrats who called them
27:08
Speaker 3: out privately, and there were several in committee who who
27:11
Speaker 3: said it publicly, and it was in the Chicago Tribune
27:13
Speaker 3: and the newspaper, and I was like.
27:14
Speaker 2: All right, go off.
27:15
Speaker 3: I can respect that, because certainly if you're going to
27:17
Speaker 3: take money from my regions, the first step should be,
27:21
Speaker 3: and I'm going to fight it, but the first step
27:22
Speaker 3: should be you need to reform what's causing your financial
27:25
Speaker 3: failure in the first place before you go throw money
27:28
Speaker 3: at the problem. And they didn't do it, and they
27:31
Speaker 3: got called out for it. For the future of rural Illinois,
27:35
Speaker 3: losing those funds.
27:37
Speaker 2: is.
27:37
Speaker 3: Probably one of the biggest number one top goals we've
27:40
Speaker 3: got to change because infrastructure is key to unlocking economic development, right?
27:46
Speaker 3: And if your roads are in disrepair, that's why I
27:47
Speaker 3: was not as mayor of Dixon. One of the first
27:48
Speaker 3: things I did, and I'm a little biased as an
27:50
Speaker 3: Army engineer, but I ran on it, is we need
27:53
Speaker 3: to revolutionize Dixon's infrastructure. We can't get development along the
27:57
Speaker 3: river if we don't build the infrastructure first. We can't
28:00
Speaker 3: get development along I-88 unless we build the infrastructure first.
28:03
Speaker 3: And there are times when I was mayor, people were like,
28:05
Speaker 3: Lee Wise has taken so long. It's taken years and
28:07
Speaker 3: years and years. And I would explain to anyone who listened,
28:09
Speaker 3: here's the plan. First, you've got to address your water
28:12
Speaker 3: and sewer infrastructure. You've got to address your road systems.
28:16
Speaker 3: You've got to address your power grids and your gas
28:18
Speaker 3: systems and prep for development so that, A, you're not
28:21
Speaker 3: raising prices on your existing citizens, and then, B, able
28:25
Speaker 3: to recruit new economic development. And by the time we
28:28
Speaker 3: got to year five, people began to see the vision
28:30
Speaker 3: because the stuff started to happen. And then it started
28:32
Speaker 3: to happen quickly, right? And the infrastructure was one of
28:36
Speaker 3: the first steps in that long series of then winning grants,
28:39
Speaker 3: of then recruiting developers, of then doing public assessments of
28:43
Speaker 3: what we need, like the hotel study, and then finally
28:46
Speaker 3: closing deals and bringing them in. It's a long process.
28:50
Speaker 3: And Illinois doesn't do that process well, which is why
28:53
Speaker 3: we're bleeding economically. We don't have enough money to do
28:55
Speaker 3: it rationally and wisely at a state level. But also,
29:00
Speaker 3: if we're ripping infrastructure made from rural areas into Chicago,
29:03
Speaker 3: we're intentionally hamstringing the system to favor Chicago. And then
29:07
Speaker 3: you would ask, but Lee, why isn't Chicago then a
29:09
Speaker 3: blazing economic success? Why are they so much in debt?
29:12
Speaker 3: Because they're not using that money wisely, and they have
29:14
Speaker 3: no incentive to. They have all of the power. They
29:16
Speaker 3: can take money from anywhere and grab it. There's no
29:20
Speaker 3: incentive for them to clean up their system. And their
29:22
Speaker 3: political system depends on some of that patronage. It depends
29:26
Speaker 3: on some of those ghost payrolls. depends on some of
29:28
Speaker 3: these things to give them power. So there's very little
29:31
Speaker 3: incentive reform. And my party can't get its act together
29:34
Speaker 3: and be competitive in Chicago and speak truth to power.
29:37
Speaker 2: Like, you don't even have messaging from.
29:40
Speaker 3: Republicans on economic impact in Chicago because there are no
29:43
Speaker 3: Republicans elected there, right? And so we can't even do
29:46
Speaker 3: our job poorly there. We're not even stepping up to
29:49
Speaker 3: the plate. And so I would argue it's been bad
29:51
Speaker 3: for both, not just rural areas and suburban areas. I
29:54
Speaker 3: would argue it's bad for Chicago that Republicans can't get
29:58
Speaker 3: their act together because... They need us desperately to speak
30:01
Speaker 3: truth to the nonsense happening in that city. Even if
30:03
Speaker 3: we weren't the ones leading it, they need somebody there
30:06
Speaker 3: calling the balls and strikes saying, no, you can't take
30:09
Speaker 3: all this money for mass transit if you don't reform
30:12
Speaker 3: the system itself and make.
30:13
Speaker 2: It more efficient.
30:15
Speaker 1: Well, we will definitely be watching as it goes on
30:18
Speaker 1: because it's an interesting time in history for sure. It is.
30:21
Speaker 1: But speaking of time, unfortunately, we are out. But I
30:24
Speaker 1: appreciate you stopping in, always taking time from your busy
30:27
Speaker 1: schedule to stop in the studio and speak with us
30:29
Speaker 1: about these things. And we're definitely looking forward to how
30:32
Speaker 1: this is going to shake out.
30:33
Speaker 2: Glad to come do it. One of these times I
30:35
Speaker 2: hope to be the bearer of more good news. It's politics, baby.
30:39
Speaker 1: Nobody expects that. Thank you, sir.
30:42
Speaker 2: Yes, have a good one.
30:43
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Talk Line here on FM 95.1
30:45
Speaker 1: and AM 1460 WIXN. Sam's got your sports next.
30:51
Speaker 4: Good morning with the Shaw Local Sports Report.
30:53
Speaker 1: I'm Sam Ramirez.
30:55
Speaker 4: The Dixon Dukes are back-to-back state cross-country champions. Dixon captured
30:59
Speaker 4: the Class 2A title Saturday at Detweather Park in Peoria,
31:02
Speaker 4: scoring 101 points to finish ahead of runner-up Morton. Four
31:07
Speaker 4: Dukes earned all-state honors. Dean Geiger finished in 13th, Averick
31:11
Speaker 4: Wiseman 16th, Ethan Carter 24th, and Alonzo Batista 25th. In
31:17
Speaker 4: the girls' race, the Dixon Dutchess has capped off their
31:19
Speaker 4: season with an 18-place finish as a team at the
31:23
Speaker 4: state meet. Freshman Brinley Davis finished in 35th place for Dixon.
31:28
Speaker 4: High school football, IHSA, second round in class 1A Stockton,
31:32
Speaker 4: a 36-16 win over Forreston. Fulton rallied to beat Sterling Newman, 28-24.
31:36
Speaker 4: In class 2A, Piatone.